USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 21
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On his return to Kansas, in 1885, he made it known that he had no further desire for public office, preferring private life. But he was elected State Senator in 1889 by Shawnee County. He was active politically till the day of his death. In 1888 he was head of the Kansas Delegation at the National Republican Convention.
Governor Osborn's wife, always fragile in health, died in 1892. In 1898 he became engaged to Mrs. Marguerite Fowler Richmond, of Mead- ville, Pennsylvania. She was a beautiful woman, and of a noted family. But before the wedding took place Governor Oshorn died. His death occurred February 4, 1889, at Meadville, a few days before the time fixed for the wedding. It was caused by a hemorrhage of the stomach. Gov- ernor Osborn's body was brought to Kansas, and placed beside that of his wife in a Topeka cemetery.
He was one of the most brilliant governors of Kansas, and his long career as an honored statesmen is a source of State pride.
CHAPTER LII
GEORGE T. ANTHONY
BY MRS. EDITII CONNELLEY ROSS
George T. Anthony was born on a farm near the town of Mayfield, Fulton County, New York, June 9, 1824. He came of Quaker stoek, both his parents being of the Society of Friends. From them he inherited his love of liberty, his unerring sense of justice, his hatred of slavery and all its attendant evils.
When he was but five years of age his father died. He was the youngest of a family of five children, and the mother had a hard time to keep her little ones from want. So he early came in eontaet with the hardships and serions phases of life.
His youth was spent on a farm. At eighteen he apprenticed himself to a tinner, at Union Springs, Cayuga County. IIe followed this trade as a journeyman for five years. The necessity of earning his living made his attendance at any regular terms of sehool an impossibility. His edneation was acquired during short intervals snatched from his work, when he studied and read to the best of his ability. But though his education laeked the polish and varied accomplishments of a college training, he gathered a broad fund of knowledge, and his intimate acquaintance with the realities of life, with people and their varied problems, deepened his sympathies and give him an insight into human nature that many a graduate laeks.
When nineteen years old he settled in Medina, New York, where he opened a small hardware store. Ile continued this enterprise for nine years, working fourteen to sixteen hours a day. It was at this time that he met his wife, Miss Rose A. Lyons, of Syracuse, to whom he was married, December 14, 1852. Later he entered the commission business, and in due time was made Loan Commissioner for Orleans County. This position he held for three years.
When President Lineoln issued his call for additional troops, in 1862. George T. Anthony was chosen one of a committee of seven to organize troops in the twenty-eighth Distriet of New York. He threw himself into the work with great fervor, and in four days organized the Seven- teenth New York Independent Battery of Light Artillery. He was commissioned ('aptain of this Battery when it was mustered in, August 26, 1862. Ile saw continuous active service in the war until June 12. 1865. when the officers and men of the Battery were mustered out. The
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Battery was noted for its fine appearance and training, and upon its discharge George T. Anthony was brevetted Major of Volunteers for gallant and meritorions service.
Mr. Anthony and his wife eame to Kansas in 1865, and located in Leavenworth. There he edited the Leavenworth Daily Bulletin and the Leavenworth Daily Conservaticc. He subsequently became proprietor and editor of the Kansas Farmer. In this enterprise his broad knowledge of farming stood him in good stead. He held before the farmers a
Gov. GEORGE T. ANTHONY [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society |
higher standard of home life and recommended a rotation of crops, sys- tem in farming, care of machinery and stock, and many other innova- tions, far in advance of the times.
In December. 1873, he was appointed Assistant Assessor of United States Internal Revenue. and on July 11, 1868, was made Collector of Internal Revenue.
At the expiration of his term Anthony was appointed President of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, which position he held three years. He was then appointed one of the Board of Managers for the
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Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, which place he filled with great ability for two years.
In 1876 Anthony was nominated as the Republican candidate for Governor of Kansas, and elected. In his message to the Legislature of 1877 he recommended a reformatory for youths, apart from the peni- tentiary. Several important aets relating to state institutions were passed at this session of the Legislature.
