USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > Kansas City > Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. Historical and biographical. Comprising a condensed history of the state, a careful history of Wyandotte County, and a comprehensive history of the growth of the cities, towns and villages > Part 6
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The first collective settlement in Wabaunsee County was made in
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Wabaunsee Township in 1854, although there were a few settlers in other portions of the county whose advent dates as far back. Ic. Wil- mington Township there were settled as early as 1854 Henry Harvey and one or two others, while in Farmer Township John P. Gleich set- tled as early as 1853, and in 1854 Peter Thoes, Frank Schmidt, R. Schrauder and C. Schwankee. The first settlers mentioned were Peter Sharra, Bartholomew Sharra, J. H. Nesbitt, Rev. Harvey Jones, D. B. Hiatt, J. M. Bisby, Clark Lapham, Joshua Smith, Robert Banks and Rev. Mr. Leonard. The "Beecher Rifle Company," or "New Haven Colony," as described by some, came in April, 1856. The following is a list of the names of those of the "Beecher Rifle Company " who came to Wabaunsee and remained over three months. Twenty of the original ninety who started from New Haven never came to Kansas at all, and all the others whose names are not given, either not wishing to share the fatigues, hardships and difficulties of the colony, or from some other cause, left the colony shortly after its arrival, and the names that are given represent only those who remained with the colony during its early struggles: C. B. Lines, William Hartley, Jr., J. D. Farren, George H. Coe, F. H. Hart, Silas M. Thomas, L. H. Root, J. M. Hubbard, Jr., William Mitchell, Jr., O. Bardwell, Rollin Moses, A. A. Cotteral, H. S. Hall, Benjamin Street, J. J. Walter, T. C. P. Hyde, E. C. D. Lines, E. D. Street, Timothy Read, H. M. Sel- den, George Wells, S. A. Baldwin, W. S. Griswold, Isaac Fenn, J. P. Root, J. F. Willard, H. D. Rice, H Isbell, D. F. Scranton, E. J. Lines, F. W. Ingham, L. A. Parker, E. N. Penfield, R. W. Griswold, G. H. Thomas, M. C. Welch, B. C. Porter, F. Johnson, C. E. Pond, L. W. Clark and W. G. McNary.
In July, 1857, James McNulty came from Iowa, with his family, and settled in Marysville, Washington County. Here he remained till spring, when he removed five miles west of the present city of Wash- ington. When Mr. MeNulty came to Washington Township he brought with him Ralph Ostrander, who settled adjoining him, on what is known as the "Lavering Place."
In the first year of the war the rebels twice sacked Humboldt, in Allen County, just northeast of the Wilson County settlements, and on the second raid burned the town. No attack was made on the settlers near Coyville, but it was thought best to be ready for defense, and a company was formed with eighty mounted men in line, under ('apt. John R. Rowe and Lieuts. W. W. Brazel and Lewis Thompson. That fall fortifications were built at a point about three miles south of the
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town. They consisted of three block-houses, 16x24 feet, made of heavy logs, and enclosed with pickets six feet high. An embankment was thrown up on all sides, and the company went into winter quarters. The following spring the fort was deserted, and most of the militia en- listed in the Ninth Kansas Volunteers. Vestiges of the old fort still remain. Nothing of special moment in the way of settlement oc- curred during 1863, or the early part of 1864. In August of the lat- ter year, Daniel C. Finn, a man destined to become quite noted in the early history of the county, arrived from New York. September 24, 1864, a petition for the organization of Wilson County, bearing the signatures of thirty settlers, and headed by the name of Finn, was presented to Gov. Carney, and granted. Appointments were made of the various county officers, but much confusion ensued. Syracuse, a mythical place supposed to be near the center of the county, was des- ignated as the temporary county seat, and George M. Cottingham, W. M. Asher and William Brown were appointed county commissioners.
