USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume I > Part 48
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14. The limits of this association shall be the waters of the Wakarnsa
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and Kansas Rivers, and the Territory between the same, from the mouth of the Wakarusa up to the Shawnee purchase.
15. It shall be the duty of the Marshal, on the complaint of any citizen, by himself or Deputy, to summons and bring before the Chief Justice the parties for trial.
16. The officers of this association shall receive a suitable compensa- tion for their services, which snm shall be decided by the association.
17. A Treasurer shall be appointed by the association, who shall give approved security for the faithful disbursement of all moneys that shall be received into the treasury.
18. The Treasurer shall be authorized to pay all drafts for the expenses of the association when presented to him, signed by the Presi- dent and Secretary.
19. The officers shall be elected by the association, and, by a majority vote of the same, removed.
20. Officers of the association shall be residents of Kansas Territory.
21. The Coon Rirer, Wakarusa, and all other associations are dis- solved from this date.
Dr. John Doy and Mr. William Lyon also made a. minority report in favor of an additional artiele, confining voting to actual settlers. A motion was made and carried, that both reports be received, and the committee discharged. Mr. Wood then remarked that he was in favor of harmony and wanted to be on both sides, and moved the adoption of both reports, which motion was unanimously carried, and the reports adopted.
On motion of Mr. Dunham, the association then assumed the name of "The Mutual Settlers' Association of Kansas Territory." The associa- tion then proceeded to the election of permanent officers, with this result : Chief Justice, John A. Wakefield; Register, J. W. Hayes; Marshal, William H. R. Lykins; Treasurer, William Lyon.
On . motion of Dr. Doy, the money in the treasury of the Actual Settlers' Association was ordered to be paid to S. N. Wood for his services as Register.
On motion of H. Cameron, Esq., the association adjourned sine die.
It will be seen that the Missourians and Free-State men were able to agree as to what should be done by the pioneers in marking out their course for the settlement of Kansas Territory. If they could have been left free from outside interference, much trouble would have been avoided.
At a meeting held at Westport, Missouri, on the 19th of August, 1854, Mr. Woodworth and Mr. Dunham were speakers. The object of the meeting was "to protect this frontier from threatened invasion of the pioneers that had arrived and were still arriving through the agency of this Emigrant Aid Association, organized by the Abolition fanaties." Mr. Wood, the Recorder of the Actual Settlers' Association, in a letter to Eastern newspapers a few days after the Westport meeting, had this to say :
Notwithstanding the threats and brow-beatings of the Missourians, the greatest proportion of the settlers here are Northern people. Nine- tenths of the balance are honest Southerners, who are coming, as they say, to get rid of slavery. I was mistaken in the character of the Missourians. A few fanatics who were resolved to extend slavery at all hazards, seemed for a time to give tone to the whole people; but a better
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acquaintance convinces me that many of the people condemned the violent resolutions passed at Westport and other places.
Mr. Wood had written a previous letter dated June 28th, 1854, in which he stated that "I have just made a trip over into the territory, and found on the Indian reserve, scores of families from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and other northern states, and still they come. Next week we have a general meeting up the Kansas River, where hundreds of free men will be rallied; a fiat will then go forth that will sound the death- knell of slavery in Kansas, at least."
The site of the city of Lawrence was selected in July, 1854, by Charles H. Branscomb and Dr. Charles Robinson, of Massachusetts. They visited the Territory as agents of the New England Emigrant Aid Company.
FIRST HOUSE IN LAWRENCE
[Copy by Willard of Photograph in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
After making a survey of the country, they chose the site of Lawrence as the point where the Aid Company would make its first settlement.
The first colony sent out by the Emigrant Aid Company, left Boston, July 17. 1854, and arrived at Kansas City, July 28th. It consisted of twenty-nine men. They reached the site selected for their settlement on the first day of August. On that day, the hill on which the University now stands, was named Mount Oread, for Oread Seminary, of Worcester, Massachusetts, founded by Eli Thayer. Fifteen of this party remained on the selected site, while the others secured claims some distance away. Charles H. Branseomb was the leader of the first party.