During the year 1877 the temperance movement advanced rapidly in Kansas. Thousands of persons signed the pledge, and a State Tem- peranee Society was organized. Also the "Woman's Christian Temper- anee Union." A temperanee wave, forerunner of prohibition, was sweep- ing the State.
Many interesting events of minor historical value filled Governor Anthony's administration. It was during his first year as Governor that the first telephone in the State of Kansas was installed, at Manhattan. A strike of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad employees became so serions as to demand the presence of troops to subdue it. Governor Anthony sent them immediately to the scene of action and stopped the rioting.
In September, 1878, the Indians on the Western frontier again began hostilities. When they were in the vicinity of Fort Dodge, Governor Anthony appealed to the general government for aid. As this was refused the Governor sent Adjutant General Noble, fully equipped, to protect the threatened districts. After committing a series of ontrages the savages were finally subdued. Many were captured, tried in the criminal courts of the State, and punished. This was the last Indian raid in Kansas.
Because of political dissensions, Governor Anthony's candidacy for Governor in 1879 was defeated.
In 1881 he was appointed General Superintendent of the Mexican Central Railroad, which position he held two years. He was elected to the Kansas Legislature in 1885 from Leavenworth County. It was due to his efforts during this session that the National Soldiers Home was located in Kansas. In 1889 the Executive Council of Kansas elected Governor Anthony a member of the Board of Railroad Commissioners. Three years later he was re-elected. He was appointed Superintendent of Insurance by Governor Morrill in 1895, which position he was holding at the time of his death. This ocenrred on Angust 5, 1896. He was buried in a Topeka cemetery. ITis funeral was very simple. He was sur- vived by his wife and one son.
Governor Anthony was aggressively honest, always eager for the advancement of his beloved Kansas, a loyal, great-hearted eitizen. Ilis oratory will be remembered for its beanty of logie and reason.
CHAPTER LIII JOHN PIERCE ST. JOHN
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
John Pierce St. John, the eighth governor of Kansas, was born at Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana, on the twenty-fifth of Febru- ary, 1833. His parents came originally from New York State.
The first fourteen years of St. John's life were spent on his father's farm. The boy obtained only such education as the crude public schools of that period and locality furnished.
In 1848 he removed with his parents to Olney, Illinois. Here both his parents died soon after settling in their new home. In 1852 he crossed the plains to California. There he had a varied career-he mined, chopped wood, clerked-anything to pay his expenses. He also fought in the Indian Wars of 1853-54, in Northern California and Southern Oregon. Here he learned the endurance of a soldier, being twice wounded and often exposed to the greatest danger. But his early ambition to be lawyer never faltered during his life of adventure, and at night, after a day's hard work, he would study the few law books he had purchased, by the flickering light of the fire.
During this period of adventure, he visited Mexico, South Amer- ica, the Sandwich Islands, and many other places of interest.
In 1859 he returned to Illinois, poor in purse, but rich in experi- ence and knowledge of human nature. He completed his law studies in the offices of Starkweather and McLain, at Charleston, Coles County. In this city he married his wife, Susan J. Parker, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1860. Two children were born to them, John P. St. John, Jr., and Lulu.
During the Civil War, St. John served as Captain of Company C, 68th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, enlisting in April, 1862. Later he organized the 143d Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, of which he was Lieutenant-Colonel. Ile rendered gallant serviee during the war. In 1865 he moved to Independence, Missouri, where he practiced law for four years. He then located permanently in Olathe, Kansas.
St. John was an ardent Republican, standing firmly for whatso- ever he believed to be right.
In 1872 he represented his district in the State Senate. In 1876 he declined the nomination for Governor of Kansas tendered to him by the Prohibition party. However, he was elected to that office two Vol. II-13
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years later by the Republicans, and held the Governorship for two terms. He was defeated for a third term in 1882, by George W. Glick.
