History of Atchison County, Kansas, Part 4

Author: Ingalls, Sheffield
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1032

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The first territorial appointment for the purpose of inaugurating a local government in Kansas was made in June, 1854. Governor Andrew H. Reeder, of Easton, Pa., was appointed on that date. He took the oath of office in Washington, D. C., July 7, and arrived in Kansas at Ft. Leaven- worth October 7, becoming at once the executive head of the Kansas govern- ment. Governor Reeder was a stranger to Kansas. With the exception of Senator Atchison he scarcely knew anybody in Kansas. He was a lawyer by profession, one of the ablest in the State of Pennsylvania. From early man- hood he had been an ardent and loyal Democrat and had defended with vigor and great power the principle of squatter sovereignty and the Kansas- Nebraska bill. He was not a politician and was an able, honest, clear-think- ing Democrat. Upon his arrival in Kansas he set himself at once to the task of inaugurating the government in the territory. According to his own testimony before the special congressional committee appointed by Congress to investigate the troubles in Kansas in 1856, he made it his first business to

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

obtain information of the geography, settlements, population and general condition of the territory, with a view to its division into districts; the de- fining of their boundary ; the location of suitable and central places for elec- tions, and the full names of men in each district for election officers, per- sons to take the census, justices of the peace, and constables. He accordingly made a tour of the territory, and although he did not come to Atchison county his tour included many important and remote settlements in the ter- ritory. Upon his return he concluded that if the election for a delegate to Congress should be postponed until an election could be had for the legis- lature, which, in the one case required no previous census, and in the other a census was required, the greater part of the session of Congress, which would terminate on the fourth of March, would expire before a congressional delegate from the territory could reach Washington. He, therefore, ordered an election for a delegate to Congress, and postponed the taking of the cen- sus until after that election. He prepared, without unnecessary delay, a division of the territory into election districts, fixed a place of election in each, appointed election officers and ordered that the election should take place November 29, 1854. Atchison county was in the fifteenth election district, which comprised the following territory: Commencing at the mouth of Salt creek on the Missouri river; thence up said creek to the mili- tary road and along the middle of said road to the lower crossing of Stranger creek : thence up said creek to the line of the Kickapoo reservation, and thence along the southern and western line thereof to the line of the four- teenth district; thence between same, and down Independence creek to the mouth thereof, and thence down the Missouri river to the place of beginning. The place of the election was at the house of Pascal Pensoneau, on the Ft. Leavenworth and Oregon road. near what is now the town site of Potter. The election which followed was an exciting one. Public meetings were held in all of the towns and villages, at which resolutions were passed against the eastern abolitionists, the Platte County Argus sounding the following alarm :

"We know we speak the sentiments of some of the most distinguished statesmen of Missouri when we advise that counter-organizations be made, both in Kansas and Missouri, to thwart the wreckless course of the abolition- ists. We must meet them at their very threshhold and scourge them back to their covers of darkness. They have made the issue, and it is for us to meet and repel them."

The secret organizations, of which Greeley spoke, known as the "Blue

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

Lodges," "Social Bands," and "Sons of the South." became very active, and knowing the condition of affairs along the Missouri border, and hav- ing learned the needs and wishes of the actual settlers in the territory, Gov- ernor Reeder decided that their rights should not be jeopardized. Therefore, in ordering an election of a congressional delegate only, with the idea of a later proclamation ordering a territorial election of a legislature, he knew that much trouble would be spared. In his proclamation for the con- gressional election, provision was made for defining the qualifications of legal voters, and providing against fraud, both of which provisions were re- ceived with alarm by the leaders of the slavery Democracy, who, up to that time had hoped that the administration at Washington had sent them an ally. It was not long until they discovered that they were mistaken.

