Shawnee County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter XIX 1905
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Book Title: History Of Shawnee County, Kansas

CHAPTER XIX.

Brief Historical Notes of City and County—Some of the First Happenings in
Topeka—Social, Literary and Musical Events—Native Kansans in Shawnee
County—Commercial Features of Fifty Years Ago—Accounts of an Early Flood—Col.
Richard J. Hinton's Reminiscences—Two Morning Scenes in Topeka.

    Topeka's first Christmas was in 1854, and its first Fourth of July in 1855.

    The Kansas Freeman, Topeka's first newspaper, appeared July 4, 1855,
published by E. C. K. Garvey.

    Miss Sarah C. Harlan taught the first school in Topeka, in a little shanty
on lower Madison street, near the river.

    The first death was recorded in 1855—a case of cholera. The first cemetery
was at the intersection of Kansas and 10th avenues.

    The first liquor-smashing crusade in Topeka occurred July 11, 1855, about
$1,500 worth of beverages being destroyed in four saloons.

    The first school building was erected by the New England Emigrant Aid
Company in 1857, on lots 145, 147 and 149 Harrison street, fronting on Fifth
street.

    Rev. S. Y. Lum, a Congregational minister, preached the first sermon heard
in Topeka, at the residence of A. A. Ward, in the winter of 1854.

    Coal was found in 1856, in the river bluff, two miles from town—not in
commercial quantities, but sufficient to keep the blacksmiths' forges going.

    January 28, 1858, was the date of the first city election in Topeka, and the
first levy of taxes for city purposes was made in that year, Howard Cutts being
designated as collector.

    Wilson L. Gordon, first city marshal, was directed March 24, 1858, to grade
the first block south from the river on Kansas avenue, at an expenditure not to
exceed the sum of $150.

    The first well dug was at the southeast corner of Kansas avenue and Third
street, water being found at a depth corresponding to the level of the river.

BUILDING OPERATIONS.

    Dr. Franklin L. Crane opened the first lime-kiln, and the first stone
building was erected at Nos. 133 and 135 Kansas avenue, afterwards known as
Constitution Hall.

    Guilford G. Gage had charge of the first brick-making plant on the
town-site, and his product entered largely into the construction of the earlier
buildings in the town.

    The first sidewalks were laid in the town in 1863, on Kansas avenue between
Fourth and Seventh streets, and on Sixth avenue between Monroe and Van Buren.
They were built of oak lumber.

    The first sawmill was located on the river bank at the foot of Madison
street, an engine being drawn by wagon from Kansas City. The first grist mill
was at the northwest corner of First and Kansas avenues.

    The first telegraph line reached Topeka November 15, 1865, in connection
with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. For several years thereafter
North Topeka was the only telegraph office in Shawnee County.

    On July 4, 1866, the first soldiers' reunion was held in Topeka, orations
being delivered by Gen. James G. Blunt, Governor Samuel J. Crawford and Judge
Samuel A. Kingman.

    Thomas N. Stinson, the founder of Tecumseh, received from his Pro-Slavery
friends of 1855 a silver pitcher in recognition of his services to the cause. It
bore an engraved representation of negroes cultivating sugar cane.

    Cyrus K. Holliday was Topeka's first justice of the peace, Daniel H. Home
the first constable, and T. W. Hayes the first census enumerator. John Horner,
of Tecumseh, was the first tax assessor in Shawnee County.

    The first hotel in Topeka was built of poles and "shakes," at the southeast
corner of Kansas avenue and Third street. It was called the "Pioneer House," and
locally known as a "receiving house."

    J. T. Jones, an immigrant from Missouri, established the first store in the
town, a grocery, located on lower Kansas avenue—then a river path. The first
brick store building was erected near the corner of Kansas avenue and Fourth
street, and occupied by Allen & Gordon.

    During its brief existence as the county-seat of Shawnee County, the town of
Tecumseh had three local newspapers: the Southerner, the Settler and the Note-book.

CAPITOL SQUARE.

Col. Cyrus K. Holliday is credited with the suggestion of setting apart a square
in the center of Topeka for State Capitol purposes, long before his pioneer
comrades entertained an idea that the city could win the seat of government.

    The popular subscription habit fastened itself upon Topeka in a very early
day. In 1861 the sum of $500 was raised to assist in the construction of a wagon
road by the Smoky Hill route to Pike's Peak—the first money donated by the city
to a public enterprise.

