Senate Chamber in the State Capitol.
The State Capitol. The year 1903 is an interesting one, for it marked the completion of our State Capitol. Shortly after the admission of Kansas to the Union the people selected Topeka as the seat of government. As soon as the Civil War was over and they had time to think about public improvements they began to lay plans for building a capitol. Every state has a capitol, or state house as it is often called, in which there are offices for the Governor and other state officers as well as large rooms for the meetings of the Legislature. It is for the state what a courthouse is for a county. It should, of course, be a fine building, of which the people can be proud. But back in the ’60’s Kansas people were few in number and had little money. They could not afford to build a capitol that would be large and handsome enough for the future, nor did they wish to construct a small, cheap building that would have to be set aside later. Instead they planned a fine structure to be built a little at a time as they could afford it.
A Kansas Cattle Ranch.
In 1866 the Legislature provided for the erection of what is now the east wing of our state house. As the State grew in wealth and population, more money was appropriated from time to time for the construction of other wings, the great central portion, and lastly the high dome that reaches nearly three hundred feet into the air. The building was completed in 1903, having been thirty-seven years in the making. It grew as the State grew, costing altogether between three and four millions of dollars. It is fitting that the great State of Kansas should now have one of the finest capitols in the United States.
The Floods. The people of Kansas had withstood a number of drouths, but beginning in 1903 they were, for the first time, visited by a series of floods. The first one was probably the most destructive. Most of the water came down the Kansas River from the tributaries draining central and western Kansas, where there had been heavy rainfall. Farms and towns along these streams were flooded, property was swept away, and a number of lives were lost. Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City, where portions of the cities were inundated for days, suffered heavy losses. The following year nearly every stream in the State poured a flood of water down its valley, and many people had to flee to the hills for safety. In 1908, for the third time in five years, Kansas was again visited by high water. The loss occasioned by these floods amounted to many millions of dollars, but help poured in to the sufferers from many sources and they straightway began the work of repairing and rebuilding. In a short time all traces of the calamity had disappeared.
State Governors, 1893-1914.
JOHN W. LEEDY, EDMUND N. MORRILL, WILLIAM E. STANLEY,
WILLIS J. BAILEY,
EDWARD W. HOCH, GEORGE H. HODGES, WALTER R. STUBBS