Click on the drop-down menu below to learn more about each topic!
This excerpt from Isaac Goodnow's "Personal Reminiscences and Kansas Emigration, 1855" recalls the consolidation of the Canton Company with Goodnow's part. In The Manhattan Mercury, February 14, 1888.
Samuel Dexter Houston
Samuel Dexter Houston was born in 1818. He first came to Kansas in 1853, illegally squatting on what was then indigenous land. Kansas Territory did not open until 1854, after which he joined with the following four men to create the Canton Company. Houston was a staunch Free-Soiler and was elected to the first territorial legislature. He had a long career as a public servant, not only in Manhattan but later in Junction City and Salina as well. Interestingly, his son-in-law Luke Parsons was an associate of famous Kansas John Brown.
He died on February 28, 1910, in Salina, Kansas.
Elisha M. Thurston
Elisha Madison Thurston was the Secretary of the Board of Education in Maine when he decided to join the 4th New England Emigrant Aid Company Party to Kansas. Always in poor health, he hoped that the frontier would rejuvenate him. It did not work, however; he died in 1859, only 5 years after arriving. At the time of his death, he was the mayor of Manhattan.
Today, Thurston Avenue in Manhattan is named after him.
Dr. Horace A. Wilcox
Reverand Horace A. Wilcox hailed from the New England region. Wilcox traveled to Kansas in 1854 with the other men of the Canton Company. He began bringing new settlers to Kansas in early 1855, and he continued to do so until he moved back to the New England region in 1859.
Judge Sanders W. Johnston
Sanders W. Johnston, a Kentucky native, went to study law with General Thomas L. Hamer in Ohio. In 1851, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate. Three years later, President Franklin Pierce appointed Johnston as one of 3 territorial Kansas judges. These three men were all pro-slavery sympathizers. Johnston received the Third District, which was comprised mostly of lands yet unsettled by white pioneers.
He came to Kansas in the fall of 1854, but since he came ahead of the Chief Justice, he could not yet complete any judicial work. He began to explore the territory, which is most likely how he met Samuel D. Houston and joined the Canton Company. Following a scandal involving the illegal sale and purchase of indigenous lands, Johnston, his fellow judge Rush Elmore, and the then-Governor Andrew H. Reeder were removed from their offices.
Judge J.M. Russell
Little is known about the life of J.M. Russell. He came from Iowa to become a founding member of the Canton Company. A year later, a Judge Russell was installed as a Blue River precinct judge, most likely him. However, after this, his path becomes unclear.
Originally from Augusta, Kansas, Allana Parker received a B.S. in History along with a minor in Leadership Studies from Kansas State University and M.A. in Museum Studies from the University of Kansas. She served as Curator of Design with the Riley County Historical Museum for ten years and currently serves as treasurer for the Kansas Museums Association and member of the Kansas State Historical Society Foundation board.
In this presentation, Allana teaches us about the events and individuals around the early founding of Manhattan, Kansas through the letters and diaries of early pioneers, as well as some of the historic landmarks that still stand in our community today.
Primary Sources:
Houston, Samuel Dexter. “Letter from Big Blue.” Kansas Herald of Freedom (Wakarusa, KS), April 25, 1857.
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
“Samuel Dexter Houston Dead.” Eskridge Tribune-Star and Eskridge Independent (Eskridge, KS), March 10, 1910.
Secondary Sources:
Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas, Chicago, 1883, p. 1303.
Connelley, William E., A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, 1918 (a transcription). http://www.ksgenweb.org/archives/1918ks/bioh/houstosd.html
Jack, Lowell, Neighbors of the Past, 2005.
Jack, Lowell, A History of Manhattan, Kansas Riley County and Ft. Riley, 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/1256
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, This Land is Our Land, Riley County Historical Society, Manhattan, KS, 2003.
Riley County Historical Society, Log Cabin Days, Riley County Historical Society, Manhattan, KS , 1929.
Slagg, Winifred, Riley County Kansas, 1968.
S.D. Houston's advice to incoming Kansas settlers. The Kansas Herald of Freedom, April 25, 1857. His most pressing words of wisdom: "Sow your field and then build your house."
The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law on May 30, 1854, and the Kansas Territory opened for white settlement. Originally from Illinois, Samuel Dexter Houston was an early Kansas settler in 1853 and had moved his family to the area. He and four other men established the Canton settlement in late fall of 1854.
This well-educated group consisted of Houston; Elisha M. Thurston, a lawyer from Maine; Dr. Horace A. Wilcox, a doctor and minister from Rhode Island; Chief Justice Sanders W. Johnston of Ohio; and Judge Joseph M. Russell of Iowa. The five men organized the Canton Company and claimed a quarter-section of land at the base of Bluemont Hill, west of the mouth of the Big Blue River and fronting on the Kansas River.
George S. Park had previously established the Polistra settlement in November 1854 near the junction of the Kansas River and Wildcat Creek.
The New England Emigrant Aid Company led by Isaac Goodnow arrived in the spring of 1855 to establish a townsite and a claim was staked between Polistra and Canton. Goodnow’s group and the founders of both Polistra and Canton agreed to consolidate their claims and form the “Boston Association of Kansas Territory” with the expectation of bringing Kansas into the Union as a free state.
In June 1855, the steamboat Hartford, loaded with supplies and 75 settlers from the Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company, grounded in the low waters of the Big Blue River. Members of the newly established Boston met with the Hartford leaders to persuade the group to join them in the development of their new town. Eventually negotiations were accepted and included renaming Boston to Manhattan. The combined efforts of these four groups contributed to the survival of Manhattan today.
Previous Marker: Kanza Blue Earth Village Next Marker: Underground Railroad
