Laugh and the World Laughs With You

I went to my first "meeting" of the Santa Fe Trail Historical Society in my area. I have been a member for three years and have never been able to go the meetings. It was very interesting. We were informed in more detail about William Quantrill's retreat from Lawrence which took him along the Fort Scott Road just to the west of Baldwin City and Prairie City. It wasn't new information for me but it was more detailed about what happened at the Fletcher Farm and in Franklin County. We were also told that they are starting an Eagle Scout project to replace the Quantrill's Trail signs that line the Fort Scott Road from Lawrence to the Franklin County line which I was excited about.

You would think someone like Brutus would already know how to laugh at himself. But then again, he is a born loser and thus probably failed at that too.

#1: #QR1863 Finale

Last week, I participated in a commemoration of Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, Kansas. The main feature of the commemoration was regular people assuming identities of people involved in the Raid and tweeting as them using the hashtag #QR1863. People portrayed ranged from regular townspeople of Lawrence to riders with Quantrill to important political and military figures to Native Americans and even a horse. The project went off without a hitch and was a huge hit even among people who were initially hesitant to portray the Raid in this way. I was very proud that I was able to contribute something to this and that the lives of these people, either perpetrator or victim, will be remembered in this way for years to come. You can read the tweets here although the main tweets focusing on the Raid, before, during and after, will be saved on Storify which I will link to on my Twitter when it becomes available.

I played the character of Cosma Torrienta "C.T." Colman who was only a lad of 18 when Quantrill rode through town. C.T. and his family moved to Lawrence from Massachusetts in 1854 and claimed a parcel of land west of Lawrence in the Kanwaka area. C.T.'s father, Ezekiel was a staunch abolitionist especially after his neighbor, David Buffam, was murdered while working on his farm. Ezekiel's house was even a stop on the Underground Railroad. C.T. volunteered for the 14th Kansas Cavalry on June 1, 1863 and was stationed in Lawrence near 9th and New Hampshire Streets. The Cavalry was unarmed because it was decided that all guns be keep in the armory so all of them would be readily accessible as it was thought there would be plenty of time to run and get a gun before an attack would happen. Quantrill used an element of surprise by arriving in Lawrence before sunrise and not attacking until he and his men were inside the city.

It was C.T.'s week to awake early for mess so he could see and hear the shots being fired and attempted to rouse his fellow volunteers who tried to run for their lives. C.T. personally saw 18 of his regiment killed out of 22. He spent about an hour hiding in a house with several other people before finally being robbed and forced out into the street by a raider setting the house on fire. Luckily, by the time C.T. was sent outside, the raiders were nearing the end of their raid but C.T. still saw at least four more people murdered in front of him and one suffocate trying to save the mayor.

C.T. married Elizabeth Sowash in February of 1867 and built a house on the southeast quarter of his family's land before moving to Osage County, Kansas and then to Oklahoma when the Cherokee Strip opened in 1893. C.T. often returned to Lawrence to visit family and talk about the Raid and was even featured in the 1913 commemoration where he wrote about his memories of the Raid. In 1915, C.T. retired and spent most of his time in Long Beach, California until his failing health caused him to move back to Oklahoma with his daughter in 1928. C.T. passed away December 5, 1931 and is buried in Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Some interesting facts I learned about C.T.:

• C.T.'s brother Charles Jackson was a lieutenant in the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers when Quantrill attacked. Charles, along with several other men, chased Quantrill out of town to the south toward Paola and ultimately back into Missouri but they never got their revenge. Charles would be killed in action during the Battle of Poison Springs in 1864.
• C.T.'s commanding officer, Lt. Leroy Beam was in Leavenworth acquiring weapons for his command. Lt. Beam, later Major Beam, would always feel guilty about not being in Lawrence to lead his men. Maj. Beam would later move to Richland, Kansas near the Douglas-Shawnee County line. Beam would pass away in 1901 and the ruins of his stone house still stand.
• C.T. would meet Cole Younger, a rider with Quantrill, in Oklahoma. C.T. and Cole would talk about the raid never divulging incriminating evidence like who Cole actually killed or who killed fellow raider Larkin Skaggs. After meeting C.T., Cole would remark that he was glad now that C.T. wasn't killed.
• C.T. and Elizabeth had two children, Rose and Mary. Descendants of the Colman family still live in the Stull and Kanwaka areas of Douglas County.

