FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
I was born August 23, 1834, in the Quincy Point school district, town of
Quincy, state of Massachusetts. In March, 1854, my father brought his family
west, locating temporarily two and one-half miles west of Elgin, Ill. Our family
at this time consisted of Nathaniel S. Spear, my father, Lois (Thayer) Spear, my
mother, and four children - three boys and a girl - Daniel, Warren F., Stephen
J. and Delia A.
On my mother's side I have a double line of Thayer ancestry, one of which traces
back to two Mayflower ancestors- John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.
In August, 1854, we moved to Buchanan county, Iowa, where father, during the
month of September, settled on a quarter section of government land. The
settlers who had located in this county a few years earlier had bought up all
the larger tracts of timbered land, but there was still plenty of prairie land
that could be purchased from the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents
an acre in specie, or with land warrants, such as were issued to soldiers of the
War of 1812, and which were transferable.
Other settlers soon came into our immediate neighborhood, including a Mr. Samuel
Woods and family, and a Willard Blair with his own and his father's family.
As was usual in all the newly settled farming sections of the Middle West, the
"fever and ague" made its appearance, and in the fall many of the new settlers -
including myself - were affected with it.
It was not until we were living in Iowa that we learned, through the New-York
Tribune, published by Horace Greeley, of the passage by Congress of the
Kansas-Nebraska act opening to settlement the territory of Kansas. The long
debates between the anti-slavery and proslavery members of Congress had finally
resulted in passing the bill, with a provision that the settlers of the new
territory should themselves decide whether it should be admitted as a "free" or
"slave" state. This act was signed by President Pierce on May 30, 1854. The
President appointed Andrew H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, as the first governor of
Kansas, and selected Fort Leavenworth as the temporary capital.
A tide of immigration followed the opening of the territory, and our neighbor
Samuel Woods, having a horse team, started with his family for Kansas in the
fall of 1855. In the spring of 1857 Mr. Willard Blair and family, and an
unmarried brother, Thompson Blair, left our neighborhood for Kansas, driving
through with a horse team.
I was expecting to go with them, but was not ready when they started. They
located in Shawnee county, Kansas, about four miles east of old Brownsville,
later called Auburn.
Source: Reminiscences of the early settlement of Dragoon Creek, Wabaunsee
County. Written by Stephen Jackson SPEAR, of Topeka, Kan., for the Kansas
State Historical Society. Reprinted from Vol. XIII, Collections Kansas State
Historical Society.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. A thorough
editing was completed on the manuscript and it should be free from any ocr
errors. The layout of the manuscript has been changed for online presentation.
