EARLY TOPEKA HISTORICAL OUTLINE

Last revised April 30, 2003. Very incomplete.

1. Native American Period, ? to 1825
   • Native peoples before 17th Century appear to have been Caddoan, "black" Indians, the Padouca.
   • Kansa Indians arrived mid-17th Century. The Padoucas appear to first have been driven to the west end of the Kansa’s new range, where they were pressed against the Pawnee (a "black" Apache people). By 1800, the Padouca had been largely assimilated into the Kansa and Pawnee.
   • Kansa are a Dhegiha Sioux people, a "white" Native American tribe likely originally from area of present inland North Carolina, more or less. Migrated due to pressure from English settlements. Prior to arriving at destination, were once one people with the Omahas; these groups diverged late in their migration. Also related culturally, linguistically and genetically to the Osages, Poncas, Qapaws and Missouria.
   • Traditionally had a animistic religious system largely organized around the two principal gentes of the tribe—the "keepers of the pipe" (later known as the "Wind People" or "Southwind People," i.e., "kansa") and the "Small Wind People" ("people make a breeze near the ground").
   • Though their religion was false, I didn’t see any indication of human sacrifice or other explicitly satanic rituals in the materials I've read so far. But religion wasn't discussed in depth in these books.
   • Contact with white men from late 17th Century until 1825 was with fur traders, most of whom were French, even after Louisiana purchase in 1803. Fur traders had little interest in Indian culture one way or the other. Just wanted to buy furs. They were sometimes accompanied by Catholic priests. They also did sometimes manipulate tribal politics and initiate hostilities between tribes to preserve monopolies.
   • Kansa had chronic wars with the Pawnees to the west and the Otoes and Iowas to the northeast.
2. Transition: Betrayal, Genocide, 1825 to 1854
   • Early in 1800s, the daughter of White Plume, one of three Kansa principal chiefs, married Louis Gonville, a French fur trader. White Plume also converted to Catholicism. The Gonvilles had three daughters, who subsequently married the three Papan brothers, who were also white Indian traders.
   • 1815, Treaty of Friendship between US and Kansa, signed at St. Louis after a show of force on the Missouri river at the principal Kansa village and quickly broken by US. War with Otoes continued with covert US encouragement even after 1817 Treaty of Friendship between US and Otoes.
   • 1825, Treaty between US and Kansa. Kansa ceded all land North of Kansas River and East of Delaware river and all land South of Kansas River as far west as Mission Creek (7 miles west of Topeka). This cession included the original site of Topeka, proper. The ceded lands were to be held in trust by US government for award to other Native American tribes displaced from farther east. By statute, as well as by treaty with the Kansa and Osage, all of later Kansas was to be held as permanent Indian territory, protected from white settlement.
   • 1825 Treaty also gave 24 choice 1 mile square tracts along the north bank of the Kansas river west of the Delaware to White Plume’s half-breed children and grandchildren. The wives of the 3 Papan brothers each received a 1 mile square, and North Topeka sits on the Papan allotments.
   • In return for land, Indians were promised annual cash allotments for 20 years to buy necessities and begin agriculture. These were seldom paid, were always late, and were usually paid to traders, white attorneys and "agents" of the Indians and the missionaries rather than to the Indians.
   • Indians who actually successfully attempted to establish farms nearly always had them taken away by white men as soon as they were functional. No real help was ever provided to make Indians self-sufficient.
   • After the development of the southern route Oregon Trail ("California Road") and the Santa Fe Trail starting in about 1838, there was steadily increasing traffic through the areas of later Topeka and Lawrence on these trails. The trails coincided, following a route halfway between the Kansas and Wakarusa rivers, until they diverged at Burnett’s Mound south of later Topeka. It was here the trails met a military road from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe which crossed the river at the Papins' ferry, and the Santa Fe trail followed the route of the military road to the southwest.
   • 1825 Treaty promised large tract of choice land on the Big Blue river to the first Christian mission society that successfully introduced "education" (read, "european customs") among the Kansa. This ignited 25 years of competition between Baptist and Methodist societies and the Catholic church. The Catholics gave up after a few years. The Baptist and Methodist "missionaries" were also licensed Indian traders, were in their "mission" for their own profit. They did little to help the Indians and a lot to help themselves to the Indians' allotments.