The Legislature of 1879 provided for the building of the west wing of the State House, and for the erection of a State Reform Sehool, at Topeka. Also, as Governor St. John was a firm temperance man, and as the temperance movement was steadily gaining in power, the Legis- lature voted by a joint resolution to submit to a vote of the people an
Gov. JOHN P. ST. JOHN
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
amendment to the Constitution of Kansas, prohibiting within the state the "manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors," except for medi- cal and scientific purposes. This amendment was adopted at the gen- eral election in 1880.
In 1881 the Legislature passed the Prohibitory Law, an aet to enforce the constitutional amendment, and since then Kansas has stood staunchly for prohibition, and profited greatly thereby.
Beginning in 1874, many colored people emigrated to Kansas from the South. This emigration culminated in 1879 in a grand rush for Kansas by large numbers of ex-slaves. This influx was known as the
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"Exodus" and so important was it that the "Exoduster" became well known to Kansas politics and history. Poor, homeless, trustful, the Exoduster displayed the traits of his race in unfailing cheerfulness and childlike trust in Providence. A Freedman's State Central Asso- ciation was formed, with Governor St. John at the head, and much was done for the relief of the negroes. Large sums of money were donated for that purpose. Many of the Exodusters grouped together and founded the town of Nicodemus, in Graham County. Others settled on small patches in the different Kansas towns and gradually acquired homes.
In 1869, by a treaty, the Osage Indians had sold their lands, amounting to 8,000,000 acres to the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Gal- veston Railroad Company. The settlers on the land feared they would lose their homes, so in 1874, suit was brought to test the validity of the patents issued to the Railroad companies for the Osage lands. After seven years of waiting, the case was decided in favor of the settlers.
During Governor St. John's administration, President Hayes and General Grant visited Kansas. They were much surprised and grati- fied at her excellent condition, and paid many compliments to her splen- did schools and institutions, her patriotism and advancement.
Governor St. John's administration was distinguished for straight- forward honesty. The Governor's enthusiasm for rigid standards of honor was so great as to almost amount to fanaticism. The adminis- tration was not marred by a single questionable act.
In 1884, when the Republican National Convention at Chicago refused to take any position against the saloon, he left the Republican party and joined the Prohibitionists. In July, 1885, he was nominated by that party for President and received over 150,000 votes. This defeated Blaine.
Later, he joined the People's Party in Kansas. He was always foremost in any party that seemed to him to offer most advantages for mankind.
Governor St. John died at Olathe at the age of eighty-three years, August 31, 1916.
The enactment of the statutes giving Kansas the Prohibitory Law came in the administration of Governor St. John, as already stated. This was the principal achievement of Governor St. John. It was an important event in the history of Kansas, and is treated in the following chapter.
CHAPTER LIV PROHIBITION IN KANSAS
BY CLARA FRANCIS, LIBRARIAN, KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FIRST LIQUOR LEGISLATION
Prohibition in Kansas was no sudden uprising of a people against the liquor traffie; no movement of a few fanatics, long haired men and short haired women; nor should it be attributed to a puritanieal desire to legislate morals into a state. Rather it was a erystallization of the slowly developed sentiment of a majority of the people in Kansas into an expression on the dramshop laws under which the liquor traffic was operated.
That Kansas should have been the first state to incorporate a pro- hibitory amendment in her constitution is not unique. She was zeal- ously striving for a better liquor law; she had the benefit of the experi- ence of other states. And furthermore she was young; she had no traditions to violate and few precedents to follow. With her the times were plastic. One of her enemies was the liquor traffic, and with a vision far beyond her years she started out to destroy it.
Between the passage of the prohibitory amendment and the vote upon it, nearly two years elapsed. And they were two years of strife, each faction contending vigorously for its own belief. There was not a household in which prohibition and anti-prohibition were not dis- cussed; there was not a pulpit from which the principles of temper- ance were not heard; there was not a platform whereon the advocates of one side or the other had not expounded its views. The newspa- pers argued the question pro and con, sometimes with extreme bitter- ness, and sometimes with tranquil earnestness and justice, desiring only the "greatest good to the greatest number."
