USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people 1808-1908 > Part 2
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Encouraged by the success of the Independence, a fleet of four steam- boats, under the command of Major Stephen H. Long of the United States army, left St. Louis in June, 1819, for a voyage up the Missouri river. This excursion, partly scientific and partly military in its nature, is known in history as "Long's expedition." The major had instructions to proceed up the river to the mouth of the Yellowstone to ascertain if the upper part of the Missouri was navigable and, at the same time, to overawe the Indians with a military display.
The boats that comprised Long's fleet were the Thomas Jefferson, the R. M. Johnson, the Expedition and the Western Engineer. At the mouth of the Osage river the Thomas Jefferson struck a snag and sank, and thus was the first steamboat to find a grave in the Missouri river. The Expedition and the R. M. Johnson went no farther than Cantonment Martin, arriving there, September 18, 1819. This military post, the first established in Kansas, was situated just below Atchison on an island, called by the French, "Isle au Vache" and by the Americans, "Cow Island." The troops on board went into winter quarters and the boats returned to St. Louis the following spring. The Western Engineer, which proved to be the only boat of the four adapted to river navigation, proceeded to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Within
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five years after Long's experiment steamboat navigation was in successful op- eration on the Missouri river.
The first white settlement in Jackson county clustered about Fort Osage, established in the summer of 1808 on a tract six miles square ceded by the ยท Osage Indians. The fortifications were on the high river bluff on the site of Old Sibley. Fort Osage for several years was on the extreme frontier bor- der. The commander of the fort in 1809 was Captain Eli B. Clemson, First United States infantry.
Fort Osage in the early days was an important military center and sometimes was headquarters for as many as one thousand men. A United States fort and factory were established there where the government bartered powder, traps and scalping knives for furs and peltry. The fort had an ex- cellent boat landing at the base of the bluff and a natural harbor formed by an eddy in the river. The post was abandoned in 1825. Writing from Fort Osage, March 29, 1817, George C. Sibley, government agent for whom the town of Sibley was named, gave this account of one of his journeys to St. Louis :
"In December, 1809, business called me to St. Louis. I traveled the country from Fort Osage eighty miles to Arrow Rock where I crossed the Missouri river by swimming. From thenee I traveled in a direct course toward St. Charles one hundred and twenty miles before I came to a house or mark of civilized beings. In February, I returned to this place and in my route overtook the first families who came to Boone's Lick, who were in number about six or eight."
Soon after Fort Osage was established, the Osage Indians, by treaty with the government relinquished the title to lands south of the Missouri river, except a strip twenty-four miles wide, lying eastward from the western boundary of the state and extending south from the Missouri river into the territory of Arkansas. No settlements of any consequence were made in Jackson county until the Indians relinquished the title to the twenty-four mile strip in a treaty June 2, 1825. Prior to 1830, few white families lived west of the Blue river. Missouri at that time was sparsely settled. The western half of the state had been inhabited by white men in part, not ex- ceeding twenty years and the tide of immigration, although considered large at that time, was insignificant as compared with later movements of popula- tion.
Several kinds of quaint craft were in use by the fur traders on the Missouri, Kaw and Blue rivers and other streams in the vicinity of Kansas City before the coming of the steamboats. The canoe of the Indian, of course, was the most familiar to the early pioneers. The Indians' canoes, or "dug-outs" were made from logs ten to twenty-five feet long. The
FATIIER P. T. DE SMET.
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pirogue, used by the early French fur traders, was especially adapted to naviga- tion in shallow water. The craft was made with two canoes, fastened to- gether with a light frame-work on which a platform was built for the cargo. Both oars and sails were used in navigating the pirogue. The bateau, used also by the French voyageurs, was a clumsy, flat-bottomed boat, fifty to seventy-five feet long, and used generally for transporting cargoes down stream. It was propelled up stream with great difficulty. The Mackinaw boats were cheaply constructed and generally were intended for a single voyage down stream. These craft were about fifty feet long with a twelve- foot beam, and gunwales that extended three feet above the water line. The keelboat was a more substantial craft. It had a carrying capacity of ten to twenty-five tons. The keelboats usually were from fifty to seventy- five feet long with a beam fifteen to twenty feet. The bow and stern were pointed. Sometimes men walked along the shore and pulled the boat with a cable. Poles, oars and sails also were used in navigating the keelboats.
