Mattie Florence Rhodes

Mattie Florence Rhodes (1871-1890 ) = Presbyterian. Mattie was born on July 1 to John E. and Catherine Dillman Rhodes. She was the third child of four. Her siblings were William Brooks, Jennie Dillman, and Irma Edna. She grew up in America’s dream home: a cottage surrounded by pretty garden flowers and a picket fence. Like most any other little girl during that time period, she was taught home arts early and received a work basket with a small silver thimble, an emery bag to sharpen her needles, and spools of thread for her birthday since she enjoyed sewing.

Mattie was a member of Mrs. A.G. (Louise) Trumbull’s Sunday School class at Central Presbyterian Church (f. 1857). The ten young ladies called themselves the “Little Gleaners” and pledged to help others. So Mattie and her friends began a sewing circle to furnish linens for a bed at the children’s hospital and sew clothing for the less fortunate. To obtain supplies, the Sunday school class made and sold gingham aprons (25 cents) and potholders (10 cents). They also hosted lawn socials and bicycle teas.

While they distributed the clothing they had made, Mattie discovered that single mothers had a difficult time earning a living because there was no one to watch their children, therefore, they had to keep their little ones with them. Mattie wondered how she could help and began to dream of a safe place where their precious babies could be cared for while their mamas worked.

Before Mattie died from typhoid fever on October 1, she gave the inheritance her father left her ($500) to her friends. Six years later, after they raised more money to go with Mattie’s, the “Little Gleaners” were able to realize Mattie’s dream of a day nursery for working parents’ children.

More to Read:
1. Mattie Rhodes Website
2. Mattie Rhodes Art Center Brochure
3. Elmwood Cemetery: Stories of Kansas City. By Bruce Matthews. Kansas City Star Books, KCMO; 2010.
4. "Tour Elmwood Cemetery’s Outdoor Museum of Kansas City"  History Brochure
5. Mattie Rhodes Youth Center YouTube Channel. 
6. Findagrave #101569459

Places to See in MO.
1. Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery, 919 W. 17th St., Kansas City,
2. Central Presbyterian Church, 3051 Campbell (Armour & Campbell), Kansas City
3. Elmwood Cemetery, 4900 Truman Road, Kansas City

Martin Rice

Martin Rice (1814-1903) = Farmer. Justice of the Peace. Surveyor. Tree-planter. Schoolteacher. Best known for his poetry. Martin was born November 22 in Union County, East Tennessee to Enoch and Mary Rice. He was the youngest of eleven children. They emigrated from Tennessee and settled on government land a few miles from Lone Jack in 1833.

He worked hard with his family to make the farm a success. After work, evenings were spent gathered around the fireplace and Martin learned to read epic poetry by Scott, Byron, and others. Later he taught school in a one-room log schoolhouse. He instructed seventeen students his first year of teaching and received two dollars per pupil each quarter. He also surveyed the townsite of Harrisonville and planted trees in three counties.

Martin married Mary Lynch (d. 1855) of Lafayette County and they became the parents of nine children.

They lived through the troubled times preceeding the Civil War. When Order No. 11 came, as he and six neighboring families were loading their wagons, the men were taken prisoners. Rice’s neighbors were killed, but Martin and his son were released as he had his loyalty papers from the military post at Pleasant Hill. Later, in a rural cemetery southwest of Lone Jack, a stone monument was erected in 1867 as a memorial to these men.

Through poetry, Martin wrote about his life and the people he knew. He was a member of the Pleasant Garden Primitive Baptist Church near Lone Jack (f. 1832), later transferring his membership to the Lone Jack Missionary Baptists. The Missionary Baptists withdrew from the Garden Baptists over the issue of missions in 1842. He honored the pioneer preachers he remembered from camp meetings and church revivals such as Joab Powell, Jimmy Savage, Jeremiah Farmer, and Thomas Stayton through his poetry.

More to Read:

1. Jackson County Pioneers. By Pearl Wilcox. 1975.

2. Marriage Records of Cass County, MO.: 1835-1882. Cass County Historical Society, 400 East Mechanic, Harrisonville, MO., 1984

3. Shifra Stein’s A Kid’s Guide to Kansas City, By Diana Lambdin Meyer & Kathryn Lutz Dusenbery 2010, www.kckidsguide.com

4. The Marriage Records of Jackson County, Missouri: 1827-1850. By Mrs. John Vineyard, Independence, MO, 1967. Vol. 1

5. Blue River Baptist Association Missouri. By Marshall Louis Mertens and O.P. Joyce. Brown-White-Lowell Press, Kansas City, MO.1947.
6. A copy of one of Martin Rice's books. On Flickr. 
7. "The Exodus: Order No. 11." Cass County Library article. 
8. Findagrave # 23591689

