USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people 1808-1908 > Part 8
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DENTAL
A
"PETTICOAT LANE," 11TH STREET BETWEEN GRAND AVENUE AND MAIN STREET.
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The grading of Main street and Market street, now Grand avenue, and the opening of Third street sent Shannon Bros.' store, the first exclusive dry goods house of the town-situated at the southeast corner of the Levee and Main street-and the office of The Journal, at the corner of Main street and Commercial alley, and the postoffice, from the river to the top of the bluff.
With the commercial growth of this new out-post of the western terri- tory, the city council saw the necessity of making street improvements. The yellow banks of clay were insurmountable and not alone were clearings to be made but huge shelvings of rock had to be smoothed down. With each leveling of a new street "humps" of yellow clay, often seventy to eighty feet high, were left standing as monuments of what had to be accomplished in order to form a new thoroughfare. An examination of the old plat books of Kansas City gives very little impression of the present Kansas City. Only the few who have grown up with the city recognize the changes. The topog- raphy has been so changed that the old "City of Kansas" has vanished en- tirely.
On a hill on the west side of Main street, between Second and Third streets, a quaint little cottage with a front balcony was built in 1853 by Dr. T. B. Lester. When Dr. Lester returned from a business trip down the river late one evening, he was dumbfounded at finding his modest cottage nearly twenty feet above the street. The grading of Main street, though opposed by property owners who objected to the expense, was accomplished in Dr. Lester's absence. Dr. Lester immediately decided to build a story under the cottage. But more grading became imperative, as the large prairie schooners blocked the narrow passage. After further deliberation the city officials decided on another "cut down" of about fifteen or twenty feet and Dr. Lester built another lower story. He added a ground floor which was occupied later by a general merchandise store.
One of the most picturesque places in early Kansas City was the old- fashioned home of Judge T. A. Smart on a plot of ground bounded by Main street, Grand avenue, Eleventh and Twelfth streets. It stood in the midst of a beautiful blue-grass lawn, with shade trees and fruit trees. The house was sufficiently large to accommodate a large company of guests. The massive hillside on the west was covered with forest trees; the eastern slope was a steep, barren bluff. In those days there was but one road by which to reach the southern part of the town with any degree of comfort, and that was by way of Main street as far as Eleventh street or Twelfth street and thence by way of Grand avenue. The grounds of Judge Smart were crossed by a road which made a "cut off" and was generally used. Another fine estate was that of William Gillis, through which the Shawnee road, now the
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Southwest boulevard, passed. The house had the appearance of an aristo- cratie mansion on a southern plantation. The furnishings of the home indicated old-time elegance and massiveness. The windows that reached to the floor, the low doorways, the fireplaces and the general style of the architecture was Colonial-the style adopted by wealthy planters at the time the house was built in 1842. The stairway was made of dark redwood brought from France. The costly farmhouse was "the pride and wonder of the town." One square mile of land. the greater part under fine cultivation, made a fine setting for the elegant home.
A SPECIMEN EARLY DAY CUT IN KANSAS CITY. (Wyandotte, from Third street to the river.)
Just beyond the Gillis farm was a covered bridge on the Shawnee road. The surroundings made this spot unusually attractive. It spanned Turkey creek at a point where the great bluffs ran down to the stream. Along the east bluffs was the handsome home of John Campbell, a two-story brick with balconies facing the river; the homes of Fred and William Jarboe, the old-style home of the Chick family and that of Jesse Riddlebarger, a mer- chant. Mr. Riddlebarger had a beautiful house valued at $12,000 on the high bluff near Pearl street and the Missouri river. His house was left sixty feet above the street, after grading. There were no condemnation proceed- ings in those days, no juries to decide how much damage should be allowed the property owners in establishing grades, and Mr. Riddlebarger had no redress when the street was cut down to suit the demands of the time.
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MAIN STREET SOUTH FROM 12TH STREET.
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"The McGee house was the big house of the town," said Colonel Van Horn, "and before Milt opened the hotel it was the stopping place of all travelers. There was no way out of it, for there was no place else that could furnish room.
"When anyone of prominence came West they became the guests of the McGees. Washington Irving, when he came out to write about the prairies was, with his escort of army officers, the guest of the McGees. Hunting parties from the East and from Europe would outfit here. I remember an Englishman, Grantley Burkley, who took a great outfit of hunters and dogs on a hunt in the Indian country. The McGees kept open house in true southern style."
