USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 27
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There was a contest for the county seat between towns in several counties. Bitter rivalries and feuds resulted, the worst being the Stephens County, where several people were killed. On an appeal made to the Governor for help, a regiment of militia was sent to this county. In 1888 Greeley County was organized, thus completing the organization of the 105 Kansas counties.
At the expiration of his term as Governor, Colonel Martin returned to Atchison and resumed his work on the Champion. But in less than a year he was stricken by a fatal sickness. He died at Atchison October 2, 1889. He was buried, at his request, in the uniform he had so nobly worn in life.
CHAPTER LVII
LYMAN U. HUMPHREY
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
Lyman Underwood Humphrey, eleventh governor of Kansas, was born July 25, 1844, at New Baltimore, Stark County, Ohio. He received a common school education, but left high school during his first year there to enlist in the army. On October 7, 1861, he enlisted in Company I, 76th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This Company was placed in the Army of the Tennessee.
Mr. Humphrey fought in many campaigns of the Civil War, and was promoted to First Lieutenant. He commanded a company during the Atlanta Campaign, and also on the famous march to the sea. He was wounded during his service. He was mustered out, after serving nearly four years, on the 9th of July, 1865. So, he was a seasoned veteran before his twenty-first birthday.
After leaving the army, Mr. Humphrey attended Mount Union Col- lege for one term, and afterward spent a year in the law department of the Michigan University. After receiving his diploma he went to Shelby County, Missouri, where he taught school, and helped publish the Shelby County Herald.
In 1871 he came, with his mother and brother, to Independence, Kansas, and there established the Independence Tribune. Two years later he took up the practice of law, and acquired a large patronage.
On December 25, 1872, he married Miss Amanda Leonard, of Beards- town, Illinois. Two sons were born to them.
Mr. Humphrey was a staunch Republican, and was elected by that party to the Legislature of 1876. In 1877 he was elected to fill out the unexpired term of Lieutenant-Governor, and at the end of that time was elected for a full term of two years. He presided over the Senate of 1879.
He was elected to the State Senate of 1884, and was chosen President of that body. In this session he introduced the resolution to strike out the word "white" from the constitutional provision relating to the state militia. In 1888, he was elected Governor of Kansas, and began his service in 1889. He was re-elected in 1890.
The manufacture of sugar from sorghum was the industry attracting the greatest notice in Kansas in 1889. Several factories had been erected, experiments were conducted by government chemists, and public
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attention in Kansas centered on sugar. The Legislature of 1889 passed an act inereasing the bounty on Kansas sugar from $15,000 to $40,000. But the result of the experiments were discouraging. as it was found that sugar could not be manufactured at a profit by "Roller" process. The "Diffusion" process promised better results, but in spite of that, the sugar industry in Kansas did not make the advance it had promised.
However, the salt industry flourished. Fine clean salt deposits of great depth encouraged the establishment of large plants at Hutchinson, Lyons, Great Bend, and many other towns.
Gov. LYMAN U. HUMPHREY [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Ilistorical Society ]
The year 1889 was also famous for producing the greatest corn crop in the annals of the State.
As growing trade and agriculture demanded a deep-water harbor for the products of Western and Southern States, Governor Humphrey ealled a convention of delegates from these States to meet in Topeka to diseuss the matter. Six hundred men, among them many of prominence, attended this Deep-Harbor Convention. The meetings were presided over by Senator Plimb. This convention was successful in securing Congressional aid for the work.
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In 1889 Congress opened up Oklahoma to settlers. On a part of the Cherokee reservation-a strip of land sixty miles wide, laying between Kansas and Old Oklahoma-forty thousand people were waiting for the opening. Everything was ready-town sites selected, land offices open, the eapitol of the new land loeated, and named. At noon on April 22, the land was formally opened, and the mass of humanity entered. It has been estimated that Kansas Host over fifty thousand people at this time.
