More than 20 civic leaders and members of the community gathered at Gypsum Hill Cemetery Tuesday morning for a wreath laying ceremony honoring six Salina founders/pioneers and their families, a number of whom were veterans.
Salina Mayor Mike Hoppock helped lead the wreath laying ceremony, which was hosted by the Smoky Hill Museum. Hoppock shared a bio about each pioneer or founder after laying a fresh greenery wreath at each of their gravestones. All wreaths were donated by BEL Tree Farm, owned by Michelle and Aaron Peck. Museum Director Susan Hawksworth and the Very Rev. David Hodges of Christ Cathedral, also spoke.
"In the beginning, five town founders from four families formed the Salina Town Company. Those four families were Campbell, Phillips, Spillman and Muir, represented by Alexander M. Campbell, Col. William A. Phillips, his brother David Phillips, James Muir, and Alexander Spillman. They joined together in 1858 to stake out 320 acres of land along the Smoky Hill River. The town’s site became official in 1859, when the territorial legislature granted Salina’s town charter, two years before Kansas became the 34th state," Hoppock told those assembled.
Following is biography information about those honored as shared by Hoppock.
Alexander M. Campbell
Campbell joined his future brother-in-law William Phillips and their friend James Muir to lay out the preliminary survey of Salina in March 1858. That summer, William’s sister Christina Phillips, joined the men as the only permanent female resident in the area. She and Alexander Campbell were married that fall in Riley City by a district judge. Often called the ‘Mother of Salina,’ Christina Addison Phillips Campbell helped Alexander run a trading post, and had a reputation among the local Native Americans for being very fair. It was known by some that Christina was strict about observing the Sabbath, but loved fishing and hunting more than doing housework. Alexander was Saline County’s first postmaster - collecting and dispensing long-awaited area mail at their trading-post store.
David L. Phillips
David L. Phillips was the younger brother of Colonel William A. Phillips. David was one of the five original members of the Salina Town Company. Although his monument rests here in Gypsum Hills, his body does not, as David’s disappearance as an adult is still a mystery. In June 1883, Phillips left Salina on a trip to Washington Territory through California. While traveling by train through the Arizona desert, he became distraught, saying he had been robbed. At the Volcano Springs stop, Phillips jumped from the train without his hat, shoes or coat and ran into the barren landscape. Although David’s family spent considerable time and money to find him, he was never located. His reasons for vanishing remain unknown.
Colonel William A. Phillips
Some consider Colonel William A. Phillips, David’s older brother, to be the primary force of Salina’s founding in 1858. Born in Scotland, Phillips came first to Illinois with his parents and siblings in 1839. A free-state spokesman during Kansas Territorial days, Phillips was a New York Tribune war correspondent for publisher Horace Greeley. Later, Phillips earned distinction as the commander of the Third Indian Home Guards.
After the Civil War, Phillips served as legal counsel for the Cherokee Nation, then as the 74th District representative to the Kansas legislature, then a member-at-large in the U.S. House of Representatives. Phillips had two wives and nine children, but is buried in Gypsum Hill Cemetery near just two of his relatives -- his mother, Christiana Phillips, known by early settlers as "Grandma Phillips" and his nephew, Maxwell Phillips, Jr. The monument to Phillips’ left remembers three of his children who died young.
Benjamin J.F. Hanna and Margaret Phillips Hanna
Benjamin J.F. Hanna and Margaret Phillips Hanna made many contributions to early Salina. Ben was an outspoken newspaperman with strong abolitionist views. When the Civil War began, President Lincoln appointed him Quartermaster of the United States Volunteers. While Hanna was away during the war, Margaret lived with her brothers William and David or her mother, Christiana Phillips. Margaret owned the first and only sewing machine for miles around. She is remembered for sewing an American flag that was flown in the middle of town to demonstrate Salina’s Union loyalties. After the war, Ben and Margaret established a permanent home and in 1867, Hanna founded the town’s first newspaper, the Salina Herald, which was printed on a hand press from a building on East Iron Avenue.
Oscar and Johanna Seitz
Oscar and Johanna Seitz came to Kansas from Kassel, Germany. Oscar served as a Union soldier during the Civil War. Afterward, he was advised to make a home and a life in Salina. He established his drug and chemical business, Seitz Drug Store, before the railroad reached Salina in 1867, which helped him rapidly prosper. After courting Johanna by correspondence, Oscar brought her across the ocean to be his wife. Johanna adapted well to Kansas, enriching Salina with her love of music. She owned the first piano in town, which was frequently transported by wagon to dances and parties. The family’s drug store, the Seitz Real Estate Company and the Seitz Shoe Store were longtime fixtures in downtown Salina. The couple had eight children.
August Bondi
August Bondi was a guerilla fighter with abolitionist John Brown during the days of Bleeding Kansas. Of Jewish faith, Bondi was born in Germany and fought at age 15 in a Hungarian war for liberty. Exiled as a result, Bondi and his family arrived in New Orleans in 1848, then went to St. Louis via the Mississippi River. After several years’ work as a clerk, typesetter, and teacher, Bondi was drawn to Kansas in 1855 by Sunflower-State border struggles between proslavery and free-state factions.
Bondi fought with John Brown in the Battle of Black Jack and briefly joined a band of freedom fighters who called themselves "Jayhawks." After serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Bondi brought his family to Salina, where he opened a grocery and later purchased land. During his years here, he was a land clerk, postmaster, school-board member, and a local court judge, and he also practiced law. Bondi was best known for his political integrity and idealism. In addition to his grave at Gypsum Hill, he is recognized by a historical marker at the northwest corner of the Smoky Hill Museum.