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Portrait of Eli Thayer, founder of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, dated between 1855 and 1865. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
In April of 1854, shortly after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society was chartered in response. It was founded by Eli Thayer and other anti-slavery advocates with the goal of populating Kansas Territory with Free-State towns. Shortly after its inception, its name was changed to the New England Emigrant Aid Company, or NEEAC.
The NEEAC supported settlers on their journey to Kansas. They provided funds, sometimes upwards of 25% of an individual’s expenses. Their efforts saw the founding of Lawrence and Manhattan.
Only 2,000 settlers came to Kansas with the organization, though they inspired the migration of other likeminded Free-Staters not associated with them. Overall, with their help, Kansas eventually entered the Union as a Free-State in 1861. Though Eli Thayer himself did not move to Kansas, his mark on the creation of a Free-State Kansas is undeniable.
Years later, Thayer reflected on Kansas emigration in a letter to Isaac Goodnow, writing, "I feel a kinship nearer than that of blood for the heroic Kansas pioneers who responded to my call for volunteers for Kansas. They made the first self-sacrificing emigration in the world's history... Our Kansas Free-State men were as much above the Puritans as angels are above mortals."
Vermont native Isaac Tichenor Goodnow was born in 1818. An academic at heart, he met his future wife Ellen Denison at Wilbraham Academy. After their marriage, they moved to Rhode Island, where Isaac worked as a professor of natural science. Though they never had children of their own, the couple later adopted one of their nieces, Hattie Parkerson, after their move to Kansas.
The Goodnows were staunch Methodists and became involved with the anti-slavery movement in 1840. Isaac was inspired to resettle in Kansas after hearing New England Emigrant Aid Company leader Eli Thayer speak in Rhode Island, after which they spoke until midnight about emigration. Shortly thereafter, Isaac resigned from his job and began planning for a move to Kansas.
The settlement of Boston (soon-to-be Manhattan only months later) was a family affair for the Goodnows. Isaac’s siblings William and Lucinda came to settle with their families. Ellen’s brother Joseph Denison was also an early settler, leaving Boston only a week after Isaac’s party, and he eventually became the first president of Kansas State Agricultural College and after whom Denison Avenue is named.
Through his work, Isaac became a prominent member of Manhattan society. He was one of the founders of Bluemont College, the precursor to Kansas State Agricultural College (today, Kansas State University). He was a devoted public servant until his death in 1894. Just six short years later, Ellen passed away in 1900.
On the topic of moving to Kansas, he wrote in 1888, “There was not a township between this and the Missouri river that I fancied like our own, and not a claim in all the way for which I would exchange mine on the Wild Cat to live on... May the same contentment and appreciation attend the life of every Kansas emigrant.”
To learn more about Isaac and Ellen Goodnow, you can tour their home. Goodnow House is a State Historic Site, and tours are given at the Riley County Historical Museum! Visit their website to learn their hours: https://www.rileychs.org/goodnow-house.cfm
As an established educator of Natural Science, Isaac Goodnow lead a group of sixty New Englanders, sponsored by the anti-slavery New England Emigrant Aid Company, to a frontier settlement in 1855 Kansas territory, their purpose being to vote to make Kansas a free state and not a slave state.
Presenter Phil Anderson has 45 years teaching at the high school, private college, public college, and university level. Final 31 years at KSU. First Director of KSU Honor & Integrity System. Presently on Manhattan Urban Area Planning Board, the Historic Resources Board, and a Trustee of the Riley County Historic Museum. Also, presently advocating for a walking/biking connection from downtown Manhattan to the Kansas riverfront.
Primary Sources
Kansas State Historical Society Publications, Proceedings of the Kansas Quarter-Centennial Celebration, at Topeka, January 29, 1886.
K-REX Digital Collections, Records and Constitution of the Boston Association, Apr 3, 1855 to June 29th 1855, E. M. Thurston, Recording Secretary. https://krex.k-state.edu/handle/2097/34613
K-REX Digital Collections, Records and Constitution of the Manhattan Town Association, July 7 1855 to Jan 7 1856, E. M. Thurston, Recording Secretary. https://krex.k-state.edu/handle/2097/34613
Secondary Sources
Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas, Vols. I and II, Chicago, 1883.
Connelley, William E., A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, Vols. I-V, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918. http://www.ksgenweb.org/archives/1918ks/bioh/houstosd.html
Jack, Lowell, Neighbors of the Past, Manhattan Mercury, Manhattan, Kansas, 2005.
Jack, Lowell, A History of Manhattan, Kansas Riley County and Ft. Riley, Hawley Printing, 2003.
Johnson, Samuel A., The Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas, November 1932 (Vol 1, No 5). https://www.kshs.org/p/the-emigrant-aid-company-in-kansas/12561
Jones, Carolyn, The first one Hundred Years: A History of the City of Manhattan, Kansas, 1855-1955.
Morgan, Perl W., History of Wyandotte County Kansas and Its People, 1911. http://www.ksgenweb.org/archives/wyandott/history/1911/volume1/284.html#028501
Olson, Kevin G., Frontier Manhattan: Yankee Settlement to Kansas Town, 1854 – 1894, University Press of Kansas, 2012.
Parrish, Donald Baker, This Land is Our Land, Riley County Historical Society, Manhattan, KS, 2003.
Sherow, James E., Manhattan, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2013.
Riley County Historical Society, Log Cabin Days, Riley County Historical Society, Manhattan, Kansas, 1929.
Slagg, Winifred N., Riley County Kansas: A Story of Early Settlements, Rich Valley Azure Skies and Sunflowers, Manhattan, KS, Winifred N. Slagg, 1968.
This newspaper clipping announces the founding of Boston, Kansas. The Kansas Herald of Freedom, April 14, 1855.
In the spring of 1855, 68 members of the New England Emigrant Aid Company began their journey in Boston, Massachusetts. They made it to Kansas City by train and steamboat, where they then took off on foot. It was a long and perilous journey, and many fell ill and died along the way, but they were dedicated to seeing the territory of Kansas become a Free-State. They also wanted to transport their ideas of a progressive education and their Unitarian faith to the territory.
Isaac Goodnow’s initial group included Luke Lincoln; Joseph Wintermute; C.N. Wilson; Nathaniel R. Wright; and Rev. Charles Lovejoy and his son. When these New Englanders reached the place where Goodnow had chosen for the new frontier town, they discovered that George S. Park had established a settlement in November 1854 named Polistra and Samuel D. Houston and four others had established a settlement named Canton. Goodnow’s group joined the settlements of Polistra and Canton and they agreed to consolidate into a Free-State town named “Boston.” Some new settlers were unprepared for the harsh frontier conditions and soon left. A few months later, in June 1855, the steamboat Hartford, carrying approximately 75 settlers from Cincinnati, ran aground near the Boston settlement. Several negotiations were made with the Hartford group persuading them to join with Boston, but their acceptance was contingent upon changing the name of the town to “Manhattan.” Their combined efforts saw to the survival of Manhattan to this day.
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