Accompanying the trappers and traders, and sharing all of their hard- ships, but none of their gains, were the missionary priests. The wilderness held no terrors for these hardy zealots and their names are interwoven with the early history of the Western wilds. Their fortitude, their examples of rectitude and their enduring faith brighten the annals of those early strug- gles toward civilization. The Jesuit missionaries always were in advance of the civilizing influences that came to the wild tribes of Indians; fearlessly they groped their way into the wilderness. They penetrated the heart of the mountains and were found at the campfires of the Indians, teaching them the amenities of life, and in the rude huts of the fur traders.
Foremost among the heroic missionary priests was Peter John de Smet. He came to America from Belgium in 1821 and joined the Jesuit society, proceeding immediately to the frontier where he labored a quarter of a cen- tury among the Indians of Missouri and the neighboring territories. In a series of letters and sketches Father de Smet told of his work among the wild tribes. The priest made an extensive exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountain region in the spring of 1840 to observe the customs of the Indians and to further his missionary work. The caravan of which the Jesuit was a member was under the command of Captain Andrew Dripps, one of the founders of the Missouri Fur company. In a letter written from the bank of the Platte river, June 2, 1841, Father de Smet gave this account of his visit to Westport:
"In seven days from my departure from St. Louis, namely on the 30th of April I arrived at Westport, a frontier town on the west of the United States. It took us seven days on board a steamboat, to perform this journey of 900 miles, no unfair average of the time required to travel such a distance
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on the Missouri, at the breaking up of the winter, when, though the ice is melted, the water is still so slow, the sand banks so close together and the snags so numerous that the boats cannot make great headway. We landed on the right bank of the river, and took refuge in an abandoned little cabin, where a poor Indian woman had died a few days before, and in this retreat, so like that which onee merited the preference of the Savior and for which was thenceforth to be substituted only the shelter of a tent in the wilderness, we took up our abode until the 10th of May-occupied as well as we might be in supplying the wants created by the burning of our baggage wagon on board the steamboat, the sickness of one of our horses which we were com- pelled to leave after us, and the loss of another that escaped from us at the moment of landing."
CHAPTER II.
INDEPENDENCE AND WESTPORT.
Kansas City's early history is the history of Independence and West- port, towns that were important business centers in their day. The villages had a separate existence, but they were a part of one great community in the northwest corner of Jackson county. When the pioneers came to the county the early part of the Nineteenth century they perceived that some- where near the juncture of the Missonri and Kaw rivers, at the gateway to the West, was the place for a city. They had a definite idea, but were not certain of the exact location. Two attempts were made before the proper site was discovered.
Independence was founded in 1827, and until 1840 it appeared that this was to be the great city of the West. Then the preponderance of trade centered at Westport, which had been established in 1833, and for fifteen years it seemed that this was to become the city of destiny. Kansas City was founded in 1839 at the river landing and quickly overshadowed both Independence and Westport. At last the site favored by Providence had been discovered. The little settlement at the river landing has developed marvellously in fifty years. From the river the city has grown out past Westport. The historic town was consolidated with Kansas City in 1899 and now is part of the Fifth ward. Independence still (1908) retains a separate town government, but in reality it is a suburb of Kansas City. The business rush of other days is gone and the silent spirit of the past haunts the old publie square. Kansas City is growing rapidly and it is
KEELBOAT IN THE FUR TRADE.
FRAPPER
PIONEER STEAMBOAT, 1820-30.
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a question of only a few years until Independence, too, will be merged in the larger stream.
