The legislature of 1885 provided for a State Reformatory to be located somewhere west of the Sixth Principal Meridian. The purpose of this institution was to separate boys sixteen to twenty-one years of age from hardened criminals, and to educate and return them to society as good citizens, if possible. The project was in the hands of a commission which held its first meeting in Topeka, April 1, 1885. After a visit to the New York Reformatory, the commission made a tour of inspection of the towns which had asked for the institution. Hutchinson was found to be the most advantageous location. The town donated a section of land for a site and a contract was let for the first one hundred cells. The plan of building called for a cell house of four wings to be built in sections as needed, and so arranged as to provide for a classification of prisoners, also to provide a means of going to and from class rooms at night without leaving the building. This building, together with any others that might later be added, excepting the official residence, was to be enclosed within a wall seven hundred and fifty feet by one thousand feet in extent. The original appropriation was $60,000, to which $100,000 was added in 1887, and another $100,000 in 1889. In 1895 there was still no Reformatory and the legislature wiped out all the bills that had been passed and began all over again. A new board was appointed by the Governor, and they succeeded in having a building ready by August 25, 1895. J. C. O. Morse was made superintendent.

The Reformatory, like most other institutions, has always been crowded. Within a year there were one hundred and thirty-three inmates, where but one hundred had been provided for. The cell houses were gradually completed as planned, using prison labor. A manual trades building has been added, also a broom factory, print shop, carpenter shop, stone cutting works. The educational system consists of Academic and Polytechnic courses. The present inmates number about four hundred. The institution is under the management of the Board of Corrections.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The idea of an industrial school, was an institution which should be educational rather than penal for children under sixteen years of age who were incorrigible, or who had committed acts to which they should be liable to punishment under the law. The Industrial School for Boys was founded by the legislature, in 1879. A building appropriation of $35,000 was made, and the act specified that the institution should be located not more than five miles from the Capitol building at Topeka, providing that at least one hundred and sixty acres should be donated. The City gave one hundred and seventy acres and since that time seventy acres have been added by purchase.

The school was opened in 1881 under J. G. Eckles, Superintendent. The present head of the institution, W. H. Charles, has held the office since 1902. The parole system was introduced in 1900. In case the boys who are eligible to parole do not have suitable homes to which to return, it is the business of the parole officer to secure homes for them. The group of buildings includes the main building, two cottages, gymnasium, and school building. The education is similar to that offered in the public schools. The number of inmates is about two hundred and fifty.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The Industrial School for Girls under sixteen years of age, was founded at Beloit, by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, in 1888. The idea is said to have originated with Miss Olive P. Bray, of Topeka. The organization through the president, Mrs. Fannie Rastall, and other prominent members, brought the matter before the legislature in 1887. That body declined to even consider it. In order to demonstrate the need of such an institution, the women proceeded to establish it themselves. Through the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. C. H. St. John, the citizens of Beloit were persuaded to co-operate in the project, and the school was opened in that town. Thirty-four girls were received the first year.

In 1889, the legislature took over the institution, appropriating $6,000 for running expenses, and $25,000 for building purposes. The building has been done on the cottage plan, and provides for the classification of inmates. The farm of eighty acres was donated by the city of Beloit.

The first superintendent was Miss Mary Marshall, who remained until 1891, when she was succeeded by Martha P. Spencer. Tamsel H. Osborne was superintendent from 1893 to 1895; Mrs. S. V. Leeper, 1895 to 1897; Mrs. Phoebe J. Bare, 1897 to 1899; Mrs. Rester A. Hanback, 1899 to 1901; Mrs. Julia B. Perry, 1901 to 1913; Miss Frankie Wilson, 1913 to 1916; when Mrs. Lillian Mitchner, State President of the W. C. T. U., became superintendent.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

This institution was originally known as the "State Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth." It was opened September 1st, 1881, in the old University building at Lawrence. H. M. Greene was superintendent, and Mrs. M. M. Greene, matron. Twenty pupils were enrolled the first year. Only those under fifteen years of age were admitted. There were probably one hundred feeble minded children under the age of fifteen, in the State at that time, although the agricultural report of March 1, 1881, gives but forty-eight. Applications were received from many not known to the report. The capacity of the school was thirty, and within three years it was overcrowded.

