Group H's Blog

Ellsworth was destined for a turbulent reputation from its very inception. Fort Ellsworth had been established at the very edge of the frontier in 1864. The Cheyenne had driven everyone off the trails leading to Denver City, Colorado Territory, and it was up to the military to reopen the trails. Fort Ellsworth lay at the point of division between the Fort Riley Military Road which led to the Santa Fe Trail and the Smoky Hill Trail, the most direct but also the most treacherous route to Denver City.

The Cheyenne would not go willingly. There were raids upon wagon trains, horses were stolen directly from Fort Ellsworth, and ill equipped soldiers were led on wild chases across the sea of grass known as the Great American Desert. In 1866, the fort was renamed Fort Harker and, in 1867, relocated one mile to the northeast.

Fort Harker would become the major supply post for the military campaigns to subdue the Plains Indians. In this atmosphere the idea of Ellsworth City was conceived. Of course, the idea was to make money from the soldiers and so the city was platted just beyond the Fort Harker Military Reserve. The railroad was nearing the city and the new town overflowed with frontiersmen of every kind. A man could dig a hole in the bluff that bordered the town, set up a table with some cards and a bottle of whiskey within its curtained door, and open for business. In no time, his little dugout would be overrun with soldiers, gamblers, bullwhackers, railroaders, Texas cowboys and the inevitable unruly women that made up the character of doing business in an “end of the line” town.

Only months in existence, Ellsworth was struck a series of near fatal blows. The Smoky Hill River raged out of its banks leaving the town standing in nearly four feet of water. Cholera struck at Fort Harker and spread to Ellsworth. Those who didn’t die fled in fear. Nearby Fort Harker was no deterrent to the Cheyenne who killed railroad workers just west of town, attacked bull trains on the trail to Santa Fe, and even stole horses from Ellsworth itself! A handful of people endured it all and began again on higher ground west of the original townsite.

The town was soon to prosper once again and a photograph taken by Alexander Gardner in September of 1867 shows a vibrant and active business district. Ellsworth continued its wicked ways. It was said that “Ellsworth has a man every morning for breakfast!” And that it did! Gunfire and revelry in the streets could be heard at all hours of the night or day. Outlaws rode in and took over the town only to be hung on the hangin’ tree when the vigilante committee tired of their shenanigans. Wild Bill Hickok ran for Sheriff in 1868, but there were many equal to the calling in frontier Ellsworth. Former cavalry man, E.W. Kingsbury, defeated him, and along with Chauncey Whitney kept the town from complete madness. Hickok and Redlegs sidekick, Jack Harvey rode the district as Deputy U.S. Marshals.

The tales of gunfights, hangings, and fortunes won and lost are legend. By 1872, the Texas cattle trade had abandoned Abilene. The wild Texas Longhorn trailed through the streets of Ellsworth to the Kansas Pacific Stockyards. The Cowboy reigned supreme, or at least, the gamblers let them think so. The Plaza was filled with men and women from around the world and reporters marveled at the diversity. Nearly every other business was a saloon even though the sign outside might read “Restaurant”. The railroad cut the extra wide street in half with businesses facing the tracks, a line on the south and a line on the north. On north main, The OLD RELIABLE HOUSE sold everything a cowboy could ever want or need. The Drovers Cottage was across the tracks and was headquarters for many Texans who could see the stockyards just out their window.

In 1873, Ellsworth geared up for the largest drive of Texas Longhorns to date. They expected trouble, and beefed up the police force to five men. Four of them were named either Jack or John, the other was Ed Hogue who also served as assistant Sheriff of Ellsworth County under Sheriff Chauncey Whitney. The Cowboys poked fun at the city lawmen referring to them as “four Jacks and a Joker”. Sheriff Whitney they liked.

