History of Leavenworth, (Leavenworth County) Kansas United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Leavenworth, (Leavenworth County) Kansas, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

Alexander Caldwell, senator, was born in Huntington county, Pa., March 1, 1830; son of Captain James Caldwell. At the age of fifteen he entered into business and in 1847 at the outbreak of the Mexican war he enlisted in a company raised and commanded by his father. In 1861 he removed to Leavenworth, Kansas, and in 1865 he helped in forwarding the construction of the Missouri River and the Kansas central railroads. In 1870 he was elected to the United States senate, and served, 1871-73. He was a manufacturer, 1877-97, and president of the First national bank of Leavenworth from 1897.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

James F. Legate was a leading citizen of Leavenworth for nearly forty years, and during the active period of his life few men in the state were better known in legislative affairs. He was a native of Massachusetts, born in Worcester County, November 23, 1829, in the house built by his paternal ancestor five generations preceding him, and on land deeded to that ancestry by the English government in the reign of George II. His father was a captain in command of a privateer in the War of 1812, and on both maternal and paternal sides were numerous representatives of the patriot cause.

After a short course in law Mr. Legate went to Mississippi, where he taught school, entered polities and in 1852, as a member of the State Legislature, espoused the cause of Senator Foote against Jefferson Davis.

In 1854, while in Washington, Mr. Legate met Mr. Davis, then secretary of war, who gave him a letter to Col. E. V. Sumner, stationed at Fort Leavenworth, but when he arrived in Kansas in July and 'looked around' he decided to make Lawrence his home. He was active in his espousal of the freestate cause, and was elected to the First House of Representatives under the Wyandotte constitution. In the following year he was appointed United States assessor, and in November, 1863, he moved to Leavenworth, which remained his home city until his death, August 4, 1902. In addition to his service in the Legislature of 1861, he was a member of the State Senate of 1865 and 1866, and of the House in 1871, 1875, 1879, 1881 and 1889. In 1867 and 1868 he was United States mail agent for Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and Indian Territory, and did much for the service in those sections of the country, then on the western and southwestern frontiers.

From: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans by Wm E Connelley; New York: 1918.

The name of George H. Keller, one of the founders of Leavenworth, stands among old-time residents for all that is brave and generous and stable and whole-souled, in the most trying times of the territory and the state. As John Speer once said: 'His name was a synonym for honesty, integrity and patriotism; his house in Leavenworth illustrated the proverbial hospitality of the 'Old Kentucky Home.'

'Uncle' George Keller was born in that state in February, 1801; his wife, a Van Dyke, was also a native of Kentucky, and both were descended from Holland Dutch stock. Soon after his marriage the couple migrated to a timbered farm near Terre Haute, Indiana, where he raised live stock and conducted a large inn on the National Road. In 1835 they moved to Platte County, Missouri, and for fifteen years Mr. Keller engaged in farming and manufacturing, when he disposed of all his interests, equipped a large train with merchandise and started for Sonoma Valley and the gold fields of California. He there founded the Town of Petaluma, now a prosperous city of several thousand people. In 1852 he located at Weston, Kansas, resumed farming, and was thus engaged until the spring of 1854, when, with other citizens of Weston, he founded the Town of Leavenworth. In the fall of that year, after completing [p.1210] the Leavenworth Hotel, the third building constructed in the new town, he moved his family thither. Selling his property in 1855, he built the famous Mansion House, corner Fifth and Shawnee streets, which he conducted until its sale in 1857. There John Sherman and other members of the Congressional Investigating Committee of 1856 stopped during their sojourn in Leavenworth. Landlord Keller, with all his good nature, was so earnestly outspoken on the issues of that day that he was branded as a rank abolitionist and marked for assassination. He was elected as a member of the House of Representatives of the first free-state Terrjtorial Legislature (1857-8), and used his time, energy and money in pushing the candidacy of James H. Lane and Marcus J. Parrott to the United States Senate. Under Governor Crawford he became the first warden of the Kansas State Penitentiary. In 1866 he retired to his farm at Springdale, Leavenworth County, where his generous, honorable and useful life ended November 13, 1876. His wife followed him five years later.

From: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans by Wm E Connelley; New York: 1918.

William Frederick Cody, scout, was born in Scott county, Iowa, Feb. 26, 1845. His father, Isaac Cody, an early pioneer, was one of the founders of the city of Leavenworth, Kan., and a representative in the first Lecompten legislature. As a free state advocate he was uncompromising, and unable to maintain the unequal contest with political foes, he was finally obliged to flee from his home, and died from exposure in March, 1857. Young Cody, but twelve years old, found employment with army contractors engaged in carrying stores to the various posts on the frontier, and here he gained his first experience as an Indian fighter. He continued this wild life until called to the deathbed of his mother, who kept the "Valley Grove House," in Salt Creek Valley. She died in the summer of 1861, after which he joined the 7th Kansas cavalry as an Indian scout, serving with the regiment until the close of the civil war. He afterward engaged in procuring supplies for railroad contractors and became notorious as a buffalo hunter, killing 4280 buffaloes in eighteen months, and thus gaining his sobriquet "Buffalo Bill." In 1868 he was appointed by General Sheridan chief of scouts for the department of the Missouri and the Platte. He was guide to the 5th U.S. cavalry in their campaign against the Sioux and Cheyennes, served with the Canadian river expedition of 1868-69, and continued in the army until 1872, when he resigned and was elected a member of the Nebraska legislature from the 26th district. At the end of his term he directed the hunting party of Alexis, grand duke of Russia, and so conducted the expedition as to avoid accident and return it loaded with game. He then appeared on the stage in Chicago and elsewhere in the character of a western scout and Indian hunter and was eminently successful. The Sioux war of 1876 determined him to leave the mimic stage, and he joined the 5th U.S. cavalry. In the Indian creek fight he killed Yellow Hand, the Cheyenne chief, in a hand-to-hand combat. At the close of the Indian troubles he organized the Wild West show and first exhibited in Omaha, Neb., May 17, 1883. In 1887, after visiting every principal town in the United States, he took the show to England and played in connection with the American exhibition company. He was patronized by the royal family, including the queen. He then played with success in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany and Belgium. He subsequently made a second tour of Europe, meeting with equal success. His European tours enabled him to add to his attractions and his wild riders included representatives from all the semi-barbarous tribes of the old world.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor