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A HISTORY OF KANSAS
A HISTORY OF KANSAS
BY AUTHOR OF CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP PUBLISHED BY THE STATE OF KANSAS IMRI ZUMWALT, State Printer TOPEKA, 1919 7-6552 Copyright 1914, Anna E. Arnold Copyright 1919 (Revised), Anna E. Arnold All Rights Reserved No State has a history better calculated to inspire patriotism in its people than has Kansas. In this fact lies the greatest reason for teaching Kansas History in the schools. A knowledge of the difficulties that have been met and conquered in building the State will create in the minds of
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PREFACE
PREFACE
Introduction. More than four centuries have passed since Columbus discovered America. During that time the hunting ground of three hundred thousand Indians has become the United States with its more than one hundred million civilized people. In the center of this great nation, which occupies nearly half the area of the continent, lies Kansas, a rectangle four hundred miles long and two hundred miles wide. Kansas is a part of the great plain that slopes gradually from the foothills of the Rocky M
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Purpose of the Spaniards. The chief purpose of all the Spanish explorers was to search for wealth. Cortez is said to have made this remark to the Indians: “We Spaniards are troubled with a disease of the heart for which we find gold, and gold only, a specific remedy.” The hope of finding gold and precious stones lying about like pebbles lured many Spaniards into enterprises filled with terrible hardships. Reports of great cities of untold wealth to the northward, the “Seven Cities of Cibola,” as
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
One Century More. More than three centuries of American history had passed and the country west of the Mississippi River remained unsettled and practically unknown. The Spaniard and the Frenchman had come and gone, but the Indian still hunted the buffalo on the prairies. The white man had not yet made his home in the Kansas country. SUMMARY Spain explored in the South in search of wealth, France in the North to trade in furs with the Indians, and England along the coast between these two to esta
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Pike in Colorado. From this place Pike and his men moved southwest to the Arkansas River, where the party divided, some of them going down the river and on home. Pike and his remaining men, instead of searching for the Red River according to instructions, followed the Arkansas River into what is now Colorado. They pushed westward, and after many days of travel sighted a mountain, which appeared at first like a small blue cloud but which proved to be a great bald peak of the Rocky Mountains. This
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Merchandise Carried on Pack Mules . For several years most of the transportation along the Trail was done with pack mules. A caravan of pack mules usually numbered from fifty to two hundred, each animal carrying about three hundred pounds of merchandise. From the earliest times the Mexicans had used pack mules as a means of transportation, and were skilled in handling them. For this reason the American traders usually employed Mexicans for the work of the pack train. The average rate of travel o
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Indians Removed from Kansas. According to the treaties the Indians were promised their land “so long as grass should grow or water run.” But it soon developed that the white men wanted Kansas also. In 1854 we find the tribes being again transferred, this time to the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, where the remnants of the various tribes still remain. [7] Although Kansas was not used during those early years to make homes for white settlers, a few hundred people came here. They were of three dif
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
The Missouri Compromise, 1820. Missouri was along the dividing line between the North and the South, and when it asked to be admitted to the Union there followed a long debate in Congress as to whether it should come in slave or free. The question was finally settled by the Missouri Compromise, which provided that Missouri might come in as a slave state but that all the rest of the territory included in the Louisiana Purchase and lying north of 36° 30′, the line forming the southern boundary of
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
Work of the Emigrant Aid Companies. Hundreds of people came here under the management of these companies, but probably the greatest service the companies performed was that of giving an immense amount of publicity and advertising to Kansas. Newspapers were filled with descriptions of the loveliness, the fertility, and the future greatness of the new Territory, and people were urged to go to Kansas at once, both to secure the advantages of the country and to help in saving it from slavery. In thi
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
The Result. Of course the proslavery delegate was overwhelmingly elected. He would probably have been elected had the Missourians stayed at home, for up to this time a majority of the settlers outside of Lawrence favored slavery. The result of this unfair election was to renew the excitement in the North at such a working out of the principle of “popular sovereignty.” But the free-state pioneers were not to be discouraged. They continued, during the winter, their home building, their preparation
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
The Wakarusa War, 1855. These were not the only events occurring in the Territory. It had become evident early in the fall of 1855 that with the people divided into these two groups, each governing itself and denying the authority of the other, there would be a conflict. The proslavery people had committed several outrages that added to the irritation of the free-state people, but the real trouble came with the murder of a free-state man. This brought on what was called the Wakarusa War. The Beg
