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Old Kickapoo Gun

Old Kickapoo Gun image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
August
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

There was recently shipped from Chicago to the Kansas State Historical society one of the most valuable relies of the border ruffian warf are. It is the Old Kickapoo cannon which did service at Old Kickapoo, Lawrence and other points along the Missouri border during Kansas' carly struggle for free state government. This old gun formed the bone of cont ention in inany a hard fought contest between proslavery and antislavery forces, and a large number of the old citizensof Kansas can remeinber the stirring events clustering about the history of this remarkable iinplement of warfare. Of late years the wherè&bonts of the old gun bas been a matter of conjecture, and by ruauy it was thought to have been lost, but it is due to the efforts of Colonel H. Miles Moore and Captain J. C. Walkinshaw of Leavenwortb that Old Kickapoo has been resnrrected. It now rests in the rooms of the State Historical society in this city. The gun is a six pounder smoothbore brass cannon and was flrst stolen from the United States arsenal at Liberty, Mo. , and from there taken by General Eichardson's army to the sacking and burning of the old Free State hotel at Lawrence, the Eldridge House, after it was indicted by the proslavery grand jury at LecoTpton. and ordered abated as a nuisance by Judge Cato, who had the writ directed to Sheriff Jones, who summoned the posse, mostly from Missouri, to assist in esecctiÉS! the writ. The bombiirdment which followed was one of the memorable confliets of border ruffian daya. The cannon was placed on Massachusetts street, Lawrence, opposite, and trained on the hotel and red by General David Atchison, then a United States senator from Missouri. The first shot went over the roof of the hotel. The second went through a story window, and the third and f ourth shots struek the stone walls, scarcely making, an impression on them. Jones, seeing that he not likely to abuto the nufcauce that way, applied the torch iuiil ae:ioyed the building. The posse then scattered. The Kickapoo j rangers then took charge of the cannon and carted it to the village of Kickapoo, j six miles up the river from Leavenworth. It was planted on top of a high bluff and there remained posted as a menace to the free state men of i worth. Colonel H. Miles Moore first ed the plan to go up to Kickapoo and j ture the gun. He communicated his ; scheme to a few free state men, and ten ! of the more daredevil ones,, under the : leadership of Captain. I. G-.. osee, well armect with Harp'7riflüZ7made a dash for Kickanoo r? ers olght, took Poción TtleT' and without being discovered wer back m Leavenworth. Fearing thfi might be recovered by a writ i hands of the sheriff or other "osW e officersof the connty or terrHoi gun carriage was hidden in the soZ! part of Leavenworth and the ca buriedinDr.Davis'oldpeachorS1 where ït remamed a short time Fearing danger, it was dug un „„., taken to Lawrence one dark niX the bottom of a wagon covered wiS hay. It remained but a short tiW when it was taken baek to Leavenworti! and placed in Dr. Davis' LL graveyard until the waxclouds of 18 and 1857 had passed away. The n was then resurrected and tmrned over tn the society of turners of Leavenworth m whose keeping it remained for a lon series of years. On each reenrrin Fourth of July and other state occasions and holidays "Oíd Kickapoo" ZZ brought out, crowned with lanrels -md escorted with innsic and jpyous crowds thi-oughjhe streets cf the city. Fiually tl;e turners relaxed in their care of the old cimzion, and some'ill advised parties without authority loaned" the gun one day to the Leavenwortb Coal comgr.ny for the purpose of aidin? them to free the shaft of a ruass of debris that had fallen and clogged tm the hoisting shiiit. The gun was takcu down the air shaft, loaded with solid shot, placed upright and fired into the mass above. As thre was no chance for a recoil, the gun barst, teariug a Imge piece f rom the skle of the old warrior. The gun was returned to the turners, but they seemed to have no use for it' and soon it was lost, and no one knew anythiDg about it. About five years ago Colonel H. Miles Moore was passing down Shawnee Street, Leavenworth, and in an alley near a tinshop noticed au old cannoit He gave it a close inspec;ion and found it to be Old Kickapoo. The turners had sold it to the tinner for &25, and he was about to ship it to Chicago for old brass. Appeals to patrioti8m were in vain, and Mr. Moore subsequently communicated with the Historical society, and after some correspondence the society appropriated $200 for the of the cannon. In the ihe tinner had shipped the gun to Chicago where it was recently found in a brass foundry ready to be consignedto a fuinace. The gun reached

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News