Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-10-21

sOmpdny sent an agent 10 Clnclnndu |
he bought the Lightfoot, light draft |
steamer, and brought it up the river. |
md the company established a regular |
packet service between Quindaro and |
Lawrence up the Kaw river. The time |
came when railroads were needed, |
and the Quindaro Town company was |
INTO the game at the start. The Quin-
1a-o, Parkville & Burlington Railroad |
company was organized to build a
line to Cameron to connect with the
Hannibal & ST Joseph 1t was never
built-but that is another story
There was some shrewd Yankees
with the Quindaro Town
company, and they knew thing or
two about the value of printers ink
Correspondents of Eastern papers
were entertained royalty and in return
they sent back columns of stuff about
Quindaro- Horace Greeley wrote for
his paper that Quindaro was destined
TO be the greatest inland city in the
continent, or words to that effect.
Booming the religious side, as they
did the free state and temperance pro-
clivities of the town. The Congre-
gauonalist Independent and other
Unconventional papers in the East
were full of stuff about Quindaro. They
published glowing accounts of the
great trade lines converging at Quin-
daro, and told how it was to be the
great center of religious influence for
the country west of the Mississippi
river
1--WE used to read those articles
back in Vermont, and how they filled
the people with the Western fever"
said pioneer woman of Wyandotte
who, with her husband, was attracted
to Kansas by these publications.
And those Quindaroans! They were
the widest boomers that ever struck
the West. 1t was a species of town
building madness. But was there not
good and sufficient reason for it all?
What city in the West offered better
advantages or gave greater promise
at the early period of existence. A
stranger, dropping off steamboat,
would first smile at their enthusiasm
In day he would catch the contagion.
Then he would be as wild as any of
them. He would put all of his money
into the town and send back home
for more.
the war times. In five years from the
time the town was laid out the pro-
perty could not have been sold for
one-tenth of its value. 1t was argued
by some that the location was uninvit-
ing, that it should have been bui-,
further down the river near the mouth
of the Kaw. But whatever the cause,
the war had something to do with its
failure The frequent raids of guer-
rails and border ruffians in Kansas
made property insecure. The lives of
the Free States were imperiled. Many
left for other parts, others joined the
army, and only few remained. Then
troops of the Second cavalry were
stationed there and the horses were
stabbed in the warehouses, there was
little left to protect. The town went
down. Steamboat traffic ceased, the
railroads were built to Kansas City,
and thai was the last of Quinsdaro.
There are only a few Of the men
of old Quindaro- now living to tell the
story. They are scattered here and
there about the country. Joel Walker
was president of the town company
and Ableard Guthrie, who ran an under
ground railroad during the war, was
vice president, while Charles Robinson
who was to be the first governor OF
Kansas after it became a free state,
was treasurer. All three are dead
Samuel N. Simpson, secretary of the
company is the only survivor of the
original officers. He is engaged in the
real estate business in Kansas City,
Kas. George w. Veale, who was a big
merchant in Quindaro, and who was
| for many years tax commissioner for
| the Union Pacific in Kansas, is a
resident of Topeka. v. J. Lane, editor
of the Wyandotte Herald, was one
of the citizens of Quindaro, and it was
he who purchased the Chin-do-wan
before it suspended publication. Sam
Smith, who was Governors Robinson s
private secretary, lives somewhere in
New England. r. M. Gray, citizen
of the Quindaro of the present day,
which is a suburb of Kansas City, Kas
was one of the early corners. Syl
vester Dana Storrs, member of the
famous Andover band, which landed
at Quindaro to begin the work of max
ing Kansas a free state, and who or
ganized the Congregational church al
Quindaro, and many others who had
to do with the old town, have passed
away.
There were plenty of politics In
Ouindaro in the territorial days
aayanworfh county extended all the