Kansas Reading Library

Pedro de Castañeda, a member and chronicler of the Coronado expedition, wrote an account of Coronado's Expedition 1540-1542. In this account, Castaneda included his observations and experiences of Coronado's search for Quivira. The search for Quivira portion of Castenda's account is presented here, is from George Parker Winship's book, "The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542". Winship's book is available at Project Gutenberg.

According to the Hanbook of Texas website by the TSHA, Castañeda's original account, "Relación de la jornada de Cíbola compuesta por Pedro de Castañeda de Nácera donde se trata de todas aquellos poblados y ritos, y costumbres, la cual fué el año de 1540, has been lost, but a copy made in 1596 is in the Lenox Library in New York City. The narrative appears most recently in both Spanish and English, edited by George Parker Winship."

This section of the Kansas Reading Library contains an ever evolving and expanding section containing Kansas Facts, figures, historical data and other information about the state of Kansas. 

This series should be of interest to students, teachers, authors, historians and others interested in the history of the State. So without further ado, we begin with a list of Kansas Facts. This list will grow and expand throughout the coming months, so keep checking back from time to time to see what is new. 

Image: The Fight at Adobe Walls. From an oil painting by Miss Gwynfred Jones, Hansford, Texas, from her sketches of the battleground, as corrected by "Billy" Dixon.

A Narrative in Which Is Described Many Things Relating to the Early Southwest, with an Account of the Fight Between Indians and Buffalo Hunters at Adobe Walls, and the Desperate Engagement at Buffalo Wallow, for which Congress voted the Medal of Honor to the Survivors.

Source:  Life and Adventures of 'Billy' Dixon by Billy Dixon, Available at Project Gutenberg

The American Nation: A History Volume 18 Parties And Slavery 1850-1859

By Theodore Clarke Smith, Ph.D.

Professor Of American History In Williams College

New York And London
Harper & Brothers Publishers

Copyright, 1906, by Harper & Brothers.

Source: The American Nation: v. 18. Parties and slavery, 1850-1859, by T.C. Smith, available at the Internet Archives

An account of the most remarkable mail service ever in existence, and its place in history.

By
Glenn D. Bradley

Author of Winning the Southwest

To My Parents

Preface

This little volume has but one purpose--to give an authentic, useful, and readable account of the Pony Express. This wonderful enterprise played an important part in history, and demonstrated what American spirit can accomplish. It showed that the "heroes of sixty-one" were not all south of Mason and Dixon's line fighting each other. And, strange to say, little of a formal nature has been written concerning it.
I have sought to bring to light and make accessible to all readers the more important facts of the Pony Express--its inception, organization and development, its importance to history, its historical background, and some of the anecdotes incidental to its operation.
The subject leads one into a wide range of fascinating material, all interesting though much of it is irrelevant. In itself this material is fragmentary and incoherent. It would be quite easy to fill many pages with western adventure having no special bearing upon the central topic. While I have diverged occasionally from the thread of the narrative, my purpose has been merely to give where possible more background to the story, that the account as a whole might be more understandable in its relation to the general facts of history.
Special acknowledgment is due Frank A. Root of Topeka, Kansas, joint author with William E. Connelley of The Overland Stage To California, an excellent compendium of data on many phases of the subject. In preparing this work, various Senate Documents have been of great value. Some interesting material is found in Inman and Cody's Salt Lake Trail.
The files of the Century Magazine, old newspaper files, Bancroft's colossal history of the West and the works of Samuel L. Clemens have also been of value in compiling the present book.
G.D.B.