To the editor:

Having just finished a more thorough search of Lawrence newspapers, to me it’s evident that early settlers named east-west streets for Revolutionary War patriots. In 1906, Sara T. D. Robinson, who may have helped to name those streets, protested against changing such patriotic names as Pinckney: “It would be a sad thing, indeed, were these old names of men who worked mightily that our country might be free from the tyranny of British rule, should be plotted out … Is there no love of patriotism left?” Paul R. Brooks agreed: “The founders named those streets in harmony with the sentiment that dedicated the city to Liberty. Those names were of men who devoted their lives to services in the great struggle to free our country from the tyranny of British rule. To blot out this memorial of the labors of the founders of Lawrence would be an outrage and a disgrace to the historic city of Kansas.” J.D.F. [James D. Faxon?] argued for keeping “Lee Street (13th), whether named for Richard Henry or Francis Lightfort,” and praised “such patriotic Southerners as Tom Pinckney, of the celebrated South Carolina family.” In 1908, another writer affirmed that, “Pinckney Street commemorates the name of a statesman who was a member of the President’s cabinet and who distinguished himself in the statecraft in the early days of the republic.” By including early Southern statesmen, Lawrence settlers attempted to unify a divided country around “patriotism, valor, and fortitude” before the Civil War.

Dave V. Evans,

Lawrence