Ritchie House Project
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Ritchie House Project NEWSLETTERSThese files are in PDF format. You can download a PDF reader free from Adobe.
- February 2005 (PDF)
- January 2005 (PDF)
- October 2004 (PDF)
- July 2004 (PDF)
Links to Topeka Capital-Journal articles:
Underground Railroad trip recalled 7-24-2008
Descendants preserving settler's heritage 10-2-2004
Ritchie family plants tree 10-3-2004
Workers prepare visitors center 10-3-2004
FOSTERING
A HERITAGE IDENTITY
for Topeka, Kansas, and the Nation
What binds us as a people defines
us as a people. For Americans the bond is a set of values associated with opportunity, freedom
and liberty, where the rights of individuals are balanced by the welfare
of the community. These values have triumphed over forces which would divide
Americans and have guided the nation's development. Celebrating those values
as a critical part of its heritage helps successive generations identify
with the nation.
Midway through the 19th century, Americans confronted division
of
monumental proportions. Creating the Kansas Territory in 1854 started a
chain reaction that led straight to the tragic American Civil War. All over the
country men and women emigrated to Kansas either to assure slavery's expansion
in the new territory or to block its spread and ultimately end its practice.
If the nation was born along the east coast, it was reborn in Kansas. Just as
the Minutemen stood against royal tyranny at Lexington and Concord, so the "Topeka
Boys" stood against the spread of slavery into the new Kansas territory eight
decades later. Their opposition represented the opening struggle of what Lincoln
would call "a new birth of freedom", realized with the Civil
War's emancipation proclamation and the Union's preservation.
When John and Mary Ritchie arrived at
Topeka in early spring,
1855, only three months after the town's founding, the rough village was mostly
a place to wait for a ferry to cross the Kaw; but when John Ritchie died there
in 1887, it was a thriving city of 30,000, among the largest in the state. The
city's story in the intervening years is emblematic of those forces which moved
the nation and gave it new direction. The hundreds who attended his funeral agreed
with the stirring eulogy, which identified John Ritchie as a principal in producing
this results.
The Ritchie couple had been intimately involved in every aspect of the free state
movement and the development of Topeka as a major political and commercial force
in the region. Their commitment to building a moral,
learned and inclusive community won them friends as well as adversaries.
Undaunted by controversy, John Ritchie actively influenced the character of the
community and region. Their story reveals much about what then bound Americans
together and continues to do so today.
The stone house at 1116 SE Madison, built by the Ritchies shortly after they
arrived in Topeka, is tangible evidence of their story.
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To develop the site, the Shawnee county Historical Society has undertaken a capital campaign under the leadership of Bill Avery, former Kansas governor, and Dale Anderson, former director of KTWU-TV. The campaign needs money and volunteers to make the project a success. Support it by contacting Bill Wagnon, PO Box 2201, Topeka, KS 66601 or by e-mail at bill.wagnon@washburn.edu.
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John and Mary Ritchie of
Franklin, Indiana, were
among those who migrated to Kansas to oppose slavery and its apologists.
Their commitment to the cause and to the development of their community were
crucial in shaping the area and events associated with its success.
When they came to Topeka in 1855, life with two small children was fraught with
trial and tragedy. Less than a year after their arrival, their baby Mary died
in their cold, drafty dugout on the Shunganunga Creek a pathetic home where the
snow was often as deep inside as out. By the next winter, the Ritchies had moved
into the stone house that still stands at 1116 SE Madison. Despite all the obstacles
they faced, the Ritchies set about building a community. John was an astute businessman
and he began a lime quarry and kiln operation, constructing commercial buildings,
and reserving land for a college which would ultimately become Washburn University.
The Ritchies were passionate abolitionists, befriending John
Brown who visited this home early in 1859 with a group of escaped slaves.
The Ritchie stone house was known as a haven for those
seeking freedom. After
the Civil War, Ritchie made housing lots available to freed slaves and a neighborhood
of African Americans sprang up near his home the same neighborhood where Monroe
School National Historic Site stands today.
In the late 1860s, much to the ridicule of his fellow businessmen,
John Ritchie introduced Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan
B. Anthony to Topeka.
As a member of the Wyandotte Convention, Ritchie had been responsible
for writing limited suffrage for women into the Kansas Constitution.
His collaboration with
John Brown in militia resistance to the "border
ruffians", his association with the "Topeka Boys" in operating a branch of
the "underground railroad", and his military service during the Civil War
defined the Ritchies' patriotism. His investments in commercial structures,
land, bridges and railroads, together with his construction operations,
built a capital base for a flourishing community. Their mutual embrace
of equal rights of freedmen and suffrage for women spoke volumes about
their desires for an inclusive community. Their vigorous temperance stands
and securing a campus for Washburn University and a school
for the children of former slaves made them champions of a moral and learned community.
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RITCHIE
HOUSE MISSION AND GOALS
Using the stone house built by the Ritchies, their story, and that of their contemporaries, the Shawnee County Historical Society intends to:
- help identify the heritage of the state and its capital city with that of the nation
- provide educational services for schools
- develop the historic house site to interpret the ideas of American Freedom
- illuminate the community's heritage through public programs
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HISTORIC
RITCHIE HOUSE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Phase One: Preserving the House (completed)
The Society acquired the stone house at 1116 SE Madison at the close of 1995 and raised over $315,000 to secure it and research its interpretation. 20th Century modifications have been removed and the house stands today, much as it looked when John Ritchie died in 1887.
Phase Two: Education Services (ongoing)
The Society has begun an energetic education initiative.
Opening the site to teachers and their students to explore American and Kansas
history has provided students with authentic engagement in this heritage. Work
with area schools has led a series of teaching materials based
on the Ritchies and their activities to aid teachers in meeting curriculum
standards. The Society's support of the annual History Day exhibition
provides a regular arena to promote a local heritage connection to national
values.
Deb Goodrich, educational
development consultant for the Ritchie House presented a History Day service
day at the Williams school for area teachers and students planning
History Day 2004 entries.
Phase Three: Site Development (ongoing)
The Society has acquired adjacent property to support the heritage site and is rehabilitating the Hale Ritchie House next door for a Service Center. The Service Center will contain classroom and meeting spaces, offices, and archival and display areas. This house was built around 1885 by the Ritchie's eldest son, Hale, where he raised his own family and operated family businesses. As additional property in the block becomes available, the Society will purchase it in support of the site. In the meantime a site plan has been adopted to serve the project's goals within currently owned property.
Phase Four: Stone
House Interpretation (to
be undertaken)
Currently the stone house stands as a rare gem of early Topeka history,
readily available for exterior observation and programs. Preliminary
archeological investigations hint at possible interpretative features to amplify
the educational and heritage programs conducted in the Hale Ritchie Service Center.
Those features will be undertaken as documentation and financing materialize.
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