John Wesley Park Papers

John Wesley Park settled in Smithville, Missouri from Higginsport, Ohio in the mid-1850s. Park worked as a farmer and completed varying jobs to cover his living and board expenses in Missouri. He enjoyed the frontier life writing to his sister, Sarah Park in Ohio, of the beauty of the Plains, calling it his Canaan, “the land of milk and honey.”1

Park was aware though that not everything was perfect in paradise and that tensions were growing between Kansans and Missourians regarding slavery. Park was technically an outsider in his community. His neighbors mostly consisted of settlers from Kentucky, and shared different political views. By 1860, one hundred thousand Kentuckians called Missouri their home. It was a dangerous time to be an outsider and varying political views was the root of much violence during the Bleeding Kansas era. “I have no disputes with the natives on political matters as this county is American and I am of the same Stripe. but the people as a general thing think I am diferent from any kentuckian they ever saw.”2 Park attempted to blend in, but was not afraid to voice his political opinions in his letters to family and friends. “I want Kansas to be free but I dare not say so here if they knew I was a free state man they would stick my head under the ice.”3

In September 1857, the Kansas Constitutional Convention met in Lecompton, determined to make Kansas a slave state. Newly appointed Governor, Robert J. Walker, assured his free-state opponents that a fair and legitimate territorial legislature would be seated. The new Lecompton Constitution included a provisional article that guaranteed a slaveholder’s right to retain ownership of their slaves currently living in the territory, but it also prohibited future importation of slaves to Kansas. Voters would later decide to include or exclude this article in the constitution. If excluded, slavery would be prohibited in Kansas entirely.

Kansas is a hot place about now Jim Lane is now Dictator of bleeding Kansas and keeps upper Mo. in hot warter the frontier towns of Missouri are kept guarded Lane was in Leavenworth City the other day drilling his men and made a [MS illegible] speech the merchants there are in continual fear that the City will be burnt and market stuff has declined one half I saw a man this morning just from their and he says the excitement is up to a high pich the freestate party will not recognize the Lecompton Constitution to hell with the constitution they say. I think the matter will be duly considered in Congress I go in for a constitution that will exclude niggers of all grades and conditions from the Terrytory let us have one white state in the Union I say and exclude Africas sunny beans forever So mote it be Amen.
–John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 15 Jan. 1858

Heated debates took place in the Senate over the admission of Kansas, under the proslavery Lecompton Constitution. Several Senators argued the Lecompton Constitution did not represent the true values of the people in Kansas. The Constitution barely passed the Senate, and was eventually defeated in the House. On August 2, 1858 the people of Kansas finally rejected the Lecompton Constitution.

Park did not become too involved in politics while he lived in Smithville, Missouri. He was more interested in dances and courting several young ladies, although he admitted he never wanted to marry. “I find the gals here would all marry I could marry any time if I was fool enough to do so I have stood two or three on there heads they are like the widow Madman they will love a feller whether he loves them or not.”4 He also noted to his sister, Sarah that the men and women in the area were rowdier than back east in Ohio and danced and carried on in true border ruffian style.

By February 1859, Park had caught “gold fever” and headed to Pike’s Peak in Colorado for prospecting.5 He had little luck in his search for gold and returned to Clay County, Missouri in August 1859. Park tried to return to his old lifestyle, but soon moved south to Dade County, as he could no longer afford room and board in Clay County. Park accepted a job as a school teacher, but often thought of the life he left behind.6 Even though Park was living in a different part of Missouri he still witnessed great political unrest and wrote his sister about the political climate in Dade County after the presidential election in 1860.

The topic of conversation here seems to be Disunion, Abe Lincoln &c. you wish to know if I am a [Stephen A.] Douglas man I am not I I am a Union Man. I say hurrah for Bell and the union of all the states Bell was all the union man on the track all the others were sectional it seems to me that the fanatics of the north and the Fire eaters of the South are trying to bring about a Civil war I supposed we are to have a war of the Roses as in the time of Henry the sixth of England and the Mississippi valley must be deluged with blood and for what for to determine the fate of the American Negro “My great principal” carried this state they say one man in this precinct voted for Lincoln.
–John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 30 Nov. 1860

Missouri was in the “midst of rebellion” as Park put it in May 1861.7 Missouri elected to remain in the Union. Yet, her southern leaning Governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, declared Missouri in a state of armed neutrality, and vowed to defend her border should war enter the state. Governor Claiborne Jackson refused to follow Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops to be sent to help preserve the Union.8 The hot-tempered Nathaniel Lyon then captured 669 militiamen with Southern political ties outside of St. Louis. On June 11, 1861, Lyon declared war on Governor Jackson and Sterling Price, commander of the new Missouri State Guard, at the Planters House in St. Louis. Lyon then marched to Jefferson City, Missouri, to capture the State Capitol from Jackson. Jackson vacated the city, heading south, and the Union established a provisional government, led by Hamilton R. Gamble.

In October 1861, Governor Jackson and the elected Missouri State representatives, while fleeing federal forces, voted to secede from the Union. That month, Park joined Company A, 5th Kansas Cavalry; part of Jim Lane’s Brigade and fought bushwhackers near Kansas City.9 He reported that the Liberty arsenal had been overtaken by secessionists and that the rebel flag was flying in Platte City and Liberty, yet Jim Lane and other Union supporters had control of St. Joseph, where the stars and stripes were still flying high.10 Fighting along the Missouri-Kansas border continued for the next four years and would be the scene of horrific guerrilla warfare perpetuated by both Kansas Jayhawkers and Missouri Bushwhackers. Company A was sent on an expedition to Harrisonville and then continued to travel south until they reached Helena, Arkansas.11 Park died at Helena, Arkansas on August 17, 1862 from congestion of the brain.12

The John Wesley Park Papers are part of a large collection at the Special Collections and University Archives at Wichita State University. The Park Brothers Papers also consists of Frank M. Park and Jesse Park’s correspondence. Frank and Jesse were John’s brothers. Twenty five letters from John Wesley Park have been digitized. Frank and Jesse’s correspondence were written post-war. Researchers are encouraged to contact Wichita State University to research the rest of the collection.

Contributed by the Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives.

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  1. John Wesley Park Letter to Sarah Park. 11 Oct. 1857. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  2. John Wesley Park Letter to Sarah Park. 11 Oct. 1857. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  3. John Park Letter to Dodler. 01 Jan. 1858. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  4. John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 15 Jan. 1858. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  5. John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 28 Jul. 1859. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  6. John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 10 Jul. 1860. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  7. John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 20 May 1861. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  8. John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 20 May 1861. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  9. John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 02 Oct. 1861. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  10. John Park Letter to Sarah Park. 20 May 1861. Park Brothers Papers, MS 94-28. Wichita State University Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita, Kansas.
  11. UNION KANSAS VOLUNTEERS: 5th Regiment, Kansas Cavalry, National Parks Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Systems, http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/regiments.cfm
  12. Graden, Debra, ed. Kansas Civil War Soldiers [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999. Original data: Kansas Adjutant General Roll, Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865.