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The
history of Kansas is rich with the lore of the
American West. Located
on the eastern edge of the
Great Plains, the U.S.
state of Kansas was the
home of nomadic
Native American tribes who hunted the vast herds
of bison. The region
first appears in western history in the 16th century
at the time of the Spanish
conquest of Mexico, when
Spanish conquistadores
explored the unknown land now known as Kansas. It
was later explored by French
fur trappers who traded
with the Native Americans. It became part of the
United States in the
Louisiana Purchase
of 1803. In the 19th century, the first American
explorers designated the area as the "Great
American Desert."
When the
area was opened to Euro-American settlement in the 1850s,
Kansas became the first battlefield in the conflict in the
American Civil War. After
the war, Kansas was home to
Wild West towns servicing the cattle trade. With the
railroads came heavy immigration from the East, from Europe,
and from Freedmen called "Exodusters".
For much of its history, Kansas has had a rural economy
based on wheat and other crops, supplemented by oil and
railroads. Since 1945 the farm population has sharply
declined and manufacturing has become more important,
typified by the aircraft industry of
Wichita.
Prehistory
The Paleo-Indians and Archaic
peoples
According
to the best archaeological and geological evidence
available, Paleolithic, mammoth-hunting families moved into
northwestern North America
sometime around the end of the
Paleolithic (and, some believe, as late as 10,000 BC) by
various means. Around 7000 BC, these Asian
immigrants entered into North
America reaching Kansas. Once in Kansas, it is believe
that these settlers never abandoned Kansas after this
initial settlement and these were augmented by other peoples
entered Kansas at later times. These bands of newcomers
encountered mammoths,
camels, ground
sloths, and horses. As these
species had never faced sophisticated
big-game hunters before, the
result was the "Pleistocene overkill", the rapid and
systematic decimation of nearly all the species of large
ice-age mammals in North America by 8000 BC. In a sense, the
hunters who pursued the mammoths may have represented the
first of north Great plains cycle of boom and bust,
relentlessly exploiting the resources until it has been
depleted or destroyed.
After the
disappearance of big-game hunters, some archaic groups
survived by becoming generalists rather than specialists,
foraging in seasonal movements across the plains. The groups
though did not abandon hunting altogether, but utilized wild
plant foods and small game. Their tools became more varied,
with grinding and chopping implements becoming more common,
a sign that seeds, fruits and greens constituted a greater
proportion of their diet. Also, there occurred the emergence
of pottery-making societies.
Introduction of agriculture
For most of
the Archaic period, people were not able to transform their
natural environment in
any fundamental way. The groups outside the region,
particularly Mesoamerica,
introduced major innovations like
agriculture throughout the Americas. Some archaic groups
transferred from food gatherers to food producers around
3,000 years ago. They also possessed many of the cultural
features that accompany semisedentary agricultural life:
storage facilities, more permanent dwellings, larger
settlements, and even cemeteries.
El Quartelejo was the
northern most Indian pueblo. This
settlement is the only pueblo in Kansas which archaeological
evidence has been recovered.
Despite the
early advent of farming, late Archaic groups still exercised
little control over their natural environment. Furthermore,
wild food resources remained important components of their
diet even after the invention of pottery and the development
of irrigation. The introduction of
agriculture never resulted in the complete abandonment of
hunting and foraging, even in the largest of Archaic
societies.
European visitation and local
tribes
In 1541,
Francisco Vasquez
de Coronado, the Spanish conquistador, visited Kansas,
allegedly turning back near "Coronado
Heights" in Lindsborg. Coronado's expedition introduced
the horse to the
Plains Indians, radically
altering their lifestyle and range. Following this
transformation, the Kansa (sometimes
Kaw) and Osage Nation
(originally Ouasash) arrived in Kansas in the 1600s. (The
Kansa claimed that they occupied the territory since 1673.)
By the end of the 18th century, these two tribes were
dominant in the eastern part of the state — the Kansa on the
Kansas River to the North and the Osage on the Arkansas
River to the South. At the same time, the
Pawnees (sometimes Paneassa) were dominant on the plains
to the west and north of the Kansa and Osage nations, in
regions home to massive herds of bison. Europeans visited
the Northern Pawnees in 1719. The French commander at
Fort Orleans,
Etienne de Bourgmont,
visited the Kansas River in 1724
and established a trading post there, near the main Kansa
village at the mouth of the river. Around the same time, the
Otoe tribe of the
Sioux also inhabited various areas around the northeast
corner of Kansas.
