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Free State Ticket – Minneola/Leavenworth Constitution
Date: May, 1858
This document listed persons who ran for office in Kansas Territory in May, 1858.
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General Order No. 2, Headquarters Kansas Volunteers, For the Protection of the Ballot Box
Date: July 20, 1857
The 1857 General Order No. 2 established militia divisions and brigades which were to protect the ballot box in Topeka, Kansas Territory. It lists the divisions, brigades, and the superintendents…
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W. A. Gorman to Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minnesota Territory
Date: February 18, 1856
In response to a January 22, 1856, appeal from free-state leaders in Kansas, the governor of Minnesota Territory, Willis A. Gorman (St. Paul, February 18, 1856), conveyed the appeal to…
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Willis A. Gorman to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minnesota
Date: February 18, 1856
Willis Gorman, the Governor of Minnesota attaches an appeal from James Lane and Charles Robinson to his message to the speaker of the House of Representatives dated February 18, 1856.…
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John P. Vaughn to James W. Denver
Date: March 4, 1858
John P. Vaughn writesfrom Sacramento, California, to Kansas Territory Governor James W. Denver, about Vaughn’s efforts to get the California legislature to support Kansas’s admission as a state under the…
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T. J. Robinson to James W. Denver
Date: March 3, 1858
Thomas J. Robinson, writing from Washington D.C. to Governor James W. Denver, speculated that Kansas Territory would be admitted as a state under the Lecompton Constitution. Robinson suggested that Denver’s…
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T.J. Robinson to James W. Denver
Date: March 3, 1858
Letter written from Washington, D.C. to Governor James W. Denver describing Robinson’s acquisition of a Lecompton town share and his prospects for selling it at a profit. Robinson discusses the…
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M. W. Delahay to Charles Robinson, James H. Lane and others
Date: February 16, 1856
From Washington, D.C., on February 16, 1856, Mark Delahay, the Free State Party’s representative to the 34th Congress, wrote to his free state colleagues regarding President Franklin Pierce’s directive to…
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Wilson Shannon to Charles Robinson and James H. Lane
Date: December 9, 1855
According to D. W. Wilder, Governor Wilson Shannon arrived in Lawrence on December 7, 1855, and on December 8 made “a treaty with the Free-State Generals” ending the Wakarusa War.…
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John T. Jones to James W. Denver
Date: January 16, 1858
John T. Jones, an interpreter for the Ottawa Indians, wrote from Washington urging Governor James W. Denver to support ratification of a treaty between the U.S. government and the Ottawas.…
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Samuel Adair to the Free Mission Sewing Society of the First Congregational Church, South Brookfield, Massachusetts
Date: Around 1856
Reverend Samuel L. Adair wrote from Osawatomie, Kansas Territory, to describe the physical characteristics of Kansas and the efforts being made on behalf of the free state cause in the…
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John McCannon to James Montgomery
Date: May, 1860
John McCannon, writing from Denver City, Araphahoe County, Kansas Territory, a location that is currently in Colorado, describes the killing of a man named Akins, who McCannon claimed had been…
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John McCannon to James Montgomery
Date: December 24, 1859
John McCannon, writing from Clear Creek, Kansas Territory, a location that is currently in Colorado, describes politics and the economy in the gold mining region of western Kansas Territory. McCannon…
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Leander Martin to James Montgomery
Date: December 13, 1859
Leander Martin, writing from Osawatomie, Kansas Territory, encourages Captain James Montgomery to contest the results of the November 8, 1859, election for representatives to the territorial legislature. Montgomery had been…
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Thomas C. Wells to Sarah Elizabeth Clarke Wells
Date: April 3, 1856
After spending part of much of the winter back East, Wells returned to Kansas Territory in April, 1856, beginning this letter home from aboard the steamer “James H. Lucas” and…
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John M. S. Williams to Theodore Hyatt
Date: November 22, 1859
Williams, an official of the Emigrant Aid Company, writes to Theodore Hyatt of New York from the offices of Glidden & Williams (California Packet Office) in Boston, regarding the payment…
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Samuel C. Pomeroy to Thaddeus Hyatt
Date: February 14, 1859
Responding to Hyatt’s letter of February 2, 1859, in which he seems to have authorized the sale of the “Lightfoot,” Pomeroy discusses that potential deal and others, regarding the growth…
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Samuel C. Pomeroy to Thaddeus Hyatt
Date: March 10, 1858
On “Kaw Valley Bank” letterhead, Pomeroy writes regarding the establishment of the bank in Atchison, Kansas Territory, of which Pomeroy is president. The letter appears to be to Pomeroy’s business…
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Samuel C. Pomeroy to Thaddeus Hyatt
Date: May 18, 1857
This brief letter from Samuel Pomeroy to Thaddeus Hyatt, president of the National Kansas Committee, was written on May 18, 1857, from Boston, Massachusetts. Among other business matters, Pomeroy reported…
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Anonymous to Samuel C. Pomeroy
Date: May 14, 1855
The author of this lengthy letter chose not to sign his name, but offered his observations about Kansas affairs “which may or may not be of service to you.” In…
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Samuel C. Pomeroy to Thaddeus Hyatt
Date: August 17, 1857
In this letter, written from Atchison, Kansas Territory, Pomeroy covered a wide range of subjects pertaining to his correspondent and business partner, Thaddeus Hyatt. He described issues having to do…
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Samuel L. Adair to William Hutchinson
Date: November 7, 1856
The first page of this four-page document lists five items for which Samuel L. Adair requested payment ($21.25) from the Kansas State Central Committee. These items included provisions, medicine, the…
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Gaius Jenkins’ bill to the Kansas State Central Committee
Date: June 24, 1856
Most of the items on this itemized bill, presented to the Kansas State Central Committee by Gaius Jenkins of Lawrence (a free-state man who was subsequently shot and killed by…
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Mt. Gilead Congregational Church records, Anderson County, Kansas Territory, 1859-1860
Date: April 1859 - September 1860
This small volume contained some “Records of the Congregational Church of Mt. Gilead Anderson Co Kansas Territory,” which may have been recorded by John S. Hanway, the son of James…
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Connecticut Kansas Colony record book, 1856-1857
Date: February 18, 1856 through June 26, 1857
The Connecticut Kansas Colony, sometimes referred to as the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony, was formed in New Haven, Connecticut, with the intent that its members would migrate to Kansas…