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THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



K1RKE MECHEM, Editor 
JAMES C. MALIN, Associate Editor 
NYLE H. MILLER, Managing Editor 



Volume XI 
1942 

(Kansas Historical Collections) 

VOL. XXVIII 



Published by 

The Kansas State Historical Society 

Topeka, Kansas 

19-4781 



Contents of Volume XI 



Number 1 February, 1942 



PAGE 

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION OF 
KANSAS; A Study in Adaptation to Geographical Environment, 

James C. Malin, 3 

With a chart showing "Type-of-Farming Areas in Kansas," p. 5. 

"LETTERS FROM KANZAS" Julia Louisa Love joy, 29 

NOTES ON THE PROSLAVERY MARCH AGAINST LAWRENCE 45 

With a portrait of Gov. Wilson Shannon, opposite p. 56, and a lithograph, 
"River Scene at Lecompton in 1855," opposite p. 57. 

LETTERS OF DAVID R. COBB, 1858-1864 ; Pioneer of Bourbon County, 

Edited by David Glenn Cobb, 65 

THE ANNUAL MEETING: Containing Reports of the Secretary, Treas- 
urer, Executive and Nominating Committees; REMINISCENCES OF 
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, George A. Root; Election of Officers; List 
of Directors of the Society Kirke Mechem, Secretary, 72 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 93 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 103 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . . 109 



Number 2 May, 1942 



THE FORT LEAVENWORTH-FORT GIBSON MILITARY ROAD AND THE FOUNDING 
OF FORT SCOTT Louise Barry, 115 

With a map showing "Line of the Western Military Frontier, June, 1845," op- 
posite p. 120 ; photographs, "Early Views of Fort Scott," opposite p. 128 
and map of "Fort Leavenworth-Fort Scott Military Road," opposite p. 129. 

THE FOURTH OF JULY IN EARLY KANSAS (1858-1861) Cora Dolbee, 130 

THE INGALLS AMENDMENT TO THE SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST BILL, 

David F. McFarland, Jr., 173 

SOME NOTES ON COLLEGE BASKETBALL IN KANSAS Harold C. Evans, 199 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 216 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 218 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 220 

(iii) 



Number 3 August, 1942 



OVERLAND TO THE GOLD FIELDS OF CALIFORNIA IN 1852 : The Journal of John 
Hawkins Clark, Expanded and Revised From Notes Made During the 
Journey Edited by Louise Barry, 227 

With portrait of John Hawkins Clark, opposite p. 240; photographs, "Two Views 
of Fort Bridger, Wyoming," opposite p. 241; "An Emigrant Train of the 
1860's," opposite p. 272, and "Placerville, Cal., About 1856," opposite p. 273. 

ATCHISON, A GREAT FRONTIER DEPOT Walker D, Wyman, 297 

RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY, 

Compiled by Helen M. McFarland, Librarian, 309 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 332 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 333 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . . . 335 



Number 4 November, 1942 



RESTORATION OF THE NORTH BUILDING AT SHAWNEE METHODIST MISSION . . . 339 

With photographs showing exterior and interior views of the restored North 
building, opposite pp. 340, 341. 

THE STORY OF A KANSAS FREEDMAN Edited by Alberta Pantle, 341 

With map showing "Some of the Places Mentioned by Larry Lapsley in the 
Story of His Escape From Texas," p. 349. 

THE SOFT WINTER WHEAT BOOM AND THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE UPPER KANSAS RIVER VALLEY (Part I) James C. Malin, 370 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 399 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 410 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 419 

ERRATUM IN VOLUME XI 423 

INDEX TO VOLUME XI 425 

(iv) 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



Volume XI Number 1 

February, 1942 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

w. c. AUSTIN, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA, 1942 

19-1875 



Contributors 

JAMES C. MALIN, associate editor of The Kansas Historical Quarterly, is pro- 
fessor of history at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. 

Biographical mention of JULIA LOUISA LOVEJOY will be found on pp. 29, 30. 

DAVID GLENN COBB, native of Fort Scott, is head of the History and Social 
Science Department of the Eastern Washington College of Education, Cheney, 
Wash. 



An Introduction to the History of the Bluestem- 
Pasture Region of Kansas 1 

A Study in Adaptation to Geographical Environment 2 
JAMBS C. MAUN 

'T^HE bluestem-pasture region of Kansas has come to be recognized 
A as a natural region with rather clearly defined boundaries. On 
the map it appears as a somewhat elongated oval-shaped area about 
200 miles from tip to tip, with Pottawatomie county, Kansas, at 
the northern end and Osage county, Oklahoma, at the southern end, 
the intervening country being some fifty miles, or somewhat more 
than two counties, in width. Roughly, this is the central third of 
the eastern half of the state, between 96 and 97 west longitude and 
36 30' and 39 30' north latitude. The average annual rainfall 
varies from 30 to 35 inches except in the southern portion, but there 
the higher precipitation is offset, in part at least, by the higher tem- 
peratures and longer period of frost-free days 186 or more annually 
in the southern tier of Kansas counties, as against about 178 days 
in the central and northern sections. Topographically the region is 
rolling to hilly, with rather narrow valleys, but the most charac- 
teristic features of the typical pasture portions are hills, or bluffs, 
formed by outcroppings of rock of the Permian and Pennsylvania 
strata. For the most part this rock is limestone, but in places, es- 
pecially in the southern end, there is sandstone. The soil is of the 
residual type derived from the limestones, shales, and sandstones. 
In the typical limestone area outcroppings of stone appear near the 
top of the hills, the weathering process washing the decomposed ma- 
terials down their sides to the lower ground. 

Bluestem is the dominant native grass, represented by two major 
varieties: the Big Bluestem (Andropogon jurcatus) which thrives 
in the lower lands, and the Little Bluestem (Andropogon scoparius) 
found on the high uplands. These are tall grasses, as contrasted 
with the short grasses, the buffalo and the gramas, which are present 
in greater or lesser numbers according to location and season, invad- 
ing the region from the western side. Kentucky bluegrass has in- 

1. This is a slightly revised version of the presidential address delivered before the annual 
meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society at Topeka October 21, 1941. 

2. The paper printed here is a part of a larger research project, "The Adaptation of 
Population and Agriculture to Prairie-Plains Environment," for which the author has received 
financial assistance from the Social Science Research Council, New York, and from the Grad- 
uate Research Fund of the University of Kansas. 

(3) 



4 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

vaded the region from the eastern side, extending its occupation 
westward during wet periods and retreating eastward under the ad- 
versity of prolonged drought. Prior to the occupation of the country 
by white settlement the bluestem grasses were widely distributed 
over the open prairie regions of the Middle West, occupying a domi- 
nant position over most, if not the whole of eastern Kansas. They 
were and still are present also in limited areas of the plains, especially 
in the sandhill districts where the common name is bunch grass. For 
various reasons early descriptions of the grass associations of the 
West are often contradictory. Historical experience has indicated 
in part at least an explanation in the fluctuations of the weather. 
Descriptions written by observers during periods of prolonged 
drought would tend to emphasize the short grasses which thrived 
at the expense of the tall grasses and moved eastward under such 
influences, and similarly those descriptions written during favorably 
wet periods would reflect the reverse process. Several such cycles 
have occurred since white observers began writing descriptions and 
consequently the first necessity in making interpretations of such 
materials is to fit them into the weather chronology. 

The growing season of the bluestem grass is the spring and early 
summer months. During May, June and July its nutritive value is 
strongest, declining until it reaches a minimum after frost. Blue- 
stem makes the best hay when cut just after mid-summer and before 
it has seeded, while most tame grasses are at their best for hay dur- 
ing the blooming period. In hay making, early settlers followed 
Eastern tame hay practices and only after years of experience did 
they come to appreciate the importance of early cutting. 3 

The assumption is made frequently, indirectly if not directly, but 
without foundation in fact, that the bluestem region is unique and 
that even in the natural state it possessed the present limits as 
natural boundaries. The historical development of the area indi- 
cates, however, that the present limits are the result of a prolonged 
process of differentiation from the surrounding country. On the 
north and northeast, for example, the commercial cornbelt, utilizing 
glacial drift soils, encroached early upon the hill country; on the 
east a mixed farming area developed which invaded the hills from 
that direction; and on the west the wheat belt of central Kansas 

3. The grama and buffalo grasses retain more feed value than bluestem when cured on the 
ground (in the pasture), and therefore make better winter pasture. The Kentucky bluegrass 
makes an earlier spring growth and a later fall growth, being nearly dormant during the sum- 
mer, and during mild seasons remains green well into the winter. 

For winter pasture the bluestem region is more valuable in proportion to the amount of 
grama and buffalo grass that may be intermixed with it, and for early spring and fall pasture 
in proportion to the mixture of Kentucky bluegrass with the bluestem, but for summer pasture 
the bluestem with the minimum of mixture is best. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION 5 

challenged the hills; while on the south the Indian reservation pas- 
tures of the old Indian territory and Oklahoma delayed the process 
of demarcation from the lower end. Within the region, the land 
most obviously suited to cultivation was occupied and the native 
sod broken. This included not only bottom land, but also upland. 
The principal barrier to general cultivation of the whole were the 
hills, with their outcroppings of stone, sometimes a succession or 
series like terraces up their slopes. In many places land was culti- 
vated at one time that was later returned to grass. 




TYPE-OF -FARMING AREAS IN KANSAS 

Areas 1-3, general farming, but with somewhat different emphasis as between areas; area 
4, corn belt; area 6, bluestem-pasture region; areas 6, 7, 9, wheat, but with different com- 
binations; area 8, secondary cornbelt; areas 10, 11, wheat and cattle; area 12, short-grass 
grazing region and wheat. This map is Figure 18 from J. A. Hodges and associates, "Types 
of Farming in Kansas," Bulletin 251, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station (Topeka, Kansas 
State Printing Plant, 1930). Used with the permission of the director. 

The Osage-pasture region of Oklahoma is not shown on this map, but it lies south of 
Cowley, Chautauqua and Montgomery counties of Kansas and centers in Osage county, 
Oklahoma. 

At some points the stock country has persisted beyond the con- 
ventional limits of the bluestem region. To the eastward a spur of 
such country runs into Linn county along the divide separating the 
water sheds of the Marais des Cygnes and the Neosho rivers. In 
1857 a local observer described the hill country of Linn county as 
follows in terms almost identical with those so frequently applied 
to the bluestem-pasture region of the present: 

Owing to the very singular position of the limestone rock strata near the 
top of the "divide" their constant washings and decomposition continue to 
enrich the land below, causing the grass to grow in great luxuriance, making 
the best feed for stock during the summer and winter. 4 

4. John O. Wattles, Moneka, Kan., in the New York Tribune, March 31, 1857. 



6 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

To the northwest across Clay county the hill country connects the 
bluestem-limestone area to the Dakota sandstone area of Ellsworth, 
Lincoln and Cloud counties, which is also a bluestem country. To 
the southwest across Cowley, Harper and Sedgwick counties the 
Arkansas valley only briefly interrupts the bluestem-pasture region 
in its transition into the bluestem and short-grass pastures of the 
Medicine river red lands, and into the bluestem-bunch grass of the 
sandhills along the southern banks of the Arkansas and Cimarron 
rivers. 

The bluestem-pasture region serves three significant functions, 
but the one that gives it distinction, if it does not render it unique, 
is that it occupies an intermediate position as a maturing ground or 
a grass- fattening area between the cattle-growing ranges of the 
southwestern plains and the central markets for grass-fattened cat- 
tle, or the feedlots of the cornbelt. Cattlemen have praised this 
unusual arrangement on the ground that the finishing weights are 
put on the animal near the market, saving freight and shipping 
shrinkage, and permitting flexibility in quick adjustment of shipping 
schedules to take advantage of favorable prices. 5 It is the largest 
such commercial grazing area for transient cattle in the United 
States. The time limits of the grazing season are about six months, 
April 15 to October 15, but the grass is ready earlier in the southern 
than in the northern end of the region. The movement of south- 
western range cattle by rail into the bluestem grass begins in the 
latter part of April and is usually completed by mid-May. These 
cattle from a distance are supplemented to some extent by stock 
from local or nearby sources. The out-shipments to market usually 
begin in July, but vary with the season, the condition of cattle when 
delivered to the pastures, and the condition of the grass and are com- 
pleted by October 15, leaving the pastures empty during the winter. 
The second function of the region is feed-lot finishing. This process 
is carried out on corn and alfalfa or other feeds, without grass, or 
with grass. This is not done so extensively as in the cornbelt, but 
on a scale large enough to account for a substantial contribution to 
the market for full-fed beef. The third function is the maturing 
of young cattle by roughing through the winter, sometimes with grain 
added, pasturing through the following summer, and if not marketed 
as grass- fattened beef, full feeding into the second winter. The 
fourth and an important function is that the blue-stem region serves 
as a breeding area for thoroughbred livestock. Although these func- 

5. The Kansas Stockman, Topeka, May 1, 1933 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION 7 

tions have persisted together in varying proportions throughout the 
history of the area and often are hardly distinguishable from one 
another, the purpose of this address is to emphasize the evolution 
of the pasture function. The other aspects are included only as 
seems necessary to the principal objective. 

The bluestem grass and the region have been the subject of many 
eulogies, some of which have gone beyond the limit of facts that 
can be or have been demonstrated scientifically. Furthermore, there 
is some disagreement concerning what factors give distinctive value 
to it as a grazing region. One school of thought, and the one most 
widely held, takes the ground that the limestone imparts to the 
bluestem grass its remarkable strength for fattening cattle. If this 
test were applied rigidly, it would restrict the limits of the region by 
excluding the sandstone country. The occupants of the sandstone 
pastures object, however, to the discrimination, holding that it is the 
grass itself that is distinctive, and that the bluestem grass has the 
same qualities whether grown on the limestone or the sandstone soils 
of eastern Kansas. Comparative scientific tests seem not to be 
available at present to determine conclusively the merits of the 
divergent views. 

In the early days no particular name was applied to this pasture 
region, the term Flint Hills being a geographical name for the hills 
themselves in which flint or chert outcroppings occur. As a region 
it was not then thought of as conspicuously different from others. 
When the grazing for Southwestern cattle was being referred to by 
livestock men of the 1880's the terms used were usually "northern 
pastures" which meant primarily the northern Plains States and 
territories. At that time Kansas excluded "green" Texas cattle on 
account of the Texas fever except for shipment, either from desig- 
nated western stations or through rail consignments. When Kansas 
came to be referred to in particular, which occurred rarely prior to 
the 1890's, the terms used were "Kansas pastures," or "Southern 
Kansas pastures," or some equivalent and they were used so as in- 
cluding western short-grass as well as eastern long-grass grazing 
grounds. 

The term "Flint Hills" as applied to pastures occurred only oc- 
casionally in the early accounts and then designated only the grazing 
in the hills themselves rather than the region. Thus the people of 
Chase county differentiated the Flint Hills as grazing grounds from 
the farming lands of the bottoms and the upland prairies. 8 As time 
passed a broader usage of the term Flint Hills developed, especially 

6. Chase County Leader, Cottonwood Falls, March 1, 29, 1872. 



8 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

on the part of those outside the area. During the second and third 
decades of the twentieth century the term was rather generally used, 
but was not altogether appropriate because the pasture district was 
more extensive than the Flint Hills. 

The name "Bluestem" was used in the later years of the nine- 
teenth century to describe the grasses from a botanical standpoint, 
but popularly the more frequently used names were prairie grasses, 
long grasses or tall grasses. In the early years of the twentieth 
century bluestem was sometimes used to designate the grass of cer- 
tain pastures, but not until after the World War did the term blue- 
stem pastures gain general currency as applying to the region. 7 The 
J. E. Edwards eulogy of the bluestem grass, printed in 1918, con- 
tributed to grass consciousness among cattlemen, the more effective 
portions being frequently quoted. 8 A suggestion was made in 1923, 
but not acted upon, that the new hotel at Emporia be named "Blue 
Stem" and advertised nationally. 9 The term "Kansas Bluestem Re- 
gion" or some variation was used with increasing frequency during 
the 1920's, gaining in popularity over the term "Flint Hills." 10 Other 
possible names, the "Limestone Pastures" or the "Bluestem-Lime- 
stone Pastures," did not find popular favor. In a sense, therefore, 
when in 1929 the Kansas State Board of Agriculture adopted the 
name "The Bluestem Pasture Region of Kansas," it was registering 
what was already well on the way to becoming an accomplished fact. 

The first steps in white occupation of the bluestem region occurred 
in the northern part prior to the organization of the territory at 
Council Grove on the Santa Fe trail and at St. Mary's mission, the 
latter in the late 1840's where stock raising and general farming, ex- 
cept wheat production, were carried on vigorously in order to provide 
support for the mission and to teach agriculture to the Pottawatomie 
Indians. With the organization of the territory, settlements were 
made immediately in the Kansas river valley as far west as Fort 
Riley. Only shortly afterwards settlements were made on the Neosho 
and Cottonwood rivers in the central area. Following the Civil War 
the settled area expanded rapidly, first occupying the bottom land 
and then pushing into the upland prairie. Part of the area was rail- 
road land, but a substantial part could be acquired under the pre- 

7. Junction City Union, November 16, 1872; Ottawa Daily Republican, April 2, 1884; 
Texas Live Stock Journal. Fort Worth, November, 1886; George E. Tucker, "Blue [stem] 
Grass and the Beef Steer," Greenwood Magazine, Eureka, April, 1905, pp. 7-10. 

8. Kansas Stockman, Topeka, April 5, 1918, December 15, 1922. Cf. eulogies of the 
bluestem by T. H. Lampe, ibid., February 15, June 16, 1927, April 15, 1931, November 15, 
1935, February 15, 1941. 

9. Ibid., January 15, 1923. 

10. Ibid., August 1, 1919, June 15, 1921, August 15, 1922, April 15, 1925, February 1, 
June 15, 1927, February 1, 1928. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION 9 

emption law and after the Civil War under the homestead act, the 
taking of homesteads being reported in Chase county as late as 
1880. 11 As had happened on earlier frontiers, livestock was for a 
time the predominant interest, but it was generally viewed as a tem- 
porary or transitional stage which would give way to general farming 
on all but the roughest of the uplands. On these matters opinion 
fluctuated somewhat with the weather, however, and during dry 
periods especially the advocates of livestock as a permanent interest 
had the opportunity to urge their views. 12 

During the decade of the 1870's the agricultural interests of 
eastern Kansas were relatively diversified. There were at least four 
types of activities represented: general farming on a small scale 
which was largely of the subsistence type, but which emphasized 
grain crops; farming which emphasized the raising of corn to be fed 
to livestock on a commercial basis; the breeding of fine stock; and 
the maturing and grazing of transient cattle. 

In Chase county in the heart of the bluestem the small-farmer 
point of view was hostile to the transient herds driven in for grazing 
and demanded the herd law: 

We want this law to protect us from the large herds that are driven in 
here by men who do not settle and help to improve the country, but merely to 
turn non-residents' and railroad lands into stockyards, and allow their cattle 
to run at large, destroying all crops that are not strongly fortified. 13 

A spokesman for the resident stockmen declared that nine of 
every ten men in Chase county depended upon stockraising as the 
basis of prosperity : 

This is truly a stock raising county, we have thousands of acres of land 
that cannot be cultivated, but cannot be surpassed for grazing. 14 

Later an Elmdale correspondent reported that farmers were en- 
larging their cultivated fields "being convinced that farming will 
pay in this country." 15 Three weeks later the Chase County Leader 
announced through its boom column to prospective immigrants that 
the valleys of the watershed of the Cottonwood river were destined 
to be occupied by small farmers and that "the divides between them 
are excellent grazing grounds for cattle and sheep, and will always 
be open to the stock-raiser without cost." 16 On this assumption 
small fanners made no effort to secure title to the hills. 

11. Chase County Leader, Cottonwood Falls, April 29, 1880. 

12. The Nationalist, Manhattan, January 25, 1878, June 23, 1881 ; Dickinson County 
Chronicle, Abilene, February 10, 1882. 

13. Chase County Leader, Cottonwood Falls, March 1, 1872. 

14. Ibid., March 29, 1872. 

15. Ibid., May 17, 1872. 

16. Ibid., June 7, 1872. A later statement to the same effect was made as a reminis- 
cence and was reported by Vandergrift in the Atchison Globe, reprinted in the Chase Cowty 
Republican, Strong City, May 15, 1890. 



10 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

After the lapse of two years the herd law provided again the text 
for the argument that without it the county could never be settled 
and to be a first-class county the uplands, "the best wheat land in 
the state . . ." must be occupied. "Give us the herd law and 
we can settle every quarter section of prairie land in the county." 1T 
Another correspondent endorsed this assertion but with some qualifi- 
cation, saying that "nearly every quarter section of arable land 
would be a fine farm." 18 

Calling attention to differences in geographical environment an- 
other letter writer asserted that: 

Every new county and country is always opened up by men of moderate 
circumstances. In a heavily timbered country it takes a life-time; in a country 
like this, but a few years, if all work for the public good. 19 

The year 1874 with its drought and grasshoppers was one to make 
Kansas conscious of climatic differences and in protest against an 
Ohio man's clover theories, an old resident wrote: 

The writer seems altogether ignorant of an important fact, which is about 
the first lesson taught to every practical farmer, viz.: that farming in Ohio, or 
any other state, is one thing, and farming in Kansas is something altogether 
different; and crops that pay in one section of the country are comparatively 
worthless in another. 20 

During 1875 farmers were searching for substitute crops that 
would make a profit in adverse years, 21 but with a more favorable 
year in 1876 a local correspondent reported that "the settlers are in 
hopes that in a few years all the land on this creek that will bear 
cultivation will be under fence [cultivated]." 22 At the opening of 
the next year grain prospects were bright and again the Leader 
asserted that while the bottoms were better for corn, the uplands 
were better for small grain. 23 

However promising the early spring might be, unfavorable years 
for grain crops almost became a habit for Kansas during the late 
1870's. By mid-summer of 1877 the Leader was proclaiming that 
Chase county was the best stock county in the state and was ex- 
plaining why the wheat crop failed. 24 In another three years the 

17. Unsigned letter to the Chase County Leader, Cottonwood Falls, May 8, 1874. 

18. Ibid., May 22, 1874. 

19. Ibid., May 15, 1874. 

20. Ibid., February 4. 1875. 

21. Ibid., February-March, 1875. 

22. Ibid., June 15, 1876. 

23. Ibid., February 22, 1877. 

24. Ibid., June 21, July 26, 1877. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM -PASTURE REGION 11 

admission was made that wheat had been practically abandoned 
as a crop. 25 In Greenwood county wheat was similarly abandoned. 26 

In the upper Kansas river valley, where the bluestem region now 
makes its transition into the wheat belt (Riley, Geary and Dick- 
inson counties) one observer in 1869 gave livestock not more than 
ten years of dominance by which time the rising price of land would 
operate to eliminate livestock and favor grain as a more intensive 
land-use. 27 Four years later another insisted that Geary county was 
peculiarly a livestock country, only to be contradicted in turn by 
those who held that the livestock industry was perpetuated only by 
an artificial influence, the failure to adopt the herd law. 28 The winter 
wheat boom in Dickinson county was pointed to as proof of what 
would happen on Geary county hills if only the opportunity were 
given. Although Geary and Riley counties tried to evade the issue 
by laying the blame for retardation in wheat production upon the 
herd law, and other artificial factors, the passing years made clearer 
that more fundamental forces were at work. 29 In 1878 the Man- 
hattan Nationalist, in commentary on the wheat propaganda of 
T. C. Henry of Abilene, insisted that "we are satisfied, however, that 
a large majority of the farmers of this section have lost money on 
wheat, taking year in and year out." 30 If these were merely isolated 
comments or expressions of discouragement over a crop failure they 
might be subject to misinterpretation, but they are, in fact, represen- 
tative of a trend indicating a more definite drawing of the line of 
demarcation between the pasture and the wheat country, a process 
that was in progress but not yet complete by the end of the decade 
of the 1870's. 

During the decade of the 1880's far-reaching changes came to the 
bluestem area. There was more intensive encroachment by the 
small farmer upon the outer fringes, thus tending to differentiate 
more sharply than formerly the strictly grazing region from the 
surrounding grain farming. Within the bluestem region the in- 
fluence of the small farmer declined. A livestock boom dominated 
the early part of the decade. It included horses, sheep, and hogs, 
but the major emphasis was upon fine cattle and the improvement 
of herds. This was based upon the expansion of some of the herds 

25. Ibid., April 22, 1880. In the issue of September 16, 1881, it was stated that "many 
have quit sowing wheat and but little ground is being plowed for it." 

26. Livestock-Indicator, Kansas City, Mo., December 6, 1883. 

27. Junction City Union, September 11, 1869. 

28. Ibid., March 15, 22, 29, June 28, 1873, May 9, 1874. 

29. Ibid., November 27, 1875. "Mize on Junction City Grain Market," a reply to John 
Davis in the Junction City Tribune. 

30. Nationalist, Manhattan, January 25, 1878. 



12 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

started during the previous decade and upon the coming of new 
men and money; some from the Southwest and Colorado, some from 
the East, and some from Canada, England and Scotland. The vol- 
ume of production increased until by 1883 heavy shipments of 
thoroughbred bulls; to the range country was a reality. The Short- 
horn breed had been the early favorite, then the Galloway and 
Angus gained a following. In a short time, however, the Hereford 
came to dominate the breeding for the range market. Combined 
with this breeding of fine cattle was an increased business in matur- 
ing pasturing cattle from outside the area, especially wintered Texas 
and Colorado cattle. 

In order to provide the land for these extensive operations free 
range quickly disappeared. The process of assembling acreages can 
be traced in part through the newspapers which record the purchase 
by stockmen of one small adjoining farm after another and the 
purchase of railroad land. The assembling of large acreages was 
facilitated also by syndicates which bought up railroad land from 
different roads, throwing it together for resale to those forming large 
ranches. Board and stone fences had been built around the earlier 
fields and pastures, but the thing that largely made possible this 
great enclosure movement and which characterized it, was the intro- 
duction of barbed wire. Thus the herd problem of the 1870's was 
eliminated. The use of wire began slowly about 1879 and 1880 and 
reached boom proportions by 1883 and before the end of another 
two years the free range was gone. The passing of the free range 
marked also the end of many small farmers who had neglected their 
opportunities or had been financially unable to buy hill pasture 
land. Shut off from grass, they had to sell out. 

This breeding-cattle boom was short-lived. It was dependent for 
its market upon the range-cattle boom which had reached its height 
by 1884 and run its course by 1886 and by that year a drought 
decade opened along with a world-wide economic depression. Few 
of the thoroughbred herds survived and new adjustments had to be 
made in utilization of the grass resources of the region. The new 
era was introduced by railroads and Texas cattle with the accom- 
paniment of Texas fever. 

The main lines of the Union Pacific and the Santa Fe railroad 
systems ran east and west. The former had no southern connec- 
tions, and the Santa Fe system could serve directly only the Colo- 
rado and the northern New Mexico ranges prior to 1880. The 
southern Kansas branches and subsidiaries of the Santa Fe reached 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION 13 

the Indian territory border and the shipping points for Texas cattle 
at several places. The Texas cattle driven north could be loaded at 
these border points for through shipment to the terminal markets, 
but could not be unloaded within the state unless inspected and pro- 
nounced free of Texas fever. Pasture operations in transient cattle 
during the early 1880's were limited accordingly to those wintered 
north of the quarantine line and to Colorado range cattle. These 
were the same classes of cattle that were shipped in for winter feed- 
ing to be roughed through or half or full-fed on corn. In these days 
there was little distinction between the several classes of cattle and 
the finishing processes were not clearly standardized as to either 
season or method. Cattle were being received and shipped out dur- 
ing every month of the year, but with an accent on the spring and 
fall movements. 

Only slowly did the campaign against Texas fever enlarge the 
source of supplies for grass cattle, the success depending in turn 
upon the shutting off of the cattle-drives to northern Texas and 
the Indian territory and the substituting of rail shipment as a 
means of clearing these intermediate ranges of Texas fever. The 
cattle associations of the northern Indian territory took steps in the 
winter of 1883-1884 to restrict to two designated trails the drives 
from further south. The Texas Panhandle and western Indian ter- 
ritory cattle associations followed closely in 1885. During the same 
period New Mexico, Colorado and northern range territories estab- 
lished quarantines, Montana following in the rear in 1886. Texas 
complained, but to no avail, that these quarantines were solely to 
monopolize free grass and not to protect cattle from disease. The 
western Kansas settlement boom of the middle 1880's served only to 
supplement the activities of the cattlemen who had effectively closed 
all but the most westerly cattle trails and they were usable only 
under close restrictions. 

During the 1870's Texas had secured rail outlets for its cattle to 
the St. Louis and Chicago markets by way of the Missouri Pacific 
(St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern) railroad or by way of the 
Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad across Indian territory and 
southeastern Kansas connecting with the Missouri Pacific road. Jay 
Gould had gained control of these roads and aroused the hostility of 
the cattle interests. The northern drive served as a more advan- 
tageous competitive marketing route for cattle intended for beef, 
fattening on northern grass along the trail and being shipped from 
western Kansas or Nebraska points to the Kansas City, Omaha or 



14 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Chicago markets. The closing of the ring of quarantines around 
Texas by 1885 was closing this competitive route and terminating 
bargaining power with the Gould interests. 31 Texas explored other 
alternatives. As trade in refrigerated dressed beef was becoming 
more important, one line of action suggested was to fatten beef on 
grain and cottonseed products, slaughter at home and ship by water 
from a gulf port, thus circumventing both the dressed beef combine 
and the railroad extortion. Attempts in this direction were initiated, 
but failed. 82 

Another possibility was a change of procedure in the northern 
outlet. In 1883, and prior to the closing of the trails, competing 
Texas railroads experimented in a large way with rail shipments 
from south Texas by way of Fort Worth to rail heads on the Red 
river, particularly Wichita Falls from which the drive would com- 
mence. This would put the cattle on northern grass earlier and if 
rates were favorable, more cheaply than to drive the whole dis- 
tance. 83 As the trails were closed such cattle were driven from the 
northern rail heads into the Indian territory as the only place left 
where Texas cattle might go legally. 34 Fattened on grass they were 
shipped from Kansas border points or railroads in the eastern Indian 
territory where the Frisco offered competitive service to St. Louis 
as early as 1883. 85 

As the range cattle business shifted into the High Plains of west- 
ern Texas and New Mexico in the later 1880's more direct rail 
service from that area became insistent, and supplemented a grow- 
ing demand from southern and central Texas for through competi- 
tive lines. The Kansas City livestock market interests had been ag- 
gressively challenging the St. Louis market and had been agitating 
during the same period to secure direct rail service from the South- 
west to Kansas City in order to compete successfully with St. Louis 
and Chicago. As the rail situation stood prior to 1887 Kansas City 
had no direct connections and could only divert on unfavorable 
terms from the Gould-St. Louis combination a small part of the in- 
creasing rail shipments of cattle from southern Texas. The Santa Fe 
railroad was the best located strategically to take the lead and with 
the support of the combined interests of Southwestern cattlemen 

31. Quarantines: Texas Live Stock Journal, Fort Worth, August 9, 1884, May 2, 9, 23, 
30, June 13, July 4, 1885, June 5, 1886, April 5, 1890, June 20, July 4, 1891. Gould rail- 
road difficulties: Ibid., May 19, 26, November 24, 1883, March 1, July 12, 1884. 

32. Ibid., August 9, 1884, December 26, 1891. 

33. Ibid., January 27, February 24, April 21 (railroad map), May 5, 1883, May 10, 17, 
24, 31, June 14, 28, 1884, January 10, April 26, 1886. 

34. Ibid., April 2, 1892. 

35. Ibid., June 2, 9, 1888. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTTJRE REGION 15 

and Kansas City market men undertook a through line south from 
Arkansas City to Galveston, and one southwest across the Pan- 
handle of Texas into New Mexico. The first connections were com- 
pleted during 1887 and the year 1888 was the first full-length cattle 
season to be served by the new accommodations. 36 Much of the im- 
mediate significance of the new situation was lost, however, because 
of the economic depression of the period which was particularly 
severe on the range industry. The Rock Island railroad lines were 
extended into the Southwest as far as the Red river in 1892 making 
a second competing system and opening the Omaha market to 
Texas cattle by introducing competitive rates. 87 It is important, 
however, to distinguish between beef cattle and the stocker and 
feeder classes. Only beef cattle could be shipped to Northern mar- 
kets for slaughter. The stocker and feeder trade was subject to the 
restrictions of the quarantine systems, only a relatively small num- 
ber moving into the northern ranges. 

The first descriptions of Texas fever occur in the late eighteenth 
century when cattle from the Carolinas were taken north. Steps 
were taken to prevent further movement of such cattle, but the 
volume of the trade was not insistent enough to force a serious in- 
terstate issue. The southern borders of Virginia, Tennessee and 
Missouri had the problem with them more or less constantly, but 
almost a century passed after the disease was first described on the 
Atlantic seaboard before the issue was joined at the southern Kansas- 
Missouri border on a scope which made of it a national problem in 
Northern-Southern intersectional relations. 

Effective control of the disease was all but impossible prior to 
1893 because little was known for certain of its nature or of the 
agency by which it was transmitted. The geographical distribution 
of the disease was determined by the federal bureau of animal in- 
dustry and the boundary line of infested territory drawn upon maps, 
the first issued in 1884 for the section east and in 1885 for the sec- 
tion west of the Mississippi river. The fever was identified in 1889 
as a blood disease caused by an intra-corpuscular parasite of the 
protozoan order, which caused a break down of corpuscles on so large 
a scale as to clog the organs of elimination. The cattle tick was 
suspected of serving as the transmitting agent and experimental 

36. Live-Stock Indicator, Kansas City, Mo., July 3, 1884, September 24, October 1, 8, 
1885, April 1, 1886; Texas Live Stock Journal, Fort Worth, January 26, 1884, July 3, 1886, 
April 23, 30, September 3, 1887; map of the railroad situation is in ibid., October (special 
Panhandle edition), 1887 ; Annual Reports of the Board of Directors of the Atchison. Topeka 
and Santa Fe Railroad Company, 1885-1887 (Boston, 1886-1888). 

37. Texas Live Stock and Farm Journal, Fort Worth, June 17, 1892. 



16 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

work proved the point, the announcement of the results being pub- 
lished in 1893. The federal quarantine line established in 1890 38 
became the basis of cooperative federal-state action in segregating 
tick-free cattle and controlling the disease when it appeared in 
northern pastures. Texans finally admitted the existence of such 
a disease and cooperated in controlling it by a quarantine line from 
north of which Texas cattle could move into the normal channels of 
the national cattle trade. 39 One phase of control work begun in 
1892 was to inoculate susceptible cattle, later Southern cattle were 
dipped to free them of ticks, and lastly efforts were centered after 
the turn of the century in freeing the Southern land of tick infesta- 
tion. 

This background knowledge of the disease is important to the 
understanding of the history of attempts in Kansas to deal with the 
fever menace. As the settlers in territorial Kansas accumulated 
livestock, the Proslavery and Free-State men were able to agree on 
protective measures and set up vigilance committees to turn back 
herds of Southern cattle. Severe outbreaks of fever in 1858, 1859, 
and 1860 brought drastic legislation by the territorial legislature 
of 1859 and by the first state legislature of 1861, the latter pro- 
hibiting Southern cattle from entering the state at all. After the 
Civil War there were successive outbreaks of the disease and the 
Kansas legislature amended the law repeatedly; 1867, 1872, 1873, 
1876, 1877, 1879, 1881, 1883, 1884, 1885, setting a dead line, first at 
the sixth principal meridian, just west of Wichita, and in later 
enactments further west and prohibiting the movement of Texas 
cattle into Kansas at any point east of the line. The bluestem region 
was east of the line, but the driving of infected cattle into or across 
these counties occurred again and again, and the infiltration of 
cattle from the Indian territory across the border proved more or less 
continuous. 

The fact that in the early 1880's so many Kansas stockmen were 
engaged in improving their native herds and in building up herds of 
thoroughbreds made imperative the exclusion of Texas fever. The 
pasturing of transient cattle was limited under such circumstances 
to animals from safe territory. The first steps on the part of the 
state to provide special machinery to safeguard the livestock in- 
terests against disease came in 1884 as the result of a foot-and-mouth 
disease scare. The Livestock Sanitary Commission thus created 

38. Second Biennial Report of the Live-Stock Sanitary Commission of the State of Kansas. 
1889-90 (Topeka, 1891). 

39. Texas Live Stock Journal, Fort Worth, December 5, 12, 1891, April 16, 1892. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM -PASTURE REGION 17 

became an active agent in dealing with all livestock diseases and in 
combating Texas fever exercised the power of inspecting herds en- 
tering the state and of quarantining herds in which disease appeared. 
The federal law was enacted the same year creating the bureau of 
animal industry and vesting in it the power to exercise control over 
interstate transmission of disease. These two agencies, together with 
the discovery of the role of the cattle tick gradually placed the 
cattlemen in a position to handle Texans without excessive risk and 
the bluestem pastures were among the beneficiaries during the de- 
pression years of the late 1880's and the 1890's. Deprived of sharing 
in the heavy movement of Texans into the eastern Indian territory 
during the decade of the 1880's, the supply had come from the east 
and more largely from Colorado and the farther Southwest. Now 
the stock formerly diverted around Kansas could enter eastern Kan- 
sas directly. This did not occur all at once, but gradually through 
continuous readjustment in quarantine administration, and the blue- 
stem grass lands resumed more completely the role geographical 
location and peculiar natural resources fitted them to serve in the 
national livestock economy. 

From the standpoint of the bluestem region the railroad systems 
which served the grass sections were much the same ones that had 
become most important as outlets to the market for Southwestern 
cattle, the pasture country lying on the way to the packing house. 
Because of this geographical relationship it was possible to ship 
stock from the ranges to the market destinations with privileges 
of pasturing in transit. The Missouri Pacific and the Frisco rail- 
roads had east and west lines in the southern part of the bluestem 
region of Kansas and the former across the central area. The 
Missouri, Kansas and Texas lines had a diagonal road from Parsons 
running northwest by way of Emporia to Junction City. The Rock 
Island railroad served the west and northwestern section. The 
Santa Fe railroad system enjoyed the most complete coverage as 
far north as the Kansas river and the most strategic location of 
through lines connecting with the stock regions of the greater South- 
west. The Santa Fe lines carried the largest volume of in-coming 
cattle of any one system, but shared the trade widely with the others. 
Of the out-movement to market, however, the Santa Fe lines carried 
more than the others together. 

In the twentieth century the pasturing of Southwestern cattle was 
continued as the major interest and the breeding of thoroughbred 
livestock was revived with new vigor. The pasture business was not 

21875 



18 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

static, however, and vigilance was necessary to make adjustments 
which would insure its continuance. Among these problems were 
the procedures employed in filling the pastures; the terms of the 
pasture contract; the methods of financing the business; the cumu- 
lative market preference for younger light-weight cattle instead of 
mature heavy-weight animals, and the difficulties of utilizing grass 
in producing this type of beef; the restoration of the grasslands 
after years of depletion and drouth ; the effects of the changes in the 
South and Southwest in cattle production, markets, and packing 
facilities ; the results of shifting population centers ; and the outcome 
of the changing transportation facilities accompanied by the South- 
ern demand for remodeling of the rail rate-structure. Separate con- 
sideration should be given also to other livestock activities of the 
region, breeding of dairy cattle, hogs, sheep and horses, and the 
production of feed crops that must be an integral part of any major 
livestock production program. In such an introductory survey as 
this, however, only a few problems can be selected from the list 
for treatment. 

The methods of bringing the cattle to the grass vary with respect 
to the ownership of both, and may be described under four general 
types of combinations. The owner of Southwestern cattle might 
lease the Kansas pastures, delivering the cattle to the pasture opera- 
tor who would take responsibility for them while on grass or, less 
frequently, the owner might retain management. The pastureman 
might buy the cattle and graze them himself. A man might own 
both the cattle and the grass, operating a ranch in the Southwest 
for cattle production and grasslands in the bluestem region for 
finishing, all under his own management. A fourth type involves 
a third party, the speculator, or middleman, who would buy cattle 
and lease pasture, leaving management of the cattle to the pasture- 
man upon delivery. In years when cattle markets seemed to offer 
opportunities for profits a larger portion of cattle was bought 
from the producers, but when conditions were discouraging a large 
portion was left in first hands to be shipped to pasture by the 
Southwestern owners. In the latter case if the economic outlook 
became too unfavorable after shipment to grass the stock was win- 
tered in Kansas or shipped to the home ranges as in 1930 or 1934. 

The purchase of cattle for the pastures might be accomplished by 
different methods. The pasture operator might visit the South- 
western ranges during the winter and contract his purchases for 
spring delivery. The same procedure might be followed by the 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM -PASTURE REGION 19 

speculator. The cattle trades might be made at the annual spring 
conventions of the cattlemen's associations in the Southwest or since 
1916 at the Kansas Live Stock Association's spring meeting, usually 
at Wichita in March. The speculator might make purchases by 
either of the foregoing methods, reselling the cattle in smaller lots 
to third parties before delivery or at delivery time. On occasion, 
especially during a period of cattle shortage on the ranges, cattle 
might be purchased on the Kansas City stocker and feeder market 
to fill the pastures. 

The leasing of grass was accomplished through several channels. 
A few cattlemen and pasturemen advertised in livestock journals. 
More leases were arranged at the stockmen's annual meetings and 
others were handled through an information service of the livestock 
associations. Some were arranged through livestock commission 
houses at the markets. Once having established desirable connec- 
tions a large part of the contracts were renewed from year to year 
with adjustment to changing conditions. The historical development 
of the terms of the pasture contract is difficult to trace because few 
examples are available for study and the terms did not become fully 
standardized. Early herd and pasture advertisements sometimes 
announced terms. In 1872 herding was offered for 500 to 1,000 head 
of cattle, price not indicated, but the herder assumed responsibility 
for all losses except by disease. In 1879 another announced an in- 
tention to make up a herd of part-fed steers for the June and July 
market, assuring a supply of salt, the herding rate being one-half 
cent per head per day. Another offered to handle cattle for the 
season at seventy-five cents per head. Still another offered the serv- 
ice of a Shorthorn bull with the herd at one dollar per head per 
season. A similar offer was made in 1886 but did not announce the 
price. 40 The nature of the advertisements indicate the variety of 
the types of cattle being handled, part fed steers, breeding cows, and 
miscellaneous stock. A number of advertisements of pastures for 
rent implied that the lessee would assume the management of the 
pasture and cattle while on grass. In other words he was renting 
land only, without services. 41 These transactions were limited to 
spring and summer grass, but if the number of newspaper items for 
the same period is any criterion a larger number of farmers took 
cattle to winter on pasture and feed. 

40. Abilene Chronicle, May 16, 1872, February 2, 1879; Junction City Union, March 1, 
1879 ; Chase County Leader, Cottonwood Falls, February 11, 1886. 

41. Dickinson County Chronicle, Abilene, March 24, 1882, Alioth ranch; Chase County 
Leader, Cottonwood Falls, May 27, 1886, S. A. Stephenson. 



20 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Another phase in the development of contract requirements ap- 
peared in 1890, when one advertisement specified three acres per 
head. 42 This was a period when Colorado and other Western men, 
not Texans, were in the majority. Based upon payments through 
Strong City, Emporia and Cottonwood Falls banks it was estimated 
that Chase county had 20,000 head from Colorado, New Mexico and 
Arizona on grass with the result that a number of Western cattle- 
men were spending much of their time there. 43 This indicated that 
many owners were supervising their own cattle on grass rather than 
transferring the full responsibility to the pasture owner. Another 
example of owner supervision resulted in taking the herd from the 
pasture because of dissatisfaction with the care they received. 44 An 
instance where the pastureman was taking full responsibility is 
illustrated by the theft of the hide from a dead steer. The im- 
portance of the episode did not lie so much in the value of the hide 
as in the fact that the pastureman must have the brand from it to 
present at settlement time when he must account to the owner for 
delivery of all steers received. 45 

In 1930 the pasture owners of the Northern bluestem region 
launched the "Kansas Bluestem Pasturemen's Association," one 
point in their four-point program being the formulation of a uni- 
form contract. The decade of the 1930's introduced important varia- 
tions in contracts, however, rather than uniformity, but in general 
the terms required the pastureman to receive the stock at the rail- 
road station, transfer them to pasture, take care of them during the 
summer and deliver a full count at the railroad at the end of the 
season. He was required to assume losses, except from disease. 
Minimum acreage allowances were required depending upon the 
age of the cattle, and rental prices were paid by head per season 
for each age class or by the acre. A newer procedure was some 
form of rental payment on the basis of pounds gained for the season, 
either at an agreed price per pound gained or for a part of the 
gain at the market price when sold. Contracts were usually made 
at a flat rate per season for the identical animal without respect 
to the actual number of days the cattle were on grass and without 
right of replacement of animals shipped early. 46 The rentals were 

42. Ibid., April 24, 1890. 

43. Chase County Republican, Strong City, June 26, 1890. 

44. Chase County Leader, Cottonwood Falls, August 8, 1901. 
46. Ibid., August 30, 1900. 

46. Cf. A. D. Weber, "Problems in Leasing Blue Stem Grass," Kansas Stockman, Topeka, 
March 1, 1936; T. H. Lampe, ibid., January 15, 1933, from The Livestock Leader. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION 21 

usually deferred until marketing, and on occasion the pastureman 
advanced the freight. 47 

The price of pasture rentals fluctuated and was controlled pri- 
marily by the market price of beef rather than by the price of land. 48 
About 1900 a rental of one dollar per head per season was a good 
price on land worth $3.50 to $5.50 per acre. By 1911 the rates 
had advanced to $5.00 to $6.00 on land worth $18.00 to $30.00 and 
with cattle selling at $3.00 to $5.50 per hundred weight. 49 The 
World War lifted rentals to $14.00 to $20.00 per head with pre- 
vailing prices from $16.00 to $18.00, 50 and in some pastures the 
cattle were allowed five acres each, in consequence of the experience 
of the 1918 season which was dry. 51 By 1920 cattle prices were too 
high and leading pasture owners declined to buy, leaving cattle own- 
ers to rent the pastures. In Wabaunsee county rates ruled $12.00 and 
up. 52 The extension of the depression drove rentals down in 1921 to 
$6.00 to $12.00. 53 Further declines continued through 1922 when the 
ruling price was about $8.75. 54 By the middle 1920's more emphasis 
was being placed on young cattle and a wider range in prices was 
emphasized accordingly. In 1925 there was some recovery from 
depression lows, young cattle being pastured at $5.00 to $8.00 with 
an average of about $6.25 and aged steers and cows from $7.00 to 
$10.00 with an average of about $8.50. Acreage allowances for 
young stuff averaged 3.25 acres and for steers 4.3 acres per head. 55 
In 1927 the rate for aged steers was quoted at $6.00 to $10.00 with 
an average of $8.10 and an allowance of three to five acres, and 
young cattle at $4.00 to $8.50 with an average of $6.00 and an al- 
lowance of two to four acres. In the Osage limestone pastures the 
rates for aged steers were $4.00 to $8.00 with an average of $6.25 
and an allowance of 5.1 acres and $3.00 to $6.00 with an average 
of $4.50 and an allowance of 4.5 acres. The sandstone pastures 
were quoted at lower rates. 56 By 1929 the rates reached $8.00 to 
$11.00 for aged steers. There had been only three prosperous years 

47. T. H. Lampe, "Blue Stem Grass," Kansas Stockman, Topeka, April 15, 1931, from 
The Livestock Leader. 

48. A. D. Weber, loc. cit. 

49. Daily Drover's Telegram, Kansas City, Mo., January 10, 12, April 18, 1911. Rental 
prices represent reports from Wabaunsee and Greenwood counties. 

50. Kansas Stockman, Topeka, February 15, May 1, 1919. 

51. Ibid., January 15, August 1, 1919. 

52. Ibid., April 15, July 15, August 16, September 1, 15, 1920. 

53. Ibid., April 15, 1921. 
64. Ibid., April 1, 1922. 

55. Ibid., April 15, 1925. 

56. Ibid., April 15, 1927; Kansas City (Mo.) Star, February 13, 1929; Kansas Stockman, 
Topeka, March 15, 1929. 



22 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

for cattlemen in the decade, 1925, 1927, and 1928; 1929 was favor- 
able for those who marketed early. 

As the depression of the 1930's deepened pasture rates declined 
and by 1933 reached $2.50 to $5.00 for aged steers with an average 
of $3.50 to $4.00, and young cattle at $2.50 to $3.00. On account of 
dry weather the allowances were increased to six acres. 57 Prices 
recovered somewhat in 1935 and 1936, but allowances were further 
increased because of the prolonged and severe drought and some 
pastures were idle. The rates for 1937 were $7.00 to $9.00. 58 In 
1941 prices began about $8.50 declining near the end of the leasing 
season to $7.00. 59 

A long-time trend toward smaller, younger beef animals culmi- 
nated after the World War and presented the bluestem region with 
a new crop of problems. On grass a mature steer took on fat, but 
a young animal added growth first and fat only if the feed provided 
nutrition definitely in excess of that necessary for growth. Grass 
needed a supplement for satisfactory finish. Systematic experi- 
mentation conducted by the state experiment station worked out 
new feeding procedures and rations. One important trend derived 
from these experiments was to prepare young cattle on dry feed 
before the grass season and later to finish them in the feed lot after 
grass. These adjustments assured the continuance of utilization 
of the bluestem grass in the maturing and fattening of the increas- 
ing proportion of young animals handled as well as grazing the con- 
tinued run of mature cattle. 

Financing the cattle business in any of its several phases requires 
facilities not necessary to other fields of agriculture. The turn- 
over of capital is necessarily slow, as much as three years in breed- 
ing and maturing cattle and from six months to a year in handling 
grass and fed cattle. Large amounts of capital are employed and 
heavy risks involved because of the fluctuation of markets and price 
levels between the time of incurring first production costs and realiz- 
ing final market returns. 

These problems of financing have important social implications. 
While there was always a fair complement of small farms, the 
features that gave the character to the bluestem region were large 
stock farms and large pastures, both of which involved capital in- 
vestment much beyond the means of the traditional family-size, 
family-owned-and-operated farm. Both land and cattle were 

57. Ibid., April 1, May 1, 1933. 

68. Kansas Oily (Mo.) Star, April 15, 1937. 

59. Kansas City (Mo.) Times, May 6, 1941. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM -PASTURE REGION 23 

figured not only in hundreds but often in thousands of units. A 
substantial number of old families survived through two or three 
generations. A much larger number had come and gone, many 
through the ordinary course of American farm population turnover, 
and many as the result of voluntary or forced liquidation victims 
of depressions. Capital requirements and the nature of operations 
on large stock farms induced many fathers to associate their sons 
with them in the enterprise, or brothers to pool their interests. 
Urban capital was largely represented: grain and livestock com- 
mission men, doctors, lawyers and bankers especially bankers 
either as sole owners or as majority partners. Many of the com- 
mercial pastures, as distinguished from stock farms, were in similar 
hands. The words "banker and stockman" were used together so 
frequently as almost to constitute one word descriptive of the lead- 
ing men of the region. From the standpoint of rurality, the families 
residing in country homes were in conspicuous degrees minority 
partners or agents managing the enterprises and employees, some- 
times specialists in herd management and administration, but more 
numerous were relatively unskilled farm laborers. Conspicuous in 
the boom days of the 1880's were establishments of manorial pro- 
portions occupied by the owners, and in some degree these families 
survived. 

The devastating effects of the prolonged drouth of the 1930's 
brought alarm to the bluestem region, an alarm not justified in 
the perspective of history. The grass problem had been ever 
present and ever a source of anxiety to stockmen. Much of the 
attitude of the early settlers toward grass was conditioned by the 
humid climate-timbered land point of view. There the grasses were 
not strictly native, but grass covering came only after the forests 
were cleared. Dependence upon tame grasses for pasture and 
meadow was the rule. Upon coming into the sub-humid prairie- 
plains this type of mental furniture was carried West along with 
other farm properties. Allowing for a reasonable number of ex- 
ceptions, there was a rather general assumption that the native 
grasses could not survive occupation of the country for purposes of 
agriculture. Writing from Osage county in June, 1880, prior to his 
long tenure as secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, F. D. 
Coburn expressed the view that the days were numbered when 
reliance could be placed upon wild prairie grass for pasture and 
hay. 60 A writer in Dickinson county in 1881 looked upon the wheat 

60. Stock , Farm and Home Weekly, Kansas City, Mo., June 19, 1880. 



24 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

boom as temporary insisting that "the time is not far distant when 
every farmer will have to depend on his own land for hay . . . 
and we predict that in ten years from now, there will be thousands 
of acres of clover and timothy growing, and cattle and sheep graz- 
ing thereon, where now are luxuriant and magnificent fields of 
wheat." 61 Three years later another writer repeated the Coburn 
view but went further in exposition: "The prairie grass must go. 
It is but a matter of a few years time when eastern Kansas will 
have to depend on tame grasses for hay. . . . Prairie grass does 
not make permanent pasturage. As soon as a tract of land is fenced 
and pastured, the wild grass soon dies and gives place to weeds and 
the pasture becomes almost worthless." 62 

The tame grasses of which so much was expected were bluegrass, 
clover, timothy and orchard grass, but it took extended and severe 
ministrations of time and nature to prove to these Easterners the 
extent of their mistaken preconceptions. First introduced experi- 
mentally into the area in 1875, alfalfa, a rank outsider among the 
tame grasses, had still to prove its worth and become second only 
to the native bluestem as a foundation grass for the cattle industry. 
A clear recognition of the permanence and significance of the blue- 
stem grass was slow in materializing, a fact that is vividly illus- 
trated by a report on Western grasses made by an investigator for 
the federal Department of Agriculture in 1886 which depreciatingly 
declared that "although somewhat coarse it is considered valuable 
and everywhere cut for hay." 63 In view of such misconceptions 
concerning the behavior of nature there is little wonder at the con- 
fusion manifested concerning the future of grass. Nearer right than 
most, but still not sufficiently appreciative of nature's own careful 
selection based upon ages of experimentation in her own laboratories, 
was a writer who dismissed all the grasses from east of the Missis- 
sippi insisting that "in view of the peculiarities of our climate, if 
not of our soil also, would we not suppose, a priori, that some of the 
many native grasses could be found that would be superior both for 
pasture and for hay?" 64 

At the opposite pole from these erroneous, early ideas concerning 
the native grasses, are the equally mistaken views of the soil and 
grass conservation experts of the 1930's and 1940's who pointed 
back to the supposed golden age when the grass was plentiful and no 

61. Dickinson County Chronicle, Abilene, February 25, 1881. 

62. Kansas City (Mo.) Live-Stock Indicator, July 24, 1884. 

63. Texas Live Stock Journal, Fort Worth, November, 1886. An article based upon the 
report of Prof. George Veasey. 

64. Kansas City (Mo.) Live-Stock Indicator, October 4, 1888. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION 25 

question was raised respecting its permanence only inexcusable 
abuse, they said, caused its depletion. In neither period was there 
sufficient appreciation of the alternation of favorable and unfavor- 
able climatic conditions and their effect upon grass, nor of the re- 
markable recuperative powers of native grass. A grass covering is 
as natural to the prairie and plains as a forest covering to the 
humid East or jungle to the tropics. But in times of drought hys- 
teria over depletion of grass there was only an occasional clear- 
memoried old-timer who insisted that these conditions were a re- 
curring phenomena and that ninety percent of the problem depended 
upon nature and the return of favorable rains. 65 In other words, 
man's control measures could account for only ten percent. The 
exact figures might be challenged, but not the principle. 

Various weeds thrived at the expense of grass during the drought 
of the 1930's, broom weed arousing particular comment from Council 
Grove to the south line of Greenwood county. The one favorable 
season of 1938 brought the following comment: 

Broom weed, which last year caused alarm and no little damage is very 
scarce this season. Some report it entirely disappeared and other weeds which 
threatened many acres of good grass land, are not so prevalent this season. It 
all shows that when there is plenty of moisture in the ground the rugged 
native grass will take care of itself. . . . 66 

The renewed vigor of the bluestem grass was so conspicuous that 
a number of people reported to the press on the extreme height to 
which it had grown: from Chase county, prior to the drought decade, 
eight feet, five inches; after the drought, six to eight feet; from 
Marshall county, nine feet tall; and in several pastures in Wa- 
baunsee county, five to six feet tall even though it had been pas- 
tured all summer. 67 These measurements recall the statements of 
old-timers that the bluestem along the Cottonwood river would hide 
a man riding horseback. 

The original carrying capacity of the grasslands varied widely 
because of the differences in soil quality and depth and in topog- 
raphy, the extremes being found in the rocky hilltops and in the 

65. Kansas Stockman, Topeka, October 15, 1937; Cf. Francis H. Arnold, "Conditions in 
Southwest," in ibid., April 1, 1938. 

66. Ibid., July 1, 1938. Cf., also, September 15, 1938. 

A similar thing happened in the short grass of the High Plains. The cactus menace was 
the subject of vigorous eradication measures. During the wet season of 1941 an apparent 
miracle happened, the cactus died out, in some regions almost completely, and in and around 
where each clump of cactus had been the buffalo grass and grama grass appeared in most 
vigorous condition, the cactus having served as protection and nurse crop to the new grass. 
The author made a tour of observation of these grasslands during the mid -summer of 
1941. Cf., also, Topeka Daily Capital, August 17, 1941. 

The Russian thistle served much the same nurse crop function on both the grass lands 
and the fallow fields in the Great Plains region, the outcome being conspicuous in the summer 
of 1941. Old settlers told the author that the same thing occurred in connection with the 
restoration after the drought of the 1890's. 

67. Kansas Stockman, Topeka, December 15, 1929, October 15, 1937, September 15, 1938. 



26 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

river bottoms. Another type of extreme was to be found in periods 
of favorable rainfall in contrast with periods of severe drought. In 
the course of years much of the best grass-producing land was 
brought into cultivation, leaving the less fertile to carry the grazing 
load. Waste land developed in pastures around watering places and 
feeding grounds. 68 These factors are an important reminder that 
comparisons of carrying capacity for different periods seldom apply 
to identical acres. During boom periods carrying capacity was 
greatly over-rated and under adverse conditions the depletion was 
represented in correspondingly pessimistic terms. Experimental 
work in pasture restoration lacked the essential elements of per- 
spective afforded only by the lapse of a long period of time. The 
oldest controlled pasture experiment in the bluestem area was begun 
so recently as 1915. 69 To be fully convincing it would be necessary 
to have records of a reasonable number of samples representing dif- 
ferent sections of the region, records that would in each case apply 
to identical acres, and records which would embrace at least a cen- 
tury of climatic experience. Making a moderate allowance for error, 
the tentative conclusion from this historical study of the bluestem 
region is that no substantial long-time change has taken place in the 
carrying capacity of pastures which have had reasonable treatment. 
Furthermore, experience indicates that not only may depleted pas- 
tures be restored, but that bare places and even plowed fields may 
be reseeded and restored successfully in a comparatively short time 
when the essential weather conditions are favorable. 

By way of conclusion to this introductory survey of the history 
of the bluestem-pasture region attention is directed to the volume 
of the pasture movement of Southwestern cattle at different periods 
and some evaluation of it in comparative terms. Probably there is 
no phase of Western history with which the public has a more gen- 
eral interest and at least a superficial familiarity than the Texas 
cattle drives from the time of the opening of the Abilene market in 
1867 to the closing of the cattle trails to Dodge City in the 1880's. 
Around this phase of American history there has grown up an amaz- 
ing accumulation of history, legend and folklore. The exact vol- 
ume of those drives can never be known, but estimates are available 
which indicate some approximation of numbers. 70 Except for three 

68. Cf. Henry Rogler, "Pasture Situation in Kansas," in ibid., April 1, 1938, covers 
some of these points. 

69. Kling L. Anderson, "Deferred Grazing of Bluestem Pastures," Bulletin 291, Kansas 
Agricultural Experiment Station (Topeka, State Printing Plant, 1940). The introductory state- 
ments in this study are lacking in historical background and make assertions regarding carrying 
capacity which would be difficult to prove and which ignore weather cycles. 

70. E. E. Dale, The Range Cattle Industry (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1930), 
pp. 59, 60, and footnotes. Dale used Nimmo's figures as the most accurate. 



MALIN: THE BLUESTEM-PASTURE REGION 27 

isolated big years, the estimates of the annual drives of Texas cattle 
northward range from 150,000 to 350,000 for the years 1869 to 1884. 
From other estimates the conclusion is derived that not over 25 
percent of such cattle were shipped to market for beef, or 50,000 to 
75,000 head each year. 71 

Systematic estimates are lacking of the volume of Southwestern 
cattle shipped by rail to the Kansas pastures for grass fattening as 
they proceeded on their way to market, but significant fragments can 
be pieced together for the earlier periods and for the recent period 
the federal agricultural marketing service has provided rather full 
data. In the 1890's the Kansas inspection service reported on the 
number of permits granted for entrance into the state, but the fig- 
ures were on a calendar year basis and did not segregate cattle for 
pasture from those for feeding and the pasture regions within the 
state were not designated separately. The admissions into the state 
for 1891 and 1892 averaged 325,000 for each year. The movement 
for the year 1895 was evidently one of the smallest as only 58,481 
were admitted for pasture and feeding. Big volume was attained 
again in 1897 with 424,249 admitted, the sources of this movement 
being distributed as follows: Texas, 233,444; Arizona, 82,048; Okla- 
homa, 30,497; New Mexico, 29,819; Missouri, 7,351; and Old 
Mexico, 31,090. The numbers for 1898 were larger, but the annual 
volume for the four years 1900-1903 ranged from 213,000 to 319,000. 

Skipping over two decades to the five-year period 1925-1929 the 
federal marketing service figures are more explicit and are available 
for the bluestem region and for the Oklahoma Osage pastures 
separately. The combined figures for these pastures ranged from 
423,000 to 486,000 annually. The bluestem's share of these ranged 
from 263,000 to 278,000 annually. During the depression years of 
the 1930's the numbers of cattle sent to the Kansas-Oklahoma pas- 
tures fluctuated widely and the general trend was downward until 
1939. The ten-year average, 1930 to 1939 inclusive, was 287,000 
head for the combined pastures and 209,000 for the bluestem, but the 
low year was 1938 with 196,000 and 131,000 head respectively. The 
cattle movement for the current year 1941 credits the two pasture 
regions with 240,000 transient cattle, the bluestem with 177,000 head 
and the Osage with 63,000. This reflects a partial recovery in volume 
but there is still a question, because of the economic changes that 

71. Wichita Eagle, June 14, 1872. Not over twenty-five percent were beef cattle according 
to Dale, The Range Cattle Industry, p. 82. The analysis of herds and the disposition of 
driven cattle in part based upon the tenth U. S. Census, v. Ill, p. 21, cited by Dale. 



28 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

have occurred in the South during the depression decade, whether 
the volume will again reach the levels of the earlier years. 

In comparing periods it is evident that the numbers of South- 
western beef cattle handled annually by rail through Kansas in 1897 
was six to eight times as great as during the Texas-drive period, 
when as pointed out above not over 50,000 to 75,000 of those driven 
annually were suitable for beef. The numbers for the bluestem 
region alone in the late 1920's was four to five times those for the 
wild years at Abilene, Ellsworth, and Dodge City. A comparison 
of the size of the animals and the percentage of commercial beef 
dressed out of each gives an even greater advantage to the more 
recent periods. In quality of beef the Texas steer could not be com- 
pared with the modern steer. On all points the more recent pro- 
cedures for fattening cattle account for more and better beef, and the 
Kansas bluestem grasslands serve as the maturing and fattening 
ground in a more efficient style than was ever possible under the 
drive regime. 

Unfortunately for good history, the general public has overvalued 
the ephemeral, the sensational and the pathological features of the 
short-lived cowboy boom days. At most the Texas drives of song 
and story lasted not more than twenty years, while the practice of 
rail shipments through the bluestem pastures has already functioned 
more than half a century. The bluestem-pasture business is more 
efficient, it is relatively standardized and avoids the sensational and 
the spectacular as the herds are moved by train to pasture to insure 
the least possible shrinkage. The shipments are delivered at nu- 
merous small railway stations which serve the pastures. When 
the cattle leave the pastures for market the shipment is usually 
accomplished by an overnight haul. None of these operations come 
to the attention of the public, and like most of the stabilized insti- 
tutions of a complex social system they are taken for granted so 
long as they continue to deliver beef to the consumer's table. Out- 
side the ranks of the cattlemen themselves, few understand the 
significance of this beef-producing process. It is not a local in- 
dustry only, but a vital intersectional link in the national economic 
system. The history of the bluestem-pasture region is important 
in its own right as Kansas history, but it is more than that. To the 
extent that the Kansas bluestem contributes to the essential meat 
supplies of the nation, it is also national history. Nevertheless, there 
are few regions in the United States that are more important and less 
known than this bluestem-pasture region of Kansas. 



"Letters From Kanzas" 

JULIA LOUISA LovEJOY 1 
I. INTRODUCTION 

four letters here reprinted were published in the Independent 
JL Democrat, 2 Concord, N. H., in 1855, under the heading "Letters 
From Kanzas." Julia Louisa (Hardy) Lovejoy was the wife of the 
Rev. Charles H. Lovejoy, a Methodist minister of Croydon, N. H. 
In a letter to Isaac T. Goodnow, January 13, 1855, Mr. Lovejoy 
wrote : 

. . . I have been makeing my plans for a few months to go west in the 
spring. . . . I am a member of the N[ew] H[ampshire] Conferance have 
trav[a]illed in the regular work 21 years have been an opposer of Slavery from 
my earliest reccollections have acted with the Abolitionists from the first 
am possesed of good health have a wife & three children one, a boy 17 years, 
a girl 15 and another girl 6 in the spring All in good health, & spirits . . . 3 

Mrs. Lovejoy 's letters continue the story describing the journey 
of her family to Kansas territory; the pleasures, hardships and 
sorrows of pioneer life; incidents in the founding of Manhattan in 
which the Lovejoys had a part. The last two letters are of par- 
ticular value for their first-hand information on the pioneer settle- 
ment which is today the city of Manhattan. 

According to historical accounts, the Lovejoy 's son, Irving Roscoe, 
was the first white child born within the town limits. 4 This birth 
occurred September 17, 1855. 5 An older child, Juliette, 6 born in 
New Hampshire, married Dr. Samuel Whitehorn, who settled in 
Manhattan in 1855. 

The Rev. Charles H. Lovejoy was a member of both the Boston 
and Manhattan town companies, organized April 4 and June 4, 1855, 
respectively. He served as a traveling Methodist preacher, his cir- 
cuit covering a large area around Manhattan. In 1856 he made a 

1. Julia Louisa Hardy was born March 9, 1812, in Lebanon, N. H., daughter of Daniel 
Hardy. She married in 1833, or 1834, the Rev. Charles H. Lovejoy. Her death occurred 
February 6, 1882, in Douglas county. 

2. Published in both the daily and weekly Independent Democrat, the dates given here 
are for the weekly edition: Letter No. 1, June 21; Letter No. 2, June 28; Letter No. 3, 
July 5 ; Letter No. 4, August 23, 1855. 

3. Charles H. Lovejoy to Isaac T. Goodnow, January 13, 1855. MSS. division, Kansas 
State Historical Society. 

4. Dr. S. Whitehorn, "An Historical Sketch of Riley County," in the Manhattan 
Nationalist, July 7, 1876; Sarah A. (Dyer) Woodard, "Early Times in Kansas," in Log Cabin 
Days, published by the Riley County Historical Society (1929), p. 26. Doctor Whitehorn's 
account gives the child's name as Irving Pomeroy. 

5. Alumni Record of Baker University (Baldwin City, 1917), p. 69, gives the exact date. 
0. An avenue in Manhattan is named Juliette, possibly for Juliette (Lovejoy) Whitehorn. 

(29) 



30 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

trip East to appeal for funds to build Methodist churches in Kan- 
sas. 7 

Early in 1857 the Lovejoys moved to Douglas county. Subse- 
quent events in their lives are not relevant to this series of letters. 8 

II. THE LETTERS 

ON BOARD THE "KATE SWINNEY," 
MISSOURI RIVER, March 13, 1855. 

MR. EDITOR: By your permission, I will make use of your paper 
as a medium through which to give our dear N. E. friends who have 
said beseechingly, "write to me," some idea of our journey to the 
far-famed Kanzas, and a brief description of the country as far 
as we have become personally acquainted with the Territory. 

We took the cars, Monday the 5th inst., at White River Junction, 
Vt., and via Springfield, Mass., reached Albany, N. Y., Tuesday 
noon, and Wednesday morn, left with a large company from Massa- 
chusetts and R. I., for the "land of promise." 9 Arrived in Buffalo 
about 8 o'clock in the evening, stopping three hours for rest, when 
we were whirled rapidly away toward Toledo, 0., which we reached 
with jaded limbs and empty stomachs, about 3 P. M. Our ride was 
all that we could desire, through a fine country, good accommoda- 
tions in the cars, (bating a little about the dense crowd of human 
beings closely packed from dire necessity in each "seat,") gentle- 
manly conductors along the route, until we reached Toledo, when 
we suffered some inconvenience in crossing the Maumee River, in a 
miserably old crazy boat, where hundreds of human beings were 
pushed through a narrow aperture for ingress and egress, hardly 
sufficient to admit one at a time, of corpulent dimensions. There 
were other boats in sight, externally inviting, but safely ensconced 
in winter quarters. Our next stopping place was Chicago, where 
we were glad to partake of a refreshing breakfast, Thursday morn- 

7. T. C. Wells, "Letters of a Kansas Pioneer," in The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. V, 
p. 172. 

8. A brief sketch of the life of the Rev. Charles H. Lovejoy was published in The Kansas 
Historical Collections, v. VII, p. 497 ; the obituary of Mrs. Lovejoy was printed in the Western 
Home Journal, Lawrence, February 23, 1882. 

9. This company preceded by one week the first regular spring party of the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company in 1855, sent out on March 13. Isaac T. Goodnow advertised in the 
Herald and Journal (city of publication not identified) late in February that he had made 
arrangements for friends and acquaintances of the Rev. J. Denison and himself to start from 
Boston on March 6 ("Webb Scrap Books," v. Ill, p. 20. Library, Kansas State Historical 
Society). In Goodnow's diary for 1855 (MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society) under 
date of March 6 is this entry: ". . . Finished preparations for my departure with Br. Lin- 
coln, Revs. C. H. Lovejoy, Newell Trafton & others. Left Boston in the Express Train . . . 
for Albany. 20 passengers for Kansas. 8 added at Framingham. 30 at Springfield 8 at 
Albany 2, Buffalo." An item in the Boston Atlas of March 13, 1855 (quoted in "Webb Scrap 
Books," v. Ill, p. 45), states: "The Kansas Party under the charge of Messrs. Lincoln and 
Goodnow (numbering 75 individuals), which left this State on Tuesday, the 6th inst., reached 
St. Louis safely, and thence took passage by steamer Kate Swinney for Kansas City, Mo., on 
Saturday afternoon last." 



LOVEJOY: LETTERS FROM KANZAS 31 

ing, furnished to our company, at the low rate of 25 cts., through 
the kindness of L. P. Lincoln, Esq., our energetic Agent, who is un- 
tiring in his efforts to make our journey pleasant, and seems inter- 
ested in all that interests the emigrant. 10 We left Chicago about 
9 A. M., and our noble steed bore us impetuously on over the far- 
famed prairies of Illinois, with almost lightning speed, allowing us 
only a moment to snatch a glance at the smooth, mirror-like surface, 
of one [of] the loveliest land-scapes our wandering eyes ever be- 
held, accustomed, as we have been from earliest childhood, to 
N. E. scenery, diversified with hill and dale. how did the wish, 
which we vainly endeavored to suppress, escape us, ever and anon, 
as some new eminence crowned with thrifty fruit trees, affording 
a fine "rural seat" for some wealthy occupant, that we too had 
caught the fever of emigration, long years ago, and had found a 
home with the almost envied Hoosier. 

Onward we were borne, in one continuous routine of "jar and 
whistle," toward the sunny south, reaching Alton, the scene of the 
Lovejoy tragedy, 11 about midnight, where we left the tilt of the 
cars for the less-fatiguing motion of a commodious steamboat, and 
so at last, we are on this great "father of waters," this mighty ar- 
tery, whose constant pulsations drain the heart of this vast con- 
tinent the Mississippi River, whose course we have traced with 
the enthusiasm of childhood, on Morse's old Atlas, little thinking 
when the hey-dey of youth was passed, we too, should find a tran- 
scient home on a vessel, whose prow should plough its turbid waters. 
The scenery along the Mississippi is as we supposed, low and mo- 
notonous; not dotted with thrifty looking villages or stately man- 
sions, as in N. E., and we could not resist the impression we have 
everywhere felt in Missouri, that the blighting mildew of slavery, 
is evident on this productive soil, is seen on the dilapidated dwell- 
ings of the planters, and on all you come in contact with. how 
often did we wish that energetic yankees, eking out a life of toil, on 
sterile, unproductive soil, could for a few years, occupy these rich 
lands, how greatly would the face of things be changed! 

We entered the Missouri Hotel, St. Louis, about 3 o'clock Sat- 
urday morning, and found the first hour of undisturbed sleep since 
we left V[ermon]t. Here we found ample accommodations, a nice 
breakfast awaiting us, and were soon fortunate enough, under the 

10. Luke P. Lincoln, whom Isaac T. Goodnow called "our superintendent," in his "Per- 
sonal Reminiscences and Kansas Emigration, 1855," in Kansas Historical Collections, v. IV, p. 
245. 

11. Mrs. Lovejoy refers to the murder of Abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy by a Proslavery 
mob at Alton, 111., in 1837. He was a relative of the Rev. Charles H. Lovejoy. 



32 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

guidance of friend Lincoln, to secure a passage on the "Kate Swin- 
ney," from St. Louis to Kanzas City, for the meagre charge of $10 
each, and superb fare, that would pamper the most fastidious epi- 
cure. Now Mr. Editor, if you can travel 500 miles for this "wee 
bit" living in princely style, your every want anticipated by swift- 
footed waiters, officers and crew, with clocklike regularity, moving 
in their appointed sphere of action, eager to answer all your in- 
quiries and show you every indulgence, why in this matter we 
congratulate your good fortune! 

We came on board about 8 o'clock, Saturday morning, and through 
the kindness of Capt. Chouteau, 12 were permitted to take an excur- 
sion to "Jefferson barracks," down the Mississippi River, which 
took us about all day to perform, with no additional charge. Our 
company consisted of upwards of 100 men, women and children, 
from New England, New York and Pennsylvania, and a most happy 
family we are. By the permission of Capt. Chouteau, we had public 
religious service on board, Sabbath, A. M., commencing at the usual 
hour, sermon by Mr. Lovejoy; and in the evening, by Rev. N. 
Trafton 13 of the "Biblical Institute" of your goodly city. 

There are slaveholders on board the Captain himself being one; 
but as yet no conflicting sentiments have been advanced to cause 
collision, though it is well-known that we are from Yankee land 
and hate slavery to the death, with all its kindred evils. We have 
one bright little slave girl on board, valued by her mistress at $500. 

Here may be seen a world in miniature. On one hand sits the 
industrious Bay State lady, plying her knitting needles, there an- 
other putting the "finish" to a substantial pair of overalls, to make 
comfortable that much loved husband, as he tills the soil of Kanzas. 
In another corner a pleasure-loving group, at "chequers," or thumb- 
ing over the keys of the piano-forte, or the guitar; and still another, 
singing lustily, old-fashioned, soul-enlivening Methodist hymns. 
Truly, Mr. Editor, notwithstanding our differences of opinion, we 
are a model family, so far as harmony and love are concerned, and 
as I gaze on this group of wives and mothers, who have torn them- 
selves away from dear New England homes to follow the fortunes 
of that loved husband, to become a light in his mud-walled cabin- 
to wipe the sweat of toil from his care-worn brow and like an 
angel-watcher, to minister to his comfort in sickness and health 
and, prospectively, to brave hardships of no ordinary character I 

12. Capt. P. M. Chouteau. 

13. The Rev. Newell Trafton. 



LOVEJOY: LETTERS FROM KANZAS 33 

ask, "Who shall wipe the dew of death, that will ere long gather on 
her brow in yon stranger land? What soft hand will smoothe her 
pillow in death, or shed the symphathetic tear, with bereaved loved 
ones, as her "remains" shall be laid away in the dark, damp tomb, 
or who shield her orphaned ones, far from kin and childhood's home 
when she is no more? I pause: my heart is full, and tears unbidden 
well-up from the deep-fount of feeling. I list! A mournful echo, 
borne from the wilds of Kanzas answers "Whof" 

We are at this hour at Murpheysville, on the Missouri, 20 miles 
from Washington, St. Charles Co., where we have been for three 
hours, firmly imbedded in the sand, and though every effort has 
been made to extricate ourselves from this predicament, our noble 
vessel is so heavily laden, she sullenly refuses to move an inch. 
There are 112 officers and soldiers and 90 horses on board, belonging 
[to] the U. S. Army. These, with the Kanzas emigrants and their 
luggage, amounts to no small sum of freight. Flocks of wild geese, 
ducks, and beautiful white swans sailing gracefully over turbid 
waters, now meet the eye. But the wheel sluggishly moves, and we 
are onward bound. Adieu. You may hear from us again. 

JULIA LOUISA LOVEJOY. 

AMERICAN HOTEL, KANZAS CITY, 
Mo., April 13, 1855. 

MR. EDITOR: We took leave of your readers, whilst we were senti- 
mentally thinking of the song of the "dying swan," occasioned by 
"association of ideas" in seeing a group of "living ones" sporting on 
the "mad Missouri." 

Our journey up the river was delightfully pleasant, though some- 
what protracted on account of low water. We saw some places of 
interest, on the river, but "few and far between," and not one that 
looked home-like, or that would compare in tastefulness of Archi- 
tecture with a New England cottage. Even Jefferson, the Capitol 
of the State, had nothing peculiarly attracting, save the green hills 
sloping down to the water's edge, covered in mid-March with verdure 
that was very welcome to us from the Granite State, who had just 
been sleigh-riding over snow-drifts six feet in depth! 

The Capitol was a spacious building on a beautiful eminence over- 
looking the river, but we thought it would look very contemptible 
along-side of the one in the Green Mountain State. One thing seemed 
to us like neglect or indolence; the rusty appearance of the unpainted 
copper sheathing that covered the cupola of the structure, that by 

31875 



34 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

heavy rains had soiled the exterior of the walls the entire height. 
Near this place we saw what called forth exclamations of disappro- 
bation and disgust from some of our warm-hearted anti-slavery New 
Englanders, who had not been accustomed to such sights. A cart 
drawn by mules, was being relieved from its "contents" of manure, 
by a hoe in the hands of a colored woman, whilst her overseer stood 
by with an air of content, giving directions that it should be properly 
done, whilst he moved not a finger to assist the poor creature in her 
masculine task! slavery, thou unsexing demon, how art thou 
cursed of God and humanity. 

We reached Kanzas City Sabbath Morn, March 18th, in season to 
attend divine worship; and Mr. Lovejoy, though a known minister 
of the Northern M. E. Church, that is just now making such a stir 
amongst the enraged Missourians, was called to officiate in the pul- 
pit. The practice obtains, we think through their indolence through- 
out the State, of one service in the day-time, and one in the evening. 
There is but one Church edifice in the city, and this unpainted, 
uncarpeted, and as filthy as any incorrigible tobacco chewer would 
wish to have it; stove, benches, and other "fixtures" bearing un- 
mistakable evidence that the delicious weed, had been thoroughly 
masticated. 

Our first impressions of this city were extremely unfavorable ; and 
boarding in this hotel as we have for weeks past, confirms us in the 
belief, that though a great business place, on account of emigration 
to Kanzas, yet the place itself, the inhabitants and the morals, are 
of an indescribably repulsive and undesirable character. Indeed, 
we know of but few places that we would not select for a permanent 
residence, in preference to Kanzas City. 

But "Kanzas Ho!" is the watch- word for our party, and lo! all 
with one consent, begin to make a move in that direction. Teams 
being purchased, and all due preparation made the "pioneer party" 
with a noble span of horses and covered wagon, loaded to its utmost 
capacity with tents, mattresses, provisions, &c., for an exploring 
tour, started ahead, leaving the "ox team" to follow in due time. 14 
The company, some of whom were clergymen, presented a very 
unique and ludicrous appearance when fully equipped for their 

14. Isaac T. Goodnow in his "Reminiscences," loc. cit., p. 248, says a committee of seven 
was chosen to explore and select a site where the company was to settle. He names only six : 
Isaac T. Goodnow, Luke P. Lincoln, Charles H. Lovejoy, N. R. Wright, C. N. Wilson and 
Joseph Wintermute. In his diary for 1855, loc. cit,, entry of March 20 reads: "Several of the 
party bought oxen & horses. 7 of us started with a two horse team, leaving 12 to come on with 
the oxen." They reached the junction of the Kansas and Blue rivers on March 24, 1855. 
Others of the party remained in Kansas City for a time. A. Browning was the seventh mem- 
ber of the locating party according to a secondary source. Portrait and Biographical Album 
of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties, Kansas (Chicago, Chapman Bros., 1890), p. 547. 



LOVEJOY: LETTERS FROM KANZAS 35 

journey. Some with oil-cloth hats and overcoats, and long boots 
drawn over their pants, to protect them from the mud, each armed 
with his rifle or revolver, for game, not for fear of the Indians or 
Missourians; the oxen, some without horns, and others less fortunate, 
minus in a certain appendage, very necessary in musquito-times ; 
the drivers armed with a stick a number of feet in length, to which 
was appended a lash of enormous length, which dexterously used by 
one accustomed to it, makes "all ring again." 

The party went in various directions, until by unanimous consent, 
a location was agreed upon at the junction of the Big Blue, and Kan- 
zas Rivers. There for the present we will leave them, busily selecting 
their "claims," and erecting their cabins to shelter them and their 
families, who are to follow, whilst we return to "matters and things" 
in Kanzas [City]. It would seem almost incredible to all, save 
an eye witness of the fact, of the hosts whose name is "legion" that 
have been emptied from the boats on to the shores of Kanzas during 
our stay here, and stUl they come! Thousands upon thousands, from 
almost every State in the Union, arrive here, and many go to West- 
port and Parkville, without stopping here. Some return in a week 
or two homeward bound, venting their curses against the "Aid Com- 
pany" that has "humbugged them," in misrepresenting the country, 
(but these, almost invariably, are found not to possess the most 
necessary elements of frontier life, courage and endurance,) whilst 
thousands brave hardships, and are determined to "rough it" for a 
season, that they may enjoy the fruit of their labors. 

A number of instances of a painful character have come under 
my observation, where almost, and in some instances quite, the last 
dollar has been expended in travelling "to and fro" in the Territory, 
and, like Noah's dove, finding no rest, turn their faces Eastward, 
sick of every thing they have seen in Eden's imaginary garden. 
Others, after being absent a few weeks, have stuck their stake, built 
their cabins, made their gardens, and return in triumph to New 
England, (or take the boats here for that purpose,) for their dear 
ones left behind. This class usually are extravagant in their praises 
of the country, and, like the Eastern Queen, declare the one half of 
its beauties have not been told them, and their portfolios or "common 
place" books exhibit the "Olive leaf" in the shape of beautiful prairie 
flowers, plucked in their wanderings, and sacredly preserved to carry 
to their Eastern friends, that they may see the "blossoms of Eden." 

I have seen more of human suffering since I came to this place 
than I have ever seen lifelong before ; and this is not to be wondered 



36 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

at, so many coming such an immense distance, each bringing in his 
veins the seeds of disease, pertaining to his own peculiar clime, and 
when he arrives, worn out with fatigue and exposure, he is ripe for 
sickness and death. An affection of the lungs, called here "pneu- 
monia, and winter fever," has prevailed amongst the emigrants and 
citizens to an alarming extent, and swept many to the tomb. At 
one time in this hotel, five men in one room were sick with lung 
fever, and one in another, Rev. J. Dennisan, 15 of the N. E. Con- 
ference, sick with the same disease, and lost his youngest child by it. 
Scarcely an emigrant but has had a touch of it until they get away 
from the air of this river into the territory, where the air is purer, 
when their lungs are soon healed. I have seen the emigrant pay 
almost his last dollar for board at this house, said to be built ex- 
pressly for his benefit, and published to the world "three and four 
dollars per week for board," when in every instance during our stay 
it has been one dollar per day, for those under the protection of the 
"Aid Company," and all others $1.50. Though as far as we are 
personally concerned, the needle has supplied all our demands for 
"board and lodging" hitherto. The table-fare we will leave for abler 
pens to describe. The hotel is very commodious, built of brick, four 
stories high, and an addition for an airy dining-room now being 
erected. 

Provisions are very high in this city, flour per hundred, $5.75, 
corn meal, $1.50 and $1.75, butter, 30 cents, ham 11 and 12, smoked 
sides of hogs, much eaten here, 9 and 10, dried apple 12 1-2 per 
pound, molasses 75 per gallon, sugar 8 and 9. The freight from St. 
Louis to Kanzas is enormously high, water is so low at this time. 

We are anxiously looking for rain, as a drought almost unparal- 
leled in the history of the State, has long prevailed. 

A party have just arrived from Indiana, and among the number 
is a man one hundred and four years old. His second wife is along 
with him, aged 77. This old man has traveled over 1000 miles on 
the water, to get here with his son, who takes care of him. My 
heart ached for him when I thought of what he must unavoidably 
meet. Indeed, I have wept almost every day with some poor emi- 
grant in trouble, and have named this "reception room" the "bridge 
of sighs," that all must pass over to find the promised land. Wives 
parting from their husbands, children from their parents, or friends 
weeping for friends left behind, some sick and disheartened, some 

15. The Rev. Joseph Denison, later a founder and first president of the Kansas State Agri- 
cultural College, Manhattan. 



LOVEJOY: LETTERS FROM KANZAS 37 

spent all their money, others horn [e] sick, and still others burying 
their children or friends, and I have found a daily work for weeks, 
to console the emigrant, and sympathize with the afflicted. 

JULIA LOUISA LOVEJOY. 

MOUTH OF THE BIG BLUE RIVER, 
K. T., May 22d, 1855. 

MR. EDITOR: With sad and grief -stricken hearts we resume our 
communications for your paper and 0, how can we narrate the 
heart-crushing events of a few past weeks? The sorrows of a life 
of forty years, have been as nothing, compared with what our poor 
hearts have felt in a few brief days. Ah me! the insatiate Archer 
has selected another victim our little circle has been broken the 
lamb of the flock taken, and our sweet Edith, 16 a child of many 
prayers and hopes, laid low in death! For five short summers she 
has gladdened our hearts, and been a light in our dwelling, and 
within four days of her sixth birthday, the spirit took its heaven- 
ward flight, and we laid her precious dust away on a beautiful 
prairie, near Lawrence, Kanzas Territory. Sleep on, my angel 
child though thy mother's heart is breaking with untold anguish 
death's icy grasp will ere long be broken, and then my eyes un- 
dimmed by burning tears, will behold thee, a seraph, with the "shin- 
ing band." Lung fever, that has swept like a pestilence through 
Missouri, seized all of our family who remained in Kanzas, and 
measles setting in, our little one was soon numbered with the dead. 

We arrived at our intended home about two weeks ago, and, not- 
withstanding the vacant spot in the home circle, and our own deso- 
late hearts, we must pronounce this the most charming country our 
eyes ever beheld! I wish to write to our New England friends, 
things as we view them in this Territory, and only as far as we do 
know them! It seems to us impossible that any spot on earth, un- 
cultivated by art, can be more inviting in appearance than this 
country. Beautiful rolling prairie, undulating like the waves of the 
sea, high limestone cliffs with immense bottom-lands, stretching into 
thousands of acres as rich as it is possible for it to be, high table- 
lands, with a soil a number of feet in depth. The only thing we 
have noticed as being lacking to make this country all that could be 
desired, is a scarcity of good building timber, such as spruce and 

16. Edith Urania, the Lovejoy's younger daughter, died May 5, 1855, of measles and ex- 
posure. This event occurred the day after the family arrived in Lawrence. Her grave is said 
to have been the third made by pioneers on Mount Oread. United States Biographical Die- 
tionary, Kansas Volume (Chicago, S. Lewis & Co., 1879), p. 289. 



38 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

pine. There is a sufficiency of wood for many years to come, and 
limestone in plenty for fencing here, and for building purposes. 
There are living springs of pure sweet water on most of the claims 
in this vicinity, and wells are dug on the open prairie, where water 
is found of excellent quality but a few feet below the surface. 

Our company consists of men of the "right stamp," mostly from 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including a number of clergymen, 
and men of liberal education, who have been successfully engaged 
for years as teachers in our distinguished seminaries of learning at 
the East, and are henceforth to devote their energies for the benefit 
of this new Territory. They have pitched on a beautiful site for 
a city, at the junction of the Big Blue and Kanzas Rivers, and to- 
day surveyors are busy in staking out the streets on an immense 
scale, a number of miles in circumference; frames and cabins are 
going up all around to secure this city property, whilst for miles 
around farm claims have been taken, and five, ten, and so on acres 
planted, and every thing is growing rapidly. 17 

Our present abode is a floorless cabin, built of logs, the crevices 
filled with sticks and mud, the roof covered with "shakes" split from 
logs, resembling your Eastern clapboards, in a rough state. These 
answer a good purpose in a fair day, but woe to the beds and every- 
thing else when the rain falls heavily. Mr. Lovejoy has a stone 
house going up on his "claim," just beyond the city limits. This 
claim is in the "Great bend" of the Big Blue, three quarters of a 
mile from its mouth, where thousands of acres of as rich bottom- 
lands as can possibly be found, lie in a body. The whole can be 
easily enclosed by a fence across the neck, of perhaps [omission] in 
length. In sight, is the great government road 18 to Fort Riley, 18 
miles, on the Kanzas River above this intended city, and the govern- 
ment bridge 19 across the Blue, costing an immense sum. A bluff 
of limestone rises abruptly, at the base of which our house is in 
process of erection. He [Mr. Lovejoy] has four acres ploughed and 
nearly planted, besides his garden, which is in a flourishing con- 
dition, vegetables growing far more rapidly than in the East. 

A fairer, more genial climate, we think, cannot be found on earth, 
though early in the spring we are told "high winds" and clouds of 

17. At a meeting on April 4, 1855, a city organization was effected a consolidation with 
the settlers of 1854, whose townsites Poliska (or Poleska) and Canton were encompassed by 
the new town named Boston. There were thirty -four or thirty -five members of the town 
company. A. T. Andreas and W. G. Cutler, History of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 1306; 
letter, Isaac T. Goodnow to his brother William, April 9, 1855, in MSS. division, Kansas State 
Historical Society. 

18. The Fort Leavenworth-Fort Riley military road. 

19. The government bridge, built at a cost of about $10,000, was destroyed by ice on 
January 26, 1856. Mrs. Chestina B. Allen, "Sketches and Journal," entry of January 26, 1856, 
in MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society. 



LOVEJOY: LETTERS FROM KANZAS 39 

dust were a great annoyance. The air is so pure and clear that 
objects six and eight miles distant can be distinctly seen, as those 
in the East at one quarter of a mile, strange as it may seem. It is 
hard for us to become habituated to it, and it seems a constant phe- 
nomenon to us so healthy too, that one can lie in the open air and 
realize no inconvenience from it. An instance occurs nightly in sight 
of our cabin. A gentleman from Maine, 20 a graduate of Waterville, 
and for years past teacher in the Charlestown Academy, who was, 
to all appearance in the last stages of consumption, given over by 
his physicians to die, as a last resort came to Kanzas, has lived here 
through the winter, and now is so well he labors constantly, and at 
night wraps a buffalo robe about him, and throws himself on the 
open prairie, with no covering but the canopy of heaven. 

There has been no sickness in the Territory here as we have 
learned, only as it was brought here. There has been a drought 
which has made things later than usual, but for two weeks past the 
heavens have literally poured their contents upon the earth. The 
grass in some places is nearly knee-high thousands of acres that 
I wish might be covered with grazing flocks and herds. Hard- 
working cattle with nothing but this grass to eat, are fit for beef 
in a few weeks. But our thunder-storms, Mr. Editor, you have 
need to witness them before you can conceive of their awful sub- 
limity. On a sudden the heavens are overspread with black angry 
clouds, and seem for hours to be wrapped in a sheet of flame, heavy 
thunder, as if the whole artillery of heaven was at once discharged, 
when the rain not only falls in drops but in copious streams, deluging 
the earth, but soon disappears, and we see no chance for stagnant 
water, the land is so rolling. 

Our present cabin is near the centre of the city site, and is liter- 
ally in the centre of a garden of flowers of varied form and hue, 
surrounded with acres of rose bushes, which, when in blossom must 
perfume the air for miles around. In the cool of the day we love 
to sit at the door of our cabin and inhale the sweet perfume of 
flowers, and snuff the bracing air. Were it not for the vacuum made 
in our "trio band" by death's ruthless hand, we should feel happier 
than in any other spot we ever found on earth, though we greatly 
desire our dear friends in New England to come and live in this 
inviting land. 

Provisions are scarce and high, having to be brought from Kanzas 
City by teams though a steamboat is hourly expected laden with 

20. E. M. Thurston, an 1854 settler from Maine, and member of the group locating the 
Canton townsite. A street in Manhattan is named Thurston. 



40 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

freight for the Territory. A landing and temporary warehouse has 
been prepared. Quite an excitement is being felt to-day among the 
members of the "City Association" as a number of men are busy 
jumping claims within the city limits, and they had not previously 
taken the precaution to have them all secured by erecting cabins 
within suitable distances of each other, but more about this matter 
in my next. 

Mr. Park, 21 of immense wealth, who has lately had his printing 
press destroyed in the Missouri River, at Parkville, Mo., by hun- 
dreds of armed ruffians, and his own life threatened, has taken 
seventy-five shares in our "city" stock, and given a handsome bonus 
to a "squatter Missourian to get rid of him." Great things are ex- 
pected of him here in pecuniary matters. Game is very plenty about 
the Blue. Wild geese, turkeys, ducks, prairie hens, and deer; but 
they don't always stop long enough for a ball to hit them. The 
rivers are full of fish of the finest flavor I ever tasted, similar to the 
Eastern trout, but a richer treat for the table. They are called cat- 
fish, and some of them weigh over 50 Ibs., and sometimes twice that 
amount, and the flesh when dressed, looks as large as a fat calf. A 
man just above us, on the Blue River, one night last week with a 
"seine" caught 1,500 Ibs. and carried them the next day to Fort 
Riley to market. 

A neighbor a few days since took an excursion up the valley of 
the Blue, and he says the country in his opinion, in some respects 
is preferable to this near the mouth, but we hardly think it possible. 
He informed us that 200 families from Ohio were on the way to 
settle there, and 20 more families are now making a settlement just 
above us on the Blue, from the Buck-eye State. Towns are starting 
up as by magic all along the valley of the Kanz[a]s. Ashland, 
Manhattan and Pawnee, between this place and Fort Riley. But 
more anon. Yours respectfully, 

JULIA LOUISA LOVE JOY. 

MANHATTAN CITY, MOUTH OF BIG 

BLUE RIVER, K. T., Aug. 1, 1855. 

MR. EDITOR: Monday is a "busy day" in this far-off land, as well 
as in New Hampshire: but "suds" and "scrubbing" are all post- 
poned as a matter of course, for this eventful day. For lo ! the mail 
has arrived, bringing "lots" of papers and letters from the East 
(which have been delayed on the way long enough to have crossed 

21. George Shepard Park, publisher of the Parkville (Mo.) Luminary, whose press was 
destroyed by a Proslavery mob April 14, 1855. 



LOVEJOY: LETTERS FROM KANZAS 41 

the Atlantic twice) and among them we find three numbers of your 
paper, that we loved so much to read in our Eastern home, now 
doubly dear separated by a stretch so vast, as now intervenes be- 
tween us, and our dear New England friends from our "heart of 
hearts," we thank thee, Mr. Editor for this delicious morsel, though 
we expect they will be so eagerly sought, and be read, and re-read by 
so many, that before one week they will be completely "thumbled" 
to pieces, and used up. Since the date of our last letter, a great and 
important change has occurred in business matters here, a steam- 
boat, the "Financier" was then on her way up the Kanzas River 
she arrived at the Mouth of the Blue, the 29th of May a short 
distance in the rear followed the "Hartford," a splendid boat, owned 
by a company of wealthy capitalists from Cincinnati, Ohio, who 
had sent on their agent ahead, selected a location for a town, about 
two miles from Fort Riley had it surveyed and regularly laid into 
"lots," and named it "Manhattan" this boat was bringing out the 
"settlers" with their families, heavily freighted with ready-made 
houses, all prepared for immediate erection. 22 When they came in 
sight of our beautiful locality almost encircled as it is by these two 
rivers, they were so charmed with the spot, and concluding, wisely 
too, that the Mouth of the Blue, must be eventually at the head of 
navigation, they made proposals to our "Boston Association," on 
certain stipulated conditions, to abandon the project of founding a 
city, as first intended, and expend their capital here. This offer 
was cordially accepted and in return our "Association" made them 
a present of one-half our "City-site," or one side of "Main Street," 
that runs through the centre, and the privilege of changing the name 
from "Boston," first given it, to "Manhattan." 23 Things now look 
quite city-like, and the sound of the hammer is heard on every hand. 
Nine of their houses, are already erected, 25 or more "habitations" 
of one kind or another, are now dotting this "broad area," known 
as "City limits," and for miles around, the "claims" are mostly taken 
up. We have purchased, and moved into one of these Cincinnati 
houses, furnished (in these "ends of the earth" as our friends at 
home, are pleased to term it) with better furniture, than it has been 
our fortune heretofore to possess. You could hardly credit what a 
rush there is for "claims" here now, and one that has been considered 
of but little consequence, has been purchased within a week, for 

22. On the Hartford were some seventy-five settlers, members of the Cincinnati and Kan- 
sas Land Company. 

23. Isaac T. Goodnow in his diary for 1855, loc. cvt., under date of June 2, wrote: 
". . . Met representatives of the Manhattan Corny. Cincinnati"; and under June 4 made 
this entry: "Meeting of our Association. Passed a resolution giving to the Manhattan Coy. of 
Cincinnati % of our city site on condition of making certain improvements. . . ." 



42 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

$200, and we are told today the owner has been offered thrice that 
sum. Vegetation is of a luxuriant growth. Mr. L. went into a 
heavily eared cornfield, a few days since, and with a long hoe, en- 
deavored to reach the top, but found it impossible ; neither could he 
reach a part of the ears, with his hands, without the aid of stilts! 
One of our neighbors, who came here last summer, has forty acres 
that bid fair to yield 50 bushels of shelled corn to the acre, and also 
a fine field of wheat. We had green corn to eat the first of July, 
not as early as some others. Grapes of a fine flavor, have been ripe 
a number of weeks they are very abundant, and our good house- 
keepers are busy in making their jellies, which are very nice pre- 
serves and a variety of little "et cetera," that answers the purpose 
of other plumbs, and berries, they have been accustomed to use in 
New England. Paw-paws, that now resemble (as they hang on the 
tree) a large rich pear, grow here, but the fruit, this year, is not 
plenty also large blue plumbs, like New England garden plumbs, 
mulberries also, very fine, that grow on tall, slender trees and look 
almost precisely like an unripe blackberry gooseberries, black rasp- 
berries, &c., but not a strawberry in this part of the territory. We 
have understood they are farther south, but here the annual fires 
sweeping over the prairies, prevent their growing we design this 
fall to get a supply, and not to suffer the "devouring element" to 
harm them, or anything else that grows within the limits of "our 
claim" if we can possibly prevent it. With regard to climate, I 
doubt whether any other can be found equal to it. Our hottest days 
in July, would not compare with New England; for when the ther- 
mometer stood at 90 the heat was counteracted by a constant cool- 
ing breeze, so refreshing, and delightful, when not too strong, as is 
sometimes the case. And it would occasion surprise, to hear any one 
exclaim, "Ah me, I have taken cold!" men (and even ladies too) 
I'll whisper this parenthesis, can ford (wade) creeks, rivers, sleep 
in the open air, on the prairies, in the ox-wagons, or wherever night 
overtakes them, and suffer no inconvenience. I mean delicate ladies, 
who have been bred to effeminacy and accustomed to the luxuries 
of a home, where wealth abounded. Provisions are falling rapidly, 
so that the greatest trouble in this part of the Territory, now is 
about our Missourian neighbors, whose "hearts are set on mischief." 
We were apprehending trouble if not "hard fighting" in our quiet 
community at the opening of the Legislature, in Pawnee, a few miles 
above here, as some of the "viler sort," had threatened to "extermi- 
nate every abolitionist here, and demolish their houses"; and I can 



LOVEJOY: LETTERS FROM KANZAS 43 

assure you, every man, not excepting our good peace-loving minister, 
WAS PREPARED FOR THEM! The people in this Territory 
have suffered until "forbearance is no longer a virtue" and now if 
help is afforded from no other source, they are resolved individually 
to defend their "rights" and their homes. Mr. L. was present at 
Pawnee, at the opening of our Quasi legislature, 24 and notwith- 
standing the blustering and threats of the half-drunk pro-slavery 
party, not one solitary revolver was fired at any free-soil man or 
one bowie-knife aimed at one defenceless head. Though a more 
reckless set, stirred up to deeds of daring by the fumes of the brandy 
bottle, never probably met for like purposes; and Stringfellow, 25 
when elected speaker of the House of Representatives, invited his 
"cronies" to a certain Hotel, "to discuss together the merits of a 
bottle of champaigne." They made a mere cypher of Gov. Reeder, 26 
taking every thing out of his hands, and finally adjourned to the 
"Shawnee Mission," more than a hundred miles south [east] a mis- 
erable pro-slavery "sink," leaving the Governor "alone in his glory" 
to follow, or remain behind, as he should choose. He and Judge 
Johnson 27 came leisurely along a few days afterward, stopping for 
the night, with our next door neighbor the Governor looking un- 
scathed, notwithstanding the fiery ordeal he had just passed thro'. 
True, he retained a few slight scratches on his face, the effects of 
being unceremoniously knocked down by the notorious Stringfellow, 
editor of the "Squatter Sovereign," one of the vilest pro-slavery 
sheets that ever disgraced the American press! Ah! Mr. Editor: 
scenes have been enacted in this Territory, within a few months 
past, and lawless ruffianism, perpetrated on peaceable, unoffending 
citizens, sufficient to rouse the spirit of 76, in the breast of every 
freeman; and it is aroused. Military companies are forming, and 
though we may be accounted feeble in regard to numerical strength, 
compared with the hordes that may flock here from Missouri, the 
"battle is not always to the strong," and truth and justice, will 
eventually triumph. "Kanzas must be free" though blood is shed, 
and hundreds fall victims to the bloody moloch of slavery. Jehovah 
is on the side of the oppressed, and He will yet arise in His strength, 
and His enemies will be scattered. 

There is work enough for every minister, or free-soil man that can 
be spared from the old Granite State, or any part of New England. 

24. Quasi-legislature. The opening meeting was held July 2, 1855. 

25. Dr. John H. Stringfellow, a founder of Atchison and editor of the Proslavery Squatter 
Sovereign, Atchison newspaper. 

26. Gov. Andrew H. Reeder. 

27. Judge Saunders W. Johnston, associate justice of Kansas territory. 



44 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Mr. L. has preached every Sabbath since he left the East, and in 
June entered on his duties as a missionary, on "Fort Riley Mission," 
officially appointed. His field of labor extends from Pottawatomie 
Mission, 30 miles on the South [east], to 70 or 80 miles West from 
here beyond the Fort, and finds 12 places where they need constant 
Sabbath preaching. Drones that cannot work hard or live on coarse 
fare, or sleep in cabins, with or without a bed, or on the open prairie 
need not come here they are not wanted, for they will be going 
back the second week, telling a doleful story of "Kanzas fare." But 
those who can endure and be willing to "rough" it for the sake of 
doing good in the cause of liberty and religion, let them come, and 
God speed them in their glorious work! A great work is to be done, 
and Kanzas is the great battlefield where a mighty conflict is to be 
waged with the monster slavery, and he will be routed and slain. 
Amen and Amen. JULIA LoulgA LovEJoy> 



Notes on the Proslavery March 
Against Lawrence 

I. INTRODUCTION 

THE siege of Lawrence, stronghold of the Free-State party in 
Kansas, began about May 11, 1856, and culminated ten days 
later in the looting and destruction of a considerable part of the city. 
This attack by Proslavery forces received nation-wide publicity and 
resulted at once in a greatly increased flow of money, weapons and 
supplies from Eastern sympathizers to the hard-pressed foes of 
slavery in Kansas. 

A "Proclamation to the People of Kansas Territory" issued May 
11, 1856, over the signature of the United States marshal, I. B. 
Donalson, was the Proslavery call to arms for the march on Law- 
rence : 

WHEREAS, Certain judicial arrests have been directed to me by the First Dis- 
trict Court of the United States, etc., to be executed within the county of 
Douglas, and whereas an attempt to execute them by the United States Deputy 
Marshal was evidently resisted by a large number of the people of Lawrence, 
and as there is every reason to believe that any attempt to execute these writs 
will be resisted by a large body of armed men ; now, therefore, the law-abiding 
citizens of the Territory are commanded to be and appear at Lecompton, 
as soon as practicable, and in numbers sufficient for the execution of the 
law. . . . 

The response to the proclamation showed unquestionably, as Free- 
State men charged, that it was "the consummation of a well-planned 
conspiracy. . . . The van of the army appeared in the vicinity 
of Lawrence two days before the proclamation was dated, and com- 
menced hostile demonstrations. . . ." l 

Among the hot-blooded Proslaveryites answering the invitation to 
beard the Yankee Abolitionists in their den was an unidentified 
humorist who joined a Leavenworth company as a recruit on May 
11, 1856, and kept a quasi-factual diary of his adventures. Editor 
Lucian J. Eastin, of Leavenworth, who published the narrative in 
his Proslavery Kansas Weekly Herald beginning July 12 and ending 
August 23, 1856, introduced the series with this commentary: "We 
stumbled upon the following memoranda of incidents and accidents 
upon overhauling the kit of a fourth Sergeant of the Kansas Militia, 
who has left the Territory, we suppose more in anger than sorrow." 

1. A. T. Andreas and W. G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), 
p. 128. 

(45) 



46 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The memoranda, entitled "Notes To and From the Siege of Law- 
rence/' end abruptly with the entry of May 21, and although the 
last installment carried a "To Be Continued" at the end, no further 
"Notes" appeared in the Herald. Perhaps Eastin felt that the time 
for humor had passed. His editorial of August 30, 1856, "The Crisis 
at Hand," expressed his realization of the "serious and critical po- 
sition" in which Kansas found itself. 

. . . A crisis is at hand which involves the greatest question which can 
be addressed to any people the right to enjoy the acquisitions of their com- 
mon blood and treasure, and peaceably to spread their institutions and civili- 
zation. Our Territory is invaded by a foreign foe, swollen with the spoils of 
repeated aggression, devoted to the one idea of crushing us of the South as a 
people, and extinguishing in Kansas the new born hope of Southern equality. 

. . . We are now embarked in a struggle for life; ... let us turn 
from any peace offered us by the Abolitionists, and seek that peace only which 
comes of our rights. . . . This method will alone save us and our country 
from ruin and destruction. 

The account is reprinted here not for its modicum of factual con- 
tent but for its general interest. It is a rare specimen of humor from 
a Proslavery pen, written at a time when humor was a scant com- 
modity on either side in Kansas. 

II. THE JOURNAL MAY 11-21, 1856 

May 11. To day arrived in Leavenworth City anxious for glory 
and a boardinghouse, saw some other patriots on the Levee, inquiries 
made of me as to my soundness on that remarkable bird the Goose. 2 
Patriots satisfied with my soundness, borrowed all my money from 
me, felt dubious as to who the goose was; struck peculiarly with the 
pugnacious qualities of some of the citizens of Leavenworth, great 
anxiety manifested on all sides to meet Abolitionists. Conspiracy 
rife in our midst, arrests made, and the most salutary methods to 
check the onward stride of Abolitionism adopted; hanging to be a 
minor punishment; however no convictions, nor no executions. Feel 
hungry toward the evening, look out anxiously for patriots who so 
kindly borrowed my money from me, but look in vain. Mem nature 
abhors a vacuum, so do I, felt how poor a panacea for hunger was. 
Night approaches, mount guard four hours, arrest an intoxicated 
man who to all my enquiries for the countersign, begs me to treat; 
call Sergeant of the Guard, Sergeant of the Guard calls me a fool, 
feel resentment, but stifle the same; superior officer. Sleep at last, 

2. "Sound on the Goose. A phrase originating in the Kansas troubles, and signifying true 
to the cause of slavery." John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanising . . . (Boston, 
Little, Brown, and Co., 1877), p. 630. 



THE PROSLAVERY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 47 

and think with pleasure how many more imbeciles there are around 
me besides myself. 

May 12. Wake at daylight, most intense excitement, soldiers get- 
ting tight all around, feel inclined to pitch in myself; conquer my- 
self, remember the holiness of the cause, and resolve not to allow 
myself to get fuddled. Ten o'clock, gallant Captain assembles the 
boys for a grand parade, shoulder my musket and attend, are in- 
formed that the eyes of the country are upon us, that great deeds 
and Abolitionists are awaiting us, are advised not to be too pre- 
cipitate, but rush on boldly and be killed ; felt the glory of the sug- 
gestion, but cavilled inwardly at the humanity of it. Orders to be 
ready for the road at one, but on account of unavoidable circum- 
stances, and probably the proximity of groggeries, did not leave 
until five P.M. A cortege small but determined wends its way 
slowly to the westward, composed of all sizes of men, and clad in any 
kind of uniform, with the ever ponderous musket. Wonder to see so 
few of the most gaseous citizens in the crowd, understand they stay 
behind to make arrangements. Conclude making arrangements is 
their forte. Our cavalcade rendered most imposing by our oxen, 
whom every one of the company appear to be driving. Oxen pause 
often to reflect, and when they have ascertained the voice of the ma- 
jority, plod on steadily. Ladies gaze fondly on us thus marching 
forward to meet the enemy. Nothing occurs to detract from the 
sublimity of the scene, but an unsuccessful attempt on the part of 
one of the company to kick a young urchin, who kept continually 
gyrating his fingers at the end of his nose, thereby reflecting upon 
the military appearance of the company. At length one whole mile 
from town and completely in view of the same, a halt is made, with 
all the pomp and circumstance of war ; and our grounds posted, have 
myself an unenviable post in a swamp, where two refractory steers 
keep continually passing the out-post; am kept very busy remon- 
strating with them on their conduct; felt peculiarly how uncertain 
life is on the tented field; hailed upon one occasion when returning 
to my post after an unexciting chase after the aforesaid steers, by 
the sentinel immediately above and within a few paces of me, de- 
manded of me the countersign; asked him jocularly if he was gas- 
sing? He replied by clicking his musket, when I, in a stentorian 
voice accommodated him with the countersign, and thus saved my 
life. Kept whistling the balance of the night to keep from being 
shot. Observed two individuals approaching me, asked in a gentle- 
manly manner who they were, answered officers of the guard; told 



48 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

them to pitch in, and received a severe reprimand for my courtesy 
and was told how for the future to hail persons advancing; felt that 
taking into consideration how seldom I had acted in a military 
capacity, that this was piling on the agony too thick. Mysteriously 
relieved by two gentlemen to whom I whispered the talismanic 
countersign, which was, whiskey, and went to bed i. e. to grow re- 
lieved in more senses than one. 

May 13. Awake at a very early hour, after a very unrefreshing 
sleep full of hideous dreams, and wondered how I could have 
dreamed so much in so short a space of time. Once dreamed I was 
a soldier under Napoleon, exposed to a galling fire from some enemy, 
then with Scott in Mexico, now being hung for desertion, or under- 
going some other beautiful principle of military tactics: I found 
that while I had not made any impression on my bed from its hard- 
ness, it had made considerable impression upon me ; found all hands 
very busy about breakfast, the post of chief cook assigned to a 
wagoner, said wagoner succeeds admirably with the water, boils it to 
perfection, tries his hand at the bread, but alas, fatally, bread in- 
tended to be light, is of the consistency of a brick and something of 
the color of a quadroon. Wagoner returns from the post of cook re- 
ceiving the curses of a lot of very hungry and rather profane young 
men. Another attempts the arduous task of making rolls, succeeds 
as far as the shape is concerned, but fails again, rolls prove to be 
soft as mush, and he retreats from the scene of action with a con- 
sciousness that his forte is not cooking; all hands resolve to be their 
own cook, and each promiscuously attacks his ham and eat it like 
cannibals. Coffee is made and drank in something the same manner 
that one will take a nauseous dose of physic, that is by shutting the 
eyes during the operation. After breakfast, all hands turn out to 
help to gear the oxen, which is done after an immensity of trouble ; 
oxen proving the most infernal obstinate animals in the whole crea- 
tion, shall henceforth regard a mule as a perfect gentleman compared 
to them. At last we are all right, pots and kettles stored away, and 
resume our line of march for Lawrence or eternity. Take a casual 
survey of the company to see more fully what manner of men there 
are amongst us. Result of my observations are that there are four 
Doctors, a sprinkling of Lawyers, some business men and mechanics, 
altogether it would be hard to find a more varied group. Felt pleased 
to see that soundness of the Goose was a question calculated to 
awaken interest in so many different minds. Find a prisoner 
amongst us who was taken the night previous, understand that our 



THE PROSLAVERY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 49 

gallant Major has gone to Head-Quarters to ascertain what disposi- 
tion to make of him. Men mysteriously hint at roasting or hanging 
hope they are not serious ; but am satisfied that if they attempt to 
make a roast they will lamentably fail, as from the signs at the 
breakfast this morning, there is no culinary art among us. Prisoner 
does not seem to feel at all the awfulness of his situation, but travels 
on very quietly am at a loss to know whether it is resignation at 
his fate, or satisfaction that he will be set free. Gallant Major comes 
along and on reaching us, informs prisoner that he is at liberty, 
prisoner mounts his horse and courteously bids us adieu, and puts 
spurs for Leavenworth. Felt as if I would not much care if I were 
the prisoner. Keep travelling on without anything to disturb the 
even tenor of our way until midnight ; when from the perverseness of 
the oxen we are in contact with an enormous stump; now ensues a 
scene of confusion, take a seat upon another stump and wait philo- 
sophically for our trials and wagon to get over. Drivers halloo at 
the top of their voices, amateurs follow suit, curses loud and deep 
rend the air, but the oxen feel no disposition to be rash. I determined 
to wait until the hubbub subsides, and our party exhaust their whole 
vocabulary of anathemas, and give themselves up to grim despair; 
coming to the conclusion that they are stumped. An unassuming 
old man steps into the arena and attempts his skill on the perverse 
brutes; he adopts quite a different style of tactics, and succeeds by 
fair words and gentle inuendoes in getting us out of our dilemma. 
Feel satisfied that this man whom all call General, is a wonderful 
ox-driver, as he never curses them, and thinks persuasion is better 
than force. 

At noon, halt for dinner; oxen let run to eat theirs. Wish for the 
time that I was a gramnivorous animal instead of a carnivorous one, 
that I might satisfy my appetite with grass a la Nebuchadnezzar. 
A committee of three sent to a house in view, where, from the signs 
hanging on the clothes lines, lovely and useful women were living, to 
request they would cook us dinner from our stock of raw materials. 
Impatiently wait the action of committee, and fill up the interim by 
discussing politics ; hear an interesting lecture from a certain Doctor 
on military tactics generally, and duties of private soldiers in par- 
ticular. A jug of whiskey, found in some of the recesses of our 
capacious wagons, is introduced, and, like an old acquaintance, is 
hailed with delight and cordially embraced by all. Retract my wish 
that I was gramnivorous, made a short time before, in view of the 
whiskey, and take a hearty pull at it. Feel much better. The day 

41875 



50 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

wearing apace, and committee on dinner not coming. Hitch up 
again, and proceed on our travels. Get but a short distance from 
our resting place, when committee on dinner appear in sight, ap- 
parently heavily laden. A halt is ordered, and on the approach of 
the dinner, men take advantageous positions to surround the basket. 
The basket arrives full of bread and meat, and after having been 
regularly divided, contrary to the hopes of some individuals, we find 
that each man has enough to swear by. Out of the necessity of the 
case, we rise from our meal, in accordance with Franklin's sugges- 
tion, with an appetite. Again on the road ; come at last to the creek 
called Stranger. Wish all the creeks were strangers to me, and 
would remain so. After a series of heartrending trials at this creek, 
arrive, very wet and with more mud on my clothes than I ever owned 
in real estate, on the other side. Got to our camping place and pre- 
pared to camp for the night. Here we have the pleasure of getting 
our food cooked by ladies; but for myself, feeling too sick and dis- 
gusted, I went to bed, where, after the fuss had subsided, consequent 
to the mounting of guard, I slid gradually into the land of nod; not 
long there, however, ere an alarm is given of an attack; all hands 
turn out, rings from every mouth. Satisfied that my hour was come, 
and after all, I would die by an Abolitionist's hand, yet I, in despair, 
rushed to the scene of action, and found to my horror, that in my 
confusion I had rushed out with a tin pannikin, nor would I ever 
have discovered my error but from my attempt to cock it; felt 
obliged to Providence for the darkness of the night, as it prevented 
my confusion and pannikin from being seen by fellow soldiers. Suc- 
ceeded in getting a loaded musket at last, and detailed to scout with 
some other gentlemen. Our scouting party fired at something several 
times, and I think really hit it, as there were several dead trees ob- 
served next morning there and thereabouts. After tramping with 
some vigor through the woods and hailing all the cattle in the neigh- 
borhood, came to the righteous conclusion that there was nobody 
around. Kept up the balance of the night until morning, as to sleep 
was impossible. Inquiries made as to who made the alarm during 
the night, fastened it upon a certain Doctor, and fired sixteen or 
seventeen buckshot in an enormous stump, the result of his well di- 
rected aim. Another Doctor receives a rather severe shock at his 
own hand, having put three or four cartridges in his musket and fired 
off the same; the result can better be imagined than described. 
Musket and Doctor parted company, and the latter lay senseless for 
a time; while another Doctor made a star of sticking plaster on his 



THE PROSLAVEBY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 51 

cheek, which brought him to. Then to breakfast, and the road once 
more. 

May 14th. . . . Flattered myself a halt would have been 
ordered, but no, the cry is, onward, still onward. Learn that a very 
important appointment has been made by the officer in command 
during the previous evening. That the little doctor, in view of his 
having become the Surgeon of the company, (though how he became 
so no one knows), is also appointed commissariat of the company. 
Understand he accepts the same with the spirit of a martyr. The 
men, evil minded of course, think the two jars of whiskey, property 
of the company, tend greatly to his resignation toward the duties of 
his appointment, as by it, he has entire control of all the whiskey, 
which is a consummation devoutly to be wished for by all. But now 
the road and the road only claims our attention. To cross the flats 
from Stranger to the opposite heights requires much skill and energy, 
less excitability and nervousness than our band of raw recruits pos- 
sess. The oxen geared properly with the best intentions in the 
world, start on their mission; but before they are one-half of the 
way through the flats, they cave. Now occurs a scene of fierce 
invectives. Our general, for the once, is out generalled, and the 
oxen, with probably a juster appreciation of the soil than we have 
ourselves, refuse, in spite of kind or ferocious treatment, to exert 
themselves. In vain do we assail them with words of endearment. 
In vain is woo or gee reiterated. They are insensible to our exer- 
tions, and are as stoical as brutes can be. After making more than 
ordinary efforts, I retire from the field in disgust, and sit at some 
distance on a stump to ruminate on my prospects as far as glory is 
concerned, in the never-to-be-forgotten campaign. Find myself in 
such a state from mud and filth that no one would take me for a 
white man, and am only satisfied at seeing that at least there is no 
one better off in this respect than myself; indeed, did we exchange 
or swap clothing the one with the other, all parties swapping would 
have been cheated. After a great deal of trouble and much pro- 
fanity, it was agreed to take a circum ambulatory route to cross this 
slough of Despond, and some hardy individuals, not having the fear 
of rheumatism in their eyes, tracking out a road through the same 
swamp. The oxen followed and arrived on the other side of the 
same, decidedly broken down. To gain the heights was now the ob- 
ject; to do which and relieve the oxen from a dilemma they had in- 
serted themselves into by sticking and remaining so stuck in the 
mud, all hands were ordered to turn out and help unload the wagons. 



52 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Found in one wagon a certain doctor as passive as a side of bacon, 
with the original star of sticking plaster on his cheek, who, in excuse 
for his position there, informed us that his extraordinary exertion the 
day before, and the extraordinary discharge of his musket, rendered 
it impossible for him to be in any other condition than that of an 
invalid. Evil minded men in the company suggested that whiskey 
had an effect on his present position. Think not, however. After 
much trouble and tribulation found ourselves on the other side of the 
flat, and on the heights beyond Stranger. Again in motion, we ar- 
rived at the house of a Dutchman, who, although with free soil proc- 
livities, had whiskey. With one or two others constituted an ad- 
vance guard, and assailed the house of said Dutchman for whiskey. 
After considerable parleying, whiskey produced, and I take the lib- 
erty of stating that it was as good as any whiskey I ever tasted in 
the Territory, either from pro-slavery men or others. All hands 
drink here ad libitum, but no one made drunk come. From here, 
still onward, and marched without anything of interest occurring 
until we arrived at Butler's, and here nothing happened very inter- 
esting save our dinner. To me, this was especially interesting. Here 
met with the gallant Colonel of our company, who had the best 
brandy with him I had seen since I left Leavenworth City. En- 
deavored to get as thick with him as I could in consideration of his 
own spirited qualities and that of his flask. 

After a hearty dinner at Butler's we are once more on the road. 
Am rather disgusted at our officers in command, or at least some of 
them, who for reasons best known to themselves, go on a different 
and more pleasant route to our intended camping place, and on 
horseback too, while we poor fellows of the line tramp over one hill 
then another; hoping that one will meet the main road which we 
contrived to do at last, after an immensity of exertion and more 
curses than would fill Webster's last dictionary. At last at night we 
reached our halting place, and the usual scene occurs of mounting 
guard, &c. Our halting ground is near a creek more famous for the 
filthiness of its water than anything else. Here supper is had, and 
any fastidiousness that might be extant amongst us, is swallowed by 
our inordinate appetites. After a very hasty consideration of the 
supper, we are turned out to drill ; drilling is a perfect humbug in my 
opinion; all are straightened out in a line. A fat, good natured Or- 
derly Sergeant drills us, twenty-five of us, green as gourds on the 
subject of military tactics. Shoulder arms! present arms! and order 
arms! are strangely commingled in our brains, and the order to do 



THE PROSLAVEBY MARCH ox LAWRENCE 53 

one of the foregoing is responded to by attempts to do a little of all 
we know. Our marching, and countermarching is painful, as we all 
form a sincere wish to do right, tread on the heels of the person in 
front, and are cursed accordingly, regretting seriously our incapacity 
to be Napoleons. Our Orderly Sergeant dismisses us amongst the 
acclamations of the company, and we all make a rash attempt to 
sleep, but alas our attempts prove futile; hardly do we compose our- 
selves so that Morpheus may embrace us, when we are rather roughly 
informed that we must turn out to fight the enemy. All turn out 
with their muskets, in most murderous attitudes. One-half of our 
force sent toward the creek to reconnoitre; the balance, amongst 
whom I was, remain in camp to guard the same. After a few min- 
utes of absence; first half returned, and informed the company in 
general, and the officers in charge in particular, that some two indi- 
viduals had passed, and had told the gentleman on guard near the 
road, that he might if he found it convenient, proceed to Pande- 
monium; a decided reflection on our company, but said reflection 
was responded to in a manner calculated to strike terror into un- 
believers, and such who could not prove unmistakeably their sound- 
ness on the Goose. But the firing of all the pistols in the direction 
that they who had insulted us had gone, quiet was once more re- 
stored. Felt relieved that we had not been attacked by Abolition- 
ists. Heard officers expressing resignation, and satisfaction that they 
had made their wills and were willing to die. Thought seriously 
about making my own will, but remembered that I had nothing to 
leave, so thought I would defer it. Between two and five a. m., 
went on guard receiving particular instructions to beware of Aboli- 
tionists, walked backward and forward after the most approved 
form all night, did not see an Abolitionist once, but kept a keen look 
out for the person on the post below, who once had nearly shot me. 
Determined not to be taken unawares again. Mislead several times 
by the oxen, whom I in my fertile imagination thought Abolitionists. 
Beg their pardon for the error, as I do not wish to reflect upon them. 
Think upon the whole that it is a very bad thing to alarm falsely 
soldiers upon such an expedition as ours, as they might in a moment 
of excitability, kill a first rate working steer instead of an Aboli- 
tionist; a mistake which would be very serious. Daylight, relieved 
once more, now comes my breakfast, then the road. 

May 15. Having been up all night, am consequently up very 
early in the morning, and proceed to the breakfast ground, anxious 
to eat something. Find that a bottle of whiskey was going its rounds 



54 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

with unusual vigor; take my station that it might find me in its 
circle of acquaintances. Whiskey being all drank, the more im- 
portant matter of breakfast claims our attention, and each has some 
office to do in this respect. Grinding coffee requiring less culinary 
talent than anything else, the job is assigned to me. All are very 
jolly and dirty, and the conversation very lively: some form plans 
for the future, based upon the eminent glory that may ensue to 
them in this campaign; others more moderate wish they were at 
Ki's or Charley's drinking a mint julep; for myself I only wish I 
had another shirt, as then I would have two, which number would 
enable me to present a more human appearance. Breakfast at last 
being ready, all hands attack it; observe that the longer we are out 
the less polite towards each other do we become. This is peculiarly 
apparent at our meals ; our maxim is now first come, first served. 

After breakfast, good natured Orderly Sergeant gets us into as 
near a straight line as he can, and proceeds to drill us again, with, 
if possible, less success than the previous evening. At the command 
right wheel! most of us wheel the wrong way; and the nearest ap- 
proach to a hollow square that we can attain to is an imperfect oval. 
Our muskets are seldom, if ever, in their proper position, and prove 
for an inanimate subject very hard to manage. 

After coursing up and down the prairie to our disgust, and to the 
acceleration of our digestion, we are dismissed with the melancholy 
conviction that we are but poorly drilled, although we feel awfully 
bored. At last we are under way, and from our proximity to the 
enemy are cautious in our movements. Careful of a surprise, with 
muskets on our shoulders, we surround the wagons in the most ad- 
vantageous positions. Am a rear guard myself, and keep my eye 
on one of the hind wheels. But Providence or the enemy spares us 
for Buck creek, which we are fast approaching and which threatens 
to be more fatal to us than a number of engagements. 

Nothing occurs to distract us from our monotonous snail's pace, 
or attracts our attention save two dogs who join us more from in- 
terest than glory. At last Buck creek appears ; we think how gladly 
would we "pass" the Buck as at "Poker" but we are not playing 
that game now, although before getting through we got to "all jours" 
Buck creek is a succession of ugly hills and gloomy hollows. We get 
down the hills and cross the creek, but to ascend the other side re- 
quires a little more exertion. We had not gone far when we succeed 
in sticking admirably. By common consent, we all sit down to 
ruminate. Few men could have blamed the oxen, as they seldom 



THE PROSLAVERY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 55 

did probabilities, and of course would not attempt impossibilities. 
Providence at this juncture turns on what superfluous water there 
was immediately above us, so as to render it still more impressive. 
Instead of solid earth, we have now to cope with pure mud, and we 
stand grimly looking on, wishing that Buck creek was on the con- 
fines of the bottomless pit for if it was, few of our crowd would go 
to the same pit if it was necessary to cross the creek to get there. 
Thunder peals over our heads, and is turned to a masterly account 
by a gallant Colonel, who assures us the fight is now raging at 
Lawrence, and what we suppose to be thunder is the distant boom- 
ing of cannon. This assurance, coupled with the timely application 
of the elixir of life from a well known stone jar, restores our satu- 
rated energies and drooping spirits, and we attack our difficulties to 
conquer them or die. 

All the oxen are hitched to the wagon that is mired, and all the 
company turn out, each one selecting a beast to "pour into" and to 
receive his unmitigated attention. The word is given and the oxen 
get Jessie, nor do we cease, until overcome with our exertions we give 
up the useless job. Some sanguine individuals seize axes and at- 
tempt to cut down some trees, and several are cut down that were 
originally no hindrance to us. At last comes the order to unload, 
which was effected; unloading flour, muskets, sugar, ham &c., in 
such mud and such weather has a rather deleterious effect upon my 
enthusiasm. Once unloaded, the oxen get along to the top of the 
other hill with the inward conviction that Buck creek is "one of 'em," 
sure. The same operation, and some effect is produced on the other 
wagon but here our difficulties are but commenced to get all our 
freight up to the wagons is now the task. 

This is done by the use of certain vehicles, constructed more for 
use than ornament, called "skids," upon which we stow all we can 
safely, and with our oxen get along pretty well. Mud being about 
one foot deep, men fall in it with perfect impunity; seldom going 
far with a load before they are immersed. That day there were but 
few of us but deserved the euphonious title of "stuck-in-the-muds" 
While stuck in the mud we are met by several gentlemen, who read 
to us Marshal Donaldson's Proclamation, calling upon us to aid 
in support of the laws, &c. 3 The Proclamation is received with 
great glee, and our throats give signal of our hearts' joy. Retire 
to a little distance to do some shouting on my own hook, and sit 

3. This is evidence of considerable interest since it supports the implication of Andreas- 
Cutler, cited in the introduction, that Donalson's proclamation was the excuse rather than 
the reason for the attack on Lawrence and was actually not known to the attacking force from 
Leavenworth until three days after they had begun their march. 



56 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

immediately behind a horse to gratify my exhilaration. The horse 
rather unceremoniously kicks me in the midst of a most glorious 
yell, and on a portion of my frame that for several days after ren- 
dered it a matter of impossibility for me to take a seat. Limping 
from the scene of my disgraceful kicking, and breathing curses 
against all horses in general, and this individual in particular, I wend 
my way slowly to the top of the hill. On my way thither meet a 
Chief Justice proceeding homeward; Chief Justice greets us kindly, 
and after we assist him to catch a runaway steer, he bids us adieu, 
thinking that we are a very irregular looking portion of the regular 
militia. 

After a variety of ludicrous circumstances we arrive at the top of 
the hill, bag and baggage, very much relieved indeed. Considering 
what we had overcome, and come over, speeches are volunteered 
by several, and are received with universal applause. After a little 
our wagons are re-loaded and we start onward, after having been 
seven hours getting over Buck creek and only one mile of road 
accomplished in that time. 

May 15. Awfully exhausted and prostrated by our herculean 
efforts at Buck creek, a halt is soon ordered and joyfully responded 
to by the crowd. Buck creek has certainly taken the starch out of 
us, and a more deplorable dead-beaten crowd never assembled 
around a camp fire as do to-night. Hunger again assumes its su- 
premacy, and as our stomachs are vacant, save the necessary furni- 
ture, and perhaps a little brown sugar, furtively grasped from the 
stores, we all turn in to eat something. Slapjacks form our bill of 
fare. Succeed in purchasing an interest in several at an exorbitant 
price, and satisfy myself with them. Guard is again posted as we 
are getting nearer and nearer the Philistines. Manage to get into a 
wagon and sleep placidly until awakened in the night by a report of 
a musket; understand somebody is shot, but postpone further en- 
quiries until morning. 

May 16. Understand this morning that a Court-Martial has been 
ordered in relation to the shooting affair of the previous evening. 
Find that one of the guard shot one of the dogs, having taken the 
unfortunate animal in the darkness of the night, for one of the 
enemy. After hailing him according to dogs generally, he was shot 
instantly. A melancholy victim of misplaced confidence, and an 
evidence of the indefatigable watchfulness of the guard! The guard, 
having made his statement, was rightfully acquitted of any crime, 
but being a humane man he felt ashamed to look at the other dog 




WILSON SHANNON 

Territorial governor of Kansas before whom the company from Leaven- 
worth paraded at Lecompton, May 18, 1856. The troops were disgruntled 
because he neglected to treat them to whisky. (See page 59.) 

Governor Shannon was born in Ohio in 1802. He served as governor of 
Ohio in 1839-1840 and 1843-1844; minister to Mexico, 1844-1845; repre- 
sentative from Ohio, 1853-1855, and governor of Kansas, 1855-1856. He 
died at Lawrence in 1877. 











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THE PROSLAVERY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 57 

(companion of the deceased) in the face, who followed the unfor- 
tunate individual very doggedly. After a few appropriate remarks 
upon the uncertainty of life from several serious individuals, we 
hastily breakfast and resume our way to Lawrence. 

Understand we will reach Kaw river to-day, where we are in- 
formed other forces await us. Up hill and down hollow we pursue 
our path, and at last come to a creek which requires some ability to 
ford, or get to the other side. A log, about fifteen feet high being 
our bridge, and not having been brought up to the tight rope busi- 
ness, I endeavored to coon it, but on account of my kick of the day 
before am compelled to relinquish a process, which, while ludicrous, 
has the merit of safety. Am at last packed across on a horse, like a 
sack of meal. All are safely over, and now we strike a prairie; 
have to wade knee deep for about a mile through the same think it 
a great country for ducks. At last we approach Kaw river, and as 
we near it, our Captain comes boomingly along in a buggy, and very 
thoughtfully distributed some whiskey amongst us. We are in- 
formed that our greatest wish (i. e., a fight) will soon be gratified. 
Many cheer the announcement vigorously, but never having loved 
fighting myself for its sake, do not cheer, but am content to be 
quietly grateful for the benefits we may receive in that line. 

At last we arrive at Kaw river, where we have a rest. Opposite 
Lecompton, find to my regret that the beautiful bridge so ostensible 
on the chart of this city is not visible; and that the railroad can 
hardly be deemed completed, as it is an air line only existing in the 
brain of a few enthusiasts. Lecompton is on a pretty site, has the 
merit of not being densely crowded, judging from my view of it from 
this side. Find here other men, citizens, soldiers, all of whom wel- 
come us most cordially. After unhitching our oxen, and getting out 
our cooking utensils, we are instructed to form in messes. Think 
that each man is in a mess enough as he is, without any consolida- 
tion. Am put in a mess with some others, who from some fiendish 
motive elect me cook, a position to me more than horrible. I go to 
my duties with a vague idea of what they are as cheerfully as the 
circumstances will admit as is the case with all amateurs. I make 
errors fatal to my achievement of any fame as a cook. 

After dinner proceed to make my toilet and change my linen, 
which change is effected by turning it inside out. After a good bath 
and the resumption of my old clothes in all their pristine mud, I 
lay myself down, to reflect upon the mutability of human affairs. 
Am awakened from my meditations by the news of a capture; find 



58 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

we have caught a live Yankee, as no earthly inducement can make 
him mention cow. The man asserts he is a good Pro-slavery man; 
we all think he is in a horn. Yankee displays a great amount of 
coolness, and evidently takes notes for a leader for the [New York] 
Tribune. After mature deliberation we agree to let him slide, treat- 
ing him with all the courtesy imaginable. He retires thanking us 
for our humanity, but will write for old Greeley's paper, I presume, 
at the first opportunity an account of the barbarom treatment of a 
Free State man by the Pro-slavery party. Many of the boys go over 
to the Capitol, and return in amazingly good spirits, and bring some 
over with them too. As cook I again officiate, and a supper, a fac- 
simile of our dinner in point of material, with the adjunct of coffee, 
graces our board. 

After supper, in a few short and appropriate remarks, (as the 
newspapers say) I tender my resignation, which I hope they will 
receive, for if they will not I intend they shall. After some argu- 
ment wasted on their side, I am ex-cook, and resign with pleasure 
all the pots, &c., to my successor in office. No guard to-night, as 
we are here at least safe from any attacks. Making an admirable 
bed out of some barrel staves, and using a couple of one inch planks 
for coverlids, I sleep like a top until morning. 

May 17. Awake early, and turn out accordingly. After break- 
fast all hands turn out to drill. Now ensues the usual awkwardness, 
and we severely try the patience of our officers. While our drilling 
does not present the concert of action so highly prized by com- 
manders in their men, it always has the merit of variety; and I 
think that a company attacking us would be at a loss to know how 
to approach us. After two mortal hours at this refreshing exercise, 
we are dismissed and improve our time by firing off our firearms, 
to the great annoyance of the squirrels in the vicinity. After a day 
spent in masterly inactivity, as they say in the Crimea, succeeds a 
night long to be remembered. Our mess has a sort of tent, to keep 
up a military appearance, I suppose, for it does not keep out the rain. 
This institution deceives us, trusting to its firmness of position, and 
blows down on us, the rain pattering at an awful rate. After re- 
covering from our surprise and finding how matters are, we all crawl 
under a tree, the rain following us up all the time, where, convinced 
that the fates have conspired against us, sit it out rather discon- 
tentedly all night. 

May 18. A good fire being made this morning, we all dry up, 
and breakfast rather poorly. To-day we are to cross the Kaw river, 



THE PEOSLAVERY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 59 

and to get to Lecompton. An enormous flat boat, seemingly large 
enough for another Noah's Ark, receives us on board, bag and bag- 
gage. The baggage being all packed on board upon our shoulders, 
we are further convinced, to use rather a stale phrase, that "Jordan 
is a hard road to travel." To get to the other side is now the diffi- 
culty. We all work our passage, hauling ourselves along by an 
old rope and making about a half a mile an hour. After keeping up 
this process until we are far above the Capitol, we strike out, and 
at the imminent risk of several of our men strike terra firma. We 
are received with raptures of applause by the inhabitants of Lecomp- 
ton. Men disperse in various quarters to refresh themselves so 
do I. After exploring the whole of the city, I return to the landing 
and help to unload the baggage; learn with delight that here we 
will leave the greater part of it. At this point one of our company 
leaves us, unable to proceed farther, being, like another Achilles, 
wounded in the heel. Receiving an honorable discharge he takes 
leave of us, carrying away with him a large consignment of com- 
pliments to disperse amongst the friends of the company in Leaven- 
worth. 

Once more are we formed into military position, and march to our 
intense disgust into the heart of the town. Here we have the honor 
of seeing his Excellency the Governor, 4 and he also has the honor 
of seeing us. Think he looks on us rather apathetically; think also 
that he should at least stand a treat when we meet him, but no we 
are doomed to disappointment not so much for the liquor, but it 
would be a pleasant recognition of us as the bulwark of the law and 
order party. 5 After marching and countermarching through this 
burg until it was thoroughly daguerreotyped in our memory, we 
march out of Lecompton to go somewhere else to camp. We have a 
small wagon with us ; meet on our exit the triumphal entry of some 
of our party with a prisoner. Going on slowly we come at last to a 
hill that proves a fatal one to us, for we are upset, our goods and 
chatties dispersed to various points of the compass, and our wagon 
made an unmitigated wreck. After the usual amount of cursing 
and speculation as to the probable cause of our mishap, we proceed 
to get ourselves out of the difficulty, and being relieved of some of 
our load by another wagon, and at last our own being tinkered up, 
we resume our march, setting this accident to the debit side of the 

4. Gov. Wilson Shannon. 

5. This was the self-bestowed title of the Proslavery party in Kansas, presumably to em- 
phasize the contrast with what they considered the illegal and disorderly Free-State party. 



60 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Abolitionists account, to be wiped off if we ever get a showing at 
them. 

May 18. Through mud and mire, tired, hungry and discontented, 
we keep on our line of march. Understood that our camping ground 
would be but two miles from the Capital, but before night feel con- 
vinced that the miles are remarkably long ones. About 10 P. M. we 
strike Benicia, 6 and Benicia strikes us as being a very primitive 
town, but may be a metropolis one of these days, when the wars are 
all over, and the goose shall be allowed to slumber peacefully upon 
the land, as she has a natural right to do. 

Our company arrives here in much disorder, tired out, hungry, and 
cross generally; and in a ripe state for a fight, and would do great 
execution upon the enemy, if they had an opportunity. No com- 
missariat to be found; men prowling about like hungry lions, seeking 
what they may devour; ham becomes common property, and is eaten 
with bread and avidity every man being his own cook. 

After our hunger is compromised with, all are summoned into line 
for review, with a very ill grace. The call is responded to, the muster 
roll is called, and some are found missing, the flesh pots of Lecomp- 
ton having probably detained them. After a short speech from a 
gallant Captain, who now has charge of us, we are apportioned into 
a guard for the night. Hugging myself inwardly at my exemption 
from this duty for the night at least, and feeling about seventy-five 
per cent below par, I hie me to bed in a large frame building, intend- 
ing to devote all my talents and attention to sleeping out the balance 
of the night. 

Am just asleep when a friend awakens me, informing me that the 
gallant Captain desires an audience with me outside. Proceed half 
asleep outside and find the Captain surrounded by about eight of our 
men. Captain advances towards me, and hands me a small flask to 
lubricate my ideas with. The lubrication having been effected, he 
proceeds to inform me, that out of kindness to me, and a sincere wish 
to further me in this campaign, and for other causes too numerous to 
mention, he has resolved that I shall be one of a chosen band to in- 
tercept and capture, vi et armis, a small band of Abolitionists (only 
eighteen) armed to the teeth, who have a boat a few miles from 
where we are, on the river, plying to Lawrence, and conveying aid 
and comfort to the enemy. 

6. The village of Benicia, Douglas county, was located on the south bank of the Kansas 
river in NW% sec. 8, T. 12 S., R. 19 E., about three miles southeast of Lecompton and five 
and one-half miles northwest of Lawrence. It was incorporated in 1855 and in 1857 had a 
population of twenty. It is now extinct. 



THE PROSLAVERY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 61 

For my further gratification he informs me that a severe engage- 
ment may be expected, and that if I fall I may be expected to be 
interred with all the military honors. Not being particularly struck 
with the immense benefit that this enterprise might confer upon me, 
and having rather a vague idea of what military honors were, I 
hardly grasped at the chance of distinction, as enthusiastically as 
I ought to have ; but thought that really men had honors thrust upon 
them some times. I however calmly acceded to the project, and with 
a faint attempt at a smile, jocularly alluded to the disparity of our 
numbers. 

After a little we are in motion. I selected a fat man to be my 
shield, and through the woods wended our way in painful silence. 
After a short review of my past life in my own mind, I come to the 
conclusion that after all I should feel thankful; that if I were to die, 
I had no very enormous crimes to answer for. At last we approach 
the point; our guns are cocked; and the boat is seen. We enter on 
board, and find that the birds have flown. We capture, however, two 
or three prisoners, take some arms, and proceed homeward to camp. 

Arrive in camp, and congratulate ourselves upon the success of our 
mission. Our prisoners are seated comfortably around the fires, and 
evince a confidence in our magnanimity, which I am proud to say 
was never misplaced. After a little the lubricating system is in- 
dulged in quite freely, and our ideas are getting brighter, and our 
thoughts livelier. Songs are sung with great glee. Some pour forth 
with a great deal of effect amorous ditties; others vociferously roar 
out war songs, and so on ad infinitum, until the clear gray of the 
morning appears, when we turn in to sleep a few hours before pro- 
ceeding upon the arduous duties of another day. 

May 19. All get up very early to answer to muster roll; after 
which we proceed to elect a Commissariat. This being done, we 
resume our former messes, and commence to cook our breakfast. 
Rumors are flying amongst us of a lot of Sharpe's rifles in the posses- 
sion of the enemy, and after breakfast a company is formed for the 
purpose of entering into negotiations with the owners of the same for 
their possession. 

March in single file to the place where the supposed rifles are, 
which locality is a saw-mill. Find the saw-mill in active operation, 
and men about at work. The Captain politely asks the information 
we require from the apparent owner of the mill, who evinces an un- 
accountable ignorance of every thing. After a vain endeavor to 
elicit facts or rifles, we proceed to examine around, and find several 



62 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Sharpe's rifles stored securely away. Think upon a cursory exami- 
nation of one of them, that they are rather a ticklish weapon; but 
think also a good old shot gun has its merits. How soon will the 
Yankees invent a rifle to fire at Border Ruffians from Boston, and 
thus carry on a war? I think for them this would be a consumma- 
tion most devoutly to be wished for, as the tendency of their im- 
provements in firearms seems based upon the fact that distance lends 
enchantment to the scene. 

After scouring the vicinity we muster several rifles, and are con- 
strained to make prisoners of two dangerous Abolitionists, who pro- 
claim openly their hostility to law and order, and are satisfied com- 
pletely with Beecher's higher-lawism. After completing our mission, 
with our prisoners in our midst, we form a line for camp. Our Cap- 
tain, first delivering a lecture to the individuals in whose possession 
the Sharpe's rifles were found, that ought to effectually quell any 
symptoms of higher-lawism that may exist amongst them the word 
is given, and we march to our camping place. Our prisoners and 
rifles disposed of, we consume our time until drill in the afternoon 
the best way we can. 

After drilling with our usual ability, an election for non-commis- 
sioned officers occurs. The candidates are numerous, but the plat- 
forms unanimous. I find to my horror that I figure myself as a 
candidate, some sanguine individual having proposed me as a suit- 
able person to fill the high and important position of Fourth Ser- 
geant. Being a modest man, I excused myself, and desire to with- 
draw; find it is of no use, and at the desire of "many friends" (as 
all candidates in the political world say) consent to run. The result, 
which is a unanimous election, and a vote of thanks upon my accept- 
ance of the position, almost prove too much for my equilibrium. 
Impressed with the dignity of my station, I endeavor to look 
and act authoritatively with the men, but upon being informed that 
it would not be healthy for me to "put on airs" I sink myself into 
my original mildness of deportment. It now being nearly night, our 
supper is proceeded with, and after an amicable discussion of it, 
guards are posted around, as usual. My guard not occurring until 
morning, I go to bed, hoping that I may have the felicity of enjoy- 
ing a night's rest without any more attempts at military distinction. 

May 20. Am up with the sun, having watched the same tardily 
rising while on my morning watch. All hands having been thor- 
oughly aroused, we proceed to receive our portion of whisky, which 
the U. S. Marshal has in his kindness made one of the emoluments 



THE PROSLAVERY MARCH ON LAWRENCE 63 

of our position. Said liquor has the credit of being very old, but is 
decidedly diminutive for its age; and when in our tin pannikins, a 
fly can with little danger ford from one side to the other of said 
pannikin. It having been all discussed, the only comments made on 
it being in regard to its scarcity, we proceed to our breakfast, and 
hastily consume it. After the consumption of which the men moodily 
resolved themselves into knots, and deprecate the tardiness of our 
proceedings being but a few miles from Lawrence. Feel indeed 
that we are in a state of inglorious inactivity, and our commanders 
come in for their share of heartfelt condemnation. At this stage of 
the proceedings, and while mutiny in its most insidious form is 
spreading itself amongst us, good news arrives, and by good au- 
thority we are informed, that but a few circumstances prevent our 
meeting the Abolitionists the greatest circumstance being, in my 
humble opinion, the fact that they studiously avoid us. We are 
also informed that we soon will have the opportunity of testing our- 
selves, and them as well, at the gates of Lawrence. This announce- 
ment gives us a good deal of satisfaction, and confident that all will 
be right we resign ourselves to our predicament, and play poker 
generally until night, when we mount guard as usual. 

May 21. To-day the joyful tidings came that we must march 
onward. We immediately make our arrangements to proceed, and 
about the middle of the afternoon start for Coon Point. Our wagon 
has in it a miscellaneous assortment of dry goods, groceries and 
hardware, and perched upon the summit is an invalid with rheu- 
matism of the direst nature. This wagon with its valuable contents 
is entrusted to an amateur ox driver, who to casual inquiries in re- 
gard to his abilities assures us that he can drive "to h 1 in about 
a minute." He succeeds in convincing us of the aptness of his re- 
mark, by upsetting in the creek, the first on our road. The rheu- 
matic individual displays more agility than he had credit for, and 
in his choice of a landing place evinces considerable ingenuity 
think an upset a great remedy for any disease affecting the limbs. 

Dry goods, groceries, and hardwares, find themselves in the creek; 
sugar, flour &c., at a discount. Altogether we come to the conclusion 
that we are the most unfortunate set of individuals that circum- 
stances ever got together. Not feeling a great amount of interest 
in the wagon, and coming to the conclusion not to wait for it being 
uncertain whether I should get a ride if I did I with others, make 
for Coon Point, which at last we reach. Am particularly struck 
with the military appearance of this place, and the vast amount of 



64 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

red shirts. Report ourselves as the Leavenworth detachment, and 
receive cordial invitations to sup with the gentlemen composing 
the camp. Remembering the situation of our groceries, and their 
distance from us, we joyfully accept. Toward night our wagon 
comes along with the balance of our men, hungry and tired, who, 
after appeasing their appetites, turn in, breathing a few curses 
audibly against things and individuals generally. 



Letters of David R. Cobb, 1858-1864 

Pioneer of Bourbon County 
Edited by DAVID GLENN COBB 

I. INTRODUCTION 

DAVID Ransom Cobb was born at Saxton's River, Vt., January 
2, 1824. Family records do not indicate when he started West. 
He stopped for a time in Wisconsin, where his brother, Judson M. 
Cobb, the recipient of the first of these letters, then lived. David R. 
Cobb, like many others, was interested in taking up a good farming 
claim in the new territory. Eventually he located six miles west of 
Fort Scott and one-half mile north of the town of Marmiton, which 
had been incorporated early in 1858. 1 

David R. Cobb was always interested in public affairs, and held 
many offices. He was the first superintendent of schools for Bourbon 
county (1859), county clerk (1860), probate judge (1861-1863), a 
representative in the state legislature (1863-1864), postmaster at 
Marmiton (1865-1866), and county commissioner (1868-1870). He 
was active in local and state Republican party affairs. In the Civil 
War he served in the militia during the Price raid. He died at his 
farm, October 19, 1891. 

In the first of these letters, Cobb tells of his arrival in Kansas 
territory. In it he also describes an unusual encounter between Free- 
Staters under James Montgomery and federal troops from Fort 
Scott. The other letters throw some light upon the social activities 
of the members of the 1864 legislature. The originals of these letters 
are in the possession of D. R. Cobb's grandson, who has written 
this introduction and edited the letters for The Kansas Historical 
Quarterly. 

II. THE LETTERS 

MAPLETON BOURBON Co. K. T. Apr 25th 1858 
My Dear Brother Judd 

You will doubtless be looking for something from me eer this. 
Well I should have written last week but the severe rains of Satur- 
day and Sunday week swelled the streams so that it was impossible 
to get to the office or for the mails to [go] out. 

We arrived at Ft. Scott and to Mapleton on friday found the 
people glad to see us. 

1. His claim was located on the W% and NE% NW% sec. 31, T. 25 S., R. 24 E., com- 
prising 120 acres. Records of the General Land Office, v. 1&4, p. 55, now in the National 
Archives, Washington, D. C. 

51875 (65) 



66 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

We left Kansas City on Monday two week[s] tomorrow with a 
two horse team loaded with provision that Chap bought. So we put 
our valises aboard. The roads were very bad, and weather rainy. 
The team refused to work and we put up at Westport [Mo.] for the 
night found another team in the morning, and took up our line 
of march walking and riding alternately. 2 As to the country along 
the State line tis somewhat broken for some 12 or 15 miles from 
the river, with small prairies and some timber of an inferior char- 
acter. Then we came to some very good land and beautiful scenery, 3 
well located farms and good ranges farther out the Prairies are 
larger with less timber but pretty well watered couldn't say how 
it would be in dry time. 

There is a large strip of country, say from 30 to 50 miles from the 
river, where the prairies are too large and a good deal less timber 
than I should wish to see and in all probability will not be settled 
up at present. 

Passing along in the vicinity of the Marais des Cygnes or Osage 
river the country is more diversified, finer tillage lands, more timber, 
pleasanter country and in fact a much better place to make a 
home. 

The timber in this country is only to be found on the streams, and 
is not generally in abundance though in some localities there is suf- 
ficient for all ordinary purposes. 

Passing the Marais des Cygnes (pro Marie de Sene) (Swan river) 
the land is good, scenery pleasant, and will in all probability sup- 
port a dense population, and that e'er long too most all the land 
is claimed up now, good claims now selling from 2 [00] to $500, for 
prairie; and from 300 to $1000 for timber claims. The timber is 
chiefly Hickory, Oak, Black walnut, Sycamore a little bass wood, 
Maple & cotton wood Some of the trees are very large, say 5, 6, 
& 7 ft in diameter but generally they are not overgrown The 
Streams rise to a great hight during the Spring and fall rains, over- 
flowing the banks and covering the bottoms There could be found 
mill privileges in almost any of these rivers if it was possible to 
find a good site where a mill would be safe in flood time I was 
at Stream Mill yesterday when at a freshet this Spring the saw was 
covered with water, and now the water is some 25 to 30 ft lower. 

2. The stage line from Kansas City to Fort Scott had not yet been established. Good- 
lander, C. W., Memoirs and Recollections . . . of the Early Days of Fort Scott (Fort 
Scott, 1900), p. 4 ; Robley, T. F., History of Bourbon County, Kansas . . . (Fort Scott, 
1894), p. 106. 

8. Horace Greeley was impressed with the beauty of this region a year later. Caldwell, 
Martha B., "When Horace Greeley Visited Kansas in 1859," The Kansas Historical Quarterly, 
v. IX, p. 120. 



COBB: LETTERS OF DAVID R. COBB 67 

The Soil is what is called a limestone soil water is found on 
low and high prairie at from 10 to 25 ft. Springs of water are more 
common than in Wisconsin]. 

The land on the Marmaton 4 is pretty good some pleasant 
locations, and good farms we tramped three or four days with- 
out finding anything that suited us exactly and then came up to 
this place some twelve miles on the little Osage, 5 and 14 miles from 
the State line. 

This place 6 (that is if it should ever be one) is on the north side 
of the river, on a beautiful site the prairie sloping in every direc- 
tion, good timber in close proximity and surrounded by a very fertile 
country and is well located and will be a town of some importance 
if nothing should happen to prevent. 

I should have first described [the] general appearance of the 
country and will do so now The south side of the river 7 is bluffy 
and broken, with here and there a bold mound raising its lofty head 
overlooking the prairie, and between these mounds are to be found 
the most fertile farms in the country on the north side banks are 
lower and the prairie and bottoms (one should hardly know the dif- 
ference) as they recede, rise gradually, till a mile or two back they 
reach the high prairie which resembles in appearance the table lands 
of Mexico giving a variety of scenery unsurpassed for beauty and 
grandeur in the Western country In fact Judd this is the most 
beautiful country I ever saw that is a wild country If the Lord 
is willing and nothing prevents I shall set my stakes here. 

As to the troubles and mess at Ft. Scott 8 and in this vicinity you 
will have doubtless have heard all the particulars before this will 
reach you but will say that I was within a mile or two of the battle 
on the Yellow Paint last Wednesday 9 saw the troops just before 
the collission I happened on this wise Capt M [ontgomery] of 
the Jay Hawkers as they are called, who are a self constituted com- 

4. The Marmaton river rises in Allen county, flows east across Bourbon county, and joins 
the Little Osage in Vernon county, Missouri. 

5. The Little Osage rises in Anderson and Allen counties, flows east across the northern 
part of Bourbon county, and joins the Marais des Cygnes in Vernon county, Missouri. 

6. Mapleton, a village nineteen miles northwest of Fort Scott, was located by New 
Englanders in 1857. Andreas, A. T., and Cutler, Wm. G., History of the State of Kansas 
(Chicago, 1883), p. 1097. The census of 1940 gives it a population of 226. 

7. The Little Osage, near Mapleton. 

8. Fort Scott was the scene of much friction between Proslavery and Free-State elements 
at this time. Goodlander, op. cit., pp. 22-24; Robley, op. cit., pp. 93-95, 100-102. 

9. This would be April 21, the date of Montgomery's encounter with the soldiers. 
Andreas-Cutler, op. cit., p. 1068; Robley, op. cit., pp. 102-104. Wilder, D. W., Annals of 
Kansas (Topeka, 1886), p. 216, is in error when he dates this fight late in March; so, also, is 
Sanborn, F. B., "Notes on the Territorial History of Kansas," The Kansas Historical Collec- 
tions, v. XIII, p. 260. Yellow Paint creek, or South Fork of Marmaton river, rises in south- 
west Bourbon county, joining the Marmaton about nine miles southwest of Fort Scott. U. 8. 
Geological Survey, Fort Scott Sheet. 



68 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

pany of free state regulators some 17 passed up the creek from 
Marmaton 10 last Wednesday morning ordering all the proslavery- 
ites n to leave the country immediately on point of death also 
taking from them their horses, [and] arms the proslaveryites 
despatched a messenger to the Ft for a company of troops to take 
them So the Marshall 12 ordered out Capt Anderson with 20 
regulars they followed on their track passing by the Mill 13 where 
the free state folks were holding a county convention, they soon sur- 
prised some 14 of the Jay Hawkers graising their horses the lat- 
ter mounted and fled for the timber, but the troops pressed them so 
hard that they were obliged to turn upon them and defend them- 
selves the J. Hs had just time to get a good position, having 
passed a little creek skirted with timber they called upon the 
troops to halt, which was disregarded and they (the J. Hs) fired 
upon them, or rather six of them did, making in all 14 shots the 
troops also fired, but having nothing but sabers & revolvers did but 
little execution wounding only one man 14 While the troops lost 
one man and two or three wounded, and two or three horses killed 
The troops displayed a white rag, and came down and asked the 
privilege of carrying off their wounded which was granted The 
troops sent for reinforcements and the Jay Hawkers left Such 
are the facts of the Battle on the Yellow Paint 

Yours 

David 

TOPEKA KAN. Jan'y 16, 1864 
Miss Barrett; 15 

Dear Madam; ... I reached Leavenworth on the night of 
the second day, cold, and disgusted with staging in mid winter. But 
the city was gay and joyous. There was in full operation the Grand 
Fair for the benefit of the invalid Soldier. That night was the last. 

10. Site of old Marmiton (or Marmaton), once the county seat of Bourbon county, was 
abandoned in 1882 when buildings were moved to a new location on a railroad less than a mile 
north. Andreas- Cutler, op. cit., pp. 1071, 1089, 1090. 

11. Montgomery was avenging a recent raid by Missourians on the Little Osage. He 
avoided direct encounters with federal troops, this fight of April 21 being perhaps the single 
exception. Ibid., p. 1068; The Kansas Historical Collections, v. XIII, pp. 260, 261. See, 
aho, Dictionary of American Biography, v. XIII, p. 97. 

12. The Deputy United States Marshal John A. Little, under whose orders had been 
placed the two companies of the First cavalry, commanded by Capt. Geo. T. Anderson, which 
were ordered to Fort Scott from Fort Leavenworth in February, 1858. The Kansas Historical 
Collections, v. V, p. 521; Robley, op. cit., p. 101. 

13. Probably Ed Jones' saw-mill, near Marmiton, often a rendezvous for Free-Staters. 
A meeting was held there April 21, 1858. Andreas-Cutler, op. cit., p. 1068.. 

14. John Denton. The soldier killed was Alvin Satterwait. Robley, op. cit., p. 103. 

15. Frances A. Barrett was born at Alden, Erie county, N. Y., June 7, 1835. She came 
to Kansas territory in 1859 with her parents, who located near Marmiton, in Bourbon county. 
She taught the first school in Marmiton. On May 9, 1864, she was married to David R. 
Cobb. She died at Fort Scott, March 5, 1901. 



COBB: LETTERS OF DAVID R. COBB 69 

Everybody with their wife and friend was out, to say nothing of the 
belles and sweethearts. Twas a brilliant success. Lotteries, mock 
auction and games lent their charms to drain to the dregs the pockets 
of the visitors. 

Leavenworth is the Gotham of Kansas. Tis commercial to all in- 
tents and purposes The amusements of a city like those of a family 
indicate their taste, their education. A Mrs. Walters is their beau 
ideal of an actress, a prima donna whose excellence consists in her 
half disguised (I was going to say) vulgarity, but modesty would be 
a prettier word. But she caters to her audience, and receives her re- 
ward. It has its thousand advantages, its virtues, and its faults. 
We leave it and pass on. 

The appearance of the country between Leavenworth and this city 
is perhaps more picturesque than with us more rugged and 
broken in places, and then again broader, smoother prairies, sur- 
rounded with high bluffs in the distance advancing into the prairies 
as promontories to the sea all add beauty and grandeur to the 
scenery. 

We come to Kansas' noblest river, and cross the stream where a 
boat unites opposite shores 

While the crescent moon's charmed ray 
Kisses the waters where it lay; 

and soon the light from an hundred houses tells us we are near the 
State Capital. 

Topeka has grown some within the last year. The Capitol build- 
ings add somewhat to the appearance of the principal street, Kansas 
Avenue, and is in fact an ornament to the place. There has been 
also several fine residences built, all worthy of the citizens. 

The organization of the House, the caucusing for petty officers 
would be uninteresting I presume, so I omit. The Message of the 
Governor will appear in the Monitor probably, though I could hardly 
recomend its perusal. . . . 

The Sabbath here seems more like civilization the good old 
Bell chimes forth its notes of peace, of rest, and love. The people 
are not a church going people if I was to judge from those I saw out 
last Sabbath and today (the last part of this letter is written on 
Sunday) The preaching in this city is of a rather higher order than 
what we usually get at Marmiton, singing passable perhaps not 
so tonight. 

The Ball has just been put in motion I mean the soiries, 
sociables, etc. Yesterday the Ladies of the Presbyterian Church 



70 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

asked us for the Hall for the purpose of holding a festival next 
Tuesday evening a week. . . . 

The Session is destined to drag itself out to its full length, fifty 
days. Well it will soon wear away, and as I am on two Commit- 
tees, 16 one of which is quite an important one and the other a very 
laborious one I shall be quite busy. 

The weather is moderating the snow almost all gone. . . . 

Sincerely yours, 

David R. Cobb 

TOPEKA, KAN. Jan'y. 27th 1864 

Miss Barrett, 
Dear Friend ; 

Your very kind letter came safely by todays mail, and was 
read with a great deal of pleasure. . . . 

Topeka is quite gay this winter, and will be while the Legislature 
is in session. Tuesday evening the first grand entertainment was 
given by the ladies of the Presbyterian society. They have a peculiar 
way of advertising their festivals; they will ask the House for the 
use of their Hall for the purpose of holding a festival, well knowing 
that about half of the members will oppose it the resolution will 
cause discussion and as by rule it must be laid over till the next day ; 
when it will come up again and pass. 

Our Hall 17 is about 45 by 80 feet, the Speaker's stand at the mid- 
dle of one side and opposite the entrance door there is a lobby cut 
off of one side of about eight feet by a little wicket fence the mem- 
bers occupying seats in confused order within the bar. On this oc- 
casion the House adjourned by the middle of the afternoon and the 
ladies arranging the tables against the bar of the House upon which 
they displayed the nicest entertainment I have seen for many a year. 
Waxfruit and flowers, paintings, and evergreens contributed their 
share to adorn the table. 

There was a large gathering, three hundred perhaps the Hall 
was too much crowded, but perhaps as we were nearly half strangers 
it had a tendency to make us more social. Everything passed off 
very pleasantly. . . . 

Sincerely yours, 

David R. Cobb. 

16. David R. Cobb was in Topeka as representative of the 52nd district, one of four in 
Bourbon county, in the Kansas house in the sessions of 1863 and 1864. He was a member of 
the committees on ways and means and engrossed bills in the 1864 house. House Journal 

. , Kansas, 1864, pp. 72, 73 ; Robley, op. cit., pp. 178, 182 ; House Journals for 1863 
and 1864, passim. 

17. "The rooms occupied by the state legislature prior to the completion of the east wing 
of the new capitol, were in the upper stories of buildings on the west side of Kansas avenue, 
between Fourth and Fifth streets. . . ." Andreas -Cutler, op. cit., p. 215. 



COBB: LETTERS OF DAVID R. COBB 71 

TOPEKA KANSAS February 13 1864 

Miss Barrett: 

Dear Friend; The few weeks passed have been so thickly 
crowded with events, both political and social, that for a pastime for 
myself, I attempt to reproduce them in my feeble way, hoping they 
may be a source of pleasure to you. 

The Senatorial question which has been before the Legislature for 
several weeks was discussed by some in a very humorous style, was 
the cause of a great deal of merriment and fun and if the Grim 
Chieftain's ears did not burn while the subject was under discussion 
then the old saying failed to prove true in one instance. The result 
you have no doubt heard. The Hon. Thos. Carney was elected by 
a two thirds vote. The opposition refusing to vote at all. 18 

Last night (Friday) the Senator elect, in honor of his election gave 
a Banquet at the Representative Hall, to which the members of both 
branches of the Legislature, distinguished strangers and eminent 
citizens were invited with ladies. After supper, the guests repaired 
to the Hall where sparkling Catawba gave point to wit, studied 
sarcasm, and strains of eloquence held a large audience in the high- 
est enjoyment till past two o'clock in the morning. Oh! how I wish 
you might have been here. Everything passed off pleasantly 
all seemed to get their full share of the pleasures of the occasion. I 
should have said that the Hon. Gov. and lady received the guests in 
regular Court style. There was a dance going on at the same time 
in an adjacent Hall, where those who preferred tripped the fantastic 
toe to music's sweetest strains till morning hours. 

Socials, and festivals have been the order of the nights for the 
last few weeks have attended some though not many. . . . 

The weather has been most delightful since I have been here. You 
are having a very pleasant time for keeping school since the cold 
weather. . . . 

Yours truly, 

David R. Cobb. 

18. On February 9, 1864, the legislature chose Governor Carney as United States senator 

r the term beginning March 4, 1865. There was some opposition to this action on the 

grounds that the next legislature was the proper body for choosing a senator. Governor 

Carn e . owev r .' never claimed nor took the senatorial office. House Journal, Kansas, 1864, 

pp. 289-296; Dictionary of American Biography, v. Ill, p 606 



The Annual Meeting 

THE sixty-sixth annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical 
Society and board of directors was held in the rooms of the 
Society on October 21, 1941. 

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

SECRETARY'S REPORT, YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 21, 1941 

The past year has been one of continued growth in all departments of the 
Society. The dedication of fifty historical markers and the celebration of the 
Coronado cuarto centennial have prompted many inquiries about state and 
local history. Even the defense program has brought hundreds of persons 
to the Historical Society, as will be mentioned. During the year there was 
a material increase in the number of persons from other states using the 
Society's collections. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

President James C. Malin reappointed Justice John S. Dawson and T. M. 
Lillard to the executive committee, the members holding over being Thomas 
Amory Lee, Robert C. Rankin and Charles M. Correll. Mr. Correll had been 
appointed just prior to last year's annual meeting to fill the vacancy caused 
by the death of Chester Woodward. The death of Thomas Amory Lee was 
the second on the committee within the year. Milton R. McLean was ap- 
pointed by President Malin to succeed Mr. Lee. 

THE LEGISLATURE 

The 1941 legislature provided for the acquisition of three historic sites for 
the state. The mission building near Highland, erected in 1846 for the Iowa, 
Sauk and Fox Indians, is to be partially restored. Part of the original walls 
of brick and stone still remain. A ranch house near Hanover, built by G. H. 
Hollenberg on the old Oregon trail in 1857, is to be preserved. This building 
was a Pony Express station in 1860-1861. And the site of the Marais des 
Cygnes massacre of 1858 in eastern Linn county, together with a sixty-acre tract 
of land given by the Pleasanton post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, was ac- 
cepted as a state memorial park. The Historical Society gave active support 
to these bills in their progress through the legislature. 

The Society received the usual appropriations from the legislature with an 
additional $1,500 a year for the contingent fund, $500 a year for printing, and 
$500 a year for microfilming and filing equipment. 

The legislature also added $100 a year to the salary of the caretaker of the 
First Capitol of Kansas, which restored it to $600 a year, the pre-depression 
level. 

LIBRARY 

During the year approximately 3,000 persons did research in the library. 
More than half of these were working on Kansas subjects. Nearly a thousand 
were helped in genealogical research and more than 200 were served by mail 
from the loan file on Kansas subjects. 

(72) 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 73 

Many Kansas books and genealogical works were received as gifts. The 
family of Paul Parrish, who died April 11, 1940, presented his splendid World 
War collection as a memorial. This included 543 books, 580 pamphlets, and 
numerous magazines, newspapers, scrapbooks, music, pictures and maps. Paul 
Parrish had been interested in the Historical Society for many years and it is 
fitting that his valuable collection should be preserved here. 

Another large and interesting collection of more than 700 books and pam- 
phlets was donated by Mrs. Thomas Amory Lee. Mr. Lee was a director 
and past president of the Society and one of its most enthusiastic supporters. 
In his collection there were a large number of biographies and books on the 
World War. Duplicates and books outside the Society's specialized fields 
were given to other libraries at Mrs. Lee's request. 

From Mrs. Thomas F. Doran came a number of Kansas books which had 
been in Mr. Doran's library. 

Many valuable historical works are received in exchange from other his- 
torical societies and libraries. Recently added to the exchange list are publi- 
cations of the following: Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society; 
Augustana Historical Society; Cape May County Magazine of History and 
Genealogy; Dutch Settlers Society of Albany; East Tennessee Historical So- 
ciety; Long Island Historical Society; Mennonite Historical Society; Colo- 
rado Archaeological Society; West Texas Historical Association; the South- 
west Museum at Los Angeles; Berks County Historical Society and the Ulster 
County Historical Society. 

The Society has subscribed to the American Genealogical Index, a card 
index to family names in genealogies and local histories. Installments are 
received several times a year and it will be years before the index is com- 
pleted. Many books that have no indexes and are not indexed in other publi- 
cations are now made easily available. This index is being prepared by a 
committee of librarians experienced in genealogical research. 

Kansas newspapers have been increasingly history-conscious this year, due 
probably to the Coronado celebrations. The volume of clippings has been 
fully fifteen percent larger. Anniversary editions, historical markers, county 
history, pioneer reminiscences and army and defense activities have also con- 
tributed largely to the feature material published. An average of 350 clip- 
pings were clipped and mounted each month. WPA employees helped mount 
many maps and broadsides, repair books and pamphlets, and remount old 
clippings for rebinding. 

PICTURES 

During the past year 375 pictures were added to the picture collection. Of 
unusual interest was a water color entitled "Attack on General Marcy's train 
near Pawnee Fork, 1867," which came from Mrs. Bertha Kitchell Whyte of 
Milwaukee. This painting was done by H. Stieffel of Co. K, fifth U. S. in- 
fantry, the company which escorted General Marcy's train, and was found in 
an antique shop in Milwaukee. 

STATE ARCHIVES 

Major accessions for the year were 2,965 manuscripts containing the sta- 
tistical rolls for 1933 as returned by assessors to the state board of agriculture 
and a number of documents from the state board of agriculture, the secretary 
of state and the state auditor. 



74 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The catalogue of state charters and amendments recorded in 189 copy books, 
has been completed through 1938. There are now more than 194,000 cards in 
this index. Work on the catalogue will be resumed when books containing 
copies of charters granted since 1938 are released by the secretary of state. 

Work was continued on the loose-leaf catalogue of old townsites, discon- 
tinued post offices and railroad stations of Kansas. 

PRIVATE MANUSCRIPTS 

Seventeen manuscript volumes and 30,732 individual manuscripts were re- 
ceived during the year. 

Of outstanding importance are the papers of the late Chester I. Long, of 
Wichita, the gift of his daughter, Mrs. W. E. Stanley. The collection em- 
braces correspondence, letter press books, speeches, scrapbooks, and miscella- 
neous papers. The correspondence (28,000 items) dates from 1889 to 1917, the 
larger part from 1901 to 1909 when Long was representative and later United 
States senator from Kansas. These papers will be of special value to students 
of the political history of that period, both state and national. 

The Isaac T. Goodnow papers received last year have been organized and 
an additional 257 items were received during the year. These consist of letters, 
business papers, lectures and a small portion of his diary. 

Judge J. C. Ruppenthal presented records of the district court of the 
twenty-third judicial district. Included is an inventory of all court records 
to 1928. There is also a list of qualified justices of the peace in Kansas for 
the years 1928 and 1929. 

Through the courtesy of Dr. Frank Melvin, of the University of Kansas, 
the Society secured photostat copies of microfilmed letters, telegrams and 
documents from Eastern libraries. The collection totals 264 pages and relates 
to the history of the University of Kansas. The correspondence dating from 
1854 to 1868 includes numerous letters of Charles Robinson to A. A. Lawrence, 
letters of S. C. Pomeroy, E. Nute, S. N. Simpson, I. T. Goodnow and other 
pioneer leaders. 

Dr. Robert Taft of the University of Kansas lent- for copying a group of 
original manuscripts of Theodore R. Davis, the noted artist and correspondent, 
whose sketches and articles appeared in Harper's Weekly in the 1860's. Davis 
and Henry M. Stanley, the explorer, were press representatives with Hancock's 
expedition on the plains in 1867. The manuscripts are interesting accounts of 
Davis' experiences while covering these Indian campaigns. 

Gifts were received from the following during the year: Mrs. G. R. Angell, 
J. E. Bartholomew, Fred B. Bonebrake, Meribah Clark, Mrs. Dorothy DuVall, 
Edward Thomas Fay, Earl Fickertt, Ruth Maria Field, Kipp Gimple, A. A. 
Godard, Mrs. Blenda Palm Greenwood, Mrs. Fannie (Pratt) Griggs, Alexander 
S. Hendry, Ben Hill, Biona Hull, Mrs. Charles H. Humphreys, Lucina Jones, 
Kansas State Highway Commission, John Kranhold, Jr., Tracy Learnard, 
Mardie B. Millikan, William Mitchell, Harrie S. Mueller, John C. Nicholson, 
Frank W. Nickel, Mrs. Clarence E. Osborn, Jennie Small Owen, Harriet 
Parkerson estate, Albert T. Reid, J. C. Ruppenthal, W. L. Sayers, Mrs. W. H. 
Sears, Mrs. A. B. Seelye, Mrs. W. E. Stanley, Dr. Robert Taft, Topeka Public 
Library, Judge Clark A. Wallace, William Allen White, Samuel M. Wilson, 
Mrs. Winifred Clark Wolff. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 75 

NEWSPAPER AND CENSUS DIVISIONS 

For several years the newspaper division has had charge of the state and 
federal census records. These include early federal records and complete 
listings of seven state census returns ending with 1925. When old-age assist- 
ance acts were passed requiring proof of age these census records, and to some 
extent early newspaper files, had to be consulted by many claimants. This 
increase in demands on the department became a landslide this year when 
workers in defense projects were required to have birth certificates. During 
the year this department has issued more than 2,000 census certificates. Since 
there is no index to these thousands of books of records, nor any alphabetical 
listing of names, it often requires hours of research to find the desired informa- 
tion. With the help of WPA workers an index of the census records of 1855 
and 1860 has been completed, together with approximately 100,000 names in the 
1875 census. A street index for a number of the larger cities in the state, 
covering the 1915 and 1925 records, has also somewhat simplified this work. 

During the year 5,395 patrons were registered. Nearly 14,000 bound news- 
paper volumes and 12,139 loose newspapers were consulted. In addition, there 
are daily requests by mail for census certificates, obituaries and copies of legal 
documents, to be found in the records and newspapers. 

The WPA workers in this department have continued the work of listing 
changes in names of newspapers, editors, publishers and owners. 

The 1941 List of Kansas Newspapers and Periodicals was published in 
August. It shows the issues of 759 newspapers and periodicals being received 
regularly for filing. Of these, 61 are dailies, 11 semiweeklies, 487 weeklies, 29 
fortnightlies, one trimonthly, 16 semimonthlies, 83 monthlies, 9 bimonthlies, 
22 quarterlies, 34 occasionals, 3 semiannuals and 3 annuals, coming from all 
the 105 Kansas counties. Of these 759 publications, 160 are listed Republican, 40 
Democratic and 284 independent in politics; 96 are school or college, 34 
religious, 20 fraternal, 17 local and 108 miscellaneous (including four Negro 
publications) . 

On January 1, 1941, the Society's collection contained 47,374 bound volumes 
of Kansas newspapers, in addition to the more than 10,000 bound volumes 
of out-of-state newspapers dated from 1767 to 1941. 

The year's accessions have been valuable. The most import-ant among them 
is the film copy of the Seneca Weekly Courier, February 10, 1871, to November 
26, 1875, representing about five years of weekly newspapers. The Society 
in cooperation with other libraries also had film copies made of its own files 
of the Wichita Vidette, August 13, 1870, to March 11, 1871; the Dodge City 
Times, October 14, 1876, to December 28, 1882, and the Kansas Cowboy, Dodge 
City, June 28, 1884, to December 5, 1885. 

Among the other accessions are : a one-column extra of the Holton Recorder, 
July 2, 1881, probably Kansas' smallest newspaper issue; one issue and two 
extras of the Olathe Herald, April 11 and August 9, 1860; The Vox Populi, 
Lawrence, June 14, and October 30, 1873; seven numbers of the Weekly Anti- 
Monopolist of Parsons and Fort Scott, January 12 to March 9, 1871; issues 
of PM, New York daily and weekly, June 14 to July 22, 1940; one number 
each of the Topeka Press and Spear, April 26, 1934, and July, 1936, respec- 
tively; the Ellsworth Reporter, a Republican convention extra, June 12, 1936; 
a centennial edition of the Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., January 1, 



76 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1940; and The Western Globe, Stockton, August 1, 15 and October 10, 1902 
(Vol. I, Nos. 1, 2 and 5). The Society also received a number of duplicate 
copies of newspapers already in its files. Donors were: Edward Bumgardner 
of Lawrence, Peter J. Hoexter, W. M. Hutchison, George A. Root and Everett 
Stroud of Topeka, Gertrude S. Kunkle of Ellsworth, Mrs. Don E. Wells of 
Erie, George C. Weber of La Crosse, and D. J. Green of Stockton. 

MUSEUM 

During the year there was an increase of 10,588 in the number of visitors 
to the museum, the total being 41,700. School classes from nearly every 
county in the state, boy scout and camp fire troops, and other organized groups 
of visitors increase each year. The Santa Fe railroad sponsored a number of 
educational tours to Topeka. In April four tours numbering 750, 863, 900 and 
1,000 children respectively visited the museum. The Missouri Pacific also 
brought 400 on one tour. 

There were 43 accessions. Among the most valuable was a 1909 model 
four-cylinder automobile, a Thomas "Flyer," presented by the Dillon family 
through Emma Ward and T. M. Lillard, representatives of the estate. An 
interesting miscellaneous collection, including papers, books and relics, came 
from Lillian Forrest of Jewell. 

SUBJECTS FOR RESEARCH 

During the year the following have been subjects for extended research: 
Biography: David L. Payne; Gov. Robert J. Walker and Gov. Frederick P. 
Stanton; Arthur Capper's senatorial career; Mary Ellen Lease; Samuel Irvin; 
Mother Bickerdyke; William E. Borah; Gov. John R. Rogers of Washington; 
Alfred W. Jones; Chouteau family and outstanding Kansans. County and 
town history: Ellsworth; border troubles in Bourbon and Linn counties; Rice 
county; Pratt county; Neosho county. Education: History of Emporia High 
School, a curriculum study, 1876-1940; history of Quaker education in Kansas. 
General: History of the religious influence on the community of the Sisters 
of St. Joseph; history of Young People's Societies of the Lutheran church; 
irrigation; farm movement; Osage Indians; Santa Fe colonization and land 
promotion; grain belt farm representatives and the tariff, 1865-1913; negro 
exodus, 1879-1880; bicameral system in Kansas; United Brethren church; 
Kansans in the United States navy; Black Bob lands; history of the Santa Fe 
railroad; Mennonites; reconstruction; geography of the high plains; bond 
problem, 1879-1889; Kansas' attitude toward the tariff; the Grange in Kansas 
since 1875; history of sports writing; regulation of terminal agricultural 
markets; civil service; Kansas territorial period; Buchanan's administration 
of Kansas territory; early trails through Kansas to Colorado; public opinion 
on the Spanish-American War. 

ACCESSIONS 

July 1, 1940, to June 30, 1941 

Library : 

Books (volumes) 1,492 

Pamphlets 4,358 

Magazines (bound volumes) 180 

Archives : 

Separate manuscripts 2,965 

Manuscript volumes None 

Manuscript maps None 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 77 

Private Manuscripts: 

Separate manuscripts 30,732 

Volumes 17 

Printed maps, atlases and charts 

Newspapers (bound volumes) 881 

Pictures 375 

Museum objects 43 

TOTAL ACCESSIONS, JUNE 30, 1941 

Books, pamphlets, bound newspapers and magazines, 397,373 

Separate manuscripts (archives) 1,075,974 

Manuscript volumes (archives) 27,897 

Manuscript maps (archives) 583 

Printed maps, atlases and charts 11,496 

Pictures 19,632 

Museum objects 33,048 

THE QUARTERLY 

The Kansas Historical Quarterly is now in its tenth year, nine volumes al- 
ready having been published. Much of the credit for the high standard the 
magazine has achieved among the state historical magazines of the country 
should go to Dr. James C. Malin, associate editor, who is professor of history 
at Kansas University. Doctor Malin's criticisms of articles submitted is 
invaluable. The Quarterly is widely quoted by the newspapers of the state 
and is used in many schools. 

FEDERAL WORK PROJECTS 

The WPA project sponsored by the Society for work in the building has 
employed an average of seventeen persons four days a week. The staff has 
supervised the work, which is mentioned in departmental reports. Federal 
expenditures for the year from October 8, 1940, to October 6, 1941, were 
$12,322.04 for salaries. The Society's contribution for the same period was 
approximately $300 for materials. 

The Historical Records Survey, sponsored by the Society and supervised by 
Harold J. Henderson of the WPA, issued county inventories for Shawnee, 
Osage and Phillips during the year. Twelve books have been published in the 
series to date. The Gove county volume is now being mimeographed. Pre- 
liminary drafts of record descriptions also have been compiled for eight other 
counties. Several months ago this work was considerably curtailed. The 
project now employs thirty-two workers and operates in seventeen counties. 

During the year the listing of American Imprints prior to 1877 held by 
municipal and college libraries of the principal cities of Kansas was about com- 
pleted. Within the year compilations were made at the college libraries of 
Baker, Bethany, McPherson, Sterling and St. John's of Winfield. This project, 
sponsored by the Society since October 1, 1938, was discontinued on June 30. 
The small amount of remaining work is being completed by the Historical 
Records Survey. 

KANSAS HISTORICAL MARKERS 

Seven 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. To make a beginning, the His- 



78 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

torical 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 adminis- 
trations. In July, 1940, Gov. Payne Ratner and D. J. Fair, director of the 
new highway commission, resumed the program. Fifty-six texts have now 
been turned over to the commission and it is expected all the markers will he 
in place this fall. A brief sketch of the history of this project, together with 
the texts of all the inscriptions, will appear in the November, 1941, number 
of the Quarterly. 

OLD SHAWNEE METHODIST MISSION 

Work on the restoration of the north building at the mission, made possible 
by an appropriation of $15,000 by the 1939 legislature, was completed last 
winter. The state architect, Roy W. Stookey, and his assistant, Charles Mar- 
shall, who drew up the plans and supervised the work, took a personal interest 
in this project. With their help it was possible to complete this work at a 
cost of about $10,000. The legislature of 1941 reappropriated the $5,000 bal- 
ance and made it available for all the buildings and the grounds. 

This summer George Dovel was employed to supervise the decoration of the 
north building. A number of fine pieces of furniture of the period, about 1845, 
have been obtained. After a study of old wallpapers several appropriate pat- 
terns were selected. The smaller rooms and those that were used as dormi- 
tories for Indian girls will be painted. This work of papering and painting 
was begun last week. 

A landscaping plan calling for the planting of numerous trees and shrubs 
about the north building was prepared by Ray V. Murphy of Manhattan un- 
der the supervision of L. R. Quinlan, head of the department of landscaping 
at Kansas State College. It is hoped these plantings can be made in the spring. 

During the year minor repairs were made on the other buildings. The 
grounds are being constantly improved by grading and the removal of stone. 
A new power mowing machine purchased last spring will enable the care- 
taker to keep the grounds in a better and more attractive condition. 

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 continued 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 manner in which the buildings 
and grounds are maintained. 

FIRST CAPITOL OF KANSAS 

Construction of the new Camp Funston necessitated an additional spur 
of the railroad across the old capitol grounds between the building and the 
highway. Work gangs and trucks also used part of the grounds as a roadway. 
For several months the building was more or less isolated from the highway. 
This condition and the fact that highway 40 has been detoured around the 
reservation have somewhat reduced the number of visitors. Minor repairs 
have been made on the capitol building and next spring it will be necessary 
to replant grass and shrubbery on part of the grounds. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 79 

THE STAFF OF THE SOCIETY 

The accomplishments noted in this report are due to the Society's splendid 
staff of employees. It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to them. 

Respectfully submitted, 

KIRKE MECHEM, Secretary. 

At the conclusion of the reading of the secretary's report, I. B. 
Morgan moved that it be accepted. Motion was seconded by W. F. 
Thompson. 

President Malin then called for the report of the treasurer, Mrs. 
Lela Barnes. The report, based on the audit of the state accountant, 
follows : 

TREASURER'S REPORT 
September 1, 1940, to August 31, 1941 

MEMBERSHIP FEE FUND 

Balance, August 31, 1940: 

Cash $1,076.17 

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

$4,517.98 

Receipts : 

Memberships 333.00 

Bond interest 146.25 

Refund for postage, etc 424.00 

903.25 



$5,421.23 

Disbursements 742 . 45 

Balance, August 31, 1941 : 

Cash 1,236.97 

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

4,678.78 



$5,421.23 

JONATHAN PECKER BEQUEST 

Balance, August 31, 1940 $78.00 

Treasury bonds 950 .00 



$1,028.00 
Interest received: 

Bond interest $27 . 80 

Interest on bank balance .58 

28.38 



$1,056.38 

Disbursements, books 26 . 09 

Balance, August 31, 1941 : 

Cash 80.29 

Treasury bonds 950.00 

$1,056.38 



80 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

JOHN BOOTH BEQUEST 

Balance, August 31, 1940 $13.35 

Treasury bonds 500 .00 



$513.35 
Interest received: 

Bond interest $13.91 

Interest on bank balance .30 

14.21 



$527.56 

Balance, August 31, 1941 27.56 

Treasury bonds 500.00 



$527.56 



THOMAS H. BOWLUS DONATION 



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

The above report covers only the membership fee fund and other 
custodial funds. It is not a statement of the appropriations made 
by the legislature for the maintenance of the Society. These dis- 
bursements are made not by the treasurer of the Society, but by the 
state auditor. For the year ending June 30, 1941, these appropria- 
tions were: Kansas State Historical Society, $27,670; Old Shawnee 
Mission, $2,000; First Capitol of Kansas, $650. 

On motion by Edward Bumgardner, seconded by Mrs. W. D. 
Philip, 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 17, 1941. 
To the Board oj Directors, Kansas State Historical Society: 

The executive committee being directed under the bylaws to check the 
accounts 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 September 1, 1940, to August 31, 1941, and that they 
are hereby approved. ROBERT C. RANKIN, Chairman. 

Mrs. Bennett R. Wheeler moved that the report be accepted; 
seconded by Edward Bumgardner. 

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



THE ANNUAL MEETING 81 

NOMINATING COMMITTEE'S REPORT 

OCTOBER 17, 1941. 
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 : Charles H. Browne, Horton, president ; W. E. Stanley, 
Wichita, first vice-president ; F. W. Brinkerhoff, Pittsburg, second vice-president. 

Respectfully submitted, 

ROBEBT C. RAN KIN, Chairman, 
MRS. BENNETT R. WHEELER, 
MRS. A. M. HARVEY, 
MILTON R. MCLEAN. 

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

The following motion was made by I. B. Morgan: That the next 
legislature be requested to make an adequate appropriation to pub- 
lish the annals of Kansas from the last date of Wilder's Annals to 
the present time, supervision to be under the direction of the Kansas 
State Historical Society. Motion was seconded by Edward Bum- 
gardner. Various problems involved in such a compilation were 
brought out in the discussion which followed and it was the senti- 
ment of the meeting that the work should not be undertaken for a 
greater period than the fifteen years following Wilder's Annals, or 
1885 to 1900. Mr. Morgan moved that this limitation be included 
in the motion. Seconded by Edward Bumgardner, and passed. 

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, 
James C. Malin. 

The annual address by Mr. Malin, "An Introduction to the His- 
tory of the Bluestem-Pasture Region of Kansas," is printed in this 
issue. 

A paper by George A. Root, for fifty years a member of the 
Society's staff, was read by the secretary after the president's ad- 
dress. The paper follows : 



5-1875 



82 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

REMINISCENCES OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
GEORGE A. ROOT 

ONE of the incidents in the life of an ordinary individual, and one 
which happens but once in a lifetime, is the privilege of sticking 
to one job for half a century, or longer. This privilege has been 
mine. "Accepting a position" on the force of the State Historical 
Society, the middle of March, 1891, I completed my first fifty years 
in the service of the state of Kansas in March of this year. The 
Topeka Capital and the Topeka State Journal gave the incident 
state-wide publicity, while the Society's personnel gave a party for 
me. For these recognitions I feel duly grateful. 

My first actual service with the Society began in the year 1880. 
That year I lived with Judge Adams, my uncle, then secretary of 
the Society, and with the younger members of his family assisted 
in opening and sorting the newspaper mail which accumulated during 
the week. This chore was on Saturday afternoons, and was looked 
on by us youngsters as more of a lark than a task. 

This was only five years after the organization of the Society, 
which had its first home in a bookcase in the office of State Auditor 
D. W. Wilder. Judge Samuel A. Kingman started the collection 
with the gift of about fifty books and pamphlets. Later it had 
temporary quarters in the attorney general's office, and still later 
in the state treasurer's quarters. From 1880 on I am familiar with 
the various homes of the Society. For a time it was located in a 
long, narrow room on the ground floor of the east wing, in the ex- 
treme northeast corner. The west wing was then being built, and the 
two wings were connected with a boarded walkway, on a level with 
the second floor, and dubbed the "cattle chute." In this corner room 
I assisted in opening the newspaper mail and sorting the newspapers. 
Later the Society was assigned to a committee room in the east wing, 
on a level with the senate gallery, and in the extreme northwest 
corner. 

With the completion of the west wing the Society was allotted 
quarters on the south side of the ground floor, and in 1893 three 
rooms, formerly a part of the suite occupied by the court of appeals, 
were set aside by the executive council for our library. These rooms 
were the north five of those on the east side of the south wing 
ground floor. 

The greater portion of the Society's newspapers in the early days 
were stored in the cellar of the state house, which was badly in- 
fested with rats and mice. Many a time while working in those 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 83 

catacombs I have seen a procession of rats, sometimes twenty or 
twenty-five, trekking from west to east, making the journey on 
the top of the steam pipes which were fastened to the ceiling. 
Many a volume of the Society's newspaper collection was more or 
less damaged by rodents which nibbled the cloth and labels for the 
paste used in sticking the binding together. 

The Historical Society at this time was the fastest growing in- 
stitution about the state house, and was eternally in need of extra 
room. Within two or three years from the time the Society had 
moved into new quarters in the south wing, the executive council 
built an open top room in the foyer of the south wing. This annex 
was soon crowded with newspapers and in addition many volumes 
were piled high on top of the shelving as well as corded up on the 
floor. It was a hard job even to get some volumes from the shelves 
without moving a hundred or more that were in the way. 

About the year 1899 the supreme court moved from its old quarters 
on the ground floor of the south side of the east wing to its new 
quarters on the third floor, and the Society managed to get one of 
these old rooms, into which several thousand books and pamphlets 
and unbound magazines were moved. 

A few months later the state library moved out of the north side of 
the east wing, ground floor, whereupon the Historical Society took 
possession of about half of its old quarters. The other rooms va- 
cated by the state library housed the Goss collection of birds, then 
under the superintendency of Prof. Bernard B. Smythe. These small 
rooms became an ideal place for "spooning" on the sly. Professor 
Smythe was not inclined to encourage anything of this sort and it 
kept him pretty busy "policing" the rooms. He eventually evolved 
a series of mirrors so placed that they reflected just what was going 
on. He told me this stopped these early-day "necking" parties. 

About this time the Society was given the use of sub-basement 
rooms beneath the adjutant general's rooms of today. There were 
five of these rooms in all, and in the larger one about half a mile of 
running shelving was installed. Here for the first time we were 
able to consolidate all our duplicates in one room. 

Of more interest, perhaps, than a recital of the various make- 
shift quarters of the Society before the erection of the Memorial 
building would be mention of some of its early personnel. The first 
seecretary, Franklin George Adams, accepted the position when it 
consisted of nothing but a name and had its headquarters in a book- 
case. He was a pioneer in Kansas territory, coming out in 1855, 



84 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and being actively engaged in the Free-State cause from the start. 
Settling at Leavenworth in 1856, which was practically ruled by the 
Proslavery element, he was obliged to flee to save his life, and went 
to Lawrence and joined a company of Free-State men being raised at 
that place. He was with Captain Harvey's company at Slough 
creek which had captured an Alabama company at that point. He 
was at Lawrence at the time of the arrival of the 2,700 Missourians, 
took part in their reception and rejoiced at their dispersal. In 1857 
he went to Atchison and became part owner of the Squatter 
Sovereign, changing its politics from violent Proslavery to Free State. 
At this place some time later, when Gen. James H. Lane had been 
invited to make an address, Mr. Adams and Caleb A. Woodworth, 
Sr., were attacked by Proslavery men who were determined that 
Lane should not speak. The report came to his wife that he was 
lying on the street, injured, whereupon she armed herself with a 
brace of revolvers, pushed her way through the mob, stood off the 
crowd, and got her husband away. 

Mr. Adams' work with the Society was a passion with him. He 
always took notes while listening to reminiscences of any old timers 
who called, and among his private papers are dozens of pocket note- 
books filled with such items, and most of these notes are in the old 
correspondence style of shorthand as perfected by Ben Pittman back 
in the 1850's. During the early years when the Society had but a 
scant book fund he wrote hundreds of letters soliciting newly issued 
volumes for the library. When unable to get a gift copy he would 
try to get one by exchange, giving a volume of The Kansas Historical 
Collections in return. He was forever on the lookout for rare 
Western Americana, and through his foresight the Kansas His- 
torical Society has been enriched by one of the most complete col- 
lections of this sort of any library in the West. 

One of the standbys of the Society, almost from the very start, 
was Miss Zu Adams, daughter of the secretary. In the early days 
there were no funds to pay for office work and for several years Zu 
helped outside of school hours, receiving no salary whatever until 
1880. During her father's later years she was made librarian and 
during his last year she did both his and her own work. 

She was familiar with every phase of the Society's activities and 
in particular had made a special study of Indian history. As a 
young girl she took up the study of shorthand and was of great serv- 
ice to her father, whose phonographic notes she could readily read. 
She contributed a number of historical articles to various publica- 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 85 

tions. She also helped in the compilation of various earlier volumes 
of The Kansas Historical Collections. 

After a lingering illness she passed away on April 12, 1911, after 
about thirty-five years service for the state. 

It was in Judge Adams' administration that the staff had one of 
its most exciting experiences and got two very interesting relics. 
This was during the legislative war between Populists and Republi- 
cans. A number of Populists who claimed to have been elected and 
counted out by Republican election boards demanded recognition. 
These individuals took their seats on the north side of representa- 
tive hall and took part in the proceedings and deliberations of their 
party members, while the Douglass house members carried on at 
the same time on the south side of the hall. J. M. Dunsmore, who 
presided over the Populists, was a trifle undersized, dark com- 
plexioned, had dark snappy eyes and wore glasses. His forehead 
reached to the back of his head, which characteristic earned him the 
honorary title of "The Bald Hornet of the Neosho." 

The legislative war broke out on February 15, 1893, when the 
Populists took possession of the hall and stationed several national 
guardsmen, which they had called out, along the stairs leading up to 
the hall. That morning the Republican members of the house learned 
of the action of the Populists and met at the Copeland Hotel. At 
nine o'clock these members, headed by E. W. Hoch, started out and 
marched two abreast from the hotel to the state house, up the 
east steps, through the east wing, rotunda, and to the stairs leading 
up to representative hall, followed by about a thousand deputy 
sheriffs and assistant sergeants-at-anns. The stairs were blocked 
by militia men, with muskets crossed to prevent anyone going up. 

I was standing in the corridor by the door to the state treasury 
not over ten or twelve feet away and saw the men start up the stairs. 
There was a bit of confusion as the procession started up. One of 
the men towards the front grabbed one of the militiamen and point- 
ing down to the floor beneath told him to "drop that gun or I'll drop 
you overboard." The youth did so. Up the stairs surged the mem- 
bers followed by the crowd. They were too late to get in, however, 
as the doors had been swung shut and locked. Someone called for 
a hammer. A few minutes later a sledge hammer had been procured 
from a hardware store on the avenue a few doors north of Ninth. 
A few well-delivered blows and the panels gave way, and the hosts 
entered. The members and employees of the Dunsmore house had 
all disappeared by the time the Republicans entered, so the Douglass 



86 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

house members and attaches took possession. These doors and the 
sledge hammer are now relics in the museum. 

Following the rush of the legislators, Governor Lewelling ordered 
Col. J. W. F. Hughes to disperse the Republican members. His re- 
fusal to do so is a matter of record. The Populists, following their 
retreat from legislative hall, set up shop on the ground floor of the 
south wing, closing off that floor and holding sessions until the su- 
preme court declared them out of order. On the morning of Febru- 
ary 28 the dual houses met together in representative hall and 
answered roll call. I was present in the hall at this time and recollect 
that a goodly number of the Dunsmore faction rose to a question 
of personal privilege as their names were called. Dr. P. Daugherty, 
of Junction City, was one of the wheel horses of the reform party, 
and as his name was called he got to his feet and addressed the 
chair, explaining in plain language his stand in the late unpleasant- 
ness, and closing his remarks with the statement "We bow to the 
decision of the supreme court." There was tumultuous applause and 
hand clapping at the conclusion of his little speech, the doctor still 
remaining on his feet until the applause died away. The orator had 
not quite finished it developed, for he then turned and faced the 
members on the south side of the hall and roared forth at them, 
"But damn such a decision!" A few minutes later another of the 
returning members arose to a question of personal privilege when his 
name was called. He started out with the intention of dubbing the 
Douglass house members a self-constituted house but in the excite- 
ment he blurted out that they were a self constipated house. Some 
suppressed giggles followed this statement and he realized he had 
blundered. Taking a fresh start as the chuckles continued, he again 
used the same expression. When he made a third attempt with no 
better results a member on the south side of the hall called out: 
"Say, mister, just what do you think ails the members on this side 
of the floor?" The confused legislator sat down as another round 
of applause broke forth. 

In those days many of the men who played a prominent part in 
the state's early history often visited the Society. I well remember 
Col. Cyrus Kurtz Holliday, first president and chief promoter of 
the Santa Fe. He was tall, around six feet in height, dignified, bald, 
with a fringe of snow white hair extending around his head from 
ear to ear. He wore a mustache and side burns, dressed immacu- 
lately, wore spats, a long Prince Albert coat, and a silk plug hat. 
He sported a cane, and wore pince-nez glasses, suspended by a 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 87 

small gold chain. He lived in a large square frame mansion at the 
northeast corner of Sixth and Monroe, which was one of the centers 
of social activities in the days when Topeka's Four Hundred lived, 
for the most part, on the east side of the avenue. The colonel was 
a past president of the Historical Society, a member of the board of 
directors for many years, one of the three members of its auditing 
committee, and as such was called upon to 0. K. the Society's 
regular grist of monthly bills. 

Another frequent visitor was Eugene F. Ware, early-day Fort 
Scott harness maker, poet, editor, and lawyer. About a year before 
Secretary Adams died he wrote Mr. Ware for the gift of a late 
edition of his Rhymes of Ironquill Ware came into the library 
one noon hour a week or so later when Adams and the librarian were 
gone and gave me the book. Then he said, "Say, about ten years 
ago a Topeka book dealer collected a lot of my verse and printed it. 
It was a heluva looking job! Every time I look at the volume it 
gives me the hydrophobia!" Ware had a shrill falsetto voice that 
came to a climax as he continued: "I wish you would take that 
book down to the basement and stick it in the furnace!" 

Ware's reputation as a poet got a good start when he published 
his "Washerwoman's Song." He was an avowed agnostic, yet this 
early poem will be remembered for many years to come. He was 
at one time president of the Historical Society and for years served 
on the board of directors. 

Once in a while an out-of-state visitor dropped in to see what we 
had in the museum. I recall a rather prepossessing female of middle 
age, from Missouri, who wound up her visit among our numerous 
mementos and relics of "Old John Brown." As I was putting them 
away she turned and in a most deprecating tone informed me that 
"Down where I came from we don't hold Mr. Brown in very high 
esteem." This little dig provided a temptation I couldn't resist. 
Pulling out a pasteboard box from a nearby shelf of the vault I re- 
moved the lid and put it in her hands. "These shin bones," I told 
her, "were once part and parcel of Quantrill, the noted guerrilla, 
and I can assure you he didn't stand very high in these parts, either." 
The visitor hastily gave me back the box and soon departed. Honors 
were even. 

Another woman visitor I can remember was more emphatic in 
her disapproval of one of our museum pieces. Back in the early 
1900';: when there was considerable activity in enforcing the prohibi- 
tory law, the governor's office was the recipient of a reproduction 



88 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

of a famous painting. This picture was "Ouster's Last Fight," and 
the donor was the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. The gov- 
ernor presented the picture to the Historical Society. As Ouster had 
been stationed at several forts in Kansas and as the Seventh cavalry 
was organized at Fort Riley, there was a valid excuse for placing 
this noted picture on the Society's walls. However, we began hear- 
ing rumors that the Society was advertising beer by allowing the 
picture to hang in its collection. In a move for appeasement I 
pasted a strip of paper over the offending lines. 

It was about this time that Carrie Nation had led several cru- 
sades against local jointists, and she was already finding imitators. 
One morning Mr. Martin, then secretary, had arrived early and was 
sitting in his office when he heard the, crashing of glass in the hall. 
He stepped out and saw Miss Blanche Boies standing beside the 
Ouster picture. She had an axe in her hand and she explained that 
she was trying to cut out the line mentioning the brewing association. 
Mr. Martin took the axe from her and someone called the police. 
After she was led away the glass was swept up and the picture still 
remained on the wall. From that time on the old picture became a 
drawing card. Then one day some vandal gouged a hole through 
the picture and for a while it was open season for souvenir hunters 
who wished a fragment of the historic picture. About one-third of 
the center was cut away. The story of the mutilated picture 
traveled all over the country and visitors from out of the state seem- 
ingly never forgot to ask to see the old wreck. Although a new 
Ouster picture with the beer advertisement carefully painted out 
was donated to the Society, our original had to be allowed to hang 
on the wall. Of the thousands who see the old picture annually 
probably not over one in a hundred now knows why such a shabby 
relic is still on display. 

The foregoing occurred shortly after George W. Martin became 
secretary. He was really the second secretary, assuming the duties 
before Judge Adams' death. His was a happy selection on the part 
of the Society. He came to Kansas with his parents in 1857, land- 
ing at Wyandotte, their destination being Lecompton. They were 
due to reach that point by steamboat. At the mouth of the Kansas 
river the elder Martin was patiently waiting till the steamboat 
arrived. But young George, a youthful red head, was ready and 
anxious to go, and a few days later he told his parents that he 
wasn't going to wait any longer, boat or no boat. He was going to 
walk. They tried to dissuade him, arguing that when the boat did 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 89 

arrive it would pass him en route. He struck out anyway and 
reached his destination about ten days before the steamboat. He 
was soon working in a printing office at Lecompton and attending 
all the political meetings that were held in that vicinity. He met 
many of the Proslavery politicians of that era and got well ac- 
quainted with them. 

In the early 1860's Martin managed to get hold of the Junction 
City Union and made it a red hot paper. In 1873 he was elected state 
printer and held that position for four consecutive terms. Martin 
came to Topeka on a number of occasions during Secretary Adams' 
latter days and succeeded in getting the legislature to vote more 
generous appropriations for the Society than Mr. Adams had been 
able to get. He had a state-wide acquaintance and could relate 
anecdotes about any Kansan of prominence from the time he came 
to Kansas up to the last year of his life. 

On one occasion a couple of Eastern ladies were going through the 
Historical Society's rooms. Our gallery of notables for the most 
part was hung on the walls surrounding the dome. The women 
were armed with notebooks and pencils and soon began criticising 
the art work of the various painters who had done the portraits. 
George W. listened for some time in silence but finally he could 
hold in no longer. "Ladies," he said, going up to them, "this is no 
art gallery, and was never intended to be. But I just want to tell 
you about these people whose faces you see on the walls. They 
were the salt of the earth ; not much to look at, but they helped make 
this state what it is today." He then pointed out the picture of one 
of the governors whose face the women had criticized, and related 
his history, giving a word picture that only George W. could give. 
He went to another portrait and had as good a story about the 
original of that one. Those two women followed him around for 
the balance of the forenoon, neither one making any further notes, 
until one of them discovered they just had time to make their train 
for Chicago. As they left one of them said "Mr. Martin, I have 
visited many art galleries and looked at thousands of pictures but I 
never spent a more interesting forenoon anywhere than I have in 
this one." 

Mr. Martin had much to do with the erection of the Memorial 
building and securing it for the Historical Society. Unfortunately 
he did not live to see it occupied by the Society, although he did 
take part in the ceremonies when it was dedicated by William 
Howard Taft. 



90 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



Following the reading of his paper, additional remarks were made 
by Mr. Root. 

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

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS FOR DIRECTORS 

OCTOBER 17, 1941. 

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, 1944: 



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. 
Euwer, Elmer E., Goodland. 
Hobble, Frank A., Dodge City. 
Hogin, John C., Belleville. 
Hunt, Charles L., Concordia. 
Knapp, Dallas W., Coffeyville. 
Lilleston, W. F., Wichita. 
McLean, Milton R., Topeka. 
McNeal, T. A., Topeka. 
Malin, James C., Lawrence. 



Miller, Karl, Dodge City. 
Moore, Russell, Wichita. 
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. 

Respectfully submitted, 

ROBERT C. RANKIN, Chairman, 
MRS. BENNETT R. WHEELER, 
MRS. A. M. HARVEY, 
MILTON R. MCLEAN. 

By unanimous vote of the members of the Society the report of 
the committee was accepted and the members of the board were 
declared elected for the term ending October, 1944. 

Reports of other societies were called for. The following re- 
sponded: Mrs. Ross B. Smith, retiring president of the Shawnee 
Mission Indian Historical Society; the Rev. Angelus Lingenfelser, 
secretary of the Kansas Catholic Historical Society ; W. H. Edmund- 
son, historian of the Wilson County Historical Society; Robert C. 
Rankin, president of the Douglas County Historical Society; and 
F. W. Brinkerhoff, director of the Crawford County Historical 
Society. 

Charles H. Browne of Horton described a mock parachute raid 
in Louisiana during recent army maneuvers in which Kansas men 
participated. 

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



THE ANNUAL MEETING 



91 



MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

The afternoon meeting of the board of directors was called to 
order by President Malin. He asked for a rereading of the report 
of the nominating committee for officers of the Society. On motion 
of Edward Bumgardner, seconded by Mrs. W. D. Philip, the fol- 
lowing were unanimously elected: 

For a one-year term: Charles H. Browne, Horton, president; W. 
E. Stanley, Wichita, first vice-president; Fred W. Brinkerhoff, Pitts- 
burg, second vice-president. 

There being no further business the meeting adjourned. 

DIRECTORS OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AS OF 

OCTOBER, 1941 

DIRECTORS FOB YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1942 



Bailey, Roy C., Salina. 
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. 
Hardesty, Mrs. Frank, Merriam. 
Harger, Charles M., Abilene. 
Harvey, Mrs. A. M., Topeka. 
Haucke, Frank, Council Grove. 
McFarland, Helen M., Topeka. 
Malone, James, Topeka. 
Mechem, Kirke, Topeka. 



Nicholson, John C., Newton. 
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. 
Taft, Robert, Lawrence. 
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., Larned. 
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. 



92 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



DIRECTORS FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1944 



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. 
Euwer, Elmer E., Goodland. 
Hobble, Frank A., Dodge City. 
Hogin, John C., Belleville. 
Hunt, Charles L., Concordia. 
Knapp, Dallas W., Coffeyville. 
Lilleston, W. F., Wichita. 
McLean, Milton R., Topeka. 
McNeal, T. A., Topeka. 
Malin, James C., Lawrence. 



Miller, Karl, Dodge City. 

Moore, Russell, Wichita. 

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. 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

Music OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

Reproduced below is a fragment of martial music of the American 
Revolution. The manuscript was received by the Kansas State His- 
torical Society from Ellen G. Parkhurst, of Topeka, to whom it was 
given in 1910 by Samuel J. Reader. Across the top Reader wrote: 
"The tune my grandfather (Wm. James, of the New Jersey Minute 
men) played when fifer of his company during the Revolutionary 
war, 1776." Samuel Reader came to Kansas in 1855 and settled 
at the now extinct town of Indianola near present North Topeka. 
Extracts from his diaries, preserved by the Historical Society, have 
been published in previous issues of the Quarterly. An entry for 
November 29, 1910, records the copying of the tune for Miss Park- 
hurst. Reader was then seventy-four years old. 



GIFTS FOR THE GREAT SPIRIT 

Included in the series of Kansas Historical Marker inscriptions 
published in the last issue of the Quarterly was one on "Waconda, or 
Great Spirit Spring." This item, from the Cawker City Free Press 
of sixty years ago (June 30, 1881), lists some of the "tokens," in- 
tended as gifts for the Great Spirit, which were found in the pool. 

. . . The work of cleaning out the Spring is progressing finely. . . . 
As the pressure, by removal of the mud, is relieved the water accumulates 
faster, and to get rid of it Mr. Michener has devised a new sort of pump that 
throws a three-inch stream of water and is very easily managed. Many relics 
of "original proprietors" are being taken out of the Spring, among which we 
noticed the much dreaded scalping knife, a tomahawk, bows, arrows, javelins, 
rings, chains, brass or copper kettles, some old time flint- lock guns and pistols, 
many parts of which are in a good state of preservation. . . . 

(93) 



94 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

NOT ONE REDEEMING QUALITY? 

From the Kansas City (Mo.) Enterprise, August 22, 1857 (re- 
printed from the Hericon Argus) . 

We are sorry to see the girls of the present day have such a tendency to 
utter worthlessness. . . . Years ago, ... it was fun to go a dozen miles 
afoot, with mud knee deep to see them, nature instead of art. But now it is 
different. The dentist supplies the teeth, ... an artist furnishes the paint, 
a yankee the hoops, some "French milliner" gets up artificial maternal founts, 
and the very devil robe himself to give them a disposition to lie, tattle, gossip, 
make mischief and kick up all sorts of hobberys among people generally. . . . 



JAKE STOTLER COULD DISH IT OUT, Too 

From the Emporia News, December 21, 1861. 

By the way, Jake, we observe in your last issue that there has been a revival 
in your town [Emporia], lately, and that about thirty sinners have been re- 
claimed from the embraces of the Old Boy; and we also notice in the same 
issue that you publish several selections of a serious and religious character. 
Are we to infer from them the "hard times," the revival and your pious selec- 
tions that you are one of the redeemed? If so, good boy! Nothing like ad- 
versity to bring a youth to his milk. [Burlington] Neosho Valley Register. 

No, [S. S.] Prouty; we are sorry to inform you that we are not among the 
number of our citizens who were made happy by being convinced of the "error 
of their ways," at the late religious awakening here. Our readers, unlike yours, 
are an enlightened and Christian set of people; and this may account for our 
publication of articles of a religious and moral character. Of course, we publish 
something for them as well as for the politicians and others. We are glad to see 
that you have read those articles for if you had not told us, we would never 
have known that you had any taste for anything of that character. It would 
take something more than an ordinary run of adversity to bring you to your 
milk, you dried up (morally, not fleshy) old sinner, you. . . . 



A NEW TYPE OF SEED 

From the Netawaka Chief, July 23, 1872. 

TEXAS Cows. The best time to plant them is the last of July, and from the 
number running around town, destroying gardens and breaking fences, there will 
be a large number planted. To do it properly, prepare a hole about four feet 
wide, three feet deep, and six feet long, cover them deep. Any place outside of 
town on the prairie, where a friendly bullet will fetch them, will do. That is 
what I know about farming. A CITIZEN. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 95 

No "CLINGING VINES" WANTED 

From the Cawker City Sentinel, copied in the Netawaka Chief, 
July 30, 1872. 

Mrs. Mary C. Hawes, of Crooked creek, four miles north of Bulls City, has 
this season, with a yoke of oxen driven by herself, broken 25 acres of prairie; 
drove the oxen to break 25 acres more; has shot two buffalo with her rifle, 
which she calls "Betsey." Her plowing is very well done and with the rifle she 
is an expert. She has the best crops of corn, etc., that? there are in her neighbor- 
hood. 

Our "devil" is very anxious to know if Mrs. Hawes is a widow. Says he 
wouldn't mind settling on that farm ! 

From the Newton Republican, June 8, 1888. 

Miss Tosa Jones, of Argonia, aged 18 years, daughter of J. W. Jones, has 
this spring broken forty-five acres of land and planted it in corn and intends to 
cultivate it herself. She can husk and crib sixty bushels of corn per day. She 
also attends to the feeding of a large number of cattle every winter. Miss 
Jones should succeed Mrs. Salter as mayor of Argonia. 



SOCIETY NOTES 

From the Wilson County Citizen, Fredonia, May 29, 1874. 

The accomplished burglar and thief, Mr. Chase Noble, Esq., who knows how 
to pick five locks and break jail twice all in one-half hour, has concluded, by 
unanimous request of twelve of his countrymen, to accompany the sheriff of 
this county to Leavenworth soon for the purpose of inspecting the public im- 
provements of that place. He contemplates remaining about ten years. 

From the Oberlin Herald, April 10, 1884. 

Mr. George Pratt and Eli Craig, of Museum, had a little circus over a claim 
a few days ago, and during the performance Mr. Pratt felt of Mr. Craig's head 
with a revolver; after which Sheriff Batchelor organized a pleasure excursion, 
composed of Mr. Pratt, Mr. Craig and a few other invited guests, and made a 
trip to Sheridan, taking in the county attorney as they passed through Ken- 
neth; arrived at Sheridan they visited J. Leatherman, Esq., where they held a 
short entertainment. The programme consisted of short dialogues, off-hand 
speeches and a clincher by the host. All parties enjoyed themselves, and Mr. 
Pratt in his generosity paid the expenses of the excursion besides making a 
small donation to the school fund. 



PUNS FORBIDDEN 

From The Commonwealth, Topeka, June 6, 1875. 

And now comes Mary A. Spring as editress and publisheress of the Index, 
at Cherokee, Crawford county. The first Kansas editor who gets off anything 
about "lingering in the lap of spring" is to be killed and fed to the 
hoppers. 



96 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

GENESIS OF THE AUTO-TRAILER 

From the Eureka Herald, June 1, 1876. 

A Canadian gentleman, traveling for his health, passed through town Mon- 
day evening. He had the most comfortable traveling wagon we ever saw. It 
was large enough to contain stove, cooking utensils, bed, etc. He was accom- 
panied by his wife, and had along an extra horse and nine dogs. He evidently 
enjoys himself as he goes along. 



STYLE NOTE 

From the Garnett Weekly Journal, November 25, 1876. 

The latest style of young ladies' hats is called the "Kiss-me-if-you-dare." 
When worn by a cross-eyed woman with; a wart on her nose, the defiance is 
terrible and unanswerable, but when it is backed up by a pretty face, every 
youth with a spark of manhood in his bosom answers the challenge the first 
good chance, if it does take all the wax out of his mustache. Hawkeye. 



HARDSHIPS OF THE PIONEER TOURIST 

From the Eureka Herald, May 10, 1877. 

The Emporia News calls for the building of a first class hotel in that city. 
One of the most varying, indefinite and uncertain terms we have met in Kansas 
is that of "first class hotel." As we approached Topeka on our introduction to 
the state in 1870, we saw the Tefft House loudly advertised as a "first class 
hotel in every respect." We registered at this establishment and were intro- 
duced into as shabbily furnished apartment and to as poorly prepared food as 
we were ever accustomed to see at hotels not aspiring to be rated in any par- 
ticular class. We heard of the fame of the Robinson House of Emporia on our 
approach to that city. It also said to the world it was par excellence "first 
class." We tried it on several occasions. On one occasion we were kept awake 
all night by native occupants, commonly called bed bugs, disputing our right of 
possession by practicing tricks that only bed bugs know how to practice. On 
another occasion we were as effectually entertained by broad gauge rats dis- 
porting themselves over us in a most unceremonious manner. Our experience 
in these and similar instances in Kansas, causes us to feel a smiling sensation 
whenever we hear the term "first class" used with reference to hotels. If the 
"first class" hotels we have struck in Kansas are samples of all hotels of said 
class in the state, we hope our neighbors will think better of it and not en- 
courage the builder of another. We prefer a good hotel at any time to first 
class establishments as they have been dished up to us. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 97 

DODGE CITY PREPARES FOR THE CATTLE TRADE 

From the Dodge City Times, May 4, 1878. 

In this delectable city of the plains the winter of discontent is made glorious 
by the return of the cattle trade. With the countless herds come the hordes of 
bipeds. Weeks and months before, through the blasts of winter and the gentle 
zephyrs of spring, has impecuniosity longed for the opening of the cattle trade, 
in which Dodge City outshines all envity and rivalry. 

This "cattle village" and far-famed "wicked city" is decked in gorgeous at- 
tire in preparation for the long horn. Like the sweet harbinger of spring, the 
boot black came, he of white and he of black. Next the barber "with his lather 
and shave." Too, with all that go to make up the busy throng of life's fitful 
fever, come the Mary Magdalenes, "selling their souls to whoever'll buy." There 
is "high, low, jack and the game," all adding to the great expectation so im- 
portant an event brings about. 

The merchant and the "hardware" dealer has filled his store and renovated 
his "palace." There are goods in profusion in warehouse and on shelves; the 
best markets were sought, and goods are in store and to arrive. Necessarily, 
there is great ado, for soon the vast plains will be covered with the long horn 
and the "wicked city" is the source from which the great army of herder and 
driver is fed. 

The season promises to be a remarkable one. The drive is reported to be 
larger, and the first herd will probably reach this point within a couple of weeks. 
There has been no undue preparation, and the earlier season has stimulated 
activity to the greatest measure of expectation. 



IT DOESN'T RAIN IN CALIFORNIA, EITHER 

From the Lakin Eagle, May 20, 1879. 

DOES IT BLOW IN KANSAS? As a truth and no fabrication, Kansas is not a 
windy country. 

We have here during twelve months of the year an imperceptible circula- 
tion of air from the south, west, north and east (varied to suit one's taste and 
inconvenience), 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 downward 
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. . . . 

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 out. 

Why they are afraid of turning wrong side out we never knew, but the wind 
has nothing to do with it. We are often compelled to stay down town late of 
nights, and when we arrive home it; generally strikes up a lively breeze, espe- 

71875 



98 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

cially if our breath smells a little of cloves or coffee, yet strictly speaking Kan- 
sas is not a breezy country. 

The fish are very tough in this country because when they walk out to eat 
grass the wind blows all of their scales off and makes the meat hard and sun- 
burnt. . . . 

From the Junction City Union, May 10, 1873. 

The Colorado papers think Kansas zephyrs are no-where because they can't 
budge a locomotive. Colorado winds can lift such light obstacles without the 
least effort. 

From the Dodge City Times, March 24, 1877. 

On Wednesday a gust of wind removed seven dollars out of the stocking of 
Alice Chambers as she was walking up Front street. After a six-hour search, 
participated in by all the tramps in town, one dollar was recovered. We had 
supposed that the Kansas wind was of a higher order, and did not stoop to such 
larceny. The thing is now settled, that under some circumstances even the 
wind can be found feeling around in by and forbidden paths. 



FAITH COMES TO THE WILD WEST 

From the Dodge City Times, June 8, 1878. 

The "wicked city of Dodge" can at last boast of a Christian organization 
a Presbyterian church. It was organized last Sunday week. We would have 
mentioned the matter last week but we thought it best to break the news gently 
to the outside world. The tender bud of Christianity is only just beginning to 
sprout, but as "tall oaks from little acorns grow, so this infant, under the guide 
and care of Brother Wright, may grow and spread its foliage like the manly 
oak of the forest. Years ago John the Baptist preached in the wilderness of 
Judea, and his meat was locusts and wild honey, but he baptized many con- 
verts in the river of Jordan. Who can t-ell but that years hence another Luke 
may write a book about our minister preaching in the wilderness of Dodge City 
and baptizing in the river Arkansaw? 



GET READY THE FATTED CALF 

From the Inland Tribune, Great Bend, August 9, 1879. 

The Colorado exodus has set in; those who went there in the spring are on 
their return to their wifes' people to spend the winter. On Saturday a wagon 
passing through had large letters inscribed on the corner : "Prodigal sons going 
home for a square meal." 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 99 

No NEED TO CALL FATHER 

From the Larned Optic, July 30, 1880. 

The lightning struck a Great Bend girl last week. She was not injured in the 
least, but her corset ribs were sadly demoralized, as was also the arm of a young 
man who was trying to keep them in place. When asked by his friends why he 
keeps his arm in a sling he explains that he "didn't know she was loaded." 



BAR-FLY BUZZES 

From the Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, April 22, 1870. 

They sell a little whisky occasionally in Leavenworth. The Conservative 
says that the liquor licenses in the city clerk's office make a strip nine feet long, 
one name to the line. 

From the Logan Enterprise, September 23, 1880. 

An Atchison county man who had been bitten by a copperhead snake, car- 
ried the snake with him to the drug store in order to procure the necessary 
whisky. 

From The Independent, Kirwin, January 26, 1881. 

Since the saloons at Beloit closed, the residents of that burg are drinking 
water from the Spirit Springs at Cawker City. 



From the Cawker City Free Press, August 18, 1881. 

Strangers visiting the Great Spirit Springs will do well to bear in mind that 
its waters are laxative as well as healing and soothing to the nervous system, 
according to the amount imbibed. Like intoxicating drinks, imbibed in mod- 
erate quantities and with judgment, it is beneficial, but if guzzled in immoder- 
ately large doses it won't stay with a fellow. At least this is the judgment of 
Put Smith, of Beloit, who visited the great phenomenal wonder the other eve- 
ning and came home in another man's clothes they were too large for him. 
He looked as if he had taken passage for Bulu Land. . . . 



SCOTT CITY INVADED IN 1894 

During the depression following the panic of 1893 Jacob Coxey, of 
Ohio, proposed that the unemployed be put to work by the issuance 
of legal-tender currency to be spent for good roads and other public 
improvements. To arouse public and congressional interest he 
organized a march of a "living petition" of the unemployed to Wash- 
ington. The movement, favored with considerable publicity, in- 
spired the dissatisfied elsewhere and several "industrial armies" 
sprang up to join Coxey. 



100 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

One brigade numbering half a thousand was recruited in eastern 
Colorado by "Gen." S. Sanders. The men appropriated a switch 
engine and cars and set out for Washington. Several attempts by 
the railroad company to halt them ended in failure. Not until the 
army reached Scott City, where it was met by a United States mar- 
shal and posse, was it overcome. The men were hauled to Leaven- 
worth for trial. After a delay of more than a month, perhaps be- 
cause the judges felt that "Populist Kansas was no place to convict 
industrial armies of train-stealing," those who had not escaped were 
brought before the court and convicted. They were distributed in 
county j ails with sentences of varying lengths to prevent them from 
reassembling when released. [See Donald L. McMurry, Coxey's 
Army (Boston, 1929), pp. 206-213.] 

An account of Sanders' march across eastern Colorado and the 
capture of the army at Scott City was printed in the Scott City 
Republican, May 17, 1894: 

On Thursday morning the Mo. Pac. west-bound passenger train was ordered 
to stop here until further orders, on account of the expected approach of the 
Sanders Industrial Army. The army was from Cripple Creek, Coal Creek, 
Victor, Florence and Pueblo, Colo, and were under the leadership of "General" 
J. S. Sanders. The army had, as they claim, borrowed a D. & R. G. switch 
engine, and captured five flat cars from the Mo. Pac., and started east. The 
Co. ditched an engine in front of them. This obstruction the army built a 
track around, and came on. Five miles west of Chivington, Colo, the road 
unspiked the rails and turned a box car against the sides of a cut, and then 
raked the fire from an engine with a good head of steam its throttle pulled 
wide open, and left it to rush into the box cars. This effectually blocked the 
road. An engine is so heavy that no number of men unaided by machinery 
can move it when ditched. The army went to work chopping up the boxcars, 
burning the fragments for light by which to carry on the work. At this 
juncture Road Master Keelan received orders at Horace to take his force of 
50 men and go to Chivington and clear the track. This was a ticklish duty 
to perform as he knew he and his train would be captured on his arrival. He 
started at once. When he arrived he and his train were at once seized, and 
the army prepared to proceed with the captured train. Mr. Keelan called for 
their leader, and so well plead his case before the "General" that he ordered 
the train to be returned to him, and also told him that if he needed the as- 
sistance of the army he could have it. He availed himself of the offer, and 
highly praises the will with which they responded. He hitched his engine to 
the boxcars and snaked them out. He then laid a track around the engine 
and the army prepared to start again. Mr. Keelan complained to Mr. 
Sanders, that his men had taken a lot of his tools, and that he would not side- 
track his train to let the army pass until they were thrown out. Mr. Sanders 
seemed vexed, and at once ordered the men to throw them out, which was at 
once obeyed. Both trains proceeded to Horace where the army took a side- 
track and waited for the east bound passenger train. At Horace the army 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 101 

abandoned the switch engine and seized one of the Mo. Pac. engines which 
had been recalled from the retreat ordered the day before. The one they chose 
was one of the best on the road. Now came a waiting match, each train want- 
ing the other to lead out. After waiting a couple of hours the passenger led 
out, and the army followed. 

Scott had been selected for the coup d'etat. At 4 P. M. the passenger came 
running like a scared antelope. It probably made the fastest time ever made 
on this part of the road. In the meantime the track had been torn up east 
of the switchyard, so the army could not seize one of the passenger trains 
blocking the tracks and escape, the object being to detain them here at all 
hazards until the special could arrive with the U. S. marshal and his posse. To 
prevent a retreat the track was also torn up this side of Selkirk after the army 
passed. To make matters doubly sure the road instructed Mr. T. A. Jenkins 
to have an order of replevin for the engine and cars, and to have warrants 
for the arrest of Mr. Sanders, his captains and 100 of his men, and put them in 
the hands of the sheriff, and to instruct him to summon an armed posse to 
enforce them, but not serve them unless it became necessary to detain the 
.army. District Clerk W. A. Thomson issued the order of replevin, and 
Esquire T. C. Carroll issued the warrant of arrest charging the army with 
bringing stolen property into this state, and they were placed in the hands of 
Deputy Sheriff J. F. Moreau. 