The season remained quiet; only one killing. One hot August Sunday Ellsworth erupted in gunplay that would in due time mark the beginning of the end of cattletown Ellsworth. City Marshal, “Happy Jack” Morco sided with a gambler against Texan Ben Thompson in a dispute over the winnings of a game. Ben was a notorious gunman with a reputation equal to Wild Bill’s. Ben and his drunken brother Billy had moved to the middle of the Plaza near the depot and called to the others to meet them in the open. The city law was out of control and unable to intercede peaceably in the matter, and so Ellsworth County Sheriff, Chauncey Whitney stepped into the street and called to the Thompsons. In short order he convinced them to take a drink with him and as they stepped into Joe Brennan’s Saloon, Happy Jack charged down the street guns drawn. Ben wheeled and fired his Henry rifle narrowly missing Morco, Billy stumbled and discharged his shotgun mortally wounding the Sheriff.

Ben and an army of Texans held off the town as Billy rode away. In the next few weeks ‘Hell was in Session in Ellsworth.” Happy Jack was fired, Ed Crawford, a new city marshal pistol whipped a Texan to death, Vigilantes roamed the streets issuing “white affidavits” to Texans to “get out of town or else”, Happy Jack was gunned down in the streets when he failed to disarm, and a Texan killed Ed Crawford in the dim hallway of Lizzie Palmer’s Dancehall.

Most Texans went home to the “girl they left behind” and family dear. Few if ever spoke of the things they saw and did at the “end of the trail”. But, the mementos were there. In Ellsworth they had often purchased the first “store bought” clothes they had ever worn. With saddlebags packed with gifts from the north they triumphantly rode home. And though Ellsworth would close its shipping pens in 1875, the story would be told again and again of “Abilene, the first, Dodge City, the last, but Ellsworth the wickedest”.
Posted by Matthew Larsen. All information taken from http://www.droversmercantile.com/history.cfm

Sam Weinberg

The labor movements of the late nineteenth century, sparked by aggressive business owners and a lackluster effort of protection by politicians, gave birth to a new political movement determined to give the American worker a fighting chance against the rail, oil, and steel tycoons of the day. The populist movement as it was later named sprang primarily out of destitute farmers paying high shipping prices to transport their crop to market. Sky high freight charges coincided with a severe drop in grain prices spurred farmers to elect Democratic congressmen, senators, and state officials who vowed to better look out for their well being. What the anarchists, communists, and socialists were doing in the cities for factory workers, the Grangers were doing for farmers in the rural establishments of the mid-west. In Kansas, which had become known as the liberal and progressive testing grounds of the country, the Grangers found widespread support – undoubtedly due to the disproportionate number of grain farmers in the state. The principles of the Grangers – and later the Populists – were not unlike those of socialists: stressing cooperation and a unified labor force; which appealed greatly to disadvantaged farm workers. James D. Holden, in his twenty three page treatise on the state of the American farmer titled Is It Ignorance? Or Is It Treachery? Are our National Rulers the Tools, or, Are they the Dupes of the Money Changers? (1893), describes the tenets of the Populist platform which was published from Topeka in 1893 – the height of the Populist upwelling (http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/200111/page/1) . Holden argues that the economic and political system was designed to undermine the workers in favor of big business and bureaucrats; rejecting the term ‘money’ and the economic system of the status quo. While no Kansan was elected to the presidency on a Populist platform, several won seats in the house, senate, and governorship of Kansas. But as quickly as it started Populism fizzled out after the 1896 elections when Democrats began adopting the same platforms.

Clarina Nichols was born in Vermont in 1810. She received a very good education before she married in 1830. She was a mother, teacher, and worked for a newspaper. She divorced her husband in 1843 after having three kids with him. She then married George Nichols, who was a newspaper editor. In 1854 she moved to Lawrence, Kansas. After her husband’s death a few years later she moved to Wyandotte Country and became an associate editor of an abolitionist newspaper called Quindaro Chindowan. She went throughout Wyandotte lecturing about woman’s rights. She also tried to get as many women as possible to sign a petition that they would present in the Wyandotte Convention. During this convention she would use any opportunity she got to talk to the delegates about her feelings about equality. She would attempt to talk to them during recess and whenever she could. It is said that she had influence in Wyandotte’s constitution because is included some things she felt passionately about. These things were: woman having right in regards to child custody, property rights of married women, and equality in public school. It makes sense why these issues were so important to her. She was a woman who went through a divorce where children were involved. There were not a lot of divorces during this time period so it makes sense that there would not be many laws pertaining to custody of children after a divorce. She later joined with other women such as Susan B. Anthony in the fight for women’s suffrage.