In 1885 an appropriation of $25,000 was made and the institution located at Winfield. The necessary land was donated, buildings erected and the inmates, forty in number, were removed to their new home in March, 1887. Here they were divided into groups according to mental conditions. There were accommodations for one hundred children and the school was soon overcrowded again. The needed buildings were not provided for some years, and in 1895 it was estimated, that there were twenty-five hundred feeble minded children in the state, but not more than one hundred and twelve could be taken at the institution.

New buildings were begun soon after this, and by 1900 a new cottage, custodial building, and hospital, in addition to the main building, had been built. At present there are accommodations for more than seven hundred. The value of the property is about half a million.

The course of instruction covers the common school branches, music and manual training.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The building of a State Hospital for the Insane at Topeka was provided for by the legislature in 1875. The act carried with it an appropriation of $25,000 and a specification that the asylum should be located within two miles of the capitol building on a site of not less than eighty acres, which should be secured without cost to the State. Three trustees of the State Hospital at Osawatomie acted on the commission: George Wyman, Levi Woodard and William H. Grimes. They chose a tract belonging to Ex-Governor James M. Harvey on the West Sixth street road. It was bought by the city and county together for the sum of $12,000, and conveyed to the State. In 1881 the State bought one hundred acres adjoining the original tract.

The original idea for constructing the buildings was to erect one main building and group smaller ones around it on the cottage plan. This is the modern idea in the building of institutions of all kinds, as, it gives opportunity for proper segregation and grouping. But the demand for accommodations was so pressing that for the first twenty years the cottage plan was lost sight of in the attempt to provide quarters as rapidly as possible. The $25,000 appropriated in 1875 was used to begin the construction of two buildings of the east wing. They were not in condition to receive patients until June 1, 1879. Dr. B. D. Eastman was the first superintendent in charge. It was twenty years from the time the first appropriation was made until the main building was completed. It consists in a central section used as an administration building, on either side of which are three ward buildings. Those on the east are for men and those on the west for women. A detached building with a capacity of two hundred and eighty-nine beds was constructed shortly after the main group and used exclusively for chronic male patients.

The purchase of additional land was authorized in 1903 and the tract was increased to three hundred and fifty acres. A large building was located on the new purchase, and it was remodeled and converted into an open door cottage for males. In 1907 an appropriation was made for a tuberculosis pavilion to accommodate twenty women patients. About the same time two cottages for women were built at a cost of $70,000. A dining hall has been added to this group. In 1910 the tuberculosis pavilion for men was built, and a reception hospital to cost $100,000 was begun on an appropriation of $50,000. In the fall of 1913 a two year training course for nurses was established. A new cottage for women with a capacity of seventy-five beds and with quarters for nurses was built in 1914. The daily average of patients that year was one thousand, five hundred and thirty-six.

The superintendents of the institution have been as follows: B. D. Eastman, 1879 to '83 ; A. P. Tenny, 1883 to '85; B. D. Eastman, 1885 to '94: J. H. McCasey, 1894 to '95; B. D. Eastman, 1895 to '97; C. H. Wetmore. 1897 to '99; Thomas Coke Biddle, 1899, to the present.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The Territorial Legislature of 1855 provided for the placing of insane persons in the charge of guardians, and they were cared for in this way until 1866, when the Osawatomie State Hospital was opened. The act providing for this institution was passed in 1863, and the commissioners appointed to locate the site and construct buildings were William: Chestnut, I. Hiner and James Hanway. The act specified that the site should be secured by donation, that it should contain not less than one hundred and sixty acres located in Osawatomie Township of Miami County, and that it should have an abundance of good water and building stone. A site meeting the requirements was found a mile from the town of Osawatomie, and was donated by the township. In 1865 the legislature placed the management of the project in the hands of trustees who erected a temporary frame building to which the first patient was admitted late in 1866. The two wards accommodating twelve patients each were soon filled.

The main building was begun in 1868 and finished in 1886 at an estimated cost of $450,000. It was planned in the times when very little attention was given to the treatment of insanity as a disease, and the principal idea in mind was to keep the insane in custody for the protection of society. The Knapp and Adair buildings, one for men and one for women, and accommodating three hundred patients each, have since been added. Two tuberculosis pavilions are recent additions and the treatment of this disease has been attended by a large degree of success. The infirmary was built by an appropriation made in 1901. A nurses' cottage was completed in 1913 at a cost of $25,000. The original building of 1866 has been moved-and remodeled and is now occupied by the head farmer. The farm now contains seven hundred and twenty acres and is fully equipped with machinery and live-stock. The value of the property is estimated to be over a million dollars.

