Kansas,
Alaska excluded, is geographically the central State of the
United States, lying between lat. 37° and 40° N., and long.
94° 38′ and 102° W. It is bounded by
Nebraska on the north,
Missouri on the east,
Indian Territory and
Oklahoma on the south, and
Colorado on the west.
Area, 81,700 square miles in 105 counties.
Population in 1890, 1,427,096; 1900, 1,470,495.
Capital,
Topeka.
Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado, with a force of 350 Spaniards and 800
Indians, set out from Culiacan on the southeast shore of the
Gulf of
California in search of Quivira.
He travelled northerly to the headwaters of the river
Gila, crossed the mountains to the headwaters of the
Rio del Norte, and followed them to their sources, then, journeying northeasterly, came into the province of Quivira (
Kansas), reaching, as he said, the fortieth degree of latitude.
He described the earth as black and well watered, the best possible for all kinds of productions of
Spain, and the plains full of crooked-back oxen, but he found no
gold or
silver, and returned in......September, 1541
French explore the
Missouri River as far as the mouth of the
Kansas River......1705
M. Dutisne, a young French officer, sent out by
Bienville, governor of
Louisiana, reaches the
Pawnee country in
Kansas, and, erecting a cross of wood, takes formal possession in the name of the
King of
France......Sept. 27, 1719
[It is now supposed that
Dutisne did not come into
Kansas, but visited the Osages in
Missouri and the Pawnees in the
Indian Territory.]
Spaniards from
Santa Fe, seeking to found a colony on the
Missouri, are destroyed by the
Missouri Indians near the present site of
Fort Leavenworth, only one settler, a Spanish priest, escaping and returning to
Santa Fe......1720
M. de Bourgmont, commandant at Fort Orleans, Mo., undertakes a commercial expedition to the Paduca (
Comanche) Indians in June, 1724, but, falling sick on the way, returns to the fort, on an island in the
Missouri River, just above the mouth of the
Osage.
He resumed the journey in October, taking with him an escort of twelve Frenchmen, his son, a lad of ten, and twenty-seven Indians from the neighboring tribes.
The expedition entered
Kansas at the
Kaw Indian village, then situated near the present site of
Atchison, moved in a southwesterly direction across
Kansas for about 230 miles to the nearest village of the Paducas, made a satisfactory treaty, and returned to Fort Orleans......Oct. 5, 1724
Included in the
Louisiana Territory purchase of
France......1803
Congress divides
Louisiana into two unequal parts, the one north of lat. 33° N., called the district of Louisiana, under the governor of
Indiana Territory......March 26, 1804
Lewis and
Clark leave
St. Louis for the
Pacific, under government authority, and find remains of an old French fort near the present site of
Atchison......May, 1804
District of Louisiana made the
Territory of Louisiana......March 3, 1805
Zebulon M. Pike, at the village of the
Pawnee republic, causes the
Spanish flag to be lowered and the flag of the
United States to be raised (State legislature in 1901 marks the site with a granite shaft)......Sept. 29, 1806
Territory of Louisiana admitted to the second grade of government as
Missouri Territory......June 4, 1812
First steamboat, a stern-wheeler, called the
Western Engineer, passes up the
Missouri River, carrying
Maj. S. H. Long on an expedition up the
Yellowstone......1819.
Section 8 of act for admission of
Missouri into the
Union provides that in all
Louisiana, north of lat. 36° 30′, and not included in the
State, slavery “shall be and is hereby forever prohibited,” but
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runaway slaves may be lawfully reclaimed.
Act passed......March 6, 1820
Major Sibley, appointed under act of Congress, surveys a wagon-road from
Missouri through
Kansas to
Santa Fe......1825
By treaty with
Osage Indians the tribe locate on a tract of 7,564,000 acres in
south Kansas, watered by the
Arkansas,
Verdigris, and
Neosho rivers......Dec. 30, 1825
Fort Leavenworth, called a cantonment until 1832, established and United States troops stationed there......1827
Treaty with the
Delaware Indians, locates them in the fork of the
Kansas and
Missouri rivers......Sept. 24, 1829
Baptist Shawnee mission (
Rev. Johnston Lykins and wife, resident missionaries) established 4 miles west of the
Missouri line under
Rev. Isaac McCoy; also appointed agent by the government for colonizing the eastern
Indians within the
Territory......1831
Indian tribes located in
Kansas, including the Shawnees, Ottawas, the Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, Peorias, Piankeshaws, and
Weas......1831-32
First
printing-press brought to
Kansas by
Rev. Jotham Meeker, set up at the
Shawnee Baptist Mission in
Johnson county, fall of......1833
First stock of goods landed below
Kansas City, at
Francis Chouteau's log warehouse......1834
Congress makes all
United States territory west of the
Mississippi not in the States of
Missouri and
Louisiana or
Territory of Arkansas “Indian country” ......June 30, 1834