Buchanan County, Missouri - Chapter 1: Introductory, 1881

Chapter 1: Introductory

HOW ANCIENT CITIES WERE FOUNDED AND BUILT - THE CONSIDERATIONS DETERMINING THEIR LOCATION - HOW MODERN CITIES ARE BUILT, AND THE CONSIDERATIONS DETERMINING THEIR LOCATION - AMERICAN CITIES, HOW LOCATED AND HOW BUILT - WESTERN CITIES - THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES-THE PEOPLE WHO DETERMINE THE LOCATION, AND WHY - "MOTION FOLLOWS THE LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE."

The first efforts of mankind to build cities ante-dates history, hence nothing very definite concerning the circumstances and methods is or can be known ; but in the earlier ages of the historic era, when the race was divided into comparatively small and warring factions, and afterward, when these factions grew to be powerful, but not less warlike nations, cities were 'located by kings and conquerors, and built by the people under their immediate supervision and direction.

In these warlike ages, a site for a city was determined mainly by the advantages of the defense of the spot of ground selected, though the contiguity of fertile and pastoral country seems not to have been entirely ignored ; hence cities built in those ages were at once the capital and fortress of the king, while immediately surrounding it was a country susceptible of supporting his subjects. No regard seems to have been had, however, to facilities for transportation, not even so much as would facilitate military operations, while trade, which consisted chiefly of exchange between the people of the town and the adjacent domain, was entirely ignored. Exchanges between people of different dominions existed only as pillage.

In later periods, however, the conquering of one people by another, the combination of different cities under the same power, and the necessities of military operations, seem to have caused more atten- tion to be given, to transportation facilities in the location of cities. This was after the adoption of methods for utilizing the large streams and the inland seas, and the erection of cities after that time, seems to have been determined by the three principles of defensibility, contiguity of productive country, and facilities for water transportation, and hence were usually located on large rivers or arms of the sea. At least it was cities so located that in this period were most prosperous and became most famous.

These features continued to be the ruling factors in the selection of the location of cities, until after the American revolution. The cities of the United States built before that time, were founded, not directly by royai hands, but by those holding royal patents for that purpose, and the same features seem to have been observed by them as were regarded by kings and conquerors for many previous ages in the Old World.

Building Cities In America

Since the revolution, however, cities have ceased to be founded in the United States by authority ; the people have done it themselves, without supervision or interference from government. The sites have been selected by individuals or companies, the grounds staked off, and the lots offered for sale. This done, the balance rested with the people, and, though the number of cities founded in this country west of the Alleghany Mountains is almost infinite, each of which was expected by its founders rapidly to become a great emporium, the people have built but few. The popular choice among the many rivals that have presented themselves in every section has been determined by principles as well ascertained as those of old, and as easy of definition.

Consideration Of Transportation Facilities

Defensibility has ceased to be a consideration, for in the interior of the United States we have had no foe that made it necessary. Contiguity to fertile country can scarcely be said to have exerted an influence, for this country is all fertile. Facilities for transportation, however, have exerted a very great and controlling influence. Having never been a war-like people, and having a country of wonderful and varied productiveness, the Americans are, of necessity, a producing and trading people. The chief consideration to such a people is transportation, and the city or the proposed city, possessing this feature in the highest degree, be it wagon roads, watercourses with keel or steamboats, or railroads, will be most prosperous ; and the one that by such means, each in its age, has accommodated the country farthest into the interior, has commanded the widest extent of trade. The history of interior cities is but a history of the development of transportation in its different forms. Where we find that a place now almost obsolete was once more promising than its rivals, we will likely find that it had the best transportation of the kind then employed, but that in some subsequent phase some rival took the advantage and the lead.

By Whom Western Cities Were Located

The importance of facilities for transportation in determining the location and prosperity of cities, cannot be better indicated than by a brief reference to the character, vocation and habits of the class of men who determined the locations of all our important western cities, though they did not actually build any of them. We refer to the pioneer traders, trappers and hunters who preceded the march of civilization from the Atlantic Coast - a class now rapidly disappearing into tradition and history, because the wilderness and the wild animals they loved to chase are gone, and the red men, their companions, associates and foes, are rapidly going. Daniel Boone was the type of the American element in this class, and also of the hunters who constituted a part of it ; but the most of them appear to have been of French origin or descent. They were divided into three distinct classes - hunters and trappers, traders and "voyageurs. This latter class were always in the employ of the traders, and it was their business to propel the water craft which the traders in transportation. The hunters and trappers were sometimes independent and sometimes in the employ of the traders. They penetrated far into the wilds and explored the unknown regions. They were the true pioneers. The furs and skins procured by them were sold to the' traders, or procured for them. The traders, originally independent, but subsequently under the direction of the great fur companies, established posts far into the interior of the wilderness, to which they transported articles suitable for traffic with the Indians, and such supplies as hunters and trappers wanted, and at which they purchased robes, skins and furs, which they transported back to the borders of civilization. Irving's "Astoria," and "Booneville" give an excellent history of this trade, which, about the beginning of the present century, was immense, and extended all over the uninhabited parts of North America. The men engaged in it were a brave, adventurous class, for whom the wilderness and association with wild animals and wild men possessed more charms than- civilization. With a few articles of traffic, a gun, and perhaps a few tools for constructing traps, they pushed their way hundreds and even thousands of miles into the untrodden wilderness, not knowing what moment they might fall in with some unknown ferocious animal, or some band of hostile savages. They put their canoes and rafts into streams and followed their course, not knowing to what falls or dangers they might lead. Their lives were a perpetual vigil, and they may be said to have lived with their finger on the trigger. In the beginning, they confined their excursions to a limited territory where the valuable fur animals were to be found. Here they spent their winters in solitude, and in the spring went with the proceeds of their trapping to a trading post where they were disposed of and new supplies purchased, when they were off again into the solitude for another year. Subsequently they became the employes or agents of the fur companies,, by whom expeditions of great magnitude and extended explorations were undertaken.

The traders were mostly French, and as they employed trappers as well as traded with them and the Indians, and as the fur animals were chiefly found along streams, their posts were usually located on them or near their confluence. The latter were deemed the most desirable locations, as they gave access to larger districts of country by keel boats and pirogues, and hence more easily commanded a larger trade. Their only means of transportation was packing on their own backs, or on the backs of horses, and light water craft which could be propelled in the river with pikes.

The American and British governments have always maintained military posts on the frontier, for the protection of advancing settlement, yet they have never led, but always followed these men ; and military men in scientifically determining the strategic advantages of locations for posts have always found the judgment of these pioneers unerring as to the points that held best command of the adjacent country-,, and have located their posts in the vicinity of the traders and where substantially the same advantages were secured.

The principle underlying these facts - underlying the law of transportation itself - is the long since observed universal physical law that "motion follows the line of least resistance." The movements of communities, classes and individuals whether in commercial, industrial, military or social efforts, no less than of physical-bodies, obey this universal law. All effort employs the methods, and follows the lines that most facilitate the attainments of its object, which is but another form of expression of the law that "motion follows the line of least resistance."