Leavenworth City

J. Urban Michael

Description

Leavenworth City is a novel that will take you on a journey back though time. Its captivating history told through a fictional character from 1854 to 1861 will have you glued to the pages. This is an adventure you will not be able to forget after you read the journal entries taking you back into the 19th century. Stories with historical figures and other unmentionables telling their antics weave a gripping tale that will leave the reader wanting to learn more about this era in time.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 30 novembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645751946
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Leavenworth City
Michael J. Urban
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-11-30
Leavenworth City About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Synopsis Chapter One Returning to Leavenworth Chapter Two The Hidden Tunnel Chapter Three A Journey Back Through Time Chapter Four Weston, Missouri Chapter Five Kansas Territory Chapter Six Popular Sovereignty Chapter Seven Leavenworth City, Kickapoo City, Atchison, and Delaware City Is Born Chapter Eight Where the Wild West Begins Chapter Nine Crossing the Lines: A Territory Divided? Chapter Ten A Civil War Begins in Kansas Territory Chapter Eleven A Small City Grows Bigger Chapter Twelve Battlefield Kansas Territory Popular Sovereignty Is a Double-Edged Sword Chapter Thirteen The Pendulum Swings in Favor of Free-State Kansas Chapter Fourteen Laws of the Land Chapter Fifteen Underground Railroad Chapter Sixteen Saloons, Breweries, and Brothels Chapter Seventeen The People of Kansas Chapter Eighteen Abe Lincoln Visits Leavenworth City Chapter Nineteen On the Road to Statehood Chapter Twenty The Battle in Kansas Territory Becomes the Nation’s Civil War Bibliography Special Thank You To Pictures Provided By
About the Author
Michael J. Urban was born in Livermore, California, on October 17, 1967. The youngest of four children, he and his family lived coast to coast growing up, so that is where Michael developed his passion for travel and the history of the land around him. With his wife of seven years, Natalie, they have raised five children between them, living an adventurous life in Kansas.
Dedication
Thank you to my wife and love of my life, Natalie, who encouraged me the entire time to continue my writing even when I was having a bad day. To my children, my mother and father, and the rest of my family for always supporting me no matter what shenanigans I think of.
To Reed and Melinda Marcum for being the best neighbors and knowing just what we needed to be helped out with when we were in a time of need.
Also, my appreciation to the people of Leavenworth, Kansas, and my friends.
Copyright Information ©
Michael J. Urban (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Ordering Information
Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Urban, Michael J.
Leavenworth City
ISBN 9781645751922 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781645751939 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645751946 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020908344
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
[e-mail]
[phone]
Acknowledgement
Dedicated to my brother,
but not my twin.
Kenneth Stanley Urban
March 31, 1964 – July 1, 2020.
Thank you to the following:
Michael Coakley, proprietor of The Saint George Hotel who gave me permission to use the historical hotel in my story.
David Hawley, owner/founder of The Steamboat Arabia Museum who gave me permission to use a little bit of the story in my moments of Leavenworth City history. 1856.com
Saint George Hotel
500 Main Street
Weston, Missouri 64098
Steamboat Arabia Museum
400 Grand Blvd.
Kansas City, Missouri 64106
I would also like to thank the Weston Museum on Main Street, in Weston, Missouri, for their contributions of pictures as well. Also I would like to show my appreciation for the citizens of Leavenworth, Atchison, Weston, Saint Joseph, and Kansas City, whose knowledge guided me on the right path for history.
Synopsis
This is a story of true historical facts chronologically written by a fictitious newspaper reporter. He wrote in his journal this epic adventure surprisingly found in a tunnel that was used in the Underground Railroad in Leavenworth, Kansas. The unbelievable events start from April 1854 in Hannibal, Missouri, a riverboat ride across Missouri on the Missouri River to the city of Weston and the founding of Leavenworth City. The city that grew from an idea that 32 men in Weston Missouri to being a city with over 10,000 people and writes until June 1861.
Murders, lynchings, and hangings were the laws of the land and whoever had the most sympathizers, controlled the land. Kansas Territory is where the Civil War started when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854. Pro-slavery men fighting against the men who believed Kansas should not have slavery.
The childhood home of William Cody was in Salt Creek Valley and his first job was with Russell, Majors, and Waddell, the freighting company started in Leavenworth City. They were the firm who created the Pony Express. Abraham Lincoln visited Leavenworth City in 1858, as well as Horace Greely and many other famous people throughout the history of Leavenworth City.
Chapter One

