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BALD EAGLE VOL. 32, NO.4 LECOMPTONKANSAS.COM WINTER 2006 Christmas Vespers at Lane University Chapel on December 3 Lecompton’s annual “Old Fashion” Christ- mas Vespers and Territorial Capital Museum Open House will be at 2 p.m., Sunday, Decem- ber 3, 2006. The traditional Christmas carols will be presented by the Lecompton United Methodist Church Choir directed by Kim Stew- art, the First United Methodist Church Bell Choir, Topeka, and individuals including Fran- ces Sanford, Cindy Daniels, Phil Wizer, David Howard, Bonny Fugett, Nick Griggs, Claire Henrichsen, and Ashley Lesser. Beginning Nov. 18, all of the rooms of the Museum will be decorated with our traditional Christmas tree in the second floor Chapel. The Christmas decorations just make the Museum come alive; it’s really beautiful. Please join us for the trimming on November 18, 2006. Busy 2007 Set for - -Kansas Department of Transportation photo Lecompton The big blue Kansas Department of Transportation signs on both the east and west ap- proaches to Lecompton proudly proclaim, “LECOMPTON, Territorial Capital of Kansas, Historical Society Home of Nine Territorial Governors, 1855-1861.” The new County Road 1029 signs were dedicated in a ceremony in the chapel of the Territorial Capital Museum on Oct. 19, 2006. Dates to Remember Among the dignitaries in the crowd was Deb Miller, Secretary of Transportation for the state of Kansas. She told the packed chamber that Lecompton is “the first community in Nov. 18 Kansas to take the steps necessary to have the signs installed.” Earlier this year the Kan- Territorial Capital Tree Trimming. All are wel- come to join in decorating the tree. sas Legislature authorized signs at the home towns of all of the Kansas governors. Initially the signage bill called for honoring governors after Kansas became a state in 1861. The Nov 18 - Jan 3 Lecompton Historical Society asked state Representative Tom Sloan to get the bill amended All rooms of the museum and native Christ- to include territorial governors, which he did. Please turn to Page 2 for pictures and bio- mas tree decorated for public viewing graphical sketches of the ten Kansas Territorial Governors. Dec. 3 Christmas Vespers and Territorial Capital Mu- Lecompton Historical Society President Paul Bahnmaier Reports: seum Open House, 2 pm Bleeding Kansas Sesquicentennial Jan 28 For five consecutive Sunday's at 2pm the internationally renowned lecture series at Brings Excitement, New Members Constitution Hall in Lecompton, Kansas Poster on Page 9 This past year has been amazing. In normal times the Lecompton Historical Society gets 20 or so new Life Members in a year. Since we started our Membership Drive last June 16 spring, I can report 54 new Life Memberships and 12 Memorial Life Memberships. The Lecompton High School Alumni Banquet reason may be that the cost of membership will increase next year, but many of our new June 22,23 members say it’s because of the rich rewards that come from watching the Lecompton Official Sesquicentennial Blast Reenactors perform or from joining in the fun at Territorial Days and the Rendezvous. Territorial Days: Lecompton Constitution, We also have monthly programs at our meetings, which are at 6:30 the second Tuesday Colonel Titus Sword and other artifacts on dis- of the month, except during the winter. play If any of you are still waiting to become Life Members, you’ve only the months of Sept. 21,22,23 November and December left. On Jan. 1, 2007, a Life Membership will jump from $50 to $100. Please fill out the membership form on Page 11 and mail it in today. Bald Eagle Rendezvous Continued on page 11 Kansas Territorial Governors Editor’s Note: The mug shots of the 10 Kansas Terri- torial Governors form a circle in the picture that hangs on the wall of Gov. Sebelius’ office. All governors, except for Andrew Reeder. served in Lecompton. Their service is commemorated by the placement of two highway signs honoring their service in Lecomp- ton. The state legislature authorized the road signs as part of the Kansas Territory Sesquicentennial celebra- tion. At the dedication ceremony in the Museum’s chapel, the invocation and benediction were given by Rev. Kenneth Baker, Lecompton United Methodist Church. Tim Rues and Charlene Winter presented the American and Kansas flags and led the Pledge of Alle- giance. Dignitaries present who made welcoming re- marks were Paul Bahnmaier, president of the Lecomp- ton Historical Society, Roy Paslay, mayor of Lecomp- ton, and State Senator Marci Francisco and State Rep- resentative Tom Sloan. Deb Miller, state Secretary of Transportation, gave the dedication address. The historical data for the biographies of the 10 Kansas Territorial Governors presented below is based on Homer E. Socolofsky’s Kansas Governors, pub- lished in 1990 by the University of Kansas Press. The author, a