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Page 1 of 8, showing 10 records out of 78 total, starting on record 1, ending on 10

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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.

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John 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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John James Ingalls

A uncased sixth plate ambrotype portrait of John James Ingalls. He came to the Kansas Territory in the late 1850s. Ingalls, a lawyer and politician, represented Atchison County at the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, July, 1859. In January, 1860 and 1861, he was an officer of the council when the legislature met at Lecompton. At the Republican Convention at Lawrence, April, 1860, Ingalls was elected to represent the Kansas Territory at the Chicago National Convention. He later served in the Kansas and the United States Senate.

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William Addison Phillips

Portrait of William Addison Phillips, an author, lawyer, journalist and politician. In 1857, Phillips attended the Constitution Convention at Topeka and the Free State Conventions at Centropolis, Lawrence, and Grasshopper Falls. He founded the town of Salina in April, 1858. In that same month and year, Phillips was nominated at the Topeka Free-State Convention under the Leavenworth Constitution to serve as a supreme court judge. He attended the Convention at Osawatomie and the Republican State Convention at Lawrence in 1859. Phillips served in the Kansas Volunteer Regiments and rose to the rank of colonel. From March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1875 Phillips was an at large representative to the United States Congress and from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1879 he represented the First District.

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Benjamin Stringfellow

Portrait of Benjamin Stringfellow, attorney and pro-slavery activist. In 1838, Stringfellow settled in Missouri, where he served in the house of representatives, and was attorney general for four years. After moving to Weston, Missouri, he became a member and officer of the Platte County Self-Defensive Association (an aggressive pro-slavery organization). He wrote a pamphlet entitled "Negro Slavery No Evil, or the North and the South." In 1858, Stringfellow moved to Atchison, Kansas Territory, where he helped build the town and was an attorney for the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad.

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James S. Emery

Bowman, photographer,

James Stanley Emery had a law practice in Lawrence, Kansas Territory. He was associated with the New England Emigrant Aid Company and worked as a journalist for the "New York Daily Times." He was involved in numerous free state activities both in Kansas Territory and in the East.

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Thomas Ewing, Jr.

Brady's National Portrait Galleries

This carte-de-visite shows Thomas Ewing, Jr., (1829-1896). A native of Ohio he migrated to the Kansas Territory in 1856 to practice law in Leavenworth, Kansas. As a supporter of the free state party Ewing became a delegate in 1858 to the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention. In 1861 he was appointed as the state of Kansas' first chief justice of the supreme court. With the outbreak of the Civil War Ewing enlisted in the Union army and became colonel of the Eleventh Kansas infantry regiment. He rose through the ranks to brigadier general and to breveted major general before mustering out of service in 1865. After the war Ewing became active in the Greenback wing of the Democrat party and served in the United States house of representatives from the state of Ohio. On January 21,1896 Ewing passed away at the age of sixty-seven from injuries received in a street car accident in New York City.

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William Alfred Peffer

Leonard, J. H.

William Alfred Peffer was the first Populist senator elected to U.S. Congress. He was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1831. As a young man he traveled across the country, living in California, Indiana, Missouri, and Illinois. After the outbreak of Civil War, Peffer enlisted in the 83rd Illinois Infantry, entering as a private and working his way up to the rank of second lieutenant. He read law while still in the military, and after his discharge in 1865 he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Clarksville, Tennessee. Five years later he moved to Fredonia, Kansas, where he established another practice and edited the Fredonia Journal. Peffer served as a state senator from 1874 to 1876, and during his tenure he relocated to Coffeyville, Kansas, where he assumed editorial control of the Coffeyville Journal. Then, in 1881, he launched the Populist publication Kansas Farmer, one of his best-known contributions to this agrarian reform movement. Peffer was instrumental in the creation of the People?s (Populist) Party, serving as a Populist U.S. Senator from 1891 to 1897 and running again (unsuccessfully) for re-election in 1896. Two years later, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for Governor of Kansas, losing the election to Republican William Stanley. Peffer died in 1912 in Grenola, Kansas, at the age of 81.

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William F.Rightmire

This is a portrait of William F. Rightmire, an attorney, who came to Kansas in 1887, and practiced law in Larned, Cottonwood Falls, and Topeka. In 1888, he was nominated by the Union-Labor Party of Kansas as its attorney general candidate. Two years later in 1890, Rightmire was nominated as the People's Party candidate for Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.

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Gaspar Christopher Clemens

Downing, George

This black and white photograph shows Gasper Christopher Clemens. A Topeka attorney who represented clients from all walks of life. Clemens also gained the reputation as a lecturer who discussed the political issues of the day. When the Populist Party gained momentum in Kansas, Clemens became an active member and served in several positions. One was as legal adviser to Populist Governor Lorenzo D. Lewelling and the other as a court reporter to the Kansas Supreme Court. His battle for justice and equality for the common man, prompted Clemens to break away from the Populist Party, in 1897, and organize within the state the Socialist Party. In 1900, Clemens became the Socialist candidate for Kansas Governor and received about 1,200 votes. With this encouragement, he became the 1902 Socialist candidate for attorney general but was unsuccessful in his bid. After the defeat Clemens returned to his law practice to advocate and defend those in need.

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