OLD SETTLERS' REUNION

A SPEECH BY JOHN A. MARTIN

In 1886

Transcribed by
Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.
Thousand Oaks, California
July 7,2004

[Within the files of the Kansas State Historical Society library is a speech John A.
Martin, pioneer editor of a Atchison, Kansas, newspaper, colonel in the Union Army
during the Civil War, and now Governor of Kansas. While no name or title appears on
the first page, internal evidence of the date, the style and the themes are consistent with
the authorship of Martin. Concerning the date of the talk, Martin notes that in the year of
1886, seven counties were organized. By September 2nd, Hamilton, Cheyenne, Lane,
Seward, Scott, Stevens and Grove counties had been established, so Martin is speaking
sometime after that time in 1886. He is speaking to other early settlers of the state,
recalling the struggles of the first homesteaders, the tremendous advances in the economy
of the state, and the sacrifices made to achieve this progress. The talk is typed on
onionskin paper, and pages 3 and 4 are missing. Enough of the text remains to reveal a
statesman proud of his country and appreciative of its "Old Timers." The spelling and
punctuation is that of the document, while the spaces between paragraphs are doubled for
ease of reading. -Ernst F. Tonsing]

I have, occasionally, heard objections urged to such assembleges as this. Those

who came at later periods are sometimes inclined to say that these "Old Settler's Re-
Unions" are exclusive, or that they raise unnatural distinctions among citizens who have
an equal interest and pride in the growth and prosperity of Kansas. Surely there is no
occasion for such a feeling. Every country has thus honored its pioneers, and why should
not Kansas? The story of the men and women who landed on the rock at Plymouth or on
the shores of the James; the narrative of the adventurous and hardy people who
conquered the wilderness and cleared the forests of Ohio and Kentucky—these have been
recorded in history and celebrated in song, for generations. Yet the settlement in Kansas
was far more eventful and romantic than was that of any other American State. A great
drama was enacted on these wide and beautiful prairies—a drama of surpassing interest
and importance to the whole human race—and the men and women who took part in it
deserve to be remembered and honored. Kansas was the battle-field of the Nation for
eleven tragic years, and during all of that period the courage, constancy and self-sacrifice
of her people justly challenged the admiration and applause of the civilized world.
Kansas stood for Freedom, for Justice, for Union, and maintained the unequal contest
with their opposing forces so bravely and so well that her name became a synonym for
Liberty, Right and Loyalty, and wherever these were honored Kansas was revered. The
"Old Settlers" of Kansas have a right, therefore, to meet together as you have today, to
talk over the hardships, privations and dangers of the past, and to congratulate each other
that they have lived to witness and enjoy the peace, prosperity and glory of the present.

When, however, one is invited to address an "Old Settler's Re-Union" in Kansas,

it is important to inquire when the county in which it is held was organized. For the "Old
Settler" is, in date of settlement, a changeable quantity. I attended an "Old Settler's Re-
Union" twenty-one years ago, and there have been assemblages of Old Settlers in this
State at which I could not enroll, although I have been a citizen of Kansas for nearly
thirty years.

Along the Eastern border, the people who have located since 1861 are not the Old
Settlers. West of the Blue and the Neosho [rivers], it is probably that 1870 would mark
the dividing line between the old and the new; and west of Barton and Rooks counties,
the old timers would include all who located previous to 1880. Hence, at an "Old
Settlers' Re-Union" held in Atchison or Franklin counties, not to exceed 75,000 of the
present inhabitants of Kansas could enroll; at a similar meeting in Washington or Butler
counties, 300,000 might be counted eligible; and in Harper or Phillips, fully 800,000.
The "Old Settler" in Finney or Rawlings would be a tenderfoot at re-unions in any of the
counties I have mentioned.

The Territory of Kansas was organized on the 30th of May, 1854—thirty-two

years ago; and it was admitted into the Union on the 29th of January, 1861—twenty-five
years ago. During the territorial period, thirty-two counties were organized. The dark
and desolate years of the war were a period of stagnation in Kansas. Not a single county
was organized in 1861; only one in 1862; none in 1863; and but one in 1864.
Development began again in 1865, when two counties were organized, and ten others
were added during the next five years, making a total of forty-six at the close of that
decade. From 1870 to 1879, inclusive, thirty counties were organized, making a total of
seventy-six. In 1880, four were organized; in 1881, one; then there was a skip of two
years, and in 1884, one county was organized. In 1885, four were added to the list, and
thus far during 1886, seven have been organized, making a total of 93. Seven remain
unorganized, but census takers have been appointed for four of these, and it now seems
probably that, before the close of the year...

[here follows an hiatus of two pages]

...mighty commerce; prosperity worth fully six hundred million dollars has been
accumulated; seven thousand school houses welcome throngs of eager children; crops
valued at over one hundred million dollars are annually harvested; and nearly a million
and a half of intelligent, enterprising and prosperous people have homes within the
borders of this great state.