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
The Sacking of Lawrence, May 21, 1856. A number of minor conflicts occurred. Sheriff Jones was wounded, a young free-state man named Barber was killed, and then came the long feared attack upon Lawrence. From the beginning the policy of the free-state people had been to avoid conflict wherever possible. On this occasion they made every attempt to conciliate and to pacify the attacking force, but in vain. As the proslavery leaders rode through the town they were invited to dinner by Mr. Eldridge,
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
End of the Lecompton Constitution. No attention was paid to the defeat of the Constitution at the hands of the free-state people, and it was sent to Congress. After a long discussion Congress attached a number of conditions to the Constitution and sent it back to Kansas to be voted on by all the people. Of the 13,000 votes cast at this election, which was held August 2, 1858, more than 11,000 were against it. This ended the second attempt to get Kansas admitted as a state. The Leavenworth Consti
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
Conditions of Living During the ’50’s. Frontier life is always hard, but it was made many times harder in Kansas by the years of strife and warfare. The inconveniences and hardships were especially severe outside the towns. In these days of railways and good roads, of the telegraph and the telephone, it is difficult to realize what life on the prairies meant in the ’50’s. Post offices and mail routes came slowly, and for many of the settlers a trip for mail and provisions meant a journey of two
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
The Quantrill Raid, August 21, 1863. For Kansas people the Civil War meant a continuation of the border troubles. Gangs of ruffians plundered and destroyed property, and frequently committed worse crimes. These acts reached a climax in the destruction of Lawrence on August 21, 1863. The raid on Lawrence was led by Quantrill, a border ruffian who had taken an active part in the guerrilla warfare, and who with his men had sacked several smaller towns along the border. With about four hundred and f
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
The Broken Treaty. At one time the Government made a treaty with several tribes by which they were removed to a reservation in the Indian Territory, but were to have the privilege of hunting in Kansas as far north as the Arkansas River, and were also to be provided with arms. They kept their promise of peace only until they could get ready for another attack, and while part of them were being supplied with arms at one of the forts the rest were engaged in a most heartless and bloody raid on the
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
Agriculture During the Civil War. The year following the drouth brought a good crop, but it also brought the beginning of the Civil War which absorbed the energies of the settlers for four years more. It was not until the close of the war, in 1865, that agriculture can be said to have had a real beginning in Kansas. But, in spite of the poverty and hardships of the war years, two things of especial significance were done that showed the interest of the pioneers in agriculture. During this period
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
The Pony Express, 1859-’61. The trip to San Francisco, a distance of about 2000 miles, occupied nearly a month, and the people of California were very anxious that a quicker way of getting their mails be devised. To meet this demand the Pony Express was established in 1859. The line extended from St. Joseph to San Francisco, a long, lonely way across plains and deserts and over mountains, sometimes in a straight line but often winding through dark cañons or along the edge of mountain precipices.
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
Schools After the Civil War. Little educational progress was made during the Civil War, but when peace had come to Kansas and the people could turn their minds to the needs of their homes and communities, schoolhouses built of logs or sod sprang up everywhere, for the pioneers had brought with them a desire to educate their children. Sometimes the settlers did not even wait to organize their district, but gathered together and began work on their schoolhouse. Where there was a timber supply they
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
Pawnee Rock. One of the early landmarks was Pawnee Rock on the old Santa Fe Trail, in what is now Barton County. This giant rock standing on the level plain was a noted spot, for the Trail ran near its base, and while it provided a place of rest and safety for many a weary traveler, it also afforded a retreat from which the Indians could dash down upon the traders. In later years much of the rock was torn away for building purposes and this historic old landmark was rapidly disappearing. The Wom
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
Pioneer Qualities. Certain characteristics of the people of Kansas are largely due to the fact that this was so recently a frontier state. Pioneer life, wherever it exists, develops the qualities of independence, courage, resourcefulness, endurance, and democracy. The pioneer has only himself to lean on; he learns to take chances, he laughs at adversity, he adapts himself to circumstances, and he lives in the future. The Forum, Wichita, Kansas. Qualities that Make the Kansas Spirit. These charac
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THE APPENDIX
THE APPENDIX
The free-state Government under the Topeka Constitution was organized in the days of the “Bogus Legislature” for the purpose of uniting the free-state people and enabling them to oppose proslavery methods. It was continued until the free-state people gained control of the Territorial Legislature, when it became no longer necessary and was dropped. The principal events were as follows: The convention met in October of 1855, completed the Topeka Constitution in November, and the free-state people
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