By Diane Euston
There is history oozing all around us, and it’s easy to dismiss nearby towns and what they have to offer for further destinations far away from home. A quick day trip to nearby Lawrence, Kan. isn’t just reserved for Jayhawk fans. It’s a perfect destination for history lovers who want to learn more about some of the most important events that greatly affected an entire nation split over slavery.
That split’s largest fracture was right here in our area, and there is much to see related to these events.
Early History of Lawrence and the Border Wars
One of the few cities in America founded for political reasons, Lawrence was established on the Kansas River in 1854 by radical abolitionists hellbent on ensuring Kansas Territory would be a free state.
Formed in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act that permitted for settlers to vote (popular sovereignty) to decide whether Kansas would be free or slave spawned a large movement of northerners to the area. The money behind the mission came from the New England Emigrant Aid Company, established by abolitionists such as Eli Thayer (1819-1899) to help offset the travel expenses for people willing to move to Kansas. They paid up to 25 percent of the expenses associated with the move.
In the summer and fall of 1854, droves of emigrants crossed the country into the unknown. The New England Emigrant Aid Company established mills in makeshift settlements that turned into the towns such as Lawrence, Osawatomie, Manhattan, Topeka, and Burlington.
Lawrence was named after Amos A. Lawrence (1814-1886), a Massachusetts merchant who was educated at Harvard. He financed the founding of the University of Kansas and was highly invested in the abolitionist movement.
This large influx of abolitionists moving next door to a pro-slavery Missouri certainly didn’t go unnoticed. When the first elections were held in Kansas Territory in 1854 and 1855, pro-slavery Missourians, predominately from Jackson, Clay and Cass Counties, flooded over the border to vote illegally.
About 1,000 people settled in Lawrence by 1855, and its quick organization certainly had pro-slavery border ruffians on notice.
The situation intensified, and it wasn’t long before blood was shed- hence the name of the era, “Bleeding Kansas.” One of the first incidents during the period was the Wakarusa War where a pro-slavery man was murdered near Lawrence and pro-slavery border ruffians organized under then-sheriff of Douglas County, Samuel Jones who stood off against a group of free-staters.
This event, known to history as the Wakarusa War, didn’t result in mass casualties. This event along with the creation of the Free-State Party certainly put fuel on the fire.
An influx of more emigrants to the largest free-state settlement, Lawrence, had the border ruffians on edge. On March 21, 1856, pro-slavery sheriff of Douglas County, Samuel Jones led approximately 750 men into Lawrence.
Only one man was killed, but the ruffians successfully burned the town of Lawrence to the ground. According to historian Matthew E. Stanley, the mob “targeted both of Lawrence’s antislavery newspapers, including raising a banner with ‘Southern Rights’ inscribed on one side and ‘South Carolina’ on the other atop the printing office of the Herald of Freedom. . . The stone [Free State Hotel] was blown up, ransacked, and burned. Attackers also directed violence and robbery against the homes of prominent abolitionists.”
It was “an eye for an eye.” Each violent action brought upon the other resulted in more violence and murder. The first sacking of Lawrence resulted in the further radicalization of an infamous character named John Brown.
Connecticut-born radical abolitionist John Brown (1800-1859) moved to Kansas Territory in 1855. In response to the sacking of Lawrence, he led a group of men to Pottawatomie Creek four days later where they dragged five unarmed men (allegedly pro-slavery) from their homes and murdered them. Later in August that year, pro-slavery forces burned the town of Osawatomie in retaliation for John Brown’s earlier attacks.
It is said that John Brown watched as Osawatomie burned and vowed, “There will be no peace in this land until slavery is done for.”
The Border Wars and Bleeding Kansas brought bloodshed to the region well before cannons fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, and the largest free state settlement of Lawrence was at the heart of the action.
And of course, a conversation about Lawrence’s history isn’t complete without examining Quantrill’s Raid where between 160-190 men and boys were brutally murdered by pro-slavery bushwhackers as the town, once again, was burned to the ground.
Taking in the History of Lawrence: Watkins Museum of History
1047 Massachusetts Street
Free to visitors; Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 am to 4 pm
The first stop on a day trip to Lawrence should be the Wakins Museum of History, operated by the Douglas County Historical Society in partnership with Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area.
For premium engagement for visitors of all ages, there are interactive exhibits that feature the early territorial settlement, artifacts from early Lawrence and the Civil War. You can explore Quantrill’s 1863 raid, life in early Lawrence, and the struggle for equality after the Civil War and up to the Civil Rights Movement.
This museum is designed to engage everyone. There is an 1870s playhouse that young visitors can explore and a 1960s telephone switchboard! The third floor features a 1920s Milburn Electric Car.
Staff is available to answer any questions that visitors may have about Lawrence and the area, and the location has multiple brochures for those who want to dive deeper into specific periods of history. They also have a collection of self-guided tours accessible online at https://www.explorelawrence.com/things-to-do/self-guided-tours/.
