Agricultural development, wealth and rural population of the states on the tributory to the Union Pacific Railroad for the years of 1900-1910
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: September 17, 1912
Union Pacific Railroad Company Agricultural Bulletin (No. 104). Union Pacific Railroad promotional advertisement showing aggregate statistical wealth values and population figures for areas west of the Mississippi River during a ten year period of time.

Camp Harper, a Civilian Conservation Corps Company
Date: February 12, 1941
Here are photographs showing the messhall, mountains, members, and buildings at Camp Harper, a Civilian Conservation Corps Company in Harper, Oregon. Several of the members were from Kansas including Lawrence E. Kinkle who lived in Rock, Kansas.

Commissioners of Deeds : Oregon
Creator: Kansas. Governor (1879-1883 : St. John)
Date: 1880
Two letters to Kansas Governor St. John, from individuals applying for the position as Commissioner of Deeds for the State of Kansas in Oregon.

Compliments of the Great Rock Island Route
Creator: Rock Island Railroad Company
Date: 1890
This is a Rock Island Railroad promotional advertisement in the form of a monthly calendar detailing the various major routes of the line. The first image shows a photographic transparency of the poster taken in the 1960s when the poster was still in good condition. The second image shows a recent scan of the original poster and the resulting deterioration over the last forty years.

Corn, wheat and oats on farms in the states on the tributory to the Union Pacific Railroad, March 1, 1913
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: August 14, 1913
Union Pacific Railroad Company Agricultural Bulletin (No. 109). Union Pacific Railroad promotional advertisement showing aggregate yields for specific crop categories from 1912 and early 1913 for areas west of the Mississippi River.

Crime and criminals, Bender case
Creator: Kansas. Governor (1877-1879: Anthony)
Date: 1877- 1878
The letters in this file pertain to matters related to the Bender Case. The Bender family, John Sr., John Jr., and wife and daughter both named Kate were serial killers from 1871-1873. The family lived near the town of Cherryvale, where they had run a small inn and grocery store. It is recorded that they killed at least eleven people. A letter on May 14, 1877, from T. L. Golden of Salem, Oregon, requests a description of the Bender family and states that he has seen a family that lives in the mountains, who have plenty of money but doesn't send nor receive any letters. A telegraph on April 8, 1877, from Arkansas Governor W. R. Miller, states they have arrested a party as Bender alias Kiefer family and asks to have them returned home free of charge if found innocent. A letter on February 30, 1878, from Henry Lash of Albany, Oregon, informs that he has discovered Kate Bender and requests Governor Anthony to send requisition for her arrest and appoint him as an agent. Additional documents in this file pertain to similar matters such as requests for descriptions of the Bender's and correspondence stating they have found the Bender's hideout. To date, it is unknown what happened to the Bender family.

George Walter, History of Kanzas
Creator: Walter, George
Date: 1855
This history was written by George Walter, agent for the New York Kanzas League. The purpose of the League was to assist individuals and families to emigrate to Kansas and help provides reduced prices and other assistance. The office of the New York Kanzas League was located on the 3rd floor of No. 110 Broadway, New York City. Walter provided the information he thought emigrants to Kansas would need including descriptions of the situation in the territory, its climate, soil, rivers, and native products. He also gave information about industry in Kansas Territory, particularly the milling industry. He provided information on routes and supplies needed as well as a copy of the reemption law. The text of the Bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska was included on pages 24 through 48 of the pamphlet.

Kroh Collection. Group 2: Oregon and California Trails
Creator: Kroh, C. Lee
Date: Between 1975 and 1995
This series includes tracings of the historic route of the Oregon and California trails in the Kansas City region, as plotted on US Geological Survey quadrangle maps by Lee Kroh. The Lee and Dorothy Kroh Collection of the Kansas City Area Historic Trails Association archives is archived at the Mabee Learning Commons on the campus of MidAmerica Nazarene University (MNU) in Olathe, Kansas. Collection findings aids are available through the links below. For index maps of each state see unit 505738.

Mrs. L. W. Therkelsen to Lucy B. Johnston
Creator: Therkelsen, Mrs. L. W.
Date: November 6, 1912
In this short letter, Mrs. L. W. Therkelsen, publicity chairman of the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association, sends her congratulations to Lucy Johnston, President of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association, after the successful passage of a universal women's suffrage amendment to the Kansas state constitution. Therkelsen hoped that the amendment to the Oregon constitution, which was currently under consideration, would be equally successful. Oregon did eventually pass an equal suffrage amendment in 1912, becoming the third state that year to do so.

Nebraska and Kansas
Creator: J. H. Colton & Co.
Date: 1854
This map of the Nebraska and Kansas territories by J. H. Colton shows forts, villages, missions, Indian lands, and various routes including the northern, central and southern routes of the Pacific Railroad; the Oregon route; the Santa Fe route; Cook's wagon route; Conde & Bartlet's route; and the route to Fort Smith. The map also includes an inset of parts of North, Central and South America; and the territory acquired from Mexico through the Gadsen Purchase. Woodcut illustrations include Indians, wolves, bear, deer, beaver, buffalo hunting, and settlers with wagon. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) provided that each territory would decide whether or not to allow slavery through the constitution under which it would enter the union. In Kansas, this approach to managing the expansion of slavery (know as "popular sovereignty") precipitated a battle between proslavery and antislavery forces known as "Bleeding Kansas." This map is provided through a co-operative project between the Lecompton Historical Society and the Kansas Historical Society. Partial funding was provided by the Ross and Margaret Wulfkuhle Charitable Trust and the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area. Copies of this map are available for viewing at both the Kansas Historical Society and Lecompton Historical Society.

Nebraska and Kansas
Creator: Colton, J. H. (Joseph Hutchins), 1800-1893
Date: 1855
A map showing Nebraska and Kansas, as well as Missouri, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Iowa, and Minnesota. Indian Territory, later Oklahoma, can also be seen.

Norma Kennedy interview, Beaverton, Oregon
Creator: Kennedy, Norma Faye (Winchester) (Gaines)
Date: September 03, 2011
This transcript of an interview with Norma Kennedy is part of an oral history project entitled "Patterns of Change, Edwards County, Kansas 1950-1970" conducted by the Kinsley Public Library. The project was supported by a Kansas Humanities Council Heritage Grant. Kennery talks of her family, education, and her memories of the Edwards County community.

Poultry and bees on farms
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: May 20, 1912
This Union Pacific Railroad agricultural bulletin, number 102, shows statistical production of poultry and bee colonies for areas west of the Mississippi River, with a comparative evaluation for 1900 and 1910.

Salmon Brown
Creator: Moore
Date: March 11, 1907
This is a photograph of Salmon Brown, a son of John Brown. Salmon was wounded at the battle of Black Jack on June 2, 1856. He later moved to Oregon where he raised sheep on a 3,000-acre ranch.

Trade Pipe from the Plowboy Site, 14SH372
Date: 1890-1910
This complete pipe was collected from the Plowboy site in Shawnee county and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2017. The style of this pipe is called a short churchwarden and it is made of white clay, sometimes called pipe or kaolin clay. It is decorated with a series of vertical bands on the front of the bowl and "GERMANY" on the stem. The pipe has never been smoked. The Plowboy site was home to the Kansa, the Potawatomi, and Euro-Americans. At various times, the site contained a farm, a trading post, and a post office with nearby military trails, Mormon routes, a railroad and the California-Oregon trail.

Union Pacific Railroad Company, Livestock Bulletin No. 108
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: August 14, 1913
This bulletin is a promotional advertisement providing aggregate valuations for livestock contained in the areas west of the Mississippi River ("on farms in the states on and tributory to the Union Pacific Railroad") for the time period between 1910 and 1913.

Wells Bennett, on an Indian motorcycle
Date: Between 1910 and 1912
Wells Bennett, pictured here circa 1910, was one of the nation's top motorcycle competitors in the 1910s and early 1920s. Born in Wichita in 1891, Bennett entered his first race at the age of 15. Within five years, he was a leading Kansas dirt track racer. While visiting Denver in 1912, Bennett was introduced to board track racing, whose events were contested on an oval wooden track with steeply-banked turns. He won the first board track race he entered and soon left Kansas to compete at board tracks across the country. As his career progressed, Bennett shifted his attention to endurance, hill-climbing, and long-distance cross-country events. He competed at the upper echelons of his sport and set several records. He also worked as a stunt rider in Hollywood. Bennett's most notable achievements occurred in the early 1920s. On May 30-31, 1922, Bennett established a 24-hour distance record that remained unbroken for 15 years. Riding his Henderson 4 motorcycle on a board track in Tacoma, Washington, he traveled 1,562.54 miles during the 24-hour period. Later in 1922, Bennett set a transcontinental record when he rode from Los Angeles to New York in 6 days, 16 hours and 13 minutes. In August 1923, he captured the Three-Flags Run title by riding from the Canadian border near Blaine, Washington to Tijuana, Mexico in 42 hours and 44 minutes. Bennett retired from competitive racing in the mid-1920s. He ran a motorcycle dealership in Portland, Oregon, until 1930; worked as a service representative for Ford Motor Company; and then purchased a ranch near Mt. Hood. He died in Oregon on May 31, 1969. In 2000, Wells Bennett was inducted into the national Motorcycle Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame describes Bennett as "one of the pioneers of motorcycle racing," and "one of the greatest cross-country riders of all time."