USA > Kansas > Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Volume II > Part 113
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On July II there was another meeting at Lawrence, at which the expelled free-state members of the legislature were present, the object of this meeting being "To consider the present exigency in our political and governmental affairs, and to take the necessary preliminary steps for the calling of a mass convention of the free-state men of the territory to deliberate in reference to our present condition and future action."
The convention called by this meeting assembled at Lawrence on Aug. 14, two days before Gov. Reeder announced his removal from office. Dr. Charles Robinson offered a series of resolutions, the pre- amble of which reviewed the actions of the Missourians on March 30, and criticised the legislature for its removal to the Shawnee Mission. The resolutions proper declared the invasion of March 30 as one of the greatest outrages upon the laws of the land and the rights of the people ever attempted in this country; indignantly repelled the pretensions of the legislature then in session to make laws for the people; consid- ered the attempt to establish territorial government thus far an utter
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failure, and declared that the people should "at some convenient period assemble at the several places of holding elections in the various dis- tricts of the territory and elect delegates to a convention to form a state constitution, with a view to an immediate state organization and application, at the next session of Congress, for admission into the American Union." (See Topeka Constitution.)
The resolutions also acknowledged a debt of gratitude to Gov. Reeder for the "firmness, ability and integrity shown in the discharge of his duty as executive officer of the territory."
Another convention met on the 15th, under a call signed "Many Citizens," though it was in reality an adjunct to the convention of the preceding day. Cutler says: "Out of these two conventions, entirely distinct, yet most mysteriously one, came the inception of the movements which resulted in the organization of a free-state party and the fram- ing of a free-state constitution."
The former of these two conventions led to the Big Springs con- vention (q. v.) of Sept. 5, when the free-state party was organized, and the latter had for its object the calling of the Topeka constitutional convention.
Such was the state of affairs when Mr. Woodson assumed the duties of governor on Aug. 16, 1855. The lack of harmony that had existed between Gov. Reeder and the legislature then in session soon vanished after Woodson became acting governor. A pro-slavery man himself, the confidence between him and the assembly was mutual. He promptly signed all bills submitted to him, and it is said in many instances with- out giving them proper consideration, only one, an act illegally ap- propriating money, having been disapproved. Between Ang. 16, when Woodson came into office as acting governor, and Aug. 30, when the legislature adjourned, a great deal of legislation was enacted. A per- manent seat of government was established at Lecompton; counties were created and governments therefor provided by the appointment of pro-slavery officers ; the territorial militia was ordered to be organized ; the qualifications of voters defined; provisions were made for the peo- ple to vote at the election in Oct., 1856, on the question of calling a constitutional convention, and a general code of laws for the territory was adopted. The code was taken from that of Missouri, which had in turn been taken from the code in New York and some of the other Eastern states. It was not strong enough on the subject of slavery to suit the legislature, hence it was supplemented by the so-called "Black Laws" (q. v.), imposing severe penalties for even the slightest infringe- ment of the real or imaginary rights of the slaveholder.
In the law prescribing the qualifications of voters was the provision that no person should be permitted or entitled to vote who had been con- victed of any violation of the fugitive slave law, and any person whose vote might be challenged was required to make oath that he would sup- port the fugitive slave law and the territorial organic act. This was a
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well laid scheme to disfranchise the free-state citizens whose self-re- spect would not permit them to subscribe to such an oath, and thus, by the mere act of challenging all voters, the pro-slaveryites could con- trol future elections.
Although the organic act provided that no legislator should be eli- gible for any office created by the assembly of which he was a member, the legislature had barely adjourned when Gov. Woodson appointed several of the members as officers of the territorial militia. The legis- lature adjourned on Aug. 30, and the next day he appointed A. M. Cof- fey major-general of the southern division; William P. Richardson, major-general of the northern division; William A. Heiskell, William Barbee, F. J. Marshall and Lucian J. Eastin, brigadier-generals ; H. J. Strickler, adjutant-general; S. A. Williams and Archibald Payne, colo- nels. He also appointed and commissioned a number of officers of the newly created counties, the greater part of his time being thus occu- pied until the arrival of Gov. Shannon.