During this administration, the anti-Prohibitionists made mueh trouble in Kansas. They deelared no State had the power to prevent liquors, in their original sealed packages, being brought within its border. Saloons sprang up over the state. Citizens protested, even sending liquor back, and stopping the sale by force. At last Congress was appealed to, and the Wilson Bill, or the "anti-Original Package law," passed. This bill gave a state the right to exercise poliee regula- tions over all packages sent within its borders, whether the packages were in their original form or not.
In 1889 the Farmers Alliance became an active politieal foree. The tendeneies of the Alliance were socialistie. The Alliance charged that the government oppressed the working man, permitted unjust diserim- ination for the benefit of corporations, gave undue protection and priv- ilege to capital, and was responsible for other abuses. They demanded redress for their wrongs-exemption from too much taxation, mortgage and debt, and no unjust discrimination between rich and poor.
At a convention ealled at Topeka, June 12, 1890, the Alliance organ- ized, together with the Industrial Union, the Patrons of IIusbandry, the Knights of Labor, the Farmers Mutual Benefit Association, and the Single Tax Club, into a new party known as the People's or Populist Party. In the election of 1890, four tiekets were in the field, the Republican, headed by Governor Humphrey, the Democratic, by Charles Robinson, the Populist, by John F. Willets, and the Prohibitionists, by" a Mr. Richardson. The Republicans won the Governorship, but the Populists eleeted a majority of the Legislature.
William A. Peffer was elected United States Senator by this Legis- lature. It also passed an aet providing for the promotion of irrigation, and another providing for an eight-hour day for all State employees. The first Monday in September was declared a legal holiday-Labor Day. Provision was also made for submitting amendments to the constitution.
To continue work on the State-House $60,000 was appropriated. Appropriations in the interest of agriculture were made by this Legis- lature.
The population of Kansas had inereased steadily, and grew more prosperous. One band of settlers from Russia sent back to their native land $10,000, and an offer to bring over three hundred emigrants. This is only an instance of the general prosperity that had come to the settlers of Kansas.
On December 20, 1891, Senator Preston B. Plumb, United States Senator from Kansas, died, and Governor Humphrey appointed IIon. Bishop W. Perkins to fill out his unexpired term.
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After retiring from the governership, Mr. Humphrey resumed the practice of law. In 1892 he was defeated for Congress, as the Republican candidate in his District.
Governor Humphrey died at Independence, Kansas, September 12, 1915, at the age of seventy-one years.
CHAPTER LVIII
LORENZO D. LEWELLING
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
Lorenzo D. Lewelling, the twelfth Governor of Kansas, was born December 21, 1846, near Salem, Henry County, Iowa. His father was a Quaker minister. He died in 1848. Seven years later the mother was burned to death. She left a large and helpless family. For a short time Lorenzo made his home with a married sister, but poverty compelled him to leave this refuge and face the world alone. He did any labor that was honest, and his early life was one continuous terrible struggle.
When the Civil War broke out he enlisted in an Iowa regiment. But fighting was against the Quaker creed, and his relatives secured his discharge. After many vicissitudes, he joined a bridge-building corps at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here he accumulated a small sum of money, with which he entered Eastman's Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York. After his graduation he worked his way westward, laboring as a tow-boy, a carpenter, a section hand. Once again in Iowa, he earned enough money to enter Whittier College, at Salem. He graduated from this institution when about twenty-one years old, and became a teacher in the Iowa State Reform School.
On April 18, 1870, he married Miss Angie Cook, a teacher in the schools of Red Oak, Iowa. After his marriage he tried farming, which he soon abandoned to found the Register, a Republican weekly, at Salem.
In 1872 Mr. and Mrs. Lewelling were appointed to have charge of the Girls' Department, Iowa State Reform School, which position they held fifteen years, with the exception of two, during which he founded and edited an anti-ring Republican paper known as the Des Moines Capital. Mrs. Lewelling died while Matron of the School, leaving three daughters. Some time later Mr. Lewelling married Miss Ida Bishop, by whom he had one child, a daughter.
In 1887 he brought his family to Wichita, Kansas, and in 1892, was nominated by the Populist party for Governor, and was elected.
Governor Lewelling was inaugurated January 9, 1893, and was Gov- ernor of Kansas during the stormiest legislative session in her history.
