Oakwood Cemetery, Parsons, Kansas
THIS MONTH IN THE CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS
INFORMATION FROM "THE ANNALS OF KANSAS" BY DANIEL W. WILDER
PUBLISHED IN 1875
MAY
1861
MAY 1.-- A rebel camp in St. Joseph remains unmolested. Rebel flags wave in St. Joseph, Kansas City, Iatan, Weston, Plaite City, and Independence, Mo.
MAY 1.-- The following appointments are announced: Chester Thomas, Mail Agent; J.C. Barnett, Register Fort Scott Land Office; A. Low, Register Kickapoo Land Office; Ira Smith, Receiver Kickapoo Land Office; F. G. Adams, Register Lecompton Land Office; C. B. Lines Receiver Lecompton Land Office; H.W. Farnsworth, Kaw Indian Agent; G. A. Colton, Miami Indian Agent; Charles B. Keith, Kickapoo Indian Agent; D. R. Anthony, Postmaster at Leavenworth; James Fletcher, Postmaster at Topeka; John A. Martin, Postmaster at Atchison; Jacob Stotler, Postmaster at Emporia.
MAY 2.-- Extra Session of the Missouri Legislature. The following is copied from the Message of Claiborne F. Jackson:
"Our interests and sympathies are identical with those of the Slaveholding States, and necessarily unite our destiny with theirs. The similarity of our social and domestic institutions, our industrial interests, our sympathies, habits and tastes, our common origin, territorial congruity, all concur in pointing out our duty in regard to the separation now taking place between the States of the Old Federal Union."
There were 114, 965 slaves in Missouri.
MAY 6.-- George H. Fairchild elected Mayor of Atchison, by 100 majority, over Ike Hascall, Border-Ruffian.
-- John T. Burris is appointed United States District Attorney; W. W. Ross, Pottawatomie Agent; P. P. Elder, Osage Agent at Fort Scott; Josiah Miller, Postmaster at Lawrence; S. D. Houston, Receiver at Junction City; John Hutchinson, Secretary of Dakota.
MAY 9.-- Death of O. H. Otis, Mayor of Topeka.
MAY 10.-- A Topeka letter of Ingalls, in the Conservative, has this description of Lane:
"It would be hard to give a rational and satisfactory analysis of the causes of Gen. Lane's popularity as an orator. Destitute of all graces of art, he possesses but few even of its essentials; he writhes himself into more contortions than Gabriel Ravel in a pantomime; his voice is a series of transitions from the broken scream of a maniac to the hoarse rasping gutturals of a Dutch butcher in the last gasp of inebriation; the construction of his sentences is loose and disjointed; his diction is a pudding of slang, profanity and solecism; and yet the electric shock of his extraordinary eloquence thrills like the blast of a trumpet; the magnetism of his manner, the fire of his glance, the studied earnestness of his utterance, find a sudden response in the will of his audience, and he sways them like a field of reeds shaken in the wind. Devoid of those qualities of character which excite esteem and cement the enduring structure of popular regard, he overcomes the obstacles in the path of achievement by persistent effort and indomitable will."
MAY 10.-- Capt. Nathaniel Lyon and Col. Francis P. Blair, at the head of 6,000 Union volunteers, many of them Germans, surround the Rebel State Guard, at St. Louis, and take them prisoners. Gen. D. M. Frost was in command of the Rebels. This movement saved Missouri to the Union.
MAY 14.-- A. M. Clark and J. C. Stone write to the Governor that they cannot negotiate the Kansas bonds.
-- Stampede of Union men from Western Missouri.
MAY 15.-- Topeka letter of J. J. Ingalls:
"Mr. McDowell, from the Committee on the State Library, submitted a new report on the subject of a State seal this morning. The device represents a mountain horizon, and a prairie foreground traversed by a 'schooner' bound for the Peak; a rising sun illuminates a retreating herd of buffalo, and a farmer following the plough. The motto suggested in the terse, emphatic and appropriate legend, 'WE WILL.' The design is decidedly the most original and suggestive which has yet beet presented, though Mr. Denman suggests that it might be better to change the motto to 'WE WON'T.'"
--George W. Brown, late of the Herald of Freedom, becomes a resident of Paola.
MAY 20.--
"The vexed question of a State seal has at last received its quietus at the hands of a conference committee. The new design embraces a prairie landscape, with buffalo pursued by Indian hunters, a settler's cabin, and a ploughman with his team, a river with a steamboat, a cluster of thirty-four stars surrounding the legend, 'AD ASTRA PER ASPERA,' the whole encircled by the words, 'Great Seal of the State of Kansas, 1861.'"--J. J. Ingalls, in Conservative.
MAY 21.--
"Judge Lambdin, who is just from Butler county, states that the reports of damage done by grasshoppers are not exaggerated. The insects have traveled a belt of country about six miles wide, devouring every green thing. Young fields of wheat have been completely destroyed by their ravages, not one blade remaining; early corn and vegetables and the foliage of trees have suffered with equal severity; and the evil seems to be on the increase, with no means of prevention."--Topeka Letter in Conservative.
MAY 22.-- Republican Congressional Convention at Topeka. Thirty counties send 55 delegates. Called to order by A. C. Wilder. On motion of Wm. A. Phillips, Dr. R. Gilpatrick was made temporary Chairman, and J. H. Signor, Secretary.
