Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-20
MAYOR OFF A DEAD CITY.
story of n Once FlOurisbing Town on
the Kansas Plains.

From the Kansas City Times.
Three miles south of Atchson, Kan, is
the site of a dead city, whose streets once
were filled with the clamor of busy traffic,
and echoed to the tread of thousands of
oxen and mules that, IN the pioneer days
of the great west, transported the products
of the east across the great American
desert to the Rocky mountains. 1t was
named Summer, in honor of the great Mas
sachusetts Senator. Summers first citi-
zens came mostly from Massachusetts,
They had come to the frontier to make
Kansas a free state and to build city
within whose walls all previous conditions
of slavery should be disregarded and where
all men born should be regarded equal The
time-1SJ6-was suspicious. Kansas was
both a great political and military battle
field. upon which the question of the insti-
tuition of slavery was to be settled for all
time. The growth of Sumner was phe-
nomenal A Autograph printed in 1857
shows streets of stately buildings, imposing
seats of learning, church spires that pierre
ed the clouds, elegant hotels and theaters
the river full of floating palaces, its levee
lined with bales and barrels of merchan-
disc. and the white smoke from numerous
factories hanging above the city, like a
banner of peace and prosperity.
Here lived that afterward brilliant au-
thor and journalist, Albert d. Richardson
whose tragic death some years ago in the
is well remembered. His Beyond the Mis-
s.ssippi" is to this day the most fascinating
account of the boundless west ever writ
ten.
Here lived nine-year-old Minnie Houk,
who was day to become a renowned
prima donna and charm two continents
with her voice, and who was to wed Count
Wartegg. Minnie was born in poverty
and cradeled in adversely. Her mother was
a poor washerwoman in Sumner.
Here lived John E. Remsburg, the now
noted author-lecturer and free thinker. Mr.
Remsburg has probably delivered more lee
lures in the past thirty years than any
man in the United States. He is now the
vice president of the Free Thought Fed
Grafton of America"
Here Walter A. Wood, the big manufac-
turer of agricultural implements. lived ard
made and mended weapons. Here Lovejoy,
1.-The Yankee preacher preached and pray
ed and invoked Gods wrath upon the slave
owner. Here lived Brother ard Sister
Newcomb, from whom have descended a
long line of Jealous and eminent Metho-
dists. Here was born Paul Hull, we'll
known Chicago journalist.
And Sumner was the city that the Rev.
Pardoe Butler lifted up his hands and bless
ed and prophesied would grow big and wax
fat, when the Upper Landing would
sleep in dishonored and forgotten grave,
as he foated by it on mis- raft clad in tar
and feathers The Upper Landing" was
the opprobious title conferred by Sumner
Upon Atchison. The two towns were bitter
enemies. Sumner was "abolitionist," Atchi-
son was border ruffian.' In Atchison the
niger was a slave; in Sumner he was
fetch. 1t was in Atchison that the
abolition preacher" Pardee Butler, was
tarred and feathered and set adrift on
raft in the river. He survived the tor
lures of his coat of degradation, the
CHUCK holes" of the Missouri river, and
lived to become a prohibition fanatic and
a democratic presidential elector.
Jonathan Lang, alias "Shang,' the hero
of Senator ingalls, ''CaIfiSh AriStOpracy
and the Last Mayor of Sumner" lived
and died in Sumner. "Shang" continued
to live in Sumner long after every other
citizen had moved away, and Until every
house save his miserable hut had vanished
like the baseless fabric of a vision, leaving
10 wreck behind. He claimed and was
proud of the title, 1.-The last mayor of Sum-
uer." He died a few years ago, and a little
later lightning struck his cabin and it was
devoured by flames. And thus passed away
the last relic of Sumner.