It was at Colonel A. B. H. McGee's home that Senator Benton and General Fremont became reconciled over Mr. Fremont's elopement with Mr. Benton's daughter. The young lady was only fifteen years old and Mr. Benton seemed irreconcilable. Mr. Fremont was about to start on his dangerous expedition, and, no doubt, Mr. Benton felt that the parting should be a friendly one. Mr. A. B. H. McGee told the circumstances of the recon- ciliation in his characteristic way. "Fremont was buying his supplies and came home with me the night after Mr. Benton arrived. I left them in a room together, the old senator and his young son-in-law, and never tried to find out what they said to each other."
The old stone barn which formerly stood on the McGee homestead at Thirty-seventh and Washington streets, stood as a landmark for fifty years, and was only torn down in 1897 that the site might be taken for the new house of A. B. H. McGee, Jr. It was a large barn, eighty feet long, forty feet wide, and, with walls, two feet thick. The loop holes for windows and a big wooden door studded with spikes gave one the impression of a fort rather than a barn. The stone barn was built so solidly because the old frame structure was set fire by Mr. McGee's enemies. Silverware and other valuables were buried in the ground in the stone barn during the border-war times previous and during the Civil war. When the building was torn down, a few years ago, the scrapers in grading down the site, uncovered dozens of bayonet points, which had been broken off in the attempt to get at the valuables.
Joseph Guinotte came to Kansas City in 1848. Mr. Guinotte, a civil engineer, with the insight born of his profession, realized that in the future there would be a large city here. On one of the highest bluffs at Third street and Troost avenue he built his house in the spring of 1850. The bricks for the foundation and the chimneys were brought from St. Louis on a steamboat. The Southern style of architecture, a broad hallway through the center with large rooms on either side, was followed. Veranda and galleries surrounded one side of the house, overlooking the river. The Guinotte
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homestead was of unusual size for homes of that period and its doors were always open to the traveler. Mr. Guinotte was known as a great lover of flowers-the first dahlias that grew in Kansas City were in his flower garden, having been brought from Belgium.
A MODERN INSTANCE-BALTIMORE AVENUE, NINTH TO ELEVENTH STREETS, IN 1890.
(The rocky wall at the left has been supplanted by the Willis Wood theater, the Home telephone building and the Dwight building. Peck's department store and Taylor's diy goods store now occupy the other side. )
In the early days each land owner named the streets and determined their length and width. Plats did not conform to other surveys of the town, and large farms were cultivated between the platted city extensions. On the west side overlooking the bottom lands, Kersey Coates christened Broad- way in anticipation of a main road to Westport and the Santa Fe trail beyond. Colonel Coates later platted several additions on the west side of Main street called "Coates's hill," and erected the Coates hotel and the Coates opera house. In 1856 he built a large brick house at the southwest corner of Tenth-then Lancaster street-and Pennsylvania avenue. "Coates's hill" also was known as "Quality hill," and held this appellation for many years. The neighborhood was exclusive in those early days. A large tract of several hundred acres platted and sold upon liberal terms by the McGees, was sit- uated about a mile from the river and formed quite a small suburb.
The nomenclature of the streets of Kansas City is an interesting subject. It appears that the pioneers sought to perpetuate the names of the members
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OLD E. D. PARSON'S HOMESTEAD, 8TH AND CHERRY STREETS, 1867.
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of their families by giving their names to the streets. Whoever laid out an addition in those early days named the streets within its limits as he chose, and the names selected gave an instant clew to the pioneer owner's identity. The sons and daughters and other descendants of James H. McGee and E. Milton MeGee were honored. These names of the MeGee family are found in looking over old plats: Allen, Menard, Mobillion, Milton, Ger- trude, Catherine, Amelia and Adeline. Main street in the McGee addition south of Twelfth street was named Eleanor.
James McGee settled on a tract of land adjoining the old townsite on the south in 1830. He lived in a log cabin for four years and then built a home at Twentieth street and Baltimore avenue. He died in 1838. MeGee street was named in honor of Milton McGee, who made his addition to Kansas City in 1857 and built a small town on the land, offering liberal terms to buyers.
Campbell and Charlotte streets were named after John Campbell and his wife, Charlotte. Holmes street was named after Nehemiah Holmes. Lydia avenue was named for Lydia Guinotte. Guinotte avenue indicates that the early family residence was in the East bottoms. Dripp street in the southwest part of the city suggests Major Andrew Dripps, the father of Mrs. William Mulkey.