When Gov. Shannon left for St. Louis on June 24, 1856, Mr. Wood- son became for a third time the acting governor, and though this period of his administration lasted only two weeks, it gave him ample oppor- tunity to manifest his dislike of his political opponents. On the 29th he made a requisition to Col. P. St. George Cooke, commanding at Fort Riley, for troops to prevent the Topeka legislature from assembling on July 4, notwithstanding Gov. Shannon, prior to his departure, had charged Col. Sumner with this duty. In his communication to Col. Cooke, Mr. Woodson claimed to have information "that large numbers of armed men are now on their way to Topeka, for the purpose of sus- taining the bogus legislature," and asked Cooke "to take the field at once with all your available forces, and scour the country between Fort Riley and Topeka, for the purpose of repelling said armed invasion of the country."
On July 4, the day fixed for the assembling of the legislature, the acting governor issued a proclamation forbidding all persons claiming legislative power under the Topeka constitution "from organizing, or attempting to organize or act in any legislative capacity whatever, un- der the penalties attached to all willful violations of the laws of the land and disturbers of the peace and tranquility of the country."
But requisitions for troops and proclamations did not deter the mem- bers of the legislature from assembling at the designated time. The clerk of the house had barely finished calling the roll, when Col. Sum- ner, who had come in and taken a seat near the speaker's desk, arose and said : "Gentlemen : I am called upon this day to perform the most painful duty of my whole life. Under authority of the president's proc- lamation, I am here to disperse this legislature, and therefore inform you that you cannot meet. I therefore order you to disperse. God knows that I have no party feeling in this matter, and will hold none so long as I occupy my present position in Kansas. I have just re- turned from the borders, where I have been sending home companies
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of Missourians, and now I am ordered here to disperse you. Such are my orders and you must disperse. I repeat that it is the most painful duty of my whole life."
After some little discussion, the house dispersed, and Col. Sumner went to the senate, which had not yet been called to order, and informed the members that they must disperse, which they promptly did. The whole incident savored of the proverbial birth of the mouse from the travail of the mountain.
Aside from the dispersion of the Topeka legislature, Mr. Woodson had but little to engross his attention or call for the exercise of the executive function until July 7, when Gov. Shannon returned from St. Louis and resumed the duties of the office until Aug. 18, when he re- tired permanently. On the 20th Gen. Richardson, commanding the northern division of the territorial militia, sent a despatch to the gov- ernor, stating that Gen. Lane had recruited a large military force in the free states and "marched them into the Territory of Kansas with the avowed object of setting at defiance the laws of the territory."
It seems that Gen. Richardson had assembled the militia of his di- vision, and now asked for orders. On the 21st Woodson wrote to him approving his course in thus ordering out the militia "to repel the pres- ent ruthless invasion of the territory by armed mobs from distant states." The acting governor also suggested that Gen. Marshall, of the First brigade, should be ordered to intercept the invaders coming in through Nebraska, and "should have a force of not less than 300 mounted men, or more, if you deem it desirable, and one piece of artillery, if you can spare it." Richardson was ordered to report with the remainder of his command to the governor at the earliest practicable day," and Gen. Coffey was ordered to rendezvous his division "at or near the town of Palmyra, in the county of Douglas." Had the territorial authorities been in position to display the same activity in March, 1855, in re- pelling the invasion of Missourians, the history of Kansas might have been differently written.
On Aug. 25, 1856, Woodson issued his famous "extermination procla- mation," declaring the territory in a state of insurrection, the principal feature of which was as follows: "I do hereby call all law-abiding citi- zens of the territory to rally to the support of their country and its laws, and require and command all officers, civil and military, and all other citizens of the territory, to aid and assist by all means in their power in putting down the insurrectionists, and in bringing to condign punishment all persons engaged with them; to the end of assuring im- munity from violence and full protection to the persons, property and all civil rights of all peaceable and law-abiding inhabitants of the ter- ritory."
Connelley, in his Territorial Governors, says the proclamation "was designed to crush the free-state cause in Kansas and to license the bor- der ruffians to exterminate free-state men and their families and con- fiscate their property. The cry then arose along the border, 'Let the
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watchword be extermination, total and complete,' and Acting Gov. Woodson approved and acted upon it. Only the arrival and prompt and vigorous action of Gov. Geary prevented its consummation."
On Aug. 28 Woodson made a requisition to Col. Cooke for a posse of soldiers to aid the marshal in the execution of certain writs, and four days later, after issuing commissions to a number of new militia officers, he ordered Cooke to invest the town of Topeka and disarm all insurrec- tionists or aggressive invaders found there, level all breastworks or other fortifications, and hold as prisoners all persons found in arms against the government. Cooke was also directed to intercept invaders on the road known as "Lane's trail."
The next day Col. Cooke sent to the acting governor a rather caustic reply. After calling attention to the instructions of the secretary of war and Gen. Persifer F. Smith, who had succeeded Col. Sumner, he said : "In my best judgment, I cannot comply with your call. If the army be useless in the present unhappy crisis, it is because in our constitution and laws civil war was not foreseen ; nor the contingency of a systematic resistance by the people to governments of their own creation, and which at short intervals they may regularly correct or change. Your letter will be forwarded by express to Maj .- Gen. Smith for his considera- tion and action."
Finding his efforts to use the Federal troops futile, Gov. Woodson turned his attention to a more thorough organization of the territorial militia. More officers were commissioned and other steps taken to stamp out the rising spirit of freedom in the territory, but before the plans of the pro-slavery people could be carried into effect Gov. Geary came into office and reversed the entire policy of the acting governor.
Between March 12 and April 16, the last period of Gov. Woodson's administration, but little happened out of the ordinary current of events. His first acts were to commission a number of county officers-all pro- slavery men-and on March 25 the acting governor received a letter from the clerk and probate judge of Anderson county, stating that owing to the insurrectionary spirit, it was impossible "to carry into effect the provisions of the law authorizing the taking of the census and assess- ment," and several of the newly appointed officers were afraid to accept their commissions and qualify. True to his policy on former occa- sions, Woodson immediately called upon Gen. Smith for a company of dragoons, to be accompanied by a United States commissioner "author- ized to take evidence and bring to the bar of justice all such offenders." He also protested to Gen. Smith against the withdrawal of Capt. New- by's company of dragoons from Lecompton, because "The presence of the military has a very salutary influence in preserving order in the ex- isting unsettled and inflammable state of the public mind in this part of the territory."
At the time this letter was written, the administration of President Buchanan was but three weeks old. Woodson's apparent desire to use the military on all occasions led Col. Sumner to write to him on March
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27, as follows: "I would respectfully suggest whether it would not be safer to pause a little in military matters, until we know the policy of the new administration."
This suggestion evidently had its effect, as no more calls for troops were made by Mr. Woodson during the brief time he continued to act as the territory's chief executive. On April 15 Secretary Stanton reached Lecompton, and the next day Woodson turned over to him man- agement of executive affairs.
Woodston, an incorporated city of the third class in Rooks county, is located in Lowell township on the south fork of the Solomon river and the Missouri Pacific R. R., 10 miles east of Stockton, the county seat. It has a bank, a newspaper, a flour mill, a grain elevator, a cornet band, all lines of retail establishments, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 299. It is the receiving and shipping point for a large and prosperous grain and stock raising territory.
