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Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on March 21 and 26, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella describes her train journey from Grafton, Ohio to Xenia, Ohio. On March 26, she writes from Yellow Springs, Ohio that Mr. Stephenson has been in the area collecting money for Kansas: “Thousands of dollars have been sent from Ohio alone & it seems as if Kansas must be well supplyed with many a provision if it all gets there & is properly distributed.”
Date: March 21, 1861-March 26, 1861

Title: Muster Roll of Company A, Missouri Mounted Militia
Description: This muster roll lists the names of soldiers in Company A of the Missouri Mounted Militia. They mustered into service on April 16, 1859, served until June of the same year, and earned $25 per month. The muster roll was signed June 7, 1859 by Captain William B. Fail.
Date: June 7, 1859

Title: Tragic Prelude
Description: Native Kansan John Steuart Curry's allegorical painting, "Tragic Prelude." Curry's work depicts John Brown and the clash of Free-State and proslavery forces in Bleeding Kansas along with other symbollic elements representing late 19th century Kansas.
Object Type: Image

Title: Election Results, 1860
Description: This document lists the results of an August 1860 election in Missouri. It shows Claiborne Fox Jackson receiving a large majority of the votes in the election for Governor. It also shows the results of elections for Congressman, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Attorney General, and several other positions.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: August 1860

Title: From Elizabeth Peery to George F. Peery
Description: On January 1, 1856, Elizabeth Peery writes a letter from Edinburgh, Missouri to George F. Peery. Elizabeth describes local festivities for the Christmas holiday, including a large party held by slaves. She reports that friends and family in the area are well, and recounts some of their recent activities. Elizabeth writes that she has a new baby boy, as yet unnamed; she asks George to suggest a name.
Date: January 1, 1856

Title: From S.G. Cato to John W. Geary
Description: This letter, dated October 29, 1856, is from Judge S.G. Cato in Shawnee County, Kansas to Gov. John W. Geary. Cato reports on the judicial proceedings he has presided over as Associate Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court. He lists the number of bills of indictment returned by grand juries in Anderson, Allen, Lykins, Bourbon, Franklin, and Shawnee counties, and reports that three criminal trials have been held in Bourbon County.
Date: October 29, 1856

Title: Notice! to Abolitionists and Freesoilers of Weston
Description: This broadside calls on “The Abolitionists and Freesoilers of Weston and vicinity” to meet at the Weston, Missouri courthouse on September 1, 1854 at 7:00pm, “to adopt such measures as they may deem most proper and expedient, and best calculated to Counteract the Effect produced by some of the doings of some of the men connected with the ‘Platte County Self-Defensive Association.’” The broadside was issued by “Many Citizens” on September 1, 1854 in Weston.
Object Type: Broadside
Date: September 1, 1854

Title: From John Ordway to Dear Friend
Description: This letter, dated January 19, 1856, was written by John Ordway in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to a friend, presumably in Missouri. John inquires about the progress of the railroads in Missouri, explaining that the newspapers choose to focus on “the Kansas troubles” instead of Missouri’s “internal improvements.” Of political sentiment in Massachusetts, John writes: “The extreme men here are few but an antislavery feeling is universal and the Kansas difficulties have rather tended to give it deeper root.”
Date: January 19, 1856

Title: John Brown
Description: Painting of John Brown by Ole Peter Hansen Balling, 1870.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1870

Title: From Charles Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: On September 30 and October 1, 1860, Charles Adair writes from Akron, Ohio to his father Samuel Lyle Adair. Charles says that he is now staying at Cousin Jason’s house near Akron. He reports that he and Jason attended a Republican meeting in Copley, Ohio: “there were a great many people at the meeting, the Akron wideawakes were out...they made a grand show.”
Date: September 30, 1860-October 1, 1860

Title: David Rice Atchison
Description: Half-length daguerreotype portrait of David Rice Atchison, facing three-quarters to the left. Atchison served as Democratic Senator from Missouri from 1843-1855.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1844-1860

