A history of Kansas, Part 13

Author: Prentis, Noble L. (Noble Lovely), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : C. Prentis
Number of Pages: 394


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5. The coal production of 1892 was 68,843,114 bushels.


CHAPTER XXXIII.


LEGISLATION AND OTHER EVENTS OF 1893.


365. Inauguration of the Executive. - Governor Lewelling was inaugurated on the 9th of January, 1893.


366. Organization of the Senate .- On the 10th the Legislature assembled, which was destined to a stormy, and, at times, anxious existence.


The Senate was organized under the presidency of the Lieutenant-Governor, Honorable Perey Daniels, at twelve o'clock, noon, the hour fixed by law.


367. House Failed to Organize .- The members of the House of Representatives assembled in their hall, when Honorable R. S. Osborn, Secretary of State, appeared, and stated that he did not wish to deliver the roll of members certified as elected by the State Board of Canvassers, in the absence of a presiding officer. A motion that the Secretary of State preside temporarily was objected to, and he departed, taking the roll with him. Both parties then pro- ceeded to organize the House, the Republicans electing Honorable Geo. L. Douglas, Speaker, and the Populists, Honorable J. M. Dunsmore. Both Speakers occupied the same desk, and during the first night slept under the same blanket on the floor in the rear of the Speaker's desk, each one with a gavel in his hand.


368. Dunsmore House Recognized .- On the third day of the session, Governor Lewelling recognized the


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Dunsmore House as the legal body, and on the fourth day the Senate took the same action, the Republican Senators formally protesting. The two contending bodies continued to sit on different sides of Representative Hall for some days. In time an arrangement was made by which one body met in the forenoon and the other in the afternoon. Numerous attempts were made by various parties, one, among others, by the chairmen of the central committees of the three parties, Republican, Populist, and Democratic, to effect a settlement, but in vain.


369. Governor's Message .- On the 17th of January Governor Lewelling sent in his message to the Senate, where it was read, and to the Dunsmore House, which ordered it printed.


370. Arrest of L. C. Gunn .- The arrest of L. C. Gunn by a sergeant-at-arms of the Douglas House, on a warrant signed by the Speaker and Clerk of that House, on a charge of neglecting to obey a mandate of that body, brought an issue before the Supreme Court. Mr. Gunn asked to be discharged, on the ground that the Douglas House was not the lawful and constitutional House of Representatives, and had no authority to order his arrest.


371. Contest for the Hall .- While this case was pend- ing, stirring events were destined to occur. On the 14th of February an attempt was made by two deputy sergeants- at-arms of the Douglas House to arrest Ben C. Rich, Chief Clerk of the Dunsmore House, on a charge of "contempt." After a sharp scuffle, Mr. Rich was rescued by his friends, and soon after appeared in triumph in the Dunsmore House. Governor Lewelling directed the Adjutant-General to call out a company of militia if necessary. On the night of the


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14th, the officers of the Dunsmore House barricaded the door of the Hall of Representatives. On the morning of the 15th, the Douglas House, headed by their Speaker, appeared, thrust aside the outer guards, smashed in the door with a sledge hammer, and entered and took possession.


372. The Douglas House Besieged. - Governor Lewel- ling called out several companies of State militia, guns were brought out of the State arsenal; a Gatling gun and artillerists were ordered from Wichita. On the other side, Sheriff Wilkinson, of Shawnee county, who had declined a summons from both Speaker Dunsmore and the Governor, announced himself as the regular custodian of the peace of the county, marched a force of deputies into the State House, and joined the large force of sergeants-at-arms of the Douglas House. The Douglas House was, in a sense, beleaguered, but was supplied with provisions passed through the lines.


373. Colonel Hughes Refuses to Obey .- Colonel J. W. F. Hughes, who had been ordered by the Governor to take charge of the troops and clear out of the State House all unauthorized persons, appeared in the midst of the besieged Douglas House and said he should do nothing of the sort, and was afterwards courtmartialed.


374. Close of the Contest .- The siege was not destined to last long. On the 16th Governor Lewelling appeared, and requested that the force occupying the Hall of Repre- sentatives turn it over to him for the night. This was refused. A committee of citizens of Topeka besought the Donglas House to yield, and avoid a bloody contest with the militia. This proposition was received with indifference. Negotiations finally resulted in an agreement, on the 17th,


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that the Douglas House should continue to hold the hall; that the Dunsmore House should meet elsewhere; that the deputies and the militia should retire, and that the proceed- ings against Chief Clerk Rich should be abandoned. This ended what has been called the "Legislative War" of 1893, in which, happily, no lives were lost, but which it is - earnestly hoped will never be repeated.


