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Custer, Hickok,
Cody -- All
In Hays' History
By SAM TEAFORD
Buffalo Bill. Gen. George Custer.
"Wild Bill" Hickok.
WILLIAM F. CODY also "Buffalo Bill" . . .
These famous names stand out on the pages of the history of Hays, a west-central Kansas town that today is the center of a rich wheat and oil-producing area. In 1869, however, Hays was a town straight from a western movie, and Buffalo Bill, Gen Custer, and Wild Bill all were there about that time.
Buffalo Bill, as William F. Cody was called because of his proficiency in killing buffaloes, was on the scene when Hays first became organized as a town, but his part was played in the development of a rival town.
Gen. Custer commanded the Seventh Cavalry regiment, a cavalry unit of Indian fighters which was stationed at Fort Hays when it wasn't campaigning against the redskins.
Wild Bill served as town marshal in Hays until the town's lawlessness became too much even for him, forcing the straight shooter to move on to Topeka.
Working as a scout for the Army, Buffalo Bill spent much time at Fort Hays, a frontier post near the present town of Hays. In the course of his duties he met a William Rose, contractor on the Kansas Pacific railroad.
Mr. Rose, who knew the railroad would pass near Fort Hays, told Buffalo Bill of his plans for beginning a town on the west side of Big Creek near the fort and where the railroad was to cross.
Always acceptable to what seemed a profitable proposition, Buffalo Bill agreed to join the enterprise. The two men bought goods to stock a store, and they hired a railroad engineer to survey the new town, to be called Rome.
To begin, lots were given away to anyone who wanted to build on them, but eventually they decided to reserve the corner lots at $50 each.
In a short time Rome had grown into a village of some 200 frame and log houses, three or four stores, warehouses, and one hotel. Rome was booming.
Then one day a fellow named W E, Webb came to town, stopping by the store owned by the town's founders.
Webb's proposition was simple. He wanted to become a partner with Buffalo Bill and Mr. Rose, but they refused to accept another member.
At this point Webb revealed himself to be an agent of the Kansas Pacific railroad whose business was to locate towns for the company along the way. He said the railroad usually planned to make money
University Daily Kansan
through the sale of land and town lots.
But not finding the originators in Rome in a mood to bargain, Webb immediately began to haul materials to a spot one mile east, where he staked out a town called Hays City
To support his new town, Webb made it plain to all in Rome that his railroad planned to locate round-houses and machine shops in Hays City, which he said undoubtedly would make it the business center in that part of the country.
At once the population of Rome decided they were living in the wrong town and began moving out. In just three days the town of Rome was reduced to the store owned by two disappointed frontiersmen, Buffalo Bill and Rose.
Gen. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry spent much time at Fort Hays His troops trained there, went on scouting trips, hunted buffalo, and fought with inhabitants of Hays City
In the summer of 1867 a flash flood, similar to the one which came in 1951, washed through the fort. The storm began with a heavy wind, hard rain, and a shower of hailstones.
Then came the flood. Part of the fort was isolated on a temporary island, and seven soldiers drowned attempting to swim to the mainland.
It was June 15, 1876, when Gen. Custer and his men met death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana. J. H. Donning, editor of the Hays City Star, scooped the world with the news.
The story of Gen. Custer's defeat reached Hays July 6, 1876. "Warl Our Troops Surprised by the Sioux, Gen. Custer and his Entire Command Killed," headlines in the Star read. It was the only paper in the nation to print the story that day.
When Wild Bill Hickok was marshal in 1869, Hays was a reckless border town, full of saloons, dance halls, and disreputable characters.
Pike, Coronado Differed on Prairie Country
Zebulon Pike, American Army officer, didn't think much of Kansas when he first saw it in 1806, but other early explorers thought its prairies were fertile land.
Francisco Coronado, one of the first white men to see Kansas, found no gold but he still believed the country was rich in natural resources. Juan de Onate, a later Spanish visitor, and Bourgmont, a French explorer, formed the same opinion.
By SAM TEAFORD
Lt. Pike led an expedition through Kansas in 1806 to make friends with the Indians and to locate the headquarters of the Arkansas and Red rivers.
"Here a barren soil, parched and dried up for eight months in the year, present neither moisture nor nourishment. It nourishes rich, nourish moist." Lt. Pike wrote.
The man whose name was given to the Colorado mountain peak passed through Kansas during a particularly dry season. He did not think the country ever would have a large population.
