Jackson County, Missouri - Chapter 2: Early Expeditions and Settlements, 1881

Chapter 2: Early Expeditions and Settlements

The Fur Companies - The First Settlement at Kansas City - How and Why it was Made - In the Wilderness - The Entry of the Land - The French Settlement, and Life Among the French Settlers - The Advantages of the Place Recognized by Others - An Anecdote of Washington Irving.

The French element of the class of pioneers above referred to, settled Canada and the northwestern part of the United States, as well as the country about the mouth of the Mississippi River. They came into the upper Mississippi and Missouri Valleys in 1764, under the lead of Pierre Laclede Liguest (always called Laclede), who held a charter from the French Government, giving him the exclusive right to trade with the Indians in all the country as far north as St. Peters River. Laclede brought part of his colony from France, and received large accessions to it in New Orleans, mainly of hunters and trappers, who had had experience with the Indians. In the year 1764, this colony established itself on the west bank of the Mississippi River, and founded the present city of St. Louis. From this point they immediately began their trading and trapping incursions into the then unbroken wilderness in their front. Their method of proceeding seems to have been to penetrate into the interior and establish small local posts for trading with the Indians, and from whence the trappers and hunters were outfitted and sent out into the adjacent woods. These local posts were many of them independent, but usually they were under the general management of parties in St. Louis. In this way, the country west and northwest of St. Louis was traversed and explored by these people at a very early day as far west as the Rocky Mountains, but of the extent of their operations little has been recorded; hence, httle is known concerning the posts established by them. It is known, however, that such posts were established at a very early day, on the Chariton and Grand Rivers, in Missouri, and at Cote Sans Dessein, in Callaway county.

In the year 1799 a post was established in the Blacksnake Hills, near St. Joseph, and in 1800 one was estabhshed at Randolph Bluffs, opposite and three miles below Kansas City. The Indian and fur trade constituted the commerce of St. Louis for half a century, and when the Territory of Louisiana was ceded by France to the United States, in 1803, the population of St. Louis was all of this class of people, and the Indian and fur trade its principal interest.

Prominent among the men who were engaged in an extensive way in this trade, were Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, of St. LOuis, who came from France with Laclede. Auguste had charge of the workmen who began the clearing of the forest for the city of St. Louis in 1764. Both at once engaged in the fur and Indian trade. Pierre was interested in the posts on Grand and Chariton Rivers, and it is supposed was the proprietor of the post at Randolph Bluffs, which appears to have been under the immediate charge of Louis Bartholet, afterward known in the settlement at the mouth of the Kaw as " Grand Louis," in counterdistinction to his son, who was known as " Petite Louis." Both these Chouteaus were afterward connected with the Missouri Fur Company, and the sons of Pierre, and Francois, with the American Company.

Probably the first white man who came into the territory of Jackson county was Col. Daniel Morgan Boone, a son of old Daniel Boone. He came to St. Louis in 1787, where he was warmly received by the trappers and traders. In a memoir of him written by the late Dr. Johnson Lykins, of this city, it is stated that he spent twelve winters trapping beavers on the Blue, spending his summers in St. Louis. He was married in the year 1800, when he abandoned trapping. After the settlement of the county he returned and located on a farm near Westport, where he remained until his death from Asiatic cholera in 1832.

The Fur Companies

The increase of the volume of any business and of the amount of capital employed in it, naturally leads to more extended operations and more systematic methods. It gives rise also to a tendency to concentrate into fewer hands. This was true of the fur and Indian trade as well as of all others. In 1787 this universal tendency of business to concentrate led to an abandonment, to a large extent, in Canada, of the simple individual methods above described, and the organization of the Northwest Fur Company at Montreal. John Jacob Astor, of New York, having been for some time interested in the fur trade with others began business for himself in 1807, and in 1809 organized the American Fur Company. The year before this event, that is 1808, twelve persons, among whom were Pierre and Auguste Chouteau, residing at St. Louis, gave systematic shape to the trade of the Missouri valley by the organization of the Missouri Fur Company, of which, Manuel Lisa, a Spaniard, was the leader. Sometime previous to this the Mackinaw Company was organized in the northwest in the region of the lakes. About 1809 or 1810 the Missouri, American and Northwestern companies began to push their expeditions across the Eocky Mountains about the head-waters of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, with a view of establishing a chain of posts across the continent, and they thus became. strong rivals. They made one expedition each and effected the desired lodgment, but, owing to the unfortunate killing of a Blackfoot chief, there arose a hostility on the part of those Indians which drove out the American and Missouri companies.