The eastbound passenger train took the sidetrack, leaving the westbound 
train on the main track. About half past 4 the army came in, 450 men 
closely packed on five flat cars with stars and stripes and motto banners fly- 
ing. As it approached the westbound train pulled out beyond the switch and 
stopped. The army stopped within 30 feet, and sent a "Lieutenant" asking 
that the track be cleared so they could pass. The answer was, that the train 
was carrying the U. S. mail and demanding the right of way. This brought 
Mr. Sanders who answered they would not obstruct the mail, but would back 
and take the first siding to let it pass, at once backing to, and sidetracking at 
Modoc. While at Modoc, the army committed the only depredation we have 
heard of, except against the road. Mr. R. B. Irwin complains that they took 
a robe and a lot of tools at least worth $25. We suppose they thought a 
friend would not object to this little donation. The passenger did not follow 
until the special came an hour later, when it pulled west. 

The special contained Genl. Sup. H. G. Clark, Sup't. S. T. Shanklin, Ass't. 
Master Mechanic W. J. Hill, Gen. Atty. B. P. Waggener, U. S. Marshal S. T. 
Neeley, with 55 armed deputies, and reporters for the Capital, the K. C. 
Star and Times, Chicago Times, and Denver News. The track was repaired. 
As soon as the passenger passed Modoc the army added a box car to their 
train and returned to Scott. As they came in the special pulled in on the 
switch leaving the passenger on the main track at the depot. A flagman went 
out and signalled the army to stop. It obeyed, pulling in on the switch at the 
coal chute, while the deputies began to leave the special with their guns. At 
this moment things looked warlike. Messrs. Neeley, Clark and Waggener came 
up and called for Mr. Sanders who promptly joined them. Marshal Neeley 
explained the charge of stopping the mails, and demanded their surrender. 
Mr. Sanders took a half hour for consultation with his men. The army was 
ordered from the cars and formed in companies and drilled. This afforded us 
a good opportunity to see the men and observe their discipline. The army is 



102 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

a mixed crowd. A few were well dressed, but the great majority are miners 
and mechanics in their labor soiled clothes, there were comparatively few 
Americans among them. Their discipline and order was surprisingly good, they 
are governed by written laws adopted before they left Cripple Creek. We were 
told that they blacklisted all disorderly and tough characters and expelled 
them, and that 100 such had been weeded out. Mr. Sanders is a tall fine look- 
ing, intelligent and quiet appearing young man, with a graceful easy bearing. 
His word is law. After a consultation with his captains permission was asked 
of Mayor L. L. Bingaman to make a camp, which was granted, and the dif- 
ferent detachments marched to camp between the roads. The surrender had 
been unconditionally made, and Marshal Neeley made a short speech to each 
company, explaining that they were under arrest and would be made as 
comfortable as possible in the coaches, his words were received with cheers by 
the men. They were told to be ready to start by midnight. Camp-fires were 
quickly lighted, and the men proceeded to butcher, dress and cook a beef 
which the citizens gave them. Many begged their suppers from one house to 
another, while some few offered to pay for what they received, about half of 
those who got cheese, crackers and tobacco at the stores voluntarily paid for 
them, we have not so far heard of any ungentlemanly conduct of these men 
in town. 

So closed the most exciting day Scott ever witnessed. Our whole city 
population witnessed the spectacle. Business had been suspended all day in 
expectation of no one knew what. The time was divided between looking to- 
wards the west for the smoke of the Sanders army engine, and toward the east 
for the U. S. army engine's smoke. Our officers were not called on to serve 
their papers. The Santa Fe train was held at Dighton until the morning after 
the surrender so as to be out of danger. The road had emptied its water tanks 
in front of the army and they had to carry water for their engine a quarter 
of a mile in buckets. We were told that Mr. Sanders is an electrician and a 
practical miner, and a schoolfellow of "General" Kelley, of the Denver army 
now in Iowa. It is said that at one time in Cripple Creek, his check was good 
for $70,000, and that he now carries a check given him by the people of Cripple 
Creek, for $7,000. The most rational theory of the situation was given us by 
one who had the best opportunities for observation. He says they are mostly 
ignorant foreigners, they are single men who have no home or local ties, and 
were out of work and money, and excited by agitators, like the Indians, be- 
lieve that if they can only get to Washington, and just get to see the Great 
Father that he will take pity on them. Of course the leaders know better, and 
have more definite ideas, and expect to petition Congress: 1st. For free and 
unlimited coinage of silver; 2d. Adequate aid in irrigation; 3rd. Restriction 
of foreign immigration. 

Our opinion is that the rank and file is thoroughly ignorant, thoroughly 
earnest and thoroughly misled. 

At midnight the army was put on the special and taken to Topeka, and 
from there to Leavenworth for their preliminary hearing. Four of the men 
were asleep when the train pulled out, and so got left, but were taken on by 
Mr. Tester, who left Monday morning to attend the trial. 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

Ralph Richards, Fort Scott lawyer, is the author of "The Forts of 
Fort Scott and the Fateful Borderland," a history which has been 
printed serially in the Fort Scott Tribune since January 13, 1941. 
Mr. Richards has been engaged for many years in compiling infor- 
mation from newspapers, documents and other sources which are 
here assembled in one of the most detailed histories of the city and 
vicinity yet produced. 

A double celebration was held at Andale May 6, 1941, commem- 
orating the founding of the town in 1885 and the establishment of 
St. Joseph's parish in 1890. A brief history of the community and 
church was published in the Kansas City (Mo.) Times, May 7, 1941. 
Andale received its name from two of its early families, the Ander- 
sons and the Dales. 

On August 7, 1941, the Masonic lodge at Xenia celebrated the 
seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding. The Fort Scott Tribune, 
August 6, 1941, featured a brief history of the organization. The 
first meeting was held June 8, 1866, and a charter was granted 
October 17, 1866. The Masonic hall, still used as a meeting place 
by the lodge as well as by other local organizations, is a frame build- 
ing erected in 1865-1866. The article lists the masters of the lodge 
from 1866 to the present. 

Articles of historical interest to Kansans in recent issues of the 
Kansas City (Mo.) Times were: "Leavenworth and Riley Are Links 
in a Broken Chain of Kansas Forts," September 3, 1941; "The Story 
of Quantrill's Last Ride Told at Reunion in Wallace's Grove," 
September 30; "Oklahoma 'Historical Day' Brings Memories of Kan- 
sas City Pioneers [the Chouteau family]," October 10; "A Fatal 
Incident of Border War Recalled on Ride to a Picnic" (story of a 
long-range shot by one of QuantrilFs guerrillas) , October 16. 

"Early Day Buyers of Graham County Grain," was the title of 
an article in the Hill City Times, September 4, 1941. The informa- 
tion was furnished by the "Pioneer Days" historical committee. 

Kansas historical articles in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star in recent 
months include: "Henry Allen Meets 'Mr. Punch,' Sees Crisis in 
London Shelters," by Marcel Wallenstein, September 6, 1941; "Med- 
icine Lodge Peace Parley To Be Re-enacted in Pageant," by Paul 
I. Wellman, October 5; under "Kansas Notes" Cecil Howes listed 

(103) 



104 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

some odd and humorous names of Kansas newspapers October 8, 
and discussed ghost towns October 18 ; "Thompsons of the Courant 
Mark Sixty Years in Kansas Journalism," October 24. 

The first Fourth of July celebration in Phillips county was recalled 
in the Kirwin Kansan, September 11, 1941, in the "Pioneer Mem- 
ories" column. The event took place in the John Lord grove in 1874. 

Bellevue Evangelical Church, three miles north of Leona, cele- 
brated its fifty-seventh anniversary September 14, 1941. A brief 
history of the church appeared in the Highland Vidette, Septem- 
ber 11. 

Victor Murdock's column in the Wichita (Evening) Eagle in- 
cluded the following items of historical interest: "Wichita Has a 
Place in Military Records of Winter Campaigns" (Indian campaign 
of 1868), September 12, 1941; "Location in Wichita of Last County 
Fair Here and Its Predecessors," September 15; "Diligence of Kan- 
sans To Uncover Treasures To Be Found Underfoot," September 17 ; 
"Marvelous the Results [in agricultural development] Shown by 
This County in Less Than Seventy Years," September 24; "One 
Early Factory Here Made a Washing Machine [Benbow] Invented 
by a Wichitan," September 29; "Pioneer of Prairies [Gene Pardee, 
now past ninety years of age] Who Visited Wichita When It Was a 
Village," September 30; "Genius With Electricity, Late William 
Leroy Emmet, Once Lived in Wichita" (installed first trolley-cars), 
October 2; "When in Kansas Affairs City of Odessa and Kharkov 
Played an Important Part" (their names were given to some of the 
earliest shipments of hard winter wheat from Russia), October 8; 
"Buffalo Guide On a Mule, Grand Duke From Russia and a Cable 
From a Czar," October 14; "Men Had Prophetic Eye on the Site of 
Wichita Long Before Settlement," October 16; "When Couch the 
Boomer, Capt. Payne's Successor, Ran Livery Stable Here," October 
22; "Store of the Ketchums Once a Familiar Spot Along Douglas 
Avenue," October 24; "Origin of Photograph of David Payne's 
Colony of Historical Interest," October 27. 

Historical sketches and reminiscences by Royse Aldrich, entitled 
"Local Landmarks of Old Wichita Are Recalled," were published 
serially in The Democrat, Wichita, beginning September 13, 1941. 

The forty-third anniversary edition of the Perry Mirror, Septem- 
ber 18, 1941, contained several articles of historical interest, includ- 
ing a brief history of Perry and the surrounding territory, an ac- 
count of the battle of Hickory Point, a description of The Grass- 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 105 

hopper, the first newspaper in Jefferson county, and verses by A. C. 
Wilson on the cyclone of June, 1893. 

A marker on the Oketo cutoff of Ben Holladay's Overland Stage 
Line, two miles southwest of Oketo, was dedicated September 14, 
1941. There are remnants of the old stage station near the marker. 
Charles T. Guise presided at the ceremony. Principal speakers 
were C. E. Hedrix and John G. Ellenbecker. A picture of the marker 
and a report of Ellenbecker's talk on the life of Holladay, appeared 
in the Marshall County News, Marysville, September 18, 1941. 

Articles describing Arkansas City in the year 1871 were printed in 
the Arkansas City Tribune, September 18 and October 23, 1941. Two 
copies of the weekly Traveler, May 3 and July 19, 1871, found re- 
cently in Arkansas City by Rodney Myer, furnished the material 
for the articles. The earliest number of the Traveler in the His- 
torical Society's file is dated January 26, 1876. 

The Vittoria Societa Italiana di Mutuo Soccorso celebrated the 
fiftieth anniversary of its founding September 21, 1941, at Frontenac. 
This mutual benefit society, the first of its kind in Kansas, had its 
beginning in 1891 when a group of Italian immigrants met at the 
home of Chiaro Mingori in Frontenac. At one time the society had 
four hundred members, but now the membership is around fifty. 
The Frontenac Press, September 19, 1941, published an account of 
the celebration. 

A column "Early Days in Kirwin," by Mame A. (Mrs. Frank) 
Boyd, appeared in the Kirwin Kansan, September 25, October 2 and 
30, 1941. Mrs. Boyd featured items of interest printed in early 
Kirwin newspapers. 

The fourth quinquennial celebration commemorating the seventy- 
fourth anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty between the 
United States and the Five Tribes of Plains Indians in October, 
1867, was held at Medicine Lodge, October 8-10, 1941. A pageant 
written and directed by F. L. Gilson reenacting this historical event 
was produced by the townspeople and several hundred Indians from 
Oklahoma in the natural amphitheater near Medicine Lodge. The 
pageant, usually produced every five years, was moved up a year 
to climax the state-wide Coronado celebration. A fifty-eight page 
"Indian Peace Treaty" edition of The Barber County Index, Medi- 
cine Lodge, issued October 2, contained many articles of historical 
interest, including sketches of the five tribes who signed the treaty, 
a reprint of an article by a special correspondent which appeared in 



106 KANSAS HISTOKICAL QUARTERLY 

the New York Daily Tribune, October 23, 1867, the text of the treaty 
and names of those who signed. The celebration is regularly spon- 
sored by the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Association. Sen. Riley 
W. MacGregor is the association's president. 

Reminiscences of Plainville, Rooks county, by Clinton L. Johnson, 
appeared in the Plainville Times, October 2, 1941. Mr. Johnson's 
parents came to Kansas in a covered wagon in 1879, and his mem- 
ories of Plainville extend from the 1880's to 1902 when he left the 
town for railroad work. He is now retired and lives in Alliance, Neb. 

The First Christian Church of Emporia, organized in 1856 by 
Solomon G. Brown, celebrated its eighty-fifth anniversary com- 
mencing October 5, 1941. A brief history of the church, the oldest 
in Emporia, and articles on the celebration were printed in the 
Emporia Gazette, October 4, 6 and 7, 1941. 

An address delivered by Fred W. Brinkerhoff October 5, 1941, at 
the dedication of the Kansas Historical Marker for the Marais des 
Cygnes massacre was published in the Fort Scott Tribune, October 
6. The marker was erected on U. S. highway 69, near the Trading 
Post cemetery where massacre victims are buried. 

The experiences of D. P. Sims, who established the telephone ex- 
change in Hill City in 1903, were related in the Hill City Times, 
October 9, 1941. 

Religious services, a parade and reception marked the observance 
in Atchison on October 12, 1941, of the diamond jubilee of St. Bene- 
dict's abbey and parish. In 1857 the first mass was said at Atchison 
and the first baptism administered. The first mass in the church of 
Saints Peter and Paul was said on Christmas day, 1858, the same 
year in which the first Catholic marriage ceremony was performed. 
The cornerstone of the present church was laid August 26, 1866. 
Articles on the jubilee appeared in the Atchison Daily Globe, Oc- 
tober 10, 11 and 13. A list of former pastors, beginning with the 
Rev. Augustine Wirth, OSB, who served from 1857 to 1868, was 
published in the Globe, October 10. 

Early-day football at Friends University, Wichita, was reviewed 
in a feature article in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, October 12, 1941. 
The game began at Friends in 1898, the year the school opened, when 
the Quakers defeated Winfield, Fairmount and Wichita High School, 
but lost to the Newton "Giants." Football continued to be a major 
sport at Friends until it was dropped in 1936. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 107 

Phillips county observed its seventh annual old settlers' day at 
Kirwin October 7, 1941. Historical verses by Mrs. Jess McMindes 
which were read at the meeting were printed in the Kirwin Kansan, 
October 16. The following "old-timers" gave talks on early-day 
happenings: Fred Albright, Logan; Mrs. E. H. Boughton, Mrs. 
Frank Hite and I. C. McDowell, Phillipsburg; Marion Scott, Agra; 
Sam Hough, Gaylord, and Mrs. Mary Rogers, Kirwin. 

The early history of the town of Sedgwick was reviewed by Muriel 
Schaefer in the third annual homecoming edition of the Sedgwick 
Pantagraph, October 16, 1941. 

A biographical sketch of Glenn L. Martin by Rex M. Harlow ap- 
peared in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, October 19, 1941. Martin 
spent his childhood in Kansas where he experimented with kites on 
the windy prairies around Liberal and Salina. He attended grade 
school, high school and the Kansas Wesleyan business college in 
Salina. When the Martin family moved to California he engaged in 
the motor car business and experimented with airplanes. His first 
plane was flown in 1909. In recent years Martin has become a 
world-famous airplane manufacturer. He recently visited Kansas 
to attend the dedication of the new Glenn L. Martin athletic field 
and stadium at Kansas Wesleyan University. 

The Wichita Sunday Eagle, of October 19, 1941, also featured an 
article by David D. Leahy concerning the establishment of counties 
in Kansas. Particular note was made of Sedgwick county, organ- 
ized in 1870. 

Ashland was host to the third annual "Pioneer Mixer" of the 
Clark County Historical Society October 25, 1941, which was at- 
tended by a hundred early settlers of the county. Willis H. Shat- 
tuck, president of the society, and others related experiences of early 
days. The weekly column of "Clark County Historical Society 
Notes" was resumed in The Clark County Clipper, Ashland, be- 
ginning with the issue of October 23. On November 20 the column 
printed an account of the flight in 1878 of several hundred Northern 
Cheyenne Indians from their agency in Indian territory to the Black 
Hills of North Dakota. This was the occasion of the last Indian 
raid in Kansas, the subject of a Kansas Historical Marker at Oberlin. 
The Clipper's story was taken from accounts in the Wichita Beacon 
of October 2, 1878, and October 12, 1941. On November 27 the 
column included two articles by John Walden, on a shelter belt 
planted in 1885, believed to have been the first in the county, and the 



108 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

route of the Sun City trail. Reminiscences of Fred Hinkle appeared 
in the issue of December 4, and the following week the column pub- 
lished a biographical sketch of Chris Hinkle, a Clark county pioneer. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the Mount Zion Church of the United 
Brethren in Christ, northwest of St. George, was celebrated October 
26, 1941. A history of the church read at the celebration by William 
Soupene was printed in the St. George News, October 30. 

"Chief Little Bear His Life and Works" was the title of a paper 
by Mrs. Edith S. Demoss-Caughron read at a meeting of the Wilson 
County Historical Society at Fredonia, September 6, 1941, and pub- 
lished in the Neodesha Register, November 6. 

A history of the Mary Somerville Library of Mound City by 
Theodore W. Morse appeared in the Topeka Daily Capital, Novem- 
ber 23, 1941. In November, 1876, thirteen young women of Mound 
City organized a literary society with the founding of a library as 
its chief object. One of the founders, Mrs. Anna Vertrees Kincaid, 
eighty-one years of age, is still an active member. 

Various types of pioneer dwellings, from the crude "half-faced 
camp" which was no more than a lean-to thrown up against the 
side of a hill to the substantially-built log cabin and stone house, 
were described by Edward Bumgardner in the Lawrence Daily 
Journal-World, November 28, 1941. The article included sketches 
of events at John Brown's cabin near Osawatomie, the "Hermit's 
Cave" at Council Grove, the site of Lawrence, and several other 
well-known points in Kansas, and was illustrated with drawings and 
photographs. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

The American Pioneer Trails Association and the Oregon Trail 
Memorial Association will sponsor a caravan to follow the general 
route of the old Santa Fe trail from Kansas City to Santa Fe, N. M., 
August 15-25, 1942. Those interested in making the journey are in- 
vited to join the travelers at Kansas City, Mo., August 15. From 
Kansas City the party will proceed by private automobiles to Santa 
Fe, stopping at important cities, markers and other places of in- 
terest en route. Further particulars of the proposed pilgrimage may 
be obtained from John G. Ellenbecker, of Marysville, president of 
the Kansas council of the trails association. 

At a meeting of the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society, 
September 22, 1941, the following officers were elected: Mrs. X. 0. 
Meyer, president; Mrs. Clifton Shepard, vice-president; Mrs. Percy 
Miller, recording secretary; Mrs. Frank Lyle, treasurer; Mrs. A. V. 
Fuller, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Carl Harder, historian; Mrs. 
C. A. Brooks, curator. 

Officers of the Hodgeman County Historical Society, elected at 
the annual meeting at Jetmore October 10, 1941, are: L. W. Hub- 
bell, president; Mrs. Margaret Mooney, vice-president; E. W. Har- 
lan, secretary; Mrs. 0. L. Teed, treasurer; Mrs. Margaret Raser, 
historian; L. H. Raser, Mrs. Mooney and 0. W. Lynam, directors. 
Mrs. Raser was appointed chairman of the program committee. 

Kansas' own "Fighting Twentieth" infantry held its annual re- 
union in Topeka October 12 and 13, 1941. At the banquet Gen. 
Chas. I. Martin, a captain in the old regiment, and Walter Wilson, 
state treasurer, delivered addresses. Mrs. Anna Matterson, 92, of 
Rogers, Ark., widow of a Civil War veteran who had two sons in 
the Twentieth Kansas, was honored. Newly elected officers are: 
William Callahan, Leavenworth, president; Albert M. Shipley, Cof- 
feyville, vice-president; Harry Brent, Topeka, secretary and treas- 
urer; Jerry Springstead, Topeka, historian; Homer Limbird, Olathe, 
chairman of the Funston memorial committee. The Twentieth Kan- 
sas auxiliary elected Mrs. L. E. Coffield, Yates Center, president; 
Mrs. Arthur Gibson, Topeka, vice-president; Mrs. Harry Brent, 
Topeka, treasurer; Mrs. Margaret MacElhenny, Manhattan, secre- 
tary; Mrs. Jessie Scott, Lawrence, chaplain; Mrs. Nellie Rowe, To- 
peka, reporter. 

(109) 



110 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In celebration of a number of anniversaries occurring in 1941, 
Lindsborg held a "Svensk Hyllnings Test" October 17-19, 1941. 
This is the centennial year of the birth of Olof Olsson, founder of 
the community; the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of Bethany 
academy ; the sixtieth anniversary of the organization of the Messiah 
chorus, and the fiftieth anniversary of the graduation of the first 
class from Bethany College. Scandinavian music, folk dancing and 
costumes were featured. Visitors from twenty-seven states and 
from almost every section of Kansas attended. 

The annual "Gold Ribbon Pioneer Party" sponsored by the Kiowa 
County Historical Society took place October 29, 1941, at Greens- 
burg. A candle service was held in honor of pioneers who had died 
during the year. Reminiscences of early days were related during 
the basket dinner at the noon hour. Pioneers who came to Kiowa 
county fifty or more years ago were presented with gold ribbons and 
those who came thirty-five or more years ago received blue ribbons. 

The Lyon County Historical Society met October 30, 1941, at the 
Civic auditorium in Emporia. One hundred and seventy persons at- 
tended. The program included a talk by W. A. White. A memorial 
to the late W. L. Huggins, first president of the society, was read by 
Leroy Raynolds. A picture of Mr. Huggins was presented to the 
society by his family. 

The Crawford County Historical Society held its annual meeting 
at Girard November 4, 1941. Officers of the society include Ralph 
H. Smith, Pittsburg, president; Harry B. Price, Cherokee, first vice- 
president; Mrs. Alice Gregg, McCune, second vice-president; Ralph 
J. Shideler, Girard, recording secretary; Mrs. George Elliott, Pitts- 
burg, treasurer; J. H. Tharp, Cherokee, Ellen Davidson, Mulberry, 
and Fred W. Brinkerhoff, Pittsburg, trustees. The program con- 
sisted of short talks and reminiscences concerning Crawford county 
history by Mrs. Robert Laughlin, George F. Beezley, and H. W. 
Shideler, of Girard, and Mrs. A. C. Graves, Mrs. Ralph H. Smith, 
S. L. Householder, and H. M. Grandle of Pittsburg. 

The Pawnee County Historical Society met November 15, 1941, 
at Larned. The following officers were re-elected: A. H. Lupfer, 
president; Mrs. E. G. Wickwire, first vice-president; Mrs. A. A. 
Doerr, second vice-president; Mrs. Jessie B. Grove, secretary; Mrs. 
Leslie E. Wallace, treasurer; Lois Victor, custodian. Members of 
the board of directors are: J. C. Browne, J. A. Dillon, E. E. Frizell, 
Henry Norton, Mrs. A. H. Moffet, and H. L. Reed. County com- 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 111 

missioners are ex officio members of the board. Mr. Lupfer presided 
at the meeting and told of his pioneer experiences. Mrs. Doerr read 
a paper, "Pioneer Days of the Ws and '70's," and Miss Victor read 
a brief autobiography of I. H. Ulsh. Mrs. Doerr's paper was printed 
in The Tiller and Toiler, Larned, November 27, 1941. 

On November 21, 1941, the Dickinson County Historical Society 
held its annual meeting at Abilene. The following officers were 
elected: Mrs. Carl Peterson, president; Mrs. E. E. Rohrer, vice- 
president; Mrs. Walter Wilkins, treasurer, and Mrs. H. M. Howard, 
secretary. Talks were given by J. B. Edwards of Abilene, Mrs. 
W. C. Bocker of Solomon, W. T. Sterling of Carlton, and Mrs. A. B. 
Seelye of Abilene. At two o'clock the meeting adjourned so that 
members might participate in the ceremony dedicating the Kansas 
Historical Marker, "Abilene, End of the Chisholm Trail," which was 
placed at Sand Springs. 

For the second year officers of the Douglas County Historical 
Society were reflected at the society's ninth annual meeting Decem- 
ber 10, 1941, in Lawrence. They are Sen. Robert C. Rankin, presi- 
dent; Irma Spangler, first vice-president; John Akers, second vice- 
president; Ida G. Lyons, secretary, and Walter H. Varnum, treas- 
urer. Mrs. E. M. Owen, Mrs. Alice Sears, Fredo Barteldes, J. R. 
Holmes and Ed Arnold were elected to the board of directors. The 
principal address, on the military history of Douglas county, was 
delivered by Richard B. Stevens. Special mention was made of the 
work of the late W. L. Hastie, chairman of the committee to pre- 
serve records of rural cemeteries. 

Last October the first of the Bulletins of the American Association 
for State and Local History was published. This organization was 
formed in December, 1940, to coordinate the efforts of institutions 
and individuals interested in state and local history. Subject of 
the Bulletin is "What Should Our Historical Society Do?" by Ed- 
ward P. Alexander, superintendent of the State Historical Society of 
Wisconsin. It deals with problems confronting state and local so- 
cieties. Those interested in the publications should write David C. 
Duniway, secretary -treasurer of the association, Box 6101, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

"American Newspaper Reporting of Science News," by Hillier 
Krieghbaum, is the title of a recent Kansas State College Bulletin. 
Mr. Krieghbaum is associate professor of industrial journalism at the 
college and a member of the National Association of Science Writers. 



112 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The article is a short history of the publication of science items in 
American newspapers from 1690, when two paragraphs on prevail- 
ing "fevers" and a small-pox epidemic appeared in Publick Occur- 
rences, of Boston, Mass., to the accurate and concise science report- 
ing of today. Steps in the growth of this service have been inte- 
grated by Mr. Krieghbaum to form an absorbing story. 

A series of letters describing pioneer life and events in Kansas, 
edited by Herbert Oliver Brayer of the University of New Mexico, 
was published last year by the University of New Mexico Press 
under the title To Form a More Perfect Union; the Lives of Charles 
Francis and Mary Clarke From Their Letters, 1847-1871. Twenty- 
year-old Clarke ran away to America from Suffolk county, England, 
in 1847. After several unsuccessful business ventures he enlisted in 
the First U. S. dragoons, serving from 1849 to 1854. While stationed 
at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., in 1850, he met and married an Irish 
girl, Mary McGowan. Upon his release from the army he became 
clerk to the quartermaster at Fort Leavenworth, later being sta- 
tioned at Fort Riley. In 1860 he purchased a toll bridge over the 
Kansas river on the Fort Riley military reservation, and when 
floods carried it away in the spring of 1861 he established a ferry. 
On October 4, 1861, Clarke became a first lieutenant in Co. I, Sixth 
Kansas Mounted volunteers later Co. F, Sixth Kansas cavalry. 
On October 21 he was made a captain and until his death served as 
assistant adjutant general to Gen. J. W. Denver. He died suddenly 
at Memphis, Tenn., December 10, 1862, leaving his widow with five 
young sons to rear. Her letters from Junction City continue the 
story to 1872. 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



Volume XI Number 2 

May, 1942 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

w. c. AUSTIN, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA, 194Z 

19-2603 



Contributors 

LOUISE BARRY is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

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

DAVID F. McFARLAND, JR., of State College, Pa., is a graduate student in 
history at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. 

HAROLD C. EVANS, of Topeka, is supervisor of the Kansas Writers' program 
of the Work Projects Administration. 



The Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson Military 
Road and the Founding of Fort Scott 

LOUISE BARRY 

ONE hundred years ago the U. S. military post Fort Scott was 
founded. The site was in the Indian country a few miles be- 
yond Missouri's border, on the Western military road. Established 
May 30, 1842, Fort Scott existed as a frontier post for nearly twelve 
years. 1 It was abandoned in 1853, the year preceding organization 
of Kansas territory. Some of the buildings erected in the 1840's 
remain today within the town of Fort Scott. 

The establishment of the fort was a link in the development of 
a system of defense for the Western border. The route of the West- 
ern military road, approved by congress in 1836, was the principal 
factor in the location of Fort Scott. 

The Indian removal act of 1830 established a federal policy for 
the removal of all Indian tribes from the Eastern states to country 
west of the Mississippi river. By 1835 more than 30,000 Indians, 
principally Creeks, Choctaws, Cherokees and Shawnees, had been 
settled in territory immediately west of Missouri and Arkansas. 2 
In 1834 congress passed the Intercourse act "to regulate trade and 
intercourse with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the 
frontiers." 3 This act further defined the policy of the government 
towards the Indians. It provided strict regulations for relations be- 
tween the white settlements and the Indian country and for the use 
of U. S. military forces to make the act effective. Because no nat- 
ural barriers existed and because troops at the outlying army posts 
(Forts Leavenworth, Gibson and Towson) 4 were insufficient to po- 
lice the border country, congress was faced with the problem of 
enlarging the frontier defense and patrol system. 

On December 23, 1835, the senate by resolution instructed its 
committee on military affairs to "inquire into the expediency of 
making an appropriation for the purpose of constructing a military 

1. See Footnote 50 for note on reestablishment of Fort Scott in later periods. 

2. Arkansas territory. Arkansas was granted statehood June 15, 1836. 

3. Laws of the United States of America (Washington, 1839), v. IX, pp. 128-137. 

4. The distance by land from Fort Leavenworth (on the Missouri river) to Fort Gibson 
(on the Arkansas river) was around 250 miles ; from the latter point to Fort Towson (on Red 
river) was about 125 miles. A fourth post, Fort Coffee, established in 1834 some fifty miles 
southeast of Fort Gibson, was never a strong defensive point. 

(115) 



116 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

road from Cantonment *Des Moines' to Cantonment Leavenworth, 
thence to Fort Gibson . . ." 5 Secretary of War Lewis Cass ad- 
vised the committee: 

... I have no doubt that a road from the western bank of the Missis- 
sippi to Fort Leavenworth and thence to Fort Gibson, would be very advan- 
tageous to the United States. It need not be an expensive work. Cutting 
down the timber for a reasonable width, bridging the streams, and causewaying 
the marshy places, so as to allow the free movement of troops, would be all 
that would be necessary. . . . From Fort Leavenworth to Fort Gibson 
the route would pass west of the State of Missouri and the Territory of Ar- 
kansas, and through the lands assigned to the emigrating Indians. It will be 
essentially necessary that the United States should not only possess a respect- 
able force in this quarter, but that they should have the means of transporting 
it freely along this line of communication. . . . 6 

The house committee on military affairs reviewing the "exposed 
condition of our inland frontier" in a report March 3, 1836, declared: 

The savage tribes which border upon our settlements, from the Canada line 
to Louisiana, are more dangerous to the lives and property of our citizens than 
the whole civilized world. . . . The late sufferings from the Black Hawk 
war in the north, and the more recent barbarities of the Florida Indians in the 
south admonish us of the necessity of furnishing more effectual protection to 
our inland borders. . . . 

The policy of the government, to remove the Indians from the interior of 
the States beyond our western boundary, renders a regular system of defence 
still more necessary. 7 

The War Department's plan for defense at this time was based 
upon the establishment of a cordon of army posts along the frontier, 
linked together by a lateral line of communication the military 
road already under consideration. The quartermaster general sug- 
gested an appropriation of $65,000 to establish four new frontier 
army posts. He estimated that the military highway could be built 
for the relatively small sum of $35,000. This was possible because 
funds to repair the existing 300-mile road between Forts Jesup and 
Towson had been provided by the previous congress, and because 
the 800 miles of high and open ground between Forts Towson and 
Snelling would require little construction. 8 

Congress' first step in bolstering Western defenses was an act 
approved May 14, 1836, appropriating $50,000 for the removal of 

5. American State Papers (Military Affairs), v. VI, p. 12. Indian Agent John Dougherty 
had suggested a frontier military road in December, 1834. Dougherty to Maj. J. B. Brant, 
December 16, 1834, in ibid., pp. 14, 15. An application from citizens of Clay county, Mis- 
souri for the erection of military posts and the opening of military roads around the state's 
frontier, was communicated to the senate December 24, 1835. Ibid., v. V, pp. 729-731. 

6. Ibid., v. VI, p. 13. 

7. Ibid., p. 149. 

8. Ibid., p. 153. 



THE FORT LEAVEN WORTH- FORT GIBSON ROAD 117 

Fort Gibson to a location "on or near the western frontier line of 
Arkansas." 9 Passed principally to satisfy the citizens of Arkansas 
who wanted military protection nearer their settlements, it was also 
designed to provide a more healthful site for a post with an ex- 
cessively high death rate. 

On July 2, 1836, President Jackson approved the enabling act 
for the better protection of the Western frontier. It provided: (1) 
for the surveying and opening of a military road from a point on 
the upper Mississippi (between the mouths of the St. Peters' and 
Des Moines rivers) to Red river in the south; (2) that the road 
should pass west of the states of Missouri and Arkansas, with the 
condition that the assent of the Indian tribes through whose terri- 
tory the road would pass must be first obtained; (3) for the con- 
struction of military posts along the road (locations unspecified) ; 
(4) for the use of United States troops to perform the required 
labor; (5) the sum of $100,000 to accomplish the objects of the 
act. 10 

Two weeks later the Secretary of War wrote U. S. army officers 
Col. Zachary Taylor, Maj. W. G. McNeil and Maj. T. F. Smith, 
to inform them they had been selected as commissioners to lay out 
the road and locate sites for military posts. In discussing the lo- 
cations for the proposed forts he said: 

An act of Congress requires the removal of Fort Gibson, and its reestablish- 
ment near the Arkansas boundary line. You will endeavor to select some 
suitable and healthful position for this purpose upon the Arkansas; and, 
wherever this point is designated, there the road must cross the river. I can- 
not state the number of posts which ought to be established; this must be left 
discretionary with you. . . . Four positions are distinctly marked: one at 
Fort Towson, or wherever the road terminates on Red river; another on the 
Arkansas; a third at Fort Leavenworth, or wherever the road crosses the 
Missouri; and a fourth at St. Peters, or at the point of intersection with the 
Mississippi. The intervening stations must be left to your discretion. Prob- 
ably, from four to six may be found necessary. . . . u 

No extra pay was allowed the officers in performing these tasks. 
Colonel Taylor and Major McNeil found it impossible to serve on 
the commission. Brigadier General Atkinson appointed Col. S. W. 

9. Laws of the United States, op. cit.. p. 337. A memorial dated October 23, 1833, from 
the general assembly of the territory of Arkansas, asking the removal of Fort Gibson to the 
old site of Fort Smith (on the Arkansas boundary), was communicated to the house January 
13, 1834. In 1825, by congressional act, the boundary of Arkansas was moved forty miles 
west of its present location. Fort Smith, on the old boundary, was abandoned and Fort 
Gibson (established in 1824) protected the new frontier. In 1838 the forty-mile strip was 
ceded by the government to the Cherokee Indians and the Arkansas boundary fixed again at 
the old location. Fort Gibson remained in the Cherokee country. 

10. Ibid., p. 444. 

11. Sec. Lewis Cass to Colonel Taylor, Major McNeil and Major Smith, July 16, 1836. 
25 Cong., 2 Sess., House Doc. 278 (Serial 328), pp. 9-12. 



118 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Kearny and Capt. Nathan Boone to fill the vacancies. The com- 
mission was finally organized about the beginning of November. 
Although it was too late in the season to commence a survey the 
commissioners proceeded with the other duty charged to them 
the selection of a site "on or near the Western frontier line of Ar- 
kansas," for the removal of Fort Gibson. They reported from 
Columbus, Ark., on December 11: 

. . . We have decided upon recommending to you the site upon which 
Fort Coffee at present stands. It is upon the right bank of the Arkansas river, 
in the Choctaw country, and about seven and a half miles from the western 
boundary line of Arkansas. . . . 

Having visited Fort Gibson, and considering it, as we do, the key of the 
country around it, and that the Government, in removing the Indians from 
the east to the west side of the Mississippi, has pledged its faith to protect 
them from each other, and from the wild Indians of the Prairie, we recommend 
to you the erecting of new barracks for the quartering of troops near that 
point, for the above purposes. . . . 

The presence of a military force, near Fort Gibson is indispensable for the 
preservation of peace amongst the Indians themselves. 12 

At the close of the report they wrote: ". . . In the spring, 
when the grass will support our horses, we will recommence, for an 
energetic prosecution of the duties required of us." 

On January 24, 1837, the Secretary of War transferred the en- 
tire project to the quartermaster general's department. 13 The only 
developments up to the middle of the year were the purchase of a 
$200 baggage wagon for the commissioners' use, and the appoint- 
ment of Lt. P. R. Thompson, first U. S. dragoons, as disbursing 
officer. Lack of progress was due principally to Colonel Kearny'e 
refusal to proceed until engineers were sent out to direct the road 
survey. A second cause of delay was the undetermined boundary 
between Missouri and the territory of Wisconsin which held up the 
survey between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Thus matters 
stood at the beginning of July, a year after the passage of the act 
for frontier protection, with no single important step achieved. 

A change of administration in March, 1837, had resulted in the 
appointment of Joel R. Poinsett as Secretary of War. It was at his 
express desire that Brig. Gen. Henry Atkinson was added to the 
board of commissioners late in July and authorized to supervise its 
work. In answer General Atkinson wrote: 

... If it is intended that I should only organize the commission and 
give instructions to the other members for the performance of the duty, I 
will undertake to do so cheerfully. . . . The two commissioners from the 

12. Ibid., pp. 14, 15. 

13. Ibid., p, 16. 



THE FORT LEAVEN WORTH -FORT GIBSON ROAD 119 

1st dragoons, Colonel Kearney and Captain Boon, will very shortly proceed 
on the southern route as far as the Arkansas river, designate a road, and fix 
upon a position for a military post, either on the Osage or Grand river, and 
then return to Leavenworth. ... I will take leave to suggest that another 
commission be instituted, to act in conjunction with the present one, whose 
duty should be to fix on positions for permanent posts on the Arkansas river, 
and lay out a road from that river to Red river; and the other commission to 
lay out the road and fix on positions for military posts, from the Arkansas to 
St. Peter's, (Fort Snelling). The duties apportioned in this way could soon 
be executed, say during the fall and early winter months. ... I ... 
will at once assume the authority of giving instructions to the present com- 
mission, and of sending the topographical engineers, on their arrival, to report 
to Colonel Kearney at Fort Leavenworth. 14 

The plan outlined was followed in part although subsequently 
the military road was divided into three, rather than two, sections. 
These were the northern, from Fort Snelling to Fort Leavenworth; 
the southern, from the Arkansas river to Fort Towson; and the 
middle section, between Fort Leavenworth and the Arkansas river. 
Separate commissions surveyed the three sections. 

Late in August Civil Engineer Charles Dimmock and an assistant, 
employed to survey the middle section, arrived at Fort Leaven- 
worth. On September 1 they set out for the Arkansas river, ac- 
companied by Commissioners Kearny and Boone, and a small dra- 
goon escort, exploring as they proceeded. The survey was com- 
menced September 27 at a point just across the Arkansas river from 
Fort Coffee. 15 It was completed to Fort Leavenworth on October 8. 
The 286-mile route was marked by blazing timber in the wooded 
sections and erecting mounds at mile intervals in the prairie coun- 
try. The commissioners explained the objective of the survey had 
been "to run the road ... as close as possible to the State line 
of Arkansas" and that "after gradually approaching" for the first 
thirty miles the road "comes within three of it, and continues ap- 
proaching until it passes within a few yards of it; after which it 
runs along the western boundary of that State and of Missouri, 
varying from that to a few miles, (generally from about a half to 
a mile,) keeping the whole distance in the Indian country." They 
recommended two locations for new military posts: 

. . . The commissioners . . . recommend the establishment of one 
on the south side of Spring river, where the survey crosses it. That point is 
about four and a half miles west of the State line of Missouri, and about one 
hundred and twenty-eight from Fort Coffee; the position is a good one, and 
has every advantage water, timber, stone, and, no doubt, is healthy. . . . 

14. Ibid.,, p. 3. 

15. Probably this point for the beginning of the survey was chosen because of the ex- 
pected removal of Fort Gibson, required by the law of May 14, 1836. 



120 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The commissioners would also recommend the establishment of another post 
near the "Marais des Cygne." Where the survey crosses that river is a 
beautiful spot, and about a mile west of the State line of Missouri, eighty-six 
miles from Spring river, and about the same distance from this post . . . 
Timber, stone, water, and good mill-seats, are to be had there. . . . 

The establishment of military posts at the above designated points would 
form a connected chain between this and the Arkansas, would be an effectual 
protection for that part of the frontier against any incursions by the Indians, 
would give confidence to the white settlers along the line, and which the com- 
missioners recommend as worthy of immediate attention. 16 

A special report of the survey, made by Dimmock at the request 
of Secretary of War J. R. Poinsett, is printed here in full: 

Portsmouth, Virginia, 

February 25, 1838. 

Sir: In compliance with your wishes, as expressed to me a few days since, 
I respectfully lay before you a description of the country over which I sur- 
veyed and located a mil[i]tary road, along the western borders of the States 
of Arkansas and Missouri, between the rivers of the same name. 

I should have done this before, at the time I presented the map through the 
quartermaster general, had I not been informed by the military commissioners, 
under whose immediate directions I acted, that no report was required of me. 

The survey commenced on the left bank of the Arkansas river, directly 
opposite Fort Coffee, about eight miles west of the western boundary of the 
State of Arkansas; and gradually approaching this line, and that of the west 
of the State of Missouri, terminated at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri 
river; the whole length of which is two hundred and eighty-six miles. From 
the bank of the Arkansas river to a spur of the Ozark mountains called "Lee's 
Creek Mountain," a distance of seventeen miles, the route is over a broken 
country, thickly timbered, yet presenting no serious obstacle to the making 
[of] a good road, and with but small expense. 

From this point ("Lee's Creek Mountain,") to the head-waters of Lee's 
creek, a distance of seventeen and a half miles, the route is over many rough 
features of the Ozark ridge, the most prominent of which is known as the 
"Boston Mountain." It is along this part of the line that are to be found the 
most difficulties on the whole route, as here is passed the main ridge of the 
Ozark. 

These difficulties are not continuous, but rather occurring every mile or 
two; nor do they present themselves so formidably but that they may be 
readily graded down. 

By reference to the maps of this portion of the western country, it will be 
seen that the Ozark chain extends far west of the State boundary, terminating 
near the mouth of the Illinois river, a tributary of the Arkansas. To avoid 
this, then, the place of departure must be taken higher up the Arkansas; but 
this is a consideration secondary to that of fixing upon the most favorable 
point on that stream for a fort, a question to be determined by the War De- 
partment. I am, however, certain that no further east of the line run can 
the road be located, without encountering a greater number of difficulties, in- 

16. 25 Cong., 2 Sess., House Doc. Sll (Serial 329), pp. 36, 37. The commissioners' re- 
port was dated November 16, 1837. 



THE FORT LEAVEN WORTH- FORT GIBSON ROAD 121 

asmuch as the mountains become bolder and spread over a greater range of 
country in this direction. 

Having now passed the chain, the country becomes less abrupt, although it 
is much broken until we reach "Spring river," a distance of ninety miles; 
and in descending to and rising from the various watercourses, it will be 
necessary to grade in many places. 

The watercourses are the "Barren Fork of Illinois," "Illinois," "Flint," 
"Sparnis," "Cowskin," "Lost creek," and "Silver creek;" all fordable except in 
times of freshet, when but for a day or two their passage is prevented. This, 
however, is momentary, as their beds have such rapid falls the water soon 
runs off. 

From "Spring river" to Fort Leavenworth, a distance of one hundred and 
fifty-eight miles, the route is over extensive rolling prairies, presenting no 
obstruction to a road direct from ford to ford on the intervening watercourses, 
except in some cases where the banks will have to be cut down. 

These water courses are "Spring river," "Pomme de Terre," (the last of 
those contributing to the Arkansas,) "Wildcat," "Mermiton," "Little Osage," 
"Cotton Wood creek," "Marias des Lygne," "Blue," and the "Kanzas," tribu- 
taries to the Missouri. Of these, "Spring river," "Marias de Lygne," and the 
"Kanzas," are the largest, and will require established ferries; although the two 
first are fordable generally, yet, as I understood the commissioners to have 
determined upon recommending the location of forts at these highly advan- 
tageous points, ferries will be necessary and easily protected; at the Kanzas 
there is one already established. 

It may be found necessary to bridge over some of the watercourses named, 
either because it would be more advisable than to cut down both banks, or to 
preclude the possibility of delaying a march in times of freshets; in this 
event, timber is abundant, and in many places rock is at hand. 

Finally, I will remark that the line run, as indicated on the map furnished, 
is but an experimental one ; yet I extended my observation of either side suffi- 
ciently to be satisfied that the road can be made along the corrected line, 
marked on the map, without increase of difficulty or expense. 17 

Respectfully submitted. 

CHARLES DIMMICK, IS 
United States Civil Engineer. 

Another attempt was made during this period to decide the fate 
of Fort Gibson. Lt. Col. William Whistler and Capt. John Stuart, 
assigned to select a new site, toured the country along the Arkansas 
boundary in the late summer of 1837. It was their opinion that 
Fort Gibson should be retained because of its strategic location. 

17. 25 Cong., 2 Sess., House Doc. 278 (Serial 328), pp. 6, 7. 

18. Charles Dimmock's name is misspelled in the government document. 

The Kansas State Historical Society has blueprints of the original tracing by Charles Dim- 
mock. According to the War Department (letter to the Society, May 12, 1920), the map was 
never lithographed and the original is the only one in their possession. The Society has, also, 
photostats of Surveyor Dimmock's field notes. 

The original tracings were not drawn to scale. Even with the correlating information in 
the field notes, drawing a map indicating the route of the survey in relation to present-day 
geographical locations is an almost impossible task. One such drawing, made in the War De- 
partment in 1889, shows on a map of the 1880's the line of the 1837 survey from Fort Coffee 
to a point a few miles south of Fort Scott. 



122 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

They suggested that the garrison at Fort Coffee could be enlarged; 
although they contended that the civilized Cherokees and Choctaws 
on the borders of Arkansas were not only peace-minded but were 
in themselves a protection to the frontier settlements. 19 But the 
Arkansas delegation in congress was determined to have a military 
post near the state boundary. Lieutenant Colonel Whistler and 
Captain Stuart were requested to examine sites for this purpose. 
Reporting in December they suggested the old Fort Smith location 
and two other sites. 20 

Meanwhile, the fact that the Western military force had not been 
strengthened was a matter of increasing concern to the frontier 
settlements. The regular army at this period numbered less than 
7,000 troops. Fort Leaven worth with an aggregate of 431 officers 
and troops, Fort Gibson with 491 and Fort Jesup with 331, were the 
strongest garrisons on the frontier. Reviewing this situation in his 
annual report, the commander-in-chief of the army recommended 
enlarging the army to 15,000 to insure adequate military strength 
for the Western border. 21 His recommendation was in line with the 
conclusions of other army men and Indian agents who during the 
summer of 1837 responded to inquiries of Sen. Lewis F. Linn and 
Rep. Albert G. Harrison of Missouri on the subject of military 
protection. 22 

The senate by resolution on October 14, 1837, directed the Secre- 
tary of War to submit a plan of defense for the Western frontier 
and to report on the Indian population and the progress of the 
military road. The plan was introduced to the senate on January 
3, 1838. 23 It provided for a number of strong posts on the frontier 
to protect both the settlers and the Indians. It recommended, 
also, the establishment of an interior line of forts to serve as places 
of refuge in time of danger, and from which reinforcements could 
be summoned. It was the Secretary of War's opinion that the 
importance of the projected military road along the outer line of 
defense had been overestimated. He stressed the vulnerability of 
such a line of communication in time of war. 

19. Report dated September 30, 1837, in. American State Papers (Military Affairs), v. 
VII, pp. 978-980. 

20. Report dated December 15, 1837, in ibid., pp. 980-983. 

21. Report of Alexander Macomb, commander-in-chief of the army, in 25 Cong., 2 Sess., 
House Doc. 3 (Serial 321), p. 224. 

22. See "Correspondence on the Subject of the Protection of the Western Frontier," in 
25 Cong., 2 Sess., House Doc. 276 (Serial 328). 

23. Included were a project for defense by Chief Engineer C. Gratiot and a report by 
Acting Quartermaster General Cross. 25 Cong., 2 Sess., House Doc. 59 (Serial 322). Another 
Western defense plan elaborately outlined, was presented by Major General Gaines. 25 Cong., 
2 Sess., House Doc. Sll (Ser. 329). 



THE FORT LEAVENWORTH - FORT GIBSON ROAD 123 

Early in April congress authorized the Secretary of War to pur- 
chase a site for a fort on the western border of Arkansas. 24 The 
acting quartermaster general in a letter to Secretary Poinsett, 
April 27, 1838, reported the purchase of the old Fort Smith site and 
the beginning of construction. 25 

In 1838 some progress was made in completing the Western mili- 
tary road. In the late summer Captain Bonneville and Major 
Belknap were detailed to determine and mark out a road for the 
southern section (between Fort Smith and the Red river). After 
examining the country, they disagreed on the best route. A second 
survey by Major Belknap was approved by the War Department. 26 
On October 15 contracts for construction of the middle section were 
let at Independence, Mo., by Capt. George H. Crosman. 27 Work 
was begun immediately. This was the portion between Fort Leav- 
enworth and the Marais des Cygnes river crossing. Another de- 
velopment was the survey of the northern section (between Forts 
Snelling and Leavenworth) by Captains Boone and Canfield. 28 

During the summer Maj . Charles Thomas and Capt. John Stuart 
of the Seventh U. S. infantry selected a site for a military post on 
the Illinois river just west of the Arkansas border about sixty miles 
north of Fort Smith. As a result of the reoccupation of the latter 
post Fort Coffee was ordered abandoned on October 19. 29 At the 
end of the month its troops, commanded by Captain Stuart, were 
sent to establish "Camp Illinois" (later Fort Wayne) on the Illi- 
nois river. 30 

By the end of the year the large-scale building program which 
had been started at Fort Smith was almost at a standstill. Secre- 
tary of War Poinsett explained to Rep. Archibald Yell of Arkansas 
that Indian disturbances in Florida and the Northwest required the 
services of most of the quartermaster officials. This, he pointed 
out, made it impossible to send officers to superintend construction 
projects on the Western frontier. 31 Another handicap was the with- 
drawal of some War Department appropriations following the finan- 

24. Laws of the United States, op. cit., p. 935. The act authorized the purchase with 
a sum not to exceed $15,000 from the $50,000 appropriation, made in 1836 for the removal 
of Fort Gibson. 

25. See "Sites Military Posts Western Frontier," in 25 Cong., 2 Sess., House Doc. 357 
(Serial 330), p. 3. 

26. Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, Ark., September 19, October 17, 1838. 

27. 25 Cong., 3 Sess., House Doc. 94 (Serial 346), p. 57. 

28. Beers, H. P., The Western Military Frontier, 1815-1846 (Philadelphia, 1935), p. 131. 

29. Arkansas Gazette, October 3, 1838; 28 Cong., 1 Sess., Senate Report 136 (Serial 433). 

30. Ibid. 

31. Poinsett to Yell, letter dated January 4, 1839, printed in Arkansas Gazette, January 
30, 1839. 



124 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

cial panic of 1837. Buildings at Fort Smith continued "in progress" 
for several years. Fort Gibson, always one of the strongest frontier 
garrisons, was also neglected during this period and for several 
succeeding years, despite the fact that it was in a dilapidated 
state. 32 

Early in 1839 Major Belknap, surveyor of the southern section of 
the road, was assigned to superintend its construction. 33 Part of the 
route required little work and progress was rapid. Before the end 
of the year the entire 140-mile section had been finished. 

At the new post on the Illinois river a dragoon camp relieved the 
infantry in February, 1839. In April Lieutenant Colonel Mason 
commanding four companies of the First U. S. dragoons was ordered 
to oversee construction of buildings. 34 

During the year the northern part of the middle section of the 
road was completed and contracts were let for the next eighty-six 
miles (from the Marais des Cygnes crossing to Spring river, in the 
Cherokee country). 35 

The Secretary of War commenting on the progress of the mili- 
tary road in his annual report for 1839 stated that the northern 
section required no construction further than marking out the most 
direct route. 

In March, 1839, the senate by resolution requested that a report be 
presented to the next congress on the military and naval defenses 
of the country. A special board of War Department officers was 
convened in November to consider the subject. The brief section 
of their report, presented in March, 1840, relating to Western de- 
fense expressed agreement on all principal points with the plan of 
1838. The officers urged the establishment of "an interior line of 
posts along the Western border of the States of Arkansas and Mis- 
souri, as auxiliaries to the advanced positions, and to restrain the 
intercourse between the whites and the Indians, and serve as 
rallying points for the neighboring militia in times of alarm." 36 

The commissioner of Indian affairs estimated there were 61,000 
warriors at this time within striking distance of the Western frontier. 
Of this huge force, however, only 17,500 were on the immediate 
frontiers of Arkansas and Missouri. The larger emigrant tribes 

32. There was still talk of Fort Gibson's removal to a more healthful site, and this un- 
certain status of the post was also a factor in its neglect. 

33. War Department general order of January 2, 1839, in Niles' National Register, Wash- 
ington, D. C., January 12, 1839, Fifth series, v. V, No. 20, p. 314. 

34. Arkansas Gazette, May 29, 1839. 

35. Probably in what is now Cherokee county, Kansas. 

36. 26 Cong., 1 Sess., House Doc. 161 (Serial 366). 



THE FORT LEAVEN WORTH- FORT GIBSON ROAD 125 

(Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles) west 
of Arkansas provided the majority of these warriors. West and 
northwest of Missouri were the smaller emigrant tribes of Potta- 
watomies, lowas, Shawnees, Delawares, Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos, 
Ottawas, and others. Added to these were the native Otoes and 
Missourias on the northwest (in the Platte river region) and the 
native Kansas and Osage Indians along the middle frontier. 

A report by the Secretary of War in the spring of 1840 described 
what had been done in developing lines of communication and trans- 
portation from the interior to the frontier. Although movement of 
troops and supplies up the Red, Arkansas and Missouri rivers re- 
mained the most dependable system, the report pointed out the 
strategic location of the Western forts in relation to the highways 
crossing Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Many of these roads 
served military as well as civil purposes. 37 

In the fore part of 1840 the middle section of the Western mili- 
tary road was completed to Spring river. This left 128 miles to be 
constructed either to Fort Smith or Fort Gibson. Although the 
southern section had been built from Fort Smith the terminus of 
the middle section was Fort Gibson. 38 It was completed to that post 
by 1845. The highway between the Missouri and Arkansas rivers 
became known as the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson military road. 
Up to January 1, 1841, a total of $85,876.27 had been spent on the 
three sections comprising the Western military road. 39 A $5,000 
appropriation in 1841 was probably the last fund applied to the 
project. 40 

In June, 1840, construction of Fort Wayne on the Illinois river 
was suspended because of the unhealth fulness of the site. Two 
months later Lt. Col. R. B. Mason was ordered to abandon the 
post and move his troops to Fort Gibson. Another site was later 
selected some miles north, near Spavinaw creek, where by August, 
1841, quarters were in an advanced state of preparation. 

A senate resolution of January 11, 1841, requested a report from 
the Secretary of War on the frontier military strength and the 
advisability of an additional fort on the Missouri border between 

37. Ibid. 

38. A survey for the military road between Fort Gibson and Fort Wayne was made in 
1841. Capt. Benjamin Alvord assisted in the survey. Cullum, G. W., Biographical Register 
of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy . . . to January 1, 1879 
(New York, James Miller, 1879), v. I, p. 434. The Arkansas general assembly presented to 
the senate in February, 1843, a request for opening a military road on a line from Fort 
Leavenworth to Fort Smith. 27 Cong., 3 Sess., Sen. Doc. 127 (Serial 415). 

39. 27 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen, Doc. S (Serial 395), p, 43. 

40. 27 Cong., 2 Seas., House Doc. 62 (Serial 402), p. 8. 



126 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Forts Leavenworth and Wayne. The report, presented within the 
month, listed the aggregate army force at the Western forts as 
1,844, of which 679 were dragoons. 41 The chief engineer of the 
army and the acting quartermaster general believed a new army 
post between Forts Leavenworth and Wayne was essential. They 
suggested the place where the military road crossed the Marais des 
Cygnes river, 80 miles south of Fort Leavenworth, or the crossing 
at Spring river, 86 miles south of the Marais des Cygnes. 

On December 21 while on a mission to the Indian country Gen. 
E. A. Hitchcock wrote the Secretary of War advocating the aban- 
donment of Fort Wayne. Two weeks later while inspecting that 
military post he wrote again to the same effect. The post was un- 
necessary, he declared, both because the Cherokee Indians were 
peaceable and because of its proximity to Fort Smith, only eighty 
miles away. He proposed "the establishment of a post in what has 
been called the neutral ground (now belonging to the Cherokees) 
between the Osage Indians and the State of Missouri at some 
point about 100 miles south of Fort Leavenworth; perhaps near 
where the Military road crosses the Marmiton would be a good 
site." 42 General Hitchcock's suggestion for the abandonment of 
Fort Wayne was approved. On February 10, 1842, an order was 
issued for its evacuation and the selection of another site. 

In March Gen. Zachary Taylor was directed to appoint a com- 
mission to select a location for the new post between Fort Wayne 
and Spring river. The members of the commission, Capt. B. D. 
Moore and Dr. J. R. Motte, an army surgeon, accompanied by a 
dragoon escort, left Fort Wayne on April 1, 1842. At the Spring 
river site they attempted to purchase land from John Rogers, a 
half-breed Cherokee Indian, but his price was prohibitive. After 
examining other sites the commissioners arrived at the home of 
"Col." George Douglas who lived on the Marmaton river in Mis- 
souri. On April 9, accompanied by "Colonel" Douglas and Abram 
Redfield (also a Missouri settler), they reached a site near the 
military road crossing of the Marmaton and located "Camp" 
Scott, 43 named in honor of Gen. Winfield Scott. The commissioners 

41. 26 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Doc. IQk (Serial 377). 

42. See letter, Hitchcock to Secretary of War J. C. Spencer, January 9, 1842, in Foreman, 
Grant, ed., A Traveler in Indian Territory; the Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock . . 
(The Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1930), pp. 245-248. 

43. Named by Secretary of War Spencer. 28 Cong., 1 Sess., Senate Report 1S6 (Serial 
433), p. 3. It was known for several months as Camp Scott. This site was not within the 
Cherokee neutral lands, as implied by General Hitchcock, but was within territory assigned 
by treaty of 1838, to a number of Indian tribes from New York state (who did not emigrate 
to the West). No military reservation was laid out, however, and the government had no title 
to the land upon which the fort was built. The fort was abandoned in 1853. The buildings 
(without land) were sold at auction in May, 1855. 



THE FORT LEAVENWORTH-FORT GIBSON ROAD 127 

returned to Fort Wayne leaving Sgt. John Hamilton and a small 
dragoon force to begin work on the new post. 44 On May 26 Fort 
Wayne was officially abandoned and its garrison consisting of Cap- 
tain Moore, Lt. William Eustis, Asst. Surgeon J. Simpson, and 
Companies A and C (about 120 men) of the First U. S. dragoons 
began the journey to "Camp" Scott. They reached the new post 
May 30, 1842. 45 Later in the year Bvt. Maj. W. M. Graham 
arrived with a company of the Fourth U. S. infantry to command 
the post. 

The first quarters were temporary log structures. 46 Permanent 
buildings were started before the end of 1842. Capt. Thomas Swords 
of the First U. S. dragoons superintended the rather elaborate works, 
which were under construction until 1846. Some of the labor was 
supplied by carpenters, mechanics and masons from the adjoining 
Missouri settlements, but most of the work was done by troops. 
The quartermaster general's report in December, 1844, stated: 

At Fort Scott, the works are still in progress; they have been delayed in 
consequence of the troops being necessarily called off by other duty. Two 
blocks of officers' quarters, with three sets of soldiers' barracks, are nearly 
completed, and materials are ready for another set of officers' quarters. If 
laborers can be obtained, the whole may be completed in a few months. 47 

In the same report was a description of that part of the Western 
military road between the Missouri and Marmaton rivers: 

The military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott has been greatly 
injured during the past season by excessive rains. The bridges over many of 
the small streams have been destroyed. That over Sugar creek, twenty-eight 
miles north of Fort Scott, a substantial work two hundred and seventy-five feet 
in length, has been carried away. This road is highly important as a military 
communication; and, being the only direct route from the northwestern part 
of Missouri and Iowa to Arkansas and Texas, it has been much travelled, and 
those accustomed to use it will be put to great inconvenience by its present 
condition. I recommend that the bridges be replaced, and the road repaired 
by the labor of troops, so soon as a sufficient force can be spared for the 
purpose. If the troops perform the work, no appropriation will be required, 
as the tools and means of transportation at the frontier posts can be used. 48 

Although Missouri had now both Fort Leavenworth and Fort 
Scott upon her western border the Missouri general assembly in 1843 

44. Letter of Sgt. John Hamilton, April 24, 1872, in Kansas State Historical Society 
(Manuscripts division). 

45. U. S. government records designate May 30, 1842, as the official date of the founding 
of Fort Scott 

46. Sgt. John Hamilton in his letter of April 24, 1872, loc. cit., says that he had finished 
structures for the commanding officer, a hospital, a quartermaster and commissary etorehouse 
and other buildings, and had planted a garden, before the troops arrived. 

47. 28 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 449), pp. 144, 145. 

48. Ibid., p. 147. 



128 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

memorialized congress for a third post. 49 The effort was unsuc- 
cessful. 

Fort Scott was continued as a frontier post for nearly twelve 
years. 50 Intended primarily as a check upon surrounding Indian 
tribes, particularly the Osage, its troops also patrolled the borders 
in an attempt to control illegal liquor traffic from the settlements to 
the Indians. 51 Troop movements were frequent. There were ex- 
peditions to Indian encampments to quell threatened uprisings or 
to settle inter-tribal disputes. In 1843 dragoons from Fort Scott 
were among the troops escorting a trade caravan bound for Santa Fe. 
The fort's largest garrison was the First U. S. infantry with an 
aggregate strength of 444. Stationed there in 1846, most of the 
regiment was sent to fight in the Mexican War in 1847. 

As the frontier advanced westward the importance of Fort Scott 
decreased. In 1852 present Fort Riley was established as Camp 
Center on the Kansas river at what was thought to be the head of 
navigation of that stream. The following year Fort Scott was 
abandoned. 

The military road, however, continued for several years to be an 
important highway. In 1854 Kansas became a territory and a 
law enacted by the first Kansas territorial legislature (meeting in 
1855) stated: "The road as now located and opened from Fort 
Leavenworth to Fort Scott, known as the military road, is hereby 
declared a territorial road." 52 Within this decade other high- 
ways 53 came to be more traveled. Only a few landmarks can be 
pointed out today as marking the route of the old Western mili- 
tary road in Kansas. 54 

49. 28 Cong., 1 Sess., House Doc. SO (Serial 441). 

50. Fort Scott was reestablished during the Civil War, serving as a military supply depot 
for Union forces from 1863 to 1865. During a later period (1869-1873) it was an army 
headquarters. 

61. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Annual Report, 1843, p. 390 (report of R. A. Callo- 
way, Osage subagent, dated September 1, 1843). 

52. Statutes of the Territory of Kansas, 1855, p. 955. 

53. The territorial legislature of 1859 passed an act providing for the establishment of a 
number of roads, one of which connected Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scott, via the towns of 
Olathe, Paola and Mound City. This road has often been mistakenly referred to as the mili- 
tary road. See, ibid., 1859, p. 585. 

54. As originally surveyed in 1837, the entire section of the frontier military highway later 
known as the Fort Leavenworth -Fort Scott military road ran west of the Missouri state line. 
Maps of the latter 1850's show the road within R. 25 E from Fort Scott north to northern 
Johnson county before it turned northwest to Fort Leavenworth, but these maps vary con- 
siderably in locating certain portions of the highway. The Whitman, and Searl "Map of East- 
ern Kansas," published in 1856 independently of the public surveys then in progress, traced 
the road entirely within Kansas territory. Almost all the later maps (1857 to 1860) were com- 
piled from land office surveysi but they show variations of as much as five or six miles in 
certain sections of the route. Some traced the road into Missouri for a very short distance at 
the Johnson -Lykins (Miami) county line, and nearly all ran it into Missouri for a mile or 
two at the Lykins-Linn boundary (see cut opposite p. 129). The available Kansas maps of 
the 1850's do not show the road running south from Fort Scott toward Fort Gibson and 
Arkansas. This was because the region south was Indian land. It was not until the latter 
1860's when these Indians by treaties began to give up their lands in exchange for other res- 



I 




EARLY VIEWS OF FORT SCOTT 

Fort Scott was founded 100 years ago this month and several of the buildings are still 
standing. Sites of other buildings, long since razed, have been marked. 

The buildings shown above were built in the early 1840's. The guardhouse (upper) 
was later used as a city jail before it was dismantled in 1906. Today the Fort Scott 
Museum, the Goodlander Children's Home and apartments occupy the three officers' 
quarters (below). 




W O 



FORT LEAVENWORTH-FORT SCOTT MILITARY ROAD 

The 1837 survey of the middle section of this road ran west of the Missouri state line. 
By the latter 1850's the actual highway, however, avoided some of the more difficult 
terrain by crossing into Missouri. The broken line shows the road as it appeared on a 
map of 1857. Other maps of the period show some variations. (See, also. Footnote 54, 
pages 128, 129.) 



THE FORT LEAVEN WORTH -FoRT GIBSON ROAD 129 

ervations and concessions that this portion of Kansas was surveyed. The first plats for this 
area in the office of the state auditor are dated in 1866 and 1867. The surveyors designated 
the highway as the "Military Road Fort Scott to Ark.," tracing it near the Missouri border 
through Crawford county, passing through the present towns of Arcadia and Mulberry. In 
Cherokee county the road swung a few miles to the west and left the state south of Baxter 
Springs. Although the military highway as shown on these plats may have little relation to 
the road of the 1840's, it nevertheless seems likely that some sections of the original were re- 
tained in subsequent highway changes. 

Rep. F. A. Jewell, Bourbon county, introduced a bill in the 1917 legislature to provide an 
appropriation "to write and publish a history of, and mark with monuments, the old military 
road in the state of Kansas. . . ." The proposal was turned down in committee. See 
House Journal, Kansas, 1917, pp. 236, 360. 



92603 



The Fourth of July in Early Kansas 

1858-1861 
CORA DOLBEE 

THE keeping of the Fourth of July from 1858 to 1861 continued 
to reflect the relation of the Kansas struggle to the approaching 
Civil War. Friends of freedom, both within and without the state, 
were still resolute as to outcome. Liberty was the only issue. Kan- 
sas was but the Bataan of the long-testing time. 1 

1858 

Where'er a wind is rushing, 
Where'er a stream is gushing, 
The swelling sounds are heard 
Of man to freeman calling, 

And, like the carol of a cageless bird, 

The bursting shout of Freedom's rallying word. 2 

National remark on the Fourth of July, 1858, was platitudinous. 
The editor of the New York Daily Tribune perceived a general tend- 
ency throughout the country to slight recognition of the day. 3 The 
reasons, he believed, were two: one was the general disposition to 
abolish ceremonials; the other was the diminished regard paid by 
the ruling party and the federal government to the original principles 
of the nation. Every radical proposition the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence enunciated was now practically denied and despised. Bos- 
ton's plans for two festivals for the day drew from the same pen 
satire upon the "sundry good people of eminent perspicacity [who] 
in view of the perils which environ the land," determined to "do the 
Fourth brown" by profuse consumption of powder and patriotism. 4 
In gigantic sentences of fourteen lines and more, lugubrious Rufus 
Choate repainted a look-out, lurid with despair; and ultra-loyal 
Edward Everett had "visited every portion of our blessed country, 
and . . . found nothing to condemn." 5 

1. This is the third of three articles entitled "The Fourth of July in Early Kansas." Part 
I was published in this magazine in v. VIII, pp. 115-139, and Part II in v. X, pp. 34-78. 

2. Quoted by Wm. Wells Brown at Independence day celebration at Framingham Grove, 
Massachusetts, July 5, 1858. 

3. New York Daily Tribune, July 5, 1858. 

4. Ibid., July 3, 1&58. 

5. Ibid., July 7, 1858. 

(130) 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 131 

In April, New York clergymen proposed keeping the Fourth of 
July, 1858, as a day of humiliation and prayer. 6 Some one suggested 
making it a day of thanksgiving. Neither plan developed. On the 
steps of the city hall in Brooklyn on Monday, July 5, Henry Ward 
Beecher ventured to define anew the boundaries of patriotism. One 
by one he named the states to be included. Impatiently someone 
listening called out: "New Jersey and Kansas." "Yes Kansas 
. . .," Beecher replied, "and all the states named or unnamed. 
It must be a patriotism . . . that shall take them all in, and 
give to every one that foundation that was given by our Revolution- 
ary struggle liberty! . . . This is that patriotism that shall 
save our land!" 7 Out in Cincinnati, however, Sen. George E. Pugh 
was credited with making "a good speech, as he almost always does 
when not talking about Kansas." 8 In the same city a thousand per- 
sons, representing all denominations, answered the call of the Pres- 
byterians for a national union prayer meeting on the morning of the 
Fourth of July, and listened to an Episcopalian and a Baptist make 
most disparaging allusions to slavery, praying that "this hallowed 
institution . . . might absolutely be done away!" 9 Down in 
Georgia, however, where a master allowed his Negroes to hold a 
Fourth of July carnival, Big Nathan, the orator, who knew little of 
politics, "took a very bold position in favor of his master and the 
ladies of color and the excellence of his corn crop." 10 His concep- 
tion of his master's plantation as the "land of Beulah" was a rebuke 
to Abolitionism. 

Kansas herself was again politically astir in July, 1858. The right 
to determine her own form of government was in imminent jeopardy. 
Slowly but steadily her people were mustering their strength for self- 
assertion and repeal of the Lecompton constitution. One of the an- 
niversary orators alluded to the duty of killing the English proposi- 
tion on election day. Another spoke on the importance of activity 
and self-sacrifice in founding the institutions of their embryo state. 11 
Most editors urged wide holiday preparations and liberal participa- 
tion in events. 12 Such occasions were of benefit to the people, bodily 
and mentally. One writer felt that on this, its first Fourth, free of 
mercenary armies to overawe and oppress, the territory could really 

6. Ibid., April 15, 1858. 

7. Ibid., July 7, 1858. 

8. Ibid., July 13, 1858. 

9. Ibid., June 28, July 13, 1858. 

10. Ibid., July 31, 1858. 

11. Ibid., July 17, 1858. 

12. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 3, 1&58; Lawrence Republican, June 24, 1858. 



132 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

rejoice in Independence day festivals. 13 His Proslavery rival, how- 
ever, quoted satirically, "What can't be cured must be endured," 
and belittled all attempts to keep the day. 14 One regretted the fall- 
ing of the day on Sunday and the inability, for want of right facili- 
ties in the territory, to celebrate in Eastern style with "bonfires and 
illumination"; but he believed solid reflection in the minds of the 
people would lead to the formation of good purposes and resolu- 
tions. 15 Throughout the nation, heretofore, men had risen in hours 
of need to lead the people ; could not the citizens of Kansas territory 
harmoniously and patriotically now carry out their destiny so that 
"no pent-up Utica" would contract their powers? 

If celebrations of Independence day, 1858, were the answer, even 
that editor must have characterized the reply as affirmative. Extant 
records note twenty observances of the day in the Kansas region. 
They extended from Wyandotte to "Fontaine qui bouille" beyond 
Bent's Fort, and from White Cloud to Lebanon, Bourbon county. 
If none of them maintained the traditional Eastern style, they set 
suitable Western standards of their own. As Wm. P. Tomlinson 
wrote, the settlers suited their plans "to their straightened means 
and circumstances." 16 They displayed great variety and some in- 
genuity. Of all but two, full stories survive. Even the contempo- 
rary reporter could not tell whether the picnic to be given by one 
Mr. Palmer, north of Hickory Grove on the Branson-Lawrence road, 
was "private or gratuitous." 17 He also merely noted a proposed 
holiday fishing excursion to the Osage by "several ladies and gentle- 
men of Prairie City." 18 Authors of two books refer to the day at 
Fontaine qui bouille: one was Wm. B. Parsons, author of The New 
Gold Mines of Western Kansas, who in the summer and fall of 1858 
accompanied the Lawrence company in exploration of the Rocky 
Mountain mining regions of western Kansas; 19 the others were 
James Redpath and Richard J. Hinton, who collaborated upon the 
Hand-Book to Kansas Territory and the Rocky Mountains' Gold 
Region. 20 

13. Leaven worth Times, July 10, 1858. 

14. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 3, 1858. 

15. Kansas Weekly Press, Elwood, July 3, 1858. 

16. Tomlinson, Wm. P., Kansas in Eighteen Fifty-Eight (H. Dayton, New York, 1859), 
p. 265. 

17. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, June 24, 1858. 

18. Ibid. 

19. Parsons, Wm. B., letter, Lawrence, October 19, 1858, in New York Daily Tribune, 
November 1, 1858. The first edition of his book appeared in December, 1858; the second 
in 1859. 

20. Redpath, James, and Hinton, Richard J., Hand-Book to Kansas Territory and the 
Rocky Mountains' Gold Region . . . (J. H. Colton, New York, 1859), p. 122. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 133 

Lawrence, still known to the Northern element of the population 
as "the heart of the Territory," had a most elaborate celebration in 
1858. Believing in keeping Sunday a day of rest, the Independent 
Order of Good Templars which had charge of the plans, chose Satur- 
day, July 3, for the festivities and invited the neighboring lodges at 
Tecumseh, Big Springs, and Topeka to participate. 21 The program 
for the day consisted of a procession through the downtown streets 
of Lawrence and across the river by ferry to the grove on the Dela- 
ware Indian reservation on the north shore, formal exercises, and a 
picnic dinner, with toasts. Citizens of Lawrence had subscribed to 
a fund to defray expenses. They chartered the ferries so that all 
persons in the procession might have free rides to the grove; they 
also contributed the foods for the picnic dinner. Three thousand 
people were in attendance. The Delawares came in large numbers. 
The procession of Templars, school children, and citizens was a 
quarter of a mile long. The band led the procession and played 
lively music while the numerous boat loads crossed the ferry. The 
city painters had made tasteful banners for the ladies of Lawrence to 
present to the lodges. The site for the exercises and prairie dinner 
was ideal. "The magnificent trees sheltered the throng from the 
burning sun," and the prairie breeze blowing from the south across 
the river gave free circulation of air. 22 

The orator, Champion Vaughan, editor of the Leavenworth Times, 
divided his attention between temperance 23 and the position of Kan- 
sas in the national struggle for freedom. He referred to the struggle 
in Kansas as the second American revolution, the point of which was 
to be the wresting of the national government from those who had 
usurped it ; Kansas was the key to all Western soil and must forever 
stand on the side of freedom. To keep it there would be the work 
of youth. 24 

Two flaws marred the day's program. While the orator was 
speaking, an outcry in the brush near by drew the attention of some 
of the audience to a fracas between a white man and an Indian. The 
Indian had "cut and hacked up" the head of the white man with a 
tomahawk, in revenge for the latter's having enticed the Indian's 
wife away. Assisting in care of the unconscious white man was 
W. C. Quant-rill, who had been living with the Delawares on his way 

21. Leavenworth Times, July 10, 1858; Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 3, 1858. 

22. Ibid., July 10, 1858. 

23. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, June 24, July 8, 1858. The contemporary press 
referred to the occasion as a temperance celebration in which every temperance order and 
every friend of temperance would participate. Masonic and Odd Fellow lodges were expected 
to aid the Good Templars, too. Also, Herald of Freedom, July 10, 1858. 

24. Leavenworth Times, July 10, 1858. 



134 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

east after being teamster for the government in an expedition against 
the Mormons. 25 

The second flaw in the day's program was a deficiency in food, 
more people participating in the dinner than contributing to it. In 
toasts, however, and original themes for the same, there was no 
shortage. Five were of especial interest: 

The Day We Celebrate. May the bud which bloomed on the 4th of July, 
1776, yet blossom into full and living beauty, and we, over whom Slavery's 
sirocco has swept, ere another anniversary rolls round, eat of its ripened fruit, 
in perfect peace and complete freedom. 

The Memorable 21st of May. The darkest and the brightest day in the 
history of Kansas. May it ever be remembered, teaching us the blessings of 
freedom, and strengthening the hatred of slavery that should exist in the breast 
of every American, and especially of those living on our fair soil. From our 
history, freemen may learn that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!" 

The Ladies of Kansas. . . . "Let us worship beauty with the knightly 
faith of old, Oh! chivalry of labor, toiling for the age of gold." 

The Common Schools of Kansas. Fit nurseries of a free people. . . . 

The White House, and the Niece of Mr. Buchanan. All that remains of 
dignity to the nation. 26 

Following the last toast which was a substitute for "The President 
of the United States/' the band played a funeral dirge, the people 
groaned, and the band brayed through its instruments. 

The day as planned passed pleasantly, without liquor or the effects 
of it on the grounds. At night, however, "after the pale faces left," 
the Indians had a celebration of their own, in which "they imbibed 
rather too freely for their good." In South Lawrence in the eve- 
ning boys of the town "turned out in quite respectable numbers in 
the 'fashionable' costume of the 'Antiques and Horribles,' " to make 
merriment through the streets with their twenty- foot trumpet and 
mammoth sheetiron-drums. 27 

Minneola, which promised "to do big things . . . hugely" by 
offering sacrifices in memory of the veterans of 1776, on July 5 in- 
vited people of Prairie City, Palmyra, Black Jack, Ottawa City, 
Peoria City, the Sac agency, and Willow Springs, to share in formal 
patriotic exercises through the day, a free dinner, and "a grand 
ball" at the Capitol House at night. The orator announced in ad- 
vance was T. Ewing, Jr., 28 but Gov. Charles Robinson had credit for 
the delivered oration. 29 

25. Clarke, Henry S. f "W. C. Quantrill in 1858," in Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, 
p. 219. 

26. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 10, 1858. 

27. Ibid. 

28. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, June 24, July 1, 1858. 

29. Ibid., July 8, 1858. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 135 

Osawatomie marked the anniversary on July 5 by a representa- 
tion in the morning of the "terrible 30 of August, 1856," by a select 
picnic in the afternoon, and by a ball at night. To one resident, 
Sarah M. C. Everett, "the forenoon's exercises seemed surprisingly 
inappropriate," but the picnic party was the pleasantest she ever 
attended in Osawatomie. 30 The beauty of Lykins county graced the 
ballroom, "no less than 300 ladies [being] present." 31 

Wyandotte on July 3 also held a picnic, partly for the children of 
its three Sabbath schools and partly for the grown-ups. The pro- 
gram for the day here began and ended with a procession. The 
exercises were both religious and patriotic. Gov. Wm. Walker gave 
"a most excellent and elegant oration." After a sumptuous repast 
"of almost every conceivable luxury," he responded to a toast on the 
superior judgment and taste of the Delawares and their uncles the 
Wyandots in selecting this beautiful spot for their permanent 
home. 32 

Lecompton waited until late afternoon of July 5 to begin its fes- 
tivities. Then at four o'clock its people gathered around a sumptu- 
ous collation at the American Hotel, got up "in elegant style" by 
the proprietor, S. 0. Hemenway. The board was richly laden with 
the good things of earth, and the local editor reported "His wines 
were the best we have ever drank in Kansas." A patriotic program 
of reading, talks, music, and toasts followed removal of the cloth. 
Col. Samuel Young gave an address on the march of empire west- 
ward. The last toast was to the "Prince and Princess of Hotel Keep- 
ers." In the evening "the beauty and fashion of city and country 
assembled to 'trip the light fantastic toe.' Joy reigned unconfined, 
nor did it abate until the old clock told the hour for retiring." 33 

The entertainment at Brownville on July 5 featured James H. 
Lane whose arrival with his family at ten o'clock in front of 
Hale's Hotel brought forth three hearty cheers from the assembled 
crowd. At eleven o'clock they proceeded to a bower on "the brow 
of a beautiful eminence" overlooking the town, where he and others 
made forcible addresses recalling scenes of 1776. Then the pro- 
cession repaired to the hotel for a dinner and toasts. In the "early 
eve" the "young and mirthful" met again in enjoyment of the 
dance. 34 

30. Everett, Sarah M. C., "Diary," entry of July 12, 1858. MS. property of a son J E 
Everett, Brewster, N. Y. 

31. Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, Mo., July 10, 1858. 

32. Western Argus, Wyandott[e], June 24, July 8, 1858. 

33. Kansas National Democrat, Lecompton, July 8, 1858. 

34. Lawrence Republican, Lawrence, July S, 1858. 



136 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Manhattan was the gathering place on July 3 for 1,000 citizens 
from Riley, Pottawatomie, Richardson, and Davis counties. The 
Waubonsa Cornet Band, in a carriage drawn by four horses, "dis- 
coursed eloquent music through the streets." At ten o'clock the 
ladies of Manhattan presented a beautiful national flag to the city 
authorities at the courthouse; in accepting, the mayor hoped "the 
star of free Kansas" would soon be upon it. Then the crowd formed 
a half-mile procession to the grove on the banks of the Kaw for a 
patriotic program and a picnic dinner. "The way the fixins disap- 
peared" before sharp appetites "was truly wonderful." Toasts, 
regular and volunteer, followed. The first toast, wrought of ever- 
greens, on a banner placed on the stage was "We Will Be Free." 35 

For a second time Emporia made elaborate preparation for the 
Fourth of July and this time carried out its plans. It extended an 
invitation to "everybody and his family," in its own and in all 
adjoining counties, to drop all jealousies of place and politics and 
unite in an old-fashioned entertainment with Declaration, orations, 
and a free dinner. The gathering occurred on July 5. By July 3 
the two bowers were nearly ready, one for the speaking and one for 
the eating, and the provisions had been cooked for the dinner. Early 
Monday morning people thronged the Emporia streets. 36 Estimates 
of the number varied from 1,000 to 1,500. 37 From Eagle creek came 
"one team with seventeen pairs of oxen attached, ornamented with 
flags." L. D. Bailey was president of the day; M. F. Conway was 
the orator. An original poem, "Words of Welcome," by "Mary 
Posey," was a feature of the program; saluting the guests as stout 
tillers of "Free Kanzas' soil," the author opened wide Emporia's 
arms "to every rival town" and offered "high Festival for Freedom's 
triumph won," over "the Neb-raskality" and "Lecompton's hellish 
plot." At the dinner the edibles were not quite equal to the at- 
tendance, but they made up in quality what they lacked in quantity. 
Two of the toasts were memorable: 

Kanzas. "The new Canaan of our Israel." Tried in the furnace of persecu- 
tion and affliction, she has proven as fine gold . . . 

James Buchanan. The Ahab of our Israel Let his days be few, and let 
another take his office. 38 

At night the young folk and part of the old went to Americus for a 
feast and dance at the Americus House. The local editors com- 

35. Ibid., July 15, 1858. 

36. The Kanzas News, Emporia, May 22, June 12, 19, July 3, 24, 1858. 

37. The News of July 24, 1858, gave the number as 1,000. The New York Daily Tribune, 
August 6, recorded the number at 1,500. 

38. The Kanzas News, Emporia, July 24, 1858. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 137 

mended the day's events for the harmony of feeling they promoted, 
though one pious individual had refused to assist in the exercises 
because some finishing strokes had been put on one of the bowers on 
the Sabbath. 39 

Southern Kansas had two celebrations of the Fourth. On July 3 
Mound City, or Sugar Mound, held exercises consisting of a much- 
applauded oration by J. B. Danford and singing that "was nothing 
to boast of." 40 The party then marched to the dinner ground. On 
either side of the table a military company paraded to keep order. 
Suspended on poles, over a burning log heap, was a roasted ox. 
When taken down and carved he "supplied the table bountifully 
with beef, mutton, pork, and veal, all from one ox." When word 
was given to "pitch in," the poor ox had to suffer. In every direction 
"beef [was] climbing for the brush." The day generally was dis- 
orderly. 

Lebanon, or Raysville, Bourbon county, observed the anniversary 
more conventionally on July 5. At daylight boys' firing of the na- 
tional salute wakened people all along the Little Osage. Shortly 
after sunrise they began moving into Lebanon. The gathering 
finally numbered around 1,000. 41 The program for the long day 
included a procession, exercises with another oration by Doctor 
Danford, the presentation by "the ladies of the Little Osage" of a 
new $50 suit of clothes to Capt. James Montgomery in consideration 
of his kind protection during recent border troubles, a brief response, 
of much feeling, by the captain, a dinner bountifully supplied with 
Kansas dainties, toasts that pleased the intellect, supper at a town 
house, and a cotillion party at Ray's Hall, lasting until sunrise July 
6. The feeling manifest in all events here was said to be better than 
at any other point as yet in southern Kansas. Judge Williams of 
the third judicial district and Captain Montgomery marched to 
dinner arm in arm. The afternoon gathering broke up with the 
singing of "From All That Dwell Below the Skies," to the tune of 
"Old Hundred." 42 

Communities to the northeast near the Missouri river again had 

39. Ibid., October 30, 1858. 

40. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 31, 1858. Andreas, A. T., and Cutler, W. G., 
History of the State of Kansas, p. 110&, stated that W. P. Tomlinson was the orator and 
that the ox "proved to[o] small to feed the assembled multitude." The attendance was esti- 
mated at one thousand. Tomlinson in Kansas in Eighteen Fifty-Eight, pp. 265, 266, gave 
the attendance as "several hundred," and named Captain Montgomery as a speaker on the 
same spot where in 1856 he had confronted Captain Clarke and had been forced to flee for 
his life. Montgomery now thanked the "Great Supreme" for the blessings of peace, and 
noted the need of schools, churches, and a regular ministry. 

41. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 31, 1858; Lawrence Re-publican, July 22 1858- 
Tomlinson, op. cit., pp. 266-269. 

42. Ibid.; New York Daily Tribune, August 2, 1858. 



138 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the most pleasureful gatherings and the longest. In 1858, too, more 
of them kept the Fourth. Leavenworth had three separate events 
during the day of July 5 for its different groups of citizens, and at 
night, two dances: the Methodist Sunday schools with teachers and 
ministers held a picnic and patriotic exercises in South Leavenworth ; 
Shields' Guards in full dress uniform had another program and 
refreshments in Cincinnati at the west city limits; the Turners 
marched to the Flora Gardens for the day, spending the morning in 
gymnastic exercises with stirring music and the afternoon in listening 
to an oration by J. P. Hatterscheidt and addresses by J. C. Vaughan 
and Dr. Chas. F. Kob. In the evening the Turners held a merry 
dance in the Stone building, and Shields' Guards had u a grand ball." 
The oration for the Turners told of the purposes of the Turner 
Bund to promote the moral, the social, and the political condition 
of members, showed the similarity of its principles to those of the 
Declaration of Independence, and pledged its best efforts for the 
well-being of the land. Most Germans, the orator asserted, had 
emigrated to the United States to fulfill their love of liberty. 43 

Kickapoo planned a full day for July 5. Addresses by distin- 
guished speakers were scheduled to be followed by a free barbecue 
and dance at noon time. Supper at the American Hotel was to pre- 
cede a "magnificent ball" at night. 44 On the same day in Sumner 
the Turners were to march up Washington avenue to the gymnasium 
grounds where they were to engage in various exercises. They were 
also to read the Declaration of Independence and to listen to 
speeches. A new flag for the occasion drew forth a formal expression 
of thanks to the local merchants for the materials and the workman- 
ship. "God bless the Germans," wrote the Sumner editor, D. D. 
Cone. "They are true to freedom." 45 

White Cloud planned an excursion to Falls City, Neb., on July 5. 
The trip was to be by boat up the Nemaha river as far as prac- 
ticable, thence by land conveyances to the exercises and a free 
dinner. The ferry boat White Cloud was fitted up for the occasion 
with a roofing over the stern, a soda fountain on board, and ac- 
commodations for 150 to 200 passengers. Fare was $1 the person. 
Taking on passengers at Forest City and Oregon, the boat left White 
Cloud at nine a. m. to return the same evening, but trouble with 
some of the braces on one of the wheels and later overhanging trees 

43. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, June 26, July 3, 1858; Leavenworth Times, July 
10, 1858. 

44. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 3, 1858. 

45. The Sumner Gazette, July 3, 1858. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 139 

and a drift finally stopped the boat about sundown before the party 
had reached Falls City and the "dinner." The captain sought the 
city by land and by two a. m. provisions had arrived. Passengers 
obtained a little sleep, despite the mosquitoes, and the party re- 
turned home the next day. 46 

The town? of Hamlin and Hiawatha kept the "glorious Fourth" 
for Brown county. Exercises through the day occurred in the grove 
of Benjamin Winkles at Hamlin. The Rev. R. D. Parker was one 
of several speakers. Afterward, the collation, prepared by ladies of 
Hamlin, Padonia, and Carson, was "comme il jaul" Singing by 
Peebles' quartette club made "a right happy time." At night 
twenty-five couples repaired to Hiawatha, the "shire" town, where 
they at once vowed 

They'll not go home till morning, 
Till daylight doth appear. 

And they kept their word. All went off as "merry as a marriage 
bell." 47 

Monrovia had the most extensive celebration of all. From the 
adjacent countryside settlers thronged in on horseback, on foot, in 
heavy ox-wagons, and on a stone drag. In rural glory they danced 
the day in and they danced it out. Beginning on the evening of 
July 2, the ball in the new hotel "went briskly on" through the 
night and continued with constant new additions until noon of 
July 3. At twelve o'clock the dancers paused for a "bounteous re- 
past." Then in shade provided by frames covered with green boughs 
of trees, on the banks of "silver-watered" Stranger creek, the as- 
sembly awaited the arrival of the three orators advertised to speak: 
J. H. Stringfellow, John P. Wheeler, and J. W. Whitfield. When no 
one of these appeared, the committee on arrangements supplied the 
defect by calling from the audience seven speakers who were pres- 
ent and whose "suddenly-conceived speeches" won enthusiastic ap- 
plause. Among those men were J. G. McQuade, of Pennsylvania, 
A. D. Richardson, of Sumner, and S. J. H. Snyder, of Monrovia, poet 
of the occasion. During the entire program a matronly-looking 
woman, a Missourian, dressed in solemn black, sat in the midst 
of the gathering, "listening attentively, and calmly smoking a 
cigar!" After the exercises the more sober portion of the crowd 
"gathered in clusters" to discuss topics of passing interest. The 
younger portion repaired to the ball room where the music and dance 
"went lively on" through the night, impressing the Eastern corre- 

46. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 1, 15, 185& 

47. Ibid., July 1&, 1858; Harrington, Grant W., Annals of Brown County, Kansas, p. 18. 



140 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

spondent, A. D. Richardson, as "a striking example of human en- 
durance." Referring to the episode nine years later in his book, Be- 
yond the Mississippi, he wrote that the Monrovians danced "per- 
severingly from Friday night until Sunday morning." 48 

The most western Fourth of July record for the territory in 1858 
came from Fontaine qui Bouille river near Pike's Peak where the 
Lawrence company of gold prospectors arrived on Independence 
day. The company consisted of 40 persons, among them Wm. B. 
Parsons. Having left Lawrence May 25, they camped in a grove 
of cottonwoods, near the present site of Fountain City, on the night 
of July 4. There they celebrated in "true frontier style," and Par- 
sons, in "a spread-eagle speech," ventured to predict that some of 
the company would live to see "10,000 people in this region and a 
weekly mail." 49 

Meantime, the Lecompton party, which started ahead of the 
Lawrence company, spent the day on the site of what is now Den- 
ver. There, on July 3, they made a survey of streets, alleys, blocks, 
and lots, for a town of 640 acres and gave it the temporary name 
of "Mountain City." 60 

To the north, beyond the Medicine Bow Mountains, Company A 
engineers, en route from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Bridger, made a 
fatiguing march of fourteen and one-half miles through dust six 
inches deep in the unbroken sage brush country. "Not a green thing 
was visible," wrote Wm. P. Seville, "to cheer the aching eyes, half- 
blinded by the glaring light which was reflected by the heated sand." 
Encamping at night on the North Fork of the Platte, where bluffs 
of sandstone resembled the buildings of a city in outline, they had an 
unappetizing holiday supper of sage hen stew. A few of the men 
found a flat boat which upset, throwing them in the rapid current of 
the Platte and subjecting men and rifles to a cold bath. As partial 
protection from the mosquitoes the crew had worn handkerchiefs 
over their faces and gloves on their hands, but they suffered a con- 
siderable loss of blood, nevertheless. 51 

48. Richardson, A. D., Beyond the Mississippi . . . (American Publishing Company, 
Hartford, Conn., 1867), p. 131; New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1858; Freedom's Cham- 
pion, Atchison, July 10, 1858. 

49. Parsons, Wm. B., "The Mines As They Really Are," letter written in Lawrence, 
October 19, 1858, and published in the New York Daily Tribune, November 1, 1858, and 
letter dated "Denver, October 1, 1884," from the Chicago Tribune, reprinted in The Kansas 
Historical Collections, v. VII, pp. 451, 452 ; Redpath-Hinton, op. cit., p. 122. 

50. Moore, Ely, "The Lecompton Party Which Located Denver," reprinted from the 
Denver (Colo.) Post, June 23, 1901, in Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, p. 449. C/. v. 
XIII, p. 72. 

51. Seville, William P., Narrative of the March of Co. A, Engineers From Fort Leaven- 
worth, Kansas, to Fort Bridger, Utah, and Return, May 6 to October 3, 1858, rev. by Lt. 
John W. N. Schulz (Washington Barracks, D. C., Press of the Engineer School, 1912), pp. 
21, 22. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 141 

1859 

As the breeze from the mountain sweeps over the river, 
So, chainless and free, shall our thoughts be for ever. 

J. G. Whittier. 

People kept the Fourth of July, 1859, independently. "And why 
not?" asked the New York Daily Tribune. "It is Independence day, 
and the largest possible measure of independence may justly be ac- 
corded in its observance." 53 Northern orations were few. In Boston 
George Sumner ventured to present new ideas of the relation of 
foreign governments to the American Revolution and to denounce the 
Dred Scott decision, so antagonizing the Boston common council that 
only after "acrimonious debate" did it pass a resolution of thanks by 
a vote of 25 to 17. 54 For its July 4 Worcester scheduled a floral 
procession for its juveniles. Several other Massachusetts towns also 
held flower festivals to inform children of the gratitude shown Wash- 
ington at Trenton at the close of the Revolution when women dressed 
in white to greet him and children cast roses in his path. Framing- 
ham held its usual anti-slavery celebration at which Abolitionists 
found it good to be; Wendell Phillips was the "eloquent and scath- 
ing" orator and T. W. Higginson presided. In New York William 
Cullen Bryant disposed editorially of the calumnies against George 
Sumner for his impartial liberty. 55 In Buffalo Senator Doolittle of 
Wisconsin discussed the final destiny of the colored race in the 
United States, advocating its ultimate colonization in Central Amer- 
ica. 56 In the orator's home state, however, the Wautoma (Wis.) 
Journal recommended that "in silent humility we penitently mourn 
over the deception which induced the false belief that we were either 
a free, a Christian, or a heroic people." 57 The Northern colony at 
Ceredo, Va., founded by Eli Thayer, celebrated its first Fourth 
merrily with a parade of "Antiques" and regular exercises with 
toasts. 58 In the penitentiary at Washington, D. C., the convicts had 
a formal program with a murderer reading the Declaration of In- 
dependence, a forger making the address, and other evil-doers sing- 
ing patriotic songs. 59 

52. From "Freedom's Gathering." 

53. New York Daily Tribune, July 2, 1859. 

54. Ibid., July 23, September 22, 28, 1859; Emporia News, August 27, 1859; Worcester 
(Mass.) Daily Spy, July 9, 1859. 

55. Ibid., July 4, 6, 9, 1859. An. editorial cites the Bryant editorial from the New York 
Evening Post. 

56. New York Daily Tribune, July 13, 1859. 

57. Wautoma (Wis.) Journal, July 6, 1859. 

58. Worcester (Mass.) Daily Spy, July 20, 1859. 

59. Ibid., July 9, 1859 ; Atchison Union, September 3, 1859. 



142 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The South had two spokesmen of discordant views. Alexander H. 
Stephens, at Augusta, Ga., spoke for two hours to an enthusiastic 
audience. As he saw it, "Fanaticism might be spreading at the 
North, but Slavery is getting stronger, and will continue to get 
stronger, whether in the Union or out of it." He continued: ". . . 
there is very little prospect of the South settling any territory out- 
side of Texas ; in fact, little or no prospect at all, unless we increase 
our African stock." 60 On the other hand, Robert Barnwell Rhett, of 
South Carolina, held the South was already so enfeebled that 
sooner or later the death knell of the Union must toll. 61 

Amid popping champagne corks enthusiastic South Carolinians at 
Hickory Grove toasted the African slave trade "regarded by some as 
a step towards dissolution. If it be that thus the Union will be dis- 
solved, in God's name, we say, let the step be taken." 62 At Charles- 
ton, S. C., the governor himself forwarded the sentiment for "The 
4th of July, 1861. May that anniversary find us in the full enjoy- 
ment of equality in the Union, or a noble southern republic, com- 
manding the respect and admiration of the world." 63 

Within Kansas territory people approached the Fourth of July, 
1859, with gratitude and with hope. Were they to be worthy in- 
heritors of the liberty established by their fathers, they must, once 
annually, call to mind the peculiar trials and triumphs of 1776. 64 
Communities where border war had been rampant were thankful 
for the era of good feeling recently restored. 65 Elwood believed it 
"no bad occasion to quietly celebrate our own recently achieved 
territorial independence in conjunction with the national affair." 66 
Lawrence "enlarged the Union" on its flag by the addition of two 
new stars representing Minnesota and Oregon. With "Kansas still 
knocking," G. W. Brown hoped by the next Fourth that another 
star would be added for her. 67 G. 0. Chase believed it took 
"Young America, after all, to arouse the drooping patriotism of the 
country." 68 The proposed sale of three million acres of Kansas land 
promised, too, to revive lagging national interest in the territory. 69 

Lawrence had a gay Fourth in 1859. Bells were rung; guns were 

60. New York Daily Tribune, July 6, 11, 1859. 

61. Ibid., July 14, 1859. 

62. Worcester Daily Spy, July 16, 1859. 

63. Ibid., July 11, 1859. 

64. Topeka Tribune, June 9, 1859. 

65. Fort Scott Democrat, July 14, 18.59. 

66. The Free Press, Elwood, July 2, 9, 1859; New York Daily Tribune, July 23, 1859. 

67. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 9, 1859. 

68. Atchison Union, July 2, 1859. 

69. Redpath-Hinton, op. cit., p. 108. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 143 

fired; flags were displayed. At night citizens set off fireworks. 
Three events made the day unforgetable. Mabie's circus of "fine 
living specimens of wild animals" and clever clowns gave three 
exhibitions at a pavilion. "Our country cousins were in in immense 
numbers, and the elephants, the tall woman, the fat man, the ser- 
pents, and the monkeys were almost stared out of countenance. 
The circus had a fat day, and the men who had the gold watch 
and trinket raffles had a rich harvest of halves and quarters." The 
gallant military company, the Stubbs, held a parade, led by their 
own band of four drums ; the men made an especially neat appear- 
ance in black frocks, white pants, blue sashes, and fatigue caps. 
They carried their original Sharps rifles. An unexpected explosion of 
fireworks in the show window of Frazer and Hughes in the Eldridge 
House caused a sudden display and a terrific cracking. All the 
combustibles in the window burned, damaging watches, clocks, 
jewelry, and fine instruments; the loss amounted to $400 or $500. 70 

Topeka kept the day in new way for the territory. The booming 
of cannon wakened citizens long before daybreak to prepare for a 
balloon ascension. Business houses closed part of the day, but 
opened after noon to accommodate country folk who wished to 
trade. "The spirit was here on the Fourth." People had an ex- 
ceedingly good time. At night the young folk "figured extensively" 
in an elaborate display of fireworks. 71 

Tecumseh held an all-day program in a grove near Copeland 
Spring east of town. The exercises, all markedly patriotic, included 
readings, an oration, several talks, and the singing of a glee to the 
tune of "Hail Columbia." James M. Newsom and J. S. Ridley 
were the most eloquent speakers. Toasts and sentiments both pre- 
ceded and followed the "magnificent dinner" to which people were 
summoned by a bell. The toast to the memory of John Adams was 
"drank in silence," but to the state of Oregon, for which a new star 
was tacked to the banner above the speakers' rostrum, the response 
was tumultuous applause. Thirty-two guns were fired here in honor 
of the states. At sundown the assembly disbanded to prepare for 
the evening ball in the illuminated courthouse; for the Tribune 
correspondent this event was a failure, music not stirring so strong 
a feeling in him as patriotism. "Sic transit gloria die." But he who 
wrote for the Herald of Freedom noted that the dance lasted until 

70. Lawrence Republican, July 7, 1859 ; Herald of Freedom^ July 9, 1859. 

71. The Topeka Tribune, July 7, 1859. 



144 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the grey streaks of dawn, and added that only the location of the 
capitol at Tecumseh could make the people rejoice so much again. 72 

Auburn had a parade of the Auburn Guards with drill and ex- 
ercises to martial music supplied by Auburn and Burlingame. Pa- 
triotic exercises followed in the hall, and the band played "Yankee 
Doodle" creditably. The dinner, in the dining room of the hotel, 
"spoke well for the untiring efforts of our worthy landlord, Daniel 
Foltz." Toasts interspersed with music provided a pleasant after- 
noon in the hall. A display of fireworks and an orderly dance for 
the youngsters were the entertainments of the evening. 73 

Nearly every community about Emporia kept the Fourth in some 
special way for the "hardy and intelligent settlers." In Emporia 
itself people planned to dance, sing, speak, read, and eat big dinners 
to "work off their 'pent up patriotik phelinks.' " The Rev. E. Evans 
invited the community at large to hear a religious lecture by himself 
and an address by the Rev. Mr. Fraker. Five prominent citizens, 
L. D. Bailey, P. B. Plumb, A. G. Procter, L. T. Heritage, and D. 
Alexander, went on a hunting and exploring expedition to the Wal- 
nut, Whitewater, and Cow creek countries, stopping at Chelsea for 
Mr. Bailey to deliver a Fourth of July oration. The Chelsea pro- 
gram of formal exercises in the grove followed by a dinner, passed 
off quietly. Forest Hill planned a picnic. W. H. Mickel of Waterloo 
gave a cotillion party on the evening of the Fourth, with supper 
"one of the best we have set down to in Kansas." Fremont held 
an all-day gathering, noteworthy for "no swearing, no whisky, and 
no fighting." A procession and formal exercises preceded a "feast 
of fat things" so abundant that not half of what was provided was 
eaten on the ground. Of the sixteen toasts one is now of interest: 
"The citizens of Kansas, . . . Too proud to beg admission into 
the Union too courteous to decline it if honestly offered." 74 Al- 
though Cottonwood Falls had no formal observance of the Fourth, 
many of the citizens remembered the day in becoming manner. The 
firing of guns and the ringing of cow bells greeted the dawn. Perti- 
nent speeches and toasts, drunk in cold water, were other holiday 
features. 75 

On a journey to Wyandotte, July 4, 1859, S. N. Wood, editor of 
The Kansas Press, "spent 45 miles of the best Fourth" he ever saw. 
Sleeping on the floor, fighting bed bugs, and dining on "slap jacs" 
along the way, made him think of Washington and his hardships on 

72. Ibid.; Herald of Freedom, July 23, 1859. 

73. Lawrence Republican, July 28, 1869. 

74. The Kansas News, Emporia, May 28, July 2, 9, 16, 1859. 
76. The Kansas Press, Cottonwood Falls, July 11, 1859. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 145 

the Delaware. At Uniontown 76 at noon he found 500 prosperous- 
looking men, women, and children listening to an oration that con- 
cluded with the "startling announcement that 'there is a great deal 
of political corruption in the country/ which remark we understood 
applied only to Johnson county, and the populous town of Ox- 
ford." 77 J. Lockhart, of Uniontown, wrote that the celebration was 
two-fold: Sabbath-school and national. The Reverends Mr. Beach 
of Olathe and Mr. Storrs of St. Louis spoke for the school ; Dr. W. A. 
Brown and the Hon. P. Graves of Uniontown were the orators. The 
collation, "of the luxuries of life," provided by the women, was abun- 
dant, the sixty-foot table being burdened at four different times. 78 
The number of groceries in Uniontown surprised the visiting editor, 
S. N. Wood, who journeying on, had tea in Olathe and arrived at 
Shawnee at dark. There at the Shawnee House a large cotillion party 
was "trip [p] ing the light fantastic toe" to the tune of "Washington's 
Grand March." White folk and Indians united in the dance. "At 
midnight we 'set down' (or rather stood up) to one of the best sup- 
pers ever gotten up in Kansas." At one or two o'clock he retired, 
this time to a couch. 

Another traveler in the territory in 1859, the Rev. Nathan Taylor, 
wrote that "on Monday morning about 5 o'clock, in company with 
a number of others, en route for Leroy, to celebrate the 4th, I started 
[from Ottumwa and] got to Bro. Earnhea[r]ts at 2 o'clock." The 
day being remarkably warm, the traveler was exceedingly glad to 
reach a place where he might rest his weary limbs and refresh his ex- 
hausted frame. So, he presumed, was Bill, his horse. 79 

One-year-old Humboldt planned a celebration on a large scale, to 
"wind up" with a ball at the Humboldt House, kept by Barbee and 
Sphar. Invitation cards went out to citizens of southern Kansas. 80 

Fort Scott boasted of a "vast concourse" collecting in the Plaza in 
the early morning of the holiday to hear roaring cannon, spirit-stir- 
ring drums, ear-piercing fife, exploding Chinese crackers, and shout- 
ing, laughing youth. At 11 o'clock the people marched to martial 
music to grounds set apart for formal, patriotic exercises. Next they 
"addressed themselves" to a dinner spread by "the fair ones" on 
board tables that groaned with substantiate and delicacies. Then 

76. Uniontown was at the head of Bull creek on the Santa Fe trail in Johnson county. 
It was also known as McCamish. 

77. The Kansas Press, Cottonwood Falls, July 25, 1859. 
TS. Lawrence Republican, July 14, 1859. 

79. Taylor, Nathan, "Diary," entry of July 4, 1859. MSS. division, Kansas State His- 
torical Society. 

80. Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, Mo., June 11, 1859. 

10-2603 



146 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

they listened to fourteen regular toasts, each of which was followed 
by different patriotic music. Two toasts were singularly appropriate: 

Our Own Kansas. Emancipated from the reckless domination of unprin- 
cipled demagogues and their minions of both extremes. . . . Music, "Rural 
Felicity." 

The Union oj the States. Forever palsied be the hand, that would seek to 
break the ties which bind them in a sacred brotherhood. . . . Music, "Firm 
United Let Us Stand." 

At dusk the assembly dispersed, some to their homes, some to the 
ball and banquet in the Fort Scott Hotel. There the gallant and gay 
from every part of Bourbon county, "chased the glowing hours with 
flying feet, until after the 'wee short hour ayont the twal.' r So suc- 
cessful was the day's entertainment that visitors went away believ- 
ing "that a portion at least, of the citizens of Fort Scott, were neither 
BORDER RUFFIANS nor JAYHAWKERS." 81 

Linn county communities with the exception of Brooklin united in 
one celebration in a grove one and one-half miles from Moneka. The 
people were "well-dressed, respectable and intelligent," a large por- 
tion being "fine looking women." T. Dwight Thacher of Lawrence 
was the orator, using for his theme not the freedom of the American 
nation but the manner of acquiring that freedom. A military band 
furnished stirring music. Over 800 people partook of the free dinner 
served from long tables arranged to enclose a circle and "tastefully 
adorned" with bouquets of wild prairie flowers. John 0. Wattles was 
toastmaster. The sentiments were "piquant and appropriate." One, 
to Capt. James Montgomery as "a model hero of modern times," 
elicited rapturous cheers. Montgomery, as marshal of the day, re- 
sponded, reviewing the struggle of southeastern Kansas to become 
free of the slave power. No man stood higher in Linn county, said 
the visiting editor-orator, "than the brave though persecuted James 
Montgomery." 82 

Leavenworth had a hot, oppressive Fourth. To the Lawrence cor- 
respondent, "Wauzee," the city only half-roused from its Van Wink- 
lish dormancy for any of the holiday events. The firing of cannon 
preceded "the plumed troop, the neighing steed and all the quality, 
pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war," visible from the 
Esplanade. Then people whistled "Yankee Doodle," eulogized the 
flag, glorified the American eagle, and tried to drown their own dis- 
comfort in sherry cobblers and lager. At noon the city ran out of ice 
and the von Swartz thermometer "bust." The Hibernian Associa- 

81. Fort Scott Democrat, July 14, 1859. Marmiton is said also to have had a celebration. 

82. Lawrence Republican, July 14, 1859. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 147 

tion dancing upon the hills beyond South Leavenworth looked like 
water-nymphs. "Towards evening three small boys let off a fire- 
cracker, and a gentleman on Delaware street attempted to read the 
Declaration of Independence but relapsed into a placid slumber on 
arriving at the seventh line." A Dutchman tried to institute a sau- 
sage lottery but his speculation fizzled. At the National at night, in 
a performance of Macbeth, Shakespeare shared the fate of Duncan 
and Banquo. 83 

At the Delaware crossing of the Kaw river a volunteer orator en- 
tertained his "feller-citizens" with the question as to who "on this 
prognostic anniversary" can sit supinely down and not revert "to the 
great epochs of the Revolution to the blood be-spangled plains of 
Bunker Hill, Lexington, New Orleans, Boney Vista, and Black 
Jack," and not follow the heroes of those times to the enjoyment of 
present-day privileges that "fall like heavenly dew on every Ameri- 
can citizen, from the forests of Maine to the everglades of Florida, 
and from the fisheries of the Atlantic coasts to the yellow banks of 
Pike's Peak." Cheers and prolonged shouts followed each local allu- 
sion. Then the crowd repaired to the corner grocery for a free treat. 84 

Atchison kept the Fourth in two ways in 1859. Business men gen- 
erally closed their shops. The Sunday schools had a procession un- 
der the direction of Gen. S. C. Pomeroy to a grove for exercises and 
"a sumptuous dinner ... for Old and Young America." In 
the evening "the beauty and fashion of the city" joined in a dance at 
the Massasoit House. 85 

Elwood had exercises of more political significance than any other 
Kansas community. F. P. Stanton was the orator of the day. D. W. 
Wilder read the Declaration of Independence. Plans for the day 
were elaborate. A salute of 33 guns and the ringing of bells an- 
nounced the advent of the Fourth, and fireworks at night concluded 
the entertainment. The ferry ran free, allowing every one to cross 
and recross with "not a cent out." The "good old-fashioned Free 
Dinner" was provided by city council appropriation and citizen sub- 
scription. Although the wide reputation of the orator did not actu- 
ally draw so large an attendance as Elwood had prepared for, the 
great mass of citizens "from our own back country" gratified the 
editor who wrote in approval of ex-Secretary Stanton, his ability, 
and most of his utterances, but not of his position on slavery. Ref- 
erence to slavery as "God-ordained" and as of "temporary service" 

83. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 16, 1859, letter dated July 5 and signed "Wauzee." 

84. The Kansas News, Emporia, July 30, 1859. 

85. Atchison Union, July 2, 9, 1859. 



148 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to the nation, led the editor to conclude the oration would not meet 
with general approval in the North or in the South. 

The orator had argued, however, that the institution would ulti- 
mately disappear; the political constitution of the people, he said, 
would do away with it as an obstacle to progress. He would now 
leave the disputed question to the territories to be settled, there as 
elsewhere, by the people; "even if this [privilege] be not a matter of 
absolute right, it is a small concession to be made for the sake of 
peace and harmony." He added that he did not believe that the 
South would ever re-open the African slave trade to "fill our country 
. . . with cannibal Africans." At the end he urged upon the 
people forbearance for the sake of the Union, in emulation of the 
spirit of its founders. 86 

The observance farthest west in 1859 was in Denver. W. H. 
Goode, who spent his third Fourth of July in Kansas territory there, 
wrote of the occasion as "the first Rocky Mountain celebration of 
our national independence." The formal exercises consisted of 
prayer, reading of the Declaration of Independence, "a chaste and 
appropriate oration," enlivening band music, and a benediction. 
Absence of all drinking, swearing, and carousing was gratifying to 
the missionary who elsewhere described Denver as having 150 
houses and shanties with liquor stands in abundance and gambling 
on large scale. 87 Near Golden City, A. F. Garrison, writing on 
July 4, however, did not even note the significance of the day, so 
impressed was he by the thrifty scene around Gregory's diggings 
where within six square miles there were from 400 to 600 cabins, 
and where at least 10,000 men were at work mining daily from 
$30,000 to $50,000. 88 Toward Jackson's diggings, Sylvester Davis 
noted that "the Miners burnt some Powder this Morning but worked 
about all day & some of them untill 12 o'clock at night." Prospect- 
ing had not paid in this neighborhood, yielding but 10 to 30 cents 
the pan. 89 Still in the Rockies but farther west, en route from 
Laramie to South Pass, on his overland journey, Horace Greeley 
spent an unhappy Fourth, being ill from having drunk bad creek 
water and from having lost his trunk and carpet bag in Sweetwater 
river. "I would rather have sunk a thousand dollars there," he 
wrote. 90 

86. The Elwood Free Press, June 25, July 2, 9, 1859 ; New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 
13, 23, 1859. 