"These vast plains of the western hemisphere may become in time as celebrated as the sandy deserts of Africa; for I saw in my route, in various places, tracts of many leagues where the wind had thrown the sand in all fanciful forms of the ocean's rolling wave, and on which not a speck of vegetable matter existed."
Lt. Pike did see one good thing about Kansas.
"Our citizens being prone to rambling and extending themselves on the frontiers, will, through necessity, be constrained to limit their extent on the west to borders of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, to leave the prairies, incapable of cultivation, to the wandering aborigines of the country." Lt. Pike wrote.
"From these immense prairies may arise one advantage to the U.S., that is the restriction of our population, to the continuation of the Union.
Bourgmont, noted as a peacemaker between the French and Indians, also thought that Kansas was a valuable territory. Bourgmont, a French Indian in 1723, invited Kansas Indians to make peace with the Comanches.
Although he traveled along the Arkansas river for several weeks, Coronado soon found that the Wichita and Pawnee who lived in the country he named Quivera had no gold.
Fremont to Ike-
Coronado took his expedition north into what is now Kansas in the spring of 1541, after he had heard that the Indians there had great wealth.
Republican Party 100 Years Old
By DON TICE
On Feb. 28, 1854, in the town of Ripon, Wis., a small group of disconsolate politicians held a meeting and decided to form a new political party.
Because opposition to slavery was to be one of the main planks in the new party's platform, its founders named it "Republican" after the party of Thomas Jefferson, who was responsible for the annexation of the Northwest Territory in 1787 with a no-slavery clause.
Although the group at Ripon is credited with being the first to use the name "Republican," it was far from being alone, since groups in Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, and Maine also held conventions at about the same time and chose that name for their parties.
The movement proved to be popular, if unorganized, and in 1855, 15 of the 62 senators and 108 of 236 rebelled called themselves Republicans.
In June 1856 the segments of the Republican party held a national convention in Philadelphia and nominated Army hero John C. Fremont to run for President.
When he saw that the Provise party, which was made up mostly of deserting Democrats, couldn't make the grade, Chase went in with the Republicans.
Then, when the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed, this party split, with members going back to the Democrat majority joining the Republicans.
Although James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, won the presidency, members of the newly formed party were much encouraged by their showing. Fremont got 1,341,264 popular votes and 114 electoral votes to 1,838,169 and 174 for Buchanan.
In 1852 this group nominated Martin Van Buren for President and ran an unsuccessful campaign.
The big motivating factor for forming the Republican party was, as has been pointed out, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act. This piece of legislation rendered definite the split between the plantation and slave owners in the South and the small independent farmers in the West.
A party known as the Barn Burners was formed in 1848. It was made up of progressive Democrats who favored the Wilmot Proviso and opposed slavery, and the old Free Soil party.
Friday, March 26, 1954
This caused the Western farmers to join political forces with the North and, as one historian said, "from this union was born the embryo of the Republican party."
The anti-slavery members of the Democratic party, who could see that there was little chance of their party being anything but pro-slave, then began to bolt and go over to the Republican movement.
Another party that joined the new movement was the Wilmot Proviso party under the leadership of Salmon P. Chase. The Wilmot Proviso was a bill to place $2 million in the hands of President Polk to negotiate a peace
with Mexico and purchases the territory in the Southwest with a clause prohibiting slavery.
The Whig party was both a northern and southern party and attempted to ride on the line on the slavery issue. Then, when the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854 nullified the Missouri Compromise, the Whig party began to break up, with the proslavery members going to the Democrats and the anti-slave forces to the Republicans.
The membership of the new party came mostly from anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats.
Missouri Compromise Heralded Slave Issue
By ELIZABETH WOHLGEMUTH
The Missouri Compromise, passed in 1820, provided that Missouri should enter the union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The remainder of the Louisiana purchase north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes was to be forever free. But prior to the passing of the bill there had been a long year of debate.
By 1819 the South had several causes for worry. Cotton prices had declined and growers found it more difficult to buy manufactured goods from the North.
Population was growing smaller and representation in Congress was lagging. There were 81 slave holding representatives to 105 free ones. The South was afraid that with this new Congress the North could pass a hate law. They were afraid of what would happen if such a tariff were passed.
The only hope the South had or preventing such measures from becoming law would be to maintain a sectional balance of power.