Although many settlers were located in Woodson County prior to the war, all were, up to 1860, trespassers. The wide strip which took in all of Woodson County and a small slice of Coffey was the reserve of the New York Indians. The part of the strip now embraced in Woodson County was never occupied by any of the New York tribes, their only settlement being a temporary one near Fort Scott. Find- ing that the Indians would not settle on the reserve, the Government, in 1860, had all of these lands offered for sale and opened to pre-emp- tion at the land office at Fort Scott. News of this movement having been circulated throughout the county, the squatter settlers hastened to the land office and made the appropriate entries. Thus peacefully the well-nigh mythical Indian inhabitants forsook their lands, leaving them to the further improvement of the pale faces. It is extremely difficult to determine who were actually the first settlers in the county. Jack Caven, John Woolman, John Chapman and others reached Neosho Falls on March 2, 1857. About the same time Thomas Sears took a claim in Liberty Township, and William Stockebrand, August Toddmann and Angust Lauber, in Center Township. These, although the best known of the pioneers, were not the first, Reuben Daniels settling in Belmont in 1856; David Cooper in Toronto, and John Cole- man in Owl Creek Township, in 1856.
By general consent Moses Grinter is awarded the priority among the early settlers of Wyandotte County. He located near where the station of Secundine afterward stood, in 1831, and lived there up to
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the time of his death, June 12, 1878. The next white man to stop within the limits of Wyandotte County was Rev. Thomas Johnson, a Methodist minister, who established a mission school among the Del- aware Indians, near the "White Church." In April, 1837, Rev. John G. Pratt located about sixteen miles west of Wyandotte. He established a Baptist mission among the Delawares, published several hymn books in their language, and one of his sons married a daughter of Charles Johnycake, a well-known chief. Capt. John Ketchum, one of the most noted chiefs of the Delawares, died in August, 1857. He lived near White Church. His funeral was attended by a large num- ber of Indians, who came in their colored blankets and painted faces, carrying their guns. They were mounted on horseback, and as the procession slowly followed the remains of their chief along the wind- ings of the forest road, they seemed truly the sorrowful survivors of a once powerful race. The first marriage in the county was that of H. N. Northrup to Margaret, daughter of Thomas Clark, the Wyandotte chief. The development of this county under white occupancy has been remarkable.
The year 1885 witnessed the first actual permanent settlements along the western frontier. Counties not mentioned in the foregoing pages are of very recent settlement and organization.
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CHAPTER III.
TERRITORIAL AND STATE ORGANIZATION-A SCHEME OF ENTERPRISING MISSOURIANS-HALL'S UNIONTOWN "CONSTITUENCY "-ELECTION IN THE WYANDOTTE NATION-ACT ORGANIZING KANSAS AND NEBRASKA -FIRST TERRITORIAL APPOINTMENTS-FIRST TERRITORIAL ELEC- TION PROCLAMATION-KANSAS' FOUR CONSTITUTIONS-TIIE TO- PEKA, LECOMPTON, LEAVENWORTHI AND WYANDOTTE CONSTITU- TIONAL CONVENTIONS-GRAPHIC PEN-PICTURES OF THESE HISTORIC DELIBERATIONS-THE DISTINGUISHED PARTICIPANTS IN THEM- TERRITORIAL AND STATE GOVERNORS-ELECTIONS-STATE OFFICERS.
Men who their duties know, But know their rights. and, knowing, dare maintain .- Sir W. Jones.
N the brains of a few Missourians, who be- lieved the times and conditions were favorable for the work, the territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska had its inception. The first move for a Territorial government made within the limits of Kansas was at the trading post of Uniontown. At that point was held, in the spring of 1852, what purported to be a mass meet_ ing of the American citizens of the Indian Territory. The meeting and proceedings are alluded to in a sketch of the early days of Pottawatomie County by Hon. L. D. Palmer, who was present. His version of the affair reads as follows: "About half a dozen persons, residents of the State of Missouri, assembled together in a shed. One of them took from his hat a paper, on which had been written a set of resolutions brought all the way from Mis- souri, and asked the assembled multitude to vote on them. One individual said 'aye.' 'Noes' were not called for. Two or three of these persons were sporting gentlemen, and the others were merchants who had furnished goods for the Indians and always came
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at such times to collect. These resolutions recited that there were hundreds of families in that vicinity, in the interior of the Territory, who were bona fide settlers, whose lives and property were in constant jeopardy for want of civil protection, and memorialized Congress to organize a Territorial government. They purported to be the unani- mous expression of a large number of citizens, assembled together for the purpose of calling the attention of Congress to the perils that threatened them."
The petitions passed at this meeting were presented at the first session of the XXXIId Congress, by Hon. Willard P. Hall, a Mis- souri member, who, in the following session, presented the first bill in Congress providing for the organization of the Territory, in accordance with the prayers of his Uniontown "constituency."
