Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Sheffield Ingalls
HISTORY
OF
Atchison County
KANSAS
PREFACE.
In the preparation and compilation of this history, no effort has beenmade to interpret the logic or spirit of events that surrounded the birth andprogress of Atchison county. The work was undertaken with the idea of compilinga narrative plainly told, of the people and the institutions here. I wasinterested in putting in permanent form chronologically the events that havetranspired in the past sixty years, that have made for the political, social,moral and commercial development of the county, but, had I realized inadvance the many hours of labor and patient study it required, the work ofcompleting the task in six months would not have been attempted. I amvery deeply conscious of the imperfections of the completed work, but hadthere been more time for research and study, much might have been includedthat does not appear.
It would be ingratitude if no acknowledgment were made at the outset,of the obligation I am under to George J. Remsburg for the assistance hehas rendered me. Without his unfailing courtesy, kindness and help I shouldnever have been able to do the work at all. His ability as a local historianis truly marvelous. He wrote two chapters of the history and contributedmost of the matter touching upon the founding of cities and towns. It is tobe regretted that the condition of his health prevented him from undertakingthe work which I have so imperfectly done.
Acknowledgment is also due George A. Root of the State HistoricalSociety, who has rendered me invaluable assistance, and to the AtchisonDaily Globe, from whose files I gathered much important data. Nor can Ifail to give proper credit to Andreas’ History of Kansas, from which a wealthof information has been secured. D. Anna Speer, county superintendent,collected for me most of the historical matter relative to the schools of thecounty and Professor Nathan T. Veatch was more than kind in preparing forme a sketch of the Atchison city schools.
And my dear mother, a loyal resident of Atchison since July, 1859,intimately identified with its history and growth for fifty-seven years, hasvisualized to me as no other could, the story of the early days. Remarkableas a mother, loved and adored by all her children, she is no less remarkable
as a woman, stalwart, rugged and buoyant. She lived her young life withthe pioneers of Atchison, and now in the fullness of her years she looks overthe past, so full of pleasures, tribulations and sorrows, with gladness andresignation, and faces the future with a determined spirit and a brave heart.
To the ministers of the variou