Daniel Morgan Boone, the third son of Daniel Boone, the Kentucky pioneer, was the first white man, according to a well-founded tradition, to visit the site of Independence. He crossed the wilderness alone from Ken- tucky to St. Louis, in 1787, when he was eighteen years old. For twelve years he spent the winters trapping beaver on the Little Blue river and other streams in the vicinity of Kansas City. Boone said Jackson county was the best country for beaver in those days that he had discovered. The pioneer was the commander of a company in the war of 1812. Afterwards he was appointed farmer to the Kaw Indians and was stationed four years near Lecompton, Kansas, on the Kaw river. Boone finally settled on a farm near Westport, where he died in 1832 from Asiatic cholera.
Jackson county was organized by an act of the Missouri legislature, December 15, 1826. David Ward and Julius Emmons of Lafayette county, and John Bartleson of Clay county were appointed to select a site for the county seat. The commissioners preempted one hundred and sixty acres, employed John Dunston to survey it, and made a report at the first meet- ing of the circuit court, March 29, 1827. The session was held at the home of John Young, Judge David Todd of Howard county presiding. A plat of the town was made by George A. W. Rhodes and approved by the county court. The first sale of lots was held July 9 to 11, 1827, and the cash re- ceived was $374.57. Some of the lots were sold on credit. In regard to the naming of Independence, William Gilpin wrote in the Western Journal and Civilian in 1854:
"Long ago, in 1824 and 1825, two counties sundered by the Missouri river, and flanked by the Western border line, sought at the same time their incorporation by the Legislature. On the North, the inhabitants mostly emigrants from Kentucky, and advocating that gentleman's elevation to the presidency, calling their county Clay, and its seat of Justice, Liberty. On the South, as if in rivalry, emigrants from Virginia, Carolina and Tennessee, selected the name of Jackson for their county, and Independence for their City."
The county court of Jackson county held its first meeting in Inde- pendence, July 2, 1827. The judges were: Henry Burris, presiding, and Abraham McClellan and Richard Fristoe. L. W. Boggs, afterwards gover- nor of Missouri, was clerk of the court.
The county court made an order, September 3, 1827, asking for bids for a court house. The proposals were opened, February 4, 1828, and the contract was awarded to Daniel P. Lewis who made a bid of $150. A log jail, sixteen feet square and two stories high, was built in 1827. Jackson
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county's first sheriff was Joseph Walker, appointed in 1827 by Governor John Miller.
Colonel Henry Ellsworth, commissioner of Indian affairs, and a party of travelers, among whom was Washington Irving, passed through Inde- pendence in 1832 on a tour through the Indian country. The "Father of American Literature" wrote this letter to his sister Catherine, Mrs. Daniel Paris :
"Independence, Missouri, September 26, 1832 .- My dear Sister: We arrived at this place the day before yesterday, after nine days' traveling on horseback, from St. Louis. Our journey has been a very interesting one, leading us across fine prairies and through noble forests, dotted here and there by farins and log houses, at which we found rough but wholesome and abundant fare, and very civil treatment. Many parts of these prairies of the Missouri are extremely beautiful, resembling cultivated countries, embellished with parks and groves, rather than the savage rudeness of the wilderness.
"Yesterday I was out on a deer hunt in the vicinity of this place, which led me through some scenery that only wanted a castle, or a gentleman's seat here and there interspersed to have equalled some of the most cele- brated park scenery of England.
"The fertility of all this western country is truly astonishing. The soil is like that of a garden, and the luxuriance and the beauty of the forests exceed any that I have seen. We have gradually been advancing, how- ever. toward rougher and rougher life, and are now at a little straggling frontier village that has only been five years in existence. From hence, in the course of a day or two, we take our departure southwardly, and shall soon bid adien to civilization, and encamp at night in our tents. My health is good, though I have been much affected by the change of climate, diet, and water since my arrival in the West. Horse exercise, however, always agrees with me. I enjoy my journey exceedingly, and look for still greater gratification in the part which is now before me, which will present much greater wildness and novelty The climax will be our expedition with the Osages to their hunting grounds, and the sight of a buffalo hunt. Your brother,
WASHINGTON IRVING."
The growth of Independence, between 1830 and 1833, was seriously retarded by the Mormon disturbances in Jackson county. The total de- struction of the town was threatened at one time, and the business of the new county seat received a set-back by the bitter contest between the Mor- mons and the Gentiles.
