This house is one of about ten prefabricated buildings brought on the steamboat Hartford to Kansas in the spring of 1855.
The Hartford left Cincinnati, Ohio April 26, 1855. Its passengers planned to settle in a town named Manhattan at the head of the Kansas River. After a difficult trip, the steamboat ran aground on June 1 close to the confluence of the Blue and Kansas Rivers, near the newly established town of Boston. The Boston settlers invited the Hartford passengers to join their town, and agreed to change the town's name to Manhattan.
The Hartford's cargo was unloaded and the boat headed downstream. It ran aground near St. Mary's and in October 1855 was destroyed by fire. Manhattan Methodists, who founded their congregation aboard the Hartford, salvaged the ship's bell, which now hangs in the Riley County Historical Museum.
In 1971 this house, a part of a larger house located on Colorado Street, was donated to the Riley County Historical Society by Mr. And Mrs. John Meisner. The Rotary Club and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity assisted with the restoration and move to this site.
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