Mary Graham Lister – Pioneer (1842 – 1916); Prairie City (Baldwin)
by Jane Lister Taul
Mary Graham Lister was a pioneer woman of great strength and fortitude. She raised eight children, assisted her husband with creating a farm from the unbroken prairie, and survived the harsh, unpredictable life of early Kansas.
Mary Graham was born on June 3, 1842, in Janesville, Virginia. In 1857, Mary and her parents, aunts and uncles migrated west from Lee County, Virginia to settle in Prairie City, Kansas, southwest of Baldwin City. Mary was fifteen years old. Her parents were Thomas Newell Graham and Edith Fisher Hamblen. Other family members who traveled west with them were Fin Graham, a dentist, Dr. William Graham, M.D., and Jane Graham.
In 1850, a young Englishman named Edmund Lister sailed to America. He traveled the United States learning various skills and trades and eventually bought a section of farmland (160 acres) along the border of Franklin and Douglas Counties. Edmund frequently bought supplies from the trading post in Prairie City. There he became acquainted with young Mary Graham. He was a bachelor hoping to meet the right woman and raise a family on his newly acquired homestead. He found Mary to be bright, headstrong, and fearless, just the perfect personality to raise children and “hold down the fort” when needed on the untamed prairie. Mary approved of this young Englishman as well, and they were married on April 5, 1860, at her parents’ home in Prairie City. The couple set up housekeeping in a log cabin. Eventually they built a painted wooden house nearby which still stands today.
Mary and Edmund raised eight children, six daughters and two sons. Over the years Mary proved to be every bit as formidable as Edward had predicted her to be. She cooked, baked bread and pies, hand-sewed and hand-washed their clothes and raised a garden. She also kept the farmstead safe when Edmund traveled by horse and buggy to the Westport Trading Post in Kansas City to replenish their supplies, a trip that could take two weeks.
During one of these trips, Mary had an unsettling encounter with the local men of the Kansa tribe. One sunny afternoon while Mary was hanging laundry on the clothesline in the side yard, several young Native Americans came riding on horseback across the Lister farm and right into the front yard of the house. Mary was not initially concerned about this because Edmund and this tribe had mutual respect, if not friendship, with each other, and they had never experienced any negative interactions to date. The chief, who was in the lead, stopped his horse and took a special interest in Mary, who happened to be holding the youngest child, Robert, on her hip. He was too young to walk. The chief rode right up to her, gestured to the baby, and then in one swift move swept the baby out of Mary’s arms. He proceeded to race in circles in the front yard, holding the baby snugly in his arms, while the other tribesmen cheered him on. Mary was stunned and speechless. Was this some sort of tribal custom to welcome an infant into the world? Then as suddenly as it began the show was over. The chief trotted back to Mary and gently placed Robert back into her arms. The chief said something to Mary in his native language, gave a wave of his hand and rode off with the other men. Edmund was shocked to hear the story upon his return. Some of the younger children who were not yet in school had been hiding inside the house when this event occurred and were able to confirm their mother’s account.
Other character-building experiences for Mary and her family were tornados, hailstorms, high winds, grasshopper invasions, drought, and prairie fires. To them, this was just life on the prairie. It defined the next generations of courageous leaders who were a part of settling the West. The brave women working alongside the brave men were the glue that held it all together and created the Kansas we know today.
Mary Graham Lister passed away on July 5, 1916, in Ottawa, Kansas. She rests beside her husband and with many of her children at Highland Cemetery in Ottawa.
Image: Lister family
