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236. Amendment to the Constitution .- In 1876 the Constitution of the State was amended so as to provide for biennial sessions of the Legislature, and the session of 1877 was the first held under the new amendment. On the 30th of January, 1877, the Legislature, on the sixteenth ballot, eleeted Preston B. Plumb United States Senator. George W. Martin was elected State Printer for the third term.
237. State Election, 1878 .- The November election of 1878 resulted in the choice of John P. St. John as Governor; L. U. Humphrey, Lieutenant-Governor; James Smith, Secretary of State; P. I. Bonebrake, Auditor; John Francis, Treasurer; Willard Davis, Attorney- Governor John P. St. John. General; A. B. Lemmon, Superintendent of Public Instruction; Albert H. Horton, Chief Justice. John A. Anderson, Dudley C. Haskell, and Thomas Ryan were elected to Congress.
General John Fraser died at Pittsburgh, Pa., June 4, 1878. General Fraser was born in Scotland. He came a young man to the United States, served with distinction in the war for the Union, and rose to the command of a brigade. After filling various educational positions of
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THE CENTENNIAL YEAR.
prominence in the State of Pennsylvania, he became Chancellor of the University of Kansas, serving from 1868 to 1874. It was during the chancellorship of General Fraser that the main building of the University was built, and his name is preserved in Fraser Hall. In 1874 he was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and served one term. He was chosen a professor in the Western University at Pittsburgh, in July, 1877, and there died. His was the record of a soldier, gentleman and scholar.
SUMMARY.
1. Kansas participated in the Centennial Exposition at Philadel- phia.
2. Kansas won several prizes.
3. The prosperity of the years from 1870-1880 was broken by the grasshopper visitation in 1874.
4. The Eastern and Western States loyally gave assistance.
5. George T. Anthony was elected Governor in 1876.
6. The Negro Exodus of 1874 resulted in the settlement of many colored people in Kansas.
7. Biennial Sessions of the Legislature provided for by an amend- ment to the Constitution.
8. John P. St. John was elected Governor in 1878.
CHAPTER XXIV.
EVENTS OF THE DECADE.
238. Cattle Trade .- The great Texas cattle trade became a feature in Kansas with the building of the rail- roads. The "drive" being directed as conveniences for shipping were afforded. In 1866 Mr. Joseph G. McCoy came to Abilene and began his labors to attract the "drive" from Texas to Kansas. He was successful, and from 1867 to 1872 Abilene was a cow-boy town; and the "boy" with his jingling spurs, wide hat and other equipment was much in evidence. Ready to meet and thrive upon the sunburned traveler from Texas, and to share the burden of his money and his sins, eame a motley crowd of both sexes, and great disorder prevailed, not only by night but by day. This, in time, led to the appointment of some person as city marshal, or otherwise styled regulator of the peace, armed with sev- eral revolvers and an unrivaled facility in their use. Thus came, in 1870, to Abilene, James G. Hickox, "Wild Bill," and the head and progenitor of the entire family of wild and other Bills, who for years held a sure place in the dime novel literature of the country. The herds of long-horned cattle held in prairies about, the herd of wild men who haunted the "eow-towns, " the stir of a really great commeree, the cattle which were bought and sold, and shipped, greatly attracted the use of the writer's pen. In 1871 the great cattle trade tarried for a season at Newton. In 1872 the
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EVENTS OF THE DECADE.
trade began to be a great feature at the new city of Wichita, and in 1875 at Dodge City. At all these points the sale and shipment of cattle rarely fell under 200,000 a year.
239. John J. Ingalls' Re-election .- The Legislature of 1879, on the 31st of January, re-elected John J. Ingalls United States Senator. The Legislature also elected George W. Martin State Printer for the fourth term.
240. Prohibition Amendment .- The last public act of Kansas in the decade of 1870-1880 which attracted the attention of the country was the passage, by the Legislature of 1879, of a joint resolution to submit to a vote of the people an amendment to the State Constitution forever pro- hibiting in Kansas the "manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors," except for medical and scientific purposes. The amendment was adopted at the general election in Novem- ber, 1880, the vote standing 92,302 votes for the amend- ment to 84,304 against it.
The Legislature of 1881 passed the Act to enforce the provisions of the amendment, called the Prohibitory Law, the final vote in both Houses standing 132 ayes to 21 noes. After nearly twenty years the law has not been repealed, nor has the Constitutional Amendment, upon which it is based, been re-submitted to the people for their affirmation or rejection.
