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Gc 978.1 K132b v.1 1343237
M. L. |
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01064 7441
T
E
Frankew Blackman
KANSAS®
A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc.
Edited by FRANK W. BLACKMAR, A. M., Ph. D.
IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME I
WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME DEVOTED TO SELECTED PERSONAL HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
ILLUSTRATED
Gc 9.78.1 K132 b
v. /
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO
Copyright 1912 by Standard Publishing Company.
1313237
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page Agricultural College 34
Steam Plow in Action 48
Display of Agricultural Products 53
Beecher's Island
97
Baker University 130
Battleship Kansas 159
Bethany College 177 State School for the Blind 192 John Brown Monument 242
Campbell College 275
Old Capitol at Pawnee
283
State Capitol at Topeka 285 Council Oak at Council Grove 461
State School for the Deaf 496
Weather Building at Dodge City 524
State Hospital for Epileptics 595
State Home for Feeble Minded 635
Fort Riley 669
Old Guard House at Fort Scott 672
Old Government Building, Fort Scott 673
Geological Section 733
Pawnee Indians-Father and Son 905
Boys' Industrial School
934
Girls' Industrial School
935
INTRODUCTION
Perhaps no other commonwealth admitted into the Union during the last half of the last century has a greater historical interest than Kansas. Born in the storm and stress period of national political controversy, cradled in the tumult of civil war, and reared to full state- hood in an era unparalleled in the arts of peace, the life of Kansas has been one of intense activity. Carved out of territory once known as part of the Great American Desert, by the industry of her people it has become one of the most productive and wealthy states of the Union in proportion to its population. From the political unrest of the early life has sprung a people alive to progressive forms of government. Alert in educational affairs, from the beginning her schools have been monuments of the greatness of her people; interested in the justice and equity of human relationship, her laws for securing human rights in political, industrial and social order are among the most enlightened in the land.
To write a history of such a state, to unravel all of its political entanglements, to carry forward the political and industrial develop- ment through border war, civil war, Indian depredations, drought and failure, to final achievement of a great commonwealth is a serious task. To such a task those who have been engaged in the preparation of this work have devoted their best energy and most faithful service.
It would be almost impossible to make such a history of achievement covering such a wide range of subjects in consecutive narration and at the same time make it nsable for those for whom it was intended. For this reason the alphabetical order of topics has been chosen. By this method information on any subject from the administration of a governor or the development of a constitution to an historical incident or the founding of a small town may be obtained with facility. And in the presentation of the material in this form it has been necessary to omit all political controversies, to avoid all comparison of judgment and relate the simple facts of how it all came about.
However, all those who wish to have a conseentive history of political events need only to follow the history of the separate administrations of the governors from Reeder to Stubbs and they will find a continued history of the political development of Kansas. And if this be supple- mented by the perusal of separate articles such as those of the Louisiana Purchase, the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Squatter Sovereignty, the development of constitutional conventions, finance, taxation and the important reform measures under their respective titles
INTRODUCTION
he may have a history and philosophy of the building of a state. The value of this may be enhanced by reading the brief biographies of the people who have been most in the limelight as leaders in the building of Kansas. In the preparation of these brief biographies one cannot help but reflect upon the fact that after all the rank and file of the peo- ple, each one performing his duty in his proper place, made Kansas. Those men and women who endured the hardships of pioneer days (and Kansas has always had her pioneer days in the progress of civili- zation from the Missouri border to the Colorado line), subdued the soil, mastered the resources of the country, developed her industries, built her schools, churches and railroads, made a large part of the real history of Kansas which cannot be recorded except in a general way. History seldom portrays the real life of the commonwealth. It is the sociology of the state after all that represents its true greatness.
