| 2018 Q2 | story by Patricia A. Michalis, Ph.D. | photos from the Kansas State Historical Society, Kansasmemory.org
As people age, they get together with friends and colleagues from their past through reunions. High schools have class reunions; military units get together to remember their exploits and those lost in combat; and families have periodic get-togethers of relatives. Sometimes communities have a reunion to celebrate noteworthy achievements and events. Such was the case for those who settled Kansas during the territorial period and helped make Kansas a free state. They gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the creation of Kansas Territory and the fight to make Kansas a “free” state on Sept. 16 and 17, 1879, in Lawrence at Bismarck Grove. A 261-page “Kansas Memorial” of the event was published in 1880, and its foreword passionately expresses the purpose of the reunion: “To those who rescued Kansas from the perils of slavery and were first in helping her to ways of pleasantness and the paths of peace, this book is inscribed.” This book, edited by Charles Gleed, contained transcripts of all the speeches and greetings sent by those unable to attend. It included the names of more than 3,000 visitors who signed the guest register, along with their place and date of birth, the date and place of their settlement in Kansas, and their current residence.
These settlers decided to commemorate the founding of Kansas with an Old Settlers Reunion. They believed they had impacted the history of Kansas and the United States by successfully defeating efforts to have Kansas enter the Union as a slave state. It was an amazing celebration by today’s standards, much less for the 19th century. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people attended one or both days. Special trains brought day visitors to and from Topeka. More than 50 speeches were given, primarily by people who had been in Kansas during the territorial period. Dignitaries included Edward Everett Hale, Walt Whitman, the current Kansas governor, John P. St. John, and the 25 people who sent messages in lieu of attendance. Musical performances and poetry readings were part of the activities, as were periodic cannon salutes (perhaps a wake-up, as some of the speeches were long).
The city of Lawrence embraced the celebration by providing tremendous support for the event. Judge J. P. Usher, who had served as President Lincoln’s secretary of the interior, was the mayor of Lawrence in 1879. He encouraged businesses to close in the afternoons so employees could participate in the celebration. Lawrence schools were closed on Sept. 17, so schoolchildren could attend the festivities. Businesses were requested to decorate with bunting, and the Sept. 16, 1879, Lawrence Daily Journal reported that “nearly all the business houses and many private residences were handsomely decorated.” The article described some of these decorations:
James A. Montgomery, a profusion of Chinese lanterns and small flags; McCurdy Bros have mounted on a tall flagstaff from the top of their building a very handsome ten-foot flag; the Central Hotel sports a flag from each of the second story windows, both on Vermont and Warren streets; J. S. Henderson’s grocery house is completely covered with small flags in front, while the whole inside is almost as profusely decorated; Bromelsick and Perry & Co. have long rolls of bunting which are draped gracefully across the fronts of buildings; L. Bullene has stretched across the street a twenty-foot flag while the store front and the roof, as far as it can be seen, is draped with bunting; and stretched from the Liberty Hall block to the National Bank building is a line bearing two flags, and between them this motto: Old Settlers welcome, 1854-1879.
Other businesses posted signs that indicated the location of a territorial business or event such as the American express office, which was the Herald of Freedom office or the Ludington House, which was the site of the old “Free State Hotel.”
The same issue of the Lawrence Daily Journal also describes the opening ceremonies:
At sunrise yesterday morning the old brass piece [cannon]which does not date as an old settler and yet has done duty to sound forth the patriotism of our citizens for several years pealed forth and was immediately followed by the bells of the city, all combining to ring in the joyful news that the twenty-fifth anniversary of the birth of our noble State had arrived. Each seemed to vie with the other in singing the loudest praise, and each stroke of the bells and loud boom of the cannon seemed to stride a responsive chord in the hearts of our people. … In their enthusiasm the boys loaded the old cannon a little too heavy. The old cannon made a grand leap into the air and coming down crushed the carriage all to pieces. It was a fitting symbol of the glories past which the people of Kansas have made, crushing all obstacles.
This description further illustrates the support of Lawrence for the Old Settlers’ Reunion and ends with a bit of grandiose language equating the crushing of the cannon carriage to the settlers overcoming all hardships.
Judge Usher, in his welcoming remarks, reflects on why people celebrate events from the past:
Since the organization of society, men have been accustomed by appropriate methods to commemorate great events in their career, as well as the acts and deeds of their benefactors, their heroes and their statesmen. Especially are they prone to do this if the benefaction, the event, act or deed has resulted in eradicating an insufferable evil, or in the establishment of a great and lasting good. It is in commemoration of such acts and deeds that we have assembled to-day. … The especial significance attached, is not that we are to commemorate the first settlement of a new and wilderness country, accompanied by hardships and sufferings. … yet it is called the Old Settlers’ Meeting, and we have met here to commemorate the settlement of Kansas, a settlement which, for causes which I briefly explain, inaugurated a fearful and bloody struggle, to be determined only by a constitution afterward to be adopted declaring whether Kansas should be inhabited by freemen only, or freemen and slaves.
Several women were among those making remarks. Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong spoke about belonging to the Wyandotte tribe, and, that in 1848, the tribe went on record as being opposed to slavery. She was proud the Wyandotte had been among the first settlers in Kansas in 1843, and they were first in opposing slavery. Mrs. C. H. Lovejoy was introduced as one of the earliest pioneers. In her remarks, she says her “good Methodistical voice and strong lungs” would make it possible for everyone to hear her. She comments that she is concerned women were not going to be able to speak at the reunion. She says, “We [women]have gone through just as much as any of you. … so we can look back now and see what great difficulties we have passed through in our early days.” She concludes with, “We mothers have passed through a trying ordeal, but we can look back over the ground with a swell of pride in our hearts when we think of the glorious results as we have them before us now.”
Most of the speeches contained reminiscences of experiences during the territorial struggles but also expressions of the laudable accomplishments in efforts to make Kansas a free state. Several speakers mentioned John Brown’s activities in Kansas, and a bust of him was on a podium next to the stage. Others highlighted James Lane and the Branson Rescue, which freed Free State settlers who had been captured by proslavery forces. Many of the remarks contained minute details about events in which the author had participated, making them valuable research tools. However, Capt. Thomas Hutchinson, of the Free State artillery, covers a great deal in a very short address. He provides a highly critical assessment of the armed struggles, in general, but notes causes he believes will help improve civilization:
In my opinion we, as a nation, have little to be proud of when we come to consider that we had to resort to the wholesale murder of each other to right such awful wrongs and abuses as were being perpetrated upon the portion of the human race we had so long held in slavery. I believe that the time will come when the future generations will look back upon the present as among the barbarous ages; I mean the age in which we live now, for there is not a civilized nation year on the whole earth. Nations who settle their disputes by killing men have no claim to civilization.
Mr. President, I cannot make a speech today. I believe in works more than words. I would like to make a remark or two by way of advice, and as I am very radical, you will be left to do as you choose with regard to the advice. First with regard to temperance. Let me assure you that the shortest road to that end is to allow the women to vote. Vote for female suffrage. Mix up a few women with the men that you send to Washington, and the thing is done.
His second admonition referred to raising children with “high moral instincts” through studying the Bible.
Ultimately, the love feast (a term used by numerous speakers at the events) had to come to an end. Col. S. N. Wood made the closing remarks that urged those present to “take a step higher and in advance,” saying everyone should strive to make that world a better place and “try to place our children on a higher moral plane than we occupy.” In closing, the whole audience joined him in singing the iconic “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty.”
Notes: Bismarck Grove was located north of current Lyon Street and east of East 1600 Road. It is southwest of Bismarck Gardens.