In the fall of 1852 (October 12) an election was held at Wyan- dotte, at which thirty-five votes were polled for Abelard Guthrie as Territorial delegate to Congress.
So far as the vote of the Wyandotte Nation went, Mr. Guthrie's calling and election were sure beyond contest, but as there was no Ter- ritorial bill passed for more than two years thereafter, it proved an empty honor. A manuscript copy of the returns of this election is among the collections of the Kansas Historical Society.
July 28, 1853, a convention was held at Wyandotte, a Territorial government organized, and Abelard Guthrie nominated for delegate to Congress. He was put forward as a Benton man. His competitor for the nomination-a friend of Atchison, and a stanch pro-slavery man-was Rev. Thomas Johnson. A bolting convention was held at Kickapoo Village, September 20, 1853, at which Johnson was placed in nomination as an opposition candidate. He was elected over Guthrie, as was claimed, by Indian votes. He went to Washington, but owing to the delay in passing the Territorial bill, was not received as a delegate.
The act organizing Kansas and Nebraska was passed May 27 and approved by the President May 30, 1854. It contained thirty-seven sections. The provisions relating to Kansas were embodied in the last eighteen.
The first Territorial appointments, looking to the inauguration of a local government, under the provisions of the organic law, were made in June and July, 1854. The officers appointed by President Pierce, whose appointments were confirmed by the Senate, and who entered upon the duties of their office, were: Governor, Andrew H. Reeder,
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of Easton, Penn., appointed June 29, 1854 (he took the oath of office before Peter V. Daniel, one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, at Washington, July 7; he arrived in Kansas, at Fort Leavenworth, on Saturday, October 7, at which time he became the executive head of the Kansas government, and person- ally assumed the functions of the office; salary, $2,500 per annum); secretary, Daniel Woodson, of Lynchburg, Va., appointed June 29; salary, $2,000 per annum; United States marshal, Israel B. Donald- son, of Illinois; salary, $300 per annum, and fees; chief justice, Madison Brown, of Maryland, who, not accepting the appointment, was superseded by Samuel D. Lecompte, of Maryland, who was appointed October 3, and took the oath of office before Gov. Reeder, at Leavenworth, Kas., December 5; salary, $2, 000 per annum; associate justices, Saunders N. Johnson and Rush Elmore; salary, $2,000 per annum; attorney, Andrew J. Isack; salary, $250 per annum, and fees; surveyor-general, John Calhoun, Illinois, appointed August 26; Territorial treasurer, Thomas J. B. Cramer, appointed August 29.
The governor, after his arrival, set promptly to work to inaugur- ate his government. Among other preparations, he made a tour of observation, which took in the most important and most remote settle- ments in the eastern part of the Territory. It extended as far west as Fort Riley and Council Grove. His reception was enthusiastic. The proclamation for the first election in Kansas, bearing date Novem- ber 10, 1854, was issued November 15.
Four constitutions were framed as the organic law before Kansas was admitted in the Union. The Topeka Constitution, which was the first in order, was adopted by the convention which framed it No- vember 11, 1855, and by the people of the Territory, at an election held December 15, 1855.
The Lecompton Constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it November 7, 1857. It was submitted to a vote of the people by the convention December 21, 1857, the form of the vote prescribed, being, "For the Constitution with slavery," and "For the Constitution without slavery."
No opportunity was afforded at this election to vote against the constitution, and the Free- State people of the Territory refrained from taking part in it. The Territorial Legislature, having been summoned in extra session by Acting-Gov. F. P. Stanton, passed an act submit- ting the Lecompton Constitution to a vote of the people at an election
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to be held January 4, 1858. At that election, 138 votes were cast for the constitution, and 10,226 votes against it. Notwith- standing this overwhelming vote against the constitution, it was sent to Washington by its partisans; President Buchanan transmitted it to the Senate, urging the admission of the State under it, thus inaugur- ating the great contest which resulted in the division of the Demo- cratic party, the election of Abraham Lincoln and the final overthrow of the slave power. The bill to admit Kansas as a State under the Lecompton Constitution failed, and the English bill finally passed Con- gress, under the provisions of which the constitution was again sub- mitted to a vote of the people on August 4, 1858, with the result of 1,788 votes in its favor, and 11,300 against it.