The second party sent out by the Emigrant Aid Company left Worcester August 29, 1854, and consisted of sixty-seven persons. In this party there were ten women and a dozen children. This party was led by Dr. Charles Robinson and Samuel C. Pomeroy. There were four musicians : Joseph and F. Savage, and N. and A. Hazen. They brought
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their musical instruments with them. That of Mr. Joseph Savage had a part in the saeking of Lawrenee, and is now in the Museum of the Kansas State Historieal Society.
The location of the first settlement had been known as Wakarusa. The first party had settled on the site of Lawrenee near the river, on both sides of what was later Massachusetts Street. On the 9th of Sep- tember, some of the second party arrived at Wakarusa. The women and children were with this party. The remainder of the company arrived on the 11th. The members of the first party having settled on the town- site, gaining thereby a prior right, it was necessary for the second party to come to some agreement with these first settlers as to the disposition to be made of the lots of the future town.
The third party of Aid Company emigrants came under the leader- ship of Mr. Branseomb, reaching Lawrenee, October 8th and 9th. Most of these beeame disgusted with the outlook and immediately returned. They exhausted their vocabulary denouneing Mr. Thayer and his agents. elaiming that they had been deceived. They were probably poor material for pioneers. Two other companies were sent out by the Emigrant Aid Company during the year.
Atchison was the stronghold and headquarters of the men determined to make Kansas a slave state. From that town many of the operations of the pro-slavery forces were directed. The town was laid out by resi- dents of Platte County, Missouri, and named for Senator David R. Atehi- son, who spent a considerable part of his time there, but never made it his legal residenee.
The first settlers began to arrive, in what is Atehison County, in June, 1854. They staked out elaims near where Oak Mills was afterwards loeated. They did not ereet dwellings at that time, the first houses built on elaims being put up in July, 1854. Senator Atchison had deeided that a eity should be built in the Territory at the Big Bend of the Mis- souri, and on the 20th of July, Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, Ira Norris, Leonidas Oldham, James B. Martin and Neal Owens left Platte City, Missouri, to make the definite location. They selected the site. A eom- pany was formed and the town laid out. In a speech on the morning the sale of lots began, Senator Atehison made a review of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He also touched upon the future of Kansas Terri- tory, saying that if he had his way, he would hang every abolitionist who dared show his face there. HIe qualified his words to prove to his hearers that he had no prejudice against the Northern settlers, saying that he knew there were sensible, honest, right-feeling men among them who would be as far from stealing a negro as a Southern man. Senator Atchi- son was known all over the South, and his connection with the town of Atchison caused the rabid slavery men, coming into the territory. to select that eity for their residenee. The settlement of the country about Atchison was made in the same manner and about the same time as other settlements of that day. Among them were many Free-State men. Many Missourians settled in the country who aeted with the Pro-Slavery men through the fear that their lives and property would be in danger if they
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did otherwise. They were, in faet, opposed to slavery, and were pleased when Kansas was made a free state.
Leavenworth was the first town in Kansas. It also bore an important part in the history of the Territory. It was located on land adjoining the Fort Leavenworth reserve on the south. The location was one of the best in the Territory. It enjoyed communication by steam-boats on the Missouri River, and there was much business at the Fort, which gave it a great advantage. It was laid out by an association formed at Weston,
JOSIAH MILLER, FOUNDER OF THE Kansas Free State, LAWRENCE, 1855 [Copy by King, Topeka, of Daguerreotype owned by William Miller, Lawrence, Kansas]
Missouri, June 13, 1854. The first sale of lots was held October 9th and 10th. By the first of August there were a good many settlers on the town-site. The first settlers were Missourians, but at the time of the first sale of lots, settlers were arriving from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. The city of Leavenworth became a rival to Atchison as a hot-bed of pro-slavery sentiment and operations. Some of the first disturbanees in the Territory were at Leavenworth. There were among the Missouri settlers, many Free-State men, as in the settlements baek of Atchison.
Topeka was founded December 5, 1854, by Cyrus K. Holliday, of Pennsylvania. It was designed by Mr. Holliday, to be the capital of
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Kansas. The Free-State men, when they set up an opposition govern- ment, made it their capital of Kansas Territory. Later it was made the capital of the State.
