A History of Kansas

The Project Gutenberg eBook, A History of Kansas, by Anna E. (Anna Estelle) Arnold

Memorial Hall
AUTHOR OF CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP
PUBLISHED BY THE STATE OF KANSAS IMRI ZUMWALT, State Printer TOPEKA, 1919 7-6552
Copyright 1914, Anna E. Arnold
Copyright 1919 (Revised), Anna E. Arnold All Rights Reserved

No State has a history better calculated to inspire patriotism in its people than has Kansas. In this fact lies the greatest reason for teaching Kansas History in the schools. A knowledge of the difficulties that have been met and conquered in building the State will create in the minds of the boys and girls a greater respect for the sturdy qualities of the pioneers; it will give them a wholesome sense of the great cost at which the ease and comfort of to-day have been purchased; it will stimulate in them a desire to live up to the past.
If the study of Kansas History is to accomplish these results, the subject must be presented in such a way as to arouse the interest of the pupils. They must feel its reality. They must catch its spirit.
With the hope of fulfilling in some measure these requirements, this book has been prepared with the following aims constantly in mind: to make it, as nearly as possible, a narrative; to select from the wealth of material at hand such subject matter as is within the comprehension of children, eliminating such matter as can be fully understood and appreciated only by mature minds; to present the general movement of the State’s progress rather than a mass of unrelated facts. Only so much detail has been used as is necessary to a clear understanding of events. The purpose has not been to chronicle a multitude of events, but rather to show forth what manner of men and women were the builders of our State, what motives actuated them, what conditions surrounded them, how they lived, and what they accomplished.
An effort has been made to give the pupils a general view of the State’s history as a whole, to give them a framework on which to build their later knowledge, and to leave them with a desire to learn more of Kansas history.