It was the people who were to decide this question, and it was the people who were thinking deeply upon it. The vote was the final word of the people of the whole state, not of any one locality, nor of any one nativity, for it came from a population that had been drawn from nearly every quarter of the United States. And to attribute the result to any one faction or set of people is to make a great mistake. Public opinion is easily traced and to follow it on the temperance move- ment in Kansas needs no special insight. But to understand its growth one should begin at the very beginning.
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The dram-shop law of 1855, taken bodily from the Missouri Statutes, was a local option law, and a reasonably good one even though one of the execrated "Bogus Laws." Because it was the first liquor law. effective in Kansas, through the action of the Territorial Legislature, and because all further action in restraint of dram-shops was based upon it, it is here given in full :
AN ACT to restrain dram shops and taverns, and to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors
Be it enacted by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Kansas, as follows:
Seetion 1. A special election is hereby ordered to be held on the first Monday of October, in the year of 1855, and on the first Monday of October every two years thereafter, in each municipal township in every county in the territory, and in each incorporated city or town in the territory, to take the vote of the people upon the question whether dram shops and tavern licenses shall be issued in the said township, ineor- porated eity or town, for the next two years thereafter.
See. 2. At said election polls shall be opened at the usual place of voting in each township, incorporated city, or town, which shall be headed as follows, respectively: "In favor of dram shop," "Against dram shop ; " and if the voting shall be by ballot, ballots shall be inscribed as above, respectively.
See. 3. At such election all the qualified voters of the township, or of any incorporated city or town, shall be allowed to vote in such town- ship, or incorporated city or town, and not elsewhere.
See. 4. Upon election being held, the tribunal transacting county business for the several counties in the territory shall examine, ascertain and adjudge in what township, incorporated city or town, a majority of all the qualified voters of said township, incorporated city, or town, have voted affirmatively in favor of dram shops in said township, in- eorporated city, or town, and thereupon, the tribunal transacting county business in the respective counties in the territory may, during the next ensuing two years, grant license to dram shops, tavern keepers and grocers, to such persons and under such restrictions as are hereinafter designated and provided.
Sce. 5. For and during the two years next ensuing the said election, no dram shop or tavern lieense shall be granted to any person within any township, incorporated city, or town, unless a majority of the votes polled at said election shall declare in favor of granting said license.
See. 6. Before a dram shop license, tavern license, or grocer license shall be granted to any person applying for the same, such person shall present to the tribunal transacting county business a petition or recom- mendation signed by a majority of the houscholders of the township; if in the county in which such dram shop, tavern or grocery is to be kept, or if the same is to be kept in an incorporated eity or town, a petition signed by a majority of the householders of the block or square in which said dram shop or tavern or grocery is to be kept, recommending such person as a fit person to keep the same, and requesting that a license be granted to him for such purpose.
See. 7. The eity anthorities of an incorporated town in this ter- ritory, authorized by its charter to grant dram shop or tavern license or groeers' license, shall only grant such license to persons who have previously secured a similar license from the tribunal transacting county business for the county in which said city or town is situated.
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Sec. 8. Upon every license granted to a dram shop keeper and upon any lieense granted to a tavern keeper or grocer, there shall be levied a tax of not less than ten dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, for county purposes, for every period of twelve months, the amount of tax to be determined by the tribunal granting the license.
See. 9. If any person who, without taking out and having a license as grocer, dram shop keeper or tavern keeper, shall, directly or indirectly, sell any spirituous, vinous, or fermented or other intoxicating liquors, shall be fined in any sum not less than one hundred dollars for each offence : and any person convicted of violating this provision shall, for every second or subsequent offenee, be fined in a sum not less than the above named, and shall in addition thereto, be imprisoned in the county jail not less than five nor more than thirty days.
