Missourians Found Leavenworth Town Company

Tuesday, June 13, 1854

Leavenworth City, Kansas Territory. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Missourians from Weston, Missouri, and some residents of Fort Leavenworth, in Kansas Territory, form the Leavenworth Town Company and found the first official city in Kansas, just south of the fort. Leavenworth quickly becomes an important departure point for travelers to the American West, only to be superseded by Kansas City in subsequent decades. In the Bleeding Kansas era, a majority of the town's inhabitants support the proslavery cause.