On the Town
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 1990
Section E
Massachusetts Street runs through the heart of downtown Lawrence where over 100 shops and businesses can be found to serve the public.
Keith ThorperKANSAN
Lawrence history packed with violence
By Deron Graul
Kansan staff writer
Looking at Lawrence now, it is difficult to imagine the city was once a focal point of the violence leading up to the Civil War.
The first explorers came to the Lawrence area in the summer of 1819 and found the area inhabited by the Kansa Indians, but it was not until the 1830s that settlers began arriving in large numbers.
The Kansas:Nebraska Act, signed by President Franklin Pierce in 1854.
gave Kansas the right to determine for themselves whether Kansas would be a free state or a slave state.
At this time the Kansas Territory was populated by less than 1,500 settlers, about half of them soldiers.
Eli Thayer, a Boston resident,
decided that he wanted to see Kansas
admitted into the Union as a free
state.
Thayer, together with Amos Lawrence, a Boston banker, established the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The company helped
anti-slavery settlers move to Kansas.
When the first settlers from the company arrived in August 1854, there were about 100 other settlers camped along the banks of the Kaw River. Wakuraus, New Boston and Yankee Town were some of the names the town was known by at this time.
The settlers spent their first night camping on a large hill overlooking the river. This hill came to be known as the headmast at the Oread headmast at the Oread
Academy for Women in Massachusetts. Oread later became the location of the University of Kansas, which was founded in 1866.
A second group of settlers arrived later that year and the two groups formed Lawrence's first government. The area was surveyed and a street plan was developed. The main street was named Massachusetts, since most of the settlers came from there. The streets to the east were named after each of the other original 13 colonies. West of Massa-
chusets Street, streets were named after other states in order of their admittance to the Union.
Because of the hotly debated slavery issue, Kansas was not admitted into the Union as a free state until the Southern states seceded.
The threat of violence related to the slavery issue was in the air during the first 10 years after the town was settled.
Missourians made frequent raids in the Lawrence area after the outbreak of the Civil War, and these
attacks were reciprocated by Kansas regiments, called Jayhawkers, of the Union Army. The deeds of some of them were as John Brown, became legends.
The most infamous raid by the Missouri pro-slavers occurred on August 21, 1863.
William C. Quantrill, a captain in the confederate army and a former Lawrence school teacher, led 300 men into the town shortly after dawn.
See LAWRENCE, p. 2
Keith ThorpeKANSAN
Goin' fishin'
For fishing enthusiasts, the waters of the Kansas River below the Bowersock Dam, just north of downtown Lawrence, provide some of the largest catches in the state of Kansas. Many species of fish congregate just below the dam because of the depth and amount of aeration of the water, according to Ken Blackwell of Lunker Bait and Tackle, 947 E. 23rd St.
Flatheads weighing 45-60 pounds and channel catfish from 20-25 pounds are the main attraction for fishermen. Carp, drum, white bass, crapple and walleye pike have also been caught below the dam. Blackwell said that live bait is best for river fishing, but drums and catfish will bite almost anything.
AUGUST 22,1990