History of Soldier Township, Kansas
From: History of Shawnee County, Kansas
and Representative Citizens.
Edited by James L. King, Topeka, Kansas
Richmond & Arnold Publishers
Chicago 1905
SOLDIER TOWNSHIP – This township was erected April 20, 186o, from territory added to Shawnee County on the north side of the river. One purpose of the addition was to preserve Topeka as the county seat by making it a more central point in the county. The new territory was taken from Calhoun (now Jackson) County. Most of it was Kaw Indian land and was occupied only by the Indians and half breeds down to 1848, except that there was a small band of French settlers in the locality as early as 1840. Among these were the Papuan brothers, Joseph, Ashcan and Louis. Louis Catalon, a nephew of the Papans, joined them in 1848, and James McPherson came the same year. Fred Swice and George L. Young, both farmers, arrived in 1850.
ARRIVALS IN THE ’50’S.
New settlers in 1854 were James Kuykendall, John Cunningham, R. J. Fulton, H. D. McMeekin, Perry Freshman. W. S. Kuykendall, John B. Chapman, D. Milne, James A. Gray. G. P. Dorris, J. M. Hand and Charles Tipton. These early settlers assisted in organizing Calhoun County, and some of them were the promoters of the town of Calhoun, the first county seat. Calhoun County was originally named for John Calhoun, first Surveyor General of Kansas, but was changed to Jackson in 1858, in honor of Andrew Jackson, and the county seat changed to Holton.