Indeed the political history of the state represents a small part of what Kansas has wrought and hence a small part of its life. The Kan- sas Cyclopedia assumes to present every factor in the political, social, and economic development and relate every important event which has had to do with the building of a great commonwealth. And when we pause to think of it, what a great history it is, extending back nearly four hundred years, with its active progress crowded into a little more than half a century! And yet it falls naturally into various periods :
It comprises prehistoric Kansas and the occupation of the native races; the early expeditions of Coronado and other Spanish explorers ; the early trappers and traders, followed by the explorations of Pike and Long; the military organization for the protection of the frontier ; the history of early trading and transportation trails leading to Santa Fe, Utah, Oregon and California; the period of settlement and the dis- posal of public land; the struggle that organized Kansas a free state; the organization and development of counties and towns; the mus- tering of its armies for the preservation of the Union; the expansion of government and the making of internal public improvements; the exploitation of the geology of Kansas and the development of its ma- terial resources ; development of agriculture, manufacturing and trans- portation ; and through it all the development of schools, colleges and the university, the founding and progress of charitable institutions, the building of churches and the enactment of special laws to enforce the moral conduct of society. Add to this the hundreds of instances of real life told of men and affairs and you have an outline of the real history of Kansas.
The editor of this history, and his able assistants have sought with painstaking exactness to ascertain the truth of Kansas history. They have had at their command the writings of many authorities, the ex- periences of men and a magnificent body of historical material from the Kansas Historical Society. If the book is entirely free from error it is different from any other history ever written of any country. And while small errors may have crept in even after the most careful scrutiny.
INTRODUCTION
as may be expected in so large a work, still for its purpose the present history should be in advance of all other histories of the State of Kansas. If it is not in advance, it is a mistake to have written it. At least it will present in a concise form a large amount of the historical material in the libraries of Kansas, hitherto hidden from view to most people of the state.
It is hoped that its use by students will be large and that it will lead to extended research and an elaboration of special subjects. For such the frequent cross references will be found valuable aids.
Acknowledgment is hereby made to the secretary and assistants of the state historical society for their aid in giving access to the val- uable collection in their charge, and recognition is made of the following list of historical writings, manuscripts, etc .:
Official Publications .- Reports of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology ; Congressional Record ; U. S. Senate and House Reports ; Messages and Documents of the Presidents; Reports of Congressional Investigating and Special Committees; Departmental Reports; Correspondence and Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; U. S. Treaties and Con- ventions; Rebellion Records; Reports of U. S. General Land Office ; Session Laws of Kansas; Legislative Journals; Reports of State Board of Agriculture, Bank Commissioner, Adjutant-General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Railroad Commission, etc .; Kansas Historical So- ciety Publications, Governors' Messages, Reports of University Geo- logical Survey, etc.
Histories of Kansas .- Cutler's, Hazelrigg's, Holloway's, Prentis' Spring's, Tuttle's, and Wilder's Annals of Kansas.
Miscellaneous .- Adair's Travels in North America; Adams' Home- stead Guide ; American Board of Foreign Missions Reports ; Annual Reg- ister ; Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia; Baker's Forestry Report; Ban- croft's Historical Works; Bandelier's Gilded Man; Blackmar's Life of Charles Robinson, Spanish Colonization in the Southwest, and Spanish Institutions in the Southwest; Boughton's Kansas Handbook; Brewer- ton's The War in Kansas; Britton's War on the Border; Bronson's Farmers' Unions, etc .; Canfield's Local Government in Kansas; Clap- man's Emigrant's Guide ; Child's Kansas Emigrants ; Chittenden's Amer- ican Fur Trade ; Connelley's Life of John Brown, Quantrill and the Bor- der Wars, Kansas Territorial Governors, Doniphan's Expedition, and the Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory ; Cooke's Scenes and Adventures in the Army ; Custer's Wild Life on the Plains; Davidson's Silk Culture; Dodge's Plains of the Great West ; Elliott's Notes in Sixty Years; Fowler's Report of Glenn's Expedition; Fremont's Reports of Explorations in the West; Gallatin's Reports of the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society ; Gihon's Geary and Kansas ; Giles' Thir- ty Years in Topeka; Gladstone's An Englishman in Kansas; Gleed's From River to Sea ; Greeley's American Conflict, and An Overland Jour- ney ; Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies; Hale's Kanzas and Nebraska ; Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians; Hinton's Army of the Bor-