long-time professor history at Kansas State University and past president of both the Kansas State Historical Society and the Kansas History Teachers Association, was a leading authority on Kansas history. Gary Stauffer, a LHS member, adapted a Kansas State - -John Peterson historical Society photo, for its hanging in the Museum. The description above says: Kansas Territorial officials were ap- pointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Re- Gov. Reeder quired to be residents of the Territory, Governors served at an was from Pennsyl- annual salary of $2,500 for four-year terms, unless removed vania, a loyal and by the President. From 1854 to 1861, six men served as Kan- committed De- sas Territorial Governors, all appointed by Presidents Pierce mocrat who was and Buchanan. No governor fulfilled a four-year term. Dur- considered a ing interludes between appointments, and at any time a gover- nor was absent from the Territory, the Territorial Secretary “doughface,” a served as Acting Governor. Five men fulfilled this function at term used for one various times during the six years and eight months Kansas soft on slavery. was a territory. Secretaries were also appointed by the Presi- Yet from his earli- dent and confirmed by the Senate to serve five-year terms. est days as gover- James Denver was the only acting governor to be subsequently nor he dissatisfied appointed as governor., George M. Beebe was serving as and infuriated pro- Acting Governor when Kansas was admitted to the Union. Andrew H. Reeder, 1854-1855. slavery forces. He The first State Governor, Charles Robinson, was inaugurated refused to call February 9, 1861. Andrew Reeder was commis- early elections to sioned to be the first governor of seat a legislature and instead over- Democrat, he was disposed to act Kansas Territory by President saw the election of a friend as fairly towards the proslavery party, Franklin Pierce on June 29, 1854. K.T.’s delegate to Congress. Most and was in favor of allowing the While Gov. Reeder never lived in important was the terminology he question to be settled by an honest Lecompton, some of his actions and used in a speech in Pennsylvania vote of the people. The Kansas- words profoundly influenced the when he called the Missourians Nebraska Act of 1854 had called for early months and years of Kansas “Border Ruffians.” “popular sovereignty,” which meant Territory. Although he was a free-state (Continued on page 3) 2 Kansas Territorial Governors (Continued from page 2) Socolofsky wrote of him, “He was the Mexican War of 1846 followed. the vote of territorial residents fully sympathetic with the southern He returned to Ohio and was would determine whether Kansas designs for making Kansas a slave elected to the U.S. House of Repre- would be free-state or slave-state. state, and he complied willingly sentatives in 1851. In 1855 he was Gov. Reeder was terminated by with the wishes of the pro-slavery appointed the second governor of President Pierce in July 1855, prin- party.” Kansas Territory. cipally because he was ineffective Acting Gov. Woodson signed Gov. Shannon was an extreme but also because he was charged the first laws passed by the Kansas Southern man in politics, of the with profiting from land specula- Territorial legislature. Free-staters border ruffian type. His broad ex- tion. He had, after all, called the denounced the laws as “bogus,” perience should have served him first K.T. Legislature to session in claiming voting irregularities. That well. “However, the characteristics Pawnee, a settlement near Ft. Riley was the beginning of his battles that had caused his dismissal as that he helped promote. with free-staters. minister to Mexico were also evi- Gov. Reeder remained a dedi- In the summer of 1856, Gov. dent in Kansas. Shannon blun- cated free-state Democrat, so much Wilson Shannon was fired and dered into one crisis after another, so that in the following year, 1856, again Sec. Woodson became acting and his lack of diplomacy when the territorial government convened governor. He issued an dealing with opposing sides fueled a grand jury, which brought “extermination proclamation,” de- the volatile situation.” charges of high treason against the claring Kansas Territory “to be in a Shannon proved too willing to former governor and other free- state of open insurrection and re- accede to pro-slavery requests— state leaders. In 1856 he backed bellion.” The proclamation pro- most notably, by giving control of Republican John C. Fremont for duced three weeks of marches and the Kansas militia to a vengeful pro president. In 1860, as a delegate to countermarches of large-scale -slave sheriff, Samuel J. Jones, who the Republican National Conven- forces on both sides. Acting Gov. interpreted his mandate as reason tion, he was presented by the Penn- Woodson called on Col.
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