Leavenworth County History
Settlement of Leavenworth
"The History of Leavenworth, the Metropolis of Kansas"
Levenworth Board of Trade, 1880
The City of Leavenworth takes its name from the United
States post and reservation of the same name, which was
originally known as Cantonment Leavenworth, established by
Col. Leavenworth of the Third U. S. Infantry, in May, 1827.
The first settlement was made by a company of persons from
Weston, Missouri. The town site was "claimed," or settled
upon, by them June 9th, 1854. This company consisted of
thirty-two persons, whose names are given below. This
was the first town settlement in the Territory, and consequently Leavenworth justly claims to be the oldest town in
the State of Kansas, and from the first has always been the
largest town, being the pioneer city of the State, as well as
the metropolis.
The town site was located on the "Delaware Trust Lands,"
as they were called, being a portion of the lands ceded to the
United States by treaty with the Delaware tribe of Indians.
The following is a copy of the original paper, taken from
the paper itself now before us, and agreed to by the respective
parties, whose names are attached, at the time specified.
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
"We, the undersigned, being desirous of procuring a claim
to a certain tract of land in the Delaware lands, adjoining the
military reservation in the Territory of Kansas, with the ultimate view of perfecting a title to the same from the General
Government, have caused the same to be regularly and properly laid out and staked off and marked out, with the name of
each member, and a registry of the same made with Grover, a person appointed by the squatters of the Territory for
that purpose, to receive and make such entries or registry.
For the speedy furtherance of this object, it is hereby mutually and sacredly agreed between the members of this association, each pledging himself to the other, that we will protect and defend each in all possible ways against all aggression
whatsoever, until a title to the same is fully perfected, and it
is further agreed by and between us that we will hold said
tract jointly in common, until a final division of the same
may be made by a majority of the members. We further
pledge ourselves to furnish the sum of two dollars and fifty
cents each for the survey and laying out of said tract, and all
other sums that may be assessed by a majority of the members for the purposes of protecting and defending the same
from all aggression whatsoever. And we also further pledge
ourselves and solemnly promise that we will cordially obey
all needful rules and regulations that may be hereafter
passed by a majority of this society for the government and
protection of its members, upon a no less penalty than that
of expulsion from said society, together with the loss of all
claim, interest or title in and to said tract above referred to,
and all protection from said society, or either of its members,
shall thereby be Avithdrawn. It is further agreed that it shall
be optional Avith George B. Panton, one of our members, to
retain and keep for his own use and benefit the quarter section and the improvements now occupied by him, at the price
at which the Government may sell the same, in which event
he is to lose all interest in this joint stock company. It is
further agreed by the members of this society that Major E.
A. Ogden shall have full membership and interest in the
society although not signing these articles.
"In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands
this 13th day of June, A. D., 1854.
"George W. Gist, D. H. Stephens, W. H. Adams, L. A.
Wisely, Samuel Norton, Samuel Fernandis, John G. Gist,
Edward Mix, Malcolm Clark, Frans Impey, Frederick Starr,
Merritt Johnson, G. H. Keller, Wm. G. Caples, H. Miles Moore,
Lorenzo D, Bird, L. W. Caples, Oliver Diefendorf, Amos
Rees, Wm. S. Murphy, Joseph Murphy, G. B. Panton, Jos.
B. Evans, John Bull, James F. Bruner, J. D. Todd, A. Thos.
Kyle, Sackfield Maclin, A. E. Ogden, Samuel F. Few."
Of the original thirty members who signed those articles
of agreement but eight are now living, as far as is known, as
follows: Oliver Diefendorf, Amos Rees, H. Miles Moore
Joseph Murphy, John G. Gist, Jos. B. Evans, A. T. Kyle and
Samuel F. Few.
Of the original members three were ministers, four were
lawyers, five were doctors, two were printers, eight were farmers, oue surveyor, four merchants, two army officers and
army clerk. Two other gentlemen were afterwards admitted
as original members of the association, James W. Hardesty
and W. S. Yohe, both of whom are now living and both
farmers.