Following the Road to Freedom: The Grover Barn
2819 Stonebarn Terrace
Free to visitors but closed inside (information panels outside)
After soaking in the overall history of Lawrence at the Watkins Museum, exploring the Underground Railroad and its prominence in the area helps to show how the spirit of the Free-State cause was paramount with its earliest settlers.
A two-story stone barn, once well outside the city limits, was the site of some of the best-documented Underground Railroad stories in Kansas. Built in 1858 by Joel Grover (1824-1879) and his young wife, Emily (1839-1921), this location is preserved by the Guardians of Grover Barn. It currently operates as a modern-day fire station, but information panels outside of the location guide visitors and mark this place on the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Joel Grover came to Lawrence in 1854 from New York with the second wave of settlers through the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Emily Hunt, his future wife, arrived at 15 years old in 1855. The couple married in 1857 and settled on 160 acres of land.
With the help of neighbors and friends, Joel set out to build a two-story limestone barn in 1858; the structure took 10 months to build.
One of the best-documented uses of the Grover Barn as a weigh station on the Underground Railroad involves a story of John Brown and his mission to free the enslaved.
An enslaved man named Jim Daniels traveled over the border from a farm in Vernon County, Mo. on December 19, 1858 to seek the help of abolitionists in Kansas. The story got to John Brown who agreed to help the approximately 30-year-old man.
Jim Daniels was married to a 25-year-old woman named Narcissa and were the parents to a daughter named Missouri and a son named Willis (or William). His wife was pregnant, and their slaveholder, James Lawrence had passed away in February 1858.
While the estate was being settled, the enslaved family was living with their slaveholder’s son-in-law, Harvey Hicklin (1829-1894) about three miles from the state line. Hicklin had arranged to move Jim’s enslaved family along with an 18-year-old enslaved man named Sam Harper to Jackson or Lafayette County where they could be hired out.
The danger of possibly splitting his family up had Jim Daniels seeking out help, and John Brown was willing to help arrange their escape despite the Fugitive Slave Act making the operation illegal.
The next day in the middle of the night, John Brown and his men rode in to liberate the enslaved on three separate farms. At the David Cruise farm in Vernon County, an enslaved woman named Jane was liberated; her slaveholder was murdered in the event.
Harvey Hicklin, who was in charge of the enslaved Daniels family and Sam Harper while his father-in-law’s estate went through probate, later wrote about the night John Brown came to his farm. “[John Brown] said. . . he was going to take off all of the negroes and free them, and he was also going to take provisions for them and property enough to bear their expenses to freedom. He talked with me rather pleasantly for 30 minutes or more. He said he was doing the Lord’s will and was not ashamed, etc.”
Hicklin claimed that John Brown then took the five enslaved from his property and marched over to the farm of Isaac LaRue where Sam Harper’s mother and siblings were enslaved. In total, 11 people were taken from Missouri and rushed into the darkness toward freedom.
The Glasgow Weekly Times reported the incident, stating that after killing David Cruise they ran “off the stock and a slave of the murdered man. Stock and negroes were also stolen from other families. The outlaws were about 20 in number, well-armed and disguised.”
The group traveled 15 miles a night in the December cold, and two weeks into the journey, Narcissa gave birth to a baby boy she promptly named “Captain John Brown Daniels” after her liberator. The group rested for one week and continued on.
John Brown and the freedom seekers arrived in late January 1859 at the Grover’s barn where they stayed for a brief period of time as provisions were gathered and plans made for the rest of their journey to freedom.
When the group crossed through Nebraska and into Iowa, it marked the very last time that John Brown laid foot in Kansas. The newly-liberated Jane from David Cruise’s farm married 18-year-old liberated Sam Harper in a Quaker settlement in Iowa.
The group successfully boarded a train, hidden away, to Chicago and then boarded another train to Detroit. There, John Brown watched the group cross into Canada to freedom. The group stayed near Windsor, Ontario, over 800 miles away from the chains that once held them in bondage.
The Grover Barn marks this intense period of history when those on the right side of history were willing to risk everything in order to ensure freedom for all.
Exploring Sites of the 1863 Lawrence Raid
Miller House – 1111 E. 19th Street
Privately owned but viewable from the street
Before the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Lawrence Massacre, also known as Quantrill’s Raid, was the most deadly episode of domestic terrorism in United States history.
Fueled by years of incidents on the border and the collapse of a women’s prison near current-day T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. where kinfolk of bushwhackers were killed and harmed, William Clarke Quantrill (1837-1865) organized a raid that would rock headlines across the nation.
Women were considered off-limits, so when women and children of Southern sympathizers were injured under the watch of the Union, Quantrill’s guerrillas weren’t about to let the event go unpunished. One of their first stops on their murderous mission was the Miller home.
Robert Miller (1796-1882) and his wife, Susannah (1806-1886) settled in Kansas from Chester, S.C. Abolitionists living in the deep South, Robert suffered due to his antislavery beliefs well before moving.