241. Railroad System .- In the year 1870, the railroad system of Kansas had but fairly commenced. In 1880 the State had been erossed and recrossed, and Kansas roads entered the Indian Territory and Colorado. In 1870 alone the Kansas Pacific sold 700,000 acres of land for $2,000,000; by the close of 1879, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe had disposed of 1,000,000 of its 3,000,000 acres.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
242. Organization of Counties .- In 1872 was organized Rice county, in which the geographical center of the State was afterwards defined at the corner of seetions 5, 6, 7 and 8, township 18 south, range 9 west; and two years later were organized the counties of Ford, Barber, Harper, Ness and Comanche, far to the westward.
243. Production of Fruit and Wheat .- In those days, Kansas began to be known in the East as a fruit State, and received honorable mention from New Hamp- shire, New York and Pennsylvania, and at Richmond, Va., the highest award of the American Pomological Society. As the harvest approached in 1875, it was estimated that 1,000 reapers would be needed in the Arkansas valley. In 1878 Kansas stood at the head of the wheat States, with a erop of 33,315,538 bushels.
244. Kansas Vote in 1872 .- In 1872 it was discoy- ered that Kansas cast a larger vote than any New England State, save Massachusetts.
245. Kansas-Nebraska Act Anniversary .- In 1879 was held at Bismarck Grove, Lawrence, the quarter centen- nial of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The day selected, the 15th of September, 1879, as it turned out, was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the issue of the first news- paper in Kansas. The meeting was marked by the number present, of men and women, who took part in the stirring scenes of 1854 to 1859. Among the honored guests and speakers from abroad was Rev. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston, whose story of "A Man Without a Country," had taught a generation of young Kansans patriotism, and who had himself labored with voice and pen for Kansas in the old Territorial days, and whose book, "Kansas and Nebraska;
-
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EVENTS OF THE DECADE.
the History, Geographical and Physical Characteristics and Political Position of those Territories," published in 1854, has been pronounced the ablest Kansas book of its time.
246. The First Ten Years .- It was in 1874 that Kansas State bonds first sold above par. Kansas, in the first ten years of peace (not counting the Indian invasions) allowed her, laid firm the foundations of her future great- ness; welcomed to her borders a great company from the East, and North, and South, from our own country, and from beyond the seas; turning back no human being for poverty, or race, religion or previous condition of servitude.
247. Kansas at National Celebration of 1876 .- Kansas appeared at the great national celebration of 1876, where some of the oldest States of the Union "made no sign," and made a showing of her products so fine and fair, arrayed with such brightness of fancy and skill of hand, as to attract universal attention. "Kansas," said a leading American journal in 1870, "is the best advertised and most favorably known of the far western States. Her prestige is due to three causes: First, her political troubles and warfare for freedom, which elicited universal sympathy; second, the fertility of her soil, the superior of which does not exist in the West; and, third, to the activity of her citizens."
248. Settlers of Kansas .- Kansas, in these formative years, demonstrated the fitness of the American Republic's form of Government, National, State and local, for the uses of a free, intelligent and self-governing people. Without charter or grant, or voice of herald or direction, or proclamation, the home-seeking thousands came into the country, selected the places for their rooftrees and their
date
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
fires; securing their titles thereto from the Government. Coming from distant and different regions, meeting for the first time as settlers in the Kansas prairies, they yet, as native and adopted American citizens, knew their privileges, and maintained their rights. They organized the institu- tions of Government, the school district, the township, the county, and affiliated with the State. In rude and primi- tive temples they reared the altar of the law, and installed its ministers. They commanded order, and they estab- lished justice. Beginning with the wagons in which they came as their first habitations, they built their cabins, which soon grew into comfortable houses; they became town and city builders; they abolished times and periods as known in the settlement of older countries. In two or three years after the first smoke darkened the prairie hori- zon the "Old Settlers' Reunion" was called, and orations were delivered from the perennial theme of "Ad astra per aspera."
