Quindaro Townsite is a former settlement, then ghost town, and now an
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
district. It is around North 27th Street and the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks in
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 ...
. It was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on May 22, 2002.
It was settled by abolitionists in late 1856, with construction starting in 1857. The boomtown population peaked at 600, rapidly settled by migrants. They were aided 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 ...
, who were trying to help secure Kansas as a free territory.
One of several villages hugging the narrow bank of the
Missouri River under the bluffs, the town was a
free state port-of-entry for abolitionist forces of Kansas. It was established as part of the resistance to stop the westward spread of slavery. Quindaro's people also aided escaped slaves from Missouri and connected them with the
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
.
After Kansas was established as a free state, there was less unique need for the port and the growth slowed in the commercial district. At the same time the economy in Kansas suffered from over-speculation.
In 1862 classes were started for children of former slaves, and in 1865 a group of men chartered Quindaro Freedman's School (later
Western University), the first black school west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
. Former slaves continued to gather in the residential community, which became mostly African American by the late 19th century. The area was incorporated into Kansas City in the early 20th century. Western University closed in 1943.
The overall town sharply declined with a nationwide economic depression and with the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. The lower commercial townsite was abandoned and became overgrown. It was rediscovered during archaeological study in the late 1980s, which revealed many aspects of the 1850s town.
The only structure surviving from Western University and Quindaro is a full-size statue of abolitionist
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 ...
. In 1978 the John Brown Memorial Plaza was dedicated.
The
designated it the Quindaro Townsite National Commemorative Site in 2019, allowing the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
to provide technical and financial assistance for preservation and education.
History
Foundation
![Old Quindaro Museum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Old_Quindaro_Museum.jpg)
Quindaro was founded in the 1850s by abolitionists, settlers sent by the New England Emigrant Aid Society,
Wyandots, and freedmen. The Society had aided more than 1,200 settlers in their migration, hoping to secure Kansas as a free territory. The decision was left to the vote of the territory's residents.
Quindaro was one of several competing small ports on the
Missouri River. Planners seeking to establish a Free-State port noted the site's advantages:
Abelard Guthrie, credited as the founder who purchased land for the settlement, named it after his wife Nancy "Quindaro" Brown Guthrie.
She was a member of the
Wyandot
Wyandot may refer to:
Native American ethnography
* Wyandot people, also known as the Huron
* Wyandot language
* Wyandot religion
Places
* Wyandot, Ohio, an unincorporated community
* Wyandot County, Ohio
* Camp Wyandot, a Camp Fire Boys and ...
tribe and had persuaded them to sell land to her husband. ''Quindaro'' means "bundle of sticks" or "strength through numbers", in the
Wyandot language
Wyandot (sometimes spelled Wandat) is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wyandotte, descended from the Tionontati. It is considered a sister to the Wendat language, spoken by descendants of the ...
.
![John Brown statue at Quindaro Township](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/John_Brown_statue_at_Quindaro_Township.jpg)
Construction started in January 1857, and the town soon contained numerous stone houses and starts of several businesses. Its sawmill was the largest in Kansas.
[ The lower townsite near the river was the commercial core, and most residences were higher on the bluff, at the upper townsite. In the first year, there were 100 buildings completed, many of stone and brick, "including hotels, Dry Goods, Hardware and Grocery stores, a Church wo churchesand School house".] Tribal natives living there were not dispossessed and became a part of Quindaro.
John Morgan Walden was one of many young men attracted to Quindaro, where he founded a Free-Soil
The Free Soil Party was a short-lived coalition political party in the United States active from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was largely focused on the single issue of opposing the expansion of slavery into ...
paper called ''Quindaro Chindowan''. The name ''Chindowan'' was a Wyandot word for "leader".[ Walden also was a missionary to freedmen and later became a bishop in the ]Methodist Church
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
.
Underground Railroad
After the Kansas–Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, passed by the 33rd United States Congress, and signed into law by ...
was passed in 1854, a western branch of the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
was developed in Kansas. Quindaro was linked to this and the Lane Trail. It provided a new route of escape for slaves from Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
. It was most important in the years before Kansas was established as a free state in 1861. Quindaro became a legendary port for fugitive slaves
In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...
and, later, blacks arriving as contraband
Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...
(escapees) during the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
.
Clarina Nichols
Clarina Irene Howard Nichols (January 25, 1810 – January 11, 1885) was a journalist, lobbyist and public speaker involved in all three of the major reform movements of the mid-19th century: Temperance movement, temperance, Abolitionism in t ...
was a writer for the ''Quindaro Chindowan,'' a friend of Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...
, and fellow crusader for the rights of women and children. She was an important Conductor and "Station Master" of the Underground Railroad in Quindaro. She left a letter about a time when a freedom seeker named Caroline was brought to her house. Fourteen slave hunters, including her slave master, were camped on the edge of town and looking for her. Caroline was hidden in an empty and elaborately disguised cistern overnight, and then sent on the road north as soon as it was safe.