'S7. Goode, William H., Outposts of Zion . . . (Cincinnati, 1864), pp. 420-422. 

88. New York Daily Tribune, July 21, 1859. 

89. "Diary of Sylvester Davis," April 21 to October 27, 1859. New Mexico Historical 
Review, Santa Fe, N. M., v. VI, pp. 397, 398, entries of July 4, 5, 1859. 

90. Greeley, Horace, An Overland Journey, From New York to San Francisco, in the Sum- 
mer of 1859 (C. M. Saxton, Barker, & Co., New York, 1860), pp. 186, 187. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 149 

1860 

A band of FREEMEN we go forth 

To battle with the foe; 
From East to West, from South to North, 

We'll lay the monster low: 
We'll lay the monster low, hurrah ! 

We'll lay the monster low ; 
From East to West, from South to North, 

We'll lay the monster low. 

R. Thayer?*- 

In 1860 the approaching national campaign colored the Fourth of 
July celebrations throughout the country, including the territory 
of Kansas. The Philadelphia (Pa.) Ledger noted that "the penny- 
a-liners who write Fourth of July orations to order" found the de- 
mand limited this year. 92 At the North, however, there was no 
dearth of patriotic talk, of slightly more independent origin. As 
ever before, it all reverted to the "Faith of the Fathers," expressed 
in the Declaration of Independence, but the reversions now were 
avowedly political and Republican. In the campaign documents 
of the new party the penny-a-liners might well have found their 
rival in the North. At the South, though, the Fourth of July had 
lost its natural savor. The principles of the Declaration no longer 
had significance enough there for sincere remembrance. Notations of 
Southern holiday events were, in consequence, few and but doubt- 
fully patriotic. 

Kansas was still a bone of political contention. Two successive 
federal administrations had failed to make her a slave state. The 
house had now voted to admit the territory under her own consti- 
tution, but the senate committee on territories, under the chair- 
manship of Sen. James S. Green, refused to recommend the bill 
unless the boundaries were changed to include again the Rocky 
Mountain gold region. He claimed Kansas would be a weak, in- 
efficient state without the western desert. The Republicans as- 
serted this position was but a "low pettifogging trick" of the Sham 
Democratic party, the real reason for their opposition lying in Kan- 
sas' having "turned out not only a Free-Labor but a Republican 
State." "To make her stretch like a tape-worm over tens of thou- 
sands of square miles of woodless, waterless desert, . . . con- 
secrated by eternal fitness as well as immemorial use to the lean 
wolf, the prairie-dog, and the rattle-snake," was to Horace Greeley, 

91. From "Freedom's Battle Song." 

92. New York Daily Tribune, July 7, 1860. 



150 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"a dodge at once atrocious and contemptible." The people of would- 
be Kansas had by their constitutional action, rejected this naked 
waste ; the Pike's Peakers were vehemently repugnant to the idea of 
being linked at all in statehood with Kansas. To the editor, the 
senatorial plan was but a flimsy, transparent "thimble-rig" of the 
Democratic party to continue the wholesale system of fraud begun 
in the squatter-sovereignty clause of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. 93 
Silence on the Fourth of July, 1860, was, therefore, expedient for 
the Democrats; but so nearly did public sentiment through the 
North approach unanimity with the main doctrines of the Republi- 
can party that spokesmen generally felt it no discourtesy there to 
speak out. So germane to the occasion were their views that they 
believed they spoke the truth, not as partisans but as brothers. 

Massachusetts boasted of keeping the Fourth better than any 
other section of the country. Edward Everett, in a right-about-face 
now declared the American experiment successful. George Lunt at- 
tributed all progressive social and political revolutions to the free 
discussion provided by the press. C. F. Adams saw an excellent 
opportunity to crush out squatter sovereignty and all its supporters. 
Henry Wilson agreed with Lincoln that we must as a nation regard 
slavery as wrong. Charles Sumner thought that the time had come 
to make "natural rights . . . legal rights." 94 

Lincoln's son, Robert, read the Declaration of Independence at 
Stratham Hill, N. H. 95 At Montpelier, Vt., a small girl remembered 
that Kansas deserved a banner in the circlet of "thirty-four." 96 
New York was variously mindful of the national anniversary in 
1860. Celebrations ranged from tight-rope ascensions in fire over 
Niagara to jubilant praise of liberty. Newspaper correspondence 
revived Douglas' remark that the signers of the Declaration must 
have referred to the white race alone and not to the African in 
declaring all men created free and equal. G. W. Curtis, in "The 
Faith of the Fathers," declared that the equality of men was the 
eternal, essential American idea. 97 At North Elba friends of free- 
dom from far and wide gathered over the grave of John Brown. 
Thaddeus Hyatt was the orator; Richard J. Hinton also spoke as 
an Abolitionist. 98 

93. Ibid., June 7, 9, 1860. 

94. Ibid., July 7, 9, 10, 1860. See articles quoting C. F. Adams, G. W. Curtis and 
Charles Sumner. 

95. Ibid., July 7, 1860; Elwood Free Press, July 21, 1860. 

96. Hutchinson, Wm., letter dated July 16, 1860, in Vermont Watchman, Montpelier. 
"Scrapbook of Wm. Hutchinson," v. II, in library, Kansas State Historical Society. 

97. New York Daily Tribune, June 27, 29, July 9, 1860. 

98. Ibid., July 12, 1860 ; The Neosho Valley Register, Burlington, August 4, 1860. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 151 

In far-away California the Rev. T. Starr King believed the United 
States was now "in the forenoon of the glorious day." " In Ne- 
braska territory, however, an inglorious Indian raid characterized 
this Fourth, Sioux Indians attacking and destroying the Pawnee 
village at Genoa when nearly all the Pawnee braves were absent. 100 

In the South the press generally wrote extravagantly of light- 
hearted, care-free celebrations, 101 but The Tobacco Plant of Clarks- 
ville, Va., hoped the case of the master who on July 4 whipped his 
Negro woman Jane to death, tying her to a tree at eight o'clock and 
flogging her at intervals until eleven o'clock, would appear less 
shocking and barbarous when the facts were known. 102 In Wash- 
ington President Buchanan passed the Fourth in the executive man- 
sion, unintruded upon "by the people, being left to seriously con- 
template the present distracted state of the country, and the dis- 
grace which his unfortunate Administration has brought upon it." 103 

Within Kansas territory itself twenty-five communities are re- 
corded as having planned to keep the day appropriately. William 
Hutchinson wrote that the observances were wanting in enthusiasm, 
the citizens naturally asking, "What have we as Kansas men to 
celebrate on that day?" 104 Nevertheless, editors and orators reas- 
serted the American principles of 1776, and they urged the incul- 
cation in territorial youth of the same eighty-four old doctrines. 
Through May and June the local press agitated suitable celebration. 
Topeka wanted an old-fashioned festival to kindle anew the fires 
of patriotism and to show her loyalty to the union; she also feared 
that otherwise her youth would "find a place of deposit for a couple 
of hundred dollars in loose change, in Auburn, Tecumseh, or some 
other sea-port." 105 The "Southerners" at Indianola who had found 
out for what the Fourth was remarkable had fixed for "one grand 
celebration" to dedicate their lives anew to the glorious cause. 106 
Burlington tried to make every man and woman a committee of one 
to impress holiday visitors with its hospitality; for guidance of its 
youth, the editor wanted to "let the germs be inoculated with the 
ideas of Union, Liberty, and Progress!" 107 The editor of the Fort 

99. Emporia News, March 16, 1861. 

100. The Neosho Valley Register, Burlington, August 11, 1860. 

101. New York Daily Tribune, July 9, 1860 ; Fort Scott Democrat, September 29, 1860. 

102. New York Daily Tribune, July 18, 1860. 

103. Ibid., July 7, 1860, a reprint from The Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pa. 

104. Hutchinson, Wm., correspondence dated July 7, 1860, over signature of "Vigil," to 
Chicago Press and Tribune, in "Scrapbook of Wm. Hutchinson," v. II. 

105. Topeka Tribune, May 19, June 9, 16, 1860. 

106. Ibid., June 23, 1860. 

107. The Neosho Valley Register, Burlington, June 9, 30, 1860. 



152 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Scott Democrat explained that the "lack of matter in this week's 
paper" was due to its being Fourth of July week. 108 Tola planned 
magnificently to entertain a "multitude," including the citizens of 
Fort Scott. For its "dancing men" it arranged a cotillion party, as 
did Mound City. 109 In Lawrence one editor would "upon this na- 
tional Sabbath, let us 'to the law and to the testimony' to establish 
us immovably in the faith of our fathers." no And Wyandotte 
would assemble its patriots to demonstrate the impossibility of dis- 
solving the union. 111 

Citizens of Bloomington kept the Fourth of July, 1860, with much 
spirit, but without firecrackers or drunkenness. Convening in the 
walnut grove of J. C. Steele at an early hour, they had a morning 
program, a basket picnic, volunteer toasts, an afternoon address, 
and an evening dance. The morning prayer of the Rev. John Cope- 
land thanked God for liberty enjoyed and implored Him for the 
blessing to be extended to the millions in our own land wickedly 
deprived of it. The oration of T. D. Thacher 112 embraced a rapid 
survey of the progress made by our country in territorial expansion, 
commerce and art, useful inventions, literature, including the press, 
and of the progress of liberal sentiments throughout the world dur- 
ing the period of our national existence. In a short, spirited address 
to children and youth the Rev. Richard Cordley inculcated the idea 
that character is at the bottom of all true progress and greatness. 
At noon the assemblage separated into a hundred little groups more 
or less, to enjoy unrestrainedly the foods each had provided. The 
toasts were to "The Day We Celebrate," to "The Heroes of 76, 
and the Kansas Heroes of '56," to "The Pacific Railroad," to "The 
Territory of Kansas and Its Natural Beauty," and to "The Freedom 
of the Press." The afternoon address by Judge John A. Wakefield 
was of political cast, in favor of Lincoln ; the speaker knew Lincoln 
personally, both having fought in the Black Hawk war. The large, 
airy upper room of the steam mill was setting for the Independence 
dance. 113 

Baldwin City also had a day and evening celebration. Students 
of Baker University were in high glee, tedious examinations just 
being over. At dawn of the morning of the Fourth "the boys with 

108. Fort Scott Democrat, July 7, 1860. 

109. Ibid., June 9, 23, 1S60. 

110. Lawrence Republican, July 5, 1860. 

111. The Weekly Western Argus, Wyandotte, June 23, 1860. 

112. The Emporia News, June 30, 1860, said Governor Reeder would deliver the oration 
at Bloomington. 

113. Lawrence Republican, June 21, 28, July 12, 1860. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 153 

their Sunday coats, bright eyes, horses, drums, and other fixings 
were up, out, and eager for the sport." At nine o'clock the camp 
ground and grove took on an academic appearance as college fac- 
ulty, students, a dozen or so clergy, and Gen. J. H. Lane, orator of 
the day, arrived for the forenoon exercises. Students described as 
"in fine trim for the rostrum," delivered orations and read essays, 
interspersed with vocal and instrumental music, which was good but 
not adequate "for the open air on a windy day." In the afternoon 
General Lane "did his best, and he can do considerable when he 
tries. Some of the ladies thought his eulogy upon woman a little 
suspicious, because so lavishly put on." Later in the afternoon pro- 
cessions arrived from Prairie City and Blackjack. In the evening 
"Mrs. President Davis gave a party to the Philoputhean Society 
and visitors . . . which was a grand time." 114 

Three-year-old Blackjack gathered 800 or 900 enterprising ener- 
getic people from the surrounding thickly-dotted prairies for its all- 
day festival. At sunrise people began to assemble. At nine o'clock 
they raised a pole for the flag of the Union. The Sunday school of 
Blackjack, headed by the band, welcomed visiting Sunday schools 
with greetings and cheers. At 10:30 the Rev. Mr. Aspenwall of 
Palmyra made an address to the Sunday school children "replete 
with good moral instructions to the youth, and very appropriate to 
the occasion." Dr. O'Neil spoke to them on the principles of civil 
liberty and the Declaration of Independence. At twelve Marshal 
S. H. Shaw and Capt. D. Fearer escorted the audience to an arbor 
where a free dinner was served under the management of Colonel 
Jewitt of Leavenworth. After numerous toasts, read by the secre- 
tary, the people formed "a grand march" to Baldwin City to escort 
the speaker of the afternoon, General Lane, to Blackjack. About 
thirty wagons, several buggies, and other vehicles, accommodating 
over 500 passengers, joined in the march. On their return all sat 
comfortably in the shaded arbor to listen to the Declaration of In- 
dependence, read by A. W. Smith, and the hour address of General 
Lane, delivered "amid the plaudits of his hearers." 115 

At Gardner, Johnson county, the Hon. John Lockhart, in a Fourth 
of July talk, reviewed the history of American Independence, dis- 
cussed the obligations and responsibilities upon citizens of all times, 
and challenged youth to rise to responsibility from low positions as 
have Henry Clay, Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Webster, and Ben- 
jamin Franklin. 116 

114. Ibid., July 12, 19, 1860. 

115. Ibid., June 28, July 19, 1860. 

116. Ibid., July 19, 1860. 



154 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The Fourth of July in Topeka, in spite of all preliminary editorial 
exhortations to patriotism, proved unusually quiet, most citizens 
going to neighboring towns for the day. A few family groups 
marked the occasion in their own domiciles, apparently believing 
that 

" 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 
Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home." m 

To the editor of the Tribune the day seemed so remarkably still that 
"unmistakable sensations of ennui were visible in all who . . . 
were seen in the street." Five packs of firecrackers and five rockets 
constituted the fireworks. "The most entertaining feature of the 
day was a spotted dog which we saw running down the avenue. He 
hadn't any tail, but we thought he had ought not to be blamed for 
that, and remarked the same to a friend, who said he thought as 
much." 118 In the evening the women of Topeka gave a well at- 
tended festival in Museum Hall from which they realized $60 
toward the re-erection of the Congregational church. 119 

Celebrations near by that especially attracted the citizenry of 
Topeka were those at Tecumseh, Rochester, Indianola, and Auburn. 
The "camp ground" near Tecumseh creek, where a Methodist con- 
ference was in session "eclipsed" all other Fourth of July celebra- 
tions about. The place was a "gay, sprightly land of mirth and so- 
cial joy," with a goodly gathering, ranging from rosy-cheeked juve- 
niles to grey-haired, wrinkle-faced age. The Sunday school chil- 
dren of Topeka carried a "beautiful banner" made by the Topeka 
church. 120 At Rochester the people enjoyed a quiet picnic in an oak 
and walnut grove on the bank of Soldier creek; it was "just the 
place for a 'feast of reason and a flow of soul.' >; Indianola held a 
free barbecue in which nearly one thousand people participated. 
Both the food and the patriotic speeches were reported as abun- 
dant. 121 A "phite" supplied part of the "phun," in which Topeka 
folk invested heavily. Some Indianola gentlemen had engaged "W. 
Hisky and B. Randy." 122 Samuel J. Reader reviewed the day's 
events tellingly in his diary. 

... Up early. Fired cannon in town 10 or 12 times & played drum & 
fife. I blew on clarionet & flute. Shot revolver, rifle & shot gun. . . . The 

117. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 7, 1860. 

118. Topeka Tribune, July 7, 1860. The Elwood Free Press, of July 14, 1860, quotes this 
story and in editorial comment says: "Now that was a celebration worth talking about. Good 
dog, too; but he hadn't no tail. . . . And he was a spotted dog." 

119. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 7, 1860. 

120. Ibid., June 30, July 7, 1860. 

121. Ibid., July 7, 1860. 

122. Topeka Tribune, July 7, 1S60. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 155 

flag rope cut. I helped carry water. ... All formed in procession. . . . 
All on ground. Not seats enough. . . . Button prayed long & loud; then 
Jack Thompson got up and read his awfully sublime speech of 24 pages. Very 
tedious. Got done at last. Old Mathews got me to hold the drum while he 
beat. . . . A fat Rev. spoke a few minutes, then all to tables. I waited 
till there was room. Got bread and meat. Scarce at that. ... A ball at 
Pucket's. "Sarpint" here yet. . . , 123 

Auburn varied the usual routine of a patriotic Fourth of July cele- 
bration by unrolling for the first time to spectators the "Panorama 
of Kansas," a part of a 3,000 square yard canvas painting delineat- 
ing Kansas villages and scenery. "Auburn was all smiles on the oc- 
casion . . . winding up with a ball in the evening." 124 

Three-year-old Mission creek settlement, twenty miles west of 
Topeka, held formal patriotic exercises, followed by a bountiful pic- 
nic collation, "highly creditable to the originators, and still more 
satisfactory to the eaters." A never-to-be-forgotten dance on the 
flowery green concluded the entertainment. The State Record de- 
scribed the event as "a real mass celebration," every individual in 
the settlement being present to the number of nearly 300. 125 

Emporia planned long for a proper celebration of July 4, 1860. 
Every one was invited to participate, even in the arrangements. 
Breckinridge (now Lyon) county was on hand en masse; Madison, 
Chase, and Morris counties sent numerous representatives. Among 
the officers of the day were twelve vice-presidents from twelve dif- 
ferent towns. The festivities occupied the entire day and evening. 
Three bowers constructed for the occasion provided shelter for the 
speaking, for the dinner, and for the dancing. People came "singly, 
in couples, and crowds," from a 35-mile radius. From twenty-five 
hundred to three thousand persons were in attendance. A formal 
program occupied the morning. J. H. Watson was the orator. The 
dinner was "unexceptionable," in kind, in preparation, and in quan- 
tity with considerable bread, beef, ham, and chicken to spare. Poli- 
tics had its place among the Democrats of Breckinridge county 
who met and moved to regard with contempt the appointment of E. 
Goddard, Republican, as deputy marshal of Breckinridge and Madi- 
son counties. A display of fireworks constituted general evening en- 
tertainment. Fifty couples of young folk enjoyed the dance until 
the "we sma' hours." High wind unexpectedly prevented the ascen- 
sion of a large paper balloon, constructed for the occasion by George 

123. "Samuel J. Reader's Diary," v. V, entry of July 4, I860. MSS. division, Kansas 
State Historical Society. 

124. Kansas State Record, Topeka, June 23, July 7, 1860. 

125. Ibid., July 7, 1860. 



156 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Wait. So impressive was the anniversary gathering of three-year- 
old Emporia that prospectors recently come from the states resolved 
to look no further for locations. 126 

In Manhattan the various religious denominations united in a 
Sunday school picnic on the Fourth. In the morning the children 
marched to the spacious, umbrageous grove of T. J. Roosa to listen 
to a program that was both religious and patriotic, to enjoy refresh- 
ments supplied by each family present, to hear toasts and senti- 
ments, and to participate in a "general sing." At night Messrs. 
Beebe and Briggs gave a successful ball in the Peoples' Hall. Messrs. 
Pipher and Newell assisted on the floor. The cool evening, the sil- 
very moonlight, the commodious, brilliantly-illuminated hall, and 
the temporary restaurant dispensing ice cream and other delicate 
luxuries all conspired to satisfy the seventy-five happy couples pres- 
ent. Many of the guests came from neighboring towns. 127 

Citizens of Wabaunsee listened to a Fourth of July oration, pre- 
pared on less than a week's notice, by W. C. Dunton of the Man- 
hattan bar. After reviewing the establishment of the Union, the 
speaker read from the letter of John Adams of July 5, 1776, in which 
he predicted the celebration of the Fourth by the firing of cannon, 
by bonfires, and by illuminations. The speaker then praised the in- 
dividual members of the Continental Congress who "still live live 
in our institutions and in the hearts of our countrymen." The Man- 
hattan editor recommended the perusal of the elegant Fourth of 
July oration. 128 

Junction City planned an appropriate celebration for itself and 
vicinity. A procession through the city streets was to lead to the 
park where a patriotic program was to take place. Maj. W. W. Her- 
bert was the chosen orator; he accepted but apologized, in advance, 
"for being, most likely, unable to entertain you on that occasion." 
The procession was to return from the park to the hall where J. F. 
Schmidt would serve the collation. The toast committee consisted of 
Dr. J. B. Woodward, J. R. McClure, S. B. Garrett, and Sam A. 
Medary. The Fort Riley band was to render appropriate music. 129 

At the residence of Harry Custard on Drywood, near Fort Scott, 
was an enthusiastic patriotic celebration. Under an arbor of refresh- 

126. Emporia News, May 5, June 2, 16, 23, 30, July 7, 14, 1860. Owing to business en- 
gagements Thomas Ewing, Jr., of Leavenworth had been unable to comply with an invitation 
to give the Fourth of July address at Emporia. See letter of Thomas Ewing, Jr., to L. Weil, 
June 5, 1860, in "Letter Press Book" of Thomas Ewing, Jr., May 15, 1860, to January 3, 
1861, p. 38. MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

127. Manhattan Express, June 30, July 7, 1860. 

128. Ibid., July 28, 1860. 

129. The Kansas Statesman, Junction City, June 30, 1860. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 157 

ing shade were tables "laden with substantiate and delicacies suffi- 
cient to have fed a crowd five times as large as the one there as- 
sembled." In one corner the host dealt out ice-cold lemonade and 
other beverages to thirsty customers. M. A. Redfield of Vernon 
county, Missouri, presided over the program of several speeches, 
impromptu toasts, and music. Two of the toasts seem now of 
especial significance for the place and the year. 

Our Country. May she always be right ; but right or wrong our country. 

New England. The father and birthplace of Freedom, and Kansas the 
youngest child and pet. 

Fireworks intended for the occasion exploded accidentally but with- 
out injury to any one. "A merry dance in the evening, and a moon- 
light drive home," wrote the Fort Scott reporter, "terminated our 
patriotic labors." 13 

lola had a model celebration with free barbecue dinner served 
from tables 168 feet long. Ice-cold lemonade flowed "free as water." 
Two thousand people were in attendance. Good feeling was mani- 
fest. The procession at 10 o'clock, composed of two- and four-horse 
teams, was one and one-fourth miles long. C. P. Twiss of lola was 
president of the day. William Jones was marshal. C. W. Blair of 
Fort Scott was the orator. Music by the Carlile and lola glee clubs 
interspersed a program of thirteen toasts and sentiments. "A large 
and interesting concourse of ladies" gave spirit to the occasion. A 
"hop" in the evening at the Ross House, with "elegant refection" 
that was recherche, concluded the festivities. 131 

Wyandotte arranged for an assembly of patriots at Castle Garden 
in 1860 to demonstrate the impossibility of dissolving the union of 
states. The neighboring towns of Leavenworth, Atchison, Kansas 
City, and Westport were invited to attend. Gov. Wm. Walker was 
to preside. Salutes of thirty-three guns were to be fired at day- 
break and again at sunrise. A procession to form at Garno House 
under the direction of Marshal J. R. Parr and four assistants was to 
promenade to the grove where Gov. J. P. Root would read the Decla- 
ration of Independence and Wm. Y. Roberts would deliver the ora- 
tion. The Wyandotte glee club and brass band would supply the 
music. The grand national ball at night would be in Castle Garden 
Hall. 132 At sunset on the evening of the Fourth a severe wind and 
hailstorm sweeping up the Missouri river, blew down a building and 

130. Fort Scott Democrat, July 7, 1860. 

131. Ibid., June 9, July 7, 14, 1860. 

132. The Weekly Western Argus, Wyandotte, June 16, 23, 1860. 



158 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tree and damaged one span of the Kaw river bridge in Wyandotte 
and wrought considerable destruction in Quindaro. 133 

At Columbus, Doniphan county, the citizens on two days' notice 
arranged a barbecue, a procession, and a patriotic program for the 
Fourth. By 10 o'clock the crowd gathered in the streets "bringing 
their gifts to the altar of their common country." The brass band 
"discoursed eloquent music." Dr. S. Brown was president of the day. 
L. Silence read the Declaration. With "unalloyed satisfaction" the 
people listened to the orator, E. J. Jenkins, in patriotic vindication 
of the principles and purposes of the fathers of the Republic. 134 

Although Elwood began early to make plans to entertain three 
thousand visitors on the Fourth, it abandoned its arrangement in 
deference to St. Joseph. At night, however, it had a pleasant party 
at the Great Western, though heavy showers diminished the attend- 
ance. Through the day the town had the excitement of a robbery; 
one Hiram Howell stole a valuable gold watch of one Absalom 
Grooms and an officer was in pursuit of the thief. The Elwood edi- 
tor who spent the day in St. Joseph reported "the j oiliest set of 
knock-downs we have ever witnessed. Knives and revolvers were 
scattered round loose, and everybody had a good time." 135 

Monrovia planned a plain, unpretentious celebration. It invited 
the Sunday schools and some private individuals from Atchison and 
Grasshopper Falls. At 10 o'clock on the public square a procession 
of officers, children with their teachers, ladies and gentlemen on 
foot in double line, buggies, and wagons, moved down main street 
to the grove. They had ample supplies of ice-water and of food in 
baskets. For four hours, two before and two after dinner, "this 
large assembly of all ages, from the hoary head down to the nestling 
infant," gave "noiseless attention" to the exercises. Rope swings 
suspended from the trees took the place of crackers and guns. Mr. 
Snyder, superintendent of the Sunday school and General Pomeroy 
of Atchison made addresses. The occasion seemed a general neigh- 
borhood reunion, so pure and kindly was the social intercourse. 136 

White Cloud also had a Sunday school gathering. Citizens, out- 
siders, and strangers joined in the morning exercises in the grove 
south of town. The Rev. Mr. Trickett of Holt county, Missouri, ad- 
dressed the children. V. D. Markham delivered the oration. The 
choir rendered vocal music. At the dinner "there were by far more 

133. Emporia News, July 21, 1880. 

134. Elwood Free Press, July 14, 1860. 
136. Ibid., June 16, 23, July 7, 1860. 

136. Freedom's Champion, Atchison, July 14, 1860. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 159 

consumers than producers." At night the Odd Fellows had a ball at 
the City Hotel, for which the ferry boat brought guests and a mar- 
tial band from Forest City and Oregon. The large company danced 
"until broad daylight," July 5. The supper was ''A, No. 1." m 

Atchison did not keep July 4, 1860, in any public way, but some 
of its citizens attended a pleasant picnic party in a grove on Deer 
creek. Others enjoyed events at Mt. Pleasant, St. Joseph, or Leav- 
enworth. 138 One happening in Atchison, however, made the day 
memorable for the citizens who stayed at home. The steam wagon, 
built in the winter of 1859-1860 by Thomas L. Fortune of Mt. 
Pleasant, to expedite overland travel, made a trial trip on the city 
streets, July 4. The wagon was 20 feet long by eight feet wide, with 
wheels 12 inches wide and eight feet in diameter. Ornamented 
with flags and loaded with a crowd of anxious men and boys, the 
conveyance traveled along the street safely until it failed to turn 
a corner and ran into A. S. Parker's outfitting house, breaking in 
the side of the one-story cottonwood structure. A second engineer 
then backed the wagon into the street and guided it into open 
stretches where it made a speed of eight miles an hour. On soft 
ground, however, when standing still, the ponderous wheels sank 
so deeply into the mud that use for prairie travel was impracticable. 
The spectators were disappointed, and Mr. Fortune, the inventor, 
was disgusted after his great expenditure of time and money. 139 

New settlements in the Rocky Mountain gold region kept the 
Fourth generally. However far from home, immigrants there had 
not wandered beyond the pale of "that good old national institution, 
the Fourth of July." "The best of spirits prevailed among the 
miners," wrote A. D. Richardson to the New York Tribune, but "I 
allude to the animal spirits, and not to the atrocious whisky which 
circulated freely." To the Lawrence Republican he said that the 
large amount of bad whisky made the hilarity somewhat boisterous. 
The exercises embraced orations and social festivities. Golden City 
decorated a spacious hall "with the aromatic boughs of the fir and 
pine, fresh from the mountains which overhang the town." There 
addresses by former residents of eastern Kansas supplied the rhetori- 
cal patriotism and the women of Golden City provided an excellent 
free dinner. In Denver both religious folk and desperadoes marked 

137. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 12, 1860. 

138. Freedom's Champion, Atchison, July 7, 1860. 

139. Root, Frank A., and Connelley, Wm. K, The Overland Stage to California . . . 
(Topeka, 1901), pp. 430, 431; Ingalls, Sheffield, History of Atchison County (Lawrence, 1916), 
pp. 183, 184. Root gave the dimensions of the wheels as 12 inches wide and eight feet in 
diameter, Ingalls had them 20 inches wide and eight feet in diameter. 



160 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the day. Guns fired a national salute at dawn, at noon, and at sun- 
set. A procession of Sabbath school children, of Masons and Ger- 
man Turners in uniform, of ladies riding in a dozen carriages, and 
of band, paraded the streets to Parkinson's grove to listen to an ora- 
tion by Mayor John C. Moore and to see the presentation of a flag 
by the ladies of Denver to the pioneer club. The president of the 
club, who was the oldest inhabitant, having actually dwelt in Den- 
ver "something more than twelve months," responded. At noon the 
children enjoyed a rich collation. On the race course in the after- 
noon James Ennis, a gambler from Camp Floyd, shot and wounded 
John Teef dangerously. By aid of his fellow gamblers who gave him 
a mile on which to leave the country, the desperado escaped arrest. 
The episode made Denver consider formation of a vigilance com- 
mittee. 140 In the Pike's Peak region Indian depredations had led a 
committee to wait upon the Arapahoes and to ask the Secretary of 
War for a government agent. "One humane individual was in favor 
of celebrating 'the Fourth' by 'wiping out' all the Indians; but the 
original suggestion was not adopted." 141 

1861 

Yet better than they think men sometimes act ; 

They strike for symbols, and the world gains truth ; 

If these draw back the nation to her youth, 
With half her stars and all her faith intact, 
Something is gained to Freedom which we want : 

Each boldly claims for self a sovereign throne ; 

And that "a man's a man" 's a truth, alone 
Worth some grand sacrifice, we widely grant. 

A. P. C.142 

The Fourth of July, 1861, was generally conceded to be the most 
important anniversary of the day in the history of the nation; and 
it was also the most significant for Kansas, for on January 29 she 
had at last acquired her statehood. Facing the nation was the ques- 
tion of its continuance as the United States ; and confronting Kansas 
now was the responsibility of sharing in the military defense of the 
Union. Everywhere people awaited the dawn of the Fourth seri- 
ously. Even the gayer features of the traditional celebrations took 
on deeper import. Music was martial and prolific. Powder was no 
longer an idle plaything; flags, drums, crackers now evoked no 

140. New York Daily Tribune, July 13, 23, 1860 ; Freedom's Champion, Atchison, July 
21, 1860; Lawrence Republican, July 26, 1860. 

141. New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1860. 

142. From "War and Slavery," written July 4, 1861, for the New York Tribune. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 161 

sneers; reading of the Declaration of Independence was no where 
this day a funny old joke. Liberty and right were real, personal de- 
sires today ; and the sacrifices of the Fathers entailed actual human 
suffering. Every feature of the 1861 anniversary stirred active 
sympathy. 143 

The English press saw more appreciatively the full meaning of the 
situation than did the domestic writers. "Nothing like this Fourth 
of July," said the London News, "was indeed ever before seen." 
Hitherto the hot summer day had opened similarly from end to end 
of the Union. Although in the North young citizens had made the 
rejoicings and in the South slaves had draped the flags and put up 
the inscriptions to liberty which they could not read, both sections 
had too generally been content with a glorification in which some 
Pharisee exulted hypocritically in the free, united American nation. 
A few Northern Abolitionists had alone refused to countenance such 
deception. Today the whole North had come around to their point of 
view; and the Free States had risen as a man to defend the political 
organization of the country. The South, with its heads of families 
already in camp, now trembled between the alternatives of its own 
military despotism and submission to the national constitution; yet 
to its people, too, this Fourth of July, emblematic of danger, pain, 
and sacrifice, was "a proud and happy day." 144 In Washington, 
where military tents whitened every eminence, 145 William Howard 
Russell, correspondent of the London Times, saw the incongruity of 
grave-faced men carrying long wands with bulging, bright- colored 
rockets on the eve of the Fourth that was to assemble the most im- 
portant congress in American history, the thirty-seventh. On the 
day itself unaccustomed martial pomp filled public streets as New 
York regiments passed in review before President Lincoln and his 
ministers at the White House. In the senate the President's demand 
for men and money received silent approbation; congress "would 
have swallowed twice the totals readily." The only gaiety was at 
night in the lamp-lighted camps of soldiers where crowds of people 
strolled among the lines or danced to band music. 146 "To us who 
war for our constitution and government," wrote William Hutchin- 
son, who was one of the "Frontier Guard" chosen by President Lin- 
coln for White House duty April 18, "this anniversary seems more 

143. New York Daily Tribune, July 4, 1861. 

144. Ibid., July 19, 1861. 

145. Hutchinson, Wm., correspondence to The Kansas State Journal, and over signature 
of "Quill," on July 4, in "Scrapbook of Wm. Hutchinson," v. II. 

146. New York Daily Tribune, August 15, 1861. 

112603 



162 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

dear than all former ones, while in at least thirteen states its prestige 
has become a mockery. . . ." 147 

The basic theme of spokesmen throughout the North was alle- 
giance to the Union. In the national house of representatives 
Speaker-Elect Galusha A. Grow referred to the Southern rebellion as 
"the most causeless in the history of the race." The Union once de- 
stroyed, he said, would be a shattered vase that no human power 
could reconstruct. Lincoln, in his message, reminded congressmen 
that the Union was older than the states, it having created them as 
states and having procured for them, by conquest or purchase, what- 
ever of independence and liberty they had enjoyed. The very act, 
declared Alexander W. Bradford, at Mamaroneck, which brought the 
states into being, made the union of states perpetual. In New York, 
at Cooper Institute, E. H. Chapin recognized the right of revolution 
as "the last right of a crushed people," but closed with the more re- 
nowned sentiment of "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable," and at the Academy of Music Edward Everett found 
"The sympathy of the civilized world is on our side ... for 
the success of our arms." 148 

The border states displayed varying sentiments. In Columbus, 
Ohio, Samuel Medary, late governor of Kansas territory, and now 
editor of The Crisis, was writing : 

"What sort of a Fourth of July is this?" Let the inquiry go round and each 
one answer for his own conscience like the sentiment "Drank standing and in 
silence" to the departed. 

But in the midst of death we look to a resurrection of greater glory. . . . 149 

Later, in his extempore oration for a local celebration of the Fourth, 
the ex-governor asserted that the foundation of our liberties was 
built upon the ballot and not the bullet that peace and not war was 
the basis of our human freedom. A holiday toast pronounced "Our 
Federal Government very sick and consumptive. Old Doctor De- 
mocracy, her only hope for a cure." 15 

Affairs in Missouri were uncertain. At Jefferson City, three weeks 
ago in secession but now a Union city, Col. Henry Boernstein, 
leader of the German population, made an Independence day speech 
in praise of the loyalty of German citizens to the federal govern- 
ment, followed by three cheers. In Kansas City, where "secession 
is not killed but badly scotched," citizens had an all-day conven- 

147. "Scrapbook of Win. Hutchinson," v. II. 

148. New York Daily Tribune, July 6, 13, 1861. See, also, issues of July 9, 11, 15, 17, 
August 8, 1861. 

149. The Crisis, Columbus, Ohio, July 4, 1861. 

150. Ibid., July 11, 1861. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 163 

tional patriotic Fourth with procession, music, program, and picnic; 
Wm. Quarles and E. M. McGee were among the speakers. At St. 
Joseph the Second regiment of Iowa volunteers startled "sleepy 
Secessionists" into recognition of the day by firing 34 rounds. Flags 
waved throughout the day from turret and dome, steamer and coach, 
man and horse, until the city looked like "the flag-city of Missouri." 
In the words of a little slave girl, "It was the Fourth of July all 
over town." But the display made an older contraband "feel mighty 
onsartain bout tings now-a-days. ... I want dis ting settled. 
Las year ole mass he git offered for me jist fifteen hundred dollar, 
and dis year, he git, may be, four hundred. I jist want de ting 
doned fixed, so as I be worth noting or full price: jist one or 
toder." 151 

At Yorktown, Va., Thomas A. Phelps of New Orleans, another 
slave, was taking the settlement into his own hands. In a letter to 
his mother on July 4 he wrote: "I am well and doing well. . . . 
We are looking out for a fight on the 5th of July. ... I have 
not time to write. . . . Good by to the white folks until I kill 
a Yankee." 152 

Kansas, "conceived in a storm and born in a wreck," had not, 
according to ex-Governor Medary, been in worse condition to assume 
the responsibilities of state government than in January, 1861, 153 
yet on July 4, the five-months-old state found war encroaching upon 
her southeastern border. Her western frontier was unprotected. 
Although her legislature had voted $20,000 to repel invasion, nearly 
all her men had enlisted and gone to the front and her militia was 
unarmed and inefficient. Rebel spies were trying to bribe Indians 
into secession service. But at last the prospect for crops was good. 
With plenty to eat Kansas hoped she was done bleeding and done 
begging, and ready to begin living like her elder sister states. 154 
Today her first senators-elect were being sworn into the United 
States congress, James H. Lane for the short term and Samuel C. 
Pomeroy for the long. 155 For six weeks local editors urged upon 
Kansans suitable celebration of the national birthday as due the 
Union from its youngest member. When South Carolina by legis- 
lative act erased the Fourth of July from her list of holidays, Sol. 
Miller of White Cloud plead for reverent celebration of the anni- 

151. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 23, 1861. 

152. Ibid., August 7, 1861. 

153. The Crisis, Columbus, Ohio, February 7, 1861. 

154. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, August 6, 1861. 

155. Ibid., July 6, 1861; Emporia News, July 13, 1861. 



164 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

versary by ''every loyal city, town and hamlet throughout the 
land." 156 Said the Fort Scott Democrat, of June 8, "Cottondom 
has ignored the Fourth of July, let us not forget it." The Emporia 
News, June 29, longed to hear of the Northern army's hanging the 
great traitor, Jeff Davis, in the streets of Richmond or Montgomery. 
In Atchison, though business was dull and prospects were not at all 
flattering, W. H. Adams urged a local celebration creditable to the 
city. 157 The Kansas State Journal at Lawrence was most persistent 
in its pleas, asserting that celebration in every town might smooth 
the troubled waters of the nation. Did not Kansas as a people owe 
some manifestation of joy and patriotism to the national flag, on 
this day receiving her glittering star, its thirty- fourth? 

Most communities responded to the editorial pleas. Printers in 
service in the First and Second Kansas regiments themselves issued 
a paper, the Clinton Journal, from a rebel office in Clinton, Mo. 158 
The Kansas First, arriving at Clinton that day, had raised the Stars 
and Stripes on a secession pole and fired salutes of thirty-four guns 
at noon and at three o'clock. 159 In southeastern Kansas Captain 
Jennison with a force of "thirteen picked men well armed and 
mounted," marched, on July 4, from Mound City to Fort Scott, 
en route to southwestern Missouri, professedly to form a company 
of Union men for the temporary protection of the Kansas border 
and of Northern sympathizers in Missouri. 160 Kansans, however, 
both those in the regular army and those at home, were already 
looking askance upon this self-assumed authority of Jennison and 
Montgomery. The Clinton Journal of July 4 called them "lawless 
banditti" to be treated as outlaws. A correspondent from the Kan- 
sas Third, July 15, referred to them as "Jay Hawkers," a name 
Montgomery and Jennison had made honorable with the friends of 
freedom but terrible to its enemies. 161 Leonard Swingley on July 7 
wrote that Montgomery's men called their stolen property "contra- 
band of war" but appropriated it to their individual interest. 162 
Fort Scott itself had a gala military celebration. Frontier Guards 
Nos. 1 and 2 invited the cavalry company of Drywood and the in- 

156. White Cloud Kansas Chief, June 13, 1861. 

157. Atchison Union, June 22, 1861. 

158. Wilder, D. W., Annals of Kansas (Topeka, 1875), p. 266; Clinton (Mo.) Journal, 
published by United States forces under command of Maj. S. D. Sturgis, July 4, 1861. 

159. Ibid.; The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 11, 1861. 

160. New York Daily Tribune, July 22, 1861. 

161. The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 18, 1861, letter from Mound City. 

162. Swingley, Leonard J., letter to "Most worthy Friend Mollie [Mary Brown, Law- 
rence]," dated Mansfield, Linn county, July 7, 1861, in MSS. division, Kansas State Historical 
Society. W. A. Mitchell's "Historic Linn," in La Cygne Journal, April 12, 1895, reports that 
in the territorial days Swingley was one of the highly respected Proslavery citizens who stayed 
through all the trouble. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 165 

fantry company of Mill creek to join them in march and drill. The 
soldiers appeared neatly dressed and marched with "firm and decided 
steps" to excellent field music. Capt. John Hamilton drilled the cav- 
alry; E. A. Smith, the infantry. The companies were "mutually 
pleased with the Fourth of July and each other." They had wasted 
little powder "in making useless din, it being deemed more expedient 
to reserve it for the enemies of our country." 163 

Topeka kept the Fourth of July, 1861, for surrounding counties 
and towns. Officials of the day, chosen from the "ladies and gentle- 
men," included thirteen vice-presidents. J. G. Otis was the orator. 
The musicians, from Tecumseh, Manhattan, Auburn, and Topeka, 
rendered "vocal and instrumental music . . . the finest it has 
been our fortune to hear in the State." Guns at sunrise began the 
day's events. At ten o'clock the procession formed and moved to 
the grove near the river. There the formal program ended with a 
"dinner of baskets," "seasoned with ice cream and social chat, lem- 
onades and jeu d' esprit." "The 'wood' was alive." Under every 
tree happy, smiling folk enjoyed the rich picnic collation. On the 
warm breeze rang out the clear tone of a youth "here's where to 
get your hot coffee." In the afternoon a trio of plantation dancers, 
contrabands from Arkansas, edified "de white folks with a regular 
'nigger hoe-down.' ' : Fireworks filled the evening. A ball at Mu- 
seum Hall with supper at the Chase House, concluded the day. 
About 1,500 people enjoyed the events. 164 

Over in Indianola Samuel J. Reader heard the cannon shots at 
Topeka, but he plowed until ten o'clock. The rest of the day he 
gave up to pleasure in his own community. After a good dinner 
he went to Pucket's where he saw "a lot of carpenters men drunk. 
One said; 'This is the first time I've been drunk in Kansas, and I 
tell you it feels good!' ' Back at home Reader himself ate nuts 
that he found upstairs. 163 

Emporia editors for a month plead for local celebration of the 
national birthday in 1861, but in vain. 166 Seven communities there- 
abouts, however, kept the occasion in variously befitting ways. 
Allen (better known as Charley Withington's) , at the crossing of 
142 creek on the Santa Fe road, had a flag salute and discharge of 
rifles by the Waterloo Rangers, formal exercises, and a barbecue 
dinner. From 350 to 600 persons gathered around the 165-foot 

163. Fort Scott Democrat, July 6, 1861. 

164. Topeka Tribune, June 15, 22, 29, July 6, 1861; Kansas State Record, Topeka, June 
22, July 6, 1861. 

165. Reader, Samuel J., "Diary," v. V, entry of July 4, 1861. 

166. Emporia News, June 8, 22, 29, 1861. 



166 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

table laden with meats, vegetables, and pyramids of pastries. An 
"entire ox, delicately roasted and brought upon the table whole," 
was flanked by "roasted grunter" and flocks of chickens, roasted, 
stuffed and trussed. People ate "without remorse of conscience or 
fear of nightmare." Water was the only beverage. Visiting women 
from Council Grove presented cakes to the Waterloo Rangers and 
to the Masonic fraternity of Allen. Concluding the daytime enter- 
tainment were toasts to the farmers of Kansas, who were to make 
the plain blossom as the rose; to the ladies of Kansas, who were 
"worthy daughters of the mothers of 76"; to Gen. J. H. Lane, a 
brave man on whom the state had conferred her richest gift; to 
"Kansas Her reception by the loyal States the baby is always 
the pet," and to Allen, the nucleus of a future city, and an aspiring 
capital of Kansas. From early eve to midnight the votaries of 
Terpsichore danced in a pavilion covered with boughs and enclosed 
with canvas. Then the host, C. H. Withington, and the Waterloo 
Rangers ordered the dancers to retire to tables groaning under good 
things to eat. 167 

The people of Americus and Fremont held a joint celebration in 
the grove of Dempsey Elliott on Allen creek. "About 10 o'clock 
people began to pour in from all quarters, to the amount of from 
three to five hundred, with baskets, boxes, tubs, and trunks, filled 
with almost innumerable articles for the dinner." The exercises of 
the day were a serious consideration of the welfare of the nation. 
Beginning with prayer for the support of the government and the 
liberties of the people the assemblage voted thanks to the states for 
having fed and clothed needy Kansans through the drought of 1860 
and resolved to uphold "the old 'flag of our Union' ... at 
whatever cost and at all hazards." They went to a sumptuously 
laden table and devoured the eatables with a relish; afterward they 
again came to order to give toasts to liberty, the birthright of man ; 
to the common schools, the safeguard of our liberties; to the United 
States army, which, though "the mudsills of society," would flourish 
long after the super-structure of Slavedom was demolished; and to 
President Lincoln, whose wisdom and discretion should enroll his 
name with that of the "Father of our Country." The day ended 
with a ball in a bower sixty feet long. 188 

Waterloo celebrated with a picnic, speaking, and music near the 

167. Ibid., July 13, 1861; Council Grove Press, July 13, 1861. 

168. Emporia News, June 29, July 13, 1861. 



DOLBBE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 167 

residence of R. W. Cloud. P. G. D. Morton, of Chelsea, and P. B. 
Plumb, of Emporia, were the orators. 169 

Madison Center began the day by raising a Union flag amid 
enthusiastic cheers. The formal exercises included two orations. 
Women of the vicinity served a bounteous dinner, "in splendid 
style," with "knick-knacks too numerous to mention." In the eve- 
ning two talented violinists, E. J. Duke and Thomas D. Kelley, made 
the dance enjoyable. 170 

At Elmendaro military companies from Hartford and Florence 
joined the Elmendaro Light Guards to escort the procession to the 
grounds chosen for the program. People gathered from every direc- 
tion for the event. Orations and speeches, interspersed with patriotic 
music and the richest of Kansas foods, filled the entire day. The 
speakers represented many communities Elmendaro, Emporia, 
Hartford, Neosho Rapids, Ottumwa, Burlington, and Coffey county. 
Doctor Galloway of Burlington received enthusiastic cheers for say- 
ing that "the worst abolitionists on God's earth were in the South! 
There they have abolished the Fourth of July." When Doctor Haw- 
kens of Ottumwa offered to read speeches from Jeff. Davis and Gov. 
Henry A. Wise of Virginia, the audience gave three groans, followed 
by three deafening cheers for the Union. 171 

Citizens of Greenwood county enjoyed "the glorious old Fourth" 
on Willow creek, thirty miles south of Emporia. Formal exercises 
preceded a dinner. Judge Keyes reviewed the history of Kansas and 
praised the North for its liberality "in feeding us" during the recent 
drought. The warm-hearted citizens then gave three cheers for the 
Northern brethren. 172 

Chase county commemorated the day at Cottonwood Falls. Citi- 
zens to the number of 350 assembled at a bower on the public square 
where the women presented the board of county commissioners with 
an American flag, which was then hoisted on a sixty-foot hickory 
pole. The three rousing cheers for the Union were believed by one 
writer to be the heartiest ever given east "of the Rocky Mountains." 
When the orators of the day failed to appear, S. N. Wood of Council 
Grove substituted with a "short, pithy speech." The Chase County 
Skirmishers, a newly organized military company, led the procession 
to a grove one-fourth mile distant, where the women had provided 

169. Ibid. 

170. Ibid. 

171. Ibid., July 20, 1861. 

172. Ibid. 



168 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

a free feast. A young beef, barbecued on the spot, and a table 100 
feet long, loaded with a variety of good things, provided more than 
enough to eat; the surplus was divided among the sick and the poor 
and the visitors who had brought no food with them. At night the 
dancers tried to out-dance one another at the home of the Journal 
correspondent, J. W. M., "until the crowing of the cock warned them 
that they were stealing time from the fifth to add to the fourth." 173 

Council Grove arranged an anniversary ball at the Union Hotel 
for the evening of July 4. Friends everywhere about were expected 
to attend the party. Tickets were $1.50 per couple; in addition every 
one had to take care of his own horse, or pay extra if he had it fed 
at the stable. Friends in Emporia volunteered to join in celebration 
of this "day of our maturity as a nation." 174 

The Fourth of July, 1861, was the greatest day ever known at 
Grasshopper Falls. Around 1,100 people enjoyed the events. By 
eight o'clock they began arriving "on foot and on horseback, in lum- 
ber wagons, market wagons, carriages and buggies drawn by gay 
and festive thorough-breds, sprightly ponies, plowing teams, or 
oxen." The delegation from Oskaloosa and McClenny's ridge, num- 
bering 34 wagons and headed by the Oskaloosa Guards, were met at 
the border of town by the Jefferson Rifles and three assistant mar- 
shals for escort. Delegations from the east came by way of the old 
ford, where two marshals awaited them ; 74 vehicles crossed the ford ; 
670 persons passed on foot over the high trestle of the new bridge. 
The most attractive group here was the Centre Sunday School of 
"121 counted individuals" preceded by a banner with the motto, 
"God Save the Union," and followed by the Stars and Stripes. Ed- 
ward Lynde presided at the dinner and gave the oration. Patriotic 
toasts evoked short, pithy responses. At night "sweet music and light 
feet made merry hearts" at two small parties. 175 

Out of deference to the celebrations of neighboring communities, 
Lawrence, like Emporia, refrained from any formal observance of 
July 4, 1861. Returning the repeated calls of country friends would 
improve the town folk, the press believed. Seven communities about 
had patriotic programs. 176 

Lecompton kept the anniversary at length. A flag raising, a pro- 
cession, a picnic and barbecue, addresses, and toasts filled the day- 
light hours. The attendance numbered 800. At night Rowena Hall, 

173. Ibid., July 13, 1861 ; The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 18, 1861. 

174. Council Grove Press, June 1, 22, 1861. 

175. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 13, 1861. 

176. The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 4, 11, 1861. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 169 

under the management of "Uncle John," was scene of the pleasing 
evening party, where guests all had their money's worth. 

The hotel at Minneola, having one of the best dancing halls in the 
state, held an anniversary ball in the evening, for which the pleasant 
drive from Lawrence promised good patronage. But one sentiment 
from the day's events at Baldwin City impressed the correspondent: 

Jeff. Davis. May the number of his days equal the number of his righteous 
deeds. May his laurels be like unto Benedict Arnold's, and may his death be 
surrounded by circumstances similar to those with which Virginia surrounded 
the death of John Brown. 

Kanwaca, Bloomington, and Clinton planned a joint celebration, 
the weather permitting, of daytime picnic and program at Jesse's 
ford and an evening party in Judge Wakefield's barn. Rain, how- 
ever, necessitated separate gatherings. At Kanwaca the Stars and 
Stripes waved from a staff 90 feet in height. Under a bower of rails, 
boughs, and prairie grass a large audience listened to readings and 
addresses by E. D. Ladd, Richard Cordley, J. S. Brown, S. O. 
Thacher, and Judge J. A. Wakefield. Alfred Whitman delivered 
a poem written for the occasion by "Mr. Sanford of Mass." At 
night 50 couples participated in the "rousing big hop" in Judge 
Wakefield's barn. About 600 persons from Clinton and Blooming- 
ton assembled together in a beautiful grove south of Bloomington. 
"Neatly dressed . . . for a refreshing day's pleasure," they had 
a morning program of heartfelt song, of clear reading of the Declara- 
tion by a woman, Miss Gardner, of speech that "took" by the 
pedagogue S. M. Thorp, and of original poem by H. Greene of 
Twin Mound. Toasts and responses followed the picnic dinner. 
At the mill in the evening was an impromptu hop dance. 

The entire program at Blue Mound was patriotic. In formal 
exercises at noon the women of the vicinity presented a beautiful 
flag to the committee. Children of the Franklin Sunday School sang 
a patriotic song. Of the talks that followed, the oration by E. S. 
Lowman had fullest report; whereas celebrations of the Fourth had 
hitherto been an empty pageant, he said, the day this present year 
was an epoch in the history of the country, but constitutional liberty 
would be preserved. Following the program men, women, and chil- 
dren formed in line and marched from the mound to the valley where 
under the cool shade of an over-arching arbor a sumptuous dinner 
awaited them. More patriotic speeches by H. H. Moore and S. N. 
Simpson closed the day's events. 177 

177. Ibid. 



170 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

At Mansfield, Linn county, one Mrs. Mitchell gave a "social 
party" at her residence in the evening. Leonard J. Swingley wrote 
of the pressing invitation he received from the hostess in person while 
he was at work in his harvest field in the morning. Of the gathering 
itself he said, "Their was but few their, however we had a very 
pleasant little time." 178 

Wyandotte displayed its patriotism in parades, processions, 
speeches, and toasts. The "grand feature" was an oration by Judge 
Gray which "had the ring of the true metal in every line of it." Two 
of the toasts were timely ; Judge Woodworth spoke on "The People 
vs. Jeff. Davis"; and L. S. Blachly saw in "The Comet" a special 
messenger from space watching over the great American contest; 
"Let the stars shout for joy when the glad word goes back, 'Slavery 
vanquished Freedom universal!' " 179 

On the Delaware Indian reservation (near present Edwardsville, 
Wyandotte county) two missionary teachers, Clara Gowing and 
Elizabeth S. Morse, gave the Indian children their first picnic on 
July 4. Miss Gowing was in charge of the girls and Miss Morse, 
of the boys. The girls carried flags and the boys, drums. The boys 
were allowed to cross a creek for part of their excursion, but one 
had to be tied to a tree there for trying to hunt birds' nests. For 
supper the group had bread and butter, carried from the mission 
house in a bushel basket, a few blackberries picked in the wood, and 
water from a spring. Afterward they sang songs, cheered, shouted, 
and laughed, and then marched home single file. "If making a great 
noise is being patriotic and comprises a good time," wrote Miss Gow- 
ing, "surely the Delaware Indian children were both patriotic and 
happy. . . ." 18 

Leavenworth summoned "everybody and his friend" to help in 
the public recognition of July 4, 1861. Organizations, benevolent, 
social, civic, and military, assembled for the procession. The fire 
companies followed in the order of their seniority. The Germans 
marched in a body. Five groups of local guards preceded a car of 
pretty, laughing girls representing the states with flags, flowers, and 
ribbons in the national colors. Two brass bands furnished the music. 
The parade was "splendid." The oration by M. J. Parrott was full 

178. Swingley, Leonard J., letter to "Most worthy Friend Mollie," July 7, 1861. 

179. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 13, 1861. 

180. Gowing, Clam, "Life Among the Delaware Indians," in The Kama* Historical Col- 
lections, v. XII, pp. 183-193. 



DOLBEB: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 171 

of "stirring eloquence and sound erudition." The dinner at Planter's 
Hotel ended with patriotic toasts and sentiments. 181 

Atchison had an all-day celebration beginning with the national 
salute at sunrise and ending with a cotillion party at night at the 
Massasoit House. People gathered early from all parts of the 
country. They came in wagons, on horseback, and on foot, with 
flags flying and banners streaming. Merchants had been requested 
to close their places of business, but they decorated the stores with 
evergreen wreaths. A salute of 34 guns at seven a. m. honored the 
states of the Union. So at nine a. m. in the parade, did the 34 young 
ladies representing the 34 states. The procession to the picnic 
grounds included the Kansas Mounted Rangers, the brass band, 
the Home Guards, "scholars" of the Sabbath schools, the civic 
societies, municipal officers, the orator, the reader of the day, and 
citizens. The exercises were conventional and patriotic, beginning 
and ending with prayer. John A. Martin read the Declaration. 
Albert H. Horton was the orator. The songs were "The Red, White, 
and Blue," and "The Star-Spangled Banner." To the Home Guards, 
the ladies of Atchison presented a flag. The evening entertainment 
at Massasoit House was highly delightful. 182 

In spite of the desire of Sol. Miller to instill deep reverence 
throughout the loyal North for the national holiday, now discarded 
and scoffed at in the South, his own community had but small group 
gatherings and he himself celebrated by hoeing his garden. In 
White Cloud the Sunday school held "a very nice little pic-nic in 
the grove, . . . another party went on a pic-nic excursion on 
the Indian reservation, raised the American Flag over the Council 
House, and had the Indians to give three cheers for the Stars and 
Stripes. . . ." Many citizens of White Cloud spent the day in 
Hiawatha, where the military display of Captain Lacock's com- 
pany evoked their praise. 183 

Kansas editors generally approved the Fourth of July observance 
they had themselves encouraged. Celebration had been extensive 
and the people solemnly appreciative. The Kansas State Journal 
found all the events of the day of high order. The State Record 
believed Kansas had demonstrated far beyond every other state in 
the Union her realization of the issue now upon the country and her 

181. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 2, 6, 1861 ; Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 
13, 1861. 

182. The Weekly Bulletin, Atchison, July 4, 11, 1861 ; Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 
13, 1861. 

183. White Cloud Kansas Chief, June 13, July 11, 1861. 



172 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

loyalty to the nation. 184 Some papers ventured criticism. The 
Weekly Bulletin, of Atchison, devoted its front page to printings of 
the "Declaration of Independence" and of the "President's Message 
to the Senate and the House of Representatives, July 4, 1861"; 
then, in an editorial of one and one-fifth columns, it frankly dis- 
agreed with many of the President's statements. 185 In "My Fourth 
of July Speech," submitted as a letter to the Press, the correspondent 
"Loquacity" satirized the Kansas propensity for the superlative, 
obvious this early. 

... is not Kansas a great State? The biggest prairies, the most buffaloes, 
the richest lands, the dryest dry weather, the wettest wet weather, the hottest 
hot weather, the coldest cold weather, the biggest crops of a good season, the 
meanest of a bad season; . . . the best farmers and mechanics, and the 
poorest; the biggest liars, and the most truthful men; the worst drunkards, and 
the most zealous temperance men ; . . . the hardest winds, and the calmest 
still weather; the loudest thunder and the biggest hail; and the biggest brag- 
ging the world ever produced. 186 

184. The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 11, 1861 ; Kansas State Record, Topeka, 
July 13, 1861. 

185. The Weekly Bulletin, Atchison, July 11, 1861. 

186. Council Grove Press, July 20, 1861. 



The Ingalls Amendment to the 
Sherman Anti-Trust Bill 

DAVID F. MCFARLAND, JR. 

I. THE MOVEMENT IN KANSAS AGAINST "OPTIONS 
AND FUTURES/' 1887-1890 

DURING the years 1887-1890 public opinion in Kansas was 
aroused against speculation on the board of trade. There were 
a number of causes, but moral indignation at manipulations of the 
market was certainly an important factor. Wide publicity had been 
given to a succession of speculative deals of the worst order. In 1887 
a spectacular attempt to corner the wheat market caused the finan- 
cial ruin of many innocent persons. Widespread failures and panic 
were reported to have seriously weakened many Chicago banks. At 
the head of the clique which tried to gain control of the market was 
one Harper, vice-president of the Cincinnati Fidelity Bank, whose 
vain attempt ruined that institution. The thousands who lost their 
savings received small consolation from Harper's sentence to ten 
years in the penitentiary. 1 

The following year was marked by a successful corner in Sep- 
tember wheat, engineered by Charles L. Hutchinson, who was popu- 
larly known as "Old Hutch." He began buying at 87 cents but 
made his final settlements with the "Shorts" for $2.00. At this time 
the opposition of the consumers to speculation was illustrated by a 
circular, inveighing against corners in foodstuffs, which was issued 
by T. V. Powderly, head of the Knights of Labor. 2 The Hutchin- 
son deal of 1888 has been called the only successful "big" corner 
ever made on the Chicago grain market. 3 

This success of "Old Hutch" inspired imitation and the year of 
1889 was one of great speculative activity. Unfortunately it was 
also a year of falling prices. All over the world crops were good 
and wheat surpluses piled up. In Chicago the receipts of wheat 
exceeded by a million bushels the largest amount previously re- 
corded. "Dollar Wheat" was no more, and by mid-summer quota- 

1. Taylor, Charles Henry, ed., History of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago 
(Chicago, 1917), v. II, pp. 749-758. 

2. Ibid., pp. 771-774. 

3. Boyle, James Ernest, Speculation and the Chicago Board of Trade (New York, 1920), 
p. 73. 

(173) 



174 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tions went as low as 74 cents. 4 Speculation did not cause this fall, 
but "trading in futures" unquestionably seemed more sinister and 
evil to the farmers, impoverished by the low prices. 

Throughout this period there was always a section of the press 
which raised a cry against the "gamblers" and asked for the passage 
of laws to regulate their trading. The Kansas Farmer was at the 
front of this agitation throughout 1887 and 1888. At the time of 
the Harper deal, in 1887, W. A. Peffer, editor of the Kansas Farmer 
and later a Populist senator, featured an editorial titled: "Some 
Men That Ought To Be in the Penitentiary." In it he attacked 
the "grain gamblers," speaking in particular of those who had par- 
ticipated in the attempted corner. "They are all bad men," he 
wrote, "every one of them, meriting punishment under the laws of 
the people whom they defy." He closed in the following words: 

. . . Millions have been as feloniously abstracted from the pockets of 
the people as if they had been stolen by the aid of the bludgeon, the revolver 
or the jimmy. In point of moral culpability, the speculator who robs through 
the agency of a board of trade or a stock exchange is a far more dangerous 
member of society than the other species of malefactor who compells his 
victim to stand and deliver on the highway. . . . The fact that the law 
punishes the highwayman and the burglar, while offering no molestation to the 
speculator in his schemes, presents a grotesque commentary on the spirit of 
fairness and justice which is popularly supposed to form the basis of modern 
civilization. 5 

The Hutchinson corner prompted him to several outbursts of in- 
dignation. 6 One of these ended as follows: 

. . . That Chicago deal made it possible for many persons in other lines 
of trade to be robbed. That Chicago business will surely open the eyes of 
legislators to the importance of providing heavy penalties for all such schemes 
to make money at the expense of people who are not parties to them. Such 
gambling is more criminal from every point of view than the petty secret room 
thieving of the common gambler against whom the laws are severe. Let the 
people demand it and these high-handed robberies will cease. 7 

Although this was emphatic and contained a positive demand for 
punitive legislation, it is not certain whether Peffer at this time ad- 
vocated regulation by the federal government. On another occasion 
he expressed warm approval of the campaign for a state law which 
was under way in Missouri. 8 

During this period (1887-1888), however, most of the principal 

4. Taylor, op. cit. f p. 793. 

5. Kansas Farmer, Topeka, June 23, 1887. 

6. Ibid., August 2, 1888, "The People and the Gamblers"; September 13, 1888, "The 
Flour Trust"; November 1, 1888, "Farmer Smith, Again." 

7. Ibid., October 11, 1888. 

8. Ibid., August 2, 1888, 



MCFARLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 175 

newspapers in Kansas were apathetic or actively opposed to legis- 
lation of this character. At the time of the Harper deal the Atchi- 
son Champion DID propose a measure. "There ought to be a law," 
the editor wrote, "making it a felony for any bank president, cashier, 
or other bank official, to speculate or use the funds in his custody 
for anything but legitimate banking business." 9 The recommenda- 
tion was a laudable one, but obviously its object was to enforce 
greater security in the banking system, not to curb speculation. 

More important was the attitude taken by the newspaper which 
was shortly to take the place of the Kansas Farmer at the head of 
the agitation. Marsh Murdock, editor of the Wichita Daily Eagle, 
freely criticized the apostles of the new faith. After the Harper 
scandal the St. Louis (Mo.) Globe-Democrat had begun a campaign 
for legislation against "options and futures." Murdock expressed 
his opinion of the crack-pot reformers: 

. . . There is now an inclination on the part of a good many people to 
regulate and purify the affections of mankind by legislation. This class of 
people have concluded that speculation in produce and railroad and other 
stocks is very sinful, hence there is loud demand for laws to prevent these 
practices. It does not appear just how these speculators are to be stopped, 
but it is supposed the ordinary state legislature, whose members are supposed 
to possess considerable knowledge of option trading, draw poker and other 
devices to obtain money easily, will in their wisdom provide some measure 
by which the whole trade of the country will scoot along in the proper grooves. 
Of course there may be some hitches as in the case of the interstate law, in 
which no mortal man can tell who is benefitted, unless it be the railroads ; but 
there will be a general impression that it is all right. If anyone objects to a 
law of that sort, he may be informed that he (the objector) is hi favor of 
gambling. This would effectually crush him, and make the law right. Under 
this proposed law if a miller who believes wheat will be twenty cents per 
bushel higher next October can legitimately contract any amount of wheat to 
be delivered at that time; but if he should make the purchase purely for 
speculation he would be a gambler and subject to a fine. The Globe-Democrat 
is interested in this matter; perhaps it could tell in a case of that sort what 
were the miller's intentions. We could not unless he were to tell us. 10 

It would be hard to find a more withering criticism of the type of 
editorial which Murdock, himself, was writing less than two years 
later. 

The change in his viewpoint did not come gradually, however. 
As late as November of the following year Murdock was writing 
editorials of a very similar character. On November 27, 1888, he 
published an editorial called "Supply and Demand and Prices." In 

9. Atchison Daily Champion, June 24, 1887. (John A. Martin was governor at this time, 
unable to oversee his paper, so that the Champion's editorials were without their usual au- 
thority.) 

10. Wichita Daily Eagle, June 30, 1887. 



176 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

it he argued that prices were actually determined by the economic 
laws of supply and demand. He wrote as follows: 

. . . The question then arises as to how the complaints of those who sell 
at low prices and buy at higher ones, in proportion, are to be remedied? State 
or national legislation can avail but little, if anything, toward affecting the 
values of commodities, and such legislation, when enacted can be often avoided, 
for there are many loopholes through which escape can be had. 

The cause of high and low prices, primarily, is supply and demand, which 
may be aggravated by manipulation, but the resources of the country are too 
great to permit the manipulation of prices for any length of time by any one 
man or any set of men. . . . n 

The argument follows quite closely the laissez-faire of the fa- 
miliar orthodox economic dogma, and is remarkable chiefly when 
compared to Murdock's argument of a later date. 

It wasn't so very much later, however, that the break came 
fifty-three days later, to be exact. On January 19, 1889, the 
Wichita Daily Eagle carried as its leading editorial, "There Would 
Be No Mortgages." Marsh Murdock had been converted. He 
stated flatly that the law of supply and demand was inoperative and 
had no effect upon the price of wheat. A few speculators fixed this 
price without reference to the rest of the population. The remedy 
was legislation, state and national. He took as his text a state- 
ment from the Newton Republican, "Wheat is worth a dollar a 
bushel in St. Louis." Murdock exploded: 

Yes, and but for the manipulation of option dealers in the trade centers and 
their brother thieves and gamblers in Liverpool, who work in concert with 
them, wheat in the United States would be bringing, today, two dollars per 
bushel. This selling crops while yet unsown by the bears, this manipulation 
of "longs" and "shorts" controls the price of wheat and other commodities 
without any reference to the cost of their production or to the law of supply 
and demand. People can say what they please about such a system making 
cheap bread for the poor. The truth is few communities or classes are 
burthened on account of the price paid for bread, and the further truth is, if 
the farmers, the producers of this country, understood the hellish workings of 
this option dealing, really understood the power and far reaching influences of 
the tentacles of this devil-fish which sucks into its maw the profits of their 
labor, they would take every legislator in the country, including Congress, by 
the throat and never let go until the infernal business was wiped out. If the 
farmers of the United States were permitted to have their products subjected 
only to the law of supply and demand in three years a mortgaged farm would 
be the exception. . . . 12 

These were strong words, due to be repeated again and again, 
and we can only wonder why Murdock was prompted to reverse 

11. Ibid., November 27, 1888. 

12. Ibid., January 19, 1889. 



MCFABLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 177 

his opinions so suddenly and so drastically. With this editorial the 
leadership of the campaign against "options and futures" passed 
from Peffer and the Kansas Farmer to Murdock and the Wichita 
Daily Eagle. 13 

During the spring the Wichita Daily Eagle reported the progress 
through the Missouri legislature of a bill designed to prohibit option 
gambling in that state. The character and prospects of this measure 
were lauded in an editorial early in May. 14 Somewhat later Mur- 
dock viewed the new law with thorough approval, and perhaps a 
little envy. "It would be a matter of much conjecture," he wrote, 
"if indeed it should now turn out that 'poor old Missouri' had taken 
the first step in the destruction of that most precious of all steals, 
option dealing." 15 

In June he resumed the offensive, and on June 2, 1889, he pub- 
lished another violent editorial on the subject, "A Great Outrage." 
This contained in particular one new argument (new to Murdock) , 
one that was to be used again and again the idea of "wind" wheat. 
This was based on the fact that the number of futures contracts 
vastly exceeded the number of bushels of grain actually exchanged 
through the market. "They (the 'grain gamblers') deal in 'wind' 
contracts," he wrote, "and load down and depress all the markets 
of the country with millions upon millions of bushels of grain, and 
millions of pork and millions of lard which never existed in fact." 
"Grain is not sold," he concluded, "it's wind; yet the competitive 
effect is the same on the price to the producer as if such 'wind' had 
actually turned into golden grain." 16 

This ingenious (or "ingenuous") argument, however fallacious, 
was easier to reconcile with his former statements concerning supply 
and demand, than was the argument in his editorial, "There Would 
Be No Mortgages." Another interesting development was the 
greater emphasis which he now placed upon national legislation: 
"If the producers of this country really realized the cost to them of 
sustaining this line of high-handed gambling they would camp 
around the national capitol until Congress had wiped out the evil 
power, and camp in such numbers as would menace the life of every 
individual member who should fail to act promptly and resolutely." 
In January he had spoken of taking "every legislator in the country, 

13. Kansas Farmer, July 31, 1889. In an editorial, "Down With the Option Gamblers," 
Peffer referred to the Wichita Daily Eagle as leading the fight against option dealing. 

14. Wichita Daily Eagle, May 9, 1889. 

15. Ibid., June 30, 1889. 

16. Ibid., June 2, 1889. 

122603 



178 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

including Congress." Now he expressed his doubts concerning the 
effectiveness of state legislation. "Ohio and Missouri," he stated, 
"have both made efforts of late to wipe out the bucket shop busi- 
ness, but it is not believed these efforts will amount to anything." 17 
Throughout the summer Murdock kept hammering away at this 
subject, finally crystallizing his argument into a vehement appeal 
for national legislation : 

This option dealing is sapping the life-blood of every Western farmer, and 
it is time that our farmers demand a national law to prevent a few gamblers 
from making a price on their products. 18 

He began trying to show that option dealing was responsible for 
other ills and asserted that the railroads were suffering from its 
baneful influence: 

. . . It is time that the railroads take this matter up and demand a na- 
tional law for this national evil, and stop the wrecking of values on farm 
products, which have destroyed a traffic of the railroads and is sapping the life- 
blood out of our Western farmers. 19 

At another time he wrote : 

This species of gambling should be wiped out of existence. It is not bene- 
fitting the farmers, but it is injuring the railroads, and Chicago is growing rich 
at the expense of the whole country. 20 

This appeal to sectional interests was one of the most effective 
arguments that could have been made and it was frequently re- 
peated. Stress was placed on Liverpool, Chicago, and Eastern 
boards of trade. 

Murdock kept up his campaign, on through the summer, through 
the fall, and on into the winter. Editorials, letters to the editor, and 
exchange items kept the question constantly agitated. The Wichita 
Daily Eagle was everywhere recognized as the leader of the move- 
ment. Other newspapers, when they referred to the question usually 
paid tribute to the Eagle's campaign. Frequently they reprinted 
Murdock's heated editorials. The Topeka Capital, the Leavenworth 
Times, the Lawrence Daily Journal, and a number of the smaller 
weeklies gave favorable notice in their columns to Murdock's efforts. 

The editors of the Atchison Champion were preoccupied with 
their attack on the "dressed beef monopoly," and were not very 
favorably impressed by Murdock's editorials. They commented: 

17. Ibid., June 2, 1889. Murdock did not distinguish between bucket shop and ex- 
change. "Exchanges and bucket shops are practically one and the same thing, only on dif- 
ferent scales." 

18. Ibid., July 20, 1889. 

19. Ibid., August 4, 1889, under title "Score a Point For the Santa Fe." 

20. Ibid., July 20, 1889. 



MCFARLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 179 

The Wichita Eagle declares that "option dealing" is sapping the life blood 
out of every Western farmer. . . . There are "bulls" as well as "bears" 
in the grain boards, and last fall the "bulls" kept the price of grain up for 
months, giving farmers better figures for their corn and wheat. But the dressed 
beef monopolists are all "bears." . . . 21 

Speaking of Hutchinson's corner during the preceding summer they 
had remarked tolerantly, "The old raider made heaps of money for 
himself and indirectly gave the wheat growers of this country a 
tremendous lift." 22 

Either as a result of the criticism in the newspapers or as a con- 
sequence of general hostility to grain speculation many farmers 
refused to give information to the collectors of crop statistics. The 
Wichita Daily Eagle attempted to persuade the farmers to abandon 
such tactics. Murdock called the situation "An Unreasonable Scare": 

The township assessors claim that they found it a very difficult matter to 
secure crop statistics from the farmers this year, especially of small grains, the 
farmers claiming that the statistics were used by speculators to bear the market. 
The wrong that they work their own county and therefore their own interests 
by such a course is much greater than any benefit that might possibly be de- 
rived from the other course. . . , 23 

This admonition failed to stop the obstruction. Almost a year later 
the Emporia Daily Republican noted: 

The farmers in a number of the counties of the state are refusing to give 
agricultural statistics to the assessors, upon the ground that it is furnishing 
information for the grain gamblers. 24 

The farmers' organizations joined in the attack upon the ex- 
changes. On the subject of crop statistics the Farmers' Alliance, 
the most vigorous of the farm bodies, made the charge that the 
federal and state reports were false, and were manipulated for the 
advantage of speculators. As a remedy it proposed to collect the 
statistics through the units of its own organization. J. Fount Till- 
man, secretary of the national executive board, explained this scheme 
when he mailed the brethren blank forms for acreage reports. 
Under the circumstances this effort could hardly meet with success, 
but it is tremendously significant that such an attempt should have 
been made. 25 

In January, 1890, the Kansas State Grange and the Farmers' 
Alliance appointed representatives to a committee which was to seek 

21. Atchison Daily Champion, July 23, 1889. 

22. Ibid., October 4, 1888. 

23. Wichita Daily Eagle, July 17, 1889. 

24. Emporia Daily Republican, March 15, 1890. 

25. The Farmer's Friend, Tola, May 3, 1890. "To obtain such information as to farming 
statistics in reliable form," Tillman wrote, "we must depend upon such resources as are 
within our organization." 



180 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

some basis for the union of the two organizations. This committee 
adopted a platform which expounded the grievances of the Kansas 
farmers. Its third "plank" denounced speculation: 

We demand that Congress shall pass such laws as shall effectually prevent 
the dealing in futures in all agricultural and mechanical productions, preserving 
such a stringent system of procedure in trials as shall secure prompt conviction, 
and imposing such penalties as shall secure the most perfect compliance with 
the law. 26 

This was taken as a model by many of the local alliances, and a 
flood of similar platforms was issued during the first half of 1890. 

These resolutions were soon followed by appeals to congress. On 
December 12, 1889, Sen. Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas, presented: 

... a petition numerously signed by farmers of Kansas, representing that 
the present prices of agricultural productions are not only very low, but largely 
made so by reason of the speculation in those products carried on in different 
places in the United States, and praying for legislation whereby that practice 
may be prevented. 27 

During the next three months more than forty such petitions 
were submitted to congress by various groups in Kansas. Two of 
these were presented by Sen. John J. Ingalls on February 13, 
1890, "praying for such legislation as will prevent the selling of 
futures in agricultural products." 28 Vinland Farmers' Alliance, 
Douglas county, and Bethel Alliance, Cowley county, were typical 
petitioners. 29 The campaign against options and futures rapidly 
approached a climax. The people of Kansas had placed the prob- 
lem squarely before their representatives in congress. 

II. THE POLITICAL PREDICAMENT OF SENATOR INGALLS 

John J. Ingalls secured a third term in the United States senate 
without much opposition. It expired in 1891, an unfortunate time 
for any office-holder who sought reelection. 30 The extended agri- 
cultural depression which had stimulated the farmers' interest in 
economic issues had also tremendously increased their political con- 
sciousness. All over the country the debtor classes were howling 
for financial legislation, and the mortgage-ridden farmers joined in 
the cry. A platform adopted by a joint committee from the Kansas 
State Grange and the Farmers' Alliance stated: 

Whereas, the financial policy of this government has been such that the 

26. Topeka Daily Capital, January 31, 1890. 

27. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 135. 

28. Ibid., p. 1268. 

29. Ibid., pp. 135, 154, 213, 296, 384, 538, 580, 727, 852, 854, 1045, 1046, 1058, 1153, 
1268, 1639, 1670, 1753, 1791, 1988, 2064, 2138, 2139. 

30. Connelley, William E., Ingalls of Kansas (Topeka, 1909), p. 192. 



MCFARLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 181 

circulating medium has contracted until it is insufficient to meet the business 
demands of the country, causing a depression of agricultural industries and 
placing the wealth producers at the mercy of the money power; therefore . . . 

The first demand was for the issuance of legal tender greenbacks, 
"sufficient to meet the demands of the business interests of the 
country," and the second was for the "free and unlimited coinage 
of silver." 31 

Of more immediate importance in Kansas was the question of 
mortgage relief. The increasing number of foreclosures stimulated 
the popular demand for some sort of "stay law." Sen. Leland 
Stanford's bill, providing for the grant of government loans on real 
estate, was widely approved in Kansas but was reported adversely 
by the committee on claims. 32 

The farmers, thoroughly aroused, demanded that congress act at 
once in their interest and pass the desired legislation. With an 
election approaching they examined critically the records of their 
representatives in congress. Senator Ingalls, they found, had been 
very active in securing the passage of pension bills, but he had 
sponsored almost nothing that was of general significance. He was 
celebrated for his speeches in behalf of civil rights for the Southern 
negroes, which usually contained considerable "waving of the bloody 
shirt." He had a national reputation for being a scholar and a good 
speaker. He was popular among his fellow senators and more than 
once had been elected president pro tern. 

In one important respect, however, his record appeared fatally 
deficient. The Emporia Daily Republican included this item among 
its editorial briefs: 

Ingalls Speech 

The other day, an opportunity presenting when there was no other business 
before the senate, Senator John J. Ingalls arose and delivered the following 
speech in behalf of the depressed agricultural interests of Kansas and the West : 

A quarter of a column, completely blank, followed this introduc- 
tion ! 33 C. V. Eskridge, the Republican's editor, elaborated on his 
subtle gibe: 

"The farmers are down on Ingalls," says an exchange, "because he has failed 
to secure any legislation in their behalf." This is not exactly the truth. The 

81. Topeka Daily Capital, January 31, 1890, 

32. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 5919. Ingalls was particularly vulnerable 
on the mortgage issue. He was president of the Kansas Loan and Trust Company, referred 
to by his enemies as a "mortgage fiend deluxe." The papers supporting him pointed out that 
his was the only loan company in Kansas that had extended overdue mortgages from year to 
year and had furnished seed wheat to needy farmers. Streeter. Floyd Benjamin, The Kaw 
(New York, 1941), p. 312. 

88. Emporia Daily Republican, March 26, 1&90. 



182 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

fanners *are down on Ingalls because he has not attempted to secure any legis- 
lation in their behalf. 34 

Such was the cry, repeated in almost every attack upon the senator, 
"Ingalls has not even tried to get anything done for the Kansas 
farmer." At a time when the "Kansas farmer" was interested in 
politics more than ever before in his life, it was a complaint that 
was extremely embarrassing to his candidacy. 

Senator Ingalls' political misfortunes did not end here. His party 
was weakened by great factional dissentions that had been increased 
by recent political blunders made by the senator. Just before the 
meeting of the last Republican Presidential convention Ingalls had 
written a private letter which contained his caustic criticism of 
almost every possible Republican candidate (including the success- 
ful one, Harrison). Unluckily, the "Bonebrake letter" was made 
public, and many "good Republicans" were infuriated by Ingalls' 
nasty comments about their favorite candidates. 

He was noted for the successful straddle he had hitherto main- 
tained on the delicate question of prohibition. But in August, 1889, 
The Forum published an article, "Prohibition and License," written 
by Ingalls. 35 It failed to win the favor of either side. The ex- 
tremists among the Prohibitionists were infuriated by his admission 
that: 

. . . The sale of bitters, elixirs, and other concoctions containing alcohol, 
has undoubtedly increased. Malaria, indigestion, and other disorders have de- 
veloped in localities previously considered salubrious, and there is probably no 
town of one thousand inhabitants where a bibulous but discreet inquirer, if 
properly vouched for, cannot find, at his hotel, or the club, or in the cellar of a 
friend, a bottle of beer or a flask of whiskey. . . , 36 

These critics voiced their suspicion of the senator's sincerity, and 
recalled a time when Ingalls allegedly had characterized teetotalers 
as the "capons and epicenes of society." 87 

The Resubmissionists, on the other hand, looked upon him as a 
traitor to the cause and bitterly accused him of presenting a grossly 
falsified picture of the status of prohibition in Kansas. The senator 
had written: 

. . . But the habit of drinking is dying out. Temptation being removed 
from the young and the infirm, they have been fortified and redeemed. The 
liquor-seller, being proscribed, is an outlaw, and his vocation is disreputable. 
Drinking being stigmatized, is out of fashion, and the consumption of in- 
toxicants has enormously decreased. Intelligent and conservative observers 

34. Ibid., April 1, 1890. 

36. The Forum, New York, v. VII, pp. 673-682. 

36. Ibid., p. 679. 

37. Kansas Democrat, Topeka, August 5, 1889. 



MCFABLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 183 

estimate the reduction at ninety percent; it cannot be less than seventy- 
five. . . .88 

The opponents of prohibition challenged his facts and his figures 
and called his conclusions "erroneous and enigmatical." 39 

To top this controversy there came the publication of the "Coney 
letter." It was another private letter of Ingalls which was used by 
his enemies in an attempt to show that The Forum article was en- 
tirely hypocritical, written only for the satisfactory check in- 
volved. 40 Although there was actually nothing in the letter to 
justify this charge, it was used with considerable effect in the cam- 
paign to discredit Ingalls. As a result of all this agitation there 
were many Kansans in 1890 who agreed with the stranger in Ware's 
"The Kansas Bandit": 

I'm down on Ingalls now, for his position 
I do not think real sound on prohibition. 41 

In the fall of 1889 Senator Ingalls made an even greater mistake. 
He gave to reporters from the New York World his famous interview 
on politics : 

The purification of politics is an iridescent dream. Government is force. 
Politics is a battle for supremacy. Parties are the armies. The Decalogue and 
the Golden Rule have no place in a political campaign. The object is success. 
To defeat the antagonist and dispel the party in power is the purpose. The 
Republicans and Democrats are as irreconciliably opposed to each other as 
were Grant and Lee in the Wilderness. They use ballots instead of guns, but 
the struggle is as unrelenting and desperate and the result sought for the same. 
In war it is lawful to deceive the adversary, to hire Hessians, to purchase 
mercenaries, to mutilate, to kill, to destroy. The commander who lost a 
battle through the activity of his moral nature would be the derision and jest 
of history. This modern cant about the corruption of politics is fatiguing in 
the extreme. . . , 42 

These were strange words from a senator who had been chosen to his 
first term because his predecessor had been suddenly exposed as 
politically corrupt. This interview was a magnificent blunder, which 
was capitalized both by the enemies of Ingalls in his own state and 
by the opponents of Republicanism throughout the nation. 

These issues and these blunders, however, were insignificant in 
view of the furious discontent among the farmers and their over- 
whelming demand that the government act immediately to relieve 

38. The Forum, v. VII, p. 679. 

89. Kansas Democrat, Topeka, August 5, 1889. 

40. Ibid. 

41. Connelley, Ingalls of Kansas, p. 200. 

42. "The Interview" (copyright, 1890, by the Press Publishing Company, the New York 
World), in A Collection of the Writings of John James Ingalls, William E. Connelley, ed. 
(Kansas City, Mo., 1902), pp. 496, 497. 



184 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

their condition. Early in 1890 the Farmers' Alliance approached the 
peak of its strength. Established daily newspapers turned over 
columns and pages to alliance news, and alliance papers The 
Farmer's Friend, The Alliance Herald, The Alliance Gazette, etc., 
etc., were founded in communities all over the state. 43 In the last 
week of March, 1890, the county presidents of the Farmers' Alliance 
held a meeting at Topeka, to determine the policy of the organiza- 
tion. Care was taken to secure secrecy for these deliberations, but 
an "enterprising" reporter from the Topeka Daily Capital pene- 
trated the defenses, and that paper published a full account of the 
proceedings of each meeting. Delegates were present from sixty-two 
counties, representing all sections of the state. B. H. Clover, presi- 
dent of the State Alliance, was chairman, and Dr. S. McLallin, editor 
of the alliance Advocate, was secretary. 44 

After some discussion the assembly passed, by a vote of forty-three 
to nineteen, a resolution declaring against the reelection of Senator 
Ingalls. It stated: 

Resolved, Notwithstanding the fact that John J. Ingalls has represented 
Kansas for eighteen years in the United States senate, it is a difficult matter 
for his constituents to point to a single measure he has ever championed in 
the interests of the great agricultural and laboring element of Kansas, and that 
we will not support by our votes or influence any candidate for the legislature 
who favors his re-election to the United States senate. 45 

The simple argument in this resolution had been used all over the 
state, with increasing emphasis, for the preceding three months. It 
remained as the basic issue all through the campaign. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE AMENDMENT 

The problem of the " grain gamblers" was taken to Washington at 
the first session of the fifty-first congress. On January 20, 1890, 
Rep. Benjamin Butterworth of Ohio introduced a bill defining "op- 
tions" and "futures" and imposing special taxes on dealers therein. 46 
It was referred to the house committee on agriculture, where it was 
amended slightly and returned with a favorable report. 47 Although 
the measure was never debated it was widely indorsed by farmers' 
organizations. 48 

43. Kansas State Historical Society's History of Kansas Newspapers (Topeka, 1916). 

44. Topeka Daily Capital, March 26, 1890. 

45. Wichita Daily Eagle, March 28, 1890. 

46. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sees., p. 706. 

47. House Report No. 1S21, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 3182. The chairman of the committee 
on agriculture was Rep. Ed. H. Funston of lola. The committee was holding hearings on 
the Butterworth bill at the time. 

48. Wilson, "The Attack on 'Options' and 'Futures,' 1884-1894," pp. 51, 52. (Unpub- 
lished thesis at University of Kansas.) 



MCFABLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 185 

When Senator Ingalls introduced an amendment to the Sherman 
Anti-Trust bill, covering the same subject, he seems simply to have 
copied the Butterworth bill. The language and grammar of the 
amendment were severely criticized during the course of debate. 
Ingalls answered: 

... In exculpation I have to say that it was drawn and prepared by an 
eminent member of the House of Representatives. It seemed to me to carry 
out more clearly and more accurately and more thoroughly than anything I 
had seen the purposes I had in view, and I offered it as an amendment to the 
pending bill. . . . 49 

The provisions of the amendment, furthermore, tally almost exactly 
with those of the Butterworth bill. 

Ingalls offered his amendment on March 21, 1890. The Sherman 
Anti-Trust bill was coming up for debate. 50 The question of trusts 
and monopolies had been closely linked to the problem of option- 
dealing in much of the popular agitation. Murdock declared that 
any man who cornered the grain market "is doing more to injure 
the country than the combined forces of any power put together." 51 
Nevertheless, Ingalls recognized that his amendment was of the 
second class, and went far beyond the purposes of the Anti-Trust 
bill, as stated in its title. He moved, therefore, that the title of the 
bill be amended so as to read: "A bill to suppress and punish un- 
lawful trusts and combinations, to prevent dealing in options and 
futures, and for other purposes." 52 

Several other changes were being made in Sherman's bill at this 
same time, March, 1890. Amendments were added to give labor 
unions and farmers' organizations exemption from the measure. 53 
Criminal punishments, as well as civil, were specified in the John 
H. Reagan amendment. 54 

The Ingalls amendment, which proposed "to prevent dealing in 
options and futures," began by defining those two terms. An 
"option" was understood to mean any contract or agreement by 
which a party acquired the right, without being thereby obligated, 
to deliver to another at a future date any of the articles named in 
the act. A "future" was defined as any contract whereby a party 
agreed to sell and deliver at a future time, any of the articles men- 

49. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 2648, 2649. See, also, John Sherman's 
statement, p. 2662, and pp. 186, 187 infra. 

50. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2462. 

61. Wichita Daily Eagle, August 18, 1889. 

62. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2463. 
53. Ibid., pp. 2611, 2612, 2654, 2655. 

64. Ibid., p. 2560. 



186 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tioned in the act, when that party was not yet the owner of the 
article. 

The specified articles were "wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, cotton, 
and all other farm products; also beef, pork, lard, and all other hog 
and cattle products." Dealers in options and futures were required 
to pay an annual tax of $1,000, and a further tax of five cents per 
pound for every pound of cotton, beef, pork, lard, or other hog and 
cattle products, and twenty cents per bushel for every bushel of the 
other products mentioned. 

Dealers in options and futures were required to obtain a license 
for their trade from the collector of internal revenue. In addition 
to the annual tax of $1,000, paid in advance, they were required to 
post a bond for $50,000 with the collector. He was directed to keep 
a register, open for public inspection, listing every application for a 
license, together with the action taken upon it. The dealers were 
required to make a complete report of their transactions each week, 
paying at this time the additional tax on each pound or bushel. 

The penalties provided were: (1) A fine not less than $5,000 nor 
more than $10,000 for dealing without a license; (2) A fine of this 
same amount, or imprisonment for not less than six months or more 
than two years, or both fine and imprisonment, for making a fraudu- 
lent report. The act expressly provided that compliance with its 
provisions would not exempt any person from obedience to a state 
law. 55 

Senator Sherman was not pleased by the additions to his measure. 
He complained that they were being offered as a means of defeating 
the whole bill : 

Mr. President, all I desire is that this bill, the object of which I believe is 
approved of by more than three-fourths of the Senate, should be treated like 
all other bills that have been carefully considered by a committee of this body 
and reported to the Senate. To attempt to defeat this bill by offering various 
other bills from other committees or from the other House on different 
branches of the same subject or on entirely different subjects, is not the proper 
way to deal with the work of a committee. 

He defended his own bill, as it had been reported from committee, 
and then attacked the amendments offered by Reagan and by In- 
galls. They dealt with matters which were not germane to the 
original proposition, especially the Ingalls amendment: 

. . . the Senator from Kansas [Mr. Ingalls] offers a bill which was 
framed by one of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, and the fact 
that it is pending there is a matter known and shown by the record, and it is 

55. Ibid., pp. 2462, 2463. 



MCFARLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 187 

still being considered by a committee of that body. It proposes to deal with 
a class of contracts that do not have to do with production, that are based 
upon the idea that there is no production at all. . . . They are gambling 
contracts. If the Senator from Kansas wishes to introduce a proposition to 
prevent gambling in property that does not exist, to prevent agreements to 
deliver property without any intention to deliver it, that is one question and 
an entirely different matter from the one covered by the bill. That is a 
question to be considered by itself, and it ought not to be attached or an- 
nexed to this bill. 

There was, in addition, a constitutional difficulty, so serious as to 
be fatal: 

. . . The Senate has no power to originate any form of taxation, and yet 
here is a proposition to tax in various ways these illegal contracts, with a view 
to deter them from being made, just as we imposed the tax upon the issue of 
State bank paper, in order to drive it out of existence, but still we levied it 
in the form of a tax; it was part of a tax bill, and the proper place for this 
proposition, so far as it attempts to levy a tax, is upon a tax bill. It would 
be proper upon the tariff bill when it comes to us, but it has no relation to the 
subject-matter of the pending bill. 

He repeated that to put such an amendment on to his bill was not 
treating the subject fairly, "unless the Senate wants to defeat the 
original proposition." He announced that he would vote against all 
amendments which did not seem to carry out the object defined 
in the original bill. He protested that he was not opposed to the 
purpose of the Ingalls amendment, but that he felt its provisions 
should first be perfected and matured by the judgment of a com- 
mittee. "When they are so considered," he concluded, "we shall 
have time enough to act upon them." 56 

On the following day, March 25, 1890, Sen. J. Z. George of Mis- 
sissippi suggested that the whole bill be referred to the judiciary 
committee. Sherman opposed this motion, stating that a majority 
of that committee was notoriously opposed to his measure. He 
asked only that the senate should vote on the bill as it stood. The 
amendments, he said, could be considered separately: 

. . . I believe that in a half-hour we can take the vote on the proposition 
of the Senator from Texas [Mr. Reagan]. If that be adopted, well and good. 
We can vote then upon the proposition of the Senator from Kansas [Mr. 
Ingalls] and then adopt the amendments that are suggested on either side. 
Correct this bill as you will, and we can have a bill which, while it may not 
be perfect . . . we shall have a tangible proposition that we can send to 
the House of Representatives for their consideration, and in that way we can 
dismiss from the Senate of the United States, for this session at least, this 
question and controversy about trusts and combinations. . . , 57 

66. Ibid., pp. 2562, 2563. 
57. Ibid., p. 2605. 



188 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Although he remained opposed to the amendments he agreed to ac- 
cept the senate's decision. "Let the judgment of the Senate," he 
said, "be carried out when expressed." 58 

Sen. Z. B. Vance of North Carolina also objected to the motion 
made by Senator George. He stated: 

Mr. President, I never have a bill in which I feel any interest referred to 
this grand mausoleum of Senatorial literature, the Judiciary Committee, with- 
out feeling that I have attended a funeral. . . , 59 

The motion was defeated without a roll call. 

The Reagan amendment was the first to be considered and was 
adopted by a vote of 34 to 12. Ingalls supported it, although his 
colleague, Plumb, voted with Sherman and the handful of senators 
who opposed it. 60 

Next in order was the amendment of Senator Ingalls. He obtained 
permission to modify it slightly, in order, apparently, better to meet 
the objection to the bill as a revenue measure originating in the 
senate. The fourth section had opened with the simple statement: 
"That special taxes are imposed as follows . . ." He changed 
the whole emphasis by adding a short preamble to that section: 

That for the purpose of preventing and suppressing, as far as may be, the 
dealing in options and futures as herein denned, special taxes are . . . 61 

Sen. George F. Hoar offered an objection to the all-inclusive na- 
ture of the measure : 

Literally construed, this . . . would prohibit a man's grocer from en- 
gaging to deliver any farm product or articles in common family use. It seems 
to me there should be some limit in amount. . . . 

He suggested an amendment to solve this difficulty: 

Provided, That this act shall not apply to contracts for the delivery at any 
one time of articles less than $50 in value. 62 

This change was accepted and the amendment as amended was 
agreed to, without a yea and nay vote. 63 

On the next morning, March 26, 1890, Ingalls made a few unim- 
portant changes in the wording which had been rendered necessary 
by a different enumeration of the sections. (Joined to the Sherman 
bill, section one of the amendment became section six of the com- 
bined measure.) 64 

58. Ibid., p. 2604. 

59. Ibid., p. 2610. 

60. Ibid., p. 2611. 

61. Ibid., p. 2613. 

62. Ibid. 

63. Ibid. 

64. Ibid., pp. 2639, 2640. 



MCFARLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 189 

The debate on the Sherman bill in the committee of the whole 
opened that morning. 65 Sen. George G. Vest of Missouri, denying 
that he was opposed to the purpose of the proposed legislation, at- 
tacked "some of the particular measures which had been included 
in it." The varied supporters of the bill made strange company, he 
said, charging that some of them were deserting the principles of 
their party : 

. . . Mr. President, we have had a remarkable winter. The warm breezes 
of summer have kissed the flowers during all the winter months, and we have 
now in public affairs a phenomenon equally as startling: a combination in 
loving embrace between the Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Vance] and 
the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman], while my venerable friend from Texas 
[Mr. Reagan], in a patriarchal and benedictory mood, stands by and blesses 
the alliance, and says, "Love each other, my children, and be happy." Why 
I remember a very few years ago, when the oleomargarine bill was before the 
Senate, the Columbian eloquence of every Senator on this side of the Chamber 
if I mistake not, including the Senator from North Carolina was heard 
denouncing the use of the revenue power of the government as a police 
power. . . . 

But what have we here to-day? Here is a bill that upon its very face says, 
as it stands now before the Senate, that it proposed to use the revenue power 
for the undisguised purpose of effecting police purposes . . . 

"That for the purpose of preventing as far as may be the dealing in options 
and futures as herein denned special taxes are imposed." 

No pretense that it is to collect revenue, no pretense that it is anything else 
but the bald, naked use of the revenue power of the government for police 
regulation; . . . 

The Ingalls amendment, Vest charged, licensed and legally recog- 
nized an illegal combination which it denounced as opposed to the 
laws of the United States and all the states. The true reason for the 
senate's support of this unconstitutional measure was fear of the 
Farmers' Alliance: 

For myself I shall say nothing more about the Constitution. I am pre- 
pared to join the procession. I heard once of a hunting party who went into 
camp and made an agreement that the first man who complained of any dish 
set before him at the camp table should cook for a week. One happened to 
kill an old and very tough crow, and as he was acting as cook for the mess, he 
prepared it for the table, and every man swore it was the most delicious morsel 
that ever went into his mouth. The Farmers' Alliance are cooking now, and 
there is no dish that can be put on this Senatorial table which will not go down 
with a gusto that will astonish any gourmand from the restaurants of Paris. 66 

Sen. James B. Eustis of Louisiana objected to the measure in the 
interests of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange: 

65. The Ingalls amendment had been adopted without much discussion. Most of the 
criticism of it was made in the course of the general debate on the Sherman bill. 

66. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Seas., p. 2644. 



190 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

... I should like to know what the Congress of the United States has 
to do with the Cotton Exchange, for instance, in New Orleans dealing in 
futures. I notice that all the articles which are referred to with regard to fu- 
ture contracts are things that people consume: wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley; 
but the authors of the measure have included cotton. If we are going to in- 
clude cotton why do we not include steel rails? People are as liable to eat 
steel rails as they are to eat cotton. 

He was particularly indignant that a Northerner and Republican 
should have presumed to offer legislation which affected cotton and 
protested that the bill was a step toward centralized government: 

Why do we not include lead or salt? Why do we not include everything? 
Why do we not include manufactured cotton goods, a subject with reference 
to which there are very large operations in futures in Boston and in New York, 
Philadelphia, and elsewhere? If the broad proposition be that Congress should 
declare its policy upon the question of gambling, of which I confess I know 
very little; if the States have become so debilitated and emasculated and if 
the people of the State have become so demoralized that we are to surrender 
the whole question of police, of policy, and of public morality to the Congress 
of the United States, for one it will not be done with my vote. 

He coupled with the state's rights argument an outright defense of 
future selling, as practiced on the New Orleans Cotton Exchange: 

Where are we going to stop? If the State of Louisiana, for its own interest 
and from its own motives, owing no apology to any other State or to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, chooses to legalize contracts in futures with 
respect to cotton, by which a large and most respectable portion of our popu- 
lation make a living, which many and many a time have enabled the planter 
to get a much higher price for his product than he would get in the absence 
of a cotton exchange, when the planter many and many a time has been able 
to protect himself against flood and unfavorable seasons by making a future 
contract in cotton if the State of Louisiana chooses to consider that a per- 
fectly proper and legitimate business . . . where is the authority of Con- 
gress to step in and tell the State* of Louisiana . . . that those contracts 
are illegal and immoral and shall be suppressed by the power of Congressional 
legislation? 

Eustis concluded by denouncing any interference from the federal 
government with the police power of the state, "which is the suprem- 
est attribute of its sovereignty." 67 

Senator Ingalls took the floor to answer these critics. He denied 
that the amendment had been dictated by the Farmers' Alliance. 
He said it was not directed against sales, by farmer or broker, of 
any commodity to be delivered at a future time, unless the party 
making the sale was not the owner of the commodity. It was, he 
said, directed against: 

67. Ibid., p. 2646. No senator, from Illinois or elsewhere, made a similar defense of the 
use of futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade. 



MCFARLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 191 

. . . that gigantic modern invention known as dealing in futures, con- 
spiracies artificially to raise the prices of products, to change the value of 
products, to create artificial scarcity of products, to juggle with values irrespec- 
tive of ownership by processes that are just as reprehensible as those of the 
poker-table or the faro bank, in which there is no pretense of ownership, in 
which there is often an agreement to sell ten or fifty times more than the 
annual product of what is offered in the market, the sole purpose being to en- 
able those "who neither toil nor spin" but who are clad in purple and fare 
sumptuously every day, to settle up on the 1st day of October, or the 1st day 
of November, if it may be, the difference between the price that they had bet 
a certain product would bear on that date and the price at which the product 
is compelled to sell on that day. . . , 68 

This definition was a trifle vague, especially for legal purposes, but 
it was good campaign oratory. 

Ingalls sought to meet the constitutional objections. He argued 
that the amendment was not a violation of the privilege and preroga- 
tive of the house of representatives. There was a distinction, he 
said, between the revenue power and the taxing power. The Con- 
stitution, Article I, Section 7, provided that "all bills for raising 
revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives." In Sec- 
tion 8, however, congress was given the power to "lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay the debts and provide for 
the common defense and general welfare of the United States." The 
oleomargarine bill, Ingalls said, had been an exercise of congressional 
power under this latter clause. "Everybody who voted for that 
bill or against it," he asserted, "knew that it was not a bill for 
raising revenue." He quoted from Story On the Constitution, and 
decisions of the Supreme Court, 69 to support his argument. 70 

The Constitution, he insisted, was a growth and not a manufac- 
ture, and the Constitution of 1890 was vastly different from the 
Constitution of 1789. "The people of the United States have a 
reasonable degree of respect for the Constitution," he said, "but 
they are not afraid of it." He met the objections of the Southern 
defenders of state's rights with ridicule and contempt: 

Mr. President, I can not conceive of anything that is more humorous, more 
grotesque, more qualified and competent to make the sides of the nation shake 
with derisive laughter, than for the Senator from Louisiana, and the Senator 
from Mississippi, and the Senator from Missouri, and their associates, to rise 
with terror upon every occasion and plead the Constitution with a simulation 
of terror as if the minutest abrasion of that sacred instrument would, as we 
are told at the death of Kosciusko, make "freedom shriek." If I recollect 



68. Ibid., p. 2648. 

69. In particular, ' 
: levied on state ban 

70. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 2649, 2650. 



69. In particular, "8 Wallace Veazie Bank v. Fenno." The court upheld a ten percent 
tax levied on state bank notes, even though it was intended to destroy their use. 



192 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

aright, those gentlemen spent a considerable portion of time in endeavoring to 
destroy the Constitution. What is the secret of this new-found reverence for 
the Constitution? Did they bear it away in the ark of the covenant for four 
years and then bring it back to us as its chosen guardians, and be permitted in 
that same instant to taunt those who endeavor to carry out the ideas of na- 
tional growth and progress with being the violators of the Constitution? There 
is a constant pleading of the oath that was taken to support the Constitution, 
as if those who differed with them in their interpretations of the Constitution 
were perjured and oblivious of their moral obligations. 

It seems to me it will be a little more becoming for those men who are 
scourging us, who hold us up to public castigation, if they possess the modesty 
of opinion to recollect that their views of the Constitution have not been 
maintained by the people of this country. There has been no step in the na- 
tional progress in the last thirty-five years against which the Senator from 
Louisiana, and the Senator from Mississippi and the Senator from Missouri 
have not arisen and declared that it was against the Constitution. . . . We 
were told that the abolition of slavery was without warrant in the Constitu- 
tion, but we found it, and when it could not be found in the letter it was 
amended by the sword. . . . 71 

"The people of the United States," he continued, "do not regard 
the Constitution with superstition or awe." The Democrats, how- 
ever, were furious. "Marse Henry" Watterson, of the Louisville 
(Ky.) Courier- Journal, wrote a long and indignant editorial, assert- 
ing that the growth of the Constitution which Senator Ingalls cited 
was merely a growth in the "determination to disregard it." 72 

Eustis replied, in the senate, reiterating his opposition to the 
amendment: 

... no such stride has been made in the direction of centralization, 
absolutism, tyranny, as has been made by this bill as amended to regulate the 
private contracts of individuals in the States. . . . 

If the people of Kansas dislike contracts in futures, if they think they are 
obnoxious and odious, if they think these contracts are injurious to morals and 
against public policy, let them appeal to the Legislature of the State of Kan- 
sas to remove that evil, if it exists; and if this blow is aimed at Chicago 
.. . . which is said to be the great center of gambling in wheat, and corn, 
and barley, and oats, and bacon, and cattle if the Senator from Kansas seeks 
to correct the morals of the State of Illinois, that overlooks his border, and is 
ashamed of that people because they countenance that species of gambling, if 
he is to assume the role of censor mores, instructor of the youth, guardian of 
public morals, the archangel that looks down and weeps for the depravity of 
his fellows living in the State of Illinois, I ask him, in the name of Heaven, to 
leave out Louisiana, and let us, if we choose, engage in future contracts. 73 

Another slight change was made in the bill at this time. Senator 
Hoar proposed an addition to his amendment of the amendment, 

71. Ibid., p. 2649. 

72. The Courier- Journal, Louisville, Ky., March 28, 1890. 

73. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 2651, 2652. 



McFABLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 193 

exempting "articles to be consumed by the person to whom they are 
delivered or in his establishment." He said: 

The Senator will observe that the bill as it is now drawn . . . will be 
open to the criticism that it prohibits contracts for the delivery to large es- 
tablishments like hotels of beef, or lard, or milk for the daily use of their 
customers, and that class of contracts which have no sort of connection with 
those aimed at; but it is better, I suppose, to have the phraseology of the bill 
clearly exclude that intention. . . . 

Unanimous consent was given for this revision. 74 

The important question, hinted at in this discussion, of dis- 
tinguishing between "legitimate" business contracts and the "gam- 
bling" contracts, now came to the front. Senator Ingalls had con- 
fidently asserted that his amendment would apply only to the 
gambling in agricultural products, but he had not substantiated the 
statement. The amendment as it stood, Sen. Henry W. Blair, of 
New Hampshire complained, would unquestionably interfere with 
the legitimate basis of the cotton and woolen manufacturing in his 
state, which generally required contracts for future delivery of the 
raw materials. He demanded exemption for the "legitimate busi- 
ness of the country in the cotton manufacture." 75 
Senator Sherman, troubled by the dilemma, said : 
I do not care what words are used, but it is one of those cases certainly 
where words ought to be found to define exactly the difference between a 
gambling contract and a contract made by a broker. 

Blair aroused laughter by retorting that the dictionary was "right 
over in the corner." 76 The senators continued, nevertheless, to hunt 
for such a distinction. 

Senator Hoar suggested, as protection for legitimate business con- 
tracts, a proviso excluding "bona fide contracts for the actual de- 
livery of the property contracted for." Sen. John H. Mitchell of 
Oregon, pointed out another difficulty. Under the terms of the 
amendment, he argued, farmers would be unable to contract for sale 
of their crops until harvest, for until then they would not own the 
product of their labor. A remedy was offered by Sen. William B. 
Allison of Iowa. He proposed that the words "owner or producer" 
should be substituted for "owner" in all the terms of the amendment. 
Sen. Joseph N. Dolph of Oregon asked that "owner or producer" 
be changed further so as to include "any lawful agent of the pro- 

74. Ibid., p. 2650. 

75. Ibid., p. 2652. 

76. Ibid., p. 2653. 

132603 



194 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ducer." Ingalls offered two amendments which embodied these 
suggestions and they were adopted by unanimous consent. 77 

While the senate was in a mood for accepting changes, the critics 
of the bill tacked on what became known as the "encumbering 
amendments." Sen. Matthew C. Butler of South Carolina pro- 
posed that the list of products taxed in the act be extended to include 
stocks and bonds. Senator Eustis offered an amendment to cover 
cotton prints, steel rails, salt, boots and shoes, lumber and lead. 
Senator Blair made a motion to add woolen goods, whisky, and all 
kinds of intoxicating liquors to the list. All of these amendments 
were adopted amidst laughter and joking. Ingalls inquired whether 
the stocks and bonds were to be taxed by the bushel or by the 
pound. "I think by the bushel," Butler replied, "or the ton if the 
Senator would prefer it." 78 

Sherman was more than ever outraged by the treatment accorded 
his bill. He denounced the senate's horseplay: 

. . . Mr. President, the amendments which have been put upon this bill 
in the last few minutes are such as simply bring it into contempt, and the 
manner in which this has been done tends to bring the whole bill into con- 
tempt. But the bill is worth preserving. . . . 

. . . We ought not to allow this bill to be defeated under these circum- 
stances. If we do, the people of the United States will feel that the Senate 
... is playing with a question which affects nearly and dearly the vital 
interests of our country. 

He promised to try to strip the bill of anything that was objection- 
able to a majority of the senate and then to pass "what there is of 
virtual good in it." The Ingalls amendment, he thought, might well 
be discarded: 

There is some question as to the amendment proposed by the Senator from 
Kansas. Although it is wise in its purpose and in the main its provisions are 
wise, yet, as it has not been considered by a committee, it may very well 
possibly be postponed and be treated of in another and separate measure. 79 

Ingalls, of course, dissented: 

Mr. President, so far as the suggestion of the Senator from Ohio about the 
abandonment of my amendment is concerned, I beg leave to say to him, with 
great deference and profound respect, that my amendment is the best thing 
there is about his bill. It is the only substantial proposition that offers def- 
inite, palpable, and tangible relief against what is acknowledged to be one of 
the gigantic evils of this century. . . . 

In a long tirade against "grain gambling," he included many of the 

77. Ibid., pp. 2653, 2654. 

78. Ibid., p. 2655. 
79 l . Ibid. 



MCFARLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 195 

arguments that Murdock had used in his crusading editorials. In 
its course he took a dig at Vest and paid his respects to the Farmers' 
Alliance. He continued: 

. . . Sir, although the farmers of this country have been sneered at to- 
day, although we have heard disparaging allusions to the Farmers' Alliances 
and associations, and suggestions that this legislation was being brought about 
at their dictation, they are intelligent, they know what the purpose of this 
amendment is, they know the cause of the evils under which they labor and 
of which they complain. There is no one thing which they have more im- 
peratively and more unanimously demanded than the enactment of some law 
which will put a stop to the gambling in the products of their labor. 

He spoke tolerantly of the "encumbering amendments" : 

I ask that the bill may be reported to the Senate, and I shall demand a 
yea-and-nay vote in the Senate upon agreeing to those amendments that have 
been humorously inserted while the bill has been in Committee of the Whole. 
I know that sometimes the Senate has to unbend itself; the bow cannot be 
always stretched. These amendments, I am confident, have been put on in a 
spirit of jocularity and refreshment. There has been a little time of recrea- 
tion from labor. I feel confident that when the bill is reported to the Senate 
and such amendments are reserved they will, upon a yea-and-nay vote be 
voted down. 80 

Several times that afternoon the motion was made to have the 
bill referred to the judiciary committee. Each time it was rejected, 
and at a late hour the bill was declared reported to the senate from 
the committee of the whole. The senate refused a motion to refer 
it back to the finance committee by a vote of 31 to 17, and another 
motion to commit it to the judiciary committee failed by a vote of 
29 to 24. 81 

On the next day the senate proceeded to consider one by one the 
amendments which had been adopted in the committee of the whole. 
This procedure continued until the proviso offered by Senator Sher- 
man, exempting labor and farmers' organizations, was reached. The 
debate which this precipitated was carried on for a short time until 
Sen. 0. H. Platt of Connecticut arose. He criticized the whole bill 
and said that large parts were probably unconstitutional: 

I am sorry, Mr. President, that we have not had a bill which had been care- 
fully prepared, which had been thoughtfully prepared, which had been honestly 
prepared, to meet the object which we all desire to meet. The conduct of this 
Senate for the past three days and I make no personal allusions has not 
been in the line of the honest preparation of a bill to prohibit and punish 
trusts. It has been in the line of getting some bill with that title that we 
might go to the country with. . . . 

