E U4- 
 
'''y/ OF CONGRESS 
 
 ° 0^3 787 944;"'^" 
 • 
 
 pernnaliFe* 
 pH8J 
 
Col. Robert T. Van Horn 
 
 His Life and Public Service. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered Before the Greenwood Club of Kansas City, Mo. 
 March 10th, 1905. 
 
 .>^\.U^' 
 
 J. M.' Greenwood. 
 
I 
 
 J 
 
 #• 
 

 N 
 
 i^ 
 
 Col. Robert T. Van Horn. 
 
 An address, delivered before the Greenwood Club of Kan- 
 sas City, Mo., on the Life and Public Service of Colonel Robert 
 Thompson Van Horn, March 10, 1905, by J. M. Greenwood. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 My apology for presenting a sketch of the life, the public 
 service and the private virtues of Colonel Robert Thompson 
 Van Horn, while he is still living among us, enjoying excellent 
 health, and contemplating the weightiest problems that ever 
 occupied the thoughts of man, is that we may the more fully 
 appreciate a type of manhood that made it possible for the people 
 of this country to enjoy in the fullest measure the richness of 
 this life which is their inheritance. In the writer's opinion, it is 
 poor consolation to bestow all the praisje on a benefactor of his 
 race, after he has passed to that realm where praise and blame 
 fall alike unheeded. It is, therefore, my pleasant duty this even- 
 ing to sketch a picture of a life not yet ended, and to give tone 
 and color to it. of one who. for more than forty years, stood 
 as the embodiment of that kind of energy which has made the 
 name of Kansas City a synonym for enterprise intelligently and 
 honestly directed, in all sections of the United States. 
 
 Already you ask. what of the man? How was he trained? 
 What subtle influence of home life wrought a character that grew 
 from childhood to manhood, from manhood to honored age. and 
 now is revered by all who ever knew Iiim in public or private 
 life. In what school did he study and equip himself for the man- 
 ifold duties that devolved upon him. and marked him as the 
 moving spirit among a coterie of men of remarkable practical 
 sagacity, in knowing how to seize upon opportunities that would 
 command and hold the avenues of commerce from the Lakes 
 to Galveston, and to determine in advance what should be the 
 
gate\\a\ between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific? In 
 brief, the idea of "about facing" the American people from the 
 rising^ to the setting^ sun. Mere a^^ain. did the circumstances 
 make the man. or did he mould and control the forces that lay 
 dormant when he came upon the scene of action? To all of 
 these inquiries, the sequel will show that one living here saw 
 far in advance, how manifest destiny would move resistlessly 
 westward. 
 
 ANCESTRY .\ND EARLY LIFE. 
 
 Robert Thompson Van Horn was born in East Mahoning, 
 Indiana County, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1824. His ancestors 
 were from Holland and came to this country more than two 
 hundred and sixty years ago, and settled at New Amsterdam, 
 in 1643. One of the descendants settled at Communipaw in 
 New Jersey, in 1711. and from this branch of the family, the 
 subject of this sketch is descended. His greatgrandfather, 
 Henry \'an Horn, was a captain of a company of Pennsylvania 
 troops in the Revolutionary Army, and died in the service, while 
 his son. Isaiah, served in the same company to the end of the 
 war. Isaiah had a son. Henry Van Horn, who was a soldier 
 in the war of 1812, and his wife was Elizabeth Thompson, who, 
 when a child, came with her parents from Ireland to America. 
 
 Their son. Robert Thompson Van Horn, was reared on 
 the paternal farm. His first work on the farm as a small boy, 
 consisted in p.icking up stones in the meadow and putting them 
 into piles, or heaping them in fence corners, cutting and piling 
 brush, jjulling weeds in the garden, raking hay. feeding chick- 
 ens, churning, turning a grindstone, and going to mill on horse- 
 back. In the winter time, he went to the subscription school, 
 studying spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic, but not gram- 
 mar, because it was not then taught in the schools of that section 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 -At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to learn the print- 
 ing business in the office of the Indiana. Pennsylvania Register, 
 where he worked for four years. From 1843 to 1855. he worked 
 as a journeyman printer in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and 
 Indiana — much of the time varying his occupation by boating 
 for a time on the Erie Canal, teaching school occasionally during 
 the winter months, sometimes publishing and editing a news- 
 paper, and two seasons he was engaged in steamboating on the 
 Ohio. Wabash and Mississippi, as he found employment. For 
 a time he also acted as clerk on a river steamer, and when he 
 come to Kansas City, he was called "Cai)tain." which title he 
 bore till the Civil War. During this storm and stress period of 
 
his life, he studiefl law in the office of Hon. T. A. Plants, Meigs 
 County, Ohio, with whom he was engaged in the practice of 
 law for a short time. Twenty years later, they were both mem- 
 bers of Congress together. 
 
 During his residence in Meigs County, he married Miss 
 Adela H. Cooley. fifty-s.*ven years ago, at Pomeroy, Ohio. At 
 the time of their marriage, he was the editor and proprietor of 
 a newspaper published there. 
 
 To give a proper setting to all these varied experiences 
 through which he passed, it is necessary to pause a moment, and 
 to glance at the preparation he had received educationally to 
 play the part in life in which he was destined to become a most 
 conspicuous actor. A sentence or two will suffice. A friend vis- 
 iting the Colonel and Mrs. Van Horn at their pleasant country 
 home only a few years ago, complimented the Colonel on his 
 wide and scholarly reading and the firm grasp he had on scien- 
 tific and philosophic subjects, and his comprehensive knowledge 
 of public men and national affairs. Without replying, he went 
 to a library shelf and brought back three small books, — a United 
 States Spelling Book, Introduction to the English Reader, and 
 an Old Arithmetic, — "The Western Calculator," published in 
 1819, written by J. Stockton : "These," said the Colonel, "were 
 the sources of my information. I studied them in the winter 
 when the weather was too bad to work out doors." His ethical 
 training consisted chiefly in the Shorter Catechism of the Pres- 
 byterian Church, of which his grandfather, father, and a brother 
 were elders. A mother's influence had no little to do in shaping 
 the active virtues of his life as one reads between the lines. 
 
 LOOKING AT KANSAS CITY AND A SURPRISE. 
 
 How well his contact with different types of men with whom 
 he had mingled, had prepared him as a torch-bearer for the fore- 
 front of this Western procession, is not now a question of spec- 
 ulation, but one of deeds accomplished. By accident, in the 
 summer of 1855, being temporarily in St. Louis, he met a gen- 
 tleman from Kansas City w^ho was on the lookout for a printer 
 to take charge of a small weekly paper, "The Enterprise," that 
 had been launched in Kansas City a fev/ months before and was 
 then on the point of suspension. "The Enterprise" was owned 
 by an association of citizens who hired an editor and printers 
 to publish it. So, taking a river steamer, he arrived in Kansas 
 City July 31, 1855. The town was then a mere straggling vil- 
 lage. He came to look over the situation. Being cordially 
 greeted by the citizens, he was delighted with their hospitality. 
 After talking the matter over, and listening to the glowing re- 
 
ports tlie citizens prave of the country and its possibilities, h< 
 cauplit somewhat of their spirit and a^c^reed to purchase "The 
 Enterprise" for $500. by payintj- S250 cash on the first of October, 
 and giving them a note for $250, due twelve months later. He 
 returned immediately to Ohio to get ready to move to Kansas 
 City. Sure enough, on the first day of October, he was here 
 with Mrs. Van Horn and their three little children. He came 
 in compliance with the conditions of the verbal contract made 
 in the summer, lie called at once at the business place of Jesse 
 Riddlebarger. one of the gentlemen who had been authorized 
 to sell the paper, and he informed ?\Ir. Riddlebarger that he 
 was ready to take possession of the office. I quote Mr. Van 
 Horn's own words concerning this meeting and the transfer 
 of the paper: "He seemed surprised and frankly told me that 
 he was very glad to see me. as he had not expected to do so, and 
 was waiting till that day simply to keep his own word. To my 
 inquiry why he was so surprised, he said that everybody had 
 said that he was a fool for taking the word of an utter stranger 
 and keeping others from buying. Rut as he had never said any- 
 thing about it before, he was mighty glad I had come to take it. 
 He gave me a receipt for the first payment, took my note for 
 the other, and walking back with me a block from Delaware to 
 Main Street on the Levee, put me in possession of the office and 
 paper. Rut at the end of the year came my surprise. On my 
 calling to pay the note when due, it was handed to me receipted 
 — 'by valuable service' — and so it was that the actual price paid 
 was $250." 
 