   • Tribes later moved onto the lands ceded by the Kansa in 1825 included the Delawares (north of Lawrence), Kickapoos, Sac and Fox, Shawnee, Wyandot and Miami.
   • In 1828, White Plume moved his village to a location south of Williamsburg on the Kansas. Other chiefs moved their villages to locations at the confluence of the Kansas and Big Blue (near Manhattan, now under Tuttle Creek) and near the confluence of the Kansas and Mission Creek west of later site of Topeka.
   • In 1846, after the right to allotments from the 1825 Treaty ran out and Kansa were starving, they ceded all of their remaining land in a treaty, in return for more allotments that were never paid and a much smaller reservation in the Neosho Valley, near Council Grove.
   • Starvation was always passively promoted (through game playing with allotments and malicious neglect) and sometimes actively promoted. At least one smallpox epidemic among the Kansa was deliberately started by the Indian department, which knowingly distributed smallpox-infected blankets.
   • The Kansa experience was the norm for Indian tribes in Kansas, not the exception…
3. Founding of Topeka, 1854
   • Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 put an end to the Missouri Compromise. Nebraska was to be a free territory; Kansas was to decide free/slave question by election, but everyone tacitly expected slave state interests from Missouri to win. Land between Kansas and Texas (now Oklahoma) was to become permanent Indian territory.
   • Kansas-Nebraska Act sponsored by Sen. Steven O. Douglas of Illinois, a major railroad stockholder. Purpose of Kansas-Nebraska Act had noting to do with free/slave state question. Purpose was to extinguish Indian land titles in Kansas as quickly as feasible for benefit of planned trans-continental railroads.
   • As of June, 1854, there were only two town sites in Kansas that even arguably were clear of Indian title and free for settlement. One was a strip of land adjacent to Fort Leavenworth, the other was a small tract of land on the Missouri River. These were very rapidly platted and settled by slave state people from Missouri, became cities of Leavenworth and Atchison.
   • As discussed at a previous meeting, Lawrence was the first free-state town settled. It was established under the direct sponsorship of the Emigrant Aid Society of Massachussetts on land not yet fully released from Indian title, and, hence, not technically legal for settlement.
   • There was some illegal white settlement tolerated even before the Kansas-Nebraska Act (e.g., Uniontown, 1848).
   • At the same time Lawrence was being settled, two groups were illegally settling in what later became Shawnee County. One group, slave staters, squatted on land east of the confluence of Shunganunga Creek and the Kansas River and established Tecumseh. The other, smaller group, free staters not directly associated with the Emigrant aid Society, squatted on land surrounding what is now downtown Topeka.
   • On December 5, 1854, 10 men met in the shake shanty of Frye Giles to form the Topeka Town Association. Nine lived in the immediate vicinity; the tenth was Charles Robinson, who had been sent from Lawrence to represent the Emigrant Aid Society. Although none of the local men, strictly speaking, owned the land they lived on, the seven who lived closest to the town site pledged contiguous quarter sections of the land they assumed they would later be able to preempt, all of which pledges were to be added to the 320 acres that could be preempted by a town company. They nearly immediately started to informally plat and sell town lots, although a professional surveyor wasn't available until the next summer (and downtown streets are still 18.4 degrees off!).
   • The founders of Topeka did not obtain even color of title to the townsite until April 1856, when they were able to purchase a land "float" from Isaiah Walker, a Shawnee Indian. However, the Shawnee tribe didn’t formally recognize Walker’s sale of his "float" until February 14, 1859.
   • The President of the Town Association was Cyrus Holliday, later one of the founders of the AT&SF RR.
   • The Treasurer of the Association was Frye Giles, the city’s first banker and also a self-described "devout" Mason.
4. The Great Railroad Competition
   • There was competition between Topeka and Lawrence concerning railroad development, from 1857 onward. Two separate areas of competition.
   • One was competition to be the hub of the first route connecting a Missouri border town that already had connections east (Wyandot, Leavenworth or Atchison) to the transcontinental railroad from the west. 5 or 6 competitors, at various times.
