Michael Urban’s passion for local history began when he was growing up in Saint Joseph, Kansas City and Leavenworth Kan.
His love for reading adventure and science fiction, plus his lifelong interest in history have led to the recent publication of his book, “Leavenworth City.”
Urban
The book’s story is told in chronological order by a fictitious newspaper reporter around Leavenworth from 1854 to 1861, and it includes stories from Weston, Platte City, Parkville, Farley, and Rialto all in Platte County.
The book highlights the famous citizens of Kansas who faced the troubles and toils of pre-statehood and what they did to live in the Wild West of eastern Kansas.
“This is my first experience at writing for fun and publication,” Urban said. “I was not a fan of writing in the beginning but college changed my thinking with all the papers I had to write for my classes. Before picking up my pen I was in the hardware/construction retail sales for 30-plus years with lots of part-time jobs of various descriptions.”
The idea for Leavenworth City was hatched after Urban’s many conversations with local residents who were not familiar with the founding of Leavenworth or the circumstances that led to Kansas becoming a state.
“I decided to write a contemporary history in chronological order of the misadventures of Kansas Territory from 1854 to 1861,” Urban said.
To create his sub-story Urban used his family’s personal stories and embellished some of the facts to set the mood for the main story.
“The response from my family and friends has been great,” Urban said. “Pre-sale of the book exceeded my expectations and to me that shows me how my family and friends respect my knowledge of the history of Leavenworth.”
Leavenworth City is a fictional history novel that takes place in both the present and the past.
“The fictional story of my family sets up the story of my fictional newspaper reporter from Hannibal Mo., who writes about the founding of Leavenworth and other river towns that were created in secret meetings in Weston Missouri,” Urban said. “From April, 1854, to April, 1861, when Kansas became a territory with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which brought popular sovereignty to the region, the reporting is in journal form about the true chronological events that took place forming what is now the state of Kansas. Weston was a major river port and exporter of hemp and tobacco worldwide, and the largest port and city on the Missouri River. Also, Weston was the largest town west of Saint Louis on the border of the American Frontier.”
The book’s fictional reporter, James Michael Urbaniak, checks into the Saint George Hotel in Weston for six months, until the city of Leavenworth is established at which time he then moves into the Planter’s Hotel.
“James Michael Urbaniak writes about all the mayhem, murders, lynchings, fires, floods, and total corruption of two different opposing factions that want the will of their beliefs to be the majority rule,” Urban said. “The Abolitionists from the north, and the Pro-Slavery element from the south fought for six years making Kansas bleed with innocent killings and corruption, making the pendulum swing in both directions over many confrontations from Atchison, Kan. to Fort Scott, Kan. to Lawrence, Kan., and all the small towns in between.”
The research and development of the story were the most challenging parts of writing the book for Urban. He said that taking the time to get perspective and add personal observations to paint a clear picture for the imagination to take the reader back in time was a complicated process.
“With more details the better the story will be to follow in the footsteps of our predecessors,” Urban said. The present-time stories are of actual members of my family, but the stories of the house and events that take place there are fiction.”
The book is the culmination of more than seven years of research and writing.
Urban’s wife, Natalie is the only person who has read the entire manuscript and she proofread and edited the manuscript.
“She is biased, but loved my humor and facts to tell a boring history,” Urban said. “She said she learned a lot about Leavenworth and Kansas from my stories. The publicist also read it of course and wrote the back-cover piece.”
While Urban’s favorite writers include Alexander Dumas, Jack London, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and George Lucas, his unique writing style was honed with patience and time.
After five years of research and taking notes from many sources, one year to organize the notes and create the timeline for the story to ensure the history flowed in an interesting way, and a year and a half for the publisher to complete preparations for the book’s launch, Urban is still in denial that his work has come to fruition.
“To really understand the scenes or the stories my wife and I traveled through every little town to get perspective of circumstances and general locality of the places mentioned,” Urban said. “We also spent a lot of time in libraries, museums and historic mile markers from Fort Scott, Kan., to White Cloud, Kan.”
Urban has plans to write more books in this genre. He would like to write a series of books on the area’s history and a few others, including a children’s book and a fantasy adventure novel.
Leavenworth City was released Nov. 30 and it is available at all major bookstores (Barnes and Noble/ Books a Million.) and online sites such as Amazon and Wordery. This book is available in hardback, paperback and epub.