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 66
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Rayville, a country hamlet in Norton county, is located 16 miles north- west of Norton, the county seat, and 8 miles north of Almena, whence it receives mail by rural delivery, and which is the nearest shipping point. The population in 1910 was IO.
Reading, an incorporated city of the third class in Lyon county, is located in Reading township 16 miles northeast of Emporia, the county seat, on the Marais des Cygnes river and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. The main lines of business enterprise are represented. It has a weekly newspaper (the Herald), a bank, good churches and schools, telegraph and express offices, and an international money order post-
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office with three rural routes. The population, according to the census of 1910, was 289. Reading is a trading point for a large and prosperous farming community. The tract of land which forms the town site was originally owned by McMann & Co., of Reading, Pa. At the time the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. was built a town company was formed consisting of James Fagan, T. J. Peter and M. S. Sargent. A depot was built and the postoffice was established in 1870. A number of business enterprises were projected, among which was a store opened by Bothel & Buns, and a tin shop by a Mr. Coleman. The first car- penter was D. L. Pettinger, who built all the first buildings.
Realf, Richard, poet and patriot, was born in Framfield, Sussex coun- ty, England, June 14, 1834. His father was a rural policeman, enrolled in the West Sussex constabulary, a man of more than average intelli- gence, and his mother was a woman of superior ability. She was his first teacher, after which he was sent to school, and before he was nine years old he wrote a few lines of poetry. He then began working for a physician at Brighton, during the hours he was not in school. Mr. Realf thus describes himself at Brighton: "At the age of fifteen or there- abouts I began to write verses-'lisping in numbers, for the numbers came.'" He was encouraged in writing poetry, became dissatisfied with his surroundings, and in 1853 applied to Lady Brown to assist him to find more congenial employment. He went to Leicestershire as steward's assistant, but had trouble and determined to make a place for himself in the New World. He landed in New York in April, 1855, and became assistant at the Five Points house of industry. In Oct., 1856, he came to Kansas with a northern emigrant train, among whose mem- bers were S. C. Pomeroy, Thaddeus Hyatt, and other notable free-state men. Mr. Realf soon became recognized as one of the heroic spirits and intellectual young men on the free-state side. He took an active part in the border war ; was associated with John Brown at Osawatomie, and was a stanch champion of James H. Lane. He remained in the territory until he joined Brown in Iowa. While in Kansas he wrote some twenty- five lyrics. He returned to England on a visit, and while in Europe went to Paris. He returned to the United States on a cotton ship bound for New Orleans. After landing he worked for some time on the New Orleans Bee and later entered the Jesuit college near Mobile. He was charged with treason in connection with the Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, but was discharged by the United States senate investigating committee. In 1860 he was in Ohio, then disappeared from view until 1862, when he enlisted in the Eighty-eighth Illinois infantry, and was in all the engagements of the Fourth army corps. After being mustered out of the service he went to South Carolina, where he took an active part during the reconstruction period as a writer for the Republican state papers. He became a prominent Republican speaker, at no small danger to himself. Subsequently he was a member of the staff of the Pittsburg Commercial. At this time he wrote one of his strongest lyrics, entitled, "Rally." He remained with the Commercial until 1876 when
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the paper was consolidated with another and in 1877 Mr. Realf started as a lecturer. He became popular and well known in Ohio and Pennsyl- vania, but again failed financially and with the assistance of friends went to the Pacific coast, reaching San Francisco in July, 1878. He died by his own hand at Oakland, Cal., Oct. 28, 1878. One of his most beautiful poems is the last he wrote. It was found after his death, bore no title and may be called his "Swan Song."
Reamsville, one of the villages of Smith county, is located in Martin township, 19 miles north of Smith Center, the county seat, which is also the nearest railroad station. It has two churches, several business estab- lishments, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population, according to the census of 1910, was 100.
Red Bluff, a country hamlet in Meade county, is located about 12 miles south of Meade, the county seat, the nearest shipping point and the postoffice from which it receives mail.
Redbud, a country postoffice in Maple township, Cowley county, is 15 miles northwest of Winfield, the county seat, and 5 miles north of Udall, the nearest shipping point. The population in 1910 was 10.