375. Decision of the Supreme Court .- On the 25th was rendered the decision of the Supreme Court in the Gunn case, Chief Justice Horton affirming the constitutionality of the Douglas House, in which view Associate Justice Johnston conenrred, and from which Associate Justice Allen dissented.


376. House Organized .- On the 28th of February, the late Dunsmore House appeared, headed by their sergeant- at-arms, carrying the American flag, and spread upon the record their formal protest. The two Houses then became the one House of Representatives of the State of Kansas.


An eye-witness remarks of the appearance of Topeka dur- ing the "Legislative War": "No other capital city on earth could have passed through such a scene of conflict without serious loss of life, and, it is also likely, great destruction of property. The absence of the saloon is the chief explanation."


377. John Martin Elected U. S. Senator .- On Janu- ary 25th, in the midst of the disturbances, the Senate and House met in joint session, presided over by Lieutenant- Governor Daniels, and John Martin received eighty-six votes, and was declared elected United States Senator. The Republican members held a joint session, and gave Joseph W. Ady seventy-seven votes. E. H. Snow was re-elected State Printer.


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


378. Report of State Agent .- In the earliest days of Kansas there was a disposition, on the part of Legislative bodies and all concerned, to grant to railroad companies all that might be asked in the way of public lands in aid of construction. In time, there came a disposition to correct this generosity, and recover for the State a portion of its lavished bounty. Ex-Governor Samuel J. Crawford, for some years State Agent at Washington, in his report made in 1892, showed that there had been secured for the State, of school lands, 276,376 acres, and of railroad lands, 833,900 acres.


379. Erection of K. U. Library Building .- In 1893 the Regents of the Kansas State University decided to devote the bequest of $90,000, given to the University by Mr. William B. Spooner, of Boston, to the erection of the fine fireproof library building of the University, and which bears Mr. Spooner's name. Kansas institutions, in later years, have been generously remembered by Eastern men of wealth, who befriended Kansas `in her early days of struggle.


380. Memorial to William B. Spooner .- On the occa- sion of the dedication of the Spooner Library, in 1894, Hon. D. W. Wilder wrote: "It is now too late to accept your kind invitation. I should be the only guest, probably, who had seen Mr. Spooner, and seen him a great many times. I was a schoolboy, the son of an anti-slavery father. I did not neglect my books, but I attended many meetings of the anti-slavery folks, a very small band. Not one person in ten thousand in Boston, in those days, forty-six years ago, was an avowed Abolitionist. Some of the meetings, in the days of mobs and violence, had a few


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LEGISLATION AND OTHER EVENTS OF 1893.


dozen of the fearless and faithful present. The stalwart figure of the sincere and fearless Wm. B. Spooner was always to be seen. Sometimes he spoke. No doubt, he always helped the feeble cause with his purse, as well as his voice and influence. One unknown boy will never for- get his face, his person, his heroism. He was as true as his friends, Garrison and Phillips.


"Let the young men and women of Kansas, who now enjoy the gift of this noble man, remember that it comes from a pioneer in the cause of freedom, the cause that made for them a new and glorious country. And let the books upon the shelves of the Spooner Library give a true history of the anti- slavery conflict."


381. Death of Colonel Samuel Walker .- On the 6th of February, 1893, Colonel Samuel Walker, often desig- nated in Kansas annals as "the bravest of the brave," died at Lawrence. He tendered for service, in the Civil War, the first company organized in Kansas.


Colonel Samnel Walker.


382. Early Teachers .- A discussion sprang up in the newspapers as to the first schoolmaster "abroad" in Kansas after its organization as a Territory. J. B. McAfee, of Topeka, claims to have opened the Leavenworth Collegiate Institute May 14, 1855. Edward P. Fitch is named as having opened the pioneer school of Kansas at Lawrence, January 16, 1855. Mr. G. W. W. Yates notes as the oldest country school that at the Union schoolhouse, three miles north of Lawrence, begun in February, 1855.


