 |
 Important Dates in
Kansas Spanish explorer Francisco
Vásquez de Coronado entered Kansas in search of
gold (1541). Territory of Kansas established
(1854). Kansas became the 34th state (1861). |
 Kansas Territory
Defined When Kansas was formed as a territory in
1854, it had 126,823 square miles. The original
Kansas Territory included portions of what is now
Colorado west to the Continental Divide, and
Pike's Peak was in Kansas at that time. |
 The
Battle of Black
Jack, which was fought between
forces led by John Brown and by Henry Pate near
present-day Baldwin City, Kansas, on June 2,
1856, is considered by many historians to be the
first true battle of the Civil War. |
 The
Wyandotte
Constitution, ratified by Kansas
voters on October 4, 1859, was the one under
which Kansas was admitted to the Union. The
constitution outlawed slavery, gave women equal
rights in divorce and child custody cases, and
set the boundaries where they are now. |
 Annie Diggs
was a supporter of the Populist movement,
temperance, and women's suffrage. She wrote
articles and lectured extensively on behalf of
each cause and served with many national
organizations devoted to them. |
 Brewster Higley
was a retired doctor living in Smith Center when,
in 1872, he jotted down a poem he called Western Home." A visitor to his
home convinced him to set the poem to music, and
the resulting Home on the Range became
on the most popular western songs ever published;
it became the State Song of Kansas in 1947. |
 Cyrus Kurtz Holliday
founded Topeka in 1854 for the specific purpose
of it becoming the capital of a free state. He
then founded the Atchison and Topeka Railroad
Company to connect the cities of Atchison and
Topeka by rail. |
 James Henry Lane
was an active member of the Free State forces and
helped defend Lawrence during the "Wakarusa
War." In 1861 he was elected as one of the
first two U.S. Senators from the newly-admitted
State of Kansas. |
 Alfred Mossman Landon
was the only Republican west of the Mississippi
River to win a gubernatorial contest in 1932, and
the only Republican Governor in the country to
win re-election in 1934. He failed to win
election to the presidency in 1936, however. |
 Kathryn O'Loughlin
McCarthy was the
first Democrat ever elected to the U.S. Congress
from her district, as well as the first Kansas
woman ever elected to that body. In Congress, she
fought for emergency assistance for schools,
supported the "New Deal," and was an
advocate for relaxing the 18th
Amendment. |
 Joseph
Geating McCoy bought land on the
Kansas Pacific Railway in 1867, where he built a hotel, stockyard, office and bank.
Between 1867 and 1881, over 2 million head of
cattle were sent from Abilene to Chicago. |
 Benjamin Sanford Paulen
was a successful banker who served as Governor of
Kansas from 1925 to 1929. During his term, a state gasoline tax was enacted,
cigarette sales were legalized and taxed, etc.
The most popular action during his administration
was establishment of a kindergarten system in the
state in 1927. |
 Susanna Madora Salter
was elected by Argonia as the first woman Mayor
in Kansas in 1887. Ironically, she was initially
nominated by a group of men hoping to discredit
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. |
