One-Way Ticket to Kansas

One-Way Ticket to Kansas, the Autobiography of Frank M. Stahl, as told and illustrated by Margaret Whittemore. U. of Kansas Press, 1959.

Table of Contents

Start here:
Introductory remarks

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Preface

I......Seven Times One Are Seven - (Birth in New Harrison,Ohio - neighbors - Mexican-American War - home schooling; - the sow in the schoolhouse)

II.....Woods and Streams - (local wildlife -encounters with a panther - fishing - shinny matches in winter)

III.....Farm Work - (farm work and crops - father's stance on liquor - father's skills as cobbler and mother's as seamstress)

IV......Making Barrels - (barrel making- winning a shooting match)

V......The Whisky Bottle - (train trip to Dayton - caught in a drunken riot - log rolling - barn raising)

VI.....Slave or Free? - (reading Uncle Tom's Cabin - issues of slavery in Kansas - presidential election campaigns)

VII....The One-Way Ticket - (decision to emigrate to Kansas - the train from Greenville west to Jefferson City)

VIII...Heading Up the Missouri - (traveling the Missouri river on the New Lucy - activities on board - first encounter with slaves -- arrival in Kansas City and lodging at the Gillis House)

IX.....Out Where the West Begins - (walking west into Kansas - a promise of work falls through - left alone)

X.....A Friend in Need - (meeting Robert Simerwell - arrival at Six Mile Creek -- working for Simerwell on the farm - Simerwell's missionary work and family)

XI....."Keep the Mill A-Going" - (Auburn's first steam mill - James Lane visits Auburn - joining the Independent Order of Good Templars - parents move from Ohio to Kansas - drought of 1860 and closing of the mill)

XII....Western Kansas Diggings - (prospecting in Colorado - following the Platte river to Denver - arrival and impressions of the new town)

XIII...There's Gold in Those Hills - (cutting logs for houses - meeting Jim Beckworth - prospecting in Central City - looking for gold in the San Juan mountains - a wild goose chase - meeting Kit Carson and avoiding Indian war parties - retrieving cattle from thieves - return to Central City and Denver - outbreak of the Civil War -- return to Kansas)

XIV....The Long, Long Trail - (Kansas enters the union - carrying guns and ammunition from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Union on the Santa Fe Trail - routines of trail life - Council Grove and other waypoints along the trail - taking the Cimarron cutoff - returning via Raton Pass and Bent's Fort)

XV....With the Cavalry in Arkansas - (enlistment in the 2nd Kansas Cavalry - father's death - with the army in Arkansas - Fort Smith - fighting at Cane Hill - battle of Prairie Grove - Wild Bill Hickock - wounding at Dardanelle and convalescence at Fort Smith - working in the commissary department and defending a local family from depradations - travel back to Auburn and meeting Jennie Dickson)

XVI..."Git Along, Little Dogies, Git Along!" - (end of the war -- driving cattle from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Union on the Santa Fe Trail - reunion with Colonel Cloud at Fort Larned - Cimarron cutoff -- encounter with Indians - return via the Aubry cutoff)

XVII...On the Trail of the Indian - (Enlistment in the 18th Kansas Cavalry and Indian fighting - Fort Harker - engaging Indians in the Spillman Creek fight - escape under cover of darkness - 1867 treaty and cessation of hostilities)

XVIII...Stone Fences - (courting - building stone fences - marriage - dealing with local Indians - leadership in the Masons - election to public office)

XIX...Prohibition Picnics - (working for temperance - Kansas institutes prohibition - beginnings of the annual temperance picnic - chasing bootleggers - made chief of police in Topeka)

XX...."Old Alfalfa's" Raids - (raids on liquor establishments - surprise raids - run-in with Carrie Nation)

XXI...Gambling Must Go - (Raids on gambling establishments - disguises and subterfuge)

XXII. .Mission Accomplished - (made superintendent of the Kansas Temperance Union - public speaking tours - return visit to New Harrison - reflections on a life)

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