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


383. Kansas at the World's Fair .- The first steps for the proper representation of Kansas at the World's Colum- bian Exposition at Chicago were taken at a delegate conven- tion, called by the State Board of Agriculture, at Topeka, on the 23rd and 24th of April, 1891. Under the direction of a Bureau of Promotion, appointed by the convention, and later by a permanent Board of Managers, extensive collec- tions were made and a building erected, which was formally dedicated on the 22d of October, 1892. At noon of that day, the Kansas Building stood, the first completed and dedicated State building on the Exposition grounds.


The Legislature of 1893 passed an act in aid of the Kansas Exposition, appropriating $65,000, and the work was turned over to the Board of Managers of the Kansas exhibit, representing the State.


384. The Kansas Building .- The Kansas State Build- ing was formally opened to the public by the festivities of "Kansas Week," extending from the 11th to the 16th of September, 1893. The address of welcome was delivered by Hon. M. W. Cobun, President of the Board of Managers, and the response by Governor L. D. Lewelling. Every day of the "Week" a new programme was presented, and there was a profusion of original Kansas poetry and music.


The building had an eligible location near the Fifty- Seventh street entrance, and in the vicinity of the State buildings of Arkansas and Utah, and of "Mount Vernon," a reduced copy of the home of Washington, presented by the State of Virginia.


The ornamentation of the Kansas pavilion, which was profuse and effective, was remarkable for the use made of the "kindly fruits of the earth." The structure might


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LEGISLATION AND OTHER EVENTS OF 1893.


have served in the old time as the temple of the goddess Ceres. Corn, wheat, oats, all the grasses, and the seeds thereof, made up innumerable designs, and in every possible gradation of color. The word "Kansas" shone everywhere wreathed in roses, and shaped of bold sunflowers, and amid the vegetation of Kansas peered the prairie dogs and jack rabbits, the admiration of the children.


6 385. Collection of Professor Dyche .- In the annex to the main building was displayed the great collection of Professor Dyche, of the State University, comprising 121 specimens of North American mammals, oeenpying an arti- ficial landscape of rock and ravine, mountains and prairie and swamp, extending apparently into the indefinite dis- tance. Prominent, of course, was the mighty buffalo, once lord of the Kansas plain. The bison was presented as in life and death; standing in defiance, and overcome by a gang of snarling wolves. Standing near the former rangers of the plains and mountains, was the horse, "Comanche," who, pierced with many wounds, survived Custer's fight at the Little Big Horn, and passed his last years in honorable ease at Fort Riley, and after his death, which occurred in his thirty-first year, was mounted in the taxidermic laboratory of the Kansas State University, with the understanding that he might be shown at the World's Fair.


386. Railroad Exhibit .- The great Kansas railroads were extensive exhibitors, as well as advertisers, presenting in the way of pictures and specimens the agricultural, mineral and manufacturing resources of the country along their lines.


387. Woman's Department .- The "Woman's Depart- ment" had a "room" allotted to it in the Kansas Building,


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but woman's taste, skill and industry were in evidence in all of the rooms. There was a great art exhibition, eovering all work that may come under the classes of "art," an interesting show of relics and souvenirs, and in all, the pioneer woman, the "first woman," who builded with the others in laying the foundations of the State, looked from the canvas, and was represented by the work of her toiling hands.


388. Educational Exhibit .- The educational exhibit of Kansas was extensive, representing an expenditure of $12,000. The Kansas schools of all grades, from the common schools to the great State institutions, made a remarkable showing in the immense exhibition, which in the Liberal Arts Building alone covered four acres of wall and floor space. It seemed that everything that brain and hand may accomplish in the schoolroom was exhibited.


389. Agricultural Exhibit .- Rugged utility was not overlooked. The main agricultural exhibition was made in a special pavilion in the Agricultural Building, near the great displays of North Dakota and California. A remark- ably ornate style of wall decoration was employed, but of sneh a nature as to display in perfection the agricultural resources of the State. Everything, even the twenty windows of the pavilion, set forth the work of the Kansas farmer. Part of the exhibition was made by the Kansas State Agricultural College, which came ont strong, among other things, in a great display of onions. The exhibit and decorations were made from the erop of 1892, but as the season advanced it was renewed from the crop of 1893, giving it an appearance of perennial freshness.


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LEGISLATION AND OTHER EVENTS OF 1893.


390. Horticultural Exhibit .- The horticultural exhi- bition was divided into two displays, one in the Kansas Building, and the other in the Horticultural Building, and in spite of an unfavorable season, a fine showing was made.


