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Title | Creator | Date Made Visible | None
Joseph Harrington Trego to an unidentified recipient [probably his wife, Alice Trego]
Trego, Joseph H. (Joseph Harrington), 1823-1905
Trego was in St. Louis, Missouri awaiting a boat trip to Kansas City. He describes his trip to that point as well as the weather. Trego was a doctor and he wrote about trying to locate his medicine chest for the second part of the journey. He also described his activities as he waited. It is not clear whether he had been to Kansas Territory before but he knew he was going to Sugar Mound in Linn County, Kansas Territory.
previewE. S. Whitney to Hiram Hill
Whitney, E.S.
E. S. Whitney wrote from Sumner, Kansas Territory, to her uncle, Hiram Hill. Whitney apologized for the long delay in communicating with him, and explained that her husband, Thaddeus Whitney, had been very busy lately and was doing his best to complete Hill's home. She also described her experience watching the border ruffians invade Lawrence, and her friends' and neighbors' reactions to the situation. Despite the violence and uncertainty, she was "not sorry yet" that she had come to Kansas, and told Hill that her husband would write him shortly to discuss business matters.
previewJohn James Ingalls to Elias T. Ingalls
Ingalls, John James, 1833-1900
On the first day of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, Ingalls wrote from Wyandotte, Kansas, with observation on the city and the nature of the convention, which he considered "not a very superior one." Nevertheless, the Republicans had a big majority, and Ingalls was "on some of the most important committees in the convention and shall be obliged to do some hard work."
previewIsaac Tichenor Goodnow to Quereau
Goodnow, Isaac T. (Isaac Tichenor), 1814-1894
Isaac Goodnow wrote from Kansas Territory to a friend Quereau of New England. It appeared that Goodnow was growing tired of the hard -scrabble life in the Territory, which was "decidedly injurious" to his constitution. He also showed signs of discouragement regarding the founding of a college in K.T., resigned to the idea that "for the time to come little can be done educationally." Goodnow told Quereau that he was actively seeking a teaching job back in the States.
previewStephen Douglas portrait
Louis O. Lussier
Portrait of Stephen Douglas by Louis Lussier. Douglas helped write the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which called for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Kansas and Nebraska were opened up for settlement but the people living there, not the national government, would determine whether these states would be free or slave. Douglas had been a member of Congress and a United States Senator from Illinois from 1847 until his death in 1861. He was the Democratic Party nominees for President in 1860 and ran, unsuccessfully, against Abraham Lincoln. He had defeated Lincoln two years earlier when both were running for U.S. Senator from Illinois and when they had their famous Lincoln-Douglas debates.
previewHiram Hill to B. Johnson, bill of plastering
Hill, Hiram, 1804-
This handwritten bill charged Hiram Hill for plastering work (presumably in his new home in Lawrence, Kansas Territory) done by B. Johnson. Johnson initialed the document, and noted his receipt of Hill's payment in full.
previewEdmund Jones to Hiram Hill
Jones, Edmund
Edmund Jones oversaw the building of a house in Lawrence, Kansas Territory for Hiram Hill, a resident of Williamsburgh, Massachusetts. He wrote to update Hill on construction progress. Jones was frustrated with the plasterer, Mr. Johnson, who was sick and whose work was poor and rate too high. S. N. Simpson had returned to town. Jones mentioned the health of Mrs. Whitney and Mrs. Herd. Page 2 is primarily a list of expenses for materials and labor and a list of amounts received, including rent income.
previewLeavenworth Constitutional Convention journal
Tappan, S. F. (Samuel Forster), d. 1913
The Leavenworth constitution was the third of four constitutions proposed for Kansas statehood and the second free-state constitution (after the Topeka and before the Wyandotte constitutions). Delegates for the territory's third constitutional convention were elected on March 9 and assembled in Leavenworth on March 25, 1858. The delegates considered the "Homestead Exemption" during the morning session, April 1, 1858. The provision was amended so as to make the basic exemption 160 acres or not over $2,000. The vote on this was recorded and the yeas and nays are followed by numerous explanations--many delegates who voted nay did so not because they opposed the concept.
previewJohn Brown surveyor's compass
Phelps & Gurley
While in Kansas John Brown was employed as a surveyor, an occupation which allowed him to move around freely to locate and observe proslavery camps. This compass was part of a surveying kit made by Phelps and Gurley of Troy, New York. According to a 1915 Omaha Sunday Bee newspaper article, Brown sold the compass kit to his neighbor, Simon B. McGrew, in 1858. McGrew lived in Mound City at the time. The compass was used to survey Linn, Anderson, and Bourbon counties.
previewJames William Denver, Address to the people of Kansas
Denver, James William, 1817-1892
Initial address from Gov. Denver indicating his instructions from the president.
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