The settlers coming from free states did not, as a general thing, stop on the border. They moved up the Kansas River and other streams, forty to fifty miles, to stake out their claims. They hoped to avoid trouble by doing so. It was their intention to make their settlements where they would be unmolested by the Pro-Slavery settlers from Mis- souri, as far as possible.
JOHN SPEER, LAWRENCE PIONEER EDITOR AND AUTHOR ĮCopy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
The eastern border of Kansas, generally, was settled in about the same manner and near the same time that these settlements already noted were formed. The rules formed by the settlers in these first communi- ties were to be found in substance in all the early settlements in the Territory. These squatter associations were compelled to make rules for the regulation of the conduet of the various communities, and it will be seen that there was little friction between the early settlers until after the enactment of laws by a regularly constituted legislature.
The first newspaper to be published in the Territory was the Kansas
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Weekly Herald, the first number of which appeared September 15, 1854. Wilder says of this paper: "It was printed under an elm tree on the Levee, near the corner of Cherokee Street. It was a pro-slavery paper. H. Rives Pollard of Virginia was at one time its editor."
The first Free-State paper in the Territory was the Kansas Free State. The first issue was dated January 3, 1855. It was owned and edited by Josiah Miller and R. G. Elliott. Mr. Miller was a native of South Carolina, but was a Free-State man. The first number of the paper had this to say : "We are uncompromisingly opposed to the intro- duction of slavery into Kansas, as tending to impoverish the soil, to stifle all energy and enterprise, to paralyze the hand of industry and to weaken intellectual effort." Having been reared in a slave state, he was in position to state the objections to slavery in this suecint form. He also said : "There are thousands of genuine free-soilers at the South, men like ourselves, who hold opinions in common with the fathers of the Republie regarding slavery a great evil, and are in no wise desirous of having it extended beyond its original limits. But we say as regards this question, that we establish our press here, knowing no North, no South, no East, no West, but the very best interests of the American people. We come not then as the peculiar advocate of any seetion. We disavow all connection with emigrant aid societies, have nothing to do with them, and have no confidence in them. We stand here upon our own individual responsibility, claiming nothing more than to be considered two of the humble citizens of Kansas Territory."
The Kansas Tribune was established at Lawrence by John Speer, who arrived September 21, 1854. The first issue of the paper was January 5, 1855. Mr. Speer came to Kansas from Medina, Ohio. He did not have a printing office at the time of the issue of his first number. The Kansas City Enterprise and the Leavenworth Herald both refused to print his paper because of its Free-State sentiments. Mr. Speer became one of the foremost editors of Kansas, and one of the prominent men of the State. He lived to a ripe old age and died only a few years ago in Denver.
The Herald of Freedom, the organ of the Emigrant Aid Company, issued a paper dated at Wakarusa, Kansas Territory, October 22, 1854. but this issne was printed in Pennsylvania. The second issue was dated Lawrence, Jannary 6, 1855. A dispute arose later between The Free State and The Herald of Freedom as to which was in fact published first in Kansas.
Mr. Thayer wrote Brown the following letter for the government of his actions and as a guide for his poliey in Kansas :
WORCESTER, SEPT. 22, 1854.
G. W. Brown, Esq.
Dear Sir-s our company have selected you as a suitable person to conduct a paper in Kansas Territory which shall represent our interests there, I take the liberty of making a few suggestions in regard to the great work upon which you are now engaged.
Your paper will not only be the "Herald of Freedom," but the
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herald of news from Kansas to its numerous readers. We shall look to it for tidings from our pioneers in the Territory, individually and collectively. We expect it to be the chronicle of important incidents, whether personal or public, of truthful and reliable information in regard to the resources of the Territory and the moral, intellectual and physical progress of the people there.
Our agents there are reliable men, who will present to you their credentials, and will often furnish communications for the columns of your paper. They are all able writers, and devoted heart and soul to the interests of Kansas. They will explore the country minutely and give to you for publication the results of their labors. You may at all times rely upon their truth and fidelity.
Besides these aids in your enterprise, you will often be furnished with articles from gentlemen of our emigrant parties, many of whom are liberally educated and professional men. We hope, as far as your limits will allow, you will give them place in your columns, and thus give each subseriber the pleasure of occasionally reading an article over the signa- ture of a well-known friend of Kansas.
