.•^'•. %,^^^ .-^4^;. %/ .*»:•. %,^^ .-^v^-." \. y^o -^^ 0^^ S' V «p^ V" .0 O . A " _j^0 3 N O o ^^ ■'^^< .-^^^ 'Jy^ :e /. <> * o « '^-\/ O?^^*'/ \.'-^"'\/ "°* '-•• / ^ ^v ->;^ >,^ !?'* v^i^:*^o^' %'^<^-V^ %^'^^^^J' V^^V Vol. 1. No. 1. STATE CENTENNIAL SOUVENIR NUMBER AND PROGRAM^ 1821 — 1921 Published under auspices of MISSOURI VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY KANSAS CITY, MO. MISSOURI DAY, OCTOBER THIRD PRICE $1.00 r ^f-t^i GS MISSOURI VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS President John Barber White Vice-President.... John F. Richards Vice-President W. Malcom Lowry Vice-President Louis W. Shouse Secretary Nettie Thompson Grove Treasurer Henry C. Flower Financial Secretary H. B. Leavens Curator Emma S. White Audit^ William B. Davis DIRECTORS R. A. Long T. M. James, Jr. Charles S. Keith Charles R. Pence Ford F. Harvey Purd B. Wright Wa.lter S. Dickey Mrs. Roma J. Womall William T. Johnson Mrs. Hugh Miller H. B. Leavens Edwin R. Weeks Editor Nettie Thompson Grove Publisher and Business Manager Emma S. White Price $L00 TABLE OP COPfTENTS. Page A Journey to Missouri in 1822 97 Birthday of Missouri, The (A Poem) 127 Borland, William Patterson (Biographical Sketch) 39 Centennial of the Admission of Missouri, The. . . .; 43 Condition of Missouri at the Time of the Louisiana Purchase, The. . . .104 Fashionable Pearl Street 109 Genealogy of the Gamble Family 124 Gifts and Loans to the Missouri Valley Historical Society Inside Back Cover Gilpin, Major William — ^The Prophet of Kansas City 115 Jackson County's First Court House Built in 1827 122 Missouri Merchant One Hundred Years Ago 5 Missouri Day 2 Missouri, The Mother of Empires 44 Missouri Valley Historical Society — Officers and Directors Inside Front Cover Fort Osage 56 Life at the Fort in Early Days 74 McCoy, The Reverend Isaac 85 Farms Owned by Isaac McCoy 90 Isaac McCoy's Successor 93 IVill of Isaac McCoy 93 One Hundred Years on the Missouri River 21 Proclamation of Statehood, The 1 PRCMJRAM — Miiisouri Day, October Third t 130 Kanftas City Centennial Association 1821-1921 | 136 Some Reminiscences of the Wyandottes 119 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Borland, Hon. William P 40 Campbell Home, "Fashionable Pearl Street" 113 Chick Mansion on Pearl Street, The 100 Chick, Washington Henry 96 Gilpin, William 114 Independence Square, 1850 123 Jackson County's First Court House 122 Keel Boat, Used in Early Days on Missouri River 78 McCoy, Christiana Polk 84 McCoy, Rev. Isaac. C 84 McNair, Alexander (First Governor of the State) 2 Sibley, Mary Easton 74 Sibley, Major Geo. C 74 Steamboat — John D. Perry 28 Steamboat Trapper 24 Stevens, Walter B , 20 Town of Sibley ::Plat of) 71 White, John Barber 4 't. By the President of the United States: A Proclamation WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the 2d day of Mai'ch last, entitled, "Resolution providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," did determine and declare "that Missouri should be admitted into this Union on an equal footing" with the original states in all respects whatever upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted on the part of said state to congress shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the states of this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and im- munities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States. Provided, that the legislature of said state, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said state to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United States on or before the first Monday in November next an authentic copy of said act, upon the receipt whereof the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact, whereupon, and without further proceeding on the part of congress, the admission of the said state into this Union shall be considered as complete"; and WHEREAS, by a solemn act of the assembly of said state of Missouri, passed on the 26th of June, in the present year, entitled, "A solemn public act de- claring the assent of this state to the fundamental condition contained in a resolution passed by the congress of the United States providing for the ad- mission of the state of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," an authentic copy whereof has been communicated to me, it is solemnly and publicly enacted and declared that that state has assented, and does assent, that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution of said state "shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the United States shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizens are entitled under the Constitution of the United States." NOW, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in pursu- ance of the resolution of congress aforesaid, have issued this, my proclamation, announcing the fact that the said state of Missouri has assented to the funda- mental condition required by the resolution of congress aforesaid, whereupon the admission of the said state of Missouri into this Union is declared to be complete. In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Washington the 10th day of August, A. D. 1821, and of the independence of the said United States of America the forty-sixth. By the President: JAMES MONROE. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Secretary of State. —1— Alexander McMair, First Governor of the State Born About 1176 - - - Died March 18, 1826 MISSOURI DAY. The idea of a "Missouri Day" originated with Mrs. Anna Brosius Korn of Trenton, Missouri. The value of such a day for the purpose of "binding Missourians together at home and abroad," first occurred to Mrs. Korn while a non-resident of the State. Returning home, she drafted resolutions for the placing of a "Mis- souri Day" upon the State calendar. The fall of the year was se- lected as the season and October as the month, because, as Mark Twain expressed it: "Missouri is at her best in October." Then too, it was in the month of October, 1826, that the Missouri State Capital was established in Jefferson City. These resolutions brought before the various patriotic societies and other organiza- tions of the State, met with enthusiastic approval from every quarter. In January, 1915, Mrs. Korn drafted a bill, which with amend- ment, read: "An act providing that the first Monday in October of each and every year shall be known and designated 'Missouri day.'" This bill passed the House January 26th, the Senate on March 19th, and was signed by Governor E. W. Major, March 23rd. Thus on March 23, 1915, "Missouri Day" became an established fact. . ^ , • : • JoKn Barber WKite The Missouri Merchant One Hundred Tears Ago. JOHN BARBER WHITE2. Trade and commercialism were the chief factors in drawing the first settlers to Missouri. The attraction of the immense possibilities in fur trading caused the early homes and settlements along the rivers and in the valleys of Missouri, and led to the establishment of trading posts at St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve and other places during the Spanish occupation. I am indebted to that great Missouri historian, Col, Louis Houck, in his Spanish Regime in Missouri, for many of these historical facts, which he has recovered from the dim past and which he has dug up and preserved for future generations. He mentions the oldest settlement, Ste. Genevieve. Among the early merchants and traders there was a Louis Lambert, who was the wealthiest and most important. Louis Viviat, Francis Datchurnt and Louis Duchonquette were also prominent traders, as were the Valles and Henry Peyroux de la Condreniere, Post Commandants, and Walter Kennedy, brother of Patrick Kennedy of Kaskaskia, a noted English-speaking trader at Ste. Genevieve. Jeduthen Kendall had a tannery and made boots and shoes there nearly a hundred years ago. It was John Nicholas Maclot, who had once suffered impris- onment in the Bastile suspected of republican sentiments, who, when released, came to Philadelphia and was a merchant there for several years. He came to St. Louis with a stock of goods, a hundred years ago, and later with Moses Austin, a Connecticut pioneer, who was working lead mines in Potosi, went to Hercu- laneum on the bluff of the river and established a shot tower. Mr. Houck mentions Moses Austin as a big representative of commercialism in the enterprises and mine operations in the dis- trict. In 1820 he followed his son, Stephen F., to Texas. He succeeded in obtaining from the local government a recommenda- tion permitting him to establish on Texas soil three hundred families from the United States. He died in 1821, aged fifty- seven years, just as he had received word that the Spanish gov- ernment had approved of his colonization plans. Laclede as the representative of Maxent and Company was iThis address was delivered Janoary S, 1918. before the Missouri State His- torical Society. Columbia, Mo., at its Centennial celebration of Missouri's peti- tion for statehood. —5— sent up the river, not to establish a town, but to trade in furs; but the town grew up around him. See Houck's chapter on St. Louis for a record of all the big traders, including the Chouteaus, Martigny, Cerre, Clay Morgan, Manuel de Lisa, James Mackey and others. Lisa helped establish the Oregon Trail and was the most prominent man of 1807-8 engaged in the fur trade of that period. In the winter of 1808-9 he helped organize the Missouri Fur Company. He made ex- tended voyages far up the Missouri, as far as Kansas City and beyond, as did also James Mackey and Gen. Ashley ; the latter an early explorer of the Rocky Mountains. Read what Houck says about Col. George Morgan, who was so closely connected with the early history of New Madrid. He brought many Americans into what is now Missouri. One of these was Christopher Haynes of Pennsylvania, who was Colonel in the Revolutionary Army in Westmoreland County. Another was Moses Shelby from Kentucky, a brother of Gen. Isaac Shelby, who came with other Kentuckians. Dr. Dorsey and Dr. Richard James Waters were merchants and traders in New Madrid, and Louis Lorimer from Canada established a trading post at Cape Girardeau. Daniel Steinbeck and Frederick Steinbeck, Maj. Thomas W. Waters, a Revolutionary soldier from South Carolina, and others, also established trading posts at Cape Girardeau. In Scharf's History of St. Louis is mentioned the merchant Francis Vigo of the mercantile firm of Vigo and Yosti, who ren- dered personal service in the Revolutionary War and sacrificed his fortune in redeeming continental paper to the extent of four thousand pounds.- Also see Walter B. Steven's Missouri The Center State. This gives the wonderful exploits of George Rogers Clark and his three hundred and fifty Virginians and Kentuckians in 1778 and 1779.^ Clark wrote from St. Louis July, 1778, that "Our friends the Spaniards, are doing everything in their power to convince me of their friendship." Francis Vigo of St. Louis was of great help in the Kaskaskia and Vincennes expeditions. Stevens says that Clark made re- peated expeditions to St. Louis before he started in February, 1779, across the Illinois prairies. He had raised in St. Louis nearly twenty thousand dollars for his little army. Father Gibault, the priest who alternated between St. Louis and Kaskas- kia, gave his savings of years — one thousand dollars — and he and his Kaskaskia parishioners knelt and prayed for American success at Vincennes. It was Col. Vigo, a citizen of St. Louis, who gave to Clark the information which enabled him to capture Hamilton 2Vol. I, p. 191. Vol. II, p. 538. -6— and Vincennes. Father Gibault was in Kaskaskia and had the currency there when Commander Clark took this British Post on July 4th, 1778. So it was St. Louis merchants and St. Louis citizens who helped to make success in the Revolutionary War. Gabriel Cerre should be mentioned as another prominent St. Louis merchant who helped to finance General George Rogers Clark's expedition against Vincennes in the Revolutionary War. The free and unrestricted exercise of trade and commerce throughout the world is stimulating to the civilization of the world. The exchange of commodities of one country with that of another brings the products of each country, as well as the best in art and literature, to our very doors. The world's devel- opment has largely followed the trade routes of commerce. The first efforts in the struggles of life are put forth in the struggle for bread; first for the absolute necessities and later for life's comforts and luxuries. And it is this development of all routes of travel that has enlarged our civilization in enlarging our wants and needs for the products of other climes and other peoples. While trade and commerce with the nations of the world have brought their national and international blessings to the inhab- itants of the world, they have also brought strife and war. It is the selfish struggle of the infant in takng its playmates' play- things developed in the grown man and in growing nations and group of men, for men are but children of large gro\\i;h. Our present war is an instance. As infants and as grown ups, we often know best the law of might; but later we learn the easier and fairer methods of trade ethics and the wholesome consideration of the rights of others, and a national diplomacy that is not born of deceit. It was trade, the search for treasure, that brought Europeans to our shores and their object was development through exploita- tion ; exploitation of land and of the people. Not so with some of the early Missourians who came over as far back as 1703 and landed in New Orleans with some French savants and scientific scholars, working under the authority of the French Government, and proceeded up the Great River as far as the present site of Kansas City. They came both for the ma- terial and spiritual benefit of the inhabitants. They were of the intellectual and spiritual type of men like the well-known Father De Smet, who came over a hundred years later. Their records are still on file in France. They show from the maps they made that they stopped for a time at what is now Jefferson City and went farther up to the mouth of the Kaw. Theirs was not a mercantile exploitation, but was wholly a magnanimous and Christian mis- sion for the elevation of man. —7— See an address given before the Missouri Valley Historical Society in Kansas City, February 7, 1914, by Father William J. Dalton. I also wish to acknowledge the historical data collected for me by the efficient secretary of that Society, Mrs. Nettie Thompson Grove. First comes the explorer, who may become a commercial exploiter in laying the foundation for a future permanent and growing development in civilization. He helped in the planting, but the spirit of love and sacrifice is necessary to intelligent na- tional growth. Comparatively few may know that the great American nat- uralist, John James Audubon, was a merchant in Ste. Genevieve.^ He was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, May 4, 1780. He was educated in Paris, but returned to the United States in eastern Pennsylvania about 1798. He married in 1808 and first became a merchant in Louisville, Kentucky, and then removed to Hender- sonville. After making unsuccessful efforts in mercantile busi- ness at Hendersonville, Audubon and his partner. Rosier, decided to remove their business to Ste. Genevieve on the Mississippi River. "Putting our goods, which consisted of three hundred barrels of whiskey, sundry dry goods, and powder, on board a keel-boat, my partner, my clerk and self departed in a severe snow storm. The boat was new, staunch, and well trimmed, and had a cabin in her bow. A long steering oar, made of the trunk of a slender tree about sixty feet in length, and shaped at its outeri extremity like the fin of a dolphin, helped to steer the boat, while the four oars from the bow impelled her along, when going with the current, about five miles an hour. . . . The third day we entered Cash Creek, a very small stream, but having deep water and a good harbor. Here I met Count De Munn, who was also in a boat like ours, and bound also for Ste. Genevieve. Here we learned that the Mississippi was covered with floating ice of a thickness dangerous to the safety of our craft, and indeed that it was im- possible to ascend the river against it. . . . We arrived in safety at Ste. Genevieve and there found a favorable market. Our whiskey was especially welcome, and what we had paid twenty-five cents a gallon for brought us Two Dollars. Ste. Genevieve was then an old French town, twenty miles below St. Louis, not so large, as dirty, and I was not half so pleased with the time spent there as with that spent in the Tawapatee Bottom."' We read that Audubon was not pleased with Ste. Genevieve and longed to be back with his young wife in Kentucky. He sold out to Rosier. It develops that Audubon's clerk was named Nathaniel Pope. In 1793 two flouring mills were established, one at New Madrid and one at Ste. Genevieve, with the purpose of promoting agricultural settlements and commerce along the Missouri and Mississippi. 4See Life of Audubon, edited by iiis widow. SIbid., p. 35. The early mercantile history of Missouri and of its merchants is so great that one cannot cover the subject in much detail in a paper for an evening-'s reading. The best that can be done is to g-ive names and authorities. Reference may also be had to the following : Missourmyis One Hundred Years Ago, by the Hon. Walter B. Stevens, President of the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1917. This is a wonderfully interesting booklet of about fifty pages and should be read by every Missourian. Chittenden in his monumental work on the History of ttie Fur Trade is the best authority on the close relation existing between the early Missouri merchant and fur trader and the Indians. He has reproduced many of the old letters and diaries of the men of those days that are invaluable sources of informa- tion. These extracts from a letter of Thomas Forsyth to Lewis Cass, dated St. Louis, October 24, 1831, reveal the widespread character of the trade and the ascendancy maintained by the American Fur Company in this field.*^ "The fur trade of the countries bordering on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, as high up the former river as above the Falls of St. Anthony, and the later as the Sioux establishment some distance above Council Bluffs, is carried on now in the same manner as it ever has been. This trade continues to be monopolized by the American Fur Company, who have divided the whole of the Indian country into departments, as follows: Farnham and Davenport have all the country of the Sauk and Fox Indians . . . also the Iowa Indians, who live at or near the [Black] Snake Hills on the Missouri River [St. Joseph].' . . . Mr. Cabanne (of the American Fur Company) has in his division all the Indians on the Missouri as high as a point above the Council Bluffs, in- cluding the Pawnee Indians of the interior, in about a southwest direction from his establishment Mr. Auguste P. Chouteau has within his department all the Indians of the Osage country and others who may visit his establish- ment, such as the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and other Indians. Messrs. Mc- Kenzie, Laidlaw and Lamont have in their limits the Sioux Indians of thes Missouri, and as high up the river as they choose to send or go. The Ameri- can Fur Company brings on their goods annually in the spring season to this city [St. Louis] from New York, which are then sent up the Missouri to the different posts in a small steamboat." At those places the furs are received on board and brought down to St. Louis, where they are opened, counted, weighed, repacked, and shipped by steamboats to New Orleans, thence on board of vessels to New York, where the furs are unpacked, made up into bales, and sent to the best markets in Europe, except some of the finest (particularly otter skins) which are sent to China." "The goods of Mr. A. P. Chouteau are transported by water in keel- boats as high up the Osage River as the water will admit; from thence they are carried in wagons to his establishment in the interior of the country.^ In the spring of the year when the Arkansaw is high Mr. Chouteau sends his furs down that river to New Orleans, from whence thev are shipped to New York. ^Chittenden, III. 926 f. TThls was as late as 1831. Before 1819 there were no steamboats on the Mis.^ourl SIbld., 928 f. —9— "By the time that the Indians have gathered their corn, the traders are prepared with their goods to give them credits. The articles of merchan- dise which the traders take with them to the Indian country are as follows: viz., blankets, 3 points, 2%, 2, IVz, 1; common blue stroud; ditto red; blue cloth; scarlet do; calicoes; domestic cottons; rifles and shot guns, gunpowder, flints, and lead; knives of different kinds; looking-glasses; vermillion and verdigris; copper, brass and tin kettles; beaver and muskrat traps; fine and common bridles and spurs; silver works; needles and thread; wampum; horses; tomahawks and half axes, etc. All traders at the present day give credit to the Indians in the same manner as has been the case for the last sixty or eighty years. That is to say, the articles which are passed on credit are given at very high prices. Formerly, when the opposition and competition in the Indian trade was great, the traders would sell in the spring of the year, payment down, for less than one-half of the prices at which they charged the same articles to the same Indians on credit the preceding autumn. This was sometimes the occasion of broils and quarrels between the traders and the Indians, particularly when the latter made bad hunts. "The following are the prices charged for some articles given on credit to the Sauk and Fox Indians, whose present population exceeds six thousand souls and who are compelled to take goods, etc., of the traders at their very high prices, because they cannot do without them, for if the traders do not supply their necessary wants and enable them to support themselves, they would literally starve. An Indian takes on credit from a trader in the autumn: A 3-point blanket at $10.00 A rifle gun 30.00 A pound of gunpowder 4.00 Total Indian dollars $44.00 The 3-point blanket will cost in England, say, 16 shillings per pair. 1 blanket at 100 per cent is equal to $3.52 A rifle gun costs in this place from $12 to 13.00 A pound of gunpowder .20 $16.72 Add 25 per cent for expenses 4.18 $20.90 Therefore, according to this calculation (which I know is correct), if the Indian pays all his debt, the trader is a gainer of more than 100 per cent. But it must be here observed that the trader takes for a dollar a large buckskin, which may weigh six pounds, or two doeskins, four muskrats, four or five raccoons, or he allows the Indian three dollars for an otterskin, or two dollars a pound for beaver. And in my opinion the dollar which the trader receives of the Indian is not estimated too high at 125 cents, and perhaps in some instances at 150 cents. In the spring the trader lowers his price on all goods, and will sell a 3-point blanket for five dollars, and other articles in proportion as he receives the furs down in payment, and as the Indians always resei've the finest and best furs for the spring trade. In the autumn of every year the trader care- fully avoids giving credit to the Indians on any costly articles, such as silver- works, wampum, scarlet cloth, fine bridles, etc., unless it be to an Indian who he knows will pay all his debts; in which case he will allow the Indian on credit everything he wishes. Traders always prefer giving on credit gun- powder, flints, lead, knives, tomahawks, hoes, domestic cotton, etc., which they —10— do at the rate of 300 or 400 per cent, and if one-fourth of the prices of those articles be paid, he is amply paid. After all the trade is over in the spring it is found that some of the Indians have paid all for which they were credited, others one-half, one-third, one-fourth, and some nothing at all; but taken altogether, the trader has received on an average one-half of the whole amount of Indian dollars for which he gave credit the preceding autumn, and calls it a tolerable business; that is, if the furs bear a good price the trader loses nothing, but if any fall in the price takes place he loses money. "The American Fur Company ought to be satisfied with the Indians, for they have monopolized all the trade, especially at the posts before mentioned. There is a man now in this city who receives annually a sum from that com- pany on condition that he will not enter the Indian country. They have also monopolized the whole trade on the frontiers, together with the Indian an- nuities, and everything an Indian has to sell, yet they claim a large amount for debts due them for non-payment of credits given to the Indians at different periods." "I visited this country as early as April, 1798, and in many conversations I had with the French people of this place, all that they could say on the subject of the Indian trade was that there were many Indian nations in- habiting the country bordering on the Missouri River who were exceedingly cruel to all the white people that went among them." After General Wm. Ashley had some trouble with the Indians, the traders began to employ hunters to secure furs and this prac- tice grew rather than depending on the Indians for them, accord- ing to the original method. As an indication of the extent of fur trading business it may be stated that when the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company consolidated, nine hundred clerks were dismissed.^ In 1762, the Louisiana Fur Company was organized by Maxent,'' Laclede and Company under charter granted by Gov. General D'Abadie for the purpose of trade in fur and minerals. On the third day of November, 1763, a trading expedition under Laclede, with a large stock of merchandise likely to appeal to Indian taste, reached Ste. Genevieve, where a short stop was made ; then continued to Fort de Chartres on the Illinois side before continuing to their original objective point, the mouth of the Missouri. However, after a few weeks' rest at the Illinois post, Laclede, en route, was impressed by "a. bluff on the western shore of the Mississippi at a sweeping curve of the river, on which now stands the city of St. Louis .... and determined to establish here the set- tlement and post he desired."^" Laclede placed the active establishing of this settlement in the hands of a youth, Auguste Chouteau (his stepson), who later be- came a leading merchant and trader of that place. He was the first of the family whose name became associated with this great west. itlbid., 933. lODavis and Durrie's Hist. Mo., 14. —11— This story of merchandising- in early days is told : A "typical Missourian" was hanging about a slave dealer's stall one day when the dealer asked him what he wanted. He replied that he wished to buy a negro. Making a selection from the samples on display, he was told by the slave dealer that the negro was valued at $500.00 but that, "according- to the custom of the country," he could have one year's time in which to pay the bill. But the ques- tion of debt so troubled the Missourian that he exclaimed : "No, No! I would rather pay you Six Hundred right now and be done with it!" Whereupon the slave dealer very obligingly remarked, "Very well, anything to oblige!" thereby relieving his customer's mind and at the same time adding $100 to his own pocket.^^ At the time of the cession Ste. Genevieve was a more im- portant place (it is reasonable to believe) than St. Louis, from a commercial point of view. At this time "the principal St. Louis merchants and traders were Auguste Chouteau, Pierre Chouteau, Manuel Lisa, Labadie, and Sarpy, Glamorgan, McCune & Co., and Messrs. Hortz, Pratte, Gratiot, Tayon, Lacompte, Papin, Cabanne, Alvarez, Lebaume, and Soulard."^- "The merchant of those times, it must be remembered, was a different personage, in all his business relations, from the mer- chant of today.