Jackson County, Missouri - Chapter 1: Introductory, 1881

Chapter 1: Introductory

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 Determined their Location, and why - "Motion Follows the Line of Least Resistance."

The first efforts of mankind to build cities antedates 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 those warlike ages a site of a city was determined mainly by the advantages of 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. Exhanges between people of different dominions existed only as pillage.

In earlier periods, however, the conquering of one people by another, the combination of different cities under the same dominion and the necessities of military operations, seem to have caused more attention to be given to transportation facilities in the location of cities. This was after the adoption of methods for utilizing the larger streams an-d 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.

of cities until after the American Revolution. The cities of the United Stat built before that time were founded, not directly by royal hands, but by the holding royal patents for that purpose, and the same features seem to have be^ observed by them, as were regarded by kings and conquerors for many previo ages in the Old World.

Building Cities In America

Since the Revolution, however, cities have ceased to be founded in the Ui ted States by authority ; the people have done it themselves, without supervisic or interference from government. . The sites have been selected by individua or companies ; the grounds staked off, and the lots offered for sale. This don the balance rested with the people, and though the number of cities founded this country west of the Alleghany Mountains is almost infinite, each of whi( was expected by its founders rapidly to become a great emporium, the peop have built but few. The popular choice among the many rivals tl^at have pr sented 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 Un ted States we have had no foe that made it neces.sary. Contiguity to ferti country can scarcely be said to have exerted an influence, for this country is a fertile. Facilities for transportation, however, have exerted a very great and coi trolling influence. Having never been a warlike people, and having a country ( wonderful and varied productiveness, the Americans are, of necessity, a produi ing and trading people. The chief consideration to such a people is transport, tion, and the city or the proposed city, possessing this feature in the highest di gree, be it wagon roads, watercourses with keel or steamboats, or railroads, wi be most prosperous ; and the one that by such means, each in its age, has accon modated the country farthest into the interior has commanded the widest extei of trade. The history of interior cities is but a history of the development ( transportation in its different forms. Where we find that a place now almost ol solete was once more promising than its rivals, we will likely find that it had th best transportation of the kind then employed, but that in some subsequent phas some rival took the advantage and the lead. Indeed there are but few, besidf our own city, that from the first have held the advantage over all rivals in a phases of transportational development, or that stand to-day more pre-eminent i this regard.

By Whom Western Cities Were Located

The importance of facilities for transportation in determining the locatio and prosperity of cities cannot be better indicated than by a brief reference t the character, vocation and habits of the class of men who determined the Iocs tions of all our important western cities, though they did not actually build an of them. We refer to the pioneer traders, trappers and hunters who preceded th march of civilization from the Atlantic coast - a class now rapidly disappearin into tradition and history, because the wilderness, and the wild animals the loved to chase are gone, and the red men, their companions, associates and foe are rapidly going. Daniel Boone was the type of the American element in thi class, and also of the hunters who constituted a part of it; but the most of ther appear to have been of French origin or descent. They were divided into thre distinct classes - hunters and trappers, traders and voyageurs. This latter class wer always in the employ of the traders, and it was their business to propel the wate craft which the traders employed in transportation. The hunters and trapper were sometimes independent and sometimes in the employ of the traders. The penetrated far into the wilds and explored the unknown regions. They were th 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 employees or agents of the fur companies, by whom expeditions of great magnitude and extended exploration 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 rivers with pikes. The manifest great superiority of the latter method for conducting an extensive trade is sufficient explanation of their preference for the confluence of streams, as the latter gave them access to more than one valley and thus increased possibilities for trade. This explains, also, why the vicinity of Kansas City became so attractive to them when they came to know of it, as the sequel will show that it was ; for, from here they had direct access to St. Louis, their headquarters at the time they came here, and had also good command of the upper Missouri, Kansas and Platte River valleys, while it was but a short distance across the prairie country to the valleys of the Osage, Neosho, and Arkansas.

The American and British Governments have always maintained niihtary posts on the frontier, for the protection of advancing setdement, 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 hne of least resistance." The movements of communities, classes and individuals whether in commercial, industrial, military, or social elTorts, no less than of physical bodies, obey this universal law. All effort employs the methods, and follows the lines that most facilitate the attaiiiment of its object, which is but another form of expression of the law that ' ' motion follows the line of least resistance."