Introduction to History of Kansas
The Great Plains region was periodically inhabited by various Indian peoples as early as 10,000 years ago. These prehistoric Indians were nomadic hunters. The first people to live in permanent villages appeared around 1200 A.D . They hunted, fished, and farmed. At the time of European exploration in the 16th century, there were only small numbers of Indians living in what is now Kansas. The major tribes were the Kansa, Osage, Wichita, and Pawnee.
Important dates in Kansas1541 The Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado entered Kansas.1803 Kansas became United States territory as a part of the Louisiana Purchase.1821 William Becknell established the Santa Fe Trail.1827 Colonel Henry Leavenworth built Fort Leavenworth.1850's Fighting over the slavery issue gave the region the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.”1854 Congress established the Territory of Kansas.1861 Kansas became the 34th state on January 29.1870's Mennonite immigrants from Russia planted and raised the first Turkey Red wheat in Kansas.1894 Kansas oil and gas fields began producing.1905 The country's first helium was found near Dexter.1934-1935 Dust storms damaged great areas of Kansas farmland.1952-1957 Kansas had its driest five-year period.1962 The Legislature ordered consolidation of small school districts into larger, unified districts.1972 Terms for governor and other top state offices were increased from two to four years, effective in 1975.1986 Kansas voters approved a state lottery.1991-1995 Joan Finney served as governor of Kansas. She was the first woman elected to the office.Exploration
In 1541 Spaniards under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado explored part of Kansas while searching for gold said to be located in a land called “Quivira.” Another Spanish expedition, led by Juan de Oñate, entered Kansas early in the 17th century. French fur traders came later. Spain and France were rivals in the area until it eventually came under French control, but neither country attempted to establish settlements. In 1803 the United States acquired the area making up the present state (except for the southwestern corner, which was later acquired from Texas) as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
(See Louisiana Purchase.)
In 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the area, on the Missouri River, while exploring the newly acquired Louisiana territory. Other explorers who traveled through Kansas on their way west included Zebulon M. Pike, Stephen H. Long, and Jacob Fowler. Most of the explorers concluded that the plains area was illsuited for agriculture and, therefore, worthless. The region came to be called “the Great American Desert.”
Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory from 1812 until Missouri became a state in 1821. From then until 1834, it remained without a government. In that year, Kansas became part of the Indian Territory. More than 10,000 Indians were removed by the federal government from the East and relocated in Kansas. By the mid-1840's, about 20 tribes had reservation lands in Kansas. Many Indians found life difficult in their new land, and there was much suffering caused by disease.
In the meantime, the Santa Fe Trail had been established through part of Kansas (1821). Later, other trails, including the Oregon Trail, were established and forts were built along the way. Fort Leavenworth, constructed in 1827, was the first of these army posts. White settlements grew up around the forts. Early attempts at farming destroyed the myth of the Great American Desert—the land proved to be fertile—and new settlers were attracted to Kansas.
“Bleeding Kansas.”
In 1854, mainly under pressure from railway promoters, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It set up the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The act also provided that slavery would be permitted in any states created out of these territories if the inhabitants so voted. This provision made Kansas a battleground, with proslavery “border ruffians” and “bushwhackers” from Missouri clashing with antislavery “jayhawkers” from Kansas. The bloodshed, including incidents in 1856 at Osawatomie and Potawatomie involving John Brown, caused Kansas to be known as “bleeding Kansas,” and stirred passions that pushed the United States farther along the road to the Civil War.
After rejecting the proslavery Lecompton Constitution in 1858, Kansas voters in 1859 adopted one, called the Wyandotte Constitution, that prohibited slavery. It was as a free state that Kansas was admitted to the Union on January 29, 1861, the 34th state. Topeka was the capital, and Charles Robinson, a Republican, the first governor. At the time of statehood, Kansas had only 10 towns with 500 or more residents.