INTRODUCTION
der; Humphrey's The Squatter Sovereign; Inman's Stories of the Old Santa Fe Trail; Irving's Adventures of Captain Bonneville, and A Tour of the Prairies; Jenkins' The Northern Tier; Kansas Biographical Reg- ister; Kendall's Santa Fe Expedition; Lewis and Clark's Journals; Long's Expedition, Report of; Lowe's Five Years a Dragoon ; Margry's Works; Meline's Two Thousand Miles on Horseback; Monette's Dis- covery and Settlement of the Mississippi Valley; Murray's Travels in North America; Parker's Kansas and Nebraska Handbook; Parkman's Discovery of the Great West; Parrish's Life on the Great Plains; Phillips' Conquest of Kansas; Pierce's Incidents of Western Travel; Pike's Expedition, Accounts of ; Redpath's The Roving Editor, and Life of John Brown; Richardson's Beyond the Mississippi; Mrs. Robinson's Kansas, Its Interior and Exterior Life; Shea's Memoir of French Colo- nies in America, Translation of Charlevoix, and Expedition of Penalosa ; Simpson's Smithsonian Reports; Smyth's Heart of the New Kansas; Speer's Life of James H. Lane; Spring's Prelude to the War of '61; Steele's Sons of the Border, and Frontier Army Sketches; Tewksbury's Kansas Picture Book; Thwaites' Early Western Travels; Tomlinson's Kansas in 1858; Victor's American Conspiracies ; Von Holst's Constitu- tional History of the United States; Washburn College Bulletins; Webb's Scrap Books; Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power ; Wil- son's Eminent Men of Kansas; County Histories, Magazines, News- paper Files, Gazetteers, City Directories, etc.
Manuscripts .- The Kansas State Historical Society has a vast collec- tion of manuscripts, consisting of letters, historical sketches, short biog- raphies, etc. Among those consulted may be mentioned Dunbar's Ac- count of the. Bourgmont Expedition; Executive Minutes and Corre- spondence; Journals of the Constitutional Conventions; Letters of John Brown; Letters and Diary of Isaac McCoy ; Gov. A. H. Reeder's Diary ; Unpublished reports of various Commissions, etc.
FRANK W. BLACKMAR.
KANSAS
Abbott, James B., one of the pioneer settlers of Kansas, was born at Hampton, Conn., Dec. 3, 1818, and grew to manhood in his native state. He was a member of the third party of emigrants from New England, which reached Lawrence on Oct. 10, 1854, and soon become recognized as one of the stalwart advocates of the free-state cause. Maj. Abbott took up a claim about half a mile south of Blanton's bridge, on the road to Hickory Point, and his house was a favorite meeting place of the free- state men in that neighborhood. As the pro-slaveryites grew more and more agressive, one of the crying necessities of the settlers was arms and ammunition with which to defend themselves against the predatory gangs which infested the territory. Maj. Abbott was one of those who went east to procure arms, and through his efforts there were sent to Kansas 117 Sharp's rifles and a 12-pounder howitzer. He was one of the party that rescued Branson from the sheriff of Douglas county ; was a lieutenant in command of a company at the first "battle" of Franklin ; commanded the Third regiment of free-state infantry during the siege of Lawrence in 1856; fought with John Brown at Black Jack, and was the leader of the expedition that rescued Dr. John Doy. He was a mem- ber of the first house of representatives elected under the Topeka con- stitution, and in 1857 was elected senator. Upon the adoption of the Wyandotte constitution, he was elected a member of the lower house of the first state legislature, which met in March, 1861. In that year he was appointed agent for the Shawnee Indians and removed to De Soto, Johnson county. `At the time of the Price raid he led a party of Shawnees against the Confederates. In 1866 he retired from the Indian agency, and in the fall of that year was elected to the state senate. He was influential in securing the establishment of the school for feeble minded youth. Maj. Abbott died at De Soto on March 2, 1879. The howitzer he brought to Kansas in the territorial days is now in the pos- session of the Kansas Historical Society, of which he was a director for twelve years immediately prior to his death.
Abbyville, a village of Reno county, is situated in Westminister township, 17 miles southwest of Hutchinson, the county seat. The former name was Nonpariel. It is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., has a bank, a money order postoffice with two rural routes, express, telegraph and telephone facilities, churches of the lead- ing Protestant denominations, some mercantile and shipping interests, and in 1910 reported a population of 300.
