Overview Richards and William Connelley corresponded about Kansas territorial history. Richards, who participated in the border wars between Kansas Territory and Missouri (1854-1861), recounted the events for Connelley, a historian. The letters, dated 1902-1909, were written approximately 50 years after the events. Connelley and Richards were specifically interested in detailing the border war involvement of Richards himself as well as James Lane, John Brown, William Quantrill, and Governor...

Overview

The accounts in this collection relate to Reuben Randlett's experiences in the 1856 sacking of Lawrence, Kansas; his activities as a spy among the raiders; the Battle of Black Jack; the dissolution of the Free State legislature in Topeka on July 4, 1856; and Randlett's captivity by William C. Quantrill in 1862. The collection also includes a photograph of Randlett.

Overview This 7-page transcript of an undated letter from Mary Chesley Killam is a descriptive memoir of her pioneer years in Lawrence, Kansas from 1855 to 1863. Writing to a newspaper near her native village of Barnstead, New Hampshire, she recalls the appearance of Lawrence when she and her husband first arrived, incidents involving abolitionist John Brown as a frequent guest of their hotel, and pro-slavery attacks on free-state Lawrence, including William Quantrill's Lawrence massacre of August...

Overview

This collection consists of copied and original correspondence, clippings, photographs, and other related materials regarding the life of Oscar Eugene Learnard, his family, and the early history of Lawrence, Kansas.