Thus, says Mr. Moore, in a sketch from which we copy,
the law and gospel, brain and muscle, the honest farmer
and shrewd merchant and business man, Esculapius and
Mars, entered into a sacred contract to build a city and
put ducats in their purses. There was a fierce opposition to
the enterprise from its inception, by outside parties, who
wanted to get in, and certain Government officials, who pretended such sincere devotion to the poor Indian, who in their
vivid imagination was being robbed by the avarice of the
squatters, when in truth and in fact had the town company
succumbed to their gentle pressure, for a liberal divide, they
might have bought in their town site at �2.50 per acre instead
of $24,000 for the 320 acres city proper.
Thus it will be seen that Leavenworth commenced her
existence as a city by being made the victim of extortion, and
proper respect for the truth of history compels us to admit
that a very large share of her subsequent experience has been
strikingly consistent with the manner in which she started.
Shortly after the signing of the above articles of agreement, the association met and proceeded to organize, by electing Gen. George W. Gist president; H. Miles Moore, secretary;
Jos. B. Evans, treasurer; Amos Rees, L D. Bird and Maj. E.
A. Ogden, trustees. Shortly after a committee of three were
appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws. L. D. Bird, 0.
Diefendorf and H. Miles Moore, such committee. The original draft of the constitution is before us, with its erasures
and interlineations, part in Judge Bird's handwriting and the
balance in Mr. Moore's.
Messrs. Bird and Diefendorf, a majority of the committee,
reported in favor of naming the town "Douglas," after Hon.
Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. Mr. Moore made a minority
report, favoring the name of Leavenworth, after Fort Leavenworth, arguing that Fort Leavenworth was known all over
the country as one of the most beautiful and eligible sites in
the West, and that one hundred miles distant it would generally be understood that the town was at the Fort. The association adopted the minority report on name, and thus Mr.
Moore is entitled to the honor of naming the town.
The original town site, as above stated, contained 320
acres, lying south of the military reservation of Fort Leaven-
worth, and between that and Three Mile Creek on the south,
and extending from the Missouri River (its east boundary)
west, so as to include the above named number of acres. It
was surveyed and platted by Gen. Gist, and was originally
divided into 150 shares, containing twelve lots to the share.
Three shares were at first divided to each one of the stockholders and seven retained by the trustees, to be disposed of
for the benefit of the town. Afterwards two more shares of
twelve lots each were set apart to each original stockholder.
A drawing of two lots to each share was had, so as to give
each share a first and second-class lot on either the Levee,
Main or Delaware, or Shawnee streets, below Second street.
A large number of shares were sold to other parties, who
signed the constitution and became, members of the association.
Among those who purchased shares were several army
officers, then stationed at Fort Leavenworth, some of whom
still own property here: Gen. F. E. Hunt, then Captain of
the Fourth Artillery, Gen. Magruder, Gen. B. C. Card, then
Lieut. Card, Gen. R. C. Drum, then Lieut. Drum, Lieut.
Robertson, Dr. Samuel Phillips, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston,
and many others.
The Association during the summer of 1854 expended
about $11,500 in cutting the timber and brush with which the
site was thickly covered. The money was raised by assessment upon the stockholders.
The Kansas Herald was the first newspaper printed in
the Territory � the first number being issued on the 15th day
of September, A. D., 1854, under the "old elm tree," on the
Levee, near the corner of Cherokee street and the Levee. It
was owned and published by W. H. Adams. The press soon
moved into a house, erected by Mr. Adams, on the Levee, the
second lot east from Delaware street, where Landis' bakery
afterwards stood, the debris of which can still be seen. This
was the first building erected in the city. About six weeks
after the first publication of the Herald, Gen. L. C. Eastin
purchased an interest in the same and became editor, and continued in such capacity up to 1861. Within a few days after
the erection of the Adams' building, Lewis N. Rees built a
store and warehouse attached, on the corner of Delaware and
the Levee, (north side) where P. G. Lowe's building, occupied
by Keith & Co., as a warehouse, now stands.
The next paper to be started in the new town was The
Kansas Territorial Register, established July 1st, 1855. The
Herald was a pro-slavery organ, but the Register on the
other side; it was a Free-State paper, and was very independent and outspoken. A. M. Sevier was the publisher, and the
late Judge M. W. Delahay, editor. Like most of its successors
in Leavenworth, the Register was short-lived, and was
thrown into the Missouri River � type, presses and all � by
a pro-slavery mob, on the night of December 22, 1855.
At the same time "Uncle" George Keller and his son-in-law, A. T. Kyle, built the house so long known as the "Leavenworth Hotel" � the first hotel in the Territory � on the
corner of Delaware and Main streets, where the Chicago and
Rock Island office now stands. It was in this hotel that Mrs.
J. M. Allen, of this city, and daughter of A. T. Kyle, Esq.,
was born, December 6H1, 1854 � the first child born in town.
In front of the hotel, in the street, the first well in the town
was dug and when the street was graded down some thirty
feet, the well was actually dug up.
Capt. W. S. Murphy and Capt. Sim Scruggs, erected
the first saw mill in the country, at the mouth of Three-Mile
Creek, (north side) in the fall of 1854. It stands there now,
and is used as a saw mill to-day. The first dwelling house
was built by Jeremiah Clark, Esq., about the 1st of October,
1854, on the present site of Governor Carney's residence; it
now stands the next house west of the Westminster Church,
on Walnut street. The first church building was erected on
Third street, by Col. H. P. Johnson, near the northwest
corner of Third and Miami streets. A number of buildings
were erected during. the summer and fall of 1854. The first
public sale of lots took place on the town site, on the 9th and
10th days of October, 1854. Gen. George W. McLane, in
after years, the editor and publisher of the Yoiiuff America,
and the daily Ledger, (the first daily paper published in the
Territory) was the auctioneer. He died at Leadville about the
beginning of the present year � 1880.
Fifty-four lots were sold the first day and about the same
number the second, at prices ranging from $50 to $350 each
� one-third in cash and the other two-thirds when the title
was secured. Lot No. 3, Block No. 3, next south of The Times
building, was sold to Capt. Grant for $350 � the highest
price paid. Whole amount of sales, both days, was $12,000.
The first religious services were held in the town by Elder
W. G. Caples, on the bank of the Missouri River, near the
reserve line, under the shade of the trees, October 8th, 1854.
Shortly after. Father Fish held Catholic services at south side
of Shawnee street, near Second. A postoffice was established
here in the fall of 1854, and Lewis N. Rees appointed postmaster. The office was in his store, above referred to, corner
of the Levee and Delaware street.
The credit of naming the streets after Indian tribes should
be given to Major E. A. Ogden, one of the first trustees of
the town association, as he suggested to the company as eminently proper that the Indian names should be preserved, and
that they were, out of the usual style of street names and
especially euphoneous. It was so late in the season when the
public sale of lots was had, and building material so scarce,
that but a limited number of houses were erected in 1854.
The next spring the town progressed very rapidly. A large
number of houses were constructed during the season � a city
soon sprung into being as if by magic. By the next winter
the population had reached about 1,200 or 1,500 inhabitants.
Several stores, of different kinds, had been opened; also,
hotels, boarding-houses, lawyers, and doctors, offices, places of
religious worship, saloons and gambling houses. The United
States court and its officers, territorial, city and county
organizations were in full blast by the close of 1855,
Saturday, the 7th of October, 1854, the steamer "Polar
Star," from St. Louis, brought up Gov. Andrew H. Reeder, of
Pennslyvania, the first Governor of Kansas Territory. Great
preparations had been made to receive him at Weston, Missouri � a little scheme to capture him in advance � but he
stopped off at Fort Leavenworth, and so disappointed the
Weston boys. Col. A. J. Isaacs, of Alexandria, Louisiana,
the newly appointed Attorney-General of the Territory
accompanied him. In the afternoon a delegation of citizens
waited upon the Governor at the Fort; a very respectable
crowd, in numbers at least, had assembled at Capt. Hunt's
quarters. Dr. Leib, late of Illinois, but then a citizen of Kansas, addressed the Governor, on behalf of the citizens of the Territory, there assembled. The Governor replied in a neat
and happy, but brief speech, after which the champagne
flowed generously.
Two of the United States Territorial Judges � Hon. Saunders W. Johnson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Hon. Rush Elmore, of Montgomery, Alabama, reached here on Tuesday,
the 10th of October, 1854. Hon. S. D. Lecompte, the Chief
Justice, arrived at Leavenworth a short time after this date.
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