 BEGINNING IN KANSAS CITY. 
 
 Kansas City was then a village of 457 persons, and the next 
 summer, according to an item in the Journal, the total population 
 was 478. At this date there was very little of the town above 
 the Levee. The business part was along the Levee, and the 
 stores were brick and frame, none over two stories high. There 
 was no formal society. Everybody kept open house and all were 
 neighborly. There was not a carriage in town, and only one 
 hack. Xo cards of invitation were issued then, but — "we want 
 you and your family to come over this evening." was the usual 
 form. There was not a graded street south of the river bluff — • 
 just a country road from the steamboat landing to Westport. 
 
 "The Enterprise," on its first anniversary, was changed to 
 "The Kansas City Journal." It was a four-page, six-column 
 weekly, and developed into a daily paper in June, 1858. The 
 office was in the sccoikI floor of a building at the corner of Main 
 Street and the Levee. Within the four walls of this one room, 
 
the editor and proprietor wrote the editorials, setting- up the type, 
 secured and made contracts for advertising-, and worked the hand 
 press in doing the job work and running off t!ie paper. Thus 
 his experience of four years in a Pennsylvania printing office, 
 was the best school possible for the work he was now engaged in. 
 In 1855-56, Colonel and Mrs. Van Horn lived in the second 
 story of a brick building at the corner of Walnut Street and 
 the Levee, over John I'.auerlein's store. After this they moved 
 into a log house on the hill at the corner of Third and Delaware. 
 This new home had one room and a "lean to" for a kitchen. 
 In 1857, a new addition to the town was laid out between Main 
 Street and Grand Avenue, bounded on the north by Eleventh 
 Street and on the south by Twelfth Street. On the east side 
 of Walnut Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth, a lot fifty 
 feet wide was bought, and a small brick house erected on it, and 
 this remained their home for thirty years. In 1856, the year 
 after Colonel \"an Horn came to Kansas City, an iassociation 
 was organized under the name and title of the Kansas City As- 
 sociation for Public Improvement, and of which he was an origi- 
 nal member, and this organization later became the Chamber of 
 Commerce. 
 
 THE KANSAS CITY JOURNAL AS A MINE OF INFORMATION. 
 
 The writer spent three days in the Library room of the Kan- 
 sas City Journal, in looking carefully through the old files of 
 the early editions, in order to form an opinion of the editor's 
 range of vision and his grasp on local and national issues prior 
 to 1861. The early history of Kansas City and this w^estern 
 country is there and from this mine of historical information, 
 the full history of Kansas City will yet be written. An extract 
 or two in this connection will give a better picture of the con- 
 dition of affairs and the thoughts of the editor than any words 
 of mine can express. 
 
 EDITORIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ON TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1858, VOL. L 
 
 NO. I. 
 
 "Kansas City Western Journal of Commerce is before the 
 public this morning, and we ask a comparison between it and 
 any other daily journal in the west. Look at its clean, neat 
 face, its ample columns filled with "live business," advertise- 
 ments sparkling with news, local intelligence and general read- 
 ing. We say it is the largest, neatest, best got up, and most 
 readable daily journal that has seen the light in the valley of 
 the Missouri. Look at its plan, the original matter, markets. 
 
port lists, etc.. and tluii inuii^nne how lone: it would take you 
 to get up such a paper and see how you would like to do it for 
 fiftCi'H ictits a week. It is said that printers live on air. and 
 we think these fig^ures come jiretty nearly to that description of 
 rations." 
 
 "When solicited to start a daily, we told our citizens that 
 it would require a heavy outlay, constant lahor and toil, to pub- 
 lish a f,^ood one. and we had no idea of hazarding: our reputation 
 as newspaper men by running out any other. We have redeemed 
 our promise, now we call upon the solid men, the bone and the 
 sinew of this young metropolis, to redeem theirs. Every morn- 
 ing we will send you the news embracing 'The very age and 
 body of the times.' that you may sip your Java over the night 
 toilof the poor typo, while you are in the arms of Morpheus or 
 of your wives, is straining his eyes and keeping midnight vigils 
 for vour amusement and edification. Printers, like the dews 
 of Heaven, are casting over the earth their beneficient influences 
 when the world is asleep — and a cheerful morning salutation 
 from every one is all they ask in between, and we know the gen- 
 erositv of Kansas City will not deny it to them in this instance." 
 
 Two days later a short editorial entitled. "Hoi'.' is This?" 
 speaks for itself: 
 
 "Since we commenced jjublishing a daily newspaper, and 
 began to look around us w'ith more circumspection for locals, 
 citv news. etc.. we find that a great reformation has taken place; 
 nobody fighting, no nmaway horses, no circus, no theater, no 
 dance on the boats. Officer Barnes arrests no one, no accidents, 
 or fighting of any description. 
 
 "We say, again, how is this? ]\Iust we let our own horses 
 run away, or get into a row ourselves, in order to make a spicy 
 local for those who find nothing interesting in the Journal?" 
 
 Through the columns of the Journal, the mind of the editor 
 is everywhere manifest in the editorials written and they are 
 almost as ajjplicable today to the needs of Kansas City as they 
 were then. Not only was the "(')verland Trade" with the South- 
 wr^t and westward to the Pacific to be extended with the ulti- 
 mate object of reaching China, Japan and India, but the trade 
 of the Western coast of South America and Mexico must be 
 secured to make a great city. Editorial after editorial urged 
 the establishment of manufactories for making furniture, agri- 
 cultural imi)!ements, wagons and carriages, and a paper mill, 
 too, was greatlv needed. The hills nuist be cut down, the streets 
 graded; committees should lie Mfganized to devise ways and 
 
means for establishing good roads throughout the country lead- 
 ing out from Kansas City, so that the farmers could hring their 
 products to market or for shipment ; churches and school houses 
 must be built, fire engines secured and hook and ladder com- 
 panies formed. A German newspaper should be established, and 
 a "thousand other things," so the editorials ran. and the citizens 
 as one man, were entreated to "put their shoulders to the wheel 
 to help to build up the commercial center of mountain and prairie 
 conuncrco." Every editorial was optimistic, encouraging and 
 stimulating, and entirely free from sarcasm and bitterness. 
 
 GATHERING NEWS. 
 
 On August 17. 1858, the following message was flashed 
 through the Ocean from Valencia, Ireland, to Trinity Bay. New 
 Foundland: "Europe and America are united by telegraph. 
 Glory be to God in the highest ; on earth peace and good will to- 
 ward men." It took three days for this message to reach Kansas 
 City and be published. In commemoration of this great event 
 through the untiring energy of Mr. Cyrus W. Field, the Jour- 
 nal of August 19. has the' following in very large headlines: 
 
 Magnetic Tclcci:raph to Boonrillc and by Express to Kansas 
 Citx. 
 
 What is before us? We must meet it. Nezvs from London 
 in three days. The Great Event Completed. 
 
 One week later, the Journal announced the arrival of nine 
 men, all miners, from the New Eldorado, with gold dust from 
 Kansas Territory, found in the Pike's P.eak Mines. For deluding 
 the people through the columns of the Journal in regard to the 
 gold news, at Leavenworth and St. Joseph, there was strong 
 talk of coming to Kansas City to lynch the editor on account 
 of his brazen audacity. 
 
