Notices & Events

Leave Your Mark Contest Deadline Extended!

•The deadline for the Leave Your Mark design campaign has been extended to June 28th.

•Submit your design today!

Racquetball Court #3 Closed Indefinitely

•Due to shattered glass, this court is closed.

•Thank you for your cooperation while it is being fixed.

KU Fit Summer Schedule Available Now

•Summer classes run from June 3rd to July 31st; Monday-Friday

•$25 for the whole summer or $3 per class; passes are available in the ASRFC office. Get yours today!

Bikes for Rent in ODP

•Outdoor Pursuits now has bikes available to rent.

•Mountain and Comfort bikes are available.

Adams Campus History

1965 and 1967 KU Endowment Association purchased 320 acres of land described as the East one-half of Section 25, Township 13 South, Range 18 East, in Douglas County, Kansas with funds from the Kenneth S. Dams Opportunity Fund. Funds for purchase of the Adams Campus property were a gift from the Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Learned of Bartlesville , Oklahoma in honor of K.S. Boots Adams, Chairman of the Board of Phillips Petroleum Company, on the occasion of his 66 th birthday. A portion of the money was to be used for purchase of the land and the remainder for development. This tract, to be called, Adams Campus, is a nine mile drive from the main KU campus. The Army Corps of Engineers acquired roughly 98 acres for projects leaving the campus with 222 acres.

• 1974 Sandra Lee Poland, Thesis, Master of Science Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (HPERD) A Master Development Plan for Adams Campus.
• 1983 Adams Campus Development, Allen Heinze, joins HPER Academic recreation program. Endowment provides $50,000 initial improvement plan.
• 1986 HPER letter to Army Corps of engineers to lease property.
• 1987 Hiring of Rick Cameron, Assistant Director, Outdoor, KU Recreation Services.
• 1988 Adams Campus up and running.
• 1989 Phase II (High Elements) Proposal developed.
• 1990 Rick Cameron leaves the University for the YMCA of the Rockies.
• 1991 Robinson Center Indoor Artificial Rock Climbing Wall opens as a REI Grant Recipient ($5000); closed summer 2003. KU Student Video: Can You Survive the Challenge.
• 1993/94 Allen Heinze leaves KU for the University of Illinois Athletic Department.
• 1994/95 $10,325 improvement funds provided by KU Endowment: wood chips for trail and parking lot materials.

History of the Two Swedish Cemeteries
The Johnson Cemetery

The Johnson Cemetery is located in the southeast corner of the Adams Campus site, approximately one mile north of the town of Lone Star. The small plot of ground was given for such use as a cemetery by Mr. Lars Johnson, father of the late Mrs. Randolph Hellstrom, or Laura Johnson Hellstrom. Mr. Johnson came to America in the year 1855 from Sweden. Mrs. Randolph Hellstrom was the aunt of the present Walter Hellstrom of Lawrence.

Sometime between 1854 and the Civil War the three Hellstrom brothers came from Sweden to America. They were all stonemasons. Across the stream and to the northwest of this cemetery lie the remains of a stone house and corn crib.

The first individual to be buried in this cemetery was Mr. Bergman, who was born in Sweden , and died some time between the years 1855 and 1860. There is no record of who he was except that he was a bachelor, a farmer and a stonemason.

The next to be buried at the Johnson Cemetery were two men who were father and son. J.S. Ekman, born in Sweden May 31, 1816 , died 1855; his son Carl Ekman, born in Sweden , was killed in 1863 during Quantrill’s raid. These two headstones are made of sandstone and the lettering and dates are almost gone. One stone is believed to belong to Clara Hellstrom’s father.

Other headstones include:

• Johanna E. Johnson, born in Sweden in 1810, died 1885.
• Lars Johnson, born in Sweden in 1811, died 1885.
• Frans N. Hellstrom, born in Sweden 1816, died 1884.
• Clara G. Hellstrom, born in Sweden 1820, died 1894.
• Carl E. Bjorklund, born in Sweden 1824, died 1895.
• Helena C. Bjorklund, born in Sweden 1815, died 1893.
• Otto Hellstrom, born in 1884, died 1897.
• Sidney F. Hellstrom, born in 1871, died 1910.
• Elva Hellstrom, born 1875, died 1904.
• Oscar Hellstrom, born in Sweden 1846, died 1910.
• Gustave Hellstrom, born in Sweden 1846, died 1905.
• Charles John Ahlstrom, born in Sweden 1816, died 1912.

All stones are original; it is believed that no relative has visited the cemetery since 1914.

The Jones Cemetery

A second cemetery, the Jones Cemetery, is located in the northwest corner of the Adams Campus site. When the Army Corps of Engineers condemned land for public use, this included the Jones Cemetery, but the line was changed in August 1972 to delete Section 320-C and return the ownership to the KU Endowment Association.

An indenture was made August 25, 1884, between Henry Ulrich and his wife, Martha, to the Jones Cemetery Association for the sum of five dollars. Copied from records in the Secretary of State’s Office, those involved in the Association were: "Trustees: Henry Ulrich, James M. Halbert, Michael Catherman, J.W. Matney and Thomas Bond. Aug. 25, 1884 ."

Marshall J. Jones, born October 24, 1817, and Mary Ann Holmes, born September 23, 1816, near London, England, were married January 11, 1842, and came from Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, to Kansas in the spring of 1856. He pre-empted the farm on which this cemetery is located. To the Holmeses four girls and four boys were born. Their eldest son, Alpheus Alexander, born November 25, 1842, died April 11, 1863, was buried by the side of his father who died October 3, 1862. Mrs. Jones died May 19, 1863. The above dates of birth, marriage and deaths were taken from the family Bible.

The following two inscriptions were found on one headstone:

• Daniel Vancil died Jan. 3, 1864, age 50 yrs. 7 mos. 8 days.
• Abbie Vancil died May 16, 1857, age 13 yrs. 2 mos.

The territorial 1855 census, while incomplete, lists Daniel Vancil and his family as settlers in the Bloomington area. The town site of Bloomington, now abandoned, was located in Section 24, about one mile east of the present day Clinton and approximately one mile north of the Adams Campus site. Six other graves in the Jones Cemetery marked with rocks at head and foot.

Cemetery Relocation

As both cemeteries are above flood pool level, there is no regulation demanding their relocation. When cemetery sites are on land belonging to the Army Corps of Engineers and are located near public use areas, the Corps makes a practice of fencing them and recommends this practice to the KU Endowment Association regarding the Jones Cemetery.

Bloomington Area History

Frequent raids were made in the Bloomington area by pro-slavery border ruffians. A blockhouse known as "Saunders Fort", just a few miles south of Bloomington, served as the base for the Buford pro-slavery forces. Apparently a major reason behind the frequent raids was the fact that several inhabitants were providing stations for the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves. Although the existence of these stations has been reported near the Endowment owned land, there is no record to date to verify the existence of any such stations on Adams Campus.

Information concerning the history of the two Swedish cemeteries presently located on Adams Campus was supplied by Mrs. Martha Parker, President of the Clinton Land Owners Historical Association. Additional information concerning the Johnson Cemetery was furnished by Mr. Walter Hellstrom, and his son, Mr. Robert Hellstrom, both residents of Lawrence.