Decline
Having reached a peak population of 600, the booming commercial townsite quickly went bust due to a nationwide economic depression that afflicted much of Kansas, and a failed campaign to attract a railroad. With the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, the Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
recruited away many young men, and only few farming families stayed. The lower town site at the riverside was largely abandoned. Later African-American arrivals settled in the upper town on the bluff. The economy declined because of over-speculation in Kansas, and in 1862 the legislature withdrew the town charter, putting the town corporation out of business.[
Difficulties in reaching the interior from below the bluff hampered commerce, and changes after the war reduced the need for the port. In addition, the topography was difficult, surrounding Wyandot land limited expansion, and problems with land titles inhibited growth. After being abandoned, the early lower commercial townsite became overgrown, with some areas covered by earth falling from the bluffs. Historians recall it overall as a ghost town. In the early 20th century, all of the townsite was incorporated into Kansas City, Kansas.
]
Western University
Even before the war ended, however, Eben Blachly, a Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
, in 1862 started classes in his home for the children of former slaves. The Reverend Eben Blachly had been a farmer in Dane County, Wisconsin
Dane County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 561,504, making it the second-most populous county in Wisconsin. The county seat is Madison, which is also the state capital.
Dane County is the ...
, one of the early pioneers who had migrated from Pennsylvania. According to Blachly family legend, he was nearly hung as a "Northern spy" while trying to find his oldest son, a Union soldier who had been captured by the Confederates. With the noose around his neck he asked to say some final words, a wish that was granted by the rebels. After praying out loud for the welfare of their souls (the rebels were about to hang an innocent man), they took the noose off his neck and sent him home to Wisconsin. This traumatic experience, apparently, led him to dedicate his life to helping former slaves by organizing the Quindaro Freedman's School (later Western University), which was chartered in 1867, and which he ran until his death in 1877. It was a historically black university
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
(HBCU) started at the upper town site of Quindaro. Its principal in 1872, when the state legislature added a four-year normal school
A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...
, was Charles Henry Langston
Charles Henry Langston (1817–1892) was an American abolitionist and political activist who was active in Ohio and later in Kansas, during and after the American Civil War, where he worked for black suffrage and other civil rights. He was a spoke ...
, a leading black abolitionist and activist, educator, and politician in 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 ...
and Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
.
In the early 20th century, Western University became known for its outstanding music program. Music historian Helen Walker-Hill, writing in the ''Black Music Journal'', states that "Western University at Quindaro, Kansas, was probably the earliest black school west of the Mississippi and the best black musical training center in the Midwest for almost thirty years during the 1900s through the 1920s."
In the early 1900s, Western University also added a full industrial curriculum, with buildings to house livestock and another for a laundry. Later a building was added for teaching auto mechanics and repair. The university closed in 1943, and aside from its statue of 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 ...
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 ...
, nothing but cornerstones of some early buildings remains. Some buildings were lost to fire, others to demolition as sites were redeveloped. The last structures remaining were three faculty houses, which were demolished near the end of the 20th century. One houses the Old Quindaro Museum. The Quindaro Underground Railroad Museum is located nearby in the Vernon Multipurpose Center, the former Quindaro Colored School.
Archeological and oral history projects
An archaeological study in 1987–1988, required for a public project, revealed the remains of the 1850s townsite. The foundations of 20 main buildings, two outbuildings, three wells, and one cistern were found. From original maps, newspapers, and letters, researchers know other structures existed. Because of the significance of the town, the townsite has been designated an archaeological district on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. A number of public history projects have been undertaken to engage the public and share the discoveries.
In 1993, 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 ...
, in cooperation with the Mayor's Underground Railroad Advisory Commission and the Quindaro Town Preservation Society, commissioned graduate students to develop proposals for a park to incorporate the ruins and archaeology of Quindaro. Their 13 proposals were presented at a major public meeting, displayed at the state capitol's rotunda, and presented in numerous venues around the state. While consensus is lacking on how to develop a park, the plans have been successful in engaging the public and teaching history.
In 1996, the University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
sponsored a major oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
project, in which more than a dozen professors interviewed people among the nearby African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
community for their family accounts of Quindaro. The history and legends of the settlement lived in stories told by their descendants and friends. Because of the brief life of Quindaro, it was not much documented in written records. Public history projects have identified some new sources.
In December 2007, the Kansas Humanities Council awarded a grant to the Concerned Citizens of Old Quindaro, Kansas City, for ''In Unity There is Strength: The African American Experience'', an exhibit to interpret the history of former slaves who escaped to Quindaro from across the Missouri River in the mid-19th century. The exhibit was to address religious, educational, and business elements of the community which they created.
In 2018, Quindaro community stakeholders including historians, archeologists, scholars, and activists began resolving decades of struggle over how to strategically manage the historical site.
References
Further reading
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External links
{{Registered Historic Places
Abolitionism in the United States
African-American history of Kansas
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas
Geography of Wyandotte County, Kansas
History of Kansas City, Kansas
Native American history of Kansas
1857 establishments in Kansas Territory
National Register of Historic Places in Kansas City, Kansas
Populated places established by African Americans
Bleeding Kansas
Populated places on the Underground Railroad
Tourist attractions in Wyandotte County, Kansas