Many streets separated by hillsides or gullies received several names until the grading made a uniform thoroughfare and the street retained but one of numerous names, or was rechristened. In this manner a number of original street names were lost. What is now Market square was known as the public square in early Kansas City. Towns formerly were built around an open square or plaza. It appears that the idea was copied from the Mexican style of platting towns and cities with a plaza in the center. The old squares have since been utilized for courthouses, market places and other public buildings.
Indian names were not popular with the early settlers. From the number of tribes with euphonious names only two streets were christened with Indian names. Wyandotte and Delaware streets were named after the Wyandotte Indians who lived just across the Kaw river and the Delaware Indians whose reservation was farther west ..
The shortest street is Cedar, which begins in the alley in the rear of 1622 St. Louis avenue and runs north two hundred feet. Elm and Ord have the shortest names of the Kansas City streets. Maiden lane, which runs from Washington street to Bluff street between Sixth and Seventh streets, was named by Eugene Field in honor of the street in St. Joseph where his wife lived during their courtship. Steptoe street in old Westport is one of the oldest in Kansas City.
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Vine street was named after Mrs. Vienna Chase, whose home is at the southeast corner of Twelfth street and Garfield avenue. Wall street was once known as Amarette, in honor of Mrs. T. B. Bullene. Penn street was so called in honor of the state in which Kersey Coates was born. Troost avenue was named after Dr. Benoist Troost, an early physician.
During the period shortly after the Civil war Walnut street, from Sixth to- Eighth, was frequently impassable by reason of the soft clay, kept con- tinually wet by the overflow of a spring in the street between the present location of the Midland hotel and the Grand Opera House. John Johnson and his six sons were the first white settlers to cross the Blue river. The Johnson land, through which Woodland avenue was first laid out, was cov- ered with a heavy growth of timber which gave the name to the street.
The peculiar bend in lower Main street is explained by the fact that when the street was opened and graded southward a serious obstacle was encountered at Missouri avenue. The late Thompson McDaniels lived in line of the new route and it was decided to pay him one hundred dollars for interfering with his well and dooryard. After several weeks spent in nego- tiation the council decided the city could not afford to pay for such im- provements. Then they compromised by turning the street westward, thus saving Mr. MeDaniels' yard and well.
These streets were named for Kansas City people: Guinotte, Hardesty, Shelley, Scarritt, Bales, Goodrich, McGee, Troost, Garland, Scott, Warner, Watkins, Winants, Tichenor. Smart. Ridge, Heist, Campbell, Chouteau, Merceir, Martin, Mastin, Hasbrook, Munford, Hale, Henderson, Gregory, Holmes, Hunter, Baird, Salisbury, Hopkins, Marsh, Sheaffer, Merrill, An- derson, Allen and Dunham.
The following thoroughfares were named for cities and states: Balti- more, Denver, Brooklyn, Colorado, Quiney, Illinois, Delaware, Alton, In- diana, Misouri, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Michigan, Lawrence, Lexington, Rochester, Santa Fe, St. Louis, Virginia, Wyoming, St. Paul, Springfield, Fort Scott, Richmond, Winchester, Frankfort and Independence.
These streets were named after statesmen, authors and soldiers: Mad- ison, Douglas, Lincoln, Lafayette, Franklin, Blaine, Monroe, Jefferson, Washington, Jackson, Cleveland, Harrison, Garfield, Benton, Fremont, Clay, Sherman, Hamilton, Gladstone, Irving, Whittier, Bryant, Randolph, Peery, Boone, Fulton, Aberdeen, Bayard, Pendleton.
Numerous changes have been made in the names of Kansas City's streets since 1872. Previous to that time most of the streets bore the names of the members of the old pioneer families. A few have been retained. In February, 1872, an ordinance was approved by Junius Chaffee, acting mayor,
GOS PEL TIVE
AMERICAN
CREDIT.
GRAND AVENUE NORTH FROM 12TH STREET.
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and Dan Geary, city clerk, changing seventy-three names of streets at one time. For convenience the cross streets were changed from the names of time-honored citizens to numbers.
CHAPTER VI.
THE LEVEE OUTGROWN.
