Two Free State militiamen who were killed during the Bleeding Kansas conflict will get a refreshed monument, created by local artist Karl Ramberg, in Pioneer Cemetery.
The monument will commemorate Capt. Henry J. Shombre and Maj. David Starr Hoyt, who were killed in August 1856.
“These men are also often referred to as two of the four ‘Free State Martyrs’, all of whom were anti-slavery men killed by Proslavery forces in Douglas County during Bleeding Kansas, and all buried at the Pioneer Cemetery,” Eric Smallwood, of the Kansas Historical Society, said via email.
A monument for all four men was installed in the late 1800s and then moved to Oak Hill Cemetery. Two of the men, Thomas W. Barber and David Buffum, have replacement grave markers, but Shombre and Hoyt have remained interred at Pioneer Cemetery without any.
The memorial dedication will start at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16 at the Pioneer Cemetery, 2201 Irving Hill Road.
Local historian Karl Gridley commissioned the marker from Ramberg.
Smallwood said the marker will allow people to “better pay respects to these men who gave their lives for the cause of making Kansas a free state, all during a complex and extremely important chapter of US and Kansas history; one that strongly resonates with the chapter we’re currently living in.”
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