 

Books of Poetry by Martin Rice:

1. Rural Rhymes & Talks & Tales of Olden Times

2. Rural Rhymes & Poems from the Farm.

3. Tramping Through Western Missouri.1893; reprinted 1994.

4. What I Saw of Order Number Eleven & Poems

5. A Synopsis of the History of Lone Jack Baptist Church
6. A History of Blue River Baptist Association: 1834 to 1886.

Places to Visit in MO.:

1. Order No. 11 Marker, Pacific House Hotel, 4th & Delaware, Kansas City, MO.

2. Lone Jack Museum, 301 S. Bynum Rd (1 block south of US 50 at Lone Jack exit), Lone Jack, www.HistoricLoneJack.org

3. Midwest Genealogy Center, 3440 S. Lee’s Summit Rd, Independence, www.MidwestGenealogyCenter.org

4. Pleasant Garden Cemetery, Lone Jack, MO.

Biography written by Dolores J. Rush, updated: 2/5/2020

Rev. Thomas Johnson

Rev. Thomas Johnson

Rev. Thomas Johnson (1802-1865) = Circuit Rider, Missionary. Best known for his work at the Shawnee Methodist Indian Mission Manuel Training School on the Santa Fe Trail in Fairway, KS. Johnson County, Kansas was named in his honor. He was born in Nelson County, Virginia, July 11. His brother, Rev. William Johnson (1805-1842), also served as a missionary.

Thomas married Sarah Davis (1810-1873) at Clarksville, MO. Several of their children’s names were Ann E., Alexander McAllister, Edna, Eliza, Cora, Mary Cummins, and William McKendree. Eliza later married John Bristol Wornall.

The 1808 treaty with the Osage Indians states the reservation boundary was between Missouri and Kansas territories. Congress, in 1819, passed the Civilization Fund, making $10,000 available annually for instructing Indians in agriculture, literacy, and other such pursuits. Much of the money was given to church agencies. The Delaware and Shawnee were forcibly relocated to eastern Kansas (present-day Wyandotte County). In 1830, the same year he married Sarah, Thomas moved to a village called Turner to preach the gospel. He built a log house on a hill south of the Kansas river.

In October of 1839, at the Missouri Methodist Conference at Fayette, Mo., Rev. Thomas Johnson was appointed as the superintendent of the Indian Mission district and to the Shawnee Mission (est. 1839-1862) on the Santa Fe Trail. Pioneer children attended school there also. At its height, there were sixteen buildings on 2000 acres.

During 1855, the Kansas territorial governor, Andrew H. Reeder appointed the Shawnee Indian Mission as the second capitol of the Kansas Territory (1855-1856) and the legislature met there. Hostilities were hot preceding the Civil War on the border. Johnson was shot near midnight of New Year’s Day as he answered the door to someone asking directions and died shortly after. He was quietly buried in the mission’s cemetery.

More to Read:

1. Annals of Shawnee Methodist Mission. Compiled by Martha B. Caldwell. Kansas State Historical Society. Topeka, KS. 1977.

2. Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Relating to Kansas Indian Schools, 1837-1879. U.S. Office of Indian Affairs.

3. Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865. Jay Monaghan. Bonanza Books, NY; MCMLV.

4. Here Lies Kansas City. Wilda Sandy. 1984.

5. History of White Christian Church: 1832-1996, Wyandotte Co, KS. Cemetery Index

6. History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and Its People. Perl W. Morgan. 1911.

7. Historic Johnson County, By Elizabeth E. Barnes. Neff Pub, Shawnee Mission, KS; 1969.

8. Opening the Western Frontier; Thomas Johnson and the Shawnee Indian Mission. Joanne C. Eakin.

9.  Official Kansas Territorial Legislature, Shawnee (1854-55)

10. National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide: Western Missouri Through Northeastern Kansas, National Park Service, US Dept. of the Interior, Sept. 2005. 

11. Findagrave #35605339

Historical Note: Thomas' mother-in-law was captured by the British and the Shawnee Indians in Kentucky during the Ruddell Station raid in 1780. 

Places to see in Mo & KS.

1. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (portrait of Roma Johnson Wornall), 4525 Oak St, Kansas City, MO

2. White Christian Church/Delaware Indian Mission, 2200 N. 85th St., Kansas City, Wyandotte County, KS.

3. Shawnee Indian Mission Historic Site & Museum, 3403 W. 53rd, Fairway, KS.

4. Shawnee Methodist Mission Cemetery (1839-1930), 3201 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Fairway, Shawnee Twp, Johnson, KS

5. Old Mission United Methodist Church

6. Edna Johnson Anderson, Elmwood Cemetery

7. John Wornall House Museum, 6115 Wornall Rd, Kansas City, MO 

Historical Note: Rev. Thomas Johnson performed the marriage of Daniel Boone's grandson, Daniel Boone III and his bride, Mary Philabert on 19 January 1832. 