The constitutional convention which framed the Leavenworth Con- stitution was provided for by an act of the Territorial Legislature, passed in February, 1858, during the pendency of the Lecompton Constitution in Congress. The constitution was adopted by the con- vention at Leavenworth, April 3, 1858, and by the people at an elec- tion held May 18, 1858.
The Wyandotte Constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it July 29, 1859, and was adopted by the people at an election held October 4, 1859. The State was admitted into the Union under this constitution, January 29, 1861.
The Topeka constitutional movement was the instinctive effort of the Free-State people for unity about some recognized center. They must have something around which they could rally, and their leaders were sagacious enough to institute a movement which, while it served to consolidate the Free-State settlers into a compact organization, af- forded a reasonable prospect of a safe and constitutional exit from their troubles. A recent precedent had been afforded by California for the spontaneous action of the people in the organization of a State government, without an enabling act from Congress. Some of the most conspicuous leaders of the Topeka constitutional movement had participated in the California movement, and were enthusiastic in the conviction that a similar success would attend the effort here. The Topeka movement did come very near success. The House of Repre- sentatives on July 3, 1856, passed a bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union under that constitution. Had the bill become a law, Kansas would have been saved the five years of turmoil and strife which elapsed before she was admitted into the Union, and the subsequent course of the great stream of our national history might have been
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diverted for a time at least from the bloody and fratricidal era to which it was then so rapidly and inevitably hastening. The Topeka consti- tutional movement served to hold the Free-State people together until after the great wave of immigration in the spring of 1857 had virtu- ally settled the question of the future status of the Territory. The first fruits of that emigration were the restoration of the Territoral Legislature in the fall election to the hands of the people from whom it had been rapaciously seized by fraud and violence in March, 1855. This gave the Free-State party a standpoint and leverage of undoubted legality for further proceedings. Heretofore their move- ments had been outside the pale of recognized authority. But the Territorial Legislature was recognized as valid by friends and foes alike. One of the first achievments of this new weapon in the hands of the people was the passage of an act, at the extra session called for that purpose by Secretary Stanton, submitting the Lecompton Consti- tution to an honest and fair vote, for acceptance or rejection, at an election to be held January 4, 1858. The result of this election was the rejection of the constitution by an overwhelming vote of unques- tioned legality and authority, thus furnishing an argument against the admission of the State under that constitution, which the friends of free Kansas in Congress used with tremendous power and unanswer- able effect. The population of the Territory during 1856 and 1857 had increased very largely. The total vote cast for State officers under the Topeka Constitution, January 15, 1856, was 1,706; the vote on the Lecompton Constitution, January 4, 1858, was 10,427, showing an increase of more than sixfold. The old movement had lost much of its hold upon the popular mind. Admission into the Union under that constitution had ceased to be regarded as probable. While the officers who had been elected to the various positions under it were still recog- nized, more or less, as leaders in the Free-State organization, it was nevertheless felt that the 50,000 new settlers who had come into the Territory during the two years which had elapsed since their election ought to have some voice in choosing the future rulers of the State. Besides, it was argued with considerable force that the Free-State cause would be at a disadvantage should the battle in Congress and before the country against the Lecompton Constitution be fought upon the basis of the Topeka Constitution. That constitution had been framed by a convention elected without any authority of law; the total vote upon its adoption had been only 1,778, while two years had elapsed since it was framed and adopted, and meantime a large in-
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crease in the population had taken place. Its enemies might and probably would (and in fact did) claim that it no longer represented a majority of the people. The Lecompton Constitution, on the other hand, could claim a quasi legality and regularity, the convention which framed it having been elected in conformity to an act passed by the Territorial Legislature. Having the Legislature now in their own hands, the Free State people felt that it would be the part of wisdom to call a new convention which would have at least as good standing for regularity and legality as the Lecomption convention, and whose con- stitution would receive an overwhelming indorsement at the hands of the people. The Lecompton Constitution would thus be confronted by a constitution of equal legality, of a more recent date and of un- doubted popular support.
