Odyssey Through the American Frontier: Pioneers, Trails, and the Wild History of Kansas

Prepare for an odyssey that takes us back to the times of the American Frontiersmen, the brave and resilient pioneers who ventured west, tamed the wilderness, and laid the foundation for the United States as we know it today. We promise you an adventure packed with tales of survival, resourcefulness, and the indomitable spirit that pushed these early settlers beyond known territories. Discover how they blazed the Santa Fe trail, accelerating the development of the Frontier.

As we journey further, we immerse ourselves in the early history of Kansas, a state with a past as wild as the Frontier itself. Brace yourselves as we unravel the challenges of wars, raids, natural disasters and disease outbreaks that shaped Kansas. Hear about the horrific Lawrence massacre led by William Quantrell, and how, despite these tragedies, Kansas found its path to peace and progress. From the pioneering Exodusters to the controversial reign of Henry J Allen, we explore all the extraordinary influences that made Kansas what it is today. Settle in and let us begin our expedition into America's Frontier past.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

While West Podcast proudly presents Surviving the Frontier and the Early History of Kansas, this podcast is unique, for Brad and I portray the characteristics of the American Frontiersmen and how our early pioneers served as an important part of the development of our country's values and customs. The second part of this podcast provides our listeners with a condensed overview of the early history of Kansas.

Speaker 2: 0:38

The Frontier way of life is characteristic of the people who first settled the western reaches of the continental United States. Frontier life in America is the story of migration and the fundamental images Americans have of themselves. It served as an important part of the development of the country's values and customs. History is full of stories about survivalists. The first settlers in the Frontier crossed a vast landscape to find fortune. They participated in a westward expansion of a country and moved west to settle new lands. They may not have thought of themselves as survivalists, but their instincts showed in the life they had to make for themselves. Each of them needed to be aware of what it took to survive, especially when they took on a new adventure or gambled at the chance of prosperity. The Frontier was founded by its pioneers, settlers and adventurers. Not for what they knew, but from what they learned through backbreaking experiences, from the soil in their blood and out of their fever to explore. They became enriched in building new homes in an unsettled Frontier. It didn't matter if one was a homesteading a farm, building a town or starting a cattle ranch. Survival on the edge of civilization was the name of the game. The pioneers lived a rough, dangerous and demanding life. The men had to be farmers, hunters, trappers, skilled carpenters and skillful with weapons, especially the rifle. They knew what hard work required and made a living from the dirt they developed. The early pioneers left trails in history that will never be scoured by the wind and rain or never plowed under by socialistic ideas of entitlement. Buried in the compost of today's designs, the struggles, hardships and experiences of the first settlers continued to influence the later community. These inattitudes were transmitted through stories that have become an essential part of American self-awareness. Out of the hard simplicity of their lives, out of the vitality of a spirit to endure through hopes and sorrows, they grew to become legends of courage and pride. They inspired their children and their children's children to rise to prosperity under the American spirit of hard work. Today, we may have divorced these struggles through the lack of American spirit for survival, the same spirit it took to develop a country out of rude settlements, from trading posts, into cities that rank among the great ones of the world. Today, this same heritage of freedom given to its people is unrestricted to dream, free to act and open to mold an individual's own destiny. But this freedom never be taken for granted, or may it never be at risk, a risk of a divide between those who see America for the giving other than the struggle to keep a great nation's spirit alive.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Early Kansas History. The pages of Kansas history have been filled with romance and conflict. Since Coronado and the conquistadors rode across the plains seeking quivera, he and his explorers rode on the first horses ever seen by the Kansas Indians. Coronado, the leader of the first white men to set foot on Kansas soil in 1541, claimed to the area with the rest of the western country. For Spain. This claimed territory would stand for nearly a century and a half, supported by other Spanish expeditions that went uncontested For another two centuries. The area, as part of the province of Louisiana, was shuttled between France and Spain, going back to France again in 1802. But as none of the claimants assumed more than nominal ownership of the Kansas region, it was left to the Indians until May 2, 1803, when the territory of Louisiana became part of the United States.

