Mr. Charles Branscombe, as agents of the company, had visited Kansas in July, 1854, for the purpose of selecting a country for settlement. They chose the Kaw valley, near the present site of Lawrence. The emigrants pitched their tents on the hill overlooking the valley, and on this spot partook of their first meal in Lawrence. Mr. Fuller, one of the emigrants, inscribed upon his tent the name of Mount Oread in honor of Mount Oread Seminary, of Worcester, Mass., which was founded by Eli Thayer, the founder and benefactor of the Emigrant Aid Company. The hill on which they camped retained this name ever afterwards. After the first meal, the emigrants, in true New England style, held a town meeting in which was discussed the feasibility of locating at this place. After due deliberation it was decided by a majority to build a town at this locality, on the supposition that the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company would make this the basis of their operations in the Territory.* Consequently the company proceeded to stake out claims in accordance with the methods in vogue.

In the meantime Dr. Robinson had returned to Massachusetts and started with the second party of emigrants, numbering 67, which was increased along the route, 21 joining the company at Worcester, 8 or 10 of this group being women and children. The spirit with which these people left their native land to settle in a new country was characteristic of the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England. They were not forced to leave their homes on account of personal oppression, but they went to better their economic condition, and at the same time to build up civil and religious freedom in a new land. While in the station at Boston they sang Whittier's well-known hymn on the Kansas emigrants, of which two stanzas are given here:

We cross the prairies as of old

The pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West as they the East
The homestead of the free.

We go to plant the common schools
On distant prairie swells,

And give the Sabbaths of the wild
The music of her bells.

*Springfield Republican, August, 1854.
Whittier's Poems, Vol. II, p. 177.

+ Andreas, 311.

They also sang a hymn written for the occasion, the first lines of which are as follows:*

We'll seek the rolling prairies,

The regions yet unseen,

Nor stay our feet unweary

By Kansas' flowing stream;

And then with hands unfettered

Our altars we will raise,
With voices high uplifted

We'll sing our Maker's praise.

At the station at Worcester the Hon. William C. Bloss presented the company with a handsomely bound Bible on which was inscribed: "To establish civil and religious liberty in Kansas." While these people were anxious to transplant and perpetuate New England institutions they were not wanting in that practical thrift which characterized the early New England settlers; they were interested in the fertile lands of Kansas. Truly they sought to establish civil and religious liberty in Kansas and at the same time to enter and possess the promised land. The process was to establish homes, to develop the resources of the country, that free institutions might flourish.

The Kansas and Nebraska bill, or the Douglas bill, had removed the seat of freedom's struggle to Kansas and these hardy pioneers were to occupy a new position in the strife. The Emigrant Aid Company were sending out free men who would make Kansas a free State, but they must become bona fide settlers, tilling the soil, building towns, and forming governments. But they sought the freedom of others. The orator of the quarter-centennial celebration of the settlement of Kansas well says:

The pioneers who became trusted leaders among the Free-State hosts were men who could not rest in their old comfortable homes when the demon of human slavery was clutching at freedom's rightful heritage. Many of them were the sons of the old anti-slavery agitators, and had learned from childhood to hate slavery and to love freedom and to claim it as the right of all men, races, and conditions.t

After the arrival of the second party the two were joined and speedily came to an agreement about claims. The first party were to receive compensation for the work already done,

* Andreas, 313.

+ Col. S. N. Wood in quarter-centennial address at Topeka.

the second party joining them in the distribution of claims. Then followed the process of building a town from the foundation. A town site was selected and surveyed, being 2 miles along the river, and 14 miles from the river south. A sufficient number of farm lots were surveyed to give each settler a claim of 160 acres. Choice of claims were to be made in order of the highest bids made. This money paid was to go into a city fund. The highest bid made was $327, and the total amount bid was $5,040.*

One-half of the city lots were to be distributed among the settlers and one-fourth retained by the association and the remaining fourth kept for gratuitous distribution to those who would agree to build homes upon them and make other improvements, within a certain date.

On the 18th of September the town association was organized. As there was yet no Territorial government the settlers were practically without government and law save only as they were a law unto themselves. The town was named Lawrence in honor of Amos A. Lawrence, the patron and officer of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, and the Lawrence Association was formed of all the settlers. No charter could be obtained from a higher authority, so a simple democratic organization, with a constitution and officers, was formed. The ordinary simple forms of municipal government were adopted, and rules of registration of claims, conditions of membership, etc., were determined. The officers were president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, register of deeds and claims, and clerk of court, surveyor, marshal, board of arbitrators, and councilmen. This remarkable association continued in vogue for nearly three years as practically the only government the new town had. Under the circumstances it was sufficient, and when a better government was needed the citizens made a charter for themselves and reorganized the city government. For several months the association held a meeting once each week, and all the settlers who were members of the association attended these meetings. There was no representative government, as the officers worked on the committee plan. Finally the meetings occurred but once each month. Lands were

* Sufficient time was given for the payment of the money so as to afford the poor as well as the rich ample opportunity for land. Subsequently it was voted that this money should not be collected.