The actual settlers of the territory did not evince much interest in the election. They were all engaged in what appeared to them to be the more important business of building their homes and otherwise providing neces- sities before the approach of winter. There were no party organizations in the territory. The slavery question was not generally understood to be an issue. The first candidates to announce themselves were James N. Burnes, whose name has for sixty years been prominently identified with the social, political and business history of Atchison county, and J. B. Chapman. These two candidates subsequently withdrew from the campaign, and the names finally submitted to the voters were: Gen. John W. Whitfield, Robert P. Flenneken, Judge John A. Wakefield. Whitfield ignored the slavery issue during his canvass, but hi's cause was openly espoused by the Missourians. Flenneken was a friend of Governor Reeder, with Free Soil proclivities. Wakefield was an out-spoken Free-Soiler. Hon. David R. Atchison, then a United States senator, and for whom Atchison county was named, was the head and front of the pro-slavery movement. He had a national reputation and was a power in the United States Senate, and won for himself the high- est position in the gift of the Senate, having been chosen president pro- tempore of that body after the death of Vice-President King. He was loyal to the southern views regarding slavery and this made him the unquestioned leader of the party which believed, as Senator Atchison himself believed, that the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill would inevitably result in a slave State west of Missouri. It was to Senator Atchison that Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, himself one of the strong leaders of the pro-slavery forces, looked for inspiration and direction. In a speech Senator Atchison made in Weston, Mo., November 6. 1854, which was just prior to the congressional election in Kansas, he said :

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

"My mission here today is, if possible, to awaken the people of this country to the danger ahead and to suggest the means to avoid it. The peo- ple of Kansas in their first elections will decide the question whether or not the slave-holder was to be excluded, and it depends upon a majority of the votes cast at the polls. Now, if a set of fanatics and demagogues a thousand miles off could afford to advance their money and exert every nerve to abolitionize the territory and exclude the slave-holder, when they have not the least personal interest in the matter, what is your duty? When you re- side within one day's journey of the territory, and when your peace, your quiet, and your property depend upon this action you can without any exer- tion send five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of your institutions."

On November 28, the day preceding the election, the secret society voters in Missouri began to cross over into Kansas. They came organized to carry the election and in such overwhelming numbers as to completely over-awe and out-number the legal voters of the territory at many of the precincts. They took possession of the polls, elected many of the judges, intimidated others to resign and refusing to take the oath qualifying themselves as voters and prescribe to the regulations of the election, cast their ballots for General John W. Whitfield and hastily beat their retrcat to Missouri. The whole number of votes cast in that election was 2,233, of which number Whitfield received 2,258; Wakefield, 248; Flenneken, 305, with twenty-two scattering votes. The frauds which were at first denied by both the pro-slavery news- papers and General Whitfield himself, were not long in being discovered.

In the Fifteenth district, of which Atchison county was a part, the total number of votes cast was 306, of which Wakefield got none; Flenneken. 39. and Whitfield, 267. The total number of votes given by the census was 308, and in the majority report of the congressional committee of the following year 206 illegal votes were shown to have been cast in that district. How- ever, there was little immediate disturbance following the election. The set- tlers continued to busy themselves in completing their homes and were more interested in securing titles to their lands than in the future destiny of the territory.

In the following January and February Governor Reeder caused an enumeration of the inhabitants to be taken preparatory to calling an election for a legislature. H. B. Jolly was named as enumerator for the Fifteenth district and Mr. Jolly found a total of 873 persons in the district, divided as follows : Males, 492 ; females, 381 ; voters, 308 ; minors, 448; natives of the

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

United States, 846; foreign born, sixteen ; negroes, fifteen; slaves, fifteen. The date appointed for the legislative election was March 30. 1855. The proclamation of the governor defined the election districts; appointed the voting precincts ; named the judges of the election, defined the duties of the judges, and the qualifications of voters. Thirteen members of the council and twenty-six members of the house of representatives were to constitute the legislative assembly of the territory. Atchison was in the Ninth coun- cil district and in the Thirteenth representative district. Following the prec- edent established in the election for congressional delegate the November before the blue lodges of Missouri became active and large numbers of members of the secret societies of Missouri were sent into every council and representative district in the territory for the purpose of controlling the elec- tion. They were armed and came with provisions and tents. They over- powered and intimidated the resident voters to such an extent that only 1,410 legal votes were cast in the territory out of 2,905 enumerated in the census.

