Civil War Women of Kansas

18thVirginia

Major
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
While researching about Civil War Women of Missouri, threads and photos kept coming up of women from Kansas, as many sites cover the Kansas-Missouri conflict. Putting together this thread has been a little delayed as the laptop where I kept most of the photos and information died an unfortunate death. So, I'll be putting this together pieced by piece. There are only small stories about some of the women, but I always like to see photos of the women of a particular place to give a better sense of what their lives were like during the time. As always, anyone with relatives from Kansas or favorite Kansas women are welcome to add to this thread.

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Sarah Wilmarth Fitch Stevens and daughter Julia Sumner Fitch

Both Sarah and Julia were survivors of Quantrill's Raid. Sarah's husband Edward was killed during the 1863 attack. Their house was burned, but they escaped.
 
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Clarina Irene Howard Nichols was born in West Townshend, Vermont in 1810. A well-educated woman for her day, she taught school and married at the age of 20. She worked for a newspaper in Vermont and founded a school for young women. She had 3 children by her first husband, divorcing in 1843. Her second husband was the editor of the Windham County Democrat in Brattleboro, where Nichols eventually assumed many of the editorial responsibilities. A women's rights advocate and reformer, she became a known local public speaker, but decided to move to Kansas in 1854 as part of the New England Aid Society. She settled in the southern part of Douglas County (Lawrence is located in Douglas Cty.), where she hoped that her children would be able to establish homesteads (she had an additional son with her second husband, George Nichols.

In Kansas, Clarina became involved the anti-slavery moment and in 1857 she and her family moved to Wyandotte County where she became an editor of an antislavery newspaper. Nichols had been on the lecture circuit in Pennsylvania and now she traveled in the Kansas Territory to build support for the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention. She attended the convention daily and lobbied to grant women the right to vote in district elections, educational opportunities and improved property rights. The constitution adopted at the convention did grant these rights to Kansas women.

After the Civil War, Nichols continued to work on campaigns for both women's and African American suffrage.
 
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Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts in 1827. Like Clarina Nichols, she had an excellent education and could read both German and French. She married Dr. Charles Robinson in 1851 and they settled in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Both of the abolitionist Robinsons became involved with the New England Emigrant Aid Society. Charles Robinson led a group of settlers to Kansas in 1854 and Sara joined him there in 1855. Dr. Robinson became a leader of the free-state movement in Kansas.

Although not excited by the initial prospects of life in Kansas, by 1856 Sarah Robinson would write a book describing the situation in Kansas, Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life. Her husband had been arrested in Kanas and Sarah used her literary talent to advance the anti-slavery cause to those in the Congress and abolitionists in the East by detailing the political situation in the Kansas territory.

After the Civil War, the Robinsons lived out their lives in Douglas County, Kansas.
 
Yes, boy- it only recently became clear to me this was a whole, different war for them. I'm still shocked. It just seems so bizarre that such wholesale and outrageous barbarism raged in these states. All you had to be was of one loyalty or the other and live in the wrong place- other citizens could wipe your family out. I mean, where in History do you compare this, a society in such free fall there are no restrictions on behavior?
 
Surely, the women of Civil War era Kansas must have been in dire straights almost equal to their counterparts in Missouri.

These were very tough times for the women in Kansas as well. As I find more of my notes and links, I'll post more details. One source I read stated that it's always important to remember that in Kansas and Missouri, "The Civil War came early and stayed late." Some of the information about Kansas women has to look at their lives prior to 1861 as they were already experiencing the conflict that would eventually engulf the entire nation, so I'll have excerpts from some letters and writings prior to that time.

Something that you notice immediately in looking at the Kansas women is that they weren't born in Kansas, which is very similar to the prominent women mentioned in Missouri, and to my own great-grandmother, who was born in North Carolina and moved with the family to Missouri.

None of my ancestors were from Kansas, although I went to part of high school and college there. My husband has ancestresses among those who settled in Kansas and made it "The Soldier State" after the Civil War. We know very little about the women other than their first names. Which is similar to John Becker above, whose wife's name I haven't found.

A similarity between women in both Kansas and Nebraska is that women's rights became a prominent issue due to their political involvement in the Civil War.
 
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From a letter of Elizabeth S. Crittenden to her brother, dated September 22, 1863. She writes from Lawrence, describing Quantrill's raid. Elizabeth had come to Kansas with her husband, Anson H. Mallory, with the Emigrant Aid Society in 1854. She had been abandoned by her husband and granted a divorce when she writes in 1863 (she'd gone back to her maiden name).

