Johnston Lykins (1800-1876) and Martha Lykins Bingham (1824-1890) Papers (KC0294)
Johnston Lykins was born in Franklin County, Virginia, and his family later moved to Kentucky. For a short time he studied medicine at Transylvania University in Lexington, after which he worked with Indian missions in Indiana and Michigan for twelve years. In 1828 he married Delilah McCoy, and they moved to the Kansas City area. Shortly thereafter Lykins helped to establish the Potawatomi and Shawnee Indian Baptist missions in present Johnson County, Kansas, for which he worked as an administrator and physician. After his wife died of tuberculosis in 1843, he moved to the Town of Kansas. In 1851, he married Martha A. Livingston. As chairman of the new City Council, Lykins assumed the office of mayor in 1853 when the first mayor, William S. Gregory, was obliged to resign. The following year he was re-elected. Lykins was involved with many business and civic organizations and was a charter member of the First Baptist Church.
Martha (Mattie) A. Livingston was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Her family moved to Lexington, Missouri, in 1850, where she contributed news items, obituaries, poetry, and serialized stories to the newspaper there. In 1851, she married Dr. Johnston Lykins. Two years after his death, she married the painter George Caleb Bingham, who died the following year, in 1879. Although she had no children of her own in either of her marriages, she raised several step-children and operated a school, earning the nickname "Aunt Mattie." Martha Lykins Bingham died in the Washington Hotel at 12th and Washington Streets.
This collection consists of two folders (not microfilmed) and two microfilmed scrapbook volumes. The first scrapbook volume contains records, chiefly clippings, documenting Mrs. Lykins' promotion of the establishment of the Home for Widows and Orphans of Confederate Soldiers, built in 1874. In addition, there are several pages from an account book kept for the Potawatomi Baptist School and Mission, 1851-1853, which Johnston Lykins took over from his first father-in-law, Isaac McCoy. The second volume consists of an account book used by Lykins and Brent from 1857-1860, and clippings of material written by Martha Livingston Lykins, Dr. Johnston Lykins, and others. 1850-1950.
2 folders; 2 volumes (MICROFORM) and 1 oversize.
© WHMC-KC, University of Missouri
updated:
Monday, May 15, 2006
Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City
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