Leavenworth, Kansas

“ He was forced to flee to Lawrence for protection during the border war, and bore arms in defense of that place against the invasion of the pro-slavery men. He was a member of the Leavenworth constitutional convention; was active in the organization of the free-state party in Atchison county, of which he was elected the first probate judge in the spring of 1858. ”

“ They must also steer clear of Leavenworth; for that town was the headquarters of a number of Missourians whose names were already terrible all over the Northern States, from Kansas to Massachusetts Bay. 21
“But there is the military at Fort Leavenworth,” replied Mr. Bryant. “Surely they will protect the citizens of the United States who are peaceful and well-behaved. We are only peaceable immigrants.”
“Pshaw!” answered an Iowa man. “All the army officers in this part of the country are pro-slavery men. ”

“ In 1857, early in the political period, the free-state people succeeded, for the first time, in electing the Legislature. The proslavery people prepared the Lecompton Constitution, but submitted to the people only two statements concerning it. The free-state people refused to vote, but held another election, at which the proslavery people refused to vote. After the Lecompton Constitution was returned from Congress it was voted on by both factions and defeated. In the meantime the free-state people submitted the Leavenworth Constitution, which was defeated. ”

“ The names of the Leavenworth men themselves, holding the fates of division generals in their hands, were unknown to the public and to the mass of the army. Not reports in the press, glorifying a unit or its commander, but the military judgment of superiors was to form the criterion of praise. Never, indeed, had such power come to a group of men as to the graduates of that sequestered school in the wheat fields of Kansas, in charge of two million men. It was interesting to watch how rapidly some of them grew under responsibility, how used they became to accepting power as a matter of course ”

“ Lawrence, the State capital, which is on the dried-up Kansas River, sneeringly says of all the new towns on the Missouri that the boats that ply between them are so dangerous that the fare is collected in installments every five minutes throughout the trip. Next after the jealousy between two Australian colonies, there is nothing equal to the hatreds between cities competing for the same trade. Omaha has now the best chance of becoming the capital of the far West, but Leavenworth will no doubt continue to be the chief town of Kansas.
The progress of the smaller cities is amazing. ”

“ How much more in accord to Christianity it would be if our government would use its soldiers to protect our own homes in our own country, instead of sending them 8,000 miles away to destroy the homes of a people who wanted to be our friends and whose only offense is their love of human liberty, the same that actuated our Revolutionary fathers four generations ago. Yes, the Leavenworth mob was an awful affair and a burning shame and disgrace to Kansas. ”

“ An Indian agent named Gay, was traveling in the vicinity of Westport, and was stopped by a party of Buford's men, who asked if he was in favor of making Kansas a free state. He promptly answered in the affirmative, and was instantly shot dead. Whilst these events were transpiring on the south side of the Kansas river, Col. Wilkes, Captain Emory, and other prominent pro-slavery men, were actively employed in persecuting the free-state citizens of Leavenworth. ”

“ The town was swarming with new-comers, and I found it hard to get lodgings anywhere. Over a thousand would-be “Pike's-Peakers” had already arrived, and hundreds were added daily to the number. All seemed as busy as they could be, and I had never seen so much activity in a place of the same size. Leavenworth seemed bound to become an important commercial centre, and the pretensions of Kansas City as a rival looked as absurd to me as they did to the denizens of Leavenworth. Yet Leavenworth soon stagnated, and even to-day hardly exceeds 20,000 in population. ”

“ Although the service school at Fort Leavenworth is a national institution, maintained by the general government, it is located on Kansas soil, and is an institution in which the progressive citizens of the state feel a deep interest, and of which they are justly proud. ”

“ Near the center of the view is the old Pawnee Capitol.
Pontoon Bridge at Fort Riley.
The Soldiers. The third class of people who came to early Kansas was the soldiers. Their presence was necessary for the protection of the few white people against the Indians. Fort Leavenworth was established by the National Government in 1827, as headquarters for the troops. This was shortly after the beginning of the Santa Fe trade. ”

“ Beginning at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri River, it passed through Fort Riley at the junction of the forks of the Kaw, and then, still keeping up the north side of the Republican Fork, went on to Fort Kearney, still farther west, then to Fort Laramie, which in those days was so far on the frontier of our country that few people ever saw it except military men and the emigrants to California. At the time of which I am writing, there had been a very heavy emigration to California, and companies of emigrants, bound to the Golden Land, still occasionally passed along the great military road. ”

“ All such express packages are required to be brought into or sent out of Leavenworth, which lies west of the Missouri river in Kansas, over the Rock Island Railroad, which runs along the Missouri side of the Missouri river, with a branch across the river to Leavenworth. The express company has no other means of transportation of packages in or out of Leavenworth. ”

“ Leavenworth at that time was quite an important outfitting post for the West and Southwest, and the fort there was garrisoned by a large number of troops. While in the city one day I met several of the old, as well as the young men, who had been members of the Free State party all through the Kansas troubles, and who had, like our family, lost everything at the hands of the Missourians. ”

“ I found Fort Leavenworth then, as now, a most beautiful spot, but in the midst of a wild Indian country. There were no whites settled in what is now the State of Kansas. Weston, in Missouri, was the great town, and speculation in town-lots there and thereabout burnt the fingers of some of the army-officers, who wanted to plant their scanty dollars in a fruitful soil. I rode on horseback over to Gordon's farm, saw the cattle, concluded the bargain, and returned by way of Independence, Missouri. ”