391. Live Stock Exhibit .- The live stock exhibit of Kansas, under the rules of the Columbian Exposition, was made a part of the general exhibition, and competed with the world, and under these circumstances received forty medals, premiums and ribbons.


392. Dairy and Forest .- The dairying exhibit was limited to 104 exhibits, which received twenty-four diplo- mas. A small exhibit did not interfere with the general excellence. The forestry exhibition was confined prin- cipally to one walnut log from Leavenworth county, but it was the largest walnut log at Jackson Park, was forty years old when Columbus discovered America, and was believed to be the largest walnut log in America.


393. Mining Exhibit .- The mining exhibit was one of the earliest upon which work was begun, and was very complete in everything except coal, which was interfered with at a critical time by a strike in the coal mines. An unexpectedly fine showing was made of lead and zinc. Rock salt was present in beauty and plenty, and visitors took away specimens, with the information that Kansas had salt enough to supply the world for 1,000,000 years. There was an instructive exhibition of Kansas building stone, scientifically presented.


394. Visitors to Kansas Building .- Kansas at the World's Fair presented a great attraction. Five large books were filled with the names of visitors, and thousands


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


were unable to register for want of time. The Kansas Building was visited by from 10,000 to 12,000 persons daily, at first, and during the last two months of the Fair, the attendance reached from 18,000 to 20,000 every day.


SUMMARY.


1. Governor Lewelling was inaugurated January 9, 1893.


2. Senate organized on January 10.


3. The Republicans organized the Douglas House, the Populists, the Dunsmore House.


4. Governor Lewelling recognized the Dunsmore House, the Douglas House protesting.


5. After days of excitement and separate meetings, both houses were united on February 28.


6. John Martin was elected United States Senator.


7. The Spooner library erected at Kansas University.


8. Colonel Samuel Walker died at Lawrence, February 6, 1893.


9. Kansas State Building at the World's Fair dedicated Octo- ber 22d.


10. Kansas made fine exhibits in every department.


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CHAPTER XXXIV.


PASSING OF THE PIONEERS.


395. Death of Two Early Governors .- In the year 1894 Kansas parted with two faithful friends, early guides and advisers who had both held the helm of the ship of State in the early and earliest part of the voyage. Governor Charles Robinson and Governor James M. Harvey.


396. James M. Harvey .- The end came first to Gov- ernor Harvey, who died at midnight on the 15th of April, 1894, near Junction City, Kan. He was born in Monroe county, Va., but removed with his father's family to Adams county, Ill., and thence to Kansas. He had been but two years in Kansas when the Civil War came, and he entered the service with Company' "G," Tenth Kansas Volunteer Infantry, a regiment which furnished eventually a remark- able number of prominent men to the civil and official service of the State and nation. Captain Harvey displayed in the ranks of the Tenth the steady, patient valor which was native to him, and almost immediately on his return to his home in 1865, he was elected to the Kansas House of Rep- resentatives, and again in 1866. In 1867 and 1868 he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1868 was elected Gov- ernor of Kansas and re-elected in 1870. In 1874 he was chosen to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate, occa- sioned by the resignation of Alexander Caldwell, and he remained in the Senate until March 4, 1877. With this


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brilliant experience of official life he might have been encouraged to press on, but, instead, he retired absolutely to private life. He had early in life added to the calling of farmer that of land surveyor, and his later years were devoted to the hard and toilsome occupation of a Govern- ment surveyor in New Mexico and the West. Admonished by failing health of the necessity of living, if he would live, in a milder climate, he sought tide-water Virginia, and remained in the neighborhood of Norfolk for some years, but moved by that irresistible impulse which often comes to men at last, to seek their home, he returned to Kansas, and near the familiar acres he had redeemed from the wilderness, he elosed his honorable and useful life.


397. Charles Robinson .- The death of Charles Robin- son, first Governor of Kansas, occurred on August 17, 1894. Governor Robinson was born in Hardwick, Mass., July 21, 1818. He came of that New England generation with whom life is a serious and strenuous business, and, above all, an exploration, if not of actual voyaging to distant and unknown foreign parts, then of independent excursions into all the bays and inlets of thought and con- vietion. He commenced life as a physi- cian, taught in the learning of the old Governor Charles Robinson. schools, but as a practitioner venturing into such paths as seemed to lead somewhere, to the grief of his regular brethren. But he was destined to travels and adventures. He went "overland" to California, crossing the to-be site of Lawrence, and soon took sides in a fight for "squatters' rights," which involved for him and his


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friends some actual fighting, followed by imprisonment. He was accustomed to say, in later days, that he had been indicted in California for murder, assault with intent to kill, and conspiracy, and for treason in Kansas, but had not been tried on any of the charges. He was, after the period of combat was over, elected a member of the Legislature of California from the Sacramento District. He was a sup- porter of John C. Fremont, for United States Senator, and an upbuilder of the Free State of California. In 1851 he had an adventurous voyage to the States, involving ship- wreck, and, as on the Missouri river years afterward, an encounter with the cholera among his fellow voyagers, which he met with skill and courage. On this voyage the steamer touched at Havana and he saw the tragic end of the Lopez filibusters. He got back to Massachusetts in safety and settled down to the practice of medicine, when, in 1854, he became interested in the Kansas question, which that year became a burning question.


Dr. Robinson, as he was then, and for a long time after, called, entered into the work of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, and he led the second party of emigrants-the first, it is said, who came to stay-to the Lawrence town- site. Thenceforward he was a part of everything that went on in Kansas Territory. He was a great believer in the power of reason, in the virtue of the New England practice of "talking it over," nevertheless, he "dwelt in the midst of alarms," his house was burned, his property destroyed, and he was himself arrested and held for months a prisoner on the charge of treason. He was an advocate early and late, of the Topeka Government, was chosen Governor under it, and stood by it until the safety of the Territory as a


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


future Free State was assured. Under the Wyandotte Con- stitution he became the first State Governor of free Kansas. In 1851 Dr. Robinson had married Miss Sara T. L. Lawrence, who accompanied him to Kansas, shared all the perils of the time and hour, and became their very clear and interesting historian.


On becoming Governor of Kansas, after so many perils past, he found him- self the head of the State in the midst of a war for its life. He may be said to have armed and equipped the State, and sent it to battle.


After his service as Governor, the name Mrs. Sara T. L. Robinson. of Charles Robinson continued as promi- nent as before in the State. He was always called on to fill trusts, execute commissions, assume responsibilities. He was sent to the Legislature when there was work to do. One of the trusts he executed with great kindness and fidelity, was the superintendency of the Haskell Institute, the Indian school at Lawrence, and there were many other labors.


He was the steadfast friend of the Kansas State Univer- sity; he gave the original site; his gifts amounted, it was estimated, to $150,000; and he made the University his final heir after his wife, who survives him. The Legislature appropriated $1,000 to secure his marble bust for the University.


In his later years Governor Robinson resided on a fine farm three miles north of Lawrence, dwelling in the shade of noble trees which he planted with his own hands. Here he dispensed a grateful hospitality. He was buried at Oak


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Hill Cemetery, on a slope which faces the town which he saw rise in the prairie grass, and pass through the vicissi tudes of siege, and burning, and carnage, to well-ordered peace, and a prosperous destiny at last.


398. State Election of 1894 .- In November, 1894, the Republicans succeeded in turning the tide which had so strongly set against them in prior years, and elected Edmund N. Morrill, Governor; James A. Troutman, Lieutenant-Governor; George E. Cole; Auditor; Otis L. Atherton, Treasurer; F. B. Dawes, Attorney-General; Edwin Stanley, Superintendent of Public Instruction; W. A. Johnston, Asso- ciate Justice; Richard W. Blue, Con- gressman-at-Large. Governor E. N. Morrill.


399. Members of Congress. - At this election, Kansas, for the second time, elected eight members of Congress. The members chosen were: First District, Case Broderick; Second, O. L. Miller; Third, S. S. Kirk- patrick; Fourth, Chas. Curtis; Fifth, W. A. Calderhead; Sixth, Wm. Baker; Seventh, Chester I. Long; At-Large, R. W. Blue.


400. Suffrage Amendment Defeated .- The constitu- tional amendment, conferring on women the full exercise of suffrage, was defeated, the vote standing 95,300 votes for, to 130,139 votes against.


401. Death of Bishop W. . Perkins. - Bishop W. Perkins died, at his home in Washington, on the 20th of June, 1894. He had been for years a prominent figure at the bar, on the bench, and in the forum. He represented




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