Information from:

http://www.kshs.org/real_people/nichols_clarina.htm

Picture From:

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/7787

I decide to research Annie Diggs a bit farther after this week’s lecture. I thought that she was a very influential Kansan, and wanted to know more about her contributions to not only Kansas but politics and political parties.

Annie Diggs was a political inspiration during the heyday of Kansas Populism. Born in 1848, Diggs moved to Kansas in the early 1870s. She married a postal clerk from Lawrence in 1873, where the couple pursued a Midwestern, middle-class, small-town lifestyle. The Diggs were early supporters of the Kansas Farmers’ Alliance, a network of Populist farmers in the late 1880s. Annie published a weekly column in the Lawrence Journal, where she gained notoriety and respect as a woman journalist. A Populist advocate, Diggs toured the nation with the People’s Party in 1892, served on the Populist National Committee, and was president of the Kansas Women’s Free Silver League and of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association. She played a central role in transforming the Kansas Farmers’ Alliance into a political body, the People’s (later Populist) Party, and became one of its most effective speakers and organizers. She was a principal figure in Populist election campaigns in Kansas in 1894 and 1896. By the turn of the century she was appointed Kansas State Librarian and elected president of Kansas Press Women. After the end of her political career Diggs published two books, The Story of Jerry Simpson (1908), on her fellow Kansas Populist, and Bedrock (1912). Diggs later died on September 7, 1916 in Detroit, Michigan.

http://www.kshs.org/portraits/diggs_annie.htm

http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/explore/exhibits/suffrage/anniediggs_full.html

In 1856 a group of Germans from Chicago decided they wanted to make a settlement farther west.  By 1857 they had enough money and support to send a few men out to find an area suitable for their settlement.  They decided on 800 acres that would later become known as Eudora.  The Germans were able to obtain the land from the Shawnee Indians and they were so thankful for it they named their town after the chiefs daughter, Eudora.  The land is about 35 miles west of the Kansas City area and about 5 miles east of the Lawrence area.    

 Sixteen members from the German association went to colonize the land each with a different skilled trade.  They were very anxious to get the town up and going so they built one large log house that would house most of the men and they opened the first store that summer.  They sent for a circular saw mill from St. Louis and it arrived that summer as well.  The first school was taught in 1858 and many churches were set up, the first being the Holy Family Catholic Church in 1864.

The settlers decided that L. W. Pfeif and C. Durr would purchase the land from the chief of the Shawnee named Pascel Fish for $110,000.  However, this was not done until February 17, 1860 and it was not approved until May 7, 1860.  The city was incorporated as a city on February 8, 1859 under Territorial laws.  A group of men wanted to move further west and make a settlement of their own and they were able to obtain the land and start the basics of the town within a year.  They made the payment for the land and obtained the title many years later when the town was well established.  The town started out with sixteen skilled workers laying the foundation for the city and even now it is still growing. 

-Hayley Schehrer

William G. Cutler’s History of the State of Kansas.  DOUGLAS COUNTY, Part 32: http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/douglas/douglas-co-p32.html#EUDORA

 Map Image: http://web03.bestplaces.net/city/Eudora_KS.gif

Church Image: http://media.photobucket.com/image/Holy%20Family%20Catholic%20Church%20Eudora%20Kansas/bhall87/OldHolyFamilyChurch.jpg

It’s not a well concealed fact that speculators, business entrepreneurs, and politicians had it on their agenda to acquire as much native lands as possible at the lowest financial cost. Through crooked back room meetings and under-the-table deals, tribal land was virtually free for the taking, so long as you could word a contract in such a way as to confuse tribal leaders and create loop holes for yourself. This is no secret. But what is less frequently addressed is how tribal leaders were often just as involved in these shady dealings and were accepting pay offs from company owners.

