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 13
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Lawrence has 5 banks, 2 daily newspapers (the Journal-World and the Gazette), 3 weekly newspapers (the Gazette, the Democrat and the Germania, the last named printed in German), besides publications by the University of Kansas, the city high school, Haskell Institute and the Fraternal Aid Association. It also has 29 churches, 10 public school buildings, a free public library, founded in 1865 and now located in the
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new Carnegie building erected in 1904, beautiful public parks, an electric lighting system, natural gas for light and fuel, one of the best water- works systems in the state, a street railway system, excellent sewers and drainage, etc. Railroad transportation is furnished by the Union Pacific and two lines of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and this, in connection with the water power supplied by the Kansas river, is mak- ing Lawrence a manufacturing center. Among the products turned out by her factories are flour, cement plaster, brooms, vitrified brick and tile, bicycles, pianos, paper, leather, cigars, cooperage, horse collars, vinegar, metal cornices, canned goods, shirts, egg cases and mattresses. The city also has novelty and iron works, planing mills, a telephone exchange, telegraph and express facilities, and an international money order postoffice with ten rural routes. A new postoffice building has re- cently been erected by the Federal government.
Lawrence is preeminently a city of homes, and the well kept streets, the handsome residences surrounded by beautiful lawns, the numerous shade trees, never fail to awaken the admiration of visitors.
Lawrence, Amos Adams, for whom the city of Lawrence, Kan., was named, was born in Boston, Mass., July 31, 1814. He was the son of Amos and Sarah (Richards) Lawrence, and a grandson of Samuel and Susanna (Parker) Lawrence and of Giles and Sarah (Adams) Richards. His preparation for college was made under the instruction of Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns. He was graduated at Harvard-A. B., 1835, A. M., 1838-and entered the mercantile business. He interested himself in the manufacture of cotton, which had been the business of his father, and was president and director of several banks and industrial corpora- tions in Massachusetts. He became associated with Eli Thayer and others in the colonization of Kansas and was treasurer of the Emigrant Aid company. He was twice nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Whigs and Unionists. At the outbreak of the Civil war he as- sisted in recruiting the Second Massachusetts volunteer cavalry regi- ment. He built Lawrence Hall for the Episcopal theological seminary in Cambridge, at a cost of $75,000. He was treasurer of Harvard College 1857-63, and an overseer 1879-85. In 1846 he gave $10,000 for the es- tablishment of a literary institution in Appleton, Wis., called the Law- rence Institute (now Lawrence University) of Wisconsin. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He gave nearly $12,000 toward founding a free-state college in Kansas, which sum, after a series of changes, went to the University of Kansas. Mr. Law- rence married Sarah Elizabeth Appleton in 1842. He died at Nahant, Mass., Aug. 22, 1886.
Lawrenceburg, a hamlet in Cloud county, is located on the Union Pacific R. R. 9 miles east of Concordia, the county seat, and about 2 miles from Hollis, whence its mail is distributed by rural route.
Lawson, a country postoffice in Grant coúnty, is located 15 miles southeast of New Ulysses, the county seat. It is about 25 miles south of Hartland, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., the nearest shipping point. The population in 1910 was 45.
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Lawton, a hamlet in Cherokee county, is located 10 miles east of Columbus, the county seat, and 8 miles southeast of Weir, the post- office from which it receives mail. Ashburg, the nearest shipping point, is 5 miles distant. It has two general stores. The population in 1910 was 30.
Lead and Zinc Mining .- Although 'the area of lead and zinc fields of Kansas is small, this district is one of the important wealth producing sections of the state. The first discovery of lead in this part of the country was made by LeSueur, who came up the Mississippi river from New Orleans in 1700. The mines he located are in Missouri. The mine La- Motte was discovered in 1720, and in 1723 a grant of it was made to Sieur De Lochon. This mine has been worked almost constantly ever since. The discovery of minerals gradually worked westward until the field reached Jasper county, Mo. The lead and zinc region of Kansas- a part of the Louisiana purchase of 1803-was reserved for the Osage Indians, and when they removed, was held for the Cherokee absentees, becoming known as the "Cherokee Strip." David Harlan, a member of the Cherokee tribe, who located on the Cherokee lands in 1835, discov- ered lead on his farm at the roots of some uprooted trees along Shoal creek, but nothing was said about it. A legend existed that the Indians used to make bullets from lead separated from the flint by a crude smelting process, but it was not until the rich fields of Missouri were opened on the Kansas border that any extensive prospecting was done in Kansas, although some men were thoroughly convinced that the ore deposits extended farther westward.
