October 1

1800 — Treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso, the 9th Vendemiaire, an 9, (1st October. 1800.) between Napoleon, the First Consul of the French Republic, and the King of Spain. By the third article of the treaty, the King of Spain agrees to retrocede to the French Republic "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it." The treaty was confirmed and enforced by the Treaty of Madrid, on March 21, 1801. Spain had held Louisiana for thirty-seven years -from 1763 to 1800.

1855 - Election of delegate to Congress, provided for by the territorial legislature. No free state men vote. J. W. Whitfield was reelected. 

October 2

 

 

October 3

 

 

October 4

1858 - Election of members of the territorial House of Representatives and superintendent of schools.

1858– Voters in Kansas overwhelmingly ratify an antislavery constitution. 

 1859 - Election on the adoption or rejection of the Wyandotte constitution.

October 5

1857 - Election of the territorial legislature and delegate to Congress. All parties vote. The vote, as ordered by the legislature of 1855, was viva voce. Section 9, chapter 66, of the statutes of 1855, provided that if all the votes offered could not be taken before the hour appointed for closing, the judges should, by proclamation, adjourn to the following day, and the election to be continued as before. The bogus vote at Oxford was polled on October 6th and was thrown out, because it was physically impossible to register so many in one day. There seems to have been no other election at which the voting was extended into the second day. On the first day at Oxford 91 votes were polled, and on the second day 1538.

1859 - Treaty With The Kansa, at the Kansas agency. This treaty was negotiated with that tribe by which the reservation was reduced to a tract 9 by 14 miles in the southwest corner of the reservation near Council Grove and the remainder of the reserve was ceded to the United States in trust, to be sold for the benefit of the tribe. 

1892 – The notorious Dalton Gang rode into Coffeyville and attempted to rob two banks, the Condon Bank and the First National Bank. They took about $25,000 in 12 minutes. A shootout followed, which claimed the lives of eight men: the outlaws Grat and Bob Dalton, Dick Broadwell, and Bill Powers; and four Coffeyville residents, Charles T. Connelly, Coffeyville city marshal (killed by Grat Dalton in “Death Alley”), Lucius M. Baldwin, George B. Cubine, and Charles Brown. Three other townsmen were wounded. 

October 6

1856 - Territorial election for delegate to Congress, for members of the legislature, and on the question of calling a convention to form a state constitution. Free-state men do not vote.

1863 – William Quantrill leads another slaughter at Fort Blair in Baxter Springs, Kansas. They attack the fort and a Union wagon train, killing 98 Federals and losing only six of their own men. It is later reported that they mutilated the dead bluecoats. 

 

October 7

1763 — Proclamation of the King of Great Britain, erecting the countries and islands ceded to him by the treaty of February 10 into four governments, called Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. 

1855 – Abolitionist John Brown arrives in the Osawatomie, Kansas, area to join his five sons, who had become engaged in the fight for the Free-State cause. He stays in the log cabin home of the Reverend Samuel and Florella Adair, his half-sister. 

October 8

1873 – The Chase County Courthouse construction is completed. The Courthouse is located in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. 

 

October 9

1833 — Treaty made with the Pawnees at Grand Pawnee Village, on the Platte River. 

1855 - Election of delegates to the Topeka constitutional convention; only free state men participate.

1855 - Election of delegate to Congress, as provided for by the free state convention at Big Springs. The total vote cast for A. H. Reeder; free state men only voting. 

October 10

 

 

October 11

1865 – Fort Fletcher (later renamed, Fort Hays) was established as a frontier military post to protect military roads, defend construction gangs on the Union Pacific Railroad, and guard the U.S. mail. 

 

October 12

 

 

October 13

1863 - The Colored Convention of the State of Kansas, was held at Leavenworth, Kansas. This convention continued in session until October 16th, 1863. (See: Proceedings of the Colored Convention of the State of Kansas, Held at Leavenworth, October 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, 1863) 

 

October 14

 

 

October 15

 

 

October 16

1802 — The Spanish Intendant of Louisiana issued a proclamation interdicting the privilege, secured by the treaty of 1795, of depositing American merchandise in New Orleans. Hildreth says: "This interruption to their commerce produced a great commotion in the Western country, and led to emphatic remonstrances from the Governor and Legislature of Kentucky, threatening to drive the Administration to a speedy use of force." It was the disaffection in the Southwest that led Burr to engage in his conspiracy.