The number of patients accommodated at the institution average at least thirteen hundred, and the buildings are all overcrowded. Prior to 1874 each county was compelled to pay for the care of their own patients unless relatives assumed the expense. In that year the state took over the burden and two years later placed the asylum, along with other state charitable institutions, under a common board of trustees.

The superintendents from 1866 to the present have been as follows: C. 0. Gauze, 1866 to 1872; C. P. Lee, 1872 to 1.873: L. W. Jacobs, 1873 to 1874; A. H. Knapp, 1874 to 1877; West T. Bailey, March to October, 1877; A. P. Tenny, 1877 to 1879; A. H. Knapp, 1879 to 1892; Lowell F. Wentworth, 1892 to 1895; Thomas Coke Biddle, 1895 to 1898; E. W. Hinton, for a few months in 1898; Thomas Kirk, Jr., 1898 to 1899; Lyman L. Uhls, 1899 to 1913; F. A. Carmichael, 1913 to -.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

Agitation for a third asylum in Kansas was begun by J. H. McCasey, Superintendent of the Topeka State Hospital, in his report in 1894, twenty years before it became a reality. In 1911, with the combined capacity of the State hospitals at Osawatomie and Topeka approximately twenty-seven hundred, there were still hundreds of insane being cared for by counties at the expense of the State and others at private asylums, and in their own homes.

The legislature of 1911 provided for a new State Hospital to be located west of the 98th meridian of longitude and within five miles of some town. A tract of not less than three hundred and twenty acres was to be secured by donation or purchase, and $100,000 was voted for buildings. The site was located at Larned, where one thousand acres of some of the best farming land in the State was acquired by purchase. Buildings were erected and the institution opened in 1914, with Dr. B. F. Hawks, of Anthony, as Superintendent. Twenty patients were removed from the hospital at Topeka. Dr. L. R. Sellers succeeded Dr. Hawks in January, 1915, and in November of that year was succeeded by Sherman Elliott. A new cottage was built in 1915, and there are now accommodations for one hundred and twenty patients at Larned. The farm is under irrigation, and in time will maintain the institution.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The State Orphans' Home at Atchison was founded by the legislature of 1885, as a home for the orphaned children of Union soldiers and sailors. An appropriation of $10,000 for the year 1886, and a like amount for 1887 was made, and trustees were appointed to take charge of locating a site and constructing the buildings. The home was opened July 1, 1887. It had facilities for caring for but one hundred and fifteen children, and only those under five years of age were admitted. It was found impossible to follow the cottage plan of dividing the children into small family groups on account of the expense, and they were all put together in a large building, which plan is in operation to the present time, to the detriment of the institution.

The home began to fill up as soon as it was opened, and by January 1, 1888, there were ninety-one children. In 1889 the regulations were so altered as to admit all children between the ages of two and fourteen, who were dependent, neglected or abused. This necessitated further buildings. An addition to the main building was added, and a hospital erected.

In 1895 the sum of $91,800 was appropriated for building purposes, and a number of buildings were erected. A cottage for crippled children was built in 1907. The original cost of the land was $16,000, which, together with the building appropriations made from time to time, brings the cost of the Home to about $300,000.

In 1908 a State agent was appointed to look after the children who had been placed in homes. The State agent makes investigations of private homes where an application is made for a child, and visits the child and foster parents at intervals.

In 1909 the name of the institution was changed from the Soldiers' Orphans' Home to the State Orphans' Home, to conform to the function it had been filling for twenty years. The management was under a board of trustees until 1905 when with other State institutions it was put under the Board of Control.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

In view of the fact that there is an annual loss to the people of the United States of $1,000,000,000 on account of tuberculosis, and in view of other facts brought out by the State Board of Health, concerning the disease, the legislature of 1909 declared it communicable, dangerous to the public, and reportable to the State Board of Health. In 1911 an act was passed creating a State Sanitarium for treating pulmonary tuberculosis and appropriating $50,000 to locate a site, erect buildings and pay running expenses for two years. An Advisory Board of physicians was appointed by the Governor to select a site. They chose a two hundred and forty acre tract three miles west of Newton, but owing to difficulties concerning the title, nothing definite had been accomplished when the legislature met in 1913. What was left of the funds was reappropriated, and a new law was made requiring that the Sanitarium be located in some county that would donate a suitable site of one hundred and sixty acres for the purpose. The offer of Norton county was accepted and the Board of Control purchased an additional eighty acres adjoining the site. The work of moving and remodeling the buildings already there was begun at once. In March, 1914, a contract for a boiler house, laundry, dining room and kitchen, and for pavilion No. 1 was let. These were finished by September 1, and the institution was opened with Dr. C. S. Kenney in charge as Superintendent. Sixteen patients, the full capacity of the buildings, were admitted at once.

