History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I, Part 3

Author: Morgan, Perl Wilbur, 1860- ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 548


USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 3


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53


Quakers, 52 Quantrell, 210, 228 Quindaro cemetery, 592 Quindaro township, 282 Quindaro's famous side-wheeler. 125 Quivira, 318


Race to the coast, 444 Rail and trail, pioneer tales of, 460 Railroad building in Kansas, 441 Railroads, earliest, 449; extension of, 302; first chart- ered, 442 Railroad shops, 481 Railroad telegrapher, pioneer, 469 Railroad terminals, Rosedale, 316 Railroad valnes and trackage, 456 Railsback. T. Forest, 707


Railway yards, 457 Rainfall, annual, 16 Randall, Horace G., 961


Ran out of provisions, 185 Reader, S. J., painting by. 220 Ready-made houses, 97 Real estate boom, 110


Rebel Yell, 219


Record of Kansas regiments, 200 Reeder, Governor, came and went. 121


Reeder, Governor, welcome to, 132 Refused to include a part of Nebraska, 154


Registers of deeds, 277


Reminiscences of Father Kuhls, 373


Removal of the bishop's residence, 373


Reminiscences of the early days, 84 Re-organization of Kansas City Medical Society, 420 Representatives, 275 Republican "Whips, " Ingalls and Simpson, 149


Residents in 1855-6, 90 Resolutions to Congress, 152


Return to peace, 116


Rice, William J., 510


Richart, Mrs. Sarah A., 390


Rieke, Charles, 982


Riley, James T., 1022 Riverview State Bank, 338


Roberts, William Y., 268


Robinson, Governor Charles, 135, 254


Robinson, Sarah T. D., 51


Rock Island Railroad, 453


Rohrbach, Frank C., 772


Roll of the convention. 148


Romances and folk lore of the Wyandots, 62 Romances of old Wyandot families, 74 Root, Dr. Joseph P., 252. 417 Rosedale, an independent city, 312; churches, 314: schools, 314; secret societies, 315; first start, 313: mayors for thirty-four years, 313 Rosedale State Bank, 338


Rose, Jacob, 794 Rose, Louis II., 945


Rose. William W .. 878 Ross, Edward P., 535 Rush of population, 94


Rush of white settlers in 1854, 295


Rushton. George. 921 Russell, Roy R., 793


St. Anthony's church, 367 St. Margaret's Hospital, 411, 412 St. Paul Hotel, 339


St. Peter's high school, 372 St. Thomas church, 366 Santa Fe system, 445; building of, 454 Sauer, Anthony P., 574 Sayers, Ray, 775 Scanlan, John, 624 Scenes of rare beauty, 14 Schaible, John L., 536 Scheidt, Jacob, 815 Scheller, Charles W., 983 Schenck, Eugene A., 781


Schleifer, Fred, 1025 School districts organized, 389 School officers, 384 School statistics, 389 School yards, 388


Schools, 380; books in the, 394; high, 386; medical, 411; night, 383; parochial, 390 Schools, Bonner Springs, 322 Schools, Rosedale, 314 Schools, Wyandotte county, 388 Schubert. Carl, 830 Schuetz, William E., 710 Scottish Rite Masons, 435 Scottish Rite Temple, 436, 437 Scott. Larmon E., 609 Seroggs, Margaret E., 957 Seroggs, John B., 956 Second and third distriets, 286 Second division distriet court judges, 277 Second Kansas Volunteer Battery, 199 Second Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry, 203 Second ward, 307 Secret and benevolent societies, 434 Secret societies of Rosedale, 315 Seifert, Joseph, 948 Seminaries, 397 Senators and representatives, 275 Seutter map of Louisiana, 5 Sentter, Matthew, 4 Seven departments, "The Kansas City University, " 400 Seventeen days in a snow bank, 467 Seward, Atwell C., 548 Seward. Nancy L., 549 Shannon, Governor, to the frontier, 137 Sharp. Benjamin T., 932 Sharp, Judge Isaac B., 261 Shawnee Baptist mission, 50, 422 Shawnee Light or Sun, 50, 422 Shawnee Methodist Mission, 47 Shawnee prophet, 31 Shawnee Quaker mission, 52 Shawnce township, 282


