History of Atchison County, Kansas

by Sheffield Ingalls

FARLEY’S FERRY.

The same legislature that gave permission to Lewis to operate a ferry at “Lewis’ Point,” granted the same privilege to Nimrod Farley, to maintain a ferry across the Missouri river, opposite Iatan, Mo. Farley was a well known character in the Missouri bottoms in the vicinity of Iatan, Cow Island, and Oak Mills, in the early days. He lived near Iatan, but it seems that he owned land on the Kansas side, near Oak Mills, which offered a landing for his ferry. He was a brother of Josiah Farley, who laid out the town of Farley, in Platte county, in 1850. George McAdow later became proprietor of Farley’s Ferry and operated it until it was destroyed by Jayhawkers, shortly before the war.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE CIVIL WAR.

THE ISSUE BETWEEN EARLY SETTLERS—INFLUX OF FREE STATE AND PRO-SLAVERY PARTISANS—EARLY VOLUNTEERING—MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS—THREATENED INVASION FROM MISSOURI—POLITICAL SOCIETIES—JAYHAWKERS—CLEVELAND’S GANG—LYNCHINGS—ATCHISON COUNTY TROOPS IN THE WAR—PRICE’S ATTEMPTED INVASION.

The six years intervening between 1854 and 1860 constitute a momentous period in the history of Atchison county. No new community was ever organized under more unpromising circumstances. It was not merely land hunger and lust for personal gain that were the impelling motives which brought men to Kansas in that day. Neither gold, nor gas, nor oil, nor precious gems lured men here. Kansas was then, as it is now, an agricultural paradise, and such an environment has ordinarily but little charm for the daring adventurer and the seeker after sudden riches, who toil not and spin less. It is true that a large number of peaceful, plodding home-seekers—the tillers of the soil—the hewers of wood and the haulers of water, immigrated to Kansas to take up land and build permanent homes, but they were in the minority prior to 1860. The tremendous issue of human slavery was the all absorbing fact, and the long struggle here wrought a complete revolution in the political thought of the whole country. Men came to Kansas for the most part for political rather than for business or agricultural reasons. The settlement of Kansas was an inspired political movement of partisans. There was little room for neutrals, and those who were “too proud to fight” went elsewhere. There was little consideration on the part of the early settlers of Kansas, of any questions except slavery and anti-slavery. They came in large numbers from the South and from the North, and met here upon the frontier in a final test of strength. The Free Soilers won, but only after bitter contests in which passion, prejudice and bloody partisanship ran riot, and Atchison county played a most conspicuous part in this great battle. The Nation and the world looked on as the battle lines surged forward and backward. And while they fought here in a last desperate struggle for supremacy, these courageous men and women on both sides founded their towns, built their court houses, their primary schools and their churches with an abiding faith in the hearts of each of them that victory would finally crown their efforts. Atchison county made progress in spite of the fact that her leaders were wrong. We gave promise here of being the metropolis of Kansas, for we had many geographical and commercial advantages over other struggling communities of the Territory. But before the well laid plans of our citizens matured, before projects for the development of steam transportation to bring us nearer the outside world could be concluded the mighty conflict which ended in four bloody years of civil war, broke upon the Nation, and Kansas within three months after being admitted as a State enrolled itself on the side of the Union. Atchison county sprang to arms almost a thousand strong, and may it ever be said to its everlasting glory that few, if any, counties in the State had a more patriotic record. One hundred and thirty-one Atchison county men enlisted in the First Kansas regiment; twenty-five in the Seventh; eighty-five in the Eighth; eighty-six in the Tenth; 260 in the Thirteenth; 100 in the First Kansas (colored); twenty-five in the First Nebraska; 105 in the Thirteenth Missouri; thirty in the Fifteenth Kansas; forty in the Ninth, and fifty in the Sixteenth, or a total of 937 men, which, together with the scattering of men in other regiments in adjoining States, brought the total number of soldiers engaged during the Civil war to 1,000. The population of Atchison county at that time was 7,747, and the voting population 1,133, which shows that the total number of voters was but slightly larger than the total number of volunteers. At that time Atchison, by reason of its location, was subject to incursions from Confederate troops and Jayhawkers from Missouri, which called for the organization at different periods of the war, of home guard companies, which are not included in the foregoing statement. At the outset of the war Atchison had three militia companies, A, B and C, and a fourth, known as the All Hazard company, the origin of whose name is thus explained. At the city election in the spring of 1861 the issue was union or dis-union. The Republicans and Union Democrats united in supporting G. H. Fairchild for mayor. He was a Union Democrat who on various occasions announced his unwavering friendship of the Union and for the maintenance of the constitution and laws “at all hazards,” and when this company enlisted for the war Mayor Fairchild was its captain and it became Company K of the First Kansas. It participated in the battle of Wilson’s Creek, August 10, 1861, which was the first action in which a Kansas regiment was under fire.

