Iowa was a stopping over spot for many and within a few years, they pushed on to adjoining Kansas.
Kansas grew rapidly after the Civil War with the opening of the land by Railroad and by the Homestead Act. There were Indian uprisings through 1878.
Only a few of the Southern Putman family went into Kansas as you will see in the next part covering Kansas Census returns.
Bennett Putman, a son of Reding and Stacey Putman, was in Illinois in 1850, Iowa in 1860 and here in Union Township of Rice County, Kansas after that. His life was covered in the Illinois section.
James Daniel Putman, another of Reding's sons was in Empire Township of Ellsworth County from the 1870s on. It was becoming late in our history as people went into Kansas, no large family groups appeared as they did a century earlier in the South.
By 1880, two of the Southern Putman guys came over from Brown County, Illinois. Jeremiah Putman, son of Daniel and Louisa, came to Mitchell County. Johnson Putnam, son of John and Sophia, came to Barton County.
The first census was in 1860, and the first Putnams and Putmans were mostly out of Vermont and New York.