USA > Kansas > Douglas County > Lawrence > The Kansas memorial, a report of the Old Settlers' meeting held at Bismarck grove, Kansas, Sept. 15th and 16th, 1879 > Part 14
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winter Eli Thayer, the great organizer of emigration in Massachu- setts, visited New Haven and attended several of our meetings for consultation. He was then especially laboring to raise money in aid of the "Emigrant Aid Society," of Massachusetts, but also to promote the cause in other ways, and did much to increase the in- terest already awakened in our community. During these discus- sions my own mind became more and more impressed with the fact that if Kansas was saved, it must be by friends of freedom mov- ing there to live in sufficient numbers to outvote the slavery prop- agandists; and with this view at a public meeting on the evening of February 17, 1856, my intention was announced to organize a colony and at an early day emigrate to Kansas `to help plant the institutions of freedom and Christianity upon her virgin soil. The next day notice was published in the city papers, and after visiting Hartford, Middletown, Winstead, Meriden and several other localities and addressing the people, the books were opened and in a few days about eighty-five names were subscribed, several of whom, however, for various reasons, did not become perma- nent members of our organization. Our first meeting was held on the 7th of March, 1856, at which time there were ninety names on the roll, fifty-nine of whom signed the articles of agreement and constituted our company ; leaving New Haven on the last day of March and reaching our destination at Wabaunsee on the 28th of April, 1856. A few days previous to our embarking, a public meeting of the members of the colony and other citizens was held in the North Church to hear an address from Rev. H. W. Beecher. After the address a statement was made by the president setting forth the origin and aims of the company, in which it appeared that no provision had been made for weapons of defense, whereupon the venerable Prof. Benjamin Silliman requested the audience to linger a few moments, when he appealed to them asking that then and there this deficiency be supplied. His address was promptly responded to, Mr. Beecher pledging $625 for one half the number required, provided the other half was subscribed by the audience, which was soon accomplished. This action, engineered as it was by Mr. Beecher, gave our company the soubriquet of the " Beecher Rifle Company." This being conspicuously published in the New York Times, with the account of the meeting and republished in St. Louis, came near causing us trouble from the " border ruffians," on the Missouri river; but by a cool and determined purpose to maintain our right, though threatened, we were "severely let alone." The colony was fully organized at New Haven with all its plans, including that of securing " every man a farm," and the colony a " town site." Thus our company originated; and on the eve of March 31 held a farewell meeting at Brewster's Hall pre- sided over by Prof. Silliman, from which we were escorted by a military and fire company to the steamboat, and were soon on our way to take part in the struggle that culminated in making Kansas free, and eventually in securing liberty to our whole country, and
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giving the cause of universal freedom a powerful impulse through- out the world. Had we and others with whom we co-operated cowed before the threats of the propagandists, human liberty would have been set back indefinitely, and if freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell, what would have been its pang had Kansas yielded to the power of slavery, but it was otherwise ordered. Let us then be grateful to God that we were permitted to partici- pate in the conflict and rejoice in the victory.