In 1870 William Cook discovered on the tract known as the "Cook forty" the first zinc ore, or "jack," as it is familiarly known, but little attention was given to it, as everyone was looking for lead ore. In 1871 a company was formed at Baxter Springs for the purpose of obtaining leases and operating mines. This company leased large bodies of land in the vicinity of Baxter Springs and Lowell, and northward along both sides of Spring river. In the spring of 1872 H. R. Crowell made examinations in many places along Short creek. More ore was taken from the Cook forty, and several tons were sold in Joplin to the agent of a smelting company of Lasalle, Ill, to which point it was shipped for smelting. Considerable excitement prevailed when a new discovery was made on the farm of Jesse Harper on Shoal creek. The place, after- ward known as Bonanza, was located in a "bottom" northwest of the present city of Galena. It is reported that while a field was being plowed a piece of lead weighing two or three pounds was turned up. A shaft was immediately sunk and ore in paying quantities was found at a depth of from i5 to 20 feet. As soon as the discovery became known a party of men from Baxter Springs bought out those who had sunk the shaft and secured an option on the tract at $4,000. In the meantime parties from Joplin offered Harper $10,000, but he found that the option held by the Baxter Springs men was binding, and the Bonanza company was formed. Mining operations began immediately and great hopes
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were entertained by the stockholders for successful developments, but water was found in large quantities, which had to be pumped from the mine, hence progress was slow. A smelter was built and attempts were made to handle the ore on the ground, but fuel was too expensive, and a lull followed in mining activities.
In the spring of 1877 John Shew and John McAllen put down a shaft on the farm of a man named Nichols, just south of Short creek, and on March 21 struck lead ore. No other discovery of ore in the Missouri- Kansas district ever attracted more wide-spread interest. Within a short time town sites were surveyed, mining lots mapped out, and a promiscuous population of several thousand people was on the ground. Miss Irene G. Stone, in her article "The Lead and Zinc Fields of Kan- sas," says: "About this time the news spread of the discovery of ore here, and it is estimated that within thirty days at least 10,000 people came pouring in from all directions, in all conceivable kinds of vehicles, some even coming, like the maiden lady of old, afoot and alone. Some rude structures called houses were hurriedly built, the less fortunate ones being compelled to repose upon Mother Earth when darkness overtook them. Those who did the most lucrative business at first were the ones who could secure a tent or shack and prepare any kind of food. The scenes following the discovery of ore in such rich bodies as that at this place have often been described as being the most exciting of any of the actual events of human life, and I have been told by those who have been through such experiences that, for intenseness of feeling, with some features rich in comedy, the strife following the discovery of ore on the Nichols tract would eclipse anything before written."
Just south of the Nichols tract, on the high ground above the creek valley, was the farm of a German named Moll, which seemed the natural location for a town and Moll had many applications to sell his farm. He made several contracts to that effect, the first for $2,500; the second for $5,000 and the third for $10,000. When it was found out that he had made so many agreements, each purchaser insisted on his rights, and it was some time before the town could be located. The first ore taken from the Nichols tract was sent to Joplin to be smelted. The Craig Mining and Smelting company was formed and secured from the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf railroad company a lease with option of pur- chase on 80 acres of land east of the Moll farm, which has since become well known as the property of the South Side Mining and Manufacturing company. All the claimants for the Moll site pooled their interests under the name of the Galena Mining and Smelting company. Another com- pany purchased 200 acres of land on the north side of Short creek where the town of Empire was located. Miss Stone says: "It seemed to be a time when there was no other attraction of the kind, and those who had been through the California and other discoveries of valuable ores claimed never to have seen so large a collection of the tough element as was gathered in this territory at this time." By July 1, 1877, four pay- ing shafts were in operation and the weekly sale of ore amounted to
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$3,000, all taken from an area of less than 2 acres and less than 50 feet below the surface. The first discovery of ore in another locality was on land belonging to the South Side company, just east of Galena. This led to more prospecting, with the result that there are now considerably more than 2,500 acres of developed ore-bearing territory, and competent geologists say that it will take at least another generation before the ore already in sight will be exhausted. About 3 miles southeast of Pleasanton, Linn county, a small quantity of lead and zinc ore has been found, and there are evidences that mining operations have been car- ried on there in the past, but by whom or at what date no one has been able to determine. A company was formed to operate the mines, but they did not pay and were abandoned.
