I have often puzzled over my ancestors--Klone (immigrants from Westfalia),
Folmer, Ziegenhagen (immigrants from Posen) --movement from New York, where
they landed, to the Kansas-Nebraska territory where they homesteaded.
William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas brings this part of my
ancestory puzzle into focus. This book is available for reading on line at
the following URL.
http://kuhttp.cc.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/books/cutler/terrhist/
Just to give everyone an idea of what was involved during this historical
time period in the United States of America, I have copied the following
information from William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas. I hope
this doesn't violate any rules of these forums.
THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY OF NEW YORK AND CONNECTICUT.
The Emigrant Aid Company of New York and Connecticut was organized July 18,
1854, under a charter granted by the Legislature of Connecticut during the
session of the same summer. Its objects were of the same general character
as those of the Massachusetts Company, but designed to facilitate the work
by a division of the vast field of operations to be covered. The first
officers of this company were: Eli Thayer, President; R. N. Havens, Vice
President; Moses H. Grinnell, Treasurer.
Other societies and associations were formed at various points, either as
auxiliary to these two corporations or acting independently in the work of
co-operative Kansas emigration.
The Union Emigration Society was organized in the city of Washington "by
such members of Congress and citizens generally as were opposed to the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise and to the opening of Nebraska and Kansas
to the introduction of slavery." It appointed agents in several States for
the purpose of calling public attention to its movements and organizing
auxiliary societies.
The three associations before mentioned were the most important
organizations in the North, and of them the New England society took the
lead in the work. Under its auspices, auxiliary societies were formed in
various communities, known as Kansas Leagues, with a constitution and by
laws, whereby companies of emigrants were made up and arrangements made for
their emigration and settlement on lands adjacent on their arrival in
Kansas. The articles from the constitution of the "Worcester County Kansas
League," below quoted, show the design of these co-operative associations:
ARTICLE 4. It shall be the duty of the Master of Emigration to receive and
keep the names of all persons desiring to emigrate from Worcester County; to
agree upon the time and conveniences for their departure, and to confer with
the Emigrant Aid Company, so as to make the best arrangements for their
conveyance to Kansas, and their location there.
ARTICLE 5. The moneys of the Society shall be appropriated to promote such
emigration into the above-named Territory as shall be opposed to the
introduction of slavery into the same; or, if slavery shall be introduced,
as shall be in favor of repealing all laws tolerating the same; and also for
such means for promoting free emigration as the Directors may select.
Provided that nothing shall be done, in virtue hereof, in contravention of
the Constitution, nor in conflict with the existing laws of the land.
ARTICLE 7. It is the design of this Society to co-operate with the Emigrant
Aid Company, in the colonization of Kansas with freemen.
Under the inspiration and through the instrumentalities of these various
organizations, the great flow of Northern emigration began to set toward
Kansas by midsummer, and thenceforth her fields became the theater of the
most momentous struggle in the history of nations. It was the beginning of
the final contest in America between freedom and its deadliest foe, and in
it were the issues of life and death to the great Republic. For the weary
years that followed the world looked on with bated breath.
The summer and fall of 1854 witnessed the beginning of the settlement of
Kansas and the first attempts of the people to exercise the republican
rights of citizenship under the provisions of the territorial act and in
accordance with the principles of "squatter sovereignty." As had already
been shown, during the early summer much of the valuable land in the eastern
part of the Territory, along the Missouri River and up the Kansas as far as
where Lawrence now stands, had been claimed by citizens of Missouri, and not
a few had made bona fide settlements with their families and (in a few
instances) their slaves. Up to August, there were not probably fifty free
State families within the boundaries of the organized Territory who had come
in since the passage of the act.
The first notable arrival of Northern emigrants was a party numbering
twenty-nine men, mostly from Massachusetts and Vermont. They were the first
who came under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Society. They
were accompanied and directed by Charles H. Branscomb, of Boston, who, as
agent of the company, had, during the early summer, visited Kansas, and
selected the site for a New England settlement on the spot where Lawrence*
now stands. This party left Massachusetts July 17, 1854, arrived at Kansas
City July 28, and at Lawrence August 1.