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Historic People
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Daniel 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."
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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 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 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.
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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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