Prehistory Of Kansas
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The U.S. state of Kansas, located on the eastern edge of the
Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
, was the home of nomadic Native American tribes who hunted the vast herds of bison (often called "buffalo"). In around 1450 AD, the Wichita People founded the great city of
Etzanoa Etzanoa is a historical city of the Wichita people, located in present-day Arkansas City, Kansas, near the Arkansas River, that flourished between 1450 and 1700. Dubbed "the Great Settlement" by Spanish explorers who visited the site, Etzanoa may ...
. The city of Etzanoa was abandoned in around 1700 AD. The region was explored by Spanish
conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
es in the 16th century. It was later explored by French fur trappers who traded with the Native Americans. Most of Kansas became permanently part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. When the area was opened to settlement by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 it became a battlefield that helped cause the American Civil War. Settlers from North and South came in order to vote slavery down or up. The free state element prevailed. After the war, Kansas was home to
frontier A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...
towns; their railroads were destinations for cattle drives from Texas. With the railroads came heavy immigration from the East, from Germany as well as some freedmen called " Exodusters". Farmers first tried to replicate Eastern patterns and grow corn and raise pigs, but they failed because of shortages of rainfall. The solution, as
James Malin James Claude Malin (born Edgeley, North Dakota; February 8, 1893 - January 26, 1979) was an American historian and professor of history who taught at the University of Kansas and was involved with the Kansas Historical Society, including as its pr ...
showed, was to switch to soft spring wheat and later to hard winter wheat. The wheat was exported to Europe and was subject to wide variations in price. Many frustrated farmers joined the Populist movement around 1890, but conservative townspeople finally prevailed politically. They supported the progressive movement down to about 1940, but isolationism in foreign affairs combined with prosperity for the farmers and townsfolk made the state a center of conservative support for the Republican Party since 1940. Since 1945 the farm population has sharply declined and manufacturing has become more important, typified by the aircraft industry of Wichita.


Prehistory


The Paleo-Indians and Archaic peoples

Around 7000 BC, paleolithic descendants of Asian immigrants into North America reached Kansas. Once in Kansas, the indigenous ancestors never abandoned Kansas. They were later augmented by other indigenous peoples migrating from other parts of the continent. These bands of newcomers encountered mammoths, camels,
ground sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbe ...
s, and horses. The sophisticated big-game hunters did not keep a balance, resulting in the "Pleistocene overkill", the rapid and systematic destruction of nearly all the species of large ice-age mammals in North America by 8000 BC. The hunters who pursued the mammoths may have represented the first of north Great Plains cycles of boom and bust, relentlessly exploiting the resource until it has been depleted or destroyed.Frank H. Gille, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Kansas Indians Tribes, Nations and People of the Plains'' (1999) After the disappearance of big-game hunters, some archaic groups survived by becoming generalists rather than specialists, foraging in seasonal movements across the plains. The groups did not abandon hunting altogether, but also consumed wild plant foods and small game. Their tools became more varied, with grinding and chopping implements becoming more common, a sign that seeds, fruits, and greens constituted a greater proportion of their diet. Also, pottery-making societies emerged.


Introduction of agriculture

For most of the Archaic period, people did not transform their natural environment in any fundamental way. The groups outside the region, particularly in Mesoamerica, introduced major innovations, such as maize cultivation. Other groups in North America independently developed maize cultivation as well. Some archaic groups transferred from food gatherers to food producers around 3,000 years ago. They also possessed many of the cultural features that accompany semi-sedentary agricultural life: storage facilities, more permanent dwellings, larger settlements, and cemeteries or burial grounds.
El Cuartelejo El Cuartelejo, or El Quartelejo (from Spanish ''cuartelejo'', meaning ''old building'' or ''barracks''), is a region in eastern Colorado and western Kansas where Plains Apache cohabited with Puebloans. Subject to religious persecution, Puebloans ...
was the northernmost Indian pueblo. This settlement is the only pueblo in Kansas from which archaeological evidence has been recovered. Despite the early advent of farming, late Archaic groups still exercised little control over their natural environment. Wild food resources remained important components of their diet even after the invention of pottery and the development of irrigation. The introduction of agriculture never resulted in the complete abandonment of hunting and foraging, even in the largest of Archaic societies.


Etzanoa

Etzanoa Etzanoa is a historical city of the Wichita people, located in present-day Arkansas City, Kansas, near the Arkansas River, that flourished between 1450 and 1700. Dubbed "the Great Settlement" by Spanish explorers who visited the site, Etzanoa may ...
is an ancient city, that was founded by the Wichita people in about 1450. Etzanoa is located in present-day
Arkansas City, Kansas Arkansas City () is a city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Walnut River in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. The n ...
, near the Arkansas River. In 1601, Juan de Oñate visited the city of Etzanoa. Oñate and the other explorers who accompanied him called the city "the Great Settlement". Etzanoa may have been home to about 20,000 people at the time Oñate and his expedition found and explored the city.


Early European exploration and local tribes

In 1541,
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (; 1510 – 22 September 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from what is now Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 15 ...
, the Spanish conquistador, visited Kansas, allegedly turning back near "
Coronado Heights Coronado Heights is a hill northwest of Lindsborg, Kansas, United States. It is alleged to be near the place where Francisco Vásquez de Coronado gave up his search for the seven cities of gold and turned around to return to Mexico. Coronado H ...
" in present-day Lindsborg. Near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River, in a place he called '' Quivira'', he met the ancestors of the Wichita people. Near the Smoky Hill River, he met the ''Harahey,'' who were probably the ancestors of the Pawnee. This was the first time that the
Plains Indians Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of N ...
had seen horses. Later, they acquired horses from the Spanish, and rapidly radically altered their lifestyle and range. Following this transformation, the Kansa (sometimes Kaw) and
Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) ( Osage: 𐓁𐒻 𐓂𐒼𐒰𐓇𐒼𐒰͘ ('), "People of the Middle Waters") is a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 BC along ...
(originally Ouasash) arrived in Kansas in the 17th century. (The Kansa claimed that they occupied the territory since 1673.) By the end of the 18th century, these two tribes were dominant in the eastern part of the future state: the Kansa on the Kansas River to the North and the Osage on the Arkansas River to the South. At the same time, the Pawnee (sometimes Paneassa) were dominant on the plains to the west and north of the Kansa and Osage nations, in regions home to massive herds of bison. Europeans visited the Northern Pawnee in 1719. In 1720, the Spanish military's
Villasur expedition The Villasur expedition of 1720 was a Spanish military expedition intended to check New France's growing influence on the North American Great Plains, led by Lieutenant-General Pedro de Villasur. Pawnee and Otoe Indians attacked the expedition ...
was wiped out by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska, effectively ending Spanish expedition into the region. The French commander at
Fort Orleans Fort Orleans (sometimes referred to Fort D'Orleans) was a French fort in colonial North America, the first fort built by any European forces on the Missouri River. It was built near the mouth of the Grand River near present-day Brunswick. Inte ...
, Étienne de Bourgmont, visited the Kansas River in 1724 and established a trading post there, near the main Kansa village at the mouth of the river. Around the same time, the Otoe tribe of the
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
also inhabited various areas around the northeast corner of Kansas.