Committee on Credentials: T. D. Thacher, F. G. Adams, L. R. Palmer, R. Crozier, James Montgomery. Committee on Permanent Organization: C. P. Twiss, F. A. Bliss, J. A. McCall, A. D. Brown, C. V. Eskridge.
Officers: President, R. Gilpatrick; Vice Presidents, A. L. Lee, James L. McDowell, R. M. Fish, T. W. Satchel; Secretaries, D. R. Anthony, J. H. Signor.
Ballot for Member of Congress: M. F. Conway 37, Ed. Lynde 8, R. M. Williams 6; Montgomery, Watson and Updegraff, one each.
The following resolutions, offered by D. R. Anthony, are adopted:
"Resolved by the Republican Party of the State of Kansas in Convention assembled, That the existing condition of national affairs demands the emphatic and unmistakable expression of the convictions of the people of the State, and that Kansas allies herself with the uprising Union hosts of the North to uphold the policy of the Administration.
"Resolved, That the grave responsibilities of this hour could not have been safely postponed, and that they have not arrived too soon, and that in the present war between Government and Anarchy the mildest compromise is treason against humanity.
"Resolved, that we spurn as specious sophistries all suggestions for the peaceful dismemberment of the Union, and pledge our fortunes and our honor to its maintenance, intact and inviolate."
The following State Committee was appointed: A. C. Wilder, T. D. Thacher, W. C. Dunton, J. F. Newlon, Ed. Russell, D. W. Houston, Loring Farnsworth.
MAY 23.-- A. C. Wilder elected Chairman, and T. D. Thacher Secretary, of the Republican State Committee.
MAY 24.-- Railroad completed to Weston, Missouri; a line of boats from Leavenworth to Weston.
MAY 28.-- The First Kansas organizing, in the western part of Leavenworth.
1862
MAY 2.-- Gen. Blunt commands the Department of Kansas.
-- The First Indian regiment organized at Leroy.
MAY 8.-- Congress appropriates $100,000 to pay the Lane Brigade.
MAY 9.-- Gen. Hunter, in South Carolina, issues an emancipation proclamation.
MAY 11.-- The Jayhawker Cleveland, alias Moore, alias Metz, killed at Marais des Cygnes, by Lieut. Walker's men, of the Sixth Kansas. His body was taken to Osawatomie. He has been in Kansas twelve months. He mustered in as a Captain in Jemison's regiment, but very soon mustered out. He stole in the name of Liberty.
MAY 17.-- Kansas troops ordered to Corinth, Mississippi.
MAY 19.-- Lincoln revokes Hunter's proclamation.
MAY 20.-- Passage of the homestead law. It is chapter 75 of the U. S. Statues of 1862.
MAY 22.-- Organization of the First Indian regiment.
MAY 24.-- Wm. A. Barstow, Colonel Third Wisconsin, Provost Marshal General of the State; Maj. Elias A. Calkins, of the Third Wisconsin, Provost Marshal of Leavenworth.
MAY 27, 28, 29.-- The First, Seventh and Eighth Kansas, the Second Kansas Battery, and the Twelfth and Thirteenth Wisconsin, sail from Leavenworth towards Corinth.
MAY 27.-- Capt. John Brown, jr., resigns, and Lieut. Geo. H. Hoyt is appointed Captain.
MAY 30.-- Col. Wm. Weer, of the Tenth Kansas, given command of the Indian expedition.
1863
MAY 1.-- The Kansas Farmer founded by Lawrence D. Bailey, Topeka. The size of the printed page is 41/2 by 71/2 inches.
MAY 1.-- Governor Carney sells State bonds in New York.
MAY 2.-- Battle of Chancellorsville.
MAY 18.-- A ruffian and thief named Sterling hung by the citizens of Atchison. On the 23d, about 300 men from the country went into Atchison, took Mooney and Brewer, two other members of the gang, and hung them.
MAY 20.-- Col. William A. Phillips has an engagement with Col. Coffey, at Fort Gibson (now called Fort Blunt.)
1864
MAY 3.-- Grant crosses the Rapidan.
MAY 4.-- A dispatch from Washington says Kansas has raised 4,500 troops in excess of all calls, and that there will be no draft.
MAY 11.-- S. A. Cobb is appointed Commissary, C. C. Willets Paymaster, and C. L. Gorton Quartermaster.
MAY.-- Publication of the Second Annual Catalogue of Baker University, at Baldwin City.
Board of Trustees: First year, H. D. Fisher, G. W. Paddock, S. Brooks, S. Parker; second year, S. Kieffer, J. W. Frame, S. N. Walker, W. G. Piper; third year, R. P. Duval, H. Barricklow, C. Steuckeman, S. H. Watson; forth year, L. B. Dennis, N. Taylor, D. P. Mitchell, Geo. H. Weaver.
The number of pupils is 204. The second annual address is dekivered by Rev. D. P. Mitchell.
The Kansas and Nebraska Annual Conference, held at Nebraska City, April 16, 1857, took the initiative in the establishment of Baker University. Rev. A. Still and Rev. L. B. Dennis were autorized to assign to the Methodist Episcopal Church bond for 700 acres of land given by the Palmyra Town Company for an institution of learning. The building was begun in the winter of 1858. In September 1858, Rev. Werter B. Davis was elected President. He resigned June 25, 1862, and Rev. G. W. Paddock was elected President.