Shawnees clung to old eustoms, 37; coming to Kansas, 31; farewell to Kansas, 38; first emigrants, 29; last stand, 30; wars and wanderings of, 29 Shawneetown, 372 Sheaff, John M., 604 Shepherd, Orrin W., 1034 Sheriff's, 276 Shore, Joseph L., 814 ''Short Grass" country cut off, 172 Shively, Delbert M., 525 Sihler, Charles J., 937 "'Silence and no questions asked,"' 228 Silvey, James M., 737 Simmons, Ave, 761 Sims, Charles H., 821


INDEX


Simpson, Benjamin F., 149, 179 Simpson, Samuel N., 836 Simpson, William A., 910 Sims, John T., 506 Sisters of St. Francis, 411 Site for a church, 363


Site of Kansas City, 70 Situation before battle of the Blue, 216


Sixteenth Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, 206 Sixteenth Volunteer Cavalry, 198


Sixteenth's roll of honor, 206 Sixth Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, 203 Sixth ward, 307 Skirmish march, 240 Slavery, closed the door to, 154 Sloan, Joseph Il., 1023 Slow trains in the sixties, 465 Smallest county in Kansas, 15 Smalley, James L., 637 Smith, Daniel M., 656 Smith, George C., 864 Smith, Hugh J., 975 Smith, Walter D., 1052 Smith, William H., 763 Smith, William S., 649 Smyth, John E., 717


Snell, William D., 907 Snyder, Kimble P., 850


Snyder, Samuel II., 655 Soap manufactories, great, 480 Social life about the missions, 33


Societies, benevolent and seeret, 434


Societies, Emigrant Aid, 140


Soil, types of, 490


Soldiers attended prayer meeting, 350 Soldiers guarded a steamboat captain, 233 Some of the men of the old "K. P.," 463 Some valuable freight, 229 Sountag, Carl II., 932


Southern Boundary line of Kansas, 169


Southwick, Albert, 550 Southwick, Susan P., 332 Speck, Frederick, 258, 857


Speck, Joseph, 257, 857


Speckled Eye, 24 Speech of John H. Atwood, 165


Speech of Stephen A. Douglas, 170 Splitlog, Mathias, 72 " "Splitlog's Hill,"' 72 Stark, John A., 863 State geologist Mudge, 255


State line depot, 465 State line, surveying a, 184 State mass meeting. 301


State organization, 418


Statisties, horticultural, 502 Statistics, school, 389 Statisties of Wyandotte county. 283


Steamboat captain guarded by soldiers, 233 Steamboat days, old, 118 Steamboat trail trade, 114


Steamboats of Kansas river, 126


Steamboats that went down. 126


Steel plant, great, 485


Sterrett, Rev. Alexander, 268


Stevens, C. B., 690 Stilwell enterprise, great. 459 Stine, Benjamin L., 882 Stockton, Cora M., 267


xxvii


INDEX


Stockhoff, G. Herman, 521 Stoekhoff, Henry, 579 Stories of war-time days, 230 Story hour, 395 Story of two bishops, 374 Stotler, Joseph J., 1036 Stover, Harvey L., 660 Street commissioners, 310 Street railway facilities, 335 Strohmyer, John J., 611 Struggle for civil government, 129 Stubbs, Governor on "Kansas, " 161 Sturges, "Mother, "' 268 Studt, Charles F., 683 Studt, John II., 594 Sturtz, Adam L., 730 Sunflower State, 14 "Sunny Kansas, " 162 Supreme judges, 286 Superintendents of public instruction, 277 Surveyors, county, 277 Surveying a state line, 184 Sutherland, Thomas W., 537 Sutton, William B., 621 Swope. Thomas Hunton, 269 Synopsis of reports of Kansas regiments, 200


