Olena, Kansas Terr. Transfer

Certificate for 6 lots in the town of Olena Kansas Territory dated February 2, 1857 and signed by John Laslie, President, with central vignette of an eagle and small vignette of a railroad train at top. Since no town of Olena exists today in Kansas, the exact purpose of this certificate is unknown but there are at least two possibilities. The 1857 date suggests that it may be related to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which left the decision of whether the then territories of Kansas and Nebraska would become slave or free states to a vote by the citizens. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces poured into both territories which led to the violence of "bleeding Kansas" during a period from 1854 to 1861 which was a prelude to the Civil War. The purpose of this land, which may have been given away or sold for nominal prices, may have been to recruit anti-slavery settlers who would vote for Kansas to be a free state. A second possibility is that the promoters of this certificate were attempting to populate this area in the hopes that the Pacific Railroad, whose route had been debated in Congress for years, might be built in or near the location of the town, significantly increasing land values.