    Topeka's first band was composed of Samuel Hall, L. W. Horne, John B. Horne
and D. H. Moore. It consisted of two violins, a tenor drum and a fife. The band
was a power in all of the Free-State meetings.

    The first application of lynch law in Topeka was in the winter of 1860, the
victim being Isaac Edwards, who had fatally stabbed a Pottawatomie Indian. The
stabbing was done while both were riding up Kansas avenue on the same pony.
Edwards was hanged at night from the rafters of the jail.

    The first destructive fire in Topeka occurred June 10, 1859, destroying a
building at No. 146 Kansas avenue, owned by E. C. K. Garvey. Later fires of
greatest consequence were the burning of the State Record office and the Ritchie
Block.

    During the last week in May, 1855, the first steamboat arrived at the Topeka
levee, after a turbulent voyage of six days from Lawrence. The sound of the
whistle caused greater excitement than the shriek of a calliope in after days.

    Anthony A. Ward built the first blacksmith shop on the town-site in the fall
of 1854. He settled in Shawnee County some time in advance of the founders of
Topeka, and owned one of the city's most desirable suburban farms.

    In the merry month of May, 1855, occurred the first wedding in Topeka, the
contracting parties being S. J. Thomas and Harriet N. Hurd. The ceremony was
performed by Rev. Mr. Poole.

THE FIRST VOTERS.

    At the first election in Topeka the qualified electors included "every white
male person, and every civilized Indian who has adopted the customs of the white
man, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards."

    In the year 1854 Tecumseh was "boomed" as the most desirable residence point
in Kansas, the attractive claim being made that a number of aristocratic
families from the South had already settled there with their slaves.

    The Papan brothers operated the first ferry across the Kansas River near
Topeka in 1842. Other ferries were established at different points on the river
in the same year.

    Fry W. Giles established the first banking house in the city in 1864. In
1866 the firm was known as F. W. Giles & Company, and in 1872 it became the
Topeka National Bank.

    Daniel Boone, a grandson of the famous Kentuckian, was the first actual
farmer in Shawnee County, and instructed the Indians in the arts of agriculture.

    Topeka's first city directory appeared in 1870, compiled by Sam Radges, who
has compiled all of the Topeka directories from that date to 1905, the volumes
being of increasing size and usefulness.

    Maj. Thomas J. Anderson was president of the first Topeka Base Ball Club, in
1869, and William J. Stagg, secretary. Charles N. Rix was captain of the field.
Topeka now maintains a team in the Western Base Ball Association.

    Topeka had an earthquake shock April 24, 1867—its first and only seismic
disturbance of noteworthy extent. It was felt in all parts of the city, and most
noticeably at the Methodist Church, where the funeral services of H. S. Herr
were being conducted by Rev. John D. Knox.

REAL ESTATE ON THE MOVE.

    The first piece of property transferred in the city, of which record was
made, covered the lots at the northeast corner of Sixth avenue and Harrison
street. Date, April 7, 1855; consideration, $30.

    The first $1,000 transaction in Topeka city lots was the sale in 1857 of the
property on the northwest corner of Kansas and Sixth avenues, 80 by 130 feet,
the purchase price being paid in gold.

    The first school building erected at the expense of the city was the
Harrison street school, in 1865—which was afterwards changed into the present
Harrison School, one of the largest in the city.

    Illuminating gas was first used in Topeka in 1870, and the Brush electric
light in 1882. One electric street-lighting tower was erected at the
intersection of Kansas and 10th avenues, but was soon discontinued. Incandescent
lights came in 1886, and the telephone in 1880.

    On the 8th day of September, 1874, a colony of Menonites to the number of
1,100 arrived in Topeka. They subsequently purchased 100,000 acres of land in
Southwestern Kansas, on the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.

    On February 11, 1856, President Pierce threatened to employ the army and
navy of the United States in dispersing the Free-State Legislature in Topeka.
The army executed the threat on July 4th, of that year, without the intervention
of battleships.

    The first child born in the city was Topeka Zimmerman, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Israel Zimmerman, whose birth was recorded in the spring of 1855. In recognition
of the important event, the boy was given a valuable lot by the Topeka Town
Association.

    Topeka's first Fire Department was organized in 1870, with one engine, two
carts and 1,500 feet of hose. Tobias Billings was chief of the company, and
George W. Veale, foreman of the hook and ladder company.

