USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 16
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WHEN THE YANKEE FREE STATE MEN CAME.
The New Englanders, most of them Free Soil men, began to come in 1854. In a letter dated "Boston, September 18, 1854," Thomas H. Webb, the secretary of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, wrote : "It is a singular coincidence that our pioneer party of New Englanders crossed Lake Erie on the 'Mayflower' and went up the Missouri river on the 'Polar Star.' "
And it was an eventful trip that of the "Polar Star." Angust Bondi, of Salina, a revolutionist of Austria, came to Kansas and sol- diered with John Brown. With him was Dr. Rufus Gillpatrick, also a noted Free Soil advocate and fighter, who located near Ossawatomie. Pardee Butler and John Martin, of Topeka, who was afterwards sena- tor, made their way to Kansas on the "Polar Star." HI. D. MeMeekin, a member of the Pawnee legislature of 1855, was a passenger on the "Excel," on its first trip in 1854.
James H. Carruth and wife, of Lawrence, were passengers on the ".J. M. Converse" in 1856. Mrs. Miriam Davis Colt, author of "Went to Kansas," was a passenger on the "Cataraet" in 1856.
Notable among the men and women who came out from New Eng- land on steamboats to help make Kansas were the members of the "Kan- sas Andover Band." Grosvenor C. Morse was a teacher and preacher, and he it was who founded the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia. Sylvester Dana Storrs stopped at Quindaro and founded a Congrega- tional church. Roswell Davenport Parker started a Congregational church at Leavenworth, going from Quindaro to that place by stage after his arrival. Richard Cordley, the last of the band to reach Kansas, went overland by stage with his wife to Lawrence and for more than fifty years was pastor of Plymouth Congregational church, the first church of that denomination to be started in Kansas.
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THE DELIGHTS OF PIONEER TRAVEL BY STEAMBOAT.
Many of the pioneers of Kansas, outbound from the states east of the Mississippi river, told and retold their delightful experiences of travel by steamboat. Among the emigrants of '57 from New England to Wyandotte was Don A. Bartlett, a lawyer, and his wife, Mary Louise Bartlett. She afterwards became the wife of Byron Judd and among the charming stories she told a few years before her death, which occur- red in 1908, was of her trip to Kansas City by water. "The war spirit was running high," she said. "There was a strong feeling of partisan- ship. There were heated wrangles and heated arguments. We did not conceal the fact that we were Free State people, but were treated with the greatest respect and consideration even by the most ardent pro-slavery sympathizers.
"When we reached Kansas City, or what was then called Westport Landing, the crew of the steamer tried to hold our goods, refusing to unload them, although we had paid the freight in advance. Mr. Bart- lett was a lawyer and he remained at the landing till late into the night, and it was only by threatening to tie up the steamer by litigation that the crew was finally indueed to release them. In the meantime I had gone to the old Gillis hotel and was resting there till Mr. Bartlett eame. I never shall forget that wildly excited throng of men and how they stared when I, the only woman there, entered the dining room. But," Mrs. Jndd added, "while they were all wrought up to a high tension by the war spirit, every man behaved in my presence like a true gentle- man."
WHEN GOVERNOR REEDER CAME AND WENT.
Governor Andrew Reeder came up on the "David Tatum," and arrived May 5, 1856, making the journey in four days from St. Louis; but when he left Kansas May 24th, of the same year, disguised as a wood- chopper, he rode on the "J. M. Converse."
John W. Geary, the third territorial governor of Kansas, came on the "Keystone" in September, 1856. The boat touched at Quindaro and then went on to Fort Leavenworth, where Governor Geary disem- barked.
The Ashland Colony from Ohio came to Kansas on the "Express," in 1856. The boat took them up the Kansas river to Junction City where they were located. In the party of sixty were Henry J. Adams, Franklin G. Adams, Matthew Weightman, William Mackey and wife, of Junction City.
Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, was a passenger on the "New Luey" and landed at Quindaro May 24, 1857. From the steps of the hotel he made his first speech in Kansas.