^' His warehouse occupied only a few feet;^* his merchandise usually was stored in a large box or chest, and was only brought to view when a customer appeared. Sugar, coffee, tobacco, blankets, salt, guns, dry goods, etc., were all consigned to the same general receptacle." "Imported luxuries, such as tea, brought enormous prices, be- cause of the length of time involved in mercantile transactions * * * Sugar was $2.00 a pound, and tea could be purchased at the same price; other articles being sold at prices just as high in proportion. Tea was comparatively unknown to the masses." These prices prevailed in St. Louis according to Davis & Durrie probably at the time of the cession of the territory to the United States. It was but a few years until more normal prices prevailed, according to letter, one of a series, owned by the Missouri Valley Historical Society. This letter, dated St. Louis, December 29, 1820, is addressed to Nathaniel Jacobs, Gatskill, N. Y., and is signed by J. Klein. It quotes the following prices : fine flour, five dollars a barrel ; pork and beef, three dollars a hundred; butter, twenty-five cents a pound; lard, ten cents; coffee, thirty-seven and a half cents; red onions, often four dollars a bushel, etc. Also sugar was twelve and lllbid., 34. I21bid., 35. I31bid., 37. l4Brackenridge says his store was usually in his own home. — Nettie T. Grove. —12— a half cents a pound, tea one dollar and sixty cents, and salt from one dollar to one dollar and a half for a bushel of fifty pounds. Scharf in his Historij of St. Louis writes of the old St. Louis merchants as follows :^^ "Its early traders, from the very first, undertook extensive operations and embraced wide areas in their transactions, employing not only capital, but the best men v^^ho could be found. Laclede had his partners in New Orleans, and the. most of his time was spent in establishing trading posts up the Arkansas, the St. Francis, and the Red rivers. The Chouteaus spent years among the Indians, acquiring such a familiarity with their language and manners and customs that they were sought after by the government as Indian agents and interpreters. In addition to the posts which Laclede estab- lished, they had stations on the Osage, the Upper Missouri, the Des Moines, and on Lake Michigan. Vigo traded from St. Louis to Vincennes, thence to Montreal and Detroit, and back again to New Orleans. Gratiot traded to Prairie du Chien and New Orleans, and went to England in the regular routine of business for his partners. Manuel Lisa was an explorer as much as a fur-trader, and he was as ready to fight his rivals and the Indians as to buy their peltries." "Charles Gratiot and Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, indeed, were mer- chants such as sometimes do not appear more than once in a century. The former, for all he did business in Cahokia, and had lawsuits with Sanguinet of St. Louis, was better known in New York and Philadelphia than in the latter town, and better known in Paris, London, and Geneva than on this continent. ... As a business man, Pierre Chouteau is said to have had no rival in the valley of the Mississippi for forty years. The very genius of commerce inspired him, and the plans of this Indian trader, who got his earliest training among the Osages, on the borders of Kansas, reached out wide like the arms of the Mississippi River. . . . Men of this sort ought to have been able to build up their own town, since they built up others when it suited their business. Note this of the founding of New Madrid by Cerre."!'"' Cerre sent two penniless French adventurers down the river to find a suitable place for placing- a trading post. The first point deemed advantageous was a large Delaware Indian town where New Madrid now stands. Mr. Cerre accepted their report, erecting the building and stocking it with a large amount of goods. Some years later the son of one these adventur- ers reports doing $60,000 or $70,000 worth of business annually in furs for Pierre Chouteau at this same trading post.^' "This business it was which established St. Louis at once, gave the town stability, and the leading inhabitants incentives to enterprise and control of wealth. Hunters found regular employment and good pay in the little trading- post town, and they profited by it. The spot, indeed, had been a hunter's paradise from the first, as well as a fur-trader's goal. . . . The hunters went forth from St. Louis to gather furs and peltries for the traders of St. Louis, and from Laclede's day up to 1830 the town was the general rendezvous of hunters and fur traders, and the Montreal of the Mississippi, and the depot iSVol. I, p. 287. isCerre was a St. I»uis Merchant, originaUy from Kaskaskia. nScharf. I, 288. —13— of all the basin of the great rivers emptying into that river betvi^een the Min- nesota and the Rio del Norte" '* "After the demise of this company [The Missouri Fur Company] the Chouteaus, Lisa, and Astor formed an alliance under the name and style of the American Fur Company, the successor of the Missouri and the Rocky Mountain Companies; and when Astor withdrew^, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., became himself the American Fur Company. This company continued the work of the two companies which it had succeeded, opened up and explored the Rocky Mountains and Western waters, and for thirty years held a monopoly of the fur trade south of the vast regions ranged over by the Hudson's Bay Company. The firm did business on a very large scale, and at one time owned and maintained five forts, all built by themselves in the heart of the Indian country — Forts Sarpy, Benton, Union, Pierre, and Berthold. . . ." i'' "This trade was very valuable. The average returns on goods sent out was 100 per cent in peltries, and this by no means represented the actual profits, for the goods were valued at their selling price in St. Louis, not their cost, and the peltries at their currency value in St Louis. But red cloth that might retail at 5s. a yard in St. Louis probably did not cost the companies more than 3s., including freight, interest, and insurance; and on the other hand, beaver worth $2.00 a pound in St. Louis might fetch twice as much in London, and five times as much in Canton." -" It is easily judged, therefore, the per cent of profit upon which the St. Louis merchant builded his fortune. "Brackenridge, in his 'Views of Louisiana,' notes the fact that in 1810 the Indian trade of St. Louis with the Osages alone was worth $30,000, or nearly $6 per capita, the outlay in goods being $20,000 — a profit of 50 per cent measured in furs. With the Cheyennes the trade was expected to yield a profit of 100 per cent, and so also with the Poncas and Arickarees. The trade with the Crows was counted on to return three for one, and that with the Pastanounas fifteen for four. The trade at Arkansas Post with the Chickasaws and Cherokees yielded five for two, and that with the various bands of Sioux four for one." -^ "Fur was the currency of St. Louis from the days of Laclede very nearly until Missouri became a State and the town an incorporated city. Other things were taken in exchange and barter — beeswax, whiskey, potash, maple- sugar, salt, wood, feathers, bear's oil, venison, fish, lead, but fur was the currency and standard of value, the representative of and equivalent to the livres tournois of hard metal. The only small coin consisted of Mexican dol- lars, cut with a chisel into four or five pieces — 'bits.' A pound of shaved deer- skin of good quality represented about twice the value of the livre, and a pound of beaver, otter, and ermine represented so many pounds of deerskin. A 'pack' of skins had a definite weight, and thus trade and computation were both easy. Checks and notes were drawn against them, deposits were made of furs and packs, and on the whole they constituted a much better and more uniform currency than the staple tobacco which was at one time the only circulating medium of Virginia and Maryland. 'Bons' were a species of order or note for goods, redeemable in peltries, which, when signed with the name of any responsible merchant or trader, had full currency in local and general trade. Practically, they were certificates of deposit, but convertible or ex- changeable into any other equivalents in the course of trade and barter. Next isibid. I9lbid., 289. 20lbid. 2llbld. —14— to the peltry, which had a regular currency and pretty near a uniform value from Mackinaw, Detroit, and Prairie du Chien among the French settlements all the way to New Orleans and the Belize, the best medium of certain value, but only of limited circulation, was the 'carot' of tobacco. This article is still prepared in Louisiana by the plantation manufacturers of tobacco, and 'carets' of Terique' may still be seen in all the tobacconists' shops— a solid roll of the shape and appearance of a bologna sausage. These rolls were called 'carots,' from their resemblance to the root of that name, and they were in common use and demand in the early days in Lower and Upper Louisiana from their convenience. All the grown population, male and female, took snuff; each carried his or her snuff-box habitually, and each prepared his snuff and filled his box in the morning. The snuff was not ground as now, but rasped or grated from the end of one of these rolls, and hence their form and solidity was a desideratum. The carots had a definite weight, like the packs of furs, and their usual value was about two livres." -^ "The fixed price was forty cents per pound for finest deerskins, thirty cents for medium, and twenty cents for inferior, and all contracts, unless there was an express stipulation to the contrary, were made in this medium. Spanish coin never affected the fur currency. The Spanish government paid off its officers and troops in hard dollars, but this was a mere drop in the bucket less than twelve thousand dollars a year for St. Louis. Even after the transfer to the United States, peltry continued the controlling currency for a number of years. Judge J. B. C. Lucas made his first purchase of a house for his residence in St. Louis in this currency, buying of Pierre Duchouquette and wife their domicile, for the price of six hundred dollars in peltries. This was December 14, 1807." -'^ These peltries were redeemable in money only at New- Orleans, and as the skins were subject to risk and loss on the way, the merchant sold his goods at a price proportionate to the venture. Everything sold at an enormous price, the result being that a common workman received ten to twelve francs a day.-* Scharf paid this remarkable tribute to Robert Campbell, fur trader and St. Louis merchant. ^^ "Years before, however. Col. Campbell had gained an enviable reputation for great energy of character, rare administrative ability, and dauntless courage, in connection with his fur-trading operations in the Indian country, in conducting which he did as much perhaps as any other single individual to give St. Louis her early fame in the Far West. . . . General Ashley re- tired in 1830, having amassed a fortune, and then Campbell rose from being merely a leader of expeditions to the position of a prominent partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, which was organized upon the withdrawal of Gen. Ashley, the leading spirits in its formation being Robert Campbell and Col. William Sublette. The American Fur Company, represented by Chouteau & Co., was an energetic rival in the field, and the vastness of the operations of these competitors appears from the fact that when, in order to prevent ruinous rivalry on the same ground, a division of the territory was agreed upon, there fell to Mr. Campbell's company all the immense region west and south of a line commencing on the Arkansas River at a point south of the Platte, on the twenty-fourth meridian, up to the forks of the Platte, thence 22lbid., 291. A livre was worth about eig-hteen and a half cents at that time 24lbid. 23Ibid., 292. 25Ibld.. 370 f. •■■..•: —15-^ to the dividing line of the waters emptying into the Platte and the waters emptying into the upper Missouri, thence to the Rocky Mountains, and thence to the forks of the Missouri. . . . John Jacob Astor had a house in St. Louis, and there were also engaged in the trade Gen. Ashley, Campbell, Sub- lette, Manuel Lisa, Capt. Perkins, Hempstead, William Clark, Labadie, the Chouteaus, and Pierre Menard — 'mighty hunters before the Lord' — all of whom either lived in St. Louis or made it their headquarters. . . . Campbell's straightforward and truthful dealings made a similarly happy impression on the Indians. He never deceived or cheated them, as many white men had done, and therefore enjoyed their perfect confidence and friendship." 2« Campbell acquired a large fortune in the fur trade and upon returning to St. Louis engaged in mercantile and other pursuits and became an extensive owner of real estate. One of the first cotton dealers in Missouri Territory was John Mullanphy, of whom Brackenridge has recorded the follow- ing story : Mullanphy speculated largely in cotton, and it was his bales with which Jackson erected a defense at New Orleans. When the owner entered complaint against such use of his property, Jack- son replied — "This is your cotton? Then no one has better a right to de- fend it. Take a musket and stand in the ranks." After peace was declared, Mullanphy dug out his cotton and cleared $1,000,000 on it in the Liverpool market.^' The first record of a trading deal on the site of St. Louis was in the digging of the first cellars in the town. A group of the Missourians were drawn down to the site of the new town in search of aid from the white men, and Auguste Chouteau had the squaws dig the cellars for the houses he was building. Brackenridge says that the squaws were paid in beads and ornaments, but Chouteau's dairy says he gave them Ver- million, awls and verdigris.^* Probably the most noted merchant of the day of American birth was General William Ashley, who emigrated to this terri- tory from Virginia in 1803. He was also one of the most noted of the fur traders and established the trade with Utah in 1824. Early St. Louis is thus described by one author: "When' this territory was ceded in 1804 in St. Louis there were one bakery, two taverns, three blacksmiths, two mills and one doctor. The settlement was well supplied with merchants who held their goods at exorbitant prices. Coffee and sugar each at $2 per pound. . . . Stores of the day were com- monly stored in family homes and were a general assortment from fish hooks to lexicons." -^ 26This Robert Campbell was an uncle of Dr. W. L. Campbell, of Kansas City, who is a member of the Missouri Valley Historical Society. 27Ibid., 188. 28lbid., p. 69. 29Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 35. —16— "No scales were in use in St. Louis prior to 1831. . . . Coal was sold by the bushel or wagon load. And hay by the load — so much for so much." "" Another author writing of the fur trade, shows the great im- portance of this industry to St, Louis : "The average annual value of the furs collected in St. Louis for fifteen successive years (ending 1804) is stated to have been $203,750.00. James Pursley in 1802 was first hunter and trapper, and probably the first American who traversed the great plains between the United States and New Mexico. The Missouri Fur Company with a capital of $40,000.00 was organized in this city (St. Louis) in 1808, and the hunters in its employ were the first who pitched their camps on the waters of the Oregon. That company was dissolved in 1812. Between the years 1824 and 1827 General Ashley and his men sent, to St. Louis furs to the value of $180,000. The annual value of the fur trade for forty years (1804-1847) has averaged from two to three hundred thousandl dollars, and hence an important item in the growth of St. Louis." ''^ Major Amos Stoddard was the American representative in the formal transfer of Upper Louisiana at St. Louis in 1804, and was the first American commandant at that place. He wrote of his impressions of this new country and his book is valuable for its reliable information. He wrote in part: "Agriculture and industry, by which wealth is at first accumulated in new regions, necessarily precedes commerce, and are the foundations of it." '- "Had Indian commerce been wholly prohibited, or confined to a few ex- clusive traders only, and the settlers generally restricted to agriculture, and to the acquisition of raw materials for foreign markets, the power of France in America would have been much more formidable than it was." ''" The following great industrial activities were sources of revenue in early Missouri history: Mining, Indian fur trade, frontier military posts, Mexican trade, outfitting Western expe- ditions. Thirty years later, in 1848, came the California gold rush. Beltrami wrote in 1828: ". . . The trade of St. Louis is prodigiously increased. The merchan- dise it furnishes to the traders with the Indians to the north and west in exchange for furs, which are almost all sent hither — the provisions with which it supplies all the garrisons and new settlements over the whole extent of this vast country — are sources of great profit, as well as of constant employ- ment for all classes" In the first decade of the nineteenth century Auguste Chouteau was the richest man in St. Louis. His tax«s were $87.42, altho the rate of assessment seems to have been only one- half cent on the dollar, and total exemptions on some classes of property.^^ Bartholomew Berthold was called the most finished and accomplished merchant of his day in St. Louis.^' Berthold, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., John Pierre Cabanne and Bernard Pratte 30Ibid., p. 113. SiPerkins's, Annals of the West, pp. 807f. 32Stoddard's, Sketches of Louisiana, p. 293. 33Ibid., p. 295. 34Scharf, I, 193. 35Ibid., 196 fn. —17— became connected with John Jacob Astor as partners in trade, under the name of the American Fur Company. They all made large sums of money.^'' I want to call attention to Hon. Wm. P. Borland's masterful speech in the House of Representatives, May 22nd, 1911, on "Missouri the Mother of Empires," and I urge also that one read and preserve that splendid address of former Governor Herbert S. Hadley before the meeting of the Missouri Valley Historical Society in Kansas City, Missouri, April 19, 1913. No record of the Missouri Merchant One Hundred Years Ago is complete without reference to that great artery of trade, the Sante Fe Trail. The town of Franklin in Howard county was the cradle of the Sante Fe Trail, which was made up so largely of Missouri merchants. This work really began in 1819, and when a yearly record began to be kept of this trade, in 1822, we find that that year the merchandise amounted to 15,000 pounds; m 1828, 150,000 pounds, 100 wagons and 200 men; in 1831, 250,000 pounds, 130 wagons and 320 men; in 1843, 450,000 pounds, 230 wagons and 320 men. The classic authority on the Santa Fe Trail and the trade development is found in the book published in 1844 in New York and London, by Dr. Josiah Gregg, and is said to be the foundation of every work on this subject since its ap- pearance. Senator Benton in his Thirty Yea7^s Vieiv speaks highly of Col. James Magoffin, who was a great merchant and lived at one time at Independence. He aided the United States Government in the Doniphan expedition, and it was through his work and diplomacy with the Mexican authorities that New Mexico became United States territory without the shedding of blood. Benton said that he wished posterity to know the sacrifices made by Magoffin in the interest of his country. The tale of the origin of the Oregon Trail, beginning in 1808 is almost like that of the Santa Fe Trail. They were both the most direct and available routes between trade centers and start- ing from the Missouri River.^^ I will close with an extract from Col. D. C. Allen's paper on "The Bonnet Show at Big Shoal Creek Meeting House, Clay Coun- ty, Missouri." Col. Allen is eighty-three years old and lives at Liberty, Missouri. This paper is recorded in the archives of the Missouri Valley Historical Society. "The beginnings of Liberty (Clay County) were in 1821 and, until after the building of Weston and Platte City, and even somewhat later, was the center of trade and fashion in all the surrounding country north of the Mis- 36Ibid. " 37Wm. E. Connelley, Kansas and Kansans. —18— souri River. In the county it maintained its pre-eminence in a degree until Kansas City assumed importance and trade was attracted thither. Here was the town, one can see, for a period almost the only town in the county, where ladies could purchase fine goods, fashionable bonnets, etc., in the springtime. "The first settlers in Clay County — far back in 1819 and the early twen- ties — could have hauled in their wagons but little beyond absolute necessities. Finery could not have been largely considered. The slow and laborious navi- gation of the Missouri River by keel boats added something, but not much, to the comforts and convenience of the people. "But, after Long's Expedition up the Missouri River in 1819 by steam- boat, its navigation by steam began to develop. By 1826 it assumed something like regularity. Allen's landing three and one-half miles south of Liberty was established in 1825. At once on the beginning of steam navigation of the river, the merchants of Liberty began to purchase for local trade fine goods, bonnets and the like in Philadelphia and their fine groceries in Baltimore. This continued for a number of years. Merchants left Liberty for the East to make their spring and summer purchases early in February. Their purchases began to arrive in Liberty during the latter part of March, or the forepart of April. The stores in Liberty thus became centers of attraction for the ladies, old and young, in Clay and the surrounding country. The spring bonnets! The spring bonnets! It was a race with all the girls for the first pick of the new bonnets. "Mr. W. S. Embree (now in his ninety-sixth year) says the annual bonnet show at the Big Shoal Church was in existence prior to 1835. It could not well have had a beginning until fine goods, above all spring bonnets, could be transported up the Missouri River and displayed in the store of Liberty. The origin, then, of the bonnet show was near 1826. Then, and for many years later, there was no church in Clay County which attracted so many persons to its religious service, particularly on the second Sunday in May, the annual exhibition of the spring bonnet show, as did the Big Shoal Meeting House, the Church of the Primitive Baptists. "During all those years it was the fashionable church of Clay County. The second Sunday in May was its pre-eminent day in the year. Nature, commerce, and social life, here in Clay County were in harmony. The second Sunday in May is in the midst of the most flowery and delightful part of the spring. Nothing could be more natural than that the belles and beaux of all the surrounding country should instinctively flock to the Big Shoal Meeting House at the great annual meeting on the second Sunday in May to see and chat with each other. By that time the ladies, young and old, would have secured their new spring bonnets and dresses. The girls could display their youthful charms to the very best advantage. The side of the church allotted to the ladies would be a mass of colors, topped by a gorgeous array of spring bonnets. Some person of happy thought and good taste, some phrase maker, seeing the gaily attired mass of femininity, conceived and gave expression to the tei-m 'bonnet show.' It took hold firmly in the minds of the people and holds until this day." —19- WALTER B. STEVENS, ST. LOUIS, MO., President, State Historical Society of Missouri. —20— ONE HUNDRED YEARS ON THE MISSOURI RIVER. By WALTER B. STEVENS, President Missouri State Historical Society Read before the Missouri Valley Historical Society at the Pioneer Banquet in honor of the Centennial of Steam Navigation on the Missouri, November 8, 1919. If there were Indians on these Kansas City Bluffs in 1819 they must have had the scare of their lives. The Western Engi- neer crept up the river at the speed of three miles an hour — where the current was not too swift. It was an amazing craft. The like of it has not been seen on the Missouri since. The St. Louis Enquirer described this craft. Thomas H. Benton was one of the chief contributors to the Enquirer, writing news as well as opinions. This account of the Western Engineer is worthy of him: "The bow of this vessel exhibits the form of a huge serpent, black and scaly, rising out of the water from under the boat, his head as high as the deck, darted forward, his mouth open, vom- iting smoke, and apparently carrying the boat on his back. From under the boat, at its stern, issues a stream of foaming water, dashing violently along. All the machinery is hid. Three small brass field pieces mounted on wheel carriages stand on the deck. The boat is ascending the rapid stream at the rate of three miles an hour. Neither winds nor human hands are seen to help her, and, to the eye of ignorance, the illusion is complete that a mon- ster of the deep carries her on his back, smoking with fatigue and lashing the waves with violent exertion. Her equipments are at once calculated to attract and awe the savages, objects pleasing and terrifying are at once placed before him — artillery, the flag of the Republic, portraits of the white man and the Indian shaking hands, the calumet of peace, a sword, then the apparent monster with a painted vessel on his back, the sides gaping with portholes and bristling with guns. Taken altogether, and without intelligence of her composition and design, it would require a daring savage to approach and accost her with Ham- let's speech : 'Be thou a spirit of wrath or goblin damned.' " One of the aboriginal Missourians, after he stopped run- ning, is said to have passed this judgment on the Western En- gineer : "White man, bad man; keep great spirit chained and build fire under it to make it work a boat." But the Western Engineer accomplished its purpose. The tribes, far and wide, were awestruck. Major Stephen H. Long —21— and his corps of scientific men, including a botanist, a geologist, a zoologist, a naturalist, a painter and topographers, were able to complete their official exploration for the United States Gov- ernment without Indian interference. They went up the Mis- souri to the vicinity of what is now Omaha and, dividing into parties, traveled westward to the Rocky Mountains and circled around until they came out at Fort Smith. They made an elab- orate report. On the basis of the conclusions of the party the government spread over the map from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains the words "Great American Desert." And those words remained there for nearly forty years. Not until 1854 did the government take steps to open Kansas to settlement. Some of us remember those capital letters in a great semi-circle, ex- tending from Texas northward, on our school map. Major Long wrote in his report: "In regard to this extensive section of country we do not hesitate in giving the opinion, that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fer- tile land considerably extensive are occasionally to be met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will prove an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. This objection rests not only against the immediate section under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to a very much larger portion of the country." And then Major Long applied his desert theory to parts of Texas and the Dakotas: "Agreeably to the best intelligence that can be had, concern- ing the country northward and southward of the section, and especially to the references deducible from the account given by Lewis and Clark of the country situated between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, above the river Platte, the vast region, commencing near the sources of the Sabine, Trinity, Brazos and Colorado, extending northwardly to the forty-ninth degree north latitude, by which the United States is limited in that direction, is throughout of a similar character. The whole of this region seems peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes, wild goats, and other wild game, incalculable multitudes of which find ample pasturage and subsistence upon it." Major Long found reason to congratulate the government that this Great American Desert was where, according to his observation, it was: "This region, however, viewed as a frontier, may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inasmuch as it is cal- —22— culated to serve as a barrier to prevent too great an extension of our population westward, and secure us against the machina- tions or incursions of an enemy that might otherwise be disposed to annoy us in that quarter." Long, it may be added, was an officer of the engineer corps of high attainments. The first steamboat reached St. Louis in 1817. That was the Zebulon M. Pike. It was a very primitive affair. The hull was built like a barge. The power was a low pressure engine, with a walking beam. The wheels had no wheel houses. The boat had but one smokestack. Where the current was rapid the crew used poles to help out the steam power. The Pike ran only by daylight. The trip from Louisville to St. Louis and return required four weeks. One account of it gives the time as six weeks. The General Pike was such an object of curiosity that Captain Jacob Reed charged the St. Louisans who wished to come on board a dollar apiece. The admission was not prohibitive. Several times the boat became so crowded that the captain stopped receiving and waited for those on the deck to go ashore. The mention of the coming and going of the Pike was made very briefly by the Missouri Gazette. The year after the coming of the Pike, some Ohio River men built a steamboat they called the St. Louis and sent her around to that port. Captain Hewes invited a number of lead- ing citizens to take a ride up to the mouth of Missouri. The Gazette in its next issue reported that "the company on board was large and genteel and the entertainment very elegant." One thing that affected the early interest in St. Louis in steamboating was the general doubt about steam navigation of the Missouri. The Pike had made three and three-quarter miles against the Ohio current. If that was the best the steam engine afloat could do, the motive power would not succeed on the er- ratic, boiling waters of the Missouri. About the first of May, 1819, the Maid of Orleans came into port at St. Louis. She had steamed from Philadelphia to New Orleans and then up the Mississippi to St. Louis. That same month the Independence left St. Louis and went up the Missis- sippi and the Missouri as far as Franklin, near Boonville. She was thirteen days on the way, but she did it, and unloaded her cargo of flour, whiskey, sugar, iron castings. Then, indeed, the town of Laclede sat up and marveled. Colonel Charless, the first Missouri editor, acknowledged his skepticism and glorified the new era of steam navigation. He published in the Gazette this congratulation : —23— « o S CO M -24- "In 1817, less than two years ago, the first steamboat ar- rived in St. Louis. We hailed it as the day of small things, but the glorious consummation of all our wishes is daily arriving. Who would or could have dared to conjecture that in 1819 we would have witnessed the arrival of a steamboat from