The site is admirably located for the purpose of treating tuberculosis. The altitude is two thousand and sixty feet, there is good water and good drainage, pleasant surroundings, good shade, a south slope and a maximum of sunshiny days. The legislature of 1915, besides giving a liberal amount for running expenses, appropriated $12,500 for a new cottage, and $22,750 for a hospital and other improvements, such as sewer, farm implements, horses, dairy herd, tents and improvements of the grounds. However, there is still a great need for more accommodations for patients, as there are hundreds that might be helped if they could be admitted. Originally it was intended to admit all classes of people, whether they could pay or not, just so they had a good chance of recovery and a physician's certificate to that effect. The law wag amended in 1915 requiring patients who could not pay to be admitted through the recommendation of the authorities of the county where they have their residence, and requiring the county giv. ing such recommendation to pay the patient's way. This complicates matters for the charity patient and lessens his chances of receiving treatment.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

Kansas was the first State to remove her epileptic patients from the insane hospitals, and segregate the different grades of epileptics. By legislative enactment in 1899 an appropriation of $100,000 was made to build a hospital for this purpose on the cottage plan. The lawmakers of those days called it an insane asylum. The site was to contain six hundred and forty acres and a committee was created to locate such a tract. Owing to the struggle, between Clay Center and Parsons to secure the institution, the actual building was delayed until 1902, when the matter was finally settled in favor of Parsons, and a building contract was awarded by the State Board of Charities and Corrections. The plans anticipated an ultimate capacity of eight hundred patients, and three types of buildings were designed:

1. One large custodial building for the insane patients,
2. Open door cottages for chronics, each cottage with a capacity of thirty-six patients.
3. Small cottages for epileptics otherwise of normal mentality, each with a capacity of eighteen to twenty patients.

In accordance with these plans the legislature in 1903 opened the institution to all classes of epileptics. In the fall of that year five buildings of the men's department were ready for occupancy and on October 19th, one hundred and ten men were received by Superintendent Dr. M. L. Perry. The following year a duplicate group of buildings for the women were completed. Improvements have been added from time to time until there are now twenty-one buildings.

In 1905, the institution was placed under the management of the Board of Control. A school was opened where children receive instruction in the ordinary branches, and adults in manual training. In 1909 an administration building was erected at a cost of $70,000, and in 1915 an appropriation of $50,000 was made for a fire-proof hospital. Since the opening of the institution, fourteen hundred patients have been cared for. Inmates at the present time number more than five hundred. The patients are employed in healthful activities, such as farming and gardening. The cost of maintenance after deducting from the appropriations, the fees of pay-patients, and the money received by the sale of products, is about $200 per capita.

The following are the men who have been connected with the management of the institution: Henry J. Allen, F. B. Denman, R. Vincent, G. W. Kanavel, C. A. McNeill, from 1903 to 1905; E. B. Schermerhorn and S. G. Elliott from 1905 to 1912 and 1913, respectively; C. D. Shukers, from 1912 to 1913; H. C. Bowman, appointed in 1905, and W. E. Brooks and Stance Myers, appointed in 1913, comprise the present board.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The Great Seal of the State of Kansas, procured by the Secretary of State as required by the joint resolution approved May 25, 1861, is described in said joint resolution as follows: The East is represented by a rising run, in the right-hand corner of the seal; to the left of it Commerce is represented by a river and a steamboat; in the foreground Agriculture is represented as the basis of the future prosperity of the State , by the settler's cabin and a man plowing with a pair of horses; beyond this is a train of ox wagons going west; in the background is seen a herd of buffalo, retreating, pursued by two Indians on horseback; around the top is the motto: "Ad Astra per Aspera," and beneath, a cluster of thirty-four stars. The circle is surrounded by the words. "Great Seal of the State of Kansas. January 29, 1861."