Louisiana Purchase and westward
trails
Kansas, as
part of the Louisiana Purchase,
was annexed to the United States
in 1803 as unorganized
territory. In 1806, Zebulon Pike
passed through the region, and labeled it "the
Great American Desert"
on his maps. This view of Kansas would inform U.S. policy
for the next 40 years, prompting the country to set it aside
as land for Native Americans.
Westward exploration
Following
the Louisiana Purchase of
1803 the
Lewis and Clark
Expedition left St. Louis on a mission to reach the
Pacific Ocean. In 1804, Lewis
and Clark camped for three days at the confluence of the
Kansas and Missouri rivers in Kansas City, Kansas (today
recognized at the Kaw
point riverfront park.
[1]). During their stay at the confluence of the
Missouri and Kansas, they met French fur traders and mapped
the area. In 1809,
Louis Bertholet, the first white
settler of Kansas City, Kansas, built
a cabin three blocks south of
Minnesota Avenue and Fifth Street. After a brief period
as part of Missouri Territory,
Kansas returned to unorganized status in 1821. Also in 1821,
the Santa Fe Trail was opened
across Kansas as country's transportation route to the
Southwest, connecting Missouri with
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Because of
the burgeoning trade up the Missouri River from St. Louis,
especially following Lewis and Clark's expedition, the
United States Government sought to form government posts
throughout the area. In 1827,
Fort Leavenworth was
established on the Missouri River. A military road was later
surveyed and constructed to the fort. A section of the Santa
Fe Trail through Kansas was used by emigrants on the
California Trail and
Oregon Trail, which opened in
the 1840s. The westward trails served as vital commercial
and military highways until the railroad took over this role
in the 1860s. To travelers en route to Utah,
California, or
Oregon, the future state of Kansas was an important way
stop and outfitting location.
Wagon Bed Spring
(also Lower Spring or Lower Cimarron Spring) was an
important watering spot on the
Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. Other important
locations along the trail were the
Point of Rocks and
Pawnee Rock.
1820s to 1840s: Indian territory
Beginning
in the 1820s, the area that would become Kansas (by then
popularly known as the
Great American Desert) was "permanently" set aside as
Indian territory by the U.S.
government, and was closed to settlement by whites. On May
8, 1827, Cantonment Leavenworth, or
Fort Leavenworth, (named in
honor of Henry Leavenworth)
was built just inside Indian territory to guard travelers on
the United States' Western frontier. This was the first
permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state
of Kansas.
To fully
utilize Indian territory, the U.S. government resettled
Native American tribes already present in eastern Kansas,
principally the Kansa and
Osage, opening land to move eastern
tribes into the area. By treaty dated June 3, 1825, 20
million acres (81000 km˛) of land was ceded by the Kansa
Nation to the United States, and the Kansa tribe was
thereafter limited to a specific reservation in northeast
Kansas. In the same month, the Osage Nation was limited to a
reservation in southeast Kansas.
The
Missouri
Shawanoes (or Shawnees)
were the first Native Americans removed to the territory. By
treaty made at
St. Louis, on
November 7, 1825,
the United States agreed to provide:
-
"the
Shawanoe tribe of Indians within the State of Missouri,
for themselves, and for those of the same nation now
residing in Ohio who may hereafter emigrate to the west
of the Mississippi, a tract of land equal to fifty miles
[80 km] square, situated west of the State of Missouri,
and within the purchase lately made from the Osage."
The
Delawares came to Kansas by the treaty
of September 24,
1829. The treaty described:
-
"the
country in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers,
extending up the Kansas River to the Kansas (Indian's)
line, and up the Missouri River to Camp Leavenworth, and
thence by a line drawn westerly, leaving a space ten
miles wide, north of the Kansas boundary line, for an
outlet."
After this
point, the Indian Removal Act
of 1830 expedited the process. By treaty dated
August 30, 1831,
the Ottawa ceded land to the
United States and moved to a small reservation on the Kansas
River and its branches. The treaty was ratified
April 6, 1832. On
October 24, 1832, the U.S.
government moved the Kickapoos to a
reservation in Kansas. On October 29,
1832, the Piankeshaws and
Weas agreed to occupy 250 sections of
land, bounded on the north by the Shawanoes; east by the
western boundary line of Missouri; and west by the
Kaskaskias and
Peorias. By treaty made with
the United States on September 21,
1833, the Otoe
tribe ceded their country south of the
Little Nemaha
River.