My Dear Brother[,] you know nothing of the Horrors of this war, nor neather did I, untill the 21st day of August, our town was surprised about day light, by 300 men, headed by Quandrel, who murdered every man that came in their way, most of our people were in bed, and the [text stricken through] Rebels would knock at the door and when th[e] men opened the door, they would shoot them down, and then rush in, and set fire to the house, threatning death to the women, if they stird, and by that way the House would get to burning so fast, that it would be impossable to get the bodys of their Husbands out, so that they would have to burn up, many men were shot, and then thrown into Houses that were burning. O it is heart rending to write about it, but I have seen what I hope I may never see again, unless itis to see those men that came here burnt to the stake, and then I should feel that we had had our revenge in some degree[.]

http://vtls-kcpl-app.iii.com:9020/vital/access/services/Download/kcpl:13443/PDFTRANSCRIPT?view=true
 
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Elizabeth Crittenden goes on to describe the fate of the women of Lawrence in her letter:

Ralph [Dise?] was shot and burnt up, his Widow remains in Lawrence for the present. almost all of the women have left th[e] place, becaus the desolation is so great that they cannot remain. to see our beautifull town in ruins as it is at the present time, is enough to stir the heart of those demons to [text stricken through] pity and remorse [text stricken through][.]I shall not leave Lawrence untill it is destroyed the third time. I have been here through [text stricken through] one invasion, one masscrea, and when it is visited once more, then I will think about leaving. I was not molested, my House being out from town, and not on the road that they came and went on. I was up and from my door, saw all of the devastation, as soon as they were out of town I went down and what a sight met my eyes I cannot describe[,] it makes me sick at heart to think of it, the women were not insulted as much as has been represented, some few were abused. but as a general thing the Rebbels had some thing else to do besides insult the women[.]
 
In a June 28, 1863 letter to her mother prior to Quantrill's Raid, Crittenden had described her personal circumstances. The Quantrill Raid happened on August 21. Jennie is Elizabeth Crittenden's sister.

My health is good and I am enjoying life and health better than I have for many months and I can say years that have past, I have all the dressmaking that I can do, and am getting alonge as regards the worlds goods better then thousands [illegible] me, I have a good family in my House and I am boarding with them which makes it very pleasant for me. I was with Jennie when she was sick [giving birth] she has a nice large Girl. It weighed 12 pounds when it was born she had not named it when I saw her last which was a week ago, she has gone down to Paolia where her Husband is stationed.

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http://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/dea...iary-womens-stories-from-the-kansas-frontier/
 
Many of the trials of Civil War Kansas women can be seen in the diary of Sarah Goss Clark. She and her husband Timothy Limon Clark left Pewaukee, Wisconsin, and moved to Kansas in 1864.

July 4. 1864. First spent in Kansas. Joseph & Alex. went to Leroy on horsback for the fourth. Doing my work with Little Lucy’s help.
Nov.24th Thanksgiving day. We are paying no attention to the day Lyman & Stickney [her husband and brother] gone to find and purchase some oxen.
Sunday. Christmas. Feel lonley today. I feel that many changes have taken place in our situation & family since last Christmas. It is just four monthes to day since our dear little Freddie died. The thoughts of it fills me with sadness.
Jan. 7th my birthday forty seven to-day. Why have I been spared so many years, when so many promising young lives have been taken.


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http://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/dea...iary-womens-stories-from-the-kansas-frontier/
 
Emily Hoyt, a widow living in Lawrence at the time of Quantrill's raid, rented the house shown here (743 Indiana Street) for use as a boardinghouse. On the day of the raid, some say that her son hid in the cornfield behind the house, others that he hid in the cupola. Mrs. Hoyt persuaded the raiders not to burn the house by pleading that she was a widow and it was her only source of income. The house had been built by a local contractor, Hiram Towne, who kept a room for himself in the home.

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http://www.kansastravel.org/quantrillslawrenceraid.htm
 
This thread is not about Lawrence or Quantrill's Raid, but many early Kansas women's diaries and letters have been preserved by Spencer Library at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and presented online, so there's a greater concentration on Lawrence and the happenings there.

The fact that early Kansas settlers came through the Emigrant Aid Society and through Lawrence also concentrates a focus on Lawrence, the site of the 1863 destruction. Many early women who found their way with their families to Kansas discovered that they couldn't overcome the homesickness for their homes and families in New England and soon left for home. I'll include a few excerpts from their letters.

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Sign from the New England Emigrant Aid Co.
 
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Julia Louisa Hardy Lovejoy, 1861

She and her husband Charles came to Kansas in 1855. They would settle in Baldwin, Kansas, south of Lawrence and Douglas County. Charles was a traveling Methodist minister.
 
From a letter from Mrs. Lovejoy to friends back East:

We reached Kanzas City Sabbath Morn, March 18th, in season to attend divine worship; and Mr. Lovejoy, though a known minister of the Northern M. E. Church, that is just now making such a stir amongst the enraged Missourians, was called to officiate in the pulpit. The practice obtains, we think through their indolence throughout the State, of one service in the day-time, and one in the evening. There is but one Church edifice in the city, and this unpainted, uncarpeted, and as filthy as any incorrigible tobacco chewer would wish to have it; stove, benches, and other "fixtures" bearing unmistakable evidence that the delicious weed, had been thoroughly masticated.

