USA > Missouri > Grundy County > The History of Grundy County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts > Part 10
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78
IIISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
TIIE NEW LIFE.
It was not until after the late war that a new life opened upon Kansas City, but from the day that peace spread her wings over this favored land Kansas City's future has been assured. For years she was simply known as a river landing, and the name Westport, but when the tide of immigration struck Kansas those settlers of a new State became tributary to the com- mercial prosperity of the city. There was another point in her progress which marked the sagacity of her people, and that was their determination to secure railroads. Not only has she given hundreds of thousands of dol- lars to her bridge and the railways centering there from within the State, but she has contributed other hundreds of thousands to the struggling rail- roads of Kansas, and has her reward, for she is the metropolis.of Kansas as well as a city of Missouri. And, while the population of Kansas City increased 25,000 the last decade, Leavenworth actually lost population during the same time. One was peopled by an energetic, open-hearted, pro- gressive people, ready to push forward the wheels of enterprise, build np and help neighbors and friends; the other was known as a "Smart Aleck," who took care of number one. One has the trade and the love of a State, although outside of its border; the other is groping in the pathway of a spirit so selfish, that it was blinded to every spirit of progress, and a monument has been raised so high within its limits that it is seen by the people of two States, and on its top is carved in massive letters, one word, " decay." Such is Leavenworth, and such is the proud city of a hundred hills, Kansas City.
THIE LONG AGO-FIRST SETTLEMENT AT KANSAS CITY.
In the spring of 1821 M. Chouteau was sent to this country to establish a general agency for a fur company, from which supplies could be sent to the trading-posts, and at which the proceeds of the trade could be collected. The knowledge of the country he had already acquired enabled him to judge of the merits of different points for such agency, having in view always the advantages offered by each for extended operations by the methods of trans- portation then employed. At the Kaw's mouth he had access by water to the entire valleys of the Kaw, Missouri, Platte and smaller tributaries, while it afforded the shortest land transit to the Indians of the plains and to the val- leys of the Osage, Neosho and Arkansas. Hence, with that unerring judg- ment for which his class were peculiar, he selected this point and established himself in the bottom opposite Randolph Bluffs, about three miles below what is now Kansas City. This was the first recognition of the natural ad- vantages of this angle of the river for a large distributive trade, and the actual founding of the interest which has since expanded into the varied and wide extended activities of this city. He brought with him at this time
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
about thirty men, all of whom were employed in the service of the com- pany as couriers des bois or voyageurs, and through them hie concentrated at his general agency here the trade of the trans-Missouri country. His post at this point was in a sense a trading-post for the Indians near by, but its distinctive feature was a depot of supply and as a point of concentration for traders, trappers, hunters, and the interior posts. In the fall of the same year he brought his family to this post in a keel-boat, which was towed all the way from St. Louis. The men who came with M. Chouteau, in 1821, were, with few exceptions, dispatched into the interior, where they established trading-posts or traveled and traded among the Indians.
In 1826 there was a flood in the rivers which washed away M. Chouteau's houses opposite Randolph Bluffs and caused great loss. A part of the stock was taken to Randolph Bluffs; he sent his family to the Four Houses, and soon afterward rebuilt his house, but this time higher up and on higher ground, which is now embraced in what is known as Guinott's Addition to Kansas City. This place became well known as "Chontean's Warehouse," and was the landing-place for large amounts of freight for Indian trade, and for the trade with northern Mexico, which subsequently sprung up here.
TIIE FIRST WHITE MAN.
The first white man other than these and the French traders to locate on ground now embraced within the corporate limits of Kansas City was James H. McGee, who settled here in 1828 and whose family was so prominently identified with the early development of Kansas City. Several of his sons still reside in this city and vicinity. But there was not enough infusion of Americans into this French settlement to materially affect its character for a number of years afterward, but it continued as it had begun, the center of an extensive fur and Indian trade. The first ferry across the Missouri River in the vicinity of Kansas City was established at Randolph Bluffs by a Mr. Younger, grandfather of the "Younger boys" who in connection with the "James boys" have been so notorious in the West. At what time this ferry was established is not known, but it was in operation in 1828. The only means of crossing the river at Kansas City at that time consisted of canoes. Two of these lashed together were used from the time of the first settlement of Americans in this vicinity, to cross over with their grists to a horse mill on the other side of the river, and it continued of about this character until 1836.
