Stinson, Thomas N. (Thomas Nesbit), 1818-1882.

Thomas Nesbit Stinson was born in Dayton, Ohio on April 14, 1818. His father was a school teacher. At the age of 21, both parents having died, Thomas left Ohio and moved to Westport, Missouri. There he worked at numerous jobs; in the clerk's office in Independence, Missouri; for the clerk of the court; for Simpson and Hunter, a large merchant in Westport. He worked there without pay to learn the business and then had a paying job with them going to Kansas to trade with the Delaware and Kaw Indians. Stinson then established a store among the Pottawatomie. When he came to Shawnee County, he acquired eight hundred acres of land and had a store at Tecumseh. He married sixteen year old Julia Ann Beauchemie in 1850 at her brother's home near Topeka. Julia Ann was born near Shawnee Mission on March 28, 1834. She was the daughter of Mackinac Beauchemie and Mary (Polly) Rogers. Mackinac was allegedly named for the Straits of Mackinac. He was a French interpreter for the Pottawatomie, a hunter and trapper for the American Fur Company, and became a preacher at the Pottawatomie Methodist Mission. Mary's grandmother, Polly Rogers, was the daughter of Blackfish and a cousin to Tecumseh. In 1846 after both of Julia's parents died, she and her brother, Alexander, took a Shawnee allotment of land. Julia's land was east of present day Topeka, while Alexander's was west of Topeka in an area later known as Auburndale. This was east of the former Topeka State Hospital. Thomas was an Indian trader familiar with all of eastern Kansas Territory. The eight hundred acres he acquired were to build a city and Tecumseh was platted in 1854. Efforts were made to have it become the state capital but these were not successful. The first territorial legislature made it the Shawnee County seat and county bonds were issued to build a brick courthouse.