By
September 17,
1836 the confederacy of the Sacs and
Foxes, by treaty with the
United States, moved north of Kickapoos By treaty of
February 11, 1837,
the United States agreed to convey to the
Pottawatomies an area on the
Osage River, southwest of the
Missouri River. The tract
selected was in the southwest part of what is now
Miami County.
In 1842,
after a treaty between the United States and the
Wyandots, the Wyandots moved to the
junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers (on land that was
shared with the Delaware until
1843). In an unusual provision, 35 Wyandots were given "floats"
in the 1842 treaty – ownership of sections of land that
could be located anywhere west of the Missouri River. In
1847, the Pottawatomies were moved again, to an area
containing 576,000 acres (2,330 km˛), being the eastern part
of the lands ceded to the United States by the Kansa tribe
in 1846. This tract comprised a part of the present counties
of Pottawatomie,
Wabaunsee,
Jackson and
Shawnee.
Early 1850s and the territory
organization
Despite the
extensive plans that were made to settle Native Americans in
Kansas, by 1850 white Americans were illegally
squatting on their land and
clamoring for the entire area to be opened for settlement.
Presaging event that were soon to come, several
U.S. Army forts, including
Fort Riley, were soon established
deep in Indian Territory to guard travelers on the various
Western trails.
Although
the Cheyennes and
Arapahoes tribes were still
negotiating with the United States for land in western
Kansas (the current state of Colorado)
– they signed a treaty on September
17, 1851 – momentum was already
building to take the land from the Native Americans that
they had been promised "permanently."
Realizing
that their land and autonomy were in danger, in 1852 and
1853 the Wyandots attempted to
establish a Territorial government in their section of
Indian territory. In 1853, they convened a convention,
composed of thirteen delegates, at which a constitution for
their territory was formed. A Wyandot named William Walker
was elected provisional governor pursuant to this
constitution and a delegate was sent to Congress. However,
because Kansas was not an official Territory, the delegate
was not received by Congress. (In the long run, this
movement by the Wyandots came to little, and much of the
tribe later moved to land in the future state of Oklahoma.)
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Congress
began the process of creating Kansas Territory in 1852. That
year, petitions were presented at the first session of the
Thirty-second Congress for a territorial organization of the
region lying west of Missouri and Iowa.
No action was at that time taken. However, during the next
session, on December 13,
1852, a Representative from Missouri
submitted to the House a bill organizing the Territory of
Platte: all the tract lying west of Iowa and Missouri, and
extending west to the Rocky
Mountains. The bill was referred to the
United States House Committee on Territories, and passed
by the full U.S.
House of Representatives on February 10, 1853. However,
Southern Senators stalled the progression of the bill in the
Senate, while the implications of the bill on slavery and
the Missouri Compromise
were debated. Heated debate over the bill and other
competing proposals would continue for a year, before
eventually resulting in the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, which became law on
May 30, 1854,
establishing the Nebraska
Territory and Kansas
Territory.
Native American territory ceded
Meanwhile,
by the summer of 1853, it was clear that eastern Kansas
would soon be opened to white American settlers.
Accordingly, Congress sent
George W.
Manypenny, Commissioner of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs,
to negotiate new treaties with the Native Americans that
would return to the U.S. Government all but a fraction of
the land that, less than a quarter-century before, had been
assigned to them "forever." Nearly all the tribes in the
eastern part of the Territory ceded the greater part of
their lands prior to the passage of the Kansas territorial
act in 1854, and were eventually moved south to the future
state of Oklahoma.
In the
three months immediately preceding the passage of the bill,
treaties were quietly made at Washington with the
Delawares,
Otoes,
Kickapoos, Kaskaskias,
Shawnees, Sacs,
Foxes and other tribes, whereby
the greater part of eastern Kansas, lying within one or two
hundred miles of the Missouri border, was suddenly opened to
white settlement. (The Kansa
reservation had already been reduced by treaty in 1846.) On
March 15, 1854,
Otoe and Missouri Indians ceded to the United States all
their lands west of the Mississippi, except a small strip on
the Big Blue River.
