"That we will afford protection to no abolitionist as a settler of this territory.
     "That we recognize the institution of slavery, as already existing in this territory, and advise slaveholders to introduce their property as early as possible."

Governor Reeder arrived in the territory in October, 1854, and November 29th of the same year the first election was held, at which a delegate to Congress was chosen. At this election 1,700 illegal votes were cast. On the 30th of March, 1855, the members of the territorial legislature were elected. On this occasion not less that 5,000 Missourians invaded the territory. According to the statement of the Congressional Committee's report, there were at this election 4,908 illegal votes cast, and of course slavery carried.

The state of excitement in western Missouri may be seen from the following extract from a speech at St. Joe by Gen. Stringfellow (an assumed title) in 1854:
     "I tell you to mark every scoundrel among you who is the least tainted with abolitionism, or free-soilism, and exterminate him. Neither give nor take quarter from the d--d rascals. To those who have qualms of conscience as to violating laws, state or national, I say the time has come when such impositions must be disregarded, as your rights and property are in danger. I advise you, one and all, to enter every election district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder and his myrmidons, and vote at the point of the bowie knife and revolver. Neither take nor give quarter, as the cause demands it. It is enough that the slaveholding interest wills it, from which there is no appeal."

David R. Atchison, senator in Congress from Missouri, was actively urging on the "ruffians" by counsel, speech and pen. Blue lodges were formed in all the western counties in Missouri to help forward the cause. Organizations were formed in the several slave states, and companies of men sent forward.

There were also free state organizations to aid in sending forward emigrants, the principal of which were "The American Settlement Company" and "The New England Emigrant Aid Company." The thoroughfare into the territory was up the river by boat, or by private conveyance across the state, so that it was in the power of Missourians to greatly annoy emigrants, and this power they did not fail to exercise. Emigrants from the north were driven back; they were tarred and feathered; their claims were seized; their cabins were burned down; they were often ordered to leave the territory at once, on penalty of death. Steamboats on the river were searched for free state men, and if any were found, they were forcibly turned back. Men were placed in skiffs in the river current, without oars, and sent adrift. Ferries were watched, and free state men prevented from crossing into the territory.

To determine whether any one was Yankee or not, he was required to say "cow" and if he said "keow" he could not cross. Such was the determined hostility to free state men, that the route to Kansas via Missouri was barricaded against them, and they were obliged to seek a new way through the free states.

That we may the better understand and appreciate the occurrences of 1856, let us briefly review the events in Kansas prior to this year.

1. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed by Congress near the last of May, 1854.
2. The first company of eastern emigrants, guided by Chas. Branscomb, numbering thirty, entered the territory and settled at Lawrence in July, 1854.
3. Two weeks later they were joined by a second and larger company of sixty or seventy, with whom came Dr. Chas. Robinson and S. C. Pomeroy.
4. Gov. A. H. Reeder entered Kansas and assumed rule in October, 1854.
5. Hundreds from Missouri crossed over into Kansas and took claims as soon as it was known to be open to settlement, some of whom remained, but many returned to Missouri, where was their real residence.
6. Gen. Whitfield was elected territorial delegate to Congress, November 29, 1854, at which election 1,729 illegal votes were cast, which were about three-fifths of the whole number. (See report of the Congressional Investigating Committee.)
7. The election for territorial legislature occurred March 30, 1855, when 4,908 illegal votes were cast, or two-thirds in all. Many of the members elected were Missourians, and never had any legal residence in the territory, and some of them were refused certificates of election by Gov. Reeder, who in consequence became unpopular and was superseded by Wilson Shannon in the summer of 1855.
8. The bogus legislature, so called because illegally elected, held its first session in July, 1855, and enacted a very stringent pro-slavery code of laws for the territory. The free state settlers elected a legislature early in September, 1855, which met at Topeka on the 19th, adopted a declaration of rights, and provided for the election of delegates to Congress, on the 2d Tuesday of October, 1855. Ex-Governor Reeder was nominated as a delegate to Congress, and accepted the nomination in a speech on the occasion. Chas. Robinson was recognized by the free state organization as governor.