Tabler, Charles M., 805 Taggart. Joseph, 628 Talbott, Ingram I., 692 Tanner, William C., 799 Taylor, Charles S., 703 Taylor, John C., 543 Taylor, Richard Baxter, 425 Teaching the negroes trades, 406 Tecumseh, 30; death of, 30 Temperature, 16 Tenth Kansas Veteran Regiment, 196 Theden, Herman, 825 "The Great American Desert, "' 12 Then came the Civil war, 419 Theno. Mathias A .. 620 Thomas, Tabitha N., 265 Thomas, William B., 668 Thompson, Charles E., 1011 Thompson, John A .. 847 Thornhill, Arthur, 734 Thoroughness in the courses, 408 Those who joined the Sixth, 203 Threatened by Pawnee Indians, 185 Three judicial distriets, 285 Three makers of Kansas history. 136 Three Wyandotte founders, 258 Third Kansas Battery, 200 Third ward. 307 Thirteenth Kansas Infantry, 197 Tiblow, 320 Tiblow ferry. 320 Tiblow, Henry, 320 Timmerman, William, 891 To become a great university, 401 Topeka battery's loss. 221 Topeka Constitution, 138 "Topeka Tribune, " 177 Total volunteers for Wyandotte eounty. 202 Town of real live men, 104 Town of Wyandotte, 362 Town organization, 92 Townships, 281


Township organization, 281 Townsite boomers, 92 Trails of the explorers, 1 Trant, James, 854 Traveling post office, 113 Travels of Moncachtape, 19 Treasurers, eity. 309 Treasurers, county, 277


Treaty of 1866, 46 Trees and native flora, 490 Trembly and White in swimming, 243 Trembly. William B., 243 Trower. Oliver B., 988 True, Lewis C., 508 Turner. 323 Turner, R. L., 736 Twelfth Cavalry's many battles, 211 Twelfth Infantry, 197 Twelfth Regiment Volunteer Cavalry, 205 Twentieth Kansas Volunteers, 248 Twenty-five years of statehood, 157 Twist, John R., 788 Twist, William S., 852 Types of soil, 490


"Underground" and war stories, 227 "'Underground Railroad. " 227 Union Volunteers from Kansas, 189 United Zine & Chemical Company, 485 Universities and seminaries. 397 University of Kansas Sehool and Hospital, 415 Unpromising town, an, 111 Uses of the library, 394 Utilization of lands along the Kansas river, 295


Vance, 324 Veale. Colonel G. W., 261 Veale, Colonel, heroic stand of, 218 Vegetable gardening. 499 Venard. Edward E., 714 Vermillion Sea, 3 Visit to the missions, 51


Wahlin, Anders L., 741 Waiting for an attaek by Indians. 461 Wakarusa war, 139 Walker, Governor Robert J., 142 Wallula, 324 Walsh, Dennis, 769 Ward boundaries established, 306 Ward Hall and Industrial building, 407 Wards, 306 War stories, 227 Wars and wanderings of Shawnees, 29 Washington Boulevard Methodist Episcopal church, 346 Waters, James D., 868 Watson, Joseph F., 651 Webb, William H., 681 "'Weekly Press," 428 "' Weekly Spy." 427 "'Weekly Sun, " 428 Weir, Colonel, men, 204 Welcome to Governor Reeder, 132 Wells, Charles K., 514 West. John W., 950 West, Owen M., 612 "'Western Argus, "' 424 Western boundary, debate on, 171 Western Terra Cotta Company. The, 891


xxviii


Western University and Industrial School, 405 Westport a great trade center, 109 Westport Landing, 110 What killed old Quindaro, 106


When Cholera struck Kansas City, Missouri, 112 When Colorado was a part of Kansas, 170 When Kansas City was born, 110


When the Methodists were divided, 344


When the news of statehood reached Kansas, 157


When the old church bell rang, 351


When the townsite boomers came, 92


When the white settlers came, 88


When the Yankee Free State men came, 120 When Wyandotte breame a city, 96


Whence came the name Kansas, 18


Where the Legislature met, 48 Where their spirit originated, 239 White church, 324


White, Edward, 243 White, George H., 1030 White, William Allen, on " The Old Insurgents, " 164 Whitloek, Edna E., 889


Whitlock, John W., 889 Wiegers, Angust, 1043 Wiehe, Gus F., 554 Wilcoxen, Melinda, 44 Wiles, James P., 790 Wilkinson, Hugh, 584 Williams, Ernest D .. 1029


