Kansas Day as an annual celebration of Kansas' statehood is fairly unique among all the other states. The day is fondly remembered by adults who grew up in Kansas to those who have moved to other states or countries. This pride in being a Kansan was part of Kansas Day celebrations from its beginning.
The following is taken from an article originally published in the January 1932 issue of The Kansas Teacher and Western School Journal. The article "The Origin of Kansas Day" was written by Esther Clark Hill, Kansas Historical Society.
The Origin Of Kansas Day
Kansas Day was born in Paola in 1877. In the Paola public school 15 or 20 youngsters were studying United States history in Alexander LeGrande Copley's classroom, and on January 8, 1877, the lesson happened to be the battle of New Orleans. Intense interest was created in the class by the fact that 62 years before that, to the very hour, General Jackson's riflemen were peppering the British red-coats from behind the cotton bales. The whole school awoke to patriotism on that anniversary and decided to celebrate their pride in Kansas and its victories of peace.
So it was announced that an afternoon would be set apart for the study of Kansas - —its geography, its history and its resources; and the afternoon selected was January 29, 1877. For two weeks the students were busy outside of school getting together every available piece of information concerning Kansas. They searched encyclopedias, plied parents with questions, and stirred the whole community to furnish local history, statistics and valuable and interesting facts bearing upon that one subject.
The eventful day came. The blackboard extended three-quarters of the way around the room and was fairly covered by the pupils with careful drawings of the state seal and maps of the state, the county and township. The motto of the state was conspicuous in red and blue chalk. The banner counties in wheat, corn, oats, hay, cattle, hogs, horses, sheep and even mules were on the board. On the board were also the Kansas songs. One was Whittier's "Song of the Kansas Emigrant". Another was Lucy Larcom's "The Call to Kansas."
Then there were short speeches by two or three boys — extracts from Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner. Questions in Kansas history, asked by one side of the room and answered by the other; first things in Kansas, such as the first printing press, the first school, the first railroad, the first capital, the first newspaper. There was one mistake-—the exercises should not have been held in the schoolroom, but in the largest hall in town, to accommodate the parents and friends who wanted to get in but couldn't.
In 1879 Copley became superintendent of the schools in Wichita, and, of course, the day was appropriately observed there. Meanwhile it was his hobby to attend the county teachers' institutes and at the state teachers' association meetings, held then every year in Topeka at the Christmas holidays and encourage the teachers to celebrate Kansas Day. A description of Copley's celebration appeared in the Kansas Educationist. Newspapers of the state described the celebration as a Kansas institution.
The day after Thanksgiving, in 1882, the first Northwestern Teachers Association was held in Beloit. It was then and there decided that a small pamphlet should be published giving the concise information about the state, songs and sample speeches suitable for the proper observance of the day. Del Valentine, of the Clay Center Dispatch, printed the book. It was called Kansas Day and contained 32 pages. two thousand copies were printed. At the next State Teachers Association in Topeka the booklet was a prominent feature. Every teacher took home one or more copies. Purchased copies went to 65 counties in the state. For a short time the booklet was used as a textbook in the state normal school at Emporia.
Kansas Day continued to grow for more than 130 years. Today it is celebrated by teachers and students across the state.
Did you know?
Kansas, situated on the American Great Plains, became the 34th state January 29, 1861. Its path to statehood was long and bloody: After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the two territories to settlement and allowed the new settlers to determine whether the states would be admitted to the union as “free” or ”slave,” North and South competed to send the most settlers into the region. This quickly led to violence, and the territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
Kansas has long been known as part of America’s agricultural heartland and is home to the major U.S. military installation Fort Leavenworth.
In 1954, it became a battleground of the civil rights movement when the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case was decided in the Supreme Court, ending the doctrine of “separate but equal” in public schools. Kansas is also known for its contributions to jazz music, barbecue and as the setting of L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s book The Wizard of Oz.
Date of Statehood: January 29, 1861
Capital: Topeka
Population: 2,853,118 (2010)
Size: 82,278 square miles
Nickname(s): Sunflower State; Wheat State; Jayhawk State
Motto: Ad astra per aspera (“To the stars through difficulties”)
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