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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LAWRENCE
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2004
Self-guided tour gives information on raid
By John Scheirman
jscheirman@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The terms "Missouri border ruffians" and "border war" may sound like references to a football and basketball rivalry with a university to the east. But for Lawrence citizens during the Civil War, the terms mean something more serious.
On August 21, 1863, a raiding party of more than 300 guerrillas led by William Clarke Quantrill, who had crossed the border from Missouri, attacked Lawrence, an anti-slavery city. They burned down most of the buildings and killed about 200 men and boys.
The Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau, North Second and Locust streets, sponsors a self-guided tour that recounts the events of this dark day. The tour begins on the east side of Lawrence, circles downtown and the University of Kansas campus, and ends up back near where it starts. The route, directions, and historical notes are contained in a brochure made available to the public by the bureau, which has sponsored the tour since 1997.
The tour begins at the Robert Miller home, 1111 E. 19th St., a red brick two-story house, partially hidden behind trees and shrubs. The raiders spared the house on their way into town, but killed their first Lawrence victim nearby.
From there, the tour route goes north and west about 1.5 miles to 12th and New Hampshire Streets, adjoining South Park. According to the tour guide, this was where Quantrill's raiders headed before attacking the business district to the north.
The tour next heads east one block to 1205 Rhode Island St., a tan frame and stucco two-story duplex. The older part of this structure survived Quantrill's raid.
"The raid is important because it's part of the Bleeding Kansas story, which is so pivotal to the politics and the history of the whole United States," said Debbie White, director of the Lawrence Visitor Information Center, 402 N. 2nd St. "Kansas played a huge role in the Civil War."
At this point people taking the tour may want to depart slightly from the official route to visit a site not on the printed tour. East on E. 11th Street to Delaware Street, and one block north, sits the Hobbs Park Memorial. John Speer, a free-state newspaper publisher,
once owned the land there. Two of
Speer's sons were murdered during Quantrill's raid, although Speer himself escaped. On Speer's farm, Lawrence defenders killed the only one of Quantrill's raiders to lose his life during the raid.
"The significance of the site is second to none in Lawrence's history, aside from the city's downtown district, and perhaps the University of Kansas," said Mark Kaplan, local historian and administrator of the Hobbs Park Memorial Fund.
The official tour resumes to the west at the 1000 block of New Hampshire Street. The tour guide says this was the site of a white army recruit encampment. Seventeen of the 21 men there were killed.
The next stop on the tour is 729 and 731 Massachusetts St., the House Building, on the west side of the street. A plaque says the structure was built between 1858 and 1860 and that it survived Quantrill's raid. The building, later modified, now houses Francis Sporting Goods, 731 Massachusetts St.
Continuing north, the tour reaches The Eldridge Hotel, 701 Massachusetts St. A plaque there says the Free State Hotel was built in 1855, destroyed in 1856, and rebuilt by Col. Schaler W. Eldridge. Quantrill's marauders destroyed the hotel during the 1863 raid. Col. Eldridge again rebuilt the hotel , and it stood until 1926, when it was rebuilt yet again.
The tour heads two blocks west to Watson Park, between Kentucky and Tennessee Streets. At the time of the raid, this site was a wooded ravine that the raiders crossed to the west, looking for victims. Three blocks farther west, in the alley between Louisiana and Indiana streets, a stone marker on the south side of West Seventh Street lists the names of four citizens who were killed there.
The tour continues on to several areas including the Bell House, 1008 Ohio St., the circular drive in front of GSP-Corbin Hall, Constant Road and the Goss House, 1101 W.21st St.
The final stop is Oak Hill Cemetery, almost two miles to the northeast, at Elmwood Street and Oak Hill Drive. The site holds a monument to the victims of Quantrill's raid, and individual grave markers of some massacre victims.
More information on the Quantrill incident is available at the Watkins Community Museum of History, 1047 Massachusetts St., or the Kansas Collection in Spencer Research Library.
— Edited by Marc Ingber