Wilson's Creek, battle of, 190


WVilt, Anderson S., 592 Winship, William L., 892


Winters, William H., 1019 Woestemeyer, Henry F., 617 Wolcott, 324 Wolcott, Mary H. S., 267 Woman founder of library, 390


Woman's influence in the convention, 155 Wonderful map of Father Hennepin, 4 Wood, DeWitt C., 989


Wood, Watson F., 1006


Wood, William L., 844 Woodcock, Grant A., 699


INDEX


Working in a blizzard, 187 Would make the Platte the boundary, 174 Wray, Thomas W., 960 Wulf, Henry F., 601


Wyandots, 59, 60; pioneers in the movement, 130; na- tion, aneient, 59; allegianee to the French, 65; he- eame a civilized nation, 66; become eitizens. 79: chiefs, 73; come to their promised land, 68: eulti- vated farms, 72; the first Methodists, 344; founded the village of Wyandotte. 70; purchase a home from the Delawares, 69; sold their Ohio Reservation, 68: version of the ereation, 63; wars at an end, 66.


Wyandotte, the name, 1


Wyandotte, county seat. 278: excitement in, 451: in the Civil war, 201; officials, 98; pioneers, 268


"Wyandotte City Register, " 424


Wyandotte Constitution, 146


Wyandotte convention, 146


Wyandotte convention eut off Colorado, 171


Wyandotte county. 16; area of. 15; bridges, 283: court house, 278; first in material wealth, 16: maeadam roads in, 283; political history of, 271; population, 283: sehools, 388; statisties, 283 Wyandotte County Women's Club, 259


Wyandotte County Women's Columbian Club, 259


Wyandotte district court, first session, 287


"Wyandotte Democrat, " 427 ".Wyandotte Gazette,"' 84. 424


"Wyandotte Herald, " 427


Wyandotte Hotel, 339


Wyandotte Medieal Society, 421


Wyandotte township, 281


Wyandotte Wagon and Carriage Works, 555


Yankee Free State men, 120


Voung. Arch A., 593


Young Tom Ewing's regiment, 196


Young Women's Christian Association. 342 Yunghans, Oscar, 783


Zane, Elizabeth, 76 Zane, Isaac, 91 Zugg, Clarenee L., 577


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CHAPTER I.


THE TRAILS OF THE EXPLORERS.


EARLY FRENCH AND SPANISH EXPLORERS-WHEN FATHER MAR- QUETTE CAME-FATHER IIENNEPIN'S WONDERFUL MAP-EXPLORATIONS OF LEWIS AND CLARK-FIRST FOURTII OF JULY CELEBRATION IN KANSAS -CAPTAIN PIKE'S EXPEDITION-MAJOR LONG'S EXPEDITION-FRENCHI- MEN OUR FIRST MERCHANTS-THE FUR TRADERS-THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT-THE FREMONT EXPEDITIONS-SCENES OF RARE BEAUTY-PHYS- ICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES, ETC.


The annals of the state of Kansas and of the county of Wyandotte, reaching far back into the shadowy realms of romance and tradition, are so closely entwined that to write of the one also is to write of the other. Kansas, a mighty republic of itself, stretching from the Missouri river almost to the foot hills of the Rocky mountains, takes its name from the dominant tribe of North American Indians first found dwelling here; while Wyandotte, the Gateway or Open Door to that great empire, bor- rowed its name from the tribe of Indians that brought civilization to the region lying west of the Missouri river. Linked to these two is a history of development, of progress, of achievement, as romantic as any that ever has been told in song or story; for no other community in America has been brought up from a desert plain and made to blossom as a rose in so short a period of time.


Through the long years of colonial times when this nation was young, even to the beginning of the first half of the century that pre- ceded this one, the land that now is embraced in the state of Kansas was a field of exploration and adventure. When the white people came to make their homes here they found this country checkered over with the trails of these bands of explorers and adventurers; and-as the railroads now meet at the place where the Kansas river joins the Missouri river to flow down to the sea-so these old trails, the marks of which have not been entirely obliterated in the years that have passed, generally started from this point and struek ont across the plains to the west, the southwest and the northwest.


1


2


HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY


EARLY FRENCH AND SPANISHI EXPLORERS.


