1823 Liberty Dime from Soldier Creek Crossing, 14OS1302
Date: 1823
This Liberty dime was recovered at a Santa Fe trail stream crossing site in Osage County. The silver dime, minted in 1823, is a type called "Capped Bust," meaning it was struck over a 1822 Liberty dime with the "3" of 1823 directly on top of the "2" of the 1822 date. The site was the focus of a 1995 Kansas Archeology Training Program event with Kansas Historical Society archeologists and volunteers from the Kansas Anthropological Association.

Act establishing commission for treaties with Osage Indians a creation of trail
Date: March 3, 1825
This act was written establishing a commission to make treaties with the Osage Indians to create the Santa Fe Trail and treaties with the Osage tribes.

Expenditures and receipts of the Carey Mission 2nd quarter 1829 including June, July, and August 1829
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: September 1829
This item includes a detailed breakdown of the expenditures and receipts of the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, during a significant part of 1829. As such, this item details the tremendous amount of effort that went into running the Carey Mission, and the type of transactions and events that were required to support the education of Native Indians in the Michigan Territory shortly before the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830.

Expenditures and receipts of the Carey Mission first quarter which includes march april and may 1829
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: June 1, 1829
This item is a list of expenditures and receipts from the Carey Mission in the Michigan Territory from the first quarter of 1829, including the months of March, April, and May 1829. As such, this item contains a large amount of information regarding the activities and expenses related to the missionaries activities at the Carey Mission.

Eyeglasses
Creator: Maysenhoelder, Charles
Date: between 1810 and 1825
Silver, sliding-temple eyeglasses with a small metal storage case. The glasses belonged to Robert Simerwell, a Baptist minister, educator, and blacksmith. Simerwell and his wife, Fannie, began working as missionaries to the Pottawatomie in Michigan in the 1820s. They continued their work with the tribe after they moved to the area that would become Kansas in 1834, eventually retiring from the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission located near Topeka in 1854. The eyeglasses were made by Charles Maysenhoelder, a silversmith in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

George Alderson to Lewis Allen Alderson
Date: March 5, 1829-July 16, 1831
Two letters written by George Alderson to Lewis Allen Alderson. Lewis Allen Alderson later moved to Atchison, Kansas, in 1858 and was a prominent Baptist minister. He died in Atchison in 1881.

Isaac McCoy journal
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: July 2, 1828 - November 3, 1828
Isaac McCoy kept a journal from 1814 to 1841, this is the sixth part of the journal, covering most of the year 1828. Isaac McCoy was ordained a Baptist minister in 1810 and served as missionary among the Native Americans in present-day Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Kansas. He was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma so Native Americans could be free from the "corrupting influences attending association with the frontier people of that early period." Isaac McCoy was a key part in the work of the Board of Foreign Missions in America and the Committee on Indian Affairs on the issues of Native American emigration and the Indian Removal Act.

Isaac McCoy journal
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: February 27, 1829 - June 29, 1829
Isaac McCoy kept a journal from 1814 to 1841. This is the seventh part of the journal, covering the first half of 1829. Isaac McCoy was ordained a Baptist minister in 1810 and served as missionary among the Native Americans in present-day Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Kansas. He was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma so Native Americans could be free from the "corrupting influences attending association with the frontier people of that early period." Isaac McCoy was a key part in the work of the Board of Foreign Missions in America and the Committee on Indian Affairs on the issues of Native American emigration and the Indian Removal Act.

Isaac McCoy journal
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: May 29, 1820 - March 3, 1823
Isaac McCoy kept a journal from 1814 to 1841. This is the fourth part of the journal, covering most of 1820 into early 1823. Isaac McCoy was ordained a Baptist minister in 1810 and served as missionary among the Native Americans in present-day Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Kansas. He was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma so Native Americans could be free from the "corrupting influences attending association with the frontier people of that early period." Isaac McCoy was a key part in the work of the Board of Foreign Missions in America and the Committee on Indian Affairs on the issues of Native American emigration and the Indian Removal Act.

Isaac McCoy journal
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: March 7, 1823 - May 28, 1824
Isaac McCoy kept a journal from 1814 to 1841. This is the fifth part of the journal, covering 1823 into early 1824. Isaac McCoy was ordained a Baptist minister in 1810 and served as missionary among the Native Americans in present-day Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Kansas. He was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma so Native Americans could be free from the "corrupting influences attending association with the frontier people of that early period." Isaac McCoy was a key part in the work of the Board of Foreign Missions in America and the Committee on Indian Affairs on the issues of Native American emigration and the Indian Removal Act.

Issac McCoy to Robert Simerwell and Bay
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: March 29, 1829
In this letter, to Robert Simerwell and Mr. Bay, Issac McCoy relays the news that the Carey Mission will likely cease to function, and that the missionaries at Carey will leave for the Osage Mission "one year from next September." In addition, McCoy addresses the problems that many missionaries soemtimes faced, stating that he is "tired-tired-tired of my wanderings--I am lonesome and homesick."

Issac McCoy to Robert Simerwell and J. Bay
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: May 16, 1829
In this letter to Robert Simerwell and J. Bay at the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, Issac McCoy relays information to them concerning the Baptist Board of Missions' decision to send himself and Johnston Lykins further West. In addition, McCoy explains that the Board has decided to appoint a committee in Lexington, Kentucky and in New York for the purpose of "keeping alive the subject of Indian missions, and of promoting the interests of these missions in general."

Jedediah Smith to brother
Creator: Smith, Jedediah Strong, 1799-1831
Date: December 24, 1829
This letter is from Jedidiah Strong Smith (1799-1831) to his brother Ralph Smith (1794-1867) living in Ohio at the time of the letter. Jedidiah writes this letter in 1829 at Wind River which is located on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. In the letter, Jedidiah writes about his journey, including the dangers and opportunities this trip provides him, and asks for information from home when Ralph writes next.

