USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > Kansas City > History of Kansas City illustrated in three decades : being a chronicle wherein is set forth the true account of the founding, rise, and present position occupied by Kansas City in municipal America > Part 2
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.
Five years after the founding of St. Louis the first settle- ment made in Northern Missouri was made at or near St. Charles, in St. Charles County, in 1769. The name given to it, and which it retained till 1784, was Les Petites Côtes, signi- fying Little Hills. The town-site was located by Blanchette, a Frenchman surnamed Le Chasseur, who built the first fort in the town and established there a military post.
Soon after the establishment of the military post at St. Charles, the old French village of Portage des Sioux was located on the Mississippi, just below the mouth of the Illinois River, and at about the same time a Kickapoo villiage was commenced at Clear Weather Lake. The present town-site of New Madrid, in New Madrid County, was settled in 1781, by French Canadians, it then being occupied by Delaware Indians. The place now known as Big River Mills, St. Fran- çois County, was settled in 1796; Andrew Baker, John Alley, Francis Starnater, and John Andrews, each locating claims. The following year a settlement was made in the same county, just below the present town of Farmington, by the Rev. Wm. Murphy, a Baptist minister from East Tennessee. In 1796 settlements were made in Perry County by emigrants from Kentucky and Pennsylvania; the latter locating in the rich bottom lands of Bois Brulé, the former generally settling in the "Barrens," and along the waters of Saline Creek.
Bird's Point, in Mississippi County, opposite Cairo, Ill., was settled August 6, 1800, by John Johnson, by virtue of a a land-grant from the commandant under the Spanish Govern- ment. Norfolk and Charleston, in the same county, were set- tled respectively in 1800 and 1801. Warren County was
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settled in 1801. Loutre Island, below the present town of Herman, in the Missouri River, was settled by a few American families in 1807. This little company of pioneers suffered greatly from the floods, as well as from the incursions of thiev- ing and blood-thirsty Indians, and many incidents of a thrilling character could be related of trials and struggles, had we the time and space,
In 1807, Nathan and Daniel Boone, sons of the great hunter and pioneer, in company with three others, went from St. Louis to "Boone's Lick," in Howard County, where they manufactured salt, and formed the nucleus of a small settlement.
Côte Sans Dessieu, now called Bakersville, on the Missouri River, in Callaway County, was settled by the French in 1801. This little town was considered at that time as the "Far West" of the new world. During the War of 1812, at this place many hard-fought battles occurred between the whites and Indians, wherein woman's fortitude and courage greatly assisted in the defense of the settlement.
In 1810, a colony of Kentuckians numbering one hundred and fifty families immigrated to Howard County, and settled in the Missouri River bottom, near the present town of Franklin.
Such, in brief, is the history of some of the early settlements of Missouri, covering a period of more than half a century.
These settlements were made on the water-courses; usually along the banks of the two great streams, whose navigation afforded them transportation for their marketable commodities and communication with the civilized portion of the country.
They not only encountered the gloomy forests, settling as
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they did by the river's brink, but the hostile incursion of savage Indians, by whom they were for many years surrounded.
The expedients of these brave men who first broke ground in the Territory, have been succeeded by the permanent and tasteful improvements of their descendants. Upon the spots where they toiled, dared, and died are seen the comfortable farm, the beautiful village, and thrifty city. Churches and school-houses greet the eye on every hand; railroads diverge in every direction, and, indeed, all the appliances of a higher civ- ilization, are profusely strewn over the smiling surface of the State.
CHAPTER III.
Application of Missouri to be Admitted into the Union .- Agitation of the Slavery Question .- "Missouri Compromise."- Missouri Admitted.
With the application of the Territorial Legislature of Mis- souri for her admission into the Union commenced the real agitation of the slavery question in the United States.
Not only was our National Legislature the theater of angry discussions, but everywhere throughout the length and breadth of the Republic the "Missouri Question" was the all-absorb- ing theme. The political skies threatened
"In forked flashes, a commanding tempest,"
which was liable to burst upon the nation at any moment. Through such a crisis our country seemed destined to pass. The question as to the admission of Missouri was to be the beginning of this crisis, which distracted the public counsels of the nation for more than forty years afterward.
Missouri asked to be admitted into the great family of States. "Lower Louisiana," her twin sister Territory, had knocked at the door of the Union eight years previously, and was admitted, as stipulated by Napoleon, to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of a State; and in accordance with the stipulations of the same treaty, Missouri now sought to be clothed with the same rights, privileges, and immunities.
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As what is known in the history of the United States as the "Missouri Compromise," of 1820, takes rank among the most prominent measures that had up to that day engaged the attention of our National Legislature, we shall enter somewhat into its details, being connected as they are with the annals of the State.