The rise and spread of the Mormons, or Latter Day Saints, is one of the most remarkable movements of the last century. The Book of Mor-
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
mon-a closely printed volume of between 500 and 600 pages-takes its name from the prophet Mormon, who is said to have lived in the fourth century after Christ, and purports to have been written by him. It claims to have a history supplementary to the Bible of God's dealings with His people. But the events it records did not occur in Bible lands, but on the American continent. According to the Mormon theory a part of the Israelites, God's chosen people, in the far distant past wandered away from their native land and came to America, where they lived, a highly civilized race, long before those so-called aborigines, the Indians. The word "Mormon" is a hybrid term from the reformed Egyptian "mon" and the English "more," mean- ing "more good."
The Book of Mormon had a peculiar origin. In 1815 "an angel of the Lord" appeared to Joseph Smith, a young man living near Palmyra, New York, and told him where he might find in "the hill cumorah," near Palmyra, certain plates on which the Lord, by the hand of his servant, Mor- mon, had engraved His will concerning His people. Smith found these plates, so he alleged. There were three of them, and they had the appear- ance of gold. The writing was in "reformed Egyptian characters," and Smith, by divine illumination, translated it into the Book of Mormon. The angel then took the plates and disappeared, but not until the finding and translation of them had been witnessed by Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris. Whitmer died only a few ago at his home near Rich- mond, Missouri. Soon after the translation of the plates Smith founded the Mormon church and became its president. The official name adopted .was "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints."
Soon after Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church he had a revela- tion as to its future site. This was announced to the waiting Saints in these words: "Hearken, O ye elders of my church, saith the Lord your God, who have assembled yourselves together to my commandment, in this land which I have appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints, wherefore this is the land of promise and the place for the City of Zion; behold the place which is now called Independence, Missouri, is the center place and spot for the temple; is lying westward upon a lot which is not far from the courthouse."
Jackson county had been organized about five years before and Inde- pendence was a prominent settlement. Thither the followers of the new faith turned. They secured tracts of land by entry and purchase and estab- lished a settlement which they named the "New Jerusalem." Here they established a polity of communism with a "Lord's storehouse."
In August, 1831, the ceremony which dedicated the temple lot to the Lord as a site for His temple was conducted by President Joseph Smith in
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
the presence of Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, Edward Pardridge, W. W. Phelps and Joseph Coc, elders of the church. The cere- mony was solemn and impressive. In order that there might be no mistake as to the exact spot where the ceremony took place, it was indicated by a sapling, from the two sides of which the bark was scraped.
When the news spread that Zion had been found the Mormons of Ohio, Illinois and New York began an exodus to Jackson county. Smith pur- chased forty acres of land for the temple just west of the courthouse in In- dependence. The country around Independence soon was settled with Mor- mons. Mills and shops were started by them in the town and a paper called the Evening and Morning Star was established by W. W. Phelps. The orig- inal settlers of Jackson did not like their prosperous Mormon neighbors, and trouble followed. They made many charges against the Mormons, the principal one of which was that they were abolitionists. The editor of the Evening and Morning Star, organ of the "kings and priests of most high God," was mobbed, tarred, feathered and beaten, for condemning slavery and for maligning and threatening the Gentiles.
In 1834 organized mobs perpetrated outrages on the Mormons, who, numbering about 1,200, were forced to flee across the Missouri River into Clay county. One Mormon was killed and many were wounded. Their property was either confiscated or destroyed. They drifted about over the state living in first one town and then in another until 1838, when the troubles between the Mormons and the Gentiles resulted in a miniature civil war. On October 27 of that year, 1838, Governor Boggs of Missouri issued an order directing that the Mormons "must be' exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public good." Major General Clark enforced the order. Many of the Mormon leaders were taken prisoners, but most of them subsequently escaped. The rest of the Mormons of Missouri, who had grown to between 12,000 and 15,000 by this time, emigrated in the winter of 1838-39 to Illinois, where they formed the town of Nauvoo.