Redfield, a money order post-village of Bourbon county, is situated on the Missouri Pacific R. R., 9 miles west of Fort Scott, the county seat. It is the supply and shipping point for a considerable district, has several general stores, express and telegraph offices and in 1910 had a population of 225.
Red Legs .- During the early part of the Civil war western Missouri was infested with bands of guerrillas, and it was no uncommon occur- rence for some of these lawless gangs to cross the border and commit depredations in Kansas. To guard against these incursions, and other- wise to aid the Union cause, a company of border scouts was formed sometime in the year 1862. As it was an independent organization, never regularly mustered into the United States service, no official rec- ord of it has been preserved. The men composing the company became known as "Red Legs," from the fact that they wore leggings of red or tan-colored leather. Wilder, in his Annals of Kansas (p. 956), says it was a secret Union military society, that it was organized in June, 1862, and numbered 163 men, with George H. Hoyt as commander. John M. Dean, who was a member of the company, says it was organized in Oct., 1862. Connelley, in his Quantrill and the Border Wars, says it was organized by Gens. Ewing and Blunt for desperate service along the border, and George W. Martin, secretary of the Kansas Historical So- ciety, in Volume XI of the Kansas Historical Collections (p. 279), says the Red Legs were organized in Dec., 1862, or Jan., 1863, and that there were never less than 50 nor more than 100 of them.
The qualifications for membership in the company were unquestioned loyalty to the Union cause, undaunted courage and the skillful use of the rifle or revolver. Their headquarters were at the "Six-mile House," so called because it was six miles from Wyandotte on the Leavenworth road. This house was erected in the winter of 1860-61 by Joseph A.
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Bartels, whose son, Theodore, one of the best pistol shots on the border, was a member of the Red Legs. The company was commanded by Capt. George H. Hoyt, the lawyer who defended John Brown at Charles- ton, Va. Other members were Jack Harvey, a brother of Fred Harvey, of Santa Fe eating house fame; William Hickok, who later became known as "Wild Bill"; Joseph B. Swain, nicknamed "Jeff Davis," after- ward captain of Company K. Fifteenth Kansas; "Red" Clark, of Em- poria, whom Gen. Ewing said was the best spy he ever had; John M. Dean, who has already been mentioned as one of the organizers; and W. S. Tough, for many years proprietor of the horse market at the Kansas City stock yards. Still others, of less note, were Harry Lee, Newt Morrison, Jack Hays, James Flood, Jerry Malcolm, and Charles Blunt, often called "One-eyed Blunt."
William W. Denison, assistant adjutant-general of Kansas some years after the war, was a private soldier in the Eleventh Kansas, and was one of the detail to enforce Gen. Ewing's General Order No. II (q. v.). On that occasion he wore the red leggings of the organization, which came to be recognized as "a badge of desperate service in the Union army." Ewing and Blunt, generals, usually had several of the Red Legs on their pay rolls, where they received often as much as $7 per day on account of the hazardous service they were required to render.
In course of time the term "Red Leg" became general along the bor- der. Connelley says: "Every thief who wanted to steal from the Mis- souri people counterfeited the uniform of the Red Legs and went forth to pillage. This gave the organization a bad name, and much of the plundering done along the border was attributed to them, when, in fact, they did little in that line themselves. There were some bad characters among them-very bad. But they were generally honest and patriotic men. They finally hunted down the men who falsely represented them- selves to be Red Legs, and they killed every man found wearing the uniform without authority."
Albert R. Greene, a member of the Ninth Kansas cavalry, was per- sonally acquainted with many of the Red Legs and was also well acquainted with the nature of their service. Concerning them and their work he says: "There was not one of them but performed valuable service for the Union cause, and, so far as I know and believe, always within the rules of civilized warfare. That the organization was dis- banded before the close of the war was owing more to the fact that the necessity for its existence had ceased than because a few of its members had thrown off the restraints of discipline. It is enough to say for the propriety and wisdom of such an organization as the Red Legs, that it did more to protect the homes of Kansas than any regiment in the service, and was the organization of all others most dreaded by Quantrill."
