USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > Kansas City > Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. Historical and biographical. Comprising a condensed history of the state, a careful history of Wyandotte County, and a comprehensive history of the growth of the cities, towns and villages > Part 15
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The soil of both the valley and highlands of the county is the same in fine, black, rich loam, so common in the Western States. The pre- dominating limestones, by disintegration, aid in its fertility, but the extreme fineness of all the ingredients acts most effectively in produc- ing its richness. On the uplands it is from one to three feet deep; in the bottoms it is sometimes twenty feet or more. There are no stag- nant pools or peat marshes in the county, except in the immediate bot- toms of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, where there is some lifeless water in sloughs when the rivers are very low. The strata of the outer formation of the earth is mostly in a horizontal position, showing that the uplifting from the ocean must have been slow and perpendicular.
A few veins of coal have been found, but are not of sufficient thick- ness to warrant working; besides, they lie very deep. A light-colored limestone, making a good caustic lime, is very abundant on the banks of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, and along the many small streams throughout the county. It is the stone mostly used for building pur- poses. A blue limestone, also making a fair quality of lime, is found in limited quantities. It is a hard, compact stone, without seams, and much sought after for "range " work. A grey limestone, or granite limestone, making a very inferior lime, is found in immense layers, two to four feet in thickness. It is without flaws, is hard, compact and durable, and is much used in the construction of bridge piers, abut- ments and heavy walls. Limestone oölitic is found in beds of great thickness, and is used for abutments, piers and heavy walls. It makes a poor quality of lime. Sandstone, not very compact, is found in the central and most elevated portions of the county, and is used to a small extent in building. At Argentine and Edwardsville there are ledges of a very hard sandstone, similar to the Medina sandstone of New York. Blocks of it are used for street paving. Cement rock is found underlying a few hundred acres of land just south of the city limits of Kansas City. It is almost an inexhaustible deposit of hydraulic lime- stone, from eight to fifteen feet in thickness. The quality is proving to be excellent. A company having a large capital has bought costly
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kilns and a cement mill, and has been manufacturing cement from this stone for several years. Under the cement a large deposit of fire clay is found. Fire-bricks have been manufactured from it, and the clay is much used as a mortar in laying fire-brick. In boring for coal in 1875 gas was struck at a depth of 350 feet, 10,000 feet of gas escap- ing hourly. In 1883 another company drilled a six-inch well in the old city of Wyandotte, seeking for coal or oil, and, at a depth of 300 feet, also struck gas. The gas is utilized to a limited extent.
Long before the United States possessed the vast territory west of the Mississippi, the French and the Spaniards had explored the Mis- souri and Kansas Rivers to points above their junction, but made no permanent settlements. Of these explorations but little is known. In 1800 a trading post was established at Randolph Bluffs, three miles below the present Kansas City, but it did not lead to a settlement. The first Americans who saw this part of country under the dominion of the United States were Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, who traveled by in 1804, on their famous expedition up the Missouri, passing the month of Kansas River early in May of that year, or perhaps late in April, where they made a temporary camp and procured plenty of game. In 1811 the western limit of white settlement was at Fort Osage in Missouri, thirty-four miles below the mouth of the Kansas River. In 1819 Maj. Stephen H. Long, in the employ of the Govern- ment, with a corps of topographical engineers on his way to the Yel- lowstone country, passed the site of the present Wyandotte County, with the first steamboat that ever plowed the Missouri along the borders of Kansas. In 1825 Cyprian Chouteau, a Frenchman, established a trading post on the south side of the Kansas River about opposite the present site of Muncie. A few years later he was joined by his brother, Frederick, and later still they moved their trading post about eighty miles farther up the river. In 1827 a part of the Third Regiment of United States troops passed the mouth of Kansas River on their way to Leavenworth, where they erected barracks and a fort. In 1829 Rev. Thomas Johnson established a Methodist mission school among the Shawnees, in the present township of Shawnee in Johnson County, which lies directly south of Shawnee Township in Wyandotte County, and in May, 1832, he established a mission school among the Dela- ware Indians, near the White Church post-office, now on the Kansas City, Wyandotte & Northwestern Railroad. In May. 1834, the first stock of goods was landed near the present site of Kansas City, Mo. In 1837 John G. Pratt located on Section 10, in Township 11, Range