Phila- delphia or New York? Yet such is the fact. The Mississippi has become familiar to this great American invention and an- other new avenue is open." A month later, when the Independence had returned from the first navigation of the Missouri by steam, the Gazette said: "This trip forms a proud event in the history of Missouri. The Missouri has hitherto resisted almost effectually all attempts at navigation. She has opposed every obstacle she could to the tide of emigration which was rolling up her banks and dispos- sessing her dear red children, but her white children, although children by adoption, have become so numerous and are increas- ing so rapidly that she is at last obliged to yield them her favor. The first attempt to ascend her by steam has succeeded, and we anticipate the day as speedy when the Missouri will be as fa- miliar to steamboats as the Mississippi or Ohio. Captain Nelson merits and will receive deserved credit for his enterprise and public spirit in this undertaking." > Only second to the Western Engineer in marvelous concep- tion was the Nat-wye-thium. There was a fleet of the Nat-wye- thiums. This wonderful craft was designed to travel on both land and water. It had wheels. The body was shaped partly like a canoe, partly like a gondola. The inventor was Captain Nathaniel Wyeth Jarvis, a Harvard man. As early as 1830 there were Boston people who felt competent to take care of the rest of the world. Headed by Hall J. Kelly, they organized the "American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of Oregon Territory," thereby intending to forestall territorial aggression by their British brethren across the water. Two Wyeths were among the earliest converts to the propaganda. Thej^ got up a company and sailed or rolled into Missouri \vith their fleet of boats on wheels. Each man had a bayonet and a small ax in the belt of his coarse woolen suit. The boat wagons were loaded with axes, glass beads, looking-glasses and other notions to be exchanged for immense quantities of furs. The plan was to exchange the Yankee notions for enough furs to load a ship when they reached Oregon, and then sail home by the ocean route. The Missourians were kind to the Harvard tenderfeet, explained the fur trade to them and permitted those who wished to go on to accompany one of the regular fur trading expeditions. The Nat- —25— wye-thiums were discarded, before the party left Missouri. John B. Wyeth, brother of Nat., was one who turned back. He wrote a journal in which he told of the mistakes made and said some of the members, the flower of Boston and Cambridge, were so hard up they had to work their way back by helping to "wood up" to pay for steamboat deck passage. His journal was pub- lished as a warning to other Harvard men. The vessel, which was to have loaded with furs, was shipwrecked. In his journal John B. Wyeth told about a craft which was as astonishing to the Massachusetts party as the Nat-wye-thium was to the Missourians. This was the bull boat, built to carry- loads of pelts down the Missouri to St. Louis at the time when buffalo and deerskins by the ten thousands were counted in the season's catch of the fur traders. Wyeth said : "They first cut a number of willows, which grow everywhere near the banks of all the rivers we had traveled by from St. Louis, of about an inch and a half diameter at the butt end, and fixed them on the ground at proper distances from each other; and as they approached nearer one end they brought them nearer together, so as to form something like the bow. The ends of the whole were brought and bound firmly together, like the ribs of a great basket. And then they took other twigs of willow and wove them into those stuck in the ground, so as to make a sort of firm, huge basket of twelve or fourteen feet long. After this was completed, they sewed together a number of buffalo skins, and with them covered the whole. After the different parts had been trimmed off smooth, a slow fire was made under the bull boat, taking care to dry the skins moderately, and, as they grad- ually dried and acquired a due degree of warmth, they rubbed buffalo tallow all over the outside, so as to allow it to enter into all the seams of the boat, now no longer a willow basket. As the melted tallow ran down into every seam, hole and crevice, it cooled into a firm body, capable of resisting the water, and bearing a considerable blow without damaging it. Then the wil- low-ribbed, buffalo-skin, tallowed vehicle was carefully pulled up from the ground, and, behold, a boat capable of transporting man, horse and goods over a pretty strong current. At the sight of it we Yankees all burst out into a loud laugh, whether from surprise or pleasure, I know not. It certainly was not from ridicule ; for we all acknowledged the contrivance would have done credit to old New England." While steamboating was in the experimental period Mis- sourians navigated their rivers with longhorns, pirogues and keelboats. Cottonwood logs, trimmed and lashed together and —26— floored, made flats that carried great quantities of produce to market. Two enterprising young men in Cox's Bottom, Saline County, 1820, were Henry Nave and James Sappington. They built a longhorn, loaded it with cured hog meat and some other truck and floated down the Missouri and Mississippi to St. Louis, only to find that the market was overstocked. Cutting loose they floated on down to Herculaneum in Jefferson County, the ship- ping point of the Missouri lead mines. They sold out and walked back to Cox's Bottom. A son of Henry Nave founded one of the great wholesale houses of Missouri. Longhorns were built for one trip. They were not designed to be brought back up stream. But the pirogue was a freight boat or barge built to last. It was from thirty-five to sixty feet long with a depth of from twelve to fifteen feet, having capacity Oif thirty or forty tons. The freight rate was a cent a pound for short distances; fifteen cents a pound from St. Louis to Fort Benton. A crew was required to keep the pirogue moving, some- times with a long rope, called a cordelle, more often with oars, and, when the water was shallow, with poles. A short stub mast and a square sail helped when the wind favored, Henry M. Brackenridge, the first traveling newspaper cor- respondent of Missouri, made the trip up river by pirogue. That craft carried twenty men. The time was 1811. In that part of his journal written about the time passing the mouth of the Kaw, Brackenridge said : "We had now come 300 miles upon our voyage; and for the last hundred had seen no settlement or met anyone except a few traders or hunters who passed us in canoes. With the exception of a few spots, where the ravages oi fire had destroyed the woods, we passed through a continued forest presenting the most dreary aspect." Speaking of the departure from Fort Osage, Brackenridge wrote : "We have now passed the last settlement of whites and prob- ably will not revisit them for several months. This reflection seemed to have taken possession of the minds of all. Our men were kept fromi thinking too deeply by their songs and the splashing of bars which kept time with them. Manuel Lisa, himself, seized the helm and gave the song, and at the close of each stanza, made the woods ring with his shouts of encouragement. The whole was intermixed with short and pithy addresses to their fears, their hopes or their ambition. 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' >6 7 8 9 K>i n S2. 7S "^ ' ■79 w 4 3 2 "i rt ft 4>0 Y m 7 e 9 •■■^ '■ ;f 4 J 2 '; ' - JT?i f^ r^ Up r J6 7 8 9 ■' ;» 1 a /r? sr/?£-£-7-s -. 75 •fT) s*- 4- 3 2 1 < 1 V(? «"(? iO bO !* 7 8 9 l<^ '7) •■ 9 n ■' i^ 4 J 2 1 " » n ' i'f 'b 7 8 9 "* ire - ■• » ?;7 - • 5fe 4 ■3 2 l< S^'^ i» >6 7 s 9 'i » m. ■^ 60 f- r yv^ 55 - ?a >r 4 J z fir *t/ l" 7 e 9 Id rt ■■ - if» ■ic '■ 55 'f 4 3 K '? Tr? W fi? *a 7 8 9 n; •■ T i» \s 4 3 2 iS « ». VTP i-o !7> 96 7 s 9 '« »T? ' W »T "^ •' " :JJ 4 3 2 *■» '' iS it 7 6 e '<» n . ££ SrRSBTs^- Laid down by scale of 150 feet to an inch and with reference to the true meridian, The magnetic variation being considered as 11° 15' east. —71— state of Missouri, ] \ ss. County of Jackson, J Be it remembered on this 4th day of June, in the year of our Lord 1836, before me Samuel C. Owens, Clerk of the Circuit Court within and for the County aforesaid, came Archibald Gamble, who is personally known to me to be the person whose name is subscribed to the above Town Plat, and ack- nowledged himself to be the proprietor of the Town of which the above is a plat and acknowledged the same to be his act and deed for the purposes there- in mentioned. In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto affixed the seal of said Court at office at Independence, this 4th day of June, 1836. SAMUEL C. OWENS, Clerk. (Seal) JOHN R. SWEARINGEN, D. C. The above plat to the Town of Sibley was laid out by the undersigned proprietor in the year 1836 and I acknowledged this plat filed in Recorder's Office, to be my act and at the same time I do reserve to myself and my heirs or assigns the right of Ferry to and from said Town within the limits thereof. Independence, June 4th, 1836. ARCHIBALD GAMBLE. The following letter justifies Sibley's request that the town with which he was so closely connected for so many years be named for him: Lindenwood, April 11th, 1838. My dear Sir. Yours of the 7th came to hand on Saturday evening — this is Monday morning — I am much gratified to learn that your trip to the "upper country" was attended with results so favorable ; for altho' I could entertain n^ rpa- sonable fear, yet considering the temper of the times, and the general obliquity of the Public agents, I confess that I was so urjr'easonable as to feel somewhat doubtful whether Right or Justice might not be denied you upon some pre- tense or other — Ryland I was sure would under all circumstances act cor- rectly in his office: and I thought it most probable that his coadjutor would do so also, provided you had the good fortune to approach him in exactly the right way — Well, the result proves either your good Inck or your discreet man- agement, perhaps a little of both — And now Sir you are in possession of the very best Town Site on the Missouri River — the natural point of Depot for the finest part of the State — and you have determined upon information rec'd & your own personal observation, to lay off a Town forthwith, & to offer Lots therein for Sale in next June or July — It is doubtless the best plan to push forward this thing as fast as possible — while the public appetite craves this kind of food, let it be supplied. I think you may count on selling off half the lots for good prices in June; which will, if I be not mightily mistaken, secure such an interest for the Town, as will promote its rapid growth; and thereby enable you to reap a rich harvest at your leisure from the residue — Having de- termined thus to proceed, you ought undoubtedly to let (illegible) Public know your determination immediately thro' many channels — 'By going "right straight ahead," promptly and resolutely, you will bear down all opposition effectually, and make it the interest of those inclined to oppose you, to pro- mote your views — By Such a course, you force all opposition out of its owti channels into yours — So it is clearly your policy Sir, to "push on" — "go ahead" — "Strike while the Iron is hot" — "jump while the Maggot bites" &.. And may ever Success attend you is my Sincere and earnest wish. But you Seem to be at a loss for a Name for your bantling, & ask me for my "views on the matter" — You remember that I did in my preliminary Memo, to you in January la&t, half stipulate, that the ToAvn Should bear a Name, composed of characters that are used to set forth my own cognomina- tion — If there be no cogent objections to this word, I would again express my own wish that it be adopted — The word, is short, plain, sightly & sonorous — not at all identified with popular or unpopular man, parties, or Associations — tho' it is the appellation of him who cut the first Tree, and as a Public Servant, dwelt nearly Twenty years on the Spot — Whenever I —72— have thought of this same Town project, within the last 12 years, my mind has been fully fixed and decided as to the Na7)ie. It should be either that of its original founder, or else that of my aboriginal friends^. It should be either "Sibley" or "Osage." And so it should now be, if I had the right to decide — In either case, whichever of the two is adopted, there Seems to me to be a peculiar fitness that the Public mind would readily understand and appreciate, and heartily acquiesce in — You may call it Weakness or Vanity or folly, or what you please, for 7ue, circumstanced as I am, and expect to remain, while on earth, (in a nutshell) to be thus Solicitous on this point. But it strikes my mind, that I may present this suggestion without jivstly incurring any Such censure — There are very many of the incidents of my life that afford me ample apologies, & reasons for wishing the remembrance of my Public Services and Associations at Ft. Osage to be stamped on the very spot that witnessed them for so many years. It cannot be disputed, that there is a moral right, a just obligation involved in this pretension. I will not condescend to compare it with those on which the designations of many of our counties are founded. Thus have I frankly replied to you on this point and I am sure you will rightly interpret what I have said; that it is not so much from weakened, vanity or folly as from a Source of Justice, while surely there is not the least indelicacy or impropriety in my urging, being personally concerned — This is not by any means a sturdy, Bentonian demand for a complimeyit , I care not a rush for compliments — But I should never have preferred this pretension to any other person than yourself. Please to understand me clearly — that so far as I am allowed any right in this matter, I prefer thr. word "Sibley" first, and next to that "Osage." They are in themselves both good enough words, and are both naturally associated with the Spot designated, its past history &c. — You also desire me to draft for you for you a Suitable advertisement &. — Not being at all accustomed to write Such things, it is probable that I shall perform it clumsily — but as I make it a rule to try to do whatever you ask of me, I shall annex, hereunto. Such a form as I believe to be consistent with the well known facts of the case — I have read with utter amazement The "Marion City"^ puff — why Sir it eclipses far away, Uncle Bobby's ne plus ultra. But this no Joke. Very large sums of money have been Secured to the projector of this new City — and I very much fear, that the very popular name of "Marion College" (popular in eastern cities) has been so associated Avith "Marion City" (doubtless not by design) as that a reaction may take place fatal to both the College and City — I have never yet been satisfied of the feasibility even of the College plan — If this City speculation is to be in any way hooked to the College, or if it should be suspected so to be, I have no hesitation in Saying that both must eventually fail. Why Sir the Western Public are incapable of comprehending such grand schemes; we Stand off in Wonder, and ivait the result, dare not touch, and cannot cooperate, and what can be expected without the Public approbation — all well here Yrs — ever truly G. C. SIBLEY. Arch' Gamble Esq. St. Louis lA town and school founded by eastern money near Pa'nyra a few years before this letter was written. LIFE AT THE FORT IN EARLY DAYS. Previous to the time of the estabhshment of Fort Osage on the Missouri River the sole inhabitants of this vast territory were the Indians, who were much dreaded by the early settlers. In order that they might be brought into some sort of subjugation Major Geo. C. Sibley Mary Easton Sibley and allegiance to the Colonial Government and the fertile valley of the Missouri made safe for settlement, Gen. William Clark, a Vir- ginian by birth, and a younger brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark, selected George C. Sibley of St. Louis, Mo., to establish and maintain a trading station and fort, which he named Fort Clark. This must not be confounded with the Fort Clark established among the Mandan Indians of the Dakota Territory. Col. Thomas Hunt had been selected to do this work, but being physically unable to attempt the task he was obliged to delegate it to Sibley. The place chosen for the fort was on the Missouri River near where the town of of Old Sibley now stands and thither the different tribes were asked to assemble ; after it had been explained to them that the spot selected was in every way superior to the camping grounds then occupied by them, they soon complied with the request and gradually moved from the different parts of the territory to this central location. Here was established what was then the most western military post on the continent and here in 1808 a treaty was entered into whereby the three tribes of the Osage Indians — Little Osage, Great Osage and Arkansas Osage — relinquished title to more than 200 miles square of land lying in Missouri and Arkan- sas. Although these tribes claimed vast tracts of territory in this vicinity their villages were situated on the Upper Osage and Ar- kansas Rivers. On September 4th the conditional treaty of conveyance was signed and on November 8th, 1808, Peter Choteau, under instruc- tions of Gov. Lewis entered into the final treaty, the compensation -74— for this vast domain being some $25,000 in merchandise taken from the Indian fund. These forts and storehouses were built for the accommodation of the traders and their customers, the Indians. Here rich furs and peltries were brought once a year to be ex- changed for necessary supplies. The name of the fort or factory was changed to Osage. It was also known as Fire Prairie. There is a legend that this name came from the fact that several Indians at one time lost their lives in a fire that occurred near that point. Fire Prairie Creek, which enters the Missouri a few miles east of the fort, probably received its name in the same way. Gov. Lewis endeavored to have these tribes settle in what is now Jackson County for purposes of convenience and safety. He was partly successful in this, but they were continually breaking camp and returning to their old hunting grounds and engaging in bloody battles with their hereditary enemies — the Sacs, lowas and Winnebagos. The first one of which we have record occurred in April, 1812, at which time the Osages suffered bitter reverses and many of their number were slaughtered and much of their goods stolen. Some of the men connected with this historic fort have been lauded in poetry and song. Capt. Bonneville has been immortalized by Washington Irving; he was the first of these early traders to employ wagons for transporting his goods across the prairies — hitherto pack horses and mules had been used. Captain Bonne- ville's expedition was privately financed. He had enlisted a party of 110 white men and Indians, most of whom had previously visited the Indian country, some of them were experienced hunters and trappers. They started for Fort Osage in May 1832 — the Rocky Mountains being their objective point. The post was evacuated in 1813 but the village of Sibley, which had grown up around the fort, remained and served as a starting point for the traders and trappers who were westward bound. The site of the fort is now in the heart of the little village of Old Sibley and nothing remains to show that this was the spot once occupied by the historic United States Fort and Indian trading post, and the meeting place of sev- eral of the most noted of the early Indian tribes. Among those officiating at this fort are found the names of Capt. Eli B. Clemson of Pennsylvania, first lieutenant of First in- fantry in 1789, was cominiissioned a captain in March, 1804, and military commander at Fort Osage, 1808-1812, major in the war of 1812. Fort Clemson, near Loutre Island, St. Charles County, was built during the war of 1812 and named in his honor. He died in 1845. Lieut. John Brownson enlisted in the United States AiTny in 1804, served in war of 1812 and then retired; Ensign Lewis Bissel was stationed at Fort Osage 1808-1812, and Jonathan Cool, sur- geon's mate — all of the United States Infantry. The following notes on the Bissell family are found: Capt. Lewis Bissell, Connecticut, ensign in 1808 and resigned in 1817, son of Maj. Russell Bissell, died 1868 at Bissell's Point, St. Louis. A Daniel Bissell of Vermont was first lieutenant, 1799-1800. A Dan- iel Bissell became a brigadier-general, born 1768, died Dec. 14, 1833 ; he built Bellefontaine and Jefferson Barracks. Also a Rus- sell and a Hezekiah Bissell, who were brothers. Maj. Russell — 75 — Bissell, born in 1755, one of seven brothers who took part in War of Revolution. Commandant at Bellefontaine, where he died in 1807 and was buried. Gen. George Rogers Clark was prominently connected with the history of this quarter. He it was who had earlier been com- missioned to conduct an expedition of Virginia Militia against the British at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, which resulted favorably for the Colonial settlers and gained for them a period of peace and comparative safety. These expeditions sent out by order of Gov. Patrick Henry of Virginia resulted in annexing to that colony vast sections of western territory. For further extending their trade enterprises President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 selected Capt. William Clark, a younger brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark, and Merriwether Lewis to take charge of an expedition to the great unknown Northwestern country. The story of their jour- neyings and marvelous discoveries is too well known to need repe- tition here. Merriwether Lewis, mentioned above, was made pri- vate secretary to President Jefferson, was fifth in descent from Gen. Robert Lewis of Bracan Wales, who came to America in 1635 ; his son, John, was next in line; then came Col. Robert Lewis of "Beloit"; his son, Capt. William Lewis, married Lucy Merriwether; they were the parents of Merriwether Lewis, who was born August 18, 1774, and died October 11, 1809. The name of Clark is a household word from the Missouri to the Western Seacoast. His appointment as governor of the Louis- iana Territory in 1812 was a fortunate one for the section of the country now known as Missouri. He has left his imprint on the annals of those times and much of the advancement that came to this region until it was admitted into the Union as a State in 1821 may be attributed to the rule of this dauntless pioneer and ex- plorer. The country in the vicinity of Fort Osage was beautiful be- yond description. A peculiar blue haze in the atmosphere gave rise no doubt to the sobriquet "The Blue Country," given to this section of the Missouri River Valley long before the time of its settlement by the white man. The name has still clung to many of the smaller streams. Big Blue and Little Blue. Then we have Blue Springs, Blue Township, Blue Ridge Highway, testifying to the poetic nature of the Redman and his powers of expressing the same. The valleys and slopes were covered with a w^onderful growth of prairie grass and the hills were adorned with elm, hickory, Cot- tonwood, ash and mulberry trees ; before the hand of man defaced its beauty it appeared a veritable Paradise where almost every plant, shrub and tree known to a temperate climate were to be found; also nut trees and berry vines were to be found in abund- ance. To the heart of this beautiful country came Maj. George Champlin Sibley on one of his many excursions of discovery. He found the spot that later was to be chosen for the famous trading post and fortification known as Fort Osage, situated 300 miles up the Missouri River from its mouth ; Sibley traveled hundreds of miles in various directions, visited the camps of many different tribes of Indians, among them the Pawnees; discovered some famous salt springs heretofore unvisited by any save the Indian —76— tribes. He found the land well watered; oak, elm, hickory, black walnut and cottonwood trees were plentiful ; deer, elk and some antelope were found ; also quarries of plaster of paris in the vicinity of Bluewater Creek. He visited the Konsee (Kansas) village, some 65 miles north of the fort. The chief of the tribe, with some one hundred of his warriors, came out on horseback to greet him. The fording of the river caused some damage to their gaudy attire. Major Sibley's party consisted of fifteen besides himself and his servant and two intei^preters ; there were eleven Osage Indians, one of these being his faithful friend, Chief Sans Oreille, to whose advice and protection much of the success of his undertakings were attributable. The chief of the Konsees con- ducted the visitors to his own house, which was adorned v/ith handsome flags; the Stars and Stripes were displayed in different parts of the village, which was situated on the Kansas River, about 100 miles by the river's course above its junction with the Mis- souri, The town contained 128 houses or lodges constructed of stout poles and saplings covered with skins and bark. An opening was left in the roof for the escape of the smoke from the fire; sometimes as many as one hundred persons occupied one lodge — - each family had its own fireplace. A garden plot furnished a sup- ply of beans, corn, watermelons, muskmelons and pumpkins. Their horses and mules depended on the grazing facilities of the sur- rounding prairies. The Indians were connoisseurs in the matter of choosing their mounts, many of their horses were strong of limb and fleet of foot and trained to great endurance, horse racing be- ing one of their favorite pastimes. The selection of Sibley, when only 26 years old, for so respon- sible a position might have been unfortunate ; on the contrary, his high qualities of heart and mind well fitted him for dealing with alien people on this extreme Western frontier. He was born in Massachusetts in 1782, a son of Dr. John Sibley, who served as surgeon in the Revolutionary War. George Sibley accompanied the troops when they went out in 1807 to establish Fort Osage. Later he married Mary, daughter of Honorable Rufus Easton, who had been sent to St. Louis in 1803 to investigate the Burr-Wilkinson conspiracy. He was the most distinguished of that town's original American representatives, served as its first postmaster, was an attorney general; served as territorial judge under President Jef- ferson, and represented the Territory of Missouri in Congress. He had seven daughters and two sons. The town of Alton, 111., was named for the eldest son, the other being Gen. Langdon Easton. His daughter Louise became the wife of Judge Archibald Gamble, a brother of Hamilton Rowan Gamble — the war governor of Mis- souri. The Easton home at St. Charles, which was the capitol of the State from 1820 to 1826, was a commodious one for the time. Many noted travelers were entertained beneath its hospitable roof. Sibley was commissioned by John Quincy Adams March 3, 1825, with Benjamin Reeves of Howard County and Thomas Mather of Illinois, to mark out a road from the Western frontier of Missouri to Mexico. This is known as the Santa Pe Trail, Thomas H. Ben- ton having secured an appropriation of $10,000 for this purpose from the Eighteenth Congress (1824-5). On the 5th of August, —77— pq W -78- 1820, he (Sibley) was appointed postmaster at For!: Osage by Gen. Return J. Meigs, Jr. This was the first such appointment in what was then Cooper County. In addition to his duties as factor, Sibley was appointed Indian agent for the Six Mile District by Gen. William Clark in 1810. Mary Easton was born in Baltimore in 1800 and was married to George C. Sibley in 1815, while the fort was at Arrow Rock, a town still in existence on the Saline County border of the Mis- souri. Their wedding journey from St. Charles to the fort took about a month, their conveyance being a rude keel boat. It also carried their furniture, one piece being a piano, the first one ever seen west of the Missouri River. They called their house near the fort "Fountain Cottage." Here many people of note on their way to the still more distant West were welcomed for a brief stay, among them being Henry Brackenridge, Audubon, John Brad- bury, Prince Maximilian and many others of more or less distinc- tion. "Maximilian, a Prussian naturalist. Prince of Neuwied, arrived in Boston on his second exploration tour of the New World the 4th of July, 1832. He w'as accompanied by Charles Bodmer, a distin- guished Swiss artist, whose drawings illustrate his travels. He^ left St. Louis April 10, 1833, having received permission to travel by way of one of the American Fur Trading Company's boats, the -'Yellowstone,' that was starting up for the head waters of the Mis- souri in the interests of that company. There were one hundred persons in the company. At St. Charles the party was joined by Maj. John Dougherty (well known today in this community), who in his time served as Indian agent to the Pawnees, Otoes and lowas. On the 18th of April the boat arrived at Fort Osage. Of this historic point Maximilian says: 'The ridge on which it was situated is free from wood and cultivated and the last posts and beams were taken away by the people of the neighborhood.' (He also mentions 'Webb's Warehouse' as established near Fire Prai- rie.) This part of the country was the chief abode of the Osages. The whole tract from the Osage River, thro' which we have passed was formerly theirs, but they sold a part of it to the United States and they are now entirely forced back into the prairies of Arkan- sas." His collection of Mammalia is now in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. Mary Sibley possessed an unusually strong character and her sterling worth and high ideals of life carried her through many trying ordeals. Through her great desire to be of use to hunipnity the Lindenwood School was established at St. Charles in 1827 by Major and Mrs. Sibley, after the fort was discontinued and their services there no longer needed. Here they spent the last years of their lives. Major Sibley dying near St. Charles, January 31, 1863. When George C. Sibley came to Fort Osage with Capt. Eli B. Clemson he brought a stock of goods with him with which to sup- lEarly Western Travels; Thwaite's ed., Vol. 22. 