Such was the character of the Red Legs-men who knew not the meaning of the word cowardice, and who left their fields and firesides to defend their homes against the irregular and predatory warfare of
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the guerrilla and the bushwhacker. Like the "Minute Men" of Concord and Lexington, they never hesitated to meet the invader, and when the trying conditions that called the organization into existence had passed most of the members returned to peaceful occupations and became again law-abiding citizens. It is to be regretted that, not being regularly en- listed soldiers, the complete and authentic history of the Red Legs and their deeds of heroism and daring cannot be obtained at this late day.
Redwing, a hamlet in Barton county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R., about 15 miles northeast of Great Bend, the county seat. It has a flour mill, a number of general stores, a blacksmith shop and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population, according . to the census of 1910, was 60.
Reece, a village of Greenwood county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in Spring Creek township, 10 miles west of Eureka, the county seat. There are churches and schools, mercantile establishments, express and telegraph offices, and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population, according to the 1910 census, was 100.
Reeder, Andrew Horatio, the first governor of the Territory of Kan- sas, was born at Easton, Pa., July 12, 1807. He received an academic education at Lawrenceville, N. J., after which he studied law and began practice in his native town. He quickly won distinction as a lawyer, in a district noted for its eminent members of the bar, and at an early age became an active participant in political affairs. His first presidential vote was cast for Gen. Andrew Jackson in 1824, and from that time until his death he affiliated with the Democratic party, though not always in harmony with its leaders. Mr. Reeder was never an office seeker, and when appointed governor of Kansas by President Pierce, in June, 1854, was not an applicant for the position. His appointment was confirmed by the United States senate on June 30, 1854; he took the oath of office before Justice Daniel of the United States supreme court on July 7; arrived at Leavenworth on Oct. 7, and there established temporarily the executive office. A week later, in company with two of the territorial judges-Johnston and Elmore-he started on a tour through the terri- tory, which occupied his time until Nov. 7. Upon the slavery question, Gov. Reeder was in sympathy with Stephen A. Douglas, United States senator from Illinois. No doubt he would have been willing to see slavery legally introduced into Kansas, even though his private opinion might have made him favorable to the admission of Kansas as a free state. Holloway, in his History of Kansas (p. 144), says: "Gov. Reeder came into the territory, a lifelong Democrat, and it appears to have been assumed that he would allow himself to be manipulated by the slave- owners and their tools. It is not certain that President Pierce enter- tained such an idea, but it is known that when complaints were made by the slaveowners and their friends against Gov. Reeder, the chief executive made very little delay in decapitating the offender."
The order removing Gov. Reeder from office was issued in the latter part of July, 1855, but he did not receive official notice of his removal
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until the 15th of August. He remained in the territory, however, and took an active part in shaping the destinies of the new commonwealth. In Oct .. 1855, he was the free-state candidate for delegate to Congress, and received 2,849 votes, to 2,721 cast for John W. Whitfield, the pro- slavery candidate. When Congress assembled in December, Mr. Reeder went to Washington and began a contest for the seat. The matter was referred to a special committee, consisting of William A. Howard, of Michigan ; John Sherman, of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver, of Missouri, which finally decided that neither Whitfield nor Reeder was entitled to recognition as delegate, and on Aug. 1, 1856, the seat was declared vacant. While this committee was hearing witnesses at Tecumseh, Kan., in the spring of 1856, a pro-slavery grand jury summoned Mr. Reeder to appear as a witness, the subpoena being served in the presence of the Congressional committee. He ignored the summons, and the grand jury then found indictments for treason against Mr. Reeder, Dr. Charles Robinson, and others who had aided in the organization of the free-state government. Again he disregarded the action of the grand jury and defied the officers when they came to place him under arrest. According to a diary kept by Mr. Reeder, he remained concealed with a friend near Lawrence until the evening of May 11, 1856, when he started for Kansas City, where he arrived about two o'clock the next morning. He then remained in hiding at Kansas City until the 23d, when he embarked in small skiff with D. E. Adams and was rowed down the river to be taken on board the steamer Converse. Disguised as a woodchopper, with a bundle of clothing and an ax, he caught the steamer at Randolph landing on the 24th, and three days later reached the State of Illinois. As he continued his journey eastward he was given an ovation in each of the principal towns through which he passed, the people assembling in large numbers to welcome him and assure him pro- tection in case an attempt was made to arrest him. At the outbreak of the Civil war he was appointed a brigadier-general by President Lin- coln, but owing to his advanced age he did not enter the army. Three of his sons, however, took up arms in defense of the Union. In 1831 Mr. Reeder was united in marriage with Miss Amelia Hutter, of Easton, Pa., and to this marriage were born eight children, five of whom, with the mother, survived Gov. Reeder, who died at Easton on July 5. 1864. Connelley says: "In a high place in Kansas history must we place An- drew H. Reeder, the first territorial governor. He lives in the hearts of the grateful people who enjoy the liberty he helped to establish."
Reeder's Administration-On May 30, 1854, President Pierce signed the bill for the organization of Kansas Territory, and before the adjourn- ment of the Congress then in session he announced the appointment of the following territorial officers: Governor, Andrew H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania; secretary, Daniel Woodson, of Virginia; chief justice, Madison Brown, of Maryland ; associate justices, Saunders W. Johnston, of Ohio, and Rush Elmore, of Alabama ; marshal, Israel B. Donalson, of Illinois ; district attorney, Andrew J. Isaacs, of Louisiana ; surveyor-
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general, John Calhoun, of Illinois. Madison Brown declined the appoint- ment as chief justice and the president appointed Samuel D. Lecompte, of the same state. Thomas J. B. Cramer was appointed treasurer, and John Donaldson, auditor of accounts.
As stated in the preceding article, Gov. Reeder arrived on Oct. 7, 1854, at Fort Leavenworth, where he was greeted by the officers of the fort with the national salute, and at 3 p. m. a large number of citizens as- sembled to welcome him to the territory. Dr. Charles Leib, in an appro- priate address, extended to the new executive the hospitality and sup- port of the people of Kansas. In his reply Gov. Reeder dealt chiefly with generalities, and gave no intimation of the policy he intended to pursue with regard to the question of slavery, which was just then uppermost in the public mind. This was a disappointment to the slave- holders and their friends, who confidently expected Gov. Reeder to be- come an active supporter of the slave power, not dreaming that any appointee of the national administration could be otherwise. This dis- appointment was heightened when a few days later the governor de- clined to be a guest at a public dinner given by certain slave owners at a hotel in Weston, Mo. The pro-slavery men construed the gover- nor's action in this instance as hostile, and branded him at once as an "Abolitionist."
The situation became more strained when the pro-slavery men urged an election for members of a territorial legislature and the governor reminded them that the organic act required a census of the territory to be taken before members of a legislature could be chosen, and an- nounced his determination to carry out the provisions of the law. Free- state immigrants were constantly coming into Kansas, which was the cause of the anxiety on the part of the pro-slavery men, who wanted to get control of the legislative department of the territorial government before they should be outnumbered by this tide of immigration from the free states.
Secretary Woodson arrived at Leavenworth on Oct. 18, and the same day Gov. Reeder, Marshal Donalson, and Judges Johnston and Elmore started on a tour through the territory "to examine the same." Upon their return to Leavenworth on Nov. 7, the territory was divided into sixteen election districts, and on the Ioth Gov. Reeder issued his procla- mation ordering an election for delegate to Congress on the 29th of the same month. As designated in the proclamation, the voting places in the several districts were as follows: Ist-Dr. Robinson's office, Law- rence ; 2d-Paris Ellison's house, Douglas City ; 3d-Thomas Stinson's house, Tecumseh; 4th-Dr. Chapman's house; 5th-Hy Sherman's house on Pottawatomie creek; 6th-H. T. Wilson's house, Fort Scott ; 7th-Fry McGee's house on II0 mile creek and the Santa Fe trail; 8th-Ingraham Baker's house; 9th-Reynolds' house at the crossing of Seven-mile creek; roth-S. D. Dyer's house at the crossing of Big Blue river; IIth-the trading house of Marshall & Woodward, Marysville ; 12th-R. C. Miller's residence; 13th-G. M. Dyer's house, Ozawkee;
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14th-Harding's house (not given in the proclamation, but fixed later) ; 15th-Paschal Pensineau's house on the Fort Leavenworth and Oregon road; 16th-Keller & Kyle's place in the city of Leavenworth. Sub- sequently the 17th district was created with the voting place at the Shawnee agency.
