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Once the capital of the Kansas Territory, Lecompton is surrounded by history.
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To celebrate America's 250th birthday and the role Kansas played in the country's history, the Lecompton Historical Society has put on multiple reenactments of Bleeding Kansas at the town's Territorial Capital Museum.
“It’s such an intricate part of the state and the nation," Deb Powell, Lecompton resident and volunteer with the local historical society, said of Bleeding Kansas.
About 25 people watched the reenactment on Wednesday, including middle school Kansas history teacher Samantha Heasty. She traveled three hours from the Kansas-Oklahoma border for the show.
“Gosh, there’s lots of new information that I could use," she said. "It was great to see it come alive, and I wish I could bring my kids here, but it was too far.”
While the reenactments take place on the upper floor of the museum, hundreds of local relics are housed on the lower level.
“You know how children play in the dirt at a ballgame?” Powell said.
That's how she described the moment her husband watched another man uncover an 1850s cannon bullet that's on display at the museum.
Powell says the round was found in the root of a tree behind the museum.
“Keep in mind, people have given us this stuff," Powell said of all the artifacts in the museum.
The museum's exhibits cover different eras of Kansas history — dating back to the Native Americans who first inhabited the land, when Manifest Destiny prompted white settlers to push indigenous civilizations out of the territory and the stories that followed.
The museum puts an emphasis on the Lecompton Constitution of 1857, which the historical society says placed the town at the center of the national debate with its controversial passing of pro-slavery law. Kansans were eventually given the chance to reject the constitution, subsequently entering the Union as a free state in 1861.
Paul Bahnmaier, president of the Lecompton Historical Society, says the Lecompton Constitution caused a drift in the National Democratic Party and contributed to the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
Shortly after, the Civil War would follow, and residents of northwestern Douglas County would enlist.
Between 1861 — when the Civil War commenced and Kansas entered statehood — and 2011, over a thousand men and women from the Lecompton area served to protect the country, per the historical society. The timeline marks 150 years of Kansas state history, and this Fourth of July, Lecompton is highlighting the sacrifices that were made.
“It’s the home of the free because of the brave, and we’re highlighting all the wars people from Lecompton were involved in," Bahnmaier said.
The Lecompton Historical Society is hosting two more reenactments of Bleeding Kansas on July 4 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Territorial Capital Museum, located at 640 E. Woodson Avenue, Lecompton, Kansas, 66050.
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