KANSAS TERRITORY. WOODSON TOWN ASSOCIATION. NO. SEVENTY TWO [72] ONE SHARE. THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT JOHN H. SWIFT IS THE PROPRIETOR OF ONE SHARE OF THE TOWN PROPERTY OF THE WOODSON TOWN ASSOCIATION. EACH SHARE WILL BE ENTITLED TO AN EQUAL DIVISION OF LAND AND LOTS, OR THE PROCEEDS THEREOF, AND SUBJECT TO AN EQUAL PROPORTION OF THE EXPENSES AND LIABILITIES INCURRED, AND TO BE GOVERNED BY THE PRESENT RULES AND BY-LAWS OF SAID ASSOCIATION AND THAT MAY HEREAFTER BE ADOPTED. THIS SHARE IS TRANSFERABLE ONLY ON THE BOOKS OF THE ASSOCIATION UPON THE PRESENTATION OF THIS CERTIFICATE. DONE BY ORDER OF THE WOODSON TOWN COMPANY. GREENWOOD, MAY 5TH, 1856. [signed] HENRY ADDOMS, PRESIDENT. [signed] W.S. BREWSTER, SECRETARY

[Greenwood, KS?, 1856. Folio broadside, 12" x 7-3/4". Printed document completed in manuscript and signed by Henry Addams and W.S. Brewster, the President and Secretary, on May 5, 1856. Old folds, light discoloration at center of sheet. Else, Very Good.

The Woodson Town Association and Woodson Town Company were formed in 1856. The Act to Incorporate the Woodson Town Company was advertised in local papers in February, 1857. The town of Woodson was incorporated in 1857 in Marshall County, Kansas, near Guittard and Jett's Town. 'Legends of Kansas' website says it was located on the Vermillion branch of the Big Blue River.
Marshall County was established in 1855 by the Kansas Territorial Legislature, and many towns were incorporated in the first few years of the county's existence. Its existence was probably stimulated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which brought many immigrants to Kansas in the struggle between Free State and Slave State advocates. The Town of Woodson was named after Daniel Woodson [1824-1894], pro-slavery newspaper editor, first Secretary of the Kansas Territory, five-time acting governor of the territory, and namesake of Woodson County. The Town of Woodson was lost or abandoned early on. [Forter, Emma E.: HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS, ITS PEOPLE INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS. Bowen & Co.: 1917, pp. 89, 208; "Everyplace in Kansas," and "Marshall County, Kansas", Legends of Kansas website, accessed July 2025; Leavenworth Weekly Journal, February 19, 1857, page 2; Freedom's Champion, Atchison, Kansas, July 1, 1856, page 2; Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, Kansas, May 9, 1857, page 2; "Woodson, Daniel", by Matthew E. Stanley, Kansas City Public Library website, accessed July 2025.]
John H. Swift, the Secretary, may have been related to W.H. Swift, partner of Powell Foulk Clayton [1833-1914], at the firm of Clayton & Swift, Kansas Land and Real Estate Agency, and Civil Engineers and Surveyors, located in Leavenworth City, Kansas Territory. We found John H. Swift on the 1858 Kansas Territory census record listed as one of a handful of landowners who "refused to give their names and date of residence." Clayton, who was governor of Arkansas from 1868-1871, had succeeded John H. Swift as secretary of the Association by May, 1857, and was one of Woodson's incorporators. The firm of Clayton & Swift was directly connected with the Association; at least one meeting of the Association was held at the firm's office.
Henry Addoms [1811-1888] was Quartermaster at Fort Leavenworth and the first postmaster of Atchison, Kansas, appointed during the administration of President Buchanan. W.S. Brewster was living in Marshall County, Kansas, by 1857 and working as the county surveyor. He was one of the incorporators of the Marysville or Palmetto and Roseport Railroad Company, which was chartered in February, 1857, to connect St. Joseph to the Big Blue River of the Territory of Kansas.