Why Lincoln in Kansas?

The Lincoln Blog space will be a chance for members across the region, and even you, the visitors to this website to have a chance to comment on the importance of Lincoln and specifically the importance of those eight days in 1859 that Candidate Lincoln spent in the Kansas Territory.

The goal of our informal 3-county group is to develop opportunities for visitors to Kansas and Kansans to walk in the steps of Abraham Lincoln. Right now the information about this under publicized visit to the West is mainly known by small numbers of people and there is no central resource for finding out the places Candidate Lincoln went, the people he encountered and the effect Lincoln had on the territory and that Kansas had on Lincoln. Within our meetings we have shared information and each of us has learned more about Lincoln and his visit to Kansas than we knew before. We have found some easily confirmed facts and some of the widespread Lincoln folklore that is here in Kansas too.

If you are asking - well, why Lincoln in Kansas? Because Lincoln came to the Kansas Territory at a time of great strife for the Territory. Lincoln came at a time that he was unsure of his own prospects - much less his realistic possibilities in his run for the Presidency. Lincoln was a bit rough, but so too was Kansas and Lincoln was likely more at home and relaxed during this 8-day span than at any other time on the campaign trail. Why? Because in Kansas he was out of the daily glare of the Eastern newspapers and in Kansas he could try out the concepts of a speech he was developing without the New York papers picking apart every word (sound familiar in this current election campaign? I bet Hillary and Obama wish they had a "Kansas" to try out there plans). Lincoln worked out the details and got feedback from all phases of society in 1859 Kansas for what would become his Cooper Union speech, the very speech that most biographers of Lincoln credit for putting him on the path to becoming President.

Over the next few months we will be adding more material here and develop a comprehensive site for all things Lincoln from St. Joseph, Missouri to Leavenworth, Kansas and back (and a link network to pretty much all things Lincoln as well). Come back and visit or shoot me an email with something you would like to add or something you would like to know. By 2009 we will have everything you need to make your Lincoln Bicentennial & Lincoln in Kansas Sesquicentennial visit complete.

Chris W. Taylor - executive director Atchison County Historical Society

This page is still in development. Check back soon for more.

Visit to learn more about what is happening at the various Lincoln Sites in the three Kansas Counties & beyond that Lincoln visitied in 1859.

Doniphan County

Atchison County

Leavenworth County

Other sites in Kansas