 Kansas City now" had 375 real estate owners within her cor- 
 porate limits, and one of the local needs was a bank and a new 
 charter for the rapidly increasing expansion of the town. A 
 bank was soon organized, and on December 30, 1858, the New 
 Charter, which had been framed, was adopted by a vote of 85 
 for and 58 against. 
 
 RAILRO.\D AGITATION. 
 
 To understand and to interpret public sentiment correctly in 
 the United States since the close of the Revolution, one must bear 
 in mind that two diflferent sets of ideas, facing in opposite di- 
 rections, have been and still are in active operation, on account 
 chiefly of inherited tendencies and geographical influences. One 
 
class of citizens inhabiting the Atlantic seaboard, have kept their 
 eyes steadfastly tixed across the Atlantic as the real objective 
 point and in connection therewith, they believed that this country 
 would achieve its highest order of development commercially, 
 politically, and socially by the closest possible relations with the 
 leading nations of Western l-Airope. On the outer rim of this 
 civilization, another set of ideas have colored the thoughts and 
 feelings of a much larger class whose faces have been turned 
 westward, and who depended almost wholly on their own indi- 
 viduality to achieve renown by developing their country through 
 to the Pacific, and then by cultivating commercial relations with 
 the nations bordering on both sides of the Pacific. When the 
 migration from the eastern portion of our country reached Mis- 
 souri, it paused for a series of years, except as the more ad- 
 venturous hunters, trappers and explorers pushed far beyond the 
 most distant outskirts of civilization. But at this period the man 
 of all others who did more from 1833 to 1843 to bring promi- 
 nently before the American people, the possibilities of the Great 
 West, was Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri. In reply to Sen- 
 ator Duffie of South Carolina on the Oregon Bill, he used the 
 following language: "Sir, I confess that this wealth of the sur- 
 face, and the still vaster treasures that lie beneath, unmined. but 
 not unknown, have awakened in men, arid to me seem to justify, 
 the expectations of which the Senator considered so visionary. 
 Over such a region, the passage from the richest valley in the 
 world — that of the Mississippi — to a new and wide commercial 
 empire, that must presently start up on the Pacific, I can not 
 think that railroads and canals are mere day dreams." 
 
 What was anticipated by Senator Linn just before his death 
 was more than six years later taken u]) and advocated by Sen- 
 ator Benton. In the Senate of the United States, February 7. 
 1849, he spoke as follows: 
 
 "Mr. President, the bill which I i)ropose to introduce pro- 
 vides for the location and construction of a national central 
 highway from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean. The 
 idea of a communication across our part of North America is 
 no new idea. It has belonged to every power that has ever 
 been dominant over this part of the continent. In the year 1680, 
 La Salle took leave of his friends at Montreal to go upon his 
 discoveries west, the last word he uttered in parting from them 
 was China — La Chine — and the spot has retained the name ever 
 since. 
 
 "When the .Spaniards were afterwards masters of Louisiana, 
 the Baron de Carondelet. r,overnor (leneral of that province. 
 
with the approbation and sanction of Charles I\'., undertook this 
 great project — the discovery of a practical route across the con- 
 tinent by the way of the Missouri river. He employed an enter- 
 prising man (Don Jacques Clamorgan), to undertak'e the dis- 
 covery — a great reward in land being otYered to Glamorgan, and 
 a gratuity of three thousand dollars was promised to the first 
 man who should see the Pacific Ocean. It miscarried, although 
 a hundred men set out upon the expedition. 
 
 The British, owning large possessions in North America, 
 having in vain endeavored to find a northwest passage to Asia, 
 turned their eyes inland in the hope of finding some route across 
 the continent, and Mr. Alexander McKenzie, who was after- 
 wards knighted for the energy and faithfulness with which he 
 conducted an enterprise for that purpose, was the successful 
 undertaker. He traversed the continent over that portion of it 
 belonging to Great Britain lying in high latitudes, reached the 
 sea. but pointed to the Golumbia river as the only desirable route 
 on the other side of the mountains ; and that was the cause 
 of all the long eflforts made by the British Government, first to 
 make the Columbia a boundary betw^een us open to the navi- 
 gation of each, and afterwards to obtain its free navigation. An 
 inland commercial route across the continent was what she 
 wanted. 
 
 "When we ac(|uired Louisiana. ]\Ir. Jefiferson revived this 
 idea of establishing an inland communication between the two 
 sides of the continent, and for that purpose the w^ell- 
 known expedition of Lewis, and Clark w-as sent out 
 by him. Practical utility in the business of life, as w^ell 
 as science, was his object. To find a route to answer the pur- 
 poses of a commercial communication, as well as enlarging the 
 boundaries of geographical science, was the object; and so the 
 instructions declared. That expedition was successful in finding 
 a communication ; Mr. Jefiferson did not remain in power to 
 carry out the practical design : and no President since his day 
 has taken it up. 
 
 "About thirty years ago. I turned my attention to this sub- 
 ject, and conceived a plan for the establishment of a route extend- 
 ing up the Missouri river, and down the Columbia. I followed 
 the idea of Mr. Jefferson. La Salle, and others, and I have en- 
 deavored to revive attention to their plans. The steam car was 
 then unknown, and California was not ours: but I believed that 
 Asiatic commerce might be brought into the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi on that line, and wrote essays to support that idea. The 
 scope of these essays was to show that Asiatic commerce had been 
 the pursuit of all western nations, from the time of the Phoeni- 
 
cians down to the present day — a space of three thousand years ; 
 that during all this time this commerce had been shifting its chan- 
 nel, and that wealth and power had followed it. and disappeared 
 upon its loss : that one more channel was to be found — a last one, 
 and our America has its seat : and I then expressed the confident 
 belief that this route would certainly be established — immediately, 
 with the aid of the American provernment, and eventually, even 
 without that aid. by the progress of events and the force of cir- 
 cumstances. Occupied with that idea. I sought to impress it upon 
 others. Looking to a practical issue, I sought information of the 
 countrv and the mountains, from all that could give in — from the 
 adventurous hunters and traders of the great west. Knowledge 
 was the first object. The nature of the country — whether in- 
 habitable or not — between the Mississippi and the Pacific — the 
 passes in the mountains — were the great points of inquiry, and 
 the results were most satisfactory. Inhabitable country and prac- 
 tical passes were vouched for ; but it was not till the year 1842 
 that the information took the definite form which would become 
 the basis of legislation. In the year 1842 Mr. Fremont solicited 
 and obtained leave to extend his explorations to the South Pass 
 of the Rocky Mountains, not for the purpose of discovering that 
 pass, for it was done almost precisely forty years ago by the hunt- 
 ers, but for the purpose of fixing its locality and character. At that 
 time it was not known whether that pass was within our territory 
 or in Mexican Territory. Mr. Fremont, therefore, wished to 
 extend his explorations to that pass for the purpose of ascertaining 
 its locality and character with a view to a road to Oregon, and the 
 increase of geographical knowledge. He was then employed on 
 topographical duty, having just returned from two years of great 
 labor on the upper [Mississippi, assistant to the distinguished 
 astronomer, Mr. Nicollet, who. by his great exertions during the 
 five vears that he was engaged there, brought on a prostration 
 which ended in his death. ^Ir. Fremont solicited and obtained 
 from Colonel Abert the privilege of going to the South Pass, and 
 he made his examinations there in a way to satisfy every inquiry. 
 His description of it was satisfactory to all minds ; and the reading 
 of that description now will show the ease with which the moun- 
 tain can be passed at that place. 
 