For one, standing as I now do on the confines of life and death, with all the plans, the successes and the failures of my life in deeply interested review, excepting only when at the age of 17 I consecrated my life to the service of God, and the important event a few years later which made me a husband, I re- member no act with more satisfaction than the resolve to leave the home of my children and of my ancestors, reaching back more than 200 years. The graves of my children, the church and its members with whom for over thirty-five years I had taken sweet counsel, my pleasant dwelling and its surroundings, its fruits and flowers, with neighbors and friends not a few to make a new home in the "Great American Desert," to interlock my destiny with strangers in what seemed an uncertain conflict to save this fair land to freedom and Christian civilization. Yes, I am glad and grate- ful that my steps were guided thither, and am confident that by far the larger number of our colony were also animated by a similar feeling, and could their history be written, this statement would
be fully vindicated here. We reached St. Louis without encoun- tering any special incident, and on Friday, April 4th, embarked on the steamer Clara for Kansas City. The boat was overcrowded so that many of us could not find room to lie down, even on the floor, and in many other respects we were rendered quite uncom- fortable. To all of us the life was new and strange, but our pur- pose was fixed and we moved on. We were provided with Bibles, hymn books and a minister, and when the Lord's Day dawned up- on us we asked permission of the captain of the boat to engage in divine worship to which he readily assented, remarking that it would be a novelty and probably the first Christian worship ever held on the Missouri river west of St. Louis. We had, of course, a mixed but attentive audience. Before reaching Lexington infor- mation reached us that we should not be permitted to pass that point. We took occasion to make the acquaintance of some very decent " border ruffians" on board and told them we should not be hindered from traveling on the " King's highway" without a vigor- ous resistance. The president therefore, upon the request of the board of directors designated ten of our stalwart men to stand by our luggage and defend it at all hazards. On arriving a large num- ber of armed ruffians came on board and uttered sundry denuncia- tions of the Yankee abolitionists, but as they looked into the faces of courageous men, well armed they exhausted their zeal in vile language, while we moved on our way rejoicing. Arriving at
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Kansas City we met all sorts of demonstrations from the " ruffian" camp. The city was full of excitement, our arrival was being looked for and many threats were made, to the effect that we should not enter the Territory, on the borders of which the city was lo- cated; but as we left the boat we gave the captain and crew each three cheers, to which they heartily responded. We then went to the principal hotel and called the company to order in the sit- ting room and proceeded to appoint committees, one to go into the country to buy cattle and another to procure wagons and other necessary articles, and the next day with thirty yoke of oxen and a suitable number of wagons, we crossed over into Kansas, and everything was beautiful. The very air seemed unlike any ever inhaled before as we
" Crossed the prairies as of old our fathers crossed the sea,
To make the West as they the East, the homestead of the free."
The next day we reached the young city of Lawrence, the Mecca to which every Free State pilgrim sooner or later turned his weary feet. We were cordially welcomed, and in the evening were formally received in the upper room of a " shake" building, the best and only hall in the city, not more than 16x24 feet, and rather risky for so large a gathering. We spent the Lord's Day here and walking out in the morning with a late deacon of our old North Church at New Haven, we were so electrified with the pure and balmy atmosphere that we instinctively remarked, "What a splendid place to make love." We lingered about Lawrence sev- eral days while different committees were reconnoitering the coun- try in quest of a location. In the meantime our pioneer commit- tee were heard from, who had been at Wabaunsee, and were great- ly pleased with that section of country, but the company moved on to Mission creek where, after a few days, our original commit- tee met us and the president with two others returned from a visit to Wabaunsee, and the reports being unanimously in favor of that locality, except one who had been personally smitten with Topeka. We broke camp and with three hearty cheers for Wabaunsee (the name meaning dawn of day), our new home, we turned our faces toward the setting sun, singing as we traveled,
"As when a weary traveler gains The height of some o'erlooking hill, His heart revives if o'er the plains, He sees his home though distant still."
We reached our destination April 28, 1856, and all seemed satisfied and happy. We found some half dozen settlers located about upon the creeks, only two of whom were able to shelter any of our company. We, however, utilized the few tents we had, hunted up a deserted cabin in the woods, and all by some means if not " on board broken pieces of the ship," found shelter and a resting place.
