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 35
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side, near the present corner of Nebraska and Third Streets. The United States blacksmith to the Wyandottes, Charles Graham, came during the winter of 1843-44, and erected his shop and residence near the northwest corner of the same streets. A company store, in which most of the leading Wyandottes had shares, was located between what are now Kansas and Minnesota Avenues, west of Third Street. It was a long log building, divided into two departments, the store- room and a back room, used in part for a council house. Joel Walker, who had the management of the store, was clerk of the council.
On the hill, on Kansas Avenue, opposite Dunning's Hall, Henry Jaques, one of the chiefs, built his residence, which he afterward sold to the nation for a jail. He then erected his second residence on the Dunning's Hall site. From May, 1845, to the spring of 1849, this was occupied as a United States agency. Silas Armstrong built two cabins near the location of MeGrew's slaughter house, and resided there un- til 1846, when he removed them to a location west of Fifth Street near Kansas Avenue, and in 1848 built his brick residence, afterward known as the Eldridge House, which burned in the summer of 1864. Francis Driver built on the Kansas River bluffs, near the ferry, and Sanahas, father of John Sanahas, and Charles Splitlog, settled in the same neighborhood. Matthias Splitlog was with Jaques, and in 1845 he married his great-niece, Eliza Barnett. William Walker built a double hewed-log house on the north side of Jersey Creek, and moved into one end of it in May, 1844. He and a young man from New York, who helped him do the work, camped there during the winter of 1843-44. Walker named the creek. Just west of Walker's house was the Methodist Episcopal parsonage, completed in July, 1844. The same month the first school was opened in the new building on the east side of Fourth Street, between Kansas and Nebraska Ave- nues, by John M. Armstrong. The winter of 1843-44 was mild, and only the wealthier Wyandottes built houses; all the others from lack of means were compelled to live in camps. It was the expectation of the Wyandottes, based upon governmental promises, that an appro- priation of $100,000 would be granted them that session of Congress. The chiefs divided the town called Wyandotte into acre lots, upon which they intended to build, their farming lands being out of town, but the remainder of the improvement fund was not paid over then, nor until October, 1846, and they did not even then obtain it until after three delegations had gone to Washington to plead their cause. But from the time the Wyandottes purchased the Delaware lands,
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they paid $4.000 annually out of their annuity fund. Thus it came about, because of their scarcity of funds, and doubt as to the future, that the town of Wyandotte did not improve more rapidly. Disease was also busy in the midst of the nation, the cause of it being the great flood of 1844, described elsewhere in this work in connection with the settlement by the Wyandottes. The species of sickness which prevailed the most and made the most havoc in the nation, were chills and fever and bloody flux. It it stated that there was not a single well person in the nation by the latter part of the fall of 1844. The town of Wyandotte having these discouragements of poverty and sickness to contend with, could not be expected to grow, neither did it. The building of the first church and first parsonage is related elsewhere.
A temperance society was organized among the Wyandottes as early as the winter of 1844-45, it having its origin substantially in this wise: In December, 1844, a prominent member of the nation moved his household goods over from Westport. There being no bridge, he loaded them into a flatboat on the Missouri side, and engaged of his tribe to bring them up the river and land them at Wyandotte. It happened that they were under the influence of liquor, and having propelled the boat to the mouth of Turkey Creek, left it there to float away and lose its contents. This misfortune suggested.the formation of a temperance organization, the first in the Territory. But although the temperance society was strong and influential, a sterner remedy for the increasing evil was found necessary; consequently a jail was built in the fall of 1846, on the spot previously mentioned. and its first occupant, a man, was locked up for being drunk. Afterward a Wyandotte man got hold of a Mormon Bible, and induced another woman to live with him when he already had a wife. For this offense both he and the woman were locked up in the jail. Notwithstanding the temperance society, drunkenness continued, and during the conflict between the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episco- pal Church, South, or between freedom and slavery, which was practicably the same contest, disorder and drunkenness increased among the Wyandottes to a great extent. In June, 1851, the Wyan- dottes held a national convention, composed of all men over eighteen years of age. This convention elected thirteen delegates, who formed a constitutional convention to revise the laws of the nation. The con- vention sat several weeks, and the constitution as drafted by John M. Armstrong, was unanimously adopted. Having received his legal
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education in Ohio, Mr. Armstrong had in his possession the laws of that State, and the principal features of the constitution were drawn from that source.