   • The other was a competition to be a point on the first railroad to connect any of the above cities to the south border of the state. By statute, one, and only one, railroad was to be given a lease to operate across Indian Territory. The first railroad to extinguish enough Indian title in Kansas to extend its line all the way to the South border was to win. Major competitors were Leavenworth, Lawrence & Gulf and AT & SF. Winner: AT & SF. LL&G never got to "G."
   • The Indian "Ring."
   • One-sided "negotiations" between railroads and Indian tribes.
   • Railroads’ record of paying their Indian debts no better than US government's.
   • Railroads and white squatters stole from neighboring Indians with complete impunity.
5. The Topeka Constitution/ Topeka in “Bloody Kansas” and the Civil War
   • Tecumseh and Topeka were both established in 1854, Tecumseh in August. Tecumseh was established with the intent it should be the county seat under a slave state territorial government, and, as soon as Andrew Reeder, the first territorial governor arrived at Atchison, he decreed Tecumseh to be the seat of Shawnee County and appointed slave state men as its officers. After passing briefly through several other locations, the capitol of the territorial government was established at Lecompton.
   • There was a succession of territorial governors who had very short incumbencies. In keeping with the hidden (from Yankees only) agenda to make Kansas a slave state "by its own choice" and thus preserve the balance of power in the US Senate, all but the first (Andrew Reeder) were pro-slavery Democrats.
   • Two elections were held in 1854 and 1855 under authority of territorial government. The first, 11/29/1854, a few days before founding of Topeka, elected a pro-slavery railroad investor as territorial delegate to Congress. The second, on 3/30/1855, elected a territorial legislature and county officers. In both, many Missourians came across the border to vote. In both, Shawnee County’s only voting place was a house in Tecumseh that was guarded by armed Missourians, who turned away voters from Topeka in the legislative elections. In both, voter turnout was well over 100%; in some pro-slavery precincts it exceeded 1000%. In Shawnee County’s legislative election, there were 101 registered voters but 372 votes cast. In the entire territory, 2,905 qualified voters cast 5,427 votes. A "bogus" 100% slave-state legislature and pro-slavery county officers were elected.
   • The "bogus" legislature adopted a pro-slavery state constitution to be presented to Congress, adopted the Missouri Statutes almost without change (they sometimes even forgot to change "Missouri" to "Kansas" in the text), enacted a law which outlawed dissent (it became a felony to "utter a word against the institution of slavery" or to "possess literature which denies the right to hold slaves"), legalized all of the 1855 county elections, and went home.
   • The corruption in the 1855 Kansas elections had been reported in the Eastern press, and caused such an uproar that Congress quietly retired the 1856 state Constitution permanently into committee. It died there.
   • Gov. Reeder ordered new elections in the free-state districts, to be held 5/22/1855. The Missourians stayed home and free staters were elected, but the majority of the "bogus" legislature refused to accept their credentials, seated the legislators elected in the March election instead. "Bogus" legislature asked Pres. Pierce to remove Gov. Reeder, and he complied. Legislature and territorial secretary Woodson (from Virginia) then appointed sheriffs, judges and county officers in each county. Woodson, as acting governor pending arrival of new appointee, also commissioned militia officers.
   • Free state party responded to the laws of the "bogus" legislature by ignoring the law against dissent and holding a series of conventions, leading to a free state constitution and an elected, competing free-state legislature. First convention, in Lawrence on 8/14 and 8/15/1855, appointed free-state executive committee and called for conventions in each election district to elect 3 delegates to another convention to be held in Topeka 9/19. On 9/9, a convention was held at Big Springs to organize Free State Party; this convention also set 10/9 as date to elect a delegate to Congress (the legislature had set 10/1/55). The Topeka Convention on 9/19/55 called for another convention, beginning 10/23, to draft a state constitution. The Topeka Convention re-convened 10/23, was in session until 11/11, and drafted the Topeka Constitution.
   • Both sides ignored the other side's Congressional delegate election. The slave staters elected John Wakefield with 2,721 votes on 10/1; the free-staters elected former Gov. Andrew Reeder with 2,849 votes on 10/9.
   • Election held 12/15/1855, in which the slave staters did not participate, ratified the Topeka Constitution.
