1879 CLIP SAMUEL WALKER ABOLITION OH TO KS BLOOMINGTON GUARDS BORDER RUFFIANS

Description

A little history lesson first, courtesy of several sites on the internet ...
In 1949, abolitionist Samuel Walker moved his family from Pennsylvania to New Paris, Ohio. In the winter of 1853, Major Woods, who had been stationed at Fort Leavenworth, came to New Paris and gave such a good description of Kansas, that 40 families, including Samuel Walker and his family, decided to move there and take up land.
During the summer and fall of 1855, excitement ran high in Kansas on account of the struggle between the Free-State and pro-slavery parties.
Without ascertaining the actual condition of affairs, the governor issued a proclamation calling out the militia of Kansas — which really meant the ruffians of Missouri — to put down the rebellion at Lawrence. The people of Missouri were ready and were not long in responding to the call.
In this period before the Civil War, “bushwhacking” was a form of guerrilla warfare particularly prevalent along the Kansas–Missouri border. Though the term “bushwhacker” actually applied to both Union and Confederate forces, in Kansas, it was a much-feared term applied to pro-slavery guerilla fighters.
Bushwhackers were not generally part of the military command and control of either side. With raids starting years before the Civil War began, as Kansas fought to become a Free-State, conducted a few well-organized raids, but the vast majority of attacks involved ambushes of individuals or families in rural areas.
Meanwhile, after an eventful trip, on May 5, 1885, Walker and his group from Ohio finally arrived at Lawrence Kansas, which was a collection of small mud huts, dugouts, but found no land they wanted. So each head of the family started out to search on his own. Walker selected a farm about seven miles west of Lawrence. Several families settled near the ci ty of Lecompton. Walker built his family a cabin and prepared for his farm animals.
In just six weeks Samuel Jones appeared with 150 men. He told Walker to be gone in two weeks, or he'd burn him out, that he was on his way to Lecompton to clean out the abolitionists.
After Jones left, Walker traveled about all night, alerting people as to Jones' plans. The next day 86 men met at the Walker cabin and organized the Bloomington Guards, a military company. Walker was chosen first sergeant of this first military company organized in Kansas.
Captain Read was sent to Massachusetts to obtain arms. Read did not come back, but 80 rifles were eventually delivered to Walker. The Guards met that night and went to Lawrence well armed. The nearby border ruffians heard of the rifles and went to the Walker farm to search. They found nothing, but to be sure they were not hidden, burned the haystacks, corn and other crops, and destroyed everything. Walker couldn't find work, so he made up his mind to live at the ruffians’ expense until either they or he was driven from the Territory. Fortunately, wild game was in abundance, so the family lived on that.
The siege was really commenced on Saturday, December 1st and lasted about a week. The Sharps rifles that had been shipped to Lawrence from New England became of immense value at this time, as the fear of them kept the enemy from a sudden attack. From the surrounding towns, Lawrence continued to receive reinforcements, who were usually surprised to find that the inhabitants were strictly on the defensive instead of the aggressive as reported by the pro-slavery men. Finally, the citizens sent a delegation to the governor to acquaint him with the true situation. Being incredulous, he was persuaded to go to Lawrence to see for himself, and upon his arrival was amazed at the situation. The besiegers and besieged were brought into conference by him. The governor, Colonel Boone, of Westport, Missouri, Colonel Kearney, of Independence. Missouri, and General Strickler, of Kansas, were duly conducted to Lawrence and to the rooms of the committee of safety in the Free-State Hotel. Dr. Robinson and Colonel Lane conducted the negotiations on the part of the Free-State men, as members of the committee of safety, and after both sides of the question had been discussed, the governor suggested that a treaty be drawn up and signed by the leaders, which was done.
Though the “Wakarusa War” ended without bloodshed, this was only the beginning of what would become known as Bleeding Kansas and a number of assaults, including the Sacking of Lawrence by Sheriff Jones on May 21, 1856.
And now on to this listing . . .
This listing is for a newspaper clipping published in September 1879 relating Walker's first-hand account of his trip from Ohio to Kansas. This clipping is PARTIAL - the first part of the clipping is missing. In addition to the facts stated above gleaned from the internet, the clipping contains the following details related by Walker:
The OH group of familes took a train to Cincinnati, then a freight boat. They had to switch to a smaller boat in St. Lousi called the "Chambers." The boat contained a number of southern families with their slaves headed for Platte County, MO. Walker's party were accused of being abolitionists and suffered many insults. At the boat's stop in Boonsville, a delegation fo citizens boarded and consulted with the captain. The captain made Walker and his group disembark. The group purchased yoke, oxen, and wagons and left Boonville. The article contains a long list of names of people in Walker's party, including the names of Barber, Hazeltime, Pierson, Costley, Kinzey, Mears, Duffee, Miller, Swaine, and Gov. George Hay.
On the third day, "border ruffians" from KS began harassing the party. The party couldn't buy anything from farmers because they were northerners. But at night, slaves would bring them food.
When the party arrived in Lawrence, they couldn't find a single plot of land for the whole party to settle as a community. So the group split up. They started out from Kanwaka township in Douglas County. Walker pitched his tend 7 miles west of Lawrence on April 12, 1855 with his wife and 5 children.
About 6 weeks later, MO border ruffians confronting Walker, announcing their mission was to "drive all the damned n****r-stealers from the Territory." Walker spent the entire day and night on foot going to notify the other surrounding settlers. The next day, 68 men met at Walker's cabin and organized themselves into a miliary company called the Bloominton Guards. The article gives a list of the appointed officers.
The Guards sent Captain Read to Massachusetts to get Sharp'
s rifles. Read never returned. But just before the invasion of Lwnrence in December, 1855, 80 Sharp's rifles arrived from Boston. The rifles were disbursed to the members of the Bloomington Guards. Border ruffians heard about the arrival of the rifles and came to search Walker's property. They found nothing, but they destroyed all hisproperty and burned his crops.
If you are a collector of historic Samuel Walker/abolitionist/bushwackers/MO/KS/civil war memorabilia, this is a must-have for your collection!
These clippings were removed from a veeery old scrapbook.  They are in delicate condition, but can still be handled without crumbling.  Some of the clippings had been cut apart to fit within the pages of the scrapbook.  They have been reassembled (much like a jigsaw puzzle) and held together on the back by archival-quality mending tissue.
This is NOT Scotch tape!   ]
It contains no acid or lignin and will not cause discoloring or any other damage over time.  It should not be removed.
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