Don’t mess with Kansas’s Beecher Bible and Rifle Church.
A spry history recap(bear with us , it gets good ) : In 1854 , the Kansas - Nebraska Act was go by , organizing the territory that would eventually become the great Department of State of Kansas , Nebraska , Montana , and the Dakotas .
The Din Land was Brobdingnagian , and peaceful , already inhabited by Indigenous multitude and roaming bison . It lie north of 1820 Missouri Compromise , which signify slavery here wastechnicallyprohibited . However a powerful coalition of politicians from the South was trying to change that limitation and overturn the Compromise . To mollify them , the 1854 Act stipulated that the unexampled territorial dominion would be organize “ with or without ” thraldom . In other words , the citizens could vote amongst themselves to be a free or striver land .
Kansas could go either path . And so , the race was on . Pro- and anti - slavery acts flood the territories in an endeavour to sway the balloting in a sentence that became known as “ Bleeding Kansas . ” If you were fail to come down , you needed to be fortify .
Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
Which is exactly what a group from New Haven , Connecticut did .
A few solar day later Beecher ( crony of abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe , source ofUncle Tom ’s Cabin ) sent Lines $ 625 for the rifle . With it came 25 bible . According to lore the rifles were smuggle through Missouri — a slave land — mask with the Bibles , most potential in crateful marked “ Scripture . ”
Later , the impose Sharps rifle would be dub the Beecher Bible .
If we imagined what a rural Kansan church looked like, we would do no better than this.|Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
The small railroad town goes big on ‘The Wizard of Oz.’
When the group of Connecticut settlers got to Wabaunsee ( an autochthonal word mean “ Dawn of the Day ” ) first by train to Kansas City , then by wagon partially along the Oregon Trail , there was already a bustling tent township in spot . On the South savings bank of the Kaw — now Kansas — river a settler had built a tiny store . street were being laid out . jury-rigged church services were have in tents , which later became cabins . Not all the settlers could endure the jolty pioneer life : some gave up and get back up North . Things get better when company in the form of married woman and children came down to join . With a unbendable population , in June 1857 they decided it was clip to organize a church formally , and “ the First Church of Christ in Wabaunsee '' was bear . Of this initial group of 28 charter members , nine were women .
stock for the permanent church were mostly raised in New Haven , and the social organisation was built using hardy stone hale from quarries by oxen . Mortar was mixed by script . directly - backed pews were fraction down the heart and soul of the church service by a partition that separate men and women . The churchyard was lined with hitching posts .
In 1861 , the work of the settlers came to fruition : Kansas entered the Union as a devoid land . In May 1862 , the Christian church , now the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church , was dedicated , and became one of the orotund and most influential Congregation churches in Kansas .
As time passed settlers moved on , and the church building became abandoned . But in 1950 the resident physician of Wabaunsee had imprint a new church group . They began holding weekly service again , and it ’s thought that this new avatar was one of the first church in Kansas to mix , continue the settler ’ legacy . Renovations do in 1957 to the rural century - older complex body part in the conformation of a unexampled floor , a tile ceiling , and interchange coal stoves with modern warmer . New church bench were put in with comfortable padded seating area , and maculate glass windows for a welcoming pop of color . In the back elbow room is a cabinet of chronicle with a plaque that understand “ Integrity is Doing the proper Thing When No One is Watching , ” flanked by pictures of the pioneers and parishioners throughout history . Black and white parishioner are represented , and a characterisation of an imposingly - bearded Charles B. Lines — the original leader of the Connecticut group — make an coming into court . There ’s also a couple of incredible shots of two older woman wearing cat - eye glasses , care one of the Sharps rifle .
In 1969 , a memorial was erect in a common a few blocks north of the church building , which understand , “ In Memory of the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony , which Settled This Area in 1856 and Helped Make Kansas a Free State . May Future Generations give Them Tribute . ”
In 1992 , a new social organization was contribute to the church , with modern facilities for classes and Sunday School . Today you may still attend a Sunday church service — continuously race since 1950 — or take a turn . possibly leave behind your rifle at home .
A cabinet is dedicated to the church’s past. The guy with the beard is Charles B. Lines.|Photo by Vanita Salisbury
Other Historical Sites in the Area
Wamego Historical Museum and Old Prairie VillageA complex of buildings culled from around Pottawatomie County , now sitting in Wamego ’s City Park , the Old Prairie Town includes social organisation from the 1800s , like a one - room school , an 1840 logarithm cabin , a general store , and the first jail in the county , build in 1872 . helm it is the museum , with items like the first Wamego dental X - ray machine , the first switchboard in the area , and a full - body taxidermied Old World buffalo named Abigail . bind to the museum , in the Transportation Building , is a seemingly out - of - home 1950 Chrysler . But it makes perfect gumption if you know that Wamego also was the birthplace of Walter P. Chrysler ( 1875 ) , beginner of the Chrysler Corporation .
Mount Mitchell Heritage PrairieAlong the Native Stone Scenic Byway , nestled in rare and endangered prairie tallgrass , is this 170 - acre historic hilltop park , consecrated to Indigenous people , and which once contained the westernmost part of the Underground Railroad . trail take you up to the top of the hill for vast views of native prairie . At the top is also a brass plaque commemorating the Connecticut - Kansas Colony , a.k.a . the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony .
Oregon Trail Nature ParkThe Oregon Trail pass by just north of Wamego , and waggon ruts can still be seen around Kansas . To get to this nature park and lake in the Kaw River Valley — a haven for birdwatchers with red - bob hawks , northern harriers and turkey vultures — you drive part of the route of the lead , traveling the same route that immigrants going west did 150 geezerhood ago . Do n’t block to stop at the silos , paint with mural depict scenes from Kansas account .
Branding before branding was a thing.|Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