2"The 'Yellowstone' was burnt 1 June, 1835, near Bismarck, N. Dakota, (at this time,) a large cargo of furs was lost, a whole year's accumulation as well as the large collections of Maximilian.'' —79— ply the needs of the Indians. He was a man of pleasing personality and industrious habits. He accumulated considerable property within the limits of what is now Jackson County. When the State Legislature met in January, 1827, three Jack- son County judges were named — Abraham McClelland, Richard Frisbie and Henry Burns. The first county meeting, in 1827, authorized the establishment of Fort Osage Township. The town of Sibley was founded in 1836. The new town flourished from the first until in 1855 it con- tained over one thousand inhabitants, then it began to decline. Today its appearance has quite materially changed. The old fort has entirely disappeared. Only a few scattering houses and a large cornfield mark the site of the old town and fort. The gradual change in the current of the river has carried the shore line several hundred feet eastward toward New Sibley, which is one of the sta- tions on the Santa Fe Railroad. The Daughters of the Revolution have placed a Santa Fe Trail marker just outside the old cemetery, overlooking the bluff. In the eastern portion of the old burying ground are seen the graves of nearly one hundred soldiers, but there is nothing to show their names or the exact location of their graves.^ Social life in the early days centered around the Brick Union Church, which stood just southeast of the fort. Here people for miles around came on the Sabbath to listen to the sermon of course, and to discuss the news of the day with their friends and neigh- bors. Here invitations were circulated to weddings, barn rais^'ngs, quilting bees, missionary meetings and family gatherings of all kinds. The women exchanged cooking recipes and embroidery and crochet designs, and talked over other household topics, while the men on the other side of the church discussed the affairs of the Nation and predicted the probable results of the next election. These all day basket meetings were well attended and strengthened the bonds of a lifelong friendship between these early pioneers, the like of which is seldom experienced in these later and so-called more prosperous days. The business section of the town was located on the low ground near the river, where shipping was the chief activity. Sev- eral large warehouses were built for the storing of tobacco, hemp, bacon and grain intended for trade with the river towns. Among the names of the first property owners we find those of Michael S. Corre, Thomas G. Settle, Albert Cushing, Josiah Spaulding and George Coltier. Doctor Murray is mentioned as having once lived at the fort, also Isaac Rawlins. There is to be found in the archives of the War Department a letter from Rawlins to George C. Sibley, written from Maryland about 1815, in which he speaks of their experiences at Fort Osage. Here Captain Garrison and Mr. William Hughes operated a general store. Zenas Leonard and Joseph Harrelson also owned one of the larger stores, one of their clerks being John F. Richards, who lived with Zenas Leonard. He iThe following- was copied from headstones In the old cemetery: "Isabel B. Harrelson. wife of Zenas Leonard, d. Aug. 11. 1851." "Martha Harrelson Leonard, b. 1839 — d. 1857." "Jeremiah Harrelson. d. Oct. 7, 1839 (grandfather of W. C. H.)." Zachariah Womas. d. Jan. 1, 1851." "Geo. H. Locke, d. March 10, 1848." "(Samuel Kinney, d. May 13, 1855." —80— married his employer's daughter, Martha Harrelson. Later they moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where she died. Colonel Richards is now president of a large wholesale concern in Kansas City. He is not at all backward about referring to his early experiences in Sibley. His pay check for the first year's services with Leonard and Harrelson amounted to only a little over three hundred dollars. Abraham McClelland's farm was about a mile from the fort. He served as a judge of the first Court of Jackson County, also as State Treasurer, 1838-1843. His sister Annise married Rev. Sam- uel Carrack. Their daughter, Barbara, married Joseph A. Harrel- son and their son, William C. Harrelson, was born at Silbley, Oct. 7, 1839. He married Sally, a daughter of Dr. William Miller. William C. Harrelson spent most of his life on the old farm in the Six Mile District near Sibley. He served in the Confederate army during the entire period of the Civil War and is now Brigadier- General of the Western Brigade of the Missouri Division of the Confederate Veterans. He recalls many incidents of pioneer days and is our authority for the items herein recorded regarding the old settlers of Fort Osage Township. Samuel W. Hudson's farm is located one mile south of Sibley. He served as judge of Jackson County for two years. He was an orderly in the company commanded by Elijah Chiles in the Civil War ; he was at the battle of Lone Jack ; he married Emma, daugh- ter of Newton Walker. James H. Audrain lived for some time near Fort Osage, as early as 1811. He married a daughter of Gov. Samuel Welles of Kentucky in 1806. They moved to the Six Mile District near Fort Osage in 1810. Here he engaged in business with his brother, Francois. William Hudspeth helped to organize the first school in Sibley. His son, Thomas Jefferson, settled on a farm near by, and Thomas' son, Thomas Benton Hudspeth — born 1849 — married Martha Scott, daughter of Newton Scott and granddaughter of Gen. Winfield Scott. They are living on the old farm place near Sibley. Jonathan Colcord was another early settler who came to Fort Osage from Virginia. His daughter, Ida, married John Spotts- wood Brown. Brown's three brothers — James, Charles and Gran- ville — lost their lives while serving in the Civil War (Confederate) . Archibald Gamble, the brother of Hamilton Rowan Gamble — war governor of Missouri — lived in Sibley for a number of years, where he made his home with Zenas Leonard. He served as clerk of the circuit court and held other offices of trust in the county. He died in 1866. The old tavern owned and operated by Charles Griffith stood directly west of the fort and witnessed much activity during the palmy days of Old Sibley, when the town contained about one thousand inhabitants. This was about 1855. Walker Ware, whose daughter, Mary Jane, married Frederick Choteau, and Charles McMillan and Edward Lee also lived in the Six Mile District. McMillan clerked in a store kept by Barney Appel, and Hassett kept the warehouse which stood near the ferry, which was in operation up to the beginning of the Civil War. The old boat used at that time was a crude flat bottom affair which now has been replaced with a modem steam ferry. Leonard and —81— Harrelson owned the ferry, but hired a colored man, Sam Carrack by name, to operate it. Harrelson's ten-year-old son, "Billy," acted as pilot by stand- ing in front and guiding the unruly craft with the aid of a pair of oars. Harrelson's daughter, Amanda, married Cole Foster, attor- ney for the M. K. & T. Railroad for over twenty years. Their great uncle, William Carrack, came to Fort Osage Township from Tennes- see with his brother. Rev. Samuel Carrack, who was the first presi- dent of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. After his death his wife went to Missouri. William C. Harrelson lives with his son, Samuel H., at 3609 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Mo. Doctor Tannahill owned the only drug store in the town and dispensed pills and powders to those who were unfortunate enough to be found in need of them. John Mason Peck wrote a life of Daniel Boone in which he says . that Boone spent two weeks at the fort in April, 1816, after which he went on to the Little Platte. He also states that Boone spent a V inter on Grand River trapping beaver, where he fortified himself with a supply of venison, turkey and bear meat. Peck visited Boone at the home of his son, Nathan, in December, 1818, at which time he had several interviews with him. Boone was endowed with the true spirit of the pioneer. As soon as a section of land had been cleared by him and made habitable he felt that he must move on to fresh fields of conquest and leave the acres he had pre-empted and cleared to later comers. The old log school house stood a short distance south of the fort and was taught for a number of years, 1847-57, by Anna Ladd from Wyandotte. Her sister, Artless Ladd, born in Ohio, came to Wyandotte, where she married Lawrence P. Browne, a partner of W. H. Chick in the general mercantile business. They owned stores in Missouri and in Mexico. Joel Walker, also from Wyandotte, lived near Sibley — was justice of the peace of Jackson County and also served as clerk of the circuit court. "David Dealy, though not the first settler in the township, was an older settler in the county than any of the others. He had settled in the Six Mile tract near Fort Osage, and as soon as he was permitted to do so, came west of the Little Blue, he being one of the first to plow the rich soil 'between the Blues' and is said to have sowed the first wheat in that locality. In 1834 he came to the farm where he died in 1878. This was four miles northwest of Lone Jack. He was the father of twenty-six children, all by the same mother." History of Jackson County, p. 339. Lynchburg Adams came from Virginia in 1819 and settled in Fort Osage Township. He had two sons: James, now living, aged 87 years ; William, living in Indiana. Many of the descendants of Lynchburg Adams are living today in Kansas City, Independence and Buckner, Missouri. Frank Chiles, married in Kentucky, came to Jackson County, Missouri, in 1831, where his wife died — then married Miss Haller. He died a number of years ago, but his widow is still living. His son, Christopher C. Chiles, was born in 1825. He assisted his father in running a general supply store in Sibley. «9 Frank Chiles' daughter married Judge William Wallace, son of Rev. Wallace of Lees Summit. James G. Chiles, son of Frank Chiles, married Ruth Hamilton. They had eight children, as follows : 1. Samuel Chiles — was marshal of Jackson County for sev- eral years ; married Jennie, daughter of William Hughes. 2. James Crow Chiles. 3. Elijah Chiles. 4. Henry Chiles. 5. Susan Chiles — married Rev. Lancaster Block of Liberty, Mo. 6. Ruth Chiles — married Mr. Phelps. 7. Isabel Chiles — married Mr. Shortridge. 8. Daughter — married Mr. Erwin of the firm of Erwin & Jackman, freighters over Santa Fe Trail. To these and hundreds of other brave men who helped hew the logs and erect homes in the wilderness and lay the foundations for schools and churches and great commercial enterprises, our Re- public owes a debt of gratitude which should be considered as a sacred trust by their descendants who number thousands and can be found in every state west of the Mississippi. Now, that Missouri has just finished her one hundredth year of Statehood, these retrospective remarks may be excused. Look- ing back over this long period of growi;h and progress, the true Missourian may well feel proud of the part his State has taken in the advancement of the entire Western coimtr ,-. She has \.aken the lead in conquest, commerce and civilization and left her im- print on the Northwest, Central West, Southwest and Coast States. The title "Mother of the West" is an hono ed one a. .. istly bestowed. EMMA S. WHITE -83— bo TO J2 > s -84- THE REVEREND ISAAC McCOY. By his granddaufjhter, NELLIE McCOY HARRIS. Isaac McCoy was born June 13, 1784, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. When he was six years old, his father moved with his family to Kentucky, where the boy grew to manhood, and where he married in 1803. Christiana Polk, daughter of Captain Charles Polke of Hinchellers Fort, Shelby County. Dr. Wyeth ' of Philadelphia, in his Memorial to "Isaac McCoy — Christiana McCoy" says the youth early developed a fondness for books, and by this with the aid of his wise mother, he attained distinction, mentally and morally. At eighteen years of age, Isaac united with the Baptist denomi- nation, then holding a series of meetings in the neighborhood. When he had barely reached hs majority, he became obsessed with the "impulse-call," he termed it, to preach to the Indians. In obedience to this call, he went in 1808 to Vincennes, Indiana, then in the vicinity of tribes of Indians, where he obtained a license to preach. His estate consisted of farm land in Kentucky, which deprived of his supervision, yielded little or no revenue, and his services being mainly gratuitous, he was compelled to resort to other means of support for his little family. His father had operated a spinning-wheel factory, so Isaac, familiar with that business, in his extremity manufactured the wheels, both the large and small kind. Mr. McCoy's career was a diversified one — happy in the companionship of his cheery, sym- pathetic wife and his dear children, his career all along was fraught with hazard, and pursued by disappointments and sorrows that would have broken the spirit of one less courageous. But, his invincible, his persistent pursuit of what he deemed his duty, and his faith in God, sustained him through almost overwhelming obstacles. One, who knew him intimately, wrote that Isaac McCoy pos- sessed all the elements of a soldier, and circumstances often called this into action during his residence in Kentucky during the most troublesome period of that State's history, where extreme vigilance and valor were necessary for the preservation of life and prop- erty, and in which he proved he knew not fear. Carrying his rifle on his shoulder, he led his people either in pursuit of marauding Indians, or to the house of worship. Even in this perilous period, he felt the yearning to help the people against whom he was con- stantly armed. He realized that the Indian felt a natural resentment against the white people for what thej^ considered aggression and usurpa- tion. Father Dalton- in his lectures before the Historical Society said "the good priests who went to the Indians in the early times, understood this feeling and commiserated them, and condoned their veno'eful spirit," adding that the Indians were in possession of their own domain. They are gone : the White man now is here. Mr. McCoy's proiect for the betterment of the Indian was mainly sDiritual, yet he wished to improve their temporal habits and environments. He interested the Baptist Board of Missions iWialtpr N. Wyeth. D. D.. a Baptist publisher of Philadelphia. 2The Reverend Father William J. Dalton, pastor of the Church of the An- nunciation for nearly fifty years. —85— in the latter scheme, and when possible, they furnished him plows, and other farming implements and instructed them in their uses. Many looked upon this industrial move as an Utopian dream ; and thought that these nomads, who lived upon the bounties of Nature, could never be brought to adopt the habits and occupations of in- dustrious and civilized white people. The first mission established by Isaac McCoy, of which I can find any record, was in the vicinity of what is now, Montezuma, Indiana, in 1818 and among the Kickapoos, Miami and Wea Tribes. Seeking a wider field, he went to Fort Wayne, Ind., a year later — 1819. On the journey to this city he, and his family, suffered severely from the bad weather and bad roads. During his missionary work there, an incident occurred which is of interest to me, and I trust will prove so to you. In roaming around this region, Mr. McCoy discovered a beautiful brook, cheery, clear and placid. He said he at once thought of his dear wife, in whom these qualities were so pronounced, and upon learning the stream was unnamed, he gave it the name of his wife, Christiana. Today, more than a century later, not only is the brook still called by the name, but also the Mills built upon it, a Lake, and a Club-house and pleasure boats there also bear the name "Christiana." In 1822, Isaac McCoy established Cary Mission on the present site of Niles, Michigan; and Mission Thomas on the site now oc- cupied by the city of Grand Rapids. The discomforts of our present food conservation (written 1918) now sink into insignificance in comparison to what those Missionaries suffered. Our most meager meal would have seemed to them lavish luxury. A few of our meals are meatless (1918), wheatless, or sweetless. Theirs many times were almost eatless. They were reduced at one time to subsisting entirely on parched com. Mr. McCoy wrote in his diary of that extremity, "Blessed be God, we have not yet suffered for lack of food ; for parched corn is an excellent substitute for bread." The next entry in his diary, however, is not so encouraging. "But, now having eaten our last grain of corn, we cannot avoid some anxiety about our next meal." Rather putting a good face on it, don't you think? In 1832 Mr. McCoy established a mission in the Indian coun- try, seven miles from the junction of the Kansas and Missouri rivers and three miles west of the state line now between Missouri and Kansas. To this mission was brought the first printing press west of the Missouri River. On this press was printed a newspaper called the Shawanoe Sun, edited by Dr. Johnston Lykins and printed by Jotham Meeker; also a book on the colonization of the Indian tribes. This book, in the original, is in the custody of the Kansas City Public Library, and is marked "exceptional." Dr. Lykins translated into the Shawanoe language a part of the New Testament, which was also printed on this pioneer press. I find references to a mission established at Muscogee, but I have not found definite data as to its establishment, or continu- ance. —86— Mr, McCoy, with sons, Rice and Calvin,' made numerous and important under Goverment contract. After Isaac McCoy, under instructions from the Department of the Interior, had selected new locations for various tribes of Indians, west of Missouri, he was also sent to survey these reservations. In 1827, he made his first journey with this object in view. In 1828 he began his work, camping on the way, near the site, where this Library is located.- In 1830, Isaac McCoy was instructed by Secretary of War, Eaton, to survey and mark by metes and bounds, a military reser- vation of about eleven sections of land, including the small post called Cantonment Leavenworth. His sons. Rice and Calvin, and John Donaldson, a nephew of President Jackson, doing the sur- veying; Mr. McCoy supervising the work and attending to the financial features and reporting records. The contract for the survey of the Cherokee outlet, called the "Cherokee Strip," (when opened for settlement) was also awarded to Mr. McCoy — his son Calvin, again doing the active work. This was completed in 1837. Not only have the field notes of these surveys been found flawless, but, in one instance, at least, has decided an important law-suit. Isaac McCoy is credited, and I believe justly so, with having originated the colonization plan for the Indians, and reported his scheme to the Government. President Monroe in his Message to Congress, 1824, mentions this matter. This plan was to set aside a Territory for the Indians, where they could live without fear of the encroachments of the white people. The plan was contemplated and designed for the elevation of the Indian character, and to remove their resentment against what they considered rank injustice of the conduct of the early whites in their country, by assigning to them a country of their own, where their pride of possession would stimulate them to engage in peaceful pursuits, to formulate and observe laws for the better- ment of their own social condition, and teach them fairness in property rights, etc. The Indian husband's rule in domestic affairs was: "What is my Squaw's is mine, and what is mine, is my own," differing very little from the old-time White husband's idea. Indeed, our laws went them one better, or worse, for, in my early days, at the death of a husband, household equipment, furniture, feather-beds, silver ware, even the patchwork quilts, that his wife had made with her own hands — all were sold at a public sale. Thank Heaven, as the old darky said : "The world do move !" Mr. McCoy most distinguished himself in public service in the part he took in selecting a permanent home for the Indians. He and two others, Senator Mason, of Virginia, and another whose name I cannot now recall, were appointed by the President to tour the territory west of the Missouri River and the Arkansas line considering conditions, estimating water supply, soil, etc., most favorable for Indian happiness. In fact the needs for the territory for the sole use of the roving unsettled people, was first proposed and brought to thp attention of the President and congress by Mr. McCoy and several of his trips to Washington were to keep before iRice became Dr. Rice McCoy of this city. "Calvin" was the Col. John C. Mc- Coy, founder of "Westport and otherwise prominently identified with the com- munity, and a civil engineer by profession. 2The Library is the Allen Branch Library, Wyandotte and Westport avenue. —87— congress his pet scheme. Before the finish of his search for a location of the Indian territory, the two other commissioners were called away by their other duties, so Mr. McCoy made the final report to congress, which was accepted, approved and signed by the President. The land was deeded to the Indians as theirs "as long as grass grows, and water runs." In pursuance of his worthy aims, Mr. McCoy made numerous trips to Washington, D. C, usually in the winter when congress was in session, many times riding horseback a part or the entire journey. His noble wife, Christiana Polk McCoy shared his zeal and self-abnegation and deserves to share the credit and the honor of the tribute of respect and praise so generally bestowed by his- torians upon Mr. McCoy, "~ Much of interest is recorded of Isaac McCoy's eventful and useful life, of his days and months of weary travel, through the trackless wilderness, weeks without sight of human dwelling; nights of cold and rain; lying on the cold ground, with only the bark of trees for covering; of his nine trips to Washington, some of them on horse-back ; of fearful hazards, and many accidents, of long periods of separation from his family : But, a detailed narra- tive of all his experiences would consume more time than I have at my disposal. I neglected to mention in proper place, that an act of Congress, May 26, 1830, made provisions for the establishment of the Indian Territory bounds, beginning at Red River east of Old Mexico, ex- tending east to Arkansas Territory, North to the southern line of Missouri and westwardly to Poncah Creek, and on as far as the country is habitable. On this exploration, Mr. McCoy discovered, and I believe wrote the first account of the singular freak of nature in Mitchell (as now known) County, Kansas. This is a jug shaped rock, perched on the level plain, as well as I can recall the description, about six- teen feet high and twelve feet across the top always filled with salt water, yet never overflowing, except when a strong wind blows the brink. Around the surface of this ground was a "buffalo lick," where the herds come to get salt, left by the evaporation of the overflow water. The Indians call this well, "Wa-ken-da," meaning God the Spirit of Life. As to Isaac McCoy's personal appearance and marked attributes, I will quote from the "Life of Spencer H. Cone," written by his sons, Spencer W. Cone and Edward Cone, the former still a prac- tising lawyer of New York City: "Isaac McCoy was one of the most lovable men we ever knew. Living the life of exposure, vicissi- tudes, and hardships, his mind and manners, instead of becoming rude and hard through rough usage, grew all the while the softer, holier, and more loving. Never familiar, carrying in his quiet eye an indescribable something that repelled familiarity, yet never repelled. Men were compelled to feel when in his company that they were near something good and noble. One accustomed to distinguish between men, or to observe with any nicety the shades of human character would, before they knew his occupation, have fancied Mr. McCoy a denizen of a court. "There can be no finer illustration of how much the heart has to do with the bearing and manners, that was shown in him, an evidence that a Christian gentleman is a perfect gentleman. "What men of the world would think foolish honesty, pre- vented Mr. McCoy from being a very rich man. At almost every cession of their lands by Indian tribes, during his work among them, they would insist that he should have a part of these con- veyed lands, and this would have met with the prompt approval of the Government at this time, but he steadfastly refused, or forbade it. "In physique, Mr. McCoy was tall and slender, scrupulously neat, and well dressed, when at all possible." Isaac McCoy managed to have his children educated, though his means were limited. Two sons, after attending the Transyl- vania University at Lexington, Ky., graduated at Columbia Col- lege, Georgetown, D. C. Another son attended a Cincinnati school, finishing at Transylvania. Another son was a student at the Missouri State University, the first year of its existence. His daughters were educated in Cincinnati and Lexington, Ky. He kept a journal through his entire eventful life. This diary is now in the custody of the Kansas State Historical Society at Topeka; also fourteen other books, which he wrote, and public documents. An historian has said that "The detail of experiences thro' which Mr. McCoy passed, and his discoveries make one of the most thrilling narratives in Western literature." And that he wrote, clearly, tersely and graphically. The career of this truly extraordinary man, terminated gracefully and fittingly in literary pursuits. He returned to Louisville where he engaged in editorial work for Baptist publi- cations. This was in 1842. After four years of this congenial work, he died June 21, 1846, and was buried in the Western Cemetery, Louisville, now in the heart of the city. —89— FARMS OWNED BY ISAAC McCOY. By NELLIE McCOY HARRIS. Approximately from the State line east to Belleview avenue — 55th to 64th street — was the first farm owned by the Reverend Isaac McCoy. The residence stood about a block from the Meri- wether home.^ The first eighty of this tract, my grandfather bought from Dr. Johnston Lykins, who had entered it. This is just across the street from the Ward estate. After possessing it for a year or two, he sold it back to his son-in-law, Dr. Lykins. (He had married Delilah McCoy). In a portion of this tract, a great-grandson, and a great-great-granddaughter, now reside.^ Two acres of this tract were set apart as the McCoy cemetery. This hallowed spot, today, is the southwest comer of the grounds surrounding the J. W. Perry home, 1335 Santa Fe Road. Here were buried the remains of Mrs. Christiana Polk McCoy, wife of Isaac McCoy; her daugh- ters, Josephine Eleanor, Delilah, Sarah Christiana and Virginia, and her sons, Josephus, William and Rice. Also, less close rela- tives and a number of negro slaves. A plat of the interments there exists in the writing of the late John C. McCoy, a son, and my father.^ Of the land owned by my grandfather, I next mention the farm on what is now South Main street. This farm beginning at about 33rd street, on the south, extending north almost to the Union Cemetery ; and from Main on the west, to about Locust street on the east, originally ; later this boundary was McGee. Mr. James Porter, who had entered land to the east of this farm, asked Mr. McCoy to let him have the eighty acres on the east, which he did at exactly the same price he had paid for it. I think this was two and a half dollars an acre. My grandfather bought this place from Abraham Pallette, in 1839, the land having been entered by Josephus Cockrell father of the late Senator, Francis M. Cockrell. Later Mr. McCoy sold another portion of the tract to James M. Hunter; but owned the rest until his death in 1842. The house on this farm was log, partly weatherboarded. It stood just back of the twin oaks in front of the Oaklawn Apart- ments.* Here, according to McCoy custom, whenever a piece of land was acquired, Isaac McCoy set out a fine orchard. A few trees of this orchard were still bearing in 1870. iThis is the present W. W. Meriwether home, of recent construction, 5730 "Ward Parkway. 2Spencer F. Harris and his daughter, Mildred, 1010 West 56th street. 