Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-07-21
CENTENARY OF FIRST
 KANSAS GOVERNOR
Today Is Hundredth Anniversary of Birth Of Charles Robinson. Sun.
 flower States Initial Executive.

Topeka, Kans., July 20.-Tomorrow will be the one hundredth anniversary Of the birth of Charles Robinson, the first governor of the state of Kansas and a leading actor in the stirring events that preceded the civil war
 In the decade preceding the out break of the war between the North and the South the condition of affairs in the territory of Kansas wos such as to warrant the description of this country as bleeding Kansas There was fierce struggle between the settlers who favored the extension of slavery and the people who wanted to make Kansas a "free state." The latter party had behind it the sympa- thy and financial aid of societies in the Eastern states. One of these was the New England Emigrant Aid so- ciety. and in 1854 it sent Charles Rob- inson as it's agent to settle in Law rance.
 Robinson already had enjoyed picturesque and varied career. The town of Hardwick. Mass, was his birthplace. He attended Amherst and Hadley academies, and was stu dent at Amherst college when illness compelled him to give up his studies in his second year. At Woodstock, Vt., and at Pittsfield, Mass, he aftei- ward studied medicine, and he subse- quently practiced this profession in Springfield and one or two other cities of Massachusetts.
 When gold was discovered in Cali fOrnia he took the fever and went out by the overland route, in 1849. In the following year he edited the Set tier and miner Tribune at Sacra- mento, and in the same year took an holder of squatter sovereignty.
 He was seriously wounded in one of these fights, and was indicted TOT conspiracy and murder. While the in- dictment was hanging over him, he was elected to the legislature, and subsequently he was discharged by the court without trial.
 At the end of two years he return ed to Massachusetts, and in Fitchburg. he conducted weekly paper for time. He was still editing this pa. per, in 1854, when he was sent to Kansas as agent for the New England Emigrant Aid society.
 In bleeding Kansas" he soon be- came the leader of the Free State par ty. and was made chairman of it's executive committee. At the same time he was appointed commander in-chief of the Kansas volunteers.
 The Topeka convention adopted T Free-State constitution in 1855, and under this he was elected governor in 1856. The supreme court of the United States afterward rejected this constitution.
 Robinson was arrested for treason and usurpation of office, but a jury decided that "as there was no state. there was no governor of state. and there was no usurpation."
 In 1858 and for the third time in 1859 Robinson was elected by the Free-State party. When Kansas was i admitted to the union in 1861 he en- | tered upon term of two years as 1 governor. Most of the regiments of | Kansas in the civil war were organ ized by him.
 In the days of warfare between tha i Free-State forces and their opponents in Kansas, the house of Robinson was plundered and burned. Actual civil war prevailed and Governor Robin. sons wife, who before her marriage. was Miss Lawrence of Belchertown, Mass. wrote book describing the scenes. actors and events of the his toric struggle.
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