(I-2)
18
CYCLOPEDIA OF
Abilene, the judicial seat and largest city of Dickinson county, is located on the north bank of the Smoky Hill river, 96 miles from Topeka, and has an altitude of 1,153 feet. It was first settled in 1858, was first the terminus of and later a station on the stage line. The first store was opened by a man named Jones, usually referred to as "Old Man Jones," in whose stock of goods whisky was a prominent article. In 1860 the town was surveyed and the following spring it was selected as the county seat by a popular vote. Early in 1867 the Kansas Pacific rail- road was completed to Abilene, and the same year the place was selected by Joseph G. McCoy as the most available point for assembling cattle for shipment, the selection being made because of the abundance of grass and water in the neighborhood. Concerning the town at this time, Mr. McCoy says : "Abilene in 1867 was a very small, dead place, con- sisting of about one dozen log huts, low, small, rude affairs, four-fifths- of which were covered with dirt for roofing ; indeed, but one shingle roof could be seen in the whole city. The business of the burg was conducted in two small rooms, mere log huts, and of course the inevitable saloon, also in a log hut, was to be found."
After Mr. McCoy had decided upon Abilene as the best.cattle ship- ping point, circulars were sent all over Texas and before the close of the year 1867 some 35,000 cattle had been driven there for shipment on the new railroad to the eastern markets. This had a tendency to stim- ulate the growth of the town, but it also brought in many undesirable characters. Gamblers, confidence men, cow boys, etc., came in and prac- tically took possession of the place, much to the chagrin and disgust of the reputable, law-abiding citizens. Shooting affrays were common, and the turbulent element, being in the majority, continued to run things with a high hand until the probate court of Dickinson county, on Sept. 6, 1869, granted a petition to incorporate Abilene, and named J. B. Shane, T. C. Henry, Thomas Sherran, T. F. Hersey and Joseph G. McCoy as trustees. McCoy was chosen the first mayor and the new city government took steps to check the prevailing lawlessness. A stone jail was commenced, but about the time the walls were up a band of cow boys tore them down. Finally, Thomas Smith, who had come to Abilene from Kit Carson, Col., was elected town marshal. It is said that his appearance was against him, but what he lacked in physical strength was more than made up in courage and diplomacy, and in a short time he succeeded in disarming all the desperate characters, thus. bringing about a reign of law and order. The Kansas Monthly of Feb .. 1879, ten years after Abilene was incorporated, says: "Abilene, from being a Texas cattle town without law, order or society, is now one of the most home-like, orderly and agreeable towns."
Since that time the growth and development of Abilene has been steadily onward and upward, and in 1910 the city had a population of 4,118. Its location at the junction of the Union Pacific, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railways makes. it an important shipping point, and large quantities of grain, live stock.
19
KANSAS HISTORY
etc., are annually exported. The city has two banks, an international money order postoffice from which emanate seven rural delivery routes. unsurpassed express, telegraph and telephone facilities, a modern elec- tric lighting plant, a fine system of waterworks, a fire department, a Carnegie library and a well appointed opera house. Mount St. Joseph Academy is located here, which supplements the excellent public school system and affords ample educational opportunities. The manufactures include flour mills, creameries, foundries, an organ factory, planing mills, cigar, carriage and ice factories, etc. The press is well represented by two daily and four weekly newspapers, the Implement Dealers' Bul- letin (monthly), and the Kansas State Sunday School Journal (also monthly).
Abilene Trail .- In 1867 Joseph G. McCoy, of Illinois, settled at Abilene to engage in the cattle trade, and he caused to be laid out a cattle trail to connect with the north end of the Chisholm trail, near Wichita, to run northward to Abilene, on the Union Pacific railroad, where the cattle could be marketed in a more expeditious manner. The road from the mouth of the Little Arkansas to Abilene "was not direct but circuitous. In order to straighten up this trail and bring the cattle direct to Abilene, and by shortening the distance, to counteract the ex- ertions of western would-be competing points for the cattle trade, an engineer corps was sent out under the charge of Civil Engineer T. F. Hersey. . Mr. Hersey with compass and flag men and detail of laborers with spades and shovels for throwing up mounds of dirt to mark the route located by the engineers, started out and ran almost due south from Abilene until the crossing of the Arkansas was reached, find- ing good water and abundant grass with suitable camping points the entire distance. Meeting at the Arkansas river the first drove of cattle of the season, the party piloted the herd over the new trail, and thus by use opening it to the many thousand herds of cattle that followed in months and years afterward."