Louisiana Purchase

Apart from brief explorations, neither France nor Spain had any settlement or military or other activity in Kansas. In 1763, following the Seven Years' War in which Great Britain defeated France, Spain acquired the French claims west of the Mississippi River. It returned this territory to France in 1803, keeping title to about . In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States (US) acquired all of the French claims west of the Mississippi River; the area of Kansas was
unorganized territory Unorganized territory may refer to: * An unincorporated area in any number of countries * One of the current or former territories of the United States that has not had a government "organized" with an "organic act" by the U.S. Congress * Unorganize ...
. In 1819 the United States confirmed Spanish rights to the as part of the
Adams–Onís Treaty The Adams–Onís Treaty () of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty,Weeks, p.168. was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined t ...
with Spain. That area became part of Mexico, which also ignored it. After the Mexican–American War and the US victory, the United States took over that part in 1848. The Lewis and Clark Expedition left St. Louis on a mission to explore the Louisiana Purchase all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In 1804, Lewis and Clark camped for three days at the
confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...
of the Kansas and Missouri rivers in what is today
Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of the ...
(today commemorated at the Kaw Point Riverfront Park). They met French fur traders and mapped the area. In 1806, Zebulon Pike passed through Kansas and labeled it "the Great American Desert" on his maps. This view of Kansas would help form U.S. policy for the next 40 years, prompting the government to set it aside as land reserved for Native American resettlement. From June 4, 1812 until August 10, 1821 the area that would become
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 ...
33 years later was part of the Missouri Territory. When Missouri was granted statehood in 1821 the area became unorganized territory and contained few if any permanent white settlers, except Fort Leavenworth. The Fort was established in 1827 by
Henry Leavenworth Henry Leavenworth (December 10, 1783 – July 21, 1834) was an American soldier active in the War of 1812 and early military expeditions against the Plains Indians. He established Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and named after him is the city of L ...
with the 3rd U.S Infantry from
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
; it is the first permanent European settlement in Kansas. The fort was established as the westernmost outpost of the American military to protect trade along the
Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...
from Native Americans. The trade came from the East, by land using the Boone's Lick Road, or by water via the Missouri River. This area, called the Boonslick, was located due east in west-central Missouri and was settled by Upland Southerners from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee as early as 1812. Its slave-owning population would contrast with settlers from New England who would eventually arrive in the 1850s. A section of the
Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...
through Kansas was used by emigrants on the Oregon Trail, which opened in 1841. The westward trails served as vital commercial and military highways until the railroad took over this role in the 1860s. To travelers en route to Utah, California, or Oregon, Kansas was an essential way stop and outfitting location.
Wagon Bed Spring Wagon Bed Spring, also known historically as the Lower Spring or Lower Cimarron Spring, is a historic former spring in Grant County, Kansas, United States. It is located about south of Ulysses, on the west side of United States Route 270. In th ...
(also Lower Spring or Lower Cimarron Spring) was an important watering spot on the
Cimarron Cutoff The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, ...
of the Santa Fe Trail. Other important locations along the trail were the
Point of Rocks Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Points ...
and
Pawnee Rock Pawnee Rock, one of the most famous and beautiful landmarks on the Santa Fe Trail, is located in Pawnee Rock State Park, just north of Pawnee Rock, Kansas, United States. Originally over tall, railroad construction stripped it of some 15 to in ...
.


1820s–1840s: Indian territory

Beginning in the 1820s, the area that would become Kansas was set aside as Indian Territory by the U.S. government, and was closed to settlement by whites. The government resettled to Indian Territory (now part of
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
) those Native American tribes based in eastern Kansas, principally the Kansa and
Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage (Unicode b ...
, opening land to move eastern tribes into the area. By treaty dated June 3, 1825, 20 million acres (81000 km2) of land was ceded by the Kansa Nation to the United States, and the Kansa tribe was limited to a specific reservation in northeast Kansas. In the same month, the Osage Nation was limited to a reservation in southeast Kansas. The Missouri Shawano (or Shawnee) were the first Native Americans removed to the territory. By treaty made at St. Louis on November 7, 1825, the United States agreed to provide: : "''the Shawanoe tribe of Indians within the State of Missouri, for themselves, and for those of the same nation now residing in Ohio who may hereafter immigrate to the west of the Mississippi, a tract of land equal to fifty miles 0 kmsquare, situated west of the State of Missouri, and within the purchase lately made from the Osage''." The Delaware came to Kansas from Ohio and other eastern areas by the treaty of September 24, 1829. The treaty described: : "''the country in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, extending up the Kansas River to the Kansas (Indian's) line, and up the Missouri River to Camp Leavenworth, and thence by a line drawn westerly, leaving a space ten miles (16 km) wide, north of the Kansas boundary line, for an outlet''." After this point, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 expedited the process. By treaty dated August 30, 1831, the
Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
ceded land to the United States and moved to a small reservation on the Kansas River and its branches. The treaty was ratified April 6, 1832. On October 24, 1832, the U.S. government moved the
Kickapoo Kickapoo may refer to: People * Kickapoo people, a Native American nation ** Kickapoo language, spoken by that people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, a federally recognized tribe of Kickapoo people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recog ...
s to a reservation in Kansas. On October 29, 1832, the Piankeshaw and
Wea The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...
agreed to occupy 250 sections of land, bounded on the north by the Shawanoe; east by the western boundary line of Missouri; and west by the Kaskaskia and Peoria peoples. By treaty made with the United States on September 21, 1833, the Otoe tribe ceded their country south of the
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. By September 17, 1836 the confederacy of the
Sac SAC or Sac may refer to: Organizations Education * Santa Ana College, California, US * San Antonio College, Texas, US * St. Andrew's College, Aurora, Canada * Students' Administrative Council, University of Toronto, Canada * SISD Student Activiti ...
and
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
, by treaty with the United States, moved north of Kickapoo. By treaty of February 11, 1837, the United States agreed to convey to the Pottawatomi an area on the Osage River, southwest of the Missouri River. The tract selected was in the southwest part of what is now Miami County. In 1842, after a treaty between the United States and the
Wyandots The Wyandot people, or Wyandotte and Waⁿdát, are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Wyandot are Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of North America who emerged as a confeder ...
, the Wyandot moved to the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers (on land that was shared with the Delaware until 1843). In an unusual provision, 35 Wyandot were given " floats" in the 1842 treaty – ownership of sections of land that could be located anywhere west of the Missouri River. In 1847, the Pottawatomi were moved again, to an area containing 576,000 acres (2,330 km2), being the eastern part of the lands ceded to the United States by the Kansa tribe in 1846. This tract comprised a part of the present counties of
Pottawatomie The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
, Wabaunsee, Jackson and Shawnee.


Early 1850s and the territory organization

Despite the treaties establishing Native American ownership of parts of Kansas, by 1850 European Americans were illegally
squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
on their land and clamoring for the entire area to be opened for settlement. Presaging events that were soon to come, several U.S. Army forts, including Fort Riley, were soon established deep in Indian Territory to guard travelers on the various Western trails. Although the Cheyenne and Arapahoes tribes were still negotiating with the United States for land in western Kansas (the current state of Colorado) – they signed a treaty on September 17, 1851 – momentum was already building to settle the land.


Kansas–Nebraska Act

Congress began the process of creating Kansas Territory in 1852. That year, petitions were presented at the first session of the
Thirty-second Congress The 32nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1851, ...
for a territorial organization of the region lying west of Missouri and Iowa. No action was taken at that time. However, during the next session, on December 13, 1852, a Representative from Missouri submitted to the House a bill organizing the
Territory of Platte A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international relations, international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extr ...
: all the tract lying west of Iowa and Missouri, and extending west to the Rocky Mountains. The bill was referred to the
United States House Committee on Territories The United States House Committee on Territories was a committee of the United States House of Representatives from 1825 to 1946 ( 19th to 79th Congresses). Its jurisdiction was reporting on a variety of topics related to the territories, including ...
, and passed by the full
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
on February 10, 1853. However, Southern Senators stalled the progression of the bill in the Senate, while the implications of the bill on slavery and the Missouri Compromise were debated. Heated debate over the bill and other competing proposals would continue for a year, before eventually resulting in the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which became law on May 30, 1854, establishing the Nebraska Territory and
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 ...
.


