Lawrence’s six-day history lesson is about to come to an end.

Today is the finale of the Bleeding Kansas Chautauqua commemorative review of the city and Kansas Territory during the pre-Civil War years.

Since the festival of learning began Thursday, Allen and Sandra Wiechert, of Lawrence, have taken in as many of the lectures, tours, workshops and re-enactments they could squeeze in.

“It’s been fantastic,” Allen Wiechert said. “Everybody has been so well organized and professional.”

His wife agreed.

“The presentations have been very in-depth,” Sandra Wiechert said. “The speakers have been very knowledgeable.”

Carol Mullen drove to Lawrence from her home in Leavenworth to attend many of the events Saturday and again Monday. “It’s been very interesting and I’ve really enjoyed it,” she said.

Many people who attended the Chautauqua came from much greater distances. At the big tent in South Park, where evening concerts and re-enactments take place, visitors were encouraged to use pins to mark their homes on maps of Kansas or the United States. Pins were placed in Oregon and California, Maryland and Delaware and many points between. Others came from Norway, Mexico and Colombia, according to handwritten notes on the map.

A rough estimate showed about 4,000 people had attended various events since Thursday. No accurate counts were kept for some events, however.

A guided tour of Pioneer Cemetery on Kansas University's west campus, led by historian Katie Armitage, gives visitors a view of the final resting place of Thomas Barber. Barber, an Ohio abolitionist, was shot by pro-slavery men in December 1855 and was considered the first martyr of Bleeding Kansas. The group toured the cemetery Monday as part of Lawrence Chautauqua events.

The Chautauqua is an annual Kansas summer event offered by the Kansas Humanities Council and featuring speakers re-enacting key historical figures. Also involved in organizing the events were the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Lawrence Sesquicentennial Committee.

Judy Billings, director of the Visitors Bureau, was pleased with the way Chautauqua has gone.

“There are always minor adjustments you have to make in setting things up,” Billings said, adding that no one tried to guess how many people would attend the events.

“About 10 days prior we were a little nervous about whether the tours would be full,” Billings said.

The Lawrence city trolley tours, however, were at the maximum of 26 people each, and as many as 90 and 100 people showed up for tours of Oak Hill and Pioneer cemeteries.

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The re-enactment speakers at South Park drew crowds of 750 Friday night and 950 Saturday night, Billings said. The crowds dropped off Sunday and Monday nights, with 500 and 400.

Monday night Chautauqua actor David Dickerson portrayed David Rice Atchison, a slavery proponent and border ruffian, as if he was giving a speech to an audience in Lawrence during the late 1850s.

“I do hope you checked your ropes at the door,” said Frederick Krebs, the master of ceremonies who introduced Dickerson/Atchison to the audience.

Dickerson wasted no time launching into a speech that criticized free-staters and urged approval of Kansas as a slave state in order to save the Union. He called abolitionists “jackals” and described abolitionist John Brown as someone who “held a Bible in one hand while he cut your throat with the other.”

Prior to the speech, Dickerson said he’d never given a portrayal of Atchison in a town that had the free-state history of Lawrence. He said he wasn’t sure what to expect from the audience.

“I rewrote the script and tailored it more for Lawrence,” he said.

Diane EickHoff explains a poster shown by Emma Groene, 12, of Lawrence, during the All

The audience sat silently during most of the portrayal, but laughed a couple of times when “Atchison” denied playing a key role in a border ruffian attack on Lawrence and blamed it on the county sheriff. He received a polite applause at the end of the speech before answering audience questions.

Dickerson will attend a 7:30 a.m. breakfast today along with John Brown scholar David Matheny, at the Hobbs Park Memorial at 10th and Delaware streets. Admission is $5.

Matheny will portray Brown in the final Chautauqua tent program at 7:30 p.m. today.