At this time, the United States government recognized the bogus legislature and their laws as authoritative. The government insisted on obedience to the same. The United States marshal, with United States troops at his back, and as many thousands of Missourians as he might think proper to employ as a posse, eagerly sought to enforce obedience. Thus all the governmental power was on the side of the pro-slavery ruffians. Soon charges were trumped up against the leading fee state men, and papers issued for their arrest, and placed in the hands of the United States marshal to be served. Thus the pro-slavery party was shielded by the power of the general government, while the free state men were exposed to wrong and abuse without any redress.

the free state constitutional convention assembled at Topeka on the 23d of October, 1855, and proceeded to form a state constitution preparatory to applying for admission to the Union. November 21, 1855, Dow, a free state settler at Hickory Point, was brutally shot by a ruffian named Coleman. Branson, with whom Dow had lived, was arrested shortly after by Missouri ruffians, taken from his bed at dead of night, and carried off on a trumped up charge, but taken from his captors by free state hands. The United States marshal, Jones, of Missouri, had thought to take Branson into Lawrence to induce the people of that place to forcibly release him and thus afford a pretext for destroying Lawrence, the stronghold of the free state cause. About the last of November or first of December, Lawrence was besieged by 1,500 or 2,000 "border ruffians" for a week or two. The ruffians were eager to destroy Lawrence, but feared to do so without a sufficient pretext. Governor Shannon on coming to Lawrence saw his mistake. The free state men were armed in self defense - a conceded right. The governor saw they were not the lawless cut-throats their enemies had represented them to be. Governor Robinson and General Lane were called upon to protect the people in their rights, and the governor recognized them as the territorial militia and they acted as such under his command. The "border ruffians" were determined to drive out the free state settlers, and the free state men were as fully determined not to be driven out, so that a very unsatisfactory state of things existed in the territory. Human life and property were very insecure, murders were frequent, houses were robbed and burned. By a shrewd device, Capt. John Brown, as a government surveyor, entered the camp of the enemy and learned their plans for murdering the Browns and others who were obnoxious to them. He immediately informed the parties thus devoted to death, and took measures to prevent the carrying out of the plan by taking the initiative. On the night of the 24th of May, 1856, the three Doyles, Wilkinson and Sherman were slain.

About May 10, 1856, Gov. Chas. Robinson and wife started east, by boat down the river. At Lexington, Mo., they were violently and illegally seized by a mob of Missourians. He was held as a prisoner, while his estimable wife was permitted to go on her way. Shortly after Gov. Chas. Robinson left Lawrence, ex-Governor Reeder was also induced to leave. He made his escape from his enemies by going down the river in the disguise of a boatman.

Companies of emigrants from Illinois, traveling in their own wagons through northern Missouri, were turned back from guarded ferries on the Missouri, and compelled to retrace their course. The blockade of the river rendered it necessary to seek some other way of ingress into the territory. Accordingly in the forepart of the summer of 1856, in May or June, a small company, led by Dr. Howe, of the blind institution in Boston, coming from Kansas across the country via Nebraska City, made their appearance in Tabor. This, I think, was the beginning of the travel of free state men through Tabor.

This company, which was engaged in locating a road for free state men, were anxious to find Colonel Dickey with a company from the east, whom they were expecting to meet in this vicinity. Strangers as they were, and in need of a guide, the parson volunteered to escort them to White Cloud. Leaving Tabor a little before dark in the evening, we found Colonel Dickey about 10 o'clock p.m.. at the residence of Mr. Hargan in White Cloud. From this time onward through that season, Tabor, being the nearest point to Kansas, where all the people were in full sympathy with the free state movement, was made a place of deposit for military and commissary stores. Our latchstrings were always out, and much of the time our houses, and granaries, and hay mows were occupied. Provisions were plenty and free, and without price. Persons were passing through almost daily, alone or in companies. Some noted personages were among the number - Rev. Bodwell, afterward pastor in Topeka; Rev. Parsons, a home missionary; T. W. Higginson, afterward colonel of a colored regiment; Dr. Cutter and wife, author of Cutter's Physiology, so much used in our commons schools; S. C. Pomeroy and James H. Lane, senators from Kansas after its admission to the Union as a state. Capt. John Brown was here repeatedly for a brief time, and a number of colonels, captains, majors, etc., etc.

April 21, 1856, a Republican political organization was formed under the leadership of Richard Baxter Foster, then employed in running a steam saw mill in the Missouri bottoms, afterward an officer in a colored regiment in the Rebellion, and since then an efficient and successful Congregational minister in Kansas and Colorado. This was the beginning of Republicanism in Tabor.

