This Kansas university was built by a teacher with a bounty on his head

Isaac Goodnow’s Journey from Boston to Manhattan

Isaac Goodnow quit his safe job as a science professor in 1854 to fight slavery in Kansas. At age 40, he led 75 New Englanders west after hearing abolitionist Eli Thayer speak.

By April 1855, Goodnow had set up a town called Boston where the Blue and Kansas Rivers meet. Soon after, a grounded steamboat brought 75 more settlers who joined in but asked to rename the place Manhattan.

Goodnow then built Blue Mont College in 1858, and by 1863, turned it into Kansas State Agricultural College, America’s first working land-grant school.

The Goodnow House still stands today, filled with original family items from this bold abolitionist mission.

A Professor Trades His Chalk for a Cause

Isaac Goodnow, a 40-year-old natural sciences professor at Providence Conference Seminary in Rhode Island, went to hear Eli Thayer speak in December 1854.

Thayer got the crowd excited about his New England Emigrant Aid Company and its plan to fight slavery in Kansas Territory by sending settlers there.

Goodnow, an abolitionist since 1840, made up his mind right away. He quit his teaching job and wrote newspaper pieces to get others to join the cause.

The Long Trip West Begins With Hope

On March 6, 1855, Goodnow left Boston with 75 New England settlers organized by the company. They took a five-day steamboat trip and got to Kansas City, Missouri on March 18, 1855.

The group picked seven men, including Goodnow, to scout ahead into Kansas Territory.

This advance team pushed forward to find the best spot for their new antislavery settlement, following the military road between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley.

Sunset Reveals The Perfect Valley

The advance team climbed Bluemont hill on March 24, 1855, as the sun was setting.

They saw the beautiful Kansas River valley below with two small settlements already there: Polistra (started by George Park in fall 1854) and Canton.

People from Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Rhode Island, and Maine had started Canton.

The spot sat where the Kansas River and Big Blue River met, offering great transportation and water access.

Three Towns Become One Boston

In April 1855, the Boston Colony asked to join the Polistra and Canton settlements. The three groups came together as one town called Boston to honor their New England roots.

The Boston group wrote a town constitution and approved a survey with a 45-acre park. They built a warehouse, a river landing, and ferries across both rivers.

Several basic houses went up, and they bought more land with company money.

A Grounded Steamboat Changes Their Fate

The steamboat Hartford ran aground in the Kansas River near Boston settlement on June 1, 1855. It carried 75 Ohio settlers from the Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company led by Andrew J. Mead.

These folks had planned to set up their own town called Manhattan about 20 miles upstream.

The Hartford brought 10-14 ready-to-build houses and supplies. Boston residents saw a chance and asked the stranded Hartford passengers to join them.

Ohio Settlers Strike a Naming Deal

The Hartford passengers agreed to join the Boston settlement but had one big request: the town needed a new name.

On June 29, 1855, the name changed from Boston to Manhattan to make the Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company folks happy.

Andrew J. Mead became a leader and later served as Manhattan’s first mayor when the town formed in 1857. The ready-to-build houses from the Hartford gave the settlement good homes.

Building A Free-State Stronghold

Manhattan only got two Free-State lawmakers elected to the first Territorial Legislature in 1855. Goodnow went to the territory-wide Free-State meeting in August 1855 and backed the creation of a shadow government.

By 1858, he served as a helper at the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention.

Fort Riley’s nearby presence kept Manhattan safe from the violence that hit other Free-State towns during the “Bleeding Kansas” time.

A College Takes Root In The Prairie

Goodnow came up with the idea to start a college in Manhattan with Rev. Joseph Denison and Rev. Washington Marlatt.

He pitched Blue Mont Central College at a Methodist meeting in Nebraska City in April 1857.

They got approval from the Kansas Territorial Legislature in February 1858 for the college, named after a local hill. They added “Central” because they thought Manhattan sat near the middle of the United States.

Goodnow Travels East With Hat In Hand

Between 1858 and 1860, Goodnow spent months each year traveling back to New England to raise money. He collected funds for both the Blue Mont Central College building and Manhattan’s first Methodist church.

The college opened to students in late 1859 with 53 people signed up.

They built a three-story limestone structure while competing with another Methodist college, Baker University, in Baldwin.

Kansas Joins The Union As A Free State

Kansas became a free state on January 29, 1861. Goodnow started asking the Kansas lawmakers to turn Blue Mont Central College into a state university.

His first try in 1861 passed the lawmakers but Governor Charles Robinson from Lawrence said no. His second try in 1862 failed by just one vote.

The Morrill Land-Grant Act passed by Congress in 1862 created a new chance for the college to become an agricultural school.

America Gets Its First Land-Grant University

The Kansas legislature finally accepted Manhattan’s offer to donate the college building and 120 acres on February 16, 1863.

Kansas State Agricultural College became the first operational land-grant institution under the Morrill Act. The college opened on September 2, 1863, with 52 students (26 men, 26 women), making it the second U.S. institution to admit both genders equally.

Goodnow worked as land agent from 1867-1873, turning over half of the 82,000 federal land grant acres into much-needed cash.

The former Rhode Island professor’s antislavery mission had successfully created both a thriving town and a groundbreaking university.

Visiting Kansas State University, Kansas

You can explore Isaac Goodnow’s abolitionist mission at Kansas State University’s museum at 2301 Claflin Road in Manhattan.

The museum is free and shows original letters, diaries and photographs from when Goodnow left his teaching job to join the New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1855.

He helped found both Manhattan and the college during Kansas Territory’s violent slavery conflicts. Visit Tuesday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm or weekends 2:00-5:00pm.

Group tours available by calling 785-565-6490.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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• The rigged 1855 election that set Kansas on fire and sparked the Civil War