The Way West

A Journey Through Kansas by Charles B Boynton and T. B. Mason was published in 1855.

The Kansas and Nebraska Territory had been prominent in the news which served to build a great curiosity about the land west of the Missouri River. To satisfy that curiosity, The American Reform Tract and Book Society and the Kansas League, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, hired Boynton and Mason along with an associated small party of explorers to report on the promises of Kansas.

From Fort Leavenworth they followed a prairie road to the southwest toward Council Grove, an early campsite at the Neosho River crossing of the famous “Santa Fe road.”

Traveling by two horse carriages the “tourists” stopped for a mid-day meal at an unnamed log roadhouse maintained by an “intelligent and highminded” slave woman. The travelers found the dinner “suited to the appetites that had been sharpened by the prairie breeze.”

A rain set in as they continued toward Council Grove in the afternoon. Boynton noted,“Contrary to our anticipations, the roads in the prairie do not soon become muddy, and they dry, moreover rapidly, when the rain is over.”

Covered with rubber overcoats their afternoon “over the beautiful prairie road” passed pleasantly. Occasionally quail and prairie chickens flushed from cover “by the very sides of our carriage.”

Just at sundown they were startled by the appearance of a lone horseman silently awaiting their approach. The menacing figure turned out to be a friendly Indian hoping to secure “cheboc”, his word for tobacco, from the travelers. Alas, none of them either chewed or smoked!

As they left their disappointed trail acquaintance nightfall had set in. They were yet an unknown number of miles from their destination, carefully conducting themselves along an unfamiliar road across “the broad prairie” through the darkness of a rainy night.

Although they were confident in their ability to follow the road through the prairie, they were uncertain of what lay ahead. If they should encounter “timber” along the way experience had taught them that “it would be utterly impossible to thread its windings in the utter darkness.”

The sighting of a light ahead brought welcome relief, “as welcome ‘Land ho!’ to the weary and homesick sailor. We had reached the ‘town’ of whose existence we had heard.” The “town” of Council Grove boasted two log cabins that doubled as lodging for the many travelers passing through.

The first “house” was completely occupied. Moving on to the only other quarters available for lodging they found just enough room to be admitted for the night.

The hotel was situated not far from the bank of the Neosho River, “a clear and beautiful stream, about 85 feet wide in its low estate.”

The recent rain had made the black loam soil “somewhat tenacious,” however the mud on the floor of the hotel was “a little shallower” than the mud outside.

The log dwelling consisted of two large rooms that were divided into smaller spaces. The first room combined barroom, sitting room, dining room, and sleeping quarters, while the cooking and washrooms occupied the second room, allowing for warehouse storage and servants quarters. The main room was decorated with cross-cut saws, harness, saddles, and all manner of tools used for hunting as well as farm and stable work.

The owners and all the tenants were Southerners. With true Southern hospitality the door was kept wide open. One of the two windows was no more than a hole in the wall, which necessitated the need to be open day and night, no matter the weather. The ceilings were made of cotton cloth nailed over rafter poles with mosquito netting ingeniously hung for protection from nightly (and daily) attacks.

“An old colored woman whom they called ‘Beckie’ was sole queen of the household, and mistress of ceremonies.” Unlike the housekeeper at the previous settlement, Beckie, a former slave, was free and “wouldn’t be owned by any body for a thousand dollars ... every body ought to own themselves.”

Beneath the rough exterior of their frontier accommodations Boynton and his party found “kind hearts, hospitality and intelligence” of noble souls.

In spite of their differences “the germs of a future State,” could be found in his “very companionable” fellow occupants. The northern visitors produced a Bible “and we read, and knelt, and prayed together” for the blessings of God upon our food. Beckie noted that as far as she knew it was the “first blessing that had ever been asked in the Territory.”

That night the abolitionists and the ‘fire-eaters’ of the South slept in peace under the same roof on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st RD Geneseo, Kan. Phone:

(785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.