Abraham Rothrock was the last person that Quantrill shot during the raid. Rothrock lived near Brooklyn and was a Dunkard minister, who Quantrill also targeted that day. Abraham survived the raid but died from his injuries nearly seven years later.

ROTHROCK

ABRAHAM                                     MARY

DIED FEB. 2, 1870                         DIED DEC. 6, 1893

73 YRS. 3 MOS. 26 DAYS             83 YRS. 7 MOS. 2 DAYS

Brumbaugh Cemetery, Wakarusa Township, Douglas County, Kansas

After the raid, most of the victims were buried in two massive trenches in Oread Cemetery west of town. After a few years, it was decided that Oread Cemetery was not a proper burial site as it was hard to get to and far away from the town. Oak Hill Cemetery was established in 1865 and most of the raid victims were moved there. Long divots in the ground at Oread, now renamed Pioneer, mark where the burial trenches once were.

Pioneer Cemetery, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas

North Side:

ELWOOD W. NEFF

Accidentally Killed

OCTOBER 22, 1876

Aged

26 YRS. 3 MOS.

MARY E.

His Wife

BORN OCT. 7, 1850.

DIED DEC. 6, 1886

West Side:

OUR LITTLE JOE,

Aged

6yrs. 10ms. 26 ds.

Accidentally shot

Aug. 4, 1865.

ROSE SPEER

BORN FEB. 29, 1864

DIED IN DENVER

APR. 25, 1889

South Side:

JOHN M.

Aged

19 ys. 10 ms. 21 ds.

------

ROBERT

Aged 18 yrs.

------

These boys were killed

in the Lawrence Mas-

sacre Aug. 21, 1863-

the elder found mur-

dered in the streets;

the younger supposed

to have been burned in

ruins. his body never

found.

East Side:

JOHN SPEER

BORN IN

KITTANNING, PA

DEC. 27, 1817

DIED IN DENVER

DEC. 15, 1906

ELIZABETH D. SPEER

Wife of

JOHN SPEER

Died

APRIL 19, 1876

AGED 36 YRS.

Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas

Lawrence Massacre Markers

HERE NEAR A SCORE

OF UNARMED RECRUITS

WERE SHOT

AUG. 21, 1863

mid-block on New Hampshire Street between 9th & 10th Streets

In honor of these members of the

14th Kansas Cavalry

who lost their lives on August 21, 1863

in Lt. Col. William C. Quantrill's raid

on the City of Lawrence, Kansas.

Charles Anderson                    Asbury (Ashbury) Parker

Charles R. Allen                      Isaac J. Parker

John B. Cooper                       Charles F. (T.) Riggs

John R. Green                         Robert Speer

Walter B.S. Griswold              John Watson

Aaron Halderman                    William A. Waugh

David Markle                              James Wilson

Lewis Markle                          Andrew J. Woods

Samuel Markle                                               

Source: Complete Tombstone Census of Douglas County, Kansas, Vol. 1, 1987

mid-block on New Hampshire Street between 9th & 10th Streets on the parking garage wall

HERE GRISWOLD

BAKER, THORP AND

TRASK WERE SHOT

AUG. 21, 1863

southside alleyway on 7th Street between Louisiana & Indiana Streets

SITE OF FIRST

METHODIST CHURCH

IN LAWRENCE

BOUGHT JULY 6, 1855

BUILDING ERECTED 1857

USED AS MORGUE AUG. 21, 1863

mid-block on Vermont Street between 7th & 8th Streets on wall of AT&T building

SITE OF BARRACKS

AND TRENCHES

1863

on Lilac Lane on University of Kansas campus between Fraser and Blake Halls

BROOKLYN

------

Early trading center on

Santa Fe Trail

Destroyed by Quantrill

August 21, 1863

located at N 550 and E 1400, Palmyra Township

QUANTRILL'S

TRAIL

located at each intersection of Quantrill's route out of Lawrence, only five remain (along E 1400 near Wakarusa River, E 1450 near N 1000, N 800 near E 1450, E 1400 near County Road 460, E 1400 near N 200 and E 1400 near N 100)

QUANTRILL'S

TRAIL

located along E 1400 just past the bend between N 100 and N 1, this sign has since disappeared

JOHN L. CRANE,

BORN

at Washington, Mass.

