Condensed History of Kansas
Kansas was the home of numerous indigenous Indian tribes including the Plains, Kansas, Kaw, Pawnee, Osage, and Wichita Indians. The main food sources were hunting buffalo and small game, gathering
wild plants and grains, and the cultivation of corn, squash and beans. [Evidence of ancient villages has been found in eastern Kansas with similarities to the Cahokia Indians of Missouri. Pottery from
these sites shares many of the same characteristics as the Cahokia tribe 250 miles away to the east. The Cahokian culture was active until around 1400 AD.]
The Spaniard Francisco Vasquez de Coronado along with a small army of Spanish soldiers and friendly Indians were the first to explore the Great Plains in 1541. Searching for the fabled "Seven
Cities of Gold" they opened the way for more settlements of white men never seen before in Indian Territory.
In 1724 Etienne de Veniard Bourgmont, representing France, sailed up the Missouri River and explored what are now Atchison and Doniphan counties.
By 1744 Fort Cavagnial and a healthy trade with the Kaw Indians was established just north of present-day Fort Leavenworth.
On April 30, 1803, France sold 828,000 square miles of land (of which Kansas sits almost in the middle) to the United States in the
Louisiana Purchase. Lewis & Clark were commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore and chart the new purchase, and to evaluate the land and native Indian tribes. Zebulon Pike (Pikes
Peak) also explored the region and declared the land to be worthless for cultivation, discouraging settlement. The Indian Removal Bill of 1830 moved around 20 different tribes from east of the
Mississippi River to areas west of Missouri onto what is now Kansas and Oklahoma.
In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act organized Kansas Territory and opened the land up for settlement. One of it's purposes was to open the country to build railways. The incorporation of popular
sovereignty made the territories residents responsible for voting on whether slaver should be permitted. Few white persons were living in the territory at the time, but neighboring Missouri was a
slave-holding state and many settlers moved from there to vote pro-slavery. Other people that were against slavery quickly moved to Kansas Territory hoping to outnumber the pro-slavery voters. At
stake was not just the question of slavery in the territory, but the political standing of the legislators once Kansas became a state.
Kansas became know as "Bleeding Kansas" because of the violence between these two factions. The anti-slavery (or as they were known, "free-staters") won and Kansas became the 34th state in the
union on January 29, 1861. In April of the same year, the Civil War started. Kansas contributed many soldiers to the Union.
With the influx of settlers, the extension of railways, and the Homestead Act of 1862 which gave 160 acres of Federal land to any citizen or any person declaring the intention of becoming a
citizen, the Indian tribes were being pushed into smaller and smaller reservations or relocated altogether. The number of immigrant settlers increased and communities of Swedes, Germans, Swiss and
Irish were prominent in several counties.
Longhorn cattle drives from Texas to the Kansas Pacific Railway used the Chisholm Trail from 1867 to 1884-85. Texas longhorns were tough and withstood the rigors of the trail better than other
breeds of cattle. They sold for ten times more on the east coast, so cattle drives became a big business for enterprising ranchers. Stockyards at the trailheads were built to handle huge numbers of
these cattle. An estimated 5,000,000 Texas longhorns went east from Kansas.
Kansas was home to many of our nations great people including:
- Amelia Earhart (first transatlantic solo flight by a woman)
- Carrie Nation (prohibitionist)
- Hamilton Perkins Cady and David Ford McFarland (found helium in natural gas)
- John Brown (first white American abolitionist)
- Georgia Neese Clark Gray (first woman to serve as US Treasurer)
- Mabel Chase (first woman county sheriff in the United States)
- Nancy Landon Kassebaum (first woman elected to the US Senate)
- Ronald E. Evans (astronaut, Apollo 17)
- Susanna Salter (first woman mayor)
Kansas History Resources:
Sunflower graphics courtesy of Santa Lady |