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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02963 3044
LCC
TKG
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Gc 977.802 K13gr Griffith, William, 1876- 1936. History of Kansas City illustrated in three
history .. of ..
kansas City
Illustrated in Three Decades.
Being a Chronicle Wherein is Set Forth the True Account of the Founding, IRise, and Present Position Occupied by kansas City in Mu= nicipal America.
William Griffith,
1900 hudson=Kimberly Publishing Co. kansas City, MiDo.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Copyright, 1900, Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
First Decade-1870=1880.
CHAPTER I. Page.
The Louisiana Purchase .- Its Vast Importance in the History of the United States .- The Purchase Price .- Details .- Common- wealth of Missouri .- Topography. 11
CHAPTER II.
Title to Missouri Lands .- Right of Discovery .- Title of France and Spain .- Cession to the United States .- First Settlements . . 18
CHAPTER III.
Application of Missouri to be Admitted into the Union .- Agitation of the Slavery Question .- "Missouri Compromise."-Missouri Admitted. 26
CHAPTER IV.
Early Military Operations. - Mormon Difficulties in Jackson County. 34
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Page.
First White Man in Jackson County .- Rocky Mountain Fur Com- pany Establishes a Settlement on Present Site of Kansas City. -Incidents Connected with the New Settlement . 40
CHAPTER VI.
Effects of the Civil War on Kansas City .- The Outlook .- A Pros- perous Period .- The Genesis of the Metropolis .- Summary. . 48
CHAPTER VII.
The Situation in the Early 30's .- The First Ferry .- The Santa Fé and Indian Trade Tend to Kansas City. 52
Second Decade-1880=1890.
CHAPTER VIII.
Regarding the Building of Cities .- Comparison of the Causes that Led to the Founding of Medieval and Modern Cities .- History of Modern Cities Largely the History of Transportation Facilities. . 57
CHAPTER IX.
Population of Kansas City in 1880 .- The Gould System of Rail- roads .-- Fight between the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific Roads .- Combined as One Road .- Building of the First Cus- tom-House and Post-Office. . 63
CHAPTER X.
The Drought of 1881 .- Did Not Prevent Continued Increase in Trade .- Great Wave of Prosperity during the Next Few Years. 66
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
Effects of the War .- The First Public Schools .- Other Educa- Page.
tional Interests and Institutions of this Decade. 73
CHAPTER XII.
Journalism in Kansas City from 1865 to 1890. 79
CHAPTER XIII.
An Unparalleled Railway System .- How It was Projected .- How It Developed .- How It has Influenced the Commercial Pros- perity of the City .- A Comparison. 90
Third Decade-1890=1900.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Genesis of the Metropolis .- Enormous Contiguous Territory. ---- Romance of the Waters .- Geographical Center of the Nation .- A Startling Contrast .- Population .- Railroads .- Sketch of the "Boom."-Reaction .- Story of the Parks .- Retrospect and Outlook. 101
CHAPTER XV.
The Story of Population .- Interesting Comparisions with Other Large Cities in Point of Increase and Size .. 114
CHAPTER XVI.
Reasons for this Prosperity .- Volume of Wholesale Business .- Grain Elevators .- Building Permits .- Bank Deposits .- Clear- ings .- Kansas City Ranks Tenth in Volume of Business. . . 120
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVII.
Page.
A Glance at the Stock-Yard and Packing-House Industries. 122
CHAPTER XVIII.
Kansas City in the Present .- Retrospect .- Prospect. 123
CHAPTER XIX.
Ranks with the Best .- Kansas City is Greatest in Many Things and Great in All. 129
INTRODUCTION.
In the cradle of Time the city was often the empire. Baby- lon was Babylonia; Nineveh was Assyria; Athens was Greece; Rome was the world. Only for generic purposes of defense were ever founded the capitals of the early world. Since then-and especially in more modern times-the founding and growth of cities have depended more on their superior location, with reference to commercial distribution, than on their easy defense and impregnability. The history of a modern metrop- olis is essentially the history of its transportational facilities.
Since the American Revolution, cities have ceased to owe their origin to the dictates of the State-especially so in America. And in the vast field west of the Alleghany Moun- tains the private individual has in nearly every instance sown the seed from which has sprung a multitude of cities unparalleled for their prosperity and rapid development. The world has never seen an empire as compact and solidly built as are these United States; and from their exact center radiate the thous- and channels of commerce that have fostered the growth of Kansas City.
In writing this brief municipal history, an effort has been made to tell the story of Kansas City as completely and suc- cinctly as possible, without any indulgence in personalities, or dwelling too long on events only possessing a restricted and local interest.
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INTRODUCTION.
The illustrations, showing the progress of Kansas City in three decades, have been specially designed to show the prog- ress of pictorial art in America during the past thirty years. Those appearing in the first and second decades are reproduc- tions from former publications issued during the respective peri- ods. Before offering this chronicle to the public, a sincere and grateful acknowledgment must be made to those pioneer histo- rians whose labors have prevailed to rescue the early history of Kansas City from oblivion.
1
First Decade. PRELIMINARY. 1870 = 1880.
3 1833 02963 3044
CHAPTER I.
The Louisiana Purchase .- Its Vast Importance in the History of the United States .- The Purchase Price .- Details .- Common= wealth of Missouri .- Topography.
The purchase of the vast territory west of the Mississippi, River, by the United States, extending through Oregon to the Pacific coast and south to the dominions of Mexico, consti- tutes the most important event that ever occured in the history of the nation.
It gave to our Republic additional room for that expansion and stupendous growth to which it has since attained, in all that makes it strong and enduring, and forms the seat of an empire from which will radiate an influence for good unequaled in the annals of time. In 1763, one hundred and thirty-seven years ago, the immense region of country known at that time as Louisiana was ceded to Spain by France. By a secret article in the treaty of San Ildefonso, concluded in 1800, Spain ceded it back to France. Napoleon, at that time, coveted the island of San Domingo, not only because of the value of its products, but more especially because its location in the Gulf of Mexico would, in a military point of view, afford him a fine field whence he could the more effectively guard his newly acquired possessions. Hence he desired that this cession by Spain should be kept a profound secret until he succeeded in
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
reducing San Domingo to submission. In this undertaking, however, his hopes were blasted, and so great was his disap- pointment, that he apparently became indifferent to the advan- tages to be derived to France from his purchase of Louisiana.
In 1803 he sent out Laussat as prefect of the colony, who gave the people of Louisiana the first intimation they had had that they had once more become the subjects of France. This · was an occasion of great rejoicing among the inhabitants, who were Frenchmen in their origin, habits, manners, and customs.
President Jefferson on being informed of the retrocession, immediately dispatched instructions to the American minister at Paris to make known to Napoleon that the occupancy of New Orleans by his government would not only endanger the friendly relations existing between the two nations, but per- haps oblige the United States to make common cause with England, his bitterest and most dreaded enemy; as the posses- sion of the city by France would give her command of the Mississippi, which was the only outlet for the produce of the Western States, and give her also control of the Gulf of Mexico, so necessary to the protection of American commerce. The negotiations commenced. On the 30th of April, 1803, eight- een days afterward, the treaty was signed, and on the 21st of October of the same year Congress ratified the treaty. The United States was to pay $11,250,000, and her citizens to be compensated for some illegal captures, to the amount of $3,750,000, making an aggregate sum of $15,000,000.
On December 20th, 1803, Generals Wilkinson and Clai- borne, who were jointly commissioned to take possession of the territory for the United States, arrived in the city of New
LIVE STOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING.
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
Orleans with the American forces. Laussat, who had taken command but twenty days previously as the prefect of the col- ony, gave up his command and the star-spangled banner sup- planted the tri-colored flag of France. The authority of the United States in Missouri dates from this day.