We have already seen that Lawrence was besieged in the early part of December for ten days or more by fifteen hundred or two thousand pro-slavery Missourians, as a United States marshal's posse, to serve arrests on citizens of that place. They sought a pretext to destroy the place, but were thwarted and disbanded, through the action of Governor Shannon, the people of Lawrence, through their leaders, promising submission to the lawfully constituted authorities of the territory. But the free state settlers must be driven out if slavery would succeed, and hostilities were kept up. Murders were still being committed by both parties on each other. A very unsettled and unsafe state of society existed. Hundreds of "border ruffians," well armed, with fourpieces of artillery, led by United States Marshall Jones, surrounded Lawrence, served writs on a number of citizens without resistance, then demanded that all the cannon and Sharps rifles be given up. The cannon were surrendered - one 12-pounder brass cannon and four 1-pound breech loading guns. The Sharps rifles could not be delivered up; they were private property. When the had disarmed the citizens, they then brought their forces into the city, destroyed the printing presses of the two free state papers, battered the brick free state hotel with cannon, and burnt it to ashes. In addition, private houses were broken into, and money and valuables carried off. Thus the ruffians vented their hatred on the people of Lawrence on the 21st of May, 1856. Because Gen. Jas. H. Lane and Gov. Chas. Robinson and the committee of safety wouldn't fight, Captain Brown left Lawrence to its fate. He was not there to witness its sacking. After this onslaught upon Lawrence, Colonel Eldridge, the proprietor of the Free State hotes, passed through Tabor on his way to New England for reinforcements. Major Searles also was at Mr. Gaston's some time, in charge of stores deposited there.

About the end of May, Capt. H. Clay Pate, a Virginian, set out from Westport, Mo., with an armed force for the avowed purpose of arresting "Old Brown." While near Ossawatomie, he took John Brown, Jr. and Jason, his brother, prisoners, while quietly at work, and carried them off, cruelly treating them, and afterward transferring them to the care of the United States forces. June 2d the battle of Black Jack was fought, and Captain Pate, with twenty-one men, was captured by Captain Brown. On the 7th one hundred and seventy of Whitfield's men, led by Reid, who had promised to disperse, sacked Ossawatomie. The free state legislature met at Topeka on the 4th of July, 1856, and was forcibly dispersed by Colonel Sumner, at the head of a troop of the United States army, acting under orders of the general government.

During the summer of 1856, General Lane was repeatedly in Tabor. The first time he was here for two or three weeks "incog." He addressed the citizens once or twice in the school house, on Kansas matters, and on politics. He came in and spoke and then retired without the people generally knowing where he had gone. He bought a fine cream colored horse of Robert H. Hurlbutt, that was an uncommonly fast walker, on which he rode through the wars of Kansas. He entered Kansas early in August, with a company of emigrants, by way of Tabor. Also Captain Brown, who had brought a sick son and a wounded son-in-law up to Tabor for treatment and safety, returned to Lawrence with Lane. so prominent a part did General Lane and Captain Brown take in military operations, in protecting free state men and punishing "border ruffians," that they became especially obnoxious to the general government, and all their appointments in the territory. The federal troops were employed to disperse their forces and arrest the commanders. On one occasion they were reconnoitering in the northern part of the territory toward the Nebraska line, to intercept General Lane, who was reported to be coming in with an armed force, when the general pushed forward in advance of his company, artfully disguised himself as a Mexican "greaser," joined the crowd, and aided in searching for himself, without being detected, while his company under the lead of another, by forced marches, successfully evaded their pursuers and safely reached their destination.

Rumors reached us about midsummer that five hundred men were camped on the north line to prevent free state men from entering the territory. Three brothers, Enoch, Everett and Luther, whose surname was Platt, from Minden, Ill., had come on and were by these rumors deterred from going further, until a sufficient number of emigrants could collect to challenge respect and force their way into the territory. These were a fine type of emigrants, intelligent, active and ready to do every good work. The parson was then building his barn and they helped to enclose it and put on the roof. Luther, the youngest, had a violin which he was fond of playing, and he gathered in the children of the community and taught them to sing, and entertained them with music and addresses. Since then he has been promoted to the office of Congregational State Sunday School Secretary for Kansas.

Emigrants kept coming, and tents were pitched, and teams were grazing here and there all along on the green prairie, in the valley down by the old mill, and in the timber by John Rhodes'. Mr. Gaston's house was a kind of headquarters, and as many stopped there to recruit, they were overrun with company. Let me quote from Mrs. Gaston's own statement:
     "That summer and autumn our houses, before too full, were much overfilled and our comforts shared with those passing to and from Kansas to secure it to Freedom. When houses would hold no more, woodsheds were temporized for bedrooms, where the sick and dying were cared for. Barns also were fixed for sleeping rooms. Every place where a bed could be put or a blanket thrown down was at once so occupied. There were comers and goers all times of day or night - meals at all hours - many free hotels, perhaps entertaining angels unawares. After battles they were here for rest - before for preparation. General Lane once stayed three weeks secretly while it was reported abroad that he was back in Indiana for recruits and supplies, which came ere long, consisting of all kinds of provisions, Sharps rifles, powder and lead. A cannon packed in corn made its way through the enemy's lines, and ammunition of all kinds, in clothing and kitchen furniture, etc., etc. Our cellars contained barrels of powder and boxes of rifles. Often our chairs, tables, beds and such places were covered with what weapons every one carried about him, so that if one needed and got time to rest a little in the day time, we had to remove the Kansas furniture, or rest with loaded revolvers, cartridge boxes and bowie knives piled around them, and boxes of swords under the bed. Were not our houses overfilled?"