The deserted cabin was about twelve feet square situated on
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the bank of a creek in the woods-put there no doubt to hold the timber, as the land was not yet surveyed. It was the " claim" of a former State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Maine, a gen- tleman in bad health who died a few months after our arrival. Six of us in the midst of a heavy Kansas shower, broke into this cabin the rain drizzling through the roof and beating in between the logs. Spiders and other vermin common to deserted buildings were abun- dant here. Our company consisted of the doctor, deacon, presi- dent, a young man who came out for his health, and two other young men. We found a primitive bedstead, round poles running lengthwise with legs driven into them and sticks tied crosswise about eight inches apart, on which was an old mattress filled with hay. The bedstead was six feet long by three feet wide. We found also a frame of a table made in the same way, about three feet square, with three long oak shingles or "shakes " laid loosely across for a top. The table was about four inches higher than the bedstead. We placed it against one end of the bedstead at right angles and four of us packed ourselves upon it to sleep, after hav- ing made our supper upon "mush and molasses," that being the best our market afforded. The doctor, an extra large man, placed himself upon the outer side one way, the president at right angles the other way, the others packing themselves in the remaining space the best way they could, the entire space affording to each person an average of four feet six inches in length and eighteen in- ches in width. One of the others had with him a hammock in which he found comfortable lodgings. The other, as he said, found two split oak shingles, six inches wide and three feet long, on which he placed a few straws, and lay down among the spiders, and thus we dreamed of the loved ones left behind. Of these six persons two were afterward members of our Territorial Legisla- ture, both of whom had recently been representatives in the Leg- islature of Connecticut, and one of them was the first Lieutenant- Governor of Kansas, and afterward minister to Chili, another was deacon and Sunday-school superintendent of the North Church in New Haven ; two of the young men died in Wabaun- see ; the other who slept on the two shingles, among the spiders, is now a very successful wholesale manufacturer of beef in New Haven, and is arranging to raise and fatten a portion of his stock in Wabaunsee; the deacon returned to Connecticut, and the presi- dent alone remains on the ground. We immediately set about making provision for our necessities by constructing a company tent about sixteen to twenty feet long and perhaps twelve feet wide, with berths arranged much as they are in steamboats. Our store was kept in the tent, our company meetings were also held there, and at least a dozen of the members made their home under its shelter. Others boarded in the families or lived in their own tents, and very soon several log cabins were put up, some of which re- main to this day. About this time five wagons left for Kansas City to bring up a saw mill belonging to two of our members. We
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learned that the road below Lawrence was so infested with ruffians that it was deemed unsafe to proceed until we met Col. Sumner be- tween Lawrence and Leavenworth in charge of a company of U. S. Cavalry, and were then satisfied that we should be protected. Returning from Kansas City we passed near the camp of " Buford's men," the South Carolina invaders, but as the U. S. troops were camped near by we were not molested, and stopped for the night in the same vicinity near a well where some settler had been driven off. One of the troops informed us that after arriving on the spot, they found the body of a free state man, recently hung, in the well, and pointed to the grave where they buried him and to his clothing scattered on the ground. A little further on the next morning we met some honest settlers from Missouri, who informed us that a boy had that day been shot down from his horse while on an errand for his widowed mother, because in reply to a question he said he was in favor of free State. About the same time Mr. Luther H. Root, a member of our camp, was coming out of Kan- sas City with a load of household goods and was stopped by a com- pany of ruffians and taken into the woods to be hung. The tree was selected and the rope adjusted when Mr. Root asked a few mo- ments respite to pray for his family " up in the Territory," which was denied by the leaders, when one of their number interfered and said, " I have a family also," and protested against proceed- ing any further and asked Mr. Root if he would promise not to harm them if they would let him go. He replied in the simplicity of his Christian heart, " I never injured anybody," and after rum- aging his wife's bureau and the other baggage they left him. But these details must not be protracted. We proceeded on our jour- ney and reached Wabaunsee without molestation and amid many difficulties, started our mill and found full demand for all the lum- ber it could make, but the resources of the people were soon ex- hausted, and as we could make no crop except here and there a little " sod corn," many of our young men left, and those who re- mained were poorly provided for; much suffering was endured dur- ing the fall and winter. In August we were called upon to aid in defending Lawrence. We sent down two of our number to learn the condition of things. They were taken prisoners by the border ruffians near Lawrence and threatened with hanging, but were fi- nally released. Soon after our " Prairie Guards," a company of about thirty men armed with Sharp's Rifles, in response to a call from the " Committee of Safety," proceeded to Lawrence to aid in defending that city. There was great scarcity of food, and the re- gion around about the " Historic City" was swarming with enemies. When all danger was over the company returned, worn down with fatigue, and physically deranged, for want of proper suste- nance and protection from the weather. They had a hard time of it through that first winter, which was an uncommonly severe one. In the month of August of the same summer, the president, ac- cording to his original plan, returned East for his family, but as