On May 6 and May 10,
1854, the
Shawnees ceded 6,100,000 acres (25,000 km˛), reserving
only 200,000 acres (809 km˛) for homes. Also on
May 6, 1854, the
Delawares ceded all their lands to the United States, except
a reservation defined in the treaty. On May 17, the Iowas
similarly ceded their lands, retaining only a small
reservation. On May 18,
1854, the Kickapoos
too ceded their lands, except 150,000 acres (607 km˛) in the
western part of the Territory. Lands were also ceded by the
Kaskaskias,
Peorias,
Piankeshaw and Weas on
March 30, 1854,
and by the Sacs and Foxes on May 18.
The final
step in reducing Native American land in Kansas Territory
soon followed – taking all land from the tribes and giving
small parcels instead to individual Indians or families (in
"severalty"). For example, in 1854, the
Chippewas (Swan Creek and Black River bands) inhabited
8,320 acres (34 km˛) in
Franklin County, but in 1859 the tract was transferred
to individual Chippewa families.
Kansas Territory
Upon the
passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854, the borders of
Kansas Territory were set from the
Missouri border to the summit of the
Rocky Mountain range; the
southern boundary was the 37th parallel, the northern was
the 40th parallel. North of the 40th parallel was Nebraska
Territory. When Congress set the southern border of the
Kansas Territory as the 37th parallel, it was thought that
the Osage southern border was also the 37th parallel. The
Cherokees immediately complained, saying that it was not the
true boundary and that the border of Kansas should be moved
north to accommodate the actual border of the Cherokee land.
This became known as the
Cherokee Strip controversy.
An invitation to violence
The most
controversial provision in the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the
stipulation that settlers in Kansas Territory would decide
whether to allow slavery within its borders. This provision
repealed the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in any
new states created north of latitude 36°30'. Predictably, it
also led to violence between the Northerners and Southerners
that rushed to settle there.
Within a
few days after the passage of the Act, hundreds of
pro-slavery
Missourians crossed into the
adjacent territory, selected an area of land, and then
united with other Missourians in a meeting or meetings,
intending to establish a pro-slavery
preemption upon the
entire region. As early as June 10, 1854, the Missourians
held a meeting at Salt Creek Valley, a trading post three
miles west of Fort Leavenworth, at which a "Squatter's Claim
Association" was organized. They said they were in favor of
making Kansas a slave state, if
it should require half the citizens of Missouri, musket in
hand, to emigrate there, and even to sacrifice their lives
in accomplishing this end.
To counter
this action, the
Massachusetts
Emigrant Aid Company (and other smaller organizations)
quickly arranged to send anti-slavery settlers (known as "Free-Staters")
into Kansas in 1854 and 1855. The principal towns founded by
the New Englanders were
Topeka,
Manhattan, and
Lawrence. Several Free-State
men also came to Kansas Territory from Ohio,
Iowa, Illinois
and other Midwestern states.
Bleeding Kansas
Despite the
proximity and opposite aims of the settlers, the lid was
largely kept on the violence until the election of the
Kansas Territorial legislature on March
30, 1855. On that date, Missourians who had streamed
across the border (known as "Border
Ruffians") filled the ballot boxes in favor of
proslavery candidates. As a result, proslavery candidates
prevailed at every polling district except one (the future
Riley County), and the first
official legislature was overwhelmingly composed of
proslavery delegates.
From 1855
to 1858, Kansas Territory experienced a multitude of
violence and some open battles. This period, known as
"Bleeding Kansas" or "the Border Wars," directly presaged
the American Civil War.
The major incidents of Bleeding Kansas include the
Wakarusa War, the
Sacking of Lawrence, the
Pottawatomie Massacre,
the Battle of Black Jack,
the Battle of Osawatomie,
and the Marais des
Cygnes massacre.
On December
1, 1855, a small army of Missourians, acting under the
command of Douglas County,
Kansas Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, laid siege to the
Free-State stronghold of Lawrence in what would later become
known as "The Wakarusa War." Under the influences and
appliances of pro-slavery opponents, all Western Missouri
was stirred to its very depths, and vomited forth an army
for the subjugation of the Abolitionists of Lawrence. A
treaty of peace negotiation was announced amid much disorder
and cries for the reading of the treaty shortly afterwards.
It quelled the disorder and its provisions were generally
accepted.
On May 21,
1856, proslavery forces led by Sheriff Jones again attacked
Lawrence, killing two men, burning the Free-State Hotel to
the ground, destroying two printing presses, and robbing
homes.
