This Day in Kansas History - August

These entries are taken from The Annals of Kansas, 1541-1885 by D.W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas, 1886-1925 edited by Kirke Mechem, and contributed by staff members of the Kansas State Historical Society (these entries are marked with an *). Other sources used will be noted. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of events in Kansas history.

August

1 - [1925] - Miss Georgia Neese, Topeka, was playing in The Best People at Buffalo, N.Y., and Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Olathe, was chosen by Paramount to take a six-month training course for actors.

2 - [1867] - W.K. McCoy & Bros., of Springfield, Ill., establish a stock-yard for Texas cattle, at Abilene.

3 - [1897] - Fort Scott Normal was ready to open for the fall term.

4 - [1919] - The Robidoux ranch of 32,000 acres in Wallace county, formerly the site of Fort Wallace, was sold in small tracts.

5 - [1873] - Five Mennonite leaders visit Harvey, Sedgwick, Reno, Marion and McPherson counties, to select lands for a colony from Russia.

6 - [1925] - Kansas had 172 consolidated school districts covering 6,106 square miles.

7 - [1856] - James H. Lane, with a party of nearly 600 immigrants, arrives in Kansas by the overland route, through Iowa and Nebraska. Several colonies came to Kansas through Iowa. This party establishes a cordon of forts, Plymouth and Lexington, Brown county, and Holton, in Jackson county.

8 - [1855] - The Legislature, in joint session, votes to establish the permanent seat of government at Lecompton.

9 - [1910] - The Kansas Short Grass Motorcycle Club met at Rexford to start a tour to Colorado Springs and Denver.

10 - [1917] - Congress passed the food and fuel control act. Farmers were urged to plant more wheat and were called slackers if they refused. The government did not advise as to soil requirements. And increase of 1,000,000 acres was Kansas' quota. Wheat was selling at $2.10 a bushel.

11 - [1885] - Colby Hutchinson, daughter of William Hutchinson, born in Colby, and given a town lot; the first baby born there.

12 - [1905] - The U.S.S Kansas was launched. Miss Anna Hoch, daughter of the Governor, broke a bottle of water from the John Brown spring over the bow. It was rumored that superstitious navy men gave the ship a second christening with champagne.

13 - [1903] - Carrie Nation, who had her name changed to read Carry A. Nation, said that according to the family Bible her father baptized her "Carry."

14 - [1923] - The price of gasoline over Kansas fell from about 23 cents a gallon to about 16.

15 - [1896] - "What's the Matter with Kansas," famous editorial by William Allen White, was published in the Emporia Gazette.

16 - [1881] - Suits brought agains Pratt county officers on charges of embezzlement, forgery, etc., and they resign. Over $60,000 in scrip had been issued, and the books of the county stolen.

17 - [1861] - General Lane fortifies at Camp Lincoln, Bourbon county.

18 - [1915] - Good Roads Day, proclaimed by Governor Capper, was observed wherever weather permitted. The governor headed a group of volunteers who worked northeast of Topeka. The Arkansas City Commercial Club, Retailers Assn. and Automobile Club repaired nine roads. At Newton 100 men and 90 teams were out. Many miles of road were dragged in Reno county. Hays used a new $21,600 road-building machine. Rains and late harvest delayed work in some counties.

19 - [1888] - Meade county had 40 artesian wells, used chiefly for irrigation. One flowed 150,000 gallons daily, another 100,000.

20 - [1874] - State Temperance Convention, at Topeka. The resolutions ask for the organization of a State Temperance Society; repudiate the licensing of crime; favor a national prohibitory law; regret that the recent Reform Convention refused to incorporate a Temperance plank in its platform, and repudiate all men and parties who ignore this great issue of the age; recommend and immediate amendment to our State Constitution, giving to woman the right of suffrage; state that there is an irrepressible conflict between the liquor interest and the interests of human society, and that toleration and compromise should not be allowed; protest against the elevation to office of any man addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors; if the Republican Convention ignores this issue, a Temperance Convention should be called for the purpose of organizing an independent party, and nominating an independent ticket.