Native American territory ceded

Meanwhile, by the summer of 1853, it was clear that eastern Kansas would soon be opened to American settlers. The Commissioner of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
negotiated new treaties that would assign new reservations with annual federal subsidies for the Indians. Nearly all the tribes in the eastern part of the Territory ceded the greater part of their lands prior to the passage of the Kansas territorial act in 1854, and were eventually moved south to the future state of Oklahoma. In the three months immediately preceding the passage of the bill, treaties were quietly made at Washington with the Delaware, Otoe,
Kickapoo Kickapoo may refer to: People * Kickapoo people, a Native American nation ** Kickapoo language, spoken by that people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, a federally recognized tribe of Kickapoo people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recog ...
, Kaskaskia, Shawnee,
Sac SAC or Sac may refer to: Organizations Education * Santa Ana College, California, US * San Antonio College, Texas, US * St. Andrew's College, Aurora, Canada * Students' Administrative Council, University of Toronto, Canada * SISD Student Activiti ...
,
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
and other tribes, whereby the greater part of eastern Kansas, lying within one or two hundred miles of the Missouri border, was suddenly opened to white settlement. (The Kansa reservation had already been reduced by treaty in 1846.) On March 15, 1854, Otoe and Missouri Indians ceded to the United States all their lands west of the Mississippi, except a small strip on the Big Blue River. On May 6 and May 10, 1854, the Shawnees ceded , reserving only for homes. Also on May 6, 1854, the Delaware ceded all their lands to the United States, except a reservation defined in the treaty. On May 17, the Iowa similarly ceded their lands, retaining only a small reservation. On May 18, 1854, the
Kickapoo Kickapoo may refer to: People * Kickapoo people, a Native American nation ** Kickapoo language, spoken by that people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, a federally recognized tribe of Kickapoo people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recog ...
too ceded their lands, except in the western part of the Territory. In 1854 lands were also ceded by the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and
Wea The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...
and by the Sac and Fox. The final step in Americanizing the Indians was taking land from tribal control and assigning it to individual Indian households, to buy and sell as European Americans would. For example, in 1854, the Chippewa (Swan Creek and Black River bands) inhabited in Franklin County, but in 1859 the tract was transferred to individual Chippewa families.


Kansas Territory

Upon the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854, the borders of Kansas Territory were set from the Missouri border to the summit of the Rocky Mountain range (now in central Colorado); the southern boundary was the
37th parallel north The 37th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 37 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. At this latitude the Su ...
, the northern was the
40th parallel north The 40th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 40 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. At this latitude the sun is vis ...
. North of the 40th parallel was Nebraska Territory. When Congress set the southern border of the Kansas Territory as the 37th parallel, it was thought that the Osage southern border was also the 37th parallel. The Cherokees immediately complained, saying that it was not the true boundary and that the border of Kansas should be moved north to accommodate the actual border of the Cherokee land. This became known as the Cherokee Strip controversy.


An invitation to violence

The most controversial provision in the Kansas–Nebraska Act was the stipulation that settlers in Kansas Territory would vote on whether to allow slavery within its borders. This provision repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in any new states created north of latitude 36°30'. Predictably, violence resulted between the Northerners and Southerners who rushed to settle there in order to control the vote. Within a few days after the passage of the Act, hundreds of pro-slavery Missourians crossed into the adjacent territory, selected an area of land, and then united with other Missourians in a meeting or meetings, intending to establish a pro-slavery preemption upon the entire region. As early as June 10, 1854, the Missourians held a meeting at Salt Creek Valley, a trading post three miles (5 km) west of Fort Leavenworth, at which a "Squatter's Claim Association" was organized. They said they were in favor of making Kansas a slave state, if it should require half the citizens of Missouri, musket in hand, to emigrate there, and even to sacrifice their lives in accomplishing this end. To counter this action, the
Massachusetts 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 ...
(and other smaller organizations) quickly arranged to send anti-slavery settlers (known as " Free-Staters") into Kansas in 1854 and 1855. The principal towns founded by the New Englanders were Topeka, Manhattan, and Lawrence. Several Free-State men also came to Kansas Territory from Ohio, Iowa, Illinois and other Midwestern states.


Bleeding Kansas

Despite the proximity and opposite aims of the settlers, the lid was largely kept on the violence until the election of the Kansas Territorial legislature on March 30, 1855. On that date, Missourians who had streamed across the border (known as " Border Ruffians") filled the ballot boxes in favor of pro-slavery candidates. As a result, pro-slavery candidates prevailed at every polling district except one (the future
Riley County Riley County (standard abbreviation: RL) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 71,959. The largest city and county seat is Manhattan. Riley County is home to two of Kansas's largest employer ...
), and the first official legislature was overwhelmingly composed of pro-slavery delegates. From 1855 to 1858, Kansas Territory experienced extensive violence and some open battles. This period, known as "Bleeding Kansas" or "the Border Wars", directly presaged the American Civil War. The major incidents of Bleeding Kansas include the Wakarusa War, the Sacking of Lawrence, the Pottawatomie massacre, the
Battle of Black Jack The Battle of Black Jack took place on June 2, 1856, when antislavery forces, led by the noted abolitionist John Brown, attacked the encampment of Henry C. Pate near Baldwin City, Kansas. The battle is cited as one incident of "Bleeding Kansas ...
, the
Battle of Osawatomie The Battle of Osawatomie was an armed engagement that occurred on August 30, 1856, when 250–400 pro-slavery Border ruffians, led by John W. Reid, attacked the town of Osawatomie, Kansas, which had been settled largely by anti-slavery Free-Sta ...
, and the
Marais des Cygnes massacre The Marais des Cygnes massacre (, ) is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. On May 19, 1858, approximately 30 men led by Charles Hamilton, a Georgia native and prosla ...
.


=Wakarusa War

= On December 1, 1855, a small army of Missourians, acting under the command of Douglas County, Kansas Sheriff Samuel J. Jones laid siege to the Free-State stronghold of Lawrence in what would later become known as "The Wakarusa War". A treaty of peace negotiation was announced amid much disorder and cries for the reading of the treaty shortly afterwards. It quelled the disorder and its provisions were generally accepted.


=Sacking of Lawrence

= On May 21, 1856, pro-slavery forces led by Sheriff Jones attacked Lawrence, burning the Free-State Hotel to the ground, destroying two printing presses, and robbing homes.


=Pottawatomie massacre

= The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during the night of May 24 to the morning of May 25, 1856. In what appears to be a reaction to the Sacking of Lawrence,
John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
and a band of abolitionists (some of them members of the
Pottawatomie Rifles The Pottawatomie Rifles was a group of about one hundred abolitionist (or free state) settlers of Franklin and Anderson County, Kansas, both of which are along Pottawatomie Creek. The band was formed in the fall of 1855, during the Bleeding Kan ...
) killed five settlers, thought to be pro-slavery, north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. Brown later said that he had not participated in the killings during the Pottawatomie massacre, but that he did approve of them. He went into hiding after the killings, and two of his sons, John Jr. and Jason, were arrested. During their confinement, they were allegedly mistreated, which left John Jr. mentally scarred. On June 2, Brown led a successful attack on a band of Missourians led by Captain
Henry Pate Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal ...
in the
Battle of Black Jack The Battle of Black Jack took place on June 2, 1856, when antislavery forces, led by the noted abolitionist John Brown, attacked the encampment of Henry C. Pate near Baldwin City, Kansas. The battle is cited as one incident of "Bleeding Kansas ...
. Pate and his men had entered Kansas to capture Brown and others. That autumn, Brown went back into hiding and engaged in other
guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
activities.


