KANSAS FIRSTS IN THE NATION
Windiest city in the nation (Dodge City).
First black person to receive an Academy Award (1940, Hattie McDaniel)
First female mayor in the U.S. and maybe the world (1887, Susan Madora Salter) [Elk Falls was not far behind in 1889]
First hybrid, or green, locomotive (2009, Topeka)
First to complete part of the Interstate Highway System (1956) [Missouri may argue]
First state in nation to have a storm chaser (1955, Raleigh Lackey)
First state with prohibition in its constitution (1880)
Nations first helium supply discovered (1903, Dexter)
First and only American to discover a planet (1919, Clyde Tombaugh)
First Blue Sky Law (1911, to regulate sale of bonds, stocks, securities)
First forward pass thrown in football history (1905, Washburn against Fairmount (Wichita State))
First governor in U.S. history to be impeached (Charles Robinson, 1862)
First female city manager in U.S. (1928, Rena Milner)
First female to become a dentist in the U.S. (1866, Lucy Hobbs Taylor)
First American Indian to be elected Vice President (1929, Charles Curtis)
First woman to serve as Treasurer of the United States (1949, Georgia Gray)
First woman (not on her husband's coat tails) elected to the Senate (1978, Nancy Landon Kassebaum)
First city in nation to be totally immunized for polio (1955, Protection)
First Fred Harvey Restaurant (1876, Topeka)
First all woman city council elected in the nation and maybe in the world (1888, Oskaloosa) [Elk Falls was not far behind accomplishing the same feat in 1889]
First American Indian language newspaper (1835, Shawnee Sun)[Also, the first newspaper in Kanzas]
First county high school in nation (1889, Dickinson County)
First bullfight in the U.S. (1884, Dodge City)
First woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight (1932, Amelia Earhart)[Also, the first woman to get totally lost. Reportedly, she kept asking Fred Noonan to stop at a gas station and ask for directions, but he did not think it was necessary]
First federal penitentiary (1891, Leavenworth)
First woman county sheriff in the nation (1926, Mabel Chase)
First Pizza Hut in nation (1958, Wichita)
First Pizza Hut franchise in nation (1960, Topeka)
Some of the biggest dreamers in the world came off of these pristine plains! :laugh: :laugh:
First in the hearts and minds of us forum members.
Larryj
Let's face it, we're firsty! ;D
Don't forget first patent on a helicopter. (No patents during Da Vinci's days).
These are not firsts but notable.
George Washington Carver graduated High School in Kansas. (Kansas has long had schools that produced great people)
Koch Industries of Wichita and Black and Veatch Engineering appear annually on Forbes List of largest private corporations in the U.S.
David
p.s. I have a vague recollection from Ken Burns series on the Civil War that Kansas may have a claim to being the start of the civil war? (Waldo, any idea what I may be thinking of?)
David
Bleeding Kansas.
Also Kansas was the site of the first European murder of an American Indian (1541, Turk).
My history student tells me that the first shots of the Civil War were fired in Kansas when Quantrill's Raiders invaded Lawrence in 1856. The Battle of Miner's Creek was fought because Kansas was admitted as a Free State. It is located just north of Fort Scott.
Quote from: Wilma on July 03, 2009, 04:24:53 PM
My history student tells me that the first shots of the Civil War were fired in Kansas when Quantrill's Raiders invaded Lawrence in 1856. The Battle of Miner's Creek was fought because Kansas was admitted as a Free State. It is located just north of Fort Scott.
Quote from: W. Gray on July 03, 2009, 03:34:39 PM
Bleeding Kansas.
Also Kansas was the site of the first European murder of an American Indian (1541, Turk).
Wilma and Waldo ,thanks, you guys put me on the right track. (Now I remember, but I am not sure I ever learned that in school. I think it was new, surprising info. when I watched Ken Burns "Civil War".) Who needs google when I have you guys?
David
David
I had to do some research because of that 1856 date in relation to Quantrill.
I did not believe Quantrill knew where Kansas was in 1856 and I did not believe he formed his raiders until after the Civil War began.
The Sacking of Lawrence in 1856 was led by a Sheriff Jones. No one in Lawrence was killed but there was extensive property damage.
Quantrill raided and sacked Lawrence in 1863.
There was a Battle of Mine Creek that took place in 1864 during the Civil War. It was the largest Civil War battle to take place in Kansas.
That battle took place south of Pleasanton and north of Fort Scott.
