Fort Scott Wedding

Fort Scott is located in Bourbon County, Kansas, 88 miles (158 km) south of Kansas City, on the Marmaton River. The population was 8,297 at the 2000 census. Fort Scott is the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, and is home of the Fort Scott National Historic Site.

Established and garrisoned by the U.S. Army from 1842-1853, soldiers at Fort Scott assisted with the protection of the Permanent Indian Frontier. After the army abandoned the fort in 1853, the buildings were purchased by local settlers at a government auction in 1855. The former military post became the center of one of the largest towns in Kansas Territory.

Between 1855 and 1861, the citizens of Fort Scott experienced the violent unrest that preceded the American Civil War on the Kansas and Missouri border. Eastern newspapers described this violence as "Bleeding Kansas", a result of the national controversy concerning the extension of slavery into the new territories. Murder, mayhem, robbery, and arson were committed by bold free-state and pro-slavery advocates in the name of their cause. On January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the union as a free state, but the turmoil of "Bleeding Kansas" continued throughout the Civil War.