Barring the expedition in 1541 of that Spanish grandee, Coronado, who came up from New Spain, or Mexico, to search for the fair land of Quivira and its fabled cities of gold, it might well be recorded that the landscape of Wyandotte county was the first in Kansas to be looked upon by the eye of a white man, and its soil the first to receive the impression of the foot of a white man. Coronado did not come this way, else he might have told a different story. IIe crossed Kansas going from the southwest to the northwest, reaching the Missouri river near the site of the city of Atchison. There he gave up the search, eaused a cross to be erected ont of a pile of stones bearing the inscrip- tion


"Thus Far Came Francisco de Coronado," "General of an Expedition."


and returned to New Spain, sick, sore and disgusted. He did not come to Wyandotte county, and the record he left behind was of no practical value to the generations npon generations that were to follow him.


When visited by Coronado in 1541, the Pawnees were undoubtedly controlling the country drained by the Kansas river and its numerous affluents, certainly as far east as Topeka, while the Kansas Indians were dwelling along the Missouri. At the time of Governor Onate's visita- tion, sixty years later, the advance guard of the Pawnees seem to have progressed northward as far as the Platte river, though they had not actually taken final possession of any considerable area, as the greater portion of them seem to have fondly lingered in Kansas, apparently reluctant to part entirely from the pleasant conditions there once en- joyed. Between the coming of Governor Onate (1601) and the massa- ere of Villazar with his command (1720) npon the Platte river, a few miles east of the junction of the north and sonth forks of that stream, the Pawnees had taken full possession of all the desirable land within the valley of the state, except a small district adjacent to the Missouri, which the small tribes of the Otoes (Otontanta), Omahas (Mahas) and Poncas, who had contended, or at least unsuccessfully disputed, the suzerainty of the Pawnees over the domain. The point in the distant south whence the Pawnees first begun their remote northern migration is indicated by the Paniassa village, near the northern margin of Red river.


WHEN FATHER MARQUETTE CAME.


It is a question not altogether free from doubt as to who was the first to come up the Missouri river to explore the country that now is


3


HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY


Kansas; yet it is the opinion of many of the most trustworthy authori- ties that the first one was Father Jacques Marquette, the Jesuit mis- sionary and explorer. In 1673, two years after the founding of the mission at St. Ignace, Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, with the sanetion and active aid of Talon, the intendant of Canada, and under direct orders from Louis de Baude, Conte de Frontenac, governor gen- eral of Canada under Louis XIV, were sent on a long contemplated exploration of the country west of the great lakes. That was the most important of all of the expeditions of the good Father Marquette. In birch bark canoes the expedition proceeded across the head of Lake Michigan, passed through Green bay, thence up the Fox river, and crossed the portage to the Wisconsin river, down which they floated into the Mississippi river. Frontenac had written to his king that he would in all probability prove once for all that the great river flowed into the Gulf of California. Ile, no doubt, was disappointed with his disillusionment when Father Marquette reported that his expedition floated down the Father of Waters far enough to be convinced that it must empty into the Gulf of Mexico and not into the Pacific ocean. What disappointment Father Marquette may have experienced is of little consequence in this article. IIe promptly transferred all hopes of that nature to the Missouri river on the theory that the Western ocean could be reached by ascending the Missouri. When Marquette saw the Missouri river debourhing with such terrific force into the placid Mis- sissippi he was struck with awe, for it was at the time of the June flood. The Indians among whom he went to establish missions for their con- version knew little geography beyond their own hunting grounds. Those who dwelt along the Mississippi or Missouri rivers knew not whenee these streams came nor whither they went. He inquired of the natives through his interpreter about this wonderful stream, which white men had not seen before. The natives informed him, so he recorded in his journal, that : "By ascending this river for four or five days one reaches a fine prairie, twenty or thirty leagues long. This must be crossed in a northwesterly direction, and it terminates at another small river, on which one may embark. This second river Hows toward the southwest for ten or fifteen leagues, after which it enters a lake, which flows toward the west, when it falls into the sea. I have hardly any doubt it is the Vermillion Sea." That was the name of the Gulf of California in Father Marquette's day.