 "August 7. 1842. we left our encampment with the rising- 
 sun. As we rose from the bed of the creek, the snow line of the 
 mountain stretched grandly before us, the white i)caks glittering 
 in the sun. They had been hidden in the dark weather of the 
 last few days, and it had been snowing on them while it had been 
 raining on us. We crossed a ridge, and again struck the Sweet 
 Water — here a beautiful swift stream, with a more open valley, 
 
 10 
 
timbered with beech and ccHtonwood. It now bej^an to lose itself 
 in the many small forks which makes its head ; and we continued 
 up the main stream until neaj" noon, when we left it a few miles, 
 to make our noon halt on a small creek among the hills, from 
 which the stream issues by a small opening. Within it was a 
 beautiful grassy spot, covered with an open grove of large beech 
 trees, among which I found several plants that I had not pre- 
 viously seen. The afternoon was cloudy, with squalls of rain ; 
 but the weather became fine at sunset, when we again camped 
 on the Sweet Water, within a few miles of the South Pass. The 
 country over which we have passed today consists principally of 
 the compact mica slate, which crops out on all the ridges, making 
 the uplands very rocky and slaty. In the escarpments which bor- 
 der the creeks, it is seen alternating with a light colored granite, 
 at an inclination of 45 degrees. About six miles from the encamp- 
 ment brought us to the summit. The ascent had been so gradual, 
 that with the intimate knowledge possessed by Carson, who had 
 made this country his home for seventeen years, we were obliged 
 to watch very closely to find the place at which we had reached 
 the culminating point. From the impressions on my mind at the 
 time (and subsequently on our return), I should compare the 
 elevation which we surmounted at the Pass to the ascent from 
 the avenue to the Capitol hill at Washington. The width of the 
 Pass, or rather the width of the depression in the mountain which 
 makes this gap in its chain, is about twenty miles, and in that 
 width are many crossing places. Latitude (where crossed), 42 
 degrees, 24 minutes, 32 seconds ; longitude, 109 degrees 26 min- 
 utes. Elevation above the sea, 7,490 feet. Distance from the 
 mouth of the Kansas, by the common traveling route, 962 miles ; 
 distance from the mouth of the Great Platte, 882 miles." 
 
 AN ACTIVE FACTOR IN RAILROAD LEGISLATION. 
 
 When Colonel Van Horn came to Kansas City he was not 
 unfamiliar with the ideas and aspirations that dominated the 
 thoughts and feelings of the people of the West. A close student 
 from the habitual bent of his mind and a critical and just observer 
 of men and their motives, he adjusted himself to the new condi- 
 tions as readily and easily as if he had been born and reared in 
 this atmosphere. Besides as a newspaper man and a law student, 
 he had not been unconscious of what the people in all parts of the 
 United States had done and were doing, so that when he came to 
 Western Missouri, he did not have to begin at the beginning to 
 understand and to interpret the situation. 
 
 In the fall of 1858 a great railroad meeting had been called 
 at Kansas City for November 22. Invitations had been sent into 
 
 II 
 
Kansas Territory and into many of the counties of Western Mis- 
 souri. The convention was held at the old Court House, and on 
 the following day Mr. William Gilpin addressed this convention 
 on the importance of building railroads and in helping to develop 
 the resources of the mighty region lying between the British pos- 
 sessions on the North and the (iulf of Mexico on the South, and 
 from the Mississippi to the I'acific on the West. No doubt Mr. 
 ( .:• in at this time was the best informed man on the topography 
 of this entire region with the exception of Colonel Fremont of the 
 regular army and of Kit Carson and Jim Uridger, the two great 
 scouts. 
 
 Colonel \'an Horn was a member of the committee on reso- 
 lutions, and he drew the resolutions which were unanimously 
 adopted by the convention. These resolutions urged the Congress 
 of the I'nited States to construct a Great Continental Railway 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The committee on reso- 
 lutions based its action on topographical, geographical, commer- 
 cial and military reasons for the undertaking of such a gigantic 
 enteri)rise. They held that the Kansas River is situated on the 
 geographical central line of the United States to the Pacific Ocean, 
 that along its valley the grade is smaller than elsewhere across 
 the country, that it is the most natural route along which com- 
 merce and the movement of soldiers and military supplies could 
 be transi)orted, and that a great continental railroad was a neces- 
 sitv to bind the people on the Pacific Coast to the Union, and to 
 defend tht-m in case of war with a foreign nation. For like rea- 
 sons the doctrine was set forth that a great railroad line should 
 be constructed from the region of the Lake of the Woods to Gal- 
 veston, thus giving direct connection through Kansas City w'ith 
 the north and the south, and the members of this convention be- 
 lieved, and their speakers and resolutions indicate, that great 
 transcontinental lines of travel and traffic would bind all sections 
 of the .Xmerican Union more firmly together. Of the ten rcso- 
 lutif)ns embodied in the Committee's rei:)ort one was that work 
 should be immediately undertaken to connect Kansas City with 
 the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad at Cameron. This was 
 regarded as especially desirable by the meml>ers of the convention. 
 As this time the railroads in Missouri were the Hannibal and St. 
 Joseph, and .St. Joseph was the "big town" on the Missouri river; 
 the Wabash from .St. Louis to Macon City, called then the North 
 Missouri Railroad : the Missouri Pacific, the first road in the state, 
 was being pushc<l westward to Sedalia, which it reached a short 
 time before the Civil War, and the Iron Mountain that ran out 
 from .St. Louis to Inm Mountain. The pcoplr along the lines of 
 these roads and tluir projections were- di\id(cl intu two classes, 
 
 12 
 
those who wanted railroads and those who opposed railroads, 
 chiefly on account of their destrovinf,'- teaininjj:. In those days 
 merchandise of all kinds was hauled in farm wap^ons from the 
 river towns or railroad stations hack into the interior, and farm 
 products, unless consumed hy the local needs of the community, 
 were hauled to the towns or stations for sale or shipment. These 
 early makers of Kansas City were, no doubt, the most far-seeing 
 body of men in the Mississippi X'allcy. They were looking far, 
 high and wide. .Meetings had been held petitioning those in au- 
 thority to hurry the Missouri Pacific into Kansas City. A rail- 
 road line had been suVveyed from Independence to Kansas City, 
 and the City Council had granted the right of way. 
 
 While in the field with his regiment in 1862. Colonel Van 
 Horn was elected to the Missouri Senate, and during the session 
 of the Legislature in the winter of 1864-5. he had charge of the 
 bill for completing the Missouri Pacific Railway from Sedalia 
 to Kansas City. He carried the measure through the Senate and 
 with the aid of M. J. Payne and K. M. McClee. it passed the 
 House. This was a very critical period in the history of Kansas 
 City, and considering the circumstances under which the people 
 of this state were then living, this was one of the most important 
 achievements conmiercially and financially connected with our 
 state history. Business was paralyzed ! The people were di- 
 vided — bitter, distrustful, and more than half the state had been 
 devastated by hostile armies. 
 
 While a member of Congress, he secured the Charter for 
 the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad bridge, across the Missouri 
 river at this ijoint, and the first constructed across the Missouri 
 river. Kansas had already become a state, and in the estimation 
 of a majority of Senators and Congressmen, its interests would 
 be very much more regarded than would those of Missouri ; but 
 Colonel Van Horn had always been even in territorial troubles, 
 just in his views of the dissensions between Kansas and Missouri, 
 yet he felt that at this juncture, the real contest for supremacy 
 lay between Kansas City and Leavenworth. Cp to this time 
 Leavenworth was always spoken of as the coming Western Me- 
 tropolis. Congressional Legislation was decisive, and it assured 
 the supremacy of Kansas City just at this critical moment when 
 the issue was hanging in the balance. He aided also very ma- 
 terially in securing legislation that provided for the building of 
 the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, and especially 
 in enabling the company to secure the neutral lands, now com- 
 posing the counties of Crawford and Cherokee in Kansas, to- 
 aid in the construction of the road. In 1869. he introduced into- 
 Congress a bill providing for the consolidation of the Indian. 
 
 13 
 
tribes, ami the organization of a government in that portion of 
 the Iiulian Territory which formed Oklahoma. Prior to this 
 date four years, he was a member of a delegation from Kansas 
 City to an Indian Council at Fort Smith, Arkansas, when by 
 treaty the right of way to build a railroad through their lands 
 was secured. He was instrumental in carrying the measure 
 through Congress to build the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul 
 railway bridge across the Missouri river at this point. By public 
 addresses, attending conventions and legislative bodies, and es- 
 pecially in the columns of the Journal, most intelligently and 
 earnestly he furthered every material, commercial, intellectual 
 and moral interest in which the people of Kansas City and the 
 entire western country would be benefited. 
 
