Medium: Text
Date: November and December, 1855
This document lists general information about militia recruited by free state leaders during the Wakarusa War, which was conducted from November 27 through December 12, 1855. These troops gathered to…
Medium: Text
Date: July 25, 1857
James B. Abbott, as secretary of the 10th district committee of the Free State party, prepared this broadside to advertise a meeting to nominate two Senators and seven Representatives for…
Medium: Text
Date: December 1, 1856
Edward Daniels wrote “to the Friends of Free Kansas” from the office of the National Kansas Committee in Chicago, Illinois, on December 1, 1856. Daniels had just returned from the…
Medium: Text
Date: September 8, 1855
This broadside was an invitation to attend a meeting to discuss and endorse the proceedings of the Big Spring Convention which was organized by free state supporters as part of…
Medium: Text
Date: 1857
The Kansas Volunteers for the Protection of the Ballot Box were free state supporters who were determined to see that fair elections were held in Kansas Territory. James Lane was…
Medium: Text
Date: September 16, 1857
This printed commission, issued from the “Head-Quarters Kansas Volunteers, For the Protection of the Ballot-Box,” was given to James Montgomery and signed by J. H. Lane and M. F. Conway,…
Medium: Text
Date: July 27, 1859
James Sayre Griffing wrote from Topeka, Kansas Territory, to William Smyth, editor of the Owego (New York) Times. Griffing described in some detail his family’s overland journey to Kansas Territory…
Medium: Text
Date: August 29, 1855
James Griffing wrote from the steamboat New Lucy on the Missouri River to his fiancee, J. Augusta Goodrich, in Owego, New York. Griffing, a Methodist minister, was on his way…
Medium: Text
Date: July 15, 1857
James Lane, from the Headquarters of the Kansas Volunteers free state militia, issued this certificate to appoint James Abbott (Brigadier General of the 1st Brigade) to organize people to protect…
Medium: Text
Date: June 13, 1860
An invitation extended by the citizens of Atchison, Kansas Territory, to attend a celebration of the “extension of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad” to Atchison, and to witness the…
Medium: Text
Date: December 11, 1855
Franklin L. Crane, Jr., son of a prominent citizen in Topeka, Kansas Territory, served as a private from November 27 to December 11, 1855, in defense of Lawrence. This certificate…
Medium: Text
Date: May 22, 1858
This stock certificate (No. 39) certified that Milton C. Dickey owned one share of the Topeka Bridge Company. It was signed by Franklin Crane, president of the company.
Medium: Text
Date: July 2, 1857
The letter was a follow-up to Franklin Crane’s presentation in St. Joseph, Missouri, about efforts to build the St. Joseph and Topeka Railroad. Russell wrote to inquire what progress Crane…
Medium: Text
Date: August 3, 1857
On August 3, 1857, the free-state legislature gave Kansas Territory voters another chance to vote on the Topeka Constitution (first approved in December, 1855) when they went to the polls…
Medium: Text
Date: January 4, 1858
On January 4, 1858, by act of the free-state territorial legislature, the Kansas Territory voters were given a second chance to vote on the Lecompton Constitution. This poll book identifies…
Medium: Text
Date: October 12, 1852
This three-page document identified the “return of votes polled at the election held in the Wyandott nation, Nebraska Territory, October 12th 1852, for a delegate to represent the aforesaid Territory…
Medium: Text
Date: October 23, 1855
The Free-State government held a constitutional convention in Topeka, Kansas Territory, from October 23 through November 11, 1855. One of its actions was to vote on the location for the…
Medium: Text
Date: August 3, 1857
An example of numerous like documents collected at the Kansas Historical Society, this “tally list” accompanied the official record of voting in the “state election,” on August 3, 1857, at…
Medium: Text
Date: August 3, 1857
This is one example of several official statements of the results of the “State Election,” held under the authority of the Topeka Constitution. This one–Geary City, Doniphan County– is certified…
Medium: Text
Date: December 28, 1856
Writing from Meadville, Pennsylvania, Cyrus Holliday wrote to Franklin Crane concerning the need to make a lithograph of Topeka that could help attract emigrants during the upcoming season. He stated…
Medium: Text
Date: January 18, 1857
Cyrus Holliday wrote from Meadville, Pennsylvania, to Franklin Crane, a prominent citizen in Topeka, Kansas Territory. Holliday discussed his efforts in Washington, D. C., as well as the elections, railroads,…
Medium: Text
Date: November 28, 1859
Andrew Reeder, former governor of Kansas Territory, wrote from Easton, Pennsylvania to Dr. Franklin Crane of Topeka. The letter discussed business interests in Kansas Territory and prospects for its admission…
Medium: Text
Date: October 18, 1856
R. P. Bourn, writing from Nicholasville, Kentucky, addressed this letter to Franklin Crane of Topeka, Kansas Territory. Bourn stated his anti-slavery beliefs clearly, and discussed politics both in Kansas and…
Medium: Text
Date: September 1, 1858
Andrew Reeder, former governor of Kansas Territory, wrote from Easton, Pennsylvania, to inform Franklin Crane of the eastern response to elections in Kansas, and the prospects for the Leavenworth Constitution.…
Medium: Text
Date: Around 1858
Prepared by the temporary treasurer [perhaps Franklin Crane], this list identified the individuals who pledged capital to the Topeka and St. Joseph Railroad Company, the number of shares each held,…