By the treaty of January 31, 1855 (given elsewhere in this work), provisions were made whereby all competent Wyaudottes should be- come citizens, and their lands should become subject to purchase by the white settlers. Following this, the next important event was the landing in Wyandotte on September 10, of that year, of Gen. Cal- houn, with the surveyor-general's office. Robert Ream, father of Vin- nie Ream, the sculptress, was chief clerk, Samuel Parsons was chief clerk in the Indian department, and Edwin T. Vedder, Robert Ream, Jr., and Pennymaker were clerks in the office. The land office was opened in a double log-house opposite the site of Dunning's Hall. Just in the rear of the surveyor-general's office stood the jail, a log- pen 10x12 feet in size, in which a Wyandotte Indian, named Pea- cock, was confined for murder. The prisoner had a reed flute of Indian manufacture, with which he kept up a constant strain of annoying music. In time, the men in the land office, wishing to get rid of the annoyance, and not having the fear of the Indian nation's law in their minds, broke down the prison door and bade the prisoner escape, which he did. Being subsequently pardoned by the Wyan- dottes he returned.
When the white settlement began, after the making of the treaty above mentioned, it was found that the Indian village of Wyandotte had not assumed proportions as a town of much importance, though it was admirably situated for a place of great future commercial inter- ests. The Indians received their lands in severalty under the treaty, but owing to the delay in obtaining their patents from the Government, they were unable to convey their lands by title deeds to the white set- tlers until 1857. Having become citizens, the time was ripe for a nnion with any white settlers who might make their appearance. They could now transact business on equal terms, and their opportu- nity soon arrived. In December, 1856, Dr. J. P. Root and Thomas B. Eldridge came from Lawrence to Wyandotte for the purpose of selecting a good town site for a company of Eastern friends and capi- talists who were anxious to invest their money to advantage. All but these two remained in Kansas City. Messrs. Root and Eldridge were entertained over night at the house of Silas Armstrong, and in the morning looked over the ground. They found that Isaiah Walker was busy running a variety store and post-office on the north side of
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Nebraska Avenue, between Third and Fourth Streets-the same build- ing afterward used as a court-house. Thomas Barker was then sales- man; Maj. Overton was a partner of Silas Armstrong. The bottom between Wyandotte and Kansas City was then nearly covered with a heavy growth of timber, except a few small dwellings near the State line and near the mouth of the river. There was also a small opening amid the heavy growth of thickets made years ago when the Govern- ment thought of locating the fort at Wyandotte instead of Leaven- worth. The mouth of the Kaw was nearly one-quarter of a mile farther east than it is now, owing to the washing away of the Missouri River. The ground was well looked over, and the scouts returned to their friends on the Missouri side the next night and made arrange. ments to form a town company, the members of which were J. P. Root, T. B. Eldridge, S. W. Eldridge, W. Y. Roberts, Thomas H. Swope, Robert Morrow, Daniel Killen, Gaius Jenkins, John McAlpine and James M. Winchell. Messrs. Roberts, McAlpine, Swope and Jenkins were appointed a committee to go to Wyandotte and see what could be done toward inducing certain former members of the nation to join the company. The members of the town organization on the Missouri side waited some days for the committee to report; became uneasy and came to investigate; discovered that their agents had formed a company with Isaiah Walker, Joel Walker and Silas Arm- strong, among the most influential members of the former Wyandotte nation, who were owners of the site. There was naturally some high talk between the two town companies, but a compromise was effected, according to Dr. Root, by which there was to be an equal division of profits. To avoid a long explanation, however, it is generally stated that the town company consisted of these four white men and the three Wyandotte Indians. In March, 1857, the town site was surveyed by John H. Millar, of Girard, Penn., who, upon his maps, makes the following statement: "The present city company is formed of seven original stockholders, three of whom are Wyandottes. They purchased the lands forming the town site from the Wyandotte owners, who are to receive patents for these lands as soon as they can be issued. The Government commissioners completed the assignment to these Wyan- dottes on the town site, early in February, 1857."
The following is the survey of the boundary lines of the site of the town as surveyed by Mr. Millar: Commencing at the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 3, Township 11 south, Range 25 east; thence west 60 poles to a post
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from which a walnut, 7 inches in diameter, bears north 313°, west 22 feet; also another walnut, 7 inches in diameter, bears south 71°, west 35 feet; thence south 124 poles to a post from which a lynn 22 inches in diameter bears north 233°, west 94 feet; thence west 533 poles to a post from which a hackberry, 18 inches in diameter, bears south 293°, east 35 feet distant; thence south 36 poles to a post, from which a white oak 20 inches in diameter bears north 65°, east 16 feet; thence west 46} poles to a post, from which an elm, 28 inches in diameter, bears north 30} east, 33} east; thence north 80 poles to a post from which a lynn, 14 inches in diameter, bears north 56°, east 7 feet; thence west 14 poles, from which a black oak, 12 inches in diameter, bears south 583°, east 153 feet; thence north 80 poles to a post from which a walnut, 18 inches in diameter, bears north 253°, east 10 feet; thence west along the quarter-section line for a distance of 210 poles to a post from which a hickory, 13 inches in diameter, bears south 93°, west 34 feet; thence south 80 poles to a post; thence west 23} poles to a post; thence south 42 poles; thence west 663 poles to a post; thence south 38 poles to a post, being the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 4, Township 11 south, Range 25 east, from which corner a white oak, 20 inches in diameter, bears north 753°, east 26 feet; also another white oak, 22 inches in diameter, bears south 53°, west 38 feet; thence continuing on south 102 poles 9 links to a post; thence east 30 poles and 3 links to a post; thence south 7 poles and 12 links to a post 3} feet west of the north- east corner of Tauromee and Twelfth Streets; thence east 3 poles and 8 links to a post; thence south 4 poles and 21 links to a post; thence east 46 poles and 4 links to a post; thence south 7 poles and 14 links to a post; thence east 79 poles and 15 links, to a post, from which a lynn, 15 inches in diameter, bears north 673°, west 63 feet; also another lynn, 15 inches in diameter, bears north 523°, east 72 feet; thence north 76 poles and 4 links to a post; thence east 64 poles and 10 links, to a post; thence north 41} poles to the center line of Kansas Avenue; thence east 80 poles and 19 links to a post on the center line of Kan- sas Avenue, and also on the west line of Seventh Street, said post being 783 feet south of and 220,16 west of the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of Section 10, Town 11 south, Range 25, east; thence south 145} poles to a post; thence east 12 poles 21} links to a post; thence north 70 poles to a post, from which a walnut, 5 inches in diameter, bears south 42°, east 16 feet; also a white oak, 15 inches in diameter, bears south 87°, east 77 feet; also a walnut, 3 inches in diame-
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ter, bears north 51°, west 25 feet; said corner being the northwest corner of the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 10, town and range aforesaid; thence east 46} poles to a post, from which a white oak, 16 inches in diameter, bears south 44°, west 35g feet; thence north 18 poles to a post, from which a jack oak, 28 inches in diameter, bears north 2°, east 91 feet distant; thence east 45} poles to a post, from which a jack oak, 26 inches in diameter, bears north 702°, west 83 feet; thence south 18 poles to a post from which a lynn, 22 inches in diameter, bears north 1°, east 126} feet; thence east 22 poles to a post, from which a white oak, 10 inches in diameter, bears south 664°, west. 24 feet; thence south 38 poles to a post, from which a walnut, 4 inches in diameter, bears north 673°, east 92 feet; thence east 16 poles to the southwest corner of "Armstrong's saw-mill lot;" thence north 26 poles and 3 links to the northwest corner of said saw-mill lot, said corner being 80 feet east of the northeast corner of Block No. 156, and 80 feet south of the southwest corner of Block No. 154; thence east 25 poles and 18 links to the western boundary of the Ferry tract; thence north 30°, east 72 poles and 2 links to the northwest corner of said Ferry tract; thence east to the left bank of Kansas River; thence down said Kansas River with the meanders thereof to its junction with the Missouri; thence up said Missouri River with the meanders thereof to a point due east of the beginning; thence west to the begin- ning, containing 653,38 1 0 6 acres.
If the reader will draft these lines upon paper, he will see that the tract of land covered by the original town was a very irregular one. This was occasioned by the refusal of certain land owners to sell to the town company. The streets and alleys were laid out to run north and south and east and west, excepting Ferry, which was given an angle of 30 degrees east of north; the highways running north and south were called streets and were numbered successively from east to west, and those running east and west were called avenues, a local name be- ing given to each. Afterward, when the county was organized, the original plat of the town was filed for record, and recorded September 28, 1859. When the town was laid out, the greater portion of its site was covered with a dense growth of timber. Upon the organiza- tion of the town company, Silas Armstrong became president; W Y. Roberts, secretary; Isaiah Walker, treasurer, and John McAlpine, trustee, to receive conveyances of the lands bought, and on sale of lots, to convey to purchasers. There were about 400 shares, ten lots to the share. Sales began in March, 1857, when the survey had been
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completed, and brought $500 a share. There were laid out four ave- nues, each 100 feet wide, running from the Missouri River two miles west through the heart of the city. These were to be the great thorough- fares of commerce. Of public grounds, there were the levee, extend- ing from the northern boundary of the " Ferry Tract " to the north- ern boundary of the town, and from the front lots to the river. " Oak- land Park " was bounded by Washington Avenue on the north, Elev- enth Street on the west, Kansas Avenue on the south and Tenth Street on the east-650x628 feet. The rush of immigration to the new town was immense, and almost instantaneous. Houses could not be built fast enough to shelter the comers; carpenters readily obtained $5 a day in gold; lumber was in hot demand; saw mills went up as if by magic. Collins and Rogers built at the foot of the bluffs, north of Judge Walker's; Armstrong & Overton had a mill in Wyandotte City. Strangers from all parts of the country, and some from Europe, were here to invest their money, many of them purely for speculative pur- poses. Goods were piled up on the levee and people lived in tents until they could get houses erected. Shares of the company sold so rapidly at $500 that they were advanced to $750, when about 200 of them had al- ready been sold. The avenues were graded as far west from the levee as Fourth Street; Second, Third and Fourth Streets were also graded. after selling a short time at $750, the shares were advanced to $1,000 apiece. The prospect now was that the entire town site would be bought out of the company's hands, and the balance of the shares were accordingly withdrawn from the market. Delay in making con- veyances to the swarm of settlers, who almost threatend the very ex- istence of the town company, caused much hard feeling and positive threats of violence against the members; but the matter was finally readjusted. Roads were now being laid out from Wyandotte in all directions; but the year 1857 may be considered her season of greatest business activity. The bulk of her trade was then transacted on Ne- braska and Washington Avenues, east of Fourth Street. Besides the quite extensive array of business houses, two newspapers were being published, to advertise the town-the Telegraph, by M. W. Delahay, and the Democrat by Mr. Abbott. The physicians were represented by J. C. Bennett, F. Speck, J. Speck and J. P. Root; the attorneys by Bartlett & Glick, Davis & Post, J. W. Johnson, B. Gray and D. B. Hadley. At this time the population of Wyandotte was about 400, and the in- habitants were wild with enthusiasm, and almost splitting with (not suppressed) laughter at the attempt of Gov. Robinson and his Free-
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State friends to found the town of Quindaro, four miles above. But a short time thereafter their despised rival gave them good reason to fear that their laughter would have to be turned to tears.
Early in the spring of 1857 John McAlpine built a large ware- house on the levee between Washington and Nebraska Avenues, and carried on an extensive forwarding and commission business. The upper story of this warehouse served as a town hall up to the time Dunning erected the one on Fourth Street. The levee at that time extended fully as far out as the sandbar in front of the city. The frame building on the corner of Third and Nebraska, Hains' shoe shop, the old council house, McAlpine's cottages (built in the rear of what has since been known as Frederick Kramer's bakery), the old Mansion House on Nebraska Avenue, and four other buildings con- sumed by fire early in 1866, Capt. I. N. White's tin shop, on the corner of Third and Nebraska, the Garno House, and a host of other buildings, sprang into existence during the summer. In order to ac- commodate the immigration during the spring and summer of 1857, the Eldridges opened a hotel in Silas Armstrong's residence, and Col. F. A. Hunt purchased the "St. Paul," an old Missouri River steam- boat, anchored it at the foot of Washington Avenue, and fitted it up for a hotel and warehouse. As has been stated Isaiah Walker opened the first store in Wyandotte, while it was an Indian village. He was joined in August, 1856, by Thomas J. Barker, and the name of the firm became Walker & Barker. The next stores were opened by James Chestnut, and the firm of Parr, Boyd & Co. In 1857 Joseph Rosen- wall and Lepman Myers opened stores, and about 1858, the firm of Zeitz & Busche established their store. Other merchants then fol- lowed in such rapid succession that it is not practicable to name them. In 1857 the ferry across the Kaw or Kansas River was at a point near the present cable line bridge. It consisted of a flat boat, which was propelled by means of a rope stretched across the river. In proof of the great amount of travel and transportation across the river to the newly laid out city, is the fact that the receipts of tolls at this ferry, for the single year of 1857, amounted to $7,000, and the charges for crossing on the ferry were not exorbitant, but reasonable. The popu- lation of Wyandotte during its first two or three years of existence was composed of representatives from nearly every State in the Union, and from nearly all nationalities of the globe, and the result was a great laxity in morals.
At this time, 1857, there was but one voting precinct north of the
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Kansas River, in the present Wyandotte County. The election for delegates to Congress and for county officers was held in the McAl- pine cottages on Third Street, on October 5. A squad of soldiers was stationed at the polls to protect the voters and preserve the peace and dignity of the Territory of Kansas. Each voter climbed into the build- ing through a window at the west end, announced his vote to the judges, passed through the room, and jumped off a high porch at the rear of the cottage. This election was held under the "bogus laws."
Early in 1857 Mr. Dickenson was employed by the Wyandotte Company to build a first-class wagon road from the town of Wyandotte to Lawrence, on the north side of Kansas River. He performed his work satisfactorily, Quindaro building most of the bridges. At the same time a road was constructed from Quindaro to intersect the Wyandotte and Lawrence road at a point a few miles west. This road to Lawrence followed the dividing ridge between the Missouri and Kansas Rivers as far west as Wyandotte County now extends, passing by or near Pratt's Mission. It was a very good road, and it was perfectly easy to drive over it on a trot from the levee at Wyan- dotte to Lawrence. A Concord coach, drawn by four horses, left Wyandotte and Quindaro in the morning and at noon of each day. This road, and also the Quindaro branch, ran in direction of the objective point without any regard to section lines, and was mostly through the Delaware reservation. As the country became settled and improved, it was closed at various points and changed to the section lines, so that now it is almost wholly obliterated from the original line. Sub- sequently Quindaro, as a last effort to control the trade from the West, secured a bill from the Legislature appointing commissioners to lay out a road running west from that town. These commissioners were Hon. W. A. Phillips, since a member of Congress; Hon. O. B. Gunn, now of Kansas City, Mo., and Charles Chadwick, then a resident of Quindaro. This commission laid out the new road on an air-line west of the landing at Quindaro on the Missouri River, regardless of the topography of the country, and thus was commenced a system of roads in direct lines, which tended to destroy the old diagonal roads. Also in 1857 Wyandotte, in order to secure the trade from the country south of the Kansas River, and to prevent it from going to Westport and Kansas City, Mo., constructed a road to Shawnee, in Johnson County. A ferry was established across the Kansas River on this road a few rods below the present Argentine bridge. Quindaro, the then rival of Wyandotte, looked out for the same trade, and ac-
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cordingly built a road south from that place, and crossed the Kansas River on a ferry about a mile above the Wyandotte ferry, and inter- sected the Wyandotte and Shawnee road at a point some distance south of the river.
In 1858 a bridge company was organized at Wyandotte with Dan- iel Killen, superintendent; Thomas J. Barker, treasurer, and J. W. H. Watson, secretary. The same year this company built the first bridge across the Kansas River, it being located on the Wyandotte and Shaw- nee road. It was built on piles, and was all made of native timbers. The contract for the building of the bridge was let to Jones, Kidney & Co., for about $28,000. The money was raised by subscription. As Wyandotte continued to grow and prosper, she succeeded in drawing a portion of the trade from the south side of the river, and perhaps Quindaro drew a small portion of that trade while she existed, but notwithstanding all efforts to draw the trade north of the river, the people on the south side could go to Westport and Kansas City, Mo., without crossing any river, and consequently the latter city has event- ually absorbed the most of that patronage.
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