From this moment the interests of the people of the Mis- sissippi valley became identified. They were troubled no more with the uncertainties of free navigation. The great river, along whose banks they had planted their towns and villages, now afforded them a safe and easy outlet to the markets of the world. Under the protecting ægis of a government republican in form, and having free access to an almost boundless domain, embracing in its broad area the diversified climates of the globe, and possessing a soil unsurpassed for fertility, beauty of scenery, and wealth of minerals, they had every incentive to push on their enterprises and build up the land wherein their lot had been cast. In the purchase of Louisiana it was known that a great empire had been secured as a heritage to the peo- ple of our country for all time to come; but its grandeur, its possibilities, its inexhaustible resources, and the important re- lations it would sustain to the nation and the world were never dreamed of by even Thomas Jefferson and his adroit and accomplished diplomatists. The most ardent imagination never conceived of the progress which would mark the history of the Great West. Year after year civilization has advanced farther and farther, until at length the mountains, the plains, the hills and the valleys, and even the rocks and the caverns, resound with the noise and din of busy millions. The popula- tion of the district of Louisiana when ceded to the United
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
States was 10,120, or less than that of one of the wards in the present metropolis of Kansas City.
The name Missouri is derived from the Indian tongue, and signifies muddy.
Missouri is bounded on the north by Iowa (from which it is separated for about thirty miles on the northeast by the Des Moines River), and on the east by the Mississippi River, which divides it from Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and on the west by the Indian Territory and by the States of Kan- sas and Nebraska. The State lies (with the exception of a small projection between the St. Francis and the Mississippi rivers, which extends to 36°) between 36° 30' and 40° 36' north latitude, and between 12º 2' and 18° 51' west longitude from Washington,
The extreme width of the State east and west is about 348 miles; its width on its northern boundary, measured from its northeast corner along the Iowa line to its intersection with the Des Moines River, is about 210 miles; its width on its southern boundary is about 288 miles. Its average width is about 235 miles,
The length of the State north and south, not including the narrow strip between the St. Francis and Mississippi rivers, is about 282 miles. It is about 450 miles from its extreme northwest corner to its southeast corner, and from the north- east corner to the southwest corner it is about 230 miles. These limits embrace an area of 65,350 square miles, or 41,824,000 acres, being nearly as large as England, and the States of Vermont and New Hampshire.
North of the Missouri the State is level or undulating,
MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE.
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
while the portion south of that river (the larger portion of the State) exhibits a greater variety of surface. In the south- eastern part is an extensive marsh, reaching beyond the State into Arkansas. The remainder of this portion between the Mississippi and Osage rivers is rolling and gradually rises into a hilly and mountainous district, forming the outskirts of the Ozark Mountains.
Beyond the Osage River, at some distance, commences a vast expanse of prairie land, which stretches away toward the Rocky Mountains. The ridges forming the Ozark chain ex- tend in a northeast and southwest direction, separating the waters that flow northeast into the Missouri from those that flow southeast into the Mississippi River.
No State in the Union enjoys better facilities for navi- gation than Missouri. By means of the Mississippi River, which stretches along her entire eastern boundary, she can hold commercial intercourse with the most northern Territory and State in the Union; with the whole valley of the Ohio, with many of the Atlantic States, and with the Gulf of Mexico.
By the Missouri River she can extend her commerce to the Rocky Mountains, and receive in return the products which will come in the course of time, by its multitude of tributaries.
The Missouri River coasts the northwest line of the State for about 250 miles, following its windings, and then flows through the State, a little south of east, to its junction with the Missis- sippi. The Missouri River receives a number of tributaries within the limits of the State, the principal of which are the Nodaway, Platte, Loutre, and Chariton from the north, and the Blue, Sniabar, Grand, Osage, and Gasconade from the south.
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
The principal tributaries of the Mississippi within the State are the Salt River, north, and the Maramec River, south, of the Missouri.
The St. Francis and White rivers, with their branches, drain the southeastern part of the State, and pass into Arkansas. The Osage is navigable for steamboats for more than 275 miles. There are a vast number of smaller streams, such as creeks, branches, and rivers, which water the State in all directions.
TIMBER .- Not more towering in their sublimity were the cedars of ancient Lebanon, nor more precious in their utility were the almung-trees of Ophir, than the native forests of Missouri. The river bottoms are covered with a luxuriant growth of oak, ash, elm, hickory, cottonwood, linn, white and black walnut, and, in fact, all the varieties found in the Atlantic and Eastern States. In the more barren districts may be seen the white and pin oak, and in many places a dense growth of pine. The crab-apple, papaw, and persimmon are abundant, as also the hazel and pecan.