“ Oehler was previously acquainted, received us very courteously, and gave us a letter of introduction to the quartermaster at Fort Kearney, in case we should be obliged to go that way on our return home and need any assistance.—Fort Leavenworth is eligibly situated on a high prairie, near the bank of the Missouri, about 35 miles above the mouth of Kansas River. It is a place of considerable business, in the way of furnishing military stores for the more western forts. At the wharf a large storehouse has been built by the Government for the purpose of depositing military stores. ”

“ Other parties followed from time to time, sending out off- shoots, but mainly increasing the parent settlement, until next to Fort Leavenworth, the principal military post, Lawrence became the leading town of the Territory. The erection of the society hotel, the society saw-mills, and the establishment of a newspaper also gave it leadership in business and politics as well as population. This humane and praiseworthy enterprise has been gravely charged with the origin and responsibility of the political disorders which folio wed in Kansas. Nothing could be further from the truth. ”

“ At Chicago she was fortunate enough to have a day with Mrs. Stanton, also on a lecturing tour, and then took the train for Leavenworth. At Kansas City the papers said she made "the success of the lecture season." She spoke in Leavenworth, Lawrence, Topeka, Paola, Olathe and other places throughout the State. Although it was very cold and the half-frozen mud knee deep, she usually 380 had good audiences. At Lincoln, Neb., she was entertained at the home of Governor Butler and introduced by him at her lecture. At Omaha her share of the receipts was $100. ”

“ Two horsemen rode along the bank to hunt and bring in game, which was to go far toward supplying provisions for the expedition. After a five weeks’ journey they reached the mouth of the Kansas River, and encamped that night on the present site of Kansas City, Kansas. From there they continued up the Missouri River where it forms the present boundary line of Kansas, along the border of what has since become Leavenworth, Atchison, and Doniphan counties. Their account of the journey describes the country through which they passed and the different Indian tribes and villages they saw. ”

“ The Leavenworth Register, in its notice of the occasion, said:--"never did man receive such honors at the hands of our people, and never did our people pay honors to a better man, or one who has been a truer friend of Kansas." ”

“ We, the people of the Territory of Kansas, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, by our delegates in convention assembled, having the right of admission into the Union as one of the United States of America, consistent with the Federal Constitution, and by virtue of the treaty of cession by France to the United States of the province of Louisiana, believing that the time has arrived when our present political condition should cease and the right of self-government be asserted, in order to secure to ourselves and our posterity all the rights of life, liberty, and property ”

“ The mother of these children was born August 9, 1860, in Salt Creek Valley, Leavenworth county, Kansas, a daughter of Jacob and Katherine Weinmann, natives of Germany, who came to Leavenworth county, Kansas, as early as 1858. She was one of sixteen children born to these parents, thirteen of whom were reared, and five came to America and died here.
Mr. Weber has always been a Democrat, but is more or less independent in his political views and believes in voting for the candidate who seems best fitted to perform the duties of the office, regardless of his political affiliations. ”

“ They bought their mules and coaches on credit, giving their notes, payable in ninety days; sent men out to establish a station every ten to fifteen miles from Leavenworth due west, going up the Smoky Hill fork of the Kansas River, through the Territory of Kansas, and direct to Denver. ”

“ He was a small man, but one of such mental power that he was called "the Little Giant." He was a candidate for the presidential nomination in the Democratic conventions of 1852 and 1856, and in 1860 was nominated by the Northern wing of that party. He was a Union man.
[4] For popular opinion on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, read Rhodes's History of the U. S., Vol. I, pp. 461-470.
[5] Proslavery men from Missouri and other Southern states founded Atchison, Leavenworth, Lecompton, and Kickapoo, in the northeastern part of Kansas. ”

“ The Doctor found surveyors laying off a town near Fort Leavenworth, despite the fact that the Government at Washington had not yet opened the country for purchase. He immediately returned to Kansas City, where he received a letter from Boston informing him that the first party of emigrants was on the eve of starting for Kansas, and instructing him to join them at St. ”

“ To adopt his own style of phraseology, ROBERTSON is clearly a "gay and festive cuss." He is a specimen brick from Kansas, and doubtless always carries one in his hat. The expression "ordinary gait," as applied to driving in Kansas, where everybody owns "fast stock," is rather equivocal in these quieter latitudes to be sure, but we may guess that, at Leavenworth, a man who rides or drives at a pace of twenty miles an hour, is liable, "for instance," to a fine of $20, or just one dollar per mile. Kansas maybe a very nice place to live in, for some people, but we would hardly recommend Mr. ”

“ The business blocks are chiefly of iron and brick three or four stories high, and there are numerous handsome residences and churches, the Catholic cathedral being one of the largest and finest church edifices in the west. Two miles above the city is Fort Leavenworth, the headquarters of the department of the Missouri and the base of supplies for the western posts ”

“ I went on, with passionate recklessness. "Balked in every other endeavor to learn the truth, I have come to you, whom I believe to be noble at the core, for that help which seems likely to fail us in every other direction: for the word which, if it does not absolutely save your cousin, will at least put us upon the track of what will."
"I do not understand what you mean," she protested, slightly shrinking.
"Miss Leavenworth," I pursued, "it is needless for me to tell you in what position your cousin stands. ”

“ What? I determined to ascertain. Casting about in my mind for the means of doing so, I remembered that the ventilator running up through the house opened first into the passage-way connecting Mr. Leavenworth’s bedroom and library, and, secondly, into the closet of the large spare room adjoining mine. Hastily unlocking the door of the communication between the rooms, I took my position in the closet. Instantly the sound of voices reached my ears; all was open below, and standing there, I was as much an auditor of what went on between Mary and her uncle as if I were in the library itself. ”