80. Ibid., pp. 2655, 2656. 

81. Ibid., pp. 2657, 2659-2661. 



196 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The distinguished author of the bill, the Senator in charge of it on this floor, 
when the Senator from Texas proposed his amendment, opposed it, and when 
the Senator from Kansas proposed his amendment opposed it and said that it 
ought to be voted down; and yet the moment they were put on the bill he 
seemed to be as anxious for the passage of the bill with those amendments 
upon it as he had been of his own. We should legislate better than that. 
Every effort to refer this bill to any committee that would give it careful and 
honest consideration has been voted down in this Senate, and it is better to 
vote the bill down than it is to go to the people with a measure which shall 
resemble the apples which grow in the region of that fated plain on which 
once stood the city of Sodom. . . , 82 

When Platt had finished, Sen. Edward C. Walthall moved to refer 
the bill and all its amendments to the committee on the judiciary 
with instructions to report in twenty days. The motion carried 
by a vote of 31 to 28, although Sherman and Ingalls both voted 
against it. 83 

It is interesting to note that Senator Ingalls was a member of the 
judiciary committee. Perhaps he was permitted to embalm his own 
proposition, for the committee lived up to its reputation as a "grand 
mausoleum of Senatorial literature." When the committee made its 
report, a week later, the amendments of Sherman and N. W. Aldrich, 
exempting labor unions and farmers' organizations, had disappeared. 
The amendment of the senator from Kansas, likewise was nowhere 
to be found. 84 The coroner's verdict must be: "Buried in Com- 
mittee." Thus was ended the legislative career, brief but hectic, of 
Ingalls' belated attempt to "do something for the fanner." 

IV. CONCLUSION 

Did Senator Ingalls honestly desire legislation to prohibit the 
practices he denounced? This question of sincerity cannot be an- 
swered positively. Consideration must be given to other possible 
motives for his sponsorship of the measure. Political expediency 
had dictated some demonstration of action for the relief of the farm- 
ers. ". . . There is no one thing which they [the Farmers' 
Alliances] have more imperatively and more unanimously de- 
manded," Ingalls said, "than the enactment of some law which will 
put a stop to the gambling in the products of their labor." 85 In a 
desperate effort to stave off defeat he apparently hoped to win the 
support either of the alliances or a sizeable faction within them. 

82. Ibid., p. 2731. 

83. Ibid. 

84. Ibid., p. 2901. 

85. Ibid., p. 2656. 



MCFABLAND: THE INGALLS AMENDMENT 197 

He tried to counter the deadly argument, "Ingalls has done nothing 
for the Kansas farmer." 

On March 28 three newspapers which were supporting Ingalls for 
reelection to the United States senate, printed similar editorials. 
The Wichita Daily Eagle exulted in the nearing success of its cam- 
paign. In "Ingalls and the Gamblers" Murdock remarked that he 
had been urging national legislation to prohibit "pretended buying 
and selling of wind wheat," for more than a year. He continued: 

. . . We did not dream that it was possible that within a year's time the 
matter discussed would become a national question. But it undoubtedly is. 
The question is before both Houses of Congress. The editorials of the Eagle 
were sent to Butterworth, of Ohio, whose bill is going to become a law in some 
shape. Senator Ingalls' speech was a forceful declaration showing an honest 
reflex of the conclusions reached and held by the thinkers among the farmers 
of the west. . . . 

Murdock criticized the alliance for its resolution against Ingalls: 
. . . the resolution sets out that the senator has been derelict as to the 
agricultural and labor interests of this state. We ask how so, and since when? 
. . . can any member of that alliance point to a single instance wherein, or 
to a man who ever made a stronger or more pointed demand, a demand bris- 
tling with earnestness, than that made by Ingalls in behalf of the producers of 
Kansas, and that in which he denounced the methods by which they are being 
robbed, on the very day that the above resolution was pulled from a side 
pocket and forced upon the Topeka convention? 

Do not the Alliance presidents know that that effort of Mr. Ingalls in the 
United States Senate on Wednesday will be just as well known to the people 
of Kansas, and far more so to the people of the world, than their resolution, 
and that Mr. Ingalls' speech will go a thousand times further in restraining 
and finally crushing the option gamblers and labor robbers of this country 
than the combined voice of that convention which denounced him? 86 

The Topeka Daily Capital said in part that Senator Ingalls is 
making a great attempt to further the farmers' interests by putting 
a stop to gambling in agricultural products, and he deserves their 
support. 87 

Dan Anthony wrote in the Leavenworth Times: 

While Mr. Ingalls has been bitterly criticized by some within his own state 
as having done nothing for the benefit of the people, he has been making a 
strong fight in the Senate for the passage of a law which many of our wisest 
farmers believe will be of the greatest benefit to them. Against the combined 
forces of those who are in the interest of the grain gamblers Senator Ingalls 
has been making a gallant effort for the passage of a law prohibiting dealing 
in futures. It is claimed by those who ought to know, if anybody, that the 
law of supply and demand does not govern the prices of wheat and corn and 

86. Wichita Daily Eagle, March 28, 1890. 

87. Topeka Daily Capital, March 28, 1890. 

\ 



198 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

other grains and that grain gambling is responsible for the low prices of these 
commodities. If this be true the battle that Senator Ingalls is waging in the 
Senate is of vital importance to the farmers of Kansas. Whether it be true 
or not cannot be known until the experiment is tried but in endeavoring to 
secure the passage of such a law Senator Ingalls shows that he is alive to the 
interests of his own state. The fact is that no senator is more anxious than 
Mr. Ingalls to serve his state, no one has a clearer insight into the effects of 
a proposed measure and no one can wield a greater influence than he in pro- 
curing the passage of a desired law. Our people would make a very great 
mistake to put an unknown and untried man in his place. What Ingalls can- 
not do for Kansas cannot be done in the Senate of the United States. 88 

Not all the comment was favorable. The Kansas City (Mo.) 
Times remarked: 

Ingalls' fight against option dealing is satisfactorily explained by the fact 
that the next Kansas legislature, which will be composed of farmers, will elect 
a United States Senator. 89 

The campaign to congratulate Ingalls for his valiant struggle in 
behalf of the farmer backfired. The Emporia Daily Republican 
picked up Murdock's challenge. It commented sarcastically: 

The Wichita Eagle takes the Alliance sharply to account for its assertion 
that Senator Ingalls during his eighteen years in the senate had never done 
anything for the farmers' interest. Why, it was only last week, says the Eagle, 
that Mr. Ingalls made a pointed demand in behalf of the producers, in his 
amendment to the anti-trust bill. True; there is his effort last week, and 
er er what were Mr. Ingalls' other efforts? 90 

A few days later it said: 

The papers that are defending Senator Ingalls have gone through his eight- 
een years record with a microscope and discovered two things he has done that 
are constructively in the interest of the farmers. One was twelve years ago 
when he made a speech in behalf of silver, and the other was twelve days ago 
when he offered Ben Butterworth's bill as an amendment to the anti-trust 
measure. 91 

If, as some charged, the Ingalls amendment was a political de- 
vice, it failed, for he went down to defeat before the Populists. The 
people of Kansas, his opponents asserted, felt that it was "too little 
and too late." 

88. Leavenworth Times, March 28, 1890. 

89. Kansas City (Mo.) Times, March 30, 1890. 

90. Emporia Daily Republican, March 29, 1890. 

91. Ibid., April 5, 1890. 



Some Notes on College Basketball in Kansas 

HAROLD C. EVANS 

BASKETBALL is celebrating its fiftieth birthday. The game was 
born at the Y. M. C. A. Training School in Springfield, Mass., 
in the winter of 1891-1892, the result of an effort to find some method 
of exercise less monotonous than the established types of calis- 
thenics and gymnastic games. Dr. James A. Naismith, an instructor 
at the school, worked out the rules, members of his class tried the 
game and liked it, and when they went home for the Christmas 
vacation some of them introduced it in their local Y. M. C. A.'s. In 
January, 1892, the rules were printed in the school paper, The Tri- 
angle, copies of which were mailed to many parts of the United 
States. From the "Y's" it spread to the high schools and colleges. 
So began a game which now rivals football and baseball in the 
affections of the American sports world, and which is popular in 
hundreds of countries all over the globe. 1 

When Doctor Naismith joined the faculty of the University of 
Kansas in 1898 basketball was generally regarded in Kansas college 
circles as a woman's sport. This could scarcely have been surpris- 
ing to its inventor, for girls had begun playing it in the East when 
it was barely a month old. Coeds on Mount Oread experimented 
with it as early as 1896, the Kansas University Weekly reporting on 
November 21 that the girls had organized several teams and that 
the freshman and sophomore girls hoped to play a match game. 
There is no record of this contest, if it was played, but if the young 
women carried out their plan it probably was the first basketball 
game on a Kansas campus. In 1897 their athletic facilities were 
enlarged. A space was reserved to be used as an athletic field for 
women and facilities were provided for an open-air basketball 
court. 2 The women of Baker University first played the game in 
the spring of 1897, when the contest between the Delta Delta Delta 
team and one picked from the other girls of the university was a 
feature of the first spring field day, according to The Baker Orange 
of May 19. Girls pioneered in basketball at Washburn College, 
Ottawa University and Emporia Normal, as well as at K. U. and 
Baker. The Washburn Weekly Review announced on November 3, 

1. Naismith, James A., Basketball, Its Origin and Development (Association Press, New- 
York, 1941), pp. 59, 111, 118, 143-160. 

2. Kansas University Weekly, Lawrence, November 18, 1897. 

(199) 



200 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1898, that "we may expect our young ladies to issue a challenge to 
some of the neighboring schools for a basketball game before long," 
and reported a week later that they were learning the fine points of 
the new pastime at the Y. W. C. A. gymnasium in Topeka. 

Facilities for developing the game were inadequate in Kansas 
colleges of this period and the university was no exception. Doctor 
Naismith brought the game to his physical education class. 3 Bored 
with the monotonous routine of calisthenics, the K. U. men welcomed 
a competitive sport and basketball's popularity spread so rapidly 
that the Weekly reported on December 10, ". . . it appears that 
the basketball mania would carry all before it." Eight teams had 
been organized, it was said, and a series of tournaments arranged 
to select a representative for the university in intercollegiate com- 
petition. 

The first game for the varsity was with the experienced Y. M. 
C. A. team of Kansas City, Mo. The game was played on the Kan- 
sas City court and K. U. was beaten, 16 to 5. A crowd of 150 per- 
sons witnessed the rout of Naismith 's proteges. In the K. U. lineup 
were: Sutton, right forward; Owen, left forward; Hess, center; 
Henderson, right back; Avery, left back. Capt. Will Sutton was 
the K. U. star, while Henderson and Owen did some "clever rolling." 4 
Obviously the dribble was unknown at that early date. Another 
invasion of Missouri territory resulted in two defeats at Independ- 
ence, the Company F team furnishing the opposition. In Kansas the 
Jayhawks fared much better, winning three games from the Topeka 
Y. M. C. A. and one from the Lawrence Y. M. C. A. 5 

Home games were played on the skating rink during K. U.'s first 
basketball season. The old building, which was used for political 
meetings and social affairs as well as for the cradle of K. U. basket- 
ball, was the scene of a series of interclass games after the varsity 
team had completed its abbreviated schedule. Fire destroyed the 
building after the interclass tourney and the Jayhawks were with- 
out a basketball home. It had "at any rate served the purpose of 
showing the merits of basketball and that our teams can play a 
game of which they may be proud," commented the University 
Weekly* 

Baker University waited until its gymnasium was completed be- 
fore the men of that institution took up basketball, but Washburn 

3. Ibid., October 22, 1898. 

4. Ibid., February 4, 1899. 

5. Basketball at the University of Kansas (a booklet compiled by the K. U. News Bureau, 
December, 1937), pp. 7, 8. 

6. Kansas University Weekly, March 25, 1899. 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 201 

College began to play the men's game in the spring of 1899. Robert 
Stewart, now a prominent Topeka physician, was the first captain 
of the Ichabod quintet. Topeka buzzed with basketball activity 
the following winter, with Washburn, the high school, the Y. M. 
C. A. and the Santa Fe represented by teams. Washburn failed to 
win a game in this competition and the Topeka collegians were 
stalked by evil fortune throughout the season. Stewart was injured 
and forced to give up the game, and Fleming, "our star player," was 
not allowed to play in the post-season tournament because he was a 
member of the first Y. M. C. A. team. Said The Washburn Review: 

This mid-winter sport does not receive the encouragement from Washburn 
College students that its value entitles it to. In all of the prominent schools 
this game is being made a feature of athletics. . . . It is difficult, one must 
admit, to see the game from a good vantage point, because few gymnasiums are 
supplied with galleries. . . . Since a game is often judged as to its merits 
from the spectator's standpoint, we would have to say that it is not very en- 
tertaining, because the spectator cannot see the play, and because he cannot 
see he stays away. . . . It is to be regretted that this team has brought no 
glory to our school. . . J 

Topekans who have followed the game since its first feeble appear- 
ance in Kansas recall that the local Y. M. C. A. claimed the state 
basketball championship in 1900 and that there were several Wash- 
burn students on the victorious "Y" team. Men's basketball was 
abandoned at the college until 1905, and intercollegiate competition 
for women was banned in 1910. 8 

The K. U. team of 1900 rented the Lawrence Y. M. C. A. court 
for its home games and practice sessions, but played under a handi- 
cap because students found it hard to maintain interest in a game 
that was not played on the campus. An all-victorious football 
season the previous autumn had dimmed enthusiasm for the new 
game and many were content to pass the winter in contemplation of 
K. U.'s gridiron glory. The same difficulty discussed in The Wash- 
burn Review also proved a detriment to basketball at the university. 
There was no room for spectators in the box-like Y. M. C. A. gym- 
nasium. 

In its first meeting with a rival university the Jayhawk team met 
a crushing defeat at the hands of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 48 to 
8. 9 Games were won from the Haskell Indians and from the Omaha 
Y. M. C. A. The Kansas City "Y" twice defeated the Naismith 

7. The Washburn Review, Topeka, March 9, 1899; March 9, 1900. 

8. Ibid., November 9, 1910. 

9. Basketball at the University of Kansas, p. 3. 



202 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

men. 10 Unsuccessful efforts were made to organize an intercollegiate 
league, to include K. U., Baker University, Ottawa University, 
Emporia Normal, Washburn College and the College of Emporia. 11 

In 1901, however, Ottawa University put a team on the court and 
games were played with the Haskell Indians, the Topeka and Law- 
rence "Y" teams and K. U. Naismith's K. U. team won four and 
lost five games that season. 12 

While the college men were slow to accept basketball, the women 
of Baker, Washburn, Ottawa, and Emporia Normal were enthusi- 
astic participants and played with high school and Y. W. C. A. 
teams for the state championship. The Indian girls at Haskell soon 
entered the lists. 

Some of the high schools were too strong for the college girls, and 
in any event, the younger girls were able to provide stiff competition 
for their collegiate sisters. The girls soon began to take their com- 
petition seriously. Relations between Washburn and Topeka High 
School became strained as a result of bitter rivalry for the state 
title, which Washburn claimed in 1904 and 1905 after defeating the 
high school girls. School authorities concluded that it would be 
unwise to schedule other games and the 1905 meeting was the last. 
". . . Feeling has arisen . . . which even continues when the 
high school girls enter Washburn," explained the student publication 
in justifying the move. 13 

The Haskell Indians claimed the national championship in 1902, 
according to The Indian Leader of March 14, which described the 
game between the Indians and the M. W. A. team of Independence, 
Mo., former claimants of the title. The Indians were awarded the 
game by forfeit after the Missourians left the court early in the 
second half with Haskell leading, 17 to 15. The M. W. A. players 
declared they had been unfairly treated, although the record re- 
veals that two of the three officials were Independence men. Other 
Haskell victims that season were the Universities of Kansas and 
Nebraska, William Jewell College, the Topeka Y. M. C. A., and the 
Kansas City Athletic Club. The Indians established some kind of 
a record in their 65 to massacre of the athletic club, which The 
Indian Leader of February 14, 1902, described as "interesting if 
. . . one-sided." Fallis, Hauser, Oliver, Shields, and Archiquette 
were the starting players for Haskell. 

10. Ibid., pp. 7, 8. 

11. Kansas University Weekly, December 9, 1899. 

12. Ibid. r May 25, 1901. 

13. The Washburn Review, March 3, 1905. 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 203 

Meanwhile, Baker completed its new gymnasium and organized 
a men's team in the fall of 1902. 14 Emporia Normal and the Kansas 
Aggies entered competition for the first time during the winter of 
1902-1903. The Normals and the Methodists divided a two-game 
series, Baker winning, 39 to 23, at Baldwin, and losing, 32 to 30, in 
a game at Emporia. 15 

The Aggies met a reverse that might have discouraged weaker 
men when Haskell massacred them 60 to 7, early in 1903. Oliver, 
the Indian center, scored eighteen field goals. 16 The Aggies also 
lost to the Topeka "Y," Baker, McPherson College, and Bethany 
College of Lindsborg, Kansas State College records reveal. The 
Manhattan school did not compete again until 1905. 

Wichita college men learned the game from the local Y. M. C. A. 
Friends University's first game was played with the "Y" team on 
February 10, 1904, resulting in a 22 to 10 defeat for the Quakers. 
" Although some of our men had not seen the game before, they did 
some good work," said a Friends' publication. Fairmount soon 
followed Friends' example and the two Wichita institutions were 
competing with other colleges of the state within the next few years. 

Veteran basketball men say that one factor that prevented basket- 
ball from becoming a major sport during the first decade of its 
existence as a Kansas college game was that men students regarded 
the game as effeminate. By 1910, however, Baker, K. S. A. C. and 
Washburn had banned intercollegiate competition for women. In 
discussing the decision of the college authorities The Washburn Re- 
view of November 9 said that it had been determined that girls did 
not recuperate readily from the physical and nervous strain of com- 
petitive athletics and that women's athletics were being exploited 
for financial gain. The Universities of Missouri, Chicago and Den- 
ver were mentioned as other institutions which abolished women's 
basketball. At K. U. the women's game had not developed to the 
extent it had in smaller schools, as Doctor Naismith had never been 
very friendly toward feminine participation. 

The quality of basketball in Kansas had improved steadily since 
the turn of the century, however. The Kansas Aggies won five of 
eight games scheduled in 1906, 17 while K. U. defeated Nebraska that 
year for the first time in history, 38 to 17. 18 Baker, victorious by 

14. The Baker Orange, Baldwin, November 8, 1902. 

15. Ibid., January 17, February 7, 1903. 

16. The Students' Herald, Manhattan, January 22, 1903. 

17. "Kansas State College Athletic Records" (mimeographed). 

18. Basketball at the University of Kansas, p. 3. 



204 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

22 to 18, was the only Kansas college quintet that beat the Jay- 
hawks, although defeats were suffered at the hands of several out- 
of-state teams. 19 

The first meeting between the Aggies and K. U. was in 1907, and 
the Aggies emerged on the long end of a 29 to 25 score. 20 A powerful 
Baker team twice defeated the Aggies, however, and added the 
university team to its list of victims. The Haskell Indians were 
among the leaders in the state, defeating the Aggies twice. Kansas 
lost a two-game series with Missouri which marked the beginning of 
basketball relations between the Jayhawks and the Tigers. Ne- 
braska defeated Kansas 32 to 19. 21 

A man destined to be a dominant figure in the basketball world 
entered the University of Kansas as a student in 1905. He was 
Forrest C. (Phog.) Allen of Independence, Mo., who had learned the 
game as a member of the athletic club team in his home town. Doc- 
tor Naismith met young Allen early in the 1900's when he took his 
team to Independence to play the athletic club. In 1905 Allen was a 
member of the Kansas City Athletic Club's famous team that thrice 
defeated the touring Buffalo (N. Y.) Germans, claimants of the 
national basketball championship. In 1908, while still an under- 
graduate, the Missourian relieved Doctor Naismith of his coaching 
duties at K. U. The Jayhawks won the championship of the newly 
organized Missouri Valley Conference, in competition with Iowa 
State College and the Universities of Nebraska and Missouri. 

While directing the Jayhawks "Phog" Allen found time to coach 
at Baker and Haskell. Baker, under Allen in 1907, won fifteen 
games and was undefeated. After coaching another championship 
team at K. U. in 1909, Doctor Allen left W. 0. Hamilton in charge 
of basketball. In 1912 he accepted a position as director of athletics 
and coach of all sports at Missouri State Teachers College, Warrens- 
burg. While there his teams won seven conference championships. 22 

The Kansas Jayhawks continued their victorious marches to the 
Missouri Valley championship under their new coach, winning the 
conference race in 1910 and 1911. Tommy Johnson, one of K. U.'s 
greatest athletes, was captain of the 1910 team. In 1912 the Kansas 
Aggies won from K. U., 33 to 28, after the Jayhawks had defeated 
them in an earlier game, 37 to 24. Kansas and Nebraska shared 
conference honors in 1912, but the Cornhuskers were undisputed 

19. Ibid., pp. 6, 7. 

20. "Kansas State College Athletic Records." 

21. Basketball at the University of Kansas, pp. 3, 6. 

22. Graduate Magazine, University of Kansas, Lawrence, December, 1935, p. 5. 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 205 

champions the following year. A Jayhawk quintet captained by 
Ralph "Lefty" Sproull, brought the title back to Mt. Oread in 1914 
where it remained for two years. Nebraska took it back to Lincoln 
in 1916. 23 

The Kansas State Agricultural College officially entered the Mis- 
souri Valley Conference in 1916 and took its first basketball cham- 
pionship in 1917, winning ten games and losing but two in con- 
ference play. Missouri won in 1918 and the Aggies again in 1919. 24 
The Aggies were coached by Z. G. Clevenger and the squad included 
Hinds and Bunger, forwards; Jennings, center; Clarke and Cowell, 
guards; Winter, Foltz and Blair, substitutes. 25 

Although basketball had become firmly established as an inter- 
collegiate sport as early as 1907, the game did not reach its peak in 
popularity until after the first World War. Dr. Forrest C. Allen 
returned to K. U. in 1919 as director of athletics and coached the 
basketball team in 1920, which finished third in the Missouri Valley 
Conference. 26 

About this time Southwestern College of Winfield, under the tute- 
lage of Willis S. "Bill" Bates, began to assume the dominant posi- 
tion it has enjoyed for the past two decades. The Southwestern 
Moundbuilders won the Kansas Conference championship in 1920 
and they have been rated among the best college teams in the United 
States since that date. In 1921 the Builders dropped to fourth place 
in the conference, Fairmount College of Wichita winning the title 
in an exciting race. 27 It was Southwestern, however, that won 
national recognition for the Kansas brand of basketball when the 
Builders advanced to the final round of the National A. A. U. tour- 
nament at Kansas City before losing a hard-fought game to the 
veteran team of the Kansas City Athletic Club, 42 to 36. 28 South- 
western's starting lineup was George Gardner and P. Reif, for- 
wards; Kahler, center; Keyes and Cairns, guards. 

Coach Bates' proteges won the Kansas Conference championship 
in 1922 and fell just a trifle short of their previous year's record in 
the National A. A. U. tournament, losing to the Lowe and Campbell 
team of Kansas City in the semi-final round. In 1923 Southwestern 
lost but one regularly scheduled conference game, and that to the 
Pittsburg Teachers. This record was adequate for recognition as 

23. Basketball at the University of Kansas, pp. 3, 10, 11. 

24. Ibid., p. 11. See, also, The Kansas Industrialist, Manhattan, March 12, 1919. 

25. Ibid.; Kansas State Collegian, Manhattan, March 11, 1919. 

26. Graduate Magazine, University of Kansas, January, April, 1920 ; December, 1935. 

27. Winfield Daily Courier, March 8, 1921. 

28. Ibid., March 14, 1921. 



206 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the conference champion. Southwestern also boasted two victories 
over the University of Texas. 29 Both Southwestern and Fairmount 
advanced to the quarter- finals at Kansas City. 30 

While Southwestern and Fairmount were directing nation-wide 
attention to Kansas, "Phog" Allen had the Kansas Jayhawks back 
in the lead of the Missouri Valley Conference. A two-year period 
of Missouri leadership was ended in 1922 when the Jayhawks and 
Tigers tied for first place, each with fifteen victories and one de- 
feat. Missouri defeated Kansas, 35 to 25; Kansas retaliated by 
beating the Tigers, 26 to 16. George Rody, captain and forward, 
was the main cog in the K. U. machine and led the conference in 
scoring. 31 

Many Kansas basketball fans cherish the opinion that "Phog" 
Allen's team of 1923 was his greatest. The old Missouri Valley 
Conference was composed of nine members and played a double 
round-robin basketball schedule, which meant sixteen conference 
games. The Jayhawks were undefeated. Waldo Bowman and Tus- 
ten Ackerman were the Kansas forwards, John Wulf, the center, 
Paul Endacott and Charles Black were in the guard positions. 
Reserves included Armin Woestemeyer and Verne Wilkins, guards, 
and Byron Frederick, center. 32 This was the first of five con- 
secutive seasons in which Kansas had the undisputed champion- 
ship of the conference, winning 72 games and losing but six in con- 
ference competition. A great Oklahoma team captured the title in 
1928 to break the Kansas victory string. 33 

Arthur "Dutch" Lonborg, after a successful term of coaching at 
McPherson College, became the Washburn Ichabod's tutor in 1924. 
"Dutch" was a pupil of Doctor Allen, and captained the Jayhawk 
squad in 1920. Under Lonborg's direction Washburn began a rapid 
climb in the Kansas Conference, finishing in third place at the end 
of his first season. The Emporia Teachers, with 14 victories and 
one defeat, won the conference title, losing only to their neighbors, 
the College of Emporia. 34 Bethel College of Newton was second. 
Washburn was eliminated in the third round of the National A. A. 
U. tournament, 35 which was won by Butler College of Indianapolis, 

29. Ibid., February 22, 1923. 

30. Ibid., March 16, 1923. 

31. Basketball at the University of Kansas, pp. 4, 10, 11. 

32. Graduate Magazine, University of Kansas. March, 1923. 

33. Basketball at the University of Kansas, p. 11. 

34. Emporia Gazette, March 7, 1924. 

35. Topeka Daily Capital, March 14, 1924. 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 207 

Ind. 36 The Indiana team was the first collegiate winner of the big 
tournament. 

Kansas basketball teams reached three pinnacles of success in 
1925. The Jayhawks of Doctor Allen, paced by the high scoring 
"Tus" Ackerman, annexed the Missouri Valley title with fifteen 
victories and one defeat. Washburn College, whose basketball team 
had "brought no glory" to the school in 1900, became the second 
college to win National A. A. U. honors when its team swept aside 
the mighty Hillyards of St. Joseph, Mo., in the final round, 42 to 
30. In the Washburn lineup were: Clarence "Kid" Breithaupt 
and Orson "Shorty" McLaughlin, forwards; Gerald Spohn, center; 
Arthur Brewster and Lambert "Butch" Lowe, guards. Milton Poort, 
reserve guard, also saw action that night in old Convention hall. 37 
Washburn and the Pittsburg Teachers, who were coached by John 
Lance, had tied for first place in the Kansas Conference, each 
winning thirteen games and losing two. An upset defeat at the 
hands of Steve O'Rourke's unpredictable and always dangerous 
St. Mary's College team cost Washburn an undisputed title. 38 Pitts- 
burg and Washburn did not meet during the season. 

While K. U. and Washburn were winning championships, Wichita 
High School's basketball team became the second Kansas team to 
win the National High School tournament at Chicago, Kansas City 
having won the tournament in 1923. On the champion Wichita 
team were several future college and university stars, including 
McBurney, who later played with Wichita Municipal University, 
and Churchill, one of the mainstays of some great University of 
Oklahoma teams in subsequent years. 39 

The Kansas Conference race in 1926 resulted in another dead heat 
between Washburn and Lance's Pittsburg Teachers. Both teams 
entered the National A. A. U. tournament and the drawing placed 
them in the same bracket. Both survived the first round and were 
thus slated to meet in an impromptu Kansas Conference playoff 
which would settle a controversy that had raged in Kansas athletic 
circles for two years. Hundreds of Pittsburg and Washburn alumni 
and students attended. Washburn took an early lead, but was un- 
able to maintain the pace set by the Teachers and the game ended 
with Pittsburg in the lead, 29 to 25. In the Pittsburg lineup were: 
Steele and Shaw, forwards; Short, center; Binford and Hoffman, 

36. Ibid., March 16, 1924. 

37. Ibid., March 15, 1925. 

38. The Dial, St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Spring Number, 3925. 

39. Wichita Eagle, April 6, 1925. 



208 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

guards; Anderson, substitute forward; Cormack and Meisenhaur, 
substitute guards. The Washburn lineup was : Breithaupt and Mc- 
Laughlin, forwards; Spohn, center; Marsh and Poort, guards; Davis, 
substitute forward. 40 

The next upset came when the favored Pittsburg five were elimi- 
nated in the next round by a hard-driving team from the Emporia 
Teachers College. The score was 33 to 27. 41 On the Emporia 
team that stopped the Gorillas were Loveless and Hoover, forwards ; 
Duke, center; Fish and Trusler, guards. The Emporians advanced 
to the semi-finals before they were eliminated. 

In 1927 Wichita University and Washburn went to the semi-final 
round of the national tournament. There the Hillyards took revenge 
for their 1925 defeat by beating the Ichabods 34 to 29, 42 while the 
Ke-Nash-A team of Kenosha, Wis., eliminated Wichita. The Shock- 
ers gained third place by beating Washburn, 31 to 28, in the con- 
solation game. 43 

The big schools in the old Kansas Conference withdrew in 1928 
to organize the Central Conference. In the new circuit were the 
three state teachers colleges and Washburn, Wichita University, 
Southwestern, and the College of Emporia. McPherson College won 
the title in the abbreviated Kansas Conference. Pittsburg and Em- 
poria Teachers were tied for first place in the Central. 44 

Washburn dedicated its new Whiting field house on December 18, 
1928, by defeating the K. U. Jayhawks, 25 to 24. 45 After the holiday 
recess the Ichabods, coached by Roy Wynne, went on to win the 
Central Conference title. Kansas had one of its worst seasons, 
finishing in a tie with Kansas State for last place in the Big Six. 46 

The Allen team regained the title in 1931 and held it four con- 
secutive seasons. In 1935 Iowa State nosed out the Kansas team 
to win its first conference title. The Jayhawks were second with 
twelve games won and four lost, while Iowa State, with a lighter 
schedule, won eight of its ten conference games. 47 

Kansas finished the 1936 season with a perfect percentage, winning 
ten Big Six Conference games, and the Jayhawks entertained hopes 
of representing the United States in the Olympic games. The Mis- 

40. T'opeka Daily Capital, March 18, 1926. 

41. Ibid., March 19, 1926. 

42. Ibid., March 19, 1927. 

43. Ibid., March 20, 1927. 

44. Ibid., March 4, 1928. 

46. Ibid., December 19, 1928. 

46. Basketball at the University of Kansas, p. 14. 

47. Ibid., p. 14. 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 209 

souri Valley Olympic play-offs were held at Kansas City in March, 
Kansas winning from a tournament field that also included Wash- 
burn, Nebraska, and Oklahoma A. & M. Next obstacle in the 
Jayhawks' path to international honors was the rangy Utah State 
College quintet, Rocky Mountain champions. A three-game series 
to decide the Western championship was played in Convention hall, 
Kansas City, Mo. Kansas won the first game, 39 to 37, and appar- 
ently was well on the way to victory in the second game, when the 
Utah team rallied and forged ahead to win, 42 to 37. The deciding 
game went to the Westerners by the one-sided score of 50 to 31. 48 

In 1937 Kansas shared the Big Six lead with Nebraska, each team 
winning eight games and losing two. The Jayhawks were undis- 
puted winners in 1938, but dropped to third place with six wins and 
four losses in 1939, while Missouri and Oklahoma were tied for first 
place. 49 

The National Intercollegiate Basketball tournament was first held 
at Kansas City, Mo., in 1938. According to The Baker Orange, Feb- 
ruary 7, 1938, Emil S. Listen, veteran Baker University athletic di- 
rector, was originator of the idea. He was appointed chairman of the 
board of management. The tournament is open to all standard four- 
year colleges and universities in the United States with the stipula- 
tion that a team seeking entrance should be either a conference 
champion, the winner of an elimination tournament, or "have made 
a good showing throughout the season's play." 

Southwestern College of Winfield, a perennial leader in Kansas 
collegiate basketball, brought another national title back from Kan- 
sas City in 1939 when the Moundbuilders won the National Inter- 
collegiate tournament by defeating San Diego State College of Cali- 
fornia in a thrilling contest in Convention hall, 32 to 31. 50 The 
Winfield school's success in national competition followed its fifth 
consecutive season as champion or co-champion of the Central Con- 
ference. "Over a span of almost half the life of the conference the 
combined genius of Bill Monypeny and George Gardner has led the 
purple to the heights in basketball," said the Winfield Daily Courier 
of March 4, 1939. 

Winfield was the city of basketball champions that spring of 1939. 
Sharing the spotlight with the Builders were the St. John's College 

48. University Daily Kansan, Lawrence, March 8, 13, 15, 26, 27, 29, 1936. 

49. Basketball at the University of Kansas, p. 14 ; University Daily Kansan, Lawrence, 
March 4, 1938; Graduate Magazine, University of Kansas, February, 1939, p. 8. 

50. Winfield. Daily Courier, March 20, 1939. 

142603 



210 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Johnnies, who won first place in the All-Concordia tournament of 
Lutheran schools at St. Paul, Minn., and the Viking squad of the 
local high school, which won the Arkansas Valley league title, 51 
and subsequently the state high school championship in the annual 
tournament at Topeka. 52 

South western's lineup in the final game at Kansas City was: 
Hinshaw and L. Tucker, forwards; Briar and Smith, centers; Fugit, 
Dix and Bratches, guards. 53 Battling for St. John's in the cham- 
pionship game with the Concordia Teachers of Seward, Neb., were: 
Stelzer, Kroening, Widiger and Shappel, forwards; Janzow and 
Meyer, centers; Obermueller, Kaiser and Wiese, guards. 54 

St. John's College had been an associate member of the old Kansas 
Conference and was for many years a formidable rival of South- 
western for city honors. The school had been reduced to the status 
of a junior college, however, and was not able to compete with Kan- 
sas Conference or Central Conference teams on an equal basis. A 
member of Washburn's National A. A. U. championship team of 
1925 recalls a beating received from the Johnnies on the big South- 
western court, "and we beat Southwestern by a big score the next 
night," he added. Fortunately for the Ichabods, the Lutherans 
were only associate conference members, and the defeat did not 
count against Washburn in the standings. 

For many years there had been a difference of opinion as to which 
state was rightfully the "hot bed" of basketball, Kansas or Indiana. 
The big Kansas schools, K. U. and Kansas State, compete in the 
Big Six, while the Indiana teams, the State University and Purdue, 
are members of the Big Ten Conference and never cross the paths of 
the Kansans. Kansas supporters used to cite the excellent showing 
of Kansas high school teams in the national tournaments at Chicago, 
and Indiana partisans countered with the fact that Indiana high 
schools were never permitted to compete at Chicago. The only 
college teams that were ever able to win the National A. A. U. 
tournament were Butler of Indianapolis and Washburn of Topeka. 
A comparison of the Kansas and Indiana brands of Doctor Nai- 
smith's indoor sport was presented for the first time in a big way 
at Kansas City's Convention hall in the spring of 1940 when the 
Hoosiers of Indiana U. met "Phog" Allen's Jayhawks for the Na- 
tional Collegiate Athletic Association title. This is not to be con- 
si. Ibid., March 6, 1939. 

52. Ibid., March 20, 1939. 

53. Ibid. 

54. Ibid., March 6, 1939. 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 211 

fused with the National Intercollegiate, won by Southwestern in 
1939, as the latter is restricted to schools of smaller enrollment. 

The Big Six race was one of the closest in the history of the 
game and when the conference schedule for 1940 was completed, 
Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma were tied, each having won eight 
games and lost two. Post season play-offs were previously pro- 
hibited by the Big Six Conference, but with the N. C. A. A. 
tournament scheduled it was necessary to determine which team 
should represent the conference in the Missouri Valley play-offs. 
A series was arranged in which the Sooners, Tigers and Jayhawks 
could settle the question. Wichita's forum was to be the scene of the 
contests. Fortune favored Coach Allen in the drawing, which 
allowed his team to remain idle and watch Missouri and Oklahoma 
play the first game and to meet the winner on the following night. 
The Sooners won the first game, but bowed to Kansas. Kansas next 
opposed the Oklahoma A. & M. Cowboys, champions of the Missouri 
Valley Conference, at Oklahoma City, and defeated them, 45 to 43, 
thus achieving the right to represent the Missouri Valley region in 
the Western play-offs. 55 

Kansas drew Rice Institute, Southwest Conference champion, in 
the opening round at Kansas City, while Colorado was paired with 
the University of Southern California, Pacific Coast champions. 
The Jayhawks eliminated the Texans, 50 to 44, while the Trojans 
defeated the Colorado Buffaloes by a narrow margin. 

Among the 10,000 persons who watched the machine-like precision 
of the Trojans in disposing of a great Colorado team, were few who 
felt that Kansas, a much smaller team, had much chance to stop the 
Californians. With a little more than a minute of playing time re- 
maining the Jayhawks were leading the favored Trojans, 41 to 40, 
but with only fifty seconds remaining, the Trojans drove in for a 
basket to lead, 42 to 41. 

Howard Engleman, sharp-shooting K. U. forward, had been with- 
drawn from the game in the final period. Allen knew that Engleman 
could score if he could only get his hands on the ball. He was sent 
in, but the difficulty with the Allen scheme was that a big Trojan had 
control of the spheroid at that moment and seemed intent on retain- 
ing it until the final gun. Bobby Allen, son of the coach and an ace 
Kansas player, caught the red-shirted Californian off balance, stole 
the ball, and dribbled frantically toward the Kansas goal. Engle- 
man was there ahead of him. Bobby passed the ball to Howard and 

65. Graduate Magazine, University of Kansas, March-April, 1940, p. 9. 



212 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the Arkansas City lad dropped it through the netting for the two 
points that gave the Jay hawks a 43 to 42 victory and the Western 
championship. 56 

By winning the Eastern play-offs, the University of Indiana 
Hoosiers became the choice to meet the Jayhawks for the national 
title the following week. The Kansas team got off to an early lead, 
held it until mid-way of the first half, but when the Hoosiers found 
the range they forged ahead rapidly. The second half was a rout, 
the lead mounting steadily until the Hoosiers eased up in the closing 
minutes. The final score was 60 to 42, for Indiana. 57 Kansas could 
offer no excuses. 

Kansas made its first appearance in Madison Square Garden, New 
York, during the Christmas holidays of 1940-1941, and was beaten, 
53 to 42, by Fordham. 58 Two days later the Jayhawks lost to Tem- 
ple University, 40 to 35, at Philadelphia. 59 

With Engleman, their All-American forward, setting a scoring 
pace that was difficult to overcome, the Jayhawks apparently were 
on the road to another Bix Six title in 1941, but the team faltered in 
the closing weeks of the campaign and finished in a tie for first place 
with the Iowa State Cyclones. Because their scoring record for the 
season surpassed that of the Kansans, the Cyclones were accorded 
the right to represent the conference in the N. C. A. A. play-offs. 60 

Although Doctor Naismith, who died on November 28, 1939, did 
not live to see his Jayhawks win the Western championship, he had 
the satisfaction of watching his game develop into a major sport in 
Kansas and one in which Kansas teams have won more national and 
regional honors than in any other sport. 

Dr. Forrest C. Allen, a Naismith pupil, has long been recognized 
as one of the leading basketball strategists in the nation. Doctor 
Allen, in turn, has taught a number of men who have made a reputa- 
tion in the coaching profession, notably Arthur Lonborg, John Bunn 
and Forrest Cox. Lonborg, K. U. captain in 1920, 61 coached the 
Washburn Ichabods to their national title in 1925 and has been head 
basketball coach at Northwestern University for the past decade. 
Bunn has had a long and successful career as coach of the Stanford 

56. Turtle, Howard W., "Give the Ball to Junior," The Saturday Evening Post, Phila- 
delphia, Pa., December 28, 1940. 

57. Kansas City (Mo.) Star, March 31, 1940; Graduate Magazine, University of Kansas, 
March-April, 1940. 

58. Kansas City (Mo.) Star, December 29, 1940. 

59. Kansas City (Mo.) Times, December 31, 1940. 

60. Topeka Daily Capital, March 14, 1941. 

61. Basketball at the University of Kansas, p. 10. 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 213 

University quintet; "Frosty" Cox has made the University of Colo- 
rado Buffaloes one of the leading teams of the West since he took 
over the coaching duties there. Cox hails from Newton, a center of 
high school champions, and Kansans have been watching a parade of 
Kansas talent toward Boulder during the Cox regime at the Rocky 
Mountain school. 

With P. McCloud, former Newton High School star, leading the 
Colorado attack, Cox's Rocky Mountain Conference champions of 
1942 eliminated the Jayhawks in the opening round of the Western 
N. C. A. A. play-offs at Kansas City, 46 to 44, on March 20. Kansas 
had finished in a tie for first place with Oklahoma in the Big Six 
Conference, but was chosen to represent the conference in the N. C. 
A. A. competition because of a better scoring record. The Jayhawks 
defeated Oklahoma A. & M., 32 to 28, on March 17, thus winning 
the right to represent the Missouri Valley-Big Six region. 

While Kansas was losing to the Buffaloes, Stanford University 
defeated Rice Institute and the Pacific Coast champions took the 
Western title by defeating Colorado the following night. Kansas 
won the consolation game from Rice, 55 to 53, and was awarded 
third place in the tournament. 

Ernest C. Quigley of St. Mary's, who also is nationally known on 
the baseball diamond and the football gridiron, is the dean of Kansas 
basketball officials. Quigley is credited by Doctor Naismith with 
devising a plan that resulted in one of the major improvements in 
the game. As an official in the early days, Quigley was continually 
annoyed at the difficulty of determining whether a player was in or 
out of bounds when he was shooting for a basket under the goal, 
which was directly above the end line. At St. Mary's College "Quig" 
experimented by drawing a circle from the free throw line, of which 
an arc extended past the end line and was considered inside. The 
innovation was adopted in 1917 and the end zone has been extended 
in recent years so that players have ample room for maneuvering 
around the goals. 62 

Kansas coaches have experimented with every type of defense 
and offense from the fast break and five-man defense to the set 
play and zone-defense systems. "Phog" Allen calls one of his latest 
systems of defense the "stratified transitional man-for-man defense 
with the zone principle." 63 The astute Kansas coach has long con- 
tended that "dunking is not basketball" in arguing against the ad- 

62. Naismith, op. cit., pp. 97, 98. 

63. Turtle, loc. cit. 



214 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

vantages formerly held by the teams with the tallest centers. Elimi- 
nation of the center jump, except at the beginning of each period, has 
corrected this evil and has increased the tempo of the game to a 
considerable degree. The Goliath of the basketball court is no longer 
such an asset to his team. 

The first basketball players wore ordinary gymnasium suits, often 
consisting of light-weight shirts and long trousers. To permit more 
freedom of movement in the strenuous modern game, the uniform 
has been greatly abbreviated. Special shoes have been designed, 
knee pads and sometimes braces are worn as protective equipment. 

Since it became a major sport basketball has been able to pay its 
way in many Kansas colleges. The construction of specially de- 
signed field houses in recent years has provided nearly every college 
with a regulation playing court and adequate seating facilities. Of 
the larger schools, only Kansas State is unable to accommodate the 
potential basketball patronage in its small Nichols gymnasium and 
admission generally has been restricted to students. 

In intrastate competition the larger schools cannot claim the 
superiority that is obvious on the football field. A football victory 
won by a Central or Kansas Conference team over K. U. or Kan- 
sas State is a major upset, but on the basketball court the small 
colleges often prove that they are a match for the Big Six teams. 
In recent years both Southwestern and Baker have beaten K. U., 64 
and the Moundbuilders, Fort Hays State and Emporia State de- 
feated Kansas State in 1939. 65 

The Central Conference race invariably is a free-for-all scramble, 
and the tail-end team is quite likely to defeat the conference leaders. 
Southwestern and Pittsburg have been the most consistent winners, 
but during the past decade the two other state colleges and Wichita, 
before its withdrawal from conference competition, have been strong 
contenders. John Lance's Pittsburg Gorillas won the title in 1931 
and 1932 and shared the lead with Wichita in 1933. Emporia State 
was the 1934 champion; Southwestern and Pittsburg were tied in 
1935. The Moundbuilders won an undisputed championship in 1936, 
but had to share the lead with both Fort Hays and Pittsburg in 
1937. Southwestern won in 1938 and 1939. In 1940 the Gorillas, 
Builders and Fort Hays Tigers finished in another dead heat. Pitts- 
burg won in 1941 and 1942, and finished third in the National In- 
tercollegiate tournament in 1942. 

64. Basketball at the University of Kansas, pp. 6, 8. 

65. "Kansas State College Athletic Records." 



EVANS: BASKETBALL IN KANSAS 215 

In the Kansas Conference, Kansas Wesley an, Baker and Ottawa 
have been leading contenders. In 1934 the College of Emporia and 
McPherson were tied for the title. The Ottawa Baptists won in 
1935 and were ousted the following year by their traditional rivals, 
the Baker Orangemen, who repeated in 1937. Ottawa, McPherson 
and Kansas Wesleyan tied for the lead in 1938. The Baptists were 
champions in 1939 and 1940. Kansas Wesleyan, Bethany and 
Baker were joint 1941 title-holders, and in 1942 Baker and Kansas 
Wesleyan won. 

Since 1933 a coaching school has been held annually at Washburn 
College under the sponsorship of the Kansas State High School Ac- 
tivities Association. The institute is usually scheduled during the 
latter part of August and is attended by high school and college 
coaches from a large area in the Middle West. Basketball is an 
important part of the curriculum and has been taught by some of 
the leading coaches. Tor the past few years Doctor Allen has held 
an annual basketball clinic, attended by high school coaches. The 
clinic is conducted at the close of the football season and is usually 
featured by a game between the K. U. varsity and freshman teams. 

Veteran basketball enthusiasts in Kansas recall that the Kansas 
game was once reasonably believed to be superior to that played in 
any section of the country and the Missouri Valley circuit was con- 
sidered the fastest. Basketball, however, was not considered a major 
sport in many sections of the country, particularly the East, until 
comparatively recent years. Since the Eastern schools have been 
giving more attention to the game and spectators have demanded 
a better brand of basketball Eastern teams have improved rapidly, 
as is evidenced by Fordham's defeat of Kansas in 1940. 

Although the rest of the nation is now catching up with the Sun- 
flower state in the quality of its basketball, Kansas blazed the trail 
and took the lead in the development of the game. Basketball's 
grand old man, Doctor Naismith, was a member of the K. U. athletic 
staff for more than forty years. In this golden jubilee year he is 
being fittingly remembered. Thousands of basketball teams through- 
out the country are donating the proceeds of one game on their 
schedule to the James A. Naismith Memorial Fund, the money to 
be used in building a gymnasium and Hall of Fame in Springfield, 
Mass., " within dribbling distance of the Y. M. C. A. where basket- 
ball was first played." 66 

66. Time Magazine, Chicago, 111., December 15, 1941, p. 64. 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

THE RENO OF 1860 

Over forty divorces were granted in acts passed by the Kansas 
territorial legislature of 1860. Sol. Miller, editor of the White Cloud 
Kansas Chief, took notice of this legislation in his issue of March 
8, 1860: 

We think it would be a judicious move to appoint a committee in each 
county in the territory, whose duty it shall be to use the utmost diligence to 
ascertain how many and what married persons in the territory were not di- 
vorced by the late legislature. Some folks may be interested in knowing just 
how they stand on that question. 



EARLY MARRIAGES AMONG THE KAW INDIANS 

From the Topeka Tribune, March 10, 1860. 

We have lately learned of a curious custom, prevailing among the Kaw 
Indians. 

It is usual with them to marry their children in infancy. The parents 
having agreed to the marriage, the children are laid beside each other, in the 
presence of the chief, when the parents promise for them, and going through 
with various ceremonies, the 1 twain (infants) are made one flesh. It then 
becomes the duty of the respective parents to bring up their children in view 
of their union, and impress upon their minds the duties pertaining to those 
relations. 

A friend who is well acquainted with the tribe, informs us that it is not 
remarkable to see a child not yet one year old, who is a widow or widower. 
We are also informed that when the child has lost its companions, it is usual 
for the parents to supply it with another, and this is sometimes done with- 
out respect to age; hence, an Indian twenty years of age, is not unfrequently 
married to a baby girl not yet a year old. 

Whether this custom prevails in any other tribe or not, we do not know, 
nor can we account for this unnatural custom with this tribe, since it takes 
off all the romance of Indian courtship, of which we have read, and robs the 
Indian of half the glory which historians have ascribed to him. Still, such is 
the custom among the Kaws. 



ADVICE TO BACHELORS 

From the Fort Scott Democrat, March 29, 1860. 

"Old man Hathaway," who lives on Drywood, near the state line, has, in 
order to save himself from being driven off by the Indians, been down to the 
[Cherokee] Nation, and married a Cherokee woman. Unmarried men living 
on the Neutral Land, and who wish to remain there, can do so, by following 
Mr. Hathaway's example. 

(216) 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 217 

A COMMUNITY PROJECT AT NEOSHO RAPIDS 
From the Emporia News, April 14, 1860. 

MILL RAISING. All the settlers for several miles around were engaged on 
last Monday and Tuesday in raising the heavy frame of Peter Harvey's mill, 
at Neosho Rapids, twelve miles east of Emporia. About 125 men were em- 
ployed the first day, and 150 the next. The building is 60 feet long by 40 feet 
wide, and four stories high. It is intended for a flouring mill, saw mill, and 
carding mill. The flouring mill will contain five pairs of burrs. Those who 
have seen the frame since it was erected, describe it as the most beautiful 
piece of mechanical work they have ever seen anywhere. The mill when com- 
pleted will probably be the largest and finest in Kansas territory. Its cost 
cannot be less than $15,000. A fine dam is being constructed, which will afford 
an abundance of water power to run the mill all the year. Neosho Rapids, by 
the aid of this mill, must spring up and become quite a place. Two new stores, 
we understand, are to be opened there soon. 



DRILLING ON THE MISSOURI RIVER 
From The Conservative, Leavenworth, January 28, 1861. 

AN AMUSING INCIDENT. One day last week the Union Guards, under com- 
mand of Capt. Thatcher, went through their usual evolutions on the ice. The 
place of drilling was novel and we doubt if the bosom of the Big Muddy was 
ever put to such a use before. The company went through the exercises with 
as much precision as the nature of the case would admit. 

An amusing incident happened while the company was on drill. A couple 
of our Missouri neighbors, who were probably on their first visit to the city, 
did not see the company until they had got part way across the river. At 
that time the company was on the "double quick march" toward the Missouri 
shore. One would-be witness halted at the first sight of the company, "about 
faced," and climbed the ice at a "march" that soon put the "double-quick 
time" company far in the rear. The last seen of our Missouri friends, their 
coat-tails were in a horizontal position, and turned towards Leavenworth. 



HAY FOR THE INFANTRY 

From The Smoky Hill and Republican Union, Junction City, Sep- 
tember 5, 1863. 

A Manhattan correspondent of the Leavenworth Bulletin says that six 
hundred thousand tons of hay have been put up at Fort Riley. Good joke 
on the garrison, which was all infantry at the time of writing. Enough to 
supply five hundred such posts. 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

"My Father Was the Most Wretchedly Unhappy Man I Ever 
Knew/' is the title of an article by Gene A. Howe in The Saturday 
Evening Post, Philadelphia, Pa., October 25, 1941. The author re- 
lates many striking characteristics of his father, Ed Howe, "Sage of 
Potato Hill," and former publisher of the Atchison Daily Globe. 

Historical subjects discussed by Victor Murdock in the Wichita 
(Evening) Eagle in recent months included the following: "Report 
of Destitution Which Prevailed Here Among First Community," 
made to the government, September 18, 1865, by Milo Gookins, U. S. 
Indian agent, November 5, 1941; "Fire Guard Technique Practised 
on Prairie in Kansas in Early Day," November 6 ; "Notable Closing 
Speech at Historic Council Made by Silver Brooch," on the banks of 
the Little Arkansas river seventy-six years ago, November 7; "Rec- 
ord of the Proceedings at a Council He [Milo Gookins] Called With 
the Indian Chiefs in the Fall of 1864 on the Banks of the Little Ar- 
kansas," November 10; Wichita-Presidio, Tex., railroad, in a series 
of articles, November 18-25 ; "Terrible Sufferings of the Indians Who 
Retreated From the Territory to Kansas at Outbreak of Civil War," 
November 26; "General Riley's Experiment in Employing Oxen 
Early in Army Transport Here," November 27; "Hectic Hour in 
Wichita Over a Showing of Gas Early in December, 1887," Decem- 
ber 1; "Outline of an Incident [Confederate raid into Lyon county, 
May, 1863] Emerging From Memory of William Allen White," De- 
cember 3; "Capture of a Herd [of cattle stolen off Indian reserva- 
tions] and Its Drivers in 1865 by Captain Dyhernfurth Was Be- 
ginning of End of a Most Amazing Traffic," December 5 ; "Familiar 
Figures of Speech Which Originated in the Horse and Buggy Days 
Survived Them and Are Still Going Strong," December 6; "Signs 
City Once Used As Gentle Hint to Guests to Keep the Peace Here," 
December 26 ; "Wichita's First Attempt to Vote Fire Engine Bonds 
Was Badly Snowed Under," December 27 ; "First Mayor of Wichita 
Vetoed an Appropriation for July Fourth Blowout," December 29; 
"Two Thousand Dollars Young Wichita Paid Towards [Texas] 
Cattle Trade," December 31; "Erection of Pest House [in Wichita, 
1873] That Followed a Fear of Small Pox Scourge," January 1, 
1942 ; "Early Boost City Gave to Milling Industry With a Thousand 
Dollars," January 2; "Something About Euchees, Friends of the 

(218) 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 219 

Wichitas, and Their Persistence," January 5; "Hint of Mid-Con- 
tinent [oil field] in a Public Document Back in October, 1865," 
January 9; "Details of Trail Cattle That Late Mr. [Sam P.] Rid- 
ings Set Down for Historians," January 10; "There Was Drama 
A-Plenty at the Notable Drawing for Farms at El Reno [Okla.]," 
January 12; "Trip [to Ft. Smith] Made by Members of the [Wich- 
ita] Indian Tribe Here to Refute the Accusation That They Had 
Been Disloyal to the United States," January 13; "When City Con- 
sidered Manufacture of Silk As Possible Industry," January 15; 
"Suggestion of Wichita as Good Shipping Point Was From Indians 
to Agent," January 20 ; "Message Received Here a Very Long Time 
Ago [1865] Brought Word of Peace [with the Indians]," January 
22; "What Happened When Cattlemen Were Ordered Out of the 
Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation in 1885 by Grover Cleveland," 
January 23 ; "Feature of the Treaty with the Cheyennes and Arapa- 
hoes Made Here Seventy-Six Years Ago Last Fall," January 30. 
Among other historical articles in the Wichita (Evening) Eagle 
were: "St. Francis Hospital Equal to Complete Village Under Roof," 
November 23, 1941, and "Battery 'F First Local Unit Organized in 
War Col. Bruce Grifiith Enlisted Artillery Force in May, 1917, for 
Conflict With Germany," December 14. 

Cecil Howes, head of the Topeka bureau of the Kansas City 
(Mo.) Star, reported on the following Kansas historical subjects in 
the Star late in 1941 and early in 1942: "How Some Kansas Coun- 
ties Got Their Names," November 21, 1941; "History of Thanksgiv- 
ing Day in Kansas," November 24; denied that territorial Kansas 
was settled by New Englanders, December 2; "How Some Kansas 
Towns Got Their Names," December 8 ; "For Whom Was Sherman 
County Named?" December 12; "Some of the History Relating to 
Kansas Journalism," December 24; "A Further Review of the His- 
tory of Kansas Counties," December 26; "A Woman's Part in the 
Early Annals of Kansas," about the myth that in 1856 Mrs. Charles 
Robinson concealed 1,188 pages of evidence in her clothing when the 
governor was arrested, January 1, 1942; "How Towns and Post- 
offices Got Mixed Together," January 9; "The Cottonwood, the 
State Tree of Kansas," January 16; "It's Hit-and-Miss With Names 
of Cities and Counties in Kansas," January 20; "Developments of 
the Kansas Traveling Library," January 30. 

On January 2, 1942, the Inman Review published a souvenir edi- 
tion celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Included among the feature 
articles was a history of the paper with brief sketches of its editors. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

Gov. Payne Ratner announced last fall that the program for mark- 
ing the historic sites of Kansas on the highways would be continued, 
but the Japanese attack on Hawaii December 7 and the nation's all- 
out war effort forced a change in plans. Inscriptions for fifty-seven 
markers were written before work was stopped. Four or five 
markers, not placed on the highways in 1941 due to changes in road 
construction or because of difficulties in securing suitable right of 
ways, will be set up and dedicated this year. Officials of the Kansas 
State Highway Commission, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, and 
the Historical Society, the cooperating organizations, are hopeful 
that the program can be resumed again when peace comes. 

The Committee on Conservation of Cultural Resources and the 
National Archives in Washington recommend that institutions and 
individuals cooperate in the campaigns to collect paper for use in 
war industries by discarding nonessential documents and excess 
copies of those which may have value. However, in an effort to 
prevent wasteful destruction of papers which ought to be preserved, 
they have prepared a poster which reads in part as follows : CON- 
SERVE paper but SAVE historical records. GIVE waste paper, 
wrappings, boxes and duplicate records to the waste paper collectors. 
SAVE family papers, journals and diaries, birth and death records, 
complete files of old newspapers, and records of county, city and 
other governmental units. Indiscriminate destruction of official 
records is prohibited by federal and by most state laws. IN CASE 
OF DOUBT consult your Historical Society or library, the history de- 
partment of a university, or write the National Archives, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

In response to a call from the National Resources Planning Board 
a Kansas committee has been appointed by Kirke Mechem, secre- 
tary of the Historical Society, acting as temporary chairman, to 
plan for the preservation of cultural, scientific and historical ma- 
terials. Problems to be considered include protection of the state's 
records and treasures and storage for materials from other states 
should it become necessary to move them here from danger zones. 
The following were asked to serve on the committee: C. P. Baber, 
librarian, State Teachers College, Emporia; C. M. Baker, librarian, 
University of Kansas Library, Lawrence; Howard Church, art di- 

(220) 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 221 

rector, Washburn Municipal University, Topeka; Grace E. Derby, 
associate librarian, Kansas State College, Manhattan; Harold J. 
Henderson, state supervisor, Historical Records Survey, Topeka; 
W. M. Jardine, president, Wichita Municipal University; Louise 
McNeal, state librarian, Topeka ; Minnie S. Moodie, curator, Thayer 
Museum of Art, Lawrence; Odella Nation, librarian, State Teachers 
College, Pittsburg; Hattie Osborne, Quayle librarian, Baker Uni- 
versity, Baldwin; G. H. Sandy, librarian, Kansas City Public Li- 
brary; Mrs. Maude G. Schollenberger, president, Wichita Art Mu- 
seum; F. B. Streeter, librarian, Fort Hays Kansas State College, 
Hays. An investigation of storage facilities within library and mu- 
seum buildings of the state is being made by the Historical Records 
Survey as part of the committee's program. 

An address, "Let's Look Again at Kansas/' by Deane Malott, 
chancellor of Kansas University, was the feature of the annual 
banquet meeting of the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas held 
in Topeka, January 28, 1942. New officers are: Native Sons 
Glenn Archer, Densmore and Topeka, president; Richard Allen, 
Topeka, vice-president; W. M. Richards, Emporia, secretary; Nyle 
H. Miller, Anthony and Topeka, treasurer; Native Daughters 
Mrs. Charles H. Benson, Topeka, president; Mrs. George L. Mc- 
Clenny, Topeka, vice-president; Mrs. F. S. Hawes, Russell, secre- 
tary; Mrs. W. von der Heiden, Newton, treasurer. The retiring 
presidents were Bert E. Mitchner of Hutchinson and Mrs. Howard 
Richardson of Pratt. 

Officers of the Lyon county chapter of the Kansas State Historical 
Society were reelected January 30, 1942. They are H. A. Wayman, 
president; George R. R. Pflaum, first vice-president; H. A. Osborn, 
second vice-president; E. C. Ryan, secretary; J. S. Langley, treas- 
urer. Osborn was chosen to fill the vacancy left when Wayman and 
Pflaum were moved up in rank following the death of W. L. Hug- 
gins. Historians of the chapter, who were also reelected, are Mrs. 
Fanny Vickery, Mrs. Lulu Purdy Gilson and Lucina Jones. J. J. 
Wingfield, Margaret Lowe, Richard Langley, Anna R. Carpenter, 
Park Morse, R. D. Lumley, C. A. Paine, Mrs. J. C. McKinney, Ben 
Talbot, Tom Price, Mrs. Dolly Sheets, Dr. 0. J. Corbett, Catherine 
H. Jones, Alice Evans Snyder and W. A. White are the board of 
directors. The society maintains a museum in the civic auditorium. 

The Kansas History Teachers Association and the Kansas Council 
for the Social Studies met in Topeka, April 18, 1942. The morning 



222 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

session of the History Teachers Association was held in the news- 
paper reading room of the Historical Society. Ernest Mahan, presi- 
dent of the association, was chairman. The following papers were 
presented: "Getting Together With Latin America," by John Ryd- 
jord, University of Wichita; "Sampling the War Literature," by 
Elizabeth Cochran, Pittsburg State Teachers College ; "Some Impli- 
cations of a World Point of View," by Fred L. Parrish, Kansas State 
College, Manhattan. Robena Pringle, president of the Kansas 
Council for the Social Studies, presided at its morning meeting in 
Topeka High School. Robert E. Keohane, of the University of 
Chicago, gave the featured address on "New Challenges to Teachers 
of the Social Studies." Discussion leaders were Margaret Browne 
of Topeka, P. E. Cowan of Kansas City and J. C. Gaeddert of Man- 
hattan. Ruth E. Litchen, of the University of Kansas, presided at 
a joint session at the high school in the afternoon. Featured ad- 
dresses were "Social Science Congresses for Junior Colleges," by 
Alvin Proctor, Pratt Junior College, and "Implications of War in 
Teaching the Social Studies in a Democracy," by Robert E. Keohane. 
Iden Reese of the Kansas City Junior College is the newly elected 
president of the history association. Other officers and members of 
the executive committee are A. B. Sageser, Kansas State College, 
Manhattan, vice-president; Delia A. Warden, Kansas State Teachers 
College, Emporia, secretary-treasurer; Ernest Mahan, Kansas State 
Teachers College, Pittsburg; Jessica Smith, North High School, 
Wichita; C. S. Boertman, Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia; 
William Theodore Paullin, Kansas University, Lawrence. New 
officers and members of the executive committee of the Kansas 
Council for the Social Studies include Ruth E. Litchen, University 
of Kansas, Lawrence, president; P. E. Cowan, Argentine High 
School, Kansas City, vice-president; Ethelynn Fortescue, Topeka 
High School, secretary-treasurer; Jessica Smith, Wichita; J. C. 
Gaeddert, Manhattan Junior High School, and Robena Pringle, 
Topeka High School. 

Volume II of a historical series of booklets entitled Notes on Early 
Clark County, Kansas, has recently been issued by the Clark county 
chapter of the Kansas State Historical Society. The chapter since 
its organization in the summer of 1939 has sponsored a column of in- 
teresting notes on southwest Kansas history in The Clark County 
Clipper of Ashland. In 1940 the first year's articles were reprinted 
in a paper-bound booklet as Volume I of the series. Volume II, 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 223 

featuring articles reprinted from the Clipper files of August, 1940, 
to September, 1941, was issued with indexes to Volumes I and II, 
and both volumes have been combined and reissued in a single cloth 
binding. Editors are Mrs. Dorothy Berryman Shrewder and Mrs. 
Melville Campbell Harper. 

Kansas Points of Interest Historic, Scenic, Recreational is the 
title of an attractive blue booklet issued early in 1942 by the Kansas 
State Highway and Industrial Development Commissions. Over 
150 Kansas towns receive mention. Complete texts of the fifty- 
seven Kansas Historical Markers are printed. All the markers and 
100 Kansas lakes are located on a 14" x 8" colored map of the state 
folded in the center of the thirty-two page booklet. The Kansas 
State Historical Society compiled the historical information. Copies 
of the booklet and of a newly-issued colored highway map of the 
state may be secured by writing Leslie E. Edmonds, superintendent 
of public relations, Kansas State Highway Commission, Topeka. 

The fact that workers in vital war industries must have birth 
certificates has caused an unprecedented demand for documentary 
proof of birth and citizenship. To help make these records available 
the Historical Records Survey of the Work Projects Administration 
has issued a mimeographed Guide to Public Vital Statistics Records 
in Kansas. It includes data on state and local public records of 
births, marriages, deaths and divorces. Sources have been listed and 
the procedure for securing copies has been explained. In addition, 
the 262-page volume outlines the history of the requirements for 
recording the state's vital statistics and a description of methods 
employed. The compilation will prove a handy guide to all who 
are helping secure the documents necessary for delayed birth certifi- 
cates. Two more volumes have been issued in the series of inven- 
tories of county archives in Kansas being prepared by the Historical 
Records Survey. The book for Phillips county was completed in 
September, 1941, and one for Gove county in December. Eleven 
other county volumes previously released were listed in the Quar- 
terly, v. X, pp. 334, 335. The Kansas State Historical Society is 
sponsor of the project. Publications of the survey are available to 
governmental agencies, libraries and historical societies. All re- 
quests should be addressed to Harold J. Henderson, state supervisor, 
Historical Records Survey, 912 Kansas Avenue, Topeka. 

The history of manufacturing in Lawrence from the establishment 
of the town in 1854 was reviewed by Kenneth A. Middleton in a 



224 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ninety-one page booklet published in December, 1941, by the Bureau 
of Business Research of the University of Kansas. The publication 
was titled The Industrial History of a Midwestern Town. 

"Plotting After Harpers Ferry: The 'William Handy' Letters," 
was the title of an article by James C. Malin in the February, 1942, 
issue of The Journal of Southern History, of Baton Rouge, La. "The 
idea of abolition of slavery by revolution and the shedding of blood 
was by no means new when Brown tried it," Malin pointed out. 
"William Handy" was William Thayer. The letters show that 
Thayer and others organized men "willing to shoot or be shot at" 
should U. S. authorities attempt to arrest any because of involve- 
ment in the Brown episode. They were prepared "to precipitate a 
conflict between the state and federal governments, or some other 
kind of armed conflict." 

Lamps on the Prairie A History of Nursing in Kansas, compiled 
by the Writers' program of the Work Projects Administration and 
sponsored by the Kansas State Nurses' Association and the Kansas 
Department of Education, was issued from the Emporia Gazette 
Press in April, 1942. The book contains 292 pages and is well 
illustrated. It is "the story of the development of nursing in Kan- 
sas, prefaced by a bit of state history and enlivened by personal 
reminiscences of pioneer nurses." The first hospitals in the state 
were established by the military at the several Kansas forts. The 
first civilian hospital was opened at Leavenworth in 1864. Histories 
of these and the more recently established hospitals are featured. 
Cora A. Miller, of Emporia, is chairman of the historical committee 
of the nurses' association. Harold C. Evans is state supervisor of 
the Kansas Writers' program. Included among other recent publi- 
cations of the Writers' program not previously mentioned here are: 
a 28-page guide to Kansas' recreation areas under the title Kansas 
Facts, Events, Places, Tours (1941), printed as one of the Ameri- 
can Recreation Series; the 24-page "Guide to Pittsburg, Kansas" 
(mimeographed), sponsored by the Pittsburg Chamber of Com- 
merce, and histories of the 127th field artillery, 130th field artillery, 
161st field artillery and the 137th infantry regiments (mimeo- 
graphed) , compiled under the sponsorship of Brig. Gen. Milton R. 
McLean, adjutant general of Kansas. 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume XI Number 3 

August, 1942 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

w. C. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1942 

19-3781 



Contributors 

LOUISE BARRY is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

WALKER D. WYMAN is associate professor in the department of social sciences 
at State Teachers College, River Falls, Wis. 



Overland to the Gold Fields of California 
in 1852 

The Journal of John Hawkins Clark, Expanded and 

Revised From Notes Made During the Journey 

Edited by LOUISE BARRY 

I. INTRODUCTION 

JOHN HAWKINS CLARK, prior to the day he set out for Cali- 
J fornia, had been for many years a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Born near Elizabeth, N. J., on April 28, 1813, he was eleven years 
old when his family moved to Ohio. 1 He grew up on a farm and 
attended school during winter months till he was sixteen. He was 
then apprenticed to an uncle in Germantown to learn bricklaying 
and plastering. In the spring of 1830, after a disagreement with his 
uncle, young Clark set out to see something of frontier life. After 
working at St. Louis a short time he went by steamboat up the 
Mississippi to St. Anthony's Falls (present Minneapolis, Minn.) ; 
then to Duluth, at that time a small trading post; and from there to 
the pioneer town of Chicago. Returning to St. Louis he worked till 
fall, then took passage for New Orleans and spent the winter working 
on a plantation. 

Once more in Cincinnati in the spring of 1831, he settled down to 
master his trade. On January 30, 1835, he married his cousin 
Margaret Allen. 2 Until 1848 he made a living for his family as a 
contractor. 3 He spent several winters in the mountains of Ken- 
tucky and West Virginia securing logs which were rafted down the 
Big Sandy and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati for steamboat construction. 
In 1848 he entered the coal business but sold out in the spring of 
1852. 

The gold rush to California was then at its height. Clark and a 
neighbor, Capt. Andrew Brown, formed a partnership early in 1852 
with the idea of conducting an overland expedition to Sacramento. 

1. John Hawkins Clark was the eldest of the four sons of Jeremiah and Rachel (Hawkins) 
Clark, both natives of New Jersey. The family moved in the spring of 1824 to Ohio, settling 
first on a farm near Oxford. 

2. Margaret Allen was born March 1, 1814, at Elizabeth, N. J., daughter of Caleb and 
Elizabeth (Hawkins) Allen. She died in Clay county, Kansas, on November 21, 1897. 

3. Ten children were born to this couple, but only four grew to maturity. Information 
on the family's history was furnished by George A. Root, for over fifty years a member of the 
Kansas State Historical Society's staff. Mr. Root is a grandson of John H. and Margaret 
(Allen) Clark son of their daughter Emma, and Frank A. Root. 

(227) 



228 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

They advertised for passengers and immediately booked twenty at 
one hundred dollars a head. Godfrey C. Ingrim, a member of the 
expedition who wrote his "reminiscences" in 1905, 4 lists the follow- 
ing as members of the company: David Allen, John Ryan, John 
Spilman, 5 John Valentine, 6 John Wilson, 7 the Risley brothers, the 

Clark brothers, Sloan, James Knight and Ora (?) Green. 

These, with Clark, Brown and Ingrim account for fifteen of the 
party. 

In the journal under date of May 7, Clark states: "We are twenty 
persons in number, mostly young men, and all from Cincinnati ex- 
cept two Canadians who joined the company while coming up the 
river." Under June 14 he records: "One of our men left us today. 
. . . This man joined us at St. Joe. . . ." Only a few addi- 
tional references are made to the personnel of the expedition. 
They had unusually good luck, for Clark in his last entry says "we 
brought every man and every horse and mule safely through the 
long and tiresome journey." 

Clark's family remained in Ohio during the five years he spent in 
California. Prospecting, which he and his partner tried for a few 
weeks, did not bring the hoped-for wealth. The rush of gold-seekers, 
however, created a housing and business boom and Clark superin- 
tended the construction of a number of buildings in Placerville, Cal., 
and surrounding towns. He helped to rebuild Placerville after a 
destructive fire in 1856. Much of the money he earned as a con- 
tractor went into unlucky mining operations. A ranch which he and 
Godfrey C. Ingrim had started in Bear valley in 1853 failed after 
a few years, and in the latter part of 1857 Clark decided to return 
to Ohio. The journey this time was by the ocean route and across 
the Isthmus of Panama. 

Shortly after returning to Cincinnati Clark brought his family to 
Kansas. They lived for a number of years in Atchison where he 
was a route agent on the Central Branch Union Pacific railroad. 
About 1870 the family removed to a farm in Goshen township, Clay 
county. Here Clark served as the Fancy Creek postmaster for the 
last decade of his life. He died December 26, 1900, aged nearly 
eighty-eight years. 

4. Ingrim, Godfrey C., "Reminiscences of the Clark-Brown Expedition to California in 
1852." MS. in Root collection, Kansas State Historical Society. (Hereinafter referred to 
as: Ingrim, G. C., "Reminiscences.") 

5. Ingrim speaks of Ryan and Spilman as Irishmen from Ohio and says they were 
brothers-in-law. 

6. Of Valentine, Ingrim comments that he was formerly employed by John H. Clark in 
Fulton. 

7. Ingrim says that John Wilson was a Virginian. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 229 

II. THE JOURNAL: APRIL 22-SEPTEMBER 4, 1852 8 

The 22d of April, 1852, the day of my departure from Cincinnati 
for the "golden land," found me on board a St. Louis steamer. 'Twas 
early in the morning when we pushed out into the stream, and I for 
the last time walked out upon the deck to take a last fond lingering 
look of home, the place of my boyhood, the scenes of my earnest 
endeavors in later days to accomplish the dreams of my young am- 
bition. More than all this, I was leaving all that was near and 
dear to me for a "wild goose chase" overland to the shores of the 
great Pacific. It was not without some little regret that I parted 
from the shores of the Queen City and left my future fortune to fate, 
and this thought troubled me some: "If a man cannot make money 
in this new and fertile country where can he expect to woo the fickle 
goddess with success." Was I not after all going upon a fool's 
errand? Those and kindred thoughts troubled me some, but with 
as stout a heart as I could muster I choked them down and resolved 
upon doing the best that in me lay towards accomplishing the ful- 
fillment of my long dream. 

Smoothly and pleasantly did our good boat glide down the beauti- 
ful Ohio, passing fine farms and happy homes, children at play upon 
its green banks looking happy and contented. I had often been up 
and down the river, but on this trip everything looked more interest- 
ing than usual. It was my last trip for years it might be my last; 
some accident by flood or field might overtake me. Four years, my 
expected absence, was a long time; and what changes might occur 
in the affairs of life during that time ; and of what importance they 
might be to me were questions for which I had no answer. Yet hope, 
that bright particular star of my existence, shone brightly upon my 
pathway, promising to lead the way to the El Dorado where man 
could realize the dreams his fancy had so often painted. 

Nothing of importance occurred on this, our first day's travel. 
Stopped at Louisville a few minutes and at sundown passed over 
the falls. We were now fairly on our journey. I sought my berth 
to sleep and perhaps to dream of my lonely wife and children I had 
left behind. 

April 23. The ringing of the breakfast bell awoke me from sound 
slumber. After breakfast while walking on the deck my attention 
was called to a suit of clothes without an owner. No one could solve 
the mystery. Hat, boots, coat, pantaloons and pipe lay there. They 

8. Published here, with minor deletions, as printed in the Topeka Mail, North Topeka, 
May 25-October 12, 1888. Editorial notes have been added for clarity and for comparison 
with other overland journals. 



230 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

told of something wrong perhaps the end of some unfortunate. The 
mystery remained unsolved and the incident was soon forgotten. 

April 24. Passed down into the Mississippi. The change from 
the Ohio to the "father of waters" is always interesting, new scenery 
breaking the dull monotony of steamboat travel for awhile. But it 
soon gets to be on this river the same old story of snags and sand 
bars, a wilderness of woods and low lands. A near approach to St. 
Louis, however, brings the high lands and hilly country to view. 
The Mississippi between the mouth of the Ohio and St. Louis is a 
very rapid and dangerous stream. 

April 25. Our wagons are upon the hurricane deck and this morn- 
ing were discovered to be on fire. The covers were thrown overboard 
and the fire soon extinguished. There is always a lively time on 
board when a fire takes place. Made the port of St. Louis today. 

April 26. A very wet and disagreeable morning, but all was 
hurry and confusion; horses, drays, mules, carts, merchandise, white 
men and negroes filled the entire space between the landing and the 
first row of buildings. How or in what manner a person was to 
make his way through such a medley was not easily explained. 
His only chance is to "jump in"; he will no doubt "turn up" some- 
where. After a hard day's work amid rain and mud we had trans- 
ferred our goods and chattels from the good steamer G. W. Spar- 
hawk to Clipper No. 2, bound for the Missouri river and St. Joe. 
We were happy in being among the first to engage our passage on 
this steamer, for by so doing we received good rooms which we 
could not have done a few hours later. Here we began to see the 
rush for California; a string of adventurers like ourselves came 
thronging on board until every hole and corner in this spacious 
steamer was full to overflowing. 

April 27. . . . still in port, and now have time to look at 
the great city. St. Louis is a marvel of activity and since my last 
visit a few years ago has grown beyond all expectations, and with the 
great west behind it will no doubt continue to grow until our own 
Queen City (Cincinnati) will be left far behind in the race for com- 
mercial importance. 

April 28. Still in port and the cry is, "Still they come." What are 
we to do with so many passengers? We were loaded yesterday, but 
a steamboat, like an omnibus, is never full. Sundown and we are off, 
and glad of it. We travelers are generally in a hurry. 

April 29. Our boat was wallowing in the turbid waters of the 
Missouri long before daylight, and when I walked out upon the deck 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 231 

a new scene presented itself. I had never before traveled on this 
river. Everything was new and strange; the low lands and dark, 
dismal forest had but little charm to engage the passenger's atten- 
tion, and if he took the river into consideration a more unpleasant 
scene would be hard to contemplate. Driftwood, snags, sand bars 
and the muddy, troubled water made up a picture long to be re- 
membered by those who for the first time sailed upon this great 
river. 

April 30. We have made tolerably good headway since leaving 
St. Louis. There is a sameness of travel on this river I never be- 
fore experienced; once in awhile we are stuck on a sand bar; and 
then again we are hard on an old snag that takes a good deal of hard 
work and some swearing to part company with. 

May 1. Nothing of special interest on this day's travel. Snags, 
sand bars and the ragged shore were all that presented themselves 
for our consideration. 

May 2. Passed the wreck of the steamer Saluda, whose boilers 
exploded while lying at the wharf at the city of Lexington, causing 
the death of 100 human beings. 9 The boat is a total wreck and 
marks of the terrible catastrophe are still plainly visible on the shore. 
The sight of the wrecked steamer caused some uneasiness amongst 
our own passengers. We are on an old worn out boat and the officers 
are foolhardy and desperate, caring for nothing but the gold they are 
making. This is the largest crowd that ever traveled up this river 
on one boat and any little excitement might produce a disaster of 
some kind. 

May 3. Passed the wreck of a steamer recently sunk. Many 
California bound passengers suffered by the accident. 

May 4. Some accident to the boat's machinery during the night ; 
stopped for repairs but were again in motion early in the day. 
Passed another boat to-day which, like ours, was full of passengers 
for California. 

May 5. Someone threw a pet dog overboard to-day. The poor 
fellow swam for dear life, but like a mariner without a compass 
swam a good deal contrary to the right direction. The result, loss 
of life and limb; and as the poor little fellow disappeared beneath 
the Missouri's turbid waters his mistress sank upon the cabin floor 
in a fit of despondency and refused to be comforted until she was 
informed that the old boat was about to blow up. That settled it; 

9. The steamboat Saluda exploded her boilers at Lexington, Mo., on April 9, 1852. An 
estimated one hundred persons, including many Mormons, lost their lives in this disaster 

one of the worst ever to occur on the Missouri river. Lloyd, J. T Steamboat 

Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters (Cincinnati, Ohio, J. T. Lloyd & Co., 1856), 
pp. 277, 278. 



232 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

her grief subsided and she was herself again. Seven o'clock p. m. 
and the lights of St. Joe visible in the distance. Happy are we to 
conclude our tedious journey up this miserable river. Unloaded our 
goods and camped in the bottoms below the city. 

May 6. This is one of the principal points immigration has 
chosen for leaving the Missouri for the overland journey to Cali- 
fornia and Oregon. 10 Oxen, horses and mules are brought in from 
the surrounding country to sell; the merchant has anticipated all 
the wants of the emigrant and has everything needful for an "outfit." 
We soon availed ourselves of the opportunity to purchase all that 
was necessary to complete our stores and were then ready for the 
overland journey. 

The city of St. Joe is a very lively place just now, full to over- 
flowing with California bound immigrants. 11 Thousands of dollars 
are here spent annually by those who cross the plains. To finish our 
outfit we bought one yoke of oxen, a span of mules and many other 
"fixins" and made preparations for starting across the plains. 

The Missouri river has to be crossed to-day. There are several 
boats and among them one steamboat to ferry over the crowd that is 
waiting their regular turn; to wait until all who had secured regular 
tickets to cross over meant the loss of two or three days, and as we 
were all ready and not wishing to lose any more time we cast about 
us to see if there was no other way to cross the big muddy. As good 
luck would have it we discovered a small wood flat [boat] lying at 
the bottom of the river two feet beneath the surface of the water 
which the owner was willing to let if we would raise it to the surface, 
calk and otherwise fit her up for the service. Many hands make 
light work. We soon had the boat in trim and commenced to load 
our animals. In this, however, our progress was very slow, for as 
soon as we got one mule on board and our attention directed to 
another the first one would jump overboard and swim ashore, to the 
great delight of the many who were looking on. After several turns 
of the kind, and finding that we gained but slowly in our endeavor 
to freight the boat by the single additions, we concluded to drive 
them all on together. In this we succeeded admirably, for on they 
went and we put up the railing to keep them there. A shout of 
victory followed the putting up of the bars; a victory was gained 
over the frisky mule and the order given to "cast off," but before 

10. Other important points of departure at this date were Independence, Mo., Fort 
Leavenworth (in present Kansas), and Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

11. Mrs. Frizzell, arriving at St. Joseph a few days earlier (April 28, 1852), wrote: 
". . . the banks of the river & all around the town were white with waggons, & tents." 
Frizzell, Mrs. Lodisa, Across the Plains to California in 1852 (The New York Public Library, 
1915), p. 9. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 233 

the order could be obeyed the fiends in mule shape took it into their 
heads to look over the same side of the boat and all at the same time. 
Result, the dipping of the boat to the water's edge on one side, which 
frightened the little brutes themselves and they all, as with common 
consent, leaped overboard again. Three times three cheers were 
given by the crowd on shore. So much fun could not pass unnoticed 
or without applause. Of course there was no swearing done, for 
nobody could be found that could do justice to the occasion. Finally 
the mules were got on board, securely tied, the lines cast off and the 
riffle made. This was our first trip. We had so much trouble with 
the mules that it was but reasonable to expect a quiet time with our 
oxen; in this, however, we were mistaken, for they seemed to have 
caught contrariness from the mules and were, if possible, more stub- 
born than the mules themselves. Suffice it to say, we got the horned 
brutes on board and landed them safely on the other shore. The 
balance of our property was soon crossed over and we camped for the 
day to "fix up" things. Here is a general camping ground, and as 
it is on the verge of civilization anything forgotten can be obtained 
by recrossing the river. 

There are many musicians belonging to the different encampments 
surrounding us, and after supper all commenced to practice the 
sweet tunes that were to enliven us while sitting around the camp 
fire on the far off plains. In addition to the vocal and instrumental 
music the frogs in the surrounding district, as if animated by the 
festivities of the occasion, set up such a croaking as I think human 
ears had as yet never listened to. Those who were not present can 
perhaps judge of the discordant sounds with which the old woods 
rang. Never shall I forget the hoarse bellow of the portly frog or the 
sharp twang of the wee ones, mingled as they were with soft strains 
of instrumental music. If Babel was worse confounded than I was 
on this memorable night I do not wonder at their leaving off building 
the tower, for never before had I listened to so many different 
sounds. This concert lasted until near midnight, when all was 
hushed except the crackling of the log fires as they were every now 
and then replenished by the watchful sentinel as he kept watch and 
ward over the sleeping multitude. Many and varied were the feel- 
ings I experienced on this the first night of my pilgrimage in the 
wilderness I was about to encounter. Sleep at length came to rescue 
me from uneasy thoughts of home, wife, children and friends. 

May 7. It took [nearly] all day to put up our wagons, adjust 
the harness, break the oxen, store away our provisions in the different 



234 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

vehicles of transportation, count out the cooks, drivers and train 
master. 12 We are twenty persons in number, mostly young men, and 
all from Cincinnati except two Canadians who joined the company 
while coming up the river. 

About six miles from camp to the high lands through a wilder- 
ness of woods, mud and water. After a hard day's work through 
mud knee deep we pitched our tents upon high land near a spring 
of good water and wood in abundance. Near our camp is a solitary 
grave with but one letter upon its head board. Here was food for 
reflection. Could it be possible that the occupant of that grave was 
an immigrant like ourselves and had got no farther upon his journey? 
Yes, it was possible and very probable, too. The sleeper slept well, 
nor did he heed the hurry or anxiety of the thousands who were 
pressing onward, maybe to lay their bodies only a few miles fur- 
ther on. 

May 8. Bright was the morning and light our hearts as we 
rolled out of camp on this, our first day's journey of 2,000 miles. 
Our train consisted of one team of six yoke of oxen, one team of 
four horses, one of four mules, and a light span of two horses; four 
wagons and twenty men, horses, mules and oxen, all in good shape. 
"What will they be at the end of this long journey?" is a question 
easier asked than answered. As far as the eye can reach the road is 
filled with an anxious crowd, all in a hurry. Turned out at twelve 
o'clock to let our teams to grass, which was quite abundant all 
along the line of our day's travel. One o'clock we are again on the 
move. A charming day, beautiful country and good roads made 
travel interesting. Camped at six o'clock; wood and water to carry 
some distance, but plenty of good grass. 

May 9. An early start this morning over a good but hilly road. 
At two o'clock were in sight of the mission, an institution for teaching 
the natives the arts of civilization. Houses, barns and fences, and 
some land in cultivation; a cheerful sight in this wild region. 13 Our 
progress was stopped to-day by a small stream spanned by a small 

12. Clark wrote in his autobiography: "When farely [stc] over the [Missouri] river we 
began to fix up things; put the wagon together, mate the oxen, mules and horses; stow away 
provisions, appoint each man to do a certain duty, for a certain period of time. The man who 
cooked for two weeks, was to drive oxen for the next two weeks, and the man who had been 
driving oxen was to take his place. Teamsters, guards and all concerned, were to change places 
every two weeks. This arrangement prevailed to the end of our journey. Everything was put 
down in writing and the signatures of every man attached. I do not think a more orderly 
company ever crossed the plains. With but few exceptions there was no grumbling, no 
quarrels and no disobedience to the rules laid down before starting on the long and weary 
road." Clark, John H., "Autobiography," MS. in Root collection, Kansas State Historical 
Society. 

13. This was a Presbyterian mission for the Iowa, Sauk and Fox Indians, established in 
1837 and discontinued about 1863. The principal building was a 32-room, three-story struc- 
ture, built in 1846. The mission was located one and one-quarter miles east of present 
Highland, Doniphan county, Kansas. The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. X, p. 348. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 235 

bridge. Here was not the d 1 to pay, but instead a large Indian 
sat at the receipt of customs demanding $1 per wagon for the privi- 
lege of crossing over. California should be full of gold if the im- 
migrant expects to get back all his outlay in getting there: $5 per 
wagon and fifty cents for horses, mules and oxen for crossing the 
Missouri river at St. Joe; and here again, $1 per wagon for passing 
over a bridge fifty feet in length, costing perhaps $150. This stream 
is called Wolf river, and crossing in any way except by the bridge 
would be a hard job. We presented a $5 gold piece but it was re- 
fused ; he must have "white money with the bird on it," so eight silver 
half dollars were hunted up and we passed over. 14 The Indian was 
making a "good thing," not less than 1,500 wagons passing over 
to-day. No "nigger in the wood pile" here; white men are at the 
bottom of this speculation. What a glorious time the Indian will 
have spending those white half dollars for rotten whiskey. 

May 10 Saw the first dead ox on the road to-day, and passed 
two or three graves, the occupants of which, it is said, died of small- 
pox. Met a young man with two small children returning to the 
states; said he had buried his wife and one child just beyond. We 
felt for the poor fellow as he every now and then turned his look 
toward the wilderness where lay his beloved ones, over whose graves 
the wild wolves would make night hideous with their dreadful howls 
as they struggled with one another for choice seats at the feast of 
human flesh. 

May 11. Had some emigrant neighbors near us whom we in- 
tended to visit but for the rain, which fell in torrents. This was the 
beginning, but we would know more about it at the end of our 
journey. To stand watch on a pleasant night after a day of hard 
travel was hard enough, but to stand in mud and rain was still 
harder. However, we watched the weary hours away. About mid- 
night our neighbor approached our campfire and told us that his 
only child had just died and he had come to solicit aid to bury it. 

14. Lobenstine reached this crossing two days earlier, on May 7, 1852, and wrote: ". . . 
we arrived at Wolf Creek, across which the Indians have struck a bridge, for the crossing of 
which they charge the emigrants a high price. It is, however, a great convenience to the 
latter, the creek being about thirty feet wide and from three to four feet deep. The Indians, 
who built the bridge, have put up their camp there." Extracts from the Diary of William C. 
Lobenstine, December SI, 1851-1858 (Printed Privately, 1920), pp. 17, 18. T. E. Potter, May 
10, 1852, wrote: "The only bridge at Wolf River was owned by a person living at the Paw- 
nee [?] Indian Mission nearby, who charged $5 for each wagon that he allowed to cross. Such 
was the crowd of people and so exorbitant the price that our party joined with some other 
trains and built a new bridge. . . . There were four such bridges built hi two days." 
Editorial note by E. Eberstadt in Sawyer, Lorenzo, Way Sketches (New York, Edward Eber- 
stadt, 1926), p. 20. Mrs. Frizzell, crossing two days after the Clark party, on May 11, 1852, 
wrote: "We now came to Wolf creek, a small stream but very steep banks, the indians have 
constructed a kind of bridge over it, & charged 50 cts per waggon, there were several of them 
here, quite fine looking fellows, not near so dark as those I had seen, but of the real copper 
color, said they were of the Sacs & Fox tribes." Frizzell, op. cit., p. 13. The crossing of Wolf 
creek preceded arrival at the mission which was a few miles west of this bridge. 



236 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

We promised that in the morning his wants should be attended to. 
We had an empty cracker box which we made answer for a coffin, 
dug a grave in the middle of the road and deposited the dead child 
therein. The sun had just risen and was a spectator to that mother's 
grief as she turned slowly but sadly away from that little grave to 
pursue the long journey before her. We filled the grave with stones 
and dirt, and when we rolled out drove over it. Perhaps we had 
cheated the wolf by so doing perhaps not. 

This was a lovely morning and a beautiful country lay before us ; 
nothing to make us sad save the occupant of that little grave we had 
left for the immigration to trample beneath its heel. Westward the 
star of empire moves, but leaves many a sad remembrance behind. 
As a general thing the roads are good, but the rain last night made 
deep and heavy wheeling. Had to unload our big wagon and carry 
the stuff over a soft spot in the highway. 

May 12. Met some wagons returning to the states. The people 
with them looked tired and jaded, and had lost some of their num- 
ber by smallpox. They said this was a hard road to travel and 
tried to induce us to return with them. Later in the day we passed 
an encampment where it was said there was a case of cholera. The 
road is good and the country charming; the blackbirds hover in 
flocks along our pathway, making us glad with their presence. 
Camped near a small lake, grass growing to the water's edge; wood 
to carry some distance. 

May 13. Passed the grave of an immigrant, just buried, the wife 
and children still lingering over the new made grave, the company 
with which they were traveling having moved on. A more desolate 
looking group than that mother and her five children presented 
would be hard to find. An open, bleak prairie, the cold wind howling 
overhead, bearing with it the mournful tones of that deserted 
woman; a new made grave, a woman and three children sitting 
near by; a girl of fourteen summers walking round and round in a 
circle, wringing her hands and calling upon her dead parent; a boy 
of twelve sitting upon the wagon tongue, sobbing aloud; a strange 
man placing a rude headboard at the head of the grave; the oxen 
feeding near by, and the picture as I saw it was complete. We 
stopped to look upon the scene and asked the woman if we could 
be of any service. "I need nothing," she replied, "but advice 
whether I shall pursue my journey or go back to my old home in 
Illinois." We could advise nothing; the journey onward was a 
long one and it was something of a journey back, with no home when 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 237 

she got back. We passed on, but not without looking back many 
times upon a scene hard to forget. 

Camped for dinner and while eating it the bereaved woman and 
her family passed by. It was a comfort to know that she was well 
supplied with means to accomplish her long journey. This afternoon 
passed a grave; no name or sex; a fresh grave surrounded by the 
green prairie. 

May 14. Camped last night on the bank of the Nemaha river, 15 
and this morning were called upon to bury a man who had died of 
cholera during the night. There have been many cases of this dis- 
ease, or something very much like it; whatever it may be it has 
killed many persons on this road already. Yesterday we met two 
persons out of a company of five who left St. Joe the day before we 
did; two had died, one left on the road, sick, and the two we met 
were returning. 

There are many camps on the banks of this river; many are sick, 
some dead and great numbers discouraged. I think a great many 
returned from this point; indeed, things look a little discouraging 
and those who are not determined may waver in their resolution to 
proceed. This afternoon we passed the graves of a man and woman ; 
the former was marked for seventy- four years. 

May 15. Started early to make the Big Blue river, but rain soon 
commenced falling and retarded our progress so that we lay up 
short of the mark. Camped before sundown one mile from wood 
and water; good grass, however, which reconciled us to the many 
other little inconveniences which we experienced. No hot coffee nor 
warm bread; a "cold snack" and well-filled pipes our only comfort. 
May 16. The wind commenced blowing and the rain to fall 
just before daylight. It was a tedious journey of six miles from 
camp to the Big Blue river; the wind and rain from the northwest, 
and as we were going in that direction had to "face the music" of 
the elements in all their disagreeableness. Six miles in six hours 
and we are on the banks of the Big Blue. Here we set fire to a pile 
of driftwood, cooked our dinner and smoked our pipes. On the 
east bank of this river is located a private postoffice, a dramshop, 
hotel and a ferry, the business all under one roof. If we mail a 
letter we pay $1; if we take a dram of good whiskey, seventy-five 
cents; a square meal, (?) $1.50; if it is a wagon we want carried 
over the river, $4, and no grumbling. The proprietor is doing a rush- 
is. Evidently the "Big" Nemaha. The best crossing later known as Baker's Ford was 
located in the SE% sec. 23, T. 1 S., R. 12 E, present Nemaha county, Kansas. Near this 
crossing was an excellent camping ground, possibly the one referred to by Clark. (Location of 
crossing from tracings of land plats in Kansas auditor's office.) 



238 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ing business. During our stay of two and a half hours he crossed 
forty wagons, his clerks were busy handing out whiskey and the 
cooks getting out bacon, biscuits and coffee. How many letters he 
received for transportation during the same time I am unable to 
say, but our company handed in fifteen or twenty. The "boss" has a 
good thing just now; how long he will be able to keep it depends 
on the overland immigration. 16 

Rather than pay $4 per wagon for being ferried we concluded to 
ford the river, which we did without much trouble or danger. Took 
in wood and water and pushed out onto the open prairie. Passed 
twelve graves to-day, most of them located on the banks of the 
Big Blue river. 

May 17. A late start and a cold one; it is very windy and cold 
yet. We had been advised not to carry much clothing as the weather 
on the plains w r as so mild that we did not need it. Our experience 
is that a good, warm overcoat is a very comfortable thing to have 
about. Passed Cottonwood creek 17 and two new T ly-made graves. 

May 18. Cold and windy yet; not a man slept warm last night. 
Crossed Little Sandy creek. 18 Four bare walls of a blacksmith shop 
standing on the west side. The owner, I think, had "vamosed the 
ranch"; the encouragement given to honest industry on the banks of 
the Little Sandy river was not sufficient to induce him to stay. 
Overtook a train in distress, several persons being sick and one 
dead. 

May 19. An early start in hopes of reaching the Little Blue 
river 19 to-day, but were disappointed and had to lay up short of 
the mark. Saw two bears feeding on the carcass of some animal 
they had killed. The loose hunters on the road immediately gave 
chase but the "varmints" were used to the tricks of travelers and 

16. Frank J. Marshall established a ferry and trading post at the crossing of the Big Blue 
river, a few miles below present Marysville, Kansas, in 1849. This was at the famous ford 
known as the Independence, Mormon or California crossing. Two years later, Marshall built 
another ferry at what is now Marysville, to accommodate traffic on the new military road be- 
tween Forts Leavenworth and Kearny. The Clark party forded the river here. Travel was 
heavy and both crossings were in use in 1852. The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. X, p. 350 ; 
Andreas, A. T., and W. G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, A. T. Andreas, 
1883), p. 918. 

17. Cottonwood creek crossing was a little northeast of present Hanover, Washington 
county, Kansas. G. H. Hollenberg's ranch established there in 1857 as a trading point was 
also known as the "Cottonwood ranch." The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. X, p. 357. 

18. The Little Sandy creek crossing was in present Nebraska. The trail entered Nebraska 
at the extreme southwestern corner of Gage county. Ghent, W. J., The Road to Oregon 
(London, New York, Toronto, Longmans, Green and Co., 1929), p. 127. 

19. Ware gave the distance between the Big Blue and Little Blue rivers as twenty-eight 
miles. Ware, Joseph E., The Emigrants' Guide to California, reprinted from the 1849 
edition (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1932), p. 15. Other travelers estimated the 
distance variously from twenty to twenty-eight miles. Up to this point the Clark-Brown party 
had made slow progress. Ingrim, in his "Reminiscences," wrote: "for the first two weeks we 
made but little head way for it rained considerabl and that made the sloughs verry soft and 
our teams being green and not being usefd] to working together when they would get into the 
mud they would come to the conclusion that the work was to[o] hard and stop. So the conce- 
quence was we would have to get into the mud and pack our load out. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 239 

vamosed over the hills, leading our hunters a wild chase of four or 
five miles contrary to the line of travel. They shot no bear and 
came to camp tired, cross and hungry. Bacon, dried beef, hard tack 
and coffee soon restored their normal condition and all were happy 
again. 

May 20. Out again for the Little Blue river in hopes of a more 
bountiful supply of the staple articles of an overland journey wood, 
water and grass. From an elevation we first caught sight of the 
river and a beautiful sight it was, the river winding through groves 
of thick timber and small under growth, the branches dipping into 
the clear, silvery flood below, presenting a picture of quiet repose 
altogether in accordance with our wishes. Happy were we to rest 
beneath such grateful shade as was here presented for our comfort. 
Here, too, was wood, water and grass in abundance. Another bear 
was seen to-day, but made his escape. One of our men, an old bear 
hunter from the wilds of West Virginia, is badly disappointed in not 
being able to catch a bear and has promised to kill the next bear he 
sees or break his rifle over a wagon wheel. After supper drove our 
stock over the river to good grass. It was a satisfaction to see our 
cattle on good feed once more. 

May 21. We were surprised this morning with the bluster of 
wind and the discomfort of rain; the wind blew a gale and the rain 
fell in torrents. We are elected to remain in camp all day. Towards 
noon the rain slacked up a little and some of the boys went hunt- 
ing, some fishing and some gathering wood. This was a day of 
discomfort, and could our friends at home have seen us as we sat 
huddled around the camp fire, smoked out, burned out, (and I was 
going to say rained out) they would have been greatly amused ; but, 
as it happens, man is neither sugar nor salt, and it would take a 
good deal of rain to wash him out entirely. The hunters came in 
without game and the fishermen without fish. Should we have much 
such weather as we have experienced to-day we shall not call our 
trip a pleasant one. 

May 22. Being in the Indian territory we keep a sharp look-out 
for our stock. A good many cattle have been stolen lately. We are 
told that a number of white men are prowling about and it is an 
easy matter when stock is not well looked after for them to drive it 
a few miles off the road, where they are safe from pursuit. Our road 
now traces the Little Blue valley. Nothing of importance occurred 
to mar the happiness we enjoyed in traveling through this beauti- 
ful and fertile vale. Did not notice a newly-made grave to-day. 



240 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

After camping tried to catch some fish but failed in the effort ; there 
is plenty of fish in the river and plenty of game on its banks, but for 
want of skill or good luck have as yet caught nothing. 

May 23. Passed the grave of a man found murdered. 20 How 
strange that man will commit murder at all, and still stranger when 
he does it in a desolate country where there is so much need of aid 
and comfort from one to another. 

At noon camped near a train of Rocky mountain traders coming 
into the states loaded with furs. 21 They were the first we had seen 
and excited some little curiosity from their rusty looking appear- 
ance. Men, animals and wagons looked as though they had spent 
their existence in the bad lands of the great northwest. In our im- 
mediate vicinity lay the ruins of an immigrant train broken wagons 
and scattered goods, men running here and there, women wringing 
their hands and children crying. I asked one of the unfortunates, 
"What happened?" "The devil and Tom Walker; can't you see for 
yourself?" he answered. "I can see Tom Walker, but the devil I 
can't see," I replied. "Well, look over there," he replied, pointing to 
the train of peltries, "if you can't see him you can smell him." That 
explained the matter; the Rocky mountain train had quite a num- 
ber of green hides, poorly cured, and a dreadful smell was the con- 
sequence; this the immigrant oxen objected to and concluded to run 
away, and making a strong run of it upset wagons, ran over some of 
their drivers, spilled women and children, bags of flour and other 
articles upon the highway. It looked like going west under difficul- 
ties; some of the wagons had lost their wheels, some had broken 
tongues, others had covers smashed, and nearly all had some injury 
to repair. We passed on to good camping and turned our stock out 
to better pasture than we had before seen. 

A word here to all who expect to cross these plains: never get 
into trouble with the expectation of getting help ; carry nothing but 
what is absolutely necessary, and mind your own business. There 
is but little sympathy for anyone on this road, no matter what may 
be his condition. Everyone thinks he has trouble enough and con- 
ducts himself accordingly. However, if one is stuck in the mud and 
there is no way of getting around, over or under, he may get a lift 

20. Mrs. Frizzell, passing this spot on the same date recorded: ". . . there was a 
board put up, & this information upon it, that a man was found here on the 17th, horribly 
murdered, with wounds of a knife, & buckshot. . . ." Frizzell, op. cit., p. 17. 

21. On May 24, 1852, Mrs. Frizzell's party met "a company of fur traders with 16 
waggons & loaded with buffalo robes, they were very singular in appearance looking like so 
many huge elephants, & the men, except 2, were half breeds ; & indians, & a rougher looking set, 
I never saw." Ibid. 




JOHN HAWKINS CLARK (1813-1900) 
From a photograph of the 1890's. 








TWO VIEWS OF FORT BRIDGER, WYOMING 

(Upper) The outfitting station and trading post of James Bridger as it appeared to 
the Stansbury expedition in 1849. The post was destroyed by the Mormons in 1857. 

(Lower) Fort Bridger, U. S. military post, taken about 1866, some years after crea- 
tion of the military reservation on the site of the old trading post. Black's fork of the 
Green river is in the foreground. From a rare photograph in the Root collection. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 241 

at the wheel, but then he is cursed for having a weak team or for 
overloading or maybe for bad driving. 

May 24. Had a very sick man last night but was able to travel 
this morning. Left the Little Blue river today and with some little 
regret. We had fared well while traversing its serpentine course; 
wood, water and grass in profusion. Our route today lies between 
this river and the big Platte a rough, hilly and barren country ; no 
wood, scarcely any grass, and but little water that we could use. 
We were anxious to make the distance from one river to the other 
before camping, and drove hard to accomplish it, but were destined 
to be disappointed. Night came when we were ten miles short of our 
wishes and had to go into camp without water, wood or grass. This 
was the first time we could not in some way, get grass for our teams ; 
we were tired and hungry ourselves, had plenty of provisions, but 
how to cook it was the "rub." Most of the boys carried canteens 
and each had a little water remaining which was put into the coffee 
pot and a fire built with the remains of a bread box. We supped on 
hard bread and coffee and retired to rest after a day of toil and 
fatigue. 

May 25. Rolled out very early this morning to make the Platte 
valley; we must have wood and water to make breakfast, and we 
must also have grass for our animals. The morning was drizzly, 
dark and gloomy; the country desolate and forbidding; yet we pur- 
sued our way around and over the sand hills that border the Platte 
river with as cheerful thought as we ever possessed, for well we knew 
there was comfort just ahead; we also knew that the sun would 
again shine and we would have bright and glorious weather, and 
other objects more interesting to look upon than the gray and 
barren sand hills that loom up so gloomily on our pathway. At ten 
o'clock we are in the bottoms of the Platte valley 22 up which we 
travel a few miles and camp upon the river bank and opposite an 
island. The water of the Platte, like the Missouri, is thick with sand 
which gives to it a muddy appearance, forbidding to the look, never- 
theless good and sweet water; it is thought to be more healthy than 
water found in springs along the line of travel. Many immigrants 
were camped on the shores of this river, many busied themselves 
fishing, hunting, running and jumping, playing cards and dancing. 
Boys will amuse themselves one way or another; many wrote let- 

22. Travelers on the overland route usually struck the Platte river in the vicinity of 
Grand Island, Neb. 

163781 



242 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ters at this camp, intending to mail them at Fort Kearney. Caught 
some fish and took a rest for the balance of the day. 

May 26. Out early this morning, and our pathway now lies in the 
valley of the magnificent Platte river. What a beautiful and pleas- 
ant looking stream; for several hundred miles we are to follow its 
meanderings, camping opposite its banks, fishing and bathing in its 
cooling waters, we promise ourselves much comfort while we keep it 
company, for it is indeed a lovely looking picture, studded with 
beautiful little islands of every shape and size, some single and at 
times clusters of them, always covered with grass and sometimes 
timber. While looking and viewing this broad sheet of water as it 
comes rolling down from the great west one almost feels that it 
comes from fairy land. Picture to yourselves a broad river winding 
through green meadows covered with grass which grows to the 
water's edge, beautiful little islands setting like gems upon its bosom, 
on some bright morning when the sun first spreads his golden rays 
over the same, and tell me if you do not see an "enchanted land"; 
and this, too, is the far famed "hunting grounds of the west." It is 
upon these grounds that the wild Indian has reveled in his might, 
lording it over all animate beings within his reach. Here has he 
lived and hunted and fished, generation after generation, little 
dreaming that a race of "pale faces" coming from the "rising sun" 
was one day to despoil him of his home and his hunting grounds, and 
that his race would fade and become a shadow of the past or living 
only in history recorded by his enemies. Already has the white man 
taken upon himself the charge of this beautiful country. Yonder 
warlike establishment tells them they have masters and must submit 
to be ruled by a people of another race; and so it is. "Manifest 
destiny" is spreading the white race broadcast throughout the fair 
fields of the great west, shedding the light of science, of civilization, 
and of religion, covering the dark savage superstition of the native 
race in the grave of the past. 

Fort Kearney 23 lies five miles from our camp, and while marching 
towards it this morning it presented quite an interesting appearance ; 
but, on a near approach, the charm we felt on first seeing it gradually 
faded, and when we arrived on the spot, found instead of clean look- 
ing buildings, a number of rusty looking houses without paint or 
whitewash. A post-office, hotel and store are located here; a smith 
shop is free to all who have cause to use it a great convenience to 



23. Fort Kearny was located on the Platte river in 1848. It was named for Col. Stt 
W. Kearny of the United States dragoons. Willman, Lillian M., "The History of 
Kearny," in Publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society (Lincoln, 1930), v. 



It was named for Col. Stephen 
>f Fort 

... XXI, 

pp. 226, 228. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 243 

many. Our friends who had the stampede on the Little Blue, can 
here avail themselves of this shop to repair their damages. Many 
sick immigrants are taken to the hospital and treated by the army 
surgeons and persons without money are frequently assisted. 
Everybody stops here long enough to satisfy their curiosity. 24 It was 
quite a lively place when we passed; an hour or two and we were 
satisfied ; drove on some six or eight miles and went into camp near 
the river and opposite an island, to which we drove our teams and 
from which we procured wood for making supper. Here is a ford 
and many are crossing to the north side. We prefer to remain on 
this (the south) side. 25 Some have an idea there is more grass on 
the north side ; I guess there will be stock enough to consume all the 
feed on both sides of the river. In looking about among our neigh- 
bors this evening some of the boys found a wagon where whiskey 
was for sale, and made a purchase of the article, brought it into 
camp and passed it around; when fairly under way, it kept going, 
going, and as the auctioneer would say, "gone." However, the 
liquor did but little damage as there happened to be more water 
than whiskey in the purchase, and but a limited quantity of both; 
no ill effects from its use was perceptible, but no more whiskey in 
camp was allowed after this. Fiddling and dancing was a recrea- 
tion that most all of the immigration indulged in; we had plenty of 
it to-night. Two of us sleep in each wagon, the remainder in tents ; 
we have slept quite comfortable as yet, sometimes perhaps a little 
too cold ; the nights are always cool on the plains. 

May 27. At eight o'clock this morning we were upon the road; 
grass was scarce and we were traveling to find it. It must be re- 
membered that this is a cold spring, and May comes early in the 
season for grass. A month later, and perhaps grass would have 
been more abundant; as it was, so many cattle, horses, mules, and 
sheep were cutting it down as fast as it grew. It was only here and 
there we could find a locality that had not been grazed ; when we did 
the grass was good. Our most and greatest anxiety is to get good 
feed for our teams; it is upon their ability to perform the journey 

24. The St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette, June 9, 1852, quoted as follows from a letter dated 
at Fort Kearny May 19 : "The number of wagons that have passed here up to Sunday the 
16th, is fourteen hundred the first train passing on the 30th April. 

"The general health of the emigrants is good, although there has been some few cases of 
small pox. The grass is very poor, or in fact, I can hardly say it is grass at all. . . 
[Signed] C. W. L." 

25. The Clark-Brown party thus continued to follow the "St. Joe" road. Godfrey C. 
Ingrim, member of the expedition, said of this crossing: "the Platt here is 1% miles wide we 
did not cross the Platt here but at the old Calafornia Crossing we traveled up to South fork 
of Platt crossed that. . . ." The two trails were very close to each other in this area. 
Wrote Ingrim: "Some times my friend Clark and I would stray off from the train and get 
on some high point so we could se[e] the travel on the north side of the Platt many times I 
have counted 300 hundred [sic] wagons in string." Ingrim, G. C., "Reminiscences." 



244 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

that we all rely. Another train of Rocky Mountain traders passed 
down to-day, consisting of some ten or a dozen wagons drawn by 
five and six yoke of oxen each ; a hard looking set. Men, oxen and 
wagons all partook of the same peculiarities, the color of faded tan 
bark. The negro had brightened to a dull yellow, the American was 
smoked to a dull yellow, and dull yellow was the normal cast of the 
Mexican. The train appeared to be heavy laden. 

One of the boys and myself rode ahead to find good feed but were 
not fortunate enough to find much; waded the Platte river to an 
island, canvassed surface and concluded to drive our stock to it 
where by sprouting and grazing they managed to get something. 

May 28. We are now in the buffalo region and the boys anxious 
to capture one. An early breakfast and two or three of the men 
were off on the hunt. We had quite a time hunting our stock this 
morning. Timber, high weeds and grass grew so thick upon the 
island that it was hard work to push our way through and over them 
to where our cattle were feeding; delayed starting in order to give 
our hunters a chance. Eight o'clock and we are off; the roads good, 
level and straight as an arrow. Twelve o'clock came and went but 
no hunters in sight. Buffalo or no buffalo, we must make a day's 
work. Six o'clock and tolerably good feed so we concluded to put 
up; still no hunters. The train had traveled twenty miles and the 
hunters had to do the same, independent of the extra strides hunters 
usually put in when on a "wild goose chase." We were now really 
apprehensive as to their whereabouts; however, we had not settled 
in camp but a few minutes when two of them put in their appear- 
ance ; the other had been left on the road, tired out. One of the boys 
was dispatched with a horse to bring him in, which was soon done. 
No buffalo meat for supper to-night. 

May 29. We were determined to hunt good camping ground for 
to-night and also for the morrow, as it is very necessary that we 
should lay by on the Sabbath day. There are many things to attend 
to ; washing is once in awhile to be done ; our firearms need brushing 
up and there are a variety of little things to look after; one has 
some little gift from someone at home and it must be seen to; an- 
other a Bible which is stowed away somewhere. The most of us 
have little pictures of our sweethearts and wives and they must 
come in to share a part of our attentions. 

This was quite a warm day and we and our teams suffered much 
from the heat. Camped near the river; good grass and plenty of 
water, of course, but no wood. This was about the first time we 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 245 

could get no wood. Wood or its substitute we must have; there is 
no getting along without coffee on these plains. We had read in "the 
books" that people traveling over these plains had "sometimes to 
use buffalo chips," and it took us but a little while to come to that 
conclusion ourselves. We gathered them by the basketful, by the 
armful and by the handful, and as they were plentiful I guess we 
gathered a wagon load, set the heap on fire and cooked our supper. 
The "chips" worked like a charm and are really a godsend for the 
traveler in this part of the country a staple which would be hard 
to dispense with. It is now no longer wood, water and grass. The 
inquiry when camp is announced is whether or no there is "plenty 
of chips." If there is we can stay, but if not we must move a little 
farther on. Sometimes a man goes ahead to hunt a camping ground 
and if nothing is lacking when he finds one he turns his horse loose 
and commences piling up chips. When the train comes up it stops 
before the largest pile and the teams are unhitched. Men, women 
and children are sometimes seen gathering chips the men in their 
arms, the women in their aprons, and the little boys and girls will 
sometimes be seen carrying them on their heads. The horses, oxen 
and mules get so used to camping where there is plenty of them that 
it is hard work to get them past a spot where they are thickly strewn ; 
and if a heap has been left unburned at any place near the road our 
oxen will make for it and there is no stopping them until they are 
alongside. The chips are a substitute for wood, and were it not for 
them I hardly know how the traveler in this part of the country 
would get along. Where there is an abundance of chips there will 
also be seen thousands of skulls and bones of the buffalo, the ground 
in many places being white with them. The smooth, white forehead 
is much used by the immigrants for transmitting news. If anyone 
is lost from his train the company with whom he has been traveling 
will write on the forehead of these skull bones the name of the com- 
pany, date of camping and other information pertinent to the ques- 
tion and set the head up on its horns in some prominent place by the 
roadside. They are also good targets for the marksmen; a little 
black spot made with powder and bullet holes set close around are 
often seen. During the immigration buffaloes are scarce on the line 
of travel; at least we have seen none as yet. 

May 30. Remained in camp all day overhauling things. Weather 
very warm. Some of the boys are again on the hunt in hopes of 
killing some game, but returned about noon without success. How- 
ever, they did bring in a prairie dog, the first we had seen. 



246 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Were visited this afternoon by a number of Indians who came rid- 
ing into camp on horseback. They looked somewhat imposing, being 
well mounted on good horses. They proved to be part of a band of 
Sioux who had been at war with the Pawnees and were now returning 
up the river. They came into camp for something to eat, which we 
gave them. 

May 31. Intended to do a good day's work to-day, but whether 
we did or not our teams and ourselves were quite worn down at 
night. The weather is oppressively hot and but for the wind we 
would suffer much. Nothing of interest occurred to-day; it was 
travel, travel, travel, amid the dust of a thousand teams, some be- 
fore and others behind, all like ourselves hurrying onwards. 

June 1. I wrote this on the highest point in the neighborhood and 
the highest we have yet seen. 26 The view from this spot is very ex- 
tensive. As far as the eye can reach the broad river can be seen 
stretching far away to the east and west, the wide bottom lands 
covered with a carpet of green which gives to the scene a color rich 
and beautiful to look upon. And then there is another picture. Look 
at the long line of immigrants, stretching as it were from the rising 
to the setting sun ; and when one does see it, as we do at this moment, 
he cannot but wonder where such a mighty multitude of men, women, 
children and animals are marching to. Echo answers "where"; but 
ask of the throng and they will tell you "California and Oregon." 
Yes, California and Oregon have lured that crowd from many a 
happy home, and here they are, this beautiful morning, marching to 
those beautiful shores whose golden sands have set the world on fire. 

Remained on this peak until time admonished us to be traveling. 
Neither time nor the tide of immigration waited for us, so taking 
another look at the panorama before us we left the mountain top 
and pursued our journey. A long and tiresome walk brought us to 
the noonday camp. 

June 2. An early start this morning. The South Fork of the 
Platte river is to be forded to-day, 27 and as it is an interesting fea- 
ture in our day's work we keep ourselves and teams together. Nine 
o'clock and we are at the river; there are many people on the banks 
and in the river, which at this point is from one-half to three-fourths 
of a mile wide and from six to twenty-five inches in depth. The 
depth of the water, however, is no indication of the trouble there is in 
fording this stream. The bottom is quicksand; horse, mule or ox 

26. Probably O'Fallon's Bluff. 

27. There was no fixed crossing place. It changed frequently during the season. Ware, 
op. cit. f p. 18. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 247 

standing still three minutes will sink so deep as to be unable to ex- 
tricate itself without help. There is, perhaps, more fun, more excite- 
ment, more whipping, more swearing and more whiskey drank at 
this place than at any point on the Platte river. Many loose cattle 
were being driven over when we crossed, and the dumb brutes seemed 
to have an inclination to go any way but the right one. Loose cattle, 
teams, horses, mules, oxen, men and boys, all in a muss; the men 
swearing and whipping, the cattle bellowing, the horses neighing and 
the boys shouting, made music for the million. It was an interesting 
scene. It reminded one of something he had never seen nor heard 
of before, and if he is an actor in the play he is so much excited that 
a looker on could hardly tell whether he was on his way to California 
or going back to God's country. One would think by his actions 
that he had lost his individuality and had become half horse and 
half alligator; sometimes pushing at the wagons, at others whipping 
the stubborn oxen, then splurging through the water to head some 
curious old cow who had taken it into her own sweet will to go 
contrary to the right direction. 

Having but few cattle, our troubles were comparatively light; we 
gave the teams all the water they would drink before starting and 
then whipped them through. When safely landed on the other shore 
the captain passed around the "big jug." It must be remembered 
that we took brandy along for the sick folks. If ever brandy does 
good it is perhaps when one gets into the water and stays there long 
enough to get chilled ; the most of us had waded the river and came 
out chilly. 

June 3. Some rain last night and good traveling to-day. The 
road leaves the river, and crossing the highlands makes a cut off to 
the river again at Cedar Bluffs. This hilly country is a desolate 
looking region. There were many in camp to-day and in every camp 
either sick or dead people. Put up three miles from the river, to 
which we drove our cattle and from which we carried water for cook- 
ing. Grass is getting scarce and our stock fared badly. 

June 4. The high lands approach the river at this point so close 
that we are forced to leave the valley and take to the hills again. 
After a five mile drive we strike the headwaters of "Ash Hollow," 
which we follow down to the main valley of the Platte. Nothing we 
have yet seen can exceed the beauty of Ash Hollow. 28 It was a 

28. Stansbury, who traveled through this region July 3, 1849, described Ash Hollow thus: 
"We encamped at the mouth of the valley, here called Ash Hollow. The traces of the great 
tide of emigration that had preceded us were plainly visible in remains of camp-fires, in blazed 
trees covered with innumerable names carved and written on them; but, more than all, in the 



248 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

lovely morning as we entered it; birds were singing joyously amid 
the branches of beautiful trees; flowers were everywhere blooming, 
making fragrant the air we breathed; women and children were 
gathering wild roses and singing some sweet song which put us in 
mind of other times and other localities. There were many camps 
in this valley ; the shade of the green trees was truly inviting, and a 
stream of clear, cold water and plenty of wood made it a desirable 
place for a few days' rest. From the head of the valley to where it 
opens out on the Platte bottoms is perhaps two miles, one side of 
which is an abrupt bluff 100 to 200 feet high. Thousands of birds 
have their nests high up in these perpendicular cliffs and clouds of 
them are hovering about filling the air with their chattering noise. 
On the opposite side the land rises with a gentle grade and is covered 
with a variety of timber, ash being most prominent, hence the name, 
"Ash Hollow." 

Just before leaving the valley we visited a graveyard pleasantly 
situated on a rising mound. There were four newly made graves 
and three of older date, the occupants of which were, perhaps, stran- 
gers, coming from different parts of the world to lie down and sleep 
together in this quiet place. Although a most beautiful valley death 
had been busy; only a few days ago four of the occupants of this 
quiet little graveyard heard the birds sing and saw the beautiful 
flowers growing. Sickness and death have marred the pleasures of 
our journey thus far, but how long it will continue to do so Provi- 
dence only knows. Wherever there is a little shady grove where we 
might stop and view the beautiful scenery as it presents itself in 
many places, our spirits are dampened by the sight of fresh earth 
piled up in an unmistakable form, showing that beneath it lies the 
inanimate form of some being who, like ourselves, delighted in view- 
ing nature in such beautiful forms as it everywhere presents itself in 
the neighborhood of our travels. 

June 6. Compelled to travel today, Sunday though it is; the ab- 
sence of grass makes it necessary to move. At three o'clock we 
struck good grass. We are always happy when we find plenty of 
feed. One of our hunters brought in a fine deer, and now while I 
am writing the cooks are doing their best to get up a big supper. 

June 7. This morning the weather was quite cool and the laid- 
away overcoats were again hunted up. Yesterday we met three men 
returning to the states. These three are all that are left out of a 

total absence of all herbage. It was only by driving our animals to a ravine some distance 
from the camp, that a sufficiency for their subsistence could be obtained." Stansbury, Howard, 
An Expedition to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah (Philadelphia, Lippincott, Grambo 
& Co., 1855), p. 41. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 249 

company of seventeen men who left Ash Hollow a few days ago, 
bound for California. Sickness commenced soon after leaving the 
Hollow, and by the time Fort Laramie was reached fourteen of their 
number were dead. The remaining three concluded to return and 
from them we gleaned the above facts. A true story, no doubt. 
The road has been thickly strewn with graves. 

June 8. Awoke this morning just as the rising sun was flooding 
with its golden light that giant monument of the plains [see Footnote 
29]. I had seen its beauties and its grandeur fade in the dim and 
darkness of night, and now I saw it again in all the beauteous splen- 
dor a rising sun could impart. 

Off early; some of the boys started to visit Court House Rock, 
but after traveling an hour or two concluded it would not pay. The 
object of their visit appeared no nearer after a five mile tramp than 
it did at starting. People get wonderfully mistaken sometimes in 
distances measured by the eye. Optical delusions are frequent on 
the plains. Camped a few miles below Chimney Rock 29 and in full 
view of Scott's Bluffs. 30 Chimney Rock stands some three miles to 
the left of the road. I visited it to-day and should think it near 300 
feet in height and perhaps thirty or forty feet square, holding its 
size, or nearly so, its entire height; it is a wonderful specimen of 
natural ruins. Much sickness on the road. 

June 9. In hopes of reaching Scott's Bluffs to-day and made an 
early start to accomplish it. About 9 o'clock we met an old black 
cow returning to the states; she appeared to have had enough of 
this wonderland and was returning to pastures green and more plen- 
tiful than she has had for the last hundred miles or so, traveling day 
by day in search of a bare subsistence. Some of the boys thought 
the journey too long and too lonesome for a single traveler, and 
after much coaxing induced the old thing to turn back. But no 
sooner had we camped than her alleged owner made his appearance, 
and recognizing her old and familiar form claimed his children's pet; 
a sad blow to some of the boys who hungered for milk in their cof- 
fee. Took up for the night about one and a half miles west of Scott's 
Bluffs. For forty miles we had caught frequent glimpses of these 
celebrated rocks, and their appearance when first seen impressed one 
with the idea that he might be approaching a great and magnificent 

29. Court House and Chimney Rocks were notable landmarks on the road. The former 
is about five miles south of present Bridgeport, Cheyenne county, Nebraska; Chimney Rock is 
about two and one-half miles south of the town of Bayard, Cheyenne county, Nebraska. Mor- 
ton, .T. Sterling, Illustrated History of Nebraska (Lincoln, J. North & Company, 1905), v. I, 
p. 83. 

30. Scott's Bluffs were some twenty miles from Chimney Rock. Ware, op. cit., p. 19, gave 
the distance as nineteen miles; Stansbury, op. cit., p. 52, placed it at over twenty miles. 



250 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

city. Court House Rock stood a temple upon the plain, Chimney 
Rock had the appearance of a watch tower from whose lofty height 
a watchman could command a view of the surrounding country ; and 
last, though not least, in the extensive view, stood Scott's Bluffs, like 
fortified ramparts to guard the safety of millions. Here are castel- 
lated walls and ramparts, towers and domes, built in that grand and 
massive style which only nature knows so well how to plan. The 
natural ruins of this neighborhood are on an extensive and grand 
scale, wonderful to behold, and what makes them of more interest is 
the strong resemblance to decaying monuments erected by the hand 
of man, making one believe, almost in spite of himself, that yonder 
ruin is the handiwork of man. It is only on a near approach that 
the delusion wears off, yet there still lingers a curiosity to examine, 
to see if, after all, there are not some chisel marks, square joints or 
plumb corners that man can claim ; but there are none. It is all the 
work of nature's master builder, but when or how placed in their 
present form science alone can tell. 

June 11. David 31 started out this morning on a deer hunting 
expedition, and David was successful; a fine buck was David's prize, 
but somehow or other David had got in the rear of his train and 
when the deer was killed had to call for help; that was done by a 
signal invented for the occasion. A horse was despatched to bring 
in the game ; but the animal not being a pack horse, refused to carry 
it. There was a fix; but David with a little help and more energy, 
succeeded in bringing in the meat upon the back of "Major." 
Camped early to give the cooks a chance. If we did not feast this 
day it was not David's fault; neither was it because the game was 
unsuited to our taste, for the way it disappeared after being cooked, 
was a caution to those on duty, and had to dine at the second table ; 
but I am happy to say there was enough for all and some to spare. 
David was booked as an expert and voted a glass of brandy from 
the "big jug." 

Sickness appears to be increasing if one may judge from the num- 
ber of new made graves he sees by the road side. Yesterday we 
passed the grave of a lady, to-day saw her husband buried and 
their children left to journey with strangers. 

June 12. Fort Laramie 32 lies ten miles distant. To make it and 

31. This was David Allen. G. C. Ingrim, "Reminiscences," says: "Had a fiddler in the 
company by the name of Dave Allen." 

32. Stansbury, op. cit., p. 52, gives the distance from Scott's Bluffs to Fort Laramie as 
fifty-one miles. Ghent, op. cit., p. 133, states that forty days was considered a good journey 
between Independence, Mo., and Fort Laramie. The Clark-Brown party, traveling from St. 
Joseph, Mo., covered the distance in thirty-six days. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 251 

find good feed was the height of our ambition to-day. The Platte 
river bottoms are here quite narrow and grass very scarce. The 
cactus grows in great abundance and in many shapes and forms; 
some trees very beautiful, some of the species grow to the dignity 
of trees and bear fruit, resembling in shape and taste a green water- 
melon. 

Fort Laramie 33 is located at or near the junction of the Platte 
and Laramie rivers, near the banks of the latter and about one mile 
from the former. We crossed Laramie river over a bridge just above 
the junction of the two streams for which we paid three dollars per 
wagon teams and passengers free. Camped on the Platte river as 
usual; here we again wrote letters for home. Fort Laramie is a 
great place in the immigration season; a good many wagons are 
left at this point, many coming to the conclusion of getting along 
without them. Many pack their goods from this point; a hard way 
to travel, I should think. A hotel, store and post office are located 
here. I saw about 150 officers and men belonging to the Fort; all 
appeared to be well behaved, and I think ready and willing to help 
the unfortunate. The hospital, I am told, contains many sick im- 
migrants. 

We are now at the head of the great open valley of the Platte 
river. If this stream was only navigable what a smoking there 
would be in the great valley. How sorry I felt it was not so: a 
great lift it would be to us poor wayfarers to steam it up this river 
and land beneath the shade of the great Rocky mountains. Could 
only console ourselves with the pleasant expectation of one day 
seeing the "iron horse" on his race with time go thundering up this 
great highway on his course to the Pacific. 

If one could write a true future history of this great valley, what 
an interesting story he could make of it; but as only a few specula- 
tive thoughts can be allowed, I will say that the greater part of this 
immense valley is susceptible of cultivation. From the first of May 

33. Fort Laramie was originally established by fur-traders William L. Sublette and 
Robert Campbell in 1834. It was first called Fort William; later, Fort John. In 1849 the 
government purchased the fort from the American Fur Company and it became a U. S. mili- 
tary post. Hafen, L. R., and F. M. Young, Fort Laramie and the Pageant of the West, 
183^-1890 (Glendale, Cal., The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1938), pp. 24-31, 60, 140-142. 

An interesting comparison is the description by Thomas Turnbull who arrived opposite 
Fort Laramie on the North Platte (or, Mormon) trail on June 8, 1852: "got opposite . . . 
Fort [Laramie] about 4 OClock, it stands in a valley surrounded by hills covered by small 
cedars, the Laramie Fork runs into the Platt here the St. Joe Road crosses the Fork & we 
still go along on this side of the Platt about 80 Rods here apart we can cross this Ferry if 
we wish, to go on the St Joe route it is a wild looking River here runs very swift at the 
opposite side of the Ferry there is a Blacksmith & waggon makers shop the Garrison & 
Houses are built with Spanish Brick number about 12 Houses the Garrison is about 2 miles 
from the Ferry Hundreds of Ponies, Horses, Oxen, Mules & Waggons around here. . . ." 
"T. Turnbull's Travels From the United States Across the Plains to California," in Proceed- 
ings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Its Sixty-First Annual Meeting (Madison, 
1914), p. 170. 



252 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

until the first of July, the native grass will sustain 100,000 head of 
horses, mules and oxen; to say nothing of the great herds of buffalo 
that may at the same time graze upon its pastures. 

These wide bottom lands will soon be filled with an enterprising 
population. Cities and towns will flourish and a great railroad will 
run along its entire length bringing in and carrying out the product 
of her own and distant localities. I can now, in the year 1852, with 
just a little stretch of the imagination, see the distant smoke of the 
"iron horse" as he comes stretching up the valley on his mission of 
peace, of civilization and of convenience. 

A friend who has been looking over my shoulder while the above 
was being written says: "Your head will be cold long before one- 
half of such stuff you are writing will be realized." ... I am 
more sanguine of the future of this great country west of the Mis- 
souri river. . . . 

June 13. Left camp and traveled up the river to good grass. 
Feed is getting scarcer all the time. A great many cattle have gone 
over the road and of course have had the benefit of fresh pastures, 
but our stock has done well as yet. 

June 14. Remained in camp to-day to shoe our horses and fix 
up things generally. One of our men left us to-day, having found 
an old acquaintance on the road; was anxious to join his friend 
and finish his travels in other company, so with mutual benefit we 
parted. This man joined us at St. Joe and has been a trouble to us 
and to himself ever since. He shouldered his pack and walked off, 
and as he had but few friends in camp he "cast no lingering look 
of fond remembrance behind." For one I felt for the poor fellow as I 
watched him on his winding way, receding in the far distance among 
the black and rugged hills. Although a wicked and a sinful man, 
the tear of sympathy would start at the glimpse of distress and a 
kind and cheerful word he always had for the unfortunate ; and now 
as I see him, perhaps for the last time, may peace be with him. 

At dinner we were visited by a party of native Americans, and 
as they were on a mission of peace added greatly to the pleasures of 
camp life. It was a change in our dull routine, and but for the 
slight difference in our looks one would have sworn we were brothers 
of the same mould. We immigrants had been so long on the plains 
and lived so much like Indians that now, while sitting round the 
camp fire, passing the pipe from mouth to mouth, from white man 
to Indian, a stranger would have sworn we were all of the same tribe 
as we smoked together. So we dined and a good time was had. But 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 253 

I must say that a little envious feeling was manifested towards that 
happy brother who had the extreme pleasure of sitting by and now 
and then helping to dainty bits (pork and fried bread) a "dusky 
daughter" of the far west who happened to be one of our visitors. 
It was rather hard to let one man monopolize so much pleasure, but 
we were getting used to "hard things." The lucky fellow was left 
alone in his attentions to the fair one, who seemed very grateful for 
the devotions of the gallant immigrant. Whether the fellow will re- 
member this as the happiest hour of his life I cannot say, but from 
the efforts he made to please and his polite farewell I am half in- 
clined to believe she made a lasting impression. 

When dinner was over and the pipe again went round we exhibited 
the pictures of our sweethearts and wives; these appeared to be 
greatly admired by the "stalwarts," but the lady Indian passed them 
by with supreme indifference. 

June 15. The Black Hills 34 were to be encountered to-day. Hav- 
ing heard a good deal about the travel through this country we were 
anxious to realize the difficulties to be met with. We are to follow 
the Platte river 150 miles over this rugged, hilly country. The 
river cannot be followed only on its general course; it is now quite 
a narrow stream, rapid and very crooked. For days we see nothing 
of it, then again we are upon its banks where it goes rushing, foam- 
ing and thundering over great rocks or between high and nearly 
perpendicular walls of stone, almost a terror to contemplate. This 
region is very interesting; we pass many curious shaped mounds 
and ruin-like looking places that would in the states attract a great 
deal of attention. 

June 16. Left one of the most beautiful camp grounds we have 
as yet occupied. The trail lay down a beautiful valley and opened 
out on the banks of the Platte river; nothing more wild in all of 
nature's wild scenes that we have as yet visited can exceed this 
spot a rushing torrent, foaming, whirling, leaping over great boul- 
ders, jarring the earth upon which we stand and making such a noise 
as would make thunder itself ashamed of its puny efforts. 

This afternoon our road lay across an elbow of the river and over 
a grassy plain, at the end of which we saw a little white tent, and 
at a near approach found that it contained within its canvas walls 
a sick man in the last stages of cholera. We called at the tent door 

34. The Laramie mountains west of Fort Laramie. "The limitation of the term Black 
Hills to the particular chain now thus named in South Dakota, is of recent use." Thwaites, 
R. G., ed., Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Cleveland, Ohio. The Arthur H. Clark Com- 
pany, 1906), v. XXVIII, p. 244. 



254 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and asked if we could be of any service. He replied, "No; my time 
is nearly out and I feel beyond any power of help, but am willing 
and ready." We passed on, but memory will linger long upon the 
scene of the white tent and its sick occupant. I had almost for- 
gotten to say that the sick man had two attendants who had, as 
they told us, "attended to his every want," and at the same time 
dug his grave alongside his dying couch, "to have it handy," they 
said. 

We have been eating fried bread ever since leaving the Missouri 
river and some of the boys are very tired of it. How to bake bread 
is a question that has often been discussed. Some say on a board 
before the fire ; others tell us a hole in the ground and a fire over it 
is the way to do it, and still others tell us the way to bake "white 
man's bread and to be decent about it is to bake it in a cast iron 
Dutch oven, and then you have it." This afternoon one of the 
boys came into camp with one turned bottom side upward over his 
head. All hands shouted "Hurrah for the bake oven! Hurrah for 
the man who found and brought the bake oven into camp; we will 
now have good bread." The poor fellow who found the oven said, 
as he threw it from his head, that he had "toted it five miles and 
would not do it again if he had to eat slapjacks and hard bread 
all the way to California." "Why, d n the thing, there is a hole 
in the bottom," said one who had turned it over. "Yes, I'll swear 
there is two of them." Sure enough, there were two bullet holes as 
near the center of the unfortunate oven as the marksman's skill 
enabled him to place, and through those two bullet holes vanished 
all our present hopes of good bread. It is but fair to say that the 
holes had been plastered over with mud, and the finder, not scruti- 
nizing it closely, had been deceived as to its soundness. 

June 17. We were within eight miles of La Butte river 35 this 
morning and some of us hurried ahead to catch trout, but ill luck as 
usual attended our efforts. No fish for dinner to-day. However, 
we had a good bath in the mountain stream and that was something 
of a luxury this hot weather. 

Took our last look at Laramie Peak this morning, having seen 
it for 150 miles. When first discovered its top was covered with 
clouds, but as we were in sight of it for several days we saw it in 
all its varied aspects, situated in the midst of the Black Hills but 
towering high above them all. It is a mountain patriarch whose 
hoary head, white with everlasting snow, gives one a good idea of 

35. Probably La Bonte creek. See Ware, op. cit., p. 21. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 255 

mountain grandeur. We left it as we saw it, capped with clouds, 
and snow in many places far down its rugged sides. 

Our teams came up as we were fishing and it being twelve o'clock, 
took dinner. One o'clock we are again on the move. One mile from 
the ford we passed the grave of a man just hung; it appeared that 
the culprit committed an unprovoked murder yesterday, was caught 
in the act, confined until this morning when he was tried, found 
guilty of murder in the first degree, and "hung upon the spot." The 
fellow kicked against the proceedings with much argument and 
wanted to be taken back to a civilized country before being tried; 
but as he had committed murder on the plains, he should be tried 
on the plains, and if found guilty, should be hung upon the plains. 
The murder was proven fair and square, the jury prompt in its ver- 
dict, sentence pronounced immediately and the hangman's rope fin- 
ished the job. We felt like giving three cheers that justice, quick and 
sure, was so promptly administered. Conservatives and law loving 
people may take exception to such proceedings; but let such come 
out into a wild country like this and expose themselves to any whim 
the ruffian may take to shoot or otherwise dispose of him and he will, 
I think, be as ready to take the law into his own hands as the most of 
men do on these plains. 36 

June 18. The sublime, the pathetic, the outrageous and the ridic- 
ulous follow each other in quick succession on this road. This morn- 
ing while in advance of our train caught up with an old lady trudg- 
ing along after her two wagons. "Well, how are you getting along?" 
I asked. "O, terrible bad," she replied; "one of my grandchildren 
fell out of the wagon yesterday and both wheels ran plum over his 
head; oh dear! I shall never forget yesterday!" Thinking the acci- 
dent a painful one for the old lady I changed the subject; in the 

36. Godfrey C. Ingrim, member of the Brown-Clark party, described the circumstances of 
this hanging in detail: "there was a large train two days ahead of our train that was owned 
by a man by the name of Brown. Browns wife was with this train Brown was behind with a 
drove of cattel there was a young man by the name of Miller in charge. There was two 
young men Brothers by the name of Tate that drove team in the train that did not like 
Miller. Mrs. Brown told Miller the boss that he had better lay over until her husband came 
up with the catel he [Miller] told the drivers to stop and unhitch one of the Tates told 
Miller that he was putting on stile Miller told Tait that it was Mrs. Browns wish, that he 
would stop the train until Brown came up one word lead to another Tate called Miller a 
son of B. Miller grabed up one of the whip[s] and said he would not take that from no man 
and struck Tate with [the] whip Tates brother Layfaett [?] run up behind Miller and stuck 
a knife in his back as he fell nearly cut his head off. as soon as he done this he went to 
Millers wagon took Millers pistol and knife and took the road to California as fast as the 
trains came up they were stoped until there was a crowd to pick from to send after Tate in [a] 
short time 15 men started in pursuit and overtook Tate at a creek called Labont, and ar- 
rested him he told them there was no law on the plains as fast as trains came up they 
stopefd] until they had a big crowd as soon as browns train came up with the witness there 
was a jury pickfed] out of the crowd and a judg and a man on each side as a lawyer he was 
given a fair trial found guilty and hung on a tree at 12 Oc at night and burried close to 
road, with a large head board describing the crime and hanging, his brother said he would 
be the death of every one of the jury he was tied up to one of the trees and whiped. our 
train came up the next day I lamed this from a man that was at the trial." G. C. Ingrim, 
' 'Reminiscences. ' ' 



256 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

meanwhile several little fellows that were in the wagon were making 
a fuss, climbing up on the side boards, swinging to the roof of the 
cover, and otherwise disporting themselves. The old lady ever on 
the watch called out to "Johnny" to behave himself. "Do you want 
to fall out again and be killed, Johnny?" "Is that the boy who got 
run over yesterday? I thought he surely must have been killed." 
"No, it did not quite kill him, but it made the little rascal holler 
awfully." I thought that boy's head must have been a very hard 
one; or, possibly there might have been a very soft spot on the road 
somewhere. I asked the old lady if the children fell out of the 
wagon often. "They fall out behind sometimes when the wagons 
are going up steep places, but that don't matter much you know, for 
then there are no wheels to run over them," she replied. As this old 
lady is something of a character I am inclined to give something of 
her history; as a washwoman I became acquainted with her in St. 
Joe, Missouri. She told me that herself and husband joined the 
Mormon church in England, moved to America and Salt Lake, where 
her husband died, and she, becoming disgusted with Mormonism 
stole away and returned to St. Joe where she had resided ever since, 
making a living at the wash tub. When the California fever broke 
out she determined to go to the Pacific coast, and saved money suffi- 
cient to equip two wagons with teams and provisions. She crossed 
the Missouri river the same day that we did and here she was, safe 
and sound, without a broken head in the "outfit," which consisted of 
three women besides herself and five boys, big and little, including 
a son-in-law and a grandson. . . . 

Passed many new made graves today ; they line either side of the 
road and in number, fearful to contemplate. Hunters more fortunate 
than ourselves killed a buffalo and made a free market of the meat. 
I care but little for wild meat of any kind and consequently a poor 
judge of its merits. Went into camp and good grass in plenty, we 
are all right. 

June 19. Nothing of importance occurred on the march to-day. 
The features of the country have a good deal of sameness; up hill 
and down, sometimes a short narrow valley, with level roads, are 
met with. 

June 20. Laid by to-day. Some of the boys are fishing, some 
hunting and some washing. Mosquitoes have been very troublesome 
today; have been bothered but very little with these pests so far. 
We are camped on the low land near the river and the timber which 
accounts for our being troubled with them. Saw many teams pass- 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 257 

ing upon the other side of the river, and all hunting for grass. They 
informed us that feed had been very scarce for the last hundred miles 
and they were bound to travel until they found it. It seems almost 
incredible how long ox teams will travel without food; day after day 
they move along on rations that would make the heart sick to con- 
template were it not for the everlasting hope of finding something 
better further on the road. 

June 21. Rained some as we went into camp this evening and 
continued until after supper. We have had but little rain on the 
road almost continual sunshine. 

June 22. Eight miles to upper ferry of Platte river; started early 
to make sure of getting over in time to build our campfire for the 
last time on the banks of this stream. "More haste less speed" is an 
old saying that we realized to our hearts' content this morning, for 
in crossing a deep and muddy ditch our ox team went contrary to 
good conduct and broke the wagon tongue, leaving the wagon half 
upset in the worst mud hole on Platte river. We were now in a fix, 
and if the wagon was not a "fixture" it appeared to be, for with all 
our ingenuity we could not move it. The most of our men and all 
the other teams were ahead and out of call. As we had done once 
before, so we had to do now unload all our freight before we could 
extract the wagon. After an hour's labor in mud and water we had 
made things all right except the broken tongue, which we expect to 
get mended at the ferry. All set for the ferry, which we soon made 
and bargained for the transit of the whole outfit by paying the sum 
of $32 ; these plainsmen do not forget to charge. All have to ferry 
their wagons, but most of the immigrants swim their stock. 37 Many 
cattle have been lost at this point and the ferryman has a record of 
fifteen men drowned within the last month. The boatman had, I 
think, located this ferry on a difficult place in the river in order to 
force custom over it. 

There is a big crowd of people here and a great deal of stock is 
being driven into the river. They are driven in promiscuously and 
allowed to find their way over as best they can. I saw many of 
them drown in the swift, whirling and turbulent stream. Some men 
in their anxiety to get their stock over wade in after them, and as 
the records show, many are drowned. I saw one man go down and 

37. According to Chittenclen the location was a little above the present Casper, Wyo. Chit- 
tenden, H. M., The American Fur Trade of the Far West (New York, Francis P. Harper, 1902), 
p. 470. Ingrim of the Clark-Brown party wrote of this crossing: "there was some Mormens 
that had a ferry here they charged five dollars a wagon and men had to swim their teams or 
stock." Ingrim, G. C., "Reminiscences." 

17 3781 



258 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

another would soon have followed had he not been rescued by a 
negro who, as he heard the cry of "another man drowning," jumped 
upon a big mule, and then, mule and man, over a steep bank four 
feet high into the foaming current. Then came the struggle for life 
now on top and then beneath the surface. The drowning man was 
making desperate efforts to save himself, the whirling and shifting 
current often preventing the negro from making a sure grip at the 
unfortunate man's head. Now he has him, now he has "lost his 
grip," and now he is again reaching for a sure hold, and fortunately, 
he has it. The mule and his rider and the half drowned man land on 
a sand bar half a mile below, and the excitement of the hour is over. 

The negro, when the alarm was given, was busily strapping his 
pack upon his mule. Now again he is busy getting off on his jour- 
ney, and as he is about to start he is detained by an old gentleman 
who tells him that this crowd of people cannot afford to let him pro- 
ceed on his journey without showing their appreciation of his heroic 
conduct. Then calling the crowd together he dwelt upon the heroic 
deeds recorded in ancient and modern history and declared none of 
them more heroic or more deserving of praise than the one they had 
just witnessed, and ended with the proposition of giving the dusky 
hero "three cheers and a tiger." It is needless to say that three 
cheers and the loudest "tiger" that ever was heard upon the banks 
of the upper Platte river were given, and with a low bow of his 
woolly head the negro turned and resumed his journey toward the 
setting sun. "Honor and fame from no condition rise." He had 
acted well his part and is now as "happy as a clam at high tide." 
God bless him. 

We crossed the river at 12 o'clock, went into camp and fixed up 
our lame wagon. An old Canadian plainsman had located at this 
place, improvised a blacksmith shop, hired a smith and was ready to 
do anything in his line on "reasonable terms." We gave him a job 
of welding a piece of iron one and a half inches wide by one-fourth 
of an inch in thickness, for which he charged the reasonable (?) sum 
of $8, or about $1 a minute. We took the iron, and in driving it into 
position it broke again in the same place. As it happened we had a 
smith with us he said he would fix it, so giving $5 more for use of 
tools and a handful of coal we were fortunate in getting a good job. 
"Reasonable terms" have some significance, even out here. 

June 23. We leave the Platte river for good to-day, but before 
leaving must take a long, last look down this magnificent valley. 
We may never again have the pleasure of traveling over thy green 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 259 

meadows or viewing thy monuments that every now and then stand 
as giant landmarks to the weary traveler. Although it has been a 
long and toilsome march beside thy turbid waters, we have spent 
many a delightful hour in viewing the grand and extensive scenery 
that borders thy coasts for so many hundred miles. There has been 
but one drawback to pleasures we have experienced within thy 
borders sickness and death. The turf of thy green pastures covers 
thousands of weary pilgrims; the little dots of fresh earth that are 
to be seen here and there and all along our pathway show that thou- 
sands have perished within thy borders upon either shore. Death 
has been busy. There are graves at the crossing of every stream, 
graves at every good spring and under almost every green tree ; there 
are graves on thy open and widespread plain and in the mountains 
that overlook thy swift rolling flood; in the quiet and secluded dell 
where the birds sing and make such beautiful music there are graves ; 
young and old, innocent and wicked, all have found a resting place 
in thy lap; indeed, thou has been the "valley and the shadow of 
death" to many. 

It is estimated at this camp that from 2,000 to 4,000 people have 
found graves since leaving the Missouri river. Of course the num- 
ber is merely guess work and so will it ever remain. One person 
could not find one-half of the graves were he to look for them, but 
he would find enough to satisfy his curiosity. 

From this point to the topmost heights of the Rocky mountains is 
our next stage of travel; the road takes immediately to the high 
lands. We go up, up, up; for seven long miles, a dreary, desolate re- 
gion, innocent of any kind of vegetation that can in any way be made 
available for food for our hungry teams ; this is called "rattle-snake 
hill," but why so called I am unable to say; we saw none; it would 
be very hard on the snake if he was obliged to make this hill a home. 
After traveling eight or ten miles the road becomes crooked, rough 
and flinty; the face of the country a broken mass of natural ruins; 
colonnades of stone from four to twenty feet in height, and six to 
ten feet square, dot the earth in a straight and continuous line for 
miles. What freaks in nature, or what time in the world's past 
history these rocks had been so placed, would be hard for the aver- 
age California pilgrim to determine. "Avenue Rocks" is another 
curiosity; a range of rock describing a half circle with a gateway 
through which the immigration has to pass on its way to what it 
hopes to be, a better land beyond. 

This is the land of the mirage, of "delusions," of the sage brush, 



260 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and the alkali waters; a land of wonders and of hardships; a land 
to be avoided or left behind as soon as possible. Saw many dead 
cattle on the road ; the poisonous water and the great scarcity of feed 
begins to tell on the poor brutes. Passed many graves on our jour- 
ney of thirty miles, the biggest day's work we have as yet accom- 
plished. Eleven o'clock p. m. and we are in camp at "Willow 
Springs" 38 a name suggestive of a more cheerful outlook than any 
other place we have seen to-day. This is the first good camping 
ground since leaving the Platte river; there are a great many here 
and still they come, for come they must, as no good water can be had 
for thirty long miles over the road traveled; at least we could find 
none. We have a sick man on our hands to-night. 

June 24. Our sick man is so much better that we are traveling 
again to-day ; he says "this is too bad a country to die in and he will 
try to postpone that (to him) important event for other days and a 
more cheerful locality." 

While traveling over a heavy sandy road to-day saw immediately 
in front of us, a beautiful tree fringed lake whose tiny waves broke 
upon a shore of clean white sand, a strip of green verdure in front 
and on either side of this beautiful vision, stretching far and wide, 
were "greener fields and pastures new" in beautiful contrast to the 
dreary plain over which we are now toiling. No pilgrim to the shrine 
of the Prophet. No crusader to the Holy Land. No prodigal son 
returning to the comforts of a distant home, were more eager than 
ourselves to enjoy the comforts, the luxuries and the pleasures so 
soon to be ours. But alas, the beautiful scenery before us vanished 
in a moment and "Like the fleeting spirit of a dream" was gone 
forever. A treeless, waterless waste, and a weary road, was now all 
that greeted our saddened eyes. "That weary road" we followed to 
a cheerless camp, where water, wood and grass were conspicuously 
absent; we carry a water barrel and sometimes as we did to-day, 
carry water; no grass here. 

June 25. Rock Independence and the Sweetwater river are eight 
miles in the advance; some of us started on ahead to get a view of 
this celebrated rock. Saleratus lake lies on our way; it is merely 
a mud hole of some four or five acres across in extent. The water 
had fallen by evaporation and left a crust of four or five inches 
of crude saleratus of a yellowish color, and, like the desert around 
it, had a forbidding appearance. This substance is used on the 
plains in making bread ; we gathered some of it. The great rock lies 

38. "Willow Spring is a noble spring of cool, pure water; it is a good camping 
place. . . ." Ware, op. cit., p. 22. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 261 

just before us and we were eager to get upon its back. This great 
boulder is all in one piece, about one-eighth of a mile in length, 
one-fourth of its length in breadth and is, I think, about 150 feet in 
height. It is oval on top and is of easy access ; we were soon upon 
its back. 39 The view from this elevation is a very extensive one; 
if we look toward the east we can trace our line of travel for thirty 
miles over an unbroken wilderness waste, a desert plain abounding 
in alkali lakes, poisonous unto death to whatever living thing that 
may partake of their waters. The bones of hundreds of cattle lie 
strewn here and there over this pestilential district. Like Lot's 
wife, we have looked back over the plain; she with regret at leaving 
a beautiful home, we with high hearts, glad to escape destruction. 
As there are generally two sides to the same story, so there are two 
different views from the top of this great rock, we will now look 
forward and as it is the direction we have to travel, may see some- 
thing more cheerful to contemplate. 

Do you see yon huge range of mountains some four or five miles 
to the west? Well, do you see that it is split asunder from the bot- 
tom to the top, a narrow and perpendicular opening of some 400 
feet through solid granite rock? that little opening is called the 
"Devil's Gate." By looking very closely at the bottom of that open- 
ing you can discern a little silvery thread of water issuing from it. 
Now follow it down as it winds from side to side through green 
meadows; as it approaches the great rock upon which you stand; it 
is now almost beneath your feet, but still follow it; is it not beautiful 
as it pursues its "winding way" through the strip of green verdure 
which line its banks until it is lost to view behind that bare and 
rugged mountain which borders the head waters of the Platte. This 
river is truly a "diamond in the desert." Look which way we will, it 
is a desert country, with high, lofty mountains rising abruptly from 
the level and sterile plains whose boundaries lie far beyond your vi- 
sion. I hardly know of a more interesting spot than that on the top 
of Rock Independence. It is upon this elevation that one gets such a 
view of mountain, plain and river; such mountains, such plains and 
such a river are not frequently to be seen. 

There were many persons upon this rock when we visited it; some 
musician had brought a violin and discoursed sweet music to those 
who participated in a dance upon this mountain stone. Our teams 

39. G. C. Ingrim of the Clark-Brown party wrote in his "Reminiscences" : "rock independenc 
is a large granite rock that is verry hard so much so that a cold chisel had no effect on it 
hundreds of names was painted on the sides of it with tar by the emigrants this was a 
great practice on the plains every buffalo scull along the road side was covered with the 
names of the emigrants, when you came across a tree (and that was not often) you could se[e] 
the names written and cut in the bark." 



262 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

were among the multitude that were passing, admonishing us that 
we, too, must be traveling, so taking a last look at the interesting 
panorama before us, hastened onward, leaving this great rock under 
whose broad shadow so many weary pilgrims had found relief from 
the scorching rays of a desert sun, but before leaving dropped a 
silent tear at the side of a little grave whose occupant, a little girl, 
now lies sleeping beside. This "great rock in a weary land" a more 
permanent tombstone could not have been erected; neither could 
human hands have built a more durable one ; there it will stand until 
the "angel's trumpet" shall call that little sleeper to gather flowers 
upon greener fields. 

Forded the river at this point, passed round the shoulder of the 
great mountain and joined the little Sweetwater, and camped upon 
its left bank, one mile above the "Devil's Gate" and I am happy to 
say, on tolerably good feed. 

June 26. After supper last evening myself and a companion con- 
cluded to go down and get a closer view of the Devil's Gate. 40 After 
walking a mile, fording the river and floundering over great rocks 
and small ones, came to the great gap, which is in the neighborhood 
of fifty yards wide, 400 feet in height and one-third of a mile 
through. The low tide in the river at this time enabled us, by leap- 
ing from rock to rock, to reach the center of the passage. Weird, 
grand and gloomy rose the huge walls on either side, while the little 
river, mad and furious, went tearing, hissing and foaming between 
the great angular rocks that had from time to time fallen from 
above and which now laid partly submerged beneath the angry 
waters, produced a noise, confused and tumultuous, that would have 
rivaled pandemonium itself. While contemplating this wild scene of 
disorder, we had forgotten the outside world and wist not that 
night, with its sable curtain, was enveloping us in darkness. It was 
only by the light of the friendly moon that we found our way out 
of this misnamed wonder the Devil's Gate. 

Why this great opening should be so called I cannot comprehend ; 
the very name suggests something very uncomfortable, and an un- 
easiness that many do not care to contemplate. While we were 
within those walls no odor of sulphur was perceptible; no grumbling 
of suffering humanity was heard; the master of the house, if there 
was any, was conspicuously absent; no inscription over the door 
warning all who would enter to "leave hope behind." On the con- 

40. "Devils Gate, five miles above the Rock, is a singular fissure through which the Sweet 
Water forces its way. The walls are vertical, four hundred feet high, and composed of 
granite." Ware, op. cit., pp. 23, 24. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 263 

trary, the air is cool and refreshing; the establishment well venti- 
lated; a full supply of water; with a healthy drainage of all the 
surplus. No power, but the power of the rod with which Moses 
smote the rock in the wilderness, could have sundered this great 
mountain and made it one of the wonders of the great American 
desert. 

For 100 miles or more our road follows the meanderings of this 
river of the desert. A high and lofty range of mountains border the 
north side of this stream ; to the left of the road lies the outstretched 
desert as bare of vegetation as the mountain rock to our right. I 
should have said "as innocent of grass as the mountain rock." The 
whole country is covered with the everlasting sage except the narrow 
strip of verdure bordering the Sweetwater. The road is dusty and 
we every now and then pass pools of alkali which make it very in- 
teresting to those who have loose cattle to drive. Camped at five 
o'clock near the river; poor grass, indifferent water, and no wood; 
but plenty of hungry teams. Many graves line the road we have 
traveled to-day. 

June 27. Onward, amid the sands of a seemingly interminable 
desert, the little strips of verdure along the river affords but a scanty 
sustenance to our hungry teams. Ten o'clock and we ford the river 
for the second time; at eleven we again ford it; the stream was so 
contracted at this place that we had to raise our wagon beds to keep 
the water from spoiling our stores. Twelve o'clock and the little 
river is again forded and now as we find better grass, go into camp. 
The river has been very crooked on the line of this day's travel 
which explains the fording of it so often. Passed many a huge 
boulder to-day covered with names, some of which dated many years 
back, which looked as fresh as the work of only yesterday. The 
hangman has again been at work; two graves near our camp; one 
contains the body of a man murdered, the other the body of the man 
murderer. An early camp gave me an opportunity to climb to an 
elevation overlooking the surrounding country. To my right is a 
wilderness of mountain scenery, wild, weird and forbidding; to the 
left and south a desert with here and there an isolated butte rising 
abruptly from the level plains whose boundaries lie far beyond our 
vision. From the west comes the little river with a fringe of green 
grass, a "diamond in the desert." 

While preparing to leave this spot my vision was all at once 
greeted with the sight of a city resting upon the crest of the moun- 
tains to my right. Forgetting all else, home, wife and children, my 



264 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

companions on the road, and forgetful of self, this vision of beauty, 
of grandeur and magnificence, pervaded my whole being. "Imperial 
Rome," (as I had been accustomed to think of it) sitting upon its 
seven hills, never outshone the grand picture before me. Palaces 
and dome-roofed churches, castles and towers, lofty walls and far 
reaching streets, standing clear cut against the blue sky, a phantom 
city, above a desert waste, heedless of all my surroundings. I can- 
not say how long I was detained by this wonderful apparition; ten 
minutes perhaps, maybe twenty, I cannot tell; I only know I had 
lived almost a lifetime entranced with this manifestation of an al- 
most unknown phenomena. Like the lake of clear waters, sur- 
rounded by trees and green meadows, I had seen a few days since, 
this capital city of delusion passed away and the rugged world, with 
its stern realities, I had again to contemplate. 

June 28. A company in our neighborhood lost forty head of cattle 
last night. The animals had been placed upon good grass but in the 
vicinity of alkali ponds, hence this great loss; the water in the river 
(as may be supposed running through an alkali district) is hardly 
drinkable. That found in the small lakes poisonous unto death to 
whatever living being that may partake of it. After leaving camp 
and traveling some two or three miles and rising a gentle slope de- 
scried the Wind river range 41 of the great Rocky mountains, cov- 
ered with snow. How grand they looked as pile above pile, their 
white peaks pierced the clouds and rose grandly above into the clear, 
blue sky, shutting out, as it were, the world itself beyond. There 
were dark masses of clouds resting upon the broad face of the great 
mountain but none so high as the everlasting peaks that rose so 
proudly above. 

We were now in sight of the great ridge that divides the Atlantic 
from the Pacific. Nearly half of our long journey was accomplished 
and we could now see the great halfway mile stone and would soon 
be resting within its shadow. A woman whose husband had died a 
few days ago was deserted by her friends and left to travel among 
strangers; she was seen on the road to-day. Bravely the little 
woman and her three children pursued their way unmindful of the 
heartless crew who had left her behind; however, she soon found 
friends. 

Forded the river again to-day; put up near its banks and drove 
our teams into the mountains to feed. A company from Ohio visited 
us this evening; they were invited to a dance and accepted the invi- 

41. The Wind River or Snowy mountains in Fremont county, Wyoming. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 265 

tation. A social time was had but I am sorry to say our long and 
wearisome journey prevents much agility with the "light fantastic 
toe." 

June 29. Over a hilly and broken country, the snow covered 
mountains the great feature in the landscape, if we may except the 
fresh made grave. I would that I could omit this latter feature in 
our every day's wanderings, but silence on this subject, it seems to 
me, would be a neglect of sympathy for those who have "fallen by 
the way" and if, with a rude passing by I neglected to make a note 
of it, I should not be doing my duty to those friends who will wait 
and wait, until the heart grows sick for news of absent ones who are 
scattered along this great highway, sleeping in unknown graves. 

June 30. Poor grass, poor teams, and consequently poor travelers. 
Rolled out this morning early in order to make the Pacific Springs, 
where good grass was said to be in abundance. At two o'clock en- 
tered the South Pass of the Rocky mountains; 42 snow on every 
hand ; the wind blew a winter's gale, drifting the loose sand in clouds 
through the air. The Pass is quite level ; so much so that it is hard 
for the traveler to locate the exact spot he can call the summit. 
After traveling a few miles, dodging great piles of snow that lie here 
and there, we began to descend and soon reached Pacific Springs; 
from them the water flowed westward. We were now upon the 
Pacific slope and felt rather lonesome. Took a walk upon a rising 
mound and from there bid farewell to the Atlantic. We have thus 
far traversed the water's course from the Missouri to the Rocky 
mountains; we now bid it adieu to follow the water's course from 
the same great mountain as it speeds its way to the great ocean of 
the west. It has been a hard task to climb to the elevation we now 
occupy. We were elevated on more ways than one. To say the 
great mountain is beneath one's feet, and to have it there, is some- 
thing; we felt a kind of proud satisfaction in walking to and fro. 
gazing at what we had toiled so hard to overcome. The atmosphere 
on the summit of so high a mountain is very cold ; our camp fire has 
to be a large one, and to keep warm heavy coats are worn. 

Dead cattle lie thick upon the road to-day; poisonous water and 
a scarcity of feed is killing them off by hundreds. It looks very 
hard to see the dumb animals go staggering along until strength 
forsakes their feeble bodies and they fall; five chances to one they 
never rise again. With a look of resignation they give up. If they 
are poisoned their misery is soon over ; but if only starved and worn 

42. From Stansbury's calculations, the distance from Fort Laramie to South Pass was 
285 miles. Stansbury, op. cit.. pp. 273-275. The altitude at the highest point was about 
7,400 feet. Horn, op. cit., p. 29. 



266 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

out, they linger until the dead hours at night when the ferocious wolf 
finishes the work man has neglected to do. 

Saw a man and wife lying dangerously ill this afternoon; they 
had partaken of too much poison. Little children lingered around 
the tent door while anxious men and women were doing their best 
to restore the almost dead unto life. Anywhere else, such scenes 
would call the tear of sympathy, but here upon this road, I am 
sorry to say, very little regard is manifested for any trouble that 
may happen to man or beast. One day while traveling alone and 
in advance of our train I overtook a little girl who had lingered far 
behind her company. She was crying and as I took her into my 
arms discovered her little feet bleeding by coming in contact with 
the sharp, flint stones upon the road. I asked "why do you cry, do 
your feet hurt you? see how they bleed." "No," said she, "nothing 
hurts me now; I lost my father and mother yesterday and I don't 
want to live any longer." Then again a burst of anguish escaped 
the sensitive child. I remembered my own little girls at home and 
wished this little one was with them that they might comfort and be 
to her as sisters and that she might also have another mother who 
would deal kind and gently with the little orphan. I had placed 
her in a wagon and while having heard the coarse, rough voice of a 
woman chiding the little thing for giving people so much trouble 
in looking after her, I turned and said: "My good woman, deal 
kindly with that little girl; she needs sympathy, no scolding;" but 
the only satisfaction I received, was, that people on this road ought 
to have business enough of their own to attend to and let her's alone. 
Some days later, while passing a camp of emigrants, I was surprised 
by a little girl running up and catching me by the hand, saying "how 
do you do, don't you know me?" I looked down and saw it was my 
little friend of a few days ago. "Oh," she said, "I have got another 
good mother; come, come and see her." Sure enough she had found 
a sympathizing friend in the person of a young mother who had lost 
an only child upon the road. The woman with the willing consent 
of her young and manly looking husband had promised the little 
orphan to be her mother. Ruth to Naomi, never looked more beauti- 
ful than that kind woman when she pressed that little orphan to her 
breast and called her her own. Death loses much of its sting when 
angels soothe our sorrow. I went on my way rejoicing that I had 
met humanity in its most lovely phase and that the good angels 
are not always absent, even on this road. 

July 1. The absence of grass was a very interesting feature in the 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 267 

landscape to-day. Our teams travel slowly ; made but a few miles 
and put up without feed. 

July 2. Off early this morning as we must have feed or abandon 
our wagons. Have traveled seventy-five miles without seeing enough 
grass to stay the hunger of a lame mule. Those who pretend to 
know say it is forty miles yet to where an ox could get a living 
if he had nothing else to do. Wild sage covers the whole country, 
and for what purpose I cannot imagine. Some say it is more for 
ornament than use, but where the ornament comes in is a question 
with the most of us. A crooked gray stick about four to five feet 
high, with some branches and a diameter of one to two inches; in 
the absence of wood we manage to cook with it. It is about ten 
days' travel to Salt Lake, where it is said grass grows plentifully. 

Passed the forks of the road to-day. 43 The right hand road is 
called the "cut off," but why I cannot say. It is a continuation of 
the same road and on the same parallel with the road we have been 
traveling, passing to the north of Salt Lake and so on to California 
and Oregon; the left hand road leads to Fort Bridger, Salt Lake 
City and the great Salt Lake valley. A man stationed at the forks 
of the road is trying to persuade the emigrants to take the right 
hand trail. "Gentlemen," says he, "men, women and teams are 
starving on the Salt Lake road. There is no grass for a hundred 
miles, the water is poor and poisonous, and if by any chance any 
of you should live to see Salt Lake the Mormons will rob and steal 
everything you have got, take your women and send you out of 
the country as bare as you came into the world." The grand secret 
of this man's persuasive eloquence was that he was the proprietor 
of a ferry and wanted as much travel over it as he could get. As 
we were not of the number he could persuade we proceeded on to 
Little Sandy river, where we went into camp. 

July 3. Twenty miles to Green river, which we made by three 
o'clock. 44 Ferried the teams and traveled down the west bank to 
good feed. We intend to stop in this camp until after the 4th. Good 
feed, plenty of wood and excellent fishing, and as we are two or three 
miles from the main road we will not be bothered with neighbors. 

July 4. The mosquitoes are so bad that we are obliged to leave 
our last night's encampment leave the good grass, the tall timber 

43. The trail to the right was Sublette's or Greenwood's cut-off. It was much used in 
the 1850 's, according to Ware, being a direct route to Bear river, in Utah, there joining the 
trail again for the journey northwest to Fort Hall. Ware, op. cit., pp. 25, 26. Ghent, op. 
cit. f p. 140, says this route "saved some fifty-three miles to the Bear River, but as the fifty 
miles from the Big Sandy to the Green was without water the route was generally avoided." 

44. Dewolf described this ford in 1849 thus: "Green river ford is about 16 rods wide & 
when we crossed it it was three feet deep, it is as handsome a stream as I ever saw, the 
water is of a greenish color but very clear." "Diary of the Overland Trail 1849 and Let- 
ters 1849-50 of Captain David Dewolf," in Transactions of the Illinois State Historical So- 
ciety for the Year 1925 (Publication No. S2), p. 203. 



268 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and the grateful shade. 45 It is the 4th of July and we expected to 
remain in camp and "celebrate." Our college friend had promised 
an oration, but that enemy of the human family was too much for 
us. The mosquito holds the fort and we are obliged to retire. 
Traveled twenty miles to Black's Fork of the Green river. The high 
elevation and the snow covered mountains with which we are sur- 
rounded make the weather very cold and a big fire is a necessity 
to-night. 

July 5. This is a day of rest to ourselves and to our hungry 
teams. Grass is plenty and the quality good. The boys are fishing, 
hunting and otherwise amusing themselves as best they can. 

July 6. With a good rest and well fed teams we traveled twenty 
miles. While preparing supper were visited by a storm of wind 
and hail lasting perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes long enough to 
extinguish the fire, fill the cooking utensils with ice and demoralize 
the cook. The road to-day has been desolation itself; barren lands 
and lonely looking mountains meet the eye at every step, but aside 
from its desolate look and cheerless aspect it is a very interesting 
part of the world. Great mounds of earth rise up before us in all 
the various forms of architectural monuments. Here stands a mag- 
nificient church, there a castle, and yonder a monument as massive 
as the pyramids; it is only on a near approach that the dome of 
St. Peter's vanishes into thin air and Washington's capitol, with its 
lofty dome, becomes a ragged ridge of massive rock. 

July 7. Fifteen miles to Fort Bridger, 46 which we made by 3 
o'clock. This place is situated on a plain surrounded by high moun- 
tains; a goodly stream of pure, cold water meanders through the 
valley, affording plenty of good fish as well as nourishment to the 
plain whose surface is covered with green grass of a luxuriant growth 
which affords plenty of good pasturage to hundreds of horses and 
cattle of whom Col. Bridger is said to be the owner. The residence 
of the colonel is of logs and forms a hollow square, the doors and 
windows opening into the court, to which we were admitted by a 
massive gate. 47 The cause for thus building a fort or fortified resi- 

45. Lobenstine traveling in this same vicinity, on July 1, 1852, made this entry: "Left 
this encampment after having put in a horrible night with mosquitoes, bound for Fort 
Bredger, twenty miles from this spot." Lobenstine, op. cit., p. 40. 

46. Fort Bridger was established by James Bridger in 1843 as a "trading fort." Alter, J. 
Cecil, James Bridger, Trapper, Frontiersman, Scout and Guide (Salt Lake City, Utah, Shepard 
Book Company, c!925), pp. 179, 182. 

47. Ingrim, in his "Reminiscences," wrote: "Col Bridger had two large log houses in one 
he kept a store such things as the trappers needed which he exchanged for furs and skins 
Bridger had two squaws and several half breeds I saw him there. ... he was realy and 
[sic] odd old genius he called the trappers the free men of the mount [ain]s. he said thnt 
they came in twice a year for supply, after they bought their supply they would have a good 
time gett[in]g drunk and gambling they would stay until they were dead broke, some times 
they would gamble off their suplys and have to get trusted for supplys when they got trusted 
for supplys that they always came back and paid up. their was quite a number of them their 
when I was there." 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 269 

dence was, I suppose, for defense against Mormons and Indians ; the 
former appear to be always at variance, and the latter may become 
enemies at any time. Clothing, powder, lead, tobacco, whiskey and 
many other articles of merchandise are kept for sale within its 
walls. Horses, mules and cattle run at large and come and go as 
they choose, but make the fort their headquarters. The colonel is 
situated for making a large fortune independent of the trade with 
trappers and Indians. He is generally prepared to accommodate 
the pilgrim with a fresh horse, a yoke of oxen or a drink of whiskey. 
Our stay was short, but while there had the curiosity to examine his 
premises close enough to learn that the colonel was lord and master 
of two yellow skinned ladies and the acknowledged father of any 
number of boys and girls whose tawny complexion and intelligent 
look forbade the idea that they belonged exclusively to either the 
race of white or Indian. The family rooms of these ladies differ 
but little from the regular wigwam of the wild Indian. Dried meat, 
the horns of an antelope and a tomahawk garnished the walls; 
buffalo robes, bear skins, dirt, ashes, dogs and children were scat- 
tered promiscuously over the dirt floor. 

The free men of the mountains are very numerous in this part of 
the country, many of whom never visit the states. Many have 
been driven from civilization for crimes which would make it dan- 
gerous for them to return, and many remain in the mountains from 
choice. The numerous privations and hair-breadth escapes which 
they experience appear to wed them to a country where they can, 
without let or hindrance, roam at pleasure. Many are met with 
whose heads are as white as the snow on Fremont's Peak, yet they 
feel like prolonging the romance of their lives until their feeble 
bodies are no longer fit for the chase and they lay themselves down 
to that sleep which on earth knows no awaking. We saw many 
of these men; they have a bold, fearless, dare-devil look; appear to 
be always on the alert. The habit of watching has become second 
nature and it is hard to surprise an old one with either words or 
movements; the rifle or revolver is always at hand and with them 
they are ever ready to defend themselves from any attack however 
sudden it may be. 

July 8. Our path to-day was over a very mountainous country. 48 

48. "From Fort Bridger there are now two routes as far as the Humboldt or Mary's River, 
where they again unite. The old road strikes Bear River, follows down its valley by the Soda 
Springs to Fort Hall, whence it pursues a south-westerly course to the Humboldt. By this 
route a northing of nearly two degrees is made, and the road, consequently, is much lengthened. 



270 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Now and then green valleys and pure, cold water made us cheerful 
and contented; good grass here and there, but still scarce. 

July 9. Before leaving camp this morning we were visited by a 
lone pilgrim, a jolly, rollicking, pleasant faced young man of about 
twenty-five years; a good talker and, according to his story, a fast 
traveler, born and brought up somewhere in York state. He had 
taken a notion to visit California and Oregon, and having no money 
and being impatient of delay had started without it and beaten his 
way over steamboat and railway lines; reached St. Joe, Mo., about 
the middle of May; there he borrowed a small boat, worked his way 
over the river as a deck hand and landed on the high road leading 
to the great west and the Pacific ocean. From camp to camp, from 
train to train, he borrowed, begged or appropriated a sufficient sup- 
ply of daily grub to keep him in running trim. His hat had fallen 
by the way; his coat, too warm to wear and too heavy to carry, 
was laid aside; shoes ground to dust and scattered to the four winds, 
and here he was, active as a cat and as fresh as an Amboy oyster, 
hatless, shoeless and without a coat, sunburned, travel stained, his 
long black hair wrestling with the morning breeze, he was a fit sub- 
ject for the painter's pencil or the wild strains of the spring poet. 

July 10. Frost lay quite heavy on the ground this morning. We 
are now traveling over a mountainous country. Some of the ranges, 
it is said, are the highest on the road and covered with snow all the 
year, yet there are many little sunny valleys and springs of cold 
water, producing food for our teams and cheerfulness for ourselves. 
We camped near the Red Forks of Weber river. There are many 
mosquitoes here but the cold air of night will soon stop their hum- 
ming. 

July 11. Bears are said to abound in this locality, but we have 
seen none. Our road is up and down and over great ridges; grass 
scarce and hard to find. Camped in a beautiful valley at the end 
of our day's run. 

July 12. Twenty miles from Salt Lake City, but the hardest 
road, we are told, on the whole route, a part of which lay up a 
small creek with seventeen crossings. 49 I had never before seen such 

The other route was laid out by the Mormon community in 1847, and conducts the emigrant 
to their city, in the southern part of the Salt Lake valley, causing him to vary from the line 
of his direction rather more than a degree southwardly : this he has to recover by a direct north 
course to the crossing of Bear River near the north end of the lake, whence he proceeds in a 
northwest direction, until he intersects the old road from Fort Hall." Stansbury, op. cit. f 
pp. 75, 76. The Clark-Brown party followed the latter route described by Stansbury. 

49. "From [Fort Bridger] . . . some difficult climbing to Bear River to the nortb 
was necessary ; then the route led through Echo Canon. The Weber river was ascended and 
Salt Lake City was reached by way of Emigration Canon." Hulbert, A. B., Forty-Niners; the 
Chronicle of the California Trail (Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1931), p. 190. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 271 

a road; rocks to the right and left of us; rocks big and little, but 
by careful management we got over the road without an accident. 
Another mountain between us and Salt Lake City. It is not four 
miles long, yet long enough to take our teams nearly all the after- 
noon in reaching the summit ; then locking the wheels of our wagons 
we began to descend the steepest, roughest and most unchristian- 
like road that man ever traveled. Good luck attended us and we 
alighted in safety and camped at the foot of the hill, where we had 
a full view of the tide of immigration as it came tumbling down the 
steep incline. Sometimes the wagons would take the lead and drag 
the teams after them until brought up by some great boulder, when 
wagon, oxen, women and children would tumble together in one con- 
fused mass, amid the wreck of which would soon be heard the cries 
of women, the screams of children and the swearing of men. 

July 13. Seven miles yet to the city of the Mormons, five of 
which we are to travel through a deep, dark canon whose walls are 
hundreds of feet in nearly perpendicular height, snow capped and 
wintry looking. Eight o'clock and we are on the borders of the 
great valley. Quarantine ground lies at the gate of this canon and 
here is a hospital, or what pretends to be one, established by Gov- 
ernor Young, 50 where all, both great and small, Jew or Gentile, are 
obliged to report. Those who are well are privileged to continue 
their journey, but what they do with the sick or disabled I am unable 
to say. I saw none, and as the hospital building is barely large 
enough to hold the doctor, a barrel of whiskey and a few decanters, 
I can safely say there were no sick or disabled emigrants within its 
walls. The doctor was busily employed in dealing out whiskey and 
appeared to have a good run of custom in that way, but how many 
sick emigrants he attended to I did not stop to inquire. 

Salt Lake City lies a few miles to the right and immediately on 
the verge of the valley, and thither we pursued our way over a good 
and beautiful road. It was a lovely morning and the busy hum and 
sight of civilization was charming, especially to those who, like us, 
had traveled so many hundreds of miles where the marks of civilized 
life were so few and far between. At twelve o'clock we made our 
way into the city of the great Salt Lake. The first thing I noticed 
was the little canals of water traversing every square, or nearly 
every square, in the city. The water is clear and cool and of suffi- 
cient volume to supply all the wants for which it was introduced. 
Every family has a good, large lot, and this water is mostly used for 

50. Brigham Young, the Mormon leader. 



272 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

irrigation. There being little or no rain in the summer season, people 
are obliged to water the earth to make it productive. 

Salt Lake City has about 5,000 inhabitants, I should judge, and is 
beautifully situated on an inclined plane facing the broad valley 
and the west and immediately at the foot of the great range of 
mountains that borders the east line of Salt Lake valley, running 
north and south some 250 miles. Salt Lake lies in the northern por- 
tion of the valley and is about fifty or sixty miles long by thirty or 
forty miles in width. We made no stop in the city but pushed on to 
good grass and good water six or eight miles north of town, where we 
camped, intending to stop a few days and rest ourselves and recruit 
our teams. There are thousands of pilgrims in camp around and 
about us, who, like ourselves, are stopping for awhile to fix up 
things, swap horses, mules or oxen, see the city, get acquainted with 
these strange people, their manners, customs, etc. 

July 15. This should be a pleasant and desirable country to live 
in and in time will be densely populated. The Mormons are, I am 
told, extending their settlements through the country and in time 
will make it a flourishing part of the world. Coal, iron and perhaps 
gold are to be found in the mountains. Salt Lake valley is the great 
feature in this part of the world; the tired traveler as he emerges 
from the dark mountain gorges into the open valley is ready to hold 
up both hands and exclaim, "How beautiful !" How many thousands 
have rejoiced and cried for joy on first beholding this, (to them,) 
the land of Canaan; the poor, weary and disheartened have here 
found friends and comfort. The Mormons are ridiculed and dis- 
liked by many, yet they are good to their kind. When it has been 
known that companies of Mormons were in destitute circumstances, 
their stock giving out or that the snow was filling the pathway and 
they required help, their brethren were ever ready to send out men 
and teams to bring them in when all hope by their own exertions 
had failed. 

It is admitted by all that the Mormons are a brave people ; indeed, 
any people who can leave a civilized country and comfortable homes 
and journey hundreds of miles over an almost unknown country, 
overcome savages, cross deep and rapid rivers and climb the highest 
mountains on the continent to have a peaceful home can honestly 
claim to be a brave people. If these people should continue to pros- 
per as they have in the past they will soon become great. Salt Lake 
valley and the neighboring country will sustain an immense popula- 
tion. Many of these people are now comparatively wealthy fine 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 273 

farms, well stocked with horses, cattle and pretty women. What 
more they want to make them happy would be hard to tell. Salt 
Lake City is the great half-way mile stone and resting place for the 
California pilgrim. We enjoyed ourselves greatly; our teams were 
on good grass and we were luxuriating on all the good things we 
could get hold of. These were plentiful with the good people and 
they were ever ready to exchange of the fat of the land for such 
things as the emigrant could spare. 

As we intend to remain in the valley a few days the boys are de- 
termined to make the city their home for the time being, conse- 
quently myself and one or two others are all that are in camp. Our 
teams are to look after or perhaps the balance of us would be there 
too. Salt Lake is a curiosity at all times, and especially during a 
heavy emigration to California and Oregon. It is one fourth of July 
holiday; nobody appears to be at work and all are anxious for a 
trade. The Mormons are ever ready to make something off the 
traveler, and the traveler is very anxious to exchange his lean and 
worn out stock for fresh ones. However, the trading is mostly done 
by the Mormons, who give what they please for the emigrants' teams 
and demand as much for their fresh stock as their consciences will 
allow. 

July 17. The neighbors came into camp anxious to purchase can- 
dles, soap, tea, sugar and matches, all of which we can spare a little 
and get a good price. We buy of the neighbors all kinds of vegeta- 
bles and get some of the smartest looking women among them to 
make our bread. Vegetables were quite cheap when we first came 
in, but have raised fifty percent since. In looking around among 
the neighbors to-day I found an old acquaintance in the person of an 
old lady, who, with her husband and one daughter, joined the Mor- 
mons in Cincinnati and came out to Salt Lake ; in a year or two the 
husband became disgusted with the church and with the president 
in particular; he concluded to leave, the old lady and daughter re- 
maining behind, both of whom are now the property of an old chap 
who boasts of being able to support two women and have something 
left at the end of the term. As the women do most of the work on 
the farm I guess the old man is about right ; they appear to be com- 
fortable, but it looks like a rather mixed concern to see mother and 
daughter both wives of the same person. Matrimony is a big thing 
in this country, and would astonish the outside world if it knew all. 

As I was on a visiting tour among the neighbors, I called at a 
house where three women belonged to one man. These women were 

183781 



274 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

all young and all had children. The father of this young brood is 
a yankee from the state of Maine, a sailor by profession; he was in 
the west at the time of the departure of the Mormons for Salt Lake 
and concluded to join his fortunes with their's and come too. Be- 
fore they had arrived at their destination he had married two wives 
and soon after getting here was sealed to a third. Being a shrewd 
kind of a fellow he had located a farm in this neighborhood and, as 
he told me, was trying the experiment of building up a farm and 
raising a family. He has now a good farm well improved, and well 
stocked with cattle ; three wives and nine children and not a soul on 
the place over twenty-seven years of age. If his "experiment" is not 
a success, I do not think it is his fault. I asked him how he managed 
so many women and how he kept track of so many children. "Oh 
that is easy enough; I give them plenty of work to do and if they 
have any difficulty among themselves that is their business, not 
mine; I don't bother with it. As to the children, I keep a record of 
the number, date of ages, etc., and the women do the rest. Every 
child is supposed to know its own mother and that makes it easy on 
the women." "Are there many in the neighborhood that have more 
than one wife?" I asked. "Yes there are a good many; but then 
there are a good many who are green enough to get along with only 
one. Poor fellows, they have to do all their own work and have a 
hard time of it." "Does the church encourage plurality of wives?" 
I asked. "Oh yes, they tell us to marry early and often ; 'multiply 
and replenish the earth' is a Bible command, you know, and we are 
trying to live up to it." "I suppose you know it is not lawful to have 
more than one wife," I said to him. "No," said he; "I don't know 
any such thing. The Bible and the church is law enough for me and 
I don't care for any other." 

July 19. Went this morning to mail my letter and to see the city 
and Brigham Young. The city is quite an ordinary looking place; 
may compare with the country towns of Illinois and Indiana or 
Missouri. The buildings are mostly frames with now and then an 
adobe, or sun-dried brick. The court house and one or two other 
buildings are of burnt brick. The city is clean, snug and cosy ; the 
people plain and very common kind of folks. My desire was to see 
the great man, Brigham Young, and to compare him with the Brig- 
ham I had often heard preach twenty-five years ago when he was 
but a common man and an ordinary preacher. I had not long to 
wait ; he came out of a business house and stopped on the sidewalk 
with some friends long enough for me to see that with age, he had 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 275 

grown stouter and broader and his hair more gray, otherwise he ap- 
peared to be but little changed. 

Brigham Young is a king among men; smart as the smartest; 
ambitious as a politician, bold, daring and aggressive; unscrupulous 
and tyrannical; born to command and he has made the most of his 
abilities and his opportunities. His word is law to these people and 
they obey without a murmur. No other man perhaps could have 
led them so far from civilization and planted them so happily in this 
far-off, beautiful and fertile valley. They owe everything to his 
guidance and his wisdom; they plow, sow and reap. Under his 
watchful care their heroism and industry are inspired by his master 
mind. Without him they would be lost, but with him they defy the 
laws of their country, trample under foot all decency and all the 
virtues of an honest life. For him they would steal, rob and murder. 
They have an organization they call the Danites or "destroying 
angels/' ready at any moment to fight Indians and all the outside 
world. They strictly believe that Brigham is a prophet of the most 
high, and his teachings will, if followed, insure them a good time in 
this life and a glorious one in the life to come. 

Like Moses, Brigham has led his people into a glorious land; a 
land desirable in almost every point of view; a land for flocks and 
herds, for grain, vegetables and fruit, a half-way house between the 
Atlantic and Pacific ; a store house for all the mountain region north, 
south, east and west; a Palmyra in the wilderness. For beauty and 
comfort it has no rival and no equal in all this broad land. 

I have learned that the government intends to regulate the mat- 
rimonial affairs of this people. If the attempt is made, heroic meas- 
ures will have to be resorted to. These people will fight like Turks 
rather than give up the religious privilege of keeping many wives. 
The church has encouraged the institution and almost made it a 
sacred duty for man to take as many wives as he can possibly 
accommodate. 

Remained in the city all day, mailed my letters, got a good dinner, 
and returned to camp. 

July 21. Fixing up for another tramp. I guess we shall be off 
to-morrow. 

July 22. Having bought fresh teams and sold some worn out 
stock we are now about ready for the road again, and as we have 
all horse and mule teams expect to make faster time. 51 Our road 

51. "The clay after we arrived [at Salt Lake City] we traded four yoke of cattol for two 
mules even up as our Oxn was foot sore and wore out. . . . We named one Jo Smith 
and the other Brigham Young and they were a daisy pair." Ingrim, G. C., "Reminiscences." 



276 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

for the next fifty or seventy-five miles lies within Salt Lake valley ; 52 
made twenty miles to camp and good water. 

July 23. Weber river five miles distant. Some of us left camp 
early to fish in that stream, but, like many a former effort to catch 
fish in these rapid running streams our enterprise was a failure. 
Weber river is quite a stream as it issues from the mountain gorge, 
but loses itself beneath the soil before reaching Salt Lake. Good 
farms and many improvements line the way of our journey; camp 
fifty miles north of Salt Lake city. 

July 24. Still traveling up the valley, the mountains to our right 
and Salt Lake to the left; camped this evening upon the banks of 
Bear river. This is quite a stream, fordable in low water. We could 
have passed over quite comfortably had not the Mormons dug great 
holes at the crossing to keep us from doing so. These Mormons are 
a thrifty set. To ruin a public ford on a great highway and establish 
a ferry where they could charge three dollars per wagon for crossing 
a stream fifty yards wide, was a stroke of financial policy not to 
be ignored by this enterprising people. 

Three rivers empty their waters into the great Salt Lake; the 
Jordan, Weber and Bear rivers. The former rises in or at the south 
end of the great valley which it waters its entire length to its ter- 
mination at the great Salt Lake. Weber river enters the valley from 
the mountains east of Salt Lake and fifty miles north of the city. 
Bear river rises in the mountains of the same name east and south 
of Fort Bridger, winds around and through the great mountains and 
enters Salt Lake valley at its extreme northeast corner. There may 
be other streams that flow into the great Lake, but those three must 
be the principal ones. 

On our travels yesterday and to-day met many people going to 
Salt Lake city ; the 25th of July is the anniversary of the settlement 
of Salt Lake; a great day with the Mormons, when all who can, 
gather to the city where a kind of jubilee is held and everybody eats, 
drinks and makes merry; preaching, singing and giving praise to 
the Lord for his great mercy in delivering them from the Gentile 
world and establishing the only true church in this (to them) the 
land of Canaan. The Mormons have used us well enough and there- 
fore can have (for ourselves) no fault to find; but I am sorry to say, 

52. "It was sixty miles through the Mormon settlement all through this settlement they 
could irigate their land from the little streams that came down from the mountain the 
land laid just sloping enough so it was just right for the water to cover it nicely, the 
settlers raised grain corn and vegetables and as long! as we were in the settlements we could 
buy all the milch butter and vegetables we wanted at reasonable rates." Ibid. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 277 

there are many hard stories related of these strange people that 
would in any other civilized community be hard to believe. 

July 25. Crossed Bear river this morning on boats provided by 
the Mormons; 53 three dollars per wagon, the usual rates for such 
service in Salt Lake valley. But we had the privilege of swimming 
our horses and mules thrown into the bargain, a privilege we were 
not very thankful for, but glad to make our departure from this 
part of the world with as little delay as possible ; did not stand upon 
trifles. Visiting Salt Lake valley and city was something like tak- 
ing in the Irishman's show; it cost nothing to get in, but a good deal 
to get out. Passed out to camp at the north end of the valley and 
on the side of the great mountain that overlooks the great Salt Lake 
and the valley beyond. From this point we take our farewell view 
of the great basin. A more magnificent scene can hardly be im- 
agined than is now before us, the broad and extended valley sur- 
rounded by lofty mountains. The great Lake glistening beneath the 
broad rays of a July sun presents a scene hardly to be forgotten. 

July 26. Traveled all night and are laying by to-day. The 
scarcity of water for the first twenty miles out of Salt Lake valley 
was the cause of our doing so. This night travel is a bad business ; 
breaks in upon our system of work and is hurtful to ourselves and 
teams ; night is the time for sleep and rest. Had a full moon during 
the night but the dark and sombre shadows of the great mountains 
made gloomy traveling. Rough, stony roads, up and down hill, 
winding round great rocks, threading the steep mountain sides, is not 
an interesting way of traveling in an unknown country; however, 
we made about twenty miles but went into camp tired, hungry and 
sleepy. A stream of sluggish water six feet wide and five feet deep, 
lined with green willow, stretching its serpentine course through a 
narrow valley covered with sage brush. Lofty mountains loom up 
in all directions. Snow here and there upon their rugged sides look 
down upon a hard looking set of travelers. 

July 27. Soon after leaving camp we passed the sink of the 
stream above noted. All the streams in this neighborhood sink into 
the sands of the desert. Twenty miles to a stream of pure cold 
water; it came, leaping and tumbling down the steep side of a great 
mountain whose far-off summit was covered with snow. This stream 
was alive with mountain trout. It looked rather odd to see men go up 
hill to fish. We made our camp near the shore of this creek, turned 

53. "From the crossing, the emigrant road pursues a W. N. W. course, until it intersects 
that from Fort Hall." Stansbury, op. cit., p. 87. 



278 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

our teams out to poor feed and poor prospects of getting any better 
soon. This is a rough, barren country, very mountainous, ill-shaped 
and desolate. Passed an old acquaintance on the road to-day; we 
had helped to bury his only child at the beginning of this journey; 
he was now again the father of a "bouncing boy" a few days old, 
and was, as may be supposed, a happy man. The nights are quite 
cool in this high region of country; wood scarce and a long way to 
carry. 

July 28. Twelve miles to Decatur creek 54 which we made by 11 
o'clock in the forenoon; passed up some six miles and went into 
camp. Our great trouble is how to get feed for our hungry teams ; 
we drive from one to three miles from camp to find it, but it is al- 
ways a little better "farther on." 

The stream like the one we left this morning is filled with fish, the 
only redeeming feature about the whole country. The streams of 
water in this neighborhood have but a brief existence; they rise in 
some mountain summit^ flow down into a valley, run a short dis- 
tance over the desert sand and sink from sight. 

July 29. Five miles to the junction of the Salt Lake and cut-off 
roads. 55 It will be remembered that we left the cut-off one hundred 
miles east of Salt Lake valley. The emigration is now all on one 
road; this continues to be a hilly and rough country. Our pathway 
down to Goose creek valley was so steep that many persons attached 
small trees to their wagons as a help to let them down easy. We 
were in too big a hurry so let our wagons slide with the two hind 
wheels rough-locked; we gained the bottom as soon as the best of 
them, but our drivers and teams got mixed up somewhat and a great 
deal demoralized. One driver started down hill on the wagon box 
but landed at the bottom on top of the lead mule; another slid off 
his box sideways but kept going down, down, until the bottom was 
reached. 

Goose creek rises somewhere to the southwest of our present camp 
and running northeast mingles its waters with the Snake river of 
Oregon. 

54. Clark probably meant Decassure creek, which was another name given to Raft river. 
See editorial note of E. M. Ledyard in Loomis, L. V., A Journal of the Birmingham Emigrat- 
ing Company (Salt Lake City, Utah, 1928), p. 72. 

55. Probably the junction of the Salt Lake trail with the California or Fort Hall road, 
rather than with the cut-off. Hudspeth's (Hedgepath's, etc.) or Myres' cut-off branched 
from the main trail on the other side of Fort Hall in the vicinity of Soda Springs, passed 
south of the fort and joined the California road near the last crossing of Raft river. The 
usual junction with the Salt Lake trail was some twenty or thirty miles farther along the road. 
Button, traveling on Hudspeth's cut-off, mentioned, joining the California road shortly after 
crossing the Raft river, then, after a journey of twenty to twenty -five miles coming to the 
Salt Lake trail junction. Button, Jerome, "Across the Plains in 1850," in The Annals of 
Iowa, Third Series, v. IX, p. 470. George W. Read gave the latter distance as thirty-one 
miles. Read, Georgia. W., ed., A Pioneer of 1850: George Willis Read, 1819-1880 (Boston, 
Little, Brown, and Company, 1927), p. 77. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 279 

July 30. The main road of this valley is with but few exceptions 
very good; the exceptions, however, are the most miserable we have 
as yet encountered; especially at the crossing of tributary streams. 
At some of them had to leave the main road and travel miles to 
avoid getting stuck in the mire and slush of the valley. A mule we 
purchased in Salt Lake has a habit of lying down on every damp 
spot he travels over. In passing through a mud hole this afternoon 
he took it into his head to lie down and rest; a wagon standing in 
the middle of a great mud hole with one mule before it standing up 
and another with his head just above the surface was a scene not 
often witnessed in Goose creek valley. What good feeling the mud 
and water gives the brute is a mystery known only to himself. 

July 31. Left Goose creek valley this morning and over a moun- 
tainous country to camp in a dry valley, destitute of water, a 
scarcity of wood and some good grass; by digging from four to six 
feet we found plenty of water. 

Aug. 1. Passed Dana's train from Cincinnati this morning. This 
train had the start of us two weeks ; was now laying up and the men 
discouraged and disorganized; they will now be more so than ever 
seeing that we are getting along so much faster. Camped at the end 
of a six-mile journey; better grass, plenty of wood and excellent 
water. Wood, water and grass are all staple articles on this road. 

Aug. 2. Passed over mountains to the head waters of Humboldt 
river. This river, I believe, was discovered by the German explorer 
Humboldt, 56 The old philosopher left his name in a wild country, 
but to him it may have been an interesting one; good grass, plenty 
of water and the wild sage for fuel. We camp at the spring from 
which issues this river of the desert; the spring is six feet in diameter 
and six feet deep. 57 At the bottom lies a big sheet iron stove thrown 
there by someone who had got tired of hauling it, I suppose. We 
are now encamped at the headwaters of the dreadful Humboldt of 
which such hard stories have been circulated on the road. The 
Indians it is said have committed many outrages upon this river, are 
very wild and treacherous, killing pilgrims and stealing stock. 58 We 
hear a good deal more than we can believe. If there are not men 
enough on this road to defend themselves from Indians, it is time 

56. Fremont gave the river this name in 1845. It was earlier known as Ogden's river (for 
Peter Skene Ogden), also as Mary's river. The latter name appears in many early overland 
journals. 

57. Humboldt wells. 

58. "From the forks of the [Humboldt] river to the 'sink,' the mountains are peopled 
by a race of Indians of the most thievish propensities, requiring, on the part of the emigrant, 
untiring vigilance, to prevent their stealing and killing their teams, &c. Their practice is 
to disable cattle, so as to make it necessary for the emigrant to leave them on the road. Be 
always prepared to resist their attacks." Ware, op. cit., pp. 32, 33. 



280 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

we all knew it. There is more danger of bad water and a scarcity of 
grass, than anything else, I think. Our present camp is a very 
pleasant one; a broad valley stretching westward with low-lying 
hills on either side is more suggestive of peace and quietude than the 
wild yell of the savage or the midnight howl of the prowling wolf. 

Aug. 3. A dark, cloudy morning, but good roads to the north 
fork of the Humboldt, twelve miles from camp. Camped for noon 
and while eating dinner an old cow passed with an arrow hanging to 
her side; this looks something like Indians. The owner told us the 
Indians had stampeded his stock last night, some of which they had 
got away with. We shall be obliged to keep our stock more careful 
after this. 

Aug. 4. Heavy rains to-day; a very unusual thing it is said at 
this time of year in this valley. Saw many newly-made graves on 
the road to-day ; we were in hopes that the immigration was getting 
better, but sickness and death still lingers on our pathway. The 
wheeling has been heavy, and our teams when night came, were very 
tired. Our camp to-night is a comfortable one; grass quite good, 
water not the best, our wood the green willow that skirts the river's 
edge. This is a country of sage brush and alkali water; the little 
river winds from side to side of this broad valley, a sluggish and lazy 
stream. Our road runs from point to point, touching its elbows once 
or twice during a day's travel. Snow here and there on the summits 
of some of the higher mountains, but generally a great way off from 
the line of travel. 

Aug. 5. The terminus of the first valley of the Humboldt river 
is reached to-day. This, the eastern section of the valley is said to 
be seventy-five miles in length and here, too, is the junction of a 
southern road from Salt Lake city. 59 No wagons, I believe, are 
hauled over this road ; the road is too sandy and the water too scarce 
to make it comfortable to travel by wheel. Our road this afternoon 
is up a steep mountain side seven miles long; the steepest, roughest, 
and most desolate road that can be imagined. The mountains that 
border this valley are looking very old. I think they must have been 
the first created, bald and hoary headed, ragged and torn to pieces, 
have a decrepit and worn-out look, suggestive of old times and old 
associations. It makes a man lonesome and homesick to contem- 
plate their forlorn, deserted and uncanny appearance. Stunted and 
scattered cedar trees, broken down by the snows and wild winds of 
the winter season, gives them a sort of ghost-like appearance that 

59. Probably the end of the Hastings cut-off from Salt Lake City. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 281 

makes one shudder to behold. The mountain we are crossing to-day 
stands at right angles with our road and cuts the valley of the Hum- 
boldt into two separate divisions, making an upper and lower Hum- 
boldt valley. We camp to-night on the summit of this great moun- 
tain; tired, hungry and disappointed, we pitch our tents beside a 
spring of good water, but of so scant a volume that we can give no 
drink to our thirsty and half famished animals. This has been a 
hard afternoon to ourselves and teams; seven miles of a continuous 
rise and many places so abrupt that it took all the strength of men 
and teams to overcome the difficulties of the way. We were more 
fortunate than many of our neighbors; we lost no stock in making 
the summit of this difficult road ; we counted eight or ten horses and 
two or three mules that failed to make the journey. The scenery at 
this place is wild, desolate and forbidding, without a spark of ro- 
mance to enliven our spirits. Everything about us has a look of 
stubborn fact that is as easy to realize as to count one's fingers. No 
wood, no grass and but a scanty supply of water; all is rock, rock, 
rock, as bare of vegetation as a sterile rock can be; some little sage 
brush grew near the spring; these we gathered and warmed our coffee. 

Aug. 6. Left our mountain camp quite early; it was now all down 
hill for some eight or ten miles and over a terrible rough and stony 
road to the Humboldt river which had left its usual course to avoid 
the great mountain. The weather is getting very warm in this 
valley ; our teams and ourselves have suffered by the heat and dust ; 
camped on good grass, water warm and poor, and our wood the green 
willow. 

Aug. 7. Stony Point is a spur of a ragged-edged mountain that 
loses itself in the valley of the Humboldt over this spur and down 
again to a twenty mile desert to the great meadows of the Hum- 
boldt; 60 here we camp to give our teams feed and rest. 

Aug. 8. Remained in camp to-day; the grass too good to leave 
until our weary and hungry teams are satisfied; a warm and un- 
comfortable day. 

Aug. 9. Out early, good roads and recruited animals. It is in 
this neighborhood that this valley the Humboldt assumes to its 
fullest extent that destitute, desolate and barren appearance for 
which it is so notorious. The valley is from five to fifteen miles in 
width, the little river like a serpent, winding its slow length from 
side to side, skirted by a narrow strip of grass, and a mere fringe of 
green willow that shades its waters. Were it not for the grass and 

60. Lassen's meadows named for Peter Lassen, early California rancher. 



282 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

green willow, the river would for most of the time be lost to view. 
We travel for days and days nearly up to our boot tops in fine sand 
and dust and when the wind blows with any degree of force, the air 
as well as the road is full of it. The sun at such times sends but a 
faint and sickly ray to cheer the weary pilgrim upon this, the most 
uncomfortable looking road we have as yet traversed. As this river 
is so crooked we camp only at its elbows ; our road for the most part, 
runs from point to point ; we traverse its southern shore for most of 
the way, and have as yet crossed no tributary stream. There are 
springs and streams of good water that have their source high up 
in the mountains, but the thirsty desert swallows every drop before 
reaching the road or the river. 

Aug. 10. Another desert of twenty miles without wood, water or 
grass, the road knee-deep with sand and dust and were it not for 
the high mountains on our left, with snow here and there upon their 
sides and summits the scene would have been desolation itself. 
There was just sufficient air stirring to raise the light dust which 
filled the air we breathed, and darkening the sun, made gloomy 
traveling; but looking upwards to the snow-capped hills as they 
seemed to preside over this scene of desolation we hurried on with 
more cheerful steps and at last reached the river's brink with thirsty 
stomachs and wearied limbs, but only to drink of the warm, sluggish 
and half -poisonous water. A little below they were burying a person 
who had died while the passage of this dreary stretch was being 
made. A hot and darkened atmosphere, a desert plain, a small and 
sluggish stream of water with a burial upon its banks, gave no one 
a very favorable impression of the cheerfulness of the scene around 
him ; yet, there was not wanting a lively one, for the famished teams 
as they came in, one after another, plunged into the middle of the 
stream to slake their thirst and cool their wearied frames, made 
quite a lively time. 

Aug. 11. Our journey begins to tell on the strength of our ani- 
mals ; hot, sultry and disagreeable ; made a few miles to a little spot 
of green grass. 

Aug. 12. Traveled twenty miles to-day and put up on poor grass, 
poor water and green willow; it is hard telling which make the best 
fire green willow or green sage-brush. 

Aug. 13. A desert of twenty-five miles has been traveled over 
to-day and under a hot, broiling sun. Its scorching rays appeared 
to penetrate through our hats. Our feet coming in contact with the 
hot sand felt like burning up. Our great want, now is: water! 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 283 

water!! water!!! good spring water, good well water, good snow 
water, good river water. Our dreams are of water, clear and cold, 
spouting from the earth like a geyser; the mountain streams that 
come tumbling over the great boulders, making a noise like the rush 
of "many waters," are a part of our midnight visions. Our ears are 
sometimes greeted with the groans and grumbles of the old ancient 
well sweep as it lifts the "moss-covered bucket" full to overflowing 
with the sparkling water. We remember every good spring we ever 
visited, whether away back in the old home in the Jersey's or in 
more recent years, while wandering among the lakes and dells of the 
far off Minnesota's. It must not be inferred by reading the above, 
that we are now destitute of water far from it. We are somewhat 
like the cast away sailor when he had "water, water, everywhere, 
but not a drop to drink." We have a river to draw from, but such 
water warm as fresh milk, and impregnated with alkali and a taste 
of salt to such a degree that we cannot use it until after the poison 
is killed by heating. We boil all the water we drink, and then it is 
barely fit for use. Sometimes we find a spring near the river's edge 
and among the tall wild grass, and if it is full of snakes, frogs and 
other reptiles, it is all right. We drive them out, and take a drink 
ourselves; but if the water looks black, and we can find no water 
varmint, not even a snake, we let it alone. It would be like the 
Disciple's pot, "there would be death in it." Bad water and hard 
grub, makes one or two of the boys grumble some; they cannot see 
why we cannot have "fresh steak once in awhile," and for variety, 
spring chickens once or twice a week. Soup and fresh vegetables 
would prevent scurvy ; there are many things they could name that 
are "conspicuously absent from our daily fare." However, I must 
say that the boys, as a general thing, have stood up to the inevitable 
bravely. We continue to have as good coffee as the water will make ; 
our hard bread keeps good and the domestic manufacture is very 
fair, considering our inability to make it to suit all hands. We have 
good bacon, sugar, rice, dried fruit, etc. If we had as good feed 
for our animals as we have for ourselves, we should be content. 

Aug. 14. Another stretch of eight miles over a sandy waste. This 
deep sand and heavy traveling is killing our beasts. Hard indeed 
must be the feelings of humanity that has no sympathy for the poor, 
patient animals as they toil on, day after day, through sand knee- 
deep, suffering for the want of good water, and when the toil of the 
day is over are often turned out to feed on nothing but green willow 



284 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

or perhaps tear from the dry earth roots from which the grass has 
been nipped by some more fortunate horse or mule. 

In passing through a long, deep mudhole to-day our Salt Lake 
mule, as usual, laid down to take a rest, and as it happened the 
wagon to which he was attached was a long way behind, and conse- 
quently no help at hand. How to get the mule out of the mud and 
water and proceed on our journey was a question with the driver 
and myself hard to solve. However, we had but little time before a 
young and sturdy-looking chap rode up on a big strong mule and 
made inquiry as to what we were doing in that kind of a fix. Our 
driver gave him all the necessary information as to the habits and 
antecedents of our delinquent mule and wound up by telling him 
that the captain had purchased the brute at Salt Lake and that he 
had been a trouble to us ever since, and for his part he wished the 
d d thing was dead. The young stranger laughed at the young 
man's calamity but promised for a drink of good brandy not only to 
help [him] out of his present difficulty, but to cure our tricky mule 
of the bad habit of laying down on every soft spot he met with on 
the road. It is needless to say that a bargain was soon struck; our 
festive mule was stripped naked, one end of a lariat belonging to 
the stranger was passed around his neck, the other end to the horn 
of its owner's saddle and away he went, dragging the unfortunate 
mule through the slush and water almost at a 2:40 gait. However, 
that kind of locomotion did not suit our delinquent friend; he soon 
began to hunt for his feet and in spite of the rate of speed he was 
traveling was soon up and on all fours, alongside his tormentor. The 
fun was now up and our friend had the mule back, hitched him up 
and drove through a stretch of a half mile mudhole without any 
further difficulty. A good swig of brandy from the big jug and our 
bargain concluded; the stranger went on his way rejoicing and our 
driver drove into camp a happy man. 

A mule is a mule, the world over I guess; their peculiarities are 
many and so different from all other animals that man is often at a 
loss to comprehend them. At what period in the world's history he 
made his advent upon earth it would take a better historian than 
myself to say; "no pride of ancestry and no hope of parentage," a 
living phenomena of man's inventive genius ; good to do the bidding 
of his master, hardy in the performance of his task, easy to manage 
and not expensive to keep. As a rustler I have not seen his equal; 
he can strip a cottonwood in less time than a truant school boy can 
shed his trousers at the edge of a swim pond ; very particular about 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 285 

water, would rather go dry all day than touch water that a horse or 
an ox would delight in, but when hungry will eat anything within 
reach; tear the roots of grass from the astonished earth after the 
blades have long since disappeared; have known him to attack a half 
worn-out boot belonging and attached to a weary and sleeping pil- 
grim. Except the grease wood and sage brush there is nothing edible 
that I know of that he will not eat; in some respects he is an un- 
gainly and rough brute, his ears out of all proportion to his heels; 
head rough and ungainly but with an eye as mild as a lamb and 
twice as innocent, except when he is out of humor, when they are 
dangerous even to look at. It is said that a "mule never dies" ; I do 
not know how that is as I never saw a dead one, but have seen his 
heels very lively when I thought their owner half dead with hunger 
and hard work. Take him all in all, the mule is a peculiar animal, 
good and bad, according to his whims ; "but, with all thy faults we 
have thee still." 

A cloud-burst occurred in the mountains yesterday, the only guess 
work of the amount of water fall is in the amount of debris brought 
down by the rushing flood ; great boulders ten feet in diameter rolled 
out of some of the ravines on to the level valley lands, a distance of 
hundreds of yards from their starting point, while gravel, mud and 
slime covered the plain from one to two feet in depth ; it was in that 
mud and slime that our Mormon mule refused to travel. 

Aug. 15. Traveled all night over a desert to make the great 
meadows of the Humboldt. Dust and sand as deep and as disagree- 
able as ever. Were it not for the wild sage and grease wood those 
who travel on foot could escape a great part of the dust, but as the 
sage and grease wood stand so close and are so tall that it is im- 
possible to pass through or over them, are compelled to keep the 
beaten- path, traveling or rather wading through the deep dust like 
oxen pushing through the deep snow. Our night's journey kept us 
until 8 o'clock this morning when we went into camp, turned out our 
teams and ourselves to breakfast. No grass yet; hitched up again 
and moved down to good grass and better water; both water and 
grass are only good by comparison. The spring from which we draw 
our water is located at the river's edge and consequently is not much 
better than river water; but it is a spring and therefore some help 
to the imagination. Thousands of persons are filling their water 
barrels at this spring to enable them to cross the forty miles of desert 
yet to overcome before reaching Carson river. Some of our animals 
have fallen to the ground since we have turned them out; poisoned 



286 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

by alkali maybe; if not by alkali, have been by hard traveling and 
short feed which amounts to the same thing. To see our animals 
stumbling and falling to the ground is not very agreeable to con- 
template; we shall give them a day's rest and if possible, get better 
water for them to drink. 

Aug. 16. We are now at the end of our journey of the Humboldt 
river. Here she sinks 61 beneath the sands of the great desert, but 
before she is lost sight of forever, her waters spread out into a lake 
some six or eight miles in length by one and a half in breadth and 
were it not for its surroundings, would be a respectable sheet of 
water. 62 We are now encamped on the north side of this lake on a 
meadow as extensive as the lake itself. The grass is coarse, tall and 
heavy ; what it lacks in nourishment is made up in abundance. We 
cut this grass and load our nearly empty wagons to furnish feed for 
our teams while crossing a forty mile desert stretching from the 
sink of the Humboldt to Carson river. As will be seen, by looking 
on a rude map of this country, the Humboldt and Carson rivers run 
in nearly opposite directions; the Humboldt from the east, the Car- 
son from the west. The former rises on the elevated lands west of 
Salt Lake while the Carson has its source high up among the summit 
of the Sierra Nevada range of mountains that lay to the west. 

Aug. 17. We are now done with the Humboldt river. To-morrow 
morning we leave it (and, I had almost said) we hope forever; but 
there still lingers a desire to again traverse its meandering course 
through the great desert, but I need hardly say under more favor- 
able circumstances. Were the Indians not troublesome the journey 
of the Humboldt could be easily made when there are but few people 
on the road. What grass there is, is very good and would sustain a 
moderate amount of travel. The water of the river and the springs 
near it is bad, but a party that had plenty of time could supply 
themselves from the neighboring mountains with the pure article. 
From the mountains east of Salt Lake to the Sierra Nevada on the 
west; from Oregon and the country east of it, to near Arizona on 
the south, this whole country is one vast basin. No rivers find their 
way to the, sea, being walled in as it were, from the outside world. 
There are not wanting many beautiful scenes and cheerful locations, 
but as a whole, it is a cheerless and uncomfortable country, fit only 
for savage men and wild beasts. 

Our camp to-day is in the full glare of an August sun; hot, sultry 
and wearisome; the range of broken and semi-round mountains that 

61. Humboldt sink. Evaporation played a large part in the "disappearance" of the river. 

62. Humboldt lake. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 287 

line the southern shore of the lake, adds to the desolate look that 
prevails everywhere within the reach of our visions. A prominent 
formation left by the storms of centuries on those ruined cliffs is 
called "the old man of the mountains." There he sits through the 
summer's heat, the winter's frost and snow, watching the centuries 
come, watching the centuries go; bald headed and eyes as bright 
as when the morning stars sang together. His appearance so vener- 
able that if he had been found in the mountains of "Ararat" would 
no doubt have been taken for either Shem, Ham or Japheth. Long 
before the builders of the pyramids settled upon the banks of the 
luxuriant Nile this old man of the mountains began his weary and 
silent watch of the ages, waiting for this day and generation to see 
pass in review before his wondering gaze such a multitude of ani- 
mated beings that his old eyes had never as yet seen or dreamed of. 
Still more astonished will the old man be when in a few more short 
years he sees the column of smoke by day, and the eyes of fire by 
night, come thundering down the sandy wastes of the Humboldt 
river and go swiftly by in a whirlwind of smoke, dust and cinders. 
Wait a little longer and the developments that are sure to come in 
the near future will so craze the ancient patriarch that he will fall 
from his high estate and his dust mingle with the crumbling ruins 
of the ancient land mark he now so proudly dominates. 

Aug. 18. To-day we make the last grand effort of this wearisome 
trip; this is considered the hardest bit of travel on the route, and 
consequently more preparation is made for the journey. We have 
grass and water on board for our teams which is now universally 
carried, the distance about forty miles. Very few animals that have 
made the travel of the Humboldt could endure the journey without 
some nourishment. Started about four o'clock in the morning, 
weather unusually cool and the roads good. About ten miles out 
the dead teams of '49 and '50, were seen scattered here and there 
upon the road. Very soon, however, they became more frequent 
and in a little while filled the entire roadside; mostly oxen, with 
here and there a horse and once in a while a mule. Wagons, wagon 
irons, ox chains, harness, rifles and indeed all the paraphernalia of 
an emigrant's "outfit" lay scattered along this notorious route, re- 
minding one of the defeat of some great army. In many places the 
teams lay as they had fallen; poor beasts they had struggled on 
over mountains, plains and through the sands of the barren deserts 
for days and weeks with but little or no food, but still with strength 
sufficient to make this their last effort to gain a haven of rest. Good 



288 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

water and plenty of food lies just beyond; but alas, strength failed 
and here they lie, and sad memorials of a grand crusade to "the land 
of gold." Although dumb brutes and created for the use of man, 
I could not help but deplore their sad fate as there they laid in mute 
silence, marking our course through the great desert they had not 
the strength to cross. 

Camped at ten o'clock in the forenoon, made coffee and gave our 
teams a little water and hay; while eating our dinner one of our 
stragglers came up and declared he had made one of the greatest 
discoveries of the age. He being a candid kind of a fellow, all 
hands were eager to hear of so great an event. "What was it?" was 
asked. "A dead mule." "Impossible" we all exclaimed; "a mule 
was never known to die." "Did you see the dead animal yourself?" 
we asked. "Yes I did, and I also saw a fellow tickle his heels with 
a long pole and he never budged and that is the surest sign on earth." 
We gave it up ; a mule that could stand to have his heels trifled with 
and not resent it must surely be a dead one. After an hour's rest we 
were again on the road and traveled until near sundown. Camped 
and boiled our coffee with broken wagons that had been left on the 
road, gave our teams the remaining hay and water and pushed on 
again. So far our road has been good but from this out, ten miles, it 
is deep and heavy sand and consequently heavy traveling; as much 
as our fatigued teams can do to make any show of progress. But 
patience worketh many hard questions, and as we have a respectable 
supply as yet, I think it will last us through. Nine o'clock and as 
dark as hades; our teams just crawling and for fear they would 
stop of their own accord we called a halt, gave each animal a pound 
of hard bread and moved on. Ten o'clock, a bright, blazing fire 
that shot heavenward through the gloom in our rear, arrests our 
attention ; it is a company of ten wagons which their owners despair 
of getting through, have concluded to desert; so hauling them up, 
side by side, set fire to the concern. A huge blaze of ten or fifteen 
minutes' duration, startled the astonished wilderness, revealing a 
long line of pilgrims, progressing slowly, but surely, toward the end 
of a hard day's work. The great fire has gone down and darkness 
again reigns triumphant. Could we but catch a view of the river 
with its volume of pure, cold water, 'twould be of some comfort. 
We are now within two miles of our destination and our teams have 
caught the fresh scent of pure, cold water, and it is as much as the 
tired pilgrim, who is on foot, can do to keep up. Eleven o'clock 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 289 

and we are on the banks of the long-sought-f or river 63 and more 
than all, at the end of a long and toilsome march. I never saw a 
dumb brute so eager for water as ours are to-night; they thrust 
their heads in water nearly up to their eyes, so eager are they to 
slake their thirst. 

The passage of this desert would be no hard matter to old and 
experienced travelers well fixed, but to the untutored pilgrim, with 
worn-out teams, poor feed and bad water, it is a matter of some 
importance; the men who burnt their wagons for fear of not getting 
through were very foolish. In the morning they could have returned 
and brought them through with leisure. The men of '49 and '50 
had some excuse for losing their teams and other property; the 
trail was new and the hardships unknown. They got into the diffi- 
culty and got out of it the best they could. To say that a train of 
wagons ten miles long and dead animals in sufficient numbers to 
pave a road the same distance, looks like a hard story, yet the pil- 
grim of '49, '50 or '52 can easily comprehend its truth. Most of the 
dead animals now lying on the desert have laid there since '49 and 
'50; the pure air of the desert has almost preserved them in their 
natural forms. 

Aug. 19. Moved over to an island and camped beneath the shade 
of tall timber. If ever man can appreciate large, tall timber, it is 
after traveling over a long and wearisome road in the absence of any 
kind of shelter, and where to hide one's self from the scorching heat 
of the midday sun he has to stoop and stick his head beneath stunted 
or slender willow or crawl beneath a wagon to lay amid the dust and 
sand to cool his heated and tired frame. Our camp is now in the 
green woods and beside a beautiful river. We can here drink and 
drink to our heart's content without fear that the poisonous waters 
will do us any harm. While traveling down the Humboldt, weary 
with fatigue and thirst we could take no satisfaction even at the 
river's brink, knowing that the more we drank of its poisonous 
waters the greater risk we ran of getting sick. It is a satisfaction to 
see our animals plunge into this stream and drink; for we know 
that the cooling and healthy beverage comes from the snow-capped 
peaks of the Sierra Nevada. Though so clear, so pure and so re- 
freshing, it is destined to sink beneath the sands of the great desert. 
It seems a great pity that such a fine and noble river should lose 
itself in a country so barren and where good and pure water is so 

63. Carson river, named for "'Kit" Carson by Fremont in 1845. 

193781 



290 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

valuable. It is said that the Humboldt and Carson rivers sink 
within sixty miles of each other. 

Remained in camp all day resting our teams and getting ready to 
move on the morrow ; hunted and fished with some success ; there is 
plenty of mountain trout in the streams and a variety of game on 
its banks. 

It has been more healthy since leaving Salt Lake valley, yet there 
are graves here and there all along our route. A little grave yard 
containing half a dozen graves lies near our present camping ground. 
The occupants must have died while crossing the desert or immedi- 
ately after; poor fellows; after all the toil of the long journey, here 
they lie in silent graves beside the beautiful river they toiled so hard 
to reach. Yet they have lived their life, and fulfilled their fate. 

My greatest anxiety has been for the welfare of those who have 
been intrusted to my care. Several anxious mothers and sisters are 
now waiting to hear the result of this journey. If I should lose any 
of their boys, I am afraid I should be blamed for neglect of duty. 
Yet it is a hard matter to control the wild, wayward and the un- 
thoughtful youth. 

Aug. 20. We are on the road again this morning. 64 It is now up 
stream instead of down ; road good and good grass and plenty of tall 
timber skirting the banks of the river. Camped in a beautiful loca- 
tion; everything appears to wear a more cheerful aspect. We are 
now almost within the shades of the great mountain that divides us 
from the land of gold. 

Aug. 21. Made twelve miles of a desert road and put up on good 
grass. There is some desert country on this river, but only here and 
there a spot, and when they are once crossed good grass and good 
water are always found; and then the grateful shade beneath the tall 
timber is so inviting. Plenty of game of both birds and animals and 
good fish in the sparkling river. Our hunters and fishermen are busy 
all the way up. 

Aug. 22. Made twenty-four miles to-day and camped in a beauti- 
ful grove of tall timber. The road to-day has been full of footmen 
who have left their teams in order to make better time in getting 
over the mountains. The boys are getting in a hurry and anxious to 
be at work in the gold mines; in rather too much of a hurry I am 
afraid. 

64. Another route from the "sink" followed the Truckee river to California. It was 
somewhat more popular. See Ware, op. cit., footnote on p. 36. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 291 

Aug. 23. Crossed the river 65 for the second time and put up for 
noon in a shady grove and beside the swift running stream. The 
boys having killed a large rabbit and some wild fowl, determined to 
have a pot pie; it was something of a job to make it, but made it 
was, after a fashion. But if anybody could tell what it was, or how 
it was made, he would be much wiser than those who ate it; for 
never before did anyone see such a conglomeration of fresh meat, 
fish, bacon and hard bread; but it was a change in the dull routine 
of our every day fare, and that was something. Chinamen were 
mining for gold at this place; they told us they were making from 
four to six dollars per day to the man. We did not believe the story. 
Here is also a trading post where vegetables, canned fruits, bacon, 
flour, mining implements and bad whiskey are kept for sale. 66 It 
is but a small affair and established for the accommodation of the 
few miners who are at work in the neighborhood and any transient 
custom that may happen by. 

Left the river at this point and crossed over the high lands and 
over what is called Lime hill, composed of a white chalky substance 
but as far as I could see resembled lime in nothing but its looks. 
Met the river again at sundown and camped upon its banks. 

Aug. 24. We are now traveling through a beautiful country ; land 
good and plenty of timber, and grass in abundance. This neighbor- 
hood will soon contain a large population; people are just beginning 
to settle its fertile lands. It is said that cattle can be kept in this 
valley all the year round upon grass alone. Passed some warm 
springs this afternoon. 

Aug. 25. We are now traveling beneath the shadow of the great 
Sierra Nevada ; camped at noon near the mouth of Humboldt canon 
and on a tributary of Carson river. 67 It is up through this canon we 
are to climb the great mountains; a dark lane-like passage, walled 
on either side for hundreds of feet perpendicularly, is not an inviting 
road to travel ; but as there is only this one trail in the neighborhood 
to make the ascent we bid adieu to the open country and follow a 
small winding stream (a branch of the Carson river) that leads us 
upwards and onwards over great boulders, crossing the little stream 
every now and then and sometimes following its bed to avoid the 

65. Carson river. 

66. Possibly Genoa, Nev. 

67. "Through this canon is the roughest road, I am persuaded to think, that ever a wagon 
traveled over. The west branch of Carson river . . . runs through this canon, which 
you cross six times in passing up. At places there is just barely room for a wagon to pass 
through between vertical rock, perpendicular 300 to 400 feet high. Other places you will 
have to ascend and descend a solid smooth stone for several yards, almost perpendicular; 
and again you must make your way for miles over rocks of an intolerable size for a wagon 
to pass over. . . ." Horn, op. cit., p. 56. 



292 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

great rocks that have from time to time, fallen from the heights 
above and nearly filled the entire passage. The afternoon's work 
was a hard one, but by industry and perseverance managed to make 
five or six miles. It was now nearly dark and a little wider space in 
the valley offering us room enough to spread our blankets and put 
up for the night. Huge rocks that had fallen from above lie around 
and about us. The little river is bounding from rock to rock, mak- 
ing a terrible noise as it vibrates high up on the rocky walls above 
us. It is here that the Indians have done some mischief, and might 
have stopped the entire travel by unbalancing the great rocks above 
and filling the narrow passage. Weird, wild, dark and noisy is our 
camping place to-night. The little valley about fifty yards in width 
is almost choked with big pine trees and boulder stone, some of the 
latter as large as a good sized house and gloomy enough to frighten 
a mule. The moon is shining on the outside world, but it never has, 
or ever can, penetrate this dark recess. 

Aug. 26. Eight o'clock and we are on our winding way over 
great boulders, fallen timber, and here and there a few rods of 
smooth roadway. The higher we ascend the more noisy the little 
stream becomes, leaping from rock to rock, mad with haste and 
foaming with impatience; clear as crystal, cold as ice, "a thing of 
beauty and a joy forever." Nine o'clock; a break in the mountain 
wall on our left; we cross over a bridge and bid goodby to the dark 
canon and the mountain stream. We are now in the sunshine and 
the outlook is more pleasant; but the road if it can be called a 
road is the worst on the continent I guess. Rocks four feet high 
and so close together [they] fill the entire roadway. We unhitch 
our teams, lead them through and over them to a place of smooth 
earth, then go back, pull [off] our coats and lift our wagons from 
rock to rock, a distance of several hundred yards. Again we are 
on a smooth surface, hitch up and drive on to "mountain camp." 
Here is a meadow; a meadow in the mountain. 68 We drive our 
stock into this meadow and build our camp fire for the balance of 
the day and night. 

Aug. 27. Teams well fed and to make a good day's work started 
early; the way tolerable for two or three miles. Passed near a 
beautiful lake fringed with green grass; wild ducks and other fowls 
were flying about or disporting themselves on the little islands that 
set like gems upon its bosom. Soft, pleasant and tranquil, lay this 
beautiful sheet of clear, cold water. Immediately after passing the 

68. Hope valley so called by emigrants. 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 293 

lake above described we came to the foot of an immense elevation. 
We first looked at the high, steep and rough mountain road, then at 
our teams, and lastly we looked at one another. However, it was 
no use looking; the work had to be done. To throw off our coats 
was the first move, to unhitch part of our teams and attach them 
to others was the next move, and when all was ready we began the 
steepest journey we had ever before attempted. The starting point 
was quite smooth and gradual, but the way soon became very steep 
and rocky; indeed, the rocks monopolized the entire surface of the 
great mountain, first one way, and then another, zigzag fashion. 
We slowly made our way towards the summit ; every rock we lifted 
our wagons over made one the less before us. After two hours' hard 
work lifting at the wheels, whipping our tired teams, and using 
language not becoming church members, we gained a resting place 
and well did we need one. If ever we had worked it was in the past 
two hours. 

After a short rest we are again on the move ; the way is now more 
smooth but very steep and crooked; a man to every wheel, and 
one to every horse and mule; a few steps and then a rest. As may 
be imagined, our progress was very slow, but as it was a sure one 
our teams and ourselves keep up a steady courage. Eleven o'clock 
came to a dead halt at the foot of a large, flat rock, smooth and so 
very steep that it is impossible for our teams to even stand upon it, 
much less to climb and haul a wagon over. Unhitched, led our 
animals around and above the steep incline, then attached a long 
rope to the end of our wagon tongue and hauled them up. The big 
end of our day's work was now done; the worst for the day was 
over; made a few more hundred yards and stopped for dinner. At 
one o'clock rolled out again; the road is now passable, but here and 
there a steep grade to worry our worn-out teams. Camped for the 
night near the shores of Mountain Lake where the mules and horses 
fared well upon good mountain grass. This is a beautiful location; 
high, towering peaks surrounding a beautiful lake upon whose shores 
the green grass grows so beautifully and where the tall pine trees 
give such a welcome shade. There are many pilgrims lying around 
and about us feeding their teams and making preparations for climb- 
ing the second and last steep grade over these great mountains. 
The American river has its source in this neighborhood and winding 
round, through and over the great rocks of the Sierra Nevada, dis- 
charges its waters in the Sacramento river, near the city of the 
same name. 