Dr. Johnston Lykins

Dr. Johnston Lykins (1800-1876) = Medical Missionary. Kansas City’s First Mayor (1853-1854). Born in Virginia on August 15. Dr. Lykins received his medical education at Transylvania College (f. 1780), in Lexington, Kentucky.

Dr. Lykins came west in 1831, settling in the Kansas City area as a medical missionary. He is said to have accompanied the Shawnee Indians on their long trek from Michigan to the territory of Kansas. The Federal government began setting aside reservations as early as 1786, but on May 28, 1829, Congress gave President Jackson permission to move various Indian tribes such as the Shawnee and the Delaware to the new Kansas territory.

Dr. Lykins compiled a Shawnee-English dictionary and written alphabet to enable the Shawnees to read his translation of the Bible. He also vaccinated his flock against smallpox.

He was instrumental in organizing First Baptist Church, formerly at 5th and West Streets, which is presently located at Red Bridge and Wornall roads in south Kansas City. Charter members were: Robert and Mary A. Holmes, T.M. and Sarah J. James, A.L. and Elizabeth M. Martin, D.L.Mimms, Dr. Johnston, Martha, and Julia Lykins, Rev. R.S.and Elvira Thomas.

Johnston’s first wife was Delilah McCoy, the daughter of Baptist missionary Elder Isaac McCoy. She died of tuberculosis at the Pottawatomie Indian Reservation in 1844. He had one son and daughter, Julia, who married Dr. T.S. Case. He married his second wife, Martha A. “Mattie” Livingston in 1851. He built a two story, 14 room, red brick mansion which was completed in 1857 at 12th and Broadway. He had invested in land, but lost his wealth in the economic collapse during the 1870s and died while still in bankruptcy. Afterwards, Mattie converted the house into a boarding school for girls. It was sold and moved two years before her death in 1889.

More to Read:

1. Blue River Baptist Association Missouri. By Marshall Louis Mertens and O.P. Joyce. Brown-White-Lowell Press, Kansas City, MO. 1947.

2. Article abt. Lykins Translation of the Gospel of Matthew

3. A Century of Faith: The Story of the First Baptist, Kansas City, MO. 1855-1955. By Otto F. Dubach & Virginia Sheaff.

4. Transylvania University History

5. A Condensed History of the Kansas City Area: Its Mayors and Some V.I.P.s 1850-1950 ” Assembled by George Fuller Green. City Historian. The Lowell Press; Kansas City, MO. 1968.

6. History of Kansas City, 1886. T. S. Case.

7. The History of Jackson County, Missouri. Kansas City, MO; Union Historical Company, Birdsall, Williams & Co., 1881. Reprinted: Cape Girardeau, MO, Ramfre Press, 1966.

8. John Brown and the Legend of Fifty-Six. By James Claude Malin. 1942.

9. Johnston Lykin's Journal

10. Here Lies Kansas City: A Collection of our City’s Notables and Their Final Resting Places. Wilda Sandy, 1984. and Union Cemetery Historical Society Walking Tour Map.
11. Polk Family & Kinsmen. By William Harrison Polk (1843- ), Louisville Press, 1912. 
12. Wiki List of Kansas City Mayors and Biography

13. “Missouri Star: The Life and Times of Martha A. “Mattie” Livingston Lykins Bingham. By Dr. Rose Ann Findlen. 2011. 
14. Findagrave #6012821


Historical Note: The Lykin's mansion on Quality Hill stood until 1989.

Places to see in Mo & KS.:

1. Red Bridge Baptist Church Marker, 100 W. Red Bridge Road, South Kansas City, MO.

2. Johnston E. Lykins Square, 8th Street, Myrtle Ave., KCMO

3. Stand on the SW corner of 12th and Washington streets, Kansas City where Lykins house once stood.

4.. Lykins Community Center, 4012 E. 10th Street, 816-784-2200 (was named in his honor)

5. Pottawatomie Baptist Manual Labor School, 1847-1859, Kansas History Center near Topeka
6. Westport Historical Society, 4000 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City

7. Union Cemetery, 227 East 28th Terr. Kansas City. 64108


Lykins' Family:

1. The Lykin's Family Bible is being held in the Kansas City Library Collections. 
2. Family:  Rev. David Lykins
3. David Lykin's Baptist Wea Mission
4. Daughter: Julia Lykins Case (1839-1872), Elmwood Cemetery, 4900 Truman Road, Kansas City, Mo.

Updated: 23 Mar 2022. Biography written by Dolores J. Rush.