LECOMPTON — Local historians in Lecompton are hopeful they may have discovered a unique way to boost the town’s local economy — and perhaps even the state’s — by producing reenactments of Kansas’s territorial period through Town Hall meetings.
They think it can bring in tourism dollars that will help solidify Kansas’ historic role in the Civil War.
“You know the birthplace of the Civil War is in Kansas because 100 people were killed in Kansas prior to the Civil War starting,” said Paul Bahnmaier, president of Lecompton Historical Society.
His family settled in Lecompton in 1855, less than 15 miles from Lawrence. And that’s one reason he is such a booster of the community.
But the other reason he’s passionate is because Lecompton played such a major role in United States history. Bleeding Kansas caused the earthquake that shook America; Lecompton was ground zero.
“Let’s look at how much the South is making off of their Civil War history, or the East Coast off the Revolutionary War,” Bahnmaier said. “Put up some signs on I-70 or I-35 that say Kansas is the birthplace of the Civil War, and I’ll guarantee you we will get a lot of attention and a lot of economic development.”
A lifetime of Kansas history
Bahnmaier’s great-grandparents came to Kansas in 1855. The George Bahnmaier family lived in a dugout southwest of Lecompton for a year before building a home there.
Each day, George Bahnmaier walked into Lecompton where he worked at a hotel as a tailor during Kansas’ territorial period.
“I am telling the story of Lecompton not because I’m proslavery or abolitionist,” Paul Bahnmaier said. “I am telling the story of Lecompton because this is a national story that led to the election of Lincoln.
“I am telling this story because when we tell this story, people find out about it, and it is also for the economic development for Kansas and Lecompton. Tourists come to town and visit our museums. They purchase things at our businesses, which have become available because of our history.”
Bahnmaier has earned the nickname “Mr. Lecompton.” In 2019, he received the Governor’s Award for his lifetime efforts in preserving the stories and legacy of Kansas.
That effort started when he was 12. It was 1954 and Lecompton was celebrating its centennial.
His parents, Pete and Edna Bahnmaier, were very much interested in local community activities and in the town’s history. They explained the importance of the town to their son.
“Not only is it important to our nation as to our Civil War history, but then our Eisenhower connection is really like frosting on the cake,” Paul Bahnmaier said.
Lecompton’s Constitution Hall is where the Lecompton Constitution was drafted in 1857.
Delegates tried to develop a constitution for Kansas that was acceptable to supporters and opponents of slavery. It failed.
But the debate surrounding it became a political firestorm across the nation. The leading Kansas characters from that period — Charles and Sara Robinson, the first governor of Kansas and his wife; John Brown, a fiery abolitionist, and Clarina Nichols, frontier journalist, suffragette and abolitionist – would all become national icons.
“Lincoln would not have become President had it not been for the Lecompton Constitution,” Bahnmaier said. “It’s a major story that few people know about. That’s why our Lecompton tagline says, ‘The birthplace of the Civil War, where slavery began to die.’ ”
Lecompton’s Eisenhower connection dates to 1884 when Ida Stover — Dwight Eisenhower’s mother — came to Lecompton to attend school at Lane University. She married David Eisenhower in the upstairs chapel on Sept. 25, 1885.
Dwight, one of their seven sons, was born in 1890. He became the nation’s 34th president in 1953.
Those are the stories Bahnmaier tells. He does it with the passion of a schoolteacher, which he was for nearly four decades. He taught Kansas and U.S. history for 15 years in Olathe and 23 years at Shawnee Heights.
In 1980, when Lecompton held a dedication for Lane University, Bahnmaier was elected president of the Lecompton Historical Society. He has held that title ever since.
Kansas legacy
Bahnmaier encourages Kansans to know their state’s roots, including how Kansas became a territory of the United States in 1854.
Lecompton was named the territorial capital the next year. It was here that the territorial legislature — elected through fraud because many pro-slavery Missourians crossed the border to cast ballots — drafted a constitution to admit Kansas to the Union as a slave state, even though a majority of its settlers were against slavery.
The Lecompton Constitution was approved and signed in 1857. It was sent to Washington for ratification, where it passed the Senate but stirred tense debates in the House.
A fight broke out. It ended when two Wisconsin Republicans — John Potter and Cadwallader Washburn — ripped the wig off the head of William Barksdale, a Mississippi Democrat.
Although President James Buchanan, a Democrat, pushed for passage of the constitution, fellow Democrat Sen. Stephen Douglas – who believed each state should decide whether to legalize slavery with a popular vote of its people — opposed the constitution because of the territory’s voting fraud.
Washington’s reaction to the Lecompton Constitution split the National Democratic Party and allowed a Republican — Abraham Lincoln — to win the presidency in 1860 with only 39 percent of the popular vote.
The Kansas constitution was rewritten, and Kansas entered the Union on Jan. 29, 1861, as a Free State.
That’s why local historians in Lecompton are now hoping their community can attract tourists to the town to learn more about Kansas’ role in the Civil War.
They are re-enacting Town Hall meetings from the era — some a bit raucous and loud, and sometimes politically incorrect by today’s standards. But they are hoping it will create enthusiasm and awareness for how Kansas became a state.
Think about this segment from a recent production of a Town Hall meeting in which Bahnmaier plays Douglas County Sheriff Samuel Jefferson Jones, a proslavery supporter: “We proudly wave this flag … Southern rights. Southern rights. (Boo) Southern rights. (Hear! Hear! Hazzah!)”
Some in the audience boo, as another actor loudly proclaims: “So sorry that we had to hear such nonsense as Sheriff Jones … You know we have a nickname for Sheriff Jones out here. We refer to Sheriff Jones as that Mouth from the South!”