Historic People of Kansas - Last Name starts with "T"

Historic People of Kansas - Last Name "T-V"

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Samuel F. Tappan Samuel F. Tappan (1831-1913) - A journalist, military officer, abolitionist and a Native American rights activist, Tappan was a native of Massachusetts. He was one of a party of 30 settlers who came to Kansas in 1854, settling in Lawrence in August, and soon became the correspondent for the New York Tribune and the Boston Atlas, telling of the first difficulties with the border ruffians. In 1855, accompanied by Martin F. Conway, he made a canvass of southern and western Kansas in favor of the free-state movement. He was clerk of the Topeka Constitutional Convention and took part in the rescue of Jacob Branson , one of the events that led to the Wakarusa War. He was Assistant Clerk of the House of Representatives in 1856; went east in July of that year and brought back a quantity of arms and ammunition by way of Iowa and Nebraska . the next year, he performed the duties of Speaker of the Topeka House of Representatives. He was secretary of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention in 1858, clerk of the Wyandotte Convention in 1859, and in 1860 left Kansas for Denver, Colorado , where he took an active part in the public life of the city and state. Later, he moved to New York City. He died at Washington D.C. on January 6, 1913.

Solon O. Thacher (1830-1895) - Attorney, Free-State advocate, and politician, Thacher was born on August 31, 1830 in Steuben County, New York. He graduated from Union College of Schenectady, New York and from the Albany Law School. In September, 1856, he married Sarah M. Gilmore of York, New York. They came came to Kansas in 1858, settled at Lawrence and he was one of the proprietors of the Lawrence Journal. He was a member of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention; was appointed Judge of the Fourth Judicial District in 1861; was a candidate for governor in opposition to the James H. Lane faction of the Republican Party in 1864; and from that time until 1880 was engaged in the practice of law. He amassed a fortune; was several times a Regent of the University of Kansas; held the chair of Equity Jurisprudence in its law school, and in 1880, was elected to the State Senate. Two years later he was a candidate for governor against John P. St. John. At the close of his first term in the senate he was appointed a member of a commission to visit the South American republics in the interests of reciprocity. He made a perilous voyage of over 34,000 miles, and being shipwrecked off the coast was taken to England, before returning to America. He met nearly every ruler in the southern continent, learned a great deal about the conditions existing there, and his report to Congress was so exhaustive that he was called before a special committee to explain his views on reciprocity. On his return to Kansas he was again elected to the State Senate, of which he was a member for the remainder of his life. He was president of the State Historical Society at the time of his death in August, 1895.

Timothy Dwight Thacher (1831-1894) - Scholar, statesman, and editor, Thacher was born in Hornsville, New York on October 31, 1831. He graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York in 1856 and campaigned that year on the platform for the new Republican Party. In April, 1857 he moved to Lawrence and began the publication of the Lawrence Republican, a Free-State newspaper which figured prominently in state politics. He was married in that year to Catherine Faulkner Angell, who died in 1858. He was a member of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention held in the winter of 1857 and 1858. In 1861 he was married to Elizabeth Heilman at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1863 he purchased the Journal of Commerce in Kansas City, and moved there. In 1865 he went to Philadelphia where he worked on the Evening Telegram for the next three years. In 1868 he returned to Lawrence and revived the Lawrence Republican, which had been destroyed by Quantrill's raid. The next year he combined it with the Kansas State Journal of Ottawa and the Ottawa Home Journal under the name of the Republican Daily Journal. In 1874 he was elected to the House of Representatives, and seven years later, a joint session of the legislature elected him State Printer. In this office he served three terms, remaining in Topeka after his retirement from public life. He died on January 17, 1894.

Eli Thayer (1819-1899) - Educator, inventor, Congressman and one of the organizers of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, Thayer was born at Mendon, Massachusetts on June 11, 1819. He was educated at Bellingham and Amherst Academies, and at Brown University, where he graduated in 1845. He then began teaching in Worcester Academy, became its principal, and in 1848 founded the Oread Institute, a woman's college at Worcester. In 1853, he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, where he was the leader in organizing the Bank of Mutual Redemption, and the Union Emigrant Society. In 1856 he was elected to Congress and was re-elected, serving as a member of the Committee on Militia and as chairman of the committee on Public Lands. He was active in promoting emigration from New England to Kansas in order to have it admitted to the Union as a free state, and in the spring of 1854 was instrumental in organizing the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, with a capital of $5,000,000. Subsequently this company was merged with the Emigrant Aid Company of New York and Connecticut under the name of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Charles Sumner said that he would "rather have the credit due Eli Thayer for his work in Kansas than be the hero of the Battle of New Orleans." During the early part of the Civil War Thayer was United States Treasury Agent, and later was connected with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company. After the war he devoted most of his time to inventions, which covered a wide field. He was a man of strong character and convictions and a scholar of marked ability. He was also the author of a volume of Congressional speeches and the Kansas Crusade. He died at Worcester, Massachusetts on April 15, 1899.

Henry Theodore Titus (1823-1881) - A solider and pro-slavery advocate, Titus was born on February 13, 1823 in Trenton, New Jersey, but grew up in Kentucky. He was a member of the Lopez Expedition against Cuba with the rank of Adjutant. He arrived in Kansas about April 1, 1856, in company with Colonel Jefferson Buford and about 1,000 men recruited in the South, and his earliest endeavors in this section were put forth in the interests of the pro-slavery cause. He was present at the Sacking of Lawrence on May 21, 1856 and on about August 1st, he forcibly took possession of a claim about two miles east of Lecompton, belonging to a free-state man named Smith, one of the earliest settlers in the territory. Smith's cabin was torn down during his absence and Titus erected a blockhouse for himself, referred to as " Fort Titus." After the brutal murder of David S. Hoyt by pro-slavery men near Fort Saunders -- their stronghold on Washington Creek, about 12 miles east of Lawrence -- the free-state men retaliated by surrounding and making an assault upon " Fort Titus esieged garrison and one free-state man was killed. Finding that rifles made no apparent impression on the log fort, the free-state men brought out a cannon and trained it on the blockhouse. Six shots were fired when Colonel Titus signaled that he wished to surrender. He was wounded and one or two of his companions were killed. The prisoners were all taken to Lawrence and some time later were released. His sword, surrendered at the time of the battle, is now preserved in the museum of the Kansas State Historical Society at Topeka. On October 11, 1856, Governor John W. Geary appointed him special aide-de-camp, his commission post-dated to September 15th. Some time after the battle of Fort Titus he issued a call for his regiment of militia, signing himself "Colonel of the Second Regiment of the First Brigade of the Southern Division of the Kansas Militia." His military career in Kansas began and ended in 1856. Early in 1857, he became associated with General William Walker in his Nicaraguan Expedition, and in February of that year he arrived at San Juan del Norte at the head of about 180 men, many of whom had been associated with him in Kansas . His military capabilities displayed in this expedition proved his incapacity as a commander, described by those who knew him, as a swaggering braggart. It was commonly rumored that he lost his life in the Nicaraguan Expedition, but this was a mistake. H actually died in Florida on August 8, 1881.

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