At this time there was another more northern company operating in the nothwest, known as the Hudson Bay Company. In 1810 Mr. Astor organized the Pacific Fur Company and undertook the Astoria enterprise, of which Washington Irving has written such an excellent history. In 1811 the Mackinaw company was bought out by the American and Northwestern companies, jointly, and its territory and effects divided between them. This year the American company sent a second expedition up the Missouri River under charge of Wilson P. Hunt, who was closely followed and strongly opposed by a second expedition of the Missouri company, under Manuel Lisa.

During the war of 181 2, the Astoria enterprise failed, and it was some years before the American company again attempted extended operations in the far northwest. In 1813 the Missouri Fur Company was merged into the American, and in 1819 a branch house of the latter was estabHshed at St. Louis, under the general direction of Samuel Abbott. The Chouteaus and others who had been connected with the old Missouri company then became connected with it. Pierre Chouteau, eldest son of Pierre Chouteau, who came from France, was quite prominent in its operations, and his brother, Francois Chouteau, was also connected with it This company having inherited the posts and trade of the Missouri company, occupied the territory included in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, and extended also into Arkansas and the Indian Territory, although there were still a number of independent traders in this territory. After the absorption of the Missouri cofhpany, the American company began to make great efforts to monopolize the trade of the southwest by rooting out the independent traders. In pursuance of this, Francois Chouteau was sent into the country to establish posts and to bring the local traders into subordination to the company. At what time he first entered upon this work is unknown, but he was thus engaged for several years. Among the posts thus established by him, was one on the Kaw River about twenty miles from its mouth, known as the "Four Houses," from the fact that it consisted of four log houses so arranged as to inclose a square court equal in size to the width of one of the houses. In other words a square was marked off and the houses built so that one end of each should be on one line of the square, the corners touching. This form of construction presented in each direction a defensible front equal to the length of two houses and the width of another.

First Settlement At Kansas City

In the spring of 1821 M. Chouteau was sent back to this country to establish a general agency for the posts he had established or connected with the Company, from which supphes could be sent to the posts, and at which the proceeds of the trade could be collected. The extent of this trade was such as to demand an establishment of this kind nearer than St. Louis. The knowledge of the country he had already acquired enabled him to judge of the merits of different points for such agency, having in view always the advantage offered by each for extended operations by the methods of transportation then employed. At the Kawsmouth he had access by water to the entire valleys of the Kaw, Missouri, Platte and smaller tributaries, while it afforded the shortest land transit to the Indians of the plains and to the valleys of the Osage, Neosho and Arkansas. Hence, with that unerring judgment for which his class was peculiar, he selected this point and established himself in the bottom opposite Randolph Bluffs, about three miles below what is now Kansas City. This was the first recognition of the natural advantages of this angle of the river for a large distributive trade, and the actual founding of the interest which has since expanded into the varied and wide extended activities of this city. He brought with him at this time about thirty men, all of whom were employed in the service of the company as courriers des bois or voyageuTS, and through them he concentrated at his general agency here the trade of the trans-Missouri country. His post at this point was in a sense a trading post for the Indians near by, but its distinctive feature was asa depot of supply and as a point of concentration for traders, trappers, hunters, and the interior posts. In the fall of the same year he brought his family to this post in a keel boat, which was towed all the way from St. Louis. The men who came with M. Chouteau, in 1821, were, with few exceptions, dispatched into the interior, where they established trading posts or traveled and traded among the Indians.

At a later date, 1825, M. Chouteau's younger brother, Cyprian, joined him here and soon afterward built a trading house on the south side of the Kaw River about opposite the present site of Muncie. A few years later he was joined here by another brother, Frederick, now living at Westport, in this county, and afterward they removed their post about eighty miles up the Kaw River.

In 1826 there was a flood in the rivers which washed away M. Chouteau's houses opposite Randolph Bluffs and caused great loss. A part of the stock was taken to Randolph Bluffs; he sent his family to the Four Houses, and soon afterward rebuilt his house, but this time higher up and on higher ground, which is now embraced in what is known as Guinott's Addition to Kansas City. This place became wellknown as "Chouteau's Warehouse," and was the landing place for large amounts of freight for Indian trade, and for the trade with northern Mexico, which subsequently sprung up here.

M. Chouteau subsequently entered the land on which his house stood, thus becoming a permanent resident. He continued here until he died in 1840, and his aged wife and his son, Pierre M. Chouteau, still reside in this city.

