[Excerpt]The oldest building on the University of Kansas campus now has a bronze plaque noting its history, though the plaque isn’t planned to be mounted in a place passersby can see.
The marker presents a brief story of the small stone stable in the hillside at 1132 W. 11th St., now an annex for KU’s Max Kade Center for German-American Studies. That history starts with the fiery Civil War-era abolitionist who first built the stable on his land in 1862, and includes how he contributed to the early propagation of the term Jayhawk before it was adopted as the KU mascot.
The plaque’s inscription includes this little-known quote by James H. Lane, who said while rallying a group of Free-State men in 1857:
“As the Irish Jayhawk with a shrill cry announces its presence to its victims, so must you notify the proslavery hell-hounds to clear out, or vengeance will overtake them! Jayhawks remember, ‘Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord,’ but we are His agents!” [End]
Read more, view the building, click here.