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George W. Veale and wife left Evansville, Indiana, March 29, 1857, on the steamer "White Cloud," in company with the family of the late Judge Crozier, of Leavenworth. They arrived at Quindaro April 7th and there began the responsibilities of married life.
Ex-Governor George W. Glick and wife came to Kansas in March, 1859, on the steamer "Alonzo Child." This famous boat afterwards was captured and burned with twenty others in the Yazoo river by the Confederates, to prevent them falling into the hands of Union forces.
Lewis Hanback went up the river to Lawrence in 1866 on the steamer "Alexander Majors," and he became celebrated as an eloquent public speaker by telling of his first impressions of Kansas obtained from the deck of that steamer.
FIRST STEAMBOATS TO NAVIGATE THE KANSAS RIVER.
The Chouteans had flotillas of keel boats which were used to carry freight to the trading posts on the Kansas river. During the spring rise in the river Secondine, now Muncie in Wyandotte county, became a rival of Westport, now Kansas City, as a depot of supplies, the cargoes coming direct from St. Louis and New Orleans These were the first attempts at navigation. The Chouteaus also had pirogues on the Mis- souri and Kansas rivers. Lewis and Clark tell of the use of rafts on the Kansas river by the Frenchmen who ascended as far as eighty leagnes. But the steamboats finally displaced the crude craft of the early days.
The first steamboat to ascend the Kansas river was "Excel" in the spring of 1854. It was bought for a packet in the Kansas river trade to ply between Kansas City and Wyandotte at the month and "as high as she can get." The boat did a large freight and passenger business and was of great service to the early emigrants. On one trip it carried 1,100 barrels of flour to Fort Riley. Once, on returning, the distance from Fort Riley to Kansas City was covered in twenty-four hours and thirty landings were made. Captain Charles K. Baker, who died a few years ago at Rosedale, was the pilot of the "Excel," and was regarded as the most skillful man that ever turned a wheel on the Kansas river.
· The "Hartford" and the "Emma Harmon" were the first boats to ascend the Kansas river after the emigration of the white settlers set in. The "Hartford" was built in Cincinnati at a cost of $7,000 It was a flat-bottomed, stern-wheel steamboat. On April 5, 1855, it started from Cincinnati bound for the junction of the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers in Kansas, having a cargo of one hundred tons and a large passenger list. It was an ill-fated trip. The cholera broke out among the passengers and crew after leaving St. Louis on May 3rd. It caused the deaths of many of the passengers and they were buried in the sand. The boat reached Wyandotte on May 12th and left May
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20th. It arrived at Lawrence May 21st, ran to the mouth of the Big Blue and there had to wait a month for the river to rise. The members of the Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company, who were passengers, in- tended going further up stream, but in the delay they decided to locate at Manhattan and there they set up their ready-made, "knock-down" houses they had brought from Cincinnati. The ill-fated "Hartford" was set on fire by two drunken Pottawatomie Indians who were kicked off the boat by the clerk. It was totally destroyed.
The "Emma Harmon" and "Financier No. 2" preceded the "Hart- ford" on the upriver trip.
THE "EMMA HARMON'S" FAMOUS FIRST TRIP.
On the afternoon of May 19, 1855, "Emma Harmon," a small stern- wheeler, left Kansas City "for Topeka and way landings." There were twenty or thirty passengers aboard, among the number George W. Deitz- Jer, Gains Jenkins, Jolm Speer and family ; Mr. Gleason, wife, son, and danghter, the latter afterwards being Mrs. Hubbell, of Lawrence; Brin- ton W. Woodward, Philip Woodward, Mr. DeLand and family, L. P. Lincoln, and John W. Stevens, the latter with a printing-office to start a paper in Manhattan. The entire party was supplied with firearms, and Deitzler had one hundred Sharp's rifles. The river was high and the boat made good headway, but, as a precaution, the pilot ordered her tied up for the night when they reached Chonteau's Landing, a distance of ten miles from the mouth.
