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Title: Statement of Hiram D. Preston
Description: This statement, dated September 11, 1856, was given by Hiram D. Preston regarding the robbery of a team of horses and a load of provisions near Leavenworth, Kansas in August 1856. Preston states that he was accosted by three men on the road from Lawrence, who took him to Capt. Emory’s camp nearby. After being held hostage for several days, Preston lost the team, which belonged to H.L. Jones, and provisions worth $120.52.
Object Type: Document
Date: September 11, 1856

Title: Sale of Slave
Description: This document declares the $800 sale of a male slave named Pleasant from Nathan C. Skinner of Stewart County, Tennessee to Jesse L. Ingram of St. Joseph, Missouri on February 22, 1855. Skinner promises that the slave is "sound, healthy, sensible, and a slave for life."
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: February 22, 1855

Title: From Edward Fitch to Those...Who So Generously Responded to the Appeal for Help
Description: Edward Fitch writes a letter from Lawrence, Kansas to the people in his hometown of Hopkinton, Massachusetts on December 17, 1856. He thanks them for responding to his recent request for help by donating clothing to poor Kansas emigrants. He describes the people who have received their donations and the suffering they have endured. Many of them, Fitch says, have been robbed, attacked, or had their houses burned down by Border Ruffians.
Date: December 17, 1856

Title: From Joseph Denison to Br. Griffing
Description: This letter, dated January 3, 1861, was written by Joseph Denison in Philadelphia to Br. Griffing. Joseph discusses the relief efforts of the Methodist Church in Kansas, which are being hindered by the threat of war. “Many think that War is inevitable,” he writes, “and affirm that if it does come it will be the end of slavery.” Joseph adds that if more people heard about the difficulties of Kansans, “it would arouse them to a sense of the real suffering in Kansas.”
Date: January 3, 1861

Title: From Thomas Sherwood to Friend Woodward
Description: This letter, dated July 5, 1855, is from Thomas Sherwood in Squaws Leg City to his friend Woodward. Sherwood says that he has just left Pawnee, Kansas, where the Legislature is now in session, and mentions that the Legislature might move to the Shawnee Methodist Mission. He describes a conflict between Kansas Gov. Andrew Reeder and Benjamin Stringfellow, which began when Reeder accused Stringfellow, a Missourian, of voting illegally in Kansas.
Date: July 5, 1855

Title: From M.C. Goodlett to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter, dated January 5, 1859, was written by M.C. Goodlett in the Senate Chamber, Jefferson City, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Goodlett states that he received a letter from a newly-formed military company in Johnson County, Missouri, tendering its services to the Governor. Goodlett says that he personally knows all the officers and soldiers of the Johnson Guards and hopes that Stewart will call on them “to assist in driving back the Plundering Murdering Horde” of Kansas outlaws.
Date: January 5, 1859

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Father
Description: In a May 26, 1856 letter to his father in Massachusetts, Edward Fitch describes the Sack of Lawrence that had occurred six days earlier on May 21, 1856. He mentions that Governor Shannon has called for protection “for fear we should rise up and exterminate him and the Pro-Slavery party.” He expresses his own fear that the Free State Party will be defeated and that Kansas will become a slave state. He also fears for his personal safety, saying he "shall not dare to stay at my cabin without a rifle or gun at my bedside." He adds that he hopes John C. Fremont will win the upcoming presidential election.
Date: May 26, 1856

Title: From Thornton Grimsley to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter, dated November 23, 1860, is from Thornton Grimsley in St. Louis, Missouri to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Grimsley writes that he is a member of the Constitutional Guards, a new political organization formed in preparation for city elections in St. Louis. Their object, he states, is to “wipe out black republicanism.” He also offers the services of 700-1,000 men for any military service the state might need.
Date: November 23, 1860

Title: Proclamation of Daniel Woodson
Description: This proclamation was issued August 24, 1856 by Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson in Lecompton, Kansas. Woodson declares that Kansas Territory is “infested” with large bodies of armed men organized in military fashion – presumably Gen. James Lane’s troops – who are murdering and detaining citizens, robbing and burning houses, and plundering local militias of arms for the purpose of subverting the territorial government. Woodson proclaims that Kansas Territory is in a state of “open insurrection and rebellion,” and calls upon its citizens to rally in support of their country and its laws and put down the insurrectionists.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: August 24, 1856

