17 Facts About Isaac Goodnow

Isaac Tichenor Goodnow was an abolitionist and co-founder of Kansas State University and Manhattan, Kansas.

Isaac Goodnow was born in Whitingham, Vermont, and raised in New England.

Isaac Goodnow eventually graduated from Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts in 1838.

In 1848 Isaac Goodnow accepted a position as professor of natural sciences at the Providence Conference Seminary in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

Isaac Goodnow retained this position until December 1854, when he resigned at age 40 to move to Kansas Territory to support the creation of a Free-State town by the New England Emigrant Aid Company.

Isaac Goodnow had been a committed abolitionist since at least 1840.

On March 6,1855, Isaac Goodnow departed Boston, Massachusetts, with a group of New England emigrants that would ultimately number 75.

When Isaac Goodnow's team arrived, two other small settlements had already been established at the chosen location, named Polistra and Canton.

Isaac Goodnow helped to draft the constitution for the Boston Town Company.

Isaac Goodnow established a claim just outside Manhattan, and was joined by his wife in July 1855.

Ultimately, the group decided to form a shadow government and drafted the Topeka Constitution, although Isaac Goodnow did not participate in the constitutional convention.

In 1858, Isaac Goodnow was a delegate to the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention, which produced the most liberal of the three proposed Free-State constitutions.

Isaac Goodnow helped establish the Methodist Blue Mont Central College in Manhattan in 1858.

Every year from 1857 to 1861, Isaac Goodnow spent several months in the East raising funds for the construction of Blue Mont Central College and Manhattan's Methodist church.

In 1863, Isaac Goodnow helped found the Kansas State Teachers Association and served on the board of the National Education Association.

In 1867, Isaac Goodnow was selected agent for the sale of the 90,000 acres of land granted by the federal government to Kansas State Agricultural College, a position he held until 1873.

From 1869 to 1876, Isaac Goodnow was land commissioner for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.