188 
KANSAS. 
and rich soil offers attractions, while the class of people emigrate 
ing here afford the inducements of society, as intelligent and 
refined as any in the states. 
Four religious societies have already been formed in Lawrence, 
and churches will this summer be erected. With the reviving of 
business this spring, a circulating library has been opened, where 
its members can find standard works, new books and publications, 
as soon as issued. There is also a bookstore, where the busy 
reader can suit his taste. The parish library connected with the 
Unitarian Church is large and valuable, and, when the room is 
ready for is reception, will form a valuable acquisition. With 
othei settlements there have been similar organizations, and means 
for improvement. 
Beside Lawrence there are six other settlements, mostly eastern, 
Osawattomie, at the junction of the Potawattomie and Meradizine, 
which at that point takes the name of the Osage, is most pleas¬ 
antly located. It derives its name from a fanciful clipping and 
mingling together of the words, Potawattomie and Osage. A 
pleasing variety of prairie and woodland marks the spot. Though 
the first settlement was made only a year since, with its large mill 
and enterprising people it bids fair to be a prominent point in 
the territory. 
Hampden is still further south, and, notwithstanding the sick¬ 
ness which came so severely among them last year, its surpassing 
richness of soil and heavy tember, as well as its central position 
in the southern part of the territory, will induce many to locate in 
the region. 
Topeka, the third town in size, is situated twenty-five miles 
above Lawrence, on the Kansas. The principal part of the town 
is about a fourth of a mile from the river, on the high prairie, 
which slopes gently to the shore. Webster Peak rises some four 
miles in the distance south, while the lands of the Potawattomie 
are but five miles away. The first settlement was made in Decem¬ 
ber of 1854, by some members of the fifth party. When the spring 
opened emigration poured in there. Constitution Hall, a largo 
hotel, several stores, and dwelling-houses of wood, brick and stone, 
