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Samuel Medary (1801-1864) - The last regularly appointed territorial governor of Kansas, was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on February 25, 1801.  He was educated at the Norristown Academy, and at the age of 16 was a contributor to the Norristown Herald. The encouragement he received from the editor of that paper doubtless influenced him to select journalism for a profession. He learned the printer's trade and in 1825 went to Batavia, Ohio, where three years later he started the Ohio Sun, in the interest of General Andrew Jackson's candidacy for presidency. In 1834 he was elected as a Democrat to the lower house of the Ohio Legislature, and at the expiration of his term was chosen to represent his district in the state senate. He then purchased the newspaper known as the Western Hemisphere, at Columbus, and changed the name to the Ohio Statesman, which he continued to edit until 1857. His newspaper became a power in Ohio politics, and even wielded a national influence with the Democratic Party. When the Oregon boundary became a subject of dispute, Medary is credited with being the author of the slogan: "Fifty-four Forty or Fight." In 1844 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, where he produced a letter from General Jackson requesting him, in case of discord, to present the name of James K. Polk for the presidency. This was done, and Polk was nominated. In 1856 Medary was temporary chairman of the National Convention that nominated James Buchanan and did all in his power to secure the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas. In March, 1857, he was appointed governor of the Territory of Minnesota. When it was admitted as a state in May, 1858, he was made postmaster at Columbus, Ohio, and held that position until appointed governor of Kansas the following November. He resigned the governorship in December, 1860, returned to Columbus and established the Crisis, which he continued to publish until his death on November 7, 1864. Governor Medary was endearingly called the "Old wheel-horse of Democracy," and in 1869 the party in Ohio erected a monument at Columbus "In commemoration of his public services, private virtues, distinguished ability, and devotion to principle."

Jotham Meeker (1804-1855) - A missionary, he was born at Xenia, Ohio on November 8, 1804. His boyhood was spent on a farm, after which he learned the printer's trade. He then joined Reverend Isaac McCoy in mission work among the Indians, beginning his career as a missionary among the Potawatomie at Carey, Michigan in 1825. Two years later he was sent to the Ottawa Mission at Thomas, Michigan, and while there he devised a system of applying the English alphabet to the phonetic spelling of the Indian words, which greatly simplified the work of the mission teacher. In 1833, at the suggestion of Mr. McCoy, he came to Kansas with an old-fashioned hand printing press -- the first ever brought to Kansas -- for the purpose of printing books in the Indian language. The first one of these was known as the "Delaware First Book." Copies of several of the books thus printed by Meeker are now in the possession of the Kansas State Historical Society. He died at the Ottawa Mission in Kansas, in January, 1855.

Josiah Miller (1828-1870) - A Free-State advocate who started one of the first Kansas newspapers, Miller was born in the Chester District of South Carolina on November 12, 1828. He was educated at  Indiana University, where he graduated in 1851, after which he also graduated from the law school at Poughkeepsie, New York. In August, 1854 he came to Kansas to support the Free-State cause. As his father had been waylaid and mobbed because of his anti-slavery views, it was but natural that Josiah should be an ardent opponent of slavery, and on January 5, 1855, he began the publication of the Kansas Free State at Lawrence. A pro-slavery jury found an indictment against him for maintaining a nuisance in the publication of this paper, and on May 21, 1856, his printing office was destroyed by the territorial authorities. In that year he made speeches in several states for John C. Fremont, the Republican candidate for president, and in 1857 was elected Probate Judge of Douglas County. In 1861 he was a member of the first state senate, but resigned his seat to become postmaster at Lawrence.  In 1863 he was appointed a paymaster in the army, with the rank of major, and in 1866 was elected a member of the Lawrence on July 7, 1870, after having a leg amputated. The inscription on the monument erected to his memory in Oak Hill Cemetery credits him with being the author of the motto, "Ad astra per aspera," on the Kansas seal of state.