Saline County, Missouri - Chapter 7: The Santa Fe Trade and the Santa Fe Trail, 1910

Chapter 7: The Santa Fe Trade and the Santa Fe Trail

Although the Santa Fe trade did not originate in SaHne county, yet it did originate at Franklin, Howard county, and very soon afterwards entered this county at Arrow Rock, w^here the Santa Fe trail crossed the river; therefore, it becomes a very important part of the earlv history of Saline county, many of her citizens being- engaged in the trade soon after it commenced.

To Capt. William Becknell, of Howard county, belongs the honor of being the founder of the Santa Fe trade and the father of the Santa Fe trail.

One James Pursley, an Indian trader from St. Louis, visited Santa Fe in 1805, but he never returned. Gen. Zebulon Pike was sent out to explore the region about New^ Mexico in 1806, but he w^as taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and subsequently released, but he did not return to Missouri.

The Santa Fe trade originated at Franklin in 182 1, that town then being the most important place west of St. Louis. Becknell was the first man to take wagons over the route. Li the Missouri Intelligencer, of Franklin, June 10, 1 82 1, he had an advertisement for seventy-five men to go west. to trade for horses and mules. They rendezvoused at the home of Ezekiel Williams on August 4th, and crossed the river at Arrow Rock, September 21, 182 1.

On the second trip, Becknell left Arrow Rock on the 22nd of May, 1822, with twenty-one men and three wagons. Becknell was joined by Heath on the Arkansas.

In 1823 a company of traders under Colonel Cooper left the vicinity of Franklin on May 6th, each having two packs and two hundred dollars' worth of goods. They returned in October with jacks, jenneys and mules, and four hundred head of other live stock and some furs.

Li 1824 the expedition organized at Franklin to rendezvous at Mt. Vernon (afterwards changed to Lexington). A. LeGrand was elected captain. Col. M. M. Marmaduke was one of this party, and also Augustus Storrs, the latter being appointed consul at Santa Fe the next year. This company had eightyone men, one hundred and fifty-six horses and mules, twenty-five wagons and about thirty thousand dollars' worth of merchandise, and was the first expedition to use wagons extensively. They arrived at Santa Fe on the 28th day of July, and met wnth a very successful and profitable trade. Returning, they reached Franklin. September 24th, bringing back one hundred and eightythousand dollars of gold and silver coin, and ten thousand dollars in furs. This was one of the most profitable ventures in the history of the Santa Fe trade. Colonel Marmaduke remained all winter at Santa Fe, returning home the following spring.

The Missouri Intelligencer of April 19, 1825, contains Captain Becknell's account of a trip he made west from Santa Fe to the "Green River," or the Colorado.

In 1827 a caravan of fifty-two wagons, one hundred and twenty-five men, with Ezekiel Williams, captain, A. Storrs and David Workman went out over the Santa Fe trail.

In 1828, May ist, a party of Santa Fe traders left Franklin with one hundred and fifty men and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of goods. September 12th seventy to eighty of them, returning, reached Franklin. The venture was profitable, but lost two men killed by Indians, Monroe and McNees. These two men, Monroe and McNees, were killed at the crossing of a small stream about the edge of New Mexico, which has ever since been called McNees' creek. They were killed by Indians in the day time very suddenly, while lying down by the side of the road, probably asleep, they having ridden on ahead of the train some distance. A party of mounted Indians rushed on them suddenly, killing them before they could get up and stampeding their horses.

In 1830 a Santa Fe party left Franklin May 2d, with one hundred and twenty men and sixty wagons. They returned in October, having made good profit.

A considerable number of citizens of this county joined these caravans after they had crossed the river at Arrow Rock, to engage in the Santa Fe trade also. Colonel Marmaduke making at least four trips, finding the business quite profitable. Besides Marmaduke from this county, there was W\\- liam and Darwin Sappington, and James W. Smith, son of Gen. T. A. Smith. Their wagons for Santa Fe were loaded at old Jonesboro, where the Sappingtons had a store for some years.

After 1830 the point of outfitting for the Santa Fe trade was transferred to Independence, in Jackson county, and there being no newspaper at Independence at that time, very little record of it was kept for a good many years afterwards.

Ic8 Past And Present

Prior to 1820 New Mexico had been supplied with goods imported through Vera Cruz, the Spanish port of entry, and enormous prices were charged, cahco bringing from two dollars to three dollars a yard. As traffic with the United States was smuggling, prohibited by law, the first caravan met with disaster and the traders were imprisoned until the Mexicans overthrew the sovereignty of Spain. Several events favorable to the trade took place about the time Missouri became a state. In 181 9 Spain sold to the United States the territory east of New Orleans, which was then called Florida, and two years afterwards the United States took possession of it.

In 182 1 the Mexican revolution under Iturbide was successful, and the next year the empire of Mexico was established. The Indian trade had proved profitable and the Mexicans used the same class of goods, and so the trade with Santa Fe at once sprung up.

This Santa Fe trail, crossing the river at Arrow Rock, followed the old