History of Atchison County, Kansas. Sheffield Ingalls

did not reach Atchison county during his stormy career in Kansas. The nearest he ever came was in 1857 when he passed through Jackson county with a party of slaves which he was taking from Missouri to Nebraska for the purpose of setting them free. In the historical edition of the Atchison Daily Globe of July 16, 1894, there appears the following short reference to this excursion:

      “In 1857 John Brown made a trip from Missouri into Nebraska with a party of slave negroes which he intended to set free. His route was through Jackson county, Kansas, and up by where the town of Centralia now stands. A lot of the pro-slavery enthusiasts in Atchison heard of the affair and went out to intercept Brown. They came up with him near Centralia, but Brown had heard of their coming and captured the entire party. One of the men in the pro-slavery party was named George Ringo; afterwards he soldiered with Dwight Merlin in the Thirteenth Kansas and often talked of the trip to Merwin around their camp fires. Ringo says that James T. Herford was another member of the pro-slavery party, and a man named Cook was another. John Brown looked at Cook critically after the capture and asked his name. Cook said his name was Thomas Porter. “I believe you are lying. I believe your name is Cook and if I was certain of it I would kill you,” Brown said. Cook was one of the men accused of killing Brown’s son at Osawatomie, but Brown was not certain of his identity and let him go with the others. George Ringo says that Brown held a prayer meeting in his camp every evening and asked a blessing at every meal.

      “One night when the Atchison party was in the custody of Brown, Brown asked Jim Herford to pray. ‘I can’t pray,’ Herford replied. ‘Didn’t your mother teach you to pray?’ Brown inquired. ‘She taught me to say, “Now I lay me down to sleep,” that was all,’ Herford answered. ‘All right,’ Brown said, ‘get down on your knees and say, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” ’ Herford did as he was requested, being afraid to refuse and Brown soon rolled himself in a blanket and went to sleep.”

      As the activities of Brown increased so likewise the activities of the pro-slavery forces increased under the leadership of Senator Atchison, of Missouri, and Dr. Stringfellow, editor of the Squatter Sovereign. The Squatter Sovereign, about which more will appear in a subsequent chapter, was published in Atchison and was largely supported by government advertising patronage. It was the leading pro-slavery newspaper organ of the territory. Senator Atchison’s activities were of the most pronounced sort. He not only urged his Missouri constituents to invade the territory in all their might and capture the Yankees, but he went himself. At Platte City, Mo., February 4, 1856, Senator Atchison made a speech which gives some idea of the language he employed in urging the people of western Missouri to join in the invading of Kansas. He said:

      “I was a prominent agent in repealing the Missouri Compromise and opening the territory for settlement. The abolition traitors drummed up their forces and whistled them onto the cars, and whistled them off again at Kansas City: some of them had ‘Kansas and Liberty’ on their hats. I saw this with my own eyes. These men came with the avowed purpose of driving or expelling you from the territory. What did I advise you to do? Why, to beat them at their own game. When the first election came off I told you to go over and vote. You did so and beat them. Well, what next? Why, an election of members of the legislature to organize the territory must be held. What did I advise you to do then? Why, meet them on their own ground and at their own game again: and, cold and inclement as the weather was, I went over with a company of men. The abolitionists of the North said, and published it abroad, that Atchison was there with bowie-knives, and by God, it was true. I never did go into that territory—I never intend to go into that territory—without being prepared for all such kinds of cattle.

      “They held an election on the fifteenth of last month and they intend to put the machinery of the State in motion on the fourth of March. Now you are entitled to my advice, and you shall have it. I say, prepare yourselves. Go over there. Send your young men, and if they attempt to drive you out, then, damn them, drive them out. Fifty of you with your shotguns are worth 250 of them with their Sharpe’s rifles. Get ready—arm yourselves; for, if they abolitionize Kansas you lose one million dollars of your property. I am satisfied that I can justify every act of you before God and a jury.”

      All of the pro-slavery papers were open in their advocacy of an immediate war of extermination. The Squatter Sovereign in its issue just after the election of January 15, commenting on certain disturbances at Easton and a murder at Leavenworth, did not condemn what took place at Easton and had no word of apology or pity to offer for the murdered man. On the contrary it upheld those who committed the murder and gave them encouragement in their campaign of killing abolitionists. Dr. Stringfellow employed his violent rhetoric to give vent to his feelings and the opening paragraph of his leading editorial in the issue of the Squatter Sovereign he used the following language:

      “It seems now to be certain that we will have to give the abolitionists at least one good thrashing before political matters are settled in this territory. To do so we must have arms; we have the men. I propose to raise funds to furnish Colt’s revolvers for those who are without them. We say if the abolitionists are able to whip us and overturn the government that has been set up here, the sooner it is known the better, and we want to see it settled.”

      During the whole of the following winter preparations for attack and defense went quietly on. There was drilling along the border and disquieting rumors came from time to time of companies that had been organized and equipped to move into Kansas as soon as spring opened to uphold the rights of the Southerners.

      Atchison county took a prominent part in the border warfare. The bold attitude assumed by the Free State forces in and around Lawrence; the Wakarusa war; the Free State elections, and the determination of the Free State party to convene their legislature in March, 1856, kept the partisan pro-slavery sentiment in Atchison in a constant tumult. In March large numbers of South Carolina emigrants, armed and equipped with the avowed purpose of enforcing southern rights in Kansas, arrived on all the incoming steamboats. Capt. F. G. Palmer, of Atchison, commanded one of the earliest if not the earliest company of these emigrants. Robert De Treville was first lieutenant. The home company had been formed prior to the arrival of the South Carolinians. Dr. John H. Stringfellow was captain; Robert S. Kelley, first lieutenant; A. J. G. Westbrook, second lieutenant, and John H. Blassingame, third lieutenant. Their arms were supplied from Ft. Leavenworth and by the last of April they were ready and waiting for the assault and the subsequent “sacking” of Lawrence. The whole countryside was aflame with the passion of war. By May 1 quite a large army of pro-slavery sympathizers was organized. The South Carolinian Company, from Atchison, was among the first to start the assault upon Lawrence and it was not long before “its flag was planted upon the rifle pit of the enemy.” Dr. Stringfellow was there and Robert S. Kelley, his able assistant on the Squatter Sovereign, was also there. In an account of the assault the following appeared in the Squatter Sovereign.

      “The flag was carried by its brave bearer and stationed upon the Herald of Freedom Printing office, and from thence to the large hotel and fortress of the Yankees, where it proudly waived until the artillery commenced battering down the building. Our company was composed mostly of South Carolinians, under command of Capt. Robert De Treville, late of Charleston, S. C. and we venture the prediction that a braver set of men than are found in its ranks never bore arms.”

      The Squatter Sovereign continued to be without fear the most bitter and uncompromising pro-slavery organ in the territory. Its watch-word was “Death to all Yankees and traitors in Kansas.” At a large mass meeting at Atchison, held in June, 1856, Robert S. Kelley, its assistant editor, was nominated as the “Commander-in-Chief of the forces in town,” but for some reason now lost to view Kelley declined the honor and it was passed on to Capt. F. G. Palmer who accepted it without remorse and without apologies. Senator Atchison was present at this mass meeting and made a speech, and so was Col. Peter T. Abell, afterwards president of the Atchison Town Company, and Captain De Treville, and others not so famous, and they all made speeches.

      During that summer, because of the continued activities of old John Brown and the agitation which those activities created in the breasts of the pro-slavery sympathizers in Atchison, another military company was formed, called the Atchison Guards, of which John Robertson was the commander, who was so prominent in the Battle of Hickory Point, and Atchison county continued to take a prominent part in