249. Growth of Kansas .- In an address delivered at the Quarter Centennial Celebration of the admission of Kansas, Topeka, January 29, 1886, Governor Martin said: "The growth of Kansas has had no parallel. The great States of New York and Pennsylvania were nearly 150 years in attaining a population Kansas has reached in thirty years. Kentucky was eighty years, Tennessee, seventy-five; Alabama, ninety; Ohio, forty-five, and Massa- chusetts, New Jersey, Georgia and North and South Caro- lina each over 100 years, in reaching the present popula- tion of Kansas. Even the marvelous growth of the great States of the West has been surpassed by that of Kansas. Illinois was organized as a Territory in 1810, and thirty
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EVENTS OF THE DECADE.
years later had only 691,392 inhabitants, or not much more than one-half the present pepulation of this State. Indiana was organized in 1800, and sixty years later had a popula- tion of only 1,350,428. Iowa was organized as a Territory in 1838, and had, at that date, a population of nearly 40,000. In 1870 it had only 1,194,020 inhabitants. Mis- souri was organized in 1812, with a population of over 40,000, and fifty years later had only 1,182,012. Michigan and Wisconsin, after fifty years of growth, did not have as many people as Kansas has to-day; and Texas, admitted into the Union in 1845, with a population of 150,000, had, thirty-five years later, only 815,579 inhabitants."
250. Census of 1880 .- The United States census of June, 1880, gave Kansas a population of 996,616. The State census of March, 1885, reported the increased figures 1,268,562.
251. Election of 1880 .- The State officers elected in 1880 were John P. St. John, Governor; D. W. Finney, Lieutenant-Governor; James Smith, Secretary of State; P. I. Bonebrake, Auditor; W. A. Johnston, Attorney- General; H. C. Speer, Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion; D. M. Valentine, Associate Justice; John A. Ander- son, Dudley C. Haskell and Thomas Ryan were re-elected to Congress.
252. Death of Alfred Gray .- In the death of Alfred Gray, who passed away on the 23d of January, 1880, Kansas lost a most valuable citizen, who greatly added to her honest fame. Born at Evans, Erie county, N. Y., December 5, 1830, he worked as a boy on a farm, and later embarked as a sailor on Lake Erie. After rising to the rank of first mate he came ashore, turned his mind to study
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
and books, and finally became a practicing lawyer in Buffalo, N. Y. He abandoned excellent professional prospects to become, in 1855, a farmer in Wyandotte county, Kansas Territory. He took part in politics and war, and was chief clerk of the last Territorial Legislature, and rose to the
rank of Division Quarter-Master in the Union army. It was in 1866 that Alfred Gray began his career of usefulness to the State. In that year he was elected a director of the State Agricultural Society. From this society grew the State Board of Agriculture, with Mr. Gray as its secre- tary, and the system of biennial reports which he pre- pared for years, and which have always been regarded as authority on Kansas agriculture, industries and resources, throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Mr. Gray's services to Kansas in connection with the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 were beyond price. He died the victim . of overwork. His memory is preserved by a public monu- ment, and in the name of Gray county.
Through the years 1880 to 1885, the coming settler was the main feature of the Kansas landscape. In 1881 it was reported that 10,762,353 acres of land had already been homesteaded in Kansas. There was in these years a reac- tion against the indiscriminate and wholesale granting of public lands to corporations; a disposition on the part of the State to recover its own, and to overhaul the titles to lands claimed and occupied by the great companies.
253. Osage Lands .- In March, 1880, the passage of Congressman Ryan's Indian Trust Land Bill opened the whole Kaw reserve to settlers. Bills for the relief of settlers on the "Osage Ceded," and other lands, became more frequent than measures for increasing the landed area of corporate owners.
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EVENTS OF THE DECADE.
It was on May 27, 1869, that the Osage Indians made a treaty, selling their lands to the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company, to the amount of 8,000,000 acres. The settlers, many of whom had located on these lands prior to this sale, held great meetings at Osage Mission, Parsons, and other points, and commeneed agita- tion. On the 19th of January, 1874, the Attorney-General of the United States issued an order to the United States Distriet Attorney of Kansas to bring suit to test the validity of patents issued to railroad companies for any part of the Osage ceded lands. The case was argued in the United States Circuit Court at Leavenworth, in June, 1874, and in August decided for the settlers by Judges Miller and Dillon. In April, 1876, the United States Supreme Court decided the ease for the settlers. "After seven years or more of waiting and anxiety, the settlers indulged in great rejoieing.
SUMMARY.
1. The cattle trade becomes a factor of Kansas commerce.
2. John J. Ingalls re-elected United States Senator in 1879.
3. Prohibition amendment adopted in 1880.
4. The railroad system is greatly extended.
5. The counties of Rice, Barber, Ford, Ness and Comanche were organized in 1872.
6. The American Pomological Society awards the highest medal to Kansas fruit.
7. Edward Everett Hale attends the celebration, at Lawrence, of 25th anniversary of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
8. The first ten years of Kansas history a prophecy of future greatness.
9. John P. St. John re-elected Governor in 1880.
10. The Osage ceded lands opened for settlement in March, 1880.
CHAPTER XXV.
AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
254. Death of Famous Men .- On the 27th of July, 1881, General James G. Blunt died in Washington City. He was the only Kansas officer who attained the rank of Major-General in the war for the Union. He was born in Maine, and was in his early life a sailor. Prior to the com- ing of the great war he was a country doctor in Kansas. He was a bold and hardy soldier, and distinguished himself at the battle of Prairie Grove, where he reinforced General Herron at the critical time, and fought an overwhelming force till darkness shut down on a field on which lay 4,000 dead, and wounded men. In the campaign against General Sterling Price, in October, 1864, he fought, with a little force of cavalry, the Eleventh and Fifteenth Kansas, and the First Colorado, an advancing army of 28,000 men, and held on for three days till reinforcements came, and the border was saved.
General Robert B. Mitchell died in Washington City on the 26th of January, 1882. He commanded the Second Kansas at Wilson's creek, and was wounded there. Within a month, Martin F. Conway, First Representative in Con- gress of the State of Kansas, died, also in Washington. General George W. Deitzler, of the First Kansas, at Wilson's creek, died at Tueson, Ariz., in January, 1884. Colonel Charles R. Jennison died in Leavenworth, June, 1884.
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AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
Thus passed away, within a brief time, five Kansans of the brave days, and but one at home.
255. Quarter Centennial .- Kansas, a quarter of a een- tury after, was not forgetful, but remindful. The Quarter Centennial of the admission was observed at Topeka, Janu- ary 29, 1886, by an "all day" meeting of three sessions, presided over respectively by Governor John A. Martin, Charles Robinson, First Governor of Kansas, and Colonel D. R. Anthony, President of the State Historical Society.
256. Reunion at Kansas City .- There was a reunion at Kansas City, Kan., July 29, 1882, of the surviving members of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention. At this first meeting of the constitution builders since their adjournment in 1859, it was discovered that but twenty- nine were living, but nineteen still residents of Kansas, and but ten were present. The proceedings were of the highest interest, and a permanent asso- ciation was formed.
257. Election of 1882 .- In Novem- ber, 1882, occurred the election of George W. Glick as Governor, D. W. Finney, Lieutenant - Governor; James Smith, Secretary of State; W. A. Johnston, Attorney-General; David J. Brewer, Associate Justice; H. C. Speer, Superin- tendent of Public Instruction; Samuel Governor George W. Glick. T. Howe was elected as Treasurer, and E. P. McCabe, Auditor. The entire congressional delegation was re- elected, and E. N. Morrill, B. W. Perkins, Lewis Hanbaek and S. R. Peters were elected members at large.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
The Legislature of 1883 re-elected Preston B. Plumb United States Senator, and elected T. Dwight Thacher for a second term as State Printer.
258. Kansas Aids the Suffering .- Kansas having, in her earlier and dryer days, freely received, has in her more prosperous years freely given. A destructive flood prevailing in the Ohio valley in the spring of 1884, a train of thirty-one cars, loaded with corn by Sedgwick county farmers, was dispatched from Wichita. The cars were decked with flags and banners gay, and contained T. Dwight Thacher. 12,400 bushels, which brought $8,500 at Cincinnati. The Sedgwick county train was followed by the Butler county train, thirty cars of 400 bushels each, which sold for $8,000. A G. A. R. Post at Fort Scott shipped a load of corn to Richmond, Va., in aid of a Con- federate Home. This was well done, but Kansas did not miss a little eorn more or less. The corn crop of 1885, which was not a remarkable corn year, was estimated to be worth more money than the entire gold and silver product of Colorado, California and Nevada.
259. Kansas Day .- It became evident with the growth of the State that the feeling of State pride pervaded its older and younger population. The observance of the 29th of January as "Kansas Day" became, in the early 80's, a custom in the schools of the State. In 1882 the observ- ances in the public schools of Wichita and Junction City were matters of State remark, and since that time the "Kansas Day" celebration has become well nigh universal.
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AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
On "Kansas Day" elaborate programmes are prepared, essays are read on various periods in the history of Kansas; Kansas songs are sung, Kansas poems recited, the favorites being the "songs of freedom," with which, in the early and doubtful days, Whittier, Lowell, Bryant and others were inspired, and the verses, ranging from "grave to gay," descriptive of the Kansas earth and sky and life, which have been evoked from Kansas writers. On these festive occasions the walls are decorated with the national colors; the motto of the State in evergreen letters, and everywhere the sunflower.
