This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Bean Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/GMB.2ACE/219.225.1.2 Message Board Post: This is copied from an OCR reader on my scanner so there may be a few words you will have to decipher. Let me know if there is something you cannot figure out. I looked over it quickly and corrected what I could. Page 190 Undated article cut from unknown paper: The Founding of the Village oflatan Just across the river from Oak Mills, Kansas and about twelve miles north of Leavenworth, is one of the oldest settlements in this section of the country. About 1837 or soon after the Platte Purchase, Major John Dougherty 'entered' the land on the present site oflatan and it became known as Dougherty's Landing. In 1841 Major Dougherty, Thomas Swords and J. G. Shultz formed a company and laid off a townsite at the place, the plat being filed on May 22 of that year. On Nov 30, 1842 Schultz sold his third to Dougherty and Swords, who obtained a charter for the town. Shultz accidently killed himself November 6, 1864. The town was named latan by Major Dougherty in honor of an Otoe Indian chief of that name, who was a great friend of the whites during the time that Major Dougherty was Indian agent for the upper Missouri River territory. The town of latan had a boat landing during the steamboat days, a mill was built as early as the 1840s and other enterprises started, but the patronage of the settlers soon diverted to the more promising towns of Weston and St. Joseph and latan never amounted to much as a municipality, always remaining a mere hamlet of several dozen souls. Major John Dougherty, the original owner of the townsite, had been a fur trader in the far northwest as early as 1808. He had been among the Indians a great deal and his life, for the most part, had been one of adventure. On one occasion he participated in a relay race of nearly 80 miles with an Indian hunter, the two killing 32 elks with their knives. From this incident, Dougherty was called 'long leg' by the mountain tribes. In January 1827 he was appointed Indian Agent for the upper Missouri by President John Quincy Adams before Fort Leavenworth was established. His headquarters were originally at Council Bluffs, but in 1828 he moved his family to Fort Leavenworth, which had in the meantime been established, and here on December 7 of that year his son. Col. L.B. Dougherty, now living at Liberty, Mo., was bom, having been the second white child bom in what is now Kansas. In 1902 this son was one of the honorary pallbearers on the occasion of the re-interment of Gen. Henry ! Leavenworth's remains at Fort Leavenworth. Major John Dougherty died in Clay County, Missouri in 1860. He had represented that county in the legislature, a colleague of Generals John Doniphan and William Wood. Major Dougherty was a Kentuckian and was bom 1791. All around latan is historic ground. Directly opposite is the family Isle au Vache, or Cow Island, which was discovered and so named by the early French explorers from the fact that a lone cow was found wandering about on this island, having been stolen by the Kansas Indians from the white settlement at St. Charles, Missouri and placed on the island to prevent her escape. It is claimed by some authorities that the French had a trading post on or near this island in the early day. Lewis and dark mention this island in 1804. In 1819 it was the wintering post for the U.S. Troops sent in advance of Major Long. A Cantonment was built here and was named Cantonment Martin after the ranking captain of the troops. Major Long's expedition made this a conspicuous stopping place and here on August 24, 1819 Major O'Fallon, the Indian agent, held an important council with the Kansas Indians. In 1827 or 1828 it was again the wintering camp of U. S. troops and was called Camp Croghan. Major Benjamin Bean settled on the lake which bears his name in the vicinity of latan about 1836 and operated a hostelry which became widely known. In those days Fort Leavenworth was a lonesome frontier post and the young officers frequently attended dances at Major Bean's place. Among these officers was Albert Sidney Johnson, then a young lieutenant, who afterwards became one of the most famous Confederate generals. Major Bean died in 1854 and his grave, marked with a huge stone slab, may be seen by the roadside near his old home. In 1861 the women oflatan made a Confederate flag and it was hoisted proudly to the breeze in that town. It floated defiantly until one day when a squad of Union soldiers from the Kansas side of the river crossed quietly over in a boat and captured the flag, but not until one of their number. Sergeant Drenning, was wounded. The flag is now in the collection of the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka. On the bluffs around latan are many ancient Indian mounds. The writer has excavated several of them and interesting disclosures were made. The late James Palmer, a pioneer oflatan, gave us an Indian tomahawk found by his father in that vicinity in 1845. George J. Remsburg ------- Chuck