Mary Jane Wendell Colman came to Kansas from Massachusetts as the wife of Ezekial Andrus Colman. The couple came to Lawrence from Boston with the third party of the New England Emigrant Aid Society in October, 1854. They first settled on a farm three miles soutwest of Lawrence, then moved into Lawrence to run a grocery store. In 1858, they purchased a farm just south of the California Road adjacent to Judge Wakefield's claim. This became known as Kanwaka and is an area associated with several families known to have sheltered runaway slaves. They were there at the time of the Quantrill Raid in August 1863.

Mary gave birth to 14 children, six of whom died in infancy. Her husband and at least two sons volunteered for the Union Army during the Civil War. The second oldest child, Charles, was 1st Lieutenant, Company H, 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. He died in battle on April 18,1864 at Poison Springs, Arkansas, while commanding a company of Negro troops. The Colman's fourth son, Cosma Torrienta, was born October 8, 1845 at Concord, Massachusetts. At the age of eighteen, he enlisted as a voluteer in the 14th Kansas Cavalry Regiment and was one of the 22 recruits encamped in Lawrence at the time of Quantrill's Raid. He escaped with his life mainly because it was his week to cook and he had arisen before sunrise.