Isaac Tichenor Goodnow (January 17, 1814 – March 20, 1894) was an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and co-founder of

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

and

Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 cen ...

. Goodnow was also elected as a Republican to the

Kansas House of Representatives The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craftin ...

and as

Superintendent of Public Instruction A state education agency or state department of education is the state-level government organization within each U.S. state or territory responsible for education, including providing information, resources, and technical assistance on educationa ...

for the state, and is known as "the father of formal education in Kansas."

Career as educator

Goodnow was born in

Whitingham, Vermont Whitingham is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for Nathan Whiting, a landholder. The population was 1,344 at the 2020 census. Whitingham is the birthplace of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church o ...

, and raised in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. After the death of his father in 1828, Goodnow delayed his education and worked as a clerk. He eventually graduated from

Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy was one of the oldest educational institutions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was established by Methodist clergy of New England in 1818. Originally located in New Market, New Hampshire, before moving to Wilbraham, ...

Wilbraham, Massachusetts Wilbraham is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb of the City of Springfield, and part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,613 at the 2020 census. Part of the town comprises ...

in 1838. Also in 1838, Goodnow married Ellen D. Denison. Following graduation, Goodnow remained at Wesleyan Academy as a teacher until 1848. During this era, Goodnow was also awarded an honorary degree by

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

in 1845. In 1848 Goodnow accepted a position as professor of natural sciences at the Providence Conference Seminary (

East Greenwich Academy The East Greenwich Academy (originally known as Kent Academy) was a private Methodist boarding school in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, USA that was in existence from 1802 until 1943. History The school was founded in 1802 by eight prominent men ...

) in

East Greenwich, Rhode Island East Greenwich is a town and the county seat of Kent County, Rhode Island. The population was 14,312 at the 2020 census. East Greenwich is the wealthiest municipality within the state of Rhode Island. It is part of the Providence metropolitan st ...

. He retained this position until December 1854, when he resigned at age 40 to move to

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

to support the creation of a Free-State town by the

New England Emigrant Aid Company The New England Emigrant Aid Company (originally the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company) was a transportation company founded in Boston, Massachusetts by activist Eli Thayer in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed the population of ...

Kansas emigrant

Goodnow had been a committed abolitionist since at least 1840. After hearing a speech given by New England Emigrant Aid Company founder

Eli Thayer Eli Thayer (June 11, 1819 – April 15, 1899) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1857 to 1861. He was born in Mendon, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester Academy in 1840, from Brown University in 1845, and in 1 ...

in December 1854 about the need to fight against the proslavery influence in Kansas Territory, Goodnow decided that he would emigrate to Kansas Territory with the Company the following spring. Thereafter, he also began writing editorials and letters encouraging others to join the cause. On March 6, 1855, Goodnow departed

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, with a group of New England emigrants that would ultimately number 75. On March 18, Goodnow's party reached

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

, where Goodnow met with the Company's representative

Samuel C. Pomeroy Samuel Clarke Pomeroy (January 3, 1816 – August 27, 1891) was a United States senator from Kansas in the mid-19th century. He served in the United States Senate during the American Civil War. Pomeroy also served in the Massachusetts House of ...

and decided to form the Company's new settlement at the junction of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River dr ...

and the Big Blue River. Goodnow and six other men traveled into Kansas Territory as an advance guard to establish the location. When Goodnow's team arrived, two other small settlements had already been established at the chosen location, named Polistra and Canton. In April 1855, Goodnow and the other pioneers combined the settlements into a new town named Boston. Goodnow helped to draft the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

for the Boston Town Company. Two months later, in June 1855, the

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

''Hartford'', carrying 75 settlers from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, ran aground in the

near the settlement. The ''Hartford'' passengers accepted an invitation to join the new town, but insisted that it be renamed

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, which was done on June 29, 1855. Goodnow established a claim just outside Manhattan, and was joined by his wife in July 1855. Other settlers arriving in Manhattan that year included his brother, William Goodnow; his sister, Lucinda Parkerson; and his brother-in-law, Joseph Denison.

Bleeding Kansas

After the Territorial Legislature in Shawnee Mission began passing proslavery laws in July 1855, Free-Staters met to decide how to respond. In August 1855, Goodnow attended the first territory-wide meeting of Free-State leaders. Ultimately, the group decided to form a shadow government and drafted the

Topeka Constitution The Topeka Constitutional Convention met from October 23 to November 11, 1855 in Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, Kansas Territory, in a building afterwards called Constitution Hall (Topeka, Kansas), Constitution Hall. It drafted the Topeka Constitution, w ...

, although Goodnow did not participate in the constitutional convention. In 1858, Goodnow was a delegate to the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention, which produced the most liberal of the three proposed Free-State constitutions.

Institution builder

Goodnow helped establish the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

Blue Mont Central College Blue Mont Central College was a private, Methodist institute of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. The college was incorporated in February 1858, and was the forerunner of Kansas State University. After Kansas became ...

in Manhattan in 1858. Every year from 1857 to 1861, Goodnow spent several months in the East raising funds for the construction of Blue Mont Central College and Manhattan's Methodist church. The college building was finally constructed and opened for students in 1860. Following Kansas's admission to the Union in 1861, Goodnow led a lobbying effort to have Blue Mont Central College converted to the state university. After failing in his efforts during the 1861 and 1862 legislative sessions, Goodnow ultimately succeeding in having the legislature convert Bluemont to Kansas State Agricultural College (later Kansas State University) in 1863 under the terms of the

Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally-owned land, often obtained from indigenous tribes through treaty, cession, or se ...

. While he was working on this issue, in 1861 Goodnow was also elected to the Kansas House of Representatives, and in the fall of 1862 Goodnow was elected state Superintendent of Public Instruction, a position to which he was re-elected in 1864. In 1863, Goodnow helped found the Kansas State Teachers Association and served on the board of the

National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stude ...

. In 1867, Goodnow was selected agent for the sale of the of land granted by the federal government to Kansas State Agricultural College, a position he held until 1873. From 1869 to 1876, Goodnow was also land commissioner for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.

References

Kansas State Historical Society biography of Goodnow

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070823200417/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1918ks/biog/goodnoit.html Goodnow biography from ''Standard History of Kansas and Kansans''

External links