D. A. N. Grover was the pro-slavery candidate for councilman in the Ninth Council district with no opposition and he received 411 votes which was the total number of votes enumerated for that district. H. B. C. Harris and J. Weddell were the pro-slavery candidates for representative in the Thirteenth district with no opposition. They each received 412 votes, being the total number of votes enumerated in the district.

It was another victory for the pro-slavery sympathizers and the Free State men were indignant, while on the other hand the pro-slavery residents, with their Missouri allies, did not conceal their joy, at the same time ad- mitting frankly the outrages which were practiced at the polls. The Leaven- worth Herald of April 6 headed its election returns with the following :

"All Hail.

Pro-Slavery Party Victorious.

We have met the enemy, and they are ours.

Veni Vidi Vici!

Free White State Party used up.

"The triumph of the pro-slavery party is complete and overwhelming. Come on, Southern men; bring your slaves and fill up the territory. Kansas is Saved! Abolitionism is rebuked. Her fortress stormed. Her flag is dragging in the dust. The tri-colored platform has fallen with a crash. The rotten timbers of its structure were not sufficient to sustain the small frag- ments of the party."

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

The Parkville Luminary, which was published in Platte county, Missouri, very mildly protested against the manner of carrying the election and spoke in friendly terms of the Free Soil settlers. The following week its office and place was destroyed by a mob and forced its editors to flee the country for their lives.

The election of November 29, 1854, so incensed the Anti-Slavery ele- ment that the Free State movement was given a great impetus. A conven- tion of Free State men at Lawrence June 8, 1855, and the Big Springs con- vention September 5, 1855, were the result, and from that date many other public meetings of Free State men followed. The Free State sentiment fully crystalized itself in the momentous election of October. 9. 1855, follow- ing eight days after the date set by the pro-slavery legislature for an elec- tion of delegate to Congress to succeed J. W. Whitfield, who had been elected the year before. The first election in 1855 was held October I but was par- ticipated in only by pro-slavery men. The abstract of the poll books showed that 2,738 votes were cast in the territory and Whitfield received 2,721, of which it is only fair to say that 857 were declared illegal. In the Free State election Ex-Governor An- drew H. Reeder received 2,849 votes, of which 101 were cast in Atchison county. On the same day an election for delegates to a constitutional con- vention to be held at Topeka took place and R. H. Crosby, a merchant of Oceana, Atchison county, and Caleb May, a farmer, near the same place, were elected delegates.

The returns of the pro-slavery election having been made according to law, the governor granted the certificate of election to Whitfield, who re- turned to Washington as the duly elected delegate from Kansas. The terri- torial executive committee, elected at the Big Springs convention, gave a cer- tificate of election to Reeder. The Topeka constitutional convention subse- quently convened October 23, 1855. and was in session until November II. This body of Free State men framed a constitution, and among other things memorialized Congress to admit Kansas as a State. It was understood by all that the validity of the work of the convention was contingent upon the admission of Kansas as a State. Meanwhile the executive committee of Kan- sas Territory appointed at the Topeka primary, September 19, 1855, under the leadership of James H. Lane, continued to direct and inspire the work for a State government.

As a counter-irritant to the activities of the Free State men, and for the purpose of allaying the insane excitement of the territorial legislature, the

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

pro-slavery followers organized a Law and Order party, which was pledged to the establishment of slavery in Kansas. From thenceforth it was open warfare between the two great forces contending for supremacy in the terri- tory. Atchison was the stronghold of the Law and Order party, as Lawrence was the stronghold of the Free State party. The Free State party was looked upon by the Law and Order advocates as made up of revolutionists and the Law and Order party was determined to bring them to time as soon as pos- sible, but as the members of the Free State party held themselves apart from the legal machinery devised for the government of the territory, bringing no suits in its courts ; attending no elections ; paying no attention to its county organizations ; offering no estates to its probate judges, and paying no tax levies made by authority of the legislature, they were careful to commit 110 act which would lay themselves liable to the laws which they abhorred. They settled all their disputes by arbitration in order to avoid litigation, but as they could build, manufacture, buy and sell and establish schools and churches without coming under the domination of the pro-slavery forces, they man- aged to do tolerably well. Where the inhabitants were mostly Free State, as in Lawrence and Topeka, conditions were reasonably satisfactory, but in localities like Atchison and Leavenworth, where the Law and Order party dominated affairs, the Free State inhabitants were forced to suffer many indignities and insults.