 IX PUBLIC OFFICE. 
 
 By nature. Colonel Van Horn preferred private life to offi- 
 cial position. In no sense was he ever an office-seeker ; yet, ow- 
 ing to his deep and intelligent interest in all public questions 
 and original and practical ideas as to the means of furthering and 
 forwarding needed legislation in order to secure definite and 
 desirable results, he yielded to the wishes of his neighbors and 
 friends, and was honored by them divers times. In less than 
 two years after his removal to Kansas City, he was elected Al- 
 derman, and in 1861, he was elected Mayor, and re-elected in 
 1864. He served as Postmaster from 1857 to 1861, and resigned 
 when he became Mayor. At the Presidential election in 1864, 
 he was first elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1866, 
 1868. 1880, and in 1892. In Congress he was known as one of 
 the best working members of that body where the real work 
 is done in conmiittees. General Grant appointed him in 1875, 
 Collector of Internal Revenue of the Sixth District of Missouri, 
 and he held that position till June, 1881. He was a delegate 
 to every National Republican Convention from 1864 to 1884, 
 and was twice a member of the National Republican Committee, 
 and chairman of the Republican State Committee. 
 
 Ills WAR RECORD. 
 
 Running through the files of the Journal till the explosion 
 came in 1861, Colonel Van Horn's editorials reflect the senti- 
 ments of at least four-fifths of the people living in Missouri, 
 namely, that after the election of Mr. I.incoln as President, some 
 plan would be devised by which the Union would be preserved 
 withf)Ut resorting to the arbitrament of the sword. He had 
 been a Democrat, and the Journal, during the political cam- 
 paign of 1860 and prior thcnto. had been a conservative Dem- 
 
 14 
 
ocratic paper, opposed to the extreme sectional views of both 
 the North and the South. In the niemoralile campaign f)f ISC/), 
 as did most of the Democratic papers of this state, the Journal 
 supi)orted Mr. Douj^^las for I'resident. As Mayor of Kansas 
 City in 1861, he issued a proclamation advising the citizens to 
 go about their business and to refrain from discussing political 
 issues which tended to stir up strife. As a Douglas Democrat, 
 when Fort Sumpter was fired upon, he enthusiastically espoused 
 the cause of the Union. Naturally he was looked to as the leader 
 and consolidator of the Union Sentiment of this part of the state. 
 One of the curious features of the development of public senti- 
 ment and the arranging of men into two hostile parties was, 
 that in the cities and towns, the Southern sentiment was very 
 much more pronounced, wdiile in the country, the Union senti- 
 ment in most counties, was overwhelming. The strong Union 
 party in Missouri was composed almost solidly of the 17,000 men 
 who had voted for Mr. Lincoln, of a very large per cent, of the 
 Democrats who had voted for Mr. Douglas, and almost of an 
 equal number that had voted for Bell and Everett. Those who 
 voted for }klr. r.rockenridge for President were divided when 
 the war came. Events moved rapidly. Men were drilling with 
 and without arms. There were few men in the State that knew 
 anything of the manual of arms, but nearly all the younger men 
 and older boys were enrolled and would meet on Saturday after- 
 noons to drill ; those in the towns w'ould meet of evenings and drill. 
 When the President called for volunteers to suppress the insur- 
 rection, the Ciovernor of Missouri defied the President's author- 
 ity, although soldiers were volunteering and being mustered into 
 service. The capture of Camp Jackson on the 10th of May. 
 1861, precipitated matters and brought the crisis to a head. The 
 Governor soon thereafter called for 50,000 volunteers to defend 
 Missouri. The ball was fairly opened and at it and into it, Mis- 
 souri plunged. Colonel \'an Horn raised a battalion of men that 
 he commanded in 1861 ; it soon became a regiment. As a soldier 
 and an ofiFicer, whether in Mis.souri or at the front with the 
 Armv of the Tennessee, in action or in camp, with his regiment, 
 his conduct was that becoming a brave man and a true gentle- 
 man. He served three years in active and meritorious service 
 in the field; but when in 1863, the famous order "No. 11" was 
 issued bv General Thomas Kwing, commanding the district of 
 the border, with headquarters at Kansas City, the execution of 
 this famous order created great distress and much needless suf- 
 fering of many women and children, and so intense was the suf- 
 fering, that niany citizens implored General John M. Schofield 
 to ai)point Colonel \'an Horn to conduct the deportation. . 
 
 15 
 
Durinj^^ the entire war no other officer or citizen had such 
 a (UtHciih antl delicate duty to perform. It was a duty of the 
 very t;reatest responsibility. He knew personally many of these 
 refuj^ees. and iheir i)itiable condition and misfortune sank deep 
 into his heart. Xotwithstanding the service in which he had 
 been engaged in this state, antl in the South, and the further 
 fact that in the battle of Lexington he had been severely wounded 
 and at the battle of Corinth, while leading his regiment, his 
 horse had been shot under him. yet in this new and trying posi- 
 tion, as a true soldier, executed his orders with loyal submission 
 to his superiors in command, but every act was tempered with 
 forbearance, kindness and sympathy, and as he thought of his 
 wife and little ones at home, he aided in every way possible to 
 help those who had left their smoking homes behind them. 
 
 These acts of kindness were not forgotten. Some of his 
 most pleasing recollections in the retirement of private life, are 
 the expressions of gratitude that have come from those dis- 
 tressed at that time, or from their descendants and friends. Amid 
 the din of arms such actions of tender and sympathetic regard 
 could only come from a great and magnanimous soul. No won- 
 der, then, that whenever Colonel \''an Horn was a candidate for 
 Congressional honors, that many Southern soldiers would vote 
 for him because of liis generosity to their wives and little ones 
 when they were away in the field. 
 
 AS JOURNALIST AND THINKER. 
 
 There have been four great newspaper men in the United 
 States as I now use the term, who formulated thought and 
 luoulded public opinion : George D. Prentice, whose brilliancy 
 at this time is recognized by all who knew him personally, or in 
 any manner since his death, have become familiar with his writ- 
 ings. He was a gifted genius. As a contemporary of his, but 
 one who was his antipode, was Horace Greeley, who for years 
 wrote those great, practical, common-sense editorials which 
 made the New "^'ork Tribune, the greatest political force in the 
 nation. He i)Ut in a direct, straightforward manner, the con- 
 victions of his own conscience, and no other newsjiaper in this 
 country has ever carried the masses with it as did the Tribune 
 prior to and during the Civil War. Horace (ireeley tried to 
 tell the truth, and in this fact lay the power the Tribune held 
 over the minds and hearts of a large number of the American 
 f)eoplc. The third is Samuel Bowles, whose editorials in the 
 Weekly Springfield Republican caused the American nation to 
 pause and reflect. He grasped great f|uestions. and be handled 
 them as a giant wimld take up ])uny things and toss tlieiu aboutv 
 
 16 
 
viewing them on every side as they were hurled throup^h the air. 
 Colonel \'an Horn is the fourth in this line. His editorials 
 were put in stronj^", vij^orous luiglish, exjjressed in simple lan- 
 guage. The thought was always higger than the words that 
 carried the thought, and better than Prentice, (ireeley or I'.owles, 
 his illustrations were always drawn from simple and familiar 
 objects better adapted to the capacity of the mass of readers than 
 the others employed, although Horace Greeley approached him 
 the nearest in the use of language as an instrument to convey 
 thought. This represents only one side of Colonel Van Horn's 
 manv-sided character. There has never been a man in the State 
 of Missouri, or perhaps in the United States, certainly no one 
 that I have ever read after or knew personally, that knew our 
 public political men better than he knew them. I'lessed with a 
 retentive memory, a keen and discriminating analysis of human 
 nature and the motives that play upon it. he is one of the best 
 informed men in this particular line that our country has ever 
 produced. At no time have I ever asked him about any one of our 
 public men either of the present or of its past political history, 
 that he has ever hesitated for a moment in giving a correct esti- 
 mate of his ability and character. His mind is simply encyclo- 
 paedic. His newspaper experience and public life fitted him com- 
 pletely for accumulating and massing information which he has 
 arranged, digested and classified with wonderful skill. Three 
 references onlv in this connection will be sufficient. In De- 
 cember he called at my office and we were conversing on general 
 topics in no prearranged manner, and I said: "Colonel, who 
 is the greatest man now in the United States Senate?" With- 
 out a 'moment's hesitation, he replied: "Morgan of Alabama. 
 When he first went to the Senate, some of the old members 
 thought he talked too much ; but he is one of those fellows who 
 always studies, and he knows what is going to be done and 
 what has been done, and his mind moves in the biggest orbit 
 there is in the Senate. He is never idle." 
 
