This Day in Kansas History - June

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.

June

1 - [1864] - Railroad Convention of the Border Tier counties, at Paola; W.R. Wagstaff, President. The convention asks for a land grant and appropriations for a railroad from the Missouri river to the Gulf.

2 - [1856] - Battle of Black Jack, in the present Palmyra township, in the southeast corner of Douglas county. Captain Brown calls this "the first regular battle fought between Free-State and Pro-Slavery men in Kansas." Captain Brown had come up from the Pottawatomie the day before, Sunday, with eleven mounted men, among them his sons, Frederick, Owen, and Watson, and his son-in-law, Henry Thompson. Some of Pate's men had raided Palmyra that day, and taken several prisons. They then went to Prairie City; the Free-State people were in church; the services were closed, and the Ruffians driven off.

Captain Brown's and Captain Samuel T. Shore's Free-State companies unite that night, and start for Pate's camp; they number twenty-seven men. They find Pate, at daylight, in a grove of black-jack oaks, and open the fight. The Free-State men fire and advance, shooting while lying down in the grass. Pate sends in a flag of truce, proposing to surrender if allowed to retain arms; Brown rejects the proposal. The fight is renewed. Pate sends in another flag of truce, and surrenders without conditions; twenty-eight men are captured, the rest having escaped during the fight.

3 - [1861] - A rebel flag captured at Iatan, Mo., and brought to Leavenworth, by Frank H. Drenning, Frank M. Tracy, Thos. Merrick, G. Mellen Lewis, Richard D. Lender, Wm. Smart, James Liddle, Emil Umfried, Mr. Voeth, Fred. Amerine, Theo. Kroll, and Henry Laurenzier. These men were all from the Elwood Guards, and the Leavenworth Steuben Guards, a German company, and all soldiers of the First Kansas. Drenning was struck by two balls; two bullets entered Umfried's body and one his leg, and Voeth was shot in the leg. It was the first Rebel flag captured, and created intense excitement, many prominent men opposing the act as illegal. A public meeting in Lawrence indorsed the act of the soldiers, and the Leavenworth Conservative for sustaining them.

4 - [1909] - The Kansas Children's Home Society inherited $10,000 from a Franklin county farmer. The bequest was "to the man I rode with July 10, 1907," a worker for the Society.

5 - [1901] - Dr. F.D. Tubbs, professor of natural history at Kansas Wesleyan, was discharged because he advocated "higher criticism of the Scriptures" and a "doctrine of evolution." Eighty students petitioned his reinstatement.

6 - [1899] - The state's general revenue fund was exhausted. Warrants totaling $125,000 could not be paid.

7 - [1836] -The western boundary of Missouri was a line drawn north and south from the mouth of the Kansas river. In 1836, June 7, Congress passed an act by which the "Platte Purchase" was added to Missouri. The eastern boundary of this triangle was formed by a line drawn north from the mouth of the Kaw; the western boundary was the Missouri river. This tract of land became slave territory, in violation of the Missouri compromise.

8 - [1855] - Free-State Convention at Lawrence. Resolutions were adopted in favor of making Kansas a Free-State, and against the illegal voting by citizens of Missouri. Also, the following:

"Resolved, That in reply to the threats of war so frequently made in our neighboring State, our answer is, We Are Ready."

9 - [1897] - The Campbell farming method--pulverizing the top soil, plowing it under and then packing--was tried in western Kansas under the supervision of H.W. Campbell, Sioux City, Ia.

10 - [1854] - A meeting of "squatters," three miles west of Fort Leavenworth, (Lewis Burnes, of Weston, Mo., chairman, and J.H.R. Cundiff, of St. Joseph, Mo., secretary,) declares that "we will afford protection to no Abolitionist as a settler of Kansas Territory," and "that we recognize the institution of Slavery as already existing in this Territory."

11 - [1914] - Clyde Cessna, the "farmer aviator," performed at the Ford county old settlers picnic. "As soon as the wheat crop is cashed in, the farmers will all be flying high," said the Kansas City Star.

12 - [1842] - Lieutenant John C. Fremont arrived at St. Louis May 22, 1842. Thence he proceeded to Cyprian Chouteau's trading house, on the Kansas river, about six miles west of the Missouri line; latitude 39 degrees, 5 minutes, 57 seconds; longitude 94 degrees, 39 minutes, 16 seconds; elevation above the sea about 700 feet. He stated thence June 10, with Kit Carson as his guide. On the 12th he seems to have camped near the site of Lawrence:

"We encamped in a remarkably beautiful situation on the Kanzas bluffs, which commanded a fine view of the river valley, here from three to four miles wide. The central portion was occupied by a broad belt of heavy timber, and nearer the hills the prairies were of the richest verdure."