Territorial constitutions

The violently feuding pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions tried to defeat the opposition by pushing through their own version of a state constitution, that would either endorse or condemn slavery. Congress had the final say.


=Topeka Constitution

= The Topeka Constitution was adopted on November 11, 1855, in Topeka by delegates elected from across the Kansas Territory. This Free State document was in response to the fraudulent takeover of the Territorial government by pro slavery forces seven months earlier. The Topeka Constitution's Bill of Rights proposed "There shall be no slavery in this state." It was ratified by the people of the Territory on December 15, 1855 and presented in Congress in March 1856. It passed in the U.S. House of Representatives but was prevented from a vote in the Senate by pro-slavery southern senators.


=Lecompton Constitution

= The Lecompton Constitution was adopted by a Convention convened by the official pro-slavery government on November 7, 1857. The constitution would have allowed slavery in Kansas as drafted, but the slavery provision was put to a vote. After a series of votes on the provision and the constitution were boycotted alternatively by pro-slavery settlers and Free-State settlers, the Lecompton Constitution was eventually presented to the U.S. Congress for approval. In the end, because it was never clear if the constitution represented the will of the people, it was rejected.


=Leavenworth Constitution

= While the Lecompton Constitution was being debated, a new Free-State legislature was elected and seated in Kansas Territory. The new legislature convened a new convention, which framed the Leavenworth Constitution. This constitution was the most radically progressive of the four proposed, outlawing slavery and providing a framework for women's rights. The constitution was adopted by the convention at Leavenworth on April 3, 1858, and by the people at an election held May 18, 1858 (all while the Lecompton Constitution was still under consideration). President Buchanan sent the Lecompton Constitution to Congress for approval. The Senate approved the admission of Kansas as a state under the Lecompton Constitution, despite the opposition of Senator Douglas, who believed that the Kansas referendum on the Constitution, by failing to offer the alternative of prohibiting slavery, was unfair. The measure was subsequently blocked in the House of Representatives, where northern congressmen refused to admit Kansas as a slave state. Senator James Hammond of South Carolina characterized this resolution as the expulsion of the state, asking, "If Kansas is driven out of the Union for being a slave state, can any Southern state remain within it with honor?"


=Wyandotte Constitution

= Following the failure of the Lecompton and Leavenworth charters, a fourth constitution was drafted; the Wyandotte Constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it on July 29, 1859. It was adopted by the people at an election held October 4, 1859. It outlawed slavery but was far less progressive than the Leavenworth Constitution. Kansas was admitted into the Union as a free state under this constitution on January 29, 1861.Gary L. Cheatham
Slavery All the Time or Not At All': The Wyandotte Constitution Debate, 1859–1861"
''Kansas History '' 21 (Autumn 1998): 168–187.


End of hostilities

By the time the Wyandotte Constitution was adopted in October 1859, it was clear that the pro-slavery forces had lost control of Kansas. With this dawning realization and the departure of John Brown from the state, Bleeding Kansas violence virtually ended. The new issue was
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
, a national event, later that month.


Statehood

Kansas became the 34th state admitted to the Union on January 29, 1861. The 1860s saw several important developments in the history of Kansas, including participation in the Civil War, the beginning of the cattle drives, the roots of Prohibition in Kansas (which would fully take hold in the 1880s), and the start of the Indian Wars on the western plains. James Lane was elected to the Senate from the state of Kansas in 1861, and reelected in 1865.


Civil War

After years of small-scale civil war, Kansas was admitted into the Union as a free state under the "Wyandotte Constitution" on January 29, 1861. Most people gave strong support for the Union cause. However, guerrilla warfare and raids from pro-slavery forces, many spilling over from Missouri, occurred during the Civil War. At the start of the war in April 1861, the Kansas government had no well-organized militia, no arms, accoutrements or supplies, nothing with which to meet the demands, except the united will of officials and citizens. During the years 1859 to 1860, the military organizations had fallen into disuse or been entirely broken up. The first Kansas regiment was called on June 3, 1861, and the seventeenth, the last raised during the Civil War, July 28, 1864. The entire quota assigned to the Kansas was 16,654, and the number raised was 20,097, leaving a surplus of 3,443 to the credit of Kansas. Statistics indicated that losses of Kansas regiments in killed in battle and from disease are greater per thousand than those of any other State. Apart from small formal battles, there were 29 Confederate raids into Kansas during the war. The most serious episode came when
Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...
came under attack on August 21, 1863, by guerrillas led by
William Clarke Quantrill William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865) was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. Having endured a tempestuous childhood before later becoming a schoolteacher, Quantrill joined a group of bandits who ...
. It was in part retaliation for "Jayhawker" raids against pro-Confederate settlements in Missouri.


Lawrence Massacre

After Union Brigadier General
Thomas Ewing Jr. Thomas Ewing Jr. (August 7, 1829 – January 21, 1896) was an attorney, the first chief justice of Kansas and leading free state advocate, Union Army general during the American Civil War, and two-term United States Congressman from Ohio, 18 ...
ordered the imprisonment of women who had provided aid to Confederate guerrillas, tragically the jail's roof collapsed, killing five. These deaths enraged guerrillas in Missouri. On August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led Quantrill's Raid into Lawrence, burned much of the city and killed over 150 unarmed men and boys. In addition to the jail collapse, Quantrill also rationalized the attack on this citadel of abolition would bring revenge for any wrongs, real or imagined that the Southerners had suffered at the hands of
jayhawkers Jayhawkers and red legs are terms that came to prominence in Kansas Territory during the Bleeding Kansas period of the 1850s; they were adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause during the American Civil War. These gangs we ...
.


Baxter Springs

The
Battle of Baxter Springs The Battle of Baxter Springs, more commonly known as the Baxter Springs Massacre, was a minor battle of the American Civil War fought on 6 October 1863, near the present-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas. In late 1863, Quantrill's Raiders, a l ...
, sometimes called the Baxter Springs Massacre, was a minor battle in the War, fought on October 6, 1863, near the modern-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas. The Battle of Mine Creek, also known as the Battle of the Osage was a
cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...
battle that occurred in Kansas during the war.


Marais des Cygnes

On October 25, 1864, the
Battle of Marais des Cygnes The Battle of Marais des Cygnes () took place on October 25, 1864, in Linn County, Kansas, during Price's Missouri Raid in the American Civil War. It is also known as the Battle of Trading Post. In late 1864, Confederate Major General (CSA), Ma ...
occurred in
Linn County, Kansas Linn County (county code LN) is a county located in east-central Kansas and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 9,591. Its county seat is Mound City, and its most populous city is Pl ...
. This Battle of Trading Post was between Major General Sterling Price and Union forces under Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Price, after fleeing south after a defeat at Kansas City, was pushed out by Union forces.


Indian Wars in Kansas

Fort Larned Fort Larned National Historic Site preserves Fort Larned which operated from 1859 to 1878. It is approximately west of Larned, Kansas, United States. History The Camp on Pawnee Fork was established on October 22, 1859 to protect traffic al ...
(central Kansas) was established in 1859 as a base of military operations against hostile Indians of the
Central Plain Central Plain or Central Plains may refer to: Regions * Zhongyuan, a plain in Northern China in the lower reaches of the Yellow River which was the cradle of Chinese civilisation ** Central Plains Economic Zone * Central Plain (Wisconsin), one ...
s, to protect traffic along the
Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...
and after 1861 became an agency for the administration of the Central Plains Indians by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
under the terms of the
Fort Wise Treaty The Treaty of Fort Wise of 1861 was a treaty entered into between the United States and six chiefs of the Southern Cheyenne and four of the Southern Arapaho Indian tribes. A significant proportion of Cheyennes opposed this treaty on the grounds th ...
of 1861.


Kansas Pacific railroad

In 1863, the Union Pacific Eastern Division (renamed the
Kansas Pacific The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontin ...
in 1869) was authorized by the United States Congress's
Pacific Railway Act The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 were a series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of a "transcontinental railroad" (the Pacific Railroad) in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of l ...
to create the southerly branch of the transcontinental railroad alongside the Union Pacific. Pacific Railway Act also authorized large land grants to the railroad along its mainline. The company began construction on its main line westward from Kansas City in September 1863. In the postwar era, many railroads were planned, but not all were actually built. The nationwide Panic of 1873 dried up funding. Land speculators and local boosters identified many potential towns, and those reached by the railroad had a chance, while the others became ghost towns. In Kansas, nearly 5000 towns were mapped out, but by 1970 only 617 were actually operating. In the mid-20th century, closeness to an interstate exchange determined whether town would flourish or struggle for business.


Cattle towns

After the Civil War, the railroads did not reach Texas, so the herdsman brought their cattle to Kansas rail heads. In 1867, Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards in
Abilene, Kansas Abilene (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,460. It is home of The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and the G ...
and helped develop the
Chisholm Trail The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The trail was established by Black Beaver, a Lenape guide and rancher, and his friend Jesse Chisholm, a Cheroke ...
, encouraging Texas cattlemen to undertake cattle drives to his stockyards from 1867 to 1887. The stockyards became the largest west of
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 ...
. Once the cattle was drove north, they were shipped eastward from the railhead of the
Kansas Pacific Railway The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontine ...
. In 1871, Wild Bill Hickok became marshal of
Abilene, Kansas Abilene (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,460. It is home of The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and the G ...
. His encounter there with John Wesley Hardin resulted in the latter fleeing the town after Wild Bill managed to disarm him. Hickok was also a deputy marshal at Fort Riley and a marshal at Hays in the Wild West. In the 1880s at Greensburg, Kansas, the
Big Well The Big Well is a large historic water well in Greensburg, Kansas, United States. Visitors entered the well for a small fee, descending an illuminated stairway to the bottom of the well. History It began construction in 1887 at a cost of $45,000 ...
was built to provide water for the Santa Fe and Rock Island railroads. At deep and in diameter it is the world's largest hand-dug well.
Coronado, Kansas Coronado is an unincorporated community in Wichita County, Kansas, United States. It is located a couple of miles east of Leoti. History Platted in 1885, Coronado was involved in one of the bloodiest county seat fight in the history of the Ame ...
, was established in 1885. It was involved in one of the bloodiest county seat fights in the history of the
American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
. The shoot-out on February 27, 1887, with boosters – some would say hired gunmen – from nearby Leoti left several people dead and wounded.


Exodusters

In 1879, after the end of Reconstruction in the South, thousands of Freedmen moved from Southern states to Kansas. Known as the Exodusters, they were lured by the prospect of good, cheap land and better treatment. The all-black town of Nicodemus, Kansas, which was founded in 1877, was an organized settlement that predates the Exodusters but is often associated with them.


Prohibition

On February 19, 1881, Kansas became the first state to amend its constitution to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. This action was spawned by the temperance movement, and was enforced by the ax-toting Carrie A. Nation beginning in 1888. After 1890 prohibition was joined with progressivism to create a reform movement that elected four successive governors between 1905 and 1919; they favored extreme prohibition enforcement policies, and claimed Kansas was truly dry. Kansas did not repeal prohibition until 1948, and even then it continued to prohibit public bars, a restriction which was not lifted until 1987. Kansas did not allow retail liquor sales on Sundays until 2005, and most localities still prohibit Sunday liquor sales. By the
Alcohol laws of Kansas The alcohol laws of Kansas are among the strictest in the United States, in sharp contrast to its neighboring state of Missouri (see Alcohol laws of Missouri), and similar to (though somewhat less rigid than) its other neighboring state of Okl ...
today 29 counties are
dry counties A dry county is a County (United States), county in the United States whose government forbids the sale of any kind of alcoholic beverages. Some prohibit off-premises sale, some prohibit on-premises sale, and some prohibit both. Dozens of dry c ...
.


Religion

The city of Topeka played a notable role in the history of American Christianity around the beginning of the 20th century.
Charles Sheldon Charles Monroe Sheldon (February 26, 1857 – February 24, 1946) was an American Congregationalist minister and a leader of the Social Gospel movement. His novel ''In His Steps'' introduced the principle "What would Jesus do?", which articu ...
, a leader in the
Social Gospel The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean envir ...
movement who first used the phrase What would Jesus do?, preached in Topeka. Topeka was also the home to the church of
Charles Fox Parham Charles F. Parham (June 4, 1873 – January 29, 1929) was an American preacher and evangelism, evangelist. Together with William J. Seymour, Parham was one of the two central figures in the development and early spread of American Pentecostalis ...
, whom many historians associate with the beginning of the modern Pentecostalism movement.


Farming


Environment

Early settlers discovered that Kansas was not the "Great American Desert", but they also found that the very harsh climate—with tornadoes, blizzards, drought, hail, floods and grasshoppers—made for the high risk of a ruined crop. Many early settlers were financially ruined, and especially in the early 1890s, either protested through the Populist movement or went back east. In the 20th century, crop insurance, new conservation techniques, and large-scale federal aid have lowered the risk. Immigrants, especially Germans and their children, comprised the largest element of settlers after 1860; they were attracted by the good soil, low priced lands from the railroad companies, and (if they were American citizens) the chance to homestead and receive title to the land at no cost from the federal government. The problem of blowing dust came not because farmers grew too much wheat, but because the rainfall was too little to grow enough wheat to keep the topsoil from blowing away. In the 1930s techniques and technologies of soil conservation, most of which had been available but ignored before the Dust Bowl conditions began, were promoted by the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) of the US Department of Agriculture, so that, with cooperation from the weather, soil condition was much improved by 1940.


Farm life

On the
Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
very few single men attempted to operate a farm or ranch; farmers clearly understood the need for a hard-working wife, and numerous children, to handle the many chores, including child-rearing, feeding and clothing the family, managing the housework, feeding the hired hands, and, especially after the 1930s, handling the paperwork and financial details. During the early years of settlement in the late 19th century, farm women played an integral role in assuring family survival by working outdoors. After a generation or so, women increasingly left the fields, thus redefining their roles within the family. New conveniences such as sewing and washing machines encouraged women to turn to domestic roles. The scientific housekeeping movement was promoted across the land by the media and government extension agents, as well as county fairs which featured achievements in home cookery and canning, advice columns for women in the farm papers, and home economics courses in the schools. Although the eastern image of farm life on the prairies emphasizes the isolation of the lonely farmer and farm life, in reality rural folk created a rich social life for themselves. They often sponsored activities that combined work, food, and entertainment such as
barn raising A barn raising, also historically called a raising bee or rearing in the U.K., is a collective action of a community, in which a barn for one of the members is built or rebuilt collectively by members of the community. Barn raising was particular ...
s, corn huskings, quilting bees, Grange meeting, church activities, and school functions. The womenfolk organized shared meals and potluck events, as well as extended visits between families.


Agriculture manufacturing

In 1947, Lyle Yost founded Hesston Manufacturing Company. It specialized in farm equipment, including self-propelled windrowers and the StakHand hay harvester. In 1974, Hesston Company commissioned its first belt buckles, which became popular on the
rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...
circuit and with collectors. In 1991, the American-based equipment manufacturer AGCO Corporation purchased Hesston Corporation and farm equipment is still manufactured in the city.