Title: From Charles Adair and M.L. Davis to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: On September 24, 1860, Charles Adair writes from Aunt Marthey’s to his father Samuel Lyle Adair. Charles describes seeing Stephen A. Douglas at the station that morning and says he was unimpressed: “he is a mean looking man if ever I saw one.” On September 30, 1860, Samuel’s sister M.L. Davis finishes the letter Charles began, explaining that Charles left the letter behind when he went away. She writes briefly about Charles's and Florella's activities during their Ohio visit.
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 24, 1860 and September 30, 1860

Title: Public Meeting!!
Description: This broadside announces a public meeting featuring a speech by Rev. Fred Starr, Jr., who was driven out of Kansas for his anti-slavery stance. Starr will address the audience about “the recent Outrages against the free Citizens of Kansas, by which the Right of Suffrage has been Invaded! The Pulpit Overthrown! The Missionaries Dispersed! The Press Destroyed! And the Liberty of Speech denied to Freemen.” The announcement was printed June 4, 1855 at the office of the Batavia Democrat, presumably in Batavia, New York.
Object Type: Broadside
Date: June 4, 1855

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Unknown
Description: This undated letter was written ca. April 15, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair, presumably to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella reports that she plans to start for home on April 21, arriving home on the following Saturday. Florella says that Samuel’s father’s health is poor, and that she may attend a family wedding before she leaves Ohio. She writes that Charles and Ada are both well.

Title: From S.H. Woodson to George R. Smith
Description: On July 1, 1856, S.H. Woodson writes from Independence, Missouri to Gen. George R. Smith. Woodson denies the charge that he called Smith "as great an Abolitionist as there was in Massachusetts or in New York," declaring "There is not one word of truth in it."
Date: July 1, 1856

Title: From Frederick Starr to Dear Father
Description: This letter was written on March 31, 1855, by Frederick Starr in Weston, Missouri, to his father. Starr describes the election fraud that took place at the Kansas legislative elections on March 30, calling it “a high handed outrage.” He says that hundreds of armed, pro-slavery Missourians came into Kansas to disrupt the election, and that more than 800 illegal votes were cast in Leavenworth, Kansas. Starr asks his father to publish the information in his letter in the Albany Evening Journal, without mentioning his name.
Date: March 31, 1855

Title: Old Sacramento
Description: Photograph of Mexican-American War cannon, nicknamed "Old Sacramento," that was captured by Free-State forces at the attack on Franklin, Kansas. On August 12, 1856, Free-Staters attacked Franklin, Kansas, and six proslavery settlers were killed. The attackers captured "Old Sacramento," the name given to a cannon used by Missourians in the Mexican-American War. The attack was a success in part because the Free-Staters managed to roll a wagon of hay up to the front of a building holding proslavery men, where they ignited the hay and threatened the building.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: From Sue Brawner to All at Home
Description: This letter of July 24, 1859 is from Sue Brawner in Linneus, Missouri to “all at home.” She describes a recent trip from Lexington, Missouri to Linneus via the city of Brunswick. Along the way she and her traveling companions visited relatives. Sue writes of staying with Tom, a relative in Linneus who owns several slaves: “They have a black girl as large as I am.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: July 24, 1859

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: This letter, dated November 8, 1860, was written by Florella Brown Adair in Hudson, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair in Osawatomie, Kansas. Florella writes that she just returned to Hudson after a trip to Ashtabula, Geauga, and Portage Counties. She says that she will come home if necessary, but is reluctant to because of the present difficult times in Kansas. Florella adds that she came to Ohio “hoping to enjoy the society of my friends once more after being so long shut up in Kansas and I have so far not been disappointed.”
Date: November 8, 1860

Title: From H.M. Clark to R.M. Stewart
Description: This June 2, 1858 letter is from Capt. H.M. Clark in Boonville, Missouri to Missouri Gov. R.M. Stewart. Clark volunteers his company, the Union Riflemen of Cooper County, Missouri, to assist in patrolling the western border to "preserve peace with Kansas." He states that he can offer a force of fifty mounted men, or light infantry, and adds that they need a few additional tents and wagons.
Date: June 2, 1858

Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865

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