Craig Miner and William E. Unrau’s book The End of Indian Kansas sparked my interest in investigating Indian actions and decisions in the sale of their ancestral lands. History has led us to believe that the Native Americans were innocent victims of a malicious assault by the white man on their culture, their way of life, and their homelands. Miner and Unrau, while not entirely dismissing this notion, bring the widespread corruption of tribal elders into the causation of the disintegration of Indian culture. Granted, there were of course tribes who fought long and hard to keep settlers and speculators out of their homelands, there were also those who saw the best outcome to be cooperation with companies looking to use resources on their land.

Indian tribes stood much to gain from the sale of resources and prime real estate, given the contracts and treaties were properly upheld and enforced. By the time the corporations were moving into Kansas in droves, the tribes saw the writing on the wall. They knew the white man was here to stay and unfortunately there was little they could do but fight, and probably die, or try to play ball the best they could in an unknown game. Where their main fault lay, however, was in the enormous cultural differences present between whites and Indians. Miner and Unrau described this difference well by stating “Tribal traditions, which equated words with actions and promises with deeds, may well have blinded the Indians to the truth…” (MIner and Unrau, p. 39). The tribes believed they were to get a good deal but, “when the success of the corporations was allowed, through inadequate control of day-to-day matters, the tragic result was inevitable.” (Miner and Unrau, p.33)

The tribes tried to cooperate in order to share in the wealth and this might have worked if the corporations had kept their end of the bargain. By the mid 1860’s though, it was clear that tribal leaders were being paid to keep quite. Again to quote Miner and Unrau “if bribes were being made, someone had to be cooperating on the other end. The leaders spoke for the railroad and the tribe ratified it, which would seem inconceivable to patriots fearful that their very national existence was at stake.” (Miner and Unrau, p. 34)

Too much emphasis is payed to Native American ignorance and victimization; the continued idea that tribes were forced off of their land without any consent and they were excluded from the system is false. Tribes knew what was coming, but unfortunately could not keep up with the economics and bureaucracy of the system to protect their best interest. They certainly worked within the system, but the system was not set up with their benefit in mind.

-Sam Weinberg

During lecture on September 10, we discussed treason. A short time later I did a little research on the legal definition of treason, and found that we have had the same legal definition of treason since the U.S. Constitution went into effect.

Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution states: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”

The question of whether or not John Brown and any of the other free-staters committed treason in Kansas is an interesting one and would largely be determined by the following:

1) If you define the United States as the federal government, one could say that since neither President Pierce nor the Congress declared the free-staters as enemies, then no treason occured.

2) If you stretch the definition of United States to mean the states in their individual capacities, treason didn’t occur because Kansas was not a state at the time of the alleged treasonous acts.

As we all know, Brown was the key player in the raid at the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA., and was later found guilty of treason and hung. What is interesting to note however is that Brown was found guilty of treason not against the United States, but against the Commonwealth of Virginia.

One website that I found had the following: “When news of Harpers Ferry reached Richmond, Henry A. Wise, the politically ambitious governor, had an important decision to make. Under the division of power that existed between state and federal governments before the Civil War, it was Wise’s prerogative to decide whether Brown would be tried in a Virginia court for violating the laws of the commonwealth or turned over to the national authorities for prosecution in the federal courts. The Virginia court at Charles Town, where a grand jury was already in session, would be quicker. A federal court, however, would not be as open to charges of Southern bias. Whether out of fear that a mob would lynch Brown if he were not tried quickly, or out of a desire to score political prestige for himself and Virginia, Governor Wise decided to proceed with a state trial.”

I can only speculate that Brown was charged with treason in state court for the Harpers Ferry raid because even though it was a federal facility, it was located in Virginia. Today, it is most likely charges that charges of treason would be brought in federal court.

-Matthew Larsen

Some material taken from:

http://law.jrank.org/pages/2557/John-Brown-Trial-1859-Virginia-Tries-Brown-Treason.html#ixzz0S35VZQPh

On August 26^th, 1857 a committee of appointed citizens of the Kansas territory published a pamphlet entitled An Address To The American People On The Affairs Of Kansas regarding the significance and principle of making Kansas a state. The pamphlet begins with the origins of the committee, which was founded at convention in Grasshopper Falls to assist in appointing members of a Territorial Legislature and Delegate to Congress. The committee quickly addressed the most treacherous issue, the current “government” that was falsely created due the illegal votes cast by Missourians in the years past. Kansas citizens has two choices; the first to start physical retaliation against the citizens of Missouri or secondly to initiate a state government of Kansas.