After the Mormons left Jackson county the temple lot in Independ- ence became a bone of contention between the factions into which the church was divided. When Smith purchased the lot it was deeded to Jane Cowdry, Joseph Smith Cowdry and John Cowdry, to be held in trust for the church. They died intestate, and then the Josephites, known as the reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, Granville Hedrick, founder of the Mormon Church of Christ at Independence, and the Utah Mormons went to law for the possession of the lot. It finally was sold for taxes and purchased by the Hedrickites, who built a chapel on one corner.
The Reorganized Saints claim Joseph Smith as their leader, and they are, therefore, known as the Josephites. They number about 700 in Inde-
COL. ALEXANDER W. DONIPHAN.
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pendence, while there are only about fifty Hedrickites. Each faction claims to be a branch of the true Mormon church; each claims to teach the true faith as taught by Joseph Smith, the father of the church. The great church of Utah does not recognize either of the Independence factions.
The Santa Fe trade began in Independence in 1831 and a boat landing was established at Blue Mills on the Missouri river, six miles distant. The business increased and the government established a customhouse for the accommodation of the early merchants. From the close of the Mexican war to 1857, Independence was an important outfitting point for western cara- vans. The manufacture of wagons and other equipment needed by travel- ers was a profitable business. Some of the men engaged in the trade were Lewis Jones, Hiram Young, John W. Modie and Robert Stone. The com- merce of Independence was seriously affected for a time when the Missouri river flood of 1844 washed away the boat landing at Wayne City. At a meeting of the old settlers' association of Jackson county, John C. McCoy gave this account of the outfitting business in Independence :
"Independence in those early years was selected as a place of arrival and departure and as an outfitting place for trappers and hunters of the mountains and western plains. It was well worth the while to witness the arrival of some of the pack trains. Before entering they let us know of their coming by the shooting of guns, so that when they reached Owens and Aull's store a goodly number of people were there to welcome them. A greasy, dirty set of men they were. Water surely was a rare commodity with them. They little cared for it except to slack their thirst. Their ani- mals were loaded down with heavy packs of buffalo robes and peltry. Occa- sionally, they had a small wagon, which, after long usage, had the spokes and felloes wrapped with rawhide to keep the vehicle from falling to pieces.
"So accustomed were they to their work that it took them little time to unload the burdens from the backs of the animals, store their goods in the warehouse. The trappers let the merchants attend to the shipping. The arrival in Independence was always a joyous ending of a hazardous trip, and when once safely over it they were always ready for a jolly good time, which they had to their hearts content. They made the welkin ring and filled the town with high carnival for many days.
"The mountain trade at length gave way to the Mexican trade-this being on a much larger scale. Pack mules and donkeys were discarded and wagons drawn by mule and ox teams were substituted in their place. Such men as 'Doc' Waldo, Solomon Houke, William and Solomon Sublette, Josiah Gregg, St. Vrain, Chavez and others of like character were early ad- venturers, and as the governor gave permission to them to enter and trade with the people, they ventured across the plains regardless of the dangers."
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Samuel C. Owens, it is said, was the first trader in Independence. He came to Missouri from Kentucky when he was a young man. He was the first clerk of the circuit court of Jackson county. John Aull, his business partner, had owned a store in Lexington, Missouri. Owens and James Aull lost their lives while with Doniphan's expedition in Mexico. John C. McCoy gave this account of their unfortunate adventure:
"Colonel Owens' acquaintance with the traders did much to retain In- dependence as the 'entropo' into Mexico, and until the troubles between the United States and Mexico began in 1845-46, other places were not used. In the year 1846 it was determined by the United States to send troops across the plains to overcome opposition. Doniphan raised a regiment of men which, being fully equipped, took up the march from this country. Quite a number of adventurers of all sorts accompanied the troops. Owens and Aull decided to send a wagon load of goods along, and Mr. Owens and James Aull took charge of it. Everything promised well and no opposition was met with until within sight of the Sacramento plains, between Santa Fe and Chihuahua, where the Mexicans were drawn up for battle.
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