   • The Emigrant Aid Society responded to the 1855 elections by increasing their campaign to entice New Englanders, and free staters from the old Northwest, to emigrate to Kansas. Most of these new settlers tried, of necessity, to enter Kansas by steamboat, disembarking at Westport (now KC), Missouri.
   • Six counties on the Missouri River in Missouri responded by placing Kansas Territory under embargo, boycotting all shipping lines that carried people or goods to free-state settlements. Travelers bound for Kansas were only allowed passage from St. Louis if they supported the cause of slavery. Some settlers and supplies were still able to enter via Nebraska Territory or surreptitiously through Missouri in 1856, but at only a fraction of the former rate.
   • Free-state Executive Committee called for an election of state officers on 1/12/1856, which was held.
   • On 1/24/56, President gave a special message to Congress supporting the "bogus" legislature and denouncing the Topeka Constution and ordering the free-staters to disperse.
   • On 3/4/56, free-state legislature convened at Topeka, prepared a memorial to Congress asking admission to the Union, appointed commissioners to prepare a code of laws, and chose Andrew Reeder and James Lane as US Senators. It adjourned on 3/8 to reconvene 7/4. Subsequently, a free-state militia was organized.
   • Territorial Governors (two during first half of 1856), Secretary Woodson and territorial courts ordered the arrest of all free-state leaders, and War Department ordered Army to assist in executing these warrants. Many Topeka and Lawrence men arrested, held in jail for a few months.
   • National Republican Party in 1856 resolved in its platform that Kansas be immediately admitted to the Union under the Topeka Constitution.
   • Congress appointed a special committee to investigate the trouble in Kansas, which later made an accurate report of the events here.
   • Territorial Governor Shannon ordered the Army to be vigilant to prevent the Topeka Legislature from re-convening.
   • Early July, 1856: Part of the Missouri Militia entered Kansas to suppress any attempt by the Topeka Legislature to re-convene. Army detachment from Ft. Leavenworth under Col. Sumner turned them back.
   • July 4, 1856: Topeka Legislature attempted to reconvene. US Marshal Donaldson, Acting Terr. Gov. Woodson and 3 squadrons of soldiers from Ft. Leavenworth under Col. Sumner arrived in Topeka and the Topeka Legislature was dispersed without bloodshed.
   • Woodson declares territory in state of insurrrection, calls out slave-state militia and orders commander of Ft. Leavenworth to attack Topeka. Army fails to do as ordered.
   • August 6, 1856: Wagon employed by John Farnsworth, of Topeka, was robbed by an armed band on its way back from Westport. The driver was released, but warned he’d better never return to Westport. This shut off supplies to Topeka from the East. For the next year, Topeka lived under siege. There were raids by bands from Topeka to seize supplies from the neighboring pro-slavery towns of Tecumseh, Indianola (no longer in existence, but was in present northern part of Shawnee County) and Oskaloosa. Topeka men robbed a train in Oskaloosa. There were some attempted retaliatory raids by pro-slavery towns on Topeka, not very successful. My sources don't report any bloodshed in these raids.
   • A company of Topeka free state militia participated in the Battle of Hickory Point on 9/13/56.
   • On arrival on 9/9/56, new Gov. Geary rescinds Sec. Woodson’s orders. But he also goes to Topeka on 9/18 with Col. Cook (now commander of Ft. Leavenworth), the US Marshal, a posse and writs from Judge Lecompte, and arrests a number of free state leaders. Those taken to Tecumseh later stage a successful jail break.
   • Free-state legislature reconvened on 1/6/57. At close of session on 1/8, a number of its members, including the Speaker and the President of the Senate, were arrested on charges of treason. Before time set for trial, a new governor was sent and all of the charges were nolled.
   • In spite of Missouri efforts to stop anti-slavery immigration, tide of immigration into Kansas favored free state cause in 1857, mostly because most Missourians didn’t really want to leave Missouri to settle here.
   • Free-state legislature reconvened 6/9-6/13/57 and new Gov. Walker didn't bother it.