Title: From Israel B. Donalson to John W. Geary
Description: U.S. Marshal Israel B. Donalson writes a letter from Tecumseh, Kansas to Gov. John W. Geary on November 24, 1856. He asks Geary to send troops to Shawnee County to aid him in making arrests of approximately 20 people. Donalson says that some of the suspects are 100 miles away, and he estimates that it will take eight to ten days to find them and bring them back.
Object Type: Letter
Date: November 24, 1856

Title: Map Depicting Land Surveying Activity in Kansas and Nebraska
Description: This black-and-white map, ca. 1854-1861, depicts land surveying activity in eastern Kansas and Nebraska Territories.
Object Type: Map
Date: 1854-1861

Title: From Frederick Starr to Unknown
Description: On December 29, 1854, Frederick Starr writes from Weston, Missouri to an unknown recipient. He writes about attending a meeting of the Platte County, Missouri Self Defensive Association, which he began describing in a previous letter. Starr recounts that the Association accused him of several offenses, including allowing a slave to ride in his buggy on July 4. Starr explains how the situation came about and notes that many of the Association’s members often ride with their own slaves in their buggys.
Date: December 29, 1854

Title: Map of North America Showing Proposed Railroad Routes
Description: This black-and-white map is entitled “Map of North America, From the Latest Authorities Showing the Proposed Railroad Routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.” The map was printed in 1854 by J.H. Colton and Co. in New York, for J. Disturnell.
Object Type: Map
Date: 1854

Title: Affidavit of Henry E. McKee
Description: This is the sworn affidavit of Henry E. McKee, signed by Kansas Gov. John W. Geary on October 4, 1856. McKee claims that on October 2, he witnessed H. Miles Moore enter the American Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, where eight men captured him. They took Moore to Wyandotte, Kansas and “unlawfully imprisoned” him there, McKee says. He adds that if Moore does not receive help soon, “his life is in great hazard and will be sacrificed.”
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: October 4, 1856

Title: From Daniel Woodson to Philip St. George Cooke
Description: This dispatch, dated August 28, 1856, was sent by Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson in Lecompton, Kansas, to Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke, commanding U.S. troops near Lecompton. Woodson states that the Douglas County, Kansas Sheriff and the U.S. Marshal have informed him they are currently prevented from executing legal writs. Woodson orders Cooke to furnish them with approximately 75 U.S. troops to assist them in executing the writs.
Date: August 28, 1856

Title: From Frederick Starr to Unknown
Description: This ca. April 1855 letter was written by Frederick Starr to an unknown recipient, possibly his father. Starr says that he plans to leave Weston, Missouri within 3 or 4 weeks, because “We are in the midst of terrible times again…The ballot box is violated[,] the press overthrown, the church denounced[,] surely pro slavery powers are making great advances.” Starr states that the printing press owned by Park and Patterson in Parkville, Missouri was thrown into the river, and the men were ordered to leave the state.

Title: From John W. Reid to John W. Geary
Description: John W. Reid writes a letter from Independence, Missouri to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary on September 20, 1856. Reid states that he obeyed Geary’s order to disband his troops and terminate an expedition to plunder Lawrence. He admits that “some bad men who were with us did commit some outrages . . . which I hope you will believe was beyond my control or power to prevent.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 20, 1856

Title: From Philip St. George Cooke to John W. Geary
Description: Lieut. Col. Philip St. George Cooke writes a dispatch from camp in Nebraska to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary on October 8, 1856. He reports on military operations near the Nebraska-Kansas border, and informs Geary that he is sending troops to Lecompton and Topeka.
Date: October 8, 1856

Title: From Wilson Shannon to Unknown
Description: This letter was written ca. December 25, 1855 by Kansas Gov. Wilson Shannon to an unknown recipient. Shannon states that on December 9, 1855, he was at a party in Lawrence, Kansas when Charles Robinson informed him that “a large irregular force” was threatening to attack the town. Robinson asked Shannon to give him and James Lane written authority to defend Lawrence by force. Shannon signed Robinson’s paper, but later discovered that the threatened attack was a ruse devised by “tricksters who by fraudulent representations were seeking to obtain an advantage over me.”

Title: From Philip St. George Cooke to Daniel Woodson
Description: This dispatch, dated July 1, 1856, was sent by Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke at Headquarters, Ft. Riley, Kansas, to Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson in Lecompton, Kansas. Cooke states that he received Woodson’s request for military aid dated June 29, 1856, and that he ordered Maj. H.H. Sibley to march in the direction of Topeka, Kansas, via the Santa Fe Road. Cooke encloses a copy of his instructions to Sibley.
Date: July 1, 1856

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

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