Our Past Is Present August 1, 2017

August 1, 2017

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            Today our time will be spent sharing more about the early days of Junction City.  

            We hope you are enjoying these stories and if you are, stop by the Museum and let us know that or give us a call at 238-1666.

            Ben Keyser opened a printing office in Junction City to start a newspaper in 1859, the same year Junction City was incorporated.  He was a Southerner with pro-slavery sympathies and a radical Democrat, although the only surviving edition of his “Junction Sentinel” newspaper dated May 14, 1859 gives no outward indications about his political position.

            Keyser’s “Prospectus”, in addition to describing his plans for the newspaper, also gives us an indication of the prospects for the new town. Here is a quote from that work:  “This is the most western town of any importance in the Territory, being three miles west of Fort Riley and located immediately at the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill forks of the Kaw (Kansas) River.  It naturally commands the trade of the settlers upon the rich and beautiful valleys spreading from the banks of streams. 

            The continued prosperity of the town although but six months old, its rapidly increasing importance and the many and varied interests that are centering on it, has induced the undersigned to try the rather dangerous experiment of publishing here, upon the border of civilization.  It is true that towns seldom make papers, while it is equally true that papers often erect towns.”  These were encouraging words about early Junction City.

Thanks for reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.