In his proclamation the governor gave the oath of the judges of elec- tion, in which was the following: "We will poll no ticket from any person who is not an actual bona fide resident and inhabitant of said territory on the day of the election, and whom we shall not honestly be- lieve to be a qualified voter according to the provisions of the act of Congress organizing said territory, that we will reject the votes of all and every non-resident who we believe has come into the territory for the mere purpose of voting."
This did not please the pro-slavery men, whose policy had been out- lined by Gen. David R. Atchison, in a speech early in November in Platte county, Mo., in which he said: "The people of Kansas, in their first elections, will decide the question whether or not the slaveholder is 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 can afford to advance money and exert every nerve to abolitionize the territory and exclude the slaveholder, when they have not the least personal interest, what is your duty? When you reside in one day's journey of the territory, and when your peace, your quiet, and your property depend on your action, you can, without an exertion, send five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of your institutions. Should each county in the State of Missouri only do its duty, the ques- tion will be decided quietly and peaceably at the ballot-box."
Here was a plain statement of the methods to be pursued by the slave power. The purity of the ballot and observance of the laws were not to be permitted to stand in the way of making Kansas a slave state. On Nov. 15, some 300 Missourians crossed over to Leavenworth, where they held a convention, denounced Gov. Reeder for not ordering an elec- tion for members of the legislature, and appointed a committee to call upon him and urge him to do so. The governor refused to reply to the committee until they showed him the proceedings of the convention. "The meeting," said he, "was not of the 'citizens of Kansas,' as your proceedings will show, if you will produce them. It was a meeting com- posed mainly of citizens of Missouri, and a few citizens of Kansas. . . The gentlemen principally composing your meeting came from across the river, thronging the road from the ferry to town, on horse- back, and in wagons, in numbers variously estimated at from 200 to 300; and after the meeting was over they returned to their homes in the State of Missouri."
Finding that the governor could not be coerced into ordering an elec- tion for members of the legislature, the pro-slavery men accepted the situation and made preparations to carry the election for delegate. There were three candidates for that office. John A. Wakefield, the
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free-state candidate, was a native of Virginia, not highly educated, but possessed of a good supply of common sense; John W. Whitfield, the pro-slavery candidate, was a native of Tennessee, and at the time of the election was a resident of Jackson county, Mo .; Robert P. Flenniken, who ran as an independent candidate, had come out from Pennsylvania with governor Reeder for that purpose, and left the territory imme- diately after the election. At the election on Nov. 29, Whitfield re- ceived 2,258 votes; Wakefield, 248; Flenniken, 305; scattering, 22. A Congressional committee afterward reported that 1,729 of the votes cast for Whitfield were illegal, but as the free-state vote had been divided between Wakefield and Flenniken, he still had a plurality of the legal votes and was allowed to take his seat as a delegate. Thus the first victory at the polls was won by the slave power.
In January and February, 1855, Gov. Reeder caused a census to be taken. The total population of the territory was found to be 8,501, of whom 2,905 were voters. On March 8 he issued a proclamation calling an election on Friday, March 30, for members of the first territorial legislature. The election districts remained the same as in the election for delegate to Congress, but were divided into ten districts for mem- bers of the council and fourteen districts for members of the house. In the campaign for members of the legislature, the same tactics were prac- ticed by the pro-slavery men in the election of delegate. Atchison's speech again became the slogan, and Connelley, in his Territorial Gover- nors, says: "Men were enlisted and paid to march into the territory on the day of the election. Violence was openly threatened, and vile, inflammatory and incendiary language only was employed in discuss- ing the course to be taken against the 'Abolitionists' of the territory.
The invasion was on a grand scale. Fully 5,000 residents of Missouri came into Kansas to vote. They flourished pistols, guns and bowie-knives. They marched to the polling places and routed the legal judges and installed in their places members of their own body .. After the votes were polled, some leader of the mob would call out, 'All aboard for Missouri!' With noise, curses, yells and drunken screeches of exultation they fell into a motley and disordered throng and marched away with the poll-books and election records."
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