A township justice of the peace and a constable were able to preserve order in the "Town of Kansas" until 1853. A circumstance occurred in December, 1852, that hastened the necessity for a municipal government. A man was arrested for some trivial offense and brought to trial, whereupon it was discovered that the officers who tried the case held commissions issued for the next township east, locating the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace and the constable six miles from where they had been exercising authority. The town at once applied to the Missouri legislature for a charter and, Feb- ruary 22, 1853, Governor Sterling Price placed his signature to a bill incor- porating the "City of Kansas." After the charter had been granted the following announcement was posted :
"Notice is hereby given that, according to the provisions of an act of the general assembly of the State of Missouri, approved February 22, 1853, entitled 'An act to incorporate the City of Kansas,' an election will be held by the qualified voters within the limits of said city as defined by said act, at Kansas, on Monday, the 28th day of March, A. D. 1853, to ascertain whether they will accept or reject the act of incorporation."
The election was held and the charter was ratified by a large majority. The boundaries of the town, as defined in the charter, were the river on the north, Ninth street on the south, Summit street on the west and the alley between Holmes and Charlotte streets on the cast. Not all of the land in- cluded in this territory was platted until several years after the charter was granted.
The charter obtained, the "City of Kansas" announced that an election would be held April 18, 1853, for the purpose of electing a mayor and alder- men. A proclamation to this effect signed by Dr. , Benoist Troost, Lott Coffman and Thompson McDaniels, was posted on the trees near the levee. At the election sixty-four votes were polled. William S. Gregory, the whig. candidate, was elected mayor with thirty-six votes. Dr. Benoist Troost, the . Democratic candidate, received twenty-seven votes. A democratic council was elected, composed of the following: Dr. Johnston, Lykins, Thomas H.
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West, William G. Barclay, Thompson MeDaniels, and Milton J. Payne and William J. Jarboe. N. B. Hedges was elected city marshal. The judges of the election were Thomas Wolf, Lott Coffman and J. P. Howe. Shortly after William S. Gregory had been elected mayor, it was learned that he had not lived within the city limits the required length of time to be eligible to the office. He at once resigned as mayor and Dr. Johnston Lykins, as president of the council, became mayor, completed the term and was elected mayor in 1854. The other ante-bellum mayors of Kansas City were: John Johnson, 1855; M. J. Payne, 1856-57-58-59; G. M. B. Maughs, 1860; R. T. Van Horn, 1861.
KANSAS CITY IN 1852.
[From Ballou's Pictorial. ]
The representation above, of the city of Kansas was drawn for the Pictorial by Mr. Kilburn. the view being taken on the spot, and executed with his accustomed fidelity. The city is in Jackson County, Missouri, and is located on the south bank of the Missouri river, one hundred and thirty miles from Jefferson City. It is a place of considerable business, and embraces all the elements of future greatness. We present it as it appears today. but the cities of the West grow out of all recognition in a very few years. In the old world. the view of a town taken today would exhibit few changes from one a century old-the little settlements on the Rhine, for instance, are quite stationary-while rapid expansion and perpetual improvement are the features of our settlements, particularly in the great West. which is dotted here and there with foci of life and business, often a marvel even to us of New England, with whom progress and extension are the watchwords.
At the first meeting of the city council, April 25, 1853, the following city officials were appointed: Pierre M. Chouteau, treasurer; S. W. Bouton, register; G. W. Wolf, assessor; Hallon Rice, wharf master and tax collector; Judge Nelson, city attorney. At this meeting a resolution was adopted re- questing the old town company to settle its affairs and transfer its surplus
$0591
wedr's
VANDUIZLE:
FAR
KANSAS CITY IN 1855.
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fund to the city government. In compliance with this demand, Samuel Geir, treasurer for the town company, transferred $7.22 to the city treasurer, Pierre M. Chouteau. For the first few years after the town was incorporated the council meetings previous to 1857 were held quarterly, on the second Mondays of April, July, October and January. The revenue for the city for the first year was about five thousand dollars.
