The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-25
FOUNDER OF ATCHISON
DR.. j. H. StringfeIIow, a 'sBorder Ruff
fam Dead at ST. Joe.

sAtchison. Kan. July 25.-The Globe
says:
DR.. ]. H. stringfellow. probably the
father of Atchison, and who was the
speaker of the first Kansas legislature.
qied at his home in st. Joe Monday. 1t
is expected that the burial will be there
| as st. Joe had been his home nearly
thirty years. He was a brother of Cen
eral B. F. StringfeIlow, of Atchison,
now deceased. A Virginian by birth,
DR.. Stringfellow drifted to Carrollton,
Mo-, where he practiced medicine. He
was physician by the year to a great
many people in that vicinity, receiving
$5 annually per head, black or white,
sick or well. In 1849, during the terri
BILE march of cholera up the river, and
across the plains, every boat unloaded
cholera patients at Hills Landing. DR..
Stringfellow converted an enormous
hemp warehouse into a hospital and
spent three months with the cholera
He probably treated five hundred
patients, but finally the last patient dis
appeared, and the doctor took it. The
probable opening of Kansas territory
induced him to move to Plattsburg, No,
to be near the territory when the open
ing was announced, and here he studied
the Kansas situation. The old maps
showed a great bend in the Missouri
river at this point, and believing that
a town at the bend would have natural
advantages, he crossed the river to
Leavenworth early in the spring of 1854,
and rode on horseback to the present
site of Atchison. On the way he stop
ped at the point where Sumner was
afterwards built, but decided that the
location would not do for town as
there was no way to get out of it, the
hills being very steep. But AtchiSon
seemed exactly the place. He first Wis
tied the place alone, but came back in
July accompanied by Lee Oldham, Neal
Owens, Jim Martin and Jas. T. Darnan.
On the occasion of his second visit
to Atchison, DR.. Stringfellow found
Geo. M. Million and Samuel Dickson
occupying claims on the town site.
Million had a claim Shanty near the
present B. & NJ. round house, and
Dickson's was near the present Dick
son spring, almost in front of the
Ketcham house.
DR.. Stringfellow moved his family
to Atchison in December, 1854, where
he lived until 1858, when he returned
to Virginia, but spent most of his
summers in AtchiSon, and most of
his winters in Washington trying to
boom the town. In 1871 he returned
to Atchison and remained till 1877,
when he removed to st. joe
The term border rutf1an' was in
vented by Governor Reeder to fit DR..
Stringfellow. but B. F., Stringfellow
took it up, and knocked Reeder down
at Shawnee Mission. This incident
called attention to the term BORDER
the language of the border; 1t spread,
as other catchy terms do, and no Kan
sas history is now complete without it.
The newspapers, particularly the east
ern newspapers, never knew any diff
ference between the StringfelloWS, but
]. H. seems to have been more active
in early Kansas history; he had made
the StringfelloW name known in Kan
sas while B. F. Stringfellow was
peacefully practicing law in Missouri.
From what n "a len HI
you encounter the word StringfeIlow
in Kansas history, ]. H. is usually
meant. B. F. was the more pugnacious
of the two but J. H. the more active.
($1,600) toward extending the rail-
road from st. Joe to Atchison.
DR.. J. H. Stringfellow was made
speaker of the first Kansas house of
representatives, which was organized
at grove at Pawnee, where Governor
Reeder and some of his followers
hoped to build the capital and make
great deal of profit. Pawnee was
away out beyond the settlements. and
soon after organizing the house ad-
jcurned to Shawnee mission, or the
Shawnee Manual Labor school. which
was located a mile from Westport
Mo. Just across the Kansas line.
The legislature over which DR..
adopted the Missouri statutes entire,
substituting the word Kansas for
Missouri" wherever t appeared. Dr.
Stringfellow last saw Jim Lane at
Pawnee, where he appeared seeking
a divorce from his wife. who he said
led him "a devil OF a life
DR. Stringfellow also started <he
] first newspaper in Atchison, the
| Squatter Sovereign, in connection with
Robt. S. Kelley, u practical printer,
who had been employed at Parkville.
| DR.. Stringfellow was also colonel
of militia, originally organizing a com
pany in Atchison. Some of these men
were engaged in the fight at Hickory
Point; one Atchison man was killed
| there, and another wounded.
DR.. Stringfellow's original home in
Atchison was on the site of Henry
DeigePs residence, near the corner of
| Fifth and L streets. Jim Lane was
| entertained at dinner there in 1879
Mrs. Stringfellow lately said that Lane
came to the house about IL O'Clock
in the morning. attended by a body
guard of four men, and inquired for
the doctor. The doctor was away, but
/ was expected about noon. The men
| said they would wait. DIR. StringfelIow
came in about noon, and when the
two met in the yard Stringfellow asked
Lane if he was not afraid to call at
| the house.
81 am not afraid" Lane replied, "to
call on a gentleman anywhere"
| This gallantry captured Mrs. String
fellow, and she invited Lane and his
DCdyguard to dinner. Lane called at
the house on a matter of business
which DR.. Stringfellow has forgotten.
Mrs. Stringfellow says that Lane and
his bodyguard were very genteel men.
Had the slavery idea prevailed, DR.
Stringfellow would probably have been
one of the United States senator's when
the state was admitted. His friends
certainly had that ambition for him
1t is said that B. F. Stringfellow early
saw the handwriting on the wall, bui
his brother always believed thai
slavery and secession would ultimately
win.