History of Atchison County, KansasIngalls, Sheffield
History
History of Atchison County, Kansas
Ingalls, Sheffield
Atchison County (Kan.) -- Biography; Atchison County (Kan.) -- History
In the plat which Royal Baldwin, president of the town company, filed
April 6, 1859, the name of this town is given as Kennekuck. It was
located on the southeast quarter and the southwest fractional quarter of
section 3, township 5, range 17. Its streets were sixty feet wide,
except Broadway, which was 100 feet wide, and Market street, which was
eighty feet wide. One block was donated for a market house, and another
block for a park, for religious and educational purposes. The streets
were numbered from 1 to 10 and the cross streets were named as follows:
Elm, Linn, Cedar, Poplar, Broadway, Market, Walnut, Weld, Perry and
Baldwin. The town site was vacated by the board of county commissioners
December 15, 1871. Kennekuk was a station on the Overland stage route,
twenty-four miles west and north of Atchison. During the overland stage
days Thomas Perry ran an eating station there, and Mrs. Perry, who was a
grand cook, always had a smoking hot dinner ready with the best of
coffee, for the occupants of the stage coaches. In the early days dances
were held in the Perry home, and Hon. D. W. Wilder, the author of the
celebrated “_Annals of Kansas_,” used to trip the light fantastic toe
there, and it is said that he courted the girl who afterwards became his
wife, in the Perry home.
Frank A. Root, who was an express messenger on the overland stage, says,
in his book, that Kennekuk was the first “home” station out from
Atchison, and the drivers were changed there. In 1863 it was a little
town of perhaps a dozen houses with one store and a blacksmith shop. The
Kickapoo Indian Agency was one of the most prominent buildings there,
and was located near the old road in the northwestern part of the town.
The town was laid out by William H. Wheeler, a surveyor and speculator,
and was named for the Kickapoo chieftain, John Kennekuk. George Remsburg
says that the town was platted in June, 1854, but the dedication on the
original plat in the court house would indicate that it was platted on
the date first mentioned in this sketch.
Hon. A. J. White, the son of Capt. Robert White, and at one time a
member of the legislature from this county, and one of the leading
farmers of the county, claims that Royal Baldwin was the first white
settler in Kennekuk, and that he was appointed Indian agent for the
Kickapoos there by President Pierce before Kansas was opened for
settlement. Mr. Remsburg also says that many noted travelers stopped at
Kennekuk, including Mark Twain.
KAPIOMA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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