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the Presidential election was pending, and the cause was largely if not exclusively being based upon the conflict for the freedom of Kansas, he was pressed into the service without time being given for a much needed rest and physical recuperation. Conse- quently he was after a few weeks' labor, the campaign being exceed- ingly exciting, laid aside with complete nervous prostration and unable to return, and had but little hope for a time of ever breathing the air of Kansas again, but rest brought such a degree of restora- tion that during the winter about $4,000 was secured to aid in building a church and school house in Wabaunsee both which were built and the meeting house when completed was among the best in the Territory. In the following spring a church was organ- ized and a temporary meeting house erected. In the winter of this year, 1857, two very exciting free state conventions were held at Lawrence, Gov. Robinson presiding, the object being to deter- mine whether, in the event of Congress admitting Kansas into the Union as a State under the Lecompton Bogus Border Ruffian Con- stitution, we would recognize the act. At the first meeting we de- cided unanimously that we would not- under the influence of a patriotic determination, kindred to that manifested by our fathers at Philadelphia in '76, who resisted tyranny at all hazards. To me it seemed that life itself must not be preferred to the liberty we de- manded, and such was obviously the prevailing feeling when the convention adjourned. We were called together again on the 23d of December and for two days debated the same question, some of our leading men having changed their attitude. During these two days not less than ten able and eloquent speeches were made on each side of the question, when it was decided by a vote of 75 to 64 that we would not recognize the act should Congress admit us under that infamous instrument, brought forth at Lecompton by John Calhoun and the Missouri ruffians associated with him. Not- withstanding this vote, however, a few of our excellent free state men led by Geo. W. Brown into the basement of his office, deemed it best to get up a ticket and elect it if possible and they did so, but the vote was by no means a general one. Not a ballot box was opened in Wabaunsee county and the same was true of many oth- ers. But the ticket was elected and no harm grew out of it, as the State was not admitted. This same subject was brought up in the Territorial Legislature in the early part of February following. The message of President Buchanan had just been received, submitting the Lecompton constitution and recommending our admission un- der it. A bill was promptly introduced providing for the punish- ment of treason, providing in direct terms that any person who should attempt to run a government in Kansas under the Lecomp- ton constitution shall be deemed guilty of treason and upon con- viction thereof shall suffer death. The hall was made to ring with the most eloquent speeches, similar in character to those that echoed from old Independence Hall and rocked the cradle of lib- erty in Boston in 1776. Had Buchanan been there to listen to his
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ideas in regard to the insignificance of the people of Kansas might have been somewhat modified, and had he heard the defiant declaration by all the speakers in which they hurled back the con- temptible falsehood contained in his message and indicated their firm resolve that civil liberty shall not find a grave upon the plains of Kansas until her soil is moistened by the blood of her sons, and that they would resist the despotic effort of the administration to crush out our liberties with the same spirit and for the same pur- pose that animated our fathers in 1776, he would at least have been interested. The several speakers planted themselves upon true ground. They handled the President very much as John Adams did George the III, in the convention that enacted our Declaration of Independence. Subsequent to this as the freedom of Kansas was substantially assured, the development of the conntry was rapid and her history is now before the world. Our participation in the war is a matter of record. Our contribution of men was greater in proportion to our numbers than that of any other State, and Wabaunsee furnished her full quota, from the families connected with our original colony who remained in Kansas. There were ten who went to the war, of whom one became a captain, one a sur- geon and three lieutenants. One, Capt. E. C. D. Lines, at the head of his company and in the advance while in pursuit of the enemy, was killed. From our community there were not less than twenty not connected with our colony who were in the army, one of whom, a son of Clark Lapham, was killed.