Sept. 30, 1829

Killed in the

Quantrell raid

Aug. 21, 1863

Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas

CHESTER HAY

[Die]d Aug. 21

1863

A. 28Y.1m.

8d.

Killed in the Lawrence massacre

Champ & Porter, Law.

Pioneer Cemetery, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas

LOUIS CARPENTER

Born

Dec. 14, 1829

Killed In The Lawrence Raid

Aug. 21, 1863

Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas

LOUIS H. SWAN

Killed in the

Lawrence raid

Aug. 21, 1863.

Aged 31 y.

3d.

.

Pioneer Cemetery, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas

The Lawrence Massacre

William Quantrill

150 years ago today, William Clarke Quantrill and between 300 and 400 Southern sympathizers rode into Lawrence, Kansas with the intention of burning it down and killing any man who sided with the abolitionists. Between the hours of 5 A.M. and 9 A.M., Quantrill and his men killed between 150 and 200 men and boys and burned most of the houses and businesses down. The men then retreated south, burned down the small Santa Fe Trail town of Brooklyn and then were chased by Union soldiers to Paola where they were able to elude capture and escape back to Missouri.

The years between 1854 when Kansas Territory opened for settlement and the Civil War was a constant stream of retaliation and back and forth between anti- and pro-slavery factions. Quantrill's Raid, or the Lawrence Massacre, was in retaliation for the Union burning of Osceola, Missouri on September 23, 1861 but was probably exacerbated by the collapse of the woman's prison in Kansas City, Missouri on August 13, 1863. The women were jailed due to General Thomas Ewing's General Order No. 10 which ordered the arrest of anyone get aid or otherwise helping Confederate guerillas. All ten girls in the prison during the collapse were under the age of 20 and four died including the 15-year-old sister of William "Blood Bill" Anderson, Josephine. Rumors at the time pointed to abolitionist sabotage of the prison but the reality was, it was just a poorly constructed building.

During the Massacre. From Harper's Weekly.

After the Massacre, General Ewing authorized General Order No. 11 which ordered the depopulation of three and a half Missouri counties along the Kansas border (Bates, Cass, Jackson and part of Vernon). All people had to leave their property unless they lived within one mile of the major towns of Independence, Hickman Mills, Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville. Part of Kansas City was also spared. The Order was supposed to be a deterent to additional pro-Southern activity but also pro-Union activity because Senator James Lane's proposal was to attack and burn all the counties along the Kansas-Missouri border. Unfortunately, Gen. Ewing was unable to control sent to carry out the order and animals and other property were stolen and houses, farms and outbuildings were burned.

A George Caleb Bingham painting of Gen. Ewing watching from his horse as Order
No. 11 is carried out. Bingham called the order an "act of imbecility."

Lawrence was rebuilt fairly quickly with some businesses able to reopen within the next month. Quantrill, meanwhile, rode his gang to Texas where within a month, they had splintered and never acheived the success they had in Lawrence. Quantrill died of wounds he received in Kentucky in 1865 and is buried in The Fourth Street Cemetery in Dover, Ohio after being originally interred in St. John's Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. Only one of Quantrill's men was captured in Lawrence during the raid. Larkin Skaggs, believing Quantrill left the way he came, was cornered leaving town and was killed. It was rumored that Skaggs' body was hung up in Lawrence and Skagg's Find A Grave says he is buried in St. Peter Pioneer Cemetery but more than likely he was thrown in the river or even just buried somewhere in an unmarked grave.

The ruins of Lawrence after the raid.

All around Lawrence are reminders of the Massacre. The city seals even commemorates the attack with a phoenix rising from the ruins of the Eldridge Hotel above the date 1863.

Front:

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY CITIZENS

WHO DEFENCELESS FELL

VICTIMS TO THE INHUMAN FEROCITY OF BORDER

GUERRILLAS LED BY THE INFAMOUS QUANTRELL

IN HIS RAID UPON LAWRENCE.

AUGUST 21ST, 1863.

------

ERECTED MAY 20TH, 1886.

Reverse:

THE ROLLS OF THEIR NAMES MAY BE FOUND IN THE

CITY CLERK'S OFFICE, LAWRENCE, AND IN THE

RECORDS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL

SOCIETY, TOPEKA.

Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas