Beecher Bible & Rifle Church

When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill passed in May 1854, it allowed Kansans to have a say about whether theirs would be a free or a slave state.

Many from outside the state came to Kansas to influence that decision. One group, known as the Connecticut-Kansas Colony, arrived with Sharps rifles and 25 Bibles provided by the congregation of Henry Ward Beecher, the well-known minister from Brooklyn, New York.

The colonists joined with earlier settlers and founded a church in Wabaunsee in late June 1857, now called the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church.