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Unfortunately, there is no definitive passenger list telling us the names of the 75 to 100 passengers who rode the Hartford steamboat from Cincinnati, Ohio to Manhattan, Kansas (called Boston in 1855). Here are a few of the notable passengers who we know were aboard:
Andrew J. Mead was one of the leaders of the Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company. Alongside fellow investors Judge Pipher and Hiram Palmer, he rode the Hartford as far as Kansas City before disembarking. The three men went ahead to prepare for the Hartford's arrival. He was crucial in the name change to Manhattan, and he was elected as its first mayor in 1857 after it was incorporated as a city. He eventually left in 1868. He died back in New York in 1904.
John Pipher was one of the original investors on the Hartford. Alongside him came his only son, John W. Pipher IV. His daughter Sarah may have been aboard, though it is unclear. He was the town's first postmaster, he owned a store, and he was also an elected judge. He died in 1900 at the age of 88, and is buried in Manhattan's Sunset Cemetery. A street in Manhattan is named after him: Pipher Lane.
Amanda Arnold was Manhattan's first schoolteacher! She was born in 1837 in Cadiz, Ohio. When she was 18 years old, she came to Manhattan on the Hartford alongside her father Rezin and older brother. She got her first teaching job in 1857, and her first class ranged in size from 2 to 16 pupils depending on the day. To aid her educational career, she later enrolled as one of Bluemont Central College's first students in 1860. She went back to teaching for the next several decades, before dying in 1923. The newspapers reported that she was the last of the Hartford passengers to die. In 1983, sixty years after her passing, Amanda Arnold Elementary School was named in her honor.
Hiram Palmer was one of the original investors in the steamboat Hartford. He came on the boat alongside his son, Benjamin Franklin Palmer. Though Hiram went back to Ohio and died there in 1864, Benjamin and his children stayed in Manhattan. Benjamin died in 1891 and is buried in Sunset Cemetery near both his wives: Hannah and Jane. Today, Palmer descendants still live in town.
Steamboats were developed in the late 1700s; however, they were not a viable form of transportation until the early 1800s.
The Hartford was a shallow draft stern wheeler built in 1851 in Pennsylvania. Since she was destroyed by fire, there is no existing evidence showing exactly what she looked like, but it is estimated that she was 155 to 165 feet long. She was designed to carry cargo and passengers and initially plied the lucrative river trade along the Ohio River.
On the journey to Manhattan, the Hartford was captained by David Millard. Alongside the 75 to 100 passengers, the steamboat transported everything they would need to set up a new town. The cargo included:
On June 3rd, 1855 Chestina Bowker Allen, New England Immigrant and homesteader, wrote in her diary, “The City of many names... is now permanently named Manhattan.” Whether or not the fledgling town on the prairie would survive depended on good weather, lots of luck, and a chance to outcompete surrounding towns for settlers, rail lines, and businesses. Without the perfect combination of conditions, Manhattan, KS, could have ended up like the hundreds of other ghost towns founded during westward expansion. This talk chronicles one fateful event that shaped not only the name of Manhattan, KS, but also helped seal its chance of survival: the Hartford Steamboat Crash. It explores how this ill-fated steamboat voyage became a much-needed boost during the early settlement of Manhattan, and what the many names of Manhattan reveal about the precarious fates of communities throughout Kansas in the 19th century.
The presenters are Dr. Mary Kohn and Holly Hill. Dr. Mary Kohn an English Professor and Director of the Chapman Center for Rural Studies at Kansas State University. At the Chapman Center Dr. Kohn works to bring faculty, students, and community members together to tell the stories of rural Kansas and launch the research to help these communities thrive. Holly Hill is a third year MA student in the Department of History at Kansas State University. She is a graduate assistant at the Chapman Center for Rural Studies, where she helps design the webpages for this project!
“Founded Manhattan.” Topeka Daily Herald (Topeka, KS), Nov. 15, 1904, https://www.newspapers.com/embed/145551854/
"Omnibus." Buffalo Courier Express (Buffalo, NY), April 30, 1855, https://www.newspapers.com/embed/148828948/
"Told His Story.” Topeka Daily Herald (Topeka, KS), Nov. 19, 1904, https://www.newspapers.com/embed/145552016/
Hill, Holly. "'The City of Many Names:' The Legacy of the Hartford Steamboat Immigrants in Manhattan, Kansas." Kansas Kin, May 2024. https://rileycgs.com/upload/2021__November/Kansas_Kin_v62_n1_May_2024_S_1714400863.pdf
Jack, Lowell. Neighbors of the Past: A Sesquicentennial Project of the Manhattan Mercury. Manhattan, KS: Manhattan Mercury, 2005.
Olson, Kevin G. W. Frontier Manhattan: Yankee Settlement to Kansas Town, 1854–1894. University Press of Kansas: 2015.
Pioneers of the Bluestem Prairie: Kansas Counties, Clay, Geary, Marshall, Pottawatomie, Riley, Wabaunsee, Washington. Manhattan, KS: Riley County Genealogical Society, 1976.
Pioneers of Riley County, KS 1853--1860. Manhattan, KS: Riley County Genealogical Society, 2004.
This newspaper article announces the purchase of the steamboat Hartford. It was published on April 30, 1855 in the Buffalo Courier Express of Buffalo, New York.
On April 26, 1855, a group of 75 settlers with the Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company, led in part by hardware merchant Andrew J. Mead (1815-1904), left for Kansas out of Ohio aboard the steamboat Hartford. The settlers were free-staters, and along with supplies, machinery, and 10 prefabricated houses, moved west with the intent to establish a new settlement. Their intended destination was to be located near present-day Junction City, and already had a name decided – Manhattan.
The trip itself was noted as difficult throughout, and on June 1, 1855, the Hartford ran aground at the mouth of the Big Blue River, near Polistra where Wild Cat Creek flowed into a long-gone loop of the Kansas River.
The leaders on board accepted an offer to join the community of Boston previously established from the settlements of Polistra, Canton and Boston. Their major requirement was that the name of the town be changed to Manhattan. The town of Boston was pleased to have more free-staters join the community, and in the spirit of cooperation, the name was officially changed to Manhattan on June 29, 1855.
Later that year in October, the Hartford, which was now being used by Mead and Associates to make regular trips between Manhattan and the eastern markets, again ran aground. This time, near present-day St. Marys. It was here later that the steamboat caught fire and was destroyed.
The Hartford’s bell was recovered and installed in the belfry of a Manhattan Methodist Church. The bell now hangs above the lobby of the Riley County Historical Museum. Today, the Hartford House, the only known remaining prefabricated house brought by the steamboat to Manhattan, is now preserved on the museum grounds.
This map of Manhattan shows sites named after Hartford passengers or Hartford investors.
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