USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people 1808-1908 > Part 7
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The town company, in May, 1847, decided to plat the rest of the town site, and John C. McCoy was employed to make the survey. The com- pany let a contract for clearing the trees and brush from the land east of
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Grand avenue to "Phillibert's branch," near the present line of Campbell street, and extending south to Fifth street. Another sale was held, July 17, 1847, when twenty-three lots were sold for an aggregate of $1,475.30. On the day of the sale the town company closed up its affairs, divided the profits and discontinued business.
Soon after the town had been officially organized, May 3, 1847, the town authorities cut a wagon road through the bluff at Main street. The town site was very rugged. Part of the land was covered with timber, and in places steep and rocky and traversed by deep ravines. The four larger "gullies" were known as the Gillis street, Holmes street, Grand avenue and Broadway ravines, all of them extending south from the river through the adjacent bluffs. Many of the homes of the early residents were built on the high ridges between the ravines. The irregular topography of the town site re- quired many deep cuts to be made for the streets. Second street from Grand avenue to Wyandotte street was cut thirty-five feet. Third street. between the same streets, was graded down twenty-five feet. The cut on Fourth street, between Main and Wyandotte streets, was fifteen feet deep. Delaware street from Sixth street to Ninth street was filled about fifteen feet, and between Second street and the river it was cut to the depth of about fifty feet.
The first plat of the " Town of Kansas," filed in 1839, included the land from the Missouri river south to the present line of Independence avenue, and between Delaware street on the west and Grand avenue on the east. The territory from the river to the line of Independence avenue, and from Cen- tral street on the west to Oak street on the east, was included in the second plat of the town, filed in 1846. The third plat, recorded June 7. 1849, in- cluded the land from the river south to Independence avenue, and from Cen- tral street east to Cherry street. The records of the first and third plats do not show by whom they were filed. The second plat was filed by William Gillis, Fry P. McGee, John C. McCoy, Jacob Ragan, Henry Jobe and Wil- liam B. Evans, and was acknowledged, April 1, 1846, before Walter Bales, justice of the peace.
The territory included in the three plats was incorporated by the county court in Indpendence, February 4, 1850, under the name of the "Town of Kansas." These trustees, appointed by the county court, failed to qualify : Madison Walrond, John C. McCoy, Robert Kirkman, Pierre M. Chouteau and Iliram M. Northrup. By another order of the court, June 3, 1850, the town was given the right to local government, with William Gillis, Madison Walrond, Lewis Ford, Benoist Troost and Henry H. Brice as trustees. The town was governed by this board until it was granted a charter by the state legislature, February 22, 1853.
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McGEE'S HOTEL ON GRAND AVENUE.
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The settlement of the territory of the "Platte Purchase" in the north- west part of the state of Missouri added to the prosperity of the new " Town of Kansas." This productive region, including the present counties of Platte, Atchison, Andrew, Buchanan, Holt and Nodaway, was purchased from the Indians in 1837 and added to the state. The territory included in the "Platte Purchase" was bounded on the north by Iowa, on the east by the west line of the state of Missouri, which up to that date had been a straight line from Arkansas to Iowa, on the west by the east bank of the Missouri river, and terminating in a point at the mouth of the Kaw river, near the "Town of Kansas," thus forming a triangle of three thousand square miles, or two millions acres, of thickly wooded and well-watered land.
The Platte country was part of the Indian territory and was claimed by the Iowa, Sac and Fox tribes of Indians. General Andrew Hughes was agent for the three tribes with headquarters at Agency, in what is now Buchanan county. Missouri. These bands of Indians were located on the Des Moines river and had their hunting ground at the head waters of the "Little Platte," the "One-hundred-and-two" and the "Nodaway" rivers, streams that flowed through this triangular paradise and afterwards attracted home seekers to their banks.
The government obtained permission from the Iowa, Sac and Fox In- dians, July 15, 1830, to locate, temporarily, other tribes of Indians on their reservation. The government offered the Delaware Indians a home in the Platte territory in 1832. but it was refused because of the scarcity of big game. Two bands of Pottawatomie Indians, however, were placed in the Platte country, temporarily, in 1834. The locating of other Indians and the encroachments of the white settlers caused dissatisfaction among the original tribes of Indians. Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri wrote to Hon. Henry Ellsworth, commissioner of Indian affairs, January 23, 1835, urging the an- nexation of the Platte country to the state of Missouri. Mr. Ellsworth answered on January 27, stating that the Indians complained of encroach- ments and had offered to exchange their location for a reservation north of the strip. Senator Linn also wrote to Major John Dougherty of Clay county, then agent of the Missouri river Indians, and received a reply from him recommending that the Indians relinquish the title to this triangle of land and that it be added to the state of Missouri. In the summer of 1835, a militia muster was held on the farm of Mr. Weekly Dale north of Lib- erty, Missouri. At this meeting, the subject of the boundary extension was discussed. At the suggestion of Gen. Andrew Hughes, agent of the tribes of Indians then in the Platte country, a committee on annexation was ap- pointed, composed of David R. Atchison, Ed. M. Samuels, Alexander W. Doniphan, W. T. Wood and Peter H. Burnett, to prepare a memorial to
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Congress in favor of extending the state limits of Missouri. The territory desired ineluded the entire Platte country. Judge W. T. Wood planned the instrument to which was attached a long list of petitioners. On the ur- gent appeal of Senator Benton at the next session of Congress, a bill was introduced for the acquisition of the new territory. The bill became a law June, 1836, and the territory was added to the state of Missouri the traet of land being in accordance with the following amendment :
"AMENDMENT TO THE MISSOURI STATE CONSTITUTION OF 1820. RATIFIED, 1834-5. Article 2, Seetion 4. That the boundary of the state be so altered and extended as to include all that tract of land lying on the north side of the Missouri river, and west of the present boundary of this state, so that the same shall be bounded on the south by the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river, and on the north by the present northern boundary line of the state, as established by the constitution, when the same is continued in a right line to the west or to include so much of said tract of land as Congress may assent."
Senator Thomas H. Benton was naturally interested in a measure affect- ing his own state, and his views concerning it were as follows:
" This was a measure of great moment to Missouri, and full of difficulties in itself, and requiring a double process to accomplish it-an act of con- gress to extend the boundary, and an Indian treaty to remove the Indians to a new home. It was to extend the existing boundary of the State so as to include a triangle between the existing line and the Missouri river, large enough to form seven counties of the first class, and fertile enough to sustain the densest population. The difficulties were threefold: 1. To make still larger a State which was already one of the largest in the Union. 2. To remove Indians from a possession which had just been assigned to them in perpetuity. 3. To alter the Missouri compromise line in relation to slave territory, and thereby convert free soil into slave soil. The two first diffi- eulties were serious-the third formidable: and in the then state of the pub- fie mind in relation to slave territory, this enlargement of a great slave State, and by converting free soil into slave, and impairing the compromise line, was an almost impossible undertaking, and in no way to be accomp- lished without a generous co-operation from the members of the free States. They were a majority in the House of Representatives, and no aet of Con- gress eould pass for altering the compromise line without their aid: they were equal in the Senate, where no treaty for the removal of the Indians could be ratified except by a concurrence of two thirds. And all these difficulties to be overcome at a time when Congress was inflamed with angry debates upon abolition petitions, transmission of ineendiary publications, imputed designs to abolish slavery; and the appearance of the eriminating
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article in South Carolina entitled the Crises, announcing a Southern con- vention and a secession if certain Northern States did not suppress the aboli- tion societies within their limits within a limited time.
" In the face of all these discouraging obstacles the two Missouri sena- tors, Benton and Linn, commenced their operations. The first step was to procure a bill for the alteration of the compromise line and the extension of the boundary: it was obtained from the Judiciary Committee, reported by Mr. John M. Clayton of Delaware: and passed the Senate without material opposition. It went to the House of Representatives; and found there no serious opposition to its passage. A treaty was negotiated with the Sae and Fox Indians to whom the country had been assigned and was ratified by the requisite two thirds. And this, besides doing an act of generous justice to the State of Missouri, was the noble answer which Northern members gave to the imputed design of abolishing slavery in the States! actually extending it! and by an addition equal in extent to such States as Delaware and Rhode Island; and by its fertility equal to one of the third class of States. And this accomplished by the extraordinary process of altering a compromise line intended to be perpetual, and the reconversion of the soil which had been slave, and made free, back again from free to slave. And all this when, had there been the least disposition to impede the proper extension of a slave State, there were plausible reasons enough to cover an opposition, in the serious objections to enlarging a State already the largest in the Union-to removing Indians again from a home to which they had just been removed under a national pledge of no more removals-and to dis- turbing the compromise line of 1820 on which the Missouri question had been settled; and the line between free and slave territory fixed for national reasons, to remain forever. The author of this View was part and parcel of all that transaction-remembers well the anxiety of the State to obtain the extension-her joy at obtaining it-the gratitude which all felt to the Northern members without whose aid it could not have been done; and whose magnanimous assistance under such trying circumstances he now records as one of the proofs-(this work contains many others) -of the willingness of the non-slaveholding part of the Union to be just and gen- erous to their slaveholding brethren, even in disregard of cherished pre- judices and offensive criminations. It was the second great proof to this effect at this identical session, the ratification of the Georgia Cherokee treaty being the other."
The treaty with the Indians of the Platte country, ratified at Ft. Leaven- worth February 15, 1837, follows:
Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri river, between William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs,
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on the part of the United States, of the one part, and the undersigned chiefs, warriors and counsellors of the Ioway tribe and the band of Saeks and Foxes of the Missouri (residing west of the state of Missouri,) in behalf of their respective tribes, of the other part.
Article 1. By the first article of the treaty of Prairie du Chien, held the fifteenth day of July, 1830, (Proclaimed February 24, 1831) with the confederated tribes of Saeks, Foxes, Ioways, Omahaws, Missourias, Ottoes, and Sioux, the country ceded to the United States by that treaty is to be assigned and allotted under the direction of the President of the United States to the tribes living thereon, or to such other tribes as the President may locate thereon, for hunting and other purposes. And whereas it is further represented to us, the chiefs, warriors, and counsellors of the Ioways and Sack and Fox band aforesaid, to be desirable that the lands lying be- tween the state of Missouri, and the Missouri river should be attached to and became part of said State, and the Indian title thereto be entirely ex- tinguished : but that, notwithstanding, as these lands compose a part of the country embraced by the provisions of said first article of the treaty afore- said. the stipulations thereof will be strictly observed until the assent of the Indians interested is given to the proposed measure.
Now we, the chiefs, warriors, and counsellors of the Ioways and Mis- souri band of Sacks and Foxes, fully understanding the subject, and well satisfied from the local position of the lands in question, that they never can be made available for Indian purposes, and that an attempt to place an Indian population on them must inevitably lead to collisions with the citi- zens of the United States; and further believing that the extension of the State line in the direction indicated would have a happy effect, by presenting a natural boundary between the whites and Indians; and willing, moreover, to give the United States a renewed evidence of our attachment and friend- ship, do hereby for ourselves, and on behalf of our respective tribes, (hav- ing full power and authority to this effeet,) forever cede, relinquish, and quit-claim, to the United States, all our right, title, and interest of what- soever nature in and to the lands lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri River, and do freely and fully exonerate the United States from any guarantee, condition, or limitation, expressed or implied, under the treaty of Prairie du Chien aforesaid, or otherwise, as to the entire and abso- lute disposition of the said lands, fully authorizing the United States to do with the same whatever shall seem expedient or necessary.
As a proof of the continued friendship and liberality of the United States toward the loways and band of Saeks and Foxes of the Missouri, and as an evidence of the sense entertained for the good-will manifested by said tribes to the citizens and Government of the United States, as evineed in
WALNUT STREET, BETWEEN 6TH AND 9TH STREETS.
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the preceding cession or relinquishment, the undersigned, William Clark, agrees, on behalf of the United States, to pay as a present to the said Ioways and band of Sacks and Foxes seven thousand five hundred dollars in money, the receipt of which they hereby acknowledge.
Article 2. As the said tribes of Ioways and Sacks and Foxes have ap- plied for a small piece of land, south of the Missouri, for a permanent home, on which they can settle, and request the assistance of the Government of the United States to place them on this land, in a situation at least equal to that they now enjoy on the land ceded by them: Therefore T. William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, do further agree, on behalf of the Uni- ted States, to assign to the Ioway tribe, and Missouri band of Sacks and Foxes, the small strip of land on the south side of the Missouri River, lying between the Kickapoo northern boundary-line and the Grand Nemahar River, and extending from the Missouri back and westwardly with the said Kickapoo line and the Grand Nemahar, making four hundred sections; to be divided between the said Ioways and the Missouri band of Sacks and Foxes, the lower half to the Sacks and Foxes, and the upper half to the Toways,
Article 3. The Ioways and Missouri band of Saeks and Foxes further agree that they will move and settle on the lands assigned them in the above article, as soon as arrangements can be made by them ; and the undersigned, William Clark, in behalf of the United States, agrees that, as soon as the above tribes have selected a site for their villages, and places for their fields, and moved to them, to erect for the Ioways five comfortable houses; to en- close and break up for them two hundred acres of ground; to furnish them with a farmer, a blacksmith, school master, and interpreter, as long as the President of the United States may deem proper; to furnish them with such agricultural implements as may be necessary, for five years; to furnish them with rations for one year, commencing at the time of their arrival at their new homes; to furnish them with one ferry boat; to furnish them with one hundred cows and calves, and five bulls, and one hundred stock-hogs when they require them; to furnish them with a mill, and assist in removing them, to the extent of five hundred dollars. And to erect for the Sacks and Foxes three comfortable houses; to enclose and break up for them two hun- dred acres of ground; to furnish them with a farmer, blacksmith, school- master, and interpreter, as long as the President of the United States may deem proper; to furnish them with such agricultural implements as may be necessary, for five years; to furnish them with rations for one year, com- mencing at the time of their arrival at their new home; to furnish them with one ferry boat; to furnish them with one hundred cows and calves, and five bulls, one hundred stock-hogs when they require them; to furnish them
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with a mill; and to assist in removing them to the extent of four hundred dollars.
Artiele 4. This treaty shall be obligatory on the tribes, parties hereto, from and after the date hereof, and on the United States from and after its ratification by the Goverment thereof.
The Platte country was destined to become one of the developing fea- tures of Kansas City. As early as the winter of 1810-1811 John Jacob Astor's first expedition to locate the "Northwest Fur Company" commanded by Wilson Price Hunt spent four months hunting and fishing in the dense forests and beautiful streams with which the country abounded. So great was the fame of this "hunting ground" that it reached the ears of the famous pioneer hunter and trapper of Kentucky and Missouri, Daniel Boone, who, it is elaimed, at the age of eighty-two, Inred by tales of the wonderful hunt- ing grounds at the headwaters of the Little Platte and the One-hundred- and-two Rivers. made that his last hunting trip.
Joseph Robidoux Sr. connected with the American Fur Company, lo- eated near the confluence of the Black Snake Creek with the Missouri in 1803 and remained there among the Indians as a fur trader. For many years Kings Hill and its one log cabin occupied the present site of the city of St. Joseph.
The population of Kansas City increased in ten years from 1830-1840, five thousand. Opening the Platte country had much to do with this in- crease. Families came from Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, and Tennessee. Men located in Clay county and other border counties, went into the Platte country to "make claims" either for themselves or their children. The ordinary way to locate a claim was to strip the bark from the side of a tree and inseribe a legend similar to this, " This is my claim, taken by me on the 19th day of November, 1838, and every person is hereby notified not to jump it"-Henry Mills.
Immigration into what has been known as the Platte Purchase since 1837 began in 1838 quietly as compared to the opening of new territory of to-day. It has been estimated that not more than three hundred persons went into the country the first year. This increased population, however, and a somewhat fitful movement into the new territory from the South or Kansas City side of the river, made the necessity for a better means of trans- portation other than canoes, urgent.
Pierre Roi whose father, Louis Roi had lived at the foot of Grand avenue since 1826, with the instinet of trade evideneed by all the people of the French settlement, established a flatboat ferry to accommodate the first settlers and facilitate the intereourse between Kansas City and the territory of Platte.
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The history of the ownership of the land on which Kansas City is sit- uated is as follows: The land was in possession of the Indians, the original owners, when this territory was discovered by Coronado in 1542; first claimed as a part of the colony of Virginia in 1609; next by France in 1682; granted by France to the commercial domain of Crozat in 1712; granted to the Mississippi company in 1717; both surrendered to France in 1732; ceded by France to Spain in 1762; retroceded by Spain to France in 1800; sold by France to the United States and became a part of the Louisiana pur- chase in 1803; became a part of the district of Louisiana in 1804; a part of the territory governed by the governor and judges of Indiana Territory in 1804 and 1805; made a part of the territory of Louisiana in 1805; became a part of the territory of Missouri in 1812 and a part of the state of Mis- souri in 1821; the Indians' title to the land was extinguished in 1825 and the first permanent white settlement was in 1828; the first plat of the new town was filed in 1839, the name officially designated as the " Town of Kan- sas" in 1850, the "City of Kansas" in 1853, and " Kansas City" in 1889.
CHAPTER V.
HILLS AND HOLLOWS TRANSPOSED.
A row of business houses along the Levee, back of them a bluff with narrow streets cut through, and farther back homes that stood trembling on the verge of high hills; this was the picturesque Kansas City of the early '50s. From a narrow footing at the edge of the Missouri river, Kansas City has pushed back across the ridges. After half a century Kansas City has over- come the hills. In looking backward through the years to the dim horizon of fifty years ago, one can scarcely realize the wonderful transformation that has taken place, topographically, in Kansas City. It required wonderful perseverance and energy to make Kansas City sightly.
Obstacles in the shape of elevations or depressions were met at every turn, tons and tons of rock have been torn from the crest of the hills and used to fill up the valleys and ravines, and out of the chaos a beautiful city with magnificent thoroughfares, has arisen. The cliffs and valleys that were left undisturbed later were utilized to beautify the driveways and boulevards. In the beginning of Kansas City, business houses were built along the Levee, facing the river, with their backs leaning against the high bluffs. Few of the houses were more than two stories high. In 1856 the grading down of Main street began, and an Herculean task it was to cut through the cliffs.
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The town with remarkable pluck and zeal rapidly pushed south and Grand avenue, Main, Delaware, Wyandotte streets and Broadway were cut through the hills, in some places eighty feet deep. Said Colonel Theodore S. Case:
"As late as 1870, the site of our town was ridiculed. The newspapers in the surrounding towns were all fighting Kansas City bitterly. It was a. standing news item that several persons had been killed in Kansas City by falling off some of the bluffs in the main part of the city onto the tops of four-story buildings." But the old Kansas City has almost vanished and it is essential to have a chapter on 'Kansas City as it was' in order to help the older inhabitants to recall the changes and to make the present and future generations appreciate what immense labor was required and what great energy was necessary to develop the topography of the town.
GROCERY
A.R.N.
' THE GRADE' IN KANSAS CITY.
In the early days of Kansas City no one realized the inestimable value of the strata of stone piled up, and no one considered the clearing of such irregular land until the crowded condition along the Levee created the necessity that gave the people the fortitude to grade a street through rock- to make a "cut" from forty to fify feet deep. There was plenty of work for picks and shovels and in later years for powder to assist in blasting out huge rocks. At Eleventh street and Grand avenue, a high hill had to be cut down, while at Eleventh and Walnut a ravine had to be filled. "The changes made in the earth's surface show how determined Kansas City people were to have a city. Nothing could stop that sort of men. If a hill was in the way, they cut it down. If a ravine interfered, they threw the hill into it."
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