294 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Aug. 28. We soon got ready for our mountain excursion and 
started upward amid the tall pines and large rocks; the latter im- 
peded our progress at first but the higher we ascend the scarcer 
they became until the way was quite smooth ; yet it was a steep way 
to riches and "a hard road to travel." We left camp at 8 o'clock 
in the morning and at 10 o'clock passed on and above the snow line, 
great banks of which lay here and there along the roadway. At 12 
o'clock we reached the summit of the road through a gap in the high 
ridge; three miles in four hours is not fast driving, but fast enough 
to kill our nearly worn-out animals. Thank fortune, we are now 
safe on the summit of the great mountain that has heretofore been 
a subject of so much anxiety. 

Here is mountain scenery to our heart's content. Great banks of 
snow, large and sterile rocks encumber the ground, making crooked 
and winding roads for the tired pilgrim as he has ever and anon to 
turn this and that way in the pursuit of his journey. We have been 
three days climbing this mountain and have averaged perhaps eight 
or ten miles a day, making the distance from the Carson valley to 
the summit of these mountains from twenty-four to thirty miles. 
From the summit west to the Sacramento valley, it is said to be an 
hundred miles. Our road after leaving the summit inclined slightly 
to the west for some four or five miles; at the end of this journey 
went into camp near sundown at Tragedy Springs and drove our 
teams down into a great recess of the mountain to feed. 

Aug. 29. Our mules and horses managed to hide themselves this 
morning and were nowhere to be found until too late to move. We 
have all the way rested on the Sabbath when we could do so with 
comfort to ourselves and in justice to our animals. This camp was 
too cold for comfort, and could we have found our teams would have 
continued the journey. Here we began to notice the big timber; 
trees from six inches diameter to eight and nine feet through; tall, 
straight and comely; mostly pine, but here and there a cedar. Of 
the latter, I measured a hollow trunk eight feet inside. 

Aug. 30. Left camp early; road more down than up hill; stopped 
for dinner near a new-made grave, its occupant having been mur- 
dered and robbed a few days since. Put up at Camp creek; plenty 
of good wood and good water, but no grass for our teams. 

Aug. 31. Our teams fared badly last night and were poor travel- 
ers to-day. Our road up and down hill more down than up, how- 
ever. Made fifteen or twenty miles and went into camp. Here we 
found hay for sale at twenty-five cents per pound. Bought some for 



BARRY: OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852 295 

our exhausted teams, but I am free to say, not enough to satisfy 
the hungry animals. Good horses, good mules and good oxen are 
everything on a journey like this. Job in his day, immortalized the 
horse and clothed his neck with thunder; but he was silent on the 
mule, and for what reason I am unable to say. If he had made this 
journey and had used the mule as a motive power, he would no doubt 
have done him justice and left to succeeding generations his testi- 
mony of the mule's virtues. For our part we love the patient and 
hardy animal ; their ears do not seem half so long as they did at the 
commencement of this journey. In every way they appear more 
endurable; if one gets stubborn and kicks our hats off once in a while 
we let him kick, but are very careful to stop in his way no longer 
than we can get out of it. Oxen are very reliable, patient and en- 
during. Thousands of them have made the entire trip and stood it 
nobly ; but they are more liable to get lame than either the horse or 
mule. They will drink the poisonous water at every opportunity, 
and many of them are lost in that way ; but with good watching they 
will make the trip. One would think a dog would make the journey 
very easily, but of the thousands who made the attempt very few 
succeeded in getting through. Those who had valuable ones let them 
ride. I know of no dog that has made the entire trip on foot. 

Sept. 1. Left camp early; road good but very dusty. At four 
o'clock we caught sight of the city of Placerville ; at five we put up 
at the Ohio House. Our teams are well fed and ourselves are eating 
a square meal. We are now in the center of the mining district. 
The change from the mountain wilderness to a city of five or six 
thousand inhabitants took us somewhat by surprise, but by careful 
conduct met with no disaster. Placerville is essentially a mining 
town, full of life, full of people and full of business. Our contract 
with the boys is to land them in Sacramento City or we should make 
this the terminus of our journey. 

Sept. 2. Again on the road but a rough, mountainous country to 
travel over. Three miles out we pass Diamond Springs, another 
mining town, but a very small one. Three miles farther upon the 
road we meet with "Mud Springs," still another mining camp and 
full of activity. 

Sept. 3. At ten o'clock from our mountain road we caught our 
first view of the great Sacramento valley. The scene was magnifi- 
cent. There it laid, spread out as it were, beneath our feet as far as 
the eye could reach, north, south and west, a land of beauty and a 



296 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

joy forever; a land of sunshine, of plenty, and of comfort. Stopped 
at the 10 Mile House. 

Sept. 4. Only twelve miles to the end of our destination. Our 
road now is side by side with the American river, a somewhat dif- 
ferent stream than when we crossed it in the mountains. To our left 
stands Sutter's Fort, an ancient and dilapidated-looking concern, all 
gone, or going to decay. To our left is a grave yard where monu- 
ments and tombstones stand like out-door sentinels to the entrance 
of a great city. Soon the spires of churches and the masts of ship- 
ping become visible. The breeze now brings the busy hum of the 
city together with the voice of the steamboat bell, all old but fa- 
miliar sounds. How earnestly did we gaze at the sight and signs of 
civilization; from the first of May to the first of September we had 
been wanderers in the wilderness; everything we heard or saw ap- 
peared new. It was indeed a new world and we were, in reality, in 
the midst of it. We had, as our looks indicated, crossed a continent, 
but in crossing had nearly lost our nationality, for to the unpracticed 
eye we looked more like Hungarians than American citizens. It was 
only by the voice that the universal Yankee nation would have 
recognized us as brethern of the same race. At 12 o'clock we entered 
the city of Sacramento, dirty, dusty and hungry, our teams and our- 
selves worn down with fatigue and looking for all the world like the 
remnant of a disorganized army that had just escaped destruction. 

In closing up I am happy to say that we brought every man and 
every horse and mule safely through the long and tiresome journey. 
We are now in California. No more traveling day after day; no 
more standing watch by night. It is here that we separate from our 
companions. The bond that held us together on the long and toil- 
some road is canceled. Each individual has his own way to choose 
and travel, whether for good or evil, time only will disclose. A shake 
of the hand and a good-by and the company of C. and B. are 
separated. 



Atchison, a Great Frontier Depot 

WALKER D. WYMAN 

IN THE settlement of the Trans-Missouri West the towns on the 
Missouri river occupied the unique position of serving as jump- 
ing-off points for emigrants western bound and as termini for steam- 
boat and ox-team freighters. Founded by speculators, each of these 
cities, villages and ghost towns between Independence, Mo., and 
Omaha, Neb., hoped to become the greatest metropolis on the river. 

Atchison is no exception to the host of aspiring Missouri river 
towns. Its dramatic rise was due more to the patronage of overland 
freighters than to outfitting emigrants, but the latter nevertheless 
furnished a significant segment in its economic history. Like its 
sister towns on the west side of the river its beginnings as a town 
date from the opening of Kansas territory to settlement. 

The French voyageurs called this region in northeastern Kansas 
territory the "Grand Detour" of the Missouri. 1 The Missouri found- 
ers of Atchison located their town on the westernmost point of that 
"Grand Detour." Lying between St. Joseph to the northeast and 
Fort Leavenworth to the southeast, this appeared to be the proper 
point from which to tap the resources of the West. 

"Somewhere between 1841 and 1849 [George M.] Million [who 
had earlier settled across the river at a place later to be called Rush- 
ville, Mo.] built a flat boat ferry, and ... in 1849, . . . 
did a thriving business. . . ." In 1854 he became a squatter on 
the original townsite of Atchison. 2 Fifty-seven days after the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill became law, eighteen men had organized the town 
company. 3 Million's squatter rights were soon purchased, the town 
named in honor of one of the founders, David R. Atchison, and lots 
sold at public auction for an average price of sixty-three dollars. 4 
Shareholders were assessed $25 for the construction of a hotel and 
the sum of $400 was donated to two enterprising editors to establish 
the Squatter Sovereign. 5 If there were emigrants through here in 
the fall of 1854 George T. Challis' store was the only merchandising 

1. Andreas, A. T., and Cutler, Wm. G., History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), 
p. 376. 

2. "Fiftieth Anniversary Edition" of the Atchison Daily Globe, December 8, 1927, sec. 6, 
p. 3, article by E. W. Howe written in 1894. 

3. Ibid., sec. 1, p. 4. 

4. Ibid., sec. 2, p. 6, another Howe article written in 1894. The president of the town 
company, Peter T. Abell, bore the title of "Father of Atchison." 

5. Ibid. 

(297) 



298 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

establishment open for business. Travelers frequently paid two dol- 
lars to sleep on blankets taken from the meager supply on his 
shelves. The owner sometimes cooked a can of cove oysters in "an 
old chafing dish, and charged them another dollar. Whiskey that 
cost him 40 cents a gallon he sold for 25 cents a drink. . . ." 6 
Atchison was "yet a town in embryo. . . ." 

Apparently few emigrants other than those destined for the nearby 
farm land crossed the river at this thriving town in the first three 
years of its existence. 7 The grim fight over slavery in the territory 
cast a shadow over the two or three hundred inhabitants. But in 
1858, while many paper towns were collapsing, Atchison grew. 8 The 
town company nursing those railroad desires so common to other 
speculators of the period began action which it was hoped would 
place their chosen location at the hub of a transportation system. 
The "city" (incorporated as such in 1858) agreed to purchase 
$100,000 worth of stock, and individuals pledged themselves to buy 
the same amount to build a railroad north to connect with the Han- 
nibal and St. Joseph. 9 When work was begun in June, 1858, "the 
largest concourse of people ever assembled in Kansas were gathered 
together in Atchison" to celebrate the event. 10 

When the gold fever struck the Missouri river in September, 1858, 
this town was in the mood for doing a great business. A few emi- 
grants had used Atchison as a starting point during the spring, but 
they had served only to encourage a town already busy selling its 
lots. 11 Most of the outfitting pilgrims to Pike's Peak were residents 
of the vicinity who could depart immediately for the mines. 12 

According to the loyal editors there was but one desirable route 
to the Cherry Creek mines in 1859, and that was the "First Standard 
Parallel Route" west from Atchison. It was alleged to be more 
direct and one-third less in distance a good road along "high, level 
divides" with ferries and bridges available at every needed point. 13 
This was the great point in Atchison's advertising, the acceptance of 
which was to achieve for it popularity as an emigrant depot. But 
it was supported only through a total disregard for truth. When the 
first claims were made for the new route, very few people had gone 

6. Ibid., sec. 6, p. 3. 

7. Based on issues of the Atchison Squatter Sovereign, March 11, 1856, to February 17, 
1857. 

8. Leavenworth Journal, February 6, 1858, quoted in Freedom's Champion, Atchison, 
February 20, 1858; also St. Joseph (Mo.) Weekly West quoted in ibid., November 13, 1858. 

9. Andreas-Cutler, op. cit., p. 376. 

10. Freedom's Champion, June 26, 1858. 

11. Letter from "An lowan" in ibid., April 3, 1858. 

12. Ibid., September 18, 1858. 

13. Ibid., February 19, 26, 1859. 



WYMAN : ATCHISON, A FRONTIER DEPOT 299 

over it, and no attempt had yet been made to build bridges or ferries. 
The company organized to do the work did not depart for the West 
until a month later. 14 One of the local news sheets planned to print 
an extra edition of 3,000 copies on the new route, outfits, and gold 
discoveries, so as to "reach every section of the country, . . . 
complete in everything no information which emigrants should 
have will be omitted. . . ." 15 Thus did Atchison strive to catch 
the Eastern innocents. 

Steamboats from points on the river above and below brought 
"Peaker's" to this mushroom town which claimed a population of 
4,000. 16 A tri-weekly stage from St. Joseph transferred many from 
the end of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. The much adver- 
tised stage west through Fort Riley to the mines did not come into 
reality in time to serve as a means of transportation for the whole 
season. 17 It is doubtful, however, if Atchison was a major outfitting 
place this year, although the gold-seekers' camps (" 'one of them in 
charge of a gray-head who is surely old enough to know better' ") 18 
were noticeable most of the spring months. Returning "Pike's Peak- 
ers" began to throng the streets before those outward bound were 
under way. Outfits were sold at auction before taking the first boat 
home. One pilgrim explained that "back-trailers" were of a class 
"constitutionally predisposed to homesickness." 19 That fall, how- 
ever, a different class of miners the successful ones surged through 
town "at a wonderful rate," all eager to dispose of their gold and to 
get home for the winter. Stages rattled in from the West, loaded 
with passengers and the precious metal. 20 But realization of dreams 
still lay ahead. 

Early in 1860 Atchison merchants went east to purchase new 
stocks for emigrants and freighters. Advertisements appealed to the 
prospective miner with an assurance that "We can furnish you with 
everything . . . from a good Wagon and Team, down to a 
Camp Kettle, and at less prices than can be bought at any other 
points on the river. . . ." 21 The Freedom's Champion unhesi- 
tatingly told its readers that the "Smoky Hill" route, advertised by 
Leavenworth, was taken only by "the fool-hardy and insane," while 
the Platte (not the "First Standard Parallel Route") was favored 

14. Ibid., March 26, 1859. 

15. Ibid., February 12, 1859. 

16. 76 id., June 4, 11, 1859; Weekly West, St. Joseph, June 26, 1859. 

17. Freedom's Champion, April 2, 1859, quoting a letter of February 25, 1859, in the 
Junction City Sentinel. 

18. Horace Greeley in letter of May 15, quoted in Freedom's Champion, June 4, 1859. 

19. Ibid., July 23, 1859. 

20. One stage brought in $8,992.07 in gold. Ibid., September 17, 1859. 

21. Ibid., April 21, 1860. 



300 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"by the great mass" of population as the ''shortest, safest and best 
road in all respects." 22 The city had expended "over $3,500 for 
bridges, culverts, and grading" on the four miles of trail leading to 
the "Great Military Road" from Fort Leavenworth. 23 If coming by 
train the emigrant should buy a ticket through to Atchison, and 
"save much vexation and delay" ; if by river, get a ticket to Atchi- 
son, thereby saving nearly two days, for the road west from Leaven- 
worth was but three or four miles from there; if by wagon, come to 
Atchison before purchasing supplies and save twenty-five miles 
freighting, for it was farther west than all competitors. 24 

More "Peakers" outfitted in Atchison in 1860 than in the previous 
year. Covered wagons were everywhere, giving the town the ap- 
pearance of a great military camp. Stores were crowded with out- 
fitters. "Ho! For Pike's Peak" was heard on every hand. 25 It was 
believed that "a more reliable and better equipped class of emi- 
grants" -were leaving. "Instead of hand carts and starving, squalid 
travelers, we see well provided ox, mule and horse trains, with cheer- 
ful, well to do attendants. . . ." 26 Many of those who poured 
into St. Joseph by way of the railroad took the boat, stage, or train 
to Atchison. Nevertheless, Leavenworth must have been more suc- 
cessful if editorial comment is an indication. 

After the middle 1860's Atchison was definitely on the decline as a 
factor in the westward movement of emigrants. "Times are dull. 
. . . Hundreds of young men are tramping the streets, idle, 
starving and shelterless," wrote an observer, 27 even if many were 
still outfitting there. The overland stage, prized so highly because 
it would ultimately mean a railroad to the West, ceased operations 
in the winter of 1866. It was a sorrowful scene when the "long 
train of Concord stages, express coaches, hacks and other rolling 
stock started from their stables and yards on Second street to leave 
Atchison forever. . . ." 28 One old Atchison resident wrote later: 

It was a magnificent sight to look upon, and yet there appeared to be some- 
thing solemn or sad about it, when it was remembered that a similar scene 
would never be witnessed again. . . . The company was bidding a final 
adieu to the city and section of country [which] its vast enterprise had so 
many years been such an important factor in helping to build up. 29 

22. Issue of February 11, 1860. 

23. Ibid., March 10, 1860. 

24. Atchison Union, January 21, 1860. 

25. Ibid., March 24, April 14, May 12, I860; Freedom'* Champion, April 14, 28, 1860. 

26. Atchison Union, April 28, 1860. 

27. Atchison Patriot quoted in the Council Bluffs (Iowa) Bugle, May 7, 1868. 

28. Ingalls, Sheffield, History of Atchison County, Kansas (Lawrence, 1916), p. 169. 

29. Root, F. A., and Connelley, W. E., The Overland Stage to California (Topeka, 1901). 
up. 437, 438. 



WYMAN : ATCHISON, A FRONTIER DEPOT 301 

Familiar scenes in Atchison became the wagons of Missouri and 
Iowa farmers en route to Kansas, or of local farmers in town to 
market their produce. Some emigrants stopped long enough to re- 
plenish supplies before leaving for the Rocky Mountain area or the 
Far West. The city no longer functioned as a Missouri river town. 
Hopes for being the hub of the universe faded from the minds of 
these imaginative people. To sell to and buy from the hinterland 
became the ideal, rather than to outfit the pilgrim. Advertisements 
paraded such instruments of civilization as reapers, mowers, pianos, 
bedsteads, and bureaus. Even some of the prostitutes were driven 
from town. Indeed, civilization had come! 

However, before that day came Atchison had a great period as a 
terminal for ox-team freighters. It had a favorable location in 
reference to the rising West. Being westernmost by twelve miles of 
the Kansas and Missouri cities, it also enjoyed a good steamboat 
landing, had a railroad connection with St. Joseph and the East after 
1860, and had the best wagon road to the West. It is doubtful if 
its freighting history was excelled by any other place on the river 
excepting Kansas City. 

Before Atchison's second birthday, several Utah freighters, includ- 
ing Livingston and Kinkead, the most important in Utah, had 
shipped goods from it. Tutt and Dougherty, freighters to Fort 
Laramie, also helped crowd the levee with their freight. 30 Residents 
believed they were witnessing the childhood of a future St. Louis or 
Cincinnati, and declared that there "are one-horse towns in Kansas, 
but Atchison is not on that list." 31 

In February, 1858, a local editor stated as almost a certainty that 
"the larger portion of the Salt Lake and California trade" and "the 
chief portion of the supplies for the Utah army" would start from 
Atchison. Warehouses, forwarding, and commission houses should 
be established at once. 32 Everything must be made ready for these 
gentlemen of the Plains, the freighters. The wharf was extended, 
and the hill at the levee graded back several feet. Then as the 
steamers puffed up with goods from St. Louis and Eastern marts, 
pipe dreams were woven around the Atchison of the future. Located 
on the western point of the "Grand Detour" of the Missouri, why 
was this not the town to become the Giant of the West, the doorway 
through which the "gigantic commerce of those plains will pour 
. . . [?]" Santa Fe would be the principal city of the South- 
so. Atchison Squatter Sovereign, May 6, 27, July 1, 8, 1856. 

31. Ibid., May 6, 1856. 

32. Freedom's Champion, February 20, 1858. 



302 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

west, hence the inevitable conclusion that railroads from Chicago 
would reach to Navajo land by way of Fort Riley and Atchison, the 
"only points on an air line between those two places. . . ." 33 

That spring the two commission houses were "completely filled 
with boxes, bales, barrels. . . ." Each boat lay at the levee 
nearly a day unloading. Everything bustled with activity, for a 
new day seemed at hand. 34 Most of this freight was for Utah. 
Every army sutler, it was reported, outfitted at Atchison while the 
government supplies for the Utah army went forth from Leaven- 
worth. A Kansas City contemporary, who did not have the greatest 
of respect for Leavenworth either, quoted an article in Freedom's 
Champion which said that such could be explained only "because 
government is swindled and cheated by men who have large interests 
in Leavenworth, and pays exhorbitant [sic] prices for shipping goods 
from disadvantageous points. . . ." 35 Besides the Salt Lake 
and army sutler trains, a few traders brought in furs and took out 
goods, and stage supplies for the California-Salt Lake mail were 
shipped from Atchison. A summary of the activities of the year 
shows that seven wagons outfitted for Green River, nine for Marys- 
ville, thirteen for Labonto, twenty for Palmetto, fifty-one for Fort 
Kearny, nine for Fort Laramie, eighty-nine for the mail stations, 
and 577 for Salt Lake, or a total of 775 wagons. 36 This does not in- 

33. Ibid., March 20, 1858. 

34. Ibid., April 10, 1858. 

35. Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, Mo., August 28, 1858. 

36. This compilation of overland freighters and freighting leaving Atchison in 1858 was 
taken from Freedom's Champion, October 30, 1858. Some corrections have been made. 
Train destinations are shown first ; names of owners, their residences, names of freighters, 
their residences, and number of wagons in the caravan, follow. 

Salt Lake City Radford, Cabot & Co., St. Louis; P. M. Chouteau & Co., Kansas City, 32 
wagons. 

S. L. M. stations John M. Hockaday & Co., mail contractors; First Supply Train, Inde- 
pendence, 10 wagons. 

Salt Lake City Dyer, Mason & Co., Independence; W. H. Dyer & Co., Independence, 60 
wagons. 

Salt Lake City S^ G. Mason & Co., Independence; E. C. Chiles, Independence, 27 wagons. 

Salt Lake City Radford, Cabot & Co., St. Louis; J. B. Doyle, New Mexico, 38 wagons. 

S. L. M. stations John M. Hockaday & Co., mail contractors; Second Supply Train, In- 
dependence, 10 wagons. 

Salt Lake City C. C. Branham, Weston; C. C. Branham, Weston, 28 wagons. 

Salt Lake City C. A. Perry & Co., Weston; C. A. Perry & Co., Weston, 91 wagons. 

Fort Kearny R. H. Dyer & Co., Fort Kearny; R. H. Dyer & Co., Fort Kearny, 38 wagons. 

Palmetto F. J. Marshall, Marysville; F. J. Marshall, Marysville, 20 wagons. 

Salt Lake City Irvin & Young, Independence; Irvin & Young, Independence, 32 wagons. 

Salt Lake City Livingston, Kinkead & Co., New York; Irvin & Young, Independence, 52 
wagons. 

Salt Lake City J. M. Guthrie & Co., Weston; S. M. Guthrie & Co., Weston, 50 wagons. 

Salt Lake City Curtas Clayton, Leavenworth; C. C. Branham, Weston, 12 wagons. 

Fort Laramie Reynald & McDonald, Fort Laramie; Reynald & McDonald, Fort Laramie, 

9 wagons. 

Green River C. Martin, Green River; C. Martin, Green River, 7 wagons. 

Salt Lake City Livingston, Kinkead & Co., New York; Hord & Smith, Independence. 40 

wagons. 
Salt Lake City and Way Points Hord & Smith, Independence; Hord & Smith, Independence, 

10 wagons. 

Labonto Bisonette & Lazinette, Deer Creek; Bisonette & Lazinette, Deer Creek, 13 wagons. 
Marysville Ballord & Moralle, Marysville; J. S. Watson, Marysville, 9 wagons. 
Fort Kearny R. H. Dyer & Co., Fort Kearny; R. H. Dyer & Co., 13 wagons. 



WYMAN: ATCHISON, A FRONTIER DEPOT 303 

elude any that may have loaded for Pike's Peak late that fall. 
There was good reason for the mayor to say that "small as she 
is ... Atchison excels. . . ." 37 

Thus at the time when other river towns above Kansas City were 
just getting the freighting fever, Atchison had a lion's share of it, 
and apparently had the Utah trade monopolized. At that time the 
Mormon trade was rightly regarded as the greatest of all Western 
markets. The population of the whole Salt Lake valley was esti- 
mated at twenty to thirty thousand and was constantly increasing. 
The Missouri river town which could keep it, even if most of it 
was commission business rather than direct sale, was certain of 
recognition when railroads should be built west. 

Although Atchison profited somewhat by the Denver and Indian 
trade, the greatest increase came from the Mormon valley. The 
number of wagons sent out the next year increased nearly twenty 
percent, or to 954. 38 A. S. Parker & Co. and D. W. Adams seem to 
have become overnight the great commission houses. 39 The city 
council, grasping fully the potential future of Atchison, ordered 
property owners on Commercial street at the levee to lay a brick or 
stone pavement. 40 The channel of the river and the landing ap- 
peared to be permanent. The back country was filling up with 
sturdy farmers eager to produce a surplus. The prairies to the west 
afforded good grass and camp sites for freighters. As Atchison en- 
tered 1860 success seemed certain, even if a federal government 
could not see the advantages of sending forth from it all of its con- 
tractors. A keen-minded contemporary wrote: 

No one could question the commercial importance of Atchison during the 
spring of 1860, because no other city in the great Missouri valley enjoyed 
such advantages in the way of overland transportation. It was nothing unusual 
to see two or three steamboats lying at the levee discharging freight, and as 
many more on the river in sight, either above or below the city. ... It 
was no uncommon thing, during the spring of 1860, to see great quantities of 
freight, in the shape of thousands of wagons and ox-yokes, mining machinery, 
boilers, and other material, and the provisions necessary to supply the thou- 
sands of people then flocking to the great West. Tons of stuff were piled on 

S. L. M. stations John M. Hockaday & Co., Independence; Third Supply Train, 57 wagons. 

Cal. & S. L. Stat's Geo. Chorpoening, California; A. J. Schell, Pennsylvania, 12 wagons. 

Salt Lake City Hockaday, Burr & Co., Salt Lake City; Hockaday, Burr & Co., Utah, 105 

wagons. 

A total of 3,730,905 pounds was shipped, using 1,114 men, 7,963 oxen, 1,286 mules, 142 
horses. Wagons valued at, $200 each, mules $100, horses $150, and oxen $35. These statis- 
tics were also given in ibid.. March 10, 1860. 

37. Speech given at opening of Massasoit House. Ibid., September 11, 1858. 

38. The summary given in ibid., March 10, 1860, for the year 1859 was 954 wagons, 
1,168 men, 9,235 oxen, 627 mules, 141 horses, and 4,020,000 pounds. Also see summaries 
for 1858, 1859 and 1860 in ibid., November 3, 1860. 

39. See detailed account of their business that spring in ibid., April 16, 1859. 

40. Ibid., June 18, 1859. 



304 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the levee and in the warehouses. It was common to see immense quantities 
of heavy freight stacked up for several blocks along the levee, and every ware- 
house was packed with groceries, provisions, clothing, boots and shoes, etc., 
awaiting transportation. . . . 41 

Apparently the Denver market proved to be attractive to a grow- 
ing number of enterprises. Only four firms were engaged in the Salt 
Lake traffic, while about forty turned toward the mines, including 
J. B. Doyle, famous freighter on the Santa Fe trail. 42 Irwin, Jack- 
man & Co., rising government contractors of the sixties, dispatched 
nearly twenty trains from Atchison for Forts Laramie and Kearny 
and the posts in Utah. The total commerce of the year of over 1,600 
wagons showed that the city now ranked second as an army depot, 
third or fourth in private freighting, and second or third in the Den- 
ver traffic. About 320 wagons for the army and 700 for Denver and 
Salt Lake were sent out. St. Joseph apparently captured some of 
the Utah business. 43 The reason for the general increase was due 

41. Root and Connelley, op. cit., p. 305. 

42. Freedom's Champion, March 3, 10, 17, April 28, May 12, September 1, 22, 1860; 
"Commerce on the Prairies," Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, New York. v. 
XLIV, pp. 42, 43; Root and Connelley, op. cit.. footnote on pages 419, 420; Albert Watkins 
(ed.), History of Nebraska (Lincoln, 1913), v. Ill, p. 377, quoting Capt. H. E. Palmer. 

43. Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, v. XLIV, pp. 43-45, gives the total 
as 1,220 wagons, but Root and Connelley, op. cit., and Captain Palmer, quoted by Watkins, 
op. cit., give this total: 1,328 wagons, 1,549 men, 401 mules, 15,263 oxen, 6,590,875 pounds 
of freight. 

Freedom's Champion, of November 3, 1860, gave 1,717 wagons, 2,014 men, 16.188 oxen, 
2,460 mules, and 8,088,911 pounds of merchandise. The following is the Champion's 
statistical data for 1860, as corrected by the writer: 

By A. S. Parker & Co. 













Lbs. 


Freighters, and Destination 


Wagons 


Men 


Mules 


Oxen 


Md'se. 


Livingston, Bell & Co., Salt Lake city 


60 


64 


8 


860 


187,000 


S. Kneidson, Salt Lake city 


16 


20 


66 


. 


48,000 


Clayton & Lowe, Denver city 


10 


12 


40 


. . 


30,000 


Jas. B. Doyle, Denver city , 


46 


48 


8 


450 


173,875 


John Dold & Bro., Denver city 


35 


38 


4 


420 


71,000 


Arnold & Marten, Denver city 


3 


4 


9 


24 


9,806 


Cligham & Bro., Colorado city 


8 


8 


3 


96 


15,500 


Wm. McClarkle, Denver city 










5,358 


S. Knipe, Denver city 










5,554 


A. Hanuere, Denver city 










51,104 


Seth E. Ward, Fort Laramie 


8 


12 


4 


96 


45,522 


Bogy, McKnight & Bingham, Denver city 










20,924 


Wm. A. Carter, Fort Bridger 










29,184 


Jas. Rogers, Denver city 


2 


4 


2 


24 


5,184 


J. B. Doyle & Co., Denver city 


43 


46 


3 


516 


233,867 


J. Dold & Co., Denver city 


24 


26 


2 


288 


112,174 


Hugh Murdock, Denver city 


23 


25 


2 


276 


109,081 


T. M. Fisher, Denver city 


17 


19 


2 


204 


87,824 


M. C. Fisher, Denver city 










10,800 


C. J. Couard, Denver city 










10,063 


R. C. Ewing, Denver city 


20 


22 


2 


240 


102,106 


S. E. Ward, Fort Laramie 


20 


24 


4 


240 


121,978 


S. Kneidson, Denver city , 


14 


18 


88 


. . . 


26,500 


J. Rallston, Mountain city 


14 


17 


3 


168 


67,997 


Wallingford & Murphy, Denver city 


11 


13 


2 


132 


49,500 


Total 


373 


420 


245 


3,774 


1,629,901 



WYMAN : ATCHISON, A FRONTIER DEPOT 



305 



By Home & Chouteau 













Lbs. 


Freighters, and Destination 


Wagons 


Men 


Mules 


Oxen 


Md'te. 


M. Elsback A Co., Denver city 


53 


59 


250 


72 


165,340 


Jones & Cartwright, Denver city 


56 


63 


672 


8 


313,600 


J. B. Doyle A Co., Santa Fe 


15 


20 


90 


4 


68,904 


W. S. Williams, Pike's Peak 


6 


8 




36 


18,000 


N. P. Perry, Denver city 


5 


11 




30 


20,800 


J. Samuels, Denver city 


10 


12 


i20 


3 


48,000 


C. H. Graliot, Salt Lake city 


20 


30 


240 


6 


51,980 


Freport Mining Co., Denver city 


10 


11 


122 


3 


41,000 


Myers A Lockhart, Denver city 


3 


10 


18 




8,000 


Almy & Fisher, Denver city 


10 


13 


120 


3 


40,000 


L. B. Gaylord, Denver city 


2 


3 




12 


6,463 


Baker A Reed, Denver city 


3 


4 


24 


2 


10,493 


J. M. Brodwell, Denver city 


2 


4 




12 


4,860 


D. D. White A Co., Pike's Peak 


7 


14 


100 


2 


29,784 


Maxwell A Walker, Denver city 
Roberts A Landerdale, Denver city 


2 
20 


2 
24 


12 

54 


200 


4,026 
84,690 


B. F. Coons, Denver city 


18 


22 


180 


4 


31,500 


R. S. Watson, Denver city 


3 


4 


18 


1 


12,000 


Jones A Cartwright, Denver city 


2 


3 




12 


4,026 


Gilbert A Gerrish, Salt Lake city 


10 


12 


3 


120 


59,428 


A. Hays A Bro., Denver city 


7 


8 


2 


84 


42,119 


Roberts A Landerdale, Denver city 


12 


14 


4 


144 


70,340 


T. M. Digby, Salt Lake city 


8 


10 


2 


96 


48,213 


T. Davis, Denver city 
Jones A Cartwright, Denver city 


10 
85 


12 
110 


3 

12 


120 
1,020 


59.559 
512,860 


Total 


379 


483 


2,046 


1,994 


1.755,985 


By D. W. 


Adams 










Tim Goodale, Green River 


8 


16 


4 


80 


32,000 


F. Boisvesh, Denver city 


6 


10 


2 


40 


24,010 


M. Marten, Green River 


10 


15 


5 


86 


36,457 


J. Ferrier, Denver city 


7 


10 


2 


60 


20,000 


Wallingford A Murphy, Denver city 


20 


25 


6 


160 


70,000 


J. C. Davis A Co., Denver city 


6 


10 


4 


24 


24,000 


Fenten A Purcell, Denver city 


12 


15 


4 


100 


60,000 


W. E. Brown A Co., Denver city 


7 


10 


3 


70 


30,000 


W. Kinkead, Denver city 


5 


10 


2 


30 


20,000 




20 


25 


5 


160 


67,000 


J. E. Walker, Salt Lake city 


25 


30 


6 


200 


100,000 


D. D. White A Co., Denver city 


75 


90 


10 


600 


300.000 


D. D. White A Co., Denver city 


25 


30 


6 


250 


100.000 


C. Antoine, Scotts Bluff 


5 


7 


2 


50 


20,000 


J. Turgeon, Scotts Bluff 


7 


10 


1 


70 


28,000 


D. D. White A Co., Denver city 


69 


49 


2 


690 


310.000 


Total 


307 


362 


64 


2,670 


1,241.467 


By Irwin, Jackman & Co., U. 


S. Government Freighters 


Six trains to Fort Kearny 


106 


120 


12 


1,320 


598,000 


Two trains to Utah territory 


26 


30 


4 


330 


126,482 


Ten trains to Fort Laramie 


312 


360 


50 


3,960 


1,800,000 


Total 


444 


510 


66 


5,610 


2,524,482 


By Sundry Private Traders 


D. Bivins A Co., Denver city 


22 


25 


3 


220 


90,000 


Spottswood A Jacobs, Mountain city 


35 


40 


5 


350 


154,576 


D. Bivins A Co., Denver city 


25 


30 


4 


250 


110,000 


Eli C. Mason, Pike's Peak 


25 


29 


4 


250 


110,000 


D. Bivins A Co., Denver city 


22 


25 


3 


220 


90,000 


Sundry freighters, Denver A Utah 


85 


90 


20 


850 


382,500 


Total 


214 


239 


39 


2,140 


937,076 


Grand Total of 


Freighting 










By Home A Chouteau , 


379 


483 


2,046 


1,994 


1,755,985 


By A. S. Parker A Co 
By Government Freighters 


373 
444 


420 
510 


245 
66 


3,774 
5.610 


1,629,901 
2,524,482 


By D. W. Adams , 


307 


362 


64 


2,670 


1,241,467 


By Sundry Freighters 


214 


239 


39 


2,140 


937,076 



Grand Total 1,717 2,014 2,460 16,188 8,088,911 



203781 



306 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

largely to government patronage ; the growth of the commerce to the 
Denver area was attributable to local merchants establishing stores 
and to a transfer to that field of the Salt Lake freighters. Perhaps 
the $3,500 spent in improving the trail west of town to where it 
joined the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Kearny military trail had some 
effect. 44 It is probable that the extension of the Hannibal and St. 
Joseph railroad to Atchison was more important than that. That 
railway, completed in February, 1860, was to be the greatest factor 
in removing the military depot from Leavenworth, even though most 
of the goods were still brought in 1860 by steamboats. 45 To resi- 
dents came advice from an enthusiastic editor: 

Rejoice! Citizens of Atchison, for ... this Rail Road marks a new 
epoch in the history of this thriving city. . . . Rejoice! everybody, east, 
west, north and south, for this Rail Road has opened a new avenue to the 
fertile prairies of Kansas, and a new field of trade, commerce, and social in- 
tercourse. Atchison must inevitably be the mart the great entre-pot for the 
freight from the East and the exhaustless commerce of Kansas, New Mexico 
and Utah for all time. . . , 46 

Regardless of cause Atchison in 1860 occupied a position that 
was envied by most of the upper river towns. In the next few years 
this town with a favorable geographic location held its own. One 
government contractor shipped from there in 1862, but the circum- 
stances of war had driven others elsewhere. The ordinary assump- 
tion is that Atchison declined during the years of the Civil War, but 
a local paper listing incomplete figures on the commerce of 1862, 
showed over 4,000,000 pounds of freight shipped west, and claimed 
the total was twice that amount. 47 The levee was extended as if 
great business were being done. It claimed a greater share of the 
Denver trade than Leavenworth had, and there seems to be little 
reason to doubt it. 

The year 1865 will go down in Atchison's history as one of the 
greatest in the overland freighting business. That towering capitalist 
of the frontier, D. A. Butterfield of the Overland Despatch, the 
largest taxpayer in Atchison county, 48 ran trains not only to Colo- 

44. Ibid., March 10, 1860. 

45. Root and Connelley, op. cit.. pp. 416-420. 

46. Atchison Union, February 25, 1860. 

47. Freedom's Champion, January 10, 1863. In 1860, according to Root and Connelley, 
op. cit., pp. 430-433, and in 1861, as given by The Weekly Bulletin, Atchison, July 11, 1861. 
an experiment was made with a "steam wagon." The Bulletin's story reported that the 
contraption ran into a commission house and broke a boy's leg before it was abandoned as 
impracticable. 

48. The Weekly Free Press, Atchison, August 10, 1865, reports Butterfield as paying 
U. S. income tax for 1864 upon an assessment of $74,400, more than four times as much 
as the next wealthiest taxpayer. 



WYMAN: ATCHISON, A FRONTIER DEPOT 307 

rado, but also to Santa Fe, Utah, and Bannock City, Idaho. 49 
Freighters and merchants as numerous as cattle had been a decade 
before milled about the wharf. Neither the Indian troubles on the 
Platte, nor the reported improvements in mining machinery which 
made necessary a return of much that was already there on the 
wharf affected the business. 50 A Colorado editor gave Atchison 
credit for being the greatest depot for the trade of that area, 51 and 
Samuel Bowles, an Easterner with a Western complex, wrote that 
this town was "one of the chief points on the border for the trans- 
shipment, from cars and steamboats to wagons, of goods of all sorts 
bound to the mines of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, &c., and the saints 
of Utah." 52 About 5,000 wagons manned by swearing drivers with 
cracking whips pulled the 21,541,830 pounds of freight from the 
levee that year a record probably not equalled by another town 
on the river at any time, and never again by Atchison. 53 The 
streets of the city may have been almost impassable and the road 
west to the military trail in the same condition, but even that could 
not overcome the advantages which freighters believed the town 
possessed. 

The rumble of the express wagons and coaches leaving Atchison 
in 1866 was merely the prelude to a new day. Wagons still loaded 
for Salt Lake, Colorado, and Indian trading posts that year, and 
perhaps for a few years afterward. 54 One or more trains of dry 
hides came through, but even the Indian merchants seemed to have 
deserted the town. The city was getting more interested in the 
"country trade than she ever has before." 55 Even the upper Mis- 
souri trade area was sought by "sleepless, vigilant, enterprising and 
powerful competitors. . . ." 56 The reputation abroad, that 
given to all towns harboring bullwhackers, began to cast a "gloomy 
feeling" over some. One of the predecessors of the crusaders for a 
purer Kansas wrote: 

It is thrown in our teeth that we are governed by whisky; that we have no 

49. Ibid., May 13, August 10, September 21, 28, October 5, 21, 1865. 

50. The Daily Free Press, Atchison, May 13, 1865. 

51. Miners' Register quoted in the Kansas City (Mo.) Daily Journal of Commerce, 
January 7, 1866. 

52. Samuel Bowles, Across the Continent (Springfield, Mass., 1865), p. 4; also quoted 
in The Weekly Free Press, February 10, 1866. 

53. Root and Connelley, op. dt., p. 419, state that 27,685 oxen, 6,164 mules, and 1,256 
men were employed. The total tonnage is also given by W. L. Visscher, The Pony Express 
(Chicago, 1908), p. 18. 

54. Eighty tons of ore from Colorado were shipped overland to Atchison en route to 
Swansea, Wafes, for testing before the owners would invest more in the mines. The cost of 
freighting as far east as Atchison was $55 per ton. The Weekly Free Press, September 29, 1866. 

55. Ibid., November 10, 1866. 

56. Ibid., February 24, 1866. 



308 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Sunday law ; that in Atchison the Sabbath day is devoted in making drunkards ; 
that our authorities have not the power to close the saloons on Sundays, even 
if they were so disposed. . . , 57 

The town was only reaping the wild oats it had sown. "Famous 
as a depot, notorious as a town of grog shops and bawdy houses," 
might well have been a proverb. The town had "made good." Un- 
fortunately located as to the vast commerce of the Southwest, most 
favorably located of the Kansas towns as to distance and trails west 
to Denver and Salt Lake, too low on the river to get a great pro- 
portion of the Montana trade, its record was consistently good. It 
had a monopoly on none, but a part of all, including a few wagons 
to New Mexico. 

Today Atchison lies in a cup, surrounded by lazy hills on all sides 
but the east. The languid Missouri writhes by the business section 
as in days of old. From the hilltops one can see a winding pave- 
ment leading southeast to Leavenworth, the famous rival of other 
years. Today, however, St. Joseph and Kansas City cast the dark 
shadow, not Leavenworth. The population of 13,000 engaged in 
processing and wholesaling still speak reverently of their pioneers 
and value the memory of stage and steamboat days. It is a river 
town that succeeded in a minor way, failing to achieve greatness, 
not because of lack of efforts between 1855 and 1870, but because 
geography decreed otherwise. Growth of these frontier towns de- 
pended upon being in line with major cities like Chicago or St. 
Louis. Atchison was not so favored. 

57. Ibid., December 9, 1865. Letter from "Pro Bono." 



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 and local history; 
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, 1940, to September 30, 1941. 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 

ALLEN, HENRY JUSTIN, Venezuela, a Democracy. New York, Doubleday, Doran 
and Company, 1940. 

AYDELOTTE, DORA, Across the Prairie. New York, D. Appleton-Century Com- 
pany, 1941. 

BARTLING, EDWARD D., John Henry Kagy and the Old Log Cabin Home. 2d 
rev. ed. [Nebraska City, n. p., c!940.] 

BEALS, CARLETON, The Great Circle, Further Adventures in Freelancing. Phila- 
delphia, J. B. Lippincott Company [c!940]. 

, Pan America. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1940. 

BOSWELL, PEYTON, JR., Varnum Poor. New York, The Hyperion Press, Harper 
and Brothers [c!941]. 

BRADSHAW, CLEM, Brad's Bit 0' Verse. Glendale, Cal., Griffin-Patterson Pub- 
lishing Company [c!940]. 

BRAYER, HERBERT OLIVER, To Form a More Perfect Union, the Lives of Charles 
Francis and Mary Clarke From Their Letters, 1847-1871. Albuquerque [Uni- 
versity of New Mexico Press, 1941]. 

BROOKS, LOUISE, The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing. N. p. [c!940]. 

CALL, LELAND EVERETT, and HARRY LLEWELLYN KENT, Agriculture for the Kan- 
sas Common Schools . . . Topeka, Kansas State Printing Plant, 1940: 

(309) 



310 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

CHAMBERS, LLOYD W., Original Ideas in Magic. Topeka, Chambers Magic 
Company [c!941]. 

CHASE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Chase County Historical Sketches, Vol. 1. 
[Emporia, Emporia Gazette, 1940.] 

CHILD, MRS. LYDIA MARIA (FRANCIS), The Kansas Emigrants. (In. her Autumnal 
Leaves . . . , pp. 302-363. New York, C. S. Francis and Company, 1857.) 

CHRISTENSEN, ESTHER E., An Old Fashioned Christmas in the Blue Valley of 
Kansas. N. p., 1940. 

CLARK COUNTY CHAPTER OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Notes on 
Early Clark County, Kansas, Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1939-August 1940. Re- 
printed from The Clark County Clipper. 

CLOUGH, FRANK C., William Allen White of Emporia. New York, Whittlesey 
House [cl941]. 

COPENHAVER, FERNS L., and CHARLES B. ROGERS, Hutchinson in the Arkansas 
Valley. No impr. [c!940]. 

COVERT, ALICE LENT, The Months of Rain. New York, H. C. Kinsey and Com- 
pany, Inc., 1941. 

Cox, GEORGE, Your Probate Court, a Story of the Every Day Work of the 
Wallace County Probate Court: Its History, Organization and Function. 
[Horton, Little Red Book Publishers, 1939.] 

DAUGHTERS OP THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, KANSAS SOCIETY, Proceedings of the 
Forty-Third Annual State Conference, El Dorado, March 25, 26, 27, 1941. 
No impr. 

DAVIDSON, LALLAH SHERMAN, South of Joplin; Story of a Tri-State Diggin's. 
New York, W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. [c!939L 

DAY, ARTHUR GROVE, Coronado's Quest; the Discovery of the Southwestern 
States. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1940. 

DICK, EVERETT NEWFON, Vanguards of the Frontier, a Social History of the 
Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains From the Earliest White Contacts 
to the Coming of the Homemaker. New York, D. Appleton-Century Com- 
pany, 1941. 

DOBIE, JAMES FRANK, The Longhorns. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 
1941. 

DONOGHUE, DAVID, The Location of Quivira. Reprinted from Panhandle Plains 
Historical Review, 1940. 

ELLIS, EDWARD S., The Life of Kit Carson, Hunter, Trapper, Guide, Indian 
Agent and Colonel U. S. A. New York, The American News Company, 1889. 

FINNEY, WARREN W., The Farmers' Unjust Tax Burden. [Emporia?, 1930?] 

GAGLIARDO, DOMENICO, The Kansas Industrial Court, an Experiment in Com- 
pulsory Arbitration. Lawrence [The University of Kansas Press], 1941. 

GILPIN, WILLIAM, Notes on Colorado, and Its Inscription in the Physical Geog- 
raphy of the North American Continent. [London, Witherby and Com- 
pany, 1870.] 

GLADSTONE, THOMAS S., Bilder und Skizzen aus Kansas . . . Leipzig, Ar- 
noldische Buchhandlung, 1857. 

GOLDEN, MRS. EMMA BAUER, The Kindergarten Curriculum. Chicago, Morgan- 
Dillon and Company [c!940]. 

GOLDEN, JOHN R., Church Officers' Guide. N. p. [The Standard Publishing 
Company, c!940]. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 311 

GOWANS, JAMES WALTER, Twenty-five Years of the Kansas State Teachers As- 
sociation ... an Address January 31, 1941. [Published by the friends 
of F. L. Pinet for private distribution, April 1, 1941.] 

HAMMOND, GEORGE P., and AGAPITO REY, Narratives of the Coronado Expedi- 
tion of 1540-154^. Albuquerque, The University of New Mexico Press, 1940. 

HANKINS, JOHN ERSKINE, The Life and Works of George Turbervile. Law- 
rence, University of Kansas, 1940. (Humanistic Studies, No. 25.) 

HERTZLER, ARTHUR E., The Doctor and His Patients; the American Domestic 
Scene as Viewed by the Family Doctor. New York, Harper and Brothers 
[c!940]. 

HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY, KANSAS, Inventory of the County Archives of 
Kansas . . . No. 70, Osage County (Lyndon). Topeka, The Kansas His- 
torical Records Survey, 1941. 

, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 89, Shaw- 
nee County (Topeka). Topeka, The Kansas Historical Records Survey, 
December, 1940. 

, Osage County Commissioners' Journal Vol. "C," 1877-1882. Typed. 

HOINVILLE, MRS. JULIA SIMONS, The Awakening of Dennis O'Day; the Story 
of a Boy. [Chicago, n. p., 1940.] 

HOLLAND, IDA B., Give Me the Light. [Junction City, The Sentinel Printery 
Print] c!940. 

HOLLAND, RAYMOND PRUNTY, My Gun Dogs. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany [c!929], 

, Nip and Tuck. Philadelphia, The Penn Publishing Company [c!939L 

HUGHES, LANGSTON, The Big Sea, an Autobiography. New York, Alfred A. 
Knopf, 1940. 

HUGHES, THOMAS WELBURN, Was Jesus Guilty f or the Legal Aspects of the 
Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus. Topeka, Voiland Publishing Company, 1927. 

KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, Transactions, Vol. 43. Topeka, Kansas State 
Printing Plant, 1940. 

KANSAS AUTHORS CLUB, Quotation Year Book 1940. No impr. 

[Kansas City, St. Mary's Church], 1940 Annual; The Bells of St. Mary's. 
[Kansas City, Kan., City Printing Company, 1940.] 

KANSAS FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS, DIVISION OF LITERATURE, A Compila- 
tion of Poems [1938-1939]. No impr. 

KANSAS LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, Absentee Voting . . . 
[Topeka, 1941.] (Publication, No. 109, January, 1941.) Mimeographed. 

, Analysis of State Printing Costs. (Publication, No. Ill, February, 

1941.) Mimeographed. 

, Claims Against the State; Adjustment and Allowance of Claims 

Against the State of Kansas; Claims Practices in Other States, and Appli- 
cation of Possible Procedures to the Kansas Situation. (Publication, No. 
106, November, 1940.) Mimeographed. 

Free Textbook Programs; Survey of Legislation and Administrative 



Practices, Method of Financing and Installation in Other States, and Possible 
Application to Kansas. (Publication, No. 103, November, 1940.) Mimeo- 
graphed. 

-, Over-all Tax Limitation; the Problem of Application in Kansas, and a 



Summary of the Laws of Other States . . . (Publication, No. 110, Jan- 
uary, 1941.) Mimeographed. 



312 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

, Personal Property Taxation in Kansas; Part I, Policy and Administra- 
tion . . . (Publication, No. 100, July, 1940.) Mimeographed. 
, Premarital Examination Laws . . . (Publication, No. 108, January, 



1941.) Mimeographed. 

, Reorganization oj Kansas State Financial Administration. (Publication, 

No. 104, November, 1940.) Mimeographed. 

State Registration and Licensing of Architects; Survey of General 



Types and Salient Features of Laws of Other States and Fundamentals of 
Registration Procedure. (Publication, No. 107, January, 1941.) Mimeo- 
graphed. 

, State Regulation of Weights and Measures, Review of Present Ad- 
ministrative Organization in Kansas, Possibilities for a More Comprehensive 
and Coordinated System, and Regulation in Other States. (Publication, No. 
105, November, 1940.) Mimeographed. 

Kansas Magazine, 1941. Manhattan, Kansas State College Press, c!940. 

KANSAS UNIVERSITY, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, Studies in English in Honor of 
Raphael Dorman O'Leary and Selden Lincoln Whitcomb. Lawrence, Uni- 
versity of Kansas, 1940. (Humanistic Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4.) 

KANSAS UNIVERSITY, STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, Resource-Full Kansas. By 
Kenneth K. Landes and Oren R. Bingham. [Topeka, Kansas State Printing 
Plant] 1940. 

KITCH, KENNETH (VICTOR HOLMES, pseud.), Salt of the Earth, With an Intro- 
duction by William Allen White. New York, The Macmillan Company, 
1941. 

LEAGUE OF KANSAS MUNICIPALITIES, Federal, State, County, and Township 1940; 
General Election Supplement to 1939-1940; Kansas Directory of Public Offi- 
cials. Lawrence, League of Kansas Municipalities, 1940. 

, Kansas Directory of Public Officials (Federal, State, County, City, 

School, and Township), and Index to Counties and Cities. Lawrence, League 
of Kansas Municipalities, 1941. 

LEGAL DIRECTORIES PUBLISHING COMPANY, The Kansas Legal Directory, 1941. 
Springfield, 111., Legal Directories Publishing Company, c!940. 

LIND, L. R., Medieval Latin Studies: Their Nature and Possibilities. Lawrence 
[University of Kansas Press], 1941. 

LOWTHER, CHARLES C., Dodge City, Kansas. Philadelphia, Dorrance and Com- 
pany [c!940]. 

MCCLINTOCK, MARSHALL, The Story of the Mississippi. New York, Harper and 
Brothers [c!941]. 

Marion, Kansas. Shawnee, Okla., The Printing Bureau, March, 1926. 

MARKHAM, R[EUBEN] H., The Wave of the Past. Chapel Hill, The University 
of North Carolina Press, 1941. 

MARTIN, WILLIAM, "Out and Forward" or Recollections of the War of 1861 to 
1865. [Manhattan, Art Craft Printers, c!941.] 

MOORE, RAYMOND C., Ground-Water Resources of Kansas. [Lawrence, Univer- 
sity of Kansas, 1940.] (State Geological Survey of Kansas, Bulletin, No. 27.) 

NAISMITH, JAMES, Basketball; Its Origin and Development. New York, Asso- 
ciation Press, 1941. 

NORMAN, H. C., comp., [History of Hodgeman County]. Mimeographed 
[1941]. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 313 

OLSON, ALMA LUISE, Scandinavia; The Background for Neutrality. Phila- 
delphia, J. B. Lippincott Company [c!940]. 

OLSON, ERNST WILLIAM, Olof Olsson: The Man, His Work, and His Thought. 
Rock Island, 111., Augustana Book Concern [1941]. 

PARRISH, FKED Louis, The Classification of Religions: Its Relation to the His- 
tory of Religions. [Scottdale, Pa., Herald Press, c!941.] 

Folk's Emporia (Lyon County, Kansas) City Directory, 1958-1939, Including 
Lyon County. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 

Folk's Leavenworth (Leavenworth County, Kansas) City Directory, 1939, In- 
cluding Leavenworth County. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, 
c!939. 

Folk's Pittsburg (Crawford County, Kansas) City Directory, 1938. Kansas 
City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 

Folk's Salina (Saline County, Kansas) City Directory, 1929, Including Saline 
County Taxpayers. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!929. 

Folk's Wichita (Kansas) City Directory, 1929, 1940. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!929, c!940. 

Folk's Winfield (Cowley County, Kansas) City Directory, 1939, Including 
Cowley County Taxpayers. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, 
c!939. 

RAILWAY AND LOCOMOTIVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Locomotives of the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe System . . . Boston, The Railway and Locomotive 
Historical Society, Inc., 1939. 

RASCOE, BURTON, Belle Starr "The Bandit Queen" . . . New York City, 
Random House, 1941. 

RICH, EVERETT, William Allen White, the Man From Emporia. New York, 
Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. [c!941]. 

RONNEGARD, SAM, Salemsborg Fran Emigrationens Sverige Och Svensk-Amer- 
ikas Upp-Komst. Stockholm, Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsens [19403. 

SCHROLL, SISTER M. ALFRED, Benedictine Monasticism as Reflected in the 
Warnefrid-Hildemar Commentaries on the Rule. New York, Columbia Uni- 
versity Press, 1941. 

SCOTT, ANGELO C., A Boyhood in Old Carlyle. [Reprinted from The lola 
Register] 1940. 

SEARS, ETHEL M., Dear Yesterday. Los Angeles, Suttonhouse [c!939]. 

Shawnee Indians in Kansas. No impr. 

SHELDON, CHARLES MONROE, Howard Chase, Red Hill, Kansas. New York, 
George H. Doran Company, c!918. 

, One of the Two. Chicago, Fleming H. Revell Company [c!898]. 

STEWART, EDWARD LOVELLE, Poems of a Doctor. Kansas City, Mo., The Brown- 
White Company [c!940]. 

STEWART, MRS. GRACE BLISS, Good Fairy, The. Chicago, The Reilly and Lee 
Company [c!930]. 

, In and Out of the Jungle. Boston, D. C. Heath and Company [c!922]. 

, In the Jungle With Cheerups and the Quixies. Boston, Little, Brown, 

and Company, 1923. 

STREETER, FLOYD BENJAMIN, The Kaw; The Heart of a Nation. New York, 
Farrar and Rinehart [c!941]. 

STRICKLAND, F. P., JR., A Grand Master Mason. N. p. [c!941]. 



314 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

TAFT, ROBERT, Across the Years on Mount Oread 1866 . . . 1941; An In- 
formal and Pictorial History of the University of Kansas. Lawrence, The 
University of Kansas, 1941. 

TALLMADGE, SISTER MARY RAPHAELLA, Father Weikmann, Missionary of the 
Kansas Frontier: A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in 
Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts, Department of History, Uni- 
versity of Wichita. Typed. 

VESTAL, STANLEY, King of the Fur Traders; The Deeds and Deviltry of Pierre 
Esprit Radisson. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1940. 

, Writing Magazine Fiction. New York, Doubleday Doran and Com- 
pany, 1940. 

WHITE, WILLIAM LINDSAY, The Last Christmas Tree; A Broadcast Presented 
From the Finnish-Russian Front Christmas, 1939 . . . No impr. 

WHITEFORD, GUY L., Indian Archaeology in Saline County, Kansas. Salina, 
Consolidated [c!941]. 

WICHITA REAL ESTATE BOARD, Realtors Year Book, 1941. [Wichita, Wichita 
Real Estate Board, 1941.] 

WILLIAMS, ROBERT R., and TOM D. SPIES, Vitamin B (Thiamin) and Its Use in 
Medicine. New York, The Macmillan Company [c!938]. 

WILSON, SAMUEL, This Is My Kansas. Topeka, Kansas State Chamber of 
Commerce [1941]. 

WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION, WRITERS' PROGRAM, KANSAS, A Guide to Fort 
Scott, Kansas. Fort Scott, Monitor Binding and Printing Company [1940]. 

, A Guide to Hillsboro, Kansas. Hillsboro, The Mennonite Brethren 

Publishing House [1940]. 

, Herington, Kansas. Herington, Chamber of Commerce [1941]. 

THE WEST 

[ADAIR, MRS. BETHENIA ANGELINA (OWENS)], Dr. Owens-Adair; Some of Her 
Life Experiences. [Portland, Ore., Mann & Beach, Printers, 1906?] 

BLACK, ELEANORA, and SIDNEY ROBERTSON, comps., The Gold Rush Song Book, 
Comprising a Group of Twenty-five Authentic Ballads . . . San Francisco, 
The Colt Press, 1940. 

BONSAL, STEPHEN, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a Pioneer in the Path of Empire, 
1822-1903. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912. 

BRAND, DONALD D., and FRED E. HARVEY, eds., So Live the Works of Men; 
Seventieth Anniversary Volume Honoring Edgar Lee Hewett. Albuquerque 
[The University of New Mexico Press], 1939. 

BRIGGS, HAROLD EDWARD, Frontiers of the Northwest; a History of the Upper 
Missouri Valley. New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., 1940. 

COLLOT, GEORGE HENRY VICTOR, A Journey in North America, Containing a Sur- 
vey of the Countries Watered by the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and Other 
Affluing Rivers . . . Paris, Printed for Arthur Bertrand, 1826. 2 Vols., 
and Atlas. (Reprints of Rare Americana No. 4, Firenze, O. Lange, 1924.) 

CROSS, OSBORNE, The March of the Mounted Riflemen, First United States 
Military Expedition to Travel the Full Length of the Oregon Trail From 
Fort Leavenworth to Fort Vancouver, May to October, 1849 . . . Glen- 
dale, Cal., The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1940. 

FAST, HOWARD, The Last Frontier. New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce [c!941]. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 315 

FOREMAN, GRANT, ed., A Pathfinder in the Southwest; the Itinerary of Lieu- 
tenant A. W. Whipple During His Explorations for a Railway Route From 
Fort Smith to Los Angeles in the Years 1853 and 1854. Norman, University 
of Oklahoma Press, 1941. 

FRANCE, GEORGE W., The Struggles for Life and Home in the Northwest. By a 
Pioneer Homebuilder. Life, 1865-1889. New York, J. Goldmann, 1890. 

GARDINER, DOROTHY, West of the River. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Com- 
pany, 1941. 

GOODHART, GEORGE W., The Pioneer Life of George W. Goodhart, and His As- 
sociation With the Hudson's Bay and American Fur Company's Traders and 
Trappers; Trails of Early Idaho, as Told to Abraham C. Anderson. Cald- 
well, Idaho, Caxton Printers, 1940. 

GREELY, ADOLPHUS WASHINGTON, Reminiscences of Adventure and Service; a 
Record of Sixty-five Years. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927. 

GREGG, JOSIAH, Diary and Letters of Josiah Gregg; Southwestern Enterprises, 
1840-1847. Edited by Maurice Garland Fulton. Norman, University of 
Oklahoma Press, 1941. 

GRINNELL, GEORGE BIRD, Beyond the Old Frontier; Adventures of Indian-Fight- 
ers, Hunters, and Fur-Traders. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913. 

HAFEN, LsRoY R., ed., Colorado Gold Rush, Contemporary Letters and Re- 
ports 1858-1859. Glendale, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1941. (South- 
west Historical Series, Vol. 10.) 

, Pike's Peak Gold Rush Guidebooks of 1859 by Luke Tierney, William 
B. Parsons, and Summaries of the Other Fifteen. Glendale, The Arthur H. 
Clark Company, 1941. (Southwest Historical Series, Vol. 9.) 

, and CARL COKE RISTER, Western America, The Exploration, Settle- 



ment, and Development of the Region Beyond the Mississippi. New York, 
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1941. 

HULBERT, ARCHER BUTLER, and DOROTHY PRINTUP HULBERT, eds., Marcus Whit- 
man, Crusader. Part Three, 1843-1847. [Colorado Springs] The Stewart 
Commission of Colorado College and [Denver] the Denver Public Library 
[1941]. 

ILES, ELIJAH, Sketches of Early Life and Times in Kentucky, Missouri and 
Illinois. Springfield, 111., Springfield Printing Company, 1883. 

JOCKNICK, SIDNEY, Early Days on the Western Slope of Colorado and Camp- 
fire Chats With Otto Mears the Pathfinder From 1870 to 1883. Deliver, The 
Carson-Harper Company, 1913. 

LITTLE, JAMES A., Jacob Hamlin, a Narrative of His Personal Experiences as a 
Frontiersman, Missionary to the Indians and Explorer . . . Salt Lake 
City, Juvenile Instructor Office, 1881. 

McKENNA, JAMES A., Black Range Tales Chronicling Sixty Years of Life and 
Adventures in the Southwest. New York, Wilson-Ericson, Inc., 1936. 

MAGARET, HELENE, Father De Smet Pioneer Priest of the Rockies. New York, 
Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. [c!940]. 

MURPHY, JOHN MORTIMER, Rambles in North-Western America From the 
Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. London, Chapman and Hall, 1879. 

SMET, PIERRE JEAN DE, New Indian Sketches. New York, D. & J. Sadlier and 
Company, 1863. 

SPRAGUE, WILLIAM FORREST, Women and the West, a Short Social History. Bos- 
ton, The Christopher Publishing House [c!940L 



316 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

THOMAS, ALFRED BARNABY, Teodoro de Croix and the Northern Frontier of 

New Spain, 1776-1783 . . . Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1941. 
VARGAS ZAPATA Y LUXAN PONZE DE LEON, DIEGO DE, First Exploration of Vargas 

into New Mexico, 1692. Translated, With Introduction and Notes by J. 

Manuel Espinosa . . . Albuquerque, The University of New Mexico 

Press, 1940. 

GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY 

ABBOT, ABIEL, and ABBOT, EPHBAIM, comps., A Genealogical Register of the 
Descendants of George Abbot, of Andover; George Abbot, of Rowley; 
Thomas Abbot, of Andover; Arthur Abbot, of Ipswich; Robert Abbot, of 
Branford, Ct., and George Abbot, of Norwalk, Ct. Boston, James Munroe 
and Company, 1847. 

ADAMS, WILLIAM FREDERICK, Commodore Joshua Barney . . . Also a Com- 
pilation of Genealogical Material Relating to Commodore Barney's Ancestors 
and Descendants . . . Springfield, Mass., Privately Printed, 1912. 

AKERS, GEORGE W., The Story of the Akers Family; Biographical and Autobio- 
graphical, 1764-1924. No impr. 

AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Proceedings at the Annual Meeting, Held in 
Worcester, October 18, 1939. Worcester, Mass., Published by the Society, 
1940. 

AMERICAN CLAN GREGOR SOCIETY, Year Book Containing the Proceedings of the 
Thirty-first Annual Gathering. Richmond, Va. [Cussons, May and Co., 
cl941L 

AMERICAN HISTORICAL COMPANY, INC., comp., Rand, Hale, Strong and Allied 
Families, a Genealogical Study With the Autobiography of Nettie Hale 
Rand. New York, The American Historical Company, Inc., 1940. 

, Shull, Burdsall, Stockton and Allied Families. Compiled and privately 

published for Rena Shull McCahan. New York, The American Historical 
Publishing Company, Inc., 1940. 

ANDERSON, MARY AUDENTIA SMITH, Ancestry and Posterity of Joseph Smith 
and Emma Hale . . . Independence, Mo. [Herald Publishing House], 
1929. 

ARMSTRONG, ZELLA, The History of Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Ten- 
nessee, Vol. 2. Chattanooga, The Lookout Publishing Company [c!940]. 

ARNOLD, ELISHA STEPHEN, comp., The Arnold Memorial; William Arnold of 
Providence and Pawtuxet 1687-1676 and a Genealogy of His Descendants. 
Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1935. 

AUGUR, EDWIN P., Family History and Genealogy of the Descendants of Robert 
Augur of New Haven Colony. Middletown, Conn. [Press of Pelton and 
King], 1904. 

BANKER, HOWARD JAMES, A Partial History and Genealogical Record of the 
Bancker or Banker Families of America . . . [Rutland, The Tuttle Com- 
pany] 1909. 

BASKERVILL, PATRICK HAMILTON, The Hamiltons of Burn-side, North Carolina, 
and Their Ancestors and Descendants. Richmond, Va., Wm. Ellis Jones' 
Sons, Inc., 1916. 

Benjamin Franklin Shambaugh as Iowa Remembers Him, 1871-1940. Iowa City, 
The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1941. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 317 

BEVIER, KATHERINE, The Bevier Family, a History of the Descendants of Louis 
Bevier Who Came From France to America in 1676 . . . New York, 
Tobias A. Wright, 1916. 

Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Cincinnati, 
Galaxy Publishing Company, 1876. 

BLANKENBECKLER, WILLIAM P., Blankenbeckler Family of Southwest Virginia 
and Related Families. Nickelsville, Va., Service Printery, c!941. 

BOND, BEVERLY W., JR., The Foundations of Ohio, Vol. 1. Columbus, Ohio 
State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941. 

BONTELLB, JOHN ALONZO, The Burke and Alvord Memorial. A Genealogical 
Account of the Descendants of Richard Burke of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 
Boston, Henry W. Button and Son, 1864. 

BOSTONIAN SOCIETY, Proceedings and Report of the Annual Meeting, January 
1, 1941. Boston, 1941. 

BRACKETT, HERBERT I., Brackett Genealogy, Descendants of Anthony Brackett 
of Portsmouth and Captain Richard Brackett of Braintree . . . Wash- 
ington, D. C., H. I. Brackett, 1907. 

BRAINARD, HOMER WORTHINGTON, comp., A Survey of the Ishams in England 
and America. Eight Hundred and Fifty Years of History and Genealogy. 
Rutland, The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1938, 

BRANDT, FRANCIS BURKE, and HENRY VOLKMAR GUM MERE, Byways and Boule- 
vards in and About Historic Philadelphia. Philadelphia, Corn Exchange 
National Bank [c!925]. 

BRIGHAM, MRS. EMMA E. (NEAL), Neal Family. Springfield, Mass., n. p., 1938. 

BURLEIGH, CHARLES, The Genealogy of the Burley or Burleigh Family of 
America. Portland, B. Thurston and Company, 1880. 

BUTLER, BRYANT ORMOND, The Butler Family of Lebanon, Connecticut. An 
Account of the Ancestry and Descendants of Patrick Butler and Mercy 
Bartlett. Rutland, The Tuttle Company, 1934. 

CARSON, HAMPTON L., A History of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
Philadelphia, The Society, 1940. 2 Vols. 

CHAPMAN, FREDERICK WILLIAM, The Coit Family ; or the Descendants of John 
Coit, Who Appears Among the Settlers of Salem, Massachusetts, in 16S8, 
at Gloucester in 1644, and at New London Connecticut, in 1650. Hartford, 
The Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1874. 

COOKE, HARRIET RUTH (WATERS), The Driver Family: A Genealogical Mem- 
oir of the Descendants of Robert and Phebe Driver, of Lynn, Massachusetts. 
New York, Printed for the author, 1889. 

COONS, WILLIAM SOLYMAN, Koon and Coons Families of Eastern New York, a 
History of the Descendants of Matthias Kuntz and Samuel Kuhn . . . 
Rutland, The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc. [1937]. 

Cox, Louis S., comp., The Cox Families of Holderness . . . Brattleboro, 
Stephen Daye Press, 1939. 

Curtin, Jeremiah, Memoirs of. Madison, The State Historical Society of Wis- 
consin, 1940. (Wisconsin Biography Series, Vol. 2.) 

DAVIS, HARRY ALEXANDER, The Davis Family (Davies and David) in Wales and 
America. Washington, D. C., Harry Alexander Davis, 1927. 



318 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

DOLMAN, PAUL HAROLD, comp., The Dolman Compendium A. D. 1340-1940. 
Denver, Privately Published by the Dolman Family Association, 1940. 

DOUGHERTY, WILLIAM C., Family History of James Dougherty and Lineage of 
Descent. Nickelsville, Va., Service Printery [c!930]. 

Dow, ROBERT PIERCY, The Book of Dow, Genealogical Memoirs of the Descend- 
ants of Henry Dow, 1637, Thomas Dow, 1639, and Others of the Name, Im- 
migrants to America During Colonial Times, Also the Allied Family of 
Mudd. Claremont, N. H., Robert P. Dow, John W. Dow and Susan F. Dow, 
1929. 

DUTCH SETTLERS SOCIETY OF ALBANY, Yearbook, Vol. 16, 1940-1941. Albany, 
n. p., c!940. 

DWIGHT, BENJAMIN W., The History of the Descendants of John Dwight of 
Dedham, Massachusetts, Vol. 1. New York, John F. Trow and Son, 1874. 

EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Publications 1-12, 1929-1940. Knoxville, 
East Tennessee Historical Society [1929-1940]. 12 Vols. 

EGGLESTON, LESTER ALLEN, Southwick-McMillen Genealogy Chart No. 1. No 
impr., 1938. 

ERWIN, MRS. LUCY LANE, comp., The Ancestry of William Clopton of York 
County, Virginia, With Records of Some of His Descendants to Which Are 
Added Royal Lines; Magna Carta Sureties . . . [Rutland, The Tuttle 
Publishing Company, Inc., c!939.] 

FAIRFIELD, HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE, Fair field Connecticut Ter- 
centenary, 1639-1939. Fairfield, Fairfield Tercentenary Committee, 1940. 

FARMER, JOHN, An Historical Sketch of Amherst in the County of Hillsborough, 
in New Hampshire . . . Amherst, Printed by Richard Boylston, 1820. 

FLATLANDS, LONG ISLAND, REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, Inscriptions on Tomb- 
stones in Cemetery of . . . and Private Cemeteries Adjacent. (Kings 
County Genealogical Club Collection, Vol. 1, No. 2, July, 1882.) 

FOSTER, JOSEPH, ed., London Marriage Licenses, 1521-1869. London, Bernard 
Quaritch, 1887. 

FOTHERGILL, AUGUSTUS BRiDGLAND, and JOHN MARK NAUGLE, Virginia Tax 
Payers 1782-87 ; Other Than Those Published by the United States Census 
Bureau. N. p., 1940. 

FOWLER, GROVER PARSONS, The House of Fowler, a History of the Fowler 
Families of the South ... Hickory, N. C., Fowler, 1940. 

FRIES, ADELAIDE L., ed., Records of the Moravians in North Carolina. Vol. 5, 
1784-1792. Raleigh, The North Carolina Historical Commission, 1941. 

GARDINER, MABEL HENSHAW, and ANN HENSHAW GARDINER, Chronicles of Old 
Berkeley, a Narrative History of a Virginia County From Its Beginnings to 
1926. Durham, N. C., The Seeman Press, 1938. 

GEORGETOWN, MAINE, Vital Records to the Year 1892. Published under au- 
thority of the Maine Historical Society, 1939. 

GIDDINGS, MINOT S., The Giddings Family: or, The Descendants of George 
Giddings, Who Came From St. Albans, England, to Ipswich, Massachusetts, 
in 1635. Hartford, The Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1882. 

GREELEY, GEORGE HIRAM, Genealogy of the Greely-Greeley Family. Boston 
[Frank Wood, Printer], 1905. 

GREENE, KATHERINE GLASS, Winchester, Virginia, and Its Beginnings, 1743-1814 
. . . Strasburg, Va., Shenandoah Publishing House, 1926. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 319 

HAKES, HARRY, The Hakes Family. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. [R. Baur and Son], 1886. 

HARRIS, WILLIAM SAMUEL, The Harris Family. Thomas Harris, in Ipswich, 
Massachusetts, in 1636 and Some of His Descendants . . . Nashua, N. H., 
Printed for the Author by Barker and Bean, 1883. 

HARVEY, CARRIE K., and CLARA M. KELLOGG, History of Bristol, Vermont, 1762- 
1940. No impr. 

HAVENS, HENRY C., The Havens Family in New Jersey With Additional Notes 
on the Tilton, Fielder, Hance, Osborn, Davison, Cox and Gifford Families 
. . . [Trenton, N. J., Phillips and Godshalk Co., c!933.] 

HEITMAN, FRANCIS B., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army 
During the War of the Revolution April, 1776, to December, 1783. New, 
Revised and Enlarged Edition. Washington, D. C., The Rare Book Shop 
Publishing Company, Inc., 1914. 

HICKMAN, SYLVESTER, Genealogy of the Hickman Family Beginning With Roger 
Hickman of Kent County, Delaware. Chicago, Cameron, Amberg and Com- 
pany, 1907. 

HIGGINS, MRS. KATHERINE CHAPIN, Richard Higgins, a Resident and Pioneer 
Settler at Plymouth and Eastham, Massachusetts, and at Piscataway, New 
Jersey, and His Descendants. Worcester, Mass., Printed for the Author, 1918. 

, Supplement to Richard Higgins and His Descendants. Worcester, 

Mass., Printed for the Author, 1924. 

Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin . . . 
Chicago, A. Warner, 1891-1892. 

HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO, Annual Report for the Year 
Ending December, 1940. Cincinnati, 1940. 

HISTORICAL RESEARCH BUREAU, Historical and Biographical Sketch of the Clem- 
ens, Clement(s), demons, Clementz, Klement(s) Family. Mimeographed. 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTANA, Contributions to, Vol. 10, 1940. The Fort 
Benton Journal, 1854-1856, and the Fort Sarpy Journal, 1855-1856. Helena, 
Mont., Naegele Printing Company [c!941]. 

HOENSTINE, FLOYD G., Military Services and Genealogical Records of Soldiers 
of Blair County, Pennsylvania. [Harrisburg, Pa., The Telegraph Press] 1940. 

HOLDEN, FREDERIC A., Genealogy of the Descendants of Banfield Capron, From 
A.D. 1660 to A.D. 1859. Boston, George C. Rand and Avery, 1859. 

HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Transactions, No. 4&- Charleston, S. C., 
Published by Order of the Society, 1940. 

John Crosby of Yorkshire and Some of His Descendants 1440-1940. Hartford, 
Privately Printed by Albert Hutchings Crosby, 1940. 

JOHNSON, ALFRED, History and Genealogy of One Line of Descent From Cap- 
tain Edward Johnson, Together With His English Ancestry 1500-1914. Bos- 
ton, The Stanhope Press, 1914. 

KAUFFMAN, CHARLES FAKS, A Genealogy and History of the Kauffman-Coff- 
man Families of North America, 1584 to 1937. York, Pa., The Author 
[c!940L 

KITTREDGE, MABEL T., The Kittredge Family in America. Rutland, The Tuttle 
Publishing Company, Inc. [Pref. 1936]. 

LANGWORTHY, WILLIAM FRANKLIN, The Langworthy Family: Some Descend- 
ants of Andrew and Rachel (Hubbard) Langworthy Who Were Married at 



320 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Newport, Rhode Island, November 3, 1658. Hamilton, N. Y., William F. 
and Orthello S. Langworthy [1940]. 

LfiMAR, HAROLD DIHEL, History of the Lamar or Lemar Family in America. 
Omaha, Cockle Printing Company, c!941. 

LEWIS, MRS. ANNA (Wox), Family History of Peter Jones, Sr., and John Jones 
of Hampshire County, (W) Virginia, Thru Their Ohio Descendants. Typed. 
July, 1940. 

LORD, JOHN KING, A History of the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire. N. p., 
The Dartmouth Press, 1928. 

McKBB, MRS. FLORENCE McCuxcHEON, comp., The McCutcheon Wutcheon'] 
Family Records, Allied Families of McClary, Tripp, Brome and Critchett 
. . . Grand Rapids, Commonwealth Printing Company, 1931. 

MARCY, ELIZABETH EUNICE SMITH, Facts and Fancies of Family History. Ev- 
anston, Bowman Publishing Company, 1911. 

MARYLAND, PROVINCIAL COURT, Proceedings 1666-1670. Baltimore, Maryland 
Historical Society, 1940. (Archives of Maryland, Vol. 57.) 

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Proceedings October, 1932-May, 1936, Vol. 
65. Boston, Society, 1940. 

MATHER, FREDERIC GREGORY, The Refugees of 1776 From Long Island to Con- 
necticut. Albany, J. B. Lyon Company, 1913. 

MEARS, JAMES EGBERT, Hacks Neck and Its People, Past and Present. Chicago, 
c!937. Mimeographed. 

MERCER, HENRY C., The Bible in Iron or Pictured Stoves and Stove Plates of 
the Pennsylvania Germans . . . 2d ed., Revised, Corrected and Enlarged 
by Horace M. Mann. Doylestown, Pa., The Bucks County Historical So- 
ciety, 1941. 

MIDDLESEX COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, President's Address, Annual Reports 
Secretary, Treasurer; List of Officers and Members. [Middletown, Pelton 
and King, April, 1940.] 

MOORE, HOWARD PARKER, A Genealogy of the First Five Generations in America 
of the Long Family . . . [Rutland, The Tuttle Company, 1935.] 

MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION, Annual Report 1940. 
Mount Vernon, Va. [c!940]. 

Name and Family of Fairchild, The. No impr. 

NATIONAL SOCIETY DAUGHTERS OP THE AMERICAN COLONISTS, Lineage Book, Vols. 
1-5, 1929-1939. Washington, D. C. [Press of Judd and Detweiler, Inc.], 
1929-1939. 

, Year Book, 1930, 1933, 1934, 1936, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th. 4 Vols. No impr. 

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF DAUGHTERS OF COLONIAL WARS, [Membership List and 
Index of Ancestors With Brief Histories of National and State Organiza- 
tions]. [Somerville, Mass., Somerville Printing Company] 1941. 

NATIONAL SOCIETY UNITED STATES DAUGHTERS OF 1812, News-Letter, June, 1915- 
March, 1941. Washington, D. C. 

NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, One Hundred and Thirty- 
Fifth Annual Report for the Year 1940. No impr. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE (PROVINCE), Probate Records. . . . Vol. 8, 1764-1767. Pub- 
lished by the State of New Hampshire, 1940. (State Papers Series, Vol. 38.) 

NEW PALTZ, N. Y., REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, Records . . . Containing an 
Account of the Organization of the Church and the Registers of Consistories, 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 321 

Members, Marriages and Baptisms. [New York, The Knickerbocker Press, 
c!896.] (Collections of the Holland Society of New York, Vol. 3.) 

[NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY], Records oj the Dutch 
Reform Church of Port Richmond, S. I. . . . New York, Printed for the 
Society, 1909. 

NORTH, DEXTER, John North of Farmington, Connecticut, and His Descendants 
. . . Washington, D. C. [Concord, N. H., Rumford Press], 1921. 

NOTES, SYBIL, and others, comps., Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New 
Hampshire. Portland, Maine, The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1928-1939. 

OHIO, ADJUTANT GENERAL, Roster of Ohio Soldiers in the War of 1812. [Col- 
umbus] The Adjutant General of Ohio, 1916. 

Panhandle-Plains Historical Review. Vol. 13, 1940. Canyon, Tex., The Pan- 
handle-Plains Historical Society, c!940. 

PETERSEN, WILLIAM J., Iowa; The Rivers of Her Valleys. Iowa City, The State 
Historical Society of Iowa, 1941. 

PINTARD, JOHN, Letters From John Pintard to His Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard 
Davidson 1816-1833. New York, New York Historical Society, 1941. Vols. 
3,4. 

QUINN, SILVANUS JACKSON, The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Vir- 
ginia. Richmond, Va., The Hermitage Press, Inc., 1908. 

REAMES, O. K., History of Zanesfield and Sketches of the Interesting and His- 
torical Places of Logan County, Ohio. No impr. 

Rix, GUY SCOBY, History and Genealogy of Deacon Joseph Eastman of Hadley, 
Massachusetts, Grandson of Roger Eastman of Salisbury, Massachusetts. 
Westfield, Mass., M. Emily Eastman [1908]. 

, comp., History and Genealogy of the Eastman Family of America 

. . . Concord, N. H. [Press of Ira C. Evans], 1901. 2 Vols. 

ST. PAUL'S PARISH, HANOVER COUNTY, VIRGINIA, The Vestry Book 1706-1786. 
Transcribed and Edited by C. G. Chamberlayne. Richmond, Va., The 
Library Board, 1940. 

SANFORD, CARLTON E., Thomas San ford, The Emigrant to New England; An- 
cestry, Life and Descendants. Rutland, The Tuttle Company [c!911]. 2 
Vols. 

SARGENT, EDWIN EVERETT, Sargent Records. William Sargent of Ipswich, New- 
bury, Hampton, Salisbury and Amesbury, New England, United States, With 
His Descendants and Their Intermarriages, and Other Sargent Branches. St. 
Johnsbury, Vt., The Caledonian Company, 1899. 

SHAW, ALEXANDER MACKINTOSH, Historical Memoirs of the House and Clan of 
Mackintosh and of the Clan Chattan. London, R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor, 
1880. 2 Vols. 

SHAW, S. C., Sketches of Wood County: Its Early History: As Embraced 
In and Connected With Other Counties of West Virginia. Also Brief Ac- 
counts of First Settlers and Their Descendants . . . Parkersburg, W. Va., 
George Elletson, 1878. Reprinted 1932 by W. Guy Tetrick. 

SITTERSON, JOSEPH CARLYLE, The Secession Movement in North Carolina. 
Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1939. (The James 
Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science, Vol. 23, No. 2.) 

SKAGGS, MARVIN LUCIAN, North Carolina Boundary Disputes Involving Her 
Southern Line. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1941. 

213781 



322 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

(The James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science, Vol. 25, No. 1.) 

SMITH, EDWARD CHURCH, and PHILIP MACK SMITH, A History of the Town of 
Middle field, Massachusetts. Privately Printed. [Menosha, Wis., George 
Banta Publishing Company] 1924. 

SMITH, ELBERT, The Descendants of Joel Jones . . . Also the Descendants 
of Lemuel Smith . . . Rutland, The Tuttle Company, 1925. 

SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS, An Index of Ancestors and Roll of Members. New 
York, Published by Authority of the General Assembly, 1922. 

SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS, INDIANA, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 
N. p., 1940. 

SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI, Roster 1941. N. p., Published by the Society, 1941. 

SONS OF THE REVOLUTION, NEW YORK, Reports and Proceedings July 1, 1939, 
to June SO, 1940. No impr. 

Southwest Virginia and the Valley, Historical and Biographical. Roanoke, Va., 
A. D. Smith and Company, 1892. 

SPEER, ROLLO CLAYTON, . . . The Family of Michael Speer of Scott County, 
Virginia, at Speer's Ferry . . . Typed. 

SPRAGUE, WARREN VINCENT, Sprague Families in America 1913. Additional 
Families 1940. Mimeographed. 

STANTON, WILLIAM A., A Record, Genealogical, Biographical, Statistical, of 
Thomas Stanton, of Connecticut and His Descendants, 1635-1891. Albany, 
Joel Munsell's Sons, 1891. 

STEPHENS, DAN V., ed., Stephens Family Genealogies, Peter-Joshua-William- 
Alexander, 1690-1938. Rev. ed. Fremont, Neb., Hammond and Stephens 
Company, 1940. 

STROBEL, PHILIP A., ed., Memorial Volume to Commemorate the Semi-Cen- 
tennial Anniversary of the Hartwick Lutheran Synod, of the State of New 
York. Philadelphia, Lutheran Publication Society, 1881. 

SWISHER, JACOB A., Iowa, Land of Many Mills. Iowa City, The State His- 
torical Society of Iowa, 1940. 

TALCOTT, SEBASTIAN VISSCHER, Genealogical Notes of New York and New 
England Families. Albany, Weed, Parsons and Company, 1883. 

TARBELL, MRS. WINFIELD SCOTT, History of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution of Colorado 1894-1 941 . No impr. 

TARRYTOWN, N. Y., FIRST REFORMED CHURCH, First Record Book of the "Old 
Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow" Organized in 1697 . . . [Yonkers, N. Y.] 
Yonkers Historical and Library Association, 1901. 

THOMPSON, BENJAMIN F., History, of Long Island; Containing an Account of 
the Discovery and Settlement; With Other Important and Interesting Mat- 
ters . . . New York, E. French, 1839. 

ULSTER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (NEW YORK), Proceedings 1939-1940. 
Kingston, N. Y., Published by the Society [1941]. 

VINELAND HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Annual Report for the Year 
Ending October 2nd, 1940. Vineland, N. J., n. p., 1940. 

WALDEN, BLANCHE L., Pioneer Families of the Midwest, Vol. 2. Athens, Ohio, 
1941. 

WARE, MRS. JOSEPHINE S., comp., The Lancaster Genealogy; Record of Joseph 
Lancaster of Amesbury, Massachusetts, and Some of His Descendants. [Rut- 
land, The Tuttle Company] n. d. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 323 

WASHINGTON (TER.), GOVERNORS, Messages of the Governors of the Territory 
of Washington to the Legislative Assembly, 1854-1889. Seattle, University 
of Washington Press, 1940. 

WASHINGTON STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Building a State, Washington 1889- 
1939. [Tacoma, Pioneer Inc., c!940.] 

WEEKS, ROBERT D., Genealogy of the Family of George Weekes, of Dorchester, 
Massachusetts, 1635-1650: With Some Information in Regard to Other 
Families of the Name . . . Newark, Press of L. J. Hardham, 1885-1892. 
2 Vols. 

WEISENBURGER, FRANCIS P., The Passing of the Frontier 1825-1850. Columbus, 
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941. (The History of 
the State of Ohio, Vol. 3.) 

WEST, EDITH WILLOUGHBY GOODMAN, The Goodmans of Bolton, New York, 
Their Ancestry and Descendants. Glen Falls, N. Y., The Goodmans, 1930. 

WEST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Year Book, Vol. 16, October, 1940. Abi- 
lene, Tex., West Texas Historical Association, 1940. 

WEST VIRGINIA, STATE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY, Biennial Report 
. . . 1938-1940. No impr. 

West Virginia Blue Book 1940. [Charleston, W. Va., Jarrett Printing Com- 
pany, 1940.] 

WILMETH, JAMES LILLARD, Wilmot, Wilmoth, Wilmeth. Philadelphia, 1940. 
[Charlotte, N. C., Printed by Washburn Printing Company.] 

WINSLOW, HATTIE Lou, and JOSEPH R. H. MOORE, Camp Morton 1861-1865, 
Indianapolis Prison Camp. Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, 1940. 

WOODMAN, CYRUS, The Woodmans of Buxton, Maine. Boston, Printed for 
private use by David Clapp and Son, 1874. 

DIRECTORIES 

Albuquerque (New Mexico) City Directory, 1939, 1940. El Paso, Hudspeth Di- 
rectory Company Inc., c!939, c!940. 2 Vols. 

Ardmore (Carter County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1939. Kansas City, Mo., 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 

Austin (Texas) City Directory, 1940. Houston, Morrison and Fourmy Direc- 
tory Company, c!939. 

Bartlesville (Washington County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1935, Including 
Washington County and Caney and Strikeaxe Townships in Osage County. 
Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!935. 

Birmingham (Alabama) City Directory, 1935. [Birmingham] R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!935. 

Blackwell (Kay County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1936, Including Kay 
County Taxpayers. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!936. 

Boston (Massachusetts) City Directory, 1936. Boston, Sampson and Murdock 
Publishers, c!936. 

Burlington (Iowa) City Directory, 1930. Rockford, 111., McCoy Directory 
Company, c!930. 

Carthage (Jasper County, Missouri) City Directory, 1937, Including Jasper 
County. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!937. 

Chickasha (Grady County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1938, Including Grady 
County. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 



324 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Cincinnati (Hamilton County, Ohio) City Directory, 1940. Cincinnati, Wil- 
liams Directory Company, cl939. 
Cleburne (Texas} City Directory, 1926. Dallas, R. L. Polk and Company, 

c!926. 
Colorado Springs (Colorado) City Directory, 1940, Including Manitou and 

Pikes Peak Region. Salt Lake City, R. L. Polk and Company, c!940. 
Corsicana (Navarro County, Texas) City Directory, 1938. Dallas, John F. 

Worley Directory Company, c!939. 

Council Bluffs (Pottawatomie County, Iowa} City Directory, 1940. Omaha, 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!940. 

Dallas (Texas) City Directory, 1939, Including the Town of Highland Park 
and the City of University Park. Dallas, John F. Worley Directory Com- 
pany, c!939. 

Davenport (Iowa) City Directory, 1932, Including Bettendorf. Davenport, 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!932. 

Denver (Colorado) City Directory, 1936, 1938. Denver, Gazeteer Company, 
Inc., n. d. 2 Vols. 

Des Moines (Polk County, Iowa) City Directory, 1940, Including West Des 
Moines and Fort Des Moines. Omaha, R. L. Polk and Company, c!940. 

El Paso (Texas) City Directory, 1940. El Paso, Hudspeth Directory Company, 
c!940. 

Enid (Garfield County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1938-39, Including Coving- 
ton and Garber, and Garfield County. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!938. 

Fort Smith (Sebastian County, Arkansas) City Directory, 1938. Dallas, R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!938. 

Fort Worth (Texas} City Directory, 1940. Dallas, Morrison and Fourmy Di- 
rectory Company, c!939. 

Fremont (Dodge County, Nebraska) City Directory, 1940. Omaha, R. L. Polk 
and Company, c!939. 

Grand Junction (Mesa County, Colorado) City Directory, 1939-1940, Including 
Mesa County. Salt Lake City, R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 

Hastings (Adams County, Nebraska) City Directory, 1939. Omaha, R. L. Polk 
and Company, c!939. 

Houston (Texas) City Directory, 1940. Houston, Morrison and Fourmy Di- 
rectory Company, c!940. 

Joplin (Jasper County, Missouri) City Directory, 1939, 1940. Kansas City, Mo., 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!939, c!940. 2 Vols. 

Kansas City (Missouri) City Directory, 1939, 1940, Including North Kansas 
City. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!939, c!940. 2 Vols. 

Kearney (Buffalo County, Nebraska) City Directory, 1939-1940, Including 
Buffalo County Taxpayers. Omaha, R. L. Polk and Company, c!940. 

Keokuk (Iowa) City Directory, 1931. Rockford, 111., McCoy Directory Com- 
pany, c!931. 

Lawton (Comanche County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1937, Including Co- 
manche County. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!937. 

Lincoln (Lancaster County, Nebraska) City Directory, 1939, Including Burn- 
ham and West Lincoln. Omaha, R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 

Little Rock and North Little Rock (Pulaski County, Arkansas) City Directory, 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 325 

1939, Including Levy, Park Hill and Rose City. St. Louis, R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!939. 

Long Beach (California) City Directory, 1940. Long Beach, R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!940. 

Los Angeles (California) City Directory, 1988. Los Angeles, Los Angeles Di- 
rectory Company, c!938. 

Mason City (Iowa) City Directory, 1926. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!926. 

Memphis (Shelby County, Tennessee} City Directory, 1940. [Memphis] R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!940. 

Miami (Ottawa County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1938, Including Com- 
merce, North Miami and Picher, Also Ottawa County. Kansas City, Mo., 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 

Nashville (Tennessee) City Directory, 1924- [Nashville] Marshall-Bruce-Polk, 
c!924. 

Newark (New Jersey) City Directory, 1934. Newark, Price and Lee Pub- 
lishers, c!934. 

Oklahoma City (Oklahoma County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1940. Kansas 
City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!940. 

Omaha (Douglas County. Nebraska) City Directory, 1940, Including Carter 
Lake, East Omaha and Sarpy County. Omaha, R. L. Polk and Company, 
c!940. 

Peoria (Illinois) City Directory, 1932, Including East Peoria, Bartonville and 
Peoria Heights. Peoria, R. L. Polk and Company, c!932. 

Ponca City (Kay County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1938. Kansas City, Mo., 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 

Pueblo (Colorado) City Directory, 1940. Salt Lake City, R. L. Polk and Com- 
pany, c!940. 

Reno (Nevada) City Directory, 1926-1927, Including Washoe County and Car- 
son City. Oakland, Cal., R. L. Polk and Company, c!925. 

St. Joseph (Missouri) City Directory, 1939, 1940, Including Buchanan County 
Taxpayers. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!939, c!940. 
2 Vols. 

St. Louis (Missouri) City Directory, 1940. St. Louis, Polk-Gould Directory 
Company, c!940. 

Salt Lake City (Salt Lake County, Utah) City Directory, 1939, 1940, Including 
Garfield, Magna, Midvale, Murray, Sandy and All Suburbs. Salt Lake City, 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!940. 2 Vols. 

San Antonio (Texas) City Directory, 1938-1939. San Antonio, John F. Worley 
Directory Company, c!939. 

San Francisco (California) City Directory, 1940. San Francisco, R. L. Polk 
and Company, c!940. 

Santa Fe (New Mexico} City Directory, 1938. El Paso, Hudspeth Directory 
Company, c!938. 

Scottsbluff and Gering (Nebraska) City Directory, 1932, Including Scotts Bluff 
County. Colorado Springs, R. L. Polk and Company, c!931. 

Sedalia (Pettis County, Missouri) City Directory, 1935. Kansas City, Mo., 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!935. 



326 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Shaumee (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1939, Including 
Tecumseh and Pottawatomie County Taxpayers. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!939. 

Sioux City (Woodbury County, Iowa} City Directory, 1938. Omaha, R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!938. 

Sioux Falls (South Dakota) City Directory, 1932. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!932. 

Spencer (Clay County, Iowa) City Directory, 1939-1940, Including Cornell, 
Dickens, Everly, Fostoria, Gillett, Grove, Greenville, Langdon, Peterson, 
Rossie, Royal and Webb; Also County Taxpayers. Omaha, R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!939. 

Springfield (Greene County, Missouri) City Directory, 1939. Kansas City, Mo., 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 

Texarkana (Bowie County, Texas-Miller County, Arkansas) City Directory, 
1938. Dallas, R. L. Polk Company, c!938. 

Tulsa (Tulsa County, Oklahoma) City Directory, 1940. Kansas City, Mo., 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!940. 

Waco (Texas) City Directory, 1939. Dallas, Morrison and Fourmy, c!939. 

Waterloo (Iowa) City Directory, 1930, Including Blackhawk County. Rock- 
ford, 111., McCoy Directory Company, c!930. 

Wichita Falls (Wichita County, Texas) City Directory, 1940. Dallas, John F. 
Worley Directory Company, cl940. 

Youngstown (Ohio) City Directory, 1935-1936, Supplemented by Directories of 
Campbell, Struthers, Girard and McDonald. Akron, Burch Directory Com- 
pany, c!935. 

GENERAL 

[AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION], In Re the World Court; the Judgment of the 
American Bar as Expressed in Resolutions of National, State and Local Bar 
Associations, 1921-1934. Chicago, The American Bar Association, 1934. 

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Year Book 1940. Philadelphia, The Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, 1941. 

ANDER, OSCAR FRITIOF, T. N. Hasselquist; the Career and Influence of a 
Swedish-American Clergyman, Journalist and Educator. Rock Island, 111., 
The Augustana Library Publications, 1931. 

ANGUS, HENRY FORBES, ed., Canada and Her Great Neighbor; Sociological Sur- 
veys of Opinions and Attitudes in Canada Concerning the United States. 
Toronto, The Ryerson Press, 1938. 

ASHLEY, GEORGE T., Reminiscences of a Circuit Rider. Los Angeles, New 
Method Printing Company, c!941. 

AUGPCJSTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Publications Nos. l-7a. Rock Island, 111. [The 
Augustana Historical Society], 1931-1938. 

AYER, N. W., AND SON'S, Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals . . . 
1941. Philadelphia, N. W. Ayer and Son, Inc. [c!941]. 

BARBOUR, PHILIP NORBOURNE, Journals of the Late Brevet Major Philip Nor- 
bourne Barbour . . . and His Wife, Martha Isabella Hopkins Barbour, 
Written During the War With Mexico, 1846 . . . New York, G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, 1936. 

BARRINGTON, LEWIS, Historic Restorations of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution. New York, Richard R. Smith, 1941. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 327 

BERGER, DANIEL, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Day- 
ton, Ohio, United Brethren Publishing House, 1897. 

BONNELL, ALLEN THOMAS, German Control Over International Economic Re- 
lations 1980-1940. Urbana, The University of Illinois Press, 1940. (Illinois 

Studies in the Social Sciences, Vol. 26, No. 1.) 
BUCKMASTER, HENRIETTA, Let My People Go, the Story of the Underground 

Railroad and the Growth of the Abolition Movement. New York, Harper 

and Brothers [c!941]. 
BUTLER, MARY, Three Archaeological Sites in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. 

Harrisburg, Pa., Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1939. 
GALE, EDGAR BARCLAY, The Organization of Labor in Philadelphia 1850-1870. 

Philadelphia, 1940. 
CARRIERS, JOSEPH MEDARD, Tales From the French Folk-Lore of Missouri. Ev- 

anston, Northwestern University, 1937. 
CARTER, CLARENCE EDWIN, The Territorial Papers of the United States. Vol. 9. 

The Territory of Orleans 1803-1812. Washington, United States Government 

Printing Office, 1940. 
CLARK, DAVID SANDERS, The Moravian Mission of Pilgerruh. Bethlehem, Pa., 

1940. (Reprinted from Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society, 

Vol. 12.) 
CLARK, LEON PIERCE, Lincoln; a Psycho-Biography. New York, Charles Scrib- 

ner's Sons, 1933. 
COLNETT, JAMES, The Journal of Captain James Colnett Aboard the Argonaut 

From April 2, 1789, to November 3, 1791. Toronto, The Champlain Society, 

1940. 
CREIGHTON, DONALD G., The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence 1760- 

1850. Toronto, The Ryerson Press, 1937. 
DAVID, WADE DEWOOD, European Diplomacy in the Near Eastern Question 

1906-1909. Urbana, The University of Illinois Press, 1940. (Illinois Studies 

in the Social Sciences, Vol. 25, No. 4.) 
DAVIDSON, PHILIP, Propaganda and the American Revolution 1763-1783. Chapel 

Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1941. 
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES, Canadian Relations 1784- 

1860. Vol. 1, 1784-1820. Washington, Carnegie Endowment for International 

Peace, 1940. 
DOBIE, JAMES FRANK, and others, eds., Mustangs and Cow Horses. Austin, 

Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1940. (Publications, No. 16.) 
, Texian Stomping Grounds. Austin, Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1941. 

(Publications, No. 17.) 
DOUGLAS, FREDERIC H., and RENE d'HARNONcouRT, Indian Art of the United 

States. New York, The Museum of Modern Art [c!941]. 
DWIGHT, THEODORE, History of the Hartford Convention: With a Review of 

the Policy of the United States Government, Which Led to the War of 1812. 

New York, N. and J. White, 1833. 
DYKES, JOHN H., Company "A" 356th Infantry. [Tulsa, Richard J. Bohnen- 

kamp, cl940.] 
EARLE, ALICE MORSE, Women of Colonial and Revolutionary Times: Margaret 

Winthrop. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. 



328 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

FINNISH RELIEF FUND, INC., Report to American Donors, December 1939- 
July 1940. New York, 1940. 

FOLMER, HENRI, Contraband Trade Between Louisiana and New Mexico in the 
Eighteenth Century. (Reprinted from New Mexico Historical Review, 
July, 1941.) 

, De Bellisle on the Texas Coast. (Reprinted from The Southwestern 

Historical Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2, October, 1940.) 

FULLER, HUBERT BRUCE, The Purchase of Florida: Its History and Diplomacy. 
Cleveland, The Burrows Brothers Company, 1906. 

FULTON, WILLIAM SHIRLEY, and CARR TUTHILL, An Archaeological Site Near 
Gleeson, Arizona. Dragoon, Ariz., The Amerind Foundation, Inc., 1940. 
No. 1. 

GABRIEL, RALPH HENRY, Elias Boudinot, Cherokee, and His America. Norman, 
University of Oklahoma Press, 1941. 

GLAZEBROOK, GEORGE PARKIN DE TWENEBROKER, A History of Transportation in 
Canada. Toronto, The Ryerson Press, 1938. 

GOODWIN, PHILO A., Biography of Andrew Jackson, President of the United 
States, Formerly Major General in the Army of the United States. New 
York, R. Hart Towner, 1833. 

GRAHAM, MALBONE W., The Diplomatic Recognition of the Border States. 
Part III: Latvia. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1941. (Univer- 
sity of California at Los Angeles, Publications in Social Sciences, Vol. 3, 
No. 4.) 

GREENE, FRANCIS VINTON, The Revolutionary War and the Military Policy of 
the United States. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 

GRIFFIN, GRACE GARDNER, and DOROTHY M. LOURAINE, Writings on American 
History 1936 . . . Washington, United States Government Printing 
Office, 1941. 

GROVER, FRANK R., Our Indian Predecessors the First Evanstonians. A Paper 
Read Before the Evanston Historical Society, November 2nd, 1901. Evans- 
ton, Index Print, n. d. 

HANSEN, MARCUS LEE, The Mingling of the Canadian and American Peoples. 
Vol. 1. Historical. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1940. 

, The Problem of the Third Generation Immigrant. Rock Island, 111., 

Augustana Historical Society, 1938. 

HARRIS, NORMAN DWIGHT, The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois and of 
the Slavery Agitation in That State 1719-1864. Chicago, A. C. McClurg and 
Company, 1904. 

HAVEN, CHARLES T., and FRANK A. BELDEN, A History of the Colt Revolver 
and the Other Arms Made by Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Com- 
pany From 1836 to 1940. New York, William Morrow and Company, 1940. 

HAYDON, FREDERICK STANSBURY, Aeronautics in the Union and Confederate 
Armies With a Survey of Military Aeronautics Prior to 1861. Vol. 1. Balti- 
more, Johns Hopkins Press, 1941. 

HECHLER, KENNETH W., Insurgency, Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era. 
New York, Columbia University Press, 1940. 

HIGH, HARRY HOLBERT TURNEY, Ethnography of the Kutenai. Menasha, Wis., 
American Anthropological Association, 1941. (Memoirs No. 56.) 

HOCKETT, HOMER CAREY, Political and Social Growth of the American People 
1492-1865. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1940. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 329 

HOPKIN, CHARLES EDWARD, The Share of Thomas Aquinas in the Growth of 
the Witchcraft Delusion. A Dissertation in History . . . Philadelphia 
[University of Pennsylvania], 1940. 

HUNTER, MILTON R., Brigham Young the Colonizer. Salt Lake City, The 
Deseret News Press, 1940. 

JENNINGS, WALTER W., A History of Economic Progress in the United States. 
New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Company [c!926]. 

KAMM, SAMUEL RICKEY, The Civil War Career of Thomas A. Scott. Phila- 
delphia, Pa., 1940. 

KANE, PAUL, Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America 
From Canada to Vancouver's Island and Oregon Through the Hudson's Bay 
Company's Territory and Back Again. Toronto, The Radisson Society of 
Canada, 1925. 

KENDALL, WILLMOORE, John Locke and the Doctrine of Majority Rule. Urbana, 
The University of Illinois Press, 1941. (Illinois Studies in the Social Sci- 
ences, Vol. 26, No. 2.) 

KEPPLER, JOSEPH, Comments on Certain Iroquois Masks. New York, Museum 
of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1941. (Contributions, Vol. 12, 
No. 4.) 

KINIETZ, W. VERNON, The Indians of the Western Great Lakes 1615-1760. Ann 
Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1940. (Occasional Contributions From 
the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan, No. 10.) 

KLEIN, PHILIP SHRIVER, Pennsylvania Politics 1817-1832, a Game Without 
Rules. A Dissertation in History . . . Philadelphia [University of Penn- 
sylvania], 1940. 

KOONTZ, Louis KNOTT, Robert Dinwiddie, His Career in American Colonial 
Government and Westward Expansion. Glendale, The Arthur H. Clark 
Company, 1941. 

LENG, JOHN, America in 1876: Pencillings During a Tour in the Centennial 
Year. With a Chapter on the Aspects of American Life. Dundee Adver- 
tiser Office, 1877. 

LENTZ, GILBERT GILLESPIE, The Enforcement of the Orders of State Public 
Service Commissions. Urbana, The University of Illinois Press, 1940. (Illi- 
nois Studies in the Social Sciences, Vol. 25, No. 3.) 

LEOPOLD, RICHARD WILLIAM, Robert Dale Owen, a Biography. Cambridge, 
Harvard University Press, 1940. (Harvard Historical Studies, Vol. 45.) 

LINDQUIST, G. E. E., The Red Man in the United States . . . New York, 
George H. Doran Company [c!923]. 

LLEWELLYN, K. N., and E. ADAMSON HOEBEL, The Cheyenne Way, Conflict and 
Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence. Norman, University of Oklahoma 
Press, 1941. 

MACKENZIE, NORMAN, and LIONEL H. LAING, eds., Canada and the Law of Na- 
tions. Toronto, The Ryerson Press, 1938. 

McVoY, LIZZIE CARTER, Louisiana in the Short Story. University, La., Louisiana 
State University Press, 1940. 

McWuoRTER, LUCULLUS VIRGIL, Yellow Wolf : His Own Story. Caldwell, Idaho, 
The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1940. 

MANGE, ALYCE EDYTHE, The Near Eastern Policy of the Emperor Napoleon HI. 



330 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Urbana, The University of Illinois Press, 1940. (Illinois Studies in the So- 
cial Sciences, Vol. 25, Nos. 1-2.) 

MARSH, DANIEL L., The American Canon. New York, The Abingdon Press 
[cl939L 

Masterkey, The. Los Angeles, The Southwest Museum, 1928-1941, Vol. 1, No. 
7 -Vol. 15, No. 5. 

MILLER, MERTON LELAND, A Preliminary Study of the Pueblo of Taos New 
Mexico. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1898. 

MORGAN, J. MCDOWELL, Military Medals and Insignia of the United States. 
Glendale, Cal., Griffin-Patterson Publishing Company, 1941. 

National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Being the History of the United 
States, Vol. 28. New York, James T. White and Company, 1940. 

New York Times Index; Annual Cumulative Volume, Year 1940. New York, 
The New York Times Company [c!941]. 

NORELIUS, ERIC, Early Life of Eric Noreliu& (1833-<1862} a Lutheran Pioneer: 
His Own Story Rendered Into English by Emeroy Johnson. Rock Island, 
111., Augustana Book Concern, 1934. 

NORTHERN DEPARTMENT OF RUPERT LAND, Minutes of Council, 1821-31. To- 
ronto, The Champlain Society, 1940. (Hudson's Bay Company Series III.) 

PARSONS, ELSIE CLEWS, Notes on the Caddo. Menasha, Wis., American Anthro- 
pological Association, 1941. (Memoirs of the American Anthropological 
Association, No. 57.) 

PEACH, W. NELSON, The Security Affiliates of National Banks. Baltimore, The 
Johns Hopkins Press, 1941. (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in His- 
torical and Political Science, Series 58, No. 3.) 

PHILLIPS, MRS. CATHERINE COFFIN, Through the Golden Gate, San Francisco, 
1769-1937. San Francisco, Sutton House [c!938]. 

PRATT, HARRY E., Lincoln 1809-1839; Being the Day-by-Day Activities of Abra- 
ham Lincoln From February 12, 1809, to December 31, 1839. Springfield, 111., 
The Abraham Lincoln Association [c!941]. 

REED, HENRY, Two Lectures on the History of the American Union. Phila- 
delphia, Parry and McMillan, 1856. 

REICH, SISTER ALOYSE MARIE, The Parliamentary Abbots to 1470; a Study in 
English Constitutional History. Berkeley, University of California Press, 
1941. (University of California Publications in History, Vol. 17, No. 4.) 

ROBERT, JOSEPH CLARKE, The Road From Monticello, a Study of the Virginia 
Slavery Debate of 1832. Durham, N. C., Duke University Press, 1941. 
(Historical Papers of the Trinity College Historical Society, Series 24.) 

SATTERLEE, L. D., and ARCADI GLUCKMAN, American Gun Makers. Buffalo, New 
York, Otto Ulbrich Company, Inc., 1940. 

SIEGEL, MORRIS, The Mackenzie Collection; a Study of West African Carved 
Gambling Chips. Menasha, Wis., American Anthropological Association, 
1940. (Memoirs, No. 55.) 

SINGER, CHARLES GREGG, South Carolina in the Confederation; a Dissertation in 
History . . . Philadelphia [University of Pennsylvania], 1941. 

Southwest Museum Papers, Nos. 1-14. Los Angeles, Southwest Museum, 1928- 
1940. lOVols. 

STARR, THOMAS I., The Greenly Collection, a Recent Gift of Lincolniana. Re- 
printed from Michigan Alumnus Quarterly Review, July 26, 1941. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 331 

STEFHENSON, GEORGE M., and OLGA WOLD HANSEN, trs. and eds., Letters Relat- 
ing to Gustaf Unonius and the Early Swedish Settlers in Wisconsin. Rock 

Island, 111., Augustana Historical Society, 1937. 
SWAN, GUSTAVUS NELSON, Swedish-American Literary Periodicals. Rock Island, 

111., Augustana Historical Society, 1936. (Augustana Historical Society 

Publications, Vol. 6.) 
SWEARINGEN, MACK, The Early Life of George Poindexter, a Story of the First 

Southwest. New Orleans, Tulane University Press, 1934. 
THOMAS, ALFRED BARNABY, The Plains Indians and New Mexico, 1751-1778. 

Albuquerque, The University of New Mexico Press, 1940. (Coronado Cuarto 

Centennial Publications, 1540-1940, Vol. XI.) 
TURNER, ARLIN, Hawthorne as Editor; Selections From His Writings in the 

American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. University, La., 

Louisiana State University Press, 1941. 
VAILLANT, GEORGE C., Indian Arts in North America. New York, Harper and 

Brothers, 1939. 
VALE, JOSEPH G., Minty and the Cavalry, a History of Cavalry Campaigns in 

the Western Armies. Harrisburg, Edwin K. Meyers, 1886. 
WAGLEY, CHARLES, Economics of a Guatemalan Village. Menasha, Wis., 

American Anthropological Association, 1941. (Memoirs of the American 

Anthropological Association, No. 58.) 
WARE, CAROLINE F., ed., The Cultural Approach to History, Edited for the 

American Historical Association. New York, Columbia University Press, 

1940. 
WATSON, ELMO SCOTT, The Indian Wars and the Press, 1866-1867. (Reprinted 

from the Journalism Quarterly, December, 1940.) 
WILSON, FORREST, Crusader in Crinoline, the Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company [c!941]. 
WISSLER, CLARK, The American Indian; an Introduction to the Anthropology 

of the New World. New York, Douglas C. McMurtrie, 1917. 
, North American Indians of the Plains. New York [American Museum 

of Natural History], 1934. 
World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1941. New York, The New York 

World-Telegram, c!941. 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

PEP TALK AT COUNCIL GROVE 
From the Council Grove Press, June 1, 1861. 

The Santa Fe road, where it ascends the West bank of the Neosho, is a 
"hard road to travel," at this time. It is slippery as the tongue of a politician. 
It is amusing to watch the Mexican trains climb this little hill in a wet time. 
The tongues of the greasers wag in double quick time, as they vociferate to 
their cattle. All kinds of noises from the squeak of a rat to the roar of a 
buffalo bull, are employed to urge the teams up the ascent. We never before 
appreciated the amount of momentum embodied in the tongue of a Mexican 
ox driver. 



SAILING UP THE SMOKY HILL 

From the Junction City Union, October 7, 1865. 

NAVIGABLE. On Tuesday two men passed up the Smoky Hill in a sail boat. 
Their starting point was Lawrence, and their destination is the forks of the 
Solomon. The object of their mission is furs. They made the trip from 
Lawrence to this place in ten days. When the wind was favorable they hoisted 
a wagon cover, and when not they plied the oar. It requires an extraordinary 
amount of pluck to travel up that stream in a skiff. 



INDIAN MEDICINE 

From the White Cloud Kansas Chief, May 7, 1868. 