February 15, 1819, after the House had resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill to authorize the ad- mission of Missouri into the Union, and after the question of her admission had been discussed for some time, Mr. Tall- madge, of New York, moved to amend the bill, by adding to it the following proviso:
"And Provided, That the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crime, wherof the party shall have been duly convicted, and that all children born within the said State, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five years."
As might have been expected, this proviso precipitated the angry discussions which lasted for nearly three years, finally culminating in the Missouri Compromise. All phases of the slavery question were presented, not only in its moral and social aspects, but as a great constitutional question, affecting Missouri and the admission of future States. The proviso when submitted to a vote, was adopted-79 to 67, and so re- ported to the House.
Hon. John Scott, who was at that time a delegate from the Territory of Missouri, was not permitted to vote, but as such a delegate he had the privilege of participating in the debates
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which followed. On the 16th day of February the proviso was taken up and discussed. After several speeches had been made, among them one by Mr. Scott and one by the author of the proviso, Mr. Tallmadge, the amendment or proviso was divided into two parts, and voted upon. The first part of it, which included all to the word "convicted," was adopted-87 to 76. The remaining part was then voted upon, and also adopted, by 82 to 78. By a vote of 97 to 56 the bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.
The Senate Committee, to whom the bill was referred, re- ported the same to the Senate on the 19th of February, when that body voted first upon a motion to strike out of the proviso all after the word "convicted," which was carried by a vote of 32 to 7. It then voted to strike out the first entire clause, which prevailed-22 to 16, thereby defeating the proviso.
The House declined to concur in the action of the Senate, and the bill was again returned to that body, which in turn re- fused to recede from its position. The bill was lost and Con- gress adjourned. This was most unfortunate for the country. The people, having already been wrought up to fever heat over the agitation of the question in the National Councils, now became intensely excited. The press added fuel to the flame, and the progress of events seemed rapidly tending to the downfall of our nationality.
A long interval of nine months was to ensue before the meeting of Congress. That body indicated by its vote upon the "Missouri Question" that the two great sections of the country were politically divided upon the subject of slavery. The restrictive clause, which it was sought to impose upon
UPPER RESERVOIR-GASTON PARK.
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Missouri as a condition of her admission, would in all prob- ability be one of the conditions of the admission of the Terri- tory of Arkansas. The public mind was in a state of great doubt and uncertainty up to the meeting of Congress, which took place on the 6th of December, 1819. The memorial of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Missouri Territory praying for admission into the Union was presented to the Senate by Mr. Smith, of South Carolina. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee.
Some three weeks having passed without any action there- on by the Senate, the bill was taken up and discussed by the House until the 19th of February, when the bill from the Senate for the admission of Maine was considered. The bill for the admission of Maine included the "Missouri Question," by an amendment which read as follows:
"And be it further enacted, That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, north latitude (excepting such part thereof as is) included within the limits of the State, contemplated by this act, slavery and in- voluntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited; Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed, in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services as aforesaid."
The Senate adopted this amendment, which formed the
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basis of the "Missouri Compromise," modified afterward by striking out the words, "excepting only such part thereof."
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 24 to 20. On the 2d day of March the House took up the bill and amendments for consideration, and by a vote of 134 to 42 concurred in the Senate amendment, and the bill, being passed by the two Houses, constituted Section 8 of "An Act to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit slavery in certain territory."
This act was approved March 6, 1820. Missouri then contained fifteen organized counties. By act of Congress the people of said State were authorized to hold an election on the first Monday, and two succeeding days thereafter in May, 1820, to select representatives to a State convention. This conven- tion met in St. Louis on the 12th of June, following the elec- tion in May, and concluded its labors on the 19th of July, 1820. David Barton was its president and Wm. G. Pettis its secretary. There were forty-one members of this convention, men of ability and statesmanship, as the admirable constitution which they framed amply testifies.
On the 13th of November, 1820, Congress met again, and on the 6th of the same month Mr. Scott, the delegate from Missouri, presented to the House the constitution as framed by the convention. The same was referred to a select com- mittee, who made thereon a favorable report.
The admission of the State, however, was resisted because it was claimed that its constitution sanctioned slavery. and
OPERA HOUSE, TENTH AND BROADWAY.
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authorized the Legislature to pass laws preventing free negroes and mulattoes from settling in the State. The report of the committee to whom was referred the Constitution of Missouri was accompanied by a preamble and resolutions, offered by Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina. The preamble and resolu- tions were stricken out.