The Republicans had a majority in the House, but the Populists claimed that it had been secured by fraud. Both parties claimed the right to organize the House. The Republicans elected George L. Douglas speaker, and the Populists J. M. Dunsmore. Prentis says :
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Both Speakers oeeupied 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.
Governor Lewelling recognized the Dunsmore Honse as legal, on the third day. The Republicans protested, and both Houses continued to sit. An arrangement was effected by which one house met in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Attempts to settle the diffieulty were in vain.
Gov. LORENZO D. LEWELLING
[Copy by Willard of Photograph in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
The Senate and House met in joint session and elected John Martin United States Senator.
L. C. Gunn, a business man of Parsons, was summoned to testify in a ease by the Douglas Ilouse. He refused to come, saying the Repub- lican Ilouse was illegal, and was arrested by a Republican Sergeant-at- arms. The matter was brought before the Supreme Court. Pending the decision, the officers of the Populist party barricaded themselves in the Hall of Representatives. The next morning, the door was smashed in by members of the Republican House, which entered and took pos- session.
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The situation looking serious, Governor Lewelling called out several companies of State Militia. Guns were brought up and artillerists ordered from Wichita. Sheriff Wilkinson announced himself the only regular guardian of the county peace, and swore in a large force of deputies, acting in the interest of the Republicans.
There was much excitement and Topeka was filled with well-armed men. The Republican House was in a state of siege, food being passed up to the Representatives in baskets lowered from the windows of Repre- sentative Hall. On the third day a decision was reached that the Repub- lican House should hold the hall, and the Populists meet elsewhere. This ended the Legislative War of 1893.
On the twenty-fifth of February, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Republican House, and the two Houses united.
So much time was taken up in settling the war that but few laws were passed during this session. However, a constitutional amendment giving women the right of suffrage was submitted to the vote of the people in the election of 1894.
During the administration of Governor Lewelling, the World's Co- lumbian Exposition was held at Chicago, and Kansas was well repre- sented.
In 1894 a general unrest was evident among the poorer people and the laborers. There were many strikes and much discontent and suffering.
In this year it was discovered that Kansas was the possessor of rich oil and gas fields. Many companies were organized, land was leased, and large operations were started. Thus another national resource was added to the wealth of Kansas.
Governor Lewelling was renominated in 1894, but the Republicans carried the election. In 1896 he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1897 was appointed by the Executive Council one of the Board of Railroad Commissioners. He was Chairman of this organization until it was abolished by the Legislature of 1898.
Governor Lewelling died at Arkansas City September 3, 1900. Of all the Governors of Kansas, he probably had most sympathy for the poor.
CHAPTER LIX
EDMUND N. MORRILL
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
Edmund N. Morrill, thirteenth Governor of Kansas, was born at Westbrook, Cumberland County, Maine, February 12, 1834. He came of a prominent New England family. He was educated in the common schools, and at Westbrook Academy, and also learned the tanning trade in his father's shop. After a couple of business ventures he came to Kansas, at the age of twenty-three, and settled in Brown County. In company with a partner he erected a saw mill, which was burned shortly afterward. It required much time and labor for Morrill to pay off the debt occasioned by this misfortune.
Morrill was a member of the first Free-State Legislature, in 1857. In 1858 he was elected a member of the Legislature under the Lecompton Constitution, but the Constitution failed of adoption. At the beginning of the Civil War Morrill enlisted as a private in Company C, Seventh Kansas Cavalry. He was promoted to the rank of Captain, and, later, to Commissary of Subsistence. He was in charge of the Government stores at Forts Henry and Donelson. In 1865 he was honorably dis- charged. He returned to Brown County and was elected Clerk of the District Court in 1866. In 1867 he was elected County Clerk and in 1868 was again elected clerk of the District Court. In 1869 and in 1871 he was elected County Clerk. In 1872 he was elected State Senator and he was re-elected in 1876.
He was elected Congressman-at-large in 1882 by a large majority. In 1884. 1886, and 1888, he was elected to Congress from his home dis- trict. He was ever a friend of the old soldier, and was active in securing pensions for them. Mr. Morrill declined a re-election to Con- gress in 1890, and retired to private life.
