LEGENDS OF KANSAS

 

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Historic People of Kansas - "A" - Page 2

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Daniel Read AnthonyDaniel R. Anthony (1824-1904) - Journalist, politician and soldier, Anthony was born at South Adams, Massachusetts on August. 22, 1824, a son of Daniel and Lucy Anthony, and a brother of Susan B. Anthony, the famous advocate of female suffrage.

 

In his boyhood he attended school at Battenville, New York and later spent six months at the Union Village Academy. Upon leaving school, he became a clerk in his father's cotton and flour mill until he was about 23 years old, when he went to Rochester, New York. After teaching school for two seasons he engaged in the insurance business, and in 1854 he was a member of the first colony sent out to Kansas by the New England Emigrant Aid Society.

 

In June, 1857, he located at Leavenworth, where he would remain for the rest of his life. A fervent abolitionist, Anthony was early involved in the Underground Railroad in Leavenworth. Working with a free black man named William Dominick Matthews, who had established a boarding house in the city in 1856, Anthony and his friends helped Matthews to harbor escaped slaves. Matthews would go on to become on of the few African-American captains in the Civil War.

 

When the Seventh Kansas Cavalry was organized in 1861, Anthony was commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel and served until he resigned on September 3, 1862 due to a controversy between him and General Robert B. Mitchell. While in camp at Etheridge, Tennessee in June, 1862, Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony was temporarily in command of the brigade, during a short absence of General Mitchell, and issued an order prohibiting slave owners from coming inside the Union lines for the purpose of recovering fugitive slaves. The order further specified that "Any officer or soldier of this command who shall arrest and deliver to his master a fugitive slave shall be summarily and severely punished according to the laws relative to such crimes." When General Mitchell returned and assumed command of the brigade, he asked Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony to countermand the order. Anthony replied that as he was no longer in command he had no right to issue or revoke orders. Mitchell then placed him in command long enough to rescind the obnoxious order, when Anthony, being in command, denied the right of General Mitchell to dictate what he should do, and again refused to countermand the order. He was arrested and relieved of the command, but the matter came before the United States senate and Anthony was reinstated by General Henry Halleck, but then resigned.

 

He was elected mayor of Leavenworth in 1863 and undertook to clear the city of Southern sympathizers. Several houses sheltering them were burned, when General Thomas Ewing placed the city under martial law. When Ewing's scouts seized some horses, Anthony interfered and was arrested, but was released the next day and civil law was restored.

 

Anthony married Miss Annie F. Osborn of Edgarton, Massachusetts on January 21, 1864. In the spring of 1866, Anthony was removed from the office of postmaster in Leavenworth because he refused to support the reconstruction policy of Andrew Johnson. He was president of the Republican State Convention of 1868, and the same year was one of the Kansas presidential electors. In 1872 he was again elected mayor of Leavenworth; was appointed postmaster of Leavenworth by President Ulysses S. Grant on April 3, 1874, and reappointed by President Hayes on March 22, 1878. He served several terms in the city council, and was nominated for mayor a number of times but was defeated. Anthony was a life member of the Kansas State Historical Society, of which he was president in 1885-86.

 

Meanwhile, In January, 1861, he established the Leavenworth Conservative, but the following year sold it to A. C. and D. W. Wilder. In March, 1864, he purchased the Bulletin, the Times came into his possession in 1871, and this paper he continued until his death. As a journalist, Anthony was aggressive and his outspoken editorials frequently involved him in trouble. To him, physical fear was a stranger, and when R. C. Satterlee of the Leavenworth Herald published something derogatory about Anthony in 1861 a shooting affair occurred which resulted in the death of Satterlee. On May 10, 1875, W. W. Embry, a former employee, fired three shots at Anthony on the stairway of the opera house. One of the shots hit him in the right breast, just below the collar bone, severed an artery and Anthony's recovery from this wound was regarded as one of the remarkable cases of modern surgery. He died at Leavenworth on November  12, 1904. A short time before his death he suggested the following as his epitaph: "He helped to make Kansas a free state. He fought to save the Union. He published the Daily Times for nearly forty years in the interest of Leavenworth. He was no hypocrite."

 

 

 

Daniel R. Anthony, Jr. (1870-1931) - Journalist and member of Congress from the First Kansas District, Anthony was born in Leavenworth, Kansas on August 22, 1870, a son of Daniel R and Annie (Osborn) Anthony. He was educated in public schools in Leavenworth and graduated in the class of 1887 at the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, Michigan. In 1891 he received a law degree  from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. However, Anthony didn't practice law extensively, instead focusing on newspaper work, and after his father died in 1904, he took over the Leavenworth Times, which his father conducted for nearly forty years. On June 21, 1897 he married Elizabeth Havens of Leavenworth. From 1898 to 1902 he was postmaster of Leavenworth, and in 1903 was elected mayor of the city for a term of two years. On March 29, 1907, he was elected without opposition to fill the unexpired term of Charles Curtis in the National House of Representatives, Mr. Curtis having resigned his seat to enter the United States Senate. At the election in November, 1908, he was re-elected for a full term of two years. Anthony was the originator of the project to build a military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley, and on December 16, 1909, he introduced a bill in Congress for that purpose. His plan was to utilize the labor of the convicts in the Federal prisons at Fort Leavenworth. In addition to his editorial and Congressional duties, Anthony was a director of the Leavenworth National bank. Anthony continued to serve as a congressman until March 3, 1929, after which he resumed his former business pursuits. He died in Leavenworth, Kansas on August 4, 1931 and was buried in the Mount Muncie Cemetery.