Woodward, Brinton Webb, merchant and author, was born on Feb. 14, 1834, a son of Caleb and Mary (Webb) Woodward. His father was of Pennsylvania Quaker ancestry, descended from Robert Woodward, who settled in what is now Delaware county, Pa., soon after the grant was made to William Penn. His mother was of English-German descent. He was reared on his father's farm in Chester county, Pa., part of an estate that had been in the family for over a century ; entered the acad- emy when eleven years of age, and upon completing the course there began teaching. In 1854, while visiting in Illinois, he heard Stephen A. Douglas speak, became interested in the struggle of Kansas for freedom, determined to cast his lot with the territory, and arrived at Lawrence on May 20, 1855. He purchased a stock of books and drugs in St. Louis and started one of the oldest continuous business houses west of St. Louis, on Massachusetts street. He acted as secretary of the first terri- torial convention held by the free-state party. During the Wakarusa war he was a member of the "Kansas Guards" and took an active part in the defense of Lawrence. In 1857 he was a delegate to the free-state convention which nominated Marcus J. Parrott for delegate to Congress. When Quantrill raided Lawrence in 1863, Mr. Woodward's stock of goods was destroyed and he narrowly escaped death. In 1866 he was instrumental in organizing the St. Louis, Lawrence & Denver railroad company and acted as secretary of the company until the completion of the road to Lawrence. In 1878, in connection with two partners, he opened a wholesale drug house in Kansas City, of which he was a part- ner until 1897, when he retired. Mr. Woodward always took an active interest in directing the educational matters of Lawrence. In 1876 he was appointed a member of the board of regents of the state university ; was one of the founders of the Old and New club, and in 1890 published a volume of poems, sketches and essays entitled, "Old Wine in New Bottles," dedicated to the club. Mr. Woodward also served as president of local art societies, university extension associations, the Kansas Acad-
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emy of Language and Literature, and was one of the organizers of the Kansas State Historical Society. He was especially interested in art and had the finest private art gallery in Kansas. While on a visit to his sister, at West Chester, Pa., Mr. Woodward was stricken with paralysis and died there on Oct. 9, 1900.
Wooster, Lyman Child, educator and writer, was born on Aug. 1, 1849, at Hammond, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., and was descended from the Wooster family of Connecticut, to which Gen. David Wooster, who served in the French and Indian and the Revolutionary wars, belonged, and from the Child family of Welsh and English ancestry. His boyhood was spent on a farm in New York state, later he went to Wisconsin. He attended college at Milton, Wis., from 1865 to 1867, the state normal from 1870 to 1873, and Beloit College from 1873 to 1875. From 1873 to 1879 he was assistant in the Wisconsin geological survey ; was professor of natural science at the Wisconsin state normal 1878-81 ; attended Yale in 1881-82 ; was assistant geologist in the U. S. geological survey from 1881 to 1884; came to Kansas in 1883 and located at Eureka ; was super- intendent of the Kansas educational exhibit at the World's Fair at Chi- cago; held the chair of natural sciences at the North Dakota state nor- mal from 1893 to 1895 ; was superintendent of the city schools at Eureka, Kan .; attended the Chicago University in 1897, and received the honorary degree of Ph. D. from Milton College in the same year, and since that time he has been professor of biology and geology in the Kansas state normal school at Emporia. Dr. Wooster is the author of several small books, among which are , A Report of the Geology of Northwestern Wis- consin, The Geological Story of Kansas, Story of Life, Plant Record, Educational History of Kansas, and numerous articles published in the reports of the Kansas Academy of Science of which he was president in 1905.
Wooten, Richens Lacy, scout and frontiersman, was born in Virginia about 1817. When he was seven years old his parents removed to Ken- tucky, and in 1836 he went to Independence, Mo., where he became a teamster for St. Vrain and the Bents in the Santa Fe trade. In child- hood he had the misfortune to lose two fingers on his left hand, and he was called "Cut Hand" by the Arapahoe Indians, but to the white men of the West he was familiarly known as "Uncle Dick." He was an ex- pert with the rifle and was engaged in his first Indian fight on the Paw- nee river, near the crossing of the Santa Fe trail. In 1866 he received authority from the legislature of Colorado and New Mexico to construct a road through the Raton pass. He built the road, and also built a dwell- ing in the pass, where he died in his 90th year. It is said that he some- times collected toll at the muzzle of his rifle from travelers over his road. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad company named one of its locomotives "Uncle Dick" in his honor.
Worden, a hamlet located in the south central part of Douglas county, is about 7 miles west of Baldwin, the nearest railroad town, from which it has rural free delivery. In 1910 the population was 26.
World's Fairs .- (See Expositions.)