Lead and zinc may be classified as kindred ores. The development of deposits of zinc ore in connection with those of lead was inevitable, for scarcely a shaft was lowered that did not produce ores of both metals and frequently one shovel of earth will have the two ores mixed in about equal proportions. In Kansas, lead usually predominates near the surface, but at the 100-foot level the order is reversed and at lower levels lead nearly always disappears. Some authorities believe that at a depth of 300 or 400 feet lead will again become the principal ore, as in some of the mines in southeastern Missouri.
The first mining and mining apparatus was of the crudest kind. The first horse power was not introduced until 1877, and in April, 1878, the first ordinary geared horse hoister was introduced for raising the ore from the bottom of the shaft. Finally the necessity for more rapid and economical methods of pulverizing the ores became apparent, and Patrick Murphy and S. L. Cheney, of the Empire Mining and Smelting company, contracted for the erection of a mill where the crushing and cleaning could be done by steam power. It was located on the north side of Short creek and was a success from the start. A more improved mill was soon afterward built on the property of the South Side company in Galena. In 1873 a zinc smelter was started at Weir City, and in 1879 the first modern smelter for the reduction of lead ore into pig lead was built by the Galena Lead and Zinc company, with a total capacity of 27,000 pounds a day. This was followed by the addition to "eyes" of other plants, until the capacity was raised to 72,000 pounds a day. In 1878 Robert Lanyon & Co. built two furnaces at Pittsburg, and added two more the following year, all for smelting zinc. Favored by the cheap fuel to be obtained, more smelters were built, but the revolution- izing and greatest development of the smelter industry did not come until the discovery and development of the natural gas fields, since which time the smelters of Kansas have more than quadrupled and given fresh stimulus to the mining industry. The area of the mines has increased from about 10 acres to over 10,000. The Missouri-Kansas lead and zinc region furnishes more than of the zinc ore and about one-third of the lead produced in the United States. In 1907 alone there were shipped from this field 286,587 tons of zinc and 42,034 tons of lead, valued at $15,419,727.
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Leanna, a village in the extreme southern part of Allen county, is about 6 miles southeast of Humboldt, which place is the most convenient railroad station. It has a money order postoffice and is a local trading center for the neighborhood. The population in 1910 was 50.
Learnard, Oscar E., lawyer, journalist and soldier, was born at Fair- fax, Vt., Nov. 14, 1832, in the same house where his father was born. He was of the ninth generation from William Learnard, who came from England in 1630 and settled at Charlestown, Mass. His mother was a descendant of a French Huguenot family that was among the first set- tlers of Saybrook, Conn. The name was originally spelled Larned. Mr. Learnard was educated at Bakersfield Academy, the Norwich University, and graduated at the Albany Law School as a member of the class of 1854. In 1855 he came to Kansas and located at Lawrence, and the next year he commanded a "mounted regiment" of the free-state forces in the border war. In the spring of 1857 he helped to locate and lay out the town of Burlington, where he built the first mill, the first business house, and a building used for school and church purposes. He was a member of the council in the first free-state legislature (1857) ; was president of the convention which met at Osawatomie on May 18, 1859, and organized the Republican party in Kansas; and after the state government was es- tablished he was made judge of the Fifth judicial circuit. This position he resigned to enter the army as lieutenant-colonel of the First Kansas infantry, and served on the staffs of Gens. Hunter and Denver until in 1863, when he resigned his commission. When Price undertook to enter Kansas in the fall of 1864, Col. Learnard again joined the forces for the defense of the state, and took part in the battle of the Blue and the en- gagement at Westport, Mo. He served two terms in the state senate; was superintendent of the Haskell Institute for one year ; was for a quar- ter of a century special attorney and tax commissioner for the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad company, and in 1884 bought the Lawrence Daily Journal, which he published until succeeded by the present Journal company. Mr. Learnard died at Lawrence on Nov. 6, 19II.