During the month of August, 1855, a negro woman belonging to Graf- ton Thomassen, who ran a sawmill in Atchison, was found drowned in the Missouri river. J. W. B. Kelley, a rabid anti-slavery lawyer, from Cincinnati, who became a resident of Atchison, expressed the opinion that if Thomas- sen's negro woman had been treated better by her master she would not have committed suicide by jumping into the river. Thomassen was greatly angered at this personal illusion and deluded himself into believing that if he satis- fied his own vengeance he would at the same time be rendering the pro- slavery party a service. He therefore picked a quarrel with Kelley and they came to blows, after which Thomassen's conduct was sustained by a large meeting of Atchison people. While it is said that Thomassen was a larger and more powerful man than Kelley, the people did not consider this fact, but rather considered the principle involved, and as a result they commended the act in the following resolution :

"I. Resolved. That one J. W. B. Kelley, hailing from Cincinnati, hav- ing upon sundry occasions denounced our institutions and declared all pro- slavery men ruffians, we deem it an act of kindness and hereby command him 4

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

to leave the town of Atchison one hour after being informed of the passage of this resolution never more to show himself in this vicinity.

2. Resolved, That in case he fails to obey this reasonable command, we inflict upon him such punishment as the nature of the case may require.

Resolved, That other emissaries of this 'Aid Society' now in our 3. midst, tampering with our slaves, are warned to leave, else they too will meet the reward which their nefarious designs so justly merit .- Hemp.

4. Resolved, That we approve and applaud our fellow-townsman, Graf- ton Thomassen, for the castigation administered to said J. W. B. Kelley, whose presence among us is a libel upon our good standing and a disgrace to our community.

Resolved, That we commend the good work of purging our town 5. of all resident abolitionists, and after cleaning our town of such nuisances shall do the same for the settlers on Walnut and Independence creeks whose propensities for cattle stealing are well known to many.

6. Resolved, That the chairman appoint a committee of three to wait upon said Kelley and acquaint him with the actions of this meeting.

7. Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published, that the world may know our determination."

After the passage of these resolutions they were circulated throughout Atchison and all citizens were asked to sign the same and if any person re- fused he was deemed and treated as an abolitionist. A few days after this incident Rev. Pardee Butler, a minister of the Christian church, who was living at that time near the now abandoned townsite of Pardee, west of Atch- ison, about twelve miles, came to town to do some trading. Butler was an uncompromising anti-slavery advocate and never overlooked an opportunity to make his sentiments known. He had strong convictions backed by cour- age, and while he did not seek controversies, he never showed a desire to avoid them. He was well known in the community as a Free State man. and so when he came into Atchison after these resolutions were passed and the town was all excited about them it did not take him long to get into the controversy and he condemned in strong terms the outrage upon Kelley and also the resolutions which were passed. In the course of a conversation which he had at the postoffice with Robert S. Kelley, the postmaster and assistant editor of the Squatter Sovereign, he informed Mr. Kelley that he long since would have become a subscriber to his paper had he not disliked the violent sentiments which appeared in its columns. Mr. Kelley replied : "I look upon all Free Soilers as rogues and they ought to be treated as

