Happy
Kansas Day everyone! Kansas turned 155 years old this past Friday and Geary
County, or as it was known as back then as Davis County, played a big part in
how the government of the territory shaped Kansas before and during the Civil
War. To help commemorate the occasion we’re going to take a look at the history
of how the short lived town of Pawnee came to be the capital and the subsequent
history of the first territorial capital building.
In
the summer of 1852, Colonel T.T. Fountleroy, former commander of Fort
Leavenworth, recommended that there should be an establishment of a new post
“at or near a point on the Kansas River where the Republican rivers unite,”
this would later play a big part in the naming of “Junction City.” Because of this request, soldiers would
establish such a site later that fall. It would be called “Camp Center” since
it was believed that this location was the geographical center of the United
States. When it turned out that “Camp Center” was not actually in the “center”
it was renamed to Fort Riley to honor the Mexican war hero, General Bennett C.
Riley.
Soon
after the settlement and building of Fort Riley the Pawnee Town Association wanted
to establish a town that was adjacent to Fort Riley in the early months of 1854.
The first of six territorial governors came along with the Pawnee Town
association. It was Reeder intent to name the newly established town site as
the capital of Kansas and to hold the first territorial legislature at Pawnee. Once
word got out that Pawnee was to be the capital of the Kansas territory, people
came to town in droves. Infrastructure was heavily invested in Pawnee as many
believed this would become the booming metropolis of Kansas. The stone capital
building was built almost as soon as it was announced that Pawnee would be the
capital. Laborers were recruited from among those who were arriving in Pawnee
for the first time.
During
the creation of the Kansas territory, there was a fired up debate on whether or
not states should be allowed to enter the union as a free state or a slave
state. Kansas became the hottest debated state in US history. This is why when
it was made public knowledge that the election for territorial delegates for
the legislature were to take place on March 30th, 1855, groups of
armed, Pro-Slavery Missourians, crossed the border to vote in the election. For
this reason, the first legislature that met in Pawnee was called the “Bogus
Legislature” by the free-state opponents. Approximately 5,000 of these “Bushwhackers” voted
to make Kansas a pro-slavery state, making it an invalid election. Evidence of
fraud was blatantly obvious. When the elections started, Kansas only had 2,905
eligible voters. After all the votes were counted, there were a total of 6,307
ballots. With the events that unfolded, Governor Reeder was outraged and
demanded a new election and deemed the recent election invalid. But with the
result they wanted, the first legislature did not even bother to acknowledge,
let alone participate in the second election.
With
the drama unfolding, the “Bogus” legislature decided to convene in Pawnee,
Kansas on July 1855. Those in the Pro-Slavery legislature were not too fond of
the location of the Capital. They believed that it should be closer to the
border to make travel easier for them as many had to commute from Missouri. The
legislature only lasted a few days and left on July 6, 1855 with the intent of
never returning again. The building which many had put such hard work into
building would be abandoned and left behind. Perhaps more importantly, those
who had established a life in what was supposed to be the capital city were
disheartened and were looking at an uncertain future.
Just
a few days after the legislature had left Pawnee and the building was cleared
out and left empty. The bottom half was used as storage and the top half of the
building was used as the living quarters for the Morris family of Pawnee. The town site of Pawnee would soon be
integrated into Fort Riley and all the previous buildings, except for the
capital building, would eventually be razed. The capital building then had an erratic
history following the departure of the legislature where it was turned into a warehouse
and was even a location where many homeless people would occupy without
permission.
One
of the more devastating events happened in 1877, when the roof was torn off by
a tornado and leaving the inside exposed to the harsh Kansas weather. The
movement for the buildings preservation began around 1900, but it wasn’t until
1926 when Geary County Senator G.W. Schimdt was able to get a bill introduced
into the Kansas Senate for a $1,000 grant to help fix up the site. August 1,
1928 marked the first time since 1855 that there was an official meeting place
at the old building. It was estimated that 15,000 had shown up to help
celebrate the occasion. Finally in May of 2001, there was a “grand reopening”
celebrated with an exhibit opening which told the history of not only the
capital building but the short lived capital of Pawnee.
With
all of the great history that the building has, it’s a good thing to see the
continued efforts to keep the building in good shape!
The First Territorial Capital
Building has been through some rough patches and this picture shows it. This
was taken at the turn of the century after a tornado ripped through the roof of
the capital building.