    The public water-works system was introduced in July, 1882, being built by a
local corporation at an expense of $200,000. Extensive additions were made in
later years, and in 1905 the city purchased the plant for $620,000.

    In his "Thirty Years in Topeka," Fry W. Giles states that in the year 1862
he issued a policy of marine insurance upon a cargo of freight to be shipped
from the city of New York to Topeka, via New Orleans and the Mississippi,
Missouri and Kansas rivers.

EARLY RAILWAY FACILITIES.

    Topeka first enjoyed the benefit of a street railway in the month of June,
1881—a horse-car line, with five 12-foot cars. It was later changed into a steam
dummy line, and then to the present very complete electric system.

    The Union Pacific was the first railroad built into Topeka, arriving January
1, 1866. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road was built from Topeka to
Burlingame in 1869, and the line from Atchison to Topeka was opened May 16, 1872.

    The first real estate office, independent of the Topeka Town Association,
was operated by Asaph Allen and Harris Stratton, in 1856, with headquarters in
the Topeka House.

    Topeka's first academy of learning was opened January 2, 1856, by James
Cowles, A. B., for a term of 12 weeks, offering instruction in the elementary
grades and in Greek, Latin and French, the tuition ranging from $3 to $6 for the
term.

    One of the patents to the land covered by the city of Topeka bears the date
of February 14, 1859, and is signed by President James Buchanan. A second
patent, issued in 1861, covering an additional 62 acres on the Kansas River
bank, is signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

    In 1855 the stage fare from Kansas City to Topeka was $5 for each passenger.
The freight rates from St. Louis to Kansas City averaged from 30 cents to $2.50
per hundred pounds, according to the stage of the water, being highest in March,
October and November, and lowest in May and June. Transportation by wagon from
Kansas City to Topeka was very expensive.

    The first State Fair in Topeka was held September 9-12, 1871. On the last
day of the fair an inebriated stranger was riding down Kansas avenue at a
furious pace and reined his horse against Sheriff Sherman Bodwell, throwing him
to the ground and causing his death. The drunken man rode away and was not
apprehended.

ARBOR DAY.

    April 22, 1875, was designated as Arbor Day in Topeka, by Thomas J.
Anderson, then mayor of the city. In response to the mayor's proclamation,
business was suspended and the citizens planted 800 trees in the State House
grounds. Most of the trees were subsequently cut down by a landscape gardener in
the employ of the State.

    Five of the Presidents of the United States have been entertained in Topeka,
viz: Grant, Hayes, Harrison, McKinley and Roosevelt. Vice-President Henry Wilson
was here May 19, 1875. He also visited the city May 25, 1857, and upon his
return to Massachusetts raised $2,500 to be expended in behalf of the Free-State
cause in Kansas.

    The first literary organization in the town was The Kansas Philomathic
Institute, whose members gave the first dramatic performance, the piece being
"The Drunkard." The same society collected the first public library in Topeka,
which was lost in the burning of the Ritchie Block in 1869.

    At an old settlers' meeting held in Topeka in 1904, after some of the
pioneers of 1854 had signed the roll and boasted of being first on the
town-site, a colored man named John E. Allen smashed all of their records by
stating that he crossed the Kansas River near Topeka in 1842 with John C.
Fremont's expedition, the crossing being made in rubber boats.

    The Methodists erected the first church spire in Topeka, and had the first
bell of commanding size. The bell weighed 1,068 pounds, and was given to the
church in 1866 by John Paisley, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It was given during
the pastorate of Rev. John D. Knox, to commemorate the centennial year of
American Methodism.

OUTDOOR CELEBRATION.

    The first Topeka picnic was held May 17, 1855, on the river bank west of
Kansas avenue and north of First avenue, now known as the City Park. A roast pig
and a 20-pound catfish graced the table. At this picnic Mrs. F. J. Case was
toasted as the first woman to grace Topeka with her presence, early in 1855.
Miss Harriet Hartwell, of Massachusetts, had the honor of being the first
unmarried woman on the town-site, also in 1855. She afterwards became the wife
of James G. Bunker.

    Topeka's first production of grand opera was that of "Martha," at Costa's
Opera House in 1873, by a small company headed by Mme. Anna Bishop. The local
critic was esthusiastic over her "trills caught of skylarks, and love-notes
learnt of robins." The Templeton opera company gave the first performance of
comic opera in Topeka.