These considerations were undoubtedly the dominant ones in deter- mining the call of a new constitutional convention. There were minor influences which contributed to the same result. One of these, which assumed considerable importance before the Legislature passed the act calling the convention, was the question of the location of the capital. The Topeka Constitution had located the capital temporarily in Topeka, and the very name of the constitution served to keep the city prominently before the public. Other towns were ambitious of becoming the seat of government. A new constitution bearing some other name would at least divert attention from Topeka. Before the act calling the convention was passed, a scheme for locating the capi- tal at Minneola-a town existing only on paper, and created for the purpose-was broached and successfully carried through the Legisla- ture. The bill locating the seat of government of the Territory at Minneola was passed over the governor's veto, and two days thereafter the bill calling a constitutional convention, and fixing Minneola as the place where it should assemble, was also passed.
The "Minneola Swindle," as it was called in those days, created a sensation in Kansas so great as to seem almost extravagant as we look back upon it now. The gravamen was that the location of the capital at Minneola was a scheme to further the personal fortunes of members of the Legislature who were interested in the new town. In vain did they reply that the location was a good one, central, and well adapted to be the future capital of the State; that the capital was bound to be removed from Lecompton in any event, and that wherever located somebody's private fortunes would be enhanced thereby. The public judgment was severe, and condemned the thing
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to such a degree that many of the delegates elected to the constitu- tional convention were instructed by their constituents to vote for an immediate adjournment of that body to some cther point in the Terri- tory. It thus came about that the convention had no sooner completed its organization at Minneola than a motion was made to adjourn to some other place. This gave rise to a long and acrimonious debate. The session was prolonged during the whole night, and toward morn- ing the motion to adjourn and fixing the city of Leavenworth as the place of reassembling was passed. On the morning of March 24, 1858, the members took their departure for Leavenworth, leaving this capital of a day to revert to its pristine condition of a quarter section of Franklin County prairie. And thus the constitution which the body afterward framed became known in history as the Leavenworth Constitution, and not as the Minneola Constitution, as its original pro- jectors had expected.
The convention reassembled in Leavenworth on the evening of March 25. The constitution was adopted and signed on April 3. The work had been done with brevity and dispatch. Indeed there was no great amount of work to be done. Aside from the special features to be hereafter noted, the draft of the Topeka Constitution was closely followed. There were few questions which gave rise to debate, and they were speedily settled. It was the aim of the convention to do its work as speedily as possible, make a good constitution and adjourn. The constitution was adopted by the people on May 18, 1858, and on the same day the following State officers were also elected under it, viz. : Governor, Henry J. Adams, of Leavenworth; lieutenant-governor, Cyrus K. Holliday, of Topeka; secretary of State, E. P. Bancroft, of Emporia; treasurer, J. B. Wheeler, of Doniphan; auditor, George S. Hillyer, of Grasshopper Falls; attorney-general, Charles A. Fos- ter, of Osawatomie; superintendent of public instruction, J. M. Wal- den, of Quindaro; commissioner of school lands, J. W. Robinson, of Manhattan; representative in Congress, M. F. Conway, of Lawrence; supreme judges, William A. Phillips, of Lawrence; Lorenzo Dow, of Topeka, and William McKay, of Wyandotte; reporter of the Supreme Court, Albert D. Richardson, of Sumner; clerk of the Supreme Court, W. F. M. Arny, of Hyatt. Of these, Messrs. Holliday and Conway had been elected to positions in the State government under the Topeka Constitution, Mr. Holliday having been secretary of State and Mr. Conway one of the judges of the Supreme Court.
The State officers, under the Leavenworth Constitution, were nomi-
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nated upon a platform whose chief resolve was: "That should Con- gress accept the application accompanying the Lecompton Constitu- tion, and admit Kansas as a sovereign State in the Union, without the condition precedent that said constitution, at a fair election, shall receive the ratification of the people of Kansas, then we will put the Leavenworth Constitution, ratified by the people, and the government under it, into immediate and active operation as the organic law and living government of the State of Kansas, and that we will support and defend the same against any opposition, come from whatever quarter it may." Before the election took place, however, the "English bill" had passed both Houses of Congress and become a law, so that the Lecompton struggle was over, and the long and bit- ter and bloody contest to make Kansas a slave State came to a close. The movement for admission under the Leavenworth Constitution was prosecuted no further, and the convention and its work survives only upon the pages of chequered history as one of the positions temporarily occupied by the great Free-State host in its onward march to final victory.
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