Kansas, Finney County, Garden City
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With the faith and courage of
their forefathers who made
possible the freedom of these
United States
The Boy Scouts of America
dedicate this copy of the
Statue of Liberty as a pledge
of everlasting fidelity and
loyalty
40th Anniversary Crusade to
strengthen the arm of liberty
(Man-Made Features • Patriots & Patriotism) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
With the faith and courage of
their forefathers who made
possible the freedom of these
United States
The Boy Scouts of America
dedicate this copy of the
Statue of Liberty as a pledge
of everlasting fidelity and
loyalty
40th Anniversary Crusade to
strengthen the arm of liberty
(Man-Made Features • Patriots & Patriotism) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Potawatomie Indians ceded Coldwater Prairie to the United States in 1827. The Indians called it “Chuck-sew-ya-bish,” meaning “cold spring water.” Coldwater is located at the junction of Old Sauk and Fort Wayne Indian trails. The settlement's first house was built near this site in 1830 by Hugh Campbell. The first school was organized in 1832. Coldwater became a village in 1837, the county seat of Branch County in 1842, and a city on February 28, 1861. The State Home and Training School, dating back to 1871, is here. Coldwater has many fine old houses, legacies of the pioneers who built this city.
In 1867 a New York architect sent the plans for a new church in Belle Plaine to Bishop Whipple. The church was built in 1868 on land contributed by Territorial Judge Andrew G. Chatfield, founder of Belle Plaine. The congregation organized in 1858 and peaked in 1871, when the Parochial Report to the Diocese showed 16 families with a total of 70 members.
The major industries established in Florence during the 19th century were founded by reform-minded individuals who championed progressive causes throughout their lives. Their success in business was matched by their generosity in giving. Many of the civic institutions of present day Florence are the result of their philanthropy. Samuel L. Hill, founder of the Nonotuck Silk Company, was among the radical abolitionists who formed a Utopian community in Florence in the 1840s. He continued to be an active reformer in retirement and a champion of the theories of Friedrich Froebel, with their emphasis on early childhood education. In 1876, he established the Hill Institute, one of the first kindergartens in the country with an endowment to provide free instruction to every child in the community 
Present-day Florence is the site of one of the most active centers of the anti-slavery movement in America. In 1842, members of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, among them Samuel L. Hill and George Benson, established a utopian community organized around a communally owned and operated silk mill. Those who were drawn to this community sought to challenge the prevailing social attitudes of their day by creating a society in which “the rights of all are equal without distinction of sex, color or condition, sect or religion.” They were especially united around the issue of the abolition of slavery. Most were followers of William Lloyd Garrison. Sojourner Truth was a member of the community and visitors like Frederick Douglas were regular lecturers.
Florence, or Broughton’s Meadow as it was originally called, was one of America’s early manufacturing centers. In 1837, Samuel Whitmarsh established the area’s first silk mill along the Mill River. Importing silk worms fed on homegrown mulberry leaves, Whitmash hoped to manufacture fabric and ribbons from domestically produced silk. The Northampton Association of Education and Industry, the anti-slavery utopian community, brought the factory in 1842. By 1846, the community was facing financial difficulties. One of the founders of the Association, Samuel Hill, bought out the enterprise, which eventually become the Nonotuck Silk Company, producing the nationally famous Corticelli brand until it closed in 1932.
Captain William Turner with 145 men surprised and destroyed over 300 Indians encamped at this place May 19, 1676.
Following an instinct many thousands of years old, millions of ducks and geese fly south every autumn. Waterfowl finds overwintering habitat in the southern United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. As spring arrives, the birds return to the lakes and marshes of North America, driven by a biological urge to nest.
An original industrial area of Greenfield and site of mills from 1784. In four story granite factory buildings built in 1830 woolens were made for union army during Civil War. Operations ceased in 1872 and factory burned in 1933. The bell tower remains.
Eldest son of a Putney family, John Noyes (1811-1886) became deeply religious after a revival meeting in 1831. Convinced that Christ’s Second Coming had occurred in 70 A.D. and that all people could now be free of sin, he became a “Perfectionist.”