21 - [1863] - The Quantrill Massacre, at Lawrence. The following account, by Rev. Richard Cordley, D.D., is copied from Blackburn's Gazetteer of Kansas. Dr. Cordley wrote a longer sketch for the Annual Register. A pamphlet of considerable length, describing the Massacre, was written by Hovey E. Lowman.

"Early in the summer of 1863, a large band entered Olathe, one night, about midnight. They took most of the citizens prisoners, and kept them till their work was done. They plundered the town, carried off what they wanted, and destroyed other property, and left before daylight. They killed some seven men.

"Some time after, they sacked the town of Shawnee twice. In addition to robbery, they here burned most of the town. Several were killed here also. Individual murders and house-burning were common.

"On the 20th of August, a body of between three and four hundred crossed the State line at sundown. Riding all night, they reached Lawrence at daybreak. They dashed into the town with a yell, shooting at everybody they saw. The surprise was complete. The hotel, and every point where a rally would be possible, was seized at once, and the ruffians then began the work of destruction. Some of the citizens escaped into the fields and ravines, and some into the woods, but the larger portion could not escape at all. Numbers of these were shot down as they were found, and often brutally mangled. In many cases the bodies were left in the burning buildings and were consumed. The Rebels entered the place about five o'clock, and left between nine and ten. Troops for the relief of the town were within six miles when the Rebels went out. One hundred and forty-three were left dead in the streets, and about thirty desperately wounded. The main street was all burned but two stores. Thus, about seventy-five business houses were destroyed, and nearly one hundred residences. They destroyed something near two millions of property, left eighty widows and two hundred and fifty orphans, as the result of their four hours' work. Scenes of brutality were enacted, which have never been surpassed in savage warfare. The picture is redeemed only by the fact that women and children were in no case hurt."

The first news of the event was brought to Leavenworth by James F. Legate. The first full newspaper description of it was written by George T. Isbell, for the Leavenworth Conservative, and telegraphed thence through the country.

22 - [1882] - The Leavenworth & Southwestern Railroad, completed to Meriden, sold to the Santa Fe.

23 - [1855] - John Brown leaves Chicago for Kansas; his horse draws a heavily-loaded wagon; he walks, and shoots game for food; comes through Rock Island, Iowa, and Missouri; and reaches Osawatomie, October 6.

24 - [1871] - John A. Martin, of the Atchison Champion, and George A. Crawford, of the Fort Scott Monitor, appointed Centennial Commissioners, by Gov. Harvey.

25 - [1891] - Pawnee Rock, an old Santa Fe trail landmark in Barton county, was being quarried and sold at $150 a load.

26 - [1915] - "Sex Education in the Home," by Dr. Lydia DeVilbiss, Topeka, had been published in Physical Culture.

--The last sod schoolhouse in Gray county, known as "Sod College," was to be replaced with the "finest school building in the county."

--A survey in Sumner county revealed that 83 percent of the farmers patronized mail order houses.

27 - [1911] - Corn roasts were held annually in Dickinson county during the "full moon of August," wrote Charles M. Harger in the Kansas City Star. Fires were built in a trench and when a bed of coals formed the green corn was roasted until the husks were black.

28 - [1924] - The annual Indian fair was held at Mayetta.

29 - [1854] - The New York Tribune copies a letter written from Wakarusa, August 5, by D.R. Anthony, and first published in Rochester.

30 - [1831] - The Ottawa Indians residing in Ohio cede their lands to the United States, and receive "a tract of land to contain thirty-four thousand acres, to be located adjoining the south or west line of the reservation, equal to fifty miles square, granted tot he Shawnees of Missouri and Ohio, on the Kanzas river and its branches."

The Baptist Shawnee Mission, four miles west of the Missouri line, established by the Baptist General Convention of the United States. Rev. Isaac McCoy was appointed an agent for the Government, for colonizing the Indians, and established this and other missions. In 1839, Rev. Francis Barker took charge of this mission. In 1848, the mission erected a small church, one of the first frame buildings in Kansas. Mr. Barker still had charge of the mission in March 1855.

Delaware Methodist Mission founded by Rev. E.T. Peery and wife.

Moses Grinter becomes the first white settler in present Wyandotte county.

31 - [1906] - Harry Kemp, poet, "bare-headed and wearing sandals, and with a crop of hair ample for six poets," enrolled at K.U.