    J. Butler Chapman, of Ohio, who spent the years 1854 and 1855 m Shawnee
County, was one of the original boomers of Kansas pasteboard towns. His wife was
one of the original woman suffragists, and visited the Territorial Legislature
in the interest of that cause. The Chapmans returned to Ohio in 1856, and,
instead of living happily ever afterwards, were divorced.

GRASSHOPPER RAIDS.

    The first grasshopper raid in Shawnee County was in i860. The insects
arrived September 15th of that year, entirely destroying crops and vegetation. A
second and worse visitation of this plague occurred in the summer of 1874,
causing another appeal for aid, a general issue of bonds, and a special session
of the Kansas Legislature in the following winter. The Kansas Central Relief
Committee was organized in Topeka to distribute aid throughout the State,
Lieutenant-Governor E. S. Stover being chairman and Henry King, secretary. The
committee disbursed money and supplies to the value of $131,313.65.

    The first school in Topeka for colored children was started in 1865 in a
small building on the south side of Sixth avenue, between Kansas avenue and
Quincy street, in charge of Miss Mabee. The following year the school was
divided, the colored pupils occupying the upper floor, and the white children
the lower floor—the white pupils being taught by Miss Gilbert (afterwards Mrs.
G. C. Foss).

NATIVE KANSANS.

    Various claims have been put forth to the honor of being the first white
person born in the territory comprising the State of Kansas, but the
preponderance of history is in favor of Col. Alexander S. Johnson, who was born
July 11, 1832, at the Methodist Indian Mission, in Johnson County— at that time
in charge of his father, Rev. Thomas Johnson. Col. Alexander S. Johnson died at
Dallas, Texas, in 1904, and was buried in Topeka, which for many years had been
his home.

    There is abundant evidence showing that Elizabeth Simmerwell was the first
white female born in the Territory of Kansas, the date of her birth being
December 24, 1835. Her father, Rev. Robert Simmerwell, was then located at the
Baptist Shawnee Indian Mission, in Johnson County, and was one of the best known
of the early missionaries to the several Indian tribes in Kansas. Elizabeth
Simmerwell married John Carter, of Williamsport township, Shawnee County.

    The following excerpt from the Topeka Tribune of April 6, 1856, shows that
the editor of that day was as enthusiastic as all of his successors have
constantly been: "The immigration continues to pour into the Territory with
increased volume. So great is the rush that it is impossible at all times to
secure suitable accommodations or conveyance to the different parts of the
country. We had anticipated a very large immigration but the realization is
beyond all our preconceived ideas. They come like the locusts of Egypt, not
however to destroy, but to save, and right welcome they are. A large proportion,
too, have come to stay, and will add vastly to our strength, both for defense
against usurpation, and in developing the resources of the country."

    The cost of breaking prairie in the early years of Topeka's history was from
$2.50 to $4 per acre. Lumber was worth from $25 to $30 per thousand feet. Oxen
were worth about $100 per yoke, mules from $100 to $200 per head, and horses
from $75 to $150 each. Sheep sold for $2 a head, and chickens for 25 cents each.
Masons and carpenters received from $2 to $3 per day in wages. Wheat was worth
$1.50 per bushel, and flour $4.50 per hundred weight.

AN INDIAN SEAL.

    The original seal of the Probate and County Court of Shawnee County bore the
words, "Shawnee County Court, Tecumseh, Kansas," and above the word "Tecumseh"
was the figure of an Indian chief, in hostile attitude, about to strike with his
tomahawk, his rifle trailing on the ground—the figure intending to represent
Tecumseh, the celebrated Shawnee chief, at the battle of the Thames. The county
commissioners subsequently ordered the removal of the word Tecumseh, and the
Indian figure, from the seal.

    The first mail under lock was received at Topeka May 1, 1855. A regular
service was established in that year, by four-horse coaches, between Kansas City
and Fort Riley, via Topeka. In 1859 Topeka had a daily mail from Leavenworth,
and from St. Joseph via Lecompton; a tri-weekly mail to Rulo, Nebraska; and a
weekly mail to Grasshopper Falls, Burlingame, Emporia, Council Grove,
Williamsport and Brownsville, Nebraska.

