Wilson Shannon (1802-1877) - The second Territorial Governor of Kansas, Shannon was born in what is now Belmont County, Ohio on February 24, 1802. His father died in the winter of 1803, and it was due chiefly to the assistance of his older brothers that he received an education. As soon as he was old enough to be of assistance he was put to work on the farm, but at the age of 18, his brothers sent him to the Ohio University at Athens, where he studied for two years, and then entered Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky. While a student in this institution he studied law and in 1826 began to practice St. Clairsville, Ohio. He soon won distinction at the bar and became an active factor in politics. By 1832 he had become so well known that the Democratic Party nominated him for Congress, the Whig candidate being General James M. Bell. Although the Whigs were in a majority in the district Shannon made such a vigorous campaign that Bell was elected by a bare 37 votes. The following year Shannon was elected County Attorney of Belmont County and in 1835 was re-elected. In 1838 he was elected Governor of Ohio, but in 1840 he was defeated for re-election by Thomas Corwin. Two years later he again ran against Corwin, and this time was elected. Upon the expiration of his second term as governor he was appointed Minister to Mexico by President John Tyler, and served in that capacity until diplomatic relations were suspended in May, 1845. He then practiced law in Cincinnati until 1849, when he went to California. Two years later he returned to Ohio, with about the same amount of money as he had when he started for the Pacific Coast, and resumed his law practice. In 1852 he was elected to represent his district in the lower house of Congress, and while a member of that body voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Bill . On August 10, 1855, he was commissioned Governor of Kansas Territory by President Franklin Pierce. The fact that he had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Actl caused his appointment to be hailed with delight by the pro-slavery men in Kansas and the western part of Missouri, who hoped to gain greater advantages than they had been able to do during the administration of Governor Reeder. Shannon's administration in Kansas actually only lasted about eleven months, during which occurred some of the most turbulent scenes of the Kansas-Missouri Border War After his resignation in August, 1856, he moved to Lawrence , Kansas and in a short time became one of the best known attorneys in the territory, and later in the state. Governor Shannon was twice married. His first wife, who lived but a few years after their marriage, was a Miss Ellis, whose father was at one time county clerk of Belmont County, Ohio. His second wife was Sarah Osbun of Cadiz, Ohio. Governor Shannon died at Lawrence on August 30, 1877.

Robert Simerwell (178601868) - A missionary to the Potawatomie Indians, was born in Ireland, May 1, 1786. He attended school occasionally until fifteen years of age, and came with his parents to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1803. His parents died soon afterward and he became a blacksmith's apprentice. In 1824, he went to the Baptist Indian Mission at Carey Station on the St. Joseph River in Michigan, and the next year married a Miss Goodridge; became government blacksmith to the Potawatomie Indians  and studied their language. In 1833, he came with a part of the tribe to the Baptist Mission in Kansas , led them to their new home on the reserve near Topeka in 1848, and labored among this tribe as a teacher and spiritual leader until ill health forced him to retire in 1854. He died at his home on Six-mile Creek in 1868. He was the author of a primer in the Potawatomie language, published in 1833; translated a book containing a catechism and hymns into Potawatomie in 1835; and his books and manuscripts, now in the Kansas Historical Society, include fragments of translations of hymns, grammar, vocabularies, discourses, etc.

Benjamin F. Stringfellow (1816-1891) - Lawyer and one of the pro-slavery leaders in Kansas, Stringfellow was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia on September 3, 1816. He was raised on his father's plantation and educated in the public schools until he was twelve years old, when his father sent him to school at Fredericksburg. Later, he attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and in the fall of 1835, began to read law. He was admitted to the bar and moved to Louisville, Kentucky before moving again to St. Louis, and then to Huntsville, Missouri. After meeting Sterling Price, he was persuaded to move to Keytesville, Missouri, where he became recognized as a lawyer of ability. Within a short time, he was appointed Circuit Attorney, which office he held for four years. In 1844 he entered actively into political life, was elected to the Missouri State Legislature and subsequently was appointed Attorney-General of the state, serving four years. When Kansas Territory was organized in 1854 and the contest over slavery began, an organization called the "Self Defensive Association" was started in Weston, Missouri , of which Stringfellow became the secretary. Foreseeing the coming conflict, he believed the only way to avoid it was by admitting Kansas as a slave state, thus keeping sufficient power in the United States Senate to defeat the abolition movement. He and his brother John organized "blue lodges" along the entire Kansas border and in 1854, along with David Rice Atchison he attempted to get residents of Southern states to move to Kansas with their slaves to counter those many places settled by the anti-slavery Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. During the winter of 1854-55, he was selected to go to Washington, D.C., to meet the members of Congress from the southern states and explain to them the need of prompt and energetic action. They promised to send slaves to Kansas, but failed to do so. Failing to convince southerners to move to Kansas, he issued the "Stringfellow's Exposition" which said it was legal for Missourians to vote in Kansas to decide whether it should enter the Union as a free state or a slave state. Stringfellow's position was reinforced by his title of General in the Missouri Militia and his capacity as publisher of the Squatter Sovereign newspaper. In 1858, Stringfellow went to Memphis, Tennessee, but in the fall of 1859 became a resident of Atchison, Kansas. At the close of the war he cordially cooperated with the Republican party and engaged in commercial enterprises, being active in the organization and construction of the first railroads in Kansas. He died on April 26, 1891.

John H. Stringfellow (1819-1905) - An early physician of Kansas , one of the founders of Atchison, a pro-slavery advocate, and Speaker of the House in the First Territorial Legislature, he was born in Culpeper County, Virginia on November 14, 1819. He was educated at Caroline Academy in Virginia,   Columbia University in Washington, D. C., and graduated in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1845. Soon after that, he moved to Carrolton, Missouri, where he married Ophelia J. Simmons, niece of Governor Edwards. During the cholera epidemic of 1849, when every boat coming op the river unloaded cholera patients at Hill's Landing, he converted a large warehouse into a hospital and devoted three months to caring for them. In 1852, he moved to Platte City, Missouri. Upon the organization of Kansas Territory he crossed the river, selected a claim, and in connection with some friends, formed a town company which laid out the town of Atchison. In 1854, he brought his family and lived in Atchison until 1858. He was the founder and editor of the Squatter Sovereign, the first newspaper in Atchison, and was commissioned as a colonel in the Third Regiment of the Territorial Militia by Governor Shannon. He was called to Virginia by the death of his father in 1858 and was detained there until after the opening of the Civil War. He entered the Confederate service as a captain of a Virginia company, but was at once, detailed as surgeon and acted in that capacity only. In 1871, he returned to Atchison and remained there until 1876, when he went to St. Joseph , Missouri, where he resided until his death on July 24, 1905.