In 1854, Tecumseh was founded as a proslavery settlement by Thomas Stinson. As the town grew in size, pressure was put on the Territorial Legislature to make it the county seat of the newly formed Shawnee County. Since the Legislature was pro-slavery at the time, Tecumseh was voted to be the first county seat in 1855. Trying to promote their town more, the pro-slavery residents of Tecumseh pushed to be the territorial capital and later the state capital, but their efforts failed. Due to this exciting turn of events, the township built a courthouse the following year. The courthouse had offices for both county and town government officials. During this time, it also had a jail in which free state ruffians were housed due to their robbery of local businesses in 1856. Also contributing to Tecumseh’s success were its many businesses, including a brickyard, two hotels, a grocery store, a shoe shop, a tailor shop, a blacksmith forge, a saloon, a sawmill, a sorghum mill, and a candy manufacturer. All of Tecumseh’s prosperous days ended when Topeka became the new county seat due to a change in the majority of the legislature in 1858. The courthouse was torn down, businesses and manufacturers left, and free staters took control of the county. From then on, Tecumseh was a small farming community with a church, a doctor, and a general store that doubled as a post office. To complement Tecumseh’s already bad luck in the late 19th century, grasshopper plagues to smallpox epidemics ravaged the town driving away more residents, but the town was still surviving. In the early, to mid-20th century, Tecumseh’s luck finally changed for the better, when an electrical generating station and cellophane plant was built along the Kansas River. A high school was also built in the 30s (now Tecumseh North Elementary). This helped grow the town’s population and helped fuel its economy. Tecumseh is still a small community with a local Boy Scout Troop which has been in the town since the early 1960s. The troop is based out of the church and is working to make this lovely community even better.

The first church service in Tecumseh was held in a tent on October 15th, 1854, by Reverend Learner B. Stateler of the Methodist Episcopal South Church which supported slavery. While preaching at the Methodist Episcopal South Church, Learner also preached as a missionary to the Native Americans in the area. In 1857, the Methodist Episcopal North, which was anti-slavery, bought a brick building now where the church stands today. The North and South church stood adjacent to each other. The south church is the empty green space behind the church building. Throughout the days of Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War, the pastors from both churches were taunted, threatened, and even had personal property destroyed by ruffians. After the Civil War tensions between the two congregations ceased; the South church building became a school and both congregations met in what used to be the “North Church.” By the late 1880s, the Methodist church even built a parsonage. In 1896, the original church building was torn down because it was too small and had no way to serve food. Later that same year, the church building that you can see today was built. Over the years, many additions were completed to the structure including a basement. The church has been home to Troop 18 since the early 1960s. The Troop continues to thrive and support the local community.

On March 3rd, 1855, the first post office was opened as a part of a general store. Tecumseh’s first postmaster was William A. Sublet. Since then Tecumseh’s post office has always been a part of a general or grocery store until recently. One of the best examples of this is when Curt Bergmann opened a general store on the exact site of today’s office in 1907. The store sold goods to both farmers and townspeople while acting as the post office. In 1927, the store had an electrical fire and burned down. Bergmann replaced the burnt building with a fireproof brick building (the current post office building). The new general store/post office was sold to Jack Thomson in 1929 when Curt Bergmann died. Jack used the building as a grocery store, with a cafe, and a post office until the early 50s. From then on, the building just served as a post office.

John A. Read, born in 1834, was the country doctor for Tecumseh and moved there after the Civil War. He started his career as a field hospital doctor for the Union in the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry during the Civil War. When he moved to Tecumseh he set up his practice in a stone shed alongside his frame house (now the lot North of the Post Office). During his time as a doctor for the town, he delivered over 600 babies, fought several epidemics such as scarlet fever, smallpox, and measles, and helped cure the various injuries of the farmers and townspeople. He worked up to two days before he died in 1918.

The lands that are now Tecumseh North have had a great history. Originally, the grounds held Tecumseh’s courthouse and jail from 1856 to 1859. The courthouse was the county seat for Shawnee County and made it so that Tecumseh was a growing town for the first 6 years of its existence. The courthouse was two stories high and built of brick, diagonal from the building was the city jail. In 1857, the jail held a group of Free State Ruffians who had robbed and stolen goods from several general stores and businesses the year prior.  All of Tecumseh’s prosperity changed in 1858, when Topeka became the new county seat of Shawnee county. The courthouse was torn down and its contents sold, Tecumseh never recovered from those events and it is now just a small town today. 

In the late 1860s after the Civil War, the Township bought the Methodist South Church and turned it into a schoolhouse. The school operated for 20 years but was replaced with a two-story schoolhouse in the 1880s. This continued operating until the late 20s and was operating as a high school by then. (Both of these buildings were torn down after their use). In 1932, a high school building was built with three classrooms and a gymnasium. Throughout the years, it was added onto and became what is now known as Tecumseh North Elementary School in 1962.

Early on in its infancy, Tecumseh was on the Oregon Trail (as commemorated by the marker at the triangle park on your way into town). This meant that Tecumseh as a community made a lot of money from the migrants who traveled the trail. The trail ran through the North side of the school yard and wagon ruts were imprinted in the ground but they got plowed over once farmers started to cultivate the land in the late 19th century. One of the ways the town made a lot of money from the trail, was the ferry across the Kansas River. The ferry was operated by Thomas Stinson and James Waynsworth. It worked in this fashion: people and their wagons would board the ferry, then a cable operated by a horse would pull the boat across the river, and finally, the boat would be pulled again to the other side to make another trip. The ferry could take a wagon or a group of people at a time. It was expanded several times during its existence to accommodate livestock such as buffalo and cattle. A steamboat landing was also constructed but was never successful due to the shallow debris-ridden waters of the Kansas River. Soon, the ferry across the Kaw was shut down in the 1880s, when traveling on Westbound trails became obsolete due to the railroad. A railroad depot was built in the town in the mid-1880s but was destroyed almost 100 years later in a flood. In 1857, a bridge was proposed that spanned the Kansas River, but the company that the town had invested in to install the bridge went bankrupt in the 1870s and the bridge was never completed. By 1921, Highway 40 ran through Tecumseh and the automobile was the way to travel. Though the automobile was the way to travel, trains continued to be valuable to the town’s industry.  

The powerplant (Tecumseh Energy Center) was built in 1924 by KPL (Kansas Power and Light Company). In the next twenty years that followed, several gas turbines and generators were added which expanded Tecumseh’s economy and workforce. The plant generated electricity for almost one hundred years before it was decommissioned in 2018.

In 1958, DuPont Industries constructed a cellophane plant in Tecumseh along the Kansas River. This was due to the availability of water, electricity, and train tracks. The plant helped increase the Tecumseh area population from 3,000 to 5,000 people and added several hundred jobs. Between the cellophane and the power plant, Tecumseh became one of the wealthiest townships in Kansas. Today, it is the only remaining cellophane plant in the U.S.A. 

After Tecumseh’s business days had ended, it became a small farming community. Unlike today, there were orchards, sorghum mills (for molasses production), cider presses, and diaries (for cheese production). However, most of the orchards and other successful farming ventures in the area were obliterated in 1874 by the severe drought and grasshopper plagues. After that, most farmers in the Tecumseh area started planting wheat and other crops that are more resistant and accustomed to dry conditions such as wheat.

I hope you had a safe trek across Tecumseh while learning some history about our small town.  Thanks for visiting!