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23, about twelve miles west of Wyandotte City, where he still resides, and established a Baptist mission among the Delaware Indians. Mr. Pratt has published several hymn books in the Delaware language, one of which was printed at the Wyandotte Herald office. He was ap- pointed agent for the Delawares, by President Lincoln. One of his sons married a daughter of Charles Journeycake, a well-known Del- aware chief. His eldest daughter married Col. Samuel Black, of Leavenworth. In 1842 John C. Fremont, on an expedition, visited Cyprian Chouteau's trading post on the Kansas River, and then with Kit Carson as his guide proceeded farther up the river. The next year Fremont went up this river on a second expedition.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, when the United States became possessed of the extensive Territory of Louisiana, the Pawnee Indians claimed possession and ownership of a large tract of country including what is now Wyandotte County. The Paw- nees were a powerful and warlike tribe, and for a century they main- tained sway over the country embraced by the branches of the Kan- sas River, and over the whole region watered by the Platte, from near the Rocky Monntains to its mouth. They were divided into several villages or bands, one of which, the Pawnee Republic, gave its name to the Republican River. The Otoes, Omahas and other tribes ac- knowledged the superiority of the Pawnees, and lived under their protection. In 1832, however, all these tribes were ravaged by the small-pox, and it is said that the Pawnees then lost half their popula- tion. The following year, by treaty, they disposed of, to the United States, all their claims to the land lying south of the Platte River, and agreed to locate themselves north of that river and west of the Missouri. This they did. But large bodies of Sioux came down on their new settlements, and drove them back with great slaughter. Some returned to their old villages; others joined their allies, the Otoes and Omahas. They continued to be unfortunate, and by the ravages of wars and disease rapidly dwindled in numbers. [T. G. Adams' Homestead Guide. ]
But later the Kansas or Kaw Indians claimed to have, in a great measure, supplanted the Pawnees in their right to the occupancy of their country, and by treaty dated June 3, 1825, they (the Kaws) ceded to the United States a tract of territory including what is now em- braced in Wyandotte County. Subsequently, early in the thirties, the United States granted to the Delaware Indians a large reservation in the purchase from the Kaw Indians, which included all of what is
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now in Wyandotte County lying north of the Kansas River. And then, or soon thereafter, the Shawnee Indians, by treaty or otherwise, claimed a large tract of country lying immediately south of the Kan- sas River.
The following account pertaining to the last occupancy by the In- dians of the territory now embraced in Wyandotte County, given by Rev. John G. Pratt, now the oldest citizen in the county, and published in the Andreas' State History, is here presented for the benefit of the reader:
"That part of the country on the north side of the Kansas River was first settled by the Delawares in 1829. They came from Ohio. and brought with them a knowledge of agriculture, and many of them habits of industry. They opened farms, built houses and cut out roads along the ridges and divides; also erected a frame church at what is now the village of White Church. The south side of the Kansas River was settled by the Shawnee Indians in 1823. They also after- ward came from Ohio, and were about as much advanced in civiliza- tion as the Delawares. They had a Methodist Mission some three miles from Westport a long time, it being presided over by Rev. Mr. Johnson; also a Quaker Mission about two miles west of that. The population of the Delaware tribe when it first settled in Kansas was 1,000. It was afterward reduced to 800. This was in consequence of contact with the wilder tribes, who were as hostile to the short haired Indians as they were to the whites. Still the Delawares would vent- ure out hunting buffalo and beaver, to be inevitably overcome and de- stroyed. Government finally forbade their leaving the reservation. The effect of this order was soon apparent in the steady increase of the tribe, so that when they removed in 1867 they numbered 1,160. The ruling chiefs from 1829 to 1867 were Ne-con-he-con, Qui-sha to wha (Capt. John Ketchum), Nah-ko-mund (Capt. Anderson), Kock-a-to-wha (Sar-cox-ie), Charles Johnnycake, Qua-con-now-ha (James Sacondine or Secundine), Ah-cah-chick (James Connor) and Capt. John Connor."
"Capt. John Ketchum, one of the most noted chiefs of the Dela- wares, died in August, 1857. He lived near White Church, on the Lawrence road, and at the time of his death, which occurred at an ad- vanced age, he was almost helpless. His funeral was attended by a large number of Indians, who came in their colored blankets and painted faces, carrying their guns."
In 1842 the Wyandotte Indians in Ohio, by treaty sold their lands in that State to the United States, and the following year they
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moved toward the setting sun in search of a new home. Preceding their coming, in May, 1843, Silas Armstrong and George Clark, with their families, and Miss Jane Tilles (now the widow of William Cook), who had been reared by Mrs. Sarah Armstrong, came to this section to select a reservation, but more particularly to establish a trading store for the nation. This Mr. Armstrong did, renting a building in Westport. The young men of the tribe, under the leader- ship of Matthew Walker, brought the horses and came overland from the reservation. The rest of the tribe -- men, women and children, went to Cincinnati and there engaged two boats, the "Nodaway " and another, on which they set out by water for their destination west of Missouri.
The "Nodaway," the largest vessel, arrived at Westport Landing, July 28, 1843, and the other vessel arrived three days later. They found upon arrival that the land lying south of the Kansas River was occupied by the Shawnee Indians, and that the land lying north thereof was occupied by the Delaware Indians, and that there were no lands here then open to their entry as a home.
Silas Armstrong, a prominent member of the tribe, located with his family in a house in Westport, and perhaps other members of the band found house-room in the same village; but the body of the tribe encamped on a narrow strip of land lying between the Shawnee reser- vation and the Missouri State line, south of the mouth of Kansas River. This strip had been reserved by the Government for the purpose of erecting a fort thereon, but the land being too low, it was never util- ized for such purpose-a site at Leavenworth being chosen in its stead. Being anxious to find a home, the council of the Wyandottes negotiated with the Delawares, who were friendly, and received from them three sections of land, by gift, and thirty-six sections by purchase-all lying in the peninsula between the Missouri and the Kansas (then the Kaw) Rivers, and bounded on the north and east by the former river, and on the south by the latter, and containing the site of the present Kansas City, in Kansas. Its western boundary was a north and south line, extend- ing from river to river, far enough to the west to contain the thirty- nine sectious-being run a little west of the middle of Range 24. Afterward this purchase was confirmed and ratified by the United States, and it became the Wyandottes' reservation.
After camping on the low strip of land before mentioned, from their arrival in July, 1843, to October of the same year, the Wyandottes crossed the Kansas River, and encamped on the lands procured from
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the Delawares. During this time they lost by death, from sickness, sixty of their number. Immediately after occupying their "prom- ised land," they began to erect permanent homes. John McIntyre Armstrong, a well educated and prominent Wyandotte (whose widow, Lucy B. Armstrong, a white woman, and daughter of Rev. Russell Bigelow, formerly of the Ohio Methodist Episcopal Conference, is still living), erected his log cabin about 150 feet east of what is now Fifth Street and a little north of Freeman Avenue, in Kansas City, and moved his family into it December 10, 1843. This was the first house built on the site of what is now a prosperous city. In 1847 he com- pleted the very substantial frame dwelling-house on what is known as " Lucy B. Armstrong's Allotment," near the Northwestern depot, and where his widow, Mrs. Lucy B., has ever since resided. Mr. Armstrong was seven-eighths white and one-eighth Indian. The Wy- andottes as fast as possible erected log cabins, and provided them- selves with comfortable homes, and began to improve the country. Being both civilized and Christianized, they let not a year roll away, before they had a house erected in which they met to worship God. Their school-house and council house were also erected before a year had rolled away, and in it J. McIntyre Armstrong began to teach the first school, beginning July 1, 1844 -- in less than a year after they landed at Westport.
The spring of 1844 was warm and dry until in May, when it com- menced to rain and continued to rain more or less every day for forty days, causing a very destructive flood. The bottom lands on both sides of the Kansas River at and near its mouth, now mostly covered with buildings, was then inundated with water to a depth of fourteen feet; the Missouri backed up to the mouth of Line Creek, and Jersey Creek backed up to a point a quarter of a mile above the site of the present Northwestern Railroad depot. The long continued rains were succeeded by dry and hot weather, and the overflowed vegetable matter decomposing, caused much sickness among the Wyandottes, and a large percentage of their number died. But, notwithstanding this calamity, the Wyandottes continued to build houses, to subdne the wilderness and make farms, to build churches and school-houses, to worship God and educate their children, so that when their reservation was opened to the white settlers, the latter found it very unlike the many settlements made on the frontier among the aborigines. Yet, these people were Indians, so called.
The original Wyandotte Indians were of the Iroquois family, and
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were called Hurons by the French. When the French settled Canada they were on the Island of Montreal, and were very numerous. A part of them went to Quebec, and a part south of the great lakes. In 1829 a small band of them lived on Huron River in Michigan, but the principal portion settled on the headwaters of the Sandusky River in Ohio, whence they afterward came to Kansas. Those that removed to the reservation here were nearly all known as half-breeds, but many of them had more white than Indian blood in their veins. A few white men, who married into the tribe, were adopted as members thereof, and were prominent in their councils. Besides being civilized, on their reservation in Ohio many of these Indians were Christianized by the mission work of Christian denominations, notably the Method- ist Episcopal in Ohio. Subsequently many of them were very respect- able and prominent in the settlement and organization of Wyandotte County, and some of the best and most prominent citizens of the county to-day are descendants in part from these people. Unfort- unately many of the Wyandottes, like their white brethren, were too fond of "fire water."
Jane Tilles, a white girl, adopted into the tribe in Ohio, came here as a member of the family of Silas Armstrong. She afterward mar- ried James Bennett, who was elected chief of the Wyandottes, and after his death she married William Cook, a prominent business man of Wyandotte. She is now living on Emerson Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets.
In 1843, when the Wyandottes came, Kansas City, Mo., contained three warehouses (those of the Town Company, Francis Chouteau. or rather the American Fur Company, and that of W. G. & G. W. Ewing), two or three small trading houses, and a few log cabins, mostly occu- pied by Frenchmen. It was then known only as Westport Landing.
In the summer of 1852 the organization of a Territory claimed the attention of the leading men of the Wyandotte Nation, which resulted in issuing a call for an election for delegates to Congress. The elec- tion was held October 12, of that year. George I. Clark, Samuel Priestly and Matthew R. Walker acted as judges, and William Walker and Benjamin C. Anderson as clerks. Thirty-five votes were polled, and the following is the order in which they were received: Charles B. Garrett, Isaac Baker, Jose Antonio Pieto, Henry C. Norton, Abe- lard Guthrie, Henry C. Long, Cyrus Garrett, Francis Cotter, Edward B. Hand, Francis A. Hicks, Russell Garrett, Samuel Rankin, Nich- olas Cotter, Joel W. Garrett, Isaac Long, Thomas Coon Hawk, James
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Garlow, William Walker, George I. Clark, Benjamin N. C. Anderson, Matthew R. Walker, Samuel Priestly, Henry Garrett, William Gibson, Presley Muir, Joel Walker, Isaac Brown, James Long, John Lynch, William Trowbridge, John W. Ladd, Daniel McNeal, Edward Fifer, Peter D. Clark and Henry W. Porter. Besides the importance of this event, the list of names here given serves to show who many of the Wyandottes were at this date.
Abelard Guthrie received every vote cast, and went to Washington as the duly accredited delegate of the Territory to the XXXIId Congress.
By a treaty dated January 31, 1855, the Wyandottes ceded their reservation here to the United States, and by the terms of the treaty, the United States deeded the lands back to them in severalty, giving to each a sufficient number of acres to make up the value of his or her share, so that all did not receive the same number of acres, but the same amount in value. The lands of the reservation were all deeded back except the Indian graveyard-mentioned elsewhere in this work- a large church lot to each of the religious denominations known as the Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and four acres at the ferry landing, and perhaps other small tracts for public uses. This treaty granted to the Wyandottes the privilege of becoming citizens, and the country was opened to the settlement by the whites upon buying lands of such Indians as chose to sell, the Government having no land in the reservation subject to entry. About the same time the lands lying south of the Kansas River became subject to settlement by a treaty between the United States and the Shawnees.
The Delawares holding the lands west of and adjoining the Wyan- dotte Reservation continued to possess them, and in May, 1860, by treaty each member of the tribe was assigned eighty acres of land, to be held in severalty, and preference of purchasing the remainder of the Delaware land, at not less that $1.25 per acre, was given to the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western Railroad Company. By means of the purchase of this company, a slight settlement of that part of the county by the whites commenced soon after.
By a subsequent treaty with the Delawares dated June 4, 1866, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to sell what then remained unsold of the Delaware lands to the Missouri River Railroad Company, at not less than $2.50 per acre. Accordingly, by the terms of the treaty, in order to vest every holder of the real estate with a title from the Government, all the lands were deeded in trust to Alexander Colwell,
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and he gave a deed to each Indian holding an allotment under the treaty of 1860. The lands then remaining unsold and unoccupied were sold at $2.50 per acre to the railroad syndicate, consisting of Tom Scott, of Pennsylvania; Thomas Price, Len T. Smith, Alex Colwell, Oliver A. Hart and others to the number of thirteen. These lands then came into market, and the settlement of that part of the county became more rapid.
The following is a full copy of the treaty with the Wyandotte Indians:
Franklin Pierce, President of the United States of America, To all and singular to whom these presents shall come, greeting :
WHEREAS a treaty was made and concluded at the city of Washing- ton, on the thirty-first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by George W. Mannypenny, as commissioner on the part of the United States, and the following-named chiefs and delegates of the Wyandott tribe of Indians, viz .: Tau-roo-mee, Mathew Mudeater, John Hicks, Silas Armstrong, George I. Clark and Joel Walker, they being thereto duly authorized by said tribe, which treaty is in the words following, to-wit:
Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at the city of Washington on the thirty first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by George W. Mannypenny, as commis- sioner on the part of the United States, and the following-named chiefs and delegates of the Wyandott tribe of Indians, viz .: Tau- roo-mee, Mathew Mudeater, John Hicks, Silas Armstrong, George I. Clark and Joel Walker, they being duly authorized by said tribe:
ARTICLE 1. The Wyandott Indians having become sufficiently ad- vanced in civilization, and being desirous of becoming citizens, it is hereby agreed and stipulated, that their organization, and their rela- tions with the United States as an Indian tribe, shall be dissolved and terminated; except so far as the further and temporary continuance of the same may be necessary in the execution of some of the stipulations herein, and from and after the date of such ratification, the said Wy- andott Indians, and each and every one of them, except as hereinafter provided, shall be deemed, and are hereby declared, to be citizens of the United States, to all intents and purposes; and shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities of such citizens; and shall, in all respects, be subject to the laws of the United States, and of the Territory of Kansas, in the same manner as other citizens of said Territory; and the jurisdiction of the United States, and of said Ter-
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ritory, shall be extended over the Wyandott country, in the same man- ner as over other parts of said Territory. But such of the said Indians as may so desire and make application accordingly, to the commission- ers hereinafter provided for, shall be exempt from the immediate op- erations of the preceding provisions, extending citizenship to the Wy- andott Indians, and shall have continued to them the assistance and protection of the United States, and an Indian agent in their vicinity, for such a limited period, or periods of time, according to the circum- stances of the case, as shall be determined by the commissioner of In- dian affairs; and on the expiration of such period, or periods, the said exemption, protection and assistance shall cease, and said persons shall then, also, become citizens of the United States; with all the rights and privileges, and subject to the obligations, above stated and defined.
ARTICLE 2. The Wyandott Nation hereby cede and relinquish to the United States all their rights, title and interest in and to the tract of country situate in the fork of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, which was purchased by them of the Delaware Indians, by an agree- ment dated the fourteenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, and sanctioned by a joint resolution of Con- gress, approved July twenty-fifth, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, the object of which cession is, that the said lands shall be subdivided, assigned and reconveyed. by patent in fee simple, in the manner hereinafter provided for, to the individuals and members of the Wyandott Nation, in severalty, except as follows, viz. : The portion now enclosed and used as a public burying ground shall be permanently reserved and appropriated for that purpose; two acres, to include the church building of the Methodist Episcopal Church, including the burying ground connected therewith, are hereby reserved, granted and conveyed to that church, and two acres, to include the church building of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, are hereby reserved, granted and conveyed to said church. Four acres at and adjoining the Wyandott ferry, across, and near the mouth of the Kansas River, shall also be reserved, and together with the rights of the Wyandotts in said ferry, shall be sold to the highest bidder, among the Wyandott people, and the proceeds of sale paid over to the Wyandotts. On the payment of the purchase money in full, a good and sufficient title to be secured and conveyed to the purchaser, by patent from the United States.
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