John D. "Colonel Jack" Henderson was an American editor, rancher, businessman, and pro-slavery politician in the Kansas Territory. He was a Colonel in the Border Wars of Bleeding Kansas. [1]
Henderson was born in Pennsylvania but moved to the Kansas Territory, where he became a leading advocate of slavery. The proprietor and editor of the Leavenworth Journal, he was elected chairman of the central committee of the pro-slavery National Democratic Party of Kansas but was later accused of vote fraud. [2]
In 1859, Henderson built a ranch, trading post and hotel on Henderson Island in the South Platte River in Arapaho County, Kansas Territory, from which he sold meat and provisions to gold seekers on their way up the South Platte River Trail to the gold fields during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Henderson Island was the first permanent settlement in the South Platte River Valley between Fort Saint Vrain in the Nebraska Territory and the Cherry Creek Diggings in the Kansas Territory. He returned to eastern Kansas and fought for the Union in the American Civil War. [1]
In Colorado, Henderson bought a chain of gold mines; on a visit to Colorado, he and some eighteen others were killed during an encounter with a group of Osage Indians for crossing the Osage territory with loaded weapons. [1]
The Adams County Fairgrounds are now located on Henderson Island. The community of Henderson, Colorado, has been largely absorbed by Commerce City, Colorado.
David Rice Atchison was a mid-19th century Democratic United States Senator from Missouri. He served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate for six years. Atchison served as a major general in the Missouri State Militia in 1838 during Missouri's Mormon War and as a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War under Major General Sterling Price in the Missouri Home Guard. Some of Atchison's associates claimed that for 24 hours—Sunday, March 4, 1849 through noon on Monday—he may have been Acting President of the United States. This belief, however, is dismissed by nearly all scholars.
Adams County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 519,572. The county seat is Brighton. The county is named for Alva Adams, an early Governor of the State of Colorado in 1887–1889. Adams County is part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The City of Commerce City is a home rule municipality located in Adams County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 62,418 at the 2020 United States Census, a 35.95% increase since the 2010 United States Census. Commerce City is the 18th most populous municipality in Colorado. Commerce City is located north of Denver and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. Commerce City is a mixed residential and industrial community that is known for an oil refinery with a capacity of 90,000 barrels per day (14,000 m3/d), operated by Suncor. Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a soccer stadium in Commerce City, hosts the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.
The U.S. state of Kansas, located on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, was the home of nomadic Native American tribes who hunted the vast herds of bison. In around 1450 AD, the Wichita People founded the great city of Etzanoa. The city of Etzanoa was abandoned in around 1700 AD. The region was explored by Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century. It was later explored by French fur trappers who traded with the Native Americans. Most of Kansas became permanently part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. When the area was opened to settlement by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 it became a battlefield that helped cause the American Civil War. Settlers from North and South came in order to vote slavery down or up. The free state element prevailed.
John White Geary was an American lawyer, politician, Freemason, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was the final alcalde and first mayor of San Francisco, a governor of the Kansas Territory, and the 16th governor of Pennsylvania.
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado.
The territory of the United States and its overseas possessions has evolved over time, from the colonial era to the present day. It includes formally organized territories, proposed and failed states, unrecognized breakaway states, international and interstate purchases, cessions, and land grants, and historical military departments and administrative districts. The last section lists informal regions from American vernacular geography known by popular nicknames and linked by geographical, cultural, or economic similarities, some of which are still in use today.
William Larimer Jr. was an American businessman, investor, militia general, and politician who is best known as the founder of Denver, Colorado, in 1858. Larimer often went by "General Larimer", having acquired the title in the Pennsylvania Militia.
James William "Jim" Denver was an American politician, soldier and lawyer. He served in the California state government, as an officer in the United States Army in two wars, and as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from California. He served as secretary and Governor of the Kansas Territory during the struggle over whether or not Kansas would be open to slavery. The city of Denver, Colorado, is named after him.
The Colorado War was an Indian War fought in 1864 and 1865 between the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and allied Brulé and Oglala Sioux peoples versus the U.S. Army, Colorado militia, and white settlers in Colorado Territory and adjacent regions. The Kiowa and the Comanche played a minor role in actions that occurred in the southern part of the Territory along the Arkansas River. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux played the major role in actions that occurred north of the Arkansas River and along the South Platte River, the Great Platte River Road, and the eastern portion of the Overland Trail. The United States government and Colorado Territory authorities participated through the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment, often called the Colorado volunteers. The war was centered on the Colorado Eastern Plains, extending eastward into Kansas and Nebraska.
The Wakarusa War was an armed standoff that took place in the Kansas Territory during November and December 1855. It is often cited by historians as the first instance of violence during the "Bleeding Kansas" conflict between anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions in the region.
Jefferson County was a county of the extralegal United States Territory of Jefferson that existed from November 28, 1859, until February 28, 1861. Its territory covered a broad swath surrounding the region of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, and was a functioning democratically elected government until the organization of the Territory of Colorado in 1861. At that time, the successor Jefferson County was permanently created, taking its name from its predecessor and incorporating the heart of its territory.
The timeline of Kansas details past events that happened in what is present day Kansas. Located on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, the U.S. state of Kansas was the home of sedentary agrarian and hunter-gatherer Native American societies, many of whom hunted American bison. The region first appears in western history in the 16th century at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, when Spanish conquistadors explored the unknown land now known as Kansas. It was later explored by French fur trappers who traded with the Native Americans. It became part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In the 19th century, the first American explorers designated the area as the "Great American Desert."
Arapahoe County was a county of the extralegal United States Territory of Jefferson that existed from November 28, 1859, until February 28, 1861. The county name was also spelled Arapaho County, Arapahoe County, Arrapahoe County, and Arappahoe County. The county seat was Denver City.
The 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 2nd Regiment Colorado Cavalry was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Fort Titus was a battle that occurred during conflicts in the Kansas Territory between abolitionist and pro-slavery militias prior to the American Civil War. The era is known as Bleeding Kansas.
Samuel Jefferson Jones was a pro-slavery settler who held the position of Douglas County sheriff in Kansas Territory from late 1855 until early 1857. He helped found the territorial capital of Lecompton and played a prominent role in the "Bleeding Kansas" conflict.
Fort Sedgwick, also known as Post at Julesburg, Camp Rankin, and Fort Rankin was a U.S. military post from 1864 to 1871, in Sedgwick County, Colorado. There are two historical markers for the former post. The town was named for Fort Sedgwick, which was named after John Sedgwick, who was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
John H. Stringfellow was an early physician of Kansas, one of the founders of Atchison, and speaker of the house in the first territorial legislature, the pro-slavery Bogus Legislature. He was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, son of Robert Stringfellow, a farmer, veteran of the War of 1812, merchant at Raccoon Ford on the Rapidan River, and Mary Plunkett, daughter of an early industrialist in Orange County, Virginia. Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow was his younger brother. He was educated at Caroline Academy, Va., Columbia University, and graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1845. Soon after that he located at Carrollton, Missouri, where he married Ophelia J. Simmons, niece of Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.