3This cemetery was platted by Dr. Johnston Lykins. ^Northeast corner Main nd Thirty-third streets. —90— The farm of Mr. McCoy's, which I think was the one in mind, when the request for this article was made, was the home called "Locust Hill." This plantation extended from the present Archi- bald street in Westport south to about 45th street. What is now "Wornall road" runs through it about the center. The house on the plantation fronted on this road and consisted of two stories of two rooms each and a one story addition of one or two rooms. The rooms were all large. I believe this house, at least a part of it, was built originally of logs and then weatherboarded. The smokehouse of logs had a clap-board roof, as I remember it. On the hill side just west of Mill Creek boulevard, near Forty- third street was a fine spring, the water supply of the family. The branch from it furnished water for the stock. This brook followed the valley and emptied into Brush Creek near where the E. C. White school now stands. The stone spring house stood be- neath a big oak tree for about fifty years. The tree is still there. The house stood on an eminence above Forty-third street in a grove of fine forest trees and, according to another McCoy custom — I had almost said "failing" — Mr. McCoy planted locust trees about the premises. The descendants of those old pioneer trees are still in evidence around the locality. The big cornfield was across the road to the west. That field was the only possible excuse Mr. McCoy could have had for select- ing this tract for the balance of it, except about the yard, was rocky and hilly and covered with scrubby oak timber. In those old days the water supply was a vital consideration, so it is likely that the fine spring on the hill side, and a cave spring on the north part of the tract, had much to do with the selection. Then, my grandfather ever had a penchant for the picturesque, so it may be that the topography of the locality influenced him. The lovely forest trees, the sloping hillside, with the clear, cool spring, and the limpid brook winding down to the green valley, and along the green meadow, — even the clusters of wild crab-apple trees, along the stony slopes evidently influenced him in a measure. The garden to the south of the yard, was wonderfully pre- served — some roses, lilacs, gooseberries, and other shrubs, flour- ished still, for decades aifter they were planted there. The old asparagus bed, which my grandfather had made in this old garden, was in pretty good condition in 1870 — it may be there yet. Mr, McCoy was a missionary among the Indians for the best part of his life, and moved often, from one location to another, establishing missions. It was no small task to take his large family — he at one time had eight or ten children to carry along — but, —91— with all the harrassments, and expense of these many journeys — he always carried his books. He never lost an opportunity to obtain a good book, and we have still, in our family, valuable volumes of his collection, many of which today are unobtainable. The home, ''Locust Hill," was noted for its hospitality, and like all those pioneer homes, "be it ever so humble," the latchstring always hung out. Guests were welcomed, even in those scanty quarters — the big hearted host and hostess managed as some ex- press it, "to eat and to sleep them." An old negro servant said: "Dey sho will hatter sleep on the flo' and kiver wid de do' !" But pallets were spread when exigency required it, with the bedding that was always abundant in all old homes. Young army officers from Fort Leavenworth were frequent visitors of the daughters of the house. This home was the scene of much happiness, but many sorrows as well, several grown daugh- ters dying there. One daughter, Eleanor, was married in the house and died there a year later. o Reverend Mr. McCoy, was called to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1842 to edit a paper and sold the house (I believe) to Dr. James Stone a pioneer Westport physician. An abstract man has said that the name, McCoy, appears on more abstracts than that of any other family. -92- ISAAC McCOY'S SUCCESSOR. Some years ago, a great-nephew of Isaac McCoy living in Dallas, Texas, (John C. McCoy by name) heard there was a preacher, a Baptist Indian missionary named Isaac McCoy, living in Strind, Oklahoma. Knowing there was no relative of the name, living, and carrying on the work of an Indian missionary, and thinking it a strange coincidence that, after more than seventy- five years there should be some one of the same name, doing the same work, in the same place, among the same tribes, he wrote to this man in Oklahoma, and asked him, who he was. And, asked him to tell him something about himself and his work. And, this was his reply. "I am a full blooded Ottawa Indian, seventy-six years old, and have been preaching the gospel to the Indians scattered through the Indian Territory, since I was a young man. The name Isaac McCoy was given me by a man of that name, who was the first Missionary to come to the territory. In his work, as a missionary, he came to give consolation and minister to my mother, my father having just died. "I was then a boy about six years old, playing about the door of the wigwam with my little sister. The missionary placed his hand on my head, said a prayer, and told me he wanted me, when I grew up, to be a preacher and tell the Indians about Jesus Christ, and then he said to my mother : "Give him the name, Isaac Mc- Coy;" and my sister he called "Christiana McCoy." "I was just a little Indian boy and so young, I did not under- stand the meaning of it, but I never forgot his words, and the solemn act of dedicating me to the Lord, and I determined when I was old enough, that I would do as he had said; and so I have been preaching and travelling through the Indian Territoiy, as a missionary to the Indians, since I was a young man. My sister. Christiana McCoy, died when she was about thirty-four years of age." And so Reverend Isaac McCoy, Baptist missionary was until a few years ago, living and actively engaged in the same work of savinsr the souls of the Indians, as his predecessor of the same name. If the first Isaac McCoy could see the work he began so long ago still going on, in his own name, and could know that from that first seed sown by him there are now more than sixty thousand Christian Indians, he would feel that his work had not been in vain. MATTIE E. McCOY. WILL OF ISAAC McCOY. I, Isaac McCoy, Missionary of the North American Indians, now in West- port, Jackson County, Missouri, bein^ in common health and in the exercise of ordinary soundness of judgment, do make this my last will and testament, viz: I Avill and beaueath to my sons John Calvin McCoy and Isaac McCov, and to my daughters Delilah McCoy Lykins. Christiana McCoy Ward, and Eleanor McCov and the heirs of my daughter Sarah McCoy Givens, deceased, each a large bible with marginal references and to each a Butterworth Concordance, the whole to be purchased out of movable p- operty now in mv possession, and to each cash which added to the value of the aforementioned books shall make the amount bequeathed to each equal to $10.00, these books I Bequeath not on —93- account of their pecuniary value, but as indicating a father's regard for his children and the earnestness which he would recommend to them the perusal of the sacred scripture. 2: I will and bequeath to my daughter Eleanor McCoy $50.00, I having heretofore given to my daughter Christiana M. Ward a similar sum at her marriage and having given to my daughters Sarah McCoy Givens deceased and to my daughter Delilah McCoy Lykins each a little over $50.00. My movable ],roperty consists of 3 horses a few cattle and swine and such amount of farming implements, household and kitchen furniture etc. as is hereby suf- ficient for our current convenience in the moderate style of our living, of books, papers etc. This movable property I have procured out of my earnings in the service of the government of the United States and with the exception of the sums heretofore given to my daughters as before stated it is the whole amount which I have saved or applied to private purposes. 3: I will and bequeath the whole of my movable property mentioned in the preceding paragraph to my wife Christiana McCoy, excepting so much as may be necessary to pay my just debts and to pay the sums above mentioned and bequeathed to my sons and daughters and to pay my funeral expenses. The residue of my property consists of 4 tracts of land, containing in the whole a little over 500 acres, and a female slave named Chainy. This prop- erty of land and a slave is in part of the proceeds of the property owned by me arid my wife before we became Missionaries and in part an amount left in my hands by my son Rice at hig decease. No portion of this property having come into my possession in any other way than the two sources above men- tioned. I have ever considered it as properly belonging to my family and that I could not in justice to them consider it in paying the costs of living. 4: I will and bequeath the whole of the aforementioned 4 tracts of land containing in the whole a little over 500 acres to my wife Christiana McCoy; the slave above mentioned was purchased on the 13th day of July, 1835, and paid for her $415.00. She had been sold by her late owner and appeared to be consigned for the New Orleans Slave Market, she and her husband entreated me with mai\y tears to remember her and prevent her being torn from a hus- band and many children. The appeal was too affecting to be resisted. I bought her from motives of humanity, also as I believe to the gratification of my neighbors and of my Missionary brethren, all appearing to be deeply af- fected with the prospect of everlasting separation of this poor Negro family. I have ever been averse to holding a slave as property, and I did not promise to do more than to advance the money for her to prevent her from being sent to the South, until she should find another suitable person for a master to her and her husband and children. By law she is my property at this time, and, 5: I will and bequeath that the above mentioned female slave Chainy shall remain the property of my wife Christiana McCoy until she said Chainy shall by her services, reckoned at the rate of the usual line of female slaves in this country under circumstances similar to those which shall attend her during the years of her servitude, repay the said Christiana McCoy or her heirs for the $415 paid for her with interest at 6% per annum, and then when her services rated as above directed shall equal the said sum of $415.00, with 6% interest, she the said female slave Chainy shall become free from bondage. 6: I will and bequeath that if the above mentioned female slave Chainy shall, during the term of her slavery, bear a child or children, then the said offspring shall be instructed to read with facility before arriving at the age of 27 years and then "He" shall go free from bondage and if a female, she shall remain a slave until she arrives at the age of 24 years and then she shall go free from bondage, and all the descendants of the said female slave Chainy to the latest "generation" generation who shall be bom in slavery shall be instructed to read with facility before arriving at the age of 20 years, and all the females shall go free from bondage at the age of 24 years. It being directed that no male descendants of the said female slave Chainy shall so remain a slave after reaching the age of 27 years and that no female descendant of the said slave Chainy shall remain a slave after reach- ing the age of 24 years. My daughter Nancy Judson McCoy is mentally and physically incapable of taking care of herself, her mind and the proper use of her limbs were im- paired we believe by a nervous fever since we her parents became Missionaries to the Indians, previously she appeared to possess common activity of body —94— and sprightliness of thought, for her future comfort, I feel deep solicitude and to provide for her future comfort is one reason which induces me to leave the most of my property to my wife believing that she will wisely apply it for the use and benefit of our afflicted daughter Nancy Judson McCoy excepting so much as will be necessary for her own comfort and the comfort and education of our two minor children Isaac and "Eleanor" during their minority, and, 7: I will and bequeath that should my wife Christiana die without direct- mg how the property then in her possession shall be disposed of all such property excepting so much as shall be necessary for the comfort and educa- tion of my children Isaac and Eleanor during their minority shall be applied to the use and comfort of my said daughter Nancy Judson McCoy in the man- ner that shall be most productive of benefit to her. 8: I will and bequeath that all property which is or shall become mine by heirship or otherwise shall become the property of my wife Christiana McCoy. I devise that the Journals of the Missions and all my other papers and such manuscripts and books as I shall have written together with all other books in my possession, which in some degree embraces subjects relating to the Indians, be safely kept together and preserved in the care first of my wife and afterwards in the care of my family descendants, excepting as care- ful persons under a pledge for their safe keeping and return be allowed to examine them for laudable purpose. I desire that if it can be done without needless expense that means be taken to perpetuate the recollection of the places of the graves of my deceased children Mahala Elizabeth, Marie Slaughter, Josephus and his infant brother Charles Rice and Sarah. For execution of this my last will and testament, I hereby appoint as my Executrix my wife Christiana McCoy and as my executors Johnston Lykins and John Calvin McCoy. My first care is for my family, my second is for the Indians, for both, I desire to labor while I live and to pray while I am dying. ISAAC McCOY, Westport, Jackson County, Missouri, July 30th, 1835. ATTEST: ROBERT SIMERWELL, JONATHAN MEEKER. —95— WASHINGTON HENRY CHICK. 1826-1918. -96- A JOURNEY TO MISSOURI IN 1822. Written for the Historical Society by Washington Henry Chick in 1916, when lie was ninety years old He tells of the emigration to this State of his father, Colonel William Miles Chick, and mother, Eliza Smitli Chick, tlie year after Missouri's admission to Statehood. My father and mother were both born in Virginia ; father near Lynchburg on a farm; mother in the city of Alexandria, both in 1'790's and were married in 1816 in Alexandria, Va. During the war with Great Britain 1812 my father was com- missioned Colonel and instructed to raise a regiment by the Gov- ernor of Virginia, which he did and had it ready for orders to move to the front. In 1815 before receiving the order to go to the front at New Orleans, Jackson defeated the English at the battle before New Orleans thereby ending the war and causing the disbursement of the regiment. In 1822 he with my mother came to Missouri, They left Alex- andria, Virginia, in the early spring in large wagons, bringing with them two children, leaving their oldest child with my mother's mother. They traveled over the road to Pittsburgh, Pa., crossing the Alleghany mountains. On reaching Pittsburgh they procured flat boats, loaded their belongings therein, consisting of house- hold goods, wagons, horses and the family and negro servants, and started on their voyage down the Ohio River. After many days of hardships and perils both from the river and Indians, they finally reached Shawnee town in Illinois, where they disembarked, loaded their wagons and started for St. Louis, reaching there in the fall; crossed the Mississippi in a flat boat to St. Louis, a village of a few thousand, where they purchased such supplies as were needed ; then they pushed on for Saline County, crossing the Missouri river at St. Charles and again at a point near where Glasgow is now, located and settled on a farm in the Mis- souri river bottom a few miles west of Glasgow. They remained there until the spring of 1826 when the great flood came upon them and not only washed their houses away, but most of the land and deposited it on the other side of the river in Chariton County. Father then moved to Howard County where he owned some land and opened a farm, then some five miles from Glasgow, and now is near the Charleston River. Here he remained until 1836 when he sold his farm and moved to Westport, Mo., and engaged in the general merchandise business, which he conducted for some years. Howard County was then covered with a dense growth of timber requiring much labor to open a farm. There was much game in the countrj^ affording fine hunting. The woods were full of wild turkeys. In the fall they would come into the barn yard m great flocks and feed upon the grain scattered by the stock at feeding time. Once, when we had been threshing wheat (the old fashioned way ; making a threshing floor of the earth and spread- ing the sheafs of wheat thereon, then taking horses, riding and driving them around and over the wheat until it was threshed out) a large flock of turkeys came into the lot and were feeding upon the grain when father took his shot gun and at one fire killed six. Back in the timber from the house we built a turkey trap of logs, making an entrance by digging a ditch under the logs. Com- —97— ing into the trap near the middle, we strewed corn in the ditch and trap. The turkeys would follow the corn, eating until in the trap, when, to their surprise, they could find no way out ; for they never looked down, but always up ; so they were safe until we were ready to catch and kill them. We secured many and would pack them away in salt for winter use. The squirrels were great pests and destroyed much com in the fall of the year, so that some continually guarded the side of the farm next to the timber in day time to kill or drive them away. The principal crop was tobacco, that provided the cash for buying sugar, coffee and other groceries necessary for the family. The women of the family manufactured the goods for clothing the family from wool, flax and cotton raised on the farm. The loom and spinning wheel were in continual use during the year, so there was but little demand for money for clothing, and all our shoes were also manufactured at home. Farms were far apart. Our nearest neighbor being fully a mile distant, but as all could ride horse back, this did not interfere much with neighborly courtesies. The schools were very primitive and the children had long walks to get to school houses built of logs; seats were made of logs split in two, with pegs for support stuck underneath ; no back to them nor any way to rest the weary children through the day, and with teachers who probably knew but little to teach. Father owned a negro man by the name of Manuel, who was boss of the working force on the farm, who was very efficient and took great pride in getting much work done. As a reward for his faithfulness he was allowed every Saturday afternoon for his own use. I was a great favorite when a small child with him, and as he often went to town (Old Chariton) to spend his leisure time and to make purchases for himself and others, he would, with father's permission, take me with him, picking me up, placing me on his shoulder, trotting off to town. The first thing, after reaching town he would buy what he called a section of ginger cake, then we would walk across the street to an old log lying there ; sit down and pro- ceed to dispose of our ginger cake. After making purchases, he would place me on his shoulder and go home. One day on our way to town, as we passed the race track, there was a large crowd racing horses ; the old darkey stopped and soon became interested in the races and picking his horse, put up all the money he had. I also put up all I had, a twelve and one-half cent piece, called a bit in those days. We lost and as we had no money, gave up the trip to town and went home. I have never seen a horse race since and have no desire to see another one. When we settled in Westport there were probably not over fifty persons living in the town. I do not remember where there was another store in the town. James M. Hunter was then running a saddler's shop, beside these, I think there were no business houses, unless you call dram shops business houses, of these there were several. My father's store was located on the northeast corner of the square where the old Harris house was afterward built. It was a two-story, double log house, and the family lived in the upper part of the building. The hazel brush was very thick all around the town. Just back of the store room, within twenty feet of it, it was '^98— fully ten feet high, and so thick a dog could scarcely get through it. The trade at that time was with Indians, Shawnees and Dela- wares, principally, but many other tribes did much of their trad- ing in town. There were but few whites living west of the Blue River at that time. In a few years emigration being heavy, set- tlers came in and both the town and country grew rapidly. Sev- eral stores were opened by the new comers, and business increased rapidly, and Westport soon became an important point. At this time we had no Post Office, Independence being the nearest ; we had to go there for our mail for some years before an office was established in Westport. The Indians were very fond of whiskey, and, as the dealers were ready to supply them, they drank heavily. I have seen as many as one hundred drunken Indians in the town at one time, riding their ponies at full speed, greatly to the danger of pedes- trians. It finally became so bad that the citizens of the town and country took the matter in hand and resolved to put a stop to the sale of whiskey to Indians. In mass meeting they decided to de- mand of saloon keepers that they deliver their stock of liquors to a committee of citizens to be held by them until they could make some disposition of them. Some half dozen of them complied ; one man would not do so. The people gathered en masse, went to his saloon, when he met them with an axe in his hand, and said he would kill the first man attempting to enter his door. Possibly some- where between thirty and fifty men were in the crowd. After parleying with him for some time a young man, by name of William Jack, cried out : "My Daddy sent me here to do the work," picked up a log lying in the street, put it on his shoulder, and said "I must do it, come on boys." He made a run for the door, knocked the man with the axe down and the door into kindling wood. They rolled the whiskey into the street, knocked in the barrel-heads, poured the whiskey into the gutter; broke every bottle in the shop, and then retired peacefully to their homes. This, for a time, settled the saloon business in Westport, but soon the saloon again opened, but were disposed to be more careful about selling to the Indians, and Westport enjoyed a season of quiet. My father, being one of the original owners (comprised of a company of fourteen men) of Kansas City, decided in the tall of 1843 to move to Kansas City and settled on a farm of about four- teen acres just west of where the Union Depot now stands, and prepared to build a business house on the corner of Main Street and the Levee, which was erected during the winter of 1843 of logs cut across the river in what is now Harlem, and was ready for the early spring business. This was the only business house in Kan- sas City, and only one other house in the town limits ; that being a two-story, double log house erected and owned by W. B. Evans, and occupied by him as a dwelling and hotel, except a small log warehouse, erected by the town company for storing such goods as was discharged by boats for Westport and other points. In June, 1844, the flood came down the Kansas River and washed every house out of the West Bottoms (as now called), in- cluding my father's. This being his second experience with high water, he concluded to build on high ground and erected the first —99— house on the bluffs at the corner of Walnut and Pearl Streets, a double log house, two stories high, where he lived until his death in 1847. The CHICK MANSION on Pearl street, from photograph after its days of splen- dor were over. There was but little business done in the town in 1844, the flood having pretty well destroyed the prospects for that season. In 1843 the Wyandotte Indians moved from Ohio and settled just across the Kansas River and opposite Kansas City, having pur- chased several sections from the Delaware Indians. They created quite a trade for the new town of Kansas City, and in a few years some of their prominent men opened business in Kansas City. They were well civilized, and many of them well educated. Many of the men, as well as some of the women, became very prominent, and leaders in business and society. The younger, both men and women, mixing and visiting with the whites on this side of the river socially, and enjoying western life, attending parties, balls, and taking part in all social events, as well as religious exercises, and in return the society girls and boys from this side o£ the river would visit all social gatherings across the Kaw River. Many of the Wyandotte women were very beautiful and their society much sought after by the young gallants from this side of the river. As a consequence, many marriages took place between them. Most of these were be- tween half breeds, and many of the Wyandotte men were married to white women ; in fact, when they came here there were very few- full blood Indians belonging to the tribe. Several of the prominent men of the tribe became active business men in Kansas City, and aided greatly in building up the town in its early days ; among them Joel Walker, Silas Armstrong and others engaged in business on —100— this side of the line. Among the most prominent were William Walker, Mathew Walker, the Garrets, several of them, Mathew Mudeater, the Clark family, the Longs, the Zanes, Isaiah Walker and many others whose names 1 can't recall. These were the origi- nal settlers and owners of what is now Kansas City, Kansas, and they platted and owned the town of Wyandotte City. There are some few of the tribe still living in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Most of the tribe emigrated to the Indian Territory some years ago and settled in the Cherokee and Creek nations where they now reside. Could the children of the present day see and understand the great advantages they have over the children of fifty to seventy years ago they would be profoundly thankful. Now they have the modern fine improved and finished, warm and comfortable school houses that modern art can produce, with everything made to com- fort them, while in the far past the school houses generally only one room, built of logs, often not hewed, simply round logs with what was called chinking between the logs, and plastered over to keep out the cold, with but one large fire place to warm the room, and poorly lighted, with a long plank in the place of a desk fastened to the logs on one side, and with a long, narrow window just above it, where they had to do their writing, standing up; on the other side of the house two small windows, and at the back or side op- posite the fire one window and one door, the only place to enter or retire from the room. Then, with some thirty to fifty scholars all in the one room, the different classes reciting their lessons with only one teacher for the whole school, with no privacy or place to study other than the one room, you can easily see the difference between now and then. The school houses were often located out in the forest, seldom within a mile of the nearest house, the children compelled to walk, from one to three miles to school, and home again in the evenings, no matter how deep the snow or mud, as the case might be, with poor shoes (no rubbers those days) without over- coats and but thinly clad in home made jeans, without lining, with no flannels, only a thin cotton shirt. But then they did not mind the wet and cold, they were used to roughing it and would laugh at the mud, the snow and the cold, and thought they were the happiest and luckiest children in the world, for they lived in the land of the free and the brave and cared little for their surroundings. The school sessions generally lasted only through the winter months, as the boys were needed to work the farm, as soon as plow- ing could be done, and the girls for the house work. No trips to the lakes or summer touring, but hard plodding work from day- light till dark all through spring, summer and fall, and then when a teacher could be procured, to school again for the winter. Not- withstanding the hardships seemingly through which they had —101— to pass, they were as happy, and possibly more so, than the chil- dren of this age. The nearest school house to my father's home was something over a mile, and the road through a dense wood. It was a lonely walk for little ones in the dark, short days of winter. I only remember of attending school in this house one winter or session. The next nearest school house was two miles away, there we spent several winters. The teacher, Bohannan by name, was a kind, pleasant man, but required strict observance of his rules and would thrash disobedient scholars, whether large or small, until they submitted to his rule. At one time one of the scholars, a grown man with whiskers on his face, had broken some of the rules of school. The teacher said to him he was too large to whip, but that he must punish him; gave him his choice either to be dismissed from school or take a whipping. He said he could not afford to lose the opportunity of school and would submit to the whipping, so in the presence of all the scholars, he took off his coat when the teacher gave him a severe thrashing. This teacher w^as very fond of fun and would use play time in playing ball or some game with the scholars. At one Christmas time the school asked for a holiday. He told them he would not grant it, but wanted every scholar there on Christmas morning. The boys said nothing, but quietly conspired to turn the teacher out on Christmas morning, agreeing to meet early and bar the door so that he could not get in, but he suspecting what was going on, also came early, entered the room rapped for order and ordered every one to get their books and begin the day's work. Every one in the room took their