Jackson County, Missouri - Chapter 8: Marking the Santa Fe Trail, 1920

Chapter 8: Marking the Santa Fe Trail

DAUGHTERS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION START MOVEMENT - MRS. .JOHN VAN BRUNT AND MISS ELIZABETH GENTRY, COMMITTEE - ASSISTED BY THE AUTHOR - INDEPENDENCE CITY COUNCIL ACTS - MEETING OF OLD PLAINS¬ MEN CALLED - MEMBERS - SANTA FE TRAIL MARKERS IN JACKSON COUNTY - "THE SANTA FE TRAIL" BY ED BLAIR.

In the year 1909 the Daughters of the American Revolution con¬ ceived the idea of relocating and marking the route of the original Santa Fe trail from Franklin in Howard County through the states of Missouri, Kansas-, Colorado and New Mexico to Santa Fe. In a great many places it had been fenced up and changed by the land owners, so that the original route was fast losing its identity. Fortunately the route through Jackson County had been noted on the plats made by the government surveyors when the land was surveyed. A copy of those old plats are now in the county surveyors office at Independence. They appointed a committee, composed of Mrs. John Van Brunt and Miss Elizabeth Gentry, of Kansas City, whose duty it was to hunt up the exact route through the state of Missouri.

The ladies knew that Col. R. T. Van Horn of Kansas City, an old time newspaper man would be apt to know of some one who might be able to tell them the exact location of the old trail. One day I was sitting in a store in Independence, when an auto stopped in front, a gentleman got out and came into the store and inquired if there was a man in there by the name of Hickman. On being answered in the affirmative he said, "There are a couple of ladies out there who wish to see you." I walked out and was introduced to Mrs. Van Brunt and Miss Gentry. They asked

I replied that I thought I knew every foot of it. "You are the very man that we are hunting," they replied. "Col. Van Horn sent us to you and said if you did not know he had no one else to refer us to." They invited me to go with them to Sibley and show them that part of the old route.

Afterward they appeared before the city council of Independence and asked them their assistance in working up a sentiment in favor of the project. In order to get as many persons interested as possible a meet¬ ing of the old plainsmen was called at the Independence Fair Grounds on Friday, Sept. 3, 1909. The members of the fair board generously fur¬ nished a large tent and seats for their use at the meeting. When the day came, the tent was soon crowded to its capacity. When they met it was a sight worth seeing'. Many old friends met that had not seen each other for years ; in many cases each thought the other dead.

Pursuant to a call of Wm. Z. Hickman those persons whose names are before set forth assembled at the fair grounds of the Independence Fair Association, at ten o'clock A. M., Sept. 3, 1909, for the purpose of organization. The purpose of the meeting as explained by Wm. Z. Hick¬ man, was to form an association of those who followed the plains prior to the last year of the Civil War and the "plains", he explained, meant the great country west of the Missouri River, likewise, west of the Mis¬ souri state line, over which trade was carried on by means of pack ani¬ mals and wagons drawn by mules and oxen.

On motion it was declared that all of those who traveled over the plains, whether immigrants, travelers, traders, trappers, whether em¬ ployed or employers, and soldiers, should be eligible to membership. It was also on motion declared that the sons and daughters of the above named and sons and daughters of pioneers of Missouri and Kansas should likewise be eligible to membership.

On motion it was declared that all desiring to become members should sign a roll giving their places of birth, ages and the years during which they were upon the plains. And, it was further declared on motion that those claiming as sons and daughters should give the names of those under whom they claim.

Early Days On The Old Santa Fe Trail

On motion, Milton Moore was elected president, James W. Renick, vice-president; Mrs. O. H. Gentry and Mrs. Nannie Wallace, recording secretaries, and Wm. Z. Hickman, corresponding secretary.

On motion, each member was asked to contribute papers or sketches of their own experience on the great plains and upon the lives of those who are not living, which papers are to be preserved by the correspond¬ ing secretary to the end that those who opened the way of western commerce and civilization may not be forgotten.

On motion, it was agreed that the annual meeting of the associa¬ tion shall be held on Friday of the Independence fair of each year in conjunction with a meeting of the early settlers of Jackson County, Mis¬ souri. The meeting was addressed by D. C. Allen and Milton Moore.

The oldest man at that meeting was Jas. Bowlin he being 90 years old. He was one of the five men present that went with Doniphan's expedition to Mexico in 1846 as a soldier. The others were Jas. Peacock, Jas. S. Storey, Morgan DeLacey and James Carter. A permanent organ¬ ization was made and meetings held regularly until the breaking out of the World War. At each meeting fewer and fewer of the old fellows answered to their names at roll call. At the last meeting held in 1917, only 12 answered to the names. Since the first meeting nearly all have died.

Desert" has been transformed into a land of fine farms and homes. Civil¬ ization has changed the appearance of all of it, and the man who passed over it 50 or 60 years ago, would be perfectly lost should he try to follow the old trail. When the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad was built the engineers built it almost on the identical route of the old Santa Fe Trail.

Some years ago I took a trip over the railroad from Kansas City to Santa Fe and in a great many places it was almost identical with the old trail, especially was this so from Trinidad to Santa Fe. Trinidad is situated on the north side of the Raton mountains, at the mouth of a big canyon. The head waters of the Purgatorie River comes out of that canyon, that was the only place that a wagon road could have ever been built across the Raton range. The wagon road crosses the stream 18 times from Trinidad to the summit and seven times from the summit to the plains on the south side. The road came out on the plains just where the town of Raton now stands.

The men at the meeting were men who had traveled that trail when it was dangerous. Some of them had been wagon masters, assistants and" teamsters. There was never a collection of men that were more de¬ voted to duty than those old plainsmen were - there was no task too arduous or dangerous for them to go through with, in the discharge of their duties. The teamsters obeyed the orders of the wagon masters with just as much promptness as regular soldiers of the army. No mat¬ ter how cold or rainy, when a man's time came to go on duty he went, without question.

After the meeting the men took great interest in the undertaking of the ladies to put up markers along the old road. The ladies went before the Legislature and asked for an appropriation to buy the markers, and the members from the counties through which the old train ran took up the matter with a good will and pushed the bill through both houses of the Legislature and the Governor signed it. As soon as the law became operative the contract was let for the markers and work commenced upon them at once. When finished, they were speedily erected along the whole line, from New Santa Fe, Jackson County, to Franklin in Howard County. After all of them had been set, the ladies organized a party to go over the line and dedicate them, and in each place to select some responsible party who would pledge themselves to look after them and care for them when necessary.

Those stones in Jackson County are located as follows, commencing from the eastern line of the county : Livesy, Buckner, Six Mile Church, Salem Church, Court House yard in Independence, Aunt Sophia Kitchen on the Blue Ridge Boulevard, Cave Spring, Bryant Road, Red Bridge, and the state line of New Santa Fe. A marker was also located on the top of the river bluff at Old Fort Osage, from which point passengers on every steamboat that comes up the Missouri River can see it for miles before getting to it. It stands there as a lone silent sentinel on the iden¬ tical spot that Captain Meriwether Lewis selected in the year 1805, on his exploring expedition to the Pacific ocean, for a trading post and fort, that was located by the government in 1808.

When the dedicating party reached Franklin it looked as if half of the population of Howard County was there. They had prepared a mag¬ nificent dinner and invited every one to partake of their hospitality. Governor E. W. Major was present and made a speech of welcome.

That the markers tell in the years to go Where the ox teams crossed the plain Of the men who traveled the toilsome way But few are left to tell it today.