Shawnee County History
Topeka Twp.
"History of Shawnee County and Representative Citizens," James L. King, 1905
Topeka Township � The territory comprising Topeka township belonged in 1855 to Yocum township, which then included all the territory in
the country lying south of the W^akarusa River. The name Yocum was
dropped February 23, 1857, when the county was subdivided into five townships, Topeka being one of them. Additional territory and later subdivisions
gave it its present boundaries, from the Kansas River south to Williamsport,
with Tecumseh on the east and Mission on the west � Soldier being the opposite township on the north side of the river.
Clement Shattio, a Frenchman, was the first white settler in the township, coming from Uniontown, November 15, 1852. He purchased a farm
on the south bank of the river one mile west of the present city of Topeka.
The farm formerly belonged to Alexander Bushman, a half-breed Shawnee
Indian. Shattio was born in St. Louis in the year 1800, and moved to Uniontown in June, 1848, In 1850 he married Ann Davis, a colored woman, who
was born in Palestine, Illinois, in 1817. Ten years later she was stolen from
her parents and carried to Missouri, where she was several times sold as a slave. She bought her freedom in 1859, after taking up her residence in
Kansas.
SETTLERS IN TOPEKA TOWNSHIP.
Later settlers arrived in the following order: Horatio Cox, May 5,
1854; Anthony Ward, June 1: Robert Matthews, July 15: J. Jondron, A.
Berringer, Isaac Edwards, L. Bivard and D. Chilson, about July 25 ; Gilbert
Billard, Charles Sardou and Fred Vascalders, August 28; John Long,
Thomas Warren, J. R. Warren, H. McConnell and James McConnell, October 10. The Warrens, father and son, were from Kentucky. Thomas Warren, the elder, became 100 years of age in 1870, and visited the Kansas Legislature on his centennial birthday anniversary, receiving a special welcome
at the hands of the Speaker pro tem, Hon. John Guthrie. Warren died in
1874, at the remarkable age of 104 years.
William R. Boggs moved into the township August 14, 1854, and purchased the farm which is now the site of the Kansas State Hospital for the
Insane. Following him came William Pickerell, October 17; Philip Briggs,
October 20; John Parkinson, October 18; William Griffenstein, November 1;
John T. Adams, Rev. Michael Hummer and Dr. Noble Barron, about November 15 : John Armstrong, November 20 ; Enoch Chase, Jacob B. Chase,
Milton C. Dickey and George Davis, November 29 � this party settled on the
farm land upon which the city of Topeka is located; Daniel H. Home, Fry
W. Giles, Loring G. Cleveland, S. A. Clark, W. C. Linaker, Thomas G.
Thornton, Jonas E. Greenwood, Cyrus K. Holliday and Timothy McIntire,
December 4; James F. Merriam, December 7; James A. Hickey, December
12; L. S. Long. December 15; Freeman R. Foster and Robert L. Mitchell,
December 20; Dr. S. E. Martin, December 25. S. J. Case, H. F. Root, C.
N. Gray and G. F. Crowe also came in December.
LATER ARRIVALS.
Those who settled in the township in the year 1855, as nearly as can be
determined, were the following: John Ritchie, J. C. Miller, W. W. Ross,
J. C. Jordan, H. W. Curtis, Charles Farnsworth, L. W. Home, R. A. Randlett, O. C. Nichols, S. D. Conwell, B. F. Dawson, C. A. Sexton, Henry
Cowles. John Perrin, Rev. Henry Burgess, Charles Frazier, C. A. Dexter,
W. H. Weymouth. Daniel Sayres, Ephraim Herriott, Horatio Fletcher,
Samuel Herriott, Daniel Banta, H. Higgins, Johnston Thomas, King Smith,
Antoine Bernier, H. Tyrrell, A. H. Barnard, Robert Todd, Dr. M. A. E. J.
Campdoras, Henry Griffin, C. Durupt, Isaac Renfrew, J. Willetts, J. W.
Jones, C. D. Howard, L. H. Wentworth, Robert Gilbert, D. Sheridan, James
Goodrich, E. C. K. Garvey, F. L. Crane, James Chadwick, Dean Chadwick,
C. C. Leonard, C. L. Terrill, Moses Dudley, J. Orcutt, William Scales,
H. P. Waters, James G. Bunker, James McNamee, J. F. Cummins, Isaac
Zimmerman, Loring Farnsworth, E. Seagraves, Abner Doane, A. M. Lewis,
Guilford Dudley, John R. Lewis, George F. Boyd, D. Mintum, J. D. Clarkson. James Taggart, L. C. Wilmarth, A. G. Thompson, Gabriel Wright, J.
C. Gordon, Asaph Allen, James Disney, Moses Hubbard, P. R. Hubbard,
Eugene Dumez, P. O. O'Connor, E. S. Parker, Jesse Stone, O. H. Drink-
water, Samuel Hall, Leonard Wendell, A. F. Whiting, W. E. Bowker, S. N.
Frasier, M. C, Martin, William P. Thompson, David H. Moore, W. W.
Henderson, William Gibbons, M. K. Smith, A. F. Hart well, David Smith,
Charles L. Wilbur, G. B. French, E. Trask, August Roberts, H. C. Young,
Nelson Young, James Cowles, R. M. Luce, F. T. Tucker, Richard Gustine,
Henry P. Waters, Gerard C. Hooft, S. Lyford and W. W. Phillips.
RIVAL TOWNS.
Topeka, the county-seat and capital city, is located in Topeka township.
No other city or town has ever been erected in the township, every attempt
in that direction having proved a failure, or resulted in adding a suburb to
the big city, as in the cases of Oakland, Seabrook, Auburndale and Potwin.
Of the towns projected near Topeka at different periods, the following
names are given as a matter of record, the places having long since faded
from sight � almost from memory: Fremont, Paris, Washington, Council
City, Glendale, Carthage, Kenamo and Mairsville.
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