About Us

John a Matthews founder of little town now Oswego was falsely accused of instigating a pro-slavery raid on Humboldt, September 8, 1861. The sixth Kansas Calvary under Colonel J. G. Blunt organized an expedition to the Little Town Trading Post. They then located Matthews at Chetopa and killed him. Then they surrounded the Chetopa settlement and arrested Dr. George Lisle, the founder, Larkin McGee,Gen. Ewers, John McMurtry, James Boles, Sam Steele and Tom White herded them all to Little Town and tried them by court marshall. They were all acquitted and returned to Chetopa the following day after the soldiers plundered and burned the Little Town settlement. Pictured here left to right W. A. Johnson (Garnett), Defense Counsel; Colonel J.G. Blunt, Judge; Dr. George Lisle, prisoner; Preston B. Plumb (Emporia), Prosecutor; Lieutenant Chas Brook, clerk and two unknown soldiers. This was the first session of court ever held by white men south of Fort Scott and its precedent caused Governor Crawford to designate Little Town (Oswego) as the county seat in 1867.

Sketched by Mavis Sramek

The painting, depicting the time of circa 1841, is a study of Oswego's multi-cultural roots, the Osage Indian Culture and the bond of co-operation and interdependence with white society which is represented by the trader, John Mathews, who is in the left foreground.

The treaty in 1825 brought Chief White Hair and a band of Osage Indians from Missouri, who settled just east of the bluff near Horseshoe Lake. The reservation covered an area fifty miles wide and extended west across two-thirds of the present state of Kansas.

They constructed homes by using rows of saplings set in the ground, bent towards the center and laced together at the top and covered with woven mats of coarse grass and cat-tails of the same variety that grow, even yet, on the banks of Horseshoe Lake.

Always their single door opened to the east and upon arising it was a ritual to stand beside it and chant to grandfather, the Sun. However, the Chief's dwelling had two doors, both east and west, and if peace prevailed, he stood outside the east door, but should war be the order of the day, he stood outside the west door to chant.

The painting has incorporated other aspects of everyday life of the Osage, including the drying of meats, tanning of skins and the small patches of corn and squash growing about.

As part of the treaty, the government provided a blacksmith to serve the Osage.

John Mathews came to serve in thar capacity about 1841 receiving a license for fur trader in 1847.

Mathews had a great advantage in his relationship with the Osage because his wife, Mary Williams was half Welch and half Osage. Upon her death, he married her sister Sarah.

Each wife bore children.

His two-story log house was high upon the bluff, where he built a race track in stables. The home is depicted in the upper left-hand corner of the painting. 

Artist Marie Horner