In 1861 there were constant threats of invasion from Missouri rebel organizations in Buchanan and Platte counties, and in that year another home guard company was organized with the following officers: Charles Holbert, captain; J. G. Bechtold, first lieutenant; Clem Rhor, second lieutenant; W. Becker, third lieutenant; John Schupp, ensign. During the following year the danger of invasion became still more threatening and 650 men in sixteen companies came to Atchison to protect the town from destruction. The Atchison county companies were commanded by Captains Holbert, Hays, Batsett, Evans and Vanwinkle. It was due to the thoroughness with which the people of Atchison organized themselves against invasion that they were spared from being completely annihilated. On the fifteenth day of September, 1861, another company for home guard service was mustered in at Ft. Leavenworth. J. M. Graham was captain; J. G. Bechtold, first lieutenant; R. N. Bryant, second lieutenant. This company subsequently became Company E of the First Kansas Regiment Home Guards, numbering fifty men, and were ordered back to Atchison for duty, where they were stationed until all danger of invasion had passed, after which the company became a part of the Eighth Kansas. The victories of the Union forces in 1862 were frequent, and as a result many rebel sympathizers came to Atchison for safety, where they became very troublesome. In order to counteract the growing evil over the activities of these men, Mayor Fairchild issued a proclamation in which he warned them that they must not expect to be protected in any manner by the city laws as long as they held to the views which they expounded at even favorable opportunity. “It would be absurd to suppose,” the proclamation said, “that a patriotic community could treat otherwise than its enemies, persons who are in sympathy with base men who have brought upon our country untold misery, almost unlimited taxation and almost inconceivable pecuniary suffering. As a representative of a loyal people I will not encourage men to return among us who have circulated reports that they were refugees from the loyal States on account of their secession doctrines, nor will I give protection to men who unmistakably at heart belong to the Confederacy.” This proclamation met with such favor that a mass meeting of Union men in Atchison county was held at Price’s Hall March 15, 1862. The whole county was well represented and stirring addresses were delivered by Colonel Edge, of Doniphan county, Tom Murphy, the genial proprietor of the Massasoit House, Rev. W. S. Wenz, Lieutenant Price, E. Chesebrough, Mayor Fairchild, Caleb May, and others, after which resolutions denouncing the southern sympathizers and notifying them not to return were unanimously adopted. During the latter part of the same year a call for aid to assist the Atchison county troops met with immediate response and within a few days, commencing August 20, 1862, almost $4,000 was subscribed by the citizens of Atchison. Seven hundred and forty-five dollars came from Mt. Pleasant township. Among the leading contributors were Theodore Bartholow, E. Chesebrough, G. W. Fairchild, J. W. Russell, W. L. Challiss, Dr. William Irwin, G. W. Howe, Bela M. Hughes, William Hetherington, Otis & Glick, Henry Deisbach, J. E. Wagner, Rice McCubbin, McCausland & Brown, Tom Murphy, W. A. Cochrane, Samuel C. Pomeroy, Stebbins & Company, E. Butcher, and William C. Smith, each of whom subscribed the sum of $50 or over. Atchison also made a notable contribution when Quantrell invaded Lawrence, sending $4,000 to assist the people of that city. In 1863 depredations of the Jayhawkers became very annoying, and a vigilance committee was organized and all good, peaceful and loyal citizens were called upon to band themselves together for the protection of their lives, homes and property. Those who joined the vigilance committee took an oath to support the Government of the United States and Kansas, and to do all in their power to put down the rebellion, and also to keep secret all proceedings of the organization. This committee did very effective work in bringing to punishment violators of law and also in keeping the lawless bands of Jayhawkers and other thieves out of Atchison county.

The following “circular” has been unearthed by the author, and while it bears no date it apparently contained the constitution, by-laws, ritual and oath of these societies.