Written by
a.d. elliott
Army
Desert Storm/Desert Shield
Died in Service
Gulf War
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Captain Napoleon Bonaparte Blanton was born in 1829 in Polk County Missouri, he enlisted in government service while young and in his early twenties would lead government wagon trains along the Santa Fe Trail. Captain Blanton left the wagon trains in 1854 and settled near Lawrence Kansas, along the Wakarusa River, building and maintaining a toll bridge across the Wakarusa. He would resettle in the Humboldt area to become a town founder.
As a member of the 4th Kansas infantry, he was mustered into US Army service during the Civil War, he served through several border skirmishes and in Washington DC.
After returning to Kansas, he was commissioned by the railroads to survey and layout a trading post in SE Kanas. He would lose the coin toss of the town's naming but was still integral in the creation of Coffeyville Kansas (read about it here).
Captain Blanton next moved to Abbyville Kansas, where he presided over a land company. Finally, in 1903, he moved to Witchita Kansas.
Captain Napoleon Bonaparte Blanton would die on April 29, 1913, after being struck by a car. He would be the city's first auto-pedestrian fatality. He rests at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita Kansas
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