The next day the boat was off with the first gleam of light, and as the sun rose with a perfect day, the passengers thronged the upper deck, eager to enjoy the beauty of the scene; the ever-changing panorama of the winding river, dotted with islands, among which the boat turned this way and that in its course against the current; the stately cotton woods shining in the glory of their new foliage; the rock-bound bluffs ; glimpses of emerald prairies in the distance, and over all, the soft skies of early summer. Occasionally an Indian cabin was to be seen, with its occu- pants ranged in silent wonderment near it, but these were the only signs of civilization, and the forests were as silent and pathless as the river. About noon the boat went to the bank to get a supply of wood, and the passengers gathered their first wild strawberries of the season. Shortly after starting again they were hailed by an Indian, who made them understand that he wanted a flatboat towed up the river. The steamer was accordingly brought alongside and made fast to the flat- boat, and then proceeded on its journey. This Indian proved to be al intelligent Shawnee named Tooley, who had built the craft for a ferry- boat for Blue Jacket's crossing of the Wakarusa, in anticipation of the immigration to the territory. It being Sunday, the passengers engaged in religious worship, and Tooley joined them, offering a fervent prayer
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in his own tongue. At the mouth of the Wakarusa the tow-lines were cast off and the passengers waved a parting salute to the red man, who proceeded to "pole" his ungainly craft up the smaller stream.
Just before sunset of May 20th the "Harmon" reached Lawrence and landed at the foot of New Hampshire street. It was a great day in the history of the town, and everybody Imrried to the river bank to greet the unexpected but welcome visitor. The passengers and officers of the boat were given an ovation, and every available vehicle was used to convey them to the city, chief among the number being a spring wagon belonging to Mrs. Samuel N. Wood.
The steamer "New Lucy" was a large sidewheeler of four hundred and seventeen tons. The "A. B. Chambers" was one of the best boats on the Missouri river and carried much of the traffic to Kansas. It was owned by Captain Alexander Gilham, of Kansas City. £ Finally it sank at the mouth of the Missouri above St. Louis.
THE "LIGHTFOOT" BUILT FOR KANSAS.
The steamer "Lightfoot" was the first boat built for Kansas, and bore across the stern, this legend. "Lightfoot, of Quindaro." W. F. M. Arny and Matt Morrison commanded in the order named.
It was a stern-wheeler of one hundred feet in length and twenty- four feet beam, with a hold of three or four feet and had no texas; the pilot-house being the only structure above the hurricane deck, and this extending but a few feet above; the remainder being below and the floor of it being but a few feet above that of the cabin. There were a few staterooms and the freight capacity of the boat was probably seventy-five tons, on a draft of eighteen inches. It was built by Thaddeus Ilyatt, of New York City, who was an enthusiastic friend of Kansas and always ready to spend his great wealth in any way for her advancement.
The first and only trip of this boat on the Kansas river began at Wyandotte April 14, 1857. and ended May 9th of the same year. The run to Lawrence, a distance of sixty miles by river, occupied three days, owing to a low stage of water and high winds. At De Soto the smoke stacks ran afoul of the ferry rope, and this and the gale of wind wrenched them down to the deck, a further occasion for the delay.
John Speer was a passenger on his way home to Lawrence from an eastern trip in the interest of free Kansas. The following facts are gleaned from an account of the trip published in the Lawrence Tribune, of which he was the editor :
A NOTABLE VOYAGE UP THE KANSAS RIVER.
