Quindaro Townsite

Foundation With the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the Kansas Territory was opened for settlement with the promise that the settlers would vote to decide whether the state would enter the Union as a Slave State or a Free State. The New England Emigrant Aid Company (NEEAC) had already aided more than 1,200 settlers in their migration, hoping to secure Kansas as a free territory. The decision was left to the vote of the territory's residents. • President: Joel Walker, brother of William Walker, Wyandot Chief and Territorial Governor • Vice-president: Abelard Guthrie, attorney, land agent, and Wyandot by marriage to Nancy Quindaro Brown • Treasurer: Charles Robinson, financial agent of the NEEAC and future governor of Kansas • Secretary: S. N. Simpson, also of the NEEAC In 1855, the land of the Wyandot Reservation had been divided among the families. The Quindaro Town Company was so named because it bought Nancy Quindaro's land allotment for the townsite. A common female name within the Wyandot, Quindaro means "bundle of sticks" or "strength through numbers", in the Wyandot language. Tribal natives living there were not dispossessed and became a part of Quindaro. John Morgan Walden was one of many young men attracted to Quindaro, where he founded a Free-Soil paper called Quindaro Chindowan. The name Chindowan was a Wyandot word for "leader". was a writer for the Quindaro Chindowan, a friend of Susan B. Anthony, and fellow crusader for the rights of women and children. She was an important Conductor and "Station Master" of the Underground Railroad in Quindaro. She left a letter about a time when a freedom seeker named Caroline was brought to her house. Fourteen slave hunters, including her slave master, were camped on the edge of town and looking for her. Caroline was hidden in an empty and elaborately disguised cistern overnight, and then sent on the road north as soon as it was safe. Decline Having reached a peak population of 600, the booming commercial townsite quickly went bust due to a nationwide economic depression, and a failed campaign to attract a railroad. With the American Civil War, the Union Army recruited away many young men, and only few farming families stayed. The lower town site at the riverside was largely abandoned. Later African-American arrivals settled in the upper town on the bluff. The economy declined because of speculation in Kansas, and in 1862 the legislature withdrew the town charter, putting the town corporation out of business. Difficulties in reaching the interior from below the bluff hampered commerce, and changes after the war reduced the need for the port. In addition, the topography was difficult, surrounding Wyandot land limited expansion, and problems with land titles inhibited growth. After being abandoned, the early lower commercial townsite became overgrown, with some areas covered by earth falling from the bluffs. Historians recall it as a ghost town. In the early 20th century, all of the townsite was incorporated into Kansas City, Kansas. ==Western University==

Even before the war ended, however, Eben Blachly, a Presbyterian, in 1862 started classes in his home for the children of former slaves. The Reverend Eben Blachly had been a farmer in Dane County, Wisconsin, one of the early pioneers who had migrated from Pennsylvania. According to Blachly family legend, he was nearly hung as a "Northern spy" while trying to find his oldest son, a Union soldier who had been captured by the Confederates. With the noose around his neck he asked to say some final words, a wish that was granted by the rebels. After praying out loud for the welfare of their souls (the rebels were about to hang an innocent man), they took the noose off his neck and sent him home to Wisconsin. This traumatic experience, apparently, led him to dedicate his life to helping former slaves by organizing the Quindaro Freedman's School (later Western University), which was chartered in 1867, and which he ran until his death in 1877. It was a historically black university (HBCU) started at the upper town site of Quindaro. Its principal in 1872, when the state legislature added a four-year normal school, was Charles Henry Langston, a leading black abolitionist and activist, educator, and politician in Ohio and Kansas. In the early 20th century, Western University became known for its outstanding music program. Music historian Helen Walker-Hill, writing in the Black Music Journal, states that "Western University at Quindaro, Kansas, was probably the earliest black school west of the Mississippi and the best black musical training center in the Midwest for almost thirty years during the 1900s through the 1920s."{{cite journal|last1=Walker-Hill|first1=Helen In the early 1900s, Western University added a full industrial curriculum, with buildings to house livestock and another for a laundry. Later a building was added for teaching auto mechanics and repair. The university closed in 1943, and aside from its statue of abolitionist John Brown, nothing but cornerstones of some early buildings remains. Some buildings were lost to fire, others to demolition as sites were redeveloped. The last structures remaining were three faculty houses, which were demolished near the end of the 20th century. One houses the Old Quindaro Museum. The Quindaro Underground Railroad Museum is located nearby in the Vernon Multipurpose Center, the former Quindaro Colored School. ==Archeological and oral history projects==

An archaeological study in 1987–1988 for a public project revealed the remains of the 1850s townsite. The foundations of 20 main buildings, two outbuildings, three wells, and one cistern were found. From original maps, newspapers, and letters, researchers know other structures existed. Because of the significance of the town, the townsite has been designated an archaeological district on the National Register of Historic Places. A number of public history projects have been undertaken to engage the public and share the discoveries. In 2018, Quindaro community stakeholders including historians, archeologists, scholars, and activists began resolving decades of struggle over how to manage the historical site. ==References==