The advantages of this point of departure for the west, southwest and northwest, were afterward recognized by Captain Bonneville, who took his departure from Fort Osage in 1832, and of whose expeditions such an ex- cellent account has been given by Washington Irving. Lieutenant Lupton and Fremont and Beale subsequently took their departure for their cele- brated expeditions from the French settlement where Kansas City now is. In 1832 Colonel Ellsworth, commissioner of Indian affairs, visited the
80
IHISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
Indians west of Missouri and Arkansas, and likewise took their departure from this point. Colonel Ellsworth's party consisted of a number of per- sons of great distinction, among whom were J. H. B. Latrobe, architect of the capitol at Washington, Count Pourtales, of Switzerland, Paul Liqueste Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Washington Irving. It was this expedition that furnished Irving the material for his "Tour on the Prairies," in which he gives an excellent account of it. However, there was one incident of this tour which he does not mention, and which occurred in this county, so strongly illustrative of the disregard the hardy frontiersman of that time had for rank and position in society, that it is given liere. The party had engaged as a eamp assistant Mr. Harry Younger, of this county, the father of the "Younger boys." The first morning after leaving Chouteau's house, Mr. Irving requested him, at the breaking of camp, to bring up the horses, so that they might start on the journey. The horses were grazing at a little distance. "All right," replied Mr. Younger, "let's go after them." "But," said Mr. Irving, " we expect you to do that." "Well," said Mr. Younger, "why can't some of you help me: There's that d-d connt, why can't he go? He does nothing but shoot snow-birds." Mr. Younger, with the social equality ideas peculiar to the hardy frontiersman, could not readily appreciate the dignity of a commissioner of Indian affairs, a Swiss count or a cele- brated author, nor see why they should not help bring in the horses.
STEAMBOATS.
The first boat on the Missouri River was the Independence which ascended the stream in 1819, probably as far as Council Bluffs. She passed Franklin May 28, where a dinner was given to the officers, but we have no record of her dates at points higher up. In August and September of the same year the steamers Western Engineer, Expedition and R. M. Johnson, ascended the stream with Major Long's scientific party, bound for the Yellowstone.
A DESCRIPTION OF EARLY KANSAS CITY.
A elearing, or old field, of a few acres, lying on the high ridge between Main and Wyandotte and Second and Fifth streets, made and abandoned by a mountain trapper, a few old girdled dead trees standing in the field, sur- rounded by a dilapidated rail fence; all around on all sides a dense forest, the ground covered with impenetrable underbrush and fallen timber, and deep, impassable gorges; a narrow, crooked roadway winding from 'Twelfth and Walnut streets along down on the west side of the deep ravine toward the river, across the public square, to the river at the foot of Grand Avenue; a narrow, difficult path, barely wide enough for a single horseman, running up and down the river under the bluffs, winding its crooked way around fallen timber and deep ravines; an old log house on the river bank, oc- cupied by a lank, cadaverous specimen of humanity named Ellis, with one
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IIISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
blind eye and the other on a sharp lookout for stray horses, straggling Indians and squatters with whom to swap a tin cup of whisky for a coon skin; another old dilapidated log cabin on the point below the Pacific depot; two or three small dwellings and cabins in the Kaw bottom, now called West Kansas, which were houses of French mountain trappers, engaged principally in raising young half-breeds. The rest of the surroundings were the still sol- itude of the native forest, broken only by the snort of the startled deer, the bark of the squirrel, the howl of the wolf, the settler's cow-bell, and may- hap the distant baying of the hunter's dog or the sharp report of his rifle.
The Indian trade continued to flourish at both Westport and Kansas City, and the Santa Fe trade at Independence until 1843, when it was tem- porarily suppressed by order of General Santa Anna.
EVENTS OF 1843 TO 1846.
In 1844 H. M. Northrup, now a banker at Wyandotte, Kansas, came to Kansas City with the largest stock of merchandise that had yet been offered here, if not, in fact, the largest stock that had yet been offered at any place near this angle.
