Kansas History and Life

During the 1860s, Indian tribes raided frontier settlements across the plains, most notably the Cheyenne in North Central Kansas. Numerous counties in Kansas felt the scarring effect of the raids; however, the counties of Jewell, Mitchell,…

Among the 713 newspapers in print in Kansas in the 1880s, a single short-lived newspaper provides insight into political shifts and battles in small towns. The Firebrand newspaper in Clay Center provided inflammatory rhetoric for a single year, also…

This study uses two Justice of the Peace record books to correlate patterns in early Wabaunsee Co., crime rates with major regional and national events. The results of this study show spikes in crime rates following events that put strain on the…

Analyzing contagious disease records kept by physicians in two contiguous Kansas counties, this study reaches interesting conclusions about the role of the railroads in
early twentieth century Kansas. Rail lines are suspected disease vectors. The…

The author creates a vivid picture of turn of the century rural life as often impoverished,
harsh, and filled with economic loss. He examines the unusually high suicide rate among young farmers who lost their land in the Panic of 1893. This study…