Beecher Bible and Rifle Church is in nearby in Wabaunsee, established in June 1857 by Free State sympathizers. The "Connecticut-Kansas Colony" arrived with Sharps rifles and 25 Bibles provided by the congregation of Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth (Congregational) Church in Brooklyn, New York.
They likely were equally attached to Meriden Parker shotguns when they became available in the wilds of the Kansas-Nebraska Territory of 1854
