History

The next exploration of the country which was to become Kansas was in 1806. In 1805 Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike was sent on a voyage of exploration and discovery up the Mississippi from St Louis by General James Wilkinson. From that voyage he returned on the 30th of April, 1806. General Wilkinson was Military Commandant of the Territory of Louisiana, and it was in his military capacity that he directed Lieutenant Pike to undertake the voyage up the Mississippi. Upon his return from the river expedition General Wilkinson, who was also Governor of the Territory of Louisiana, ordered Lieutenant Pike …

Zebulon M. Pike Read More »

The Marshall families three brothers, two sisters and one foster sister –spend the month of August in each year at the Walnut Springs Camp, a camping ground on the old homestead. They move out August 1st of each year and have built a spacious dining pavilion 18 by 24 feet, with cement floor, metal roof, and arranged with screens complete. The three brothers attend to business matters in Leon over the telephone or in person during the day and all eat and sleep at the camp. They have an ideal spot–fishing, boating, bathing, with games of croquet, and tennis courts …

Walnut Springs Camp Read More »

The next expedition entering what is now the State of Kansas was sent out from the Spanish settlements in New Mexico. The first intimation the French authorities had of this invasion was contained in a letter written on the 24th of May, 1721, by M. De Boisbriant, Governor of the Illinois District, to Bienville, saying that three hundred Spaniards had left Santa Fe to drive the French from Louisiana, but that they had been turned back by the Pawnees and Osages. The facts concerning this foray into the Great Plains have not been available until recently, the first intelligible account …

Villazur Expedition Read More »

The inaptitude of the Government of the United States to comprehend the needs of a people of foreign origin living under a government devised by another country was well illustrated in the early days of its occupancy of French Louisiana. To govern well in a subject country requires that the tendencies, needs, laws, language, social customs, legal usages, and government should be thoroughly studied and completely comprehended. Reforms should never be too sudden nor to radical, for a people can be moved only after its members have reached a common conclusion and attained a common mind. The administration of civil …

Upper Louisiana Read More »

The Turk was to play an important part in the future movements of the Coronado expedition. He must have gone with Alvarado when that captain returned to Tiguex. There, during the winter, he related to Coronado the wonders of the country of Quivira and two adjoining provinces—Arche and Guaes. In Quivira there was some silver and gold, he said, but more in the adjacent lands. It is admitted that he was a man of superior intelligence, and it is probable that when he learned that the Spaniards desired gold above all other things, he told of great store of it …

The Turk Read More »

It is well to make at this point a summary of the essential events of the Oregon Trail to find if possible what its national import was. It began at Independence in Western Missouri. At that point travel and commerce bound for the Great West left the Missouri River and struck out overland along this famous highway. This royal road traversed the Great Plains, the Great Interior Basin, and the Pacific Slope. It wound its tortuous course over prairie and plain, up and over the Rocky Mountains, through the great interior valleys, and emerged in the Northwest at Fort Vancouver, …

Summary of Events Concerning the Oregon Trail Read More »

One Snively, styling himself a Colonel, organized, in North Texas, early in May, 1843, a force of about one hundred and seventy-five men for the purpose of preying on the Mexicans engaged in the Santa Fe trade. Texas and Mexico were then at war, and the purpose of Snively would have been justified had he molested only the Mexicans. He arrived on the Arkansas in May, and was soon joined by Warfield and his company, who had recently lost their horses to the Mexicans by a stampede. Snively came upon a party of Mexicans south of the Arkansas sand hills, …

The Texans Read More »

The State Bank of Leon. The writer had been extolling the virtues of business establishments in thirty states but he had never yet run across just such an institution as the State Bank of Leon in any town within five or six times the size of this city. This bank occupies a three floor pressed brick and stone trimmed structure 50 by 122 feet in size and made absolutely fireproof with steel and reinforced concrete. The above bank had an unusual personnel. The officers are M. W. Marshall. president; J. A. Marshall, vice president, and W. S. Marshall, cashier. These …

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In the revival of the myths of “The Seven Cities” it was said that other parties from the Spanish settlements had visited the rich countries of the North, especially after the return of the shipwrecked wanderers. Of what they saw there, of what they reported, we are not certain. But there was a growing desire to know what those hidden regions held. Mendoza determined to find out. He sent forth an expedition commanded by Friar Marcos de Niza, who is said to have made a prior journey into that land on his own account. He had came into Mexico from …

The Seven Cities Read More »

A scientific expedition commanded by Major Stephen H. Long visited the country later to become Kansas in the years 1819 and 1820. The expeditions of Lewis and Clark and Lieutenant Pike had added much to the geographical knowledge of the country. The Government evidently believed it was in duty bound to secure as much information as possible concerning the extensive regions known as Louisiana, so the expedition in the interest of the scientific features of the country was organized and sent out. Some other portions of the United States were included in the scope of the work assigned Major Long, …

Scientific Expedition of Major Stephen H. Long Read More »