The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-04
BY WALT MARKLEY.

Topeka will be sixty-five years old
tomorrow.
The old settlers of Shawnee county
will gather at the Chamber of Conn
merce to live over again, in reminis-
cence. those stirring days when they
biazed the trail for the great civiliza-
ton that was to follow; when the In
dian and the outlaw roamed over the
present sites of prosperous and peace
full farms-of the days when Topeka
was young.
Top "a is still young. Less than
half century ago there was plenty
of adventure for the bold and little
enough of peace and security for the
timid. 1t is hard to realize how short
has been the time since the tirst log
cabin was built; how rapid has been
the growth and how stirring the his
tory of the city.
The fathers of the city were Col.
Cyrus K. Holiday, Frye w. Giles,
Daniel H. Horne, Enoch Chase, Jacob
B. Chase, George Davis. Milton G.
Dickey and Charles Robinson These
men came from several eastern states
attracted by the opportunities attend
ing the opening of a new territory to
settlement.
The idea Of founding a town on the
present site appears to have orlsi-
mated with Holiday and seven others
who camped on the river near here on
meeting was held in Lawrence De-
| cember 8, when the location and or
ganization were determined upon: In
the meantime the Chase brothers,
Dickey and Davis, each took quarter
sction of land on the present site, and
built a log cabin-the first house in
Topeka. 1t was situated near the
river where the sPoehler Mercantile
company now Stands-a small AFFAIR
twelve by fourteen feet, with sod roof
= Vryif h q
blanket to keep out the cold. At the
opposite end was a rude stone fire.
place. and mud was plastered in the
cracks between the unhewn logs.
Used Compass and Rope.
The remaining five men came on
from Lawrence and the first four sur
rendered their-quarter section to the
Topeka Town association. which was
formally organized on December 5,
1854. With a battered compass and
short piece of rope they laid out the
first lots of the village later to be-
come the capital city of the state. A
few more rough houses were erected
and here the party spent the winter.
Kansas was then but a wilderness
a, succession of hills and valleys and
c1Hmps of woods over all of which the
Indians still roamed. And thru the
center, the muddy Kaw, with its swirl
ing currents and treacherous quick
sands, wound its sluggish way to the
Missouri.
But the next spring a great many
eastern people located here. A saw
mill was sent out by the New England
Emigrant Aid association, stores and
hotels were opened and several other
institutions were established. By .the
close of the year the population was
405.
From the first Topeka was tenn
pearance town. 1t was in July, 1855,
that the first mass meeting was held
and all the liquor in the vicinity de-
stroyed. Constitutional hall and the
Topeka house were built that year.
The Kansas Freeman and the Kansas
Tribune appeared and a state consti-
| tutional convention to. take prelimi-
nary steps for the admission of Kansas
into the Union was held in September.
SIavery's Battle Ground.
Kansas had already become the
battle ground upon which the free
state and pro-slavery forces were
destined to face each other in a long
and bloody struggle. The pro-slavery