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

such." Mr. Butler responded : "I am a Free Soiler and expect to vote for Kansas as a Free State." "I do not expect you will be allowed to vote," was Mr. Kelley's reply. On the following morning Mr. Kelley called at the National hotel, corner of Second and Atchison streets, where Mr. Butler had spent the night, accompanied by a number of friends and demanded Butler to sign the resolutions, which of course Mr. Butler refused to do, and walked down stairs into the street. A crowd gathered and seized Mr. Butler, drag- ging him towards the river, shouting that they intended to drown him. The mob increased in size as they proceeded with the vietim. A vote was taken as to the kind of punishment which ought to be given him and a verdict of death by hanging was rendered. It was not discovered until forty years afterwards that Mr. Kelley, the teller, saved Mr. Butler's life by making false returns to the excited mob. Mr. Kelley subsequently was a resident of Montana and gave this information while stopping in St. Joseph with Dr. J. H. String- fellow, the former editor of the Squatter Sovereign. Instead of returning a verdiet of death by hanging Mr. Kelley announced that it was the decision of the mob to send Mr. Butler down the Missouri river on a raft, and an account of what followed is best given by Rev. Pardee Butler himself :

"When we arrived at the bank Mr. Kelley painted my face with black paint, marked upon it the letter "R." The company had increased to some thirty or forty persons. Without any trial, witness, judge, counsel or jury, for about two hours I was a sort of target at which were hurled impreca- tions, curses, arguments, entreaties, accusations and interrogations. They constructed a raft of three cottonwood sawlogs, fastened together with ineli plank nailed to the logs, upon which they put me and sent me down the Mis- souri river. The raft was towed out to the middle of the stream with a canoe. Robert S. Kelley held the rope that towed the raft. They gave me neither rudder, oar nor anything else to manage my raft with. They put up a flag on the raft with the following inscription on it :

'Eastern Emigrant Aid Express.

The Rev. Pardee Butler again for the underground road;

The way they are served in Kansas; Shipped for Boston; Cargo in-

sured. Unavoidable danger of the Missourians and Missouri river excepted.

Let future emissaries from the north Beware.

Our Hemp crop is sufficient to reward all such scoundrels.'

"They threatened to shoot me if I pulled the flag down. I pulled it down, cut the flag off the flag staff, made a paddle out of the flag staff and ultimately got ashore about six miles below."

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

The mob was considerate enough to provide Mr. Butler a loaf of bread and permitted him to take his baggage on board, afterwards escorting him down the river for some distance.

When Mr. Butler landed he returned overland to his home near Pardee. On April 30, 1856, he again ventured to make his appearance in Atchison, where he says: "I spoke to no one in town save two merchants of the place with whom I had business transactions since my first arrival in the territory. Having remained only a few minutes I went to my buggy to resume my journey when I was assaulted by Robert S. Kelley, junior editor of the Squatter Sovereign: was dragged into a grocery and there surrounded by a company of South Carolinians who are reported to have been sent out by a Southern Emigrant Aid Society. After exposing me to every sort of in- dignity they stripped me to the waist, covered my body with tar and then for the want of feathers applied cotton wool, having appointed a committee of three to certainly hang me the next time I should come to Atchison. They tossed my clothes into the buggy, put me therein, accompanying me to the suburbs of the town and sent me naked upon the prairie. I adjusted my attire about me as best I could and hastened to rejoin my wife and two little sons on the banks of Stranger creek. It was rather a sorrowful meeting after so long a parting."

The above incident gives some idea of the prevailing sentiment in Atch- ison county during the period beginning in 1854 and ending in 1857.

There was little chance of Free State settlers to avoid trouble except by discreet silence. It would not be just, however, to fail to disclose the fact that the Free State men also had their secret organizations. The Kansas Legion was a military organization for defensive purposes only. Its members were organized into companies, battalions and regiments and were officered and armed with rifles and pistols sent from the East. These or- ganizations were the natural result of the secret pro-slavery organizations of Missouri and were known to exist to protect the Free State settlers against the attacks of the Blue Lodges, Sons of the South, and the Social Bands.

A man by the name of Pat Laughlin became a member of the Kansas Legion and was very active in organizing companies of that organization at different points in the territory. He subsequently became a traitor to his associates and gave out information to the enemy, thereby creating great in- dignation among his former friends whom he had betrayed. Later Laughlin and Samuel Collins, of Doniphan county, became engaged in a fierce alterca- tion and friends of both parties to the dispute were present and armed.

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History of Atchison County, Kansas, Part 4

Author: Ingalls, Sheffield Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Ingalls, Sheffield
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1032