The
Pottawatomie Massacre occurred during the night of May 24 to
the morning of May 25, 1856. In what appears to be a
reaction to the Sacking of
Lawrence, John
Brown and a band of
abolitionists (some of them members of the
Pottawatomie Rifles)
killed with broadswords five
settlers, thought to be proslavery, north of Pottawatomie
Creek in Franklin County,
Kansas. Brown later said that he had not participated in
the killings during the Pottawatomie Massacre, but that he
did approve of them. He went into hiding after the killings,
and two of his sons, John Jr. and Jason, were arrested.
During their confinement, they were allegedly mistreated,
which left John Jr. mentally scarred. On
June 2, Brown led a successful attack on a band of
Missourians led by Captain
Henry Pate in the
Battle of Black Jack.
Pate and his men had entered Kansas to capture Brown and
others. That autumn, Brown went back into hiding and engaged
in other guerrilla
activities.
Territorial Constitutions
Reflecting
the deep divisions within Kansas Territory, four
constitutions were framed as the
organic law before the
state was admitted to the
Union. Each charter reflected
different views of the treatment of African Americans in the
future Kansas.
The
Topeka Constitution,
which was the first in order, was adopted by a convention of
Free-Staters on
November 11, 1855.
It contained the Free-State principles of barring slavery in
the future state of Kansas and excluding all free
African-Americans from Kansas. The convention was
unauthorized by the territorial or federal government, and
although the constitution was approved by the people of the
Territory at an election held on
December 15, 1855, it was never
accepted as a legal document.
The
Lecompton Constitution
was adopted by a Convention convened by the official
pro-slavery government on November 7,
1857. The constitution would have
allowed slavery in Kansas as drafted, but the slavery
provision was put to a vote. After a series of votes on the
provision and the constitution itself were boycotted
alternatively by pro-slavery settlers and Free-State
settlers, the Lecompton Constitution was eventually
presented to the U.S. Congress for approval. In the end,
because it was never clear if the constitution represented
the will of the people, it was rejected.
While the
Lecompton Constitution was being debated, a new Free-State
legislature was elected and seated in Kansas Territory. The
new legislature convened a new convention, which framed the
Leavenworth Constitution.
This constitution was the most radically progressive of the
four proposed, outlawing slavery and providing a framework
for women's rights. The constitution was adopted by the
convention at Leavenworth on
April 3, 1858,
and by the people at an election held May
18, 1858 (all while the Lecompton
Constitution was still under consideration). The U.S.
Congress refused to ratify it.
Following
the failure of the Lecompton and Leavenworth charters, a
fourth constitution was drafted; the
Wyandotte Constitution
was adopted by the convention which framed it on
July 29, 1859. It
was adopted by the people at an election held
October 4, 1859.
It outlawed slavery but was far less progressive than the
Leavenworth Constitution. Kansas was admitted into the Union
as a free state under this
constitution on January 29,
1861.
End of hostilities
By the time
the Wyandotte Constitution was framed, it was clear that the
pro-slavery forces had lost in their bid to control Kansas.
With this dawning realization and the departure of John
Brown from the state, Bleeding Kansas violence virtually
ceased by 1859.
Statehood
Kansas
became the 34th state admitted to the Union on
January 29, 1861.
Three months thereafter, the
Civil War would officially commence, although the fight
between North and South had started in Kansas Territory
years before.
The 1860s
saw several important developments in the history of Kansas,
including participation in the
Civil War, the beginning of the cattle drives, the roots
of Prohibition in Kansas (which would fully take hold in the
1880s), and the start of the Indian
Wars on the western plains. James
Lane was elected to the Senate from the state of Kansas
in 1861, and reelected in 1865. Lane was despised throughout
the entire Confederacy.
Seal and motto of Kansas
Great Seal of the State of Kansas
was established by a joint resolution adopted by the Kansas
Legislature May
25, 1861. The design for the Great
Seal of Kansas was submitted by
John James Ingalls, a
state senator from
Atchison. Ingalls also proposed the
state motto, "Ad astra per aspera."
Civil War
At the
commencement of the Civil War, the Kansas government had no
well-organized militia, no arms, accoutrements or supplies,
nothing with which to meet the demands, except the united
will of officials and citizens. During the years 1859 to
1860, the military organizations had fallen into disuse or
been entirely broken up. The first Kansas regiment was
called on June 3, 1861,
and the seventeenth, the last raised during the Civil War,
July 28, 1864.