The Indians have rather an original system of administering medicine, 
which we would recommend to the attention of medical societies. When one 
of them is taken ill, and there is any medicine in the tribe, it is procured and 
administered, before any other is sent for no matter what the disease, or 
what the medicine. One red cuss was relating an exploit of his own the other 
day. He said his mother-in-law was seized with severe fits, and he started 
around to hunt up some medicine for her; but the only thing in the shape of 
medicine that could be raked up in the whole tribe, was half a bottle of some 
sort of horse liniment. He took that to his wigwam, and poured the whole of 
it down his venerable relative's throat; and, as he related it, "It gave the old 
woman h 11, but it brought her out all right at last!" 

It seems, also, that the Indians do not spend much time in "wakes," or in 
efforts to revive their dead. Some time since, a person having a keg of whisky 
on his wagon, passing through their lands, met with a break-down, and the 
keg was damaged. Being compelled to abandon his cargo temporarily, a 
squad of Indians came along and helped themselves to the liquor, and one of 
them became so dead drunk that he could neither move nor grunt. The 
balance, not seeing any further use that could be made of him, dug a hole 
and buried him on the spot. Probably he became sober in due time, but he 
has not yet sprouted out of the ground! 

(332) 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

The following historical articles relating to Kansas have appeared 
in the Kansas City (Mo.) Times: "Old Directory Reviews Event- 
ful Time in Stage Coach Center Here [Kansas City, Mo.]/' by 
J. P. G., November 6, 1941; "They Wanted to Fly for America, 
Now They Make History for R. A. F. [a story of Kansas and Mis- 
souri boys in the R. A. F.]," by Marcel Wallenstein, December 19; 
"First Emigrant Train to Pacific Left Westport 100 Years Ago," 
by Charles Kelley, December 26; "Kansas, Jekyll or Hyde? Wil- 
liam Allen White Is Alarmed at Changing Population of State," 
January 23, 1942; "Lawrence Raid of 1856 Regarded as a Lark by 
Some Missourians," by Paul I. Wellman, February 19; "Fort Scott, 
a Century Old, Cherishes Relics of Short-Lived Army Outpost," 
May 7; "A Tornado Sleuth Proves Kansas Is Not the Twister's 
Home Ground," by James McQueeny, June 18. 

The Hutchinson News and Herald, January 28 and 29, 1942, re- 
port the seventieth birthday anniversary of Reno county celebrated 
January 28 with a party at Convention Hall, Hutchinson. 

"Death Ends Long Career Pawnee Bill Began in Sodhouse Out- 
side Wichita," is the title of a short biographical sketch of Gordon 
W. Lillie which appeared in the Wichita (Evening) Eagle, Febru- 
ary 4, 1942. The Morning Eagle of the same date carried the 
article, " 'Pawnee Bill' Lillie, Famous Oklahoma Frontiersman, 
Dies." 

Oak Grove cemetery at Lawrence "contains more notable men 
than any other of God's acres in this state," wrote William Allen 
White in "The Kansas Arlington" in the Emporia Gazette, February 
12, 1942. The article was reprinted in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, 
February 16. 

The history of School District No. 28, Osborne county, was pub- 
lished in the Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, February 12, 1942. 
The district was formed November 2, 1872. 

An article entitled "The Oak Mills Post Office [midway between 
Leavenworth and Atchison] Is Seventy-Four Years Old," by George 
J. Remsburg, appeared in the Leavenworth Times, February 19, 
1942. Postmasters who have served the postoffice since its founding 
were named. 

(333) 



334 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The Jewell County Republican, of Jewell, February 26, 1942, 
featured an article by Lillian Forrest on the history of the Treffer 
family. Gustavus E. Treffer, one of the pioneers, settled in Jewell 
county in 1871. 

'Today Is 96th Anniversary of the Birth of Bill Cody Came to 
Salt Creek Valley [Leavenworth county] in 1854" is the title of an 
article in the Leavenworth Times, February 26, 1942. It relates in- 
cidents in the life of ''Buffalo Bill" as recalled by the octogenarian, 
John Hand, one of the few men living in Leavenworth county who 
remembers Cody. 

Preston B. Plumb and his activities in Emporia were recalled in an 
article entitled "The Boy Who Founded Emporia" in the Emporia 
Gazette, February 27, 1942. An early picture of Plumb was repro- 
duced. Under the title "Emporia Is Reminded of the Boy Who 
Founded Town 85 Years Ago," the Kansas City (Mo.) Times, 
March 7, reprinted much of the article. 

Early history of the Dodge City area was briefly reviewed by the 
Dodge City Daily Globe, March 19, 1942, in the article, "Sam 
Stubbs, Dodge City's No. 1 Booster, Dead." Stubbs first came to 
western Kansas and Fort Dodge as a mounted infantryman after 
the Dull Knife raid of 1878. 

Henry L. Carey of Dodge City wrote of the attempts of religion 
to establish a foothold in early wild and woolly Dodge in the Hutch- 
inson News-Herald, March 22, 1942, under the title, "Heaven Comes 
to Front Street With Aid of Six-Shooter." 

The St. Paul Journal issued a special historical edition May 7, 
1942, in observance of the ninety-fifth anniversary of the founding 
of the Osage Catholic Mission and St. Francis School at what is 
now St. Paul. Many pictures of the early missionaries, mission and 
school buildings were reproduced. Included among the memorable 
accounts is Chapter XI of an unpublished work by Father Paul 
Mary Ponziglione, S. J., entitled, "An Adventure of Lucille St. 
Pierre Among the Osage." For thirty years Father Ponziglione was 
a missionary at the Catholic Osage Mission. The Pittsburg Head- 
light and Sun also honored St. Paul's birthday with an article in 
their issues of March 25 entitled: "One of Early Settlements in 
Southwest Town of 1,000 Grew From Mission Opened in 1847 by 
Sister Loretta." 



Kansas Historical Notes 

A Chisholm trail marker of red granite has been placed in the 
new Jesse Chisholm park about seven miles west of Wellington on 
US-160. Sen. Ed T. Hackney was the principal speaker at the dedi- 
cation ceremonies held June 14, 1942. The marker, a gift from the 
Wellington chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution 
and the Wellington Business and Professional Women's Club, was 
unveiled by Mrs. H. W. Andrews of Wellington who came up the 
trail when a child in 1868. The inscription by Kirke Mechem, sec- 
retary of the Kansas State Historical Society, reads as follows: 

THE CHISHOLM TRAIL 

BETWEEN 1867 AND 1876 MORE THAN TWO MILLION TEXAS LONGH 
HORNS WERE DRIVEN NORTH PAST HERE TO KANSAS RAILROAD TOWNS 

FOR SHIPMENT EAST. AT SLATE CREEK CROSSING 5 MILES NORTH- 
EAST A TRADING POST, 1869, WAS THE FIRST BUILDING IN SUMNER 
COUNTY. OVER THIS TRAIL AFTER IT WAS CLOSED TO CATTLE CAME 
MANY OF THE PIONEERS WHO SETTLED THE WESTERN PART OF THE 
COUNTY. THIS SITE WAS GIVEN TO THE CTTY OF WELLINGTON BY 
FRED ROSE, WHO TRAVELED THE TRAIL AS A CHILD. 

Officers of the recently reorganized Franklin County Historical 
Society are: J. E. Shinn, Ottawa, president; B. M. Ottaway, Po- 
mona, vice-president; Mrs. Florence King, Ottawa, recording secre- 
tary, and Florence Robinson, Ottawa, corresponding secretary- 
treasurer. The board of directors includes Ottaway, Dana Needham, 
Lane, and A. P. Elder, Ottawa, serving until 1945; Asa F. Converse, 
Wellsville, Mrs. Ada B. McCracken, Ottawa, and Hiram Allen, 
Williamsburg, until 1944; Shinn, Mrs. W. A. Penny, Ottawa, and 
W. S. Jenks, Ottawa, until 1943. 

A Historical Outline of the Territorial Common Schools in the 
State of Kansas, by Lloyd C. Smith, was issued early in 1942 as the 
twenty-fourth of the series of Studies in Education published by the 
Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia. First schools in the 
following counties were mentioned in the 60-page survey: Allen, 
Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Coffey, Doniphan, Douglas, 
Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Lyon, 
Marshall, Miami, Morris, Nemaha, Osage, Riley, Shawnee, Wabaun- 
see and Wyandotte. 



(335) 



336 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Westward America (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons) is the title 
of a new book by Howard R. Driggs, professor of English education 
at New York University and president of the Oregon Trail Memorial 
Association. The volume contains "forty chapters of humanized 
history" of the West, including stories of the Santa Fe, Oregon, 
Mormon and other trails. Full-page color reproductions of forty 
water-color paintings by William Henry Jackson are featured. 
Among them is one of Alcove Springs ; a famous campground near 
Independence crossing on the Big Blue river in Marshall county. 

Edward Everett Dale, professor of history at Oklahoma Univer- 
sity at Norman, and an authority on the history of the cattle in- 
dustry, is the author of a new book, Cow Country, published by the 
University of Oklahoma Press April 27, 1942. The volume is a 
compilation of Dale's essays on the cattle industry, revised and ar- 
ranged to make "a fairly consecutive story of ranching in the Great 
Plains area." Another recent book of note from the same press is 
The Man Who Sold Louisiana, by E. Wilson Lyon, president of 
Pomona College, Claremont, Cal. It is the life of Francois Barbe- 
Marbois, minister of the treasury under Napoleon who negotiated 
and handled the details of the sale of Louisiana to the American 
emissaries. 

Seventy Years in Norton County, Kansas, 1872-1942, is the title 
of a 238-page book by D. N. Bowers printed early this summer by 
The Norton County Champion of Norton. It was compiled from 
official records, newspaper files and personal interviews and is 
well documented and illustrated. Special articles were contributed 
by Charles L. Rose, Ernest M. Wheeler, Byron F. Salisbury, Dewain 
Delp, R. E. Getty, A. E. Schafer and E. E. Nelson. County office 
holders, 1872-1942, are listed in the appendix. 

An inventory of the archives of Morris county was issued in 
July, 1942, the fourteenth of the Inventory of the County Archives 
of Kansas series published by the Kansas Historical Records Survey 
of the Work Projects Administration. Like preceding volumes, the 
publication lists the archives of the county and presents a sketch 
of its history and governmental organization. Because of the war, 
this volume is the last of the series. Unpublished material gathered 
by the organization from most of the counties of Kansas has been 
deposited by Iowa Jones, state supervisor of the project at the time 
of its closing, with the Kansas State Historical Society. 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume XI Number 4 

November, 1942 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1942 

19-4781 



Contributors 

ALBERTA PANTLE is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical 
Society. 

JAMES C. MALIN, associate editor of The Kansas Historical Quarterly, is pro- 
fessor of history at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



Restoration of the North Building at 
Shawnee Methodist Mission 

'TVHE Kansas legislature of 1939 appropriated $15,000 for the res- 
-i. toration of the North building of Shawnee Methodist Mission 
and Indian Manual Labor School. The work was completed las 
spring and the fifteen rooms, furnished as of 1845-1850, were for- 
mally opened to the public June 14, 1942. 

The Rev. Jerome C. Berryman was in charge of the mission and 
school when the building was erected in 1845. It was used as a 
dormitory and school where Indian girls were taught spinning, weav- 
ing and other domestic arts, and as the residence of Thomas Johnson, 
the founder and long-time superintendent, and other teachers. An- 
drew H. Reeder, first territorial governor of Kansas, later had his 
executive offices there. 

Little care was given the building after the school was closed in 
1862. By 1927, when the state acquired the property, rooms at the 
east end of the building, which originally corresponded with those 
at the west, had been razed and the remainder was in a dilapidated 
condition. Under the direction of Roy Stookey, state architect, and 
Charles Marshall, his assistant, the building was rebuilt. The west 
end was torn out and replaced brick by brick after a concrete foot- 
ing had been placed under the foundation. The two-story porch on 
the south was almost entirely rebuilt. Throughout, all original floors, 
mantels and laths, hand-made of native timber, were retained as far 
as possible. Walnut doors, pegged, not nailed, came to light when 
thick coatings of paint and varnish were removed. 

George Dovel, a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, super- 
vised the interior decorating and furnishing. In a search that carried 
him over much of eastern Kansas and western Missouri he secured 
the furnishings needed to make the restoration authentic. The 
furniture is genuinely antique, except a few desks and beds for In- 
dian students which were built by the museum project of the WPA 
from 1845 models. All the wallpapers also are reproductions of 
designs of the period. 

The North building was erected after the other two were in opera- 
tion. The West building, now used by the caretaker, was started in 
1839. The East building, now a museum, was begun in 1841. All 
have been partly or fully restored since the state acquired the prop- 
erty. 

(339) 



340 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Shawnee mission was first established by the Rev. Thomas John- 
son in 1830 near Chouteau's old trading post, not far from present 
Turner, Wyandotte county. In 1839, Johnson began building on the 
present site in northeast Johnson county, and the school became an 
establishment of two thousand acres, containing the three large 
buildings and thirteen smaller ones, with an enrollment of nearly 
two hundred Indian boys and girls. 

For years the school was an outpost of civilization on the Western 
frontier. The Santa Fe and Oregon trails passed near its doors. 
Many of the great figures of the old West were entertained there. 
The first governor of the territory of Kansas established his office in 
the North building in 1854. The legislature of 1855 convened in the 
East building to pass the first territorial laws. For a time the insti- 
tution was headquarters for the Proslavery party and was the scene 
of many conflicts. During the Civil War the buildings were barracks 
for Union troops and in 1864 a battle was fought across the mission 
fields. 

Old Shawnee Mission is managed by the Kansas State Historical 
Society. Cooperating with the society are the Colonial Dames, the 
Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of 1812, the 
Daughters of the American Colonists and the Shawn ?e Mission In- 
dian Historical Society. 

Pictures of the North building and a number of the restored rooms 
appear on the following pages. 




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PRIVATE DINING ROOM OF THE JOHNSON FAMILY The chair is a good 
example of the Hitchcock type, with original stenciling. There is a candle mould in the 
window. 

TEACHER'S BEDROOM The walnut bed is covered with a hand-woven spread of 
the period. The center design is Washington on horseback. The chair in the corner is a 
Shaker rocker. 




BEDROOM FOR JOHNSON CHILDREN The bed, table and washstand are walnut. 
Rugs are reproductions. 

BEDROOMS FOR TEACHERS AND TEACHER'S CHILDREN (Below) Rugs are 
reproductions. The bureau is late American Empire. 




DORMITORY FOR INDIAN GIRLS The beds are reproductions, 
are old ; the coverlets are reproductions. 



The two quilts 



LOOM ROOM- The rug loom was made by an early settler and has never left Johnson 
county. A yarn reel stands at the right of, the loom. The large spinning wheel is for wool. 



TEACHER'S BEDROOM The rope bed came from Pennsylvania. The trunk be- 
longed to the Rev. Jesse Greene, one of the founders of the school. 

JOHNSON BEDROOM The bed is maple, cherry and walnut, about 1835-1850, and 
the chest is walnut. The rugs are reproductions. 




BEDROOM FOR TEACHER WITH FAMILY The bed is cherry and was made be- 
tween 1835 and 1850. The walnut dresser, about 1840, has the top drawer fitted as a 
writing desk. The pan at right of fireplace held live coals and was used for warming beds. 
The walnut wardrobe is a good example. 

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE JOHNSON BEDROOM The door is of walnut held to- 
gether by wooden pegs. The maple bureau and the mirror over the cherry washstand are 
American Empire. The washbowl and pitcher are Bristol glass. 




CLASS ROOM FOR INDIAN GIRLS The desks are reproductions. The teacher's 
desk is an original, of hickory and pine, with wooden pegs instead of nails. 



The Story of a Kansas Freedman 

Edited by ALBERTA PANTLE 
I. INTRODUCTION 

THIS remarkable story of Larry Lapsley, a Negro slave who es- 
caped from the South during the Civil War and became a 
pioneer settler of Saline county, came to the Historical Society 
through George Robb, state auditor. As a boy Mr. Robb lived near 
Lapsley's farm in a section settled largely by Swedish immigrants. 

"I remember him well," Mr. Robb says. "He was a well set up 
and muscular man, six feet or better in height but slightly stooped, 
and he always walked with something of a shuffle. Because of the 
condition of his feet I never knew him to wear anything but over- 
shoes or gum-boots and he rode horseback a great deal. He was a 
genial, kindly man who by the force of his character had won the 
esteem and respect of all his neighbors." 

Lapsley lived the life of an ordinary early-day Kansas farmer 
and had little to say about his youthful experiences. He was over 
thirty years of age before he learned to read and write. According 
to Mr. Robb he was taught by Mrs. B. F. Robinson, the wife of his 
nearest neighbor, in the kitchen of her home. 1 She held there what 
is considered the first school in Liberty township. Larry's favorite 
paper was the Police Gazette, to which he was a subscriber for many 
years. Mrs. Robinson protested that it was too vulgar for him to 
read but he always argued that it didn't hurt him and couldn't pos- 
sibly hurt anyone else because it came in a wrapper and no one else 
could see the pictures. 

Lapsley was a member of the neighborhood's first Sunday school 
which was held in a school building near the Robinson home. After 
it was moved to another location, however, he never went again. To 
those who chided him he always said that he didn't have the time 
to go but would start again "as soon as the busy season was over." 
That time never came. It is Mr. Robb's opinion that he attended 

1. B. F. Robinson was born in Mt. Vernon, Maine, April 27, 1832. He came to Kansas 
in 1858, settling first in Junction City, a year later in Saline county. On October 7, 1861, 
he enlisted in the Sixth regiment Kansas Volunteer cavalry and served until November 19, 
1864. After being mustered out Mr. Robinson returned to Mt. Vernon and was married there, 
March 23, 1865, to S. Adelaide Smith. The couple lived near Salina for five years and then 
moved to a farm two miles east and two miles south of present Assaria, Saline county. He 
died in Salina, August 5, 1909, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. C. H. Harne. Salina 
Evening Journal, August 6, 1909; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 
1861-'65 (Topeka, 1896), p. 183. 

(341) 



342 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the first Sunday school only out of respect for the Robinson family, 
to whom he was deeply attached. 

It was in the Robinson home that Lapsley died December 13, 
1897, at the age of 57. 2 He had never married and he left all his 
property to the Robinsons. It consisted of an "unincumbered farm 
of 119 acres, worth about $3,600, some stock and other possessions." 
Two provisions of the will were characteristic. Lapsley asked to be 
buried "decently and respectably, but with no display or ostenta- 
tion," and he asked that his tombstone be "not an expensive one, the 
same being intended merely to mark my last resting place." The 
requests were followed out in the Robinson family cemetery. 3 

About twenty years after Lapsley settled in Kansas he told the 
story of his Civil War experiences to Lily Learned, a young relative 
of the Robinsons. 4 She wrote it down verbatim without interrupting 
him to ask questions about dates, the spelling of proper names and 
without attempting to alter his diction or grammar. So far as it has 
been possible to check dates and locations, his memory appears to 
have been remarkably accurate. Except for the addition of some 
punctuation and other minor changes for the sake of clarity, the 
story follows as originally told. 

II. LARRY LAPSLEY'S STORY 

I was born in Danville, Kentucky, March 7, 1840. I was raised by 
Samuel Lapsley. 5 He owned my mother and sister. My father died 
before I can remember. When I was a little baby I remember 
mother taking me and spreading a cloth for me to sit on out of doors 
under the cool shade of the locust trees with my boy cousins, older 
than I, to watch me. One day as I was playing my sister and 
cousins wandered off and left me alone at which not finding any- 
thing to do, I took to creeping around. There was a very large well 
in the yard that used to most always be covered up, but as it was 
not covered and I for the want of having better to do creeped to the 
edge of this well, and laying down, was looking into the water in 
which I saw my face and thought it was fine. My mother was in 

2. Salina Daily Re-publican- Journal, December 14, 1897 ; Salina Herald, December 17, 
1897 ; Salina Weekly Union, December 24, 1897, quoting the Topeka Daily Capital, December 
22 ; Salina Sun, December 18, 1897. 

3. Letter and transcript of will from Fred D. Joy, probate judge of Saline county (June, 
1942) ; Salina Weekly Union, December 31, 1897. 

4. Lily Learned was the daughter of James Learned, a brother-in-law of B. F. Robinson. 

5. A branch of the Lapsley family migrated from Virginia to Kentucky in 1795. Samuel 
was the son of a Presbyterian minister, Joseph B. and Sallie (Lapsley) Lapsley, his second 
wife. There were two children : Margaret, who married a Taylor and moved to Texas, and 
Samuel who married Mary Bronough. His widow resided in Pleasant Hill, Mo., in 1904. 
Neander M. Woods, The Woods-McAfee Memorial . . . (Louisville, 1905), pp. 129, 180. 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 343 

the house doing her work and she happened to come to the door to 
see where I was. Seeing me at the well it scared her very much, 
but having presence of mind enough not to hollow, she slipped up 
and caught me and then hollowed. I can just remember how she 
scared me by catching hold of me so quick. 

Samuel Lapsley's mother was a widow. She owned eight slaves. 
She was the mother of two children, a boy and a girl. The old lady 
always called me her boy as her two children were married and she 
kept me in her room from the time that I was born until her death, 
then willed me to her son Samuel. When she was dying she called 
me to her bedside and gave me to her son Samuel. Taking my hand 
in hers she told me to be a good boy and stay with Samuel. To 
Samuel she said, "Keep my boy as long as you live to remember me 
by." Then to her daughter she gave my sister. My old mother 
went to Samuel along with me. She gave half of her slaves to one 
and half to the other with a lot of money, for she was very rich. 
Judging from my size, I think I was about eight years of age at the 
time of her death. My sister died when she was about eighteen 
years old. 

In a few years Samuel went through with the most of this prop- 
erty, all but me and my mother. He was a very fast young man 
and drove fast horses and by this he lost nearly all of his property. 
He moved to Missouri taking with him his all, myself and my 
mother and three of my cousins. When he landed at Independence 
he had only five dollars in cash. He was a Free Mason and he went 
to live with a man by the name of Horace Asbery, taking his slaves 
with him. Now this Horace Asbery was a Free Mason and was a 
rich farmer. Samuel lived with him one year, in which time he 
bought eighty acres of land in Jackson county near the Little Blue 
river ten miles from Independence. He took all his slaves and lived 
on his land three years, then sold his farm and moved down to 
Pleasant Hill, Cass county, and bought an interest in a livery stable 
in which I was always at work. While [I was] working in the livery 
stable my master run behind and one of my cousins was taken from 
him for a debt of $1,200. I went to live with his brother-in-law 
whose name was William Bunor, 6 in the year 1859. In the mean- 
time I knew what his mother had said about his keeping me as long 
as he lived. One day he said to me, "Larry, I want you to go over 
to my brother Will's for a few weeks and do some work for him as 
he wants you." Not thinking anything strange by this command, I 

6. The name evidently should be William Bronough. Samuel Lapsley married Mary 
Bronough and William Bunor is described as his brother-in-law. See Footnote 5. 



344 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

readily obeyed but after four weeks had passed I came home, as I 
thought to my home, but found it was no more to be my home. I 
met some of the boys in the yard and they asked me how I liked my 
new home. I did not know what to say and at this they told me 
that I had been sold to his brother Will. I of course would not be- 
lieve them. I went into the house and was shown into the room 
where my master and his wife were. He was reading the newspaper 
and she was sewing or something of the sort. I shook hands with 
them and then in a few minutes, I asked him if he had sold me and 
he looked up and said, "No, Larry, I don't want to sell you," and 
that was all the satisfaction I could get. I then told him that the 
boys had told me that I had been sold. At this he got up and put 
his hands in his pockets, took his hat and left the house, and then I 
knew too well that I had been sold. I worked on the farm for Will 
Bunor until the fall of 'sixty-one. At this time the Union army was 
coming into Missouri. The old slave holders got scared and run into 
Texas with their slaves, my master with the rest. 7 

My master started with us all on the 15th of December, 1861. I 
drove a four-horse team loaded with women and children, all of them 
were slaves. The women cried because they had to leave their old 
home. We were the balance of the winter getting to Texas. We had 
to travel slow and camp around for fear that the Union troops would 
capture us. We got to Bonum[Bonham], Texas, 8 in February. We 
camped a mile south of Bonum while my master went around the 
country hunting a place to hire his slaves. He hired me to a man 
by the name of Stancel who owned a whiskey distillery. This man 
lived seven miles north of east of Bonum and fifteen miles south of 
the Red river. I worked there the greater part of two years. When 
I went to work in the still house, there was an old man that worked 
there, seventy-three years of age. He was head distiller. His name 
was Uncle Jerry. He, also, was a Negro and a slave. I worked 
under him for three months. He then died and at his death I be- 
came head distiller for Mr. Stancel. After I had worked for Mr. 
Stancel for two years there was a great excitement about Gen. 
Blunt's army coming into Texas, at which Mr. Stancel and lots of 
others got scared and sold their plantations and run back into 

7. Another reason for the removal of slaves from Missouri was the fear that they would 
escape or be stolen and taken into Kansas which had been admitted into the Union as a free 
state on January 29, 1861. In Cass county, which adjoined Kansas on the west, this danger 
would be especially great. Hildegarde Rose Herklotz discusses this problem in her article, 
"Jayhawkers in Missouri, 1858-1863," in The Missouri Historical Review, Columbia, v. XVII, 
No. 4 (July, 1923), pp. 505-513, and v. XVIII, No. 1 (October, 1923), pp. 64-101. 

8. Bonham, Fannin county, Tex., is about eleven miles south of the Red river which forms 
the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma, then the Indian territory. 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 345 

Texas. 9 Mr. Stancel sold his distillery to a man by the name of 
Merit Brisko 10 and also his plantation and hired me to this Brisko 
to run the distillery as he had no one that could run it. I stilled for 
Brisko one year. By this time old man Stancel came back and took 
possession of his plantation again. Brisko then moved and had the 
distillery moved away down into Red river bottom. I went with 
him and helped him put up the distillery and then came back to Mr. 
StancePs. I left Brisko two weeks before my year was up. I stayed 
with Mr. Stancel the balance of this two weeks. Old man Stancel 
came to me one day and asked me if I was willing to stay with him 
another year. I told him I was. He said, "You will have to go see 
Kalas Kook because he has charge of all you boys." I asked him, 
"Where do Kalas Kook live?" "He lives southeast of here seven 
miles. You may have my horse and see him and tell him that you 
are willing to stay with me and that I am willing to pay him as 
much a year for you as anyone else would pay." 

In the meantime I will go back. Kalas Kook was a neighbor of 
this Bunor that owned me in Missouri. He started the year before 
us for Texas. He left part of his stock for Bunor to take care of. 
When Bunor came to Texas he hunted up Kalas Kook and gave him 
charge of all his slaves which he had hired out. Then Bunor went 
back to Missouri and enlisted in the Rebel army and got killed at 
Pea Ridge. 11 

I thanked Mr. Stancel and took his horse and went to do my 
errand. Kalas Kook was at this time sick in bed. He said to me, 

"You have been at Old Stancel's long enough, by . You can't 

stay there any longer. I have hired you to Jones." "My boss said 
that I could stay with Mr. Stancel as long as I stayed in Texas." 

"It don't make a bit of difference what your boss said. I'm 

your boss now. I have hired you to Jones and when your time is up 
at StancePs I want you to go to Jones." "Look a here, Mr. Stancel 
says that he will give you as much a year as any man." "It don't 
make any difference what Stancel says. You have got to go to 
Jones. You recollect that I am your boss now. You have got to do 
as I want you to. Jones don't want you to do hard work. He wants 

9. According to Lapsley's calculation, this would have been during the latter part of 1863. 
On August 22, 1863, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, with orders to "obtain possession of all the 
Indian territory to the Red river," set out from Fort Gibson. He penetrated the Indian terri- 
tory as far as Perryville in the Choctaw nation and then turned and went east into Arkansas. 
The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate 
Armies, 1880-1901 (hereafter referred to as Official Records), Series I, v. XXII, Pt. I, pp. 597, 

10. The name probably should be spelled Briscoe. There was a man by that name living 
near Bonham in 1865. T. M. Scott to Stand Watie, February 1, 1865, in Edward Everett Dale 
and Gaston Litton, Cherokee Cavaliers , . . (Norman, Okla., 1939), p. 211. 

11. The battle of Pea Ridge or Elkhorn, as it was known in the South, occurred in 
March, 1862. 



346 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

you to be a wagon boss to make them keep things up right." "Well, 
that is just what I don't want to do." "It don't make any difference 
what you want to do. I have hired you to Jones and you must go 
there. He is going to start to Galveston in three weeks and he wants 
you to be there to be boss over the other Negroes to make them keep 
things up." "Well, I must be getting back." "Goodby, don't forget 
to go to Jones when you time is up." As I went to go his wife got 
up and followed me down to the gate and said, "Now, Larry, don't 
pay any attention to what Mr. Kook says. He is cross to us all now. 
He talks worse to me than he has to you this morning." At this we 
shook hands and parted. "Don't forget to come and see us before 
you go to Jones'." I told her that I would not and that was the last 
time I ever saw her. 

When I got home Mr. Stancel came out and said, "Well, Larry, 
how did you make it?" "Well, I did not make it at all. Kalas Kook 
is a fool, I believe." "What did he say?" "I told him what you 
said and he said I had been at Old Stancel's long enough and that he 
had hired me to Jones and that I was to go there when my time was 
up here." "Did you tell him that I would give him as much as any- 
one else?" "Yes, I did." "Well, I can't help you then, Larry, if 
he won't let you stay, because he has charge of all you boys, and I 
am sorry of that." At this he walked into the house and I went on 
to the stable. There I met Tom, a cousin of mine. Tom before this, 
had been at me to start north and I had refused to go because it was 
very dangerous to go through the Indian Territory at that time be- 
cause old Gen. Muculler[McCulloch] 12 the rebel general that was 
tenting at Bonum had made a treaty with the Indians that they 
should not let anyone through the Indian Territory, white or black, 
without a pass from him. He gave the Indians $100 a head for 
everyone they caught going north and the Indians were watching 
day and night to catch the Negroes and whites that dared venture. 13 
I had told Tom of all this but he answered, "Well, now, Larry, I did 
not think you would be such a coward for there is some get through 
once in a while and we would stand as good a show as some of them 
that do get through." "Why, Tom, you don't know nothing about 

12. Brig. Gen. Henry E. McCulloch was in command of the Northern Sub-district of 
Texas with headquarters at Bonham. Official Records, Series I, v. XXVI, Pt. II, p. 188. 

13. Considerable research has failed to verify this statement. Annie Heloise Abel makes 
no mention of it in her carefully documented volumes, "Slaveholding Indians," although she 
does say that the Chpctaws and Chickasaws, allies of the South, were extremely hostile to- 
wards the blacks during the latter part of the war. General McCulloch experienced much 
difficulty with deserters so it is possible that he made some sort of agreement with the Choc- 
taws for the return of his men captured in their territory. It is not likely that he offered 
them $100 a head. The North, which was considerably more affluent than the South, paid 
bounties ranging from $5 to $30 for the return of deserters. Annie Heloise Abel, The Ameri- 
can Indian Under Reconstruction (Cleveland, 1925), p. 272; Ella Lonn, Desertion During the 
Civil War (New York, 1928), pp. 221, 222. 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 347 

this. There were eighty-odd white men started through all of them 
well armed and got way down to Boggy Depot 14 on their road to 
Fort Smith and then the Indians run onto them one morning and 
killed a whole lot of them and even captured the captain of the band, 
and out of all the eighty only twenty-eight got through to Fort 
Smith. The Indians brought all the rest back that they did not kill, 
and turned them over to Gen. Muculler and the home guards there 
and received their $100 a head." "Well, I don't know anything 
about that, Larry. I would rather die than stay here in Texas. We 
would stand as much chance as some that do get through." 

As I rode up to the stable, I says to Tom, says I, "Tom, I am all 
ready now to go north, if you want to." "What got you in the no- 
tion all at once?" "I have been over to see Kalas Kook. When 
Bunor left here he left us in care of Kalas Kook. He never said 
anything about that to me. He told me when he left me at Old man 
StanceFs that I could stay with him until the war was over, or as 
long as I stayed in Texas. He then went and put us in the hands 
of Kalas Kook, one of the meanest men there ever was in Missouri. 
He has hired you and me to Jones and says when our time is out 
here we must go over to Jones because Jones is going to start south 
in about three weeks and I tell you, Tom, I am going to die before 
I go." 

"Hurrah for you, Larry. I am glad to hear you talk that way. 
I'm with you. When will we start?" "Our time is out in two weeks 
and if we are going to go then will be our chance." "Well, I tell 
you, Larry, I'm glad that Kalas Kook has stirred you up and when- 
ever you say start, I'm ready." "Now, Tom, I tell you what we 
have got to do. We have got to try to lay up some provisions to 
travel on. We have got two weeks now to gather it up in. So when 
our time is out, instead of going south we will go north. But, Tom, 
we want to talk about this a little. There is no use for us to start 
unless we are determined to go through or die. Now the first thing 
that we have got to make up our minds to is this: That we will 
travel only in the night and not in any roads because you know 
that the Indians are as thick as bees over there and Old Price's 
army what's left of it are all along Red river 15 and maybe we 

14. Boggy Depot, Chickasaw nation, was used during the Civil War as a supply station 
for the Confederate army in that region. Site of the town is in present Atoka county, 
Oklahoma. 

15. Gen. Sterling Price, following his raid in Kansas and Missouri in 1864, retreated 
south through Arkansas and the Indian territory into northern Texas. According to the 
diary of one of his men, Lt. Col. Lauchlan A. Maclean, Gen. Price's army was in the vicinity 
of the Red river in November, crossing it November 22 on the way to Bonham. Official 
Records, Series I, v. XLI, Pt. I, p. 642. 



348 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

can't get through anyway." "Yes, Larry, that would be the best thing 
for us to do and I am going to work saving up something for us 
to eat as fast as ever I can." "Tom, I am going to show Kalas Kook 
that I am not going to do as he says. I would a great deal rather 
die in the Indian Territory than do what he wants me to do." 
"Hurrah for you, Larry. I feel just that way myself and if you had 
listened to me we would have been in the Union army long ago." 
"We had better stop talking because someone might hear us." 

Our two weeks passed off and Old man Stancel came out and said, 
"Now, your time is out and just as soon as you get ready you go 
over to Jones just as Kalas Kook said. Larry, I hate awful bad to 
give you up but if Mr. Kook won't let you stay we can't help it." 
"Yes, sir, Mr. Stancel, I am sorry that Kalas Kook is a fool myself. 
I always knew that he was the meanest man in Missouri anyhow, 
and I don't know what my master left us in his hands for. He 
never told me that he was going to do that when he left here. If 
he had I would have talked against that you bet." "Yes, it is a bad 
thing but we can't help it." "Well, it is about time that we were 
starting." "Here," Mrs. Stancel said, "Larry, I am sorry that you 
can't stay with us, and if you ever get back from the south I want 
you to come and see us." "Yes, mam, I will do it." Then we said 
goodby and started out, not south as they think, but north. We 
traveled and got to the Red river that night but not in time to 
cross before day and so we had to lay in Red river bottom all day. 
We could hear the Indians and Price's men yelling up and down the 
river but we kept very quiet until night. Then we built us a raft 
and rafted across the river into the Indian Territory. 16 

We traveled on that night into the Territory. Tom was very 
brave before we left Old man Stancel's. After we got into the Indian 
Territory his courage failed him. He had always been a great talker. 
After we got into danger he kept lagging behind, sometimes as much 
as a hundred yards, and he being way behind me I would say, "Here, 
Tom, what are you doing way back there? Come with me." "Oh 
yes, I am coming," he would say and run up beside me, but in a 

16. The territory at this point was part of the Choctaw country. The Choctaws had con- 
cluded a treaty with the Confederate States on July 12, 1861. Slaveholders themselves, they 
were more in sympathy and remained more loyal to the South than any tribes of the territory 
who had made similar treaties. In the latter years of the war the Choctaw nation became the 
home of thousands of Secessionist refugees from the more northerly tribes who had largely 
reverted to the Union cause. With the exception of occasional raids by the Union troops, the 
nation was controlled throughout the war by the Confederate army who were dependent, for 
the most part, upon this region for supplies of grain and beef for the Trans -Mississippi De- 
partment. Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of 
America (Richmond, 1864), pp. 311-331; Abel, op. cit., p. 11; Report o/ the Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs . . . 1865 (Washington, 1865), pp. 252-260; Official Records, Series I, v. 
XXXIV, Pt. II, p. 858. 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 



349 




C HOCTAW 
NATION 






TEXAS 



SOME OF THE PLACES MENTIONED BY LARRY LAPSLEY IN THE STORY OF 
HIS ESCAPE FROM TEXAS TO FORT GIBSON 



350 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

few minutes he would be way behind again. We traveled on until 
daybreak then concealed ourselves. We found that we were only 
about a hundred yards from some old Indian shanties, and there 
we laid the rest of the day. We could hear dogs barking all around 
us and making a great noise. The next night we started out again 
and I suppose that we had gone about two miles that night when 
a terrible big cloud came over in the west and darkened everything 
so we had to stop traveling. It commenced raining and rained all 
night. It was so very dark that all Tom and I could do was to 
stand up beside trees. It was so dark that we could not see each 
other two feet apart. As it began to get light we commenced to 
hunt for a place to hide that day. We found what we thought 
would be a good place but, when it cleared off, we found ourselves 
right in the heart of a big Indian village. The dogs were barking 
and the chickens were crowing, and we were very uneasy all day 
and was very glad when night came that time. As soon as it got 
dark enough for us to make a move we struck out again but it 
commenced clouding up again before sunset. Just as we got to 
traveling nicely this heavy cloud had got over again and made it 
so dark in that big timber that we could not see and it went to 
raining again and continued raining all night. We found ourselves 
surrounded by Indians again the next morning. We hid ourselves 
the best that we could and so we laid up that day in misery, longing 
to see another night. As soon as it got dark enough we tried to 
travel again but fate followed us and it clouded up again, and went 
to raining. Tom began getting very much out of patience. 

Now, of course, the next morning we were not very far from 
the place we had stayed the day before. We were both wringing 
wet and had been for three days. It seemed that during those 
three days that it would clear up every day and cloud up and rain 
every night. Tom said, "Look here, Larry, we shall never get 
through this way. Why, just think, we have been here three days 
and we are not more than three miles from the river and everything 
that we have got to eat is soaking wet." "Well, well, Tom, we can't 
help that. It ain't going to do for us to travel in the day time." 
"Well, as long as it keeps clouding up this way we can't travel in the 
night either and if we keep laying around this way we will get caught 
anyhow." "Tom, you know what our agreement was before we left 
Texas, that we would do no traveling in the day time and travel in 
no roads but keep in all the woods that we could." "Yes, I know 
that was our agreement but don't you see that it keeps raining every 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 351 

night and that we can't travel." "Well, what are we going to do 
about it?" "We can try and travel a little every morning when it 
is early." 

"Tom, I don't think that will do at all. Whenever we attempt 
that I think we will be captured." "If we keep staying here we shall 
be captured anyhow. I think it would be a good plan to travel a 
little in the morning but it is just as you say about it." "But I 
don't like it at all." And so we started off. 

It was daylight and we traveled about half a mile through the big 
heavy timber. It was very foggy but after awhile it cleared off, 
and in passing along there was a great big fellow stepped out from 
behind an old oak tree. He said, "Good morning, gentlemen. Are 
you traveling?" Tom, said, "Yes, sir." Tom stopped and talked 
with him. I got about two hundred yards ahead of Tom while he 
was talking with that fellow. By this time it had cleared off and 
the sun was shining bright. I looked to my right and I was within a 
hundred yards of an old Indian shanty. Tom then stopped talking 
and run and caught me. I said, "Tom, what do you think of that 
fellow?" "Oh, he is all right." "What! Do you think that he is 
all right?" "Yes, he is all right. There is a lot of them going to 
start out next Saturday night and besides that he says that we are 
on the right road." "Well, I tell you, Tom, that I don't like the 
looks of that fellow at all." 

And so we traveled on until we got down to a creek where there 
was a little brush and a few scattering trees. I sat down on an old 
stump and Tom got down on his knees beside me and commenced 
telling me what this fellow had said to him. While we were talking 
there were two Newfoundland dogs came running right in between 
us and stopped right in front of us. I turned around and saw to my 
sorrow that we were surrounded by Indians. 

The Indian captain rode up in front of us and cried, "Whope 
there, boys. We've got you." Tom hollowed out, "Yes, sir." "You 
boys going to give up? If you are, lay down your arms and march 
out this way." And he waved his hand to signal the way we should 
go. Tom unbuttoned his belt and threw down his pistol, knife and 
all and started off. By the way, we both had on U. S. belts. After 
he had got ahead five or six steps I started after him. I had my 
pistol and knife on me. I did not throw them down and by this they 
thought I had none. I had on a very long frock-tailed coat which 
covered them up. They marched us up to the house that we had just 
passed and while we were marching along I got it into my head that 



352 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

I might in some way save my pistol. Tom and I were marching side 
by side and the Indians following us and talking as fast as they 
could in their own tongue. I thought that I might have a chance to 
get away from them yet and I had a very fine revolver. In case that 
I did get away, I wanted to save it so I thought that I would try to 
slip it out of my belt and drop it in the grass there, so if I got 
away I could come right there and find it. I took hold of it and had 
just got it out of my belt and there was an old Chaktauh [Choctaw] 
right behind me. I heard him say in a gruff voice, "Take your hands 
out of your bosom." I looked behind me and he had his old rifle 
leveled at my head. I dropped my pistol and walked on but they 
saw it fall and one of them got down from his horse and picked it 
up and it created a terrible jabbering among them. They marched 
us up to the house and gave us something to eat, such as they had: 
a little corn bread, sour milk and beef. After we had eaten they 
commenced searching us and put chains on us. They got some old 
Mexican silver dollars from me and from Tom they got some Con- 
federate scrip. After searching us they marched us into the house 
and guarded us day and night. For about a week they kept us 
chained together and kept our hands chained so we could scarcely 
use them to eat. They would take turns watching us. They kept 
us in a room with a little turning and the door locked. One would 
set half of the night and then the other would come. If there ever 
was a time that I wanted to die, then was the time. The Indians 
would pour in to see us and have their big dances. For about two 
weeks I was sullen and saucy to the Indians. 

One night when they were having a big dance and lots of stray In- 
dians were there, it seemed as if half of them were drunk. They 
had got whiskey somewhere. There was one of them got to jump- 
ing around and run to Tom and said, "You, d you, trying to get 

to the Yankees." Tom just looked at him and smiled and did not 
say anything and so the Indian came over to me and said, "You 
tried to get to the Yankees, too." I jumped up from my seat and 
said, "You are a liar, sir." At which the Indian jumped back from 
me and the guard jumped and grabbed his gun and said, "Hold on, 
hold on!" and raised his gun on me. I looked at him and hollowed 
out to him to shoot and not stand there and talk about what he was 
going to do. "Shoot." He put his gun down and said, "Oh ! I know 
how you feel but the easier you can be the better it will be for you. 
Yes, I know how you feel because I have been there myself." 

He then came and sat down beside me and commenced telling 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 353 

what a time he had when he was captured by the Yankees. I was 
in hopes when he raised his gun that he would shoot me but he sur- 
prised me. I had become crazy mad and death would have been 
acceptable. They kept us chained together for nearly two weeks 
and after that they took the chains off of our hands and let us have 
separate chains on our legs in the day time but at night they would 
chain us together again with a big log chain, one end of it chained 
to one of Tom's legs and the other chained to one of my legs. This 
would be done every night at bed time and then we would carry our 
separate chains in the day time. They would guard us around all 
day. One day about a week after I had been taken prisoner this 
black fellow that had betrayed us came into the room where we were 
sitting and said, "Good morning, gentlemen. I expect that you men 
think that I told on you, but I didn't. The children told on you. 
They saw you passing by and went and told. I didn't do it." And 
so he went on talking with Tom. I never spoke to him. I felt more 
like killing him than talking with him. He talked and laughed with 
Tom for awhile then he went out and then the Indians came in. 
There were no Indians in the room while he was there. They were 
using him for a spy. After his visit we could see him running around 
but he did not come in to see us very often. I have seen the Indians 
running around outside striking this spy over the head with their 
revolvers and he telling them in the Indian language to quit striking 
him, and I used to wish that they would shoot him. 

One day they sent this spy whose name was Moses into the forest 
to get a load of rails and they sent me with him. I was willing to 
go with him because I was tired sitting around in the house. When 
we got down into the woods he commenced a great conversation 
about the Indians. He kept telling their nature or rather he claimed 
to be. He said to me, "Look a here, man, if you all want to get 
away from here why if you just start out east over here, why there 
is a terrible big forest and there is no man that can ride through it. 
And if ever you could get in there you would be safe. The Indians 
would never follow you in there." I said that I had run off enough. 
I wished that I hadn't started away from home, that my object was 
to get back to Missouri. I left Texas because I did not like it and 
I wanted to get back home. He said, "If you boys want to get away 
you just want to go out that way." I said, "No, I like this country 
and I believe that I will stay here. It puts me in mind of Missouri." 
He said, "This is a pretty country, sure." And of course I agreed 
with him and he talked on, but I said no more. We went back to 

234781 



354 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the house with the rails and I was satisfied that he had not got any 
information from me about anything. 

The Indians mostly lived on corn bread. They had little steel 
mills fastened up to trees where they ground their corn for each 
meal. After we were given separate chains we were put to work 
grinding their corn in these little mills. One day Tom and I were 
grinding there. I said, "Look a here, Tom, we have started and I 
haven't given up yet. If we can get the least chance let us start 
off again." Tom said, "Larry, don't you know that we can't get 
away from these Indians?" "I tell you, Tom, if I ever get the least 
chance, I am going." Tom said, "If you ever make a move from 
here I believe that they will bring you back. Don't you see that 
they have those Newfoundland dogs here yet and that old dog looks 
as if he knew about as much as a man." "Yes, I know that, but if 
I ever get a chance, I'm going." "Well, if you think that you can, 
get away and go, but I believe that those Indians will bring you 
back." So Tom and I stopped talking. 

I was satisfied that Tom was whipped and that he would never 
try to get away, and so I made no more talk with him on that sub- 
ject. I was determined that the first chance, however small, I 
would try to get away and as I have said, I was very stubborn and 
mulish with those Indians. Tom got so he would laugh and talk 
with them and by being so he got more privileges than I did. He 
could remove the chains from his legs and run foot races with the 
Indians and slip them on again. On the other hand, mine were so 
tight that they made my legs sore. I saw that Tom had so much 
more liberty than I did that I commenced getting uneasy, thinking 
that he might get away before I did and I knew that if he did get 
away that I never could. I resolved to change my action and act 
friendly with the Indians. I commenced talking and laughing with 
them although it was nothing but a forced laugh. I saw that it 
was having considerable effect and that gave me courage and so I 
pitched into talking in earnest. The Indians commenced getting 
very much attached to me. Before this they would watch and follow 
me every time that I stepped out of doors, with their guns ready. 
After I got to talking they would let me go out of doors without 
following me and that was a great relief to me. 

I commenced to study how I could get my chains loose. There 
was a lot of Indian hatchets laying around in the yard. The Indians 
got so that they would allow me to go down into the woods a hundred 
yards from the house without following me with their guns. They 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 355 

might come to the gate, but after a little they got so that they did 
not come out of the house so I took advantage of this and got one 
of those old hatchets. When I went out into the woods one time I 
took it with me and laid it by a big oak tree and hurried back and 
went into the house and commenced laughing and talking to the 
Indians. Tom nor the Indians had no idea what I had done. I felt 
more like laughing at the moment than I had since I had been in 
prison. Although I had my chains on I felt as though I was free 
and from that hour I commenced watching my chance to get away. 

Time went on and I kept talking and gaining the confidence of 
the Indians as much as possible. There was a great deal of rain 
at that time. After I had been there nearly four weeks the Indians 
were having a big dance and that night there came up a terrible 
big rain storm. The thunder and lightning is terrific in those moun- 
tain countries. The Indians were having a big time in the house. 
Tom seemed to be enjoying it very much with his chains on but 
they did not any of them know what was in my head. The Indian 
that was guarding that night was a Cherokee. His name was Niel 
Bean. He was setting back clapping his hands and laughing and 
the Indians were talking in their own tongue when I jumped right 
up in the excitement and I ran over to this guard and said, "Look 
a here, I want to step out awhile. It is raining awful, but I want to 
go." He said, "Well, go ahead but hurry back." 

He went on with his talking and I stepped out into the rain and 
hurried off down to my tree where I had left my hatchet. It was 
very dark but I found my tree and hatchet where I had laid it. 
There was a lapring inside of the lock where it went around my 
leg. I caught up my hatchet and opened that lapring and took the 
chain off from me and threw it, lock and all, as far as I could. 
When I started this time it was pouring down and the lightning 
was cracking around through the mountains and it looked like the 
whole mountain was covered with water. I ran as fast as I could 
through the brush and I had got about four miles east the way this 
black fellow had told me to go and instead of striking that great 
timber that he had told me about I struck a big prairie and before 
I got there the clouds had broke away and the moon shone bright. 
When I stepped out of the timber I could look all east of me and I 
could see nothing but prairie as far as I could see and that was that 
great forest that black fellow told me about. When I came out I 
could see no timber ahead of me. I started out into the prairie in a 
southeasterly direction. When I had gone about two hundred yards 



356 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

from the timber I heard horses' feet striking the stones a little south 
of me. I supposed there was a road over there and somebody travel- 
ing along the road and so I laid down and tried to catch a glimpse 
of who it was but I could not see anyone. I got up and changed 
my course and started in a northeast direction. I was on a big hill. 
I went down this hill to the head of a little creek. After I had got 
about half of a mile from the place where I had laid down I looked 
back on the big hill and I saw the Indians coming over the hill on 
horseback and I made up my mind that I was a goner. Here I 
was out on this great prairie and there wasn't a tree standing here, 
and not enough timber to amount to anything. I knew that it was 
no use to run because I had nowhere to run to. There was a little 
patch of hazel brush a little ahead of me. I suppose that there was 
about an acre of it. I went into this. I went to the south side of it. 
By this time the Indian and his dogs were about two hundred yards 
behind me and so I just laid down in the edge of this patch of brush. 
When the dogs got in about a hundred yards of me they left my 
tracks and went down into the center of this patch of brush but the 
Indian kept a straight course and stopped his horse right by my 
side. By this time the dogs were making the brush crack just behind 
me and this Indian was setting on his horse so close to me that I 
was afraid he would step on me. He was looking over into the 
brush with his gun acrost his knee. All at once he hollowed, "Oh 
yes, Larry, come out." The dogs were working to the east side of 
the patch so the Indian struck out expecting to see me run out on 
that side and the dogs came out and took a Jong circle southeast of 
me, the Indian following them. When they got about two hundred 
yards from me I crept down the bank of the creek and waded down 
the creek until I got to the mouth where it emptied into a little 
river. I crossed that river that night and traveled on down the north 
side the balance of that night. Day caught me way down the river, 
I don't know how far, but at not a very good place to conceal my- 
self. I got to a patch of sumac brush and thought I would hide 
myself there that day but my mind bothered me so that I could not 
stay there so I jumped up and went back up the river about a 
quarter of a mile where the banks were very high and steep and got 
under the bank. I was setting there about the time the sun rose. 
I remember that it was a bright, clear morning and I was thinking 
what a close call I had had the night before. I was wringing wet 
and had been so all night and while I was thinking about it I heard 
a stick break up on the bank behind me and so I turned my head 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 357 

and there that Indian was on his horse, the same that I had seen 
the night before. The dogs had passed and I did not hear them. 
He was looking ahead at the dogs which had gone down to the 
sumac patch. As soon as he had got far enough away so that I 
dared to move I got down into the water and traveled up the river 
about a hundred yards. 

When I got up the river apiece I come to some willow bushes that 
grew over the water and I got down under those bushes in the water. 
In a few minutes I was surrounded by Indians on both sides of the 
river. I could see them walking and riding up the river, looking 
into the drifts. The bank of the river, where I was, was nearly 
straight up and down and about twenty feet high. I could hear the 
horses' feet on the high bank and the Indians driving on their dogs. 
On the other side I could see them running around bareheaded with 
their guns, looking in the brush piles after me and once in awhile 
looking across the river at the Indians in front of me. I happened 
to look up the river and there was the same old Indian that I had 
seen the night before standing about a hundred feet from me looking, 
as I thought, straight at me. I felt sure that he saw me. He was so 
close that I could tell that he had my revolver in his belt. I fell 
back with my head against the bank up to my neck in water ex- 
pecting to hear him hollow, but, as good luck would have it, he un- 
doubtedly did not see me as he made no noise. I was very careful 
not to raise my head from under those bushes that day. All day I 
could see the squaws riding with the rest, hunting for me, and so I 
laid there all that night and next morning I saw that the Indians 
were around there, if anything, a little thicker than the day before. 
I saw them riding and driving their dogs until about three o'clock. 
I stuck to my hiding place until about twelve o'clock the second 
night when I heard a lot of big gray wolves howling around and I 
took it for granted that there were not any Indians close so I ven- 
tured to come out on the opposite side of the river. 

I traveled down the river about a mile then crossed the river and 
struck out for the mountains north. I got to the mountains just as 
day was breaking and went to hunting me a hiding place. I found 
a place that I thought would do for I had made up my mind that I 
would not try to travel in day time again. I was about as uneasy 
in the mountains as I had been the day before in the water because 
I was right close to a lot more Indians. The dogs were a barking 
about a hundred yards from me and I was afraid they would get 
onto my track and run onto me again. I made out to stay there 



358 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

that day but I was very glad when night came once more and as 
soon as it got dark enough for me to travel I struck out again and 
got to Pine mountains about midnight and traveled a little ways 
into the mountains. This made four days that I had not had any- 
thing to eat. When I went into the water the first day I had about 
two hands-full of corn in my pocket and I laid in the water until 
the corn sprouted. I put my hand into my pocket to get some of it 
and there was sprouts on it half an inch long. 

The night that I got to Pine mountains the moon was shining 
bright and the mountains did look very pretty. I stopped and sat 
on an old log to rest a little. While I was sitting there I heard a 
terrible noise ahead of me and in a minute out came a big deer and 
after it came a big black wolf. When the deer got to me it changed 
its course and went to the north but the wolf kept coming right 
toward me. I sat there and looked at him until he had got within 
a few yards of me and then I raised up and threw a stone at him 
and hollowed. When I threw the stone at him he just raised up 
and stood on his hind feet. The moon was shining bright and he 
just glistened and looked like a black pony. I went to laughing and 
he got down and went running back as fast as he could. I sat there 
a little while and then I started on again. 

I reached the highest part of Pine mountains that night. I found 
out that I had got away from the Indian settlement from the sound 
of the chickens crowing, which seemed a good ways off. I made up 
my mind that when I saw so many wild animals running around so 
thick that there could not be many Indians near. So I struck out 
to travel in the day time again. Before this I had not traveled any 
in the day time but had laid by until night. My object was to keep 
in all the heavy timber that I could and to keep out of all roads. I 
went down into the bottom that day between the Pine and Oak 
mountains. I had got into some heavy timber and struck a due 
north course. Before I had been traveling northeast. This timber 
was very thick and the first thing that I knew I came to a road. I 
heard Indians talking and when I peeked out I saw some Indian 
soldiers. This was on the Fort Smith and Bog[g]y Depot road. 17 
If I had been two or three minutes sooner I would have been caught 
again for I would have run right into their arms. I dived my head 
in until I thought that they were far enough past for me to come 
out then I run across the road and struck out as fast as I could for 
the Oak mountains north, which was about a mile from there. 

17. The Fort Smith and Boggy Depot road was used extensively by the Confederate 
army in carrying supplies to Boggy Depot where they maintained reserves for the troops in 
the Indian territory. 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 359 

The Oak mountains were higher than the Pine mountains and it 
was hard work for me to climb on account of the stone which was 
very large. As I was going up the mountain I heard something 
rattle the leaves and when I looked I saw that it was a centipede. 
It was about sixteen or eighteen inches long. It was brown and had 
a hard shell. It had two rows of legs with sharp claws. I had my 
stick on him and it coiled up onto it and the way it made the 
splinters fly was a sight. I held it with my stick until I mashed its 
head with a stone. I went on up the mountain until I reached the 
top. I got upon a large stone and could look back the way I had 
come. I saw a lot of cattle between the two mountains with the 
Indians herding them. While I was there I thought that I would 
take off my coat and dry it, and try and get rested as I thought that 
I was safe. I examined my corn that was in my pocket. By this 
time I commenced to be very hungry. I took the corn out of my 
pocket and it had all grown together and the sprouts were about 
three inches long. I thought that I would lie down and rest but I 
could not do it. While I was sitting there, there was a big drove of 
wild turkeys came up and I looked at them pretty wistfully, but I 
could not ketch one for my strength was almost gone not having 
anything to eat for five days except a little of this sprouted corn, 
and besides I had not had any sleep since I started out, but I jumped 
up and put on my coat and started out north over the mountain. I 
traveled on, the most of that day, in the mountains. I thought that 
I would travel day and night now. 

That day I got out of that tier of mountains and crossed to 
another tier. That night following I got very sleepy. As I was go- 
ing over the mountain there was a large ledge of stone and a little 
after sundown there was a very large catamount jumped out from 
behind a pile of stone. The mountain was very steep where he 
jumped out. As he came out he jumped on a large round stone and 
set it to rolling down the hill after him, and though I was very 
hungry and faint I just laid down and rolled and laughed to see 
that catamount and stone rolling down the hill. The catamount 
probably thought it was I coming after him. But it was fun, I can 
tell you. I went on. In about three hours after that there came up 
a very dark cloud. It got so dark up in the mountains that I could 
not see to travel. I came to a place where the leaves were piled up 
very thick and I thought that I would lie down there and rest. When 
I lay down on the leaves I felt something moving under me and I 
got up quick too, I can tell you. I have an idea that it was either 



360 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

young wolves or young bears. I started on again but had not gone 
a great ways until it commenced thundering and lightning and rain- 
ing, and heavy thunder it was too, I tell you, and the water just 
poured down in a sheet, and the lightning struck all around there. 
I stood up by a tree. It rained for about two hours. After it ceased 
I started down the mountain. Of course I was wringing wet and 
had been since I had left prison. 

I got out of the mountains into a valley a little before day, and I 
got so terrible sleepy that I thought I could not go any farther with- 
out sleeping. The mosquitoes were very thick there. I concluded 
that I would lay down and cover my head with bushes so that I 
could sleep a while. So I went to work and broke a lot of bushes 
and covered my head. I laid down by a tree. My object was to 
keep the mosquitoes off while I was sleeping. I got my head covered 
up and got to dozing off a little when I heard some leaves rattling 
not far from me. It sounded like someone walking. This noise kept 
getting closer to me all the time so I threw the bushes off my head 
and behold it was a big wolf. He had got within a few rods of me 
and was looking at me. If I had raised up probably he would have 
jumped on me, but I hollowed at him. He just trotted around me 
but did not appear to be any ways excited. I got up and went to 
traveling again because I s-aw that it would not do for me to lay 
there. Not long after this day commenced to break. 

That day about three o'clock when I was traveling through the 
woods I run on to another Indian shanty. I came within a hundred 
yards and looked and I saw an old Indian sitting on the fence with 
his back to me. He seemed to be looking into the house so I struck 
out north because I was afraid that he would turn around and see 
me. I traveled on the balance of the day and the next day I crossed 
the Canadian river. I was walking with a stick when I crossed 
the river. It was near waist deep and stony bottom. While I was 
crossing a terrible fish came tumbling over the stones, nearly as 
big as I was. After I got across the river I could not travel more 
than a quarter of a mile without sitting down and resting. I kept on 
that way until I got to Norfork [North Fork Town]. 18 The day 
that I got to Norfork I found a lot of wild hogs and cattle. 19 There 
was not anyone there or anyone within fifty miles. It was at that 

18. North Fork, commonly called North Fork Town, was in the Creek nation. It was 
located on the North Fork of the Canadian river near its juncture with the Canadian. The 
present town of Eufaula, Okla., is near the site of the old Indian village. 

19. During the latter years of the war the Canadian river bottoms became a refuge for 
wild animals. This was due to the abandonment of livestock by the Indians who had been 
forced to leave their homes and to the absence of hunters in this section. John N. Edwards, 
Shelby and His Men . . . (Cincinnati, 1867), pp. 463, 464. 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 361 

time a deserted Indian village. 20 There were even wild dogs there. 
I hunted up my quarters. The winter before the Union soldiers 
had their quarters there so I was lost. I did not know where I was. 
There was a large building there and I took that for my quarters. 
This building was the largest house that was in the town. The 
floor was covered with paper. I expected to die there because I did 
not know where I was. I laid around on the paper and would some- 
times walk out a little piece. I was getting very weak then. I could 
not walk more than ten steps without resting. 

Every night the large wolves would come into town and run all 
the other creatures out. When they would come they would sound 
just like a brass band. I was completely lost for my aim had been, 
when I left Texas, to go to Fort Smith. I had been at Fort Smith 
before but being captured by the Indians had got me lost. 

After I had been there two days I commenced thinking that I might 
ketch one of those wild hogs for they had got to coming into the 
houses to sleep to protect themselves from the wolves. I picked out 
a house to ketch one in. This house had been a smoke house. I 
went there and fixed a door so that I could fasten in my hog, if I 
got it. I went there morning after morning but there was nothing 
there. I was very near starved. Had not had anything to eat yet. 
One morning when I had nearly given up I thought that I would go 
and look anyhow, and when I got there, there was a big hog in the 
house. I fastened him up as quick as I could. I did not know 
how I was going to kill him and that was the next thing to study over. 
There was some large cannon balls laying around there. When I 
got that hog fastened up he was very courageous and so I was in a 
study how to kill him. I looked like a poor object to try to kill him 
because I was almost a skeleton. I got a couple of those ten pound 
cannon balls and thought that maybe I could knock him down stand- 
ing outside of the door. I threw one of them and hit his nose and 
made it bleed and also made him mad. So I threw again and it was 
like the first. It made him still [more] furious. I saw that I could 
not do anything with him that way so I thought of some other way 
to kill him. I got inside of the house where the hog was. 

There was a box bed where some of the soldiers had slept and this 
house had also been used for a smoke house. When I got in, I got up 
on this box bed, and up over head there was a lot of sticks that had 

20. There are records of Union soldiers having passed through North Fork Town but it is 
doubtful whether they maintained headquarters there for any appreciable length of time. 
There was never, at any time during the war, a sufficient force stationed at Fort Gibson, held 
by the Union army, to sustain prolonged advances into the territory south of the Arkansas 
river. 



362 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

been used to hang the meat on. I thought that I would take one of 
these and knock him down. While I stood on the bed the hog got 
back as far as he could so I made up my mind that I must kill him 
and not let him get away. I took my stick and got down off the bed. 
I went walking up toward the hog with the stick in my hand. I 
struck him across the nose and he throwed up his head and went 
for me. There was a center post in the room and I backed behind 
that. When the hog came, instead of hitting me, he hit the post. 
When he struck the post he wheeled around and run under the bed 
and I followed him up and fastened him in with a board. When he 
got under the bed it was so narrow that he could not turn around. 
I thought, at this, that I had done a big thing. I then sat down to 
rest before I could kill him. While I was there I found an old axe 
that had been used for a meat axe and also the half of a case knife. 
I took this old axe and knocked off a couple of boards from the top 
of the bed so I could get at the hog. He was wedged in there so 
close that all I had to do was to hammer him in the head until he 
was dead. After I killed him the next thing was how I could get 
him out of there. Before I attempted to get him out, of course, I 
must have a fire. 

In this house where I was staying General Blunt had had his head- 
quarters. 21 As I have said there was lots of paper there. I went to 
hunting for some matches and I found three so I went to strike up a 
fire. I tried two matches and neither of them would burn but the 
last match struck fire and so I built up a fire. With the case knife 
I stripped off a piece of the hog's skin from his ham and cut off a 
piece of meat about as large as the palm of my hand. I drove up 
a couple of sticks and hung up a little piece of meat over the fire. I 
took one bite, for you may be sure I was too near starved to wait 
until it was done. Taking one bite nearly killed me for it felt like 
a rock in my stomach. It was three hours before I could take an- 
other bite. I worked until I got my hog skinned and cut up and 
out from under the bed and barbecued, as the Indians call it. I 
cut it up, the hams and shoulders, and barbecued or cooked it by 
means of hanging it up over the fire on my two poles. I then took 
it to the house I was staying in and left the rest for the wolves to eat. 

The house that I had took for my quarters was a very large well- 
finished house with cupboards and pantries. It was a story and a 
half high and had been a very fine house. I expected to die there. 

21. General Blunt, in his report to Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield from Perryville, Choctaw 
nation, August 27, 1863, speaks of capturing and destroying "quite a large amount of cloth- 
ing" at the Confederate depot at North Fork Town. Official Records, Series I, v. XXII, 
Pt. I, pp. 597, 598. 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 363 

I made a bed of paper and every night I had plenty of music be- 
cause the wolves were so very thick. I expected to live on the hog 
that I had killed as long as I could. I was so weak and low that I 
could only eat a little at a time and it would be two or three hours 
before I could eat any more. Every day I could eat a little more 
and the third day after I had killed the hog, early in the morning, 
I heard a hog squealing out south of the house. I jumped up as 
fast as I could and went to see what was the matter. When I got 
where I could see, I saw that it was a lot of wolves killing a hog. 
By the time I got there they had him dead and all his innards out. 
I drove the wolves away. The young ones run as fast as they could 
but the old ones were very stubborn about giving up their hog. They 
backed off very slow and sat within a few yards while I was taking 
some of the meat. I cut off one ham and carried it back to the 
house. As I left the hog the wolves came up to get what was left. 

After I commenced to eat I became weaker. I got so weak, the 
third day after I got something to eat that if I was lying down I 
could scarcely get up. I continued getting weaker for four days 
and then I commenced to gain a little. After I had gained strength 
I commenced trying to walk out a little. In the beginning I could 
not walk more than twenty yards until I had to set down and rest 
a good deal longer than it took me to get there and then I would 
get up and go back to the house. 

While I was in Norfork there was a very fine greyhound that 
got very gentle to me and would lay at the door of the house where 
I stayed. There were a lot of dogs there but they were all very- 
wild but this one. I used to feed him some of my meat once in 
awhile. I was in Norfork twelve days before I got strong enough 
to leave. There was a very nice spring in town. I used to take my 
stick and walk out there and get a nice cool drink of water. After 
I got strong enough to think of moving on I walked out a quarter 
of a mile and turned and came back without resting. I concluded 
to start the next day. I took off a pair of drawers and took them 
down to the spring and washed and dried them. I tied the legs of 
the drawers together and put in each leg some of the meat I had 
barbecued. The next day when I started I saw a dim old road 
leading north. It was where the army had been traveling. 22 I did 

22. This was probably the Texas road. It extended south from Fort Gibson, crossed the 
Canadian river near North Fork Town, then proceeded south and west to Perryville and 
Boggy Depot. It was a busy thoroughfare during the 1840's when emigration to Texas was 
at its height and was used for the transportation of troops during the Civil War. Grant Fore- 
man, "Early Trails Through Oklahoma," Chronicles of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, v. Ill, 
No. 2 (June, 1925), p. 117. 



364 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

not know where I was but I wanted to go north so I started. With 
the meat flung over my shoulder and my stick in my hand I started 
out on this road. I tried to get that dog to follow me but he would 
not leave town. I traveled about twenty-five miles that day. About 
dark I happened to get to an old log house on the prairie and I 
stayed there all night. Next morning I got up and struck out on 
this old road. I traveled all the next day and about sundown I 
looked ahead of me and saw some heavy timber so I hurried up as 
fast as I could, very curious to see what it was. I got there about 
dark and right in the edge of this timber was a large house. It 
looked like there had been a battle there because the house was all 
shot to pieces. I stayed in that house all night. Way in the night 
I heard bells ringing and chickens crowing and I was wondering all 
night where I could be. Next morning I made up my mind that I 
would find out. I did not know whether I was out of danger or not 
but I knew if I wasn't I never would be, so started out down the 
timber. 

When I got about a quarter of a mile I came to a big river. All 
up and down the river were Indians, fishing, hunting and running 
around. When I got within about two hundred yards of the river 
I saw an Indian woman running a skiff across the river to the side 
I was on. She got to the bank long before I did and got out. I 
made right for the boat. She saw that I was going for the boat and 
turned and jumped into it again. I got there just as she got into the 
boat. I asked her to let me ride with her but I soon saw that she 
could not understand. She was a Creek Indian woman. I made 
motions to her and she beckoned for me to get in. She rowed across 
right at the mouth of the Grand river where it emptied into the 
Arkansas. On the other side there was a lot of Indians with guns 
and pistols. She rowed right up among them. I got out of the boat 
and shook hands with the Indians. I told one of them that I wanted 
some breakfast and I found out that he could not talk English 
either. I then made signs to him and he motioned to me to follow 
him and so I went with him up into the woods a piece and I got into 
a big Indian town. I found out that I was in the Union lines. The 
Indian took me to a little shanty and he told them that I wanted 
some breakfast. The old lady and two girls went to getting my 
breakfast. They wanted to talk with me but they could not talk 
English. I was anxious to talk too, but I could not so they hurried 
around and got breakfast. They were at this time drawing rations 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 365 

from the government and they got up a good breakfast. 23 The old 
man motioned to me to sit up to the table and we sat and ate all 
together. The old lady sat at the left-hand side of me and the old 
man at the right of me. I noticed that there were two cups of coffee 
by my plate, one on each side. The old lady was very anxious to 
keep my plate well filled. They had biscuits and coffee and meat. 
I ate some bread and meat and drank nearly a cup of coffee. I 
stopped and sat back in my chair. The old lady got up and shook 
me and pointed to the other cup of coffee. I shook my head because 
I was full then. They all looked very much surprised to see how 
bad I looked and how little I ate. I sat at the table until all the 
rest were done. What I had eaten was hurting me. After we had 
got up from the table the old man motioned to me to go up town. 
We were within about half a mile of Fort Gibson. 24 Before we got 
to town there was about a thousand Indians with me, it looked like. 
They wanted to talk to me. 

When we got to town I found that Col. Phillips' headquarters 
were there. 25 Of course there was a large crowd gathered around 
me. At headquarters there was a tall slim light-complected young 
man that talked with me principally. He questioned me about the 
South. At last he asked me if I wanted to work. I was standing 
there leaning on my stick and I said, "I am not able to work." He 
said, "Oh, I know that you are not able to work but all I have got 
for you to do is to take care of two horses, to rub and curry and feed 

23. The Creeks living near Fort Gibson had been refugees in southern Kansas from 1862 
until they were returned to the Indian territory in the spring of 1864. They had arrived at 
the fort in June, 1864, in a very destitute condition. Since it was too late to plant spring 
crops and their farms had been so thoroughly plundered by raiders from both armies, bush- 
whackers and guerrillas, they were forced to camp near Fort Gibson and to depend upon the 
government for every necessity. Abel, The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War 
(Cleveland, 1919), pp. 79-89; Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs . . . 1864 
(Washington, 1865), pp. 303, 304. 

24. Fort Gibson, founded in April, 1824, was situated on the Grand river near its con- 
fluence with the Verdigris and Arkansas rivers. During early days it was a point of departure 
for exploration parties and after the Eastern Indian tribes had been moved into the Indian 
territory, it had become the usual place for negotiations with them. The fort was abandoned 
as a military post in 1857 but was reoccupied in April, 1863, by Union troops under the 
command of Col. William A. Phillips. Fort Gibson remained the center of military opera- 
tions in the territory during the remainder of the war and the country immediately around it 
became a refuge for loyalist Indians and Negroes from the South. It was finally abandoned in 
1890. William B. Morrison, Military Posts and Camps in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, 1936), 
pp. 28-47; Grant Foreman, "The Centennial of Fort Gibson," in Chronicles of Oklahoma, 
Oklahoma City, v. II, No. 2 (June, 1924), pp. 119-128. 

25. William Addison Phillips, a native of Paisley, Scotland, gained prominence in terri- 
torial Kansas as an Anti-slavery journalist and politician. He was one of the founders of the 
town of Salina in 1858. He enlisted in the Union army in 1861 and when the Third Indian 
regiment was organized at Carthage, Mo., September 16, 1862, he was commissioned colonel 
of the regiment. He was stationed at Fort Gibson from April, 1863, until the regiment was 
mustered out of service May 31, 1865. He was in the congress of the United States from 
1873 to 1878. After his retirement he became special attorney for the Cherokee Indians, having 
become interested in their welfare while he was in command of Fort Gibson. Dictionary of 
American Biography (New York, 1934), v. XIV, p. 548; Official Army Register of the Volunteer 
Force of the United States Army for the Years 1861, '62, '63, '64, '65, Pt. VII, "Kansas" 
(Washington, 1867), p. 334. 



366 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

them. I suppose that you can do that, can't you?" "Yes, sir, I can 
do that." "Well, do you see that little house up yonder?" "Yes, 
sir." "You go up there and you will find a woman there. Stay 
there until I come. I will be there at noon." So I went to the 
house and stayed until noon. He came in and sat down beside me 
and asked me about my trip. I told him, to which he replied, "Well, 

you had a hard time. As I said, I have got two horses that 

I want you to take care of, and if you will stay here as long as I do 
I will give you ten dollars a month and your board." I told him 
that I would do it. "Yes, and if you will stay with me until I get 
my men all mustered out and I get paid off I am going up to Kansas. 
I have a claim up there and if you will go with me and work for me, 
when you get able to work, I will raise your wages." "Yes, sir, I 
will do it." So Luke Parsons, 26 for that was his name, jumped up 
and said, "Well, I guess you want some clothes, don't you?" "Yes, 
sir, but I haven't got any money." "Oh, I know that you haven't 
got any money but you come down town with me and I will get you 
some clothes." And so we went off down town and into a store and 
he walked up to the storekeeper and said, "Let this man have what 
he wants." And he turned to me and told me to call for what I 
wanted. I picked me out an $18.00 suit. He said, "Is that all you 
want?" "Yes, sir, that will do for the present, I guess." He then 
said, "Go back and take care of the horses." And so I took the 
horses and attended to them. About this time I commenced to have 
a very bad cough, so bad that I could not sleep at night. Luke 
Parsons asked me if I did not want some medicine. I told him that 
I did and he gave me some money and told me to go to the hospital 
doctor and get what I needed. He also told me to ask for money 
whenever I wanted it. I thanked him and told him that, I would, 
but that I was afraid that I could never pay it back to him again. 
"That don't make any odds, just ask and you may have it." I 
stayed at Fort Gibson over three weeks and took care of the horses. 
When they got through mustering out the men Luke Parsons and I 
started to Kansas. We stopped one day and rested at Fort Scott. 

26. Luke Fisher Parsons was born in Worcester county, Massachusetts, June 28, 1833. He 
came to Kansas territory in May, 1856, resolved to stay until it had been admitted to the 
Union as a free state. He became actively engaged in the struggle, fighting under John Brown 
at Osawatomie. He was one of ten men chosen by John Brown to accompany him on a ven- 
ture which later proved to be the raid on Harper's Ferry. The plan was long delayed and, 
when it materialized, several of the men, including Luke Parsons, had decided not to take part 
in it. He came to Salina in 1860 and took a claim near the townsite. During the early part 
of the war he served in the Sixth Kansas Volunteer cavalry but later was commissioned as 
first lieutenant in the Third Indian regiment. After the war he returned to Salina where he 
died April 23, 1926. Luke Parsons, "Address at the Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary 
of the Battle of Osawatomie," MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society; Luke F. 
Parsons, biographical sketch in the Kansas State Historical Society's Twenty-fifth Biennial 
Report (Topeka, 1927), pp. 135, 136. 



PANTLE : A KANSAS FREEDMAN 367 

About this time my cough got so very bad I had to let another Negro 
that had come from Fort Gibson drive the horses while I laid back 
in the wagon. The next day I was a little better and I took the 
team myself. We came through Council Grove. We came on up 
to Salina and stopped on the east side of the river. We got to 
Salina the 15th day of July, 1865. When we got there the river was 
so high that we could not cross so we camped on the east side of the 
river until it was low enough for us to cross. 27 There were two 
hundred soldiers stationed there to keep the Indians out. 28 When I 
saw the smoke coming out of the ground I did not know what it 
meant. I asked Mr. Parsons what that meant and he told me that 
they were dugouts. Says I, "What is a dugout?" and he told me 
that there was where people lived. I was very anxious to get across 
the river to see one of these dugouts. The river kept up about three 
weeks. At last we got the soldiers to take our baggage across and 
we swam the team. One of the horses wouldn't swim and she came 
very near drowning. We got her to the bank at last but she was 
sick for two or three months. 

We went up into Salina and Luke Parson had a little house there. 
Luke walked ahead up to the house and told us boys to come on 
and here was some Missouri rebels using his house for a laundry. 
There was a girl washing in there by the name of Delphine Lythe. 
Luke said, "Why, how do you do, Delphine. I have got a couple 
of boys here and I want them to stop in this house." "Yes, Mr. 
Parsons, what did you bring them niggers here for? We don't want 
to mix with niggers." "Nobody wants you to mix with Negroes. If 
you will let them alone they won't hurt you.'" "Well, we don't want 
to mix with niggers." "Well, you needn't mix with them unless you 
want to," and then he walked off. 

I drove up and unharnessed and waited for Delphine to get out of 
the house. It was getting along toward night and my horses were 
straying away. There was a lot of soldiers playing and fooling with 
her while she was washing and the sun was going down and we 
wanted to get our baggage into the house. We were sitting out there 
on the wagon when Simon says, "She is not as afraid of Negroes as 
she makes out to be." "No, she is not half so afraid as she makes 
out or she would have been out of there hours ago." The sun was 

27. The Junction City Union reported the Smoky Hill river in flood on several different 
occasions during the month of July, 1865. 

28. A blockhouse was ordered to be built at Salina in June, 1864. Troops were stationed 
there to protect the settlers from the Indians and to act as escorts for the emigrant trains. 
The Junction City Union for September 2, 1865, mentioned the issuance of an order abandon- 
ing all the military posts between Forts Riley and Lamed. It is probable that the post at 
Smoky Hill crossing was included in that order. 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

going down and she was still fooling with the soldiers while we were 
waiting for her to get out of the house. I said, "I am going up to 
the house and ask her to let us bring our baggage in. It looks as 
though she was going to stay there all night." So I walked up to 
the house and said, "Look a here, we would like to bring our baggage 
in here if you could make room for us." She turned around and 
said, "All right, all right, I will get out." I walked back to the 
wagon and she was in there half of an hour longer. I believe that 
she went and lied on me and told the folks that that big nigger had 
drove her out of the house. She would have got me into trouble but 
there happened to be another family that disputed this. The next 
morning there was one of the soldiers came down to the wagon where 
we were. He was drunk. He said, "You are my friends. I like 
you." While he was there down came a red-headed Irishman and 
said, "Come out from among . . . niggers. Come out from . . . 
niggers anyway," and he ran up and took the soldier by the shoulder 
and went on swearing at a terrible rate so Simon said to me, "Larry, 
I be doggoned if I am going to stay here," and I said, "I am going 
to die right here because I have run enough." 

After the Irishman had gone, Luke came. He said, "What! Boys, 
are they going to run you away from here?" "Yes, sir, it looks as if 
that is what they want to do." He said, "Larry, I should think 
that you had run far enough anyhow." "Yes, so I thought too, Mr. 
Parsons." Luke said that I was right in standing my ground. 
"Don't you let them do it. You have got as much right as they 
have." Mr. Parsons went to town and we boys went down the river 
to make some rails. We got some out and put up a dugout east of 
Salina and went there to live. Luke raised my wages after we went 
on the claim, from $10 to $30 a month. After I had stayed with him 
for two months he wanted to hire me for the year. I hired to him for 
$20 a month with board and clothes. I stayed with him for thirteen 
months and then I left him and came to live with Mr. Robinson. 29 
Simon stayed with Mr. Parsons six months after I left, then he went 
over on the Saline and hired out, and the 'last I heard of him he 
went down to the Indian Territory. I worked for Mr. Robinson for 
three years, off and on, and then I got into the notion of taking me 
a claim and making a home for myself. 30 When I came to Salina 

29. B. F. Robinson. See Footnote 1. 

30. Lapsley made homestead entry January 12, 1869. It was necessary for him to contest 
"the right to enter of an adverse claimant to the land, one Henry C. Cutting . . . who 
alleged settlement on the land September 27, 1865, under the preemption laws. A hearing was 
ordered held in the matter on January 12, 1869, before the register of the former District 
Land Office at Junction City, Kansas, at which time one Samuel Brown offered testimony to 
the effect that he lived within one mile of the land described for 2^ years, that he did not 



PANTLE: A KANSAS FREEDMAN 369 

I was twenty-five years old and was without schooling. I had never 
gone to school a day in my life and I haven't any education yet but 
there is one thing I have, a good home and plenty of friends. 

know Henry C. Cutting and that no such person ever lived or unproved the land which at that 
time was in an abandoned condition." 

Since Cutting did not appear for the hearing Lapsley was allowed to proceed with the en- 
try. He received a patent for the land February 20, 1875. Letter from R. S. Clinton, chief, 
Patonts Division, Washington, D. C., July 14, 1942. 



244781 



The Soft Winter Wheat Boom and the 

Agricultural Development of the 

Upper Kansas River Valley 1 

PART I 
JAMES C. MALIN 

THE period of beginnings of wheat production in the upper Kan- 
sas valley prepared the way locally for the boom and testing 
period of about a decade, 1872-1882. 2 Favorable crop seasons were 
interspersed through the period but the opening and closing years 
especially brought climatic and economic adversity. This was true, 
not only in Kansas, but over the world rather generally, and most 
important of all, in spite of such circumstances or possibly in part 
because of them, the decade was one of phenomenal technological 
change which affected profoundly the economic, social and political 
structure of the world. A communications revolution based upon 
mechanical power had given a new reality to world markets and 
price-making for agricultural commodities. The impact of these 
facts upon Kansas was as great as upon any area of the globe. 

The winter wheat boom was based upon already known varieties 
of soft wheat and methods of tillage, harvesting and milling, as 
well as upon traditional crop combinations of corn, wheat and oats. 
Before the end of the period all these factors were in a state of flux 
and for some the changes that were to usher in the new era were 
well along toward their culmination, while for some the transition 
was only well begun. A new hard wheat had been introduced from 
Eastern Europe, new varieties of sorghums had been imported from 
Asia and Africa, alfalfa had made its appearance, and new tillage, 
harvesting and milling machinery was gaining widespread accept- 
ance. With respect to innovations in Prairie-Plains agriculture, 
probably no decade until the 1920's with its mechanical power-ma- 
chinery revolution, and possibly not even that, inaugurated such 
far-reaching changes as the decade under review. 

1. This is a part of a larger research project, "The Adaptation of Population and Agricul- 
ture to Prairie -Plains Environment," for which the a"uthor has received financial assistance 
from the Social Science Research Council, New York, and from the Graduate Research Fund 
of the University of Kansas. The article will appear in three installments. 

2. Further information is now at hand with respect to the first winter wheat raised in 
Geary (Davis) county. The Junction City Union, August 16, 1873, stated that Jesse Spencer 
planted the first wheat on Humboldt creek, two acres in 1856, but no distinction was made 
whether it was a winter or spring variety. This is the source of the statement in the article 
on beginnings, The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. X (August, 1941), pp. 231, 232. The same 
paper for October 20, 1883, denied the story relating to Spencer and stated that in August, 
1855, Joseph Beavers (Illinois) bought twenty bushels of wheat from the Delaware Indians 
n-hich he sowed that fall. He harvested it with a cradle in 1856, according to this version, 
rov.-ed part of the crop in the fall of 1856 and took part to Manhattan to be chopped for use. 

(370) 



MALIN: SOFT WINTER WHEAT BOOM 371 

CROPS AND WEATHER, 1872-1883 

1872 

Good crops and prosperity did not necessarily go hand in hand 
and the year 1872 was one of widespread discontent in Kansas. The 
winter wheat crop was small in acreage but had been mostly winter- 
killed, the spring wheat was fair, but corn, the principal staple 
crop, produced a big yield at ruinously low prices. 3 

1873 

In 1873 occurred the great panic which inaugurated a prolonged 
economic depression of world-wide proportions. The wheat yield 
was good but acreage was not large in Geary [Davis] county and 
the agricultural society recommended that grain be held at St. Louis 
prices plus freight, as the demands of newly arrived settlers and of 
the army were thought sufficient to take all of it. The corn and 
late potatoes were damaged by dry weather, but were estimated at 
three-fourths of normal. Apples and 'blackberries were about one- 
fourth of a crop, peaches were a failure, but grapes were good. 4 A 
recovery from panic prices did not occur until mid-winter. 5 

1874 

The winter wheat made about two-thirds of a crop in 1874 and 
one commentator said better than 1873, the spring wheat was about 
one-third of a crop and corn was a failure. 6 This was the notorious 
grasshopper year, the plague arrived in the late summer after the 
wheat was saved, but finishing off most of the crops that had sur- 
vived the drought. On account of scarcity of feed, farmers were 
urged to ship their hogs at once. Corn was shipped in to supply 
necessary feed for remaining livestock. The wheat prices advanced 
from about 75 cents to 90 cents during the fall months, but local 
economic conditions were so discouraging that some stores of Junc- 
tion City restricted sales to cash transactions, and big fires, so fre- 
quent in frontier towns during depressions, were reported. 7 Work 

8. Abilene Chronicle, July 11, 1872 ; Junction City Union, March 29, 1873. 

4. Ibid., July 12, August 16, 23, 1873. 

5. Prices at Junction City were quoted in ibid.: 

November 22 December 27, 1873 

Spring wheat 55-65 cents 85-95 cents 

Winter wheat 80-100 110-125 

Oats 20 25 

Corn 25-30 30-35 

6. Ibid., July 4, 1874. 

7. Grasshoppers, many settlers on their way East, The Nationalist, Manhattan, August 7, 
14, 1874; Junction City Union, August 15, 1874; prices, ibid., September 12, November 7, 
1874 ; cash and fires, ibid., August 1, 8, 1874. 



372 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

relief was advocated as a means of alleviating destitution, but in 
view of the condition of the city treasury, the editor ridiculed the 
proposal. 8 The necessity of importing corn from St. Louis drew 
the comment that "four years ago this was not uncommon, but it 
seems queer now." 9 The wry humor that has become almost pro- 
verbial on the Plains cropped out in the newspaper locals: 

The grasshoppers reappeared here in swarms on Wednesday. The object 
of their visit is not known, as there is nothing here to eat. 

John K. Wright said the other day (when things looked more hopeful than 
they do now) that he would have had 150 bushels of corn where he expected 
2,000.10 

But before the year was out, and despite the fact that neither man 
nor beast could eat them and they could not be used for fuel, Mother 
Nature made slight amends by contributing a second spring in 
1874, and Robert McBratney's lilacs were in bloom in October. 11 

1875 

With the encouragement of rains in September, 1874, an increased 
acreage of winter wheat was sown for the 1875 crop, and in spite 
of some grasshopper damage in the spring there was a big wheat 
and corn crop. The enforced shipments of hogs in 1874 resulted 
in a hog shortage in 1875 and corn was shipped as grain. Sub- 
stantial shipments were made also of wheat and flour. 12 The har- 
vest price of wheat was reported at $1.10, but there was complaint 
about corn prices. By mid- winter little corn had moved to market 
because of the 25-cent price, and called out the estimate, probably 
not fully warranted by facts, that if sufficient hogs had been avail- 
able the corn farmer could have realized 60 cents. 13 

1876 

During the spring of 1876 the wheat crop promised to be the 
largest ever grown in the state and central Kansas claimed to be 
"the wheat garden of the world," but the yield was reduced in June 
only a few days before harvest by worm damage so that threshing 
reports were disappointing. 14 The price for wheat in Abilene dur- 
ing the fall was 30 to 60 cents, but in October No. 3 wheat was re- 

8. Ibid., August 22, 1874. 

9. Ibid. 

10. Ibid., August 15, 1874. 

11. Ibid., October 3, 1874. 

12. Ibid., September 12, 19, October 3, 1874; April 10, 1875; January 8, February 26, 
April 1, May 6, 20, July 1, 1876. 

13. Ibid., August 7, 1875 ; January 8, 1876. 

14. Abilene Chronicle, April 28, June 16, July 21, 1876; Salina Herald, April 15, June 10, 
17, July 8, 29, August 19, 1876; Junction City Union, June 17, July 1, 1876. 



MALIN: SOFT WINTER WHEAT BOOM 373 

ported at $1.10 per bushel. 15 The com crop was good. A year-end 
summary of the season concluded that "the year 1876 will be re- 
membered in most places as a year of hard times." 16 This was an 
unfortunate outcome for the prophets of the spring of 1876 who, 
after reviewing the days of Kansas Troubles, the Civil War, the 
panic, drought and grasshoppers, had predicted that Kansas was 
then opening an era of solid prosperity Kansas had arrived. 17 For 
those who had not sold their wheat early there was good cheer to 
be derived from the fact that the European war ran up the price 
of wheat to $1.90 at Junction City in May, 1877, and much old 
wheat was sold at prices above $1.50, but the artificial price struc- 
ture broke to about $1.00 by the time the new crop was ready. 18 

1877 

On account of grasshoppers the outlook for winter wheat was 
discouraging during the fall of 1876 and much was resown, but in 
Saline county the acreage was reported as fifteen times the previous 
year. Drought, wind and dust prevailed in early winter, a snow 
covering not coming until late December, and despite contradictory 
reports from optimistic boomers, the wheat went into the winter 
in bad condition. 19 Serious grasshopper damage occurred again 
during the early spring of 1877 in addition to dry weather. May 
was wet and the wheat that had survived made a surprising re- 
covery in spite of rust, the third-successive crop hazard. Corn was 
retarded but the disaster to winter wheat had resulted in a record 
corn acreage. The final summary for the year credited the region 
with a poor wheat crop, much not even being cut, and the corn 
which promised so well until late summer was so poor in Saline 
county that farmers had to buy corn before the next crop was 
grown. 20 It was within this background that a newspaper reader 
must interpret such a paragraph as this: "Owners of corn-shellers 
in Kansas, this year, complain that their machines are compara- 

15. Salina Herald, September 16, 1876; Junction City Union, October 28, 1876; Abilene 
Chronicle, January 19, 1877. 

16. Ibid., January 12, 1877. 

17. Atchison Champion reprinted with approval in The Industrialist, Manhattan, April 29, 
1876. The Industrialist was the paper conducted and published by the faculty of the Kansas 
State Agricultural College. 

18. Junction City Union, May 5, 1877; Abilene Chronicle, May 4, June 8, 15, 22, 29, 
July 13, 20, 1877. 

19. Junction City Union, September 2, 23, October 21, 1876; Salina Herald, September 
16, October 28, 1876; Abilene Chronicle, October 27, November 10, December 8, 29, 1876. A 
rural meeting in northern Dickinson county debated and voted their convictions that the grass- 
hoppers were a visitation of God as punishment. Ibid., December 1, 1876. 

20. Ibid., April 27, May 4, 11, 18, June 8, July 27, August 3, 1877 ; Salina Herald, May 
26, 1877; Enterprise Kansas Gazette, July 13, 1877, reported less than half a crop. 



374 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tively useless, as the ears of corn are so big they cannot get them 
into the machines." 21 

1878 

The season of 1878 was almost ideal and a record crop was grown 
despite rust damage. 22 The early part of harvest was wet, but a 
dry period gave an opportunity to save the immense wheat crop 
although it damaged the corn. 23 New wheat sold in Junction City 
in July at 60 to 65 cents for No. 2 and declined during August at 
Abilene to 55 to 58 cents, with still lower prices for the inferior 
grades. 24 The emphasis on low grades implied that much of the 
crop had been damaged. The newspapers reported that there was 
some corn to sell. 25 

1879 

The season of 1879 was most unfavorable, drought and wind pro- 
ducing dust storms. 26 A large part of the winter wheat was plowed 
up and planted to corn, which optimists insisted promised a seventy- 
bushel crop. A wet summer prolonged the wheat harvest, and fur- 
ther damaged grain and reduced the yield to an admitted half 
crop or less. 27 In September the claim was made that early corn 
had made good, but it was admitted that late corn was almost a 
total failure. 28 Whatever may have been the truth about the yield 
of merchantable grain, the yield of tall stories was fully normal: 

During the blowing of the gentle zephyrs, on Monday evening, a corn stalk 
blew down on John Lamb's farm, striking a Mr. Banning who was passing by, 
and injuring him so badly that he will have to crutch it for a few weeks. 
Merely the tassel touched him, else the consequences might have been more 
severe. People should keep away from corn fields this growing weather. 29 

The prices of grain fluctuated widely. In mid-July the spread was 
50 to 75 cents between different grades. In the fall prices rose only 
to collapse 20 cents in one week to 80 cents, while at the same time 
corn sold for 18 cents. 30 

21. Salina Herald, December 8, 1877. 

22. Ibid., September 1, 8, 15, 22, October 6, 1877; Abilene Chronicle, January 4, February 
1, April 5, June 7, 28, 1878; The Nationalist, Manhattan, March 22, 1878; Junction City 
Union, May 25, 1878. 

23. Abilene Chronicle, July 5, August 9, 1878; May 16, 1879; Salina Herald, May 
24, 1879. 

24. Abilene Chronicle, June 28, 1878; Junction City Union, July 20, August 3, 10, 1878. 

25. Salina Herald, May 24, 1879. 

26. Ibid., March 1, 8, 15, 29, April 12, 19, 1879. 

27. The Nationalist, Manhattan, April 25, 1879; Abilene Chronicle, May 9, 30, July 25, 
August 1, 1879; Salina Herald, August 30, 1879; Junction City Union, June 21, 1879. 

28. Ibid., September 6, 1879. 

29. Abilene Gazette, August 1, 1879. 

30. Ibid., July 18, 1879; Abilene Chronicle, October 31, 1879. 



MALIN: SOFT WINTER WHEAT BOOM 375 

1880 

The drought continued through the wheat season of 1880, wind 
and dust storms ruining a large part of the crop. 31 One local cor- 
respondent wrote, "We are getting so dry that it is almost impossible 
for us to tell the truth." 32 Late in May rains came and the hope 
was expressed that some wheat might be saved. As usual under 
adversity the local papers were contradictory in their reports on 
conditions, boasting of every good field and putting the most hopeful 
appearance on a bad situation. 33 Much corn was planted on wheat 
ground, but drought and chinch bugs took their toll and in August 
corn was being cut for fodder. Not even the oldest settler could 
recall such a year. 34 

1881 

To read only the current crop reports of the late winter and 
spring of 1880-1881 would be misleading when they ran ''Wheat 
crops chuckling all over with laughter and buoyant with hope." 35 In 
the main the season of 1881 was a repetition of 1880, with drought, 
winter-killing, wind, chinch bugs and heat. Some corn was re- 
planted a third time on account of excess rain at planting time and 
then it was burned up by the scorching heat of summer. 36 

1882 

The turn of the series of bad years came in 1882 with the most 
extravagant reports of wheat yields 47 bushels and 61 bushels on 
individual fields. 37 The corn crop was good, but not unusual. 

1883 

The season of 1883 was most favorable for both wheat and corn 
and they sold at fair prices, the most prosperous season up to then 
in the history of Dickinson county. 38 

31. Salina Herald, September 6, 13, 1879; January 24, 81, March 6, 27, April 24, 1880; 
Abilene Chronicle, March 5, 12, 19, April 9, 23, 30, 1880 ; The Nationalist, Manhattan, April 
16, 1880. 

32. Salina Herald, May 1, 1880, Poheta items. 

33. The Nationalist, Manhattan, May 27, June 3, July 1, 1880; Abilene Chronicle, May 
28, July 2, 16, 30, 1880. 

84. The Nationalist, Manhattan, April 30, June 24, August 5, September 30, 1880; Abilene 
Chronicle, May 7, August 6, December 24, 1880; Salina Herald, August 7, 14, 28, 1880. 

35. Junction City Union, January 22, 1881, and other optimistic reports November 27, 
1880, May 7, 1881 ; Salina Herald, October 30, 1880. 

36. Abilene Chronicle, August 26, 1881, "Our Prospects," an article reviewing the whole 
Reason. 

37. Ibid., July 28, August 25, 1882. The latter figure was challenged by the Salina Herald, 
August 24, 1882. The Herald, July 27, boasted, however, that the crop was the largest and 
best eince 1878. 

38. Abilene Chronicle, September 21, 1883; January 4, 1884. 



376 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



STATISTICAL SUMMARIES AND PROBLEMS 

The wheat picture cannot be visualized clearly even with the aid 
of available statistical tables of acreages and yields, because the 
statistical methods of the time were inadequate and the data are 
unreliable. This applies to the figures of both the state and federal 
governments. It is necessary, nevertheless, to use such materials 
as a base, and supplement them with an analysis of samples that 
will provide some appreciation of the nature of their inadequacies 
and of the limits to their use. The first table gives the figures for 
wheat and corn in Kansas that have come to be accepted as stand- 
ard and are labeled "harvested acres" in the case of wheat. This 
table does not distinguish winter from spring sorts, but in general 
it may be said that spring wheat was in the majority in early years, 
they were about evenly divided during the early 1870's, and by the 
1880's spring wheat had largely disappeared, except in the north- 
west counties. Probably very little confidence can be placed in the 
data for the 1860's. There is much uncertainty regarding the meth- 
ods of determining the data used in either the county or state figures 
after 1872 when the state board of agriculture began to function. 



Wheat and Com, Kansas, 1862-1890 89 



Year 

1862 

1863 

1864 

1866 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 1,023,183 

1877 1,063,993 

1878 1,730,812 

1879 1,932,798 

1880 2,444,434 

1881 2,182,872 




WHEAI 



716,205 
743,206 



1882, 
1883. 
1884. 
1885. 



1,602,99^ 
1,569,302 
2,237,128 
1,290,549 
[2,090,549] 
1,758,393 
1,373,915 



1886 

1887 

1888 1,120,119 

1889 1,694,285 

1890 2,321,113 



Acres 

170,366 

193,597 

186,923 

163,463 

190,858 

211,373 

360,388 

506,198 

505,892 

617,326 

769,636 

1,202,046 

1,525,421 

1,932,861 

1,844,454 

2,563,112 

2,405,482 

2,996,070 

3,554,396 

4,171,554 

4,441,836 

4,653,170 

4,545,908 

5,266,034 

5,802,018 
6,530,392 
6,993,207 
6,820,693 
5,755,691 



Yield 
40.00 
44.00 
25.00 
41.00 
34.20 
38.60 
18.00 
48.40 
33.00 
40.00 
38.50 
39.10 
10.26 
48.80 
43.68 
40.38 
37.13 
36.29 
28.53 
19.33 
35.36 
39.14 
41.99 
33.67 

24.05 
11.60 
24.13 
40.15 

8.84 



39. Eleventh Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture . . 
and 1898 (Topeka, 1899), pp. 752, 753. 

40. The bracketed figures for wheat acres and yield in 1885 are from "Wheat in Kansas," 
p. 7, in Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture for the Quarter Ending September, 
1920 (Topeka, 1921). See Footnote 41 for explanation. These figures are probably mon- 
nearly correct. 



MALIN: SOFT WINTER WHEAT BOOM 377 

The report for 1873 stated clearly that the statistics were taken 
by the county assessors beginning March, 1873, that they repre- 
sented acreages, yields, and values of the crops planted and har- 
vested in 1872, except winter wheat statistics which were for acre- 
ages on the ground in the spring of 1873, but the yields and values 
were estimates compiled from county reports and market prices 
obtained from millers and wholesale dealers. This would seem to 
mean that the statistics in the report for 1873 were for the crops 
of 1872 except for winter wheat, which is for the crop harvested in 
1873. If that is the meaning intended, then the data for the winter- 
wheat crop in the report for 1873 should be bracketed with the data 
for the spring crops to be found in the report for 1874 in order to 
put together what was actually harvested during the calendar year 
1873. That is certainly not the practice in the use customarily made 
of Kansas agricultural data. 

With respect to the interpretation that the statistics represent 
harvested acres something needs be said. The explanation just re- 
ferred to stated that the acres of winter wheat were those on the 
ground in the spring. The assessor's instructions specified March 1 
as the base date for his work as assessor, but he might visit the 
farmer any time during the following three months and the acres 
of winter wheat reported might be as of March 1 or of any time 
thereafter until the assessment rounds were completed. Even if 
the assumption is made that the acres reported were those on the 
ground at such indeterminate spring date, there were many hazards 
yet for the wheat crop to surmount before it was harvested; drought, 
hot winds of June, rust, chinch bugs and worm damage. The extent 
of winter-kill and other damage resulting in abandonment of wheat 
acreage was a matter of such contradiction and controversy that no 
informed person can argue seriously in favor of the accuracy of any 
set of figures. 41 One conclusion is inescapable, however, that al- 

41. In 1877 the Kansas City (Mo.) Journal reported heavy winter-kill and grasshopper 
damage in Dickinson county, estimating the condition as of early May at probably half a 
crop. The Abilene Chronicle, May 18, 1877, replied vehemently that winter-kill did not 
exceed 5% and hopper damage 1%, and that the yield would be 25% more than ever before. 
By July 13, the Enterprise Gazette reported from Chapman creek that possibly as much as a 
thousand acres in Noble township was not worth cutting, and not less than two thousand in 
Sherman township would be abandoned. In January, 1878, T. C. Henry indicated in his 
farmers' institute address that he disapproved spring wheat except to replace winter wheat 
but admitted he would plant 1,000 acres in 1878. Probably this meant over 25% winter-kill. 
(Abilene Chronicle, February 1, 1878.) In the "Golden Belt" article of 1877 he was credited 
with 300 acres of spring wheat as well as 700 acres of other spring crops and 3,000 acres of 
winter wheat. This might mean a 10% winter-kill or more. (Ibid.. July 6, 1877.) Wheat 
abandoned in Jefferson and Ridge townships was reported at one-half to three- fourths, which 
was being planted to corn. (Ibid., May 28, 1880.) In 1880 the Leavenworth Times and the 
Kansas City (Mo.) Journal both reported the wheat crop in Dickinson county very poor as 
the result of winter-kill and drought. The Gazette admitted that some farmers of the county 
criticized the editor for not telling the people frankly that the wheat crop was a failure. The 
method of defense used was to list leading farms by name and describe the condition of the 
crop, admitting that at an earlier date some of the fields seemed to be a failure, but that they 



378 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

though the annual abandonment varied from year to year, the aver- 
age was high and was higher than the formal printed records were 
willing to admit. 

It was not often that the newspapers gave realistic figures for crop 
yields. The spirit of boom optimism did not permit such candor and 
anyone making a low estimate or a pessimistic prediction was almost 
certain to be branded a croaker. In good years specific figures were 
printed frequently claiming yields that sometimes seem fantastic. 
In bad years little was said usually of crops unless attention was 
called to some exceptional field. The reports of the state board of 
agriculture seem to have been based mostly upon harvested acres 
and there is reason to conclude that they were optimistic estimates. 
If they were reduced to an average on planted acres they would make 
different reading. Reports of realistic appearance were printed oc- 
casionally as in a case in 1880 where a country community reporter 

had recovered, the yields estimated on the samples under review ranged from 8 to 20 bushels. 
By way of summary and conclusion, the editor declared that a crop of 8 to 10 bushels was not 
a failure. In 1881 the abandoned acreage was given by the Abilene Chronicle, June 24, as 
5.6% based on the county clerk's figures assessors' data. The planted acres were given as 
108,997 and the abandoned acres at 6,083 leaving the remaining acres at 102,914. Comparison 
with the report of the state board for 1881, shows the last figure is the one given there. Even 
here it is not clear whether the Chronicle figures were for the winter wheat acres actually har- 
vested or the acres on the ground in the spring.' In Marion county the state board figures 
were stated to be planted acres. (Marion Record, July 13, 1877.) There seems to be no 
method of determining the practice. 

Other difficulties are met in later years, however, showing that there was no consistency of 
practice. Thus, the Fifth and Sixth Biennial Reports of the state board of agriculture give 
the following set of figures for the state wheat acreage for the years 1885-1888, inclusive: 
1,140,284; 1,065,935; 813,495; 977,545. The Seventh Biennial Report gave ior the first time 
the revised figures found in the accompanying table, but offered no explanation of the pro- 
cedure by which they were arrived at. Analysis of the figures indicates the probable pro- 
cedure. For these years an attempt was made to secure planted and harvested acres and 
such figures were printed, but with typographical errors. The revised figures of the formal 
table are secured by assuming an error in the planted acres as originally reported in the Fifth 
Biennial Report so that the figures read 1,199,723 instead of 1,999,723 and then adding the 
spring wheat acres to the corrected planted acres. The figures for 1886 can be taken as 
printed, so the simple addition of planted winter wheat acres and spring wheat acres gives 
the revised total. The figures given in the current biennial reports had been arrived at by 
adding harvested acres of winter wheat to spring wheat. The figure for 1885 given in the 
volume "Wheat in Kansas," p. 7, was arrived at by using the planted acres figure of 1,999,723 
instead of 1,199,723. In conclusion, therefore, in state board wheat tables the figures given 
for the years covered by this paragraph are planted acres, not harvested acres as the expla- 
nations accompanying those tables indicate. 

In the four counties included in this article the extent of the abandoned acreages as indi- 
cated by the state board figures for the first years for which they were published may serve 
as a. warning as well as a measuring stick for earlier years. 

Yield 

Year Planted Harvested Planted Harvested 

Riley . 1885 10,709* 6,452 7.2 12 

1886 10,709* 2,008 2.0 11 

Geary (Davis) 1885 19,556 6,845 2.1 6 

1886 10,660 2,132 2.2 11 

Dickinson 1885 98,152 39,539 2.0 

1886 57,372 14,343 3.8 15 

Saline 1885 91,517 22,458 1.2 

1886 70,975 28,390 6.3 16 

* There is no explanation why the figures for these two years are identical. 

In the county crop tables as compiled for earlier years from the reports of the state board, 
the yield figures are almost certainly based upon harvested acres, otherwise they would be 

Still another example of divergence of figures appeared in the Abilene Gazette, May 28, 
1880 which gave the acres sown in 1878 (1879 crop) at 74,449, and in 1879 (1880 crop) at 
97 000. The first figure is 6,000 acres higher and the second 4,000 acres lower than the 
figures in the table. (Second Biennial Report of the State Board of Agriculture. .... 



MALIN: SOFT WINTER WHEAT BOOM 379 

listed the yields of ten neighbors: 10; 5.5; 5.5; 6.5; 12.5; 9; 8; 12; 
5.5; 6. This makes an unweighted average of 8 bushels, while the 
report of state board gave 11 bushels for the county. 42 

In 1881 one editor in Saline county disapproved claiming 20 to 30 
bushels and getting 8 to 10, but thought that on the basis of condi- 
tions in May the county average should be 15. The report of the 
sitate board of agriculture at the end of the year gave 13 bushels. 
That same year a local reporter gave the yield of his neighbors at 
15; 8; 5.5; 4.75; 4.5; or an unweighted average of 7.5 bushels. 43 It 
is quite possible, if not probable, that most of the reports of yields 
scale down on about that proportion if realistic statistics were avail- 
able. One complainant registered his protest against Kansas crop 
reports, insisting that in the last six years the Kansas average (ex- 
cluding the western counties) was not over 12 bushels; that in 1881 
an average of 15 bushels was claimed when the actual yield was 
about 9. 44 As it turned out the state board claimed only 9.38 that 
year. During this period the state board had averaged from 10.3 
to 18.3 for the whole of the state. 

The quality of Kansas wheat during this wheat boom is not to be 
measured by the same standards as the hard winter wheats. The 
weights per bushel were compiled by J. McFarland, state statistical 
agent of the United States Department of Agriculture for the years 
1876-1883, inclusive: 

Year Lbs. Per Measured Bushel* 6 

1876 54.10 

1877 53.63 

1878 55.90 

1879 54.64 

1880 55.05 

1881 53,40 

1882 57.29 

1883 53.09 

The inferior quality of the crop was admitted on occasion, a large 
part of the Saline county wheat in 1879 being No. 4, and the most of 
the crop of 1880 being No. 3. 46 This is of more importance than is 
usually recognized, because the prices quoted in the press were often 
for No. 1 and even when lower grades were quoted there was seldom 

42. Salina Herald, August 14, 1880. 

43. Ibid., July 16, 1881, Poheta items. 

44. Abilene Chronicle, September 16, 1881, from the Kansas Fanner. 

45. Junction City Union, December 1, 1883; The Daily Kansas Herald, Lawrence, Decem- 
ber 8, 1883. Compiled from reports of millers in Topeka, Kansas City, Atchison and Fort 
Scott, and from growers. 

46. Salina Herald, August 7, 1880. 



380 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

a hint as to what grades were actually delivered. Farm income could 
not be bolstered up by nominal quotations, and many of the farmers' 
price grievances of the period must have their explanation in low 
grade wheat. 

SOIL FERTILITY AND STATISTICS 

Before leaving the subject altogether, something should be said ot 
crop yield statistics and the use made of them in discussions of de- 
pletion of soil fertility and of efficiency of agricultural practices. 
The analysis thus far has demonstrated the unreliability of the sta- 
tistics of yields, and that actual yields were much below the accepted 
figures, and the disparity would be much wider if yields were based 
on planted acres. Statistics of yields in either case are not necessarily 
any index to soil fertility and provide no basis for comparison with 
later periods. The factors determining actual variations in yields 
were not primarily fertility, but rather crop hazards, inefficient farm- 
ing and climatic conditions in relation to the lack of adaptation of 
varieties and cultural methods. The factor of soil fertility cannot be 
segregated from these other factors. The varieties of wheat raised 
in the 1870's seem to have been developed with particular reference 
to high yields, rather than resistance to Western environmental haz- 
ards. The later hard varieties were developed with reference to the 
latter factors and an average good yield, as well as choice milling 
qualities. In these varieties, even the highest yields on new land, and 
under most favorable crop conditions, do not equal some of the spec- 
tacular yields claimed in the 1870's for the soft wheats. On the 
other hand their average yields, based upon planted acres over a 
period of years, are much more favorable than the soft wheats. 
Aside from the unknown factor of soil fertility there can be little 
question but that actual yields from planted acres in recent years are 
much above those of the 1870's. That much may be said of the com- 
bination of factors associated with adaptation as well as more effi- 
cient and intensive agriculture and, for the sake of those who insist 
upon the soil-depletion argument, in spite of a possible decline in 
fertility. 

FROM CORN BOOM TO WHEAT BOOM 

The principal field crop competition was of two types between 
corn and wheat and between cash grain crops and livestock. At the 
opening of the decade corn was still in the ascendancy in volume of 
production, was grown as a money crop in excess of the market de- 
mand, bringing ruinously low prices under the existing freight rate 



MALIN: SOFT WINTER WHEAT BOOM 381 

structure, and a further hazard was the critical marginal position of 
corn with relation to climate. Probably no contemporary stated the 
case better, except for the livestock interest, than the Rev. John A. 
Anderson, president of Kansas State Agricultural College, in his 
"Sketch of Kansas Agriculture" of 1875. 47 

As in most Western States, corn has been the leading crop; the statistics 
show that it is far from being either the most certain or the most profitable. 
. . . [These statistics say] "Don't put all your eggs in the corn basket; 
put most in the wheat basket, it is safer;" . . . Kansas farmers . . . 
are rapidly changing from the old theory that corn was the crop to the one 
already indicated. 

Every State has its peculiar conditions of climate, soil and market; and no 
man in the world is surer to discover them, to adapt his work to them, than 
the practical American farmer . . . The variations in the fall of rain are 
apt to occur in those months when the wheat is out of danger, and when 
the corn is in danger. . . . 

The first reaction to the distress of the early 1870's was a clamor 
for diversification, 48 but the relative success with winter wheat dur- 
ing the mid-1870's brought "the wheat fever" which threatened "to 
spread all over the State, to the great detriment of other interests 
and of the commonwealth." The Manhattan Nationalist argued 
that in twenty years Riley county had never yielded three fair crops 
in succession, while west of Junction City there had been three 
crops and it was safe to assume that this would continue, but even 
at that, a mixed husbandry would be best in the long run because 
"a failure of the wheat crop would force all of the counties to the 
west of Davis [Geary] to resort to begging. With half the people 
it would be beg or starve, and it needs no argument to show that 
it is not safe for a whole community to run such risks." The article 
closed with a world wheat surplus argument, the competition of 
Hindustan which had gone into wheat production and the price 
collapse which would ensue. 49 

On December 1, 1876, the Abilene Chronicle took up the discus- 
sion on the argument that the speculative attitude was the cause of 
the farmer's troubles. When the price of a particular product was 
high, farmers rushed into producing that commodity; thus there had 
been successive speculations in cattle, wheat, sheep, hogs, broom- 
corn, etc. The editor advised diversification and the continuance 
with an adopted program long enough to secure results. Although 
the county was undoubtedly primarily a wheat county, the farmer 

47. Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Agriculture . . . 1875, pp. 18-38. 

48. Abilene Chronicle, January 16, 1873. 

49. The Nationalist, Manhattan, May 26, 1876. 



382 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

should diversify by raising corn and hogs, thereby producing year- 
round employment and a failure of one would not necessarily mean 
a failure of all, and furthermore, the production of corn and hogs 
would not diminish the wheat acreage the individual farmer could 
handle. 50 The wheat