And who has a better right to feel proud of this miracle of growth and prosperity
than has the "Old Settler"? He came when Kansas was an experiment—a lovely and
fertile but unknown and solemn solitude. He was the modern John Baptist in the
wilderness, preparing the way for the millions who were to come after him. He endured
much; he braved much. From the days of John Smith and the Pilgrims, the lot of all
pioneers has been, in many things, grievous to be borne, and the pioneers of Kansas can
cite innumerable instances of courage and endurance approaching the super-human. For
eleven years after the organization of the territory, as I have said, Kansas was an armed
camp. Bands of marauders roamed over the country, scattering ruin and desolation in
their pathway. The smoke of burning homes darkened the sky, and tumult and
lawlessness reigned supreme. Drouths and locust invasions succeeded, bringing poverty,
even want, as familiar guests to many households. And in the western half of the State,
as the settlements advanced, Indian raids and invasions, leaving a wide trail of murder
and devastation behind them, became frequent.

Thus along the receding frontier, at every advance of the pioneers of civilization,
the invisible sentinels of Danger and Privation waited, and the isolation and loneliness of
the far-reaching prairies magnified and intensified their terrors. Man is such an atom on
the great bosom of the earth that, isolated from his fellows and his view circumscribed
only by the misty horizon and the infinite bending of the sky, he feels more keenly his
feebleness, and the vastness of his solitude becomes oppressive. It has always seemed to
me that the loneliness of the plains is far more melancholy than that of the forest, and that
they who first ventured out into their trackless and voiceless solitudes to build homes
braved even more than they who first invaded the ever-changing and always murmuring
woods.

The rude dug-outs, the queer sod-houses, the comfortless cabins, have
disappeared or are fast vanishing, and pleasant homes shelter a million and a half of
happy and prosperous people. School houses dot every hill side and valley; church-
spires are rarely out of sight, and except in a few counties one cannot travel beyond the
sound of the locomotive's shrill whistle. Ambitious and busy cities and thriving towns
and villages are scattered as thickly over the sectionized squares of our maps as are the
figures of chessmen on a painted board. The black banners of industry float from
thousands of mills and factories. Fields and meadows are rich with harvests or stock, and
the face of the land has been transformed with orchards, forests and hedge-rows. The
weak and oppressed Territory has grown to be a great, opulent and powerful State. It is
the heart of the American Continent. It has absorbed, in its population, the best blood
and brain of all the civilized Nations of the earth. It produces more wheat than
Minnesota or California, and more corn than Illinois, or Missouri, or Iowa. Its railway
system forms the spinal column of the internal trade of the Continent. Its school-houses
are valued at nearly seven million dollars, and its churches cost nearly four millions.
Fifteen thousand busy workmen are employed in its mills and factories. Six million head
of stock graze on its rich grasses. The assessed value of its property equals $200 per
capita for its population, and its wealth is more equally distributed than in any other
portion of the habitable globe. The 34th State of the Union in 1860, it is now the 14th in
population. And having only a little more than ten millions of itsfifty-twomillion acres
in cultivation, its farm products, last year, aggregated in value nearly one hundred and
forty-four million dollars. Everywhere is growth, improvement, increase; everywhere
are the evidences of intelligence, industry and enterprise; everywhere the promise of a
larger, broader life, and a firmer, deeper faith in the greatness and glory of Kansas.

And the "Old Settler"—God bless him—has seen the glory of the coming of it all.
He came when the country was a wilderness; he saw the buffalo-grass vanish, and the
blue stem invade and conquer the land; he planted trees on the prairies and has seen the
shade of their branches spread; he planned and worked for the first school-house; he
dreamed, at night, of the new railroad, and by day he "whooped it up" for the bonds; he
dreamed dreams by day and by night of a rise of property in the Spring; he saw the land-
scape transformed by the plow; he conquered his own doubts and fears concerning the
future of the country, and inspired the new comers with hope and courage by his
confident prophecies; and, slowly but surely, he saw the wilderness blossom into a great
garden of fragrant and beautiful roses.

He may be pardoned, therefore, if occasionally his talk of the past becomes a little
monotonous. He has a right to tell, over and over again, how "all of this I saw, and part
of it I was." It is a pardonable boast. I would rejoice, indeed, if each of the "Old
Settlers" everywhere could boast, with equal truth, that he had been blessed with a fair,
even generous, share of the prosperity that has attended the growth of the State, and has
secured an ample portion of the wealth that has been produced by the development of its
resources. But whether rich or poor, successful or unfortunate, I know he rejoices over
and is proud of the Kansas of to-day—the great imperial State, destined to be the greatest
of all the States of our Union. And so, in the language of Rip Van Winkle, I pledge him,
in this cup of pure cold water. "Here's to his health, and his family's health; and may
they all live long and prosper."
 OLD SETTLERS

A SPEECH BY COL. JOHN A. MARTIN

September, 1884

Transcribed by
Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.
Thousand Oaks, California
July 8,2004