Under the new constitution, the first Legislature of the State of Kansas met at Topeka on Tuesday, March 26, 1861. On Saturday morning following, the House and Senate received the first message from Charles Robinson, the first Governor. In this message the Governor called attention to the requirement of the constitution about a seal, and recommended the Legislature to take necessary steps to procure one. On the 3d of April, the State Senate, considering the Governor's message, referred that part which mentioned the Great Seal to the Committee on Ways and Means. Five days afterward, on Monday, April 8th, the following resolution was submitted to the Senate: "Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed on behalf of the Senate to act with a like committee on the part of the House, to draw and recommend a design for the Great Seal of the State of Kansas." This resolution was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. Similar resolutions were considered by the House, and the two committees got to work. But this did not produce a seal very soon. There were designs, designs, and designs, mottoes and mottoes. Scholars suggested and Western men insisted.

GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

[From Photograph by Willard, Topeka]

Mr. McDowell, of the State Library Committee, suggested a design with a landscape, something like that afterward adopted, and the emphatic motto: "We will." Mr. Denman proposed to change the motto to, "We won't." Backward and forward the thing was bandied about. The House Journal for Friday, May 17th, records the fact that the Senate sent a message on "House Joint Resolution on State Seal," saying they had amended, and desired concurrence. This message was discussed next day by the House, which did not concur. Then a committee was appointed for conference. The Senate appointed a conference committee on Monday, and at the meeting of the two committees the same day the matter was substantially settled. Of that date, May 20th, a letter in the Conservative (Leavenworth) contains the following passage:

"The vexed question of a State seal has at last received its quietus at the hands of the conference committee. The new design embraces a prairie landscape, with buffalo pursued by Indian hunters, a settler's cabin, a river with a steamboat, a cluster of thirty-four stars surrounding the legend, 'Ad Astra per Aspera,' the whole encircled by the words, 'Great Seal of the State of Kansas, 1861.'"

The Senate accepted the report of the conference committee on Wednesday, the 22d of May, 1861, and the House concurred on the same day, and so the design was decided.

D. W. Wilder, in his "Annals of Kansas," says the writer of the letter in the Conservative was John J. Ingalls, and as Wilder was editor of that paper, he ought to know. The same John J. Ingalls was Secretary of the State Senate, and had, therefore, means of obtaining accurate information. John A. Martin, of Atchison, was a member of the conference committee referred to above, and a letter of inquiry addressed to him by the writer brought back for answer the statement that John J. Ingalls had submitted to the committee the design that was finally adopted. Why then, did not the letter in the Conservative state that fact? Undoubtedly, mainly because Mr. Ingalls was too modest to claim the honor of having "settled the vexed question," for modesty belongs to youth, and John J. Ingalls was a young man then. Besides being too modest, Mr. Ingalls had another motive for not claiming it. The design as adopted, is not his alone, and though he may fairly claim credit for some of it, yet of other parts he is by no means proud. The design as submitted to the committee by Mr. Ingalls consisted "of a blue shield at the base of a cloud, out of which was emerging one silver star to join the constellation in the firmament, comprising the thirty-four then in the Union, with the motto: 'Ad Astra per Aspera.'" The cloud symbolized the struggles through which we have passed, the star the State, the constellation the Union. The motto was both descriptive and suggestive, and the entire design simple, unique, and satisfactory. It was so satisfactory to the committee that they adopted it entire. But after that some of the "wild heralds of the frontier" altered it by mixing a steamboat and plowing, with buffalo hunting, etc., till really nothing but the motto is Mr. Ingalls', and the landscape is, probably, substantially the one submitted by Mr. McDowell.

All the seal is historic: the motto, the date, the bison hunt, the log cabin. But the motto is not only historic but suggestive of a fact that will be true forever, that the conquest of difficulties is the way to moral as well as political success.

The foregoing was prepared by the Department of State of the State of Kansas, and is an official statement.

Many of the pioneers of Kansas affirmed that Josiah Miller, founder of The Free State, at Lawrence, suggested the legend, Ad Astra per Aspera, for the Great Seal. John Speer said he did not hear that any other person claimed the honor until about the year 1899. The legend is cut on the monument at the grave of Mr. Miller.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1 & 2
BIOGRAPHIES — VOLUMES 3, 4, & 5
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z

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