Ile was twice married, his first wife dying childless. The second one bore him two daughters and a son.
In 1894 he was elected Governor of Kansas by the Republican party. An Appellate Court was established by the Legislature. This was de- manded by the immense amount of business before the Supreme Court.
Governor Morrill favored a Constitutional Convention. Among other things to be remedied he called attention to the fact that the legislative sessions were too limited in time, that there should be a constitutional prohibition of trusts and combinations for the purpose of raising prices,
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and that there should be a change in the apportionment laws, so that representation should be more equal.
An act was passed during Morrill's administration appropriating $30,000 for irrigation experiments, and a Board of Irrigation was ap- pointed. This has resulted in much good for Kansas.
A law was also passed providing a fine and imprisonment for giving or taking a bribe.
Gov. EDMUND N. MORRILL
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
But the Legislature of 1896 did not enact any important laws, nor was its session marked by the stormy vicissitudes of the body immediately previous.
Kansas prospered steadily. Her gas resources proved to be far beyond all expectation, and manufactories, and smelters grew up in the gas fields.
In 1896 Governor Morrill was unanimously renominated for Gov- ernor. But this year, being the famous "Free Silver" year, when politics were confused and upset, he was defeated.
He then retired to private life, resuming his banking and real estate
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business at Hiawatha. Here he dwelt, until his death, which occurred in Santa Rosa Hospital, San Antonio, Texas, March 14, 1909.
Mr. Morrill accumulated a large fortune, mostly through land specu- lations. But his riches never caused him to oppress the poor, and it developed in the campaign of 1896 that he had never foreclosed a mortgage.
CHAPTER LX JOHN W. LEEDY
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
John W. Leedy was born in Richland County, Pa., March 8, 1849. His ancestors were of Swiss extraction. His people were Dunkards, and their simple piety and integrity of character had their influence on the boy. His father died when he was very young, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. So the boy was thrown on his own resources, and began life as a farm-hand. This left but little time for school, and a few months spent in rural schools represented his only opportunity for education.
Leedy was fourteen years old in 1864, and he then endeavored to enlist in a military company. But the protests of his mother and his own youth prevented his being accepted. However, he followed the company to the front and was with it until the close of the war.
In 1865 he went to Princetown, Indiana, and for three years clerked in a store. As this indoor occupation proved injurious to his health, he went to Carlinville, Illinois, and worked on a farm for five years. At the end of this period he purchased a small farm with his savings.
He married Miss Sarah J. Boyd, of Frederickstown, Ohio, by whom he had three children. They moved to Coffey County, Kansas, in 1880, and took a farm near Leroy. He accumulated some property, which was later lost through business reverses.
Governor Leedy was a Republican, but in 1872 he went over to the Democratic party, remaining there until the Populist party was organ- ized; then he became Populist. He was elected State Senator in 1892 as a Populist.
In 1896 he was elected Governor, being the second chief executive chosen by the Populist party. The Legislature of 1896 elected William A. Harris, an ex-Confederate soldier, United States Senator from Kansas. This Legislative session was the longest iu Kansas history, lasting sixty- seven days. Over 2,000 bills were introduced, but less than three hundred were passed. A Text Book Commission consisting of eight members was created to be appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Senate.
During the campaign of 1898 the matter of regulating railroad charges by law was much discussed. A special session of the Legislature, to consider railroad matters, was called by Governor Leedy, which con- tinued from December 21 until January 9, when Governor Stanley was
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inaugurated. The old Board of Railroad Commissioners was abolished, and a "Court of Visitation" established. This Court was given a general supervisory power over all railroads operating in Kansas. Other legis- lation was enacted at this session.
Governor Leedy was renominated in 1898, but was defeated at the polls. During the administration of Governor Leedy, war with Spain was deelared by the United States. Four regiments were raised in Kansas. Three of these were not ealled to the field. The Twentieth
Gov. JOHN W. LEEDY [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
Kansas distinguished itself in the Philippines and its record is a source of great pride to Kansas. The work of Kansas soldiers in this war is treated more fully in another article.
