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 3
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Probably the first white man to set foot on the present site of Kansas City was Col. Daniel M. Boone, a son of Daniel Boone. This was in 1787, and it is stated he spent twelve winters trapping beaver on the banks of the Blue. After the settlement of the country, he made a permanent residence on a farm near Westport, now a suburb of Kansas City, until his death in 1832.
At an early date, probably as early as 1828, the Rocky Moun- tain Fur Company began to embark at the Kawsmouth settle- ment. Washington Irving, in "Astoria," gives an excellent ac- count of some of these early expeditions. While this exten- sive French-Indian and fur trade was being conducted, and while the Indian trade was being developed at Westport, Mo., another interest was being developed, which, in after years, gave the third recognition of the advantages of the angle in the Missouri River at Kansas City for an extensive distributive trade and contributed largely to its early development. This was the once great overland trade with Northern Mexico, pop- ularly known as the Santa Fé trade. This trade was for many years of great magnitude and importance and attracted much attention in all parts of the country. The arrival and depart-
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ure of the caravans were watched for with as much interest, and were as regularly and scrupulously chronicled by the press, as are the arrivals and departures of steamers at great com- mercial ports. The points that at first competed for this trade at this angle of the river were Blue Mills, Port Osage, and Independence, Missouri. Blue Mills, which was situated about six miles below Independence, soon became the favorite land- ing-point, and the exchange between wagons and boats settled there and defied all efforts to remove it. Independence, being the county seat, was the larger and more important place, and became the American headquarters of the trade and the out- fitting-point as early as 1832.
However, Independence was not to be allowed to enjoy a monopoly of the trade for any great length of time. The Mex- ican traders, finding accommodations for themselves at West- port, so much nearer the prairies, where they could herd their teams while awaiting the arrival of their goods at Blue Mills, soon took advantage of that fact. The large numbers of them that stopped there, and the trade they naturally caused, added an additional element to the prosperity of Westport, and there began to be some outfitting done there, but in a smaller way than at Independence. Others followed their example, and then a tendency to make headquarters at Westport added the Santa Fé business to that of the Indian and fur trade already done at this place and Westport. It was this tendency more than anything else that suggested the idea of a town where Kansas City now stands.
There were many different opinions about the prospects for the new town. Independence and Westport nick-named it
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Westport Landing in derision, and, owing to its non-develop- ment for so many years, it came to be generally known by this name. However, there were others who regarded it differently. Senator Thomas H. Benton, than whom none better knew the controlling facts of trade, while visiting Randolph, nearly oppo- site three miles below the city at this time, pointed to it and remarked that it was destined to become the greatest commer- cial center west of the Mississippi. The town grew. In 1860 it was the most prosperous and thriving city on the Western border. And ten years later it had a population of over 30,000. The steady march of years had gone almost round the cycle of the centennial since the Republic was founded. And amid the pride of the hour, the struggling little city realized a decade of its own not unmarked with the footsteps of the age, and not unnoticeable in its brilliant procession. The city had no euphonious name-no heroic age. Its Knights of the Round Table had long since been driven away to the plains and the mountains. Chivalrous crusader had never pranced his steed over these fertile lands. Here no sacred shrine ever attracted pilgrim's devotions. Ruin of ancient temple would not here reward antiquarian search, and the conqueror's column, em- blazoned with victories won, would here arise on no classic ground; yet there were veins of quaint history and odd humor mingled with the solid strata of early Western enterprise and thrift even here in the rude City of Kansas. Dropping back for a moment, away deep in the shades of 1832, a daring Frenchman escaping from the Canadas, with a few voyageurs, floats down the current of the Mississippi, thrusts his bateau up the wilderness of the Missouri, swings into land at the
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mouth of the Kansas, and, mounting the bluff, sails his cap in air and shouts "La libertie!" He had left his own dangerous name in a Canadian prison, and from that first hurrah from the Kansas City bluffs, his comrades gave him the name, seen so often in the earliest records of Western Missouri land- titles-"Lalibertie."
Such was one of the first pioneers. Lalibertie afterward had a fair daughter, and with her hand the old man offered twenty acres of land. One Dennoyer, sought, won, and mar- ried, and forthwith demanded also her dower. At such hasty claim then rose high the blood of the old Gaul, and Dennoyer received his lady's dower in a long useless strip of land but ten rods wide. This land now comprises one hundred lots on South Broadway on which stand some of the finest residences of the city.
The French fur traders were rude spirits, careless of life as of property. They bartered what are now business blocks of immense value in the same balance with their Indian wives and their coon-skins. One legend has come down from them which may serve as an illustration: Trombly and Lagottrie owned each a forty-acre tract in the bottom lands. They agreed to exchange one for the other, and the families actually removed into the cabin formerly occupied by the other respect- ively. Then came the execution of the deeds, but Madame Trombly refused to make her mark unless she received her present of a silk gown, according to the old custom of the bourgeoisie. The two tracts together did not equal the value of the silk, so the deeds were tossed away. One of these tracts is now covered by the Union Depot and a law-suit.
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The other has been swept away by the Missouri River as com- pletely as has been every vestige of the old French voyageurs.
During and just prior to the Civil War, Kansas City was the scene of intense excitement. In fact, when it is considered that John Brown began his harrowing career on the Kansas border, it appears that this vicinity was the real cradle of the War of the Rebellion. At that time the old Gillis House on the levee was the leading hostelry in Kansas City, and many and exciting are the traditions connected with its history. An early settler, describing this historic tavern, pictures the sur- roundings of which it was the center in these few vivid words: "From my eight-by-ten front room on the second floor of the old Gillis House, it was interesting to watch the arrival and departure of steamers and to witness the antics of half-drunken Indians from over the Kaw, who, mounting their ponies, with unearthly yells would fly by my window reeling to and fro as though ready at any moment to fall to the ground. It was no unusual thing to see fifty or sixty armed Southerners arrive and Daily to hear their cry, 'Death to all the d-d Yankees!' mutterings of war and strife came to our ears, and our Yankee hotel was threatened with destruction. In consequence, we slept nightly with revolvers under our pillows and a Sharp's rifle close at hand." It was in this hotel that Andrew H. Reeder, Governor of Kansas, was hid at the time of his famous escape over the border in 1856. The details of his concealment and subsequent escape into Illinois have long remained a mystery. So critical have been the affairs of the country, and party- feeling has run so high on the border until within the last few years, that pages of interesting history have necessarily remained
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FIRST NATIONAL BANK, FIFTH AND DELAWARE STS
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unwritten, for fear their exposure might endanger valuable lives.
While the Congressional Committee was in session at Lawrence in the early part of May, 1856, Governor Reeder was summoned to appear as a witness before the court then in session at Lecompton. Believing this to be a mere ruse to get the Governor away from the Commission, as they knew him to be of invaluable service thereto, and also having fears for his- personal safety, the Governor refused to go unless sufficient: assurance were given that his life would be protected, and that he should be at liberty to again return to the Committee. This request they would not grant, whereupon the Governor declared in emphatic terms that "the first man who laid his hands upon him did it at the peril of his life." A crowd had collected in the room in which the Committee was in session and where all this transpired; and some excitement was manifested. Finally the U. S. Marshal, who was one of a number sent for the Gov- ernor, with his aids left for Lecompton again, with their mission unaccomplished. In the meantime word had reached Law- rence of a contemplated invasion of the Territory by the Missourians, and that it was their fixed determination to kill Governor Reeder if they could get hold of him. After this affair occurred at Lawrence, Reeder, feeling his life to be in imminent danger, laid plans for an escape, his friends, of course, aiding him. For a day or two he was secreted in a cabin across the ravine from the main portion of the town, when he suddenly disappeared, his whereabouts remaining a mystery to all except a few of his accomplices until he "turned up" at Chicago about the last of May. For the space of two
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or three weeks his history was involved in total darkness. It was an oft-repeated query, "Where is Reeder?" The Free State party reported that he had made his escape through Iowa. Some surmised that he had gone down the river disguised as a woman, others that he crossed Missouri on horseback, and the most ridiculous of all stories was that he had been sent down the river in a coffin. All agreed that he had gone to parts un- known, while in reality he lay concealed in the very midst of those who so eagerly sought his life in the land of border ruffianism, and that, too, in a house daily threatened with destruction by a lawless band. Arrangements had been made to have the Governor reach Kansas City in the night season and there remain secreted until his escape could be safely effected. On the 10th of May word was circulated that Gov- ernor Reeder was to be brought to Kansas City that night under protection of some of his friends, all well armed. On Monday morning about four o'clock the sound of carriage wheels was heard in the street. This was the Lawrence coach, and con- tained Governor Reeder. His friends met him in the hotel, and he was secreted in a remote apartment. Now commenced days of fearful anxiety. How could his presence be best con- cealed? How contrive to get him away in safety? etc., were questions of the gravest importance. The first room in which he was placed was found to be unsafe, as the room opposite was occupied by those who were his enemies. Several days passed before a successful means of escape was planned for the prisoner. Disguised as an Irish "Paddy," with pipe in mouth, and assuming an air of perfect independence, he sallied forth from his place of concealment. Reaching the river success-
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RESIDENCE OF D. M. JARBOE. PENN STREET.
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fully, under cover of darkness, a skiff was procured and the Governor with a friend drifted down the Missouri. Eventually they were picked up by a passing steamer, and, after several narrow escapes from detection, the fugitive Governor reached Chicago and safety.
Such in brief have been some of the scenes once native to this present Western metropolis, and they are not entirely without a tinge of rude romance. Hers, however, is, after all, not a history only as embodied in that of the great State at whose eastern gate she stands. Through her streets have passed and vanished the white tilts of ten thousand emigrant wagons rolling on to the prairie slopes and fertile glades of Kansas. With Kansas City the pioneers of Kansas have firmly met the hardships of frontier life and have bravely en- countered no ordinary obstacles. Their success has been her prosperity. Experience with both has established skill. Im- aginary political lines have not and never can for an instant stay the laws of trade; and when labor shall have established in Kansas an endurance of dominion over drought and storm and insect, there will be a harvest of abundance to be enjoyed by both with no vestige of antagonism.
CHAPTER VI.
Effects of the Civil War on Kansas City .- The Outlook .- A Prosperous Period .- The Genesis of the Metropolis .- Summary.
There were trial days when the war bore darkly on the young city. The results of early enterprise were diverted to other channels. But the dead past had buried its dead, and the future held a splendid promise. Perhaps no other acqui- sition contributed so greatly to the growth of Kansas City as the building of the great railroad and tram bridge over the Missouri River. The year 1867 was the crisis. The cities of St. Joseph and Leavenworth had grown strong through the patronage of the Government during the war, while Kansas City had been surrounded by hostile forces and its trade utterly cut off and destroyed. It had been determined by Eastern capitalists to construct over the river a thorough- fare for concentrating roads. The undertaking was then re- garded by many able engineers to be purely chimerical. Vari- ous points had been canvassed, and the Board of Directors at Boston had actually voted that the attempt should be made at Leavenworth, when a dispatch reached them from the city in Missouri, asking that its delegation be heard. They waited, and the resolution was changed. The stupendous work began and, after three years of experiment and labor, the structure
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was successfully completed. The result was instantaneously followed by the gathering of the present extensive system of railroads. Kansas City at once became the money center of this region, the depot of its merchandise, and the headquarters of the cattle trade. And in 1876 this most important conven- ience was the direct means of changing the terminus of one of the most valuable Western railroads from a neighboring city to the mouth of the Kaw. The accomplishment of this meas- ure was due to the decisive, intelligent action of a few well- known business men, aided and abetted by the united assist- ance of the entire populace. In the struggling years of the 70's, the great progress of Kansas City existed largely in anticipation. It was upon a trade yet to come that was based the price of real estate. Upon projected railroads it was presumed that commerce would be extended. Packing-houses unbuilt were to handle cattle still roaming the ranches of Texas. Unturned prairie sod was to laugh out the harvests to fill the elevators whose timbers were yet growing in the forests of Wisconsin. Its warehouses still rested in the clay of ragged bluffs, and the sand still lay on the bars of the Missouri. It remained for the years of the panic, the drouth, and the grass- hopper to witness the realization of more than the boldest had ever hoped. In the early days of those terrible years it oc- curred to no one that within three seasons the city would gain two important transcontinental roads from the demand for greater facilities in transportation.