"On April 7, 1857, the steamboat 'Lightfoot,' built expressly for the Kaw river trade, arrived at Lawrence landing, at the foot of New Hampshire street, loaded
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down with freight and passengers. It was considered at the time a great event in the history of Lawrence, and Captain Bickerton was on hand with his favorite cannon, 'Old Sacramento,' to fire a national salute in honor of the formal opening of steamboat navigation on the Kaw. Several steamboats larger than the ‘Light- foot' had made trips up the river at different times before this. but it was given out that the 'Lightfoot' had been built expressly to run on the river from Kansas City, Wyandotte and Quindaro to Lawrence, and the people flattered themselves that Lawrence was about to become almost a seaport, or at least a port of entry for cheaply freighted goods. We are truly sorry that we have not preserved a full list of the passengers who came up on that historie steamboat, but we do recollect a goodly number of them, some of whom were coming as fresh immi- grants to the territory, and others returning to it from a visit to the east. Among the latter we remember General C. Babcock, then postmaster at Lawrence; General S. C. Pomeroy, then an agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Society . Paul R. Brooks, then a prominent merchant; Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, then and since well known as a writer and lecturer, accompanied by her two sons and a daughter: Miss Bernecia Carpenter, a highly educated and accomplished young lady who strongly attracted the attention of the enthusiastic young poet, Richard Realf; Horace A. W. Tabor, his brother John F. Tabor, and sister, Mrs. Move, the brothers bringing each a young wife fresh from the hills of Vermont. W. F. M. Arny was the chief manager of the 'Lightfoot;' in fact, he seemed to have full charge of the boat in every department. He was supercargo and bottle-washer, everywhere present, and bound to shine.
"The voyage from Wyandotte to Lawrence lasted three days, partly in con- sequence of a strong head-wind which blew down the steamer's smoke stacks and forced her to remain tied up to a big walnut tree, not far from Desoto, all day Sunday, giving Mr. Arny a good opportunity to display his talents as chaplain, which he improved to the utmost.
"The boat remained at Lawrence a few days and then undertook the return trip to Wyandotte, which, owing to low water and ignorance of the channel, con- sumed the time until May 9th. as has been stated, the greater part of the time being spent on sand-bars. Upon reaching Wyandotte the boat abandoned the Kansas and entered the Missouri river trade, but of her ultimate fate I am not advised. "
QUINDARO'S FAMOUS SIDE-WHEELER.
The "Otis Webb," Captain Church, 1857-8, was a side-wheeler of one hundred tons burden, and was built at Wellsville. Ohio, in the sum- mer of 1857, by Governor Charles Robinson, Otis Webb, Fielding John- son and Colonel George W. Veale. She was brought to the month of the Kansas in the fall of that year, and entered service in the following spring, making regular trips from Leavenworth to Topeka. Johnson and Veale had a store at the site of the present government building in Topeka, and all the goods for this store were brought up the river on the "Webb." She drew twenty-six inches of water. and cost seven thousand dollars. One of her cargoes was said to have been a saw mill outfit for the Emigrant Aid Company. This boat finally found it more profitable to run in the Missouri trade, and had a route from Quindaro and Parkville to Fort Leavenworth. It once essaved a trip on the Little Platte on Missouri, and struek a snag. Its bones are there yet.
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The "Bee" was another popular boat on the Kansas river in the early days. It ran between Wyandotte and Fort Riley.
THE KANSAS RIVER STEAMBOATS.
The following is believed to be a correct list of the steamboats which first and last, in greater or less degree, participated in the era of Kansas river navigation :
"Exeel," Captain Charles K. Baker, Sr., 1854.
"Bee," 1855.
"New Luey," 1855.
"Hartford," Captain Millard, 1855.
"Lizzie," 1855-64.
"Emma Harmon," Captain J. M. Wing, 1855.
"Financier No. 2," Captain Matt Morrison, 1855.
"Saranak," Captain Swift, 1855.
"Perry," Captain Perry, 1855-6.
"Lewis Burns," 1856.
"Far West," 1856.
"Brazil," Captain Reed, 1856.
"Lightfoot," Captains W. F. Arny and Matt Morrison, 1857.
"Violet," 1857.
"Laeon," Captain Marshall, 1857.
"Otis Webb," Captain Church, 1857-8.
"Minnie Belle," Captain Frank Hunt, 1858.
"Kate Swinney," Captain A. C. Goddin, 1858.
