Topeka Homes Guide

History

In the early 1840’s, wagon trains coming from Independence, Missouri made their way west on a long, tedious, and dangerous 2,000 mile journey. This would come to be known as the Oregon Trail. About 50 miles west of Kansas, City, Missouri, three Indian sisters began a ferry boat service for these travelers crossing the Kansas (Kaw) River. In 1842, Joseph and Louis Pappan arrived in the area. It is thought that they were the first white settlers to come into the area. The Pappan brothers ended up taking up the operation of the ferry and catered to the wagon trains heading west. They kept up their ferry service until a bridge was finally built in 1857. This is the site of what is now Topeka. Travelers crossing through Kansas during these times could find plenty of whiskey in the area, but not much else.

During the 1850’s a military road was constructed going from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley that ran right through Topeka. This encouraged trade in the area, among those on the Oregon Trail mostly. In December, 1854, nine men came from Lawrence and built the first cabin right on the banks of the Kansas River. These men went on to form the “Topeka Town Association”. One of these men was Cyrus K Holliday, a very important man in Topeka’s town history. He was known as the “idea man”, and would later become Topeka’s mayor and the founder of the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. A free-state constitution was framed in the town of Topeka in 1855. Congress, however, did not take the constitution very seriously and didn’t really give it any thought.

Gravel road through countryside

Within a year of its founding, Topeka was bustling with trade, commerce, and general activity. In 1861, Topeka was named as the state capital of Kansas. Topeka was probably the city chosen for this because of its nearness to the Oregon and Smoky Hill Trails and the Kansas River. The Farnsworth brothers built a two-story masonry building that was originally used for state legislature meetingsSteamboats traveling on the Kansas River would regularly dock at the Topeka landing and deposit things like meat, lumber, and flour and take potatoes, corn, and wheat back east. By the end of the 1860’s, Topeka would be a commercial and trading center that provided western civilization with many of the Victorian comforts found in the east.

Topeka had many conflicting opinions between its citizens regarding slavery, and in the 1850’s “Bleeding Kansas”, as it was known, was called a “prelude to the Civil War. After more than a decade of conflict between abolitionists, like John Ritchie, whose house was a station on the underground railroad and wanted to side with the Union, and those who were pro-slavery and wanted to join the Confederacy, the Kansas territories was finally admitted into the Union as the 34th state in 1861. Topeka was chosen as the capital for Kansas and Dr. Charles Robinson was elected as the first governor. Cyrus K. Holliday personally donated a tract of land to the state of Kansas for the site of a state capital building, which was completed in 1966.

Cyrus K Holliday is known as the “father” of Topeka. Besides the land he donated, he also served as a state Senator. Rumor has it that he got so bored during a debate that he started daydreaming about things that he could do that would benefit his hometown of Topeka. He had some very good ideas that would greatly benefit the town and help make it what it is today. He wrote out a charter for the railroad, which went on to become the Santa Fe Railroad.

Education has always been viewed as important in Topeka, and credited schools for higher education began establishing in the area in the 1860’s. The Episcopal Church began the College of the Sisters of Bethany in 1860 and provided excellent opportunities for women to attain an education, something that was very rare for them at that time. The Congregational College, later renamed Washburn University, was established in 1865.

Although the devastating drought of 1860, followed by the American Civil War, slowed the growth of both Topeka and the state of Kansas, Topeka was able to keep up with the re-growth that ensued after the war. In 1969, the railroad began its westward journey from Topeka and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad system placed their main offices and machine shops in Topeka in 1878.

Religion has played a large part in the shaping of Topeka. In fact, the city is often called the home of Pentecostalism. This nickname was given substance in 1901 with the establishing of the Charles Fox Parham’s Bethel Bible College, which is where Glossolalia first began being claimed as the evidence of salvation. The people of Topeka were in such a religious frenzy that in 1908 five men were arrested just for playing checkers on a Sunday, the Sabbath.

Topeka has always been a center for racial unrest, ever since before the Civil War. During the civil rights movement in the mid 1900’s nothing had changed and Topeka was still a center for racial discrimination. Topeka was the hometown of Linda Brown, the plaintiff in the infamous trial Brown v. Board of Education, which was ultimately responsible for eliminating the “separate but equal” clause and beginning racial integration in public schools. The interesting thing is, when the suit was filed only three elementary schools in Topeka were still segregated. The Topeka High School had become fully integrated ever since it began in the late 1800’s. The trial did not end racial discrimination in Topeka however, and new lawsuits still attempted to allow racial integration in some of the schools. Their attempts were to no avail and all of the schools in Topeka were soon fully integrated.

Because of its Midwest location, tornadoes have always been a plague to Topeka. On June 8, 1966, Topeka was hit with an F5 tornado starting at one side of the town and ripping straight through to the other. It passed over the local landmark, Burnetts Mound. According to an old Indian legend, the mound was supposed to protect the city from tornadoes. Apparently that’s all it was, a legend, because the tornado went on to due approximately $100 million dollars worth of damage. To this day, that tornado is one of the costliest ones ever in Topeka’s history.

The late 1880’s saw many problems for the town of Topeka. There was speculation and arguing about town lots and property. By the year of 1889 many investors were completely ruined. Shortly after this Topeka was able to rebuild their city and regain their place as an economic center in the state of Kansas and the entire Midwest for that matter. Since that time Topeka has added many more amenities to its town to become the thriving city it is today.