Daniel Read Anthony.

Daniel Read Anthony.



Birth: Aug. 22, 1824.
Death: Nov. 12, 1904.
Burial: Mount Muncie Cemetery , Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas.
Wife was Anne E Osborn Anthony (1844 - 1930.


Daniel R. was educated in the public schools of Battenville, N. Y., until he was thirteen years old, when he attended the academy at Union village for six months. After leaving school he worked in his father's cotton mill and subsequently in a flour mill until he was twenty-three, when he went west to Rochester, N. Y., and taught school for two years, at the end of which time he engaged in the insurance business. In 1854 he came to Kansas with the first colony sent out by the New England Emigrant Aid Society of Massachusetts and helped found the city of Leavenworth. At the outbreak of the Civil war he entered the Union army as lieutenant-colonel of the First Kansas cavalry, which later became well known as the Seventh Kansas volunteers.

He distinguished himself at the battle of the Little Blue in November, 1861, when he won a victory over a force of guerrillas four times his number. During the year 1862 he was on duty in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama. While in command of Mitchell's brigade at Camp Etheridge, Tenn., in June, 1862, he issued the famous "Order No. 26" which prohibited southern men passing through the Union lines to search for fugitive slaves. Gen. Mitchell requested him to countermand this order and when Colonel Anthony refused, the general placed him under arrest. The matter was taken up by the United States senate and after an investigation General Halleck issued an order restoring Colonel Anthony to duty. After resigning his commission in the army he returned to Leavenworth and resumed his duties as postmaster, to which office he had been appointed by President Lincoln in 1861. In 1863 Colonel Aithony was elected mayor of Leavenworth by a large majority and immediately inaugurated a vigorous policy.

On the outskirts of the town there were some houses that sheltered some southern sympathizers and he determined to clear the city of them. He called upon some of the best citizens of Leavenworth and they burned the buildings to the ground. This was a severe remedy but he proceeded on the theory that the end justified the means. After this, Gen. Thomas Ewing, who commanded the District of the Border, placed the city under martial law. At one time Colonel Anthony was arrested because it was claimed he was interfering with the soldiers. His reasons for his course in this instance were that he claimed his police force was sufficient to maintain law and order within the city limits.

After an investigation he was released. He was removed as postmaster of Leavenworth in 1866 because he would not support President Johnson's policy of reconstruction. In 1868 he was elected presiding officer of the Republican state convention and was a presidential elector the same year. He was a member of nearly every Republican state convention held in Kansas. In 1870 he was elected to the city council from the First ward by a vote of four to one and the following year was reëlected. All his life Colonel Anthony took an active part in politics. On May 10, 1875, he was shot by one of his political opponents, the bullet passing through his shoulder and for a long time it was doubtful whether he would recover. In 1878 he was again appointed postmaster of Leavenworth and filled many other important offices of city, county and state. He was one of the founders and a life member of the Kansas State Historical Society, and was one of the pioneer newspaper men of the state, having established the Leavenworth Conservative in 1861.

Three years later he purchased the Bulletin; in 1871 he bought the Leavenworth Times, and in 1876 he became the owner of the Commercial, which gave him the monopoly of the newspapers of the city. He consolidated the morning papers under one management and published the Leavenworth Times. Colonel Anthony owned a fine farm a few miles from Leavenworth, which he managed himself as a recreation from newspaper work. His life was distinguished by an unusual activity in business, politics and journalism. He was a man of great energy and untiring industry which enabled him to accomplish a marvelous amount of work. On Jan. 21, 1864, Colonel Anthony married Annie E. Osborn, daughter of one of the leading merchants of Edgartown, Mass. Two children were born to them, Maude, wife of Maj. L. M. Koehier, U. S. A., and Daniel R., Congressman from the First district. Colonel Anthony died from heart trouble on Nov. 12, 1904.