[The following speech by Colonel John A. Martin of Atchison, Kansas, soon to be

Governor of the state, is in a manuscript of six pages length in the archives of the Kansas
State Historical Society in Topeka, Kansas. It is written in a clear, bold hand, with but
four, short revisions of the text to clarify or intensify a word or two. The underlined
initial letters of Sunflower, Central and Soldier in the last paragraph no doubt were marks
for the speaker to emphasize those words at the delivery of the talk. The length of the
discourse was probably only five or six minutes. In transcribing the speech, the spelling,
punctuation and capitalization is retained. Col. Martin is addressing a gathering of
pioneer citizens in Lawrence twenty-four years after the admission of the state to the
union. He recalls the confident words of Senator William Henry Seward when he visited
the Territory, reviews the achievements of the population of the new state, and ends with
expressions of love, pride and hope for Kansas. When Seward spoke in Lawrence, the
Wyandotte Constitution, the writing of which a youthful Martin had a part, had passed
easily in the House, but had been tabled in the Senate, dashing the prospects of Kansans
for self-government. Southern, slave-state proponents were invading the Territory bent
upon intimidation and murder. Furthermore, a disastrous drought was threatening the
wellbeing of the Territory. Those in the audience knew full well the import of this
quotation and of Martin's own words. They had lived through those dark days, and were
now enjoying the legacy of their courageous perseverance. -Ernst F. Tonsing]

Mr President and fellow=citizens:-

On the 26th of September, 1860, one of the greatest and most honored of
Americans, speaking in Lawrence in reply to an address by Gov. Robinson, said:-

"Henceforth, if my confidence in the American Union wavers, I shall come here

to learn that the Union is stronger than human ambition, because it is founded in the
affection of the American people. If ever I shall waver in my affection for Freedom, I
shall come up here and renew it—here, under the inspiration of one hundred thousand
freemen, saved from Slavery. Henceforth, these shall not be my sentiments alone, but the
sentiments of all. Men will come up to Kansas as they go up to Jerusalem. This shall be
a sacred city."

It is appropriate, therefore, that the Old Settlers of Kansas should "come up here"
to this Mecca of the Free State pilgrims, to renew their affection for freedom and to
rejoice over the triumphs won in her name—here under the inspiration, not of one
hundred thousand, but of a million and a quarter of freemen, saved from Slavery.

The fields, the churches, the schooHhouses to which Mr. Seward referred, in the
speech I have quoted from, have here multiplied an hundred fold. I have little doubt that
there is more money invested in the churches and schooHhouses of Douglas County, at
the present time, than in those of all Kansas in 1860. The products of our
marker=gardens, this year, will exceed in value all the farm products of the Territory
twenty=four years ago. The residences erected in Kansas during the present year will
exceed, both in number and in value, all the residences of the Territory at the date of its
admission into the Union. We had not a mile of railway in the State at that time; now we
have nearly five thousand miles, traversing nearly every organized County, and the
capital invested in these railways probably exceeds the value of all the real property of
the State at the date of Mr. Seward's visit. We polled 15,513 votes that year; we will
poll nearly, if not quite, 250,000 this year. All the live stock of the State, at the date of its
admission, numbered less than 24,000 head; this year we can count up nearly four
million farm animals. The four most populous Countries of the state now have more
inhabitants than the whole Territory had at the date of its admission into the Union.

With confident faith the old settlers of Kansas laid the foundations of a free
Commonwealth, and its majestic growth has more than justified their most sanguine
hopes. The development of the State has been no less wonderful than its eventful history,
and both have excited the interest and admiration of the civilized world.

"I am," said Mr. Seward, in 1860, "prepared to declare, and do declare, you
people of Kansas the most intelligent, the bravest, the most virtuous people in the United
States." Whether this tribute was or was not deserved, it is certain that no State in the
Union could then, or can now, claim a braver, a more intelligent, a more enterprising, or a
more liberty=loving and law=respecting population. Nor can any State point to a more
romantic history, or boast of more splendid achievements than those that have made
Kansas what she is to=day. Here the struggle was commenced which grew and
intensified and spread until the whole country was enlisted in its issue; here the first shot
at Slavery was fired; and here, four hundred miles long and two hundred miles wide,
blossoming with abundant harvests, dotted with school=houses and churches, and having
a million and a quarter of busy, prosperous, intelligent people, is the Old and the New
Kansas—the Kansas that lighted up the future of our imagination in the dear old days of
long ago; the Kansas that, fulfilling all the proud hopes of those early days, still holds
her regal place in the eyes of the Nation and of the world—the Central State, the
Sunflower State, and, best of all, the Soldier State, numbering among its people
representatives of every regiment that served in the Union army. This is the state of our
love and of our pride, growing always, in intellectual force as well as in material wealth;
never falling into ruts; never afraid or ashamed to experiment and learn; never hesitating
to accept new responsibilities; trying now to keep her house pure and her young
manhood clean and healthy, as bravely as, in the old days, she "took up the banner of
Human Freedom where it was trailed in the dust by the Government, raised it aloft and
protected it, and bore it to success and honor."