 Several vears ago. during a conversation. Carl Schurz's 
 name was mentioned and I remarked: "Colonel, how do you 
 account for Carl Schurz boxing the political compass so often?" 
 "Carl Schurz." said he. "was 3. born revolutionist. As soon as 
 he was old enough, he plunged into a revolution, and he has 
 kept at that business ever since. He is built that way." 
 
 A HISTORIC CHARACTER PROPHFXV. 
 
 Colonel Van Horn, writing an "editorial correspondence" 
 from Tefiferson City, gives the following estimate of Hon. Charles 
 D. Drake, who, six years later was known as the author of the 
 
 17 
 
^'Drake Constitution" of Missouri: "December 20. 1859, was 
 as predicted, consumed by Mr. Drake with his Sunday Bill, and 
 for want of a subject, I may as well notice this gentleman. He 
 came here with a rej)utation preceding him. that better legisla- 
 tors have employed years to obtain. But it has not been sus- 
 tained. He is a man of talent, as well as a man of fine acquire- 
 ments — an excellent speaker, and a fine debator, but he is en- 
 tirely a book man, an office legislator, and totally devoid of pop- 
 ular sympathy, or popular education. He seems to be insensible 
 to the reflection that there can be any diversity of opinion, except 
 upon the supposition that all save his own is unsound and false. 
 He has but two words in his vocabulary — orthodoxy and heresy. 
 It is this tone of mind that has been the source of the Sunday 
 Bill. I believe fully that the man is sincere and conscientious 
 in his advocacy of it, but his sincerity arises from the fact, that 
 his natural intellectual proclivities are Puritanical. I believe that 
 he is competent- to stand and see passing before his eyes, day 
 after day, a practical refutation of his dogma, without being 
 aware of the fact that he might be mistaken. He is the worst 
 possible man to whom any bill aflfecting morality or practices, 
 aflfecting in any manner questions of conscience, could be en- 
 trusted. He is already looked upon as constituting a complete 
 state, a complete church, and a complete system of social econ- 
 omy, within himself. He always speaks of the country as the 
 rural districts, and seems to think that city sense is of a more 
 sublimated and ethereal character than that which comes from 
 the corn-fields of the state. Perhaps it is so, but it is not cal- 
 culated to advance the influence of Mr. Drake in the House, to 
 let it be known that he feels so. Unfortunately, a large majority 
 of the Legislators are from the rural districts." 
 
 I'rior to his being elected to the Legislature. Hon. Charles 
 I). Drake, was favorablv known to the legal profession by his 
 work on "Attachments." which was for years the standard au- 
 thority. But the analysis of his character more than six years 
 before he came into prominence in the state, shows how well 
 Colonel \'an ?Iorn then measured men. This is a better descrip- 
 tion of Senator's Drake's mental peculiarities than I have ever 
 seen elsewhere in print. 
 
 A SKNSE OF IIUNfOR. 
 
 There is a very strong sense of humor in Colonel \''an Horn's 
 nature. .An incident or two will illustrate. 
 
 VOICE OF Tin-: people. 
 
 The foll(.wing extracts and comments appeared in the Jour- 
 nal January 2<S, 1860: "We trust our readers will pardon us for 
 
 16 
 
the amiable vanity that compels us to clip the following: from our 
 exchanges : 
 
 "R. T. Van Horn is a true Democrat, a man who is identi- 
 fied with the interests of Missouri and Jackson County, and who 
 has done hard work and noble services in defense of that party. 
 As we said last week, we said we were for Van against the world, 
 provided he receives the nomination. — Independence Gazette." 
 
 "R. T. Van Horn, Editor of the Journal, is announced as 
 a candidate for the Legislature." Go it, Van, "we'll hold your 
 hat." — Kansas City Metropolitan. 
 
 COMMENTS. 
 
 "Such is fame, glory, renown, and what the poets call living 
 in history. That phantom makes patriots, conspirators, heroes 
 and martyrs. It is tlie first toot of the horn of the coy goddess 
 that unstrings the nerves, and sends the hot blood surging 
 through the veins. A great thing is this vox populi." 
 
 PERSONAL .ACOUAINT.\NCE OF COLONEL VAN HORN. 
 
 Before I came to Kansas City in August, 1874, I had read 
 considerably of Col. Van Horn in an official capacity. From 
 what information I possessed, no hint had been given me touch- 
 ing his mental characteristics or his personal appearance. The 
 newspapers had been strangely silent. Soon after my arrival 
 here, Hon. J. V. C. Karnes said to me. — "I want you to meet 
 Colonel Van Horn of the Journal of Commerce." The Journal 
 office was on Fifth Street, between Main and Delaware. We 
 went into a back room, called the editorial room, and there sat 
 Colonel Van Horn in his shirt sleeves. We talked probably fif- 
 teen minutes, and when I started to go, he said: "Greenwood, 
 I like you. The columns of the Journal are open to you. Write 
 on any subject vou please, except Democracy. It would not 
 look well in a Republican paper, you know." We both laughed, 
 and I thanked him. Here was a stout built man. rather ruddy 
 complexion, about five feet ten inches in height, weight perhaps 
 two hundred pounds, eyes between a light blue and a steel gray, 
 hair and beard which were short, nearly reddish brown, slightly 
 tinged with gray, a high, broad, square forehead, a Grecian 
 nose, a wide mouth, firmlv set jaws, a chin that set ofT well the 
 forehead, eves, nose, mouth. The whole cast of countenance 
 bespoke kindliness, persistence, and determination most hap- 
 pilv blended. One's life is reflected in the sphere of little things 
 perhaps more than in great events ; the one springing up. invol- 
 untarily without much it any forethought, and tlu- ••thcr as 
 
 19 
 
the resultant uf prolong^ed investigation and deliberation. The 
 one has its orii^in in the heart, is the natural impulse of the feel- 
 ings intuitively expressed, — and the other the cold calculation 
 of the intellect with the emotions eliminated. It is from both 
 these view points I shall consider the essential features of Colo- 
 nel \'an Horn's character. 
 
 At this time he was interested in the writings of Darwin, 
 Huxley, Spencer. Wallace. Cope, Hackel, and others who were 
 thinking: along: these lines, but his mind was equally active in 
 a dozen or more different directions. Whenever I would go 
 into the Journal office, or meet him on the street, we discussed 
 the writings of the men who were the advanced thinkers of the 
 age. and we talked of the best books either had recently read. 
 Another theme that formed many conversations was the N'ortex 
 theory of the formation of the Universe, as outlined by Des- 
 cartes, which he employed to explain the motions of the planets. 
 It was indeed a matter of great pleasure to spend an hour or 
 two each week in the company of one whose conversations were 
 always along such broad lines, entirely divorced from personal 
 gossi)) and commonplace platitudes. The highest and the best 
 thinking then, so far as I knew, in Kansas City, was done by 
 Colonel Van Horn and Dr. J. G. Roberts, pastor of the First 
 Congregational Church. Another subject that received consid- 
 erable attention was the "Race of Mound Builders." and wdio 
 thev were, and did they respresent a phase of semi-civilization 
 that had been swept away by the Xorth American Indians. 
 Every Sunday, and for years afterwards, the Sunday Journal 
 would contain a leading editorial on some great subject of 
 scientific, sociological. meta])hysical. religious, or literary in- 
 terest, setting forth some new doctrine or opinion. There was 
 not a newspaper in New York. Boston. Chicago, or St. Louis 
 that had the reputation that the Journal then sustained on Sun- 
 dav editorials, and these editorials were copied far and wide 
 in niany of the leading newspapers of the country. Those who 
 did not know the Colonel personally, would write letters com- 
 l)limcnting the "Religious Editor of the Journal" for his great 
 and thoughtful contributions. These letters came from all 
 parts of the country and many of them I read. 
 
