11th - 17th Annual Kansas Day Meetings
Creator: Ackerman, Gertrude
Date: 1902-1908
This series of documents represents officer and program listings for the 11th through 17th Annual Kansas Day banquets. This is part of a bigger collection from Gertrude Ackerman.

1853 - Sac and Fox Agency
Creator: Green, Charles R.
Date: September 1, 1853
This item lists tribes under the Superintendency of Indians Affairs in St. Louis headed by B.A. James and Colonel Alfred Cummings. In particular, the item lists the Ottawas, Chippewas of Swan Creek, and the Black River Sacs and Foxes.

1855 rescue of free stater Jacob Branson
Creator: Abbott, James Burnett, 1818-1897
Date: Between 1855 and 1860
James Abbott, a free state activist who participated in several Kansas Territory conflicts (including the rescues of John Doy and Jacob Branson), wrote this account of the 1855 rescue of Jacob Branson. In his account, Sheriff Jones, supported by the proslavery "bogus" legislature, had arrested Jacob Branson, a free state man who witnessed the murder of Charles W. Dow by Franklin Coleman, a proslavery neighbor. Abbott and his cohorts successfully rescued Branson, although their actions were controversial even among fellow free state supporters. Certain aspects of Abbott's account of these events disagreed with an earlier account provided by Samuel Wood, and Abbott addressed those discrepancies in this document. [Abbott's account, obtained either by handwritten manuscript or personal interview, is presented here as an annotated typed transcript.]

18th - 28th Annual Kansas Day Meetings
Creator: Ackerman, Gertrude
Date: 1909-1919
This series is part of a bigger collection from Gertrude Ackerman. These documents represent participant lists, speeches and addresses, and correspondence from the 18th to 28th annual Kansas Day meetings. These documents included annotations throughout.

19th Annual Kansas Day Club Banquet
Creator: Kansas Day Club
Date: 1910
These records contain the program and addresses for the 19th Annual Kansas Day Club Banquet.

29th - 38th Annual Kansas Day Meetings
Creator: Ackerman, Gertrude
Date: 1920-1929
This series is part of a bigger collection from Gertrude Ackerman. These documents represent participant lists, speeches and addresses, and correspondence from the 29th to 38th annual Kansas Day meetings. These documents included annotations throughout.

39th - 49th Annual Kansas Day Meetings
Creator: Ackerman, Gertrude
Date: 1930-1940
This series is part of a bigger collection from Gertrude Ackerman. These documents represent participant lists, speeches and addresses, and correspondence from the 39th to 49th annual Kansas Day meetings. These documents included annotations throughout.

50th-63rd Annual Kansas Day Meetings
Creator: Ackerman, Gertrude
Date: 1941-1954
This document represents the 50th - 63rd Annual Kansas Day Meeting Participant Lists, Speeches and Addresses, and Correspondence. This document is part of a bigger collection from Gertrude Ackerman.

5 big days chautauqua Redpath Vawter
Creator: Redpath Vawter Chautauqua
Date: July 08, 1923-July 12, 1923
This is a program for Redpath Vawter Chautauqua held in Laurens, Iowa. The program includes information on artists and acts including Phillips Sisters Orchestra, John G. Abraham, Edna Means, Black and White Minstrels Filipino Jackies, Governor George A. Carlson, Robert Burlen, Colonial Players and Singers, and Pattison Kline. The program also contains a performance schedule. Chautauquas brought entertainment and culture to communities featuring speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day. Chautauquas expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s.

A and miscellaneous B
Creator: Rottluff, Blanche
Date: between 1939 and 1985
This is folder 36 of the Rottluff Family papers collection. The papers relate to the establishment of present-day Bonner Springs, Kansas. This file comes from box 1 of the collection.

Aaron A. Platner, World War I soldier
Date: 1918-1921
Around 1919, the Kansas State Historical Society and the American Legion solicited biographical information from returning veterans (primarily members of the 35th and 89th infantry divisions) and the families of those who died in service, notably from the Gold Star Mothers. Each veteran or family member was asked to provide letters, photographs, a biography, and military records. This file contains information on Aaron A. Platner. Aaron died in late 1918 from wounds he received in the Battle of the Argonne.

Aaron Burr and Theodosia Prevost Burr letters
Date: 1786-1830
This collection of handwritten letters and documents from Aaron Burr and Burr's wife, Theodosia Prevost Burr, are part of the William Treadway autograph collection at the Kansas Historical Society. The Aaron Burr letters (which include two undated documents) cover the time period 1788-1830 and primarily relate to political affairs and Burr's law practice. The May 9, 1800 letter is addressed to George Clinton, a fellow Democratic-Republican and future vice-president. The October 14, 1801 letter is addressed to Elbridge Gerry, another fellow Democratic-Republican and future vice-president and the namesake of the term "gerrymandering." The letter dated August 5 [no year given] is addressed to Thomas Hunt Flandrau, Burr's law partner. The letter dated November 6, 1786 is from Burr's wife, Theodosia Prevost Burr, to Burr's sister Sarah "Sally" Burr Reeve and concerns a set of china that Theodosia was sending to Sally in the care of a Mr. Leveret.