In 1845 James H. McGee made some brick on his farm sonth of the town, and built the first brick house ever built in Kansas City. From this lot of brick J. C. McCoy, who then conducted the ferry at this place, built the L part of a brick house, which still stands on the bluff, between Grand Avenue and Walnut Street. These were the first brick made in Kansas City, and the first laid here.
The effect of the Mexican War gave a great impulse to the trade and pros- perity of the border towns; for now, more than ever, were the advantages of this angle of the river as a point of departure for the southwest appreciated. Kansas City felt the impulse of the preparations that were being made during the winter, and from the anticipation of the large amount of ware- housing, and receiving and forwarding of military and sutler's goods, out tits and supplies, soon to occur, it acquired new and improved prospects. These facts, united with the tendency the Mexican trade had shown the previous year to come to this place, led the town company to lay anew the foundation of the future city.
At the time of the first sale of town lots, April 30, 1846, it was estimated that there were about three hundred people in the new town, nearly all settled along the river front. However, under the impulse of the Mexican War and Sante Fe trade, added to the Indian trade already existing, the place grew rapidly, and before the close of that. year the population was estimated at seven hundred.
6
S2
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
There was no municipal government in Kansas City prior to 1853, but a circumstance occurred in December, 1852, which led to its establishment. This circumstance was the arrest of a man for some light offense by the constable, upon whose trial it was discovered that the commission issued 'to the authorities was for the next congressional township east, which located their jurisdiction at least six miles from where they had been exercising their authority. This led to a movement looking to municipal organiza- tion. That winter, February 22, 1853, a charter was obtained from the State, and in the spring of 1853 a local government was organized. The land embraced in Kansas City, according to this charter, was bounded by the river on the north, by Summit Street on the west, by Ninth Street on the south, and on the east by the alley between Holmes and Charlotte streets, and therefore embraced much that was not yet, nor for two years to come, laid off into town lots. All that was platted was the old Prud- homme estate. At the election, W. S. Gregory was elected mayor, but . served only a short time when Dr. Johnson Lykins was elected to suc- ceed him. Dr. Lykins was re-elected next spring, and in the spring of 1855 John Johnson was elected, but resigned a month afterward. M. J. Payne succeeded him, and held the office till 1860.
TRADE OF 1856-57-THIE STEAMBOAT BUSINESS.
The Journal of Commerce at a later period estimated that the trade of Kansas City during these two years did not exceed two millions of dollars, but with the close of the struggle, in 1857, the country filled up speedily, the trade was enlarged and the city grew rapidly. The Santa Fe trade prospered, and the plains' trade resumed more than its former proportions, while the trade developed by the settlement of southern Kansas all came to Kansas City, and with that and the outfitting of immigrants, her business became very great, so much so that a correspondent of the St. Louis Intel- ligencer noticed that she had the largest trade of any city of her size in the world, and was the point at which all freight and immigrants for Kansas disembarked. The Journal of Commerce, at one time during these years, described the appearance of the levee as that of a great fair, it was so piled up with all kinds of merchandise.
This was the great steamboat era on the Missouri River, and everything that entered the upper country then came by boat. In the year 1857 there were one hundred and twenty-five boats at the Kansas City levee, and they discharged over 75,000,000 pounds of merchandise. There were then a fleet of sixty through boats from St. Louis, and a daily railroad packet leaving the terminus of the Missouri Pacific at Jefferson City. Kansas City was then said by boatmen to be receiving more freight than any other five points on the river.
83
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
The first paper (weekly) in Kansas City was the Public Ledger in 1852.
The first daily, the Journal, June 15, 1858.
The trade of Kansas City for 1860 was $10,705,947.
The first banking house, Coates & Hood, 1856.
The first jobbing dry goods house, J. Wise & Co., 1857.
The first telegraph line, December 20, 1858.
The first German paper, January, 1859, the Post.
The trade across the plains in 1860 from Kansas City, as a starting point, exceeded all other cities on the Missouri River combined, by nearly fifty per cent.
The number of men who left Kansas City for the plains and beyond was 7,084. They took of oxen, 27,920; of mules, 6,149; of horses, 464, and the amount of freight, in pounds, 16,439,134.
RAILROADS.