The application of the State for admission shared the same fate in the Senate. The question was referred to a select committee, who, on the 29th of November, reported in favor of admitting the State. The debate, which followed, contin- ued for two weeks, and finally Mr. Eaton, of Tennessee, offered an amendment to the resolution as follows:
"Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be so con- strued as to give the assent of Congress to any provision in the Constitution of Missouri, if any such there be, which contra- venes that clause in the Constitution of the United States which declares that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."
The resolution, as amended, was adopted. The resolution and proviso were again taken up and discussed at great length, when the committee agreed to report the resolution to the House.
The question on agreeing to the amendment, as reported from the Committee of the Whole, was lost in the House. A similar resolution afterward passed the Senate, but was again rejected in the House. Then it was that that great statesman and pure patriot, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, feeling that the hour had come when angry discussions should cease,
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"With grave
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd
A pillar of state; deep on his front engraven Deliberation sat and public care
And princely counsel in his face yet shone Majestic," * proposed that the question of Missouri's admission be referred to a committee consisting of twenty-three persons (a number equal to the number of States then composing the Union), be appointed to act in conjunction with a committee of the Senate to consider and report whether Missouri should be admitted, etc.
The motion prevailed; the committee was appointed and Mr. Clay made its chairman, The Senate selected seven of its members to act with the committee of twenty-three, and on the 26th of February the following report was made by that committee:
"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That Missouri shall be admitted into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the twenty- sixth section of the third article of the Constitution submitted on the part of said State to Congress shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States; Pro- vided, That the Legislature of said State, by a Solemn Public Act, shall declare the assent of the said State to the said fund-
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amental condition and shall transmit to the President of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act; upon the receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said State into the Union shall be considered complete."
This resolution, after a brief debate, was adopted in the House, and passed the Senate on the 28th of February, 1821.
At a special session of the Legislature held in St. Charles in June following, a Solemn Public Act was adopted, giving its assent to the conditions of admission, as expressed in the res- olution of Mr. Clay. August 10, 1821, President Monroe an- nounced by proclamation the admission of Missouri into the Union to be complete.
CHAPTER IV.
Early Military Operations .- Mormon Difficulties in Jackson County.
On the 14th day of May, 1832, a bloody engagement took place between the regular forces of the United States and a part of the Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoe Indians commanded by Black Hawk and Keokuk, near Dixon's Ferry in Illinois.
The Governor (John Miller) of Missouri, fearing these sav- ages would invade the soil of his State, ordered Major-General Richard Gentry to raise one thousand volunteers for the defense of the frontier. Five companies were at once raised in Boone County, and in Callaway, Montgomery, St. Charles, Lincoln, Pike, Marion, Ralls, Clay, and Monroe other companies were raised.
Two of these companies, commanded respectively by Cap- tain John Jaimison, of Callaway, and Captain David M. Hick- man, of Boone County, were mustered into service in July for thirty days, and put under command of Major Thomas W. Conyers.
This detachment, accompanied by General Gentry, arrived at Fort Pike on the 15th of July, 1832. Finding that the Indians had not crossed the Mississippi into Missouri, General Gentry returned to Columbia, leaving the fort in charge of Major Conyers. Thirty days having expired, the command under Major Conyers was relieved by two other companies
DIAMOND MILLS
DIAMOND MILLS
DIAMOND MILLS, WEST KANSAS CITY.
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under Captains Sinclair Kirtley, of Boone, and Patrick Ewing, of Callaway. This detachment was marched to Fort Pike by Colonel Austin A, King, who conducted the two companies under Major Conyers home. Major Conyers was left in charge of the fort, where he remained till September following, at which time the Indian troubles, so far as Missouri was con- cerned, having all subsided, the frontier forces were mustered out of service.
Black Hawk continued the war in Iowa and Illinois and was finally defeated and captured in 1833.
In 1832, Joseph Smith, the leader of the Mormons, and the chosen prophet and apostle, as he claimed, of the Most High, came with many followers to Jackson County, Missouri, where they located and entered several thousand acres of land.
The object of his coming so far west-upon the very out- skirts of civilization at that time-was to more securely establish his church, and the more effectively to instruct his followers in its peculiar tenets and practices.
Upon the present town-site of Independence the Mormons located their "Zion," and gave it the name of "The New Jerusalem." They published here the Evening Star and made themselves generally obnoxious to the Gentiles, who were then in a minority, by their denunciatory articles through their paper, their clannishness, and their polygamous practices.
Dreading the demoralizing influence of a paper which seemed to be inspired only with hatred and malice toward them, the Gentiles threw the press and type into the Missouri River, tarred and feathered one of their bishops, and otherwise gave the Mormons and their leaders to understand that they
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must conduct themselves in an entirely different manner if they wished to be let alone.