    In September, 1882, when the Grand Army of the Republic held its annual
encampment in Topeka, many distinguished visitors were present. The local
newspapers made record of the assignment of the following visitors to Topeka
homes: Hon. James G. Blaine and wife, and Col. Clark E. Carr and wife, at George
W. Wood's; Hon. Walker Blaine, at C. C. Wheeler's; Gen. and Mrs. J. Warren
Keifer, at Thomas Ryan's; Gen. John Pope at Joab Mulvane's; General Bingham, at
M. Bosworth's; Hon. William Warner, at M. H. Case's; Hon. John A. Anderson, at
Dr. Silas E. Sheldon's; Senator and Mrs. John J. Ingalls, at Henry King's;
Senator and Mrs. Preston B. Plumb, at Floyd P. Baker's; and Gen. John S.
Marmaduke, at W. G. Dickinson's.

A POET'S FELICITY.

    Upon the occasion of his visit to Topeka in 1881, Robert J. Burdette wrote a
characteristic letter descriptive of the activity and energy of the growing
city, introducing his letter with the following paraphrase of Tennyson's "Gate
of Camelot:"

So, when their feet were planted on the plains
That broaden to the swiftly rolling Kaw,
Far off they saw the silent misty morn
Rolling the smoke about the Capitol,
And piles of stone and brick were in the streets,
And men were shrieking "Mort" from scaffoldings—
The mort, perhaps, of Arthur,
But more liken of Mike.
Then those who went with Gareth were afraid,
One crying: "Let us go no further,
Here is a city of enchanters, built
By fairy kings."    Gareth answered them,
That it was built more liken by
Descendants of Irish kings, the hod fellows
Co-operaten with the Free
And Expected Masons.
So he spake, and loffen
Did enter with his train
(The eastern bound U. P. Express)
Topeka, a city of modern palaces.

AN EARLY FLOOD.

    In the year 1844, where Topeka now stands, there was a flood quite
similar-to that of 1903, although its consequences were less destructive and
fearful. The river went out of its banks, and the bottom lands were submerged
with eight feet of water. The Indian settlers were terribly frightened, many of
them loading their tents on ponies and departing hastily for higher ground. Most
of them returned in the spring of the following year. The cabin home of Louis
Gonvil and family, which preceded any of the houses erected upon the site of
Topeka, was destroyed by the flood. The channel of the Kansas River was then
some distance south of the present channel, and the river not so wide as in
after years. The Gonvil house was built on land lying about the middle of the
present river, channel, and a short distance below the present bridge at the
Kansas avenue crossing. In commenting upon this storm several years prior to the
great flood of 1903, Fry W. Giles said: "At the site of Topeka the river's
breadth was from the line of Third street on the south to the bluffs, two miles
to the north of its usual channel, the water standing to a depth of 20 feet.
Such a flood now would destroy many million dollars' worth of property." A
further reference to this early flood is found in W. W. Cone's "Historical
Sketch of Shawnee County:" "During the flood, Major Cummings, Paymaster of the
United States Army, wishing to cross from the south to the north side of the
Kansas River, near Topeka, stepped into a canoe at about the corner of Topeka
avenue and Second street, and was rowed from there to the bluffs in Soldier
township, the water being twenty feet deep over the ground where North Topeka
now stands. One of the Papans lived in a house on the island just above the
bridge. This house stood the flood until the water came above the eaves, and
then was washed away. The island at that time was a part of the main land."

COLONEL HINTON'S REMINISCENCES.

    Col. Richard J. Hinton, an early friend of Kansas, who died in London,
December 20, 1901, made his last visit to Topeka in January, 1900, and delivered
an address, "On the Nationalization of Freedom," before the Kansas State
Historical Society. Incidental to the address, he gave some reminiscences of
Topeka which are appropriate in this connection,—"I have been strolling about
Topeka," he said, "trying to find landmarks. It is forty-five years since I
crossed the Kansas River and entered Topeka. Certainly there is a vast change. I
am delighted with the beauty of the location, the breadth of your streets and
the homelike attractiveness that I see about me. When I first crossed the river,
the associations and surroundings were certainly of a much different character.
My party was one of the companies that came in from the north to assist the
Free-State people against the Southern invaders. We formed the rear guard of
that column of over one thousand men by whose aid the conflicts at Franklin,
Washington Creek, Titus Camp and Osawatomie were fought and won. There was at
that time a little town on the north side of the river, known as Indianola,
which has no existence now. It was then the seat of a border ruffian colony.
Approaching within a. short distance of Indianola, we could see from rising
ground a great commotion in the straggling street. Men were hurriedly riding
backward and forward with guns across their saddles. Immediately dividing our
little company, we surrounded the place and captured ten or twelve mounted men,
who, we afterwards learned, were preparing for a raid upon Topeka. The town of
Topeka had been left with only its women and children, the men having gone to
Lawrence to assist their comrades. I remember making a personal capture of the
man supposed to be the leader, while he was engaged in emptying powder and shot
into a pair of old boots, swung on either side of his saddle-bow. We did them no
special harm, but as I rode along with my little company I recall that we had
ten or twelve more mounted men than when we started.