Within the same period came that demand which necessitated the quadrupling of the Stock Yards and the erec- tion of a Stock Exchange. That building now completed, with
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all the modern conveniences, quite equal to the empty stock palace built by the Vanderbilts at East St. Louis, signalized the location of headquarters of the great Southwestern cattle trade in Kansas City. Commission merchants were wont, in scattering offices, to carry on a desultory trade, without organ- ization or combination; but it at once became clear that it was no longer possible to meet the demands of traffic, pressing in volume, without metropolitan facilities; and in 1876 the first Stock Exchange was erected by a Board of Trade, fully organ- ized and equipped-a body of business men with no irons to heat and no horns to blow, but simply driven together by the magnitude of a trade, to handle which they were compelled to organize for mutual counsel and suggestion.
There are several points upon which little stress is ordina- rily laid that are very important in indicating the permanence of municipal growth. In 1875 and as late as 1880 the business men of Kansas City were borrowers and rates of interest were ludicrously high, twenty per cent being the average. This condition was soon altered, and money at normal rates of interest has ever since been at the disposal of the Kansas City merchant. With the change in this regard were two others quite as important, and naturally following in its wake. For several years after the war, people dwelt in boarding-houses and about the "sky parlors" of business houses, as rents were inordinately high. Little rickety residences of three rooms, along the side of some unfenced declivity, readily fetched thirty and forty dollars a month, and the owner regarded him- self imposed upon if his tenant wanted glass put in, plastering repaired, or the cistern mended; while a tenant house with
RESIDENCE OF L. R. MOORE, EAST NINTH STREET.
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furnace, water, barn, inside blinds, and a sodded yard only made its appearance with sidewalks, macadam, and the street railway. Speculation in vacant lots ceased at the same time, while homes grew plentier and more cozy. Every year that croaking creature, the oldest citizen, found it more difficult to point out his landmarks. They were becoming one after another veneered over by the encroachments of municipal growth, although several years were to pass before Kansas City was to take her place among the great cities of the nation. She was to stand for the present in the practical garb of labor, with hands stained by enterprising toil. She could have no place in art until the rough block, just taken from the quarry, was hewn into shape by the workman; and should that block mean- while take its place in the walls of the manufactory or the market, it would none the less have its value in the creation of modern power. The music of the city was to be, through a succession of seasons, the grind of the heavy wheel and the singing of busy workshops. Her sole art was to be in gather- ing hardy clans from a soil less generous to the tiller, and from places of toil where the right of promotion was denied.
CHAPTER VII.
The Situation in the Early 30's .- The First Ferry .- The Santa Fé and Indian Trade Tend to Kansas City.
At the time to which each of the preceding chapters brought this record, to 1838, the entire country west of the Missouri River and the State line of Missouri and Arkansas was in the possession of the Indians. The tribes on these borders were all in receipt of large annuities from the Govern .. ment, which gave rise to a rich and profitable trade with them. There was in existence a trade of about equal volume between this western border and southern Mexico, crossing the inter- vening Indian country, and there was still in existence a large volume of the old French, Indian, and fur trade. These three elements of trade gathered at this angle of the river as at a focus, for the reason already stated, that this was the nearest point toward the scene of each of them that could be reached by water transportation. To stop lower down the river, or advance higher, were alike detrimental.