seats. In a little while he called the class to recite and only one walked out to the middle of the room. When the others did not come he ordered the one on the floor to proceed with the lesson, he, taking courage from the action of the others, refused. After repeated attempts to get him to proceed, he re- marked that ii kind words would not do, he would try what virtue there was in a switch, so he left the room, pretending to go for a switch. The larger boys immediately barred the door and windov/s with the benches (which in those days were simply logs split in half with pegs stuck in them for legs without backs or any support for the children) and awaited the return of the teacher. Instead of returning he started for his home and to get his horse. After waiting some little while for his return, they looked out of the win- dow and saw him some half mile away running at the top of his speed. They immediately gave chase and ran him around through the woods until about two o'clock p. m., when they caught and brought him to the school house and then demanded two weeks' holiday. He refused ; said he v/ould not give holiday. After a long parley they concluded to take him to a pond and duck him until he —102— would consent. After carrying him half way to the pond he said : "Hold on, boys, I will give you one week." "No," they replied, "two weeks, or a ducking." "I can't give it," he said, so they picked him up, carried him to the pond and gave him one more chance. He finally agreed to give the two weeks, and after a little while he in- vited the whole school out in the woods to a banquet he had prepared for a Christmas treat. There we found an old negro man in charge with all kinds of eatables ; cakes, apples, pies, nuts, and above all, two great big turkeys roasted, cut up and ready for eating. When we got through with the feast it was dark and a long, cold \\alk of from two to three miles home, but all were happy and the teacher the most pleased and happiest one in the bunch. After leaving Howard County my father moved to Westport in Jackson County. Here we found a small school house, one room, built of logs out in the woods about half a mile from the town. One of the teachers we had there was very fond of play and at every opportunity, was out with the boys playing ball or some other game. In summer when we had school he would give a recess from eleven in the morning until two o'clock and say to the boys, "eat your lunch and all break for Brush Creek, and I can beat any boy in the school there." We would plunge into the creek and swim and play for an hour or two, then return and resume our studies. —103— THE CONDITION OF MISSOURI AT THE TIME OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE IN 1804. By DR. WILLIAM L. CAMPBELL. The subject of this paper is the condition of Missouri at the time of the consummation of the Louisiana purchase, March 10, 1804. By the Louisiana purchase is meant the acquisition by the United States from France of, broadly speaking, the territory west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. In the year 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte, jealous of the growing importance of Spain and England, in the new world, wielding the iron hand of power, forced Spain into the treaty of Idelfonso, made October 1, 1800, by which she ceded to France all of her territory known as Louisiana, west of the Mississippi River, in consideration that the Prince of Parma, who was a son-in-law to the King of Spain, should be established in Tuscany. Accordingly, in July, 1802, the Spanish authorities were directed to deliver possession to the French com- missioners, but the act was not consummated until December 20, 1803. The supremacy of England on the high seas at this period practically prevented France from instituting any acts by trans- ferring troops to the newly acquired territory, and France wisely resolved to accept the offer of the United States, and sell the vast territory to that government for $15,000,000.00. This purchase, accomplished during the administration of President Jefferson, was formally concluded on the 30th of April, 1803, and on the 21st of October, 1803, Congress ratified the treaty. The formal trans- fer did not take place in St. Louis, as most persons think, but took place in New Orleans, in December, 1803. The agent designated by France for securing possession of Upper Louisiana from the Span- ish, for the Spanish commander was still in charge in St. Louis, was Capt. Amos Stoddard, a captain of artillery, in the service of the United States. He received the title from the Spanish to the French, March 9, 1804, and on the next day (March 10) trans- ferred it to the United States. The settled portions of Missouri were then for the purposes of local government divided into four districts, and the total white and slave population was about 10,200. In numerical strength the Anglo-American, not the French, predominated, even in that day. Kansas City was in the district of St. Louis. Jackson County, according to Switzer's History of Missouri, was settled in 1807. In 1803, an expedition to explore the country from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, called the Lewis and Clark, was formed, and it set out up the Missouri River, May 16, 1804, and explored to the Pacific Ocean, returning to St. Louis September 29, 1806. On its way up, the expedition stopped at the mouth of the Kaw River, over- hauled its boats, court martialed two members of the party for drunkenness, and reported that there was a multitude of birds named paroquets here, and but few Indians. The Kansas River Indians clung to their old ways of bows and arrows, but other Indians had obtained gun powder and bullets from white traders, and had decimated the first-named Indians, and the remnant was at that time away, temporarily, further west on a buffalo hunt. The paroquet is now extinct. —104— In opening this paper, I would state that if any one has the impression that Missouri was a wilderness, inhabited solely by savages at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century — that is the time of the Louisiana purchase — that idea is an erroneous one. According to unquestioned authorities, the population, not includ- ing Indians, of the town of St. Louis and adjoining settlements in the year 1788, the time being before the Louisiana purchase, reached nearly 1,200, while that of St. Genevieve was alDout 800. In 1799, other Missouri towns and their population were: St. Charles, 875 ; St. Ferdinand, 276 ; Marius der Liard, 376 ; Meramec, 115; St. Andrew, 393 ; St, Genevieve, 949; New Bourbon, 560; Cape Girardeau, 521; New Madrid, 782, and Little Meadour, 72. The total was over 6,000 — no Indians included. Of these, a little less than 5,000 were white persons and approximately 1,100 negroes. Of these negroes 200 were free, and the rest were slaves. Having spoken of the eastern part of the State, I will now refer to the condition of the western part in that early day. That Gazetteer of the State of Missouri, published in St. Louis in 1837, has on page 194 the following paragraph in reference to this exact location, the site of Kansas City, in the year 1705, long before the American Revolution. It shows that white men carried en a fur trade at this point 209 years ago. The paragraph reads : "The French then in 1705 ascended the Missouri as far as the Kan- sas river, the point where the western boundary line of Missouri now strikes the Missouri river. The Indians there cheerfully engaged in trade with them, and all the tribes on the Missouri, with the exception of the Blackfeet and the Arickaras, have since generally continued on friendly terms with the whites. It should be observed that the French traders have always been more fortunate in their intercourse with the Indians than those of any other nation." On page 266 of the 9th volume of the reports of the Kansas State Historical Society, there is further proof that there were white men living in Missouri along the Missouri River and vicinity 214 (1913) years ago. It states: "As early as 1700, there were not less than 100 coureurs des bois or trappers domiciled among the Missouri river. The coureur des bois was a type of the earliest pioneer now long extinct. He was a French Canadian, and in his habits was blended the innocent simplicity of the fun-loving French and the wild traits and woodcraft of the Indian. Born in the woods, he was accustomed from childhood to hardships and exposures of a wild life in the wilderness, and was a skillful hunter and trapper. His free and easy going manners, peaceable disposition and vivacity, qualified him for association with the Indian, whose customs he adopted, and he often married into the tribe and became one of its number. It was this roving individual who, as he wandered up and do'WTi the Missouri river, gave the poetic and musical French names to its tributaries and prominent localities that they bear to this day, such as the Marias des Cygnes (river of the Swans), Creve Cour (broken heart), Cote sans dessein (a hill without a cause), Roche Percee (pierced rock). Bonne Femme (a good woman), Aux vasse Gasconade (turbu- lent). La Mine (the mine), Pomme de Terre (apple of the earth — potato), Moreau (very black), and Niangre (crooked). Chittenden's American Fur Trade, Volume 1, p. 56, will con- firm the statements just made. As the French voyageurs could neither read nor write, no rec- ord of his annual trip was made by him, and hence none are pre- served. By this I do not mean men like Choteau, Lisa and Sarpy. They were employers in the days of the fur trade when carried on —105— by individuals, and antedated that great concern known as the American Fur Company, of which organization my grandfather's^ brother was the St. Louis manager for several years subsequent to the year 1824. Now, I would ask the question, if there were 100 whites domi- ciled among the Indians along the Missouri River in 1700, what ratio of increase might we reasonably expect in 1804 — more than a century having elapsed? An implied proof is found in the fact that by a treaty of June 3, 1825, special provision was made for each of the half breeds of the Kansas nation. These half breeds were the children of the white men who had married squaws, and the Kansas Indians lived in the vicinity of what is now Kansas City. The year 1825 was just twenty-one years after 1804, and was the year of attaining majority for any half breed child bom at the time of the accession of the territory by the United States. Mention has already been made of the French trading with the Indians on the bank of the Missouri, at the confluence of the Kaw River, in the year 1700. This location seems to have been a meeting point with the French for about 166 years. Did you ever hear of the French Bottom, with reference to describing a location at Kansas City ? You may never have heard it, but it was a name as familiar to the old-timers as East Bottoms is to the people of today. The name French Bottoms is now obsolete. To quote Blackstone, "From the time to which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary" up to the advent of railroads there, say about 1867, the tract bounded on the north by the Missouri River, on the south by Turkey Creek where it now is, not by where it was in that day ; on the west by Kaw River, and on the east by the bluffs, now about Bluff and Lincoln Streets, was called the French Bot- toms. The late Dr. I. M. Ridge once made an address before this society, with the "French Bottoms" as the subject. A tablet com- memorating this name should be placed in some conspicuous spot in the West Bottoms. History also chronicles the assertion that, in 1800, Louis Bertholet, a Frenchman, had a trading post on the Missouri River, at what is now the southern extremity of the Milwaukee Bridge, in the East Bottoms, in Kansas City. You will find this statement in regard to Louis Bertholet on page 405 of volume Tv of Conavd's Encyclopedia of History of Missouri — a set of books donated to the public library by J. V. C. Karnes. Lewis and Clark, however, do not speak of this trading post, but they landed there, and Lewis took the latitude and the longitude. The post was on exactly the opposite side of the river from what we now call the Thomas H. Benton Rock, a point of historic significance to this society, and the stone on which Thomas H. Benton stood when he made his prediction in regard to the future greatness of Kansas City. We know that Daniel Morgan Boone, the noted pioneer who came to Missouri from Kentucky in 1787, was a trapper on the Blue River, principally between here and Independence, for twelve years. Concerning the principal resources of this country in 1804, I would say that what is now Missouri was known as a country of mineral wealth long before it was under control of the United iRobert Campbell. —106— states. The pioneers who first visited this country came in search of minerals and furs, and this region became famous for both at the same time. Impress it on your memory that Missouri is one of the old parts of the United States. Away back in the year 1541, the first European set foot on Missouri soil. The place where New Madrid now stands. It was De Soto's band of Spaniards who did this. Col. W. F. Switzler, Missouri's historian, emphasizes this point in his book on the history of the State. As far as my re- search has led me, this assertion is not contradicted, but other authors concur in the statement. No permanent settlement, how- ever, was made. You have heard how the Boston people in Revolutionary days pulled down the leaden statue of George III, and moulded it into bullets to be shot against the soldiers of the aforesaid George, but Missouri did better than that. How many have heard that Mis- souri furnished lead from her own mines, to be used by American soldiers in the days of the American Bevolution ? History records it as a fact that such was the case. The lead was taken down the Mississippi River, and shipped by way of New Orleans. It was taken from Mine La Motte, a mine discovered in 1720, by two Frenchmen, La Motte and Renaud, and, as lead was a valuable commodity in the frontier days, the discovery of a large deposit of it right at home made it of especial value in those times of crude transportation facilities, the lead itself being such heavy material. The first reverberatory furnace for the purpose of reducing lead ore erected in the United States — that is in what afterward became a part of the United States— was put up in Missouri, by Moses Austin, in 1789, near Potosi. He was an American, but he secured from the Spanish government a large grant of land. Saltpetre was found as a deposit in the caves along the Gasconade River in early days, and was used in the manufacture of gun powder, so that the pioneer had two most useful articles, powder and lead, right at his door. With reference to the commerce, I would say that the bulk of the commerce was along the navigable streams. During the entire Eighteenth Century, the navigation of the Missouri River was confided to the wooden canoe, and its commerce was limited to the primitive fur trade. It became, however, a trade of considerable magnitude. It is certain that by the time that St. Louis was estab- lished, in 1764, the fur trade of the French upon the Missouri River had become well established. Scharf's History of St. Louis, Vol., pp. 272 to 276 ; and when the United States government for- mally took possession of the Louisiana Territory, at Main and Wal- nut Street, March 10, 1804, St. Louis had a large trade in hides and furs, lead and whisky, and some trade in salt. Beads, fire arms, blankets, and articles of that kind were shipped to St. Louis and handled by the merchants there, but were not local productions. There was a real estate boom, an era of speculation in St. Louis and Eastern Missouri from 1800 to 1804. That does not sound like a howling wilderness story. The salt mentioned did not come from Saline Springs in the Boone Lick country, but was found in salt pits, the exact location of which I am unable to give. Concerning the liquor trade of that day, let me cite an instance of difference of public sentiment between then and now. Kansas City has been —107— in the throes of anti-saloon agitation recently, with special refer- ence to Westport Avenue and East Fifteenth Street. In that day, two large land grants were made by the Spanish government for distillery purposes, then a third to supply fuel for the distilleries, after which no more whisky was imported into the province of Upper Louisiana. Home production was equal to home consump- tion. One of these grants was made to Col. Auguste Chouteau, who built the first distillery in St. Louis. The Indians that were in Missouri in 1804 were the Osages, Sac and Fox, Missouris, lowas, Kickapoos, Shawnees and Dela- wares. These are the tribes generally enumerated. My own im- pression is, there must have been some of the Miamis and the Kansas River Indians. I have also been informed of Indians that were in the south central part of the State, called Ozarks. They were a branch of one of the larger tribes. Missouri in that day had many evidences of a dense, prehis- toric population — antedating the Indians. These were mound- builders and cave-dwellers. Stone masonry of dressed stone was used by some of these prehistoric people, and they used machinery to a certain extent, particularly the lathe, in manufacturing turned articles. The savages did nothing of this kind. Among the mounds of this prehistoric people, found in this State, were several differ- ent kinds. There were burial, sacrificial and historical mounds, stone mounds and garden mounds. There were stone sepulchres in St. Louis and Perry counties. According to the writings of Prof. A. J. Conant, who made investigation of Missouri mounds, it is easy for an archaeologist to distinguish an Indian burial mound from a mound builder's mound. I will quote Professor Conant's exact language: "That Missouri was the home of a vast popula- tion, composed of tribes who had fixed habitations, dwelt in large towns, practiced agriculture on a large scale, with a good deal of method and skill, who had also a well organized system of religious rites and worship, and whose aesthetic tastes were far in advance of the savage tribes, who roamed over the prairies and hill ranges, when her great rivers were first navigated by white men, is, I am confident, no difficult matter to prove." I would say that the metropolis, the capital city, the seat of government of this ancient people was where New Madrid now is. St. Louis was formerly called the mound city, and many mounds were found there. The Great Mound was a particular instance, and it was probably used for purposes of sun worship. The caves of Missouri existed in the days of Lewis and Clark as they do now — unchanged to this day. Along the Gasconade River are caves in cliffs, sometimes 250 feet above the level of the stream. We read little about them, and the general public is not aware of their existence. The caves of Pulaski County, situated on the cliffs of the Gasconade, should be a subject of exploration for a Kansas City party, and for special articles for Kansas City Sunday papers. Among these were the saltpetre caves mentioned. Some of these were burial places, but not Indian burial places. They antedate the savages. The Indians, it is well known, kept away from these caves, and avoided them. They regarded these gloomy caverns with superstitious fear; for in them they believed the Great Manitou dwelt. In St. Louis and in the other old French set- —108— tlements, there was a gay social life, many years before the coun- try belonged to the United States, and these French customs pre- vailed long after the United States had the country. Capt. Amos Stoddard, in his history, speaks of it. I will mention the holiday attire of one of the principal ladies of St. Louis, quoted from a book of descriptions written by a woman : "Her petticoat was of black satin, and her short gown or jacket was of purple velvet with wide lace in the sleeves and at the neck, and gorgeously beaded moccasins were on her feet. Her head dress seemed to be of some thin material, purple in color, and worn like a turban, but en- twined with ribbons and flowers until it became a gorgeous coro- net." FASHIONABLE PEARL STREET. Written for the Missouri Valley Historical iSociety in 1911 by the late Dr. 'William L. Campbell. 1 The Otero house, in which Miguel Otero, recently governor of New Mexico, spent his days of early boyhood, stood on the emi- nence at the northwest corner of Fifth and Locust, then High Street. It is a brick dwelling, constructed in the days before the Civil War, and today it is apparently as substantial as when new. It is of severely plain style of architecture, and had no porches upon it to decay and give the building a dilapidated appearance. Miguel Otero, father of Governor Otero, occupied the house about the opening of the Civil War and also prior to that time. He was then engaged in what was known as the "Forwarding and Commission" business on the levee — nov/ an obsolete business, and even the words describing it do not convey any intelligent meaning to the average present-day reader. At that era of the city's existence it was probably the most profitable business in the place and the men were the best class of advertisers in the Journal of Commerce, now the Kansas City Journal. These advertisements were in the Spanish language, and were in huge display type, by the column. D. V. Whiting, who also occupied this house as a home, was in the forwarding and commission business at the southwest corner of Delaware Street and the Levee, in a large three-story brick build- ing, now a ruin, having been twice destroyed by fire. The first of these fires was a tragedy of that day followed by a long sequel in iDr. "Wllliain L. Campbell (1855-1919) was the son of John Campbell, one of the city's most famed pioneers and his wife. Charlotte (also born Campbell). Dr. Campbell was born in the historic old "Harris House" on Westport avenue. He saw the city expand from a frontier settlement into the second city of the State. An expert on local history, his great love for it, as a native, son, caused him to jealously g-uard its accurate recording-. He was a faithful spirit in the organization of this Historical Society and nothing ever preceded it in his interest and activities. He served the Society as director, vice-president and president. His death was an irreparable loss to our org-anization. (Ed.) —109— court — both civil suits and criminal proceedings. W. H. Chick, now (1911) of 1101 Brooklyn Avenue, was in the forwarding and com- mission business contemporaneous with Otero and Whiting, on the Levee midway between Main and Delaware Streets, and was burned out there in 1864 — a total loss, as no insurance could be procured owing to the unsettled condition of the times, because of the war. W. H. Chick lived in what was called a "Cincinnati house," another obsolete term — and the house was situated on the north side of Pearl between Grand Avenue and Walnut Street. Pearl is a short street — the first street north of Second Street, and extends from Walnut to Grand Avenue. It is used solely by the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, and is a deep cut fringed on the south side by a luxuriant growth of jessamines from the old Choteau homestead, and on the other side, at the top of the bank orna- mented by locust trees planted in the yard of John C. McCoy, J. S. BoaiTnan, William M. Chick, W. H. Chick and the Jarboes during the years from 1837 to 1860. The name Pearl, as a street desig- nation, is also an obsolete term. Even the street car men who run over it now do not know it by its proper nomenclature, and fur- thermore, the city authorities have let it slip their minds so far as to forget its place on the official plat book, and to allow another street to be called by the same name — Pearl Street, in Westport. It is an unallowable impropriety in any municipality to permit two streets to be called by a similar name, because of resulting con- fusion. Sixty years ago Pearl was the principal residence street of the town. Among the notables entertained there were Wash- ington Irving, Thomas H. Benton, John C. Fremont, and also church dignitaries — bishops of the Catholic and also of the Meth- odist churches. Desuetude to the extent of losing even its name among men was not thought of in that day. These houses on Pearl Street were not small inferior affairs, most of them were of brick. Only one house, that of Mr. W. H. Chick, the "Cincinnati house," was a cottage. It was called a Cincinnati house because it belonged to a class of frame houses constructed by a Cincinnati firm that manufactured what might be termed ready-made houses. People purchased these houses, and the manufacturing firm shipped them by steamboats in "the knock down," to be put to- gether and erected at their destination, the component parts being separate in shipment. None of the houses are now standing, but the Cincinnati house outlived them all, and survived the cyclone of 1886 that destroyed some of its brick neighbors. It never did wear out, and was inhabited at the time of its destruction by fire, in 1896. The entire location is known now as "Hobo Hill," because of the numbers of tramps and vagrants who sleep on the ground there, particularly during the summer nights. Many of these Cincinnati houses were shipped to towns along the Missouri River, and a part of Leavenworth was called "Cin- cinnati," because it was made up of this kind of buildings. The house in which these Spanish "ads" were "set up" by the printer — the building where the Journal of Commerce was pub- lished — is the three-story brick structure at No. 10 Main Street, staunch and strong as when put up, over half a century ago, and neater in appearance in its second youth than in its earlier days. —110— It is used as a business office and repository by a large brewing company, and is kept up to the acme in the matter of fresh paint and repairs. Colonel R. T. Van Horn and Mr. D. K. Abeel, the owners and publishers, are still living, one here and the other in California.