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Before Lawrence
even existed these rolling plains were home to
Native
Americans for
thousands of years. The Kanza,
Osage, Wichita,
Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache,
Comanche,
Pawnee,
Cheyenne and
Arapaho
were the most prominent indigenous nations in the area.
But, as the new
America began to push West in the 1820s, traders and explorers started
to travel the western trails of what would become known as the
Oregon
and
Santa Fe Trails. These paths had long been used by the Indians
between camping and hunting sites. Explorers, trappers, traders,
soldiers and settlers began to follow the Indian paths to the
West
with earnest. The settlement of Lawrence,
which would not be formed for another thirty years, was located
between the
Oregon
and
Santa Fe Trails.
The
Kansas Territory was opened
to settlement on May 30, 1854 by the
Kansas-Nebraska Act. According to the concept of "popular
sovereignty," settlers could decide whether to admit their territory
as a slave or free state. Soon, New England abolitionists began
organizing emigrant aid societies to encourage like-minded citizens to
settle in the new territory. On August 1, 1854, Twenty-nine
northern emigrants, mostly from Massachusetts and Vermont, were the
first to arrive in Lawrence,
Kansas, named for Amos A. Lawrence,
a promoter of the
Emigrant Aid Society. A second party of 200 men,
women and children arrived in September. Lawrence
is one of the few cities in
Kansas founded purely for
political reasons.
On October 16, 1854,
the first anti-slavery newspaper was established in Lawrence
to voice the sentiments of the New England Emigrant Society. The
newspaper, called the
Kansas Pioneer,
enraged the pro-slavery supporters. The name of the paper
shortly changed to the
Kansas Tribune.
The first school taught in Lawrence
was commenced January 16, 1855, by Edward P. Fitch, who came from
Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Located in the back office of the Emigrant
Aid Building began with about twenty students.
On December 1, 1855, a small army of
Missourians, acting under the command of "Sheriff"
Samuel J.
Jones, laid siege
to Lawrence
in the opening stages of what would later become known as "The
Wakarusa War." However, the intervention of the new governor,
Wilson Shannon, kept the proslavery men from attacking Lawrence.
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