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Worrall, Henry, Kansas' first artist and pioneer decorator, was born at Liverpool, England, April 14, 1825. His father was an editor, who came to America in 1835 and settled in Canada, but Henry soon went to Buffalo, N. Y., where he sold newspapers on the streets. Later he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he followed the trade of glass cutter and studied music. He showed marked musical ability and while in Cin- cinnati composed a guitar piece entitled, "Sevastopol," which became famous. The sale of the piece made a fortune for the publishers, though Worrall received only a small price for it. He came to Kansas in 1868 on account of his health; located at Topeka and interested himself in the welfare of the city and state; devoted himself for some time to the cultivation of grapes, and planted one of the finest vineyards in Shaw- nee county, on the grounds now occupied by the insane asylum. In 1869 Mr. Worrall became well known by his picture "Droughty Kansas," which depicts the state's crops in an exaggerated manner and was one of the best advertisements Kansas ever had, copies of it being printed and distributed all over the country. He became noted as a musician, artist, composer and wood carver ; was organist for years in one of the churches at Topeka ; played on more than twenty different instruments, and invented several wind instruments made of wood and straw. Mr. Worrall made the large wood carving of the seal of Kansas surrounded by products of the state, which was exhibited at the Centennial exposi- tion at Philadelphia in 1876 and which was on view at Mount Vernon until 1910, when it was returned to Kansas and placed in the museum of the Kansas State Historical Society at Topeka. During the Centen- nial exposition Mr. Worrall was employed by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad company to write articles which would draw immigra- tion to Kansas. He was always active in representing Kansas at state fairs and industrial expositions. He made crayon portraits of members of the supreme court and an oil portrait of Gov. Osborn, which hangs in the museum of the State Historical Society. He died at his home in Topeka, June 20, 1902.
Wreford, a hamlet in Geary county, is located in Lyon township on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R., 5 miles south of Junction City, the county seat. It has general stores and a postoffice. The population in 1910 was 73.
Wright, a hamlet in Ford county, is located in Grandview township on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 7 miles northeast of Dodge City, the county seat. It has a general store, telegraph and express offices and a postoffice. The population in 1910 was 60.
Wyandotte .- (See Kansas City.)
Wyandotte County, located in the extreme eastern part of the state, was formed from the southeastern part of Leavenworth county by an act of the legislature of Jan. 29, 1859, with the following boundaries: "Commencing at a point in the middle of the channel of the Missouri river, where the north line of the Delaware reserve intersects the same,
(II-60)
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running thence west, on said reserve line, to the line between ranges 22 and 23; thence south on said range line, to the south boundary of Leavenworth county ; thence easterly, on said boundary, to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence northwesterly, with said main channel, to the place of beginning; also that portion of John- son county, lying north of the township line between townships II and 12, east of range 23."
Wyandotte is the smallest county in the state, having an area of only 153 square miles. It is triangular in shape, being bounded on the north by Leavenworth county and the Missouri river ; on the east by the Mis- souri river; on the south by Johnson county, and on the west by Leav- enworth county. It was named in memory of the Wyandotte Indians. At the present time the county is divided into the following townships: Delaware, Prairie, Quindaro, Shawnee and Wyandotte. The general surface of the country is undulating, marked by high bluffs along the Kansas and Missouri rivers. In the early territorial days, the eastern portion of the county was heavily timbered with cottonwood, hickory, oak, walnut and other varieties of trees native to Kansas. The main water course is the Missouri river, and the next stream of importance is the Kansas river, which forms a part of the southern boundary, and then flowing northeast empties into the Missouri river at Kansas City. It separates the two southeastern townships from the remainder of the county. Springs are found in all portions of the county and well water can be obtained at an average depth of 35 feet. Limestone, sandstone. fire clay and cement rock are found in considerable quantities. Coal has been reached at a depth of 300 feet and is mined for commercial purposes. The soil is a rich sandy loam, especially well adapted to fruit raising. Agriculturally the county ranks high ; winter wheat, corn and oats are important crops and it is the "banner" county in the pro- duction of Irish potatoes. There are over 300,000 fruit trees of bearing age, apple and peach being the leading varieties.
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