^ John McReynolds, the printer who "set up" the "ads" lives at 1415 East Sixteenth Street. At the north end of the block from the Otero home is still standing the home of I. W. McDonald, the town saddler of early days, although the owner is long since dead. This house is at the southwest corner of Fourth and Locust Streets. Between it and the Otero place were the houses of the late Dr. Joseph M. Wood, the pioneer surgeon, and of Mr. Sim Kelly, now of Wichita. The Kelly house shows no evidence of old age, and in the warm months the yard is filled with a profusion of flowers. Across the street on the east side of it and opposite the Kelly and the Woods homes are the former dwellings of Dr. G. W. Tindall and John Evans. Both owners are dead. Mrs. Tindall survives. The houses are brick and appear to be good for a future century, surrounded as they are by a forest of trees, placed there when small by the early occupants. Diagonally opposite the McDonald home, at the north- east corner of Fourth and Locust Streets stood the house occupied by William Gilliss and his niece, Mrs. Mary A. Troost, at the time of Mr. Gilliss' death in 1869. It was a large brick house command- ing a view of the vicinity. Street excavation placed it about 25 feet above grade, and while it fronted west, it was reached by a flight of steps on the Fourth Street side. The house has been torn down and the ground elevation of the lot reduced to the grade elevation of the street long ago; not a vestige remains. Mrs. Troost was a great lover of flowers, and the yard was a miniature botanical garden. At her death she left the flowers and shrubs to Samuel W. Gregory, then a boy. Prior to the Gilliss occupancy of this house Mr. Wheatley of Hubbell, Wheatley & Co., wholesale business men at Delaware Street and the Levee, lived there, and Mr. Gilliss then resided at his country home, now 2727 Holly Street. At 513 East Fourth Street, near the site of the Gilliss home is the house where lived A. L. Harris, now dead, formerly mayor of this city and subsequently of Durango, Colorado. The house is well kept and in excellent condition, resplendent in fresh paint, and is the home of a prosperous Italian. Mr. Harris was the father of Mrs. W. V. Lippincott and Mrs. John C. Moore. A two-story brick structure that stood at the southeast comer of Third and Delaware Streets was a history-maker. It was the home of W. G. Barkley, and in its parlor in May 1857, the first Presbyterian church in Kansas City was organized, under the pastorate of Rev. R. S. Symington, whose son is now a banker in Independence — the father having been dead for several years. Mr. Barkley was then in business with Jesse Riddlesbarger on the Levee near the store of W. H. Chick, and Mr. Riddlesbarger was also president of the Mechanics Bank, that stood at the northwest corner of Second and Main Streets, and from the basement of which building the Santa Fe stages started. Mr. Riddlesbarger's case was a striking exam- iBoth have died since this paper was written. —Ill— pie of the mutations of fortune. He died in the poor house at St. Louis about 32 years ago. Mr. Barkley left Kansas City, and was subsequently treasurer of Montana. He is now dead. The grader left the Barkley house 30 feet above the street level, and the house was razed and embankment reduced, and a three-story business house now stands on its site. It is my impression that General Swing's famous "Order No. 11 "emanated from the Pacific House at Fourth and Delaware Street, one block south of the Barkley home. Antebellum structures are becoming more and more scarce in Kansas City every year. It may be interesting to relate as an instance that on Third Street — one of the old streets of the city — only five houses that were built before the Civil War are now standing. One is the Guinotte homestead at Third Street and Troost Avenue, another the Riley home at 514, a third, the James Mansfield store at 415 East Third Street, and a fourth, John Rooney's place, at 109 East Third Street, and fifth, 300 Main Street. The Riley and the Mansfield houses are the homes of Italians. Negroes are in the Rooney house. There are some north side houses standing that were built just after the close of the war — when business activity was renewed, and they are erroneously classed as older than they are. Along that length of Grand Avenue from Twelfth Street to the Missouri River are but two before-the-war houses. One of these is the dilapidated frame structures on the west side of the avenue at Sixth Street, now tenanted by Negroes, and the old Norton house — a frame house on the east side of the avenue north of Third Street, where Dr. Joshua Norton died in 1860, but this house has retrograded even too far for colored occupancy, and is now uninhabited. Mrs. Norton was one of the company that sat in the parlor of the Barkley house at the church organization previously mentioned, and was the last surviving member of this church, having but recently died. At the northeast corner of Campbell and Pacific Streets, in the Italian settlement just south of the Holy Rosary church, is a time-worn, two-story brick residence, where Francis Lynde passed his boyhood. Francis Lynde is now a novelist author of "The Grafters," and other books, and has long since left Kansas City for a home in the east. The largest of these old-time residences was the John Camp- bell house, that with its highly-ornamented grounds occupied the entire block on the east side of Campbell between Second and Third Streets. It was built in 1860 and 1861, and was an expen- sive building, particularly as to the interior decorations ; one item of which — the marble — was imported from Italy, and the stained glass was also of European manufacture. The house became a railway hospital in 1884, and about the grounds convalescent pa- tients strolled. After fifteen years of use as a hospital, the building was abandoned and torn down because of deep excava- tions in the vicinity and the prevalence of noxious fumes from neighboring brick yards. Prior to 1861 the Campbell home was a two-story brick house at Pearl and Walnut Streets, across the street from the Chick mansion and next door to that of Dr. John- —112-^ CAMPBELL HOME. "Fashionable Pearl Street" — This home once occupied a block of grountl. Camp- bell and Charlotte streets are named after Mr. Campbell and his wife. son Lykins. This house w?s originally owned by Captain Louis Sharp, a Missouri river steamboat man, and was destroyed in the cyclone of 1886. A group of east-side residences built before the war still stands on both sides of Charlotte, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, and Italians live in the homes that were once the domi- ciles of the Shannons, Chouteaus, Ashtons and others. On the Levee between Main and Walnuts Streets, a block of business houses that were built in the fifties remain. They are tenanted and are still used for business purposes. In nearly every instance the old houses that have disappeared were torn down to make room for more modern structures, in accordance with the idea that every city is built at least three times ; once a pioneer village, and then these houses are pulled down to make room for that of the town that succeeds the vil- lage, and in regular succession after a lapse of years, the struc- tures of the town are razed to the ground, and those of the city built upon the sites. -113- WILLIAM GILPIN. October 4, 1813-January 19, 1894. Gift to the Missouri Valley Historical Society from Mr. Jerome Smiley, Denver. -114— MAJOR WILLIAM GILPIN, THE PROPHET OF KANSAS CITY Chapter from forthcoming "History of Kansas City." By W. U WEBB. There graduated from West Point, toward the latter part of President Jackson's administration, a young man by the name of William Gilpin. He was even then animated by visions of the mystic West, where a varied career awaited him. Destiny had marked him for distinction as a soldier, politician, pathfinder and prophet. Major Gilpin was a strong mixture of the visionary and the man of practicability, being both a dreamer and man of action. His influence in developing the vast and unexplored wilderness west of the Mississippi River has not been understood nor appre- ciated by the American people. He was the supporter of Benton, the companion of Fremont, and the friend of Lincoln. His zeal for the west called out opposition speeches from Webster on two separate occasions. For more than 40 years he lived in the west and devoted all the energies of his scholarly mind to those vast problems of western commerce, which are now being solved, and which affect all the lands washed by the Pacific Ocean. The Gilpins came in pioneer days from England, where the family was an ancient and honorable one. Hubert H. Lancroft, in "Chronicles of Builders," says, in giving the lineage of the family, "For his devotion to Richard Coeur de Leon, whom in Austria, on retiring from his first crusade, King John would have caused to be murdered and for slaying a wild boar which infested the forests of Westmorland and Cumberland, the baron of Kendal in 1206, gave the manor of Kentmore to Richard Guylpyn, a substantial commoner, whose original came in with William the Conqueror." The Gilpin and Washington families were neighbors in England and a William Gilpin married Elizabeth Washington, ancestress of the first president of this countiy. The Gilpins were Quakers and they lived at the Old Brandy- wine battle field. At the time of the battle of Brandywine, the home of the Gilpins was the headquarters of Gen. Lafayette. Here was born our William Gilpin, the man who loved the great west and who foresaw and foretold the rise of Kansas City. He was born amid elegant and luxurious surroundings, in a home overlooking the Delaware, having in sight Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. Andrew Jackson and many other prominent men were frequent visitors at the Gilpin home. William Gilpin was a favorite of "Old Hickory." At the age of 12 years William Gilpin was coached for six months by Hawthorne for admission to the University of Pennsyl- vania. Having graduated in due time, he was sent to England to finish his education, according to the custom pursued toward all the Gilpin children. An older brother was then consul at Belfast. Returning to America young William Gilpin found that his elderly friend, Andrew Jackson, had become president of the United States, and he easily secured the president's appointment of a cadetship to West Point, where he studied with Gen. Meade and Montgomery- Blair. Bancroft says of him at the time of his graduation : "He had been educated almost to death by the brightest in- —115— tellects of the world, and now he would try the merit of his own mind. For some time past he had read and thought much re- garding" the great unoccupied west, never losing an opportunity to converse with those familiar with the subject. Already military forces were on the frontier, stationed at various forts, at once to restrain and protect the Indians and prevent white men from illegally entering their territory. All this was thrilling romance to the young cadet. Some day he would go there, some day he would mingle with those scenes and would stir up events which, in their turn, should yet more stir up and help him on to high emprise." In 1836, the young cadet was sent to St. Louis with the com- mission of second lieutenant. He recruited among the Missouri- aps for the Florida war, in which he served for some time; was otherwise employed as an army officer in the west and south. After the election of Martin Van Buren to the presidency, he went to Washington, resigned his commission and returned to St. Louis, where he became editor of the Argus, the mission of which was at that time to re-elect Thomas Benton to the United States sen- ate. So ably did he conduct the Argus that Webster, never friendly to the west, was constrained to come to St. Louis and made a great speech in which he urged the voters of the state to get rid of Benton. This was in 1838. Benton, guardian of the west, and Gilpin's patron saint, was returned to the senate. The leg- islature of 1840 elected Benton's friend, Gilpin, chief clerk of the lower house at the time Sterling Price was chosen speaker. The next year, namely 1841, the restless young Gilpin pushed further to the west and established himself at Independence, Mo., then on the outer rim of civilization. For twenty years his home was nominally at Independence. During this period he practiced law, edited a newspaper, ran for congress, penetrated the west to Oregon with Fremont, fought in the Mexican war and evolved an astonishing theory by which he predicted the rise of a great city near Independence. He made charts and maps of the world on which he located the great cities of ancient and modern times within a belt bounded by thermal lines. He thus arrived at the conclusion that the great central city of this continent would in- evitably be situated within ten miles of Independence, while an- other great city would be at Denver and another at Portland, Oregon. The account of his trip across the wilderness from Independ- ence reads like a romance. His fortune had been dissipated. He borrowed $100 from his friend, David Waldo, purchased a pack mule, then mounted his fine saddle horse and set out alone. He soon fell in with Fremont and they made the trip together. Upon his return, Gilpin went on to Washington to urge the establishment of a mail route from Independence to the mouth of the Columbia river. Arriving in Washington, he called upon Secretary of State Buchanan, whom he knew. Mr. Buchanan listened with the deepest interest to all his visitor had to say. He then said to Gilpin: "You must come with me instantly to the president and give him word for word, -as near as you can, all you have told me." President Polk was deeply interested in —116— Gilpin, whom Mr. Buchanan introduced as "The greatest traveler in the world." It was Polk's policy, as it was Benton's, to push on to the Pacific. Gilpin appeared before the committee on postal roads and urged his mail route. He spoke fervently of our com- mercial supremacy on the western ocean and of our relations to Japan and China. He pointed out the need of a railroad to the Pacific and of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The mem- bers of the committee were astonished. A favorable report was made to congress and a bill was introduced. This bill called forth from Webster one of his most eloquent flights of oratory. He was opposed to Benton, and to all of Benton's Western ideas. He was opposed to Gilpin's mail route ideas. He said, on the floor of the senate, in fighting the bill, "What do we want with this vast worthless area? This region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sand and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs ? To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or these endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and cov- ered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the Western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rock- bound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor on it? What use have we for such a country? Mr. President, I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific coast one inch nearer Boston than it is now." This was the second speech elicited from Webster by Gilpin. The war with Mexico broke out about this time, and Lieu- tenant Gilpin came home to engage in it. He was elected major in Colonel Doniphan's regiment, and he became its drillmaster and disciplinarian. Major Gilpin has received scant praise for his services with Doniphan. After the war Major Gilpin returned to Independence more convinced than before his travels that his theory as to great cities was scientifically correct. He organized a company and purchased a large body of land north of Independence and on this it was pro- posed to found the great central city. He gave a great barbecue, and excitement ran high. The city of Independence extended her limits to the Missouri River, and the citizens macadamized the street running out to "Centropolis," popularly known as Gilpin Town. Major Gilpin went on to Washington and New York to put his town lots on the market. In his absence the company went to pieces, and in 1850 its affairs were wound up in court at Liberty. At the election of 1861 he voted for Lincoln, his vote being the only one so cast in Jackson County, according to his claim. Major Gilpin was chosen as one of the body guard to the new President at the time of Lincoln's inauguration. Before leaving Washington City, he was appointed Governor of Colorado. After —117— his term of office he engaged in mining and at the time of his death was reputed to be wealthy. It would take a volume to give the life and works of this truly- great man. In 1873 he published a book entitled "The Mission of the North American People, Geographical and Political Delineat- ing the Physical Architecture and Thermal Laws of All Conti- nents." The book is rich in facts, and the facts are presented in glowing language. His whole theory may be grasped in one of his sentences: "History is the journal of geographical progress." He possessed a fervid imagination, and was an impressive orator. An extract from an oration delivered in 1849 at Independence on the Pacific railway will give an idea of the vigor and loftiness of his diction: "This occupation of wild territory, accumulating out- ward like the annual rings of our forest trees, proceeds with all the solemnity of a providential ordinance. It is at this moment sweeping onward to the Pacific with accelerated activity and force, like a deluge of men rising unabated, and daily pushed on- ward by the hand of God." The growth of Kansas City was a matter of great pride to Major Gilpin as long as he lived. When that city was surveyed, in 1851, he urged that the limits be extended to take in both West- port and Independence. He died firm in the belief that the great central city would reach the bounds prescribed by him. —118— SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE WYANDOTTES. By LILIAN WALKER HALE, read before the Historical Society. May. 1916, grand- niece of William Walker. Governor of Nebraska Territory. I feel that I am here under false pretenses, having been asked to talk about the Wyandotte Indians from my recollection or ex- perience with them. As a matter of fact, I have had very little actual experience with the Wyandottes. My father died in 1860, when I was a very small child, the war obliterated almost every- thing else — previous to that was the border troubles; I was born and brought up in an atmosphere of conflict ; everyday things were put in the background, and to my knowledge never came forward. Everything I know of the Wyandottes is largely hearsay and the experience of others. I have some few incidents in mind, very fragmentary recollections, just a few things I can remember. I think of the clans or tribes as they were called — I believe the designation as clans is rather an influence from Scotland and is therefore European. Tribe is the word we used, not clan — the Deer Tribe, Bear Tribe, Turtle Tribe, each tribe within the Nation, the Wyandotte Nation, which common usage has reduced to Wyan- dotte Tribe. Around their council fire the Deer, Bear, Porcupine and Beaver Ti^ibes sat on one side ; the Wolf Tribe at the end ; the Big Turtle, Mud Turtle, Prairie Turtle and Hawk Tribes on the opposite side of the council fire. The Deer Tribe was at the head of all the tribes ; the Wyandottes at the head of all nations — they were the keepers of the council fire. The last time the council fire was lit was in 1848, the council was called by the Wyandottes (think the Kickapoos and Osages met with them) ; they consulted as to what they should do, they foresaw the invasion of the white people, although the government had promised the Indians beyond the Missouri never should be disturbed. They met to consult and consider what to do ; out of that grew the political situation which resulted in Governor Walker being made provincial governor of Nebraska; from that the Kansas-Missouri border agitation, the Civil War had its remotest beginning when our tribes met around the council fire to see what to do. All this is history, not personal recollection. My recollections seem to begin with the church, the little frame church which stood at that time immediately northwest of Huron Cemetery itself, only a fence divided them. The first min- ister I remember at our church was Father Barnard, Daddy Barnard, as we called him. To this church the Wyandotte women used to come with their black silk handkerchiefs on their heads, and their pretty shawls ; some came dressed in the latest styles of the sixties. The sermons I don't remember. Another minister I remember was H. H. Craig. He kept school in the church, the Wyandotte young people went there. My older brothers and sis- ters went ; I was too young. Rev. Dr. Scarritt used to preach very often in that church ; he was over there much of the time, an inti- mate friend and visitor — married us, buried us, baptised us. I remember so many visitors used to come to our house. Mother would send the carriage for them and they would come and spend the day, as the custom was. Many came and went whose names I do not remember, but there were the Armstrong girls, the Mud- eater girls, the Driver girls, etc. —119— I have a vivid recollection of the Corn Feast, 15th of August — sort of a harvest home festival. All gathered in the woods and had soup made of meat and corn — don't remember what else, cooked without salt — they passed the salt in their hands and each one did his own seasoning. The first feast I remember I was very small. There I received my Wyandotte name. I can't tell what it was because I do not know. Mother had a list of our names and their meaning, but it got lost in some way. My brother's name meant "Bear Cub." I do not belong to the Big Turtle Tribe, as was announced — the children belong to the tribe of the mother. My mother was not an Indian, she was a Yankee from Rhode Island. When a Wyandotte married a white person, that white person was adopted into some tribe; husband and wife do not be- long to same tribe. My father was a Big Turtle, my mother was a Bear — all her children were Bears. I can remember very little of the ceremony of being named. Uncle Jim Grey Eyes led me up to the oldest woman of the Bear Tribe, she placed her hand on my head and with certain ceremonies gave me my Indian name. I am proud of it, but I cannot tell you what it is, or what it means. Do not know of any record kept of it in the tribal record of the church. I know what my cousin's name meant — "Left Behind." I remember the second feast. We all loaded up in wagons and on horseback and went seven or eight miles to the feast. Quite a number of white citizens attended and we had a great deal of fun. The idea that the Indian has no sense of humor, that he is hewn out of a block of wood, that nothing stirs him to laughter, is a mistake — they have a keen sense of humor. A young white man attended this feast. He was very much interested and thought he would like to have an Indian name. So they said they would give him one, and they did, and he was very proud and went about saying it. Finally he asked what his name meant and was in- formed it meant "polecat." They, however, gave him another Indian name — that was merely a joke. The polecat or skunk was supposed to be able in a medical sense to cure smallpox. All ani- mals associated very intimately with the Wyandottes. Then there was the dance and the refreshments. In the dance, they formed in a circle, danced around to chant and tomtom. One man had deer hoofs on a string around his leg, which made additional clat- ter; think they had some kind of pipe, not sure, but remember drum and deer hoofs. When they reached a certain point, gave a shout and the women danced around outside of the men. After dance, they gathered up their families and went home. That was the last feast ever held in Wyandotte County; in that year (1868) they emigrated to Oklahoma where they now are. They do not have feasts now because they have been so exploited by the white people. So far as the language goes, my father did not allow his wife or any of the children to speak the language; do not know why, except visitors were so numerous, and servants hard to get, and with a family of small children, presume father thought if it was understood we did not know the language, they would not be en- couraged to come and make such long visits. I regret that I am not able to speak the language. —120— I feel as though I was appearing somewhat under a fraudulent title, because there was so little Indian in our family, excepting that we have always been under the kind protection of the De- partment of the Interior. If we sell any land, we have to consult the Department of the Interior, and sign a paper saying we have no bad habits, do not drink, able to attend to our own affairs — signs, and seals and seals, all very formal. The last land is in Montana, the Absentee Wyandotte Land. I am very familiar with the workings of the Department of the Interior, or with its "not workings" — it takes a long time to put anything into the Depart- ment and get it out again. However, they treat us more or less well. (Mrs. Hale then gave the Wyandotte version of the Creation, as given in books telling their folk tales and traditions.) The starting of Kansas City was by the Wyandottes — not that they settled here, but they spent their money here, their large pay- ments from the government kept up business around the levee for many years. A few of the Wyandottes lived here a short time until they could get the land cleared and houses built. Mother said it was an impenetrable forest when the Wyandottes came. Mother used to sing Wyandotte hymns at the church. She used to sing Wyandotte Lullaby to my daughter. It was beautiful, but I couldn't understand it. Every once in a while you hear something about Indian Chief. We are all daughters of different chiefs. The chief was an elec- tive office, not a royal line, the chief was elected in council like we would elect a mayor or any other officer. It is no great glory to be called the descendant of any chief, that was like it is today — he who got votes enough could be chief. —121— JACKSON COUNTY'S FIRST COURTHOUSE. BUILT IN 1827. Ninety-three years ago the first pubhc building of Jackson County was built of logs at Independence. This was the first courthouse. When the county was created in 1827, there was no settlement of any importance, within her boundaries, that could be used as a nucleus for a county seat. Thus, a high piece of ground, in the wooded portion of the county was chosen for the seat of her government ; a few blocks of ground in the vicinity of what is now the "public square," and the spot named "Independence." Fort Osage had been abandoned by the government in 1825, leaving a few settlers near its site. This was Old Sibley; a year later a flood wiped out the homes of those who had settled in the east bottoms. So, hope centered about the new county seat, as the coming great city on the west border. The members of the county court had found it irksome to pay rent. And when a bill of two dollars for the use of a room for two days' court was presented for payment, it was detennined to build a temporary house of justice. This first house was not in- tended for permanent use. The court had greater plans for the county than to have its judicial decisions set forth in a one-story log cabin. In 1827, Lilburn W. Boggs (first), clerk of the county court, governor of Missouri, 1836-42, was ordered to arrange for its erection. The order provided that the building be of logs, with stone foundation, and a brick chimney at either end, that the two rooms of the building might be properly heated. The contract was let to Daniel P. Lewis, lowest bidder, for $150.00. In order that nothing should be lacking an appropriation of $175.00 was made to cover the cost of the building. Lewis be- gan work in the fall of 1827, completing the house by the following February.^ The first judges to preside within its walls were Abraham McClellan, Richard Fristoe and Henry Burris. It stood a block east of the square, on the corner east of Lexington and Lynn. Quaint old houses stand on Lynn Street. That is a narrow and lit was scarcely finished before the County Court approved plans for a per- manent courthouse at a cost of $1,500.00. —122— quiet lane today. The old building passed from one owner to another until about the time of the Civil War, when it passed into the hands of Preston Roberts, who used it as a residence. Where the Roberts family lived, there fashion was. Lynn Street was then very gay. Beautiful women with gallants in frock coats and bright colored trousers strolled past its green lawns. There were several attempts in the past to reclaim the build- ing from private ownership. At one time it was about to be re- moved to Kansas City and placed in Swope Park. But, Independ- ence prevented this. It was not until 1916, however, that a move towards its rehabilitation was made. In 1920 the county court ap- propriated $500.00 for this purpose. And the citizens of the town under the auspices of the Community Welfare League of that place have completed the task. The building, today, forms the head- quarters of the League, where it dispenses public assistance. Hav- ing lived through the greater part of one century, the old struc- ture is reaching into the adolescence of another. Today, shorn of the ugly additions it gained through various private ownerships, it stands on a permanent foundation, remod- eled; the most historic and most beautiful monument within the limits ef that interesting old town. MATTHEW PAXTON. INDEPENDENCE SQUARE— 1850. —123— GENEALOGY OF THE GAMBLE FAMILY. In the latter part of the Seventeenth Century, two brothers of the name of Gamble emigrated from Northumberland County,- Eng- land, to Ireland. From one of these brothers was descended JOSEPH GAMBLE (1) who married Miss Montgomery. He lived in the County Derry, Ireland, and emigrated to America about the year 1752. His family, which he brought with him, consisted of his wife, his daughter Margaret (2) and his son Archibald (2). After two years' residence in the Colony of Pennsylvania, he be- came dissatisfied and returned to Ireland, leaving his daughter Margaret with relatives of her mother. After their return to Ire- land they had two children born to them, Joseph (2) and Eleanor (2). At the age of 17 Archibald (2), the elder son, again em- barked for America. His aim was to obtain an education, for which this country afforded greater facilities than Ireland at that time, and this object, by industry and application, he fully accom- plished. He became professor of Latin and Greek at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. He served in the Revolutionary War, and was engineer at the siege of Charlestown, S. C. He married Mary Lisle, a daughter of John Lisle of Philadelphia. He died in 1784, leaving four children: Thomas (3), Archibald (3), Sarah (3), and Nancy (3). For many years Thomas (3) was consul at the Isle of St. Thomas. Archibald (3) served as an officer in the war of 1812, Sarah (3) married the Rev. Cummings of Orange County, New York, and left several children ; Nancy married twice but left no children. JOSEPH GAMBLE (2), son of Joseph (1), and (— Mont- gomery) Gamble, was bom in County Derry, Ireland, May 20, 1755; he married Ann Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton, "of the Strath," and Mary Carr. She was bom May 20, 1760. In 1784, three years after their marriage, they embarked for the United States. Their first settlement was at Newcastle, Delaware, but they permanently settled at Winchester, Virginia, in 1786. Their children were: John (3), born Dec. 8, 1785; Eliza (3), bom April 13, 1788; Joseph (3), bom Jan. 4, 1790; James (3), born Dec. 28, 1792; Archibald (3), bom Jan. 14, 1794; William Hamilton (3), died young; Hamilton Rowan (3), born Nov. 29, 1798. John married a daughter of John Lynn of Tennessee; they had two sons, Joseph (4), and Carl (4), and one daughter, Annie (4) married a Presbyterian clergyman of Tennessee. Eliza (3) married Captain Samuel Baker of Frederic Co., Virginia, and had five children: i. James Baker (4), of Frederick Co., Va.; m. a daughter of Joseph Glass. ii. Joseph Baker (4), of Wheeling, West Va.; m. Joseph Moseby. iii. Annie Baker (4), m. William Lloyd Logan, of Winchester, Va. iv. Eliza (4), m. David Pitman, of St. Charles, Missouri. V. Mary Baker (4), m. Benjamin Alderson, of St. Charles, Missouri. James (3), son of Joseph and Ann (Hamilton) Gamble, married Eliza, daughter of Philip Williams, of Hardy Co., Virginia, who was clerk of the court in that County; they had a numerous family. Archibald (3), son of Joseph and Ann (Hamilton) Gamble, married Louise B. Easton, daughter of Col. Rufus Easton; they had eight children. Hamilton Rowan (3), son of Joseph and Ann (Hamilton) Gamble, married Caroline Lane Coalter, daughter of David and Ann (Carmichael) Coalter in South Carolina. The Coalter family were from Rockbridge County, Virginia. There were nine children born to Hamilton Rowan and Caroline Lane (Coalter) Gamble, six —124— of whom died young, the three others : i. Hamilton (4), b. Nov. 11, 1837; d. April 11, 1877, in Salt Lake City, Utah; m. Sarah Goode