A Moment in Time

"Schoolchildren Began Celebration of Kansas Day"

January 1997
By Virgil Dean

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

LeGrande Alexander Copley wanted to make Kansas history come to life for his students in Paola public schools. So on January 29, 1877, the date Kansas officially entered the Union in 1861, the American history teacher set aside an hour for activities and contests on the history and geography of Kansas.

For two weeks the fifteen to twenty students gathered information about Kansas. They searched encyclopedias, conducted interviews of family and senior citizens, and sought sources of local history, statistics, and valuable facts about Kansas.

The students reported back with drawings of the Kansas seal; maps of the state, county and township; the state motto "Ad asper per aspera"; symbols of state crops and livestock: wheat, corn, oats, hay, cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, and mules. Students recalled songs that had played a role in the state's development, such as "John Brown's Body" and ones by John Greenleaf Whittier and Lucy Larcom.

Whittier's "Song of the Kansas Emigrant"
We cross the prairies of old
Our fathers crossed the sea,
To make the West as they the East,
The homestead of the free.

Lucy Larcom's "The Call to Kansas"
Yeomen strong, hither throng Nature's honest men
We go to make the wilderness bud and bloom again.
Bring the sickle, speed the plow, turn the ready soil.
Freedom is the noblest pay for the true man's toil.
Ho, brothers, come brothers, hasten all with men.
We'll sing upon the Kansas plains a song of liberty.

Students read quotes from Horace Greeley and Charles Summer. They divided the room in teams to ask questions of Kansas history such as the first printing press, first school, first railroad, first capital, and first newspaper.

The students loved it and so did the community. Kansas Day was born.

Copley repeated the Kansas Day activities the following year, and he became superintendent of the public schools of Wichita in 1879. In 1882 teachers gathered at the first Northwest Kansas Teacher's Association in Beloit and decided to publish a small pamphlet containing facts, poems, and other information about Kansas Day. The two thousand copies of "Kansas Day" each contained thirty-two pages of information and ideas about observing the day.

Subsequent celebrations have contained many of the elements set forth in Copley's experiment. Many celebrations have looked upon January 29 as a second Thanksgiving Day, one of praise and feasting.

Kansas entered the Union in 1861 as a free state after becoming a territory in 1854. This date marks the culmination of tumultuous times in Kansas.

Today schoolchildren celebrate the Kansas's birthday through classroom activities around the state. The Kansas symbols play a key role in the activities. Presenters teach about the role of Native Americans, African Americans, and women in the state, early settlers, cowboys, and soldiers.

Current Kansas Day celebrations include the Kansas Historical Society's Kansas Day activities; which are free and open to the public beginning at 9:00 a.m. and concluding at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29. If you plan to bring a group, prior notification is requested; informative and activity-filled previsit packets will be mailed to these groups. To make reservations or for more information, please contact LeAnn Hubbell at 913-272-8681, ext. 414. The Kansas Historical Society is located at 6425 SW Sixth Avenue, Topeka, KS 66615-1099; 785-272-8681; TTY 785-272-8683.