Just how far Father Marquette's expedition ascended the Missouri river above its month is a matter of speculation. Certainly it is that he came as far up as one hundred miles and the Indians among whom he mixed freely told him that which was of great value concerning the beautiful country bordering on the Missouri and Kansas rivers and their numerous tributaries. And the maps and records he left behind are now carefully preserved in the great library at St. Mary's College in Montreal.


4


HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY


It is noticeable that, though the Arkansas Indians dwelt upon the river of the same name, and were thoroughly conversant with its general direction, the location of the villages of their tribe upon it, as well as the general character of the country upon either side, Indian-like they made no disclosures relative to either of these topics, while concerning distriets more remote they were ever ready to speak precisely and fully. The explanation of this attitude was that they were not yet fully satisfied as to the precise purpose of the two strangers in coming thither, and so for the time they simply refrained from imparting further information.


This map, crude though it may be, serves to present with surpass- ing accuracy the domain now constituting the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, together with the designation and location of the several tribes then (1673) known to be occupying terri- tory within the northern and southern limits as marked by Marquette. The unoccupied country in the central region may naturally have been a common and convenient hunting ground for the various tribes.


La Salle, who was the first to discover the mouth of the Mississippi river, where he planted the flag of France, the standard which still waved over the land when Jefferson purchased the country of Napoleon, also was disappointed. Like Father Marquette, he trans- ferred his hopes to the Missouri river. He "conceived the hope of reaching the South Sea by the Missouri river."


Father Gabriel Mausest wrote a letter from Kaskaskia in 1712, which displays the prevailing misconception as to geographieal matters. He wrote: "We are but thirty leagues from the month of the Mis- souri or Pek-i-tan-oni river. This is a large river which flows into the Mississippi, and they pretend to say that it comes from a still greater distance than that river. It comes from the northwest very near where the Spaniards have their mines in Mexico, and it is very convenient for the French to travel in this country."


FATHER HENNEPIN'S WONDERFUL MAP.


It was Father Hennepin, a Franciscan missionary, who explored the country in 1687, fourteen years after Father Marquette. and ae- quired the wonderful knowledge of the west that resulted in the making in 1723 of a map that could lay claim to any degree of authenticity. This wonderful map made from Father Ilennepin's notes was by that German geographer, Matthew Seutter, and his co-laborer, John Baptist IIamann, both of Nuremburg, Germany, in those days the center of the world's mapmaking industry. The Seutter map of Louisiana was made before St. Louis was founded and before there were any towns along the Mississippi river. The rivers are laid down with remarkable accuracy and practically all of them large and small,


5


HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY


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(X shows location of what is now Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte county.)


6


HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY


are shown. The Indian villages are indicated by groups of dwellings. The Kansas river appears on the maps as "Grand Riviere Causez." The Chicago river is "Chigogon."


Several Frenchmen came up the Missouri river in the eighteenth century on exploration expeditions and made trips through Kansas, but there was nothing done to change the existing conditions. The Indians were not disturbed, the soil was not stirred by the plow, the rich valleys brought forth no harvest other than the luxuriant vegeta- tion of nature's planting. It was only when the United States govern- ment, under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, became the owner of the vast area that had been shifted back and forth between France and Spain that systematic effort began to be made to find out its real extent and possibilities for future development.


THE EXPLORATIONS OF LEWIS AND CLARK.


President Jefferson himself had but a vague conception of the pur- chase he had made, but he was keen to know, and for that reason en- couraged and urged the fitting out of an expedition to explore the country, if possible, to the Pacific coast. This expedition, led by those two brave captains, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was one of the most marvelous journeys ever undertaken or accomplished by man. It was different from the explorations condneted by the Spanish and French adventurers in that Lewis and Clark made careful note of everything they saw, and were able on their return to give a compre- hensive and intelligent description of the vast region they had traversed between St. Lonis, the starting point, and the Pacific ocean. On the 14th day of May, in the year 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition set out from St. Louis. For nearly seven weeks the explorers pursued their slow and toilsome way across what is now the great state of Missouri. On June 26th the expedition camped on the bank of that river, near the month of the Kansas river near what is now known as the old Wyandotte levee. Here we have the meeting point of these two rivers described in the Lewis and Clark journals :




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