Throughout the pamphlet it is very clear that the citizens of Kansas are extremely concerned by the idea of foreign invasion from abroad (notably Missouri) and internal fraud by external sources. The committee even goes as far as suggesting that the Federal Government is stalling their admission into the Union due to rising tensions between the Kansas Territory and Missouri. The committee notes, “When the Missouri River and markets upon our border were closed against us, the poor of Kansas were clothed and fed by their liberality.” It is clear that Missourians were doing whatever was necessary to prevent Kansas’ citizens to prosper. The tone of the pamphlet quickly changed from factual to a direct warning to the people of Missouri to not meddle in Kansas’ matters. The committee states, “We are men as you are and our common manhood requires that we should resist you if you do. We are organized for defense.” The committee bluntly states that if Missouri does not stay idle then war is inevitable. Ironically, the committee states that “a dissolved union and a broken Government may be the result,” referring to the potential war between Kansas and Missouri. The pamphlet ends with committee aggressively pleading with Missouri to refrain from Kansas’ matters and states that Kansas issue (referring to their pending status as a state) will be peacefully settled and that Kansas and Missouri will both continue to prosper.

Jay T. Perez

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/5291/page/1

Before the first settlement on the prairie, buffalo ruled the open plains with an estimated 60 to 70 million bison roaming North America. For Native Americans and eventually new settlers, the buffalo was a source of food, shelter, clothing and tools. At first the Europeans hunted the bison merely for food then, soon realized they could profit by selling bison meat and the skins for clothes and rugs.

Railways also became an enemy of the buffalo because with the growth of railroads, bison were hunted because they got in the way of the tracks that were being laid across the country. The Increased settlement into Kansas Between 1860 and 1880 lead to the massive herds that had formerly populated the prairies to be brutally exterminated in a mass slaughter that can hardly be imagined in today’s society. By the turn of the century, less than 1,000 buffalo remained.

With a diminishing population of buffalo in Kansas came increased resentment from Native Americans towards the newly settled whites, thus causing conflict between groups. Eventually with the overwhelming need for the buffalo as a main source of survival has diminished, the buffalo has remained a significant symbol not only in the history of the American west but, has become an important symbol in Kansas. In 1955 The American buffalo became the state mammal of Kansas. The Buffalo is one of the most recognizable figures of the American west, whether it be for its size, massive herds reaching over 4,000 buffalo, or the gruesome scene of bison remains scattering the prairie,  one cannot talk history of Kansas and the plains without its presence.

Julia Louisa Hardy Lovejoy was born in New Hampshire in 1812.  She was married to Charles Haseltine Lovejoy who was a Methodist minister.  She found God and knew that she wanted to do something good with her life but she did not know what she could do until she was asked to move to Kansas Territory.  She wanted to be a missionary and she thought it would be a good chance to do something important with her life.  The trip to Kansas was hard for her and her family because they were struck with illness and her daughter died once they made it to Kansas in 1855.  She kept a diary of her family’s trip over to Kansas which speaks on a lot of daily life

Julia Louisa Hardy Lovejoy and her family settled first in Manhattan and then in Lawrence.  At the time there were two major conflicting parties in Kansas, pro-slavery and anti-slavery.  She was an abolitionist and she wrote many letters back to Eastern newspapers talking about what she saw and knew from Kansas.  While she was in Kansas Territory there was a there was the threat of war looming over everyone.  She wrote many detailed accounts of what she saw with the war.

Because of Julia Louisa Hardy Lovejoy’s diary we can see what it was like to travel from New Hampshire to Kansas in 1855.  When she gets to Kansas it is a turbulent time and she keeps a record of the terrible events due to the war.  It is interesting to see a female’s point of view on the war at this time and to see what daily life was like on the travel to Kansas.

-Hayley Schehrer

http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=bio_sketches/lovejoy_julia

http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_document&SCREEN_FROM=personalities&document_id=102462&FROM_PAGE=&topic_id=166