"Silver Lake," Captain Willoughby, 1859.
"Morning Star," Captain Thomas F. Brierly, 1859.
"Gus Linn," Captain B. F. Beasley, 1859.
" Adelia," 1859.
"Colona," Captain Hendershott, 1859.
"Star of the West," Captain G. P. Nelson, 1859-60.
"Eureka," 1860.
"Izetta," 1860.
"Mansfield." 1860.
"Tom Morgan," Captain Tom Morgan, 1864.
"Emma," 1864.
"Hiram Wood, 1865.
"Jacob Sass," 1865.
"E. Hensley," Captain Burke, 1865.
"Alexander Majors," 1866.
STEAMBOATS THAT WENT DOWN.
At the month of the Kansas river and along the eastern shore of Kansas many steamboats went down in the early days. "First Canoe,"
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as the Indians called the steamboat, was a stern-wheel boat that sank in the mouth of the Kansas river in 1858. The "Cumberland Valley," one of the early boats of which little is known, went down opposite the Wyandotte levee in 1840. The "A. B. Chambers," one of the boats that brought emigrants to Kansas, sank at Atchison in 1856. The wreck of the "A. C. Bird," lies buried near Liberty Landing, below the mouth of the Kansas river. "Admiral No. 1" went down at Weston, Missouri, where the "Anthony Wayne" sank in 1851, three years after. The "Bennett," a government wrecking boat, was herself wrecked in 1852 at the mouth of the Kansas river while making a run to the assistance of the "Decotah" at Peru, Nebraska. The "Boonville" was wrecked in the bend above the mouth of the Kansas river as far back as 1837, and the bones of the " Aggie" are somewhere in the river near the Hanni- bal bridge at Kansas City. The "Arabian" and the "Delaware" found their last resting place at the bottom of the river near Atchison. The "Hesperian" also was wearing the same port when she struck a snag and went to the bottom. In 1855 the "Express" found a watery grave near Leavenworth.
WHEN BOATS WERE OPERATED FOR THE RAILROADS.
The building across the state of Missouri of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, the first to reach the Missouri river, called for a steam- boat passenger service from Kansas City, Wyandotte and Quindaro to St. Joseph until the Missouri Pacific reached Kansas City from the east. The "Delaware" was a splendidly equipped steamboat that brought from St. Lonis in 1857 two locomotives for service on the Han- nibal & St. Joseph at the western terminns, before the gaps in Missouri were completed. The boat passed Quindaro June 9th of that year and the entire population of the town turned out to welcome it. The loeo- motives were named "Buchanan" and "St. Joe." The "Hesperian," a large side-wheel packet that had been operated on the lower Mississippi river, was brought up and pressed into serviee for the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and it did a rushing business until 1859, when it burned oppo- site Atehison. 'The first locomotives for the Missouri Pacific were brought to Wyandotte by the "T. L. McGill." Meanwhile the "New Imney" carried passengers from this point down to the end of that rail- road at Jefferson City, in 1857. The "Platte Valley" was also one of the boats used to carry passengers for the railroads. The "Sallie West," a freight boat for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, sank at Kickapoo in 1859. The "Bee" was a favorite passenger boat between Wyandotte and Fort Riley on the Kansas river.
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AN END TO STEAMBOATING.
The steamboats had hauled the locomotives np the Missouri river and helped the railroads get a start. Then the railroads returned the favor by putting the steamboats out of business. The floods carried away the Union Pacific bridge at Wyandotte, in the spring of 1866, and the big side-wheel steamer, the "Alexander Majors," was chartered by the railroad company to carry freight to Lawrence until the bridge conld be rebuilt. But that was the last of the steamboating on the Kansas river. The railroads slipped a bill through the Kansas legislature in 1864, entitled, "An art declaring the Kansas, Republican, Smoky IIill, Solomon, and Big Blue rivers not navigable, and authorizing the bridg- ing of the same." The bill gave the railroads "the same right to bridge or dam said rivers as they would have, if they never had been declared navigable streams."