CLIMATE .- The climate of Missouri is, in general, pleasant and salubrious. Like that of North America, it is changeable, and subject to sudden and sometimes extreme changes of heat and cold; but it is decidedly milder, taking the whole year through, than that of the same latitudes east of the mountains. While the summers are not more oppressive than they are in the corresponding latitudes on and near the Atlantic coast, the winters are shorter, and very much milder, except during the month of February, which has many days of pleasant sunshine.
PRAIRIES .- Missouri is a prairie State, especially that por
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
tion of it north and northwest of the Missouri River. These prairies, along the water-courses, abound with the thickest and most luxuriant belts of timber, while the "rolling" prairies occupy the higher portions of the country, the descent generally to the forests or bottom lands being over only declivities. Many of these prairies, however, exhibit a gracefully waving surface, swelling and sinking with an easy slope, and a full rounded outline, equally avoiding the unmeaning horizontal surface and the interruption of abrupt or angular elevations.
These prairies often embrace extensive tracts of land, and in one or two instances they cover an area of fifty thousand acres. During the spring and summer they are carpeted with a velvet of green, and gayly bedecked with flowers of various forms and hues, making a most fascinating panorama of ever- changing color and loveliness. To fully appreciate their great beauty and magnitude, they must be seen,
SOIL .- The soil of Missouri is good, and of great agricult- ural capabilities, but the most fertile portions of the State are the river bottoms, which are a rich alluvium mixed in many cases with sand, the producing qualities of which are not ex- celled by the prolific valley of the famous Nile.
South of the Missouri River there is a greater variety of soil, but much of it is fertile, and even in the mountains and mineral districts there are rich valleys, and about the sources of the White, Eleven Points, Current, and Big Black rivers the soil, though unproductive, furnishes a valuable growth of yellow pine.
The marshy lands in the southeastern part of the State will, by a system of drainage, be one of the most fertile districts in the State.
CHAPTER II.
Title to Missouri Lands .- Right of Discovery .- Title of France and Spain .- Cession to the United States .- First Settlements.
The title to the soil of Missouri was, of course, primarily vested in the original occupants who inhabited the country prior to its discovery by the whites. But the Indians, being savages, possessed but few rights that civilized nations considered them- selves bound to respect, so when they found this country in the posession of such a people, they claimed it in the name of the King of France, by the right of discovery. It remained under the jurisdiction of France until 1763.
Prior to the year 1763, the entire continent of North America was divided between France, England, Spain, and Russia. France held all that portion that now constitutes our national domain west of the Mississippi River, except Texas and the territory which we have obtained from Mexico and Russia. The vast region, while under the jurisdiction of France, was known as the "Province of Louisiana," and em- braced the present State of Missouri. At the close of the "Old French War," in 1763, France gave up her share of the con- tinent, and Spain came into the possession of the territory west of the Mississippi River, while Great Britain retained Canada and the regions northward, having obtained that terri- tory by conquest, in the war with France. For thirty-seven
OLD CHICK MANSION-FIRST HOUSE BUILT IN KANSAS CITY.
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
years the territory now embraced within the limits of Missouri remained as a part of the possessions of Spain, and then went back to France by the treaty of San Ildefonso, October 1, 1800. On the 30th of April, 1803, France ceded it to the United States, in consideration of receiving $11,250,000, and the liq- uidation of certain claims held by citizens of the United States against France, which amounted to the further sum of $3,750,000, making a total of $15,000,000. It will thus be seen that France has twice, and Spain once, held sovereignty over the territory embracing Missouri, but the financial needs of Napoleon afforded our Government an opportunity to add another empire to its domain.
On the 31st of October, 1803, an act of Congress was approved, authorizing the President to take possession of the newly acquired territory, and provided for it a temporary gov- ernment; and another act, approved March 26th, 1804, author- ized the division of the "Louisiana Purchase," as it was then called, into two separate Territories. All that portion south of the 33d parallel of north latitude was called the "Territory of Orleans," and that north of the said parallel was known as the "District of Louisiana," and was placed under the jurisdiction of what was then known as "Indiana Territory."
By virtue of an act of Congress, approved March 3, 1805, the "District of Louisiana" was organized as the "Territory of Louisiana," with a territorial government of its own, which went into operation July 4th of the same year, and it so re- mained till 1812. In this year the "Territory of Orleans" became the State of Louisiana, and the "Territory of Lou- isiana" was organized as the "Territory of Missouri."