1890s

In 1896 William Allen White, editor of the ''Emporia Gazette'' attracted national attention with a scathing attack on William Jennings Bryan, the Democrats, and the Populists titled "What's the Matter With Kansas?" White sharply ridiculed Populist leaders for letting Kansas slip into economic stagnation and not keeping up economically with neighboring states because their anti-business policies frightened away economic capital from the state. The Republicans sent out hundreds of thousands of copies of the editorial in support of William McKinley during the
1896 United States presidential election The 1896 United States presidential election was the 28th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1896. Former Governor William McKinley, the Republican candidate, defeated former Representative William Jennings Bryan, the ...
. While McKinley carried the small towns and cities of the state, Bryan swept the wheat farms and won the electoral vote, even as McKinley won the national vote.


20th century


Progressive era

Kansas was a center of the progressive movement, with enthusiastic support from the middle classes. Much of the leadership was provided by Republican newspaper editors, such as William Allen White of the ''Emporia Gazette'', Joseph L. Bristow of Salina, and Edward Hoch, of the ''Marion Record''. Religion and gender played a role. Methodists and crusaders from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) demanded the end of the liquor business. WCTU activists also became supporters of woman suffrage. White called for a direct primary because Republicans attended the Democratic caucus in order to nominate the weakest candidate; Democrats did the same and thus the weakest men get nominated and elected. A direct primary would let the Republicans voters select the best candidate for their party and likewise the Democrats. White never ran for office but Bristow was elected senator in 1908 and Hoch governor in 1904 and 1906. Hoch denounced the conservative wing of his party:
it grows out of unwise leadership; of unfair standards of republicanism; of factional intolerance; of the multiplicity of useless offices; of extravagance in public expenditures; of enormous increase in burdens of taxation.
According to Craig Miner, the main issues of progressive era Kansas (in chronological order), were the flood of 1903, conservation, the battle to control Standard Oil in 1905, regulation of railroads and trusts, capital punishment, women's rights, public health, urban reform, the Progressive Party campaign of 1912, and isolationism in foreign policy. In addition there was a long debate on the state purchase of school textbooks. The state wrote, printed and sold its school books until 1937. Supervision was lax and the textbooks were poorly done--filled with typos, grammatical errors, garbled passages and poor artwork. However, the state did save some money. According to Gene Clanton, Populism and progressivism in Kansas had similarities but different bases of support. Both opposed corruption and trusts. Populism emerged earlier and came out of the farm community. It was radically egalitarian in favor of the disadvantaged classes; it was weak in the towns and cities except in labor unions. Progressivism, on the other hand, was a later movement. It emerged after the 1890s from the urban business and professional communities. Most of its activists had opposed populism. It was elitist, and emphasized education and expertise. Its goals were to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and enlarge the opportunities for upward social mobility. However, some former Populists changed their emphasis after 1900 and supported progressive reforms.ref> Gene Clanton, "Populism, Progressivism, and Equality: The Kansas Paradigm" ''Agricultural History'' (1977) 51#3 pp.559-581.
The new
city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a "Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief execu ...
system was designed by progressives to increase efficiency and reduce partisanship and avoid the bribery of elected local officials. It was promoted in the press, led by Henry J. Allen of the ''Wichita Beacon,'' and pushed through by Governor Arthur Capper. By the 1980s 52 Kansas cities used the system.


1910s

In 1915, the El Dorado Oil Field, around the city of
El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...
, was the first oil field that was found using science/geologic mapping, and part of the Mid-Continent oil province. By 1918, the El Dorado Oil Field was the largest single field producer in the US, and was responsible for 12.8% of national oil production and 9% of the world production. It was deemed by some as "the oil field that won World War I". In World War I, 80,000 Kansans enlisted in the military after April, 1917 when the United States declared war on Germany. They were attached mostly to the 35th, the 42nd, the 89th, and the 92nd infantry divisions. The state's large German element had favored neutrality and were under close watch. Often they were forced to buy war bonds or stop speaking German in public. German churches largely switched to English at this time. The intense nationalism of the war years undermined progressivism and led to conservative business dominance in the 1920s. However, the efficiency dimension persisted.


1920s

While urban Kansas prospered in the 1920s, the farm economy had overexpanded when wheat prices were high during the war, and had to cut back sharply. Many farmers took out large mortgages to buy out their neighbors in 1919, and now were hard pressed. In 1922, suffragist
Ella Uphay Mowry Ella Uphay (Herod) Mowry (July 1865 – August 2, 1923), also known as Mrs. W.D. Mowry, was an American educator, suffragist, and women's rights activist. A member of the Republican Party, she became the first female gubernatorial candidate in K ...
became the first female gubernatorial candidate in the state when she ran as "Mrs. W.D. Mowry." She later stated that, "Someone had to be the pioneer. I firmly believe that some day a woman will sit in the governor's chair in Kansas." The
KKK The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
(Ku Klux Klan) flourished briefly in the early 1920s. It faced several legal battles, and collapsed after 1925. The
flag of Kansas The flag of the state of Kansas was adopted in 1927. The elements of the state flag include the Kansas state seal and a sunflower. This original design was modified in 1961 to add the name of the state at the bottom of the flag. Official descri ...
was designed in 1925. It was officially adopted by the Kansas State Legislature in 1927 and modified in 1961 (the word "Kansas" was added below the seal in gold block lettering). It was first flown at Fort Riley by Governor
Ben S. Paulen Benjamin Sanford Paulen (July 14, 1869 – July 11, 1961) was an American banker and the 23rd Governor of Kansas from 1925 to 1929. He served as mayor of Fredonia, Kansas and in the Kansas Senate. Biography Paulen was born in DeWitt County, ...
in 1927 for the troops at Fort Riley and for the
Kansas National Guard The Kansas National Guard, is the component of the United States National Guard in the U.S. state of Kansas. It comprises both the Kansas Army National Guard and the Kansas Air National Guard. The Governor of Kansas is Commander-in-Chief of the Ka ...
. William Allen White in his novels and short stories, developed his idea of the small town as a metaphor for understanding social change and for preaching the necessity of community. While he expressed his views in terms of his small Kansas city, he tailored his rhetoric to the needs and values of all of urban America. The cynicism of the post-World War I world stilled his imaginary literature, but for the remainder of his life he continued to propagate his vision of small-town community. He opposed chain stores and mail order firms as a threat to the business owner on Main Street. The
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
shook his faith in a cooperative, selfless, middle-class America.


Great depression

The Dust Bowl was a series of dust storms caused by a massive drought that began in 1930 and lasted until 1941. The effect of the drought was overshadowed by the plunging wheat prices and the financial crisis of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Many local banks were forced to close. Some farmers left the land but even larger numbers of unemployed men left the cities to return to their family's farm. The state became an eager participant in such major
New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
relief programs as the
Civil Works Administration The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States to rapidly create mostly manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The jobs were ...
, the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Adm ...
, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, which put hundreds of thousands of Kansans—mostly men—to work at unskilled labor. Most important of all were the New Deal farm programs, which raised prices of wheat and other crops and allowed economic recovery by 1936. Republican Governor Alf Landon also employed emergency measures, including a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures and a balanced budget initiative. The
Agricultural Adjustment Administration The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part ...
succeeded in raising wheat prices after 1933, thus alleviating the most serious distress.


World War II

The state's main contribution to the war effort, besides tens of thousands of servicemen and servicewomen, was the enormous increase in the output of grain production. Farmers nevertheless grumbled about price ceilings for their wheat, production quotas, the movement of hired hands to well-paid factory jobs, and the shortage of farm machinery; they lobbied the Congress to make sure that young farmers were deferred from the draft. Wichita, which had long shown an interest in aviation, became a major manufacturing center for the aircraft industry during the war, attracting tens of thousands of underemployed workers from the farms and small towns of the state. The Women's Land Army of America (WLA) was a wartime women's labor pool organized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It failed to attract many town or city women to do farm work, but it succeeded in training several hundred farm wives in machine handling, safety, proper clothing, time-saving methods, and nutrition.