Many years ago, hubbys' Aunt Nanny Bee from Kentucky (That is with a capital K Ya'll), came to visit here in Kansas and was quite alarmed to learn that Kansas had any part at all in the civil war. It is funny what people outside the area believe were our beginnings. :D :D
I think the history student might have been thinking about John Brown and the Pottawatomie Massacre that took place in 1856 in direct response to the 1856 sacking of Lawrence.
Give him or her an A for effort.
Actually, I said Quantrill and "she" being a good daughter didn't correct her momma. We can still say that the first shots of the Civil war were fired in Kansas, by John Brown, not Quantrill. I didn't realize that. The history books all say that the attack on Fort Sumter started the war.
I don't think history recognizes the incident as a part of the Civil War, but it certainly was based on the same premise. Besides, it gives Kansas a little more historical significance.
Blood ran deep in Kansas because the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 gutted the Missouri Compromise of 1820. If that political compromise had not been thrown out, Kansas would have been peaceful.
The Missouri Compromise specified that, except for Missouri, there would be no new slave states north of a line extended east to west across the United States along which the southern border of the new state of Missouri sat. (The Mason-Dixon line is something altogether different).
Wording in the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed the concept of Popular Sovereignty for any new state. That is, let the people decide. As a result both slavery and anti-slavery factions in Kansas viciously went against each other trying to mold the projected new state of Kansas to their liking.
I am going to have to start looking this up, but I believe that at some point during this time" Around the beginning of the civil war Kansas had two governments?).
David
I don't think I had heard of that, but anything could have happened.
Prior to becoming a state, a couple of the governors resigned or was forced out while in office. A few years ago, the Wichita Eagle maintained that the first governor, Andrew Reeder escaped Kansas dressed in a woman's clothing.
There were four state constitutions presented to voters from 1854 to 1859.
Free Kansas was admitted to the Union after the majority of the Southern states had seceded and around 75 days before the Civil War began.
Emporia received two votes in a popular election to be the state capital.
As part of the process for Kansas admission, the area of Colorado where I am located became Utah.
I was in North Dakota last month and, besides noting there was no one around, could not believe all the wheat fields I was seeing.
Now I see on several web sites that last year Kansas lost its number one title for producing wheat to North Dakota.
Gosh, how did that get by me? I've always touted us as No. 1 in wheat production.
But, I suppose No. 2 is almost as good.
I think that Kansas has diversified into many different types of row crops in the last few years or so. Depending on what the markets are. I think with the advent of ethanol and ethanol plants, corn planting numbers has probably increased a lot over the last few years.
Kansas being number two in wheat production may or may not be temporary.
North Dakota surpassed Kansas for wheat production during one year in the mid nineties, but the Wheat State was able to come back and rule until last year.
Last I saw, a Kansas farmer was able to produce sufficient food products to feed himself and 128 other people. Have not seen any updates to that figure for a number of years.
The appropriate citation for a Kansas farmer to feed is "128 people plus you."
The figure started at "55 people plus you" in 1978 and steadily rose to the 128 figure.
There will be no increases posted beyond 128.
The Department of Agriculture stopped computing the statistic in 1999.
In reference to the violence in Kansas, above, before the Civil War, a new book released in April 2009 by the Louisiana State University Press is titled,
Bleeding Borders: Race, Gender, and Violence in Pre-Civil War Kansas by Kristin Tegtmeier Ortel
Again not a first, but being from Kansas and living in the San Francisco 49' ers' area I thought I would mention our 2009 starting QB is from Parsons, Ks where he still runs a football program for his home town.
Shaun Hill
2009
49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary has stated that Hill would be the starting quarterback going into training camp but would compete with former number-one overall draft pick and good friend Alex Smith for the regular season starting job.
Personal Info.
Hill was a kinesiology major at Maryland. He participated in several Viking Children's Fund events and has supported the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He joined former Vikings Head Coach Mike Tice as a former Terrapin QB and was teammates at Maryland with current Vikings linebacker E.J. Henderson. Hill kept a weekly journal chronicling his adventures in Europe for fans on former team's website, Vikings.com.
Shaun enjoys fishing. The quarterback started reeling in fish that were inhabitants of farm ponds in his home state of Kansas during high school. When he lived in Minnesota as a member of the Vikings, Shaun caught a 30-inch, nine-pound walleye on his first try. He was able to lure the fish using a leech for bait 40 feet deep. Also in his fishing repertoire is a 48-inch Muskellunge.
David