Aaron D. Stevens to Jennie Dunbar
Creator: Stevens, Aaron D.
Date: December 3, 1859
From his jail cell at Charles Town, Virginia, abolitionist Aaron Dwight Stevens, 1831-1860, wrote his dear friend, Jennie Dunbar, regarding his actions and prospects ("Slavery demands that we should hang for its protection") and that he regretted nothing except that he would not live to "see this Country free." Stevens, reported to be one of abolitionist John Brown's bravest men, used the alias Captain Charles Whipple while following Brown. Stevens was convicted of treason and conspiring with slaves for his part in Brown's October 16, 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and was hung at Charles Town on March 16, 1860.

Aaron Lane Lanning's household expense ledgers
Date: May 01, 1926-December 31, 1933
Here are two household expense ledgers belonging to Aaron Lane Lanning, Melvern, Kansas. Early in his life, Aaron's parents moved the family to Jerseyville, Illinois where in April 1862, he joined the 122nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to sergeant in 1864 and discharged in June 1865. After the war, Aaron, his parents and siblings settled in Mound City, Kansas. He married Sarah Emma Preston on November 3, 1867, and they eventually moved near Melvern, Kansas where he farmed. Aaron and Emma had five children.

Aaron Louis Piepenburg, World War I soldier
Date: 1918
Around 1919, the Kansas State Historical Society and the American Legion solicited biographical information from returning veterans (primarily members of the 35th and 89th infantry divisions) and the families of those who died in service, notably from the Gold Star Mothers. Each veteran or family member was asked to provide letters, photographs, a biography, and military records. This file contains information on Aaron Louis Piepenburg, 139th Field Hospital, 110th Sanitary Train, 35th Division.

Abbie Bright correspondence
Creator: Bright, Abbie, 1848-1926
Date: 1861-1903
Abbie Bright was born on a farm near Danville, Pennsylvania, on December 17, 1848. She had three brothers, Dennis, Hiram and Philip, all of whom enlisted in the army when the Civil War broke out. Abbie had three sisters, Rebecca, Peninah, and Mary, all of whom aided the war effort. In 1870 Abbie traveled to Indiana and Kansas to visit Hiram and Philip and wrote an account of her trip in a diary (also available on Kansas Memory as record unit 223662). While in Kansas she acquired 160 acres as an investment. This series of correspondence includes letters describing the brother's wartime activities. There are also letters to and from other individuals who were involved in the Civil War. These writings make a significant contribution to Civil War research. Other letters pertain to Philip and Abbie Bright's westward migration. Philip moved to Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, and Arizona but died in 1873 and the letters at that time mostly concern his death. The 1902 and 1903 correspondence apparently regards the sale of Abbie's land in Kansas. A complete transcription is available by clicking on "Text Version" below.

Abbie Bright diary
Creator: Bright, Abbie, 1848-1926
Date: 1868-1921
Born in Pennsylvania in 1848, Abbie Bright traveled to Kansas in 1870 as a young woman and her diary is primarily an account of this trip. It gives excellent accounts of daily life and settlement activities. The "diary" is actually composed of two different manuscripts and both are presented here. The first is an eighty-six page loose-leaf diary with consistent entries from September 2, 1870 - December 20, 1871. The second is a bound composition book with 129 written pages. This book begins with a childhood reminiscence written in Iowa in 1914 (p1-23), followed by a reminiscence of her Kansas trip written in Iowa in 1921 (p24-36) that covers Aug 23, 1870 - Jan 30, 1871. The book then includes some recipes dated 1868-1871 and a receipt dated 1884 (p37-41), and finally consistent diary entries from February 2, 1871 - December 21, 1871 (p41-129). A complete, revised transcription of both manuscripts is available by clicking on "Text Version" below. A previous, annotated transcription that combines the 1870-1871 entries from both manuscripts was published in the Kansas Historical Quarterly in 1971 and is available through a link below.

Abbie Bright miscellaneous items
Creator: Bright, Abbie, 1848-1926
Date: 1870-1878
These documents comprise the miscellaneous series in the Abbie Bright collection. The series includes an undated drawing of the camp of the Fifteenth Regiment on Elk Fork; notes of W[illiam] Ross dated 1870 on frontier life in Kansas; and an 1878 land patent written out by J. A. Williamson, Washington, DC, to the late Philip Bright.