Lease, Mary Elizabeth, lawyer and lecturer, was born at Ridgway, Pa., Sept. II, 1853, a daughter of Joseph P. and Mary E. (Murray) Clyens. She was educated at St. Elizabeth's Academy, Allegany, N. Y., and soon after leaving school came to Kansas, where she was admitted to the bar in 1885. In 1888 she made her first public political speech in a union labor convention, and two years later she made over 160 speeches in Kansas for the Farmers' Alliance, attracting wide attention by her radical utterances. She was appointed president of the state board of charities, being the first woman in the United States to hold such a position. She was one of the orators on "Kansas Day" at the Columbian exposition in Chicago in 1893; represented Kansas at the national conference of charities and corrections the same year, and was vice-president of the world's peace congress. On Jan. 30, 1873, she was married to Charles L. Lease at the Osage mission. In 1901 she obtained
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a divorce from her husband, and soon after removed to New York. Mrs. Lease has written for the magazines and is the author of "The Problem of Civilization Solved."
Leavenworth, the county seat of Leavenworth county and the fourth largest city in the state, is situated in the eastern part on the Missouri river, 27 miles above Kansas City. The city had its origin at a meeting at Weston, Mo., a few days after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. On June 12, 1854, the town site was marked off by George W. Gist, John C. Gist and Samuel Farnandis on the Delaware trust lands immediately south of Fort Leavenworth military reservation, the squat- ters there agreeing to relinquish their rights to the town association, which was formed on June 13. George W. Gist was elected president ; H. Miles Moore, secretary ; Joseph B. Evans, treasurer ; L. D. Bird, Amos Rees and E. A. Ogden, trustees ; L. D. Bird, O. Diefendorf and H. Miles Moore, committee on by-laws. The town site of 320 acres was platted into lots and the property was divided into 175 shares, each of the 32 members of the association receiving 5 shares, 12 lots to each share, and the remaining 15 shares were to be held by the trustees to be used for the best interests of the town.
The first sale of town lots was held Oct 9, 1854, when lots were sold anywhere on the town site, but with the understanding that they were for immediate improvement. The Indians viewed with dissatisfaction the encroachment of the whites upon their lands, and stirred up by emis- saries from the rival city of Atchison, sent a petition to the government praying that something be done in regard to the squatters. As a result the government issued an order to the troops at the fort to drive the settlers off, but the founders of Leavenworth had the order delayed and upon assuring the Delaware chiefs that they would pay the price fixed by the government were allowed to stay.
One of the first buildings in Leavenworth was the saw-mill of Murphy & Scruggs, at the mouth of Three Mile creek, where much of the lumber was cut for the buildings of the new town. The Leavenworth Hotel was opened in the fall. On Oct. 8, W. C. Capels, an elder of the Methodist church, held the first religious service in the town under the shade of a tree. By Jan. 1, 1855, there were 200 inhabitants. On March 6, the postoffice was opened.
Leavenworth was incorporated by an act of the legislature in the summer of 1855, and an election fixed for Sept. 3, at which time Thomas W. Slocum was elected mayor; J. H. Day, Frederick A. Emory, Thomas H. Doyle, A. Fisher, G. J. Park, William T. Marvin, councilmen. The council met first on Sept. 11, 1855, in a room over a store on Main street near Delaware. Dr. J. H. Day was chosen president of the council and S. J. Anthony clerk. William A. McDowell was chosen as marshal ; John I. Moore, attorney; William H. Bailey, treasurer; H. G. Weibling, as- sessor; E. L. Berthoud, surveyor, and M. L. Truesdell, comptroller. The council adopted the by-laws of the city of Muscatine, of 1853, as a form of government. The fire company of the city was organized under a charter granted by the legislature in the fall of 1855.
