Hey there bloggers,
It's been a while since I've posted on my blog. So much happened in February; first I fell and hit the right side of my face on a very hard floor and was bruised, swelled up and had my back all out of wack. It's always out of wack, but the fall made it worse than usual. Then I had a car wreck on the 15th. and my sweet car that I really liked a lot was totaled. My brother who lives in Oklahoma came up to save the day, and helped me get a new car. It's a pretty pearl white 2012 Ford Focus. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd have a white car. It's so white, pearly white; (which means it has a luster to it rather than a dull, flat white), that I'm tickled pink!. Then the granddaughter on one of my best friends took her own life. Only 33 years old and had just graduated from nursing school last Spring. My friend is so broken hearted, it just breaks my heart too; I feel so bad for her. Then with all of the stress and turmoil going on, I started having second thoughts about doing this blog, even though I have loved digging for information and writing to you about the things I've seen and read. I questioned if I should be doing this assignment option at all, but with a few words of encouragement from my professor, I'm back on track, at least I think I am.
Well, that's my story, and not having blogged for several day's may have messed up the requirements for the extra credit that I was hoping to get just in case I really bomb the essay. So regardless of what happens at the end of the semester, I want to continue blogging and probably boring you with my findings.
Speaking of findings, I found something that I can't wait to share tonight. It's a poem titled,"The Kansas Emigrants," written by John Greenleaf Whittier. It was turned into a song by singing it to the lyrics of, "Auld Lang Syne." This is so neat, love it when I find music from the 1800's! Give it a try, I did!!
       
                                                            We cross the prairie as of old
                                                             The Pilgrims crossed the sea,
                                                              To make the West, as they the East,
                                                              The homestead of the free!

                                                             We go to rear a wall of men
                                                              On Freedom's Southern line,
                                                              And plant beside the cotton-tree
                                                              The rugged Northern Pine!

                                                              Upbearing, like the Ark of old,
                                                              The Bible in our van,
                                                              We go to test the truth of God
                                                               Against the fraud of man.

                                                               We'll tread the prairie as of old
                                                               Our Fathers sailed the sea,
                                                                And make the West, as they the East,
                                                                The homestead of the free!

This little tune was sang in the days preceding the Civil war, around the time that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was made law. Nebraska was supposed to be a free-state where slavery was not allowed and Kansas was to be a slave state. Someone in the legislature got a bill passed that would allow the settlers to decide if their state would be free or slave; I will go back tomorrow and get the names and dates that I have left out tonight, I get so excited reading, I forget to take notes. Well anyway, It came down to the fact that who ever could populate the state of Kansas with the most people would win in the election that was to be held. Well...the folks from Missouri felt that because they planned on moving into Kansas, and because they were so close to the Missouri-Kansas line, that they could cross over and vote. So the first election in Kansas was held in 1855, but the number of actual settlers living in Kansas and the number of ballots cast was vastly different, the election was considered a fraud and the name "Bogus Legislature," was coined.
The first big influx of settlers into Kansas wasn't so much because of the rich farm land, as it was political.
I read some about John Brown; of course I'd heard about him, but I needed to have my memory refreshed a bit. He was more than a little overboard in his anti-slavery stance. I can understand why they called it "Bleeding Kansas," it was hemorrhaging with the blood of pioneers. I read a piece that said the Civil War actually started in Kansas. I will go back and get the name of the town that was mentioned, I've never heard of it and the article said than not many have heard of it. What an awful time in our state and in our country. Well guess that's a wrap for tonight, I'm glad to be back.
Cheri

PS: I was reading this information on the Kansas Library web sight under the heading of Kansas History, Territory.