Though the year has been fairly successful agriculturally, the summer and fall of 1859 in Kansas were unseasonably dry. After a winter with only a little rain and less snow, Kansas began to experience a severe drought that produced heavy dust-storms across the territory and helped bring on what was called "the Kansas Famine." (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Benson J. Lossing, Harper's Encylopedia of United States History From 458 A.D. to 1902, Volume IX (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902), 343.