Transcribed from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar.

Floats, Wyandot.—By a treaty made with the Wyandot Indians on March 17, 1842, at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, 35 members of that tribe were each granted a section of land "to be located anywhere west of the Mississippi river on Indian land not already occupied." At the time the treaty was concluded, some of the recipients of these grants were little more than children, and several years elapsed before all the selections were made. The 35 sections were not held by the usual title of occupancy, and could be acquired by white men without the customary formality and expense of entering land under the preëmption laws. Probably for this reason they became known as the "Wyandotte floats." A majority of the 35 sections were located in Kansas and a number of them were purchased by speculators and town companies. Some of the floats in Douglas county were bought by Andrew H. Reeder, the first territorial governor. The cities of Topeka, Emporia, Manhattan and Lawrence are partly built upon some of these floats. Others were located in Pottawatomie county, but a complete list would be difficult to obtain.

Page 647 from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed May 2002 by Carolyn Ward.