We pledge to you our hearty good will and cheerful co-operation in the noble work to which you have devoted yourself. Truly Yours,
ELI THAYER, President of the Emigrant Aid Company.
CHAPTER XIX
GOVERNOR REEDER
THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS WORK MAKE IT NECESSARY TO CONSIDER MOVEMENTS RATHER THAN INCIDENTS IN KANSAS HISTORY. ONLY SUCH ANNALS WILL BE RECORDED AS ARE BELIEVED INDISPENSABLE TO THE PROPER ELABORATION OF THE GREAT PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE HISTORY OF KANSAS TERRITORY. LOCAL INCIDENTS WHICH OCCURRED DURING THAT PERIOD WILL NOT APPEAR IN THESE PAGES UNLESS THEY COME UNDER THE ABOVE RULE.
The inauguration of local government for Kansas Territory devolved mpon the Administration of President Franklin Pierce. It was neces- sary for him to appoint Territorial officers, whose duty it would be to set up a government in Kansas under the provisions of the Kansas- Nebraska bill. For Territorial Governor, Andrew HI. Reeder, of Easton, Pennsylvania, was appointed, June 29, 1854. On the 7th of July the oath of office was administered to him at Washington, by Peter V. Daniel, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. The salary of Governor Reeder was $2,500 per annum.
Daniel Woodson, of Lynchburg, Virginia, was appointed Territorial Secretary on the 29th of June. His salary was $2,000 per annum.
Israel B. Donalson, of Illinois, was appointed United States Mar- shal for the Territory, with a salary of $300 per annum and fees.
Justiees were appointed as follows: Chief Justice, Madison Brown, of Maryland. Mr. Brown declined to serve, when the President ap- pointed Samnel D. Lecompte of Maryland, on the 3d of October. as Chief Justice of Kansas Territory. Ilis salary was $2,000 per annum. The Associate Justices were Saunders W. Johnston and Rush Elmore. Johnston was from Ohio and Elmore from Alabama. Each drew a salary of $2,000 per annum.
The United States District Attorney for the Territory was Andrew J. Isacks, of Lonisiana.
Governor Reeder was born at Easton, Pennsylvania, July 12, 1807. He received an academie education. He read law in the office of Peter Iksie, of North Hampton, and was admitted to practice at the North Hampton bar in 1828. At the time of his appointment as Governor of Kansas Territory, he was held as one of the ablest lawyers in Pennsyl- vania. In polities he had always been a Democrat, and was an enthn- siastie supporter of the doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty, and the prin-
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ciples of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He had had no experience in poli- ties, and no practical experience in the administration of government. He was a man of correct principles, but deficient in that sturdy eom- bativeness requisite for the position to which he had been appointed. He was described as somewhat corpulent, deliberate of action and speech, medium of stature, iron-gray hair, full blue eyes, gray mustache, and erect of person. He is pictured in some of the histories of Kansas with side-whiskers.
Gov. ANDREW II. REEDER [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
Governor Reeder seemed to be in no hurry to reach his field of labor. delaying his arrival in Kansas until the 7th of October, 1854. upon which day he arrived at Leavenworth on the steamer Polar Star. The people had been expecting the Governor for some time, and were impa tient at his delay. The issues raised in Kansas were entirely different from the issues raised by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, as has already been noted. Governor Reeder came to Kansas prepared to set up a government and direct the administration of it, as provided in the Kansas-Nebraska hill. He was entirely ignorant of the new issues
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precipitated in Kansas during the discussion of that bill and after its passage.
The people about Fort Leavenworth assembled immediately upon receipt of the intelligence that the Governor had arrived, and tendered him a reception. As the speeches delivered upon that occasion may be taken to represent the views of Governor Reeder and the Democratic party outside the Territory, they are here set out, taken from the issue of the Kansas Weekly Herald, October 13, 1854.
On Saturday last Gov. Reeder, with Mr. C. A. Williams, his private secretary, and Andrew J. Isaek, Esq., United States Attorney for Kansas, arrived at Fort Leavenworth by the Polar Star. His landing was greeted by the officers of the fort with the national salute, and he became the guest of the commandant, Capt. F. E. Hunt.