The railroad fever struck Kansas City as early as 1855, that is it began to take shape that year. The leading spirits of Kansas City were for years energetic railroad men ready to put both time and money into the work of making Kansas City a railroad center, the seat of a growing and pros- perous city, and they succeeded. Still, previous to 1860, the Missouri Pacific was the only railroad which had reached Kansas City, and that had no sooner reached there than it became its enemy and boldly avowed its determination to make Kansas City a way station. The fever took a fiercer hold after the war and from 1865 to 1872 Kansas City voted hundreds of thousands of dollars for the securing of important railway lines. The press was a powerful lever in those days. The Journal, under Col. R. T. Van Horn, the Times under the editorship of John C. Moore, and the Bulletin under Col. J. D. Williams made their columns bristle with strong points and still stronger statistics of the value of railroads and what they would bring of wealth and prosperity to the city. In this work the press, the en- terprise and the capital of the city were mutual. Reid, Coates, Kearney, McGee, Harris, Fosters, Abeel, Dively, Bullene, and a score or more of others, all put forth every exertion to make Kansas City a central point for the great iron horse, whose month was fire, its breath steam and its strength that of many giants. It was a success, and to-day she is the proud metrop- olis of the Missouri Valley. But with such difficulties as she had to over- come she never would have been if brains, energy and invincible nerve and determination had not characterized her people. Then this railroad fever started other enterprises. It was soon understood that the roads would come and then the city took a start even before they reached her. In 1865 and 1866, between six and seven hundred buildings were put up. The eyes of a continent began to look with wonder upon the little giant of the West. A mighty city will arise from these bluffs said Benton, and as the
1
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
work of progress went on that which had been termed the wild vagaries of an old man was seen through other glasses; the vagaries assumed titles of prophesies, and they were, for from the rugged hills upon which Kansas City now stands none but a prophet could have seen a giant and a mag- nificent city arise and none but a prophet's ken foretold it.
TIIE COMMERCIAL ADVANCE.
In 1860 the trade of the city was $10,705,947; in 1867 the trade of the city was $33,006,827. Over two millions of dollars were invested in build- ing in the latter year, and a population of 4,000 had increased to 15,000 within four years. This is what you might call progress. But the grand year of prosperity which will clearly mark an era in her wonderful devel- opment was that of 1869. Houses went up as if by magic. Great enter- prises were started and the wonder came when the little town of 4,000 and a few over in 1865 had swelled to 32,269 when the census was taken only five years later. Forty-two additions had been added, nineteen of them in 1868-'69. A board of trade was organized witlı T. K. Hanna, wholesale merchant, as president, and sixty-seven members. And from that day until the great crash of 1873 Kansas City moved onward and upward with accelerated speed. Street improvements had taken a firm hold of the people, while other enterprises to make the city a home for all were put forth. School property had been purchased and the advance in real estate began to be so rapid that grounds had been secured up to 1870 for five fine school-buildings, and the advantages of Kansas City in her schools has been one of enlightened progress and great liberality. To-day she has no superior in this line. Churches kept pace with the schools, and the once border town and outpost lias become the seat of refinement and culture. Street railroads began to appear, and other evidences of a metropolitan city were to be found on every hand. Water-works were broached and manu- factories of all kinds began to spring up. The water-works started in 1873 and were completed in 1875. The Great Exposition started in 1871 and a law library was purchased the same year. In the great fire of 1871, at Chicago, Kansas City promptly subscribed $10,000 for the benefit of the sufferers. Elevators and the largest pork-packing house in the country are located here. Of the latter, two, the Armours' and the Fowler Bros', are immense establishments, and besides these there are several smaller ones. The crash of 1873 caused matters to move slowly and with caution. The years 1875 and 1876 were not noted for any great forward movement but a steady onward march was kept up. The rolling-mill, a much needed enterprise, was started, and other manufacturing interests. People began to arrive; vacant houses, which the panic had made empty, were scarce; matters began to assume a more healthy appearance-one of them was the filling up of the vacant places-and a new era of building was started. Some ten new additions had been added and a few platted. Her railroad facilities
-
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
and her immense packing-houses began to tell. The Texas cattle business had assumed large proportions and it was clear enough that Kansas City could command a large part of that trade. Western towns, like Abilene, had put up yards and were handling a large number of cattle, but it was evident that if Kansas City would put forth exertion it would come. Stock- yards were built, offices arranged and a systematic course taken to secure this heavy addition to the business of the city. To show how successful the move became the following statistics will tell:
CATTLE, HIOGS AND SHEEP.