A WELCOME ARRIVAL.

    "We were ferried across the river early in the afternoon, and as we landed
here all of the few inhabitants were on the bank to meet us. The intended raid
from Indianola had been made known to them, but our presence was entirely
unsuspected, and we were given a cordial welcome. Edmund and William Ross, who
were publishers of the Free-State paper, had a little stone building partly
finished. Nearly all of our men were printers from Boston, and we made a
camping-place for that night of the unfinished printing office, remaining there
until early the next day, when some of the citizens returned from Lawrence. It
is a great delight to wander about and travel across Kansas—to me at
least—seeing as I do the growth of town, village and farm, where memory takes me
back to days when all was open plain, when the buffalo could be found in great
herds, when the nearest Eastern railroad station was 400 miles from the Missouri
River, at Iowa City, and the Southern one was 400 miles down the river, at
Jefferson City. Being in Topeka recalls to me the stirring events of your
history and the brave deeds of your pioneers. My young manhood was spent here,
and now in the mellower days of my seventh decade, I have lost none of my good
feeling, and very little of my interest in the country's welfare, and in the
achievements that make or mar the same. Kansas is a great State, and, as one who
helped to make and mould her, I shall remain proud of her progress until I hear
Gabriel's call."

TWO MORNING SCENES.

    In his account of the founding of Topeka, December 5, 1854, Fry W. Giles
paints a word picture of the first morning in the city's history: "No cloud was
within the bounding horizon; the atmosphere clear, cold and highly rarefied,
revealing to the astonished vision objects far beyond its usual ken, and those
at hand in strange expanse; the broad belt of timber emerging past the highlands
from the unknown west, and stretching far away to the east, holding in its dark
embraces the river of Kansas, its presence there anon revealed by vista-views of
cyrstal ice, radiant with morning light. The general topography—the limitless
field of ever-varying, never-tiring undulations, symmetrical beauties every
one—called forth devout gratulations, alike for faculties which find delight in
form, and these natural objects to satisfy their cravings. The great sun poured
its flood in genial rays of red askance the plain, dissolving frost to dewdrops
on the seared grass, and inviting the perceptions to the pure and the
picturesque. Memory turns to such a morning, and amid such surroundings beholds
a little group of men standing against the sky on yonder plateau, exchanging
glances of doubtful recognition, and contemplating with eager interest the scene
of life's labors before them."

    In closing this volume the writer may speak of another morning in Topeka—a
morning in June instead of December. The same river threads its way in silence
to the sea. The same creeks meander through winding vales and tufted groves.
Fifty years have passed, and what was then an echoless plain is now a city of
50,000 people, at the high tide of 20th century prosperity. A city in which
mills grind unceasingly, and the smoke of many factories mottles the clouds. A
city with fifty daily railway trains, five thousand buzzing telephones, a model
street-car line, paved thoroughfares, luxurious homes, fine business blocks and
every modern utility. It is 1905 instead of 1854 in Topeka. Colleges and schools
are graduating scores of young men and women to be doctors, lawyers, teachers,
missionaries, artisans, merchants, engineers, clerks, and workers in every field
of human endeavor. Newspapers, libraries, churches and other agencies are
stimulating the moral and intellectual advance of the community, and directing
the march of progress with a martial hand. It is June instead of December, banks
of roses instead of drifting snow. The prairies of fifty years ago are green
with waving corn, golden with ripened wheat, and purple with the first bloom of
the alfalfa. From school house and dwelling the flag of freedom and happiness
floats in the Western air—of all airs the blandest; and above is the arching sky
of Kansas—of all skies the fairest and truest. It is June in Topeka, the June of
1905.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS
AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

EDITED AND COMPILED BY
JAMES L. KING
TOPEKA, KANSAS 

"History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples"

PUBLISHED BY
RICHMOND & ARNOLD,
GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
1905.


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