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Nellie Cline

Nellie Cline, a native of Larned, Pawnee County, served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1921 to 1924. She is also credited with being the first female lawyer to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court.

Abraham Lincoln

An engraving of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the Civil War, saving the Union and ending slavery, only to be assassinated as the war was virtually over. Before becoming the first Republican elected to the Presidency, Lincoln was a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and a member of the United States House of Representatives.

Lutie A. Lytle

Portrait of Lutie Lytle, one of the nation's earliest African American female lawyers. Her family came to Topeka and lived at 1435 Monroe Street and Lutie and her brothers attended Topeka schools, including Topeka High School. Lytle graduated from Central Tennessee College and was admitted to the Criminal Court in Memphis, Tennessee, after passing an oral exam. She is reported to be the first African American woman to be licensed to practice in Tennessee, and third in the United States. After returning to Topeka, she became the first African American woman admitted to the Kansas bar. This portrait was copied from A New Negro for a New Century.

Eugene Fitch Ware

Portrait of Eugene Fitch Ware, "Ironquill", a noted Kansas newspaperman, lawyer and poet. He is well known for his poem "Dewey Was the Morning".

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.

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.

Robert Byington Mitchell

Nichols, A. C.

Robert B. Mitchell settled in Paris, Linn County, Kansas Territory, in 1856. He was born in Ohio and studied law. He was active in free state territorial politics. He served in the Territorial House of Representatives in 1857 and 1858, was a member of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention, and was appointed Territorial Treasurer on February 11, 1859. He was part of the free state supporters who followed Charles Hamilton and his band after the Marais des Cygnes massacre. After the territorial period he served as a brigadier general in the Second Kansas Volunteer Cavalry and held the appointed post of Governor of New Mexico from 1866 to 1869.

Abraham Lincoln

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln. In December 1859, Lincoln traveled to the Kansas Territory and spoke at Elwood, Troy, Doniphan, Atchison, and Leavenworth. His speeches covered several issues including preventing the expansion of slavery, the theory of popular sovereignty, and the evils of states seceding from the Union. In 1860, Lincoln received the Republican party's nomination for president. Although Kansans liked him the delegation from the territory did not support his nomination. He won the election, and on February 22, 1861, at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Lincoln raised the United States flag bearing a 34th star, honoring Kansas as the newest state.

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.

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.