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On July 5, 1858, a disastrous fire occurred. Starting in the theater on the corner of Third and Delaware streets, it swept away a large part of the business district, and for a time it looked as though the whole city would be wiped out.
The early commercial development of Leavenworth was rapid, as it became the starting point of the great government overland transporta- tion company owned and operated by Majors, Russell & Company. This brought stores, and a business life that would not have come in years, in the natural course of events. The Salt Lake and California traders also changed their starting point from the Missouri points to Leavenworth. The great number of employees of these freight companies and the tran- sient population demanded more hotel accommodations. This led to the erection of the Planters' Hotel, completed in the fall of 1856, which became one of the most famous hostelries on the Missouri river. By this time the town had a population of about 1,200, but the political disturbances of 1856 rather hindered commercial development. With the growth of the town means of communication became imperative. There were two great military roads from Fort Leavenworth, one which joined the emigrant road at Whitfield City, and a second known as the Oregon and California road. Roads were laid out to connect Leavenworth with towns up and down the river, and to Lawrence, Lecompton and Topeka; hack and mail lines were established, making weekly and tri-weekly trips to towns of importance in the territory; the telegraph line was extended from St. Louis to Leavenworth in June, 1859, and the following spring the Pike Peak express line began to run from Leavenworth to Salt Lake. The first railroad to come near Leavenworth was the Atchison & St. Joseph, which was completed to Weston in 1861, where it made connection with river transportation for Leavenworth. Two years later Leavenworth became a terminus of the Kansas Pacific railroad, connecting with the main line at Lawrence. With the passing years most of the important lines have built to Leavenworth until in 19II service was provided by the Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, Chicago, Burling ton & Quincy, Leavenworth, Kansas & Western, and the Kansas City-Leavenworth electric line which connects those cities.
By 1859 the streets of Leavenworth were graded, sidewalks were laid, and gas works constructed. The population at that time was over 5,000.
In 1855 a small building near the levee was rented by a Lutheran minister for religious purposes. The first school in the community was taught by H. D. McCarty. The first school board of the city was or- ganized in July, 1858, a house was rented and a teacher hired. In the fall the city was divided into school districts. Today Leavenworth has an excellent public school system. Besides the excellent public schools several sectarian and private schools are maintained in the city.
The Catholic diocese of Leavenworth was established in 1851. Bishop Miege said the first mass in the town in 1854, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was erected in 1863. The First Presbyterian
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Church, the first white church of this denomination in Kansas, was or- ganized in Jan., 1856. In November of the same year St. Paul's Episco- pal parish was established. The United Presbyterian church was es- tablished in 1857, the First Congregational in March, 1858, and the Baptist church in the fall of the year. These pioneer organizations were followed by other denominations, so that today Leavenworth has as many and as fine churches an any city of its size in the state.
Leavenworth has an altitude of 772 feet and is admirably situated. Its manufactories are extensive-due to the splendid shipping facilities and the large supply of coal in the immediate locality. The chief products are mine and mill machinery, steam engines, stoves, wagons, shoes. bakers' ovens, pumps and implements. The city also has large bridge works, packing houses, flour mills, furniture factories, creameries, etc. It is also a jobbing point for a large territory. The streets are well paved, and the city is provided with an electric lighting system, electric street railways, waterworks, etc. Three miles north of the city is Fort Leavenworth (q. v.) which is connected with Leavenworth by the street railway. In 1910 there were 79 manufacturing establishments in the city employing 1,3II wage earners; $3,III,000 of capital was invested, and the net value of the products was $1,678,000, or an increase of seven per cent. in ten years. The population in 1910 was 19,363.
Leavenworth County, in the northeastern part of the state, is in the third tier of counties south of Nebraska and in the first west of the Missouri river. It was erected by the first territorial legislature with the following boundaries: "Beginning at a point on the southern boundary of Atchison county due north of a point 4 miles west of Dawson's crossing of the Fort Riley road on Stranger creek; thence due south to the main channel of the Kansas river; thence down said channel to where said channel crosses the channel of the Missouri river ; thence up said channel of the Missouri, to the southeast corner of Atchison county; thence along the southern boundary of Atchison county to the place of beginning."
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