Minor, daughter of James Lawrence and Sarah Cornelia (Goode) Minor. ii. Dr. David Coalter (4), b. 1844; died , in St. Louis, Mo.; m. Flora Matthews, iii. Mary Coalter (4), b. 1842: m. Edgar Miller, of St. Louis; he d. 1905. Hamilton Gamble (4), son of Hamilton Rowan and Caroline Lane (Coalter) Gamble was a distinguished member of the bar in Jefferson City and St. Louis, Missouri, and in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died in Salt Lake City April 11, 1877, and is buried in Belfoun- taine Cemetery at St. Louis in the lot with his father, Governor Hamilton Rowan Gamble. Children of Hamilton and Sarah Goode (Minor) Gamble: i. Caroline Coalter Gamble, m. Burnett N. Simpson, of Kansas City, ii. Mary Minor Gamble, m. Charles Lyon Simpson, of Kansas City. iii. Hamilton Gamble, m. 1st Latrobe Carroll, of Washington, D. C; after his death she m. 2d, Thomas Williamson (an Englishman), of Cairo, Egypt, and lived for a time in that city; after his death she came to New York and resides there, as does her only child, Latrobe Carroll. The children of Mary Gamble Simpson are: i. Dorothea (6), m. Gilmer Meriwether, ii. Hamilton (6) Children of Dr. David and Flora (Mathews) Gamble: i. Leonore (5), died young. ii. Minnie (5), iii. Hamilton, iv. John, v. May, vi. Clarence, vii. Maud, viii. David, ix. Guy, x. Edna, xi. Ethel, xii. Allan. Children of Mary Coalter (Gamble) and Edgar Miller: i. Caroline Coalter (5). ii. Susan Earl (5), m. Matthew Woods, of St. Louis, Mo. iii. Edith Miller (5). iv. Constance Hamilton (5), m. Greer, of St. Louis. MARGARET (2), the daughter of Joseph and (Montgomery) Gamble, married John Allen and settled in Kentucky. ELEANOR (2), the youngest daughter, married John Anderson of Vir- ginia. COALTER : David and Ann (Carmichael) Coalter had a daughter, Julia Davenport Coalter, who married Judge Edward Bates of St. Louis and they had eight children, one of whom, Lieutenant-General John C. Bates, was a striking figure in the annals of the American army. Judge Edward Bates was President Lincoln's first Attor- ney-General. Frederick Bates, brother of Judge Edward Bates, second governor of Missouri in 1824-25, was of old English and American ancestry, of Quaker family. But that is for future reference. GAMBLE: The Gamble brothers, Hamilton Rowan and Archibald, were distinguished for character and ability, and upon the first fell the burden of state in those "times that tried men's souls," in the early part of the civil war. Governor Gamble's education was chiefly obtained at Hampden-Sidney College, and he was admitted to practice when he was but eighteen years of age; before he was twenty-one he had been licensed as a lawyer in three states, Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri, arriving in Missouri in 1818. Some time previously his brother, Archibald, a well trained and successful young lawyer, had located in St. Louis, was then clerk of the Circuit Court, and appointed Hamilton Rowan as his deputy. At this time the entire territory north of the Missouri River was divided into two counties, Howard and St. Charles, and Gamble soon removed to Old Franklin, the chief towTi of the former, where he was _125— appointed prosecuting attorney for the circuit. In 1824 he was appointed by Governor Frederick Bates Secretary of State, and removed to St. Charles, the temporary seat of government. After the death of Governor Bates, which occurred soon after he settled in St. Louis. In 1846 he was sent to the Legis- lature to assist in revising laws. Five years later (in 1851) a place was vacant on the Supreme Bench of the State and Hamilton R. Gamble, though belong- ing to the Whig party, was elected, and his associates on the Ijench chose him as presiding judge. Ill health led to his resignation in 1855. About 1858 Hamilton R. Gamble removed to Philadelphia and was there when the war clouds began to gather. Judge Gamble hastened home, addressed a meeting of the citizens at the court house the very next evening after his arrival, and proclaimed his unswei^ving fidelity to the Union. When the convention met later the Unionists had a majority. Judge Gamble took a prominent part in the deliberations and was unanimously chosen provisional Governor. This was in July, 1861. He shrank from the difficult task, and accepted it only when convinced that it was his duty. It is sufficient to say that Governor Gamble won a fitting place in the list of "War Governors." ARCHIBALD GAMBLE came to St. Louis in 1816. He was a lawyer; served for a year as clerk of the St. Louis Bank, then as deputy clerk under Marie P. Leduc in Judge David Barton's court. Governor William Clark ap- pointed him clerk of Circuit Court and ex-officio recorder of deeds of St. Louis County, an office he held for eighteen years, when J. F. Ruland suc- ceeded him. He was long the efficient and active legal agent of the public schools. When Lafayette visited St. Louis in 1825, he was one of the alder- men, and aided in his reception. In 1836 he was a leading spirit in railroad building movement. At one time he had charge of the St. Louis postoffice, and was secretary of the Barton Convention in June, 1831. During the last twenty years of his life, which closed in September, 1866, he lived in com- parative quiet, possessing abundant means. Like his brother, he was a strict and worthy member of the Presbyterian Church. When in the full vigor of his manhood no person was more closely identified with business enterprises and the growth of the community." (Extract from History of St. Louis City and County by J. Tliomas Scharf.) MARTHA HUMPHREYS MALTBY (Mrs. A, N.) 4130 Walnut St. -126— THE BIRTHDAY OF MISSOURI. Written in honor of Missouri's Birthday Centennial July 11, 1921 By Mabelle Brown Webb (Mrs. W. L. Webb). Poet Laureate Missouri D. A. R, and of the State Division U. D. C. Her natal day ! Missouri's ! Pride of the golden west ! Oh wreathe her a crown of garlands From the gardens she loves best, Fan the fires upon her altars Incense swing from censers gold For Missouri's Age, oh daughters. She's just a centuiy old. Oh sing her a song of triumph ! And bind her flowing hair ! Place jewels upon her bosom And gems on her arms so fair. Those arms whose brawny sinews Un-atrophied by time, Wrought for herself and people With a genius all sublime. And count your beads before her — A rosary, the strand — Each bead, recounts a story Of the marvels of her hand. Each marks momentous issue Of her prowess and her might ; Each tells a tale of wonder, If you read the tale aright. Oh wake the harp, unto her, And sound the psaltery. A nation's praise is due her. But greater she's yet to be! Though old, she is young in state-hood; Yet with Vision, wondrous wise. Proud her Advent in the" Union," And her glorious "Compromise!" Great the men who made her greatness, The Giants of her day! Her own proud soul produced them "Sons of Missouri's clay" — Great the noble band of women. Evolved from her finer mold; Lo, a "health" to our mighty mother, Now just a century old. -127— She has filled our hearts with gladness And our coffers — through the years — And has brought us shine, for shadow, She has brought us smiles, for tears, She has fed us from the bounty Of her fields of wheat, and corn, Fought our wars. We bless- her advent. Hail with pride, her natal morn. Oh deck her throne with blossoms And raise the banner, too ; The flag — her own! — Missouri's! And the old "RED, WHITE AND BLUE. And spread the feast around her. Her birthday cake, before. Lighted with an hundred candles, Emblem of her years, five score. Assemble! ye sons and daughters. Pay homage to her, our state. Of all the glorious union, Superlatively great! Review her history's pages. Symbolically told, For this is Missouri's birthday. She's just a century old. ■128— PROGRAM Kansas City Centennial Association MISSOURI DAY OCTOBER THIRD 1821 —The Gate\^ay— Written and Directed —by- Florence Magill Wallace. 1921 "THE SCOUT," Penn Valley Park. COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN Mrs. J. B. White, county chairman and souvenir program; Mi's. J. Milton Freeland, cast; Mrs. Jack Riley, Dr. E. M. Hiner, music; Mrs. Dorothy Perkins, dances; Mrs. Fred Huttig, invitations; Mrs. Arthur L. Williams, boxes; Mrs. Arthur E. Taylor, pageant program; Mrs. Wm. P. Borland, costumes; Mrs. Ada G. MacLaughlin, posters; Mrs. W. Bertram Satterlee, publicity; Louis Mahler, old-fashioned dances; Miss Marie Kelley, ballet; Miss Effie Sechrest, Haskell students; J. Milton Freeland, rough riders; Miss M. Albaugh, relics; Mrs. Hollen E. Day, flags. Hiner's Band 1821— THE GATEWAY— 1921 A processional Pageant and Masque, given under the Auspices of the Kansas City Centennial Association in the honor of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the State of Missouri, Penn Val- ley Park, Oct. 3d, Missouri Day. The Centennial Ball at Conven- tion Hall at 8:30 P. M., with the programme of songs, dances, modes and manners of the Century 1821-1921. Order of Ceremonies for the Celebration. 1 :30 P. M. — Processional Historical Parade. 3 :00 P. M.— Assembly and Speakers at Park. 4 :00 P. M.— Historical Masque, "The Gateway." 8:30 P. M.— Centennial Ball— Convention Hail. Col. Ruby D. Garrett Parade Director Florence M. Wallace Pageant Director E. M. Hiner... ...._ Music Director Mrs. P'rederick Huttig Chairman of Ball Kansas City Centennial Association OFFICERS MRS. CHARLES CHANNING ALLEN, Chairman. MR. J. C. NICHOLS, 1st Vice-Chairman. MRS. J. B. WHITE, 2nd Vice-Chairman. MRS. ADA G. MacLAUGHLIN, 1019 East Armour Blvd., Secretary. MR. H. B. LEAVENS, 301 Fidelity Trust Co., Bldg., Treasurer. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Mr. E. M. Clendenning, Mr. Maurice J. McNeills, Mr. W. B. Davis, Mr. J. A. Harzfeld, Mrs. Nettie T. Grove, Mr. Leo F. Crabbs, Mr. Franklyn Hudson PROLOGUE. Thomas Hart Benton .., Judge William E. Wallace {Pages enter ivith large book.) "Ye who would learn the glory of your past, And form a forecast of the things to he, Give heed to this, a city's trumpet blast, And see her pictured life in pageantry." The book of writing now unfolds; give ear and listen to the story of a State. A story of a maiden most surpassing fair. Miss Ouri, a daughter of the winds, the namesake of her uncle, the Chief, Big Muddy, and closely related to the famous Mrs. Sipfy. (Turns and gazes at the jncture before him.) Do my eyes deceive me, or am I only dreaming? Have I at last reached the land of the sky blue waters, the abiding place of Nature herself? Is it a vision, or is this sacred spot peopled with the spirits of grace and beauty? My good guide told me that when I reached the Gateway, where Truth abides, that the puzzling questions which remain unanswered would be made plain, that the invisible would be made visible. (Truth approaches.) And are you Truth, the real Truth? Truth : Nay, I am but Simple Truth. Prologist: Can you tell me where I am? —130— Truth : Yes, this is the island of Just Pretend, It is full of surprises and joys, It isn't intended for practical folk, But for those who are still girls and boys, Mother Nature greets you on this happy isle. And the butterflies, fairies and flowers. They bring you a message, a message of love ; Rest here, you will soon feel her powers. {E7iter Mothei' Nature, with fairies, butterflies and flowers. She ivalks to the throne, and ivhen seated, the strains of Lieber- straum are wafted up on the air. Enter first her seven laivs, LoVE, Truth, Harmony and Rhythm {the tivins), Wisdom, Law and Common Sense. Then come the Blue Birds, the Roses, Violets, Buttercups and Wind Flotuers, followed by a huge group of Forest Children in their robes of green and gold, orange and brown. They are joined by the Earth Children, Lead, Zinc, Iron and Coal. All of these children join in the play and finally fall exhausted at the feet of their Mother.) Mother Nature : Mine is the power of right inherent. Behold them, they who dwell in my bosom. Beasts of the fields and forests who wear the glossy furs. Who build in my rocks and valleys and play in the morn- ing, like light on the leaves. Mine is the secret of life recurrent, of life abundant, free; For behold my flowers and vines, and the fruit of the branches. Behold my little birds that sing day after day, And the seven laws, my eldest children, Love, Truth, Wis- dom, Law, Harmony and Rhythm, And my youngest son, whom I have named Common Sense, All — all these do I shelter and nourish alway. (Sings "Nature's Lullaby") Come, my children, make ready, for fair Miss OURI comes this way. Come my energies, my good impulses, my magnetic forces, I would renew the spirit within me. Fill us with joy and gratitude. Bring us new hopes and aspirations for the fair Miss Ouri comes this way. Help us make her pathway easy, joyful and prosperous. Dances of the Wind — "A la Bien Ami" — (Solo dance — "Spring Song"). Dances of the Fire — "Ride of the Valkyries." Dances of the Water — "Waltz of the Flowers" — (Interlude — "To Spring"). (Entrance of Miss OuRi, with attendants. President Monroe, and the tiventy-three States.) Grain Ballet— ("Waltz from Sylvia"). Mother Nature: What shall we give to this maiden so fair? See, she stands innocent before you. —131— Children : We give our all, we give our all. (President Monroe approaches, the pages carrying the Mis- souri flag and robes of state, as the leaders of the dance groups give the entivining scarf dance. At the finale of this dance, the fair debutante is crowned.) President Monroe: I crown thee, Missouri, the twenty- fourth State of the Union. (Exit march — ''Hymn to Missouri.") INTERMISSION. Prologist : "In this broad earth of ours, amid the measureless gross- ness and slag. Enclosed and sate within its central heart Nestles the seed, perfection. By every life a share or more or less. None born but it is born concealed, or unconcealed the seed is waiting." — Whitman. And the book unfolds to the chapter, Brotherhood. Historical Interlude, 1800 to 1812— Legend of the Robin. This scene shows an epoch-marking event in the history of Missouri's gateway, Jackson County. According to Indian lore, the robin is a sign of the approaching white race. Some of the Indian children, with one of the scouts, discover a strange bird. Rushing to their elders they report that they have seen a robin. The Indians take this as a bad omen. It but confirms what Chief White Plume has been telling his men. The Indians run to the summit, and point to the South as three fur traders appear, Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark. A purchase is made from the Indians. Rich furs, bright cot- tons and tobacco are exchanged for the title to the land. As the fur traders depart through the gateway. White Plume and his braves give pathetic emphasis to the tragic fate of the Red race who must give up their homes and lands and make room for the more progressive White people. (Upon the lands received through this transaction, a number of French families settled in numbers and soon established a thriving village.) Episode 1 — The Indian Trails, 1882. The Kaws, Delawares, Otos and Shawnees, and many of the early French families, in- cluding the Francis', Guinotte, Turgeon and Lessert families at- tend the wedding of Nancy Francis and Cyprian Chouteau. The wedded pair are seen starting upon their wedding journey with the good wishes of the entire village. Prologist (Episode 1) : "Come, my brawny, tan-faced brothers, Follow well the path before you. Gird your weapons close about you, Arm yourselves with guns and pistols. Enter now the unknown country, —132— The rolling, swaying, verdant prairies. All your past you leave behind you, All your future lies before you. March, then, onward toward the sunset, Men and women of the Eastlands. O you young and elder children, O you mothers, wives, and sweethearts, Never must you be divided. In our ranks you move united, Pioneers, oh pioneers." — Whitman. The pioneers dismount, and are introduced to the audience. The missiotiary trails. The Indians and many of the pioneers accompany the priest^ Father DeSmet, tvho holds the first reli- gious ceremony at Shawnee. The rustic cross is planted and all kneel as the priest blesses the site of the first churcti. Episode 2 — 1846. The Doniphan Expedition. Silhouetted against the Western sky, a group oi horsemen is discovered, led by General Doniphan and Major Gilpin. The daughters and sons of Westport enter in this episode, led by Major William Gilpin. Music, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie." Prologist — The Prophecy — Thomas Hart Benton: "Here, where these rocky bluifs meet and turn aside the sweeping current of this mighty river; here, where the Mis- souri, after pursuing her southern course for nearly two thou- sand miles, turns eastward to meet the Mississippi, a great manufacturing and commercial community will congregate, and less than a generation will see a great city." Episode 3— The Santa Fe Trail. Kit Carson, the famous rider and scout of the Santa Fe Trail, leads a group of cowboys and frontiersmen, who give an exhibition of fancy riding, bucking bronchoes, the stage coach, driven by Buffalo Bill, with passen- gers, some of the oldest settlers in Kansas City, passes by. Kit Carson greets them all, and finally follows them through the Gateway. Prologist : "From imperfection's murldest cloud Darts always forth one ray of perfect light. One flash of Heaven's gloiy. To the mad babel-din, the deafening orgies, Soothing each lull a strain is heard, just heard, From some far shore the final chorus sounding, Only the good is universal." Interlude 2. Under the guise of brotherhood, Mephisto en- ters through the gateway. Beneath his voluminous cloak are his cohorts, Hatred, Jealousy, Greed, Graft, Intemperence, Crime and Fear. When this figure reaches center, the cloak is lifted and the evils released. Mother Nature enters and demands that the evils depart from this, her favorite haunt. They scatter in all directions and are hidden in the caves and bushes. {Music, tvild and inharmonious.) —133— Episode 4. The Builders of Kansas City. Prologist (Music, "Missouri Waltz") : "To every nation under the sun 1 bear this message to everyone, I hold it aloft that all may see, humanity will set us free Come, Mortals, Spirits, dairies. Elves, the fair Missouri waits. Let's bid her enter as she waits outside the iron gates." A procession, led by Colonel Kersey Coates, marches in parade irom the South to the North, carrying the banner, Kansas City, Missouri, 1889." Episode 5, A roundup and a cleanup. Two buglers from the American Legion and a tlag bearer rush into the center and a bugle call of alarm is sounded. This is responded to, first by the Fathers' Club and the Parent Teachers' Association. They are joined by the Boy Scouts, who appear over Scout Hill, and the defenders, the American Legion, Through the combined strength of these organizations, Evil and his cohorts are eliminated, 'i'he Boy Scouts then form the letters, K. C, Mo. To the music of the "Long, Long Trail," Missouri calls upon her seven prophets and throws over their shoulders her mantle, emblazoned with the coat of arms of Missouri. This forms the hub of the Wheel of Progress. Patriotic and civic societies enter from seven directions, singing as they march, and form the great wheel. During this spectacle, a pageant depicting the future of Missouri, passes in review. Modern Womanhood, Joan D'Arc, Opportunity, Education, and Pep, Ambition, Progress and Power, Faith and Confidence, and Victory. (As the music changes to "Onward, Christian, Soldiers," the Tiventy-four States form themselves into the cross. The marchers turn to the West and march through the Gateway. The American Legion and the Boy Scouts form an aisle on either side of the gate and stand at attention as a lone figure, the last old scout in America, rides slotvly into view over Scout Hill. At the call of "Taps," he takes the pose of the figure of the famous statue, "At the End of the Trail." He also passes through the Gateivay, as do the members of the defenders of Missouri, the American Legion and the Boy Scouts.) Invocation : "Give us, God, to sing this thought. Give me, give him or her I love this quenchless faith. In Thy ensemble, whatever else withheld, withhold not from us. Belief in plan of Thee enclosed in Time and Place, Health, Peace, Salvation Universal. Is it a dream? Nay, but the lack of it the dream, And failing it life's lore and wealth a dream. And all the world a dream." — Whitman. —134— PRINCIPALS IN CAST Thomas H. Benton judge William E. Wallace, Prologi.t ^'^^ ^^^^ Mrs. J. Milton Freeland Mother Nature Mrs. Otto Grasse The Pages: Thomas McLaughlin and Henry McLaughlin ^^'^^^'^ ^1'- Eugene Hudson Rhythm Mrs. Dorothy Perkins Love Mrs. Lester Glover Wisdom Junior Wright Harmony Miss Helen Gifford Common Sense.... Frederick Van Brunt Flame Miss Marguerite Lowe President Monroe. John T. Harding Mrs. Monroe Mrs. Charles Channing Allen Mephisto H. L. Cornell Greed Moulton Green Hatred W. T. Reynolds Jealousy Miss Virginia Robertson Intemperance Richard Wiles Graft Maurice Quincey Crime.. S. M. Meyer Fear Jay Richardson Father De Smet Rev. J. W. Keyes Kersey Coates Kersey Coates Reed General Doniphan Col. E. M. Stayton Liberty Mrs. Allen Porter Merriwether Lewis Raymond White William E. Clarke John Logan Daniel Boone jesse P. Crump Modern Womanhood Mrs. W. Bertram Satterlee Opportunity Miss Madeline Dickey Courage Mrs. George A. Barton Stability Mrs. Harvey Schmelzer Efficiency Mrs. Frank Paxton Strength Mrs. Francis McCord Hope Mrs. J. M. Walker Education and Pep Haskell Institute, Manual, Northeast, Central and Westport Athletic Depts. Progress Mrs. Peter Tiernay Power Lawrence Dickey Faith and Confidence Mrs. Taylor Abernathy Victory M^-s. Gus Welch Columbia Miss Virginia Cornwall 'P^^CE Mrs. George Bliss Army Peter Tiernan, William Wellsy Navy Lieut. Hereford Ball, Dr. John N. Walker Diamond Dick Col. John A. Bogge, Surviving Cody Scout (The last scout in Ameinca) Attendants to Miss Ouri— Miss Alice Schmelzer, Miss' Constance Pres- cott, Miss Ann Margaret Hastings, Miss Katherine Dickey, Miss Mason Crit- tenden, Miss Annette McGee. —135— The Twenty-three States — Miss^ Thrysa Chambliss, Miss Elizabeth Mc- Nulty, Miss Mary Berry, Miss Eleanor Ball, Miss Jane Montgomery, Miss Eleanor Kizer, Miss Mary Brickman, Miss Dorothy Wagner, Miss Helen Lyman, Miss Price, Miss Dixon, Mrs. Frank E. Watkins, Kansas City; Miss Mary Robinson, Miss Mary Trueman, Grandview; Miss Thelma Thomas, Miss Jeanette Kiersted, Miss Dorothy Green, Miss Dell Dougherty, Liberty; Miss Allene Thompson, Miss Ruth Stewart, Lees Summit; Miss Florence Ellis, Miss Julia Sears, Dodson; Miss Sarah Bryant, Belton, Mo. INTERPRETIVE DANCES. The Wind — Carolyn Borders, Sylvia Badgely, Sophia Riley, Belle Af- feld, Mary Moore, Juanita Wheeler, Mary Klaveter, Catherine Carr, Rosel- len Parott, Berenice Rutherford, Irene Tate, Josephine Pratt. Miss Helen Gifford, soloist. The Water — Margaret Sayler, Maxine Cook, Winifred Morrison, Nelle Cottingham, Ruth Garcelon, Marie Ritter, Delores Shaner, Helen Beaman, Rose Deveney, Mildred Kelly, Rachel Allen, Esterka Davidson, Evelyn Anderson, Justine Quinn, Harriet Gerla, Abbott Parker. Mrs. Lester Glover, soloist. The Fire — Peggy Cornell, Peggy Wingfield, Jean Middaugh, Doris Gwynne, Mattie Inzerelli, Imogene Johnson, Gladys Campbell, Edith Schick- hardt. Miss Marguerite Lowe, soloist. Corn Ballet — Mildred Lyons, Margaret Shelley, Ruth Hurley, Dorothy Kirtley, Emma Kane, Alva Fedeli, Nell Palis, Lucille Leverich. Wheat Ballet — Rosemary Shelley, Janet Hulse, Helen Schmidt, Maxine Wooley, Dorothy Deveney, Alice Sonnenberg, Katherine Deveney, Eloise O'Byrne, Cleo Rock — Pupils of Marie Kelley, of the Cranston School of Music. MRS. THOMAS J. BEATTIE, CHAIRMAN. French Settlers at the AVeddins; of Cy-priaii Chouteau and IVaney Francis. The Bride Mrs. Carl Guinotte The Groom Mr. Fred Chouteau Bridesmaids The Ring Bearer. Jess Leland Chouteau, Jr. Guests: — (Descendents of) OLD FRENCH SETTLERS — Mrs. H. F. Mitchell, Mr. George Fise, Miss Aimee Fise. Miss Leafea Fise, Mrs. Roy Moulden, Mr. and Mrs. Jess Leland Chouteau, Jess Le- land, Jr., and AVilliam G. Chouteau, Mr. Auguste L. Chouteau, Mrs. Thomas J. Beattie, Mrs. Hugo Brecklein, Mrs. Fred C. Merry, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas G. Payne, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Trudhomme Payne, Mr. and Mrs. Nelshion D. Payne, Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Payne. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence A. Payne. Mr. Clarence Payne, Jr., Miss Eleanor Payne, Mr. David Payne, Mrs. Mary Mercier, Miss Marie Mercier, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence J. Mercier, Mr. and Mh-s. Vincent J. Mercier, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Turgeon, Mr. Allen Turgeon, Mr. Alex. Turgeon, Mr. Louis Turgeon, Mr. Frank Turgeon, Miss Marie Turgeon, Miss Marguerite Turgeon, Mrs. Cyril Turgeon, Mr. James Turgeon. Mis.s Hilda Turgeon, Miss Ruth Turgeon, Miss Lillian Parroll. Miss Anna Vasquez, Mrs. May Thatcher, Miss Adrianne Tinker, Mrs. Emma Guinotte Clarke, Mrs. Edward P. Moriarty. MISS ELIZABETH BARTON, CHAIRMAN. NAMES OF PIONEERS— Mrs. Neil Smith, Mrs. William Bayse, Mrs. Boyd Har- wood, Mrs. Matilda Pitcher, Mrs. John H. Thompson, Mrs. Elmer Williams, Mrs. Nellie McGee Nelson, Mrs. Betsy Anderson, Miss Elizabeth Barton, MJiss Minnie Lyndall, Mrs. Hastings Richards, Mrs. E'nmia Moore, Mrs. Kerwin Kinnard, Miss Anna Vasquez, Mrs. Percy Houston, Mrs. Malcolm Calvin, Miss Margery James, Miss Myra Price, Mrs. E. E. Porterfield, Mrs. Jack Switzgable, Mrs. Estil LaForce, Mrs. C. T. McCoun, Mrs. John Dwyer, Mrs. Albert Ott, Mr. Walter B. Waddell (Lexington, Mo.>, Mrs. Nettie Groves, Mr. Henry Avis, Mrs. Edna Anderson, Col. John F. Richards, Miss Amelia Long, Mr. Daniel Moore, Mrs. Carl Guinotte, Mr. William Scarritt, Mrs. Nellie McCoy Harris, Mr. John D. Wornall, Dr. Stephen Ragan, Mr. Holly Jarboe, Mr. J. W. Turgeon, Mr. F^ank Henderson, Mr. James Rout, Mr. Callie Baliss. —136— by the First By J. F. Fitzgibbons. Presented GIFTS AND LOANS TO THE MISSOURI VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. A Clock — Brought to Westport in 1854 by Alexander Waskey. Wooden works; has been in continuous use. Presented by Miss Mollie Waskey. Photograph — Framed, of the "Junction" in 1872. Presented by John C. Bovard. Photograph— "The Junction" in 1886. Presented National Bank. Oil Painting— "The Junction," 1893. by Mr. Lawrence V. Rieger. Crayon— "The Junction" in 1847. Owned by the late Mrs. G. B. Wheeler, whose father, Elijah Jackson, owned the site. Minute Book — Of the old Christian Church at Independence. From Mr. O. C. Sheley. Crayon Portrait— Of Colonel John C. McCoy. From his daughter, Mrs. Juliette McCoy Bass. Thomas Jefferson — Piece of woolen goods used in making Jefferson a suit. From Mrs. Nellie McCoy Harris. Books — McKenzie's Colonial Families of the United States of America. Presented by John Barber White. Letter — Written by Colonel Thomas H. Swope in 1857. Presented by the Kansas City Star. Oil Painting— Of the late M. Dively. Said to be a "Bingham" por- trait. Gift of Mrs. M. Dively. Portrait — Of the late Dr. Joseph Madison Wood ter, Mrs. Anna Wood Harris, Evanston, 111. Book — From the Press of Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, 1750. From the late Winthrop Frazier. Book — Campbell's Gazetteer (duplicate) of Missouri. Gift of Mrs. Lydia M. Wilson. ^ £2ngraTing — Of Eugene Field (Signed). Presented by Leander J. Tal- bot. Portrait— Of the late Washington Henry Chick (1827-1918), who came to Jackson County with his father, the late Colonel W. M. Chick, in 1836. Gift of his son, Henry Chick. Photograph— Of C. C. Spalding, author of "The Annals of the City of Kansas and the Great Western Plains" (1858). This is the first history of this City. Its author was a graduate Civil Engi- neer from the University of Vermont, his native state. Only ten copies are known to be in existence, of which this Society has two. Gift of Mrs. C. C. Spalding. Document — Original copy of "An Ordinance Abolishing Slavery in Missouri." Lithograph. 11 January, 1865. Gift of Mrs. Herbert S. Hadley. Handbill — Original of "The California Pony Express." This started from St. Joseph, Mo., at 11 p. m. every Saturday and advertised "only ten days to California." Gift of C. E, HoUebaugh. Reprint — Of the first fourteen editions of the "Evening and Morning Star," founded at Independence, Mo., June, 1832. This was the first paper printed in the county. Gift of Rev. Walter W. Smith, Historian of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. Gift of his daugh- Keltogg-Baxter Printing Co., 301 Admiral Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. The Missouri Valley Historical Society, through the courtesy of the Board of Education, occupies the second floor of the Allen BrancM Library, Wyandotte Street and Westport Avenue. Here is maintained a Museum for the preservation of all material associated with the history of this locality, at the "Raw's Mouth," as the Indians and fur- traders designated the site oT Kansas City, at the junction of the Kaw and the Missouri. The collections of the Society include many articles, such as pictures, letters, documents, etc., relating to the early history of this City and vicinity. It has, fortunately, specialized in reminiscences of the early settlers, few of whom now remain. Books by local authors and of local history, documents, letters and personal relics of families who have helped in the development of this City and County are earnestly requested as gifts or loans. NETTIE THOMPSON GROVE, Secretary. HIS 9 74 ^^\o^ ^^^m^^^ ^^^f:^^;/' ^^^^!?Kv^ ^^/^ A .0' ^ ^^, aO. -t. „«^ - %# .'»S"» \/ *;^"' %.*" .'ii*'*= \/ .*; * '^^A<^ *I A o^^ u ^ ^^ N- MANCHESTER, |"'. 5^ A INDIANA J