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The Wichita Eagle
This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."
BY BECCY TANNER
It was 1885 and Col. Donald Robertson Green was wheeling and dealing with some of the fastest transportation of the West.
Horses and stagecoaches were his specialty.
Small towns were springing up every eight miles. Railroads had yet to follow in some of these communities.
And the man who people would nickname "Cannonball" Green was buying herds of wild horses. He preferred bays, dark sorrels and strawberry roans so they could be driven as matching teams for his stagecoaches.
Green's stagecoach route, which soon became known as the Cannonball Highway, started on what is now Wichita's West Street and ran west along Maple for 11 miles, turned south for 1 mile, then hooked up with what is now U.S. 54 west to Kingman. His teams and coaches could make the run in about 10 hours, with relay stops every 20 miles.
His stage line helped build western Kansas by becoming the fastest stagecoach line in Kansas.
In 1885, there were towns vying for Green's attention and offering him land if he help their communities grow.
Pratt gave Green a lot on Main Street and then built and donated a stage barn to him.
Wellsford gave Green 20 acres; Coldwater, eight lots.
The community of Coronado, now a ghost town, gave him not only eight lots but $500. Garden City offered six lots and $1,000.
In 1885, he organized a town company in Kiowa County near the town of Jaynesville.
As he built the community that would be named "Greensburg," he promised free lots to any property owner of Jaynesville who'd move to Greensburg.
Green also helped organize Kiowa County with Greensburg as the county seat.
In 1889, he was elected to the state Legislature.
The town's newspaper, the Greensburg Rustler, quoted Green as saying during his acceptance speech that he: "Considered this election as a stepping stone to the Presidency."
By 1893, a drought and economic bust caused Green to leave Greensburg. He participated in the Cherokee Strip land run, homesteaded a claim and, in 1894, became chairman of the first Oklahoma statehood convention.
Cannonball Green died in 1922 in Long Beach, Calif. He is buried in Wichita's Maple Grove Cemetery.
In 1997, the state renamed a 60-mile stretch of U.S. 54 from Kingman to Greensburg the Cannonball Stage Line Highway, honoring Cannonball Green.
Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.