In the civil service there has been, from the members of the colony, one Foreign Minister and Lieutenant Governor, one Sen- ator, four members of the House of Representatives, one chair- man County Board for ten years, one Pension Agent and Land Of- fice Receiver, etc., etc., besides sundry minor positions. It is supposed, also, that for general intelligence, moral and religious standing, the community occupies a very respectable position. One fact more indicative of the substantial character of the Connecti- cut Kansas colony. It was fully organized with all its plans ma- tured before leaving New Haven and faithfully adhered to them until, by the organization of local governments under territorial and state authority, our original compact was no longer needed, and we believe this was the only colony that preserved its organi- zation after reaching the Territory, during the first eight years of our history. Of the original members of our colony eight only are living in Wabaunsee, one in Wyandotte, one in Manhattan, one in Topeka and one in the country near Topeka, but of those who have descended from original members of the colony, or be- came connected with them by marriage, including all who have settled here because the colony was here or because of their con- nection or acquaintance with some of its members, the number would embrace fully three-fourths of our entire community.
In reference to the material prosperity of the settlement, it may be truly said that while none have become wealthy we have
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no paupers, but all are comfortably situated-have good farms with fine orchards, excellent religious advantages, the entire set- tlement uniting in the same house of worship with no sectarian an- tagonism. Our schools are of a high order and a condition of things generally exists that leads our people when assembled in any con- siderable number, to unite at the beginning or at the close in sing- ing :
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost."
ADDRESS BY THOS. W. CONWAY.
Gov. ROBINSON : - We have still another gentleman to speak before dinner. He has a letter to read, from one of Kansas' old friends and a most useful citizen in the early times, a man who is well known to you all. Before reading the letter, the gentleman will make a few remarks about your old friend. I introduce to you Gen. Thomas W. Conway. General Conway said :
Much has been said in eulogy of the various States that con- tributed so much talent and money and sinew of war to the great State of Kansas. I think I can mention a Southern State, to be added to the catalogue of States contributing to your liberation and freedom, in mentioning the State of Maryland, the State that gave you Martin F. Conway. [Applause.] It is a melancholy task assigned to me to-day to providentially have his letter, written from his room in an insane asylum, placed in my hands to read to his old pioneer friends of Kansas. It is a peculiar coincidence, one that melts my heart. I came from New York, at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Pomeroy, to speak for the negro of the South, whose friend Kansas is, to-day, in his emergency. But the first duty that Providence seems to have assigned me here, is to read this long and touching epistle which I hold in my hand. I saw an eminent physician in Washington, the other day, and he told me that, whatever Martin F. Conway's mental condition may have been before, he regarded him now as perfectly sane, and this letter gives evidence that this physician's opinion was correct. The let- ter is as follows :
LETTER FROM MARTIN F. CONWAY.
ST. ELIZABETH, D. C., Sept. 3, 1879,
Hon. John P. St. John, Governor of Kansas : Sir :- I see by the news- papers that the original settlers of Kansas, commonly called "The Old Guard," are to have a reunion at Lawrence, on the 15th of September, to celebrate the anniversary of the triumph of the free state cause. I am one of the Old Guard who cannot be with them on that occasion. I, therefore, write. I arrived in Kansas, from Maryland, on the 16th of October, 1854, a little over three months after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. I was the only free state man elected to the Council of the Territorial Legisla-
9
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ture. I was a member of the first popular convention held in the Territory ; also, of the convention which framed the first Free State Constitution. I was the first Chief Justice of the State elected by the people. I was the president of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention. I was the first representative of the State admitted to a seat in the Federal Congress. I was the first member from Kansas of the National Executive Committee of the Republican party. At this time I was only thirty-two years of age- A. D. 1860 - and no man stood higher in the popular estimation throughout the country. I have now been two years and ten months confined in the Government Institution for the Insane at this place, that is to say, St. Eliza- beth, near Washington, D. C., within full view of the Capitol - A. D. 1879 - aged 50 years.
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