Cold War era

Kansas state law permitted segregated public schools, which operated in Topeka and other cities. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court in '' Brown v. Board of Education'' unanimously declared that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and, as such, violate the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees all citizens "equal protection of the laws." ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'' explicitly outlawed '' de jure'' racial segregation of public education facilities (legal establishment of separate government-run schools for blacks and whites). The site consists of the Monroe Elementary School, one of the four segregated elementary schools for African American children in Topeka, Kansas (and the adjacent grounds). During the 1950s and 1960s,
intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
s (designed to carry a single nuclear warhead) were stationed throughout Kansas facilities. They were stored (to be launched from) hardened underground silos. The Kansas facilities were deactivated in the early 1980s. On June 8, 1966, Topeka, Kansas was struck by an ''F5'' rated tornado, according to the Fujita scale. The "
1966 Topeka tornado The Tornado outbreak sequence of June 1966 was a series of tornado outbreaks which occurred between June 2 and June 12. The nearly two week event of severe weather was mainly concentrated in the Midwestern (Great Plains) region of the United Sta ...
" started on the southwest side of town, moving northeast, hitting various landmarks (including Washburn University). Total dollar cost was put at $100 million.


Recent personalities

Kansas was home to President Eisenhower of Abilene, presidential candidates
Bob Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his te ...
and Alf Landon, and the aviator
Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...
. Famous athletes from Kansas include Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, Jim Ryun, Walter Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Maurice Greene, and Lynette Woodard.


Sports

The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame chronicles the history of competitive athletics in the state.


College sports

:''See also
Timeline of college football in Kansas This timeline of college football in Kansas sets forth notable college football-related events that occurred in the state of Kansas. Overview College football in Kansas began in 1890 and has its roots in the formation of the Kansas Collegiate Athl ...
'' Kansas sports history includes several significant firsts. The first
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...
game played in Kansas was the
1890 Kansas vs. Baker football game The 1890 Kansas vs. Baker football game was an American college football game between the Kansas Jayhawks football team of the University of Kansas and the Baker Methodists football (now nicknamed the Wildcats) team of Baker University played on ...
played in
Baldwin City Baldwin City is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States, about south of Lawrence. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 4,826. The city is home to Baker University, the state's oldest four-year university. History ...
. Baker won 22–9. The first night football game west of the Mississippi was played in Wichita, Kansas in
1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...
between Cooper College (now called Sterling College) and Fairmount College (now Wichita State University). Later that year, Fairmount also played an experimental game against the Washburn Ichabods that was used to test new rules designed to make football safer. In 1911, the
Kansas Jayhawks The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division I. The Jayhawks are also a mem ...
traveled to play the Missouri Tigers for what is considered the first homecoming game ever. The first college football homecoming
game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
ever televised was played in Manhattan between the
Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as c ...
and the
Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...
. The 1951 season saw the
Southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
head coach Harold Hunt gain national recognition for rejecting a touchdown in a game against Central Missouri. Hunt informed the officials that his player had stepped out of bounds, nullifying long touchdown run. Not a single one of the referees had been in a position to see him do so, but they agreed to nullify the touchdown, and returned the ball to the point where Coach Hunt said Johnson had stepped out. A photo of the run later confirmed Coach Hunt's observation. On October 2, 1970, a plane crashed that was carrying about half of the football team for
Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...
on their way to play a game against Utah State University. 31 people were killed. The game was canceled, and the Utah State football team held a memorial service at the stadium where the game was to have been played.


Professional sports

The history of professional sports in Kansas probably dates from the establishment of the Minor League Baseball Topeka Capitals and
Leavenworth Soldiers The Leavenworth Soldiers was the first professional baseball team from Leavenworth, Kansas. The club played in the Western League from 1886 to 1888. Their first year, they tied the Lincoln Tree Planters for last place at 31-49 despite the presenc ...
in 1886 in the Western League. The African-American Bud Fowler played on the Topeka team that season, one year before the " color line" descended in professional baseball. In 1887, the Western League was dominated by a reorganized Topeka team called the Golden Giants – a high-priced collection of major leaguer players, including
Bug Holliday James Wear "Bug" Holliday (February 8, 1867 – February 15, 1910) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball for ten seasons, in the 1885 World Series and from through . He was the first player to make his major league debut in ...
, Jim Conway, Dan Stearns,
Perry Werden Percival Wheritt "Perry" Werden (July 21, 1865 – January 9, 1934) was an American baseball player. He was a first baseman for the St. Louis Maroons (1884), Washington Nationals (1888), Toledo Maumees (1890), Baltimore Orioles (1891), St. Louis ...
and
Jimmy Macullar James F. Macullar (January 16, 1855 – April 8, 1924), also known as "Little Mac", was an American Major League Baseball player from Boston, Massachusetts. He played mostly at shortstop, but did play many games in center fielder, center fi ...
, which won the league by 15½ games. On April 10, 1887, the Golden Giants also won an exhibition game from the defending World Series champions, the St. Louis Browns (the present-day Cardinals), by a score of 12–9. However, Topeka was unable to support the team, and it disbanded after one year. The first night game in the history of professional baseball was played in Independence on April 28, 1930 when the Muscogee (Oklahoma) Indians beat the
Independence Producers The Independence Producers were a minor league baseball team based in Independence, Kansas, United States, that played from 1921 to 1925 and from 1928 to 1932. From 1921 to 1924, they played in the Southwestern League, and in 1925 they played in t ...
13 to 3 in a minor league game sanctioned by the Western League of the Western Baseball Association with 1,500 fans attending the game. The permanent lighting system was first used for an exhibition game on April 17, 1930 between the Independence Producers and House of David semi-professional baseball team of Benton Harbor, Michigan with the Independence team winning with a score of 9 to 1 before a crowd of 1,700 spectators.Bowman, Larry G. "I Think It Is Pretty Ritzy Myself: Kansas Minor League Teams and Night Baseball". Kansas History, Winter 1995/1996, pp. 248–257. Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved 25 May 2013.


See also

*
History of the Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
* Germans from Russia, Many of whom lived in Kansas *
Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
*
Timeline of Kansas history The timeline of Kansas details past events that happened in what is present day Kansas. Located on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, the U.S. state of Kansas was the home of sedentary agrarian and hunter-gatherer Native American societies, ...
* ''
Tragic Prelude ''Tragic Prelude'' is a mural painted by Kansan John Steuart Curry for the Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka, Kansas. It is located on the east side of the second floor rotunda. On the north wall it depicts abolitionist Kansan John Brown w ...
'' ;Cities in Kansas *
Timeline of Topeka, Kansas The following is a timeline of the history of Topeka, Kansas, USA. 19th century * 1854 - Topeka Association organized. * 1855 ** Constitution Hall built. ** Topeka Constitutional Convention held. * 1856 ** Free-state government installed in ...
*
History of Wichita, Kansas The history of Wichita details the history of Wichita, Kansas from its initial settlement in the 1860s to the present day. Prehistory and exploration The site at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers has served as a trading ce ...
and Timeline