In 1867 about 35,000 head of cattle were driven from Texas to Abilene over this trail; in 1868 about 75,000; in 1870 about 300,000; and in 1871 about 700,000, being the largest number ever received from Texas in any one year. The country about Abilene was fast settling up about this time, grazing lands were getting scarcer, and these conditions were such that many of the settlers objected to the pasturing of the great herds in the vicinity. Hence the year 1872 found Wichita in possession of the trade that Abilene had for several years enjoyed, the. completion of the Santa Fe railroad to that point giving the needed railroad facil- ities. From 1867 to 1871 about 10,000 cars of live stock were shipped out of Abilene, and in 1872 about 80,000 head of cattle were shipped from Wichita. "The settlement of the valleys of the Arkansas and the Ninnescah rivers rendered it impractical to reach Wichita shipping yards after 1873, and the loading of cattle was transferred to points on the railroad farther west, halting finally at Dodge City, where 1887 saw the end of the use of the famous Abilene cattle trail."
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CYCLOPEDIA OF
Abolitionists .- In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison began the publica- tion of the "Liberator," the first newspaper in the United States to take a radical stand for the abolition of slavery. (See Slavery.) Two years later the National Anti-Slavery Society was organized at Philadelphia, Pa., and in a short time the members of the organization became divided to some extent as to the methods to be pursued in the efforts to secure the emancipation of the slaves. Some clung to the theory of gradual manumission, with compensation to the slaveholders as a last resort, while others advocated the immediate and unconditional liberation of every slave, by force if necessary, and without compensating their owners. These extremists in 1835 were nicknamed "abolitionists" by those who favored slavery, and also by the conservative element in the society. Although this name was first applied in a spirit of derision. the extremists accepted it as an honor. In a short time a number of abolitionist orators-speakers of more than ordinary ability-were de- veloped. Among these may be mentioned Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith and Charles Sumner, who never lost an opportunity of present- ing their views, and the public was kept on the alert, wondering what they would do next.
The society became divided in 1840 on the question of organizing a political party on anti-slavery lines. From that time each branch worked in its own way, and by the time Kansas was organized as a territory the abolitionists-the radical wing of the original society-had become strong enough to attract attention from one end of the country to the other. Among the pro-slavery men there was no distinction between those who were in favor of the gradual, peaceable emancipation of the slave and those who were in favor of immediate emancipation at what- ever cost. All were "abolitionists." The following utterances of pro- slavery orators and extracts from the pro-slavery press will show how the advocates of slavery regarded the free-state men as "abolitionists" indiscriminately :
At a squatter meeting near Leavenworth on June 10, 1854, a reso- lution was adopted declaring that "We will afford protection to no abolitionist as a settler in Kansas." A pro-slavery meeting in Lafayette county, Mo., Dec. 15, 1854, denounced the steamboats plying on the Missouri river for carrying abolitionists to Kansas. As a result of this agitation, the Star of the West in the spring of 1856 was allowed to carry about 100 persons from Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina to Kansas unmolested, but on her next trip, with a number of free-state passengers, she was held up at Lexington, where the passengers were disarmed, and upon arriving at Weston was not permitted to land. Other steamers encountered similar opposition.
In Feb., 1855, Lawrence was denounced because it was "the home of about 400 abolitionists," and at a Law and Order meeting at Leaven- worth on the 15th of the following November, John Calhoun said: "You yield and you will have the most infernal government that ever cursed a land. I would rather be a painted slave over in Missouri, or a serf to the Czar of Russia, than have the abolitionists in power."
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KANSAS HISTORY
On Oct. 5, 1857, occurred the election for members of the legislature, and on the 23d the Doniphan Constitutionalist, a pro-slavery paper, ac- counted for the free-state victory by saying that the "sneaking abolition- ists were guilty of cutting loose the ferry boats at Doniphan and other places on the day of the election, by order of Jim Lane." To this the Lawrence Republican retorted : "Bad man, that Jim Lane, to order the boats cut loose ; great inconvenience to the Missourians and the Demo- cratic party."
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