In 1840, Rev. Thomas S. Kendall traveled to the Scotch Presbyterian Church where the Millers were members. He openly preached against slavery, and afterwards, the minister was tarred and feathered by parishioners. It took him two months to recuperate.
The Kansas Daily Tribune later wrote, “On account of his anti-slavery principles, and especially of his defense of a minister of his church who had expressed anti-slavery views, [Robert Miller] was waylaid and mobbed. The minister had been tarred and feathered, and Mr. Miller instituted legal proceedings against his assailants, in consequence of which he was waylaid and so badly injured as to jeopardize his life.”
In 1858, the Millers joined their son, Josiah who had come to Lawrence in 1854 and started the Kansas Free State newspaper and served as a judge in the county. The couple settled with their children on five acres and built a two-story brick home on the property.
Records indicate that Miller’s house was also a weigh station on the Underground Railroad. A smokehouse (now removed) in the back of the property was used to shelter freedom seekers.
William Quantrill scouted the area a few weeks before 400 guerrillas would ride into Lawrence. He was disguised as a Union soldier and stopped at the Miller’s home south of the town, and the unassuming Millers welcomed him into their home and fed him a meal.
That kindness didn’t go unnoticed. On August 21st, just eight days after the prison collapse at dawn, 400 guerrillas (including McCorkle, Cole Younger, “Bloody Bill” Anderson and George M. Todd, whose father had built the original Red Bridge), rode into Lawrence with payback on their minds.
They stopped at the Miller farm to water and feed their horses on their way in, and Miller’s daughter recognized Quantrill as their guest just weeks before. Miraculously, their home and their lives were spared – likely due to their earlier kindness.
As the men stormed into Lawrence, Quantrill yelled his last order to his men. “Kill every man big enough to carry a gun,” he shouted as he secured four revolvers on his belt.
They screamed and shouted as the 400 men swooped through the streets, setting fire to over a quarter of the buildings, homes and barns.
Even if time is limited on a trip to Lawrence, this is one spot that should be seen due to its connection to the Underground Railroad and its role in the Lawrence Massacre.
Emily Hoyt’s Boarding House
743 Indiana Street
Privately owned but viewable from the street
This location is a must-see on a day trip to Lawrence due to its beautiful Italianate architecture and its link to Quantrill’s Raid.
Built in 1855 by Hiram Towne, a local carpenter, this three-story brick Italianate home served as a boarding house run by Emily Hoyt (1811-1892).
Emily Hoyt’s story is unique for the time period. She was born in Massachusetts and came with her husband, Lorenzo to the area. After deserting her, Emily was left destitute.
Like many single women at the time who needed to make a living, Emily opted to run boarding houses in Lawrence. She started at the Waverly House and in April 1863, she leased the beautiful brick three-story home on Indiana Street.
The Kansas State Journal reported, “Mrs. Hoyt, so long known and esteemed at the Waverly House, has leased [Towne’s] new house, in West Lawrence, and will take possession immediately. It is a beautiful place, and Mrs. H. Is a good housekeeper.”
Hiram Towne, the builder of the home, was one of the tenants inside the boarding house.
When Quantrill and his men raided through the town, they came upon Emily Hoyt’s boarding house. Records indicate that she claimed she was a widow and the building was her only source of income. Her son hid from the raiders in the cupola of the home (some records indicate he hid behind the building), and her plea worked.
The house miraculously survived the raid, likely due to Quantrill’s orders to leave women unharmed.
There are many other stops associated with the Lawrence Massacre that are quite interesting to the visitor. To access a free self-guided tour of the raid, go to https://www.explorelawrence.com/things-to-do/self-guided-tours/historic-sites-of-quantrills-raid/.
A Free-State for All
Summer is the perfect time to visit these historic locations in Lawrence, a short 45-minute drive from the greater Kansas City area, because the bulk of the University of Kansas students are on summer vacation.
The heart of the Free-State movement that ensured that the country would soon contest the issue of slavery was Lawrence. The events which occurred in the area pre-Civil War would ignite tensions across the country as headlines followed the events along the border.
So many of the early historical events chronicled in the Kansas City area are tied to the fight over slavery. Our connection to Lawrence is undeniable, and embracing the struggles for freedom highlighted on this day trip will only further connect you to our collective past.
In the next issue, Diane will continue her day trip suggestions by chronicling a trip to nearby historic Lecompton, Kan.
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Ms. Euston – I just wanted to say thank you so much for an amazing article! I remember first encountering John Brown in his mural in the capitol building of my hometown during a school field trip. I wondered why this madman was given such a huge presence in such an important place. As I’ve grown, he has continued to be painted as anything but the one thing he SHOULD be painted as: AN AMERICAN HERO! Your article gave amazing context to the events around our area and, I believe, to his mindset and the events that led to Harpers Ferry.
Especially during this year’s 4th celebration, I am grateful to YOU and this publication for my increased understanding.