I've been trying to nail down my family history in KS to see if any of my forebears were involved in this part of our history. My great-great grandfather was born in Stark Co. OH in 1818 and died in La Cygne KS in 1886. That is close to the MO state line. His son, my great grandfather, was born in Davis IN in 1852 and died in Adrian MO in 1928. That is just a short distance from La Cygne KS. With those dates and the fact that La Cygne was not founded until the railroad was established there in 1869 I suspect that the Simpsons, er, Deardorffs didn't arrive in the area until after the Civil War.
My family were real latecomers, my Mom and Dad moving to Kansas from Indiana. Things had long since calmed down with Missouri. I remember watching Diamonds Are Forever in KCMO and when Blofeld told Bond he could demonstrate his weapon but it was over Kansas and no one would notice the Missouri folks thought that was pretty funny. A long way from 1856 when Kansas dominated national headlines.