A Captain Chambry from Indiana came on with a company of fine young men, who had been entrusted to his care by their parents. He was an intelligent Christian reformer, an advocate of temperance and freedom, one who practiced as he taught.

As it was thought unsafe to go on without a considerable force, a call was sent out to the friends of freedom around, inviting all who were willing to assemble and form an escort, to come to Tabor. Although our country had then few people in it, a good many responded to the call and quite a number of the young men of Tabor volunteered to go, and went. The parson proposed to be one to see them through the lines, but a pair of spurs was the only part of an outfit he had procured, when information came assuring us that the way was open and emigrants could safely pass in. the gathered host then moved on. but the morning of their departure was overshadowed with gloom on account of a very sad accident. Among those who responded to the call was a son of the pastor of the Congregational church at Lewis and a son of one of the deacons of the same church - Leang Afa Hitchcock and ---Chapman. They had camped with others down by the mill, three-quarters of a mile from Tabor toward Thurman, and as the caravan started in the morning they, in boyish glee, ran ahead of the teams, brandishing their weapons and sportively showing a fight. At the crossing of Plum Creek, one mile and a half from Tabor, as the road then ran, Chapman, holding in hand a pistol supposed to be unloaded, playfully aimed it at Hitchcock and pulled the trigger. It went off and Hitchcock fell, and in a few minutes expired. He was the oldest son of Rev. Geo. B. Hitchcock, of Lewis, in Cass county, Iowa. His father, from his deep interest in Christian missions to China, named him Leang Afa, after the name of the first Chinese convert. The corpse was taken to the residence of James L. Smith, and there prepared to be conveyed to his parents at Lewis. But to lighten the shock, if possible, the parson went ahead on horseback to break the sad tidings to the stricken family before the arrival of the corpse. He set out on horseback as the dusk of evening came on, rode all night, breakfasted at a farm house and reached Mr. Hitchcock's (a distance of fifty miles or more) about 9 o'clock in the morning. He had thought to break the news to the father first, but as he was over in the village half a mile distant he dared not go in search of him, lest in his absence the bearers should arrive with the body and find the family wholly unprepared. The mother and grown sister of the deceased were the only persons to whom he could divulge the matter. They were busy at work, and as the sister went out a few rods from the door to hang out clothes, he followed her, and there broke to her the news, at the same time endeavoring to keep her quiet; but she no sooner got the idea than she ran into the house wringing her hands and screaming at the top of voice, "Leang is dead! Lean is dead! Oh, ma; Leang is dead!" The mother shrieked and joined the outcry. Both were frantic and uncontollable. Soon the father returned, and having created an excitement he could not allay, the parson met him at the gate and informed him of Leang's death. He was deeply moved, but repressed his feelings. When Mrs. Hitchcock rushed out to meet him, screaming, "Leang is dead!" he tried to still her by saying, "My dear, God always does right." Such a scene may I never be called to witness again! From it Mrs. Hitchcock never seemed to wholly recover. A shadow appeared to rest on the household ever after.

The death by accident of young Mr. Hitchcock occurred about the tenth of September, 1856. The host, whose numbers had been accumulating for weeks, and embraced the Platts from Mendon, Ill., Captain Chambry and his company from Indiana, Rev. Parsons of Maine and his followers, together with a number from southwest Iowa, including the following from Tabor: H. D. Ingraham, J. K. Gaston, I. Hollister, Jas. Clark, and R. B. Foster, all moved on, and scarcely a week passed before we learned that Captain Chambry fell mortally wounded in the capture of Ft. Titus, a log cabin in which the ruffians had taken refuge. In the plan of attack upon the fort, the captain had a part assigned him, in the performance of which, with more courage than discretion, he rode up in front and was shot down. But the fort was taken, and R. B. Foster exhibited in Tabor a short time afterwards the sword of Colonel Titus, kept as a trophy. A colored woman, who afterward passed through here on the U. G. R. R., ticketed for Queen Victoria's dominions, informed us that she, as the property of Colonel Titus, was in the fort at the time of the attack and that a cannon ball struck a trunk on which she was sitting, going in at one end and out at the other. With such missiles flying around them, they soon concluded to raise the white flag.