Speaker 2: 4:17

On June 26, 1804, lewis and Clark were at the mouth of the Kansas River on the first lap of the expedition. Lewis and Clark's purpose was to find a route through the new territory to the Pacific Ocean, as well as discover how far the British had come down from Canada into this western land. Zebulun Pike followed in 1806, and in 1819 the SH Longs expedition steamed up the Missouri River in the Western. Engineer. The Western was the first steamboat on the river's west of the Mississippi. Kansas destiny, however, was not immediately fixed. Pike, although exploring wildly, carried back a tale of a great American desert that included the whole of what became Kansas and represented it as unfit for Whiteman's habitation. Longs observation confirmed the fallacy, a fallacy that so thoroughly permeated eastern imaginations for another quarter of a century. Except for a few traders, trappers and missionaries, kansas was uninhabitable by Whiteman. In 1826, the country west of the state of Missouri had been designated as Indian Territory.

Speaker 2: 5:24

The eastern half of Kansas became a receiving reservation for various bands of Indians expelled from the east. The Indians being expelled began with the Shawnee in 1828, and ending with the Wyandotte in 1843. With these tribes arrived the first missionaries, methodists, who came to teach the Shawnee and Wyandotte County. In 1829. The first printing press and newspaper also found its place among the Shawnee through the action of Reverend Jotham Meeker. Meeker was sent to Kansas by the Board of Baptist Missions, to Johnson County in 1833. In 1835. The first free school established by the Wyandotte in Wyandotte County in 1844. Meeker was assigned to the Shawnee tribe as a printer missionary. The arrival of the Indians also brought roads, ferries, trading posts and government agencies. This move followed the decision of the government to transfer the eastern tribes to lands west of the Missouri River. West of the Missouri River is where more than 20 nations were promised possession.

Speaker 2: 6:27

So long as the sun shone, the grass grew and the rivers ran downhill. In the same period, events elsewhere were hastening the region's development. These included the establishment of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821. The development of the Santa Fe Trail spearheaded through the journeys of Fremont, who crossed Kansas and made reports that interested many people in the fertility of the plains. Then, in 1846, a war with Mexico resulted in the annexation of the southwest. During this time, the migration to Oregon began in the 1840s, followed by the Mormon Trek to Utah starting in 1846. The discovery of gold in California followed in 1849, causing a westward rush. During these activities, large numbers of travelers had a chance to see the virgin fertility of the prairies, for both the Santa Fe and Oregon trails cut across them.

Speaker 2: 7:21

Kansas lands so long believed to be worthless became coveted On May 6, 1854, under pressure from squatters, politicians and would-be settlers. The government began breaking its treaties, reserving Kansas for the Indians to open up various sections to white settlers. On May 30, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed and Kansas Territory was organized. For the next seven years, kansas history was filled with violence and drama. The Kansas-Nebraska Act upset the Missouri Compromise and transformed the verbal battles over slavery into physical combat, which took place on the Kansas Plains.

Speaker 2: 7:59

The Free State adherents and pro-slavery advocates, the latter mainly from Missouri, poured in Each side, determined to supply the territory with enough people of its own way of thinking to set up a government that would promote the policy it advocated. The result was anarchy. Under the administration of the first territorial governor, andrew H Reeder, the pro-slavery party gained ascendancy. At the election of a delegate to Congress on November 29, 1854, the Missourians crossed into Kansas and took control of the political situation. At the election of the territorial legislature on March 30, 1855, they emphasized the performance. Four to five thousand armed men from Missouri invaded the polls, stuffed the ballot boxes, browbeat the judges and elected the bogus legislature which, with one or two exceptions, was made up of residents of Missouri. Under threat of his life, reeder was obliged to issue election certificates.

Speaker 2: 8:59

On July 2, this bogus legislature convened at Pawnee, ejected its few Free State members and reconvened at the Shawnee Mission in Johnson County, where it proceeded to adopt the Missouri Statutes by merely instructing the clerk to strike out the word Missouri and insert the name of the territory, then proceeded to enact the infamous Black Laws. These laws provided the death penalty for anyone who, by word or deed, should aid in freeing a slave, an appenditentiary sentence for expression of opinion adverse to the institution of slavery. To ensure their execution, the law and order party was organized at Leavenworth the following October 3rd. Meanwhile, the Free State Party, though outwardly passive, was preparing resistance. In April 1855, dr Charles Robinson, a Free State leader and later First Governor of the State of Kansas, wrote to Eli Thayer of Massachusetts for 100 Sharps Rifles, which were promptly sent in under the guise of Beecher's Bibles. On September 5th, at Big Springs, a Free State assembly repudiated the acts of bogus legislature and formed its own government. At Topeka, on October 23rd, a constitution was written and state officers were nominated.