In 1870 Kansas City received, cattle
21,000
66
66
66
66 hogs
36,000
" 1875
cattle.
181,114
hogs.
59,413
66
sheep
24,987
the hog crop was a failure.
1880, cattle.
244,709
66
hogs.
676,477
66
sheep
50,611
PACKING.
This city became a packing point by 1870, before it was yet a stock market.
The next year, 1871, the creation here of a cattle and hog market greatly facilitated packing, and by 1872 Kansas City had attained great importance as a packing point. In 1874 she was the principal source of supply for packed beef, and since that time has attained nearly a monopoly of the trade.
Hog packing did not prosper equally for the sole reason that hogs could not be had, the packing capacity of the city being in excess of the supply.
The following table shows the packing done here since 1874-5:
HOGS.
1874-5
70,300
1875-6
72,500
1876-7. 114,869
1877
180,357
1878.
349,097
1879.
366,830
1880
539,097
CATTLE.
1874
42,226
1875
25,774
1876
26,765
1877
27,863
1878
18,756
1879
29,141
1880
30,922
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
TIIE GRAIN MARKET.
From the earliest dates to 1870 Kansas City imported flour from eastern Missouri and Illinois. This country had become self-sustaining, so far as this part of Missouri was concerned, before the war, but the great demand by immigrants to Kansas, and the trade with New Mexico and Colorado, made a demand that local production could not supply. By the time Kan- sas became a State she was producing large amounts of grain, but the immi- gration took all surplusage. Between the elose of the war and 1870 the same conditions existed, though the production of the country had immensely in- creased. By 1870, however, production began to exceed the local demand, and that year the railroads took small amounts of grain to the eastern mar- kets. Perceiving this fact the people, in the latter part of 1870 and the early part of 1871, began to agitate the establishment of a grain market. The spring of the year 1871 gave promises of a good yield of all kinds of grain, and the press opened upon the subject again. Its agitation caused the Board of Trade to take it up and discuss it.
THE FIRST ELEVATOR-THE INFANT MARKET.
The result was, that in July, 1871, Messrs. Latshaw & Quade began the erection of an elevator of about one hundred thousand bushels storage ea- pacity. This was situated on nearly the same ground as is now the Union Elevator. It was finished and open for business in December. But there were no grain-dealers to use it, and Messrs. Latshaw & Quade went into the business themselves, and were the first men to conduct a grain business in the city as a strictly commercial pursuit. Messrs. Branham & Sons owned and operated a corn-mill on Fourth Street, near Broadway, and Messrs. De- war & Smith owned and operated the Diamond Mills. In 1871 Messrs. Price & Doane took a large house on Santa Fe Street and Union Avenne, and opened a grain business, but for a long time their business was largely of a retail character.
The following statistics of the grain trade will be found interesting:
STORAGE AND TRANSFER CAPACITY OF ELEVATORS AT KANSAS CITY.
STORAGE.
DAILY TRANSFER CAPACITY.
NAME.
Bushels.
Bushels.
Union
400,000
100,000
Arkansas Valley.
425,000
125,000
"A".
175,000
30,000
Advance
60.000
15,000
Alton. .
175,000
250,000
State Line
100,000
30,000
Novelty.
225,000
40,000
Total.
1,560,000
590,000
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IIISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
In 1880 Kansas City received the following number of bushels of grain:
Wheat
4,093,528
Oats ..
366,486
Barley
82,894
Corn
4,421,760
Rye ....
55,267
In the years 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879 the receipts in the above grain had been much larger in corn. In wheat 1878 was double, and 1879 about 50 per cent larger than in 1880.
COAL.
This is another very important trade and is assuming immense propor- tions, while it is, also, growing rapidly. In 1870 very little coal was used, and but 18,000 bushels were reported to have been consumed. Undoubt- edly this is a mistake, and it probably exceeded 200,000 bushels. The rest of the table given may be considered approximately correct. It is as fol- lows:
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