   • Free-staters participated in the official 1857 territorial elections, and a large majority of the legislators elected were free-staters. New legislature kept most of the "bogus" legislature's Missouri-based statutes, except those dealing with slavery, moved capital to Minneola, called for new constitutional convention.
   • New convention elected 1/21/58, convened in Minneola but moved to Leavenworth, adopted third attempt at state constitution, the Leavenworth Constitution, 4/3/58. This Constitution, moved capital temporarily to Topeka pending selection of capital by a process specified in it. This Constitution was never submitted to popular vote or to Congress because votes weren't available in Congress to admit Kansas under a free-state constitution.
   • 1859: Voters called for another constitutional convention. This one, held at Wyandotte, drafted the Constitution still in use. Adopted at election 10/4/59, approved by Congress 1/29/61, after South seceded, in admitting Kansas to Union.
   • At general election in 1861, vote for permanent location of state capital: Topeka, 7,859; Lawrence, 5,194; Leavenworth, 815; Baldwin, 437; Emporia, 186; Sac and Fox Agency, 186.
6. Economic Development
7. Race Relations
   • Frye Giles, one of Topeka’s founders, noted that most of the free-state men involved in founding Topeka would have been uncomfortable if called "abolitionists" because, while they didn't want to be around slavery, they had no love for colored people.
   • In December, 1855, there were 80 colored people in Shawnee County: 36 free (mostly in Topeka) and 44 slaves (mostly in Tecumseh).
   • The Topeka Constitution forbade both slavery and the immigration or importation of colored people into Kansas. It also instructed the legislature to establish black codes strictly regulating the lives of those who were already here. The Wyandotte Constitution omitted these provisions.
   • In 1861, the first state legislature by statute authorized cities of the first class to racially segregate their elementary schools. Topeka did so in 1865.
   • Segregation of races in non-agricultural employment markets was fairly strict from the beginning. Residential neighborhoods also segregated, except for Ritchie’s Addition. This was an area south of 12th St., originally donated by Col. John Ritchie to Topeka Town Association but sold back to him to raise money for Wyandotte land float. Ritchie sold lots in this area at low prices and to anyone, regardless of race. City tried to annex area in 1867, but Ritchie successfully resisted in court. Area subsequently incorporated as third-class city of South Topeka; Ritchie first Mayor. Area not added to Topeka until 20th Century.
   • The Exodus, 1878-1880. Before this, less than 10% of Topeka population was black. Roughly 60,000 colored people from South (mostly Tenn., Ala., Miss.) passed through Topeka and Lawrence on the way to the promised land. In 1880 census, almost 45% of Topeka population was black. Most moved on (both white and black communities here did much to make them feel unwelcome), but more than 10,000 remained permanently, tripling prior minority population of Topeka.
   • The Exodus deepened racial divisions. Exodusters were as unwelcome among the pre-existing black community as among whites here.
   • Racial divisions quite sharp in churches. Blacks not welcome in any white church in Topeka in 19th Century, or well into 20th. White churches performed mission work in black community by starting satellite black churches, with all black membership but under white control.
8. Revivals
   • 1872, origin Lawrence, strong in Topeka, also reached Fort Scott where Charles Parham was growing up.
   • Charles Sheldon.
   • Charles Parham, et. al.
   • All of these were prevented from having full effect here by racial divisions.
9. Topeka and Healing
   • Giles (1885) lists 26 periodicals that were published in Topeka in 1885. One of these he lists as the "Fire and Hammer (faith cure)." (Three of the others were black newspapers…)
   • Ms. Ettor had meetings here in which miraculous healings were reported.
   • Before he started Bethel College, Charles Parham had a "healing school" in a building still standing at 4th and Jackson. This school opened in 1898. Parham’s newsletter reported many miraculous healings there.
   • Because the State Hospital was here for many years and because the Menningers established their clinic here, Topeka has attracted medical facilities and equipment better and more abundant than that found in many much larger cities.
   • Even though TSH and Menninger have departed, Topeka still has more psychiatrists per capita than any other city in the world.

Links to other pages on this site

Areas for repentance

The founding of Topeka and its implications

The treatment of Native Americans and its implications

Race relations in Topeka to 1915

Charles Sheldon Charles Parham and the revivals that almost started here