CHAPTER XIII.
STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
WYANDOT INDIANS PIONEERS IN THE MOVEMENT-THE FIRST ELEC- TION-A "BOLTING" CONVENTION-KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL PASSED- WELCOME TO GOVERNOR REEDER-ORDERS AN ELECTION-CANDIDATES FOR TERRITORIAL DELEGATES-THIE FIRST INVASION-EYES OF A NATION ON SHAWNEE MISSION-THE BOGUS LAWS-THREE MAKERS OF KANSAS IIIS- TORY-GOVERNOR SIIANNON TO THE FRONTIER-THE TOPEKA CONSTITU- TION-THE WAKARUSA WAR-EMIGRANT AID SOCIETIES-THE CAPITAL AT LECOMPTON-GOVERNOR GEARY ON THE SCENE-GOVERNOR ROBERT J. WALKER -- THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION-LEAVENWORTH CONVENTION -GOVERNOR MEDARY-ELECTIONS BEFORE STATEHOOD.
The Indians of the northwestern confederacy, with the Wyandots at the head, were first to make a move to establish government for their hunting grounds. The Wyandots had brought with them then from Ohio a constitution and a form of civil government under which the tribes of that nation had been ruled wisely and well. Soon after they came to Kansas, efforts were made in congress to organize the Nebraska territory, which embraced in its limits the present state of Kansas and Nebraska. Stephen A. Douglas introduced bills for this purpose at different times; but they were referred to the committee on territories, without further action being taken. These different movements aroused great interest among the Indian tribes whose lands were within the boun- daries of the proposed territory. It was evident to them that they must surrender their lands very soon if the territory was established, although the government in the treaties with them had promised that the land should be theirs as long as grass grew and water ran, and should never be a part of any territory or state. So, realizing the great importance of such an organization, these Indians desired to become citizens and to have a share in the shaping of affairs, that just and equitable laws might be made for the government of their beloved territory. £ The
leading men of the different tribes called a convention for the purpose of discussing the matter. This congress met at or near Fort Leaven- worth in October, 1848, with the following tribes represented, which had belonged to the ancient northwestern confederacy of Indian tribes : Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa, Ottawa, Pottawatomie, Shawnee and
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Miami. Two other tribes were admitted to the confederacy at this time-the Kickapoo and the Kansas. The Sac and Fox were repre- sented, but, as they were ancient enemies of the Wyandots and peace had not been declared between them, they were frightened by a speech made by one of the Wyandot representatives and fled from the conven- tion. This convention continued in session for several days, and the old confederacy was organized, and the Wyandots were reappointed as its head and made keepers of the council-fire. But the Indians reckoned not on the slavery troubles. Evidently they did not see looming up in the distance that dark cloud which was soon to bring on a storm of such violenee as to shake the nation from center to circumference.
WYANDOT INDIANS PIONEERS IN THE MOVEMENT.
But before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act (at first the aet was in common talk called the "Nebraska bill," although Kansas was the real issue) there had been "movements" for a territorial organiza- tion. While the Wyandots were pioneers in demanding a form of government for the Indian country, there were those who desired to win Kansas for the south. In accordance with this purpose of a politieal nature, in the spring of 1852, a public meeting was held at Uniontown, an Indian trading post, on the Kansas river in what is now Shawnet county, and at this gathering were read and adopted resolutions em- bracing a memorial to congress praying for the organization of a terri- torial government. It is said by the most reliable authorities that there were only five or six of these resolutioners and memorialists; but they were enough. All of the members, it was reported, were residents of Missouri. The convention met under a shed, the resolutions were brought on the ground ready made, and were carried. The small but select number of representative statesmen present did not prevent the reeital, in the memorial, that there were hundreds of families in the vicinity who were bona fide settlers and were in suffering need of civil government, and that the meeting was attended by a large number of these citizens. The memorial was widely published and the attention of congress was earnestly called to the needs of the citizens of Kansas.
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