 Occasionally the Colonel would sjieak of the jiolicy he had 
 marked out for the Journal, and to which he .severely adhered. 
 One day I hai)i)cned in, someone was relating an incident that 
 bordered on the coarse. Colonel \'an Horn said: "We some- 
 times hear such things here in the office, but they never get into 
 the columns of the Journal. I i)ul)lish a i)a]ier for the fireside, 
 where the whojf family can read it and not bring a blnsli to the 
 
 20 
 
cheek of an\ woman or girl." This ])olicy explains why it was 
 that Democratic families as well as all the Republican families 
 in Kansas City read the Journal. It was a clean family paper, 
 thoui^h a strong political ])a])er. 
 
 When General John S. Phelps was the Democratic candi- 
 date for Governor of the State, a story was ])ut into circula- 
 tion in one of the St. Louis papers reflecting on his private char- 
 acter, and many of the country papers reprinted it with com- 
 ments; but the Kansas City Journal kept silent. ( )ne day in 
 conversation with the Colonel, I said: "Colonel, the Journal 
 has not printed anything about General Pheliis." This was 
 his characteristic rei)ly : "I know General Phelps intimately. 
 We are warm personal friends, and we have known each other 
 for many years. That stor\- is a lie, and not one word of it 
 shall be printed in the Journal." At the election. General Phel])s 
 was elected by a large majority, and on Saturday, just before 
 the Governor was to be inaugurated. I went into the editorial 
 room of the Journal, and the Colonel said. "Sit down and let 
 lis swap a few lies." A familiar way he had of asking a person 
 to talk with him a while. While we were swapping, an ex- 
 confederate soldier came in. and he wished to speak with the 
 Colonel privately. The Colonel shook his hand very cordiall\', 
 but at the same time he asked me to remain. This ex-confed- 
 erate was a Democrat, and he wanted a letter from Colonel 
 Van Horn to Governor Phelps, recommending him for a posi- 
 tion. The credential w^as given, and after the man went out, 
 the Colonel said : "It may seem strange to you that this man 
 would come to me for a letter to the Governor, but I told him 
 he had better not let the other Democratic candidates kni^w that 
 he had it. but he could show it to the Governor." During this 
 conversation he told me that he had never betrayed a political 
 confidence in his life, and that was the rule he had adopted 
 early in life. Information given in secrecy was inviolate. 
 
 It mav be interesting to mention how the Colonel wrote 
 editorials for the Joiinial. Tie wrote usuall}- in the forenoon 
 at his desk, using a very fine pointed lead pencil. 1 noticed in 
 the waste basket many times a very delicate hand writing on 
 soft paper, and I was puzzled for a while to understand what 
 woman about the Journal office wrote such a small hand, the 
 words crowded closely together. One day as I was sitting 
 there, I noticed an editorial which had not been sent to the 
 compositor, and it explained the mystery. When writing with 
 pen and ink, he wrote a large bold hand, but when for the press 
 or an address, he wrote a fine delicate hand, and he said that 
 he could not think well unless he so wrote. 
 
 21 
 
1 have iicvor kiuiwn a man simpler in liis habits. After 
 writing;' liis ccHtorials and while waiting to read the proof, he 
 would eat his diinier, which in the earlier days wlicn I first knew 
 him, consisted of light bread or crackers, and '"dried buffalo 
 beef." Many a time have I seen him dining on this plain, but 
 substantial mid-day meal. After reading his proof he would 
 go home, frequently buying something for the family as he 
 passed a grocery store and carry it home. Once I overtook 
 him on Main Street, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, carrying 
 two dressed turkeys and a paper bundle ; his hat was far back 
 on his head, and we both burst out into a hearty laugh ; but he 
 said: "I have salted down two fat hogs and we have two bar- 
 rels of good winter apples and a good supply of fuel, and we 
 are getting pretty well fixed up for the winter." 
 
 .\ SC.VREI) KEGIMEXT. 
 
 On one occasion we were talking about the ditTerent kinds 
 of snakes in this country. *'\\'ell," said the Colonel, "the fun- 
 niest panic I ever experienced w^as in 1862, during the siege of 
 Corinth. One evening my regiment was ordered to take an ad- 
 vanced position after dark in the brush very near to the con- 
 federate line, so as to attack at da}light the next morning. 
 The men took jjosition. and were lying on their arms in line 
 of battle. Soon after dark it began a slow rain, and after lying 
 there very quietly for an hour or tw^o. one of my men said: "I 
 smell a rattlesnake." and the rumor spread along the entire line, 
 and despite the entreaties of all the officers, the regiment broke 
 and fled. The soldiers said they would fight rebels anywhere, 
 but thc\' would not stay among rattlesnakes in the dark." 
 
 HIS IDE.\I..S. 
 
 There is neither inspiration nor asi)iration in the life that 
 is not moved by a great ideal. The greatest earthly ideal is 
 that of true friendship in which confidence is never lost or de- 
 based. 
 
 Owing to this fact, the name of Colonel \''an Horn is 
 deeply engraved on the hearts of thousands of men and women 
 who knew him in the earl\' struggles, trials and triumiihs of 
 Kansas Citv. l>y every one he was known and esteemed as an 
 honest, sympathetic and public spirited citizen. liis evcry-day 
 life so simple, unpretending and democratic, the great com- 
 moner of Missouri, brought him into close touch with all 
 classes. lie understood their thoughts, feelings and asi)irations 
 far better Ih.-in the rmcs who stood aloof. A statesman, a 
 philosopher, a scholar and a thinker, his mind inovrd in an ever 
 
 22 
 
widening circle of knowledj^e. It was trained by a lon^ and 
 powerful system of analysis, so that it workrd with the j)recis- 
 ion of a splendid piece of machinery. 
 
 Indissolubly connected with Kansas City, its rise, its 
 progress, and its destiny, is the name of Colonel Robert Thomp- 
 son \'an Horn, whose public service and private virtues belong 
 to this nation as one of its great historic characters. 
 
 At the conuclusion of the paper several citizens made short addresses. 
 Judge H. C. McDougal said : 
 
 Mr. President and Friends: 
 
 I have long been proud of the Kansas City Spirit, which says and 
 does things at the right time and in the right way. I am prouder of that 
 spirit now than ever before, for it has here brought together so many 
 representative men and women of this city to pay tribute to a venerable 
 living friend whom we all respect, honor and love. But I am proudest 
 of all tonight that I enjoy the personal friendship of our distinguished 
 guest of honor, Colonel R. T. Van Horn. 
 
 I have known him ever since I became a citizen of Missouri, nearly 
 forty years ago. Our first bond of sympathy grew out of the fact that we 
 had been soldiers of the Union in the Civil War and were members of 
 the same political party. The passing years brought us closer together 
 and each year has served to increase my admiration for the man — for his 
 vast knowledge, profound wisdom, wonderful achievements, kindness of 
 heart, simplicity of manner, his humanity — until tonight this big, brave, 
 brainy, far-sighted, many-sided man appeals to me as a very giant in in- 
 tellect and manly manhood. 
 