The Kansas-Missouri battles did not end with statehood, continuing into the Civil War. The bloodiest episode of the period occurred on August 21, 1863, when Confederate guerrillas under William Quantrill raided the abolitionist center of Lawrence, Kansas, setting fire to the town and killing about 150 persons. During the war, some 20,000 men—two-thirds of all the adult males in Kansas—served in the Union army.
After the War
The extension of settlement to the central and western portions of the state following the war led to warfare between Indians and settlers. As a result, the army built more forts and eventually most of the Indians were removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). From 1860 to 1890, the population increased by more than a million persons, a large number of whom were European immigrants (predominantly German and German-Russian). Earlier settlers had come mainly from the Ohio Valley, although there was a significant and eventually powerful minority from New England.
After the arrival of the railroads in the 1860's cattle were driven to Kansas from such places as Texas and Arkansas to be shipped to the east. Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, and Dodge City became prominent cattle-shipping points, or “cow towns.” It was during this rowdy era that such peace officers as “Wild Bill” Hickok and Wyatt Earp won fame. Meanwhile, it was discovered that Turkey Red, a strain of hard winter wheat brought by Mennonites from Russia in the 1870's, was suited to the Kansas climate and soil, and farming began to replace cattle raising as the main industry.
Grasshopper plagues struck Kansas during 1866-68 and 1873-76, and there were droughts and dust storms during 1873-80, 1883, and 1886-87. Many farmers suffered from these disasters as well as from the economic depressions of this period. The result was the growth in Kansas of various protest and reform movements.
The Granger movement in the 1870's, the Northern Farmers' Alliance in the 1880's, and the People's (Populist) party in the 1890's played important roles in obtaining enactment of numerous reform measures. Among them were the granting of equal property rights and local voting rights to women (1887); the passage of the first state antitrust law (1889); and several measures affecting debtor-creditor relationships. In the elections of 1892 and 1896, Kansas voters chose Populist governors. By 1898, however, populism had begun to wane, and the Republican party became the dominant political force in the state.
Modern Developments
Reform returned with the development of the Progressive movement in the early 20th century. Progressives, both in and outside the Republican party, sought to curtail monopolistic practices, improve public health, enact labor legislation, and make politics more representative. A leading force in the Progressive movement in Kansas and nationwide was William Allen White, editor of the Emporia Gazette. In 1913 the state was the first to adopt “blue sky” legislation to protect investors in securities. Kansas was also in the forefront in supporting prohibition (prodded by the anti-liquor crusader Carry Nation), the direct election of United States senators, full suffrage for women, the direct primary, and the system of referendum and recall.
Meanwhile, prosperity had returned to Kansas in the late 1890's. New developments, such as irrigation and dry farming, helped to spur agricultural growth. Industrial development was also stimulated. The major industries were meat packing, milling, and mining. Mechanization came to farming, and the demand for grain during World War I led to the opening of vast areas for wheat production.
Growth slowed in the 1920's, and conditions worsened during the Great Depression, which began in 1929. During the 1930's, the western part of Kansas suffered from serious droughts and dust storms. Many farmers left Kansas during that period. In 1936 Kansas' governor, Alfred M. Landon, ran for the Presidency as the candidate of the Republican party. During the period between the two world wars, Kansas was politically isolationist and conservative.
Economic conditions improved during World War II with the increased demand for the state's agricultural and mineral products. Heavy industry also expanded greatly, particularly war-related industries, such as aircraft manufacturing. After the war, Kansas became increasingly more urbanized and industrialized.
In the 1950's, much land in the western part of the state was reclaimed through the introduction of efficient methods of soil and water conservation. In the 1960's and 1970's, new industry was attracted to Kansas, the state's tourist trade expanded, and agriculture became highly commercialized with the decline of the family farm and the growth of large-scale corporate operations. In the 1980's, the state's economy was severely affected by recession, drought, and heavy flooding.
In 1990 Kansas elected its first woman governor, Joan Finney, a Democrat, who served one term, leaving office in 1995.
The states economy improved in the 1990's with the establishment of Kansas, Inc., as the state's economic planning agency. This program helped businesses to expand and added to the efforts of other developments with the same goal.