One of the first acts of the new city government was to invite Senator Thomas H. Benton to visit the city and deliver an address. Mayor Gregory, accompanied by M. J. Payne and William G. Barclay, proceeded down the river to Randolph Bluffs, on the Clay county bank, and there met the steamer that was bringing the illustrious statesman. Senator Benton re- turned to Kansas City again the following year. Mrs. George Bingham, the widow of Dr. Johnston Lykins, gave the following reminiscences of Mr. Benton's last visit to Kansas City :
"One evening in the summer of 1853 or 1854 several passengers landed from a steamer and walked across the levee to the Gillis hotel. From the porch of our little house on the bluff we could see the party and noticed that one of the gentleman was tall and of commanding presence. The doctor exclaimed: 'It is surely Thomas Benton and John C. Fremont!' The doctor was intimately acquainted with both. He hastily snatched his hat and visited the hotel to find that his surmise was correct. Fremont and Ben- ton had arrived in order to complete arrangments for an experiment with camels as beasts of burden in crossing the plains during the hot season. Colonel Benton entered heartily into the plan and gave his assistance in every way possible. It was thought that camels could stand the travel over the sandy plains better than oxen or horses. Owing to the shortness of the season in this northern latitude the project failed, although camels were imported for the purpose. Late in the evening Dr. Lykins returned to the house to inform me that he had invited the gentlemen to dine with us the following day. Colonel Benton and Mr. Fremont came, also Lieutenant Head, and the day was one long to be remembered. Colonel Benton was one of the most remarkable men I ever met. He was above the usual height, of splendid physique, clean shaven face, his black hair thickly sprinkled with gray. He wore a long frock coat and a wide black stock, which showed in sharp contrast against his faultless linen. The conversation was mainly upon the grand possibilities of the west. At the conclusion of the dinner we stepped out upon the porch, which commanded a delightful view of the river and surrounding country. Colonel Benton appeared in the height of good spirits and turning to me, said: 'Mrs. Lykins, you will take a trip to California on one of the camels, won't you?'
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"'Hardly,' replied I, laughing. 'I would prefer a more comfortable mode of travel.'
"The great statesman's face grew solemn as if in a spirit of prophecy.
"'You are a very young woman,' said he, 'and you will live to see the day when the railroad will cross the plains and mountains to the Pacific Coast.'
" 'Colonel Benton,' replied I, 'with all due deference to you as a prophet, your prediction is as visionary as a trip to the moon.'
"'I will not live to see the prophecy verified, but the next generation will,' responded he firmly. This was the last visit of Colonel Benton to Kansas City. The party left by steamboat for St. Louis on the evening of the same day."
The council meetings were held in a building on the levee, between Walnut and Main streets. This building was destroyed by fire in 1857, and the following year a city hall and market house were built on the site of the present city hall. Market street, now Grand avenue, was the main thor- oughfare at that time. It led along the side of a deep ravine, past the city hall and market, and was the road by which persons generally entered the city.
Practically all of Kansas City, in 1854-55, was situated along the river front, with the exception of a few residences which had been built on the hills overlooking the river. The levee was a narrow chute barely wide enough for one team to pass through. On one side the rocks jutted out into the river and on the other the bluffs arose to the height of several hundred feet. Deep excavations had been made in the hill in several places. Back of the levee the hills were covered with woods, except in the less broken portions where clearings had been made. A road wide enough for one wagon had been made along the side of the hill at the foot of Broadway, leading into the Kaw river bottom, which was a dense forest with the exception of a few patches cleared by the French traders. A deep ravine, beginning at the levee at the foot of Grand avenue, led to the southwest, across the present market square to Sixth and Delaware streets, thence southeast to the junction, entering the forest at Walnut and Fifteenth streets.
When the territory of Kansas was organized, May 30, 1854, Kansas City at once became the gateway into the new country. Settlers rushed across the border from the northeast states to settle on the land and establish towns; the Leavenworth town company was organized June 13, 1854, in Weston, Mo., and the Atchison town company, July 27, 1854. The movement of immi- gration gave an impetus to commerce, but the bitter strife between the pro- slavery and the anti-slavery forces in the new territory in some respects retarded the growth of Kansas City.
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OLD GILLIS HOUSE
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The slave states had determined that Kansas should be a slave territory ; the free states had resolved to prevent slavery from being admitted. While the bills were pending in Congress both sides were preparing for the expected struggle, having announced in each case that force would be used, if neces- sary, to accomplish the desired result. Secret societies, such as the "Sons of the Union," "Sons of the South," "Blue Lodges" and "Social Bands," were organized in Missouri and other slave states as early as February, 1854, for the purpose of aiding the slavery cause in Kansas. The abolitionists of Boston organized the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society, April 26, 1854, and the New England Emigrant Aid Society July 24, 1854. Meetings were held along the border at which the Kansas question was discussed, and, not infrequently, orators made "inflammatory" speeches. Great excitement ex- isted at the time the new territory was organized and conflicts between the settlers of the two factions were imminent.
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