Speaker 2: 10:13

The pro-slavery party viewed these acts with mounting animosity, which came to a head on November 21st. This is when Charles Dow, a Free Stater, was shot and killed by the pro-slavery settler Franklin Coleman. Violence on both sides escalated, leading to what was called the Wakerusa War. A small group of armed Missourians under the command of Douglas County, kansas Sheriff Samuel J Jones, laid siege to Lawrence, kansas, on December 1st 1855. The border ruffians from Missouri assembled on the Wakerusa River about six miles from Lawrence. There were about 1,500 men armed with weapons taken from the United States arsenal.

Speaker 2: 10:53

At Liberty, missouri In Lawrence, kansas, the Free Staters, led by John Brown and James Lane, had set up barricades preparing for a battle. The purpose of destroying the town of Lawrence was prevented by the intervention of the Second Territorial Governor, wilson Shannon, who sent federal troops from Fort Leavenworth. They arrived only after a second Free State man, thomas Barber, had been murdered. The killing of Thomas Barber was followed by the butchery of Captain R P Brown at Easton on January 18th 1856. By the shooting of two young Free Staters, jones and Stewart, on May 18th, and by the sacking and partial burning of Lawrence on May 21st. Three days later, john Brown retaliated with the murder and mutilation of five pro-slavery men in what has been called the Potawatomi Massacre. Brown's action, the first organized retaliatory movement in the Free State Party, inspired radicals of both sides and projected the territory into open warfare. Pretended attempts to arrest Brown resulted in the battles of Black Jack, franklin and Fort Titus, in the raiding of Paul Mira and Prairie City, the sacking of Osawatomi, where David Garrison and Frederick Brown, son of John Brown, were killed.

Speaker 2: 12:07

On the north side of the river, at Atchison, donovan and Leavenworth, free State families were ejected from the territory. A blockade was established on the Missouri River to prevent further immigration of Free Staters. This action caused Colonel James H Lane to raise his army of the north. James Montgomery organized reckless young Free Staters into a guerrilla band known as the Jayhawkers. Men were called out into the night and shot down for no other reason than that they supported, or were suspected of supporting, the opposite cause. Women and children, regardless of age or condition, were driven from their homes with only the clothing on their backs. Fields were laid waste and settlements sacked, all in the name of a cause, but in fact to gratify personal revenge or avarice. On May 19th 1858, a band of pro-slavery men under Charles A Hamilton heard at eleven Free State men into a ravine near Trading Post on the Marie de Zine and shot them down to settle Hamilton's grudges.

Speaker 2: 13:06

During these seven years, six governors and five acting governors held office. The territorial capital hopped about with surprising agility and three constitutions were written and rejected. Martial law prevailed intermittently and free state leaders were indicted and imprisoned for treason. Eventually, the free state party grew too strong to be bullied and the opposing faction was shorn of its power. On July 5, 1859, a constitutional convention assembled at Wyandotte to frame a fourth constitution was adopted On January 29, 1861, with the signature of President James A Buchanan. Kansas became the 34th state in the Union with the motto at Astra per Aspera, to the stars through difficulty.

Speaker 2: 13:53

But Kansas' troubles were not ended. Three months after its admission, kansas was called on to participate in the Civil War. Although Kansas was not in the zone of action, it was entered briefly by only one of the major armies, the force led by General Sterling Price. In his campaign through Missouri and Arkansas was known as Price's Raid. Price had orders to put down the guerrilla warfare and uprisings by the Indians. The Indians saw the war as an opportunity to get back their lands. Also, bushwhackers led by William Quantrell, bill Anderson and others, and the Red Legs under James Montgomery were continually active. On August 21, 1863, quantrell raided and burned the town of Lawrence, killing 150 of its citizens.

Speaker 2: 14:39

With the close of the war, kansas for the first time had peace to develop. Its subsequent history is one of progress, though even new pages have a dramatic character. Blizzard's droughts, floods, cholera, prairie fires, grasshoppers and dust storms have shattered it. Buffalo, prairie schooners, stagecoaches, cattle, railroad building, bronco busting and sawed house. Pioneering Exodusters and oil have lent color and romance. Anti-tobacco leagues carry nation and prohibition. Henry J Allen and the industrial courts and bond scandals have furnished the fire of battle.