Sec. 10. Any person, having license as aforesaid, who shall sell any intoxicating liquor to any slave without the consent of the master, owner or overseer of sueh slave, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined in a sum not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and imprisonment in the county jail not less than ten nor more than thirty days, and shall. upon conviction, forfeit his license ; and no license as groeer, dram shop keeper or tavern keeper shall again be granted to said person during the two years ensuing the said convietion.
See. 11. Any person who shall keep open any ale, beer or porter house, grocery, dram shop or tippling house, or shall sell or retail any fermented, distilled or other intoxicating liquors, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall on convietion thereof, be adjudged guilty of misdemeanor, and fined in a sum not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and shall be imprisoned in the county jail not less than ten days nor more than thirty days; if such person is licensed as grocer, dram shop keeper, or tavern keeper, he shall, in addition to the above provisions, forfeit said license. and shall not again be allowed to obtain a license under the law for a period of two years next after convietion.
Sec. 12. Before any person shall be lieensed as a dram shop keeper or groeer, or tavern keeper, under the provisions of this aet, he shall execute to the tribunal transaeting eounty business, in favor of the county where he appeals for a lieense, a bond in the sum of two thousand dollars, with at least two securities, to be approved by the court, condi- tioned that he will not keep a disorderly house; that he will not sell, or permit to be sold, any intoxieating liquors to any slave without the consent of the master, owner or overseer of sueh slave; that he will not keep his dram shop, tavern or grocery open on Sundays; nor will he sell, allow to be sold, thereat, on Sunday, directly or indirectly, any in- toxieating liquor : and upon said person being convicted of any of the offenees emimerated therein, suit may be brought against said principal and securities, to reeover the amount of the fine or fines adjudged against him on said conviction, in any court of competent jurisdiction.
This act to take effeet and be in force from and after its passage.
This law was in force for four years, or until 1859, when the gen- eral revision did away with these so-called "Bogus Laws." Some scat- tered communities, however, had not been content with its provisions. Desiring more stringent measures, they had sought to accomplish pro- hibition by organizing towns wherein the sale of liquor was prohibited, and where a clause inserted in the deeds revoked the title should liquor
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ever be sold in any building erected on the property. Emporia was one of these towns, Topeka and Baldwin were others.
In casting about for the first glimmerings of prohibition in Kan- sas there arises for consideration the social movement involved in vari- ous lodges and secret societies. During the period between 1855 and 1859 there were such orders organized through the territory and most of them embodied temperance pledges in their constitutions. These lodges were often the only social outlet of remote groups of people, therefore the membership was large and the interest keen. Essentially, their share in fostering temperance sentiment was no inconsiderable one.
THE TOPEKA MOVEMENT
The Topeka Legislature, authorized by the Topeka constitution, had temperance brought to its notice immediately upon its assembling. This was the Free-State movement which so long stood in opposition to the cause of the general Government, and which represented the real sen- timent of the people of Kansas. The Legislature convened on March 4, 1856, and the next day the House was asked for the use of Constitu- tional Hall, its place of meeting, for a temperance meeting. This request was granted. On the 11th the following memorial on the sub- ject of prohibition was presented to the House by John Brown, Jr., one of its members. This memorial came from fifty-six women of Topeka, and on motion of Mr. Tuton was accepted, and on motion of Mr. William Crosby was referred to the committee on "Vice and Immorality."
To the Honourable the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Kansas:
The undersigned your memoralists, citizens of Kansas, and the wives and daughters of your constituents beg leave respectfully to present to your honourable body that in the opinion of your memoralists the public interests require that suitable laws be immediately passed to prevent the manufacture and importation for sale or use as a beverage within the State of Kansas of any distilled or malt liquors.
It is not necessary for us in view of your own observations and the united testimony of all experience to enter into a minute discussion of the evils resulting to all elasses of society from the use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage. Ever since the first manufacture it has been the aim of legislators to pass restraining laws. to prevent its use each year in the older states of the union new enactments have been found necessary until the Statute books have become literally loaded down with provisions on this subject.
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