The entire quota assigned to the Kansas was 16,654, and the
number raised was 20,097, leaving a surplus of 3,443 to the
credit of Kansas. Statistics indicated that losses of Kansas
regiments in killed in battle and from disease are greater
per thousand than those of any other State.
Baxter Springs
The
Battle of Baxter Springs,
sometimes called the Baxter Springs Massacre, was a minor
battle in the War, fought on October
6, 1863, near the modern-day town of
Baxter Springs, Kansas.
The Battle of Mine Creek,
also known as the Battle of the Osage was a
cavalry battle that occurred in
Kansas during the war.
Marais des Cygnes
On
October 25, 1864, the
Battle of Marais des
Cygnes occurred in Linn
County, Kansas. This Battle of Trading Post was between
Major General
Sterling Price leading a
Missouri expedition against Union forces under Major General
Alfred Pleasonton. Price,
after going south from Kansas City, was met by Pleasonton at
Marais des Cygnes. The
Confederates were forced to withdraw after an assault by
Union forces.
Lawrence
After Union
Brigadier General Thomas Ewing,
Jr. ordered the imprisonment of women who had provided
aid to Confederate guerillas, tragically the jail's roof
collapsed, killing five. These deaths enraged all of
Missouri. On August 21,
1863,
William Quantrill led Quantrill's Raid into
Lawrence destroying much of
the city and killing over a hundred people. The
Confederate
partisans in Missouri rode to Lawrence (a town long hated by
Quantrill and many Southerners) in response to the deaths of
women and children. Quantrill also rationalized, an attack
on this citadel of abolition would bring revenge for any
wrongs, real or imagined that the Southerners had suffered.
By the time the raid was over, Quantrill and his men had
killed approximately 150-200 men, both young and old.
Indian Wars in Kansas
Fort Larned
was established in 1859 as a base of military operations
against hostile Indians of the
Central Plains, to protect traffic along the
Santa Fe Trail and as an
agency for the administration of the Central Plains Indians
by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs under the terms of the
Fort Wise Treaty of 1861.
The time of
the discovery of the precious metals in the mountains of
Colorado, and the consequent
crowding of the Cheyennes and
Arapahoes toward the valleys of the
Republican and
Smoky Hill, may be
considered the commencement of a series of aggressions and
counter-aggressions between the native Americans and the
miners and military of Colorado, which eventuated in April,
1864, in a war kept up for many months by the Indians upon
frontier settlers in Kansas and Nebraska, upon travelers,
ranch men end train men, culminating in November of the same
year, in a wholesale slaughter of a band of Indians - mostly
friendly Indians - who were encamped on Sand Creek near
Fort Lyon in Colorado, on their own
reservation, to which they had been ordered as a place of
safety. This event is now known as the
Sand Creek Massacre.
Era of Peace
The sweet
assuring smile of peace fell on Kansas for the first time in
her existence when the war of the rebellions, known as the
American Civil War, ended.
Twelve years of turmoil and bloody strife - twelve years of
constant effort where danger was ever rife, had trained the
inhabitants to know now rest save in motion and no safety
save in incessant vigilance. Under such discipline the
character of the whole people had become as peculiar as the
experiences through which they had passed. During this
period, Kansas City, Kansas
(KCK) formed (1868) and was incorporated
(October, 1872).
A restless
energy was the controlling characteristic during these years
- to take one's ease had ceased to be a thing to be desired;
obstacles to be overcome were the desired objects, and to
overcome them the grand aim of a typical Kansan's life. The
war being ended, they turned to the most vigorous pursuit of
the peaceful arts; they had conquered the right to the free
soil they trod; henceforth their energies should be devoted
to the development of its highest possibilities through
every means which ingenuity could devise, patience endure,
or energy execute.
Kansas Pacific railroad
In 1863,
the Union Pacific Eastern Division (renamed the
Kansas Pacific in 1869) was
authorized by the United
States Congress's Pacific
Railway Act to create the southerly branch of the
transcontinental
railroad alongside the Union Pacific. Pacific Railway
Act also authorized large land grants
to the railroad along its mainline. The company began
construction on its main line westward from Kansas City in
September 1863.
