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Title | Creator | Date Made Visible | None
Mary Elizabeth Lease
Deane
Mary Elizabeth (Clyens) Lease is perhaps the best-known Kansas Populist. She was born in Pennsylvania on September 11, 1850 to Irish immigrants. At the age of twenty she moved to Osage Mission, Kansas, in order to teach school at St. Anne?s Academy. While there, she met and married Charles L. Lease, a local pharmacist. After several unsuccessful attempts at farming, Lease turned her attention to the plight of her fellow farmers, and by 1890, her passionate criticisms of railroads and big business made her a formidable force in the newly formed People's (Populist) Party. She became a well-known lecturer for the Populist cause, traveling throughout the West, Midwest, and South. Although this statement has in fact been misattributed to her, she is most known for her assertion that farmers must "raise less corn and more hell.? Her zeal and refusal to compromise eventually alienated her from mainstream Populists, and by 1896 she had turned her attention toward other reform causes, including prohibition and suffrage. She divorced Charles in 1902, spending the remainder of her life living with various children on the Atlantic coast. She passed away on October 29, 1933 in New York state.
previewSherman [W. T.] & Ewing [Thomas] to Thomas A. Thompson
Sherman & Ewing
One of the partners addressed this letter regarding the use of military land warrants in the territory to Thomas A. Thompson at Summit Point, Jefferson Co., Virginia. "Sherman & Ewing informed Thompson that such warrants could not be used to acquire land until after the public sale in July 1859, but some advice was offered for the interim.
previewW.T. Sherman to Robert Campbell
Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891
A letter to Robert Campbell regarding the debt that Sherman, Ewing & McCook were trying to collect. As with similar correspondence, this letter conveys a sense of the legal and financial transactions that played a major part in the firm's business activities in the territory.
previewThomas Ewing, Jr., to Thomas Ewing, Sr.
Writing to his father from Leavenworth, K.T., Thomas Ewing, Jr., described the prospects for "good bargains" in Delaware lands. "Hamp" went to secure 1,000 acres for Ewing, Sr., which they hoped to acquire for $3.00 per acre. Ewing, Jr., addressed additional transactions that he was considering for his father and others.
previewJonathan Crews to Thomas Nesbit Stinson
Crews, Jonathan
Jonathan Crews, writing from LaPorte, Indiana, expressed strong proslavery views on the situation in Kansas. Crews described his trip home to Indiana from Kansas and discussed several Indiana court cases involving his business interests.
previewJohn James Ingalls to Elias T. Ingalls
Ingalls, John James, 1833-1900
Much of this interesting letter, dated November 21, 1858, from Sumner, Kansas Territory, describes the Ingalls law practice and the nature of a "frontier" court proceedings that often attracted "nearly all the population." According to Ingalls, "the chief difficulty arising [in the courts came] from the conflict of the two Codes, adopted by two hostile legislatures, each of which had adherents who call the other 'bogus.'" Ingalls also discussed the business of land sales, as something many others successfully combined with the practice of law.
previewJohn James Ingalls to Elias T. Ingalls
Ingalls, John James, 1833-1900
The biggest share of this 8-page letter is devoted to comments on the weather and the environment, in and around Atchison, where Ingalls now had a law practice (for a time, he continued to live in Sumner). He missed some aspects of "Massachusetts weather," but overall he thought Kansas superior: "I have not had a cold in six months and but one or two since I came here . . . [and] The attacks of melancholy and despondency to which I was once a prey have also almost entirely disappeared." Ingalls also wrote of two arson fires--"a large grocery house" and "the steamer Hesperian," and the expected fate of the suspect then in custody.
previewNathaniel Pope Causin to Hiram Hill
Causin, Nathanial Pope
Nathaniel Pope Causin wrote from Washington to Hiram Hill in Williamsburgh, Massachusetts. Causin had received word from Robert Lawrence and Charles Chadwick of the Territorial Kansas land claim dispute between Hill and Robetaille, a Wyandot Indian. Causin confirmed he would represent Hill in Hill's lawsuit to maintain ownership of his claim. Causin awaited Robert Lawrence's arrival in Washington in order to proceed aggressively, but would continue making necessary contacts.
previewCharles Chadwick to Hiram Hill
Chadwick, Charles
Charles Chawick wrote from Quindaro, Kansas Territory, to Hiram Hill in Massachusetts, to tell him that it appeared favorable that Hill would win possession of the land disputed by Robert Robetaille, a Wyandot Indian. However, Chadwick feared that the decision may not be made as easily as he had earlier anticipated, since Robert Lawrence had been seen in Leavenworth and had not traveled to Washington to work with Nathaniel Causin. Nonetheless, Abelard Guthrie had given up trying to obtain the land as well, leaving Hiram as the only other claimant. The land in question had originally been set aside for settlement by Native American tribes.
previewJohn A. Halderman
John Halderman grew up in Kentucky and was trained as a lawyer. He came to Kansas Territory in 1854 and served as the personal secretary to the first territorial governor Andrew Reeder. In 1855, he served as secretary to the first territorial council. He ultimately separated himself from the pro-slavery Lecompton movement. He was the first probate judge of Leavenworth County. He served as a major of the First Kansas volunteers during the Civil War and lived most of the rest of his life in Leavenworth.
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