The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-12
A HOTEL WITH A HISTORY.
THE OLD PLANTERS AT LEAVEN-
WORTH SOLD FOR A SONG.


Globe Democrat
The Planters House, one of the oldest
hotels in Kansas was sold for song al a
sherin's auction recently, and arrange
ments are under way to have it reopened
soon. The hosiery has been closed for six
years. The talk Of reopening the hotel re-
calls border days and war times, for no
other public house i'm the West has been
the scene of as many picturesque and his
toric events. The building of the hotel was
the outgrowth of the contest between the
abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates for
the control of Kansas. then a territory.
The hoief is four-story brick building.
that to-day, with doors and windows nail
ed up, presents dismantled appearance
In the early times. during the period of
heavy traffic by steamboat on the river, it
prospered and made money for its propri-
etors, but as gradually the steamboats,
withdrew before the entertainments of
railroads much of the popularity and Gus
tom of the Planters went with them The
hotel is situated in what was known in ter
ritorial days as Main and Water streets.
within a block of the levee and close to
the big mercantile house of Ex-Governor
Thomas Carney where wagon trains were
fitted out for the old Santa Fe trail and
the plains
The LeavenwoTth House was looked on
as free state o. abolition hotel. and those
who patronized it were supposed to be in
favor of making Kansas a free state.
Southerners and pro-slavery advocates
looked upon the Leavenworth House with
extreme disfavor, and their dislike took the
form of organizing to build a Southern"
hotel to be called the Planters House.
Built by Southern Men.
In November, 1866. a subscription list
was started by j. H. johnson, known as
Hog Johnson, who was killed during
the battle of Morrstown, in 1861, while
commanding the Fifth Kansas Cavalry.
One of the conditions at the head of the
subscription paper was that the hotel
should be controlled by Southern men and
conducted on exclusive Southern prin-
ciples," that is, not permit an abolitionist
TO become a guest of the house.
Enough money was secured to make a
good start, and W. II. Russell, of thu
wagon freighdng company of Russell,
Myers & Waddell, furnished the remain
der. The main building was erected an
1856, and the hotel was run on exclusive
Southern principles that is, no known
Free Sellers were received as guests until
1857, when it was sold to Len T. SMITH,
the railroad builder, and Jep Rice The
latter still lives in Leavenworth. Messrs.
Smith and Rice were from Michigan, and
were Free Sellers. They ran the MOTEL
seven years, and made money, except dur
ing 1861, when there was a great drought.
The policy of the new proprietors was TO
entertain all comers-pro-slavery or aboli-
tionists-provided they paid their bills, and
ed their policy, they lost from
both sides for time The abolitionists
were mad because they accepted pro-
slavery men as guests, and the Southern
sympathizers were offended because
Messrs. Smith and Rice were at heart
Northern abolitionists. But the house was
run in frst-class style, and it soon had
plenty of patronage.
The presence of two classes of guests,
each bitterly contemptuous of the other,
gave rise 10 a unique plan of conducting
bar. The barroom and billiard hail were
in the basement, and two kinds of political
bartenders were on duty night and day.
one was an abolitonist, the other, of
course. was pro-slavery, while free mig
ger" as Mr. Rice puts 1t, broke the ice,
and cid the porter's work BY this method
The Planters caught the trade of both
sides When a pro-slaVery man came an
and sunk his knife down in the top Of the
bar. and shouted, II can lick any man
born north of Mason and Dixon's line
the drink dispenser told him that was the
talk and encouraged him. A Northern
radical. who could whip any man south of
the dividing line, was encouraged an the
Same wav by the abOlitionist All manner
of talk was acceptable, but the line vas
drawn. Mr.. Rice says, when trouble broke
and actual shooting compenced. Inen the
offender. regardless of politics, was sent
down the stone steps at the south entrance
of the basement
Lincoln Was Guest.
MANY notable men were entertained at
.ba planters Hotel, Stephen A. Douglas
made his Kansas territorial speech from
,ha balcony of the hotel. Abraham Lin
coin was a guest there when he came
west later. but he spoke in the old Sedge-
wick hall.
while in L.eavenworth, a few months,
William T. Sherman, atterward the fam
ons general. and Thomas Ewing, stopped
~ me planters. one of the things, aside
from getting little legal business, that
diso,,sted Gen. Sherman with Kansas, was
the way elections were conducted and
noIi4tcaI questions discussed around the
hotal cen. Sherman saw Jim" Williams
,,,bo nrides himself on having been the
colonel OF the Fighting NiggerS," rescue
a fnqitive slave from some Missouri Dor
der ruffians, and he was convinced at
once that he (Sherman) was not cut out
for nolitical or social leadership in Kansas,
ara he left soon afterward
Mr. Rice says that often 1t seemed as
,bouah there was nothing but politics in
tbe territory, and no discussion was start
"a that did not end at the Planters a
iike condition prevailed in regard to fights.
70 n was started uptown on Fifth street.
~ was concluded at the Planters, where
crowd gathered to see it out. In the
winter times were lively; trappers, wagon
trains men and people from the surround
,ng mains gathered in Leavenworth, and
elections we're held on the slightest pre-
toxt merely for the attending excitement.
one OF the most exciting incidents in
the history of the Planters House was
me capture and liberation of Charley
FISHER. slave who ran away from his
master In Kentucky. Fisher was em-
ployed 10 the Planters House barber shop
when a pro-slayery man who knew that