Hoogland, Adams, and Kingman, Commissioners of Claims appointed by resolution of Governor Medary, continued investigating property and monetary losses suffered by the citizens of Kansas Territory after H.J. Strickler vacated the post. The new Claims Commissioners also believed that the responsibility for paying these loss claims rested with the General (Federal) Government. They reassessed the claims reported by Strickler, obtaining more information about the claimants and their losses, which included each claimant's political affiliation (free state or proslavery), their specific damages (house, horses, crops, etc), and who caused the damage (on behalf of either the free state or proslavery cause); this information is summed up in a supplemental table. The Claims Commissioners believed that the total value of losses occurring between November 1, 1855, and December 1, 1856, approximated at least $2,000,000; they also concluded that during skirmishes free state men had caused $94,500 in property damage, while proslavery men were believed to have caused nearly $319,000.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Report of Edward Hoogland, H.J. Adams and S.A. Kingman, Commissioners of Claims - p. 2