Old Jefferson Town

By Ella Hull Fulton From the Winchester Star, Dec. 2, 1927 While in Kansas City we looked with admiration on the beautiful statuary, in Penn Valley park, called the “Pioneer Mother” with her child on her tired horse. She stands in a high windy bare place without protection, asking no favors; her face is not the face of a martyr, but like one going on a trip reassured that come what will she is ready; that she has God and her husband and child, and what else matters. Was it, d

By Rick Nichols Eva Florence Smith The Aug. 13, 1953, issue of The Oskaloosa Independent contained a front page story headlined “The Late Eva Smith Recalled In Saturday Eve Post Article,” a story that included the paragraph about Oskaloosa native Eva Smith that was part of John Kobler’s article “Smugglers are their quarry” for the July 11, 1953, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. Smith was the daughter of James and Nancy Smith, and among her several siblings were the multita

Written for the Independent By J.H. Bennet Jeremiah Howland “Squire” Bennet wrote captivating reminiscences about early Jefferson County for several county newspapers in the 1870s. Having moved to Kansas Territory near Coal Creek around Grasshopper Falls (now Valley Falls) in 1857, Bennet had a lot of material from which to write his stories. Bennet, a lawyer born in Maine in 1824, worked in various Jefferson County government jobs, including justice of the peace, probate jud

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days In the early summer of 1857, there were premonitions of serious trouble in Utah. Brigham Young, president of the Mormon church, had, hitherto, by virtue of his supreme influence among the people of that territory, been successful in persuading the powers at Washington that he was the only individual in whom should reside the functions of government in Utah. [President] Buchanan decided to ignore his

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days March 10, 1857, Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, was appointed governor of Kansas. Before his appointment, which he only accepted at the earnest solicitation of President [James] Buchanan, he stipulated as a condition of his acceptance that the constitution then provided for, and which was passed in the fall of the same year should be submitted to the people for their endorsement or rejection. Presid

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days From the year 1855 to 1859 there was no character that stood out so prominently among the masses of the free state people of Kansas, or that aroused more enthusiasm among their friends in the north, as that of James H. Lane. He was in congress at the time of the formation of the Kansas-Nebraska bill [The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) left it to settlers’ votes to determine if Kansas and Nebraska would

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days On the 15th day of July, 1857, commenced at Osawkie* the sale of the Delaware Trust lands. These lands include that part of the Delaware reservation lying north of a line drawn east and west, perhaps a mile south of the little hamlet. There was no homestead law at that time, and all lands obtained by settlers ranged in price from $1.25 per acre upward. The lands were however appraised, and those sett

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days The next morning I was early on my road eastward toward Lawrence. My route lay along the Yellow Kansas river whose siren voice was ever murmuring in my ears, “come to my embrace and I will cleanse you of all exterior impurity, and fill you with exhilaration and strength for your journey.” I was no Ulysses that could resist the persuasive and enchanting voice ever babbling so melodiously in my ears, b

Editor's Note: Thomas Gay, having moved to Kansas Territory from Wisconsin in 1856, said he came to the territory to make it a free state. Colorfully, he recounted his entry and participation in the Battle of Hickory Point and how he was living with a man he called Abner Lowell, from Massachusetts, in a cabin on the Delaware River (then the Grasshopper River). In parts 4 and 5, Mr. Gay described his own experience after the Battle of Hickory Point, when many Free-State fighte

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days In the fall of the year of our Lord, 1856, on the west side of the Delaware reservation, somewhere between Osawkie (sic) and Lecompton, is the edge of a skirt of woodland, and near a babbling spring brook, stood a commodious log cabin, the dwelling place of an Indian and his family. While an adverse “kismet” was leading the main portion of my companions in arms to humiliation and imprisonment [after

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days Perhaps, in all the history of those turbulent times, there was no single event fraught with more suffering to the individuals concerned, and more anxiety to the free state party, than this capture and imprisonment of ninety or a hundred men by Uncle Sam. They were taken before Judge Cato [U.S. Judge Sterling Cato in Lecompton], who was himself of that border-ruffian army, who so recently had been de

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days (From the Chariton Herald, Feb. 22, 1894) I think some old time philosopher has somewhere promulgated a theory something like this: “In times of peace, when mankind are engaged in building up and fostering commerce and manufacturies, and art and science, etc., the protoplasm of the blood is infused with infinitesimal organisms in the shape of deer, goats, lambs and other animals of like inoffensive n

Personal Recollections of Life in Territorial Kansas in Border Ruffian Days (From the Chariton Herald, Feb. 8 and Feb 15, 1894) These recollections may have a possible interest to the old as a reminder of the exciting events which followed the passage of the “Kansas – Nebraska bill.” By granting the squatters sovereignty, this bill opened up a possible slavery to every new state coming into the Union. [The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed male territory settlers to determine whet

Hardville, Jefferson Co., KS From the Winchester Star, Apr. 8, 1910 (Copied by Raymond Riley) A peculiar condition was discovered through looking up some records in the Register of Deeds office some time ago. Away back in 1856 a man by the name of Hannibal A. Low platted a town just a little north and east of where Dunavant now stands and named it Hardville, and it is evident that he expected it to grow into a big town for he laid off 94 blocks, taking up approximately 320 ac

Charity Ross Will Soon Be with the Daughter She Has Not Seen for Forty-Five Years Kansas City, 12/29/1898: An old colored woman sat in the Union Depot yesterday, rocking to and fro, whimpering and moaning softly, while her tears fell on an envelope which bore her address, “Charity Ross, Valley Falls, Kan.,” written neatly. It was the first and only word she has had from her daughter, Mary Barnes, who has been lost to her for 45 years. The old woman said she had passed the hun

Early Days in Oskaloosa From the Oskaloosa Independent, March 9, 1933 By Francis Henry Roberts While I have before told the story of the script used in Oskaloosa during the scarcity of currency during the Civil War, I am asked to tell it again now because of the situation on hand, with banks closing for a breathing spell, produce houses closing for lack of money to pay farmers, and all that. “We never miss the water till the well runs dry” is an old adage that applies right n

From the Prairie City Freeman’s Champion, August 13, 1857 (Prairie City was an early town about a mile west of present-day Baldwin City, Kansas.) The rush to Osawkee for the past week or so, has exceeded anything of the kind that ever occurred in the country — almost excelling California. The scene at Osawkee beggars description — resembling another Saturnalia or Pandemonium. Drinking, gambling and spreeing are the order of the day and night. Still we have heard of no serious

Loses Wife from Car, Drives on From the McLouth Times, June 27, 1929 Dr. Cain is the recipient of many ha, ha's from his neighbors and townsmen these days, who were let in on a rich joke on him — fortunately not a serious joke. He and Mrs. Cain were en route to Lawrence in a two seated car, the wife in the rear. To make a turn at a corner and avoid an obstruction the doctor swerved the car rather sharply. Mrs. Cain, being drowsy, lurched sideways and tumbled out the door, whi