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_SRCT:
_FIELD: TX-AUTHOR
Text: Marion J. "Jim" Laughlin and Julia Laughlin
_FIELD: DT-PUBLICATION_DATE
Date: 1992
_FIELD: TX-TITLE
Text: Descendants of John Laughlin and Tabitha Trimble
_FIELD: TX-PUBLISHER
Text: self-published
_FIELD: TX-REFERENCE
Text: Filtingberger 13
_FIELD: RP-REPOSITORY
Repository:
_AUTO: 0
[S1442] Laughlin/Trimble Book page Filtingberger 13
Kansas was a part of the Louisiana Purchase, annexed by the United States in 1803 and part of Missouri Territory until 1821. For 33 years it was unorganised territory inhabited mainly by Indians. There was constant trouble when white settlers tried to homestead, until the Indians were pushed into Oklahoma Indian Territory. Kansas became the 34th state in 1861 and thruout the Civil War it was fought over by southern sympathizers and Unionists.
"KANSAS, HISTORY OF THE JAYHAWK STATE" by Frank Zornow
Frame houses were a rarity. The majority of the people lived in log cabins or dug-outs where teh family may have shared living with their animals for protection as well as shelter. Living under such conditions was bound to produce illness and many residents "agued around" with Kansas fever or "Kansas itch". Live was hardest on women but, since there were few, the men often protected them by doing the hardest chores. Their homes were always Jeopardized by prairie fires, while dust, indians, drought, wolves, wildcats, snakes, buzzards, and vermin made housekeeping interesting.
Kansas was a land of the young. The middle aged and older people could not endure the rigors of pioneer life. Henry Filtingberger died at about 65, Susanna about 60 years of age.
"THE SOD-HOUSE FRONTIER" by Everett Dick
In man's story of the conquest of the prairies, woman is given scant credit for her part. In prairie grass cemeteries, in unmarked, forgotten graves, sunken with the passing of time, lie the heroines of the far-flung vanguard of permanent civilization, the Marys, Hannahs, Margarets, and the Sarahs.
These martyrs who paid the price of the prairie, however, lived in the grateful hearts of posterity. Bereavement is hard to bear in a home of comfort and ease where friends and kinfolk surround the mourners. It must have been far harder for the bereaved ones to return to a bare shack to face the hardships of frontier life without the helpmate, the parent, or the little child, the light of the home.
Johnson County Kansas was an original county formed in 1855. The original owners were Kaw (Kansas) Indians until 1828 when a government treaty moved Shawnees from Missouri and later on other bands of Shawnees from Ohio. In 1831 Mormans under Jo Smith tried to settle in Shawnee Twp. but the government Indian Treaty prevented their plans. They returned to Independence, Missouri for their Promised Land.
Many faiths established churches in early Johnson County. The Methodist Episcopal under Rev. Thomas Johnson in 1840 started a mission school for the Indians on 2,240 acres in Mission Twp. just 2 miles from the State Line and Kansas City (Westport at that time). They invested $75,000 in brick buildings, a Mill and workshop. Most materials used were produced on their land and most buildings still stand and in use in 1990. It is a well-known landmark and is listed on the National Historic Sites.
The Shawnee Mission buildings were used as the First Capital of Kansas, occupied by the Territorial Governor and the Legislature of the State, before there were any other buildings in the state sufficient to accommodate them.
There was also a Baptist Mission and a Mission of the Friends or Quakers Society established by Jeremiah Hadley. This was only the beginning of a wide variety religious schools and churches in Johnson County Kansas.
Johnson County was well blessed with natural resources. Good farm land, plenty of trees to build with, for fire wood. Water from many creeks, streams, and rivers and later, natural gas & oil, not too far away coal was produced. Things that would make life in a few years much more bearable.
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