At that time Missouri was still quite a sparsely settled State. The western half of it had been settled in part for not exceeding twenty years, and the tide of immigration into it, though considered large in those times, was trifling when com- pared with the immense movements of population since wit- nessed into other States. What is called the "Platte Pur-
KANSAS CITY FROM THE MISSOURI RIVER BLUFF LOOKING WEST.
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chase," that is, the territory embraced in Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway, and Atchison counties, had been added to the State in 1836; the State line prior to that time having run directly north from the mouth of the Kaw River. This country was not opened for settlement until 1837, and though its settlement was rapid for those days, it was still an unorganized country.
The settlement of this Platte Purchase had an important effect upon the future city. Up to that time there had been no ferry across the river here, other than the canoes heretofore referred to, but with the opening of this new country there was a spasmodic movement into it from the south side of the river. To accommodate this movement, Peter Roy, a son of Louis Roy, who settled at the foot of Grand Avenue during 1826, established a flat-boat ferry, and in order to provide better ac- cess to it than the old road heretofore mentioned, he cut a new road through the woods from about where Walnut Street crosses Fifteenth Street down by the present junction of Main and Delaware streets, and thence down a deep ravine which fol- lowed down Delaware Street to Sixth, thence across by the corner of Main and Fifth streets, diagonally across the Public Square and thence to the river a little east of the present line of Grand Avenue from Third Street down. This road afterward became a factor in the concentration of the Indian and Santa Fé trade at this place. The ferry thus established by Mr. Roy was conducted by him but a short time, when he sold it to James H. McGee, who then lived on a farm south of Six- teenth Street. McGee sold the ferry in less than a year to Rev. Isaac McCoy, of whom mention has already been made,
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who conducted it until 1843, when he sold it to his son, John C. McCoy. Mr. McCoy subsequently sold a half interest in it o John Campbell, and in 1854 the other half to Messrs. Northrup and Chick.
In proper sequence came the steamers up the Missouri, and came the great wagons from the plains with their slow lines of oxen. Costly bales for and from the Mexicos were handled across the crowded levees. The uncouth greaser, with his jingling spur and reverberating lash, shouted his mon- grel dialect, squandered his gold-dust in a day, and was off again on his long trail to the Southwest, just when was first heard from the East the whistle of the locomotive and the jar of the heavy train.
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.
The first efforts of mankind to build cities antedates history, and hence nothing very definite concerning the circumstances and methods, is, or can be, known; but in the earlier ages of the historic era, when the race was divided into comparatively small and warring factions, and afterward, when these factions grew to be powerful but not less warlike nations, cities were located by kings and conquerors and built by the people under their immediate supervision and direction. In those war-like ages the site of a city was determined mainly by the advantages of defense of a spot of ground selected, though the contiguity of fertile and pastoral country seems not to have been entirely ignored ; hence, cities built in those ages were at once the cap- ital and fortress of the king, while immediately surrounding them was a country capable of supporting his subjects. No regard seems to have been had, however, to facilities of transportation, not even so much as would facilitate military operations, while trade, which consisted chiefly of exchange between the people of the town and the adjacent domain, was entirely ignored. Ex- change between the people of different dominions existed only as pillage.
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In earlier periods, however, the conquering of one people by another, the combination of different cities under the same do- minion, and the necessities of military operations seem to have caused more attention to be given to transportation facilities in the location of cities. This was after the adoption of methods for utilizing the larger streams and the inland seas; and the erection of cities after that time seems to have been determined by the three principles of defensibility, contiguity of productive country, and facilities for water transportation, and hence were usually located on large rivers or arms of the sea. At least it was cities so located that in this period were most prosperous and became most famous.
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