Notes


Bibliography


Surveys and reference

* Arnold, Anna Estelle
''A history of Kansas''
(1914) old textbook * Blackmar, Frank W ''Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc.'' (1912
online edition
old alphabetical encyclopedia * Cutler, William G
History of the State of Kansas
(1883), detailed, reliable older history * Davis, Kenneth. ''Kansas: A History'' (1984) * Dean, Virgil W., ed. ''John Brown to Bob Dole: Movers and Shakers in Kansas History'' (2010), 27 short biographies by scholars * Gille, Frank H. ed. ''Encyclopedia of Kansas Indians Tribes, Nations and People of the Plains'' (1999) * Miner, Craig. ''Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854–2000'' (2002) (), the newest standard history * Napier, Rita, ed. ''Kansas and the West: New Perspectives'' (University Press of Kansas, 2003), 416pp; essays by scholars * Rich, Everett, ed. ''The Heritage of Kansas: Selected Commentaries on Past Times'' (1960) 852pp; essays by historians and primary source
online
* Richmond, Robert. ''Kansas, A Land of Contrasts'' (4th ed. 1999) * Socolofsky, Homer E. ''Kansas Governors'' (1990) * Socolofsky, Homer E. and Huber Self. ''Historical Atlas of Kansas'' (1992) * Stuewe, Paul K., ed. ''Kansas Revisited: Historical Images and Perspectives'' (2nd ed. 1998), essays by scholars * Wishart, David J. ed. ''Encyclopedia of the Great Plains'', University of Nebraska Press, 2004,
complete text online
900 pages of scholarly articles * Zornow, William, ''Kansas, A History of the Jayhawk State'' (1957)


Specialized studies

* Bader, Robert S. ''Hayseeds, Moralizers, and Methodists: The Twentieth-Century Image of Kansas '' (University Press of Kansas, 1988) *Campney, Brent M. S. "'This is Not Dixie:' The Imagined South, The Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence" ''Southern Spaces'' 6 September 200
online
* Carman, J. Neale. ''Foreign-Language Units of Kansas, I. Historical Atlas and Statistics'' (1962) detailed introduction to foreign settlement, with immigration statistics and detailed maps showing ethnic clusters. * Castel, Albert. ''A Frontier State at War: Kansas, 1861–1865'' (1958) * Dick, Everett. ''Vanguards of the Frontier: A Social History of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains from the Earliest White Contacts to the Coming of the Homemaker'' (1941) * Entz, Gary R. "Religion in Kansas," ''Kansas History,'' Summer 2005, Vol. 28 Issue 2, pp 120–145, emphasis on the Civil War, Progressive Era, immigrants, and the civil rights movement * Goldberg, Michael L. "Non-partisan and all-partisan: Rethinking woman suffrage and party politics in gilded age Kansas." ''Western Historical Quarterly'' 25.1 (1994): 21-44
online
* Goodrich, Thomas ''War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854-1861'' (1998). * Ham, George E., and Robin Higham. ''Rise of the Wheat State: A History of Kansas Agriculture 1861-1986'' (1987) * Ise, John. ''Sod and Stubble: The Story of a Kansas Homestead'' (U of Nebraska Press, 1972) * La Forte, Robert Sherman. ''Leaders of Reform: Progressive Republicans in Kansas, 1900-1916'' (1974
online
* Lee, R. Alton. ''Sunflower Justice: A New History of the Kansas Supreme Court'' (U of Nebraska Press, 2014) * Luebke, Frederick C., ed. ''Ethnicity on the Great Plains'' (1982) * McQuillan, D. Aidan. ''Prevailing over Time: Ethnic Adjustment on the Kansas Prairies, 1875–1925'' (1990) * Malin, James. ''Winter Wheat in the Golden Belt of Kansas'' (1944) * Malin, James. ''The Grassland of North America: Prolegomena to its History'' (1955)

pioneering environmental history * Malin, James. ''History and Ecology: Studies of the Grassland'' (1984) * Miner, Craig. ''West of Wichita: Settling the High Plains of Kansas, 1865-90'' (1986
excerpt and text search
* Press, Donald E. "Kansas Conflict: Populist Versus Railroader in the 1890s," ''Kansas Historical Quarterly'' (1977) 43#3 pp 319–33

* Reynolds, David. ''John Brown, Abolitionist'' (2005) (), favorable to Brown * Sloan, Charles William, Jr. "Kansas Battles the Invisible Empire: The Legal Ouster of the KKK From Kansas, 1922-1927," ''Kansas Historical Quarterly'' (1974) 40#3 pp 393–40

* Socolofsky, Homer E. "Kansas in 1876" ''Kansas Historical Quarterly'' (1977) 43#1 pp 1–4

* Socolofsky, Homer E. ''Arthur Capper, publisher, politician, and philanthropist'' (1962). * Underwood, June O. "Civilizing Kansas: Women's Organizations, 1880–1920." ''Feminist Studies'' 2 (1975): 150-60
online
* Van Sant, Thomas D. ''Improving rural lives: A history of Farm Bureau in Kansas, 1912-1992'' (1993) * Villard, Oswald Garrison, ''John Brown 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After'' (1910)
full text online"> full text online


Historiography

* Averill, Thomas Fox. "Kansas Literature. A Review Essay." ''Kansas History'' 25 (Summer 2002): 141–165
online
*Coburn, Carol K. "Women and Gender in Kansas History. Review Essay." ''Kansas History'' 26 (Summer 2003): 126–151
online
* Grant, H. Roger. "Kansas Transportation. Review Essay." ''Kansas History'' 26 (Autumn 2003): 206–229
online
* Hurt, R. Douglas. "The Agricultural and Rural History of Kansas. Review Essay." ''Kansas History'' 27 (Autumn 2004): 194–217
online
* Johannsen, Robert W. "James C. Malin: An Appreciation," ''Kansas Historical Quarterly'' (1972) 38#4 pp. 457–6

* Leiker, James. "Race Relations in the Sunflower State. A Review Essay." ''Kansas History'' 25 (Autumn 2002): 214–236
online
* Malin, James C. ''Essays on historiography'' (1946
online
* Nichols, Roy F. "The Kansas-Nebraska Act: A Century of Historiography." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 43 (September 1956): 187–212
in JSTOR
* * Socolofsky, Homer E. and Virgil W. Dean. ''Kansas History: An Annotated Bibliography'' (1992
excerpt and text search
* Turk, Eleanor L. "Germans in Kansas. Review Essay." ''Kansas History'' 28 (Spring 2005): 44–71
online


Primary sources

* Averill, Thomas Fox, ed., ''What Kansas Means to Me: Twentieth-Century Writers on the Sunflower State'' (University Press of Kansas, 1991) * Becker, Carl L. "Kansas," in ''Essays in American History Dedicated to Frederick Jackson Turner'' (1910), 85–111, famous interpretation
online pp 85-111
Reprinted in Everett Rich, ed., ''The Heritage of Kansas: Selected Commentaries on Past Times'' (1960), pp 340–59 * Robinson, Sara. ''Kansas, Its Interior and Exterior Life: Including a Full View of Its Settlement, Political History, Social Life, Climate, Soil, Productions, Scenery, Etc.'' (1856
full text online
**Courtwright, Julie. "'A Goblin That Drives Her Insane': Sara Robinson and the History Wars of Kansas, 1894-1911." ''Kansas History'' 25 (Summer 2002): 102–123
online
* Stratton, Joanna. ''Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier'' (1982), autobiographical account
excerpt and text search
* White, William Allen. "What's the matter with Kansas?" (1896


External links


''Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains''
scholarly journal, with many articles online
"The Kansas Collection"
many primary sources, including books and articles about Kansas * Rath, Ida Elle
''The Rath Trail'' (1961)
biography of Charles Rath *
The Archeological Heritage of Kansas
'
Kansas Archaeology Website

Kansas Historical Society

Access documents, photographs, and other primary sources on Kansas Memory, the Kansas State Historical Society's digital portal
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Kansas Kansas