GOOD YEAR
Kansas
Centennial
1865-1961
MINNESOTA U.S.A.
University Daily Kansan
Centennial Edition
100 YEARS
Kansas
Centennial
1861-1961
MIDWAY D.C.
58th Year, No. 121 SECTION B
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Monday, April 17, 1961
Vol. V.—No. 219.] NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1861. [PRICE FIVE CENTS.]
International accord to list companies in the Vienna Shire & Bergen in the Greater Lake of the Länder Court for the Southern District of New York.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN HOISTING THE AMERICAN FLAG WITH THIRTY-FOUR STARS UPON DEPENDENCE HALL PHILADELPHIA, FREEBY 27, 1961.
STATEHOOD—This reproduction of a magazine of the period shows the 34-star flag being raised
—Courtesy The Kansas Historical Society
by President Lincoln as Kansas joins the Union. The building is Philadelphia's Independence Hall.
Early Settlers' Lives Rugged
By Kelly Smith
Home life for the "clod hoppers" and "sorghum lappers", as rural folk in Kansas were called, varied from the Saturday night bath in a wooden tub to the family treat of corncob syrup and flapjacks.
Since the first settlers were primarily New Englanders who knew nothing about log cabins, tents and sod houses preceded the building of the traditional log homes.
THE WINTER MONTHS were long, and keeping warm in front of the wood or hay-fed burners was difficult for these pedestrians of the
Socks were rare, so rags were wrapped around the feet for warmth, and gunny sacks were pulled over boots for outside work or long trips in winter. Moccasins could be purchased for 50 cents, but more often shoes were made by tacking leather "uppers" to wooden soles. Women often went barefoot to save leather.
plains, who were often short of transportation as well as clothing and supplies.
The housewife of the midwest served such dishes as acorn bread, clover blossom vinegar, cockelbur cough syrup, and pea hull soup. She was accustomed to the practice of
saving grease from her cooking to apply to the shoes for water proofing. One can imagine the smell in a hot, damp room!
There was a shortage of milk, butter and eggs, but regardless of the difficulties, women were amazingly cheerful and enthusiastic and wrote back East of "the beauty of the prairie, the wild flowers and birds, deer and even the climate."
COFFEE HAD to be made from green unroasted beans which were browned in the oven, then ground in a coffee mill and pounded in a mortar with spices.
(Continued on page 10)
Joyful Kansans Hail Statehood
By David Wiens
In Washington President Buchanan reluctantly signed the bill ushering a new state into the Union.
Quickly the news was flashed along the single telegraph line to Leavenworth. While the townspeople danced in the street, a patriotic citizen galloped at full speed toward Lawrence, 35 miles away. Here the legislature was in session, anxiously awaiting word confirming the expected happy event. Unceremoniously the courier pushed aside the doorkeeper. His message created pandemonium in the legislative hall.
LAWRENCE CITIZENS joined the state officials in the celebration of statehood. They dug up an old cannon and fired salutes until the powder supply was exhausted. Meanwhile another joyful courier sped to the village of Topeka, 30 miles up river. He spread the glad tidings to settlers as he raced wildly over the hills.
About dusk this Paul Revere of the plains dropped exhausted from his foam-flecked horse near old Constitution Hall on Kansas Avenue in Topeka. His voice was hoarse from shouting along the way, but almost instantaneously a great uproar was heard along the five blocks of Kansas Avenue. The whole population joined the delirious celebration. Settlers from far and near rushed into town and joined the whooping throng.
All night long and into the next day the hills around Leavenworth, Lawrence and Topeka echoed the rejoicing of an oppressed people
celebrating their release from the perils of border warfare. For seven turbulent territorial years they had been subjected to personal and political outrage; but on the birth-day of Kansas the orators extolled the virtues of the baby state.
Although jubilant Kansas became a state it was confronted with the task of building from scratch. At the time of statehood Kansas had no proper capitol city, no money, no enacted laws, and a surfeit of settlers. Heavy immigration into the new state resulted in chaos.
The early 70s saw Kansas in a critical condition. A grasshopper plague wiped out the crops, leaving Kansas' economy in dire shape. The future of Kansas agriculture was brightened in 1873 when the Mennonites came from Russia, bringing the hard winter wheat which was to make Kansas the greatest wheat-producing state in the Union.
DURING THE 1880s an agricultural boom took place. Alfalfa was introduced and immediately 34,300 more acres were planted to the new foliage crop. A land bog began which raised land prices. Speculators made enormous profits. The Kansas silver anniversary was in 1866, but little attention was paid to the occasion.
This year saw Kansas suffer through one of the worst blizzards in history. It lasted three days, piling snow 30 feet high in places. The ground began splitting open because of the extreme cold.
The boom bubble burst in 1888,
(Continued on page 16)
By Mark Knapp
Trouble with Indians Marked Early Days
The white men who came to Kansas more than a century ago found a land inhabited by several tribes of plains Indians. The Osage, Kansas, Pawnee, Wichita, Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe were dominant at various times in the area. The Apache also hunted early in Kansas.
These Indians were proud and free before the white man's coming. "Civilization" soon robbed the village tribes of their freedom and dignity, but the nomadic tribes further west maintained their independence for a longer period and built for themselves a reputation of warlike ferocity which lasted until the 1870's.
Before the Civil War, settlers rushed into Kansas and overran the New York Indian grants. The Indians negotiated treaties, only to have them violated by squatters who were hungry for the rich lands. Following the Civil War a series of Indian outbreaks occurred on the western frontiers. These wars were brought on by the steady encroachment by the whites, who were stimulated by the Homestead Act of 1862 and the slaughter of the Cheyenne band by Col. John Chivington and his Colorado militia.
The plains became no man's land as the Indians attacked wagon trains, travelers, settlers, and stagecoaches. New forts were established on the
Kansas frontier. Many distinguished Civil War heroes were at one time stationed in Kansas. Robert E. Lee was stationed in Kansas in 1855 and J. E. B. Stuart was wounded in an Indian raid in northwest Kansas in 1857. William T. Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan also had military commands in Kansas in the 1830s and 1870s.
In 1867 Lt. Col. George A. Custer and General Winfield Scott Hancock were ordered to crush the Indian threat once and for all. Near Fort Larned their expedition was outmaneuered by the Indians. Supplies were said to be "either very short or entirely exhausted."
Treaties with nearly 15,000 Indians were drawn up in October, 1867. These treaties did not insure peace, but provided an understanding which made possible the building of railroads and eventually the settlement of western Kansas.
Still, nearly 130 persons in 1867 and about 80 in 1868 were killed by Indians in Kansas. These figures approximately equaled the total for the preceding 20 years.
Finally Gov. Samuel J. Crawford resigned his post to lead the 19th Kansas Regiment against the Indians. Decisive defeats were dealt the Indians in 1868-69, and by the end of 1869 the Indian threat had moved out of Kansas. The Indians made their last Kansas raid in 1878, when 40 western Kansas settlers were killed.