Returning to Leavenworth
As my wife Natalie and I were watching a professional stock car race on a hot and lazy summer Sunday afternoon at our home in Clemmons, North Carolina, the home telephone rang unexpectedly, making both of us jump. The caller identification revealed that it was my parents’ number, as it appeared up on the corner of the television screen. So I answered the phone knowing that it was my mother because my father would never call, at least not actually dialing the phone for himself; he waits until Mom dials, and then picks up on another phone extension after the person on the other end answers the phone.
“Hello, Mother,” I remember answering and then adding something like how are you and Dad today? Then I somewhat recall how Mom blurted out how she tried calling both of our cellphones first, but neither of you answered; she then quickly added what I think was, “Your father is not doing well right now! We just came home from the hospital and you two have to come back here to Leavenworth as quick as you can. Your father had another heart attack and we don’t know how much longer he is going to be with us.” I vaguely remember saying “Yes, of course, we will be on the earliest plane we can catch.” I know that I was in shock but at the time I was able to calm Mom down a bit telling her I think was that I would call their five grandchildren that Natalie and I have, and tell them about their grandfather’s health situation.
We then changed the subject and I think I asked Mom about what all my other siblings were doing, and when they would be arriving in Leavenworth. My mother had already talked to both of my brothers and my sister, and they were also going to call their children and tell them the news as well also that they are going to get back to Leavenworth as soon as they possibly could make it back there.
As my wife Natalie was making the arrangements for our trip online and calling her aunt, I started calling our children to tell them about their grandfather’s condition. Michael and Cera live in Wichita, Kansas, while Laura, Hope, and Christina still live in the Kansas City area.
That night we also had called my childhood friend, Randy, who lived in Winston to see if he would be able to drive Natalie and I to the Winston Salem-Greensboro Airport the following morning. Being a good friend, he obliged me saying that he would be happy to.
After all of our phone calls, we gathered the suitcases and packed our bags with appropriate clothes for church, socializing, and also at least a week’s stay in Leavenworth. I have a cousin, Shelly, in the airline business and she was able to get us special fares. Thanks to Shelly, we were able to save money on the last-minute airfare prices they charge. She was also able to secure us a rental car so no one would have to pick us up from the airport. Life is easier when you know the right people in the right places.
After a night of little sleep, we awoke to an early alarm clock and rolled out of bed. We showered, dressed, and then had a quick breakfast allowing us to finish just as Randy arrived at our house at the correct time. Randy and I looked for dragons in the sky during our ride to the airport like we used to as kids growing up in Clemmons after watching all the dragon movies in the early ’80s that had influenced our lives. We made it through traffic with ease and he was able to drop us off early so we could go through the security inspection at the airport. Our flight was on time and we were able to board the plane with no problems. It was a very short flight to Atlanta with an hour’s layover there, and then we were off to Kansas City. It had been a few years since we were back home in Leavenworth. Mom and Dad liked coming down to visit us and our old neighbors here in Clemmons where we lived here in my youth.
We arrived at M.C.I. (Kansas City’s International Airport) at about 2:30 in the afternoon, and retrieved our rental car. It is just a short half-hour drive to Leavenworth from the airport in North Kansas City. As we left the airport, we drove north to Platte City where the memories of the old Sonny Hill car commercials with the big orange water tower made me chuckle a bit when we drove around a bend and saw it in the distance.
Returning to my parents’ home started flooding my mind with all those old familiar scenes and forgotten memories that I had lived as a child growing up in the small town of St. Joseph, Missouri. While driving down to Leavenworth in our station wagon, I was of course in the third seat