On the 14th, he crossed to the north side of the river, probably at the point where Topeka now stands. On the 16th, he says:

"We were now fairly in the Indian country, and it began to be time to prepare for the chances of the wilderness."

His journey thence was northwest to the Blue and the Platte. This expedition went as far west as the Wind River mountains; left there August 18; returned by the Platte, and reached the Missouri at the mouth of the Platte, October 1.

13 - [1898] - Moving pictures by the Edison projectoscope were shown on the opening day of the Ottawa Chautauqua.

14 - [1889] - "The free love paper, Lucifer, has been moved to Arkansas," announced the Abilene Reflector. "We have no love for Arkansas, but inflicting Lucifer on the state is pretty hard.

15 - [1907] - Arthur Capper contracted for a five-story $150,000 newspaper building for his Topeka Daily Capital, Mail and Breeze, Missouri Valley Farmer, Household Magazine and the Mail Printing House.

16 - [1934] - Glenn Cunningham set new world's record of 4 minutes 6.7 seconds for mile run. [Ives, Footprints on the Sands of Time]

17 - [1966] - A new record for the mile run 3:5.3 was set by Jim Ryun, a nineteen-year-old college freshman at the University of Kansas, trimming 2.3 seconds from the world record.*

18 - [1905] - Frank Rockefeller sold his 8,000-acre ranch in Rawlins and Cheyenne counties for $28,000 and returned to Philadelphia.

19 - [1912] - Phil Billard bought a Topeka-made Longren biplane capable of making 80 miles an hour. It was the second plane built by Longren and is now on exhibit in the State Historical Society museum.

20 - [1870] - There are 1,283 miles of railroad in the State: Kansas Pacific, 454; Missouri, Kansas & Texas, 182; Union Pacific, Central Branch, 100; Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston, 64; Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf, 102; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, 27; Leavenworth, Atchison & Northwestern, 21; Missouri River, 28; St. Joseph & Denver, 40.

21 - [1879] - Spiritual wedding in Leavenworth of Benj. Pierce, son of President Pierce, and Katie Eaton, daughter of Col. Isaac Eaton. The groom has been dead twenty-five years and the bride thirty years. Prof. Mott is the "materializing medium." The Times says: "Both spirits materialize themselves, converse with the company." The parents are Democrats, and no Kansas Republicans, on high, appear to have received invitations.

By the acts of Congress of July 1, 1862, and July 2, 1964, the Kansas Pacific Railway received in bonds, from the Government, $6,303,000; and the Central Branch, $1,600,000. The bonds given by the Government to all the Pacific roads (under acts bearing these dates) amounted to $64,618,832.

22 - [1876] - The Grand Lodge of colored Masons, at Topeka, elect the following officers: H.C. Bruce, of Atchison, M.W.G.M.; C.H. Lanston, of Lawrence, D.G.M.; C.H. Gaskins, of Topeka, G.S.W; W. Smith, of Lawrence, G.J.W.; H.H. White, of Topeka, G.Sec.; and H. Williams, of Leavenworth, G. Treas.

23 - [1966] - A 21-year-old novice pilot escaped injury when he crashed a single engine plane into the roof of a Wichita home.*

24 - [1921] - About $14,000,000 worth of roads, mostly concrete, were under construction in Kansas.

25 - [1911] - The temperature was 114 at Salina, 116 at Canton and 119 at Glasco with a hot wind.

26 - [1869] - Flood in Chapman creek; thirteen lives lost. Water four feet deep on the bottoms at Junction City. It is a very wet and fruitful year.

27 - [1857] - "The Hon. Ab. Lincoln," as the Chicago Tribune calls him, makes a speech in Springfield, Ill., largely devoted to Kansas. "Nothing but bold, wicked despotism," he says, "has ruled or reigned there since it was organized into a Territory." "Look, Douglas, and see yonder people fleeing--see the full columns of brave men stopped--see the press and the type flying into the river--and tell me what does this! It is your Squatter Sovereignty!" Let Slavery spread over the Territories, "and God will sweep us with a brush of fire from this solid globe."

28 - [1917] - Kansas Mennonites told the War Department they would serve but not fight and asked assignment to agricultural work.

29 - [1935] - Chief Justice Johnston of the Kansas Supreme Court resigned after 51 years of service. Justice R.A. Burch becomes the new Chief Justice.

30 - [1854] - The Senate confirms Andrew H. Reeder, of Easton, Pa., as Governor.