The Land where Leavenworth and Fort Leavenworth
are located today was originally inhabited by the Kansa, Osage and
Delaware Indians and today many of our streets are named after these
and other local Indian tribes.
In the picture above, the camera looks
east on Delaware from the corner of Fifth Street, about
1870. The photograph was take by E.E. Henry, an early Leavenworth
photographer whose studio was in 300 block of Delaware.
In 1827,
Colonel Henry Leavenworth founded Fort Leavenworth on the bluffs
of the Missouri River. For the next several decades Fort Leavenworth
played an important role in keeping the peace among the various
Indian tribes and the increasing number of settlers heading west.
By the 1840's, travel to Oregon and California had begun and thousands
of wagons passed through Fort Leavenworth on the way to the Santa
Fe and Oregon Trail.
In 1854, the City of Leavenworth
was founded as the very first city of Kansas. Leavenworth became
nationally known as the 'jumping off point' for the opening of the
West. Buffalo Bill Cody spent part of his youth here and later worked
in the area as a Pony Express rider and Army scout. Cody's parents
are buried in Leavenworth.
In 1858, the Sisters of Charity of
Leavenworth settled here. In 1864, the Sisters opened St. John's
Hospital and in 1923 founded Saint Mary College.
In 1863, the legislature passed an
act to erect the Kansas State Penitentiary on a site which is now
located within the city of Lansing. The contract to build the prison
was let in 1863 and work started in 1864. However, because of money
difficulties connected with the Civil War, work stopped in 1864
and did not resume again until 1866. The building was first occupied
in 1868.