Greeley says, in the American Conflict: "In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, induced the feeble and decaying Bourbons of Spain, then in close alliance with revolutionary France, to retrocede to her Louisiana, almost without consideration; and the French flag once more waved over delighted New Orleans."
(Source: The Annals of Kansas by Daniel Webster Wilder, Available at Internet Archives)

1859 - Abolitionist John Brown and several followers seized the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The actions of Brown’s men brought national attention to the emotional divisions concerning slavery. 

 

October 17

1862 – William Quantrill and his band attack Shawnee, Kansas, killing several men and burning the settlement to the ground. 

1866 - Work began on the Kansas State capitol on this day when the first cornerstone was laid for the east wing. It took 37 years to complete at the cost of $3,200,588.92.

 

October 18

 

 

October 19

1857 – The Lecompton Constitutional Convention meets at Constitution Hall in Lecompton, Kansas. The convention would continue until November 8, 1857. Boycotted by free soilers, the group adopts a proslavery constitution. 

 

October 20

 

 

October 21

 

 

October 22

1859 – “Camp on Pawnee Fork” and Camp Alert, as Fort Larned was first known, was established as a military post to protect travelers and commerce and mail on the Santa Fe Trail from Indians. It also provided a more centralized point for the distribution of annuities, as provided by the treaty, to the Indians. 

 

October 23

 

 

October 24

1832 — The Kickapoos cede their country, on the Osage River, in Missouri, and receive a tract of land with the following boundaries: "Beginning on the Delaware line, six miles westwardly of Fort Leavenworth; thence with the Delaware line, westwardly sixty miles; thence north twenty miles; thence in a direct line to the west bank of the Missouri, at a point twenty-six miles north of Fort Leavenworth; thence down the west bank of the Missouri river to a point six miles nearly northwest of Fort Leavenworth, and thence to the beginning."

1859 - The Territory of Jefferson was an extralegal and unrecognized United States territory that existed from October 24, 1859, until the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. The Jefferson Territory, named for Founding Father and third United States President Thomas Jefferson, included land officially part of the Kansas Territory, the Nebraska Territory, the New Mexico Territory, the Utah Territory, and the Washington Territory. 

 

October 25

1864 – Battle at Mine Creek: Although Kansas soldiers saw action in many important engagements of the Civil War, the only major battle fought in Kansas occurred at Mine Creek in Linn County. This battle involved some 25,000 men. The Union Army under Generals Curtis, Blunt, and Pleasanton defeated the Confederate Army under Generals Sterling Price and Marmaduke, ending the threat of a Confederate invasion in Kansas. 

 

October 26

 

 

October 27

1832 — "The United States cede to the combined tribes of Kaskaskias and Peorias, and the bands united with them, one hundred and fifty sections of land, forever, or as long as they live upon it as a tribe, to include the present Peoria village, west of the State of Missouri, on the waters of the Osage river, to be bounded as follows, to wit: North, by the lands assigned to the Shawanoes; west, by the western line of the reservation made for the Piankeshaws, Weas, and Peorias; and east, by lands assigned the Piankeshaws and Weas." The Peorias relinquish their lands in Missouri and Illinois. 

 

October 28

1815 - Ninian Edwards and August Chouteau, United States Commissioners, conclude a treaty with the Kanzas Indians. Ratified Dec. 26, 1818. 

 

October 29

1832 — The United States cede to the Piankeshaw and Wea tribes two hundred and fifty sections of land within the limits of the survey of the lands set apart for the Piankeshaws, Weas, and Peorias, bounded east by the western boundary line of the State of Missouri for fifteen miles, north by the southern boundary of the lands assigned to the Shawanoes, west by lands assigned to the Peorias and Kaskaskias, and south by the southern line of the original tract surveyed for the Piankeshaws, Weas, and Peorias; said tract is intended to include the present villages of the said Piankeshaws and Weas. 

 

October 30

 

 

October 31

1837 — Plan of defenses of the western frontier proposed by Charles Gratiot, and published in the report of J. R. Poinsett, Secretary of War. This is another railroad map. The lines of the Missouri Pacific and North Missouri railroads, the route from Kansas City to Omaha, and directly south to Fort Smith — these and other lines in Missouri and Arkansas anticipate with marvelous accuracy the present railroad system. Posts were recommended at Fort Scott and Kansas City.