After the destruction of their paper and press, they became furiously incensed, and sought many opportunities for retalia- tion. Matters continued in an uncertain condition until the 31st of October, 1833, when a deadly conflict occurred near Westport, in which two Gentiles and one Mormon were killed.
On the 2d of November following the Mormons were over- powered, and compelled to lay down their arms and agree to leave the county with their families by January 1st, on the condition that the owner would be paid for his printing press.
Leaving Jackson County, they crossed the Missouri and located in Clay, Carroll, Caldwell, and other counties, and se- lected in Caldwell County a town-site, which they called "Far West," and where they entered more land for their future homes.
Through the influence of their missionaries, who were ex- erting themselves in the East and in different portions of Europe, converts had constantly flocked to their standard, and Far West and other Mormon settlements rapidly prospered.
In 1837 they commenced the erection of a magnificent temple, but never finished it. As their settlements increased in numbers they became bolder in their practices and deeds of lawlessness.
During the summer of 1838 two of their leaders settled in the town of De Witt, on the Missouri River, having purchased the land from an Illinois merchant. De Witt was in Carroll County, and a good point from which to forward goods and immigrants to their town-Far West.
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RESIDENCE, WYANDOTTE STREET.
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Upon its being ascertained that these parties were Mormon leaders, the Gentiles called a public meeting, which was addressed by some of the prominent citizens of the county. Nothing however, was done at this meeting, but at a subse- quent meeting, which was held a few days afterward, a com- mittee of citizens was appointed to notify Col. Hinkle (one of the Mormon leaders at De Witt) of what they intended to do.
Col. Hinkle, upon being notified by this committee, became indignant, and threatened extermination to all who should attempt to molest him or the Saints.
In anticipation of trouble, and believing that the Gentiles would attempt to force them from De Witt, Mormon recruits flocked to the town from every direction, and pitched their tents in and around the town in great numbers.
The Gentiles, nothing daunted, planned an attack upon this encampment, to take place on the 21st of September, 1838, and, accordingly, one hundred and fifty men bivouacked near the town on that day. A conflict ensued, but nothing serious occurred.
The Mormons evacuated their works and fled to some log houses, where they could the more successfully resist the Gentiles, who had in the meantime returned to their camp to await reinforcements. Troops from Howard, Ray, and other counties came to their assistance, and increased their number to five-hundred men.
Congreve Jackson was chosen brigadier-general; Ebenezer Price, colonel; Singleton Vaughan, lieutenant-colonel; and Sarchel Woods, major. After some days of discipline, this brigade prepared for an assault, but before the attack was com-
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menced Judge James Earickson and William F. Dunnica, influential citizens of Howard County, asked permission of General Jackson to let them try and adjust the difficulties without any bloodshed.
It was finally agreed that Judge Earickson should propose to the Mormons that, if they would pay for all the cattle they had killed belonging to the citizens, and load their wagons dur- ing the night and be ready to move by ten o'clock next morn- ing, and make no further attempt to settle in Howard County, the citizens would purchase at first cost their lots in De Witt and one or two adjoining tracts of land.
Col. Hinkle, the leader of the Mormons, at first refused all attempts to settle the difficulties in this way, but finally agreed to the proposition.
In accordance therewith, the Mormons without further de- lay, loaded up their wagons for the town of Far West, in Cald- well County. Whether the terms of the agreement were ever carried out on the part of the citizens, is not known.
The Mormons had doubtless suffered much and in many ways-the result of their own acts -but their trials and suffer- ings were not at an end.
In 1838 the discord between the citizens and Mormons became so great that Governor Boggs issued a proclamation ordering Major-General David R. Atchison to call the militia of his division to enforce the laws. He called out a part of the 1st Brigade of the Missouri State Militia, under the com- mand of General A. W. Doniphan, who proceeded to the seat of war. General John B. Clark, of Howard County, was placed in command of the militia.
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The Mormon forces numbered about 1,000 men, and were led by G. W. Hinkle. The first engagement occurred at Crooked River, where one Mormon was killed. The principal fight took place at Haughn's Mills, where eighteen Mormons were killed and the balance captured, some of them being killed after they had surrendered. Only one militiaman was wounded.
In the month of October, 1838, Joe Smith surrendered the town of Far West to General Doniphan, agreeing to his con- ditions, viz .: that they should deliver up their arms, surrender their prominent leaders for trial, and the remainder of the Mormons should, with their families, leave the State. Indict- ments were found against a number of these leaders, including Joe Smith, who, while being taken to Boone County for trial, made his escape, and was afterward, in 1844, killed at Car- thage, Illinois, with his brother Hyrum.
CHAPTER V.
First White Man in Jackson County .- Rocky Mountain Fur Company Establishes a Settlement on Present Site of Kansas City .- Incidents Connected with the New Settlement.
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