Wild West
In 1867,
Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards
in Abilene, Kansas and helped
develop the Chisholm Trail,
encouraging Texas cattlemen to undertake cattle drives to
his stockyards from 1867 to 1887. The stockyards became the
largest west of
Kansas City. Once the cattle was drove north, they were
shipped eastward from the railhead of the
Kansas Pacific Railway.
In 1871,
Wild Bill Hickok became
marshal of Abilene, Kansas. His encounter there with John
Wesley Hardin resulted in the latter fleeing the town after
Wild Bill managed to disarm him. Hickok was also a deputy
marshal at Fort Riley and a
marshal at Hays in the
wild west. In
Greensburg, Kansas, the
Big Well was built to
provide water for the Santa Fe and Rock Island railroads. It
is 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter. This 1880s
attraction is the world's largest hand-dug well, being 109
feet deep and 32 feet in diameter.
Coronado, Kansas, was
established in 1885. Is was involved in one of the bloodiest
county seat fights in the
history of the American West.
The shoot-out on February 27, 1887, with boosters — some
would say hired gunmen — from nearby Leoti left several
people dead and wounded.
Exodusters
In 1879,
upon the termination of the post-Civil War
Reconstruction era in the
South, a large number of former slaves moved from Southern
states to Kansas. Known as the
Exodusters, they were lured by the prospect of good,
cheap land and better treatment. The town of
Nicodemus, Kansas, which
was founded in 1877, was an organized settlement that
predates the Exodusters but is often associated with them.
Prohibition
On
February 19, 1881,
Kansas became the first U.S. state to adopt a Constitutional
amendment
prohibiting all alcoholic beverages. This action was
part of the Temperance
movement, and was enforced by the ax-totting
Carrie Nation.
20th century
World War I to World War II
In 1916,
Kansas troops served on the
U.S.-Mexico border during the
Mexican Revolution. 80,000
Kansans enlisted in the
United States military after April, 1917 when the United
States declared war on Germany,
Austria-Hungary,
Bulgaria, and
Turkey. They were attached mostly to the 35th, the 42nd,
the 89th, and the 92nd infantry
divisions.
Between
1922 and 1927, there were several legal battles Kansas
against the KKK, resulting in their
expulsion from the state.
The
flag of Kansas was designed in
1925. It was officially adopted by the Kansas State
Legislature in 1927 and modified in 1961 (the word "Kansas"
was added below the seal in gold block lettering). It was
first flown at Fort Riley by
Governor
Ben S. Paulen in
1927 for the troops at Fort Riley and for the Kansas
National Guard.
The
Dust Bowl was a series of
dust storms caused by a massive
drought that began in 1930 and lasted until 1941. The effect
of the drought combined with the effects of the
Great Depression, forced
many farmers off the land throughout the Great Plains. This
ecological disaster caused a journey by a large group of
residents to escape from the hostile environment of Kansas.
Cold War era
During the
Cold War, Kansas participated in the
deterrent weapons system that for years defended America
from nuclear attack. In the 1950s, Kansas received unusually
high doses of radioactive nuclear fallout from 1950s nuclear
weapons tests in Nevada.
In May 17,
1954, the Supreme Court in
Brown v. Board of
Education unanimously declared that separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal" and, as such,
violate the 14th Amendment to the United States
Constitution, which guarantees all citizens "equal
protection of the laws." Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka explicitly outlawed de jure
racial segregation of
public education facilities
(legal establishment of separate government-run schools for
blacks and whites). The site consists of the Monroe
Elementary School, one of the four segregated elementary
schools for African American children in Topeka, Kansas (and
the adjacent grounds).
During the
1950s and 1960s,
intercontinental ballistic missiles (designed to carry a
single nuclear warhead) were stationed throughout Kansas
facilities. They were stored (to be launched from) hardened
underground silos. The Kansas facilities were deactivated in
the early 1980s.
On June
8th, 1966, Topeka, Kansas was
struck by an F5 rated tornado,
according to the Fujita scale.
The "Topeka Tornado of
1966" started on the southwest side of town, moving
northeast, hitting various landmarks (including
Washburn University).
Total dollar cost was put at $100 million.
Recent personalities
Kansas was
home to President Eisenhower,
presidential candidates Bob Dole and
Alf Landon, and the aviator
Amelia Earhart. Famous
athletes from Kansas include Barry
Sanders, Gale Sayers,
Jim Ryun,
Walter Johnson,
Maurice Greene, and Lynette
Woodard.
State
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