Our first impressions of this city were extremely unfavorable; and boarding in this hotel as we have for weeks past, confirms us in the belief, that though a great business place, on account of emigration to Kanzas, yet the place itself, the inhabitants and the morals, are of an indescribably repulsive and undesirable character. Indeed, we know of but few places that we would not select for a permanent residence, in preference to Kanzas City.

http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1942/42_1_lovejoy.htm
 
She describes their initial home in Kanzas:

Our present abode is a floorless cabin, built of logs, the crevices filled with sticks and mud, the roof covered with "shakes" split from logs, resembling your Eastern clapboards, in a rough state. These answer a good purpose in a fair day, but woe to the beds and everything else when the rain falls heavily. Mr. Lovejoy has a stone house going up on his "claim," just beyond the city limits. This claim is in the "Great bend" of the Big Blue, three quarters of a mile from its mouth, where thousands of acres of as rich bottomlands as can possibly be found, lie in a body. The whole can be easily enclosed by a fence across the neck, of perhaps [omission] in length. In sight, is the great government road [18] to Fort Riley, 18 miles, on the Kanzas River above this intended city, and the govern ment bridge [19] across the Blue, costing an immense sum. A bluff of limestone rises abruptly, at the base of which our house is in process of erection. He [Mr. Lovejoy] has four acres ploughed and nearly planted, besides his garden, which is in a flourishing condition, vegetables growing far more rapidly than in the East. A fairer, more genial climate, we think, cannot be found on earth, though early in the spring we are told "high winds" and clouds of dust were a great annoyance. The air is so pure and clear that objects six and eight miles distant can be distinctly seen, as those in the East at one quarter of a mile, strange as it may seem. It is hard for us to become habituated to it, and it seems a constant phenomenon to us-so healthy too, that one can lie in the open air and realize no inconvenience from it. An instance occurs nightly in sight of our cabin. A gentleman from Maine, [20] a graduate of Waterville, and for years past teacher in the Charlestown Academy, who was, to all appearance in the last stages of consumption, given over by his physicians to die, as a last resort came to Kanzas, has lived here through the winter, and now is so well he labors constantly, and at night wraps a buffalo robe about him, and throws himself on the open prairie, with no covering but the canopy of heaven.
 
All you had to be was of one loyalty or the other and live in the wrong place- other citizens could wipe your family out. I mean, where in History do you compare this, a society in such free fall there are no restrictions on behavior?
Plenty of places in history -- and more than plenty in the world today. Any place there is total social breakdown. This is the way most civil wars are. Ours was an exception to the rule -- except in places like Missouri. And even in Missouri, the chaos and violence were certainly no worse (and probably not as bad) than in places such as Somalia, Afghanistan and many parts of Mexico today (the latter due to warfare between, and terror by, the drug cartels. I know families from Sinaloa, Jalisco and Chihuahua who no longer go visit their families of origin because they say it's too dangerous to do so.) Unfortunately, social order is more fragile than many people realize. I don't remember who it was that wrote about "the thin veneer of civilization," but that phrase has always haunted me.
 
Many early women who found their way with their families to Kansas discovered that they couldn't overcome the homesickness for their homes and families in New England and soon left for home.
Some of them literally went insane. Living isolated in a dugout or sod house out on the plains, miles away from other people, and a fierce wind that sometimes would blow 24 hours a day, for days and days without ceasing.... could drive all but the very most mentally tough person out of her mind. (Of course, I'm talking about post-war settlers. White settlers were not yet in western Kansas before the war.)
 
She describes their initial home in Kanzas:
The air is so pure and clear that objects six and eight miles distant can be distinctly seen, as those in the East at one quarter of a mile, strange as it may seem. It is hard for us to become habituated to it, and it seems a constant phenomenon to us-so healthy too, that one can lie in the open air and realize no inconvenience from it.

And now, for an appropriate verse from the Kansas State Song ("Home On the Range"):

Where the air is so pure
And the zepyhrs so free
And the breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange
My home on the range
For all of your cities so bright.


An instance occurs nightly in sight of our cabin. A gentleman from Maine, [20] a graduate of Waterville, and for years past teacher in the Charlestown Academy, who was, to all appearance in the last stages of consumption, given over by his physicians to die, as a last resort came to Kanzas, has lived here through the winter, and now is so well he labors constantly, and at night wraps a buffalo robe about him, and throws himself on the open prairie, with no covering but the canopy of heaven.

And another one:

How often at night
When the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars
Have I stood there amazed
And I ask while I gaze,
Does their glory exceed that of ours?
 
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