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
This change took place under an act of Congress, approved June 4, 1812. In 1819 a portion of this territory was or- ganized as "Arkansaw Territory," and in 1821 the State of Missouri was admitted, being a part of the former "Territory of Missouri."
In 1836 the "Platte Purchase," then being a part of the Indian Territory, and now composing the counties of Atchison, Andrew, Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway, and Platte, was made by treaty with the Indians, and added to the State. It will be seen, then, that the soil of Missouri belonged:
1st .-- To France with other territory.
2d .- In 1768, with other territory, it was ceded to Spain.
3d .- October 1, 1800, it was ceded with other territory from Spain, back to France.
4th,-April 30, 1803, it was ceded with other territory by France to the United States.
5th .- October 31, 1803, a temporary government was authorized by Congress for the newly acquired territory.
6th .- October 1, 1804, it was included in the "District of Louisiana," and placed under the territorial government of Indiana.
7th .- July 4, 1805, it was included as a part of the "Ter- ritory of Louisiana," then organized with a separate territorial government.
8th .- June 4, 1812, it was embraced in what was then made the "Territory of Missouri."
9th .- August 10, 1821, it was admitted into the Union as a State.
10th .- In 1836 the "Platte Purchase" was made, adding more territory to the State.
NSES PACIFIC OFICE
GENERAL OFFICES, KANSAS PACIFIC RAILWAY.
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
The cession by France April 30, 1803, vested the title in the United States, subject to the claims of the Indians, which it was very justly the policy of the Government to recognize. Before the Government of the United States could vest clear title to the soil in the grantee, it was necessary to extinguish the Indian title by purchase. This was done accordingly by treaties made with the Indians, at different times.
The name of the first white man who set foot on the ter- ritory now embraced in the State of Missouri is not known, nor is it known at what precise period the first settlements were made. It is, however, generally agreed that they were made at Ste. Geneviève and New Bourbon, tradition fixing the date of these settlements in the autumn of 1735. These towns were settled by the French from Kaskaskia and St. Philip in Illinois.
St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclede Lignest, on the 15th day of February, 1764. He was a native of France, and was one of the members of the company of Laclede Lig- nest, Antoine Maxant & Co., to whom a royal charter had been granted, confirming the privilege of an exclusive trade with the Indians of the Missouri as far north as St. Peter's River.
While in search of a trading-post, he ascended the Mis- sissippi as far as the mouth of the Missouri, and finally returned to the present town-site of St. Louis. After the village had been laid off, he named it St. Louis, in honor of Louis XV. of France.
The colony thrived rapidly by accessions from Kaskaskia and other towns on the east side of the Mississippi and its
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
trade was largely increased by many of the Indian tribes, who removed a portion of their peltry trade from the same towns to St. Louis. It was incorporated as a town on the 9th day of November, 1809, by the court of Common Pleas of the dis- trict of St. Louis; the town trustees being Auguste Chouteau, Edward Hempstead, Jean F. Cabanné, Wm. C. Carr, and Wm. Christy, and incorporated as a city December 9, 1822. The selection of the town-site on which St. Louis stands was highly judicious, the spot not only being healthful and having the advantages of water transportation unsurpassed, but surrounded by a beautiful region of country, rich in soil and mineral resources. St. Louis has grown to be the fifth city in popula- tion in the Union, and is to-day the great center of internal commerce of the Missouri, the Mississippi and their tributaries and with its railroad facilities, it is destined to be the greatest inland city of the American continent.
The next settlement was made at Potosi, in Washington County, in 1765, by Francis Breton, who, while chasing a bear, discovered the mine near the present town of Potosi, where he afterward located.
One of the most prominent pioneers who settled at Potosi was Moses Austin, of Virginia, who, in 1873, received by grant from the Spanish Government a league of land, now known as the "Austin Survey." The grant was made on con- dition that Mr. Austin would establish a lead mine at Potosi and work it. He built a palatial residence, for that day, on the brow of the hill in the little village, which was, for many years, known as "Durham Hall.' At this point the first shot-tower and sheet-lead manufactory were erected.
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