260. Kansas Sunflower .- Without any statutory pro- vision or formal adoption as the "State flower," there came about through the "vox populi" the selection of the sunflower as the emblem, and the "Sunflower State" as the familiar and household name of Kansas. The sunflower is a pioneer in Kansas, coming with the first breaking of the soil by the passing wheel or other disturbing agency. The "flower" sprang up on either side of the Santa Fe trail for 800 miles. The sun- flower comes wherever in Kansas man comes to sow or reap, and marks the . time and place, and if the claim is aban- doned, the sunflower grows within the roofless walls of sod. The sunflower is Governor John A. Martin. the badge worn by Kansans on great occasions at home and abroad.
261. Election of 1884 .- In 1884 John A. Martin was chosen Governor; A. P. Riddle, Lieutenant-Governor; E. B. Allen, Secretary of State; E. P. McCabe, Auditor;
veg .!
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
Samuel T. Howe, Treasurer; S. B. Bradford, Attorney- General; J. H. Lawhead, Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion; A. H. Horton, Chief Justice; W. A. Johnston, Associate Justice. At this election J. A. Anderson, E. H. Funston, Thomas Ryan, E. N. Morrill, B. W. Perkins, Lewis Hanback, and Samuel R. Peters were elected to Congress.
262. State Institutions .- Between the years 1880 and 1890 many additions were made to the number of State institutions. In 1881 the State Asylum for Imbeciles was established at Lawrence, and in 1886 was removed to Winfield.
The twenty-first session of the Kansas Legislature, which assembled in January, 1885, was famous for the number of aets and measures adopted. This Legislature re-elected John J. Ingalls United States Senator, and re-elected T. Dwight Thacher, State Printer. The Soldiers' Orphans' Home was located at Atchison in 1885 and opened in 1887. The State Reform School for Girls, at Beloit, began its work in 1889. In the same year the State Soldiers' Home was established near Dodge City, the United States granting the ground and buildings at old Fort Dodge for the purpose. The State Reformatory was located at IIutehinson, in 1886, though not ready for the reception of inmates until 1895. On the 15th of September, 1884, the Haskell Institute was opened by the United States Government at Lawrence, with twenty-three students, and has sinee taken a first rank among the schools maintained by the Government for the education of the Indians. It received its name in honor of Dudley Chase Haskell, who died December 16, 1883, a representa- tive of Kansas in the Congress of the United States. The
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AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
western branch of the United States Soldiers' Home was located three miles below Leavenworth, in 1884. It has grown in buildings, appointments, and number of inmates to be one of the most important military asylums in the country. Its management and the measure of its success are matters of deep interest to the people of Kansas.
263. Kansas at New Orleans .- Kansas, at the New Orleans Exposition, took first prizes on wheat, corn, flour, sorghum, sugar, apples, and cattle; sixty-five first and second prizes, leading every State in the Union.
264. Soldier Census .- The Legislature of 1885 made provision for a eensus of the soldier population of the State. It was discovered that not far from 100,000 Kansans had been enrolled in the army of the Nation. Soldiers' reunions became the most popular festivals.
265. National Cemetery .- The National Cemetery at Fort Leavenworth was dedicated May 30, 1886, with mili- tary pomp and splendor.
266. Financial Speculation. - The decade, 1880 to 1890, was a fairly prosperous period for Kansas, but not, perhaps, so steady and unbroken in its advance as 1870-1880. There was in the first five years a general prosperity which led up to a "boom" in the larger towns and cities, and smaller towns as well, for which, when it was over, there seemed to be no reasonable explanation. Extensive additions, spreading over a great area, extending in some instances miles from the business centres of the towns and cities, were laid out; real estate was held and sold at stupendous prices. Bonds were profusely issued for all sorts of municipal improve- ments. Waterworks were voted where the natural supply
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
of water was hardly appreciable, and hydrants arose amid the prairie grass at immense distances from human habita- tions. In eities of the minor class, massive and imposing business blocks were erected worthy of the solid and long established commercial eentres of the country. In the course of twelve months, extending into 1886, ninety-four new towns were chartered. In ten months of the year 1886 453 railroad charters were filed in the office of the Secretary of State, and by the end of the year 1,520 additional miles of railroad track had been laid and Kansas led the States. Railroad bonds were voted almost every day in towns, eities and counties.
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