Abelard Guthrie to Hiram Hill
Creator: Guthrie, Abelard
Date: November 11, 1858
Abelard Guthrie, a member of the Quindaro Town Company, wrote from Quindaro, Kansas Territory, to Hiram Hill in Massachusetts, rebutting Hill's accusations that he had acted in bad faith regarding certain enterprises of the Town Company. Guthrie stated that he had intended to begin the grading work on Kansas Avenue and other roads, but had found that the Company's funds were depleted; he suspected a swindling. He defended himself in light of other land purchases and business transactions and expressed extreme frustration at his bleak financial situation.

Abelard Guthrie to Hiram Hill
Creator: Guthrie, Abelard
Date: January 18, 1859
Abelard Guthrie wrote from Quindaro, Kansas Territory, to Hiram Hill in Massachusetts. Guthrie reported that there had been "considerable progress" in Quindaro lately: a railroad was being constructed, telegraph wires were hung, and a factory and foundry had been established. Guthrie told Hill that if Hill would forget the Kansas Avenue grading disagreement and repay him his debt, Guthrie would travel to Washington to obtain a railroad grant.

A, B: Helen Clark to Blanche Rottluff
Creator: Rottluff, Blanche
Date: 1985
This is folder 10 of the Rottluff Family papers collection. The papers relate to the establishment of present-day Bonner Springs, Kansas. This file comes from box 3 of the collection.

Abishai Stowell to Margaret Stowell Torrence
Creator: Stowell, Abishai
Date: February 1, 1862 - April 22, 1865
Eighteen letters written by Abishai Stowell to his sister Margaret Stowell Torrence, Gambles, Alleghany County, Pennsylvania. The letters were written while he served in the Civil War. Stowell was a private in the Second Kansas Infantry, Company E, he enlisted May 14, 1861 and was mustered out October 31, 1861; re-enlisted in the Second Kansas Cavalry, Company A, November 6, 1861 and was promoted to corporal April 15, 1862; re-enlisted in the Second Kansas Cavalry, Co. A, January 5, 1864 and promoted to sergeant March 25, 1864; and re-enlisted in the Second Kansas Cavalry veterans of Co. A and was assigned to Co. B, January 5, 1864 and mustered out June 22, 1865 at Ft. Gibson.

Abraham Lincoln to L. [Levant] L. Jones
Creator: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Date: December 09, 1859
This letter was written by Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois to Levant L. Jones, Lawrence, Kansas. In the letter, Lincoln declines an invitation to meet with Levant L. Jones, a Lawrence attorney, after a speech in Leavenworth, Kansas. During the first week in December, 1859, Lincoln gave speeches in Elwood, Troy, Doniphan, Atchison, and Leavenworth, Kansas. His remarks dealt with the Republican party's efforts to prevent the extension of slavery. In Atchison, Lincoln commented that John Brown was guilty of treason and had paid the proper penalty for his actions at Harper's Ferry. He spoke about the theory of popular sovereignty and about the evils of states seceding from the Union. At the time, he was considering his chances as a presidential candidate in 1860, and his Kansas speeches were a precursor of the campaign. Although Kansas liked Lincoln, the delegation from the territory to the 1860 Republican convention did not support his nomination. Levant L. Jones, a 1st Lieutenant in the 1st Kansas, Company F, was killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in 1861.

Abraham Lincoln to Mark W. Delahay
Creator: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Date: May 14, 1859
Lincoln regretfully declines an invitation to attend the Osawatomie convention on May 18, 1859, which was to formally organize the Republican Party in Kansas. Lincoln warns against "the temptation to lower the Republican Standard [in whatever platform the convention might adopt] in order to gather recruits. "In my judgment," Lincoln continues, "such a step would be a serious mistake" that "would surrender the object of the Republican organization-- preventing the Spread and Nationalization of Slavery." This two-page, handwritten copy of a letter sent by Abraham Lincoln to Mark Delahay was probably given to the Kansas Historical Society by Delahay's daughter, Mary E. Delahay, in the early 1900s.

A brief history of Caleb and Rebecca Harvey, missionaries in the Quaker Shawnee Mission in 1858
Creator: Duvall, Dorothy
Date: August 23, 1940
This item, written by Dorothy Duvall, the granddaughter of Caleb and Rebecca Harvey, provides a four-page history of the Harvey's missionary experiences at the Quaker Shawnee Mission. Duvall explains that the Harvey's went to the Shawnee Mission in 1858 after leaving Springfield, Ohio. According to Duvall, Caleb Harvey was an agricultural teacher, and Rebecca Harvey "taught the girls household duties of every sort and how to sew."