Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections

Reminiscences of early days near Blue Mound. Recounts family's departure from England and trip West. Describes pioneer life in Douglas County, raids during the civil War, and Indians in the area. A 4-page "Excerpt" and map is included with the account.

Typescript of the autobiography of Mary F. Beeson, including Beeson's account of the murder of her father, James Lot Warfield, by William Quantrill's guerrilla band on October 17, 1862 at Shawneetown, Kansas.

The papers include (1) a testimony to his recent left-handness sworn before Douglas County Clerk in 1867, (2) a manuscript titled "A sketch of my military history" which he entered in a penmanship contest, sponsored by William Oland Bourne, editor of the "Soldier's Friend", (3) a letter from General U.S. Grant awarding Palmer first prize in the contest, and (4) letter awarding Palmer a $50 prize.

Biographical account of Samuel N. Simpson, an early resident of territorial Kansas, by an unknown author. The sketch includes genealogical information about Simpson's ancestors as well as information about Simpson's personal and business life throughout the 19th century. The bulk of the account is allegedly a history of the Border Wars between Kansas and Missouri written by Simpson himself.

This Civil War diary of Douglas O. Lilley, a private in Company D of the Kansas 8th Regiment, contains his daily entries for the entirety of 1863, describing his military duties at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, his transfer as a prisoner to Benton Barracks in Missouri, his service in Tennessee and Georgia, and his return to Kansas and resumption of civilian life following disability discharge in December 1863. A letter enclosure is at RH MS P619.

This collection consists of news clippings collected by Sara Robinson, Charles Robinson's wife, and compiled into scrapbooks. The clippings treat the lives of Charles Robinson, John Brown, James H. Lane, and numerous others prominent in Kansas history. There is biographical information about Lawrence residents, local and regional history.

Printed form, signed by Edward Clark, Adjutant General, and C. W. Topliff, Major General Commanding the Kansas Militia.

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.

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.

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.

Correspondence, documents relating to Lawrence property and Pike's Peak gold mines, steamship freight bills, papers, etc.

The collection includes correspondence, notes and source material, clippings, maps, photographs, documents, and other related items, dating primarily from 1841-1923.

This collection consists of letters describing incidents of the border raids during the Kansas Territory-Missouri border wars just before the United States' Civil War in detail, including references to John Brown, William Quantrill, Jim Montgomery, and Fort Scott. The collection also includes a deed to land in McLean County, Illinois owned by Vansickle.

This collection consists of Joseph Cody's letters to his wife, Elvira (Cable) Cody, and those received from other friends, arranged chronologically from 1854-1885. It also includes letters written by Elvira and those she received from friends prior to her marriage to Joseph, arranged chronologically from 1847-1853. Letters written by Elvira's father, Eleazer Cable, a nurseryman in Ohio concerned with the maintenance of the Cable nursery, are dated from 1837-1869.

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.

The collection is comprised of three state-issued Union Military Scrips, for $1, $5, and $22, issued to James Aitken, C. C. Johnson, and B. Allen, respectively. Thse scrip was issued June 1st, 1867, to "provide for the assumption and settlement of the claims growing out of the Price Raid in 1864, and Indian Expedition under Gen. Curtis in July and August, 1864."

This collection of Lawrence, Kansas-based historian Katie Hart Armitage's papers includes Armitage's correspondence spanning from the 1970s until 2016, as well as her historical research materials and preparatory notes for tours and presentations centered primarily on the American Civil War, the Oregon-California Trail, and the Santa Fe Trail.

Mounted newspaper clippings of a letter to the editor of the Leavenworth (Kansas) Standard, dated November 26, 1881, concerning Price's Missouri Expedition, 1864.

The Lewis A. Waterman Collection contains twenty-nine letters that were written by him from 1864 to 1865 while serving in the United States Signal Corps, stationed chiefly at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The collection also includes cartes de visites of Waterman's Signal Corps comrades at Fort Leavenworth.

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.

Andrew Williams' autobiographical narrative gives an account of Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas in 1863. Williams wrote it at the urging of William E. Connelley.

These volumes are compilations by members of the Watson Library staff of newspaper clippings dated 1861-1959 about James Lane and his descendants.

This collection consists of photocopied family correspondence from the 19th century, including family members who lived in New York City, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Kansas before, during, and after the United States' Civil War.