-
Page 4
University Daily Kansan Monday. April 17. 1961
Woman Tells of Daring Rescue
MISS AGNES THOMPSON—This "hilltopper" holds the only remaining evidence of an attempted Lawrence lynching, a strip of silver brocade given in gratitude to her father.
By Carrie Edwards
The rescue of a young Southerner from a Lawrence lynching party now has only one remaining visible evidence—a small strip of silver brocade.
A keen-minded, 86-year old spinster is probably the only remaining Kansan who recalls details of the daring rescue her father made in the middle of the Civil War days.
It was not until Miss Agnes Thompson, 1100 Louisiana St., was eight years old that she learned her father, Edward D. Thompson, had saved a man from angry Northern abolitionists.
"FATHER NEVER liked war and violence and almost never talked about lynchings and killings in Kansas' early settlement days," Miss Thompson said.
"Twenty years passed after the episode before Father mentioned the rescue to me—and then he did it only to explain a coincidence." The elderly woman gazed into space in her simply-furnished apartment to recall more.
Miss Thompson explained that eastern Kansas was then in such a state of turmoil, with frequent fights between Union men and Southerners, that local residents picked officers of the day to act as mayors and sheriffs to keep order. Her father was in that position on the date of the rescue.
According to the story Miss Thompson's father told her, a man from Missouri, who appeared to be about 25, had ridden into Lawrence from a Kansas City office. His mission was to collect a bill from a farmer living just west of town. That farmer (Miss Thompson said she never learned his name) did not want to pay and sought to escape paying by telling Lawrence residents the Southerner was a spy.
A LYNCHING PARTY was being organized when a friend of Mr. Thompson's informed him of the inevitable violence if Thompson as Officer of the Day did not halt the abolitionists.
Mr. Thompson ordered the Southerner brought to him before the lynching party got to the so-called spy.
"Father questioned the young man and found him frank, honest and trustworthy although Father never explained what statements made him support that feeling," Miss Thompson said.
Jail seemed the safest place for
Tammie Fraker
Gamma Phi Beta
Coach House decor is circa 1861...
Coach House fashions are definitely 1961 (like this sweater and dress in care free Arnel fabric)
the Southerner. And Mr. Thompson took advantage of it. At the end of the day Mr. Thompson gave the young man back his horse at the rear of the jail and, as Miss Thompson put it, "saw him on his way to Kansas City."
COACH HOUSE
Aviation For Team and Grooming
TIME RAN OUT and he arrived at the station too late to catch his train.
--to his father's home in Ballston Spa, NX. he put the silk brocade in with other of his things in a locker in the attic. It was forgotten until a memorable trip to Kansas City 20 years later.
SEVERAL MONTHS LATER Mr Thompson received through the mail more than a yard of silver embroidered brocade in gratitude from the Missouriian. The letter with the material said the young man had made his wedding waistcoat out of brocade identical to that piece. The Southerner wrote that he hoped his rescuer would use the piece for a weskit of his own. But that weskit was never made.
Mr. Thompson, being fond of walking, had been walking to catch his train home when he noticed a clean restaurant-boarding house on Union Street near the old station. He hesitated and walked slowly to look into the glass windows into the dining room next to the street.
Blue Ridge K.C.
After Mr. Thompson went back to the small polished boarding house and signed the register, the grey-
Plaza K.C.
The next time Mr. Thompson went
KU Campus Lawrence
Lawrence
haired woman at the desk startled him as she almost shouted:
Greene's Newsstand has moved to a new location five doors down to 1115 Mass., and now it's called
"You saved my brother's life. For nearly 20 years I've looked at the register every day hoping to find your name."
Allen's News
She said she had always wanted to personally thank the Officer of the Day who had helped her brother get away in 1863.
THE WOMAN SAID her brother had gone to Mississippi shortly after the Lawrence episode, married and later joined the Confederate army. He had been killed in battle.
After 40 years of providing KU with its favorites in magazines, newspapers, and paperback books of all varieties, we have moved to a larger building.
This was the coincidence that Mr. Thompson told his daughter and wife upon returning home. The next time Mr. Thompson went to New York he brought the brocaded silk back and told his wife to "hem a dress or something with it," his daughter said.
Try us now for easier browsing. We have Bantam, Anchor, Signet and all of the Modern Library Series.
But somehow the material again was not used as the giver had suggested. Miss Thompson said it was "kind of handed down to me."
She used part of it to fit under glass in a serving tray she made for a wedding gift several years ago.
The rest was folded carefully and enclosed in a plastic and leather case that now lies in the Lawrence Room of Watson Library.
ALLEN'S NEWS
1115 Mass.
SUA's Applications Available at Union
The Student Union Activities officer and board applications are available now in the business office of the Kansas Union.
The deadline for returning the applications is noon Friday. Interviews will be held on April 25-27.
The difficulty in life is the choice.
—George Moore
'ETC' Editor To Talk Here
A lecture entitled "Fights, Games, and Debates" will be given by Anatol Rapoport, senior mathematician at the Mental Health Research Institute, University of Michigan, at 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union.
Prof. Rapoport's address will be based on his book, "Fights, Games, and Debates, Three Modes of Conflict."
Prof. Rapoport is associate editor of "ETC, A Review of General Semantics" and "The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics." He also serves on the editorial board of the journal, "Behavioral Science."
'Revue' Applications Due Today at Union
Applications for producer and business manager of the 1962 Rock Chalk Revue are due at the KU-Y office in the Kansas Union by 5 p.m. today.
The application letters should state qualifications and experience. Interviews will be held in the Union at 7:15 p.m. tomorrow.
H. B.
Dairyland
23rd & Ohio
Malts & Shakes
20c
Hamburgers
20c
SUN-HO!
by Harlequin
...a dash of boldness
...a touch of textured inlay
...an exciting 'must' for sun-lovers
Lawrence Optical Co.
1025 Mass.
VI 3-2966