The Way West

The rush was on with the opening of Kansas Territory in 1854.

The Kansas River was a natural thoroughfare leading to the west. Its wide valley and deep, fertile soil attracted a good deal of the first settlement in the territory.

Indianola, K. T. (Kansas Territory) was founded by pro-slavery men in 1854. The 320-acre townsite was along the banks of Soldier Creek north of the Kansas River (the original Topeka townsite was south of the Kansas River).

At that time Indianola was in Calhoun County, named for either John C. Calhoun, vice president of the United States, or John Calhoun, the surveyor general of Kansas and Nebraska. The individual for which it was named was not recorded.

The first two permanent residents of Indianola were Lewis Harris and Louis Vieux. Vieux had actually lived there as early as 1846 with his Pottawatomie relatives before moving to the Oregon Trail crossing of the Vermillion River 30 miles northwest. He also operated an important toll bridge at the crossing.

Even though the Indianola founders were pro-slavery, abolitionists were equally attracted to the location.

Indianola was located on the Pappan Ferry branch of the Oregon Trail and the recently constructed military road connecting Fort Leavenworth to the new frontier post of Fort Riley. Construction of the military road was authorized by Congress one year before on March 2, 1853.

Town lots were offered for sale on June 27, 1855. Trustees for the town, John. F. Baker, H. D. McMeekin, and George H. Perrin, ran an advertisement in the Kansas Weekly Herald at Leavenworth for several weeks prior to the sale.

Indianola was situated at the military crossing of Soldier Creek 50 miles from Fort Leavenworth and 70 miles from Fort Riley.“Papin’s Ferry ... one of the best crossings on Kansas river,” was within two miles of the town.

The ad boasted,“The country in the vicinity has been pronounced by experienced and competent judges, as good, if not better than any portion of the Territory for farming purposes.”

A vein of “superior Stone Coal” had been found nearby, as well as an abundance of the finest quality timber.

Across the Kansas River the townsite of Topeka was scouted in late November, 1854, and officially founded Dec. 5, 1854. Topeka was founded by men with strong civic convictions, giving the town the advantage of strong organized settlement. However, in those early days Indianola appeared lively and dynamic by comparison.

Maj. A. E. Ogden directed construction for the expansion Fort Riley, slated to become a cavalry post. Windows and doors were made in Cincinnati, Ohio, shipped by boat to Fort Leavenworth, and by mule team over the military road to Fort Riley.

In July of 1855, 56 mule teams passed through Indianola with wagon-loads of building materials bound for Fort Riley. The road was not limited to military traffic.

“Every day prairie schooners loaded with homesteaders and freighters on their way to Colorado, Santa Fe and Oregon” passed through Indianola.

During those interesting early days the Indianola pro-slavery men only challenged the abolitionists once. Several of them confiscated guns from the Fiederling brothers. Samuel Reeder recalled that 13 men gathered to get the weapons back. Among them was W. E. Bowker, who later became one of the first trustees for Washburn College in Topeka.

Before engaging the “enemy” they all went home to have breakfast, “for we thought we could not fight on an empty stomach.” Having abated their hunger J. M. Cole, captain of the militia, strapped on his sword and mounted his horse to lead his men of war into town. They approached Indianola from the east and as they reached a log cabin on the bank of Soldier Creek they stopped to load their guns. One gun was missing a ramrod, requiring a “loan” from a compatriot to prepare for the coming battle.

Captain Cole met the opposing leader half way between forces, then rode over to the other side to “talk it over.” Apparently, they only wanted to arouse the Free State men and really didn’t want to fight. They promised to give the guns back to the Fiedling boys and “The Battle of Indianola” was over.

In 1865 the town of Eugene was established on the river bottom between Indianola and Topeka. The Union Pacific Eastern Division Railway built to Eugene. On New Year’s Day, 1866, a Union Pacific, Eastern Division engine steamed into Eugene. Its whistle was the death knell for Indianola. Eugene was annexed by Topeka and renamed North Topeka in April 1867. In time only an old hotel, too large to move, was all that remained of Indianola. Business houses and townspeople moved away, some to North Topeka, the newest lively location 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 Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.