to Kansas
Robert and Pat Needham were kind enough to give me an enormous collection of
old family letters. These letters are as much as 150 years old, and many deal
with the span of time over which the family migrated to Leavenworth County, Kansas.
I compiled this short historical timeline to help organize both the letters and
my own thoughts. General historical events are provided for context, and are
highlighted in blue.
| May 1854 | Kansas Territory open to settlement by the Kansas-Nebraska Act |
| 1855 | Leavenworth county is organized |
| 1859 | Hannibal & St Joseph RR open from St. Louis to St. Joseph |
| 1859 | Harry Still first known to be in Leavenworth (on voter rolls) |
| Jan 1861 | Kansas admitted as a State to the Union |
| Apr 1861 | Civil War begins at Fort Sumpter |
| May 1862 | Homestead Act passed |
| 1862 | Harry buys land on Stranger Creek that becomes his farm |
| Aug 1863 | Quantrill raids Lawrence |
| Mar 1864 | Leonice writes a letter from Leavenworth |
| May 1864 | Hawley joins 134th Illinois Infantry Regiment |
| Oct 1864 | Hawley's war service ends |
| Apr 1865 | Civil War ends at Appomattox |
| Jul 1865 | Harry & Leonice wed in Illinois |
| 1865 | Kansas Pacific RR is open (nearly) to Topeka |
|
From Hawley's obit: "Mr. Needham came to vicinity of Tonganoxie in 1865, shortly after the close of the war. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Needham and three children came in the spring of 1868, and they all settled on a farm a short distance from Hoge on Stranger Creek. This is the farm on which the Cliffs are located."
| |
| 1866 | The city of Tonganoxie is formally platted |
| Mar 1866 | First known of many letters between Hawley in KS and the rest of the family in Illinois |
| Aug 1866 | Hawley writes from Fairmont, KS, mentions Stills & brother George |
| 1868 | George Wm. Needham still doing business in Illinois |
| Sep 1868 | Hawley & Catherine wed in Illinois |
| Nov 1868 | Catherine Lowe Needham writes from Kansas City |
| May 1869 | Transcontinental Railroad completed at Promontory, UT |
| Jan 1870 | George Wm. Needham dies; buried at Wilderness farm |
| 1870 | Family members first appear in Leavenworth county census |
|
Again from Hawley's obit: "They resided on their farm until 1878 when they moved to Tonganoxie and settled on the place now occupied by his son, Fred Needham and family."
| |
| abt 1875 | Charles Fitch Needham moves to Oskaloosa, KS. |
| 1878 | Missouri-Pacific Central Branch Railroad opens to Beloit |
| 1880 | Still family first known to be in Beloit (from US census) |
| 1880 | US census shows Needhams still in Stranger township |
| 1885 | KS census shows Needhams in Tonganoxie |