At 3 o'clock in the evening, the citizens of Kansas, from Leavenworth, Salt Creek and the country for miles around, gathered at the fort to pay their respects to Gov. Reeder. The concourse was large and highly respectable, and most enthusiastic in their gratification at his arrival. Our citizens in a body called upon the Governor at the quarters of Capt. Hunt, and a general introduction took place, during which many kindly expressions of welcome were indulged on the part of the people, and reciprocated by the Governor with the republican frankness and honest cordiality so agreeable to Western men. After a general interchange of courtesies, Dr. Charles Leib addressed the Governor as follows :
Gov. REEDER :
In behalf of my fellow-citizens, permit me to welcome you to the West and to the young and beautiful Territory whose Executive you are.
It is but a few months since the passage of the Kansas and Nebraska bill; it is but a few months since the people of the West were told by one of their distinguished Senators, "the Indians have retreated; go over and possess the goodly land," and to-day Kansas is teeming with hardy, industrious, enterprising, strong armed men, with noble hearts and willing hands, who have come here to till the soil and to enjoy the fruits of their industry, to pursue their different callings and to assist in building up a State which will ere long be knocking at the door of Congress for admission into the confederacy, and which I trust will be recognized as the thirty-second in the bright constellation which graces the flag of our Union.
Gov. Reeder, we are rejoiced at your coming, rejoiced that you are among ns, because we believe it will be your pride and pleasure, not only as the Executive, but as a citizen, to assist in giving Kansas a place in the front rank of the Territories.
You will, sir, find men here from every section of this Union, who have come to find homes, to assist in filling up our broad and beautiful prairies and our valleys, rich as that of the Nile. In your own language, they know that this is "the pathway to the Pacific;" they know that the vast frontier, New Mexico and California trade, which now flows into the lap of Missouri, legitimately belongs to Kansas; they know and feel that they have the energy to build up a State which will command the trade, and it will not be long until they will have accomplished their object.
We doubt not that in coming here you have sacrificed much ; that you have left behind those to whom you are bound by the ties of consan- guinity, affection and love; that you have left tried friends, personal
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and political, in whose hearts you have a place; that you have left a community to which you were attached by a residence of long years among them, but when duty called, like Cineinnatus, you obeyed.
As a Pennsylvanian, one who loves the hills and valleys, the rivers and plains of the noble old Keystone State, but who, in heart and interest, is a Western man, 1, in common with my fellow-citizens, am rejoiced at your appointment, because we believe you will administer the affairs of this government upon strictly republican principles, be- eause we know your antecedents; because we know that Pennsylvania, the home of Rittenhouse, of Fulton, of Franklin and of the able and accomplished Buchanan, "who has graeed our annals abroad and done us honor in Kings' courts," and who is a statesman of the school of the fathers, would not send us a son unworthy of herself; because we believe that under your administration Kansas will grow and flourish ; that her resources, agricultural and mineral, will be developed; that her commercial importance will be acknowledged by the whole nation; that her hardy sons will prosper, and will make this the garden spot of the Mississippi Valley.
We, sir, meet here on common ground. The men of Maine and Mississippi, of Massachusetts and Missouri, aye, and those who eross the blue waters of the broad Atlantic, who turn their backs upon the tyrants of the old world and place themselves under the protection of the flag of our Union, may enjoy the blessed privileges of free speech, dare think, do and act for themselves. This is true Republicanism and cannot fail to meet the approval of all who are truly Ameriean at heart. But a few months since the red man alone oceupied this Territory; they roamed undisputed masters of the soil; but to-day in all parts of it, the hum of industry is heard, the progress of the age demanded its settle- ment, and, by the hearths and firesides of our hardy pioneers is to be joy, peace and happiness, and a determination to maintain, at all hazards, the supremacy of the law.
In conclusion, Gov. Reeder, let me again welcome you to Kansas, and express the hope, nay, the sincere wish, that our relation as Governor and governed may be of such a character that when it shall be severed, we ean always revert to it as the happiest period of our lives, though it commenced when trampling down the nettles and thistles of Kansas and preparing it for its high destiny.
To which Gov. Reeder replied :
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