Kansas had recovered from the "hard times" and grew and flour- ished under the Leedy regime. Industries received a new impetus, and agriculture gained immensely. The farm products of Kansas for the year 1897-98 amounted to $288,259,056, which showed a gain of $4,350,- 631 over the preceding biennial period.
At the elose of his term as Governor Mr. Leedy beeame interested in mining operations around Galena. He went to Alaska in 1901, but finally located at White Court, Alberta, Canada. There he still resides.
CHAPTER LXI WILLIAM EUGENE STANLEY
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
William Eugene Stanley, fifteenth Governor of Kansas, was born December 28, 1844, in Knox County, Ohio. In 1869 his parents moved to Hardin County, where he was reared to manhood.
Stanley's father was a physician, and a man of good character and much influence in the community. He sent his son through the common schools. Later Stanley entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Dela- ware, Ohio. However, he left this institution before his graduation, and entered the office of Bain & King, at Kenton, where he studied law. Afterwards, he continued his studies in the firm of Conover & Craighead, at Dayton. He was admitted to the bar in 1868.
Two years after he received his diploma he came to Kansas, and located in Jefferson County, where he began the practice of his profes- sion. Soon after settling in Jefferson County he was elected County Attorney.
He located at Wichita in 1872. He served as County Attorney of Sedgwick County three terms. Following his last term as County Attorney, he was elected to the State Legislature. He served one term in that body. Au appointment as Judge of the Court of Appeals was ten- dered to him by Governor Morrill, but this honor he declined.
In 1876 Mr. Stanley was married to Miss Emma L. Hillis, of Wichita, Kansas. Of this union were born three children, two sons and a daughter.
Mr. Stanley followed his law practice industriously, and became well- known to the state at large as an honest, intelligent, hard-working man.
The Republican State Convention which met at Hutchinson in June, 1898, nominated him as the candidate for Governor. He was elected by a large majority. During this administration, marked progress was made in the recovery from the effects of the "boom" of the eighties. Speaking of the spirit of that time, Prentis says :
The late summer of 1899 found the State in peace. The political contests, which had been sharp and severe for some years, and marked with mutations of fortune, had taught Kansas people that the State was safe in the hands of its honest eitizens, without regard to their party designations. An era of good feeling prevailed. The losses sustained in the collapse following the boom of 1887 had been largely made up. A singular feature of the recovery in the "boom towns," which in their speculative days, had scattered their houses over a great arca, was their
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practical consolidation. Houses which had stood in empty desolation in the midst of boundless "additions," were removed nearer to the actual center of population, renovated and repaired, and became again places of business and the homes of men.
The discharge of the heavy public and private indebtedness of Kansas was going on at a rate that surprised financial authorities, but the explanation was found in the great natural resources of the State. When asked how Kansas in seven years paid off more than $100,000,000 of debt, it was answered that, in those seven years, Kansas produced four billion dollars' worth of farm products and live stock.
GOV. WILLIAM E. STANLEY [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
Governor Leedy had been censured for calling a special session of the Legislature to enact laws to regulate the railroads, through the Court of Visitation. Governor Stanley, while recommending a much more con- servative policy and much more leniency towards the railroads, still dis- played a firm inclination to support the Leedy measure and give it a fair test. However, a suit to test the validity of the Court resulted in its being declared unconstitutional.
As a measure of economy, Governor Stanley urged on the Legislature the abolition of many useless offices, but no steps were taken by that body
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along this line. Acts were passed appropriating money to complete the State House, to establish a binding-twine plant at the penitentiary, to create a Traveling Library Commission, and many other measures demanded by the growing needs of the State.
By the Legislature of 1901, a new Board of Railroad Commissioners was created and their duties defined. An appropriation of $47,000 was made to pay the transportation of the Twentieth Kansas. The good- roads question was agitated, a commission appointed, its powers and duties defined, and a tax levy fixed to meet the expenses.
Joseph R. Burton was elected United States Senator by the Legis- lature. This body also accepted the Pike-Pawnee Village site as a gift to the State, and appropriated $3,000 to appropriately mark and fence the place.
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