Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections

Overview Biography of George Ellis written in 1953 by Howard C. Raynesford titled George Ellis, First Lieutenant, Company I, 12th Kansas Infantry. Ellis served as Lieutenant in the Kansas Infantry during the Civil War and was killed in battle. Ellis County and the town of Ellis in Kansas was named in his honor. Also included is a genealogy of the Ellis family, a photograph, and a photocopy of his military commission. Raynesford also gives a brief account of the...

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...

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The collection contains 34 letters written by Marcus Junius Parrott to his Dayton, Ohio family members. The letters date from April 7, 1851 to April 28, 1862, and are arranged chronologically. Also included in the collection are a brief handwritten statement by [Laurette?] Parrott [Irvin?] regarding the collection content, and an offprint of a published 1865 sermon by Phillips Brooks, delivered at the time of Abraham Lincoln's death.

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The Douglas County Historical Society was organized in 1933 by a group headed by Professor F. N. Raymond of the University of Kansas. This collection consists of manuscript and printed materials from a variety of individuals, businesses, and organizations associated with the history of Douglas County, Kansas, from its territorial settlment period of the 1850s through much of the 20th century, deposited by the Douglas County Historical Society with the Spencer Research Library.

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Elfriede Fischer Rowe was a well-known authority on Lawrence, Kansas history and active in many community and civic endeavors. This collection includes personal mementos from when she was a student and alumna of the University of Kansas, information regarding World War II rationing and Mrs. Rowe's work with the Hercules Power Company during the war, as well as historical information about Lawrence, Kansas and personal and family papers.

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The Elliott family papers consist of correspondence, printed materials, photographs, and memorabilia from a family that settled in Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas soon after it opened for Euro-American settlement in 1854.

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This honorable discharge certificate was issued to Private F. D. Drake for service from January 24 to February 18, 1856 in the First Regiment Cavalry of Kansas Volunteers, organized to defend the people of Kansas Territory "against lawless agressions." The certificate, dated February 18, 1856 at Lawrence City, Kansas, is signed by free-state loyalists and commanders G. [Gaius] Jenkins, C. [Charles] Robinson, Robert Klotz, and James [Leyate?].

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This letter from George Edwin Young, a survivor of William Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, was written to his father two days following the massacre. A typed and annotated transcription of the letter is included.

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Photocopy of typescript of stories about a young woman growing up in territorial and Civil War-era Kansas.

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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.

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This collection contains the papers of Kansas free state activist Josiah Miller, dating from 1854-1870 and those of various members of his family, dating from 1840-1912.

Overview This letter, dated November 3, 1857, is from Delaware Chief John Sarcoxie (signed "Sircoxy" in the letter) to Joel Grover, a free-state loyalist of Kansas Territory whose property in the town of Lawrence was a station on the Underground Railroad. Citing their prior contract, the Delaware chief asks for Grover's payment of $600 to the Delaware Nation as agreed upon completion of the Quindaro Road (a stage road from the Underground Railroad town of Quindaro, Kansas to Lawrence, completed in...

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This collection consists of letters and notes from Samuel F. Tappan sent to William E. Connelley regarding Tappan's involvement with and recollection of the territorial border wars in Kansas. The letters were written a half-century after the fact.

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This collection includes Lewis Timothy Litchfield's diary, 1854-1855, containing an account of his trip and settlement in Lawrence, Kansas, as part of the second Emigrant Aid party, and a certificate presented to Litchfield from his English study at Cambridge High School in Massachusetts.

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Maggie Herrington's journal of her experiences during the year 1867 as part of a school assignment and two pieces of correspondence between the Watkins Community Museum of Lawrence, Kansas, and Lida Mattman, Maggie Herrington's granddaughter, dated 1979.

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Handwritten and typed manuscripts of poems written by Maude Gooch Phillips, mostly focused on the early history of Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas.

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Eldridge was active in the efforts to make Kansas Territory a free state. Formerly a Democrat, Eldridge joined the Kansas delegation at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Memoir of early days in Kansas, miscellaneous stock certificates, and account sheets, 1859-1898.

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Margaret Thompson Henderson was born in Parsons, Kansas and graduated from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1905. Her 91-page scrapbook of news clippings from the early 1900s chronicles notable people, places and events in the history of Kansas, the Lawrence community, and the University of Kansas. Included are published poems, biographies, and obituaries of famous Kansans.

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This collection consists of diaries, correspondence, copies of speeches and talks, news clippings, genealogical information, and other related materials from the Simons family of Kansas. The bulk of the collection relates to W.C. Simons, founder of the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper of Lawrence, Kansas.

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The collection contents include correspondence written to and from Governor Carney.

Scope and Contents

True history of the Kansas wars: and their origin, progress and incidents.../ By 0. N. Merrill; illustrated with beautifully-colored engravings; also a portrait of the author.--Cincinnati: J. R. Telfer, 1856.