George Tobey AnthonyGeorge Tobey Anthony (1824-1896) - The seventh governor of the State of Kansas, Anthony born on a farm near Mayfield, New York on June 9, 1824, and was the youngest of five children born to Benjamin and Anna Anthony. The parents were active members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and were unwavering advocates of the abolition of chattel slavery. His father died in 1829, leaving the family in somewhat strained circumstances. When George was about nine years old the family moved to Greenfield, New York where he attended school during the winter months and worked for the neighboring farmers in summer. At the age of 16, he entered the shop of his uncle at Union Springs, New York, and served an apprenticeship as a tinner and coppersmith. Here, he worked from 14-16 hours each day, which doubtless inculcated those industrious habits that characterized his course through life. On December 14, 1852 he married Miss Rosa A. Lyon, of Medina, New York, and there engaged in business as a tinner and dealer in hardware, stoves, etc. Later, he added agricultural implements to his stock. He then moved to New York City, where he engaged in business as a commission merchant until the commencement of the Civil War. Governor Morgan selected him as one of a committee to raise and organize troops under the call of July 2, 1862, in the 28th District. Anthony organized the Seventeenth Independent Battery of Light Artillery in four days, and was commissioned captain of the organization when it was mustered into the United States service on August 26, 1862. In command of this battery, he served between Washington and Richmond until the close of the war; was attached to the Eighteenth Corps while in the trenches in front of Petersburg; and was with the Twenty-Fourth Corps in the Appomattox Campaign, which ended in the surrender of General Robert E. Lee. Captain Anthony was mustered out at Richmond, Virginia on June 12, 1865 and later that year, in November, moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where for nearly three years he was editor of the Daily Bulletin and Daily Commercial. He then published the Kansas Farmer for six years. After coming to Kansas, Anthony held a number of positions of trust and responsibility. In 1867 he was one of the commissioners in charge of the soldiers' orphans; in December of that year was appointed assistant assessor of United States Internal Revenue; was commissioned collector of Internal Revenue on July 11, 1868; was president of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture for three years, and president of the Board of Centennial Managers in 1876. In that year, he was also nominated by the Republican state Convention for the Office of Governor. During the campaign some of his political enemies charged that he had been guilty of cowardice while serving with his battery in the Army of the Potomac, and insisted on his removal from the ticket. The charge was investigated by the State Central Committee, which refused to remove Anthony, and the committee's decision was ratified by the people at the election in November, when Anthony was elected. Two years later, in the Republican State Convention, he was defeated for a re-nomination. In 1881 he was made Superintendent of the Mexican Central Railway, a position he held for about two years. In 1884 he was elected to represent Leavenworth County in the State Legislature; was a member of the State Railroad Commission from 1889 to 1893; was the Republican nominee for Congressman at large in 1892, but was defeated by William A. Harris; was a delegate to the Trans-Mississippi Congress at New Orleans in 1892; was appointed Superintendent of Insurance by Governor Morrill in 1895, and held this office until his death. As an orator Governor Anthony was logical and forcible, rarely failing to impress his audiance by his intense earnestness. He was often criticized -- such is always the case with men of positive natures -- but no word was ever whispered against his honor or integrity. The Kansas Historical Society Collections said: "George T. Anthony's greatest usefulness to his adopted state was his work while editor of the Kansas Farmer and as president of the Board of Centennial Managers. The pioneer farmers of Kansas were negligent in the management of farm affairs. Corn was about the only crop produced, and at the end of the season the plow was left in the furrow and the mowing machine was left in the fence corner, while the live stock were left to shift for themselves. The Kansas Farmer taught diversified farming, economy in management, improvement in livestock, and higher regard for home and social life. "Governor George T. Anthony suffered from diabetes, and passed away on August 5, 1896. He was buried at the Topeka Cemetery.

David Rice AtchisonDavid Rice Atchison (1807-1886) - Jurist and United States Senator, Atchison was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, August 11, 1807. His father was an industrious farmer of influence in the neighborhood. At an early age, David was put in a grammar school, but left it to enter Transylvania University, where he graduated. In 1828 he began to study law at the Lexington Law School, where he remained two years. He then went to Clay County, at that time the extreme border of Missouri. He quickly adapted himself to the life and society of the frontier; took part in politics, and soon became a prominent figure in the life of the country. In 1834 he was elected to the state House of Representatives of Missouri and in 1838 was re-elected. During this session he was chosen Major-General of the State Militia to operate against the Indians, but never saw any active service. In 1840 he was defeated as a candidate for the State Legislature, and in 1841, was elected to the bench of the Platte Judicial Circuit. Two years later he was chosen by Governor Reynolds to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate, occasioned by the death of Dr. Lewis Lynn; was elected in 1844 to the position by the State Legislature, and re-elected in 1849. At the time of the death of William R. King, the Vice-President Elect,  Atchison, being president of the senate, became ex-officio Vice-President of the United States. When the question of the organization of the Nebraska Territory came before the senate, Atchison opposed it, but at the next session favored it, and though the validity of the Missouri Compromise had not then been questioned, he proposed, regardless of restrictions, to introduce slavery into the territory. In the summer of 1853, he announced himself in favor of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the following winter was a warm supporter of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In 1854, he was instrumental in establishing the pro-slavery town of Atchison, Kansas. He aspired to the presidency and for some time his name appeared in the border papers as a candidate. He ran for the United States Senate in 1855 but was defeated. The following year he spent the most of his time in Kansas leading the Platte County Rifle Company, but after the defeat of slavery in Kansas he retired to his farm. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate service, but soon retired because of dissatisfaction with the management. After the war he lived in retirement until his death on January 26, 1886.

 

 

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of Kansas, updated March, 2017.

About the Article: The majority of this historic text was published in Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Volume I; edited by Frank W. Blackmar,  A.M. Ph. D.; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912. However, the text that appears on these pages is not verbatim, as additions, updates, and editing have occurred.

 

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