+ Andreas, p. 313.

reserved for schools, a college, and for State buildings. As the municipal records of this early period are lost the rulings of the association can not be definitely determined. However, one ruling, characteristic of the people, is worthy of notice; that was, the adoption of the Maine liquor law in the town. This was the beginning of prohibition in the State of Kansas, a short time after the entrance of the first settlers. For a time it was enforced, but carelessness and violations prevailed, until finally the women of the town made a temperance crusade which was of great service in the enforcement of the law. In this law and in nearly all other laws we find the customs and laws of New England prevailing.

At first Lawrence was but a city of tents, with a single cabin on the site. A writer describes the city soon after its settlement:

*

A few tents were pitched on the high ground overlooking the Kansas and Wakarusa valleys, others were scattered over the level bottoms below, but not a dwelling was to be seen. It was a city of tents alone. Two very intelligent ladies from Massachusetts had united their forces and interests and had taken boarders. In the open air on some logs of wood two rough boards were laid across for a table, and on washtubs, kegs, and blocks, they and their boarders were seated around it. This was the first boarding house in the city of Lawrence.

Soon tents were replaced by log cabins, and after the arrival of the sawmill, board houses were made (mansions of the luxurious plutocrats of the young city).* Religious services were held on October 1, and on this day a Bible class was organized, and on the 15th Plymouth Church was organized, with Rev. S. Y. Lum as pastor.

Considerable difficulty arose over the settlement of disputed claims. Soon after the passage of the Douglas bill, which provided for squatter sovereignty in Kansas, the citizens of Missouri who were determined to make Kansas a slave State rushed across the border and staked out claims on all of the desirable land, determined to hold it against all comers. Most of these returned to their homes, but registered their claims in an office in Missouri. Prior to the establishment of the town site in Lawrence, several of these claims had been taken on the ground later occupied by the town. But when the emigrants arrived and laid out the town only two of the squatter sover

* The Emigrant Aid Company sent a sawmill to Lawrence, but it was a long time in coming. In the meantime another steam mill was purchased in Kansas City and moved, frame and all, to Lawrence.

eigns were on the ground. One claim was purchased and paid for; the other claimant, Mr. Baldwin, refused to sell. Subsequently the other sovereigns returned and a bitter strife, arising out of property rights, followed. Two tents, one occupied by John Baldwin, and the other by a citizen of Lawrence, were pitched upon the same lot, each of whom claimed to be the lawful owner. Mr. Baldwin gathered his Missouri friends in arms about him and threatened the sons of Massachusetts. Mr. Baldwin had interested some parties in his claim and he with others proceeded to lay out a rival city called Excelsior on the site of Lawrence. This led to open hostilities, a tent of one of the settlers was seized and packed into a wagon, the men standing guard with their rifles. The New Englanders recaptured the tent, and then Baldwin threatened to have 200 armed Missourians on the spot in a short time. That night the Lawrence settlers organized the "regulators," and the next day the Missourians assembled and at 4 o'clock sent the following note as the beginning of hostilities:

Dr. ROBINSON:

KANSAS TERRITORY, October 6.

Yourself and friends are hereby notified that you will have one-half hour to move the tent which you have on my undisputed claim. If the tent is not moved within one-half hour we shall take the trouble to move the same.

JOHN BALDWIN AND FRIENDS.

The following reply was immediately sent:

TO JOHN BALDWIN AND FRIENDS:

If you molest our property you do it at your peril.

C. ROBINSON AND FRIENDS.*

John Baldwin and friends thereupon concluded to retire from the scene of active hostilities. The real truth of the matter was that neither party had any legal right to the land at the time the contention arose, except the right of possession, as the lands were then in the legal possession of the Shawnee Indians, with whom a treaty had been made, but the Indian title to the land would not expire until October 9 of that year some say September 28. The Proslavery men who had rushed in upon the territory of Kansas before the Indian

* The originals in this strife were all or nearly all Free-State men. Proslavery men interfered and tried to bring on a collsion. It was merely a struggle over property rights between the Free-State men of Missouri and the New Englanders.