Jedediah Smith to his brother, Blue River, fork of Kansas
Creator: Smith, Jedediah Strong, 1799-1831
Date: September 10, 1830
Writing this letter thirty miles from camp Leavenworth, Jedediah Strong Smith appeals to his brother Ralph Smith of Ohio to meet him in St. Louis. Jedediah discusses the death of his mother, a correspondence with a Doctor Simons, the nature of freindship and a debt owed to Ransom Clarke. Born in New York but raised in Ohio, Smith was ambitious for adventure and made numerous journies through the western territoires, gaining considerable fame as an explorer. In May 1831, at a water hole near Cimarron, Kansas, Smith was surrounded and killed by Comanches.

John Quincy Adams letters
Date: 1823-1834
These two handwritten letters from John Quincy Adams are part of the William Treadway autograph collection at the Kansas State Historical Society. The two letters are dated 1823 and 1834 and relate to the granting of requests from some of his constituents. The letter dated July 7, 1823 (not in Adams' handwriting, possibly written by a secretary, but signed by Adams) requests U.S. Marshal Ebenezer K. Denton of Rhode Island to release the smuggler Daniel Easterbrook from prison. The letter dated June 17, 1834, in Adams' handwriting, is a cover letter for a pension certificate for the widow of Joshua Turner which he is sending to Anthony Collamore of Pembroke, Massachusetts.

Joseph R. John to Robert Simerwell
Creator: John, Joseph R.
Date: April 8, 1831
This item, sent from Joseph R. John to Robert Simerwell, contains a list of expenditures for Isaac McCoy from Septmber 1828 to August 1830.

Jotham Meeker to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Meeker, Jotham, 1804-1855
Date: April 9, 1829
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Jotham Meeker discusses some of the problems at the Thomas Mission that were due to the scarcity of food. In fact, Meeker explains that the lack of corn forced the missionaries at the Thomas Mission to dismiss their students for a time because they could not properly feed them. Included in this letter is a list of expenses incurred at the Thomas Mission during portions of 1828.

J. W. McClung to Lewis Allen Alderson
Date: August 1, 1829
A letter written to Lewis Allen Alderson from his friend J. W. McClung. Alderson was studying at the University of Ohio in Athens at the time, and McClung wrote seeking information on classes, expenses, and necessary qualifications. McClung claims his current tutor, Reverend John H. Hendren, is a most strict teacher. Lewis Allen Alderson later moved to Atchison, Kansas in 1858 and was a prominent Baptist minister. He died in Atchison in 1881. A searchable transcription is available by clicking "Text Version" below.

L. Bolles to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Bolles, L.
Date: June 24, 1829
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, L. Boles informs Simerwell that a large portion of the funding for the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, will be cut because the Baptist Mission Board had decided that it "could not afford to keep up a large establishment as heretofore." However, Bolles does state that there is money available to Simerwell if needed.

List of scholars at Carey Mission, Michigan Territory
Creator: Carey Missionaries
Date: October 20, 1828
This item lists the scholars (Indian students) at the Carey Mission in Michigan Territory in the fall of 1828.

Robert Simerwell to H. Lincoln
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: November 22, 1828
In this letter, Robert Simerwell details events at the Carey Mission in the fall of 1828, including the departure of the Lykins family and the McCoy family for St. Louis where they spent the winter before returning to the West. In addition, Simerwell indicates that the local Indians have gone to their winter hunting grounds and have complained that their situation has been growing increasingly desperate, believing that they had upset the "Great Spirit" with their behavior.

Robert Simerwell to Johnston Lykins
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: November 1828
In this letter to Johnston Lykins, Robert Simerwell relays his displeasure with Lykins' apparent disregard for the lack of raw materials and goods at the Carey Mission in Michigan Territory. In fact, Simerwell asks Lykins "how do you suppose we will get along this winter we have nothing and no money to purchase any thing with it is impossible to get leather in this country and this you knew we have to dismiss our shoemaker at Thomas they have not got a shoe made in 17 days."

Robert Simerwell to Jotham Meeker
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: March 2, 1830
In this letter to Jotham Meeker of the Thomas Mission, Robert Simerwell expresses his thoughts on the steps being taken by the United States Government to remove Indians from lands being overtaken by white settlers. In particular, Simerwell wonder what the government's actions might mean for the Indians he deals with on a daily basis, as well as what they mean for the United States. Concerning himself, Simerwell wonders if he will be able to continue his work because "there is a cloud hanging over my future prospects as a Missionary" due to the actions of the U.S. Congress.

Robert Simerwell to Maria Lyman
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: July 28, 1829
In this letter to Mrs. Maria T. Lyman, Robert Simerwell discusses the activities of Isaac McCoy who was tasked to "proceed into the wilderness west of the Missouri State and to learn it fitness or unfitness for an Indian Colony." Simerwell explains that McCoy and his party had deemed the land to be suitable and, therefore, they hoped to start moving Native Indians to that area by the next season.

Robert Simerwell to Reverend C.M. Fuller
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: December 17, 1828
In this letter to Reverend C. M. Fuller, Robert Simerwell relates that the Indians who accompanied Issac McCoy west of the Missouri River were pleased with the land that they found. More importantly, Simerwell states that the "tide of white population setting in is so great that our hopes of remaining here long is almost cut off." In addition, Simerwell believes that the white populations arrival is doubly bad for the Indians in the area because of whites' "ruinous habit of dealing out spirits to these unfortunate people."