 In the davs and years that arc gone, I have had many long heart to 
 heart talks w'ith Col. Van Horn and at tire close of each have known 
 that I not only knew more, but that I was a better man than when that talk 
 commenced. And if I had that faith, hope and belief of immortality, so 
 soothing to many of mv betters, one of the anticipated delights nf the 
 mystic life beyond the River would be that I might there, as here, again 
 meet, greet and commune with my friend, in and through all the days, 
 weeks, months, years, centuries and cycles yet to be. 
 
 I believe in, and have practiced, the sentiment expressed hv the poet 
 in the lines : 
 
 Oh, friends, I pray, tonight. 
 Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow; 
 The way is lonely; let me feel them now. 
 ** * * * * * * 
 
 When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need 
 The tenderness for which T long tonight. 
 
 And when a friend has cither said or done a good thing, I have not 
 waited to speak of it over his or her grave, but taken that friend 
 by the hand and, face to face, expressed my grateful appreciation. Hence 
 I am glad to be present tonight, to pay my tribute of personal respect to 
 the journalist, soldier, statesman, sage, philosopher and friend, who for 
 half a century has been the most useful citizen of Kansas City, as he 
 today is easily our foremost citizen. And having him here at a dis- 
 advantage, I repeat to his face what I have so often said behind his back : 
 
 23 
 
That the time will come when the rising generation will say with pleasure 
 and pride '"I knew Col. R. T. Van Horn personally." just as we of the 
 passing generation proudly sav "I knew Abraham Lincoln." 
 
 When the long, busj', useful and beautifully blameless life of our 
 beloved friend shall have closed— which the gods grant may be many 
 years hence— then it may well be said of him, a^ the gifted John Boyle 
 O'Reilly said of his ideal man; 
 
 And how did he live, that dead man there, 
 
 In the country churchyard laid? 
 
 O. he? He came for the sweet field air. 
 
 He ruled no serfs and he knew no pride 
 
 He was one with the workers side by side. 
 
 For the youth he mourned with an endless pity 
 
 Who were cast like snow on the streets of the city. 
 
 He was weak, maybe ; but he lost no friend ; 
 
 Who loved him once, loved on to the end. 
 
 He mourned all selfish and shrewd endeavor : 
 
 But he never injured a weak one — never. 
 
 When censure was passed, he was kindly dumb; 
 
 He was never so wise but a fault would come ; 
 
 He was never so old that he failed to enjoy 
 
 The games and the dreams he had loved when a boy. 
 
 He erred, and was sorry ; but never drew 
 
 A trusting heart from the pure and true. 
 
 W'hen friends look back from the years to be, 
 
 God grant they may say such things of me. 
 
 Colonel R. H. Hunt said: 
 
 The early history of our city is fraught with great importance to us. 
 The swift changes o'f the last decade are rapidly passing into forgetful- 
 ness. Therefore, I am glad that Dr. Greenwood and others are rescuing 
 the records of a few of the important incidents that were the factors in 
 our growth. And I have been familiar with the history of our city since 
 1859. In fact, I have been a pupil of Van Horn's as I have been a con- 
 stant reader of the Journal since 1864. Turning points in the growth of 
 our city were: 1st, the securing of the Missouri Pacific; 2nd, of the 
 Cameron Road, now the C. B. & Q. ; 3rd. of the North Missouri, now 
 the Wabash, and the Fort Scott and Memphis, now the Frisco; 4th, 
 of the Kansas Pacific, now the Union Pacific— I only mention these roads 
 which Van Horn was largely instrumental in bringing into our city. Not- 
 withstanding, we were naturally a railroad center, it was a constant 
 struggle, as our rivals had control of legislation. We had to fight at 
 every point. There were a few men. whose courage and nerve ought to 
 win the admiration of our people, who knew the facts, but the one through 
 whom thcv did the work,— their right-hand so to speak— was Van Horn, 
 who enthused the people to vote aid. As the agent in conventions se- 
 curing legislation, in Congress, everywhere, he was the agent. 1 o illus- 
 trate it wa^ sought to run the Missouri Pacific from Warrcnsburg or 
 Pleasant Hill due west to the State Line. The same thing was at- 
 tempted by the North Missouri, now the Wabash; by way of Clay County 
 Bluffs to Leavenworth, leaving our city out in the cold. These schemes 
 were approved by lobby efforts only. Until 1862 Col. Van Horn was with 
 his regiment in the field (where he was wounded). He was elected to 
 the State Senate and McGerand and Payne to the lower house. On 
 
 24 
 
r- -i r\ <^ t^ <r 
 
 taking his seat, the Colonel was placed in charge of the bill for the 
 building of the Missouri Pacific, and with the aid of his asscjciates, Kan- 
 sas City became the terminus. The North Missouri, to get what legis- 
 lation it wanted, was too glad to build to this city. Before this the 
 Cameron road had been started but abandoned, and here dates one of 
 these important events in the destiny of our city. Tlie road to Cameron 
 was now sought to be revived. The war had made Kansas City a mere 
 military post and correspondingly helped Leavenworth, Atchison and St. 
 Joseph. The proprietors of the Hannibal were the owners of the Cameron, 
 which was merely a branch. It was known that Hayward the Superin- 
 tendent of the Hannibal had transferred his affections from Kansas City 
 to Leavenworth and was using all his power to divert the road to that 
 city. The Cameron directory was organized, who went to Detroit to see 
 Joy, the President of the C. B. & Q., where they met parties from Leaven- 
 worth on a similar errand. The result was that the Boston people made 
 this condition: that, before they would decide, the right to bridge the 
 Missouri should be secured from Congress. Colonel Van Horn, being in 
 Congress, was telegraphed to, asking him to secure legislation. Now 
 commonly this is the work of a session of Congress, but with the energy, 
 tact and zeal that has always characterized his action when our city was 
 in the scale, he took advantage of an incident that fortunately just then 
 occurred. A committee had reported a bill to bridge the Mississippi at 
 Quincy, and the bill was the special order. The first thing Van Horn did 
 -was to draw an amendment to the Quincy bill, authorizing a bridge at 
 Kansas City and got the consent of the chairman of the committee to 
 introduce it, and the bill was passed. And here I want to relate an m- 
 cident, that shows how small a margin sometimes controls great events. 
 
 Whilst the Colonel was on the floor offering his amendment, Sidney 
 Clark, member from Kansas, came in and hearing it read, rushed to his 
 desk to write an amendment for a bridge at Leavenworth, but, before he 
 could propose it, the previous question was asked for and carried. Now 
 I want to impress upon you that this bridge was the turning point. Yes, 
 the chief factor in settling the status of Kansas City over her rivals— and 
 we owe this consummation almost exclusively to our worthy and be- 
 loved citizen. Colonel R. T. Van Horn. 
 
 I am gratified in having this opportunity to present these pungent facts 
 to you in the presence of the Colonel who has deserved his title in war as 
 well as his rank as the first citizen of Kansas City for whom there ought to 
 "be a monument erected and placed on one of the most conspicuous places 
 in the city. 
 
 The following distinguished citizens spoke briefly of Colonel Van 
 Horn's character and work in Kansas City: General Milton Moore, Judge 
 J. V. C. Karnes, Colonel J. S. Botsford, Colonel L. H. Waters, and Rev. 
 Father William J. Dalton. 
 
 Colonel Van Horn responded to the eulogies by thanking .Mr. Green- 
 wood especially for the allusion to Mrs. Van Horn to which he replied: 
 
 "One of the secrets in public life is the assurance that home needs 
 no attention on your part." . 
 
 Mrs. Van Horn was compelled to rise in response to applause, and 
 the audience rose in compliment to her. ,,,-.. . r i. 
 
 On motion of Prof. S. A. Underwood, the club decided to pubhsh 
 in pamphlet form Prof. Greenwood's address and other facts concern- 
 ing Colonel Van Horn, and distribute them in the public and parochial 
 schools of Kansas City. 
 
 25 
 

I 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
\ 
 
 I