The North was afraid that if Missouri became slave the institution might spread to the rest of the territory. The Tallmadge bill was proposed by the North and provided that no slaves be admitted to Missouri because a state and that all children of slaves in the state of age should be freed. The bill was passed in the House but was voted down in the Senate.
There followed a year of debate over the issue. Northern legislatures were against allowing slavery in any territory. The South argued that it had the constitutional right to property and threatened secession if Missouri became free. Very little was said about the moral issue involved.
The admission of Missouri as a slave state would have given the South a majority in Congress. The moral issue as to whether the government should foster and extend slavery or discourage and eventually destroy it was considered but the economic issue was more important,
During all this time of debate Missouri wanted statehood.
At the beginning of a new session of Congress in 1820 the Taylor amendment was proposed providing "that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any said state." The House passed the amendment but the Senate disappayed it, and passed the Thomas act, which said "that in the case of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, slavery shall be and is hereby forever pohibited." A stale-mate threatened.
Maine then asked to be admitted as a free state and Congress, taking advantage of the opportunity, linked the two admission bills with the Thomas amendment to form the Missouri compromise.
The adoption of the Compromise temporarily settled the situation and probably prevented secession at that time. The Compromise, however, was not to go unchallenged when the South found itself falling behind a few years later, both politically and economically.
By ED HOWARD
Rapid Growth of Industries Characterizes State Today
Kansas, a state many persons think of as backward, will begin its second hundred years in much better shape and with more promise than any of its neighbors.
The economy of Kansas at the present time is more promising, the manufacturing outlook has more growth and innovation than it is better than at any previous time.
Perhaps a great amount of this push toward prosperity is due to the seeming governmental fear of atomic aggression. This fear is causing the government to move more of its industries to the Midwest, away from the various costal regions.
The agricultural outlook, because of mechanization, is promising. Many rural residents are moving to urban communities because of the better job opportunities, but mechanization is making it possible for the farmer to keep up with the added pressures for food supplies.
The Kansas cities, Kansas City, Wichita, and Topeka are growing at an alarming rate, making it possible for construction work at a great level, both at the large scale manufacturing level and also at the private home level.
Growth of ordance plants at De-Soto and near Parsons have raised the level of these communities and their surrounding areas because of the rapid population rises, which are caused by increasing governmental demands.
Population trends show that in the early forties, especially during the war years, persons were moving out of the state, a loss of 77,488 from the period 1940 to 1950. Recent trends from the period 1950 to 1953 show that there are many more persons entering the state than leaving it.
Sedgwick county, where Wichita is located, shows the biggest increase from the 1940-1950 period, an increase of from 145,000 persons to 222,000 persons. It is followed by Wyandotte county, where Kansas City is located, with an increase during the same period of from 145,000 persons to 165,000 persons.
Following these two is Shawne county, home of Topeka, with an increase of from 91,000 persons to 105,000 persons during the same period. Johnson county has experienced a population rise of from 33,-000 in 1940 to 63,000 in 1950.
This population rise in principal
cities makes it clear that industries are attracted to the Midwest very strongly, either by the threat of atomic power or by the desire to bring their products closer to the market, as is evidenced by General Motors Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac division in Kansas City, and by the Goodyear Tire plant in Topeka.
Scientific advances also are a big reason for the shift of industries to Kansas. For instance, the fertilizer industry is growing with rapid strides because farmers in the central region have discovered the tremendous returns from fertilized soil.
Crude petroleum and natural gas developments in the state have brought a big source of revenue. Nearly all refineries have made big expansions in the past 10 years, indicating an expected increase of petroleum in the crude form for at least 20 years. The natural gas reserves also are very large, indicating a possible huge expansion in the next several years.
There is sufficient salt underlying Kansas so that future expansion would seem inevitable. There are also abundant resources of raw materials for the cement, clay, and gypsum industries, enough so that the industries would have much room for expansion.
The combined forces of expansion possibilities and expansion that has been completed in the past five years have made Kansas high among the manufacturing states in the country. As it now stands, the only basic thing which could stand in the way of a much wealthier state would be its size, but that is a factor which will not be encountered for many years to come.
First High School Erected in Chapman
Chapman had the first city high school in the state, built following enactment by the legislature of a bill establishing the state-wide system of city high schools.
The system was first conceived by Prof. J. H. Canfield of KU, father of the novelist, Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
"Young America" was a movement in 1851 centered around the idea that the United States had a "manifest destiny" in the world.