Soon after the flood above referred to, the men who came with Mr. Chouteau in (821, and others of the same class, who had been living among the Indians and in the mountains, began to gather here with their families, to settle, and thus established that wonderful French settlement, which, for a quarter of a century, existed here. This settlement was never very large, probably never exceeded a

Of the location made by the people little i# known, but Louis Bartholet (Grand Louis) settled on the bottom north of the junction of Fifth and Bluff streets and at a point now near the middle of the Missouri River. Calise Montardeau settled at the foot of Delaware street, and opened a farm of a' few acres on the hill, the center of which was about the present crossing of Fourth and Delaware streets. Louis Uneau settled at about the foot of Main street, and Louis Roy, whose son afterward established the first ferry across the river at this point, settled on the low lands a little below the foot of Grand avenue. Besides these there were a number of others who were known in the Kawsmouth settlement after Americans began to come into the adjacent country, but whether they came with M. Chouteau, or afterward, is not known. Among these were Gabriel Prudhomme, Gabriel and Louis Phillabert, Clement Lessert, Benedict Raux, Pierre La Siberte, Louis Tromley, Benj. Lagotrie, John Gray, Maj. Dripps, Louis Tourjon, Louis Ferrier, M. Vertefeuylle, M. Cabori and John Le Sarge.

In The Wilderness

At the time this general agency was established it was practically in the heart of the western wilderness. Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois were but sparsely settled, and still contained all the indigenous Indian tribes. The admission of Missouri into the Union was pending, and was not consummated until afterward. At the time of its admission the State had a population of but 66,586, mostly along the Mississippi. The population of St. Louis was but 5,500. The Indian title to the country south of the Missouri River had been extinguished soon after the establishment of Fort Osage in 1808, except twenty-four miles along the western border. The Indian title to the country north of the river and west of a line running due north from the mouth of the Osage River, had been extinguished in 18 15, and settlements had been made in Sahne county in 1810, in Cooper in 1812, in Lafayette in 1815, in Carroll and Ray in 1816, and in Jackson, east of Fort Osage, in 1819. But these were the merest outposts - the country was substantially in the hands of the Indians, except a small part along the eastern border. All the country north of the Missouri, including part of Iowa, was still the hunting grounds of the Sac, Fox and Iowa Indians, and was occasionally traversed by Kickapoos. The first three of these tribes occasionally crossed south of the river, and at this time had a village south of Fort Osage. The country on the south side was still subject to the incursions of the Osages and Kaws, who occupied the twenty-four mile strip in Missouri above referred to, and all the country south and west from the Platte River on the west to the Arkansas River in the south. Through this country, south and west, the posts had been established, which the general agency here was to supply.

The Fort Osage above referred to was established in 1808 by Captain Clemson, under the name of Fort Clark, which name was afterward changed to Fort .^ Osage. It was before the Indian title to southern Missouri was extinguished, on a tract six miles square ceded by the Indians for that purpose. Soon after its establishment the treaty by which the Indian title to southern Missouri was extinguished, was negotiated there by Pierre Chouteau, the elder, of St. Louis. In 1810 a man named Audrain had settled about a mile and a half below the Fort, but he was probably connected in some way with the Fort, as there was no other sett'ements in Jackson county until 1819, when there were some settlements made east of the Indian line. There was no settlement of any consequence in the county until after the extinguishment of the Indian title to the twenty-five mile strip in 1825, and Jackson county was not organized until 1827, and the early settlers had to go to Cyprian Chouteau's trading house, on the Kaw River, as the nearest place to trade. The first white man, other than the French traders who became connected with the Kawsmouth settlement, were the attaches of the Kaw Indian agency, established here in 1825, but these, too, were, with one exception, Frenchmen, They consisted of Baronette Vasques, sub-agent, Daniel Morgan Boone, a son of the celebrated Daniel Boone, farmer, Clement Lessert, interpreter, and Gabriel Phillebert, blacksmith. They established themselves near the foot of Gillis street, remained there until 1827, when they were removed to the Kaw agency, on the Kaw river, about eight miles above the present town of Lawrence.

The first white man other than these and the French traders to locate on ground nOw embraced within the corporate limits of. Kansas City was James H. McGee, who settled here in 1828 and whose family was so prominently identified with the early development of Kansas City. Several of his sons still reside in this city and vicinity. But there was not enough infusion of Americans into this French settlement to materially affect its character for a number of years afterward, but it continued as it had begun, the center of an extensive fur and Indian trade. The first ferry across the Missouri river in the vicinity of Kansas City was established at Randolph Bluffs by a Mr. Younger, grandfather of the "Young boys" who in connection with th^ "James boys" have been so notorious in the west. At what time this ferry was established is not known, but it was in operation in 1828. The only means of crossing the river at Kansas City at that time consisted of canoes. Two of these lashed together were used from the time of the first settlement of Americans in thi§ vicinity, to cross over with their grists to a horse mill on the other side of the river, and it continued of about this character until 1836.

The first road from this settlement into the interior appears to have led from Chouteau's warehouse up the hill in the vicinity of where Forest avenue now is, running southward nearly to Twelfth street and then southwest to about the intersection of Broadway and Seventeenth street when it descended the hill and bore south to a point where Westport is and thence west into the prairie. AVhen this road was first used is unknown, but it was probably developed from a foot or horse trail soon after the first settlement opposite Randolph Bluffs. When roads came to be made from Independence westward through Westport and thence into the Indian country, they were connected with this road at Westport. In 1829 and 1830 this was the outlet from the settlement and the ground upon which Kansas City is now located, was a dense forest overgrown upon rugged hills and deep ravines save where the Frenchmen had built their cabins and made small clearings.

Entry Of Land At Kansas

In 1828 a land office was opened at Franklin, and the lands in Jackson were brought into market. The ground upon which Kansas City stands was located as follows :

The General Government gave the State of Missouri an endowment of land for a State University, part of which was located within the present borders of Kansas City. This land was sold in 1832, and the following named tracts in Kansas City were purchased as follows :

East half lot 2, northwest fractional quarter Sec. 4, Tp. 49, Daniel King ; west half Ipts i and 2, northwest fractional quarter Sec. 4, Tp. 49, Daniel King, 162.76 acres.

Kansas City Court House

These land entries indicate that at the time they were made there were few in the Kawsmouth settlement except the French. And so it continued without change from the situation already stated until 1838; in fact, until 1846, though great changes were wrought in other parts of the county by settlement, and though Independence had become the headquarters of the overland trade with northern Mexico, and both it and Westport had grown to be considerable and thriving towns. During all these years the Indian trade was the leading interest, and during the larger part of the time the only interest. The French were the dominant element, and conducted the trade after their peculiar methods, and gave tone and character to social intercourse.

Life Among The French

Of life among the French and in fact in western Missouri at this time, the late Rev. Father Donnelly gave an interesting account a few years ago in a paper contributed to ih.e: Journal. Father Donnelly came to Kansas City in 1845, and his mission then embraced eight or ten counties extending as far east as Boonville. For twenty years he traveled on horseback over this extent of country, stopping often at farm houses. This afforded him an excellent opportunity to observe the conditions of life and the situation, customs, habits, manners and characters of the people. He noticed that the people were substantially clothed, and that they generally manufactured their clothes at home. There was a spinning wheel and loom in almost every house, and the young women of the family all spun and wove, and the piles of blankets, quilts and clothing attested the skill and taste and industry of the farmer's daughters. He also observed that when occasion demanded it, they could dress richly and elegantly, and always with studied propriety and unaffected modesty. The people were healthy, hardy, industrious and well developed, and he found them not lacking in social culture and refinement, notwithstanding their home-spun, and always and everywhere he found them courageous, courteous and hospitable. Of the French settlers at the Kawsmouth, he says :

"They were a very sociable people - they had their innocent balls and dances, especially in winter. They got up their social assemblies on a novel but simple plan of their own. A select committee waited upon some settler and informed him that a dancing party would visit his place on a certain evening. The party waited upon was reminded that his friends expected that he would have the indispensable pot de Bouillon prepared for his guests; but what was this pot de Bouillon ? It was a rich, palatable soup, cooked in a large pot, composed of chickens, wild fowl, venison, and sometimes sHces of buffalo meat, to all of which were added a few handsful of corn meal, with seasoning of small pepper, etc. The soup was quaffed from gourds, cups, dishes, etc.

"Messrs. Joe and Peter Revard were the parish fiddlers - two respectable brothers. All went to the ball - men and women, young and old, and all danced. It seems to me that some of your readers would like to ask 'did the beaux escort the belles to the ball-room, as they do in our polished times?' Not a bit of it. 'How then?' Why, the belles went, and returned too, by the side of their own affectionate mothers. Not only that, but the daughters took their seats in the ballroom itself beside their mothers, and at the end of every dance the beau restored his partner to the same secure place. This, too, is the proper etiquette among the old French themselves in 'La Belle France.' A most respectable gentleman, Mr. Ndrthrup, informed me that he attended these parties, that he never witnessed anywhere such real politeness, such guarded deportment, and such genu, ine, amiable, refined enjoyment, as he witnessed among the old French half.

" There was no liquor drank, no boisterous talk, no unbecoming word or act seen among them. All were happy ; all danced; all partook of the Bouillon. There were no quarrels, no contentions and no scandals among them, nor thefts, nor wrongs, nor impudicity, no adulteries, nor injustice, nor slanders, nor deceit.

"They took one another's word in buying and selling and they never broke it - they kept their word because there was honor among them of the christian sort."

They were all Catholics, and of course, brought their religion with them when they came to the Kaw's mouth. Father Reau was the first priest, but it is not known at what time he came. Their first church was a log structure in the vicinity of Penn and Eleventh streets, where the first parsonage, a long since abandoned and dilapidated log hut stood, until recently.

This condition of society was largely adopted by others as they came in, and was substantially maintained until the Rebellion broke out. In the winter time when boats could not run, the Santa Fe trade stopped, and there was no business of any consequence to do. The Santa Fe traders were all in and the trappers and travelers on the plains and in the mountains came to " the camp " to spend the winter. There was nothing to do but enjoy life, and dance and festival succeeded each other so rapidly as to occupy the time until spring brought the boats, started the trains, and business broke in upon the revels of pleasure.

The trade of this period was peculiar. It was chiefly an exchange of commodities. The Indian brought his ponies and pelts, and the fruits of the chase ; the trapper brought his furs, and both were exchanged, not for money, for neither Indian or trapper had use for that, but for supplies - blankets, trinkets, groceries, flour, salt and whisky - everything received here was brought by the boats, even flour, bacon and corn, which the country now produces so abundantly, were brought from eastern Missouri and Illinois, and merchants had to lay in a stock in the fall to last the community, and the trade, until the boats brought more in the spring.

Recognition By Other Parties

At an early date, which it is now impossible to fix, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company began to debark at the Kawsmouth settlement. It is probable that the members and agents of that company were attracted hither by the same natural advantages for their trade that had previously brought the American company. It was doing the same kind of business and operating in the same field. This company was brought into existence in 1822, by Gen. Ashley, of Missouri. Its forces made their first expedition up the river in keel boats and across the mountains in 1824. In 1830 it took the name of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, with William L. and Milton Sublett and Robert Campbell, of St. Louis at its head These men afterward became property owners in Kansas City and were identified with its early history as a town.

Washington Irving, in Astoria, gives an excellent account of some of their early expeditions, and bestows a fitting tribute upon their courage and enterprise. Several of their expeditions were debarked at Chouteau's warehouse, and followed the road above described, thence westward until about the present town of Topeka, they crossed the Kaw River and followed up the Blues, thence to the Platte and into the mountains above and north of Cheyenne. There were some very important firms and individuals engaged in this trade who also took a departure from here. Among these were Maj. Dripps and Bent and St. Vraine. Father DeSmedt attended one or more of the expeditions, thus departing from this point, being entertained while here at the Catholic parsonage by Father Reau.

The advantages of this as a point of departure for the west, southwest and northwest, were afterward recognized by Captain Bonneville, who took his departure from Fort Osage in 1832, and of whose expeditions such an excellent account has been given by Washington Irving. Lieut. Lupton, and Fremont and Beale subsequently took their departure for their celebrated expeditions from the French setdement where Kansas City now is. In 1832, Colonel Ellsworth, commissioner of Indian affairs, visited the Indians west of Missouri and Arkansas, and likewise took their departure from this point. Colonel Ellsworth's party consisted of a number of persons of great distinction, among whom were J. H. B. Latrobe,. architect of the Capitol at Washington, Count Pourtales, of Switzerland, Paul Leguest Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Washington Irving. It was this expedition that furnished Irving the material for his "Tour on the Prairies," in which he gives an excellent account of it. However, there was one incident of this tour which he does not mention, and which occurred in this county, so strongly illustrative of the disregard the hardy frontiersman of that time had for rank and position in society, that it is given here. The party had engaged as a camp assistant Mr. Harry Younger, of this county, the father of the "Younger Boys." The first morning after leaving Chouteau's house, Mr. Irving requested him, at the breaking of camp, to bring up the horses, so that they might start on the journey. The horses were grazing at a little distance. "All right," replied Mr. Younger, " let's go after them." "But," said Mr. Irving, "we expect you to do that." "Well," said Mr. Younger, "why can't some of you help me. There's that d - d Count, why can't he go? He does nothing but shoot snowbirds." Mr. Younger, with the social equality ideas peculiar to the hardy frontiersman, could not readily appreciate the dignity of a Commissioner of Indian affairs, a Swiss Count or a celebrated author, nor see why they should not help bring in the horses.