An appeal for help in behalf of the colored refugees in Kansas
Creator: Rust, Horatio Nelson, 1828-1906
Date: January 22, 1881
This flyer, distributed by the Southern Refugee Relief Association of Chicago, Illinois, describes the dire situation of the African-American refugees relocated in Kansas. The secretary of this association, Horatio N. Rust, had taken this opportunity to pass along information relayed to him by Elizabeth Comstock, an aid worker in Topeka. Comstock was thankful for the donations of food and other goods, but asked for more assistance in feeding, clothing, and sheltering these refugees. The flyer also includes short excerpts of letters by agents of the refugee association who had direct knowledge of the emigrants' situation.

Ann Hopper territorial loss claim
Creator: Strickler, Hiram Jackson
Date: 1859
This claim appears in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 2nd Session, 35th Congress, Miscellaneous Documents, 1858-1859, and was reported by H.L. Strickler, Commissioner to Audit Claims of Citizens of the Territory of Kansas in 1857. Claim #240 was filed on behalf of Ann Hopper, who lived with her son John L. Hopper, near Lawrence. The items listed were destroyed or stolen in August and September, 1856, and included animals, crops and household items. Each claimant had to submit an itemized list and have two witnesses attest to the losses claimed. Even though many of these claims were approved for payment, no funds were ever appropriated or distributed.

A study made of 719 rural rehabilitation families relative to their standard of living
Creator: Kansas Emergency Relief Committee
Date: 1935
This study was compiled by Conie Foote, supervisor of home economics, and her county home advisers. The report includes an introductory note from Foote, who states that the goal of this study is to provide the rural rehabilitation program with essential information about the needs of relief clients during the Dust Bowl years. The study addresses several questions, including: "What is the present standard of living of the families making application for rural rehabilitation loans? Is there a standard below which a family cannot live and maintain health and efficiency?" To answer these questions, the report includes statistics, such as charts documenting housing conditions, the number of applicants in each household, the items of household equipment required by relief families, and the number of persons needing medical care.

Chair made from cattle horns
Date: Between 1880 and 1900
Chair made from cattle horns from every continent.

China cabinet
Creator: United States. Works Progress Administration
Date: Between 1935 and 1943
A corner china cabinet made by workers in the Works Progress Administration's furniture finishing and manufacturing program.

Colonel and Mrs. C. D. Perry
Creator: Steele, F. M. (Francis Marion), 1866-1936
Date: Between 1895 and 1899
A photograph showing Colonel and Mrs. C. D. Perry sitting in front of their house on Snake Creek in Clark County, Kansas. A hammock is on the porch and there is a double swing behind Col. Perry.

Edmund Burke Whitman to National Kansas Committee, expense sheet
Creator: Whitman, E. B. (Edmund Burke), 1812-1883
Date: February 28, 1857 - August 14, 1857
This expense sheet, which was in account with E. B. Whitman, an agent of the committee, lists expenses and supplies sent to aid the free state inhabitants of Kansas. The items sent include (among others) wheat, oats, corn, beans, potatoes, garden seeds, bedding, and clothing.

Ellen D. Goodnow to Isaac Goodnow
Creator: Goodnow, Ellen Douglass Denison, 1812-1890
Date: August 28, 1859
Ellen Goodnow wrote from Manhattan, Kansas Territory, to her husband, Isaac, who was traveling in New England. Goodnow mentioned that students, who would attend Bluemont College beginning in November, were coming to the area to board. She told her husband that they would be lodging with the Denisons during the coming winter, and asked him what furnishings they could provide. Goodnow also advised him about purchasing wallpaper and upholstery to decorate their church sanctuary.

Family and sod home, Finney County, Kansas
Creator: Wolf, Henry L. 1850-1924
Date: Between 1890 and 1900
The photograph shows an unidentified family standing in front of a sod house in Finney County, Kansas. The photograph also shows a horse, and a table with plants on it.

Family and sod home, Finney County, Kansas
Creator: Wolf, Henry L. 1850-1924
Date: Between 1890 and 1900
The photograph shows an unidentified family standing in front of a sod house or dugout in Finney County, Kansas.

Farm auction, possibly near Brookville, Kansas
Creator: Martin, Lynn
Date: Between 1950 and 1959
Three photographs showing a farm auction possibly near Brookville, Kansas. The auctioneer and crowd are pictured as well as some of the contents of the auction.

Furniture, Lawrence, Kansas
Creator: United States. Works Progress Administration
Date: Between 1935 and 1943
Table, lamp, and chairs made by workers in the Works Progress Administration's furniture finishing and manufacturing program. The furniture was made for Carruth Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

Furniture made for Carruth Hall, University of Kansas
Date: Between 1935 and 1943
Tables, chairs, couches, and lamps made for Carruth Hall at the University of Kansas by workers in the Works Progress Administration's furniture finishing and manufacturing program.

George Clarke's desk
Date: between 1854 and 1856
This desk was brought to Kansas Territory by George W. Clarke, an Indian agent, slave owner, and ardent slavery supporter. A notorious proslavery leader during the Bleeding Kansas era, Clarke was suspected of killing a free-state man, Thomas Barber, near Lawrence in 1855. He was never convicted. In 1856, Clarke sat reading by this desk at his home near Lecompton when someone shot at him. Clarke was uninjured but the desk did not fare as well. The bullet passed through the front of the desk and left a divot in the surface of the drawer directly behind it. The hole left by the bullet can be seen in the image of the closed desk as the dark spot below the keyhole and near left-center. Clarke was eventually driven out of the territory in 1858.

Golden Charles Dresher photograph collection
Creator: Dresher, G. C.
Date: Between 1870 and 1940
This collection consists of 326 photographs taken by G. C. (Golden Charles) Dresher of Canton, McPherson County, Kansas. The photos mostly concern the Dresher family, their friends and the surrounding area. Photographs of McPherson College students and the flooding of Cow Creek are also included. Dorothy May (Dresher) Richards, the daughter of G. C. Dresher, donated the original glass plate negatives to the Kansas Historical Society in 1999.

Harriet S. Crandall to Thaddeus Hyatt
Creator: Crandall, Harriet S.
Date: December 17, 1856
This letter, written by Harriet S. Crandall from Alfred Centre, New York, gives an idea of Clarina Nichols' involvement in the free state cause, specifically her lectures to the public. After hearing one of these lectures, six ladies from this town were appointed to oversee the collection of relief funds for free state settlers in Kansas. They had already collected clothing, bedding, and money for the cause.

H.F. Millikan's sod house in Finney County, Kansas
Date: Between 1870 and 1880
This photograph shows H. F. Millikan's sod house on his claim located south of Garden City, in Finney County, Kansas.

Hiram Hill to W. & W.E. Thayer, expense list
Creator: Hill, Hiram, 1804-
Date: From 1853 through 1856
Hill listed expenses from 1853-1856. Recorded items are primarily household items, and include itemized prices.

Home Furniture Factory, Arkansas City, Kansas
Date: Between 1880s and 1890s
A black and white photograph of a home furniture factory in Arkansas City, Kansas.

James Campbell territorial loss claim
Creator: Strickler, Hiram Jackson
Date: 1859
Report of H.L. Strickler, Commissioner to Audit Claims of Citizens of the Territory of Kansas, contained in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set of congressional and executive documents. James Campbell submitted this claim (#80) for damages suffered on August 15, 1857 from 200 men under the command of Captain Walker. Mr. Campbell lived in Douglas County and claimed the loss of various household and agricultural items. Mr. Campbell must have either been a slave owner or had a free black employee because he claimed bedding and wearing apparel for a negro. Each claimant had to submit an itemized list and have two witnesses attest to the losses claimed. Even though many of these claims were approved for payment, no funds were ever appropriated or distributed.

John Brown "Parallels" desk
Date: 1859
This secretary was used in the home of Augustus Wattles at Moneka, Linn County, Kansas Territory. Family tradition holds that abolitionist John Brown wrote his "Parallels" defense at this secretary while visiting Wattles in January, 1859. The tradition further relates that the Wattles children watched Brown as he wrote, peering through cracks in the floor above. To hide his own location and to protect Wattles from retaliation, Brown indicated the "Parallels" were written at Trading Post instead of at Moneka. In this document Brown compares the authorities' hunt for him (for liberating Missouri slaves) to the lack of a search for the perpetrators of the Marais des Cygnes Massacre.

John E. Stewart reminiscence
Creator: Stewart, John E
Date: c. 1856?
This undated document, presumably written by John E. Stewart, relates the author's experiences in Kansas Territory. The reminiscence begins with a description of how he entered the territory and the manner in which he constructed a house. Then, intermixed with accounts of his agricultural efforts and other day-to-day activities, there are brief mentions of the political situation in the territory. The main focus of the document then turns to when Stewart was a member of the Wakarusa Liberty Guard, including a description of the murder of Charles Dow, the murder of Hoyt, the Branson rescue, and other encounters with border ruffians.

John Wakefield territorial loss
Creator: Strickler, Hiram Jackson
Date: 1859
Report of H.L. Strickler, Commissioner to Audit Claims of Citizens of the Territory of Kansas, contained in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set of congressional and executive documents. John Wakefield, Douglas County, Kansas Territory, filed claim # 96 for damages caused by the territorial militia on September 1, 1856. He was a farmer and his loses included crops of potatoes, corn, and a garden as well as a house and its furnishings. He also claimed damage to his well. Each claimant had to submit an itemized list and have two witnesses attest to the losses claimed. Even though many of these claims were approved for payment, no funds were ever appropriated or distributed.

Joseph Harrington Trego to Alice Trego
Creator: Trego, Joseph H. (Joseph Harrington), 1823-1905
Date: October 16, 1857
Joseph H. Trego wrote from his cabin in Sugar Mound, Kansas Territory, to his wife Alice in Rock Island, Illinois, about his journey from Kansas City to Sugar Mound. His friends, Thomas Ellwood Smith (Ell) and his brother Edwin (Ed), and himself were poorly prepared as they expected to stay in public houses during the journey, not camp outside as their wagon transportation preferred. As the road they took went right down the Missouri state line, Trego contrasted the well-established farms to the East with the "open, wild prairie" to the West. He and his brother, upon arriving at their cabin, found that they had "Hoosier" neighbors (from Indiana), who were pleasant but proslavery. Trego recounted the difficulty they had acquiring home furnishings and food, fighting adverse weather at every turn. He spoke at length of how he was comforted by writing to his wife, as he and his friends greatly missed their families.

Joseph Trego's diary, 1857-1858
Creator: Trego, Joseph H. (Joseph Harrington), 1823-1905
Date: September 10, 1857 through July 24, 1858
Joseph Trego first came to Kansas Territory in June, 1857, and settled near Mound City (originally Sugar Mound) in Linn County, Kansas Territory. He returned to his home near Rock Island, Illinois, to prepare to move and moved to Kansas Territory in the fall of 1857. In March, 1858, he returned to Illinois to bring his wife and three girls to their new home. These diary entries start with his second trip to the territory in September, 1857, and describe the various trips to and from Kansas Territory and his various activities. The diary entries from March 17, 1858, to May 25, 1858, (15 pages) are not included. Trego, along with Thomas Ellwood Smith ("Ell" in the diary entries) and his brother Edwin Smith, constructed and operated a sawmill on Little Sugar Creek. Trego was involved in town company activities, and the sawmill furnished lumber and shingles for many of the buildings in Mound City. The diary entries provide information on the efforts of settlement including the furnishing of a cabin and construction of the sawmill. They document the operation of the sawmill and other activities in the area, including some of the border disputes. Trego was a free state supporter and this is reflected in some of the entries.