Sunday Snapshot: Wadsworth Mound

Rising 150 feet from the flat plains near Pottawatomie Creek on the Anderson County side of the Franklin/Anderson line is a large hill. The first White settlers to the area called it Steamboat Mound because of its shape. It was later called Wadsworth Mound for an early settler who helped found the nearby and now ghost town of Mt. Gilead. Today, it is known as Peine Mound for the current owners of the land that includes the hill, but it most often appears as Wadsworth Mound in a historical context. Here, the mound is seen from the west on Allen Road.

As the story goes, in 1856, James Townsley owned a house at the southern base of the mound, and he invited the infamous John Brown to share his log cabin as they planned their strategy to protect Anderson County from the pro-slavers. It is said that it was from Townsley’s home that Brown planned the attack on Dutch Henry’s Crossing near present-day Lane, Kansas — an event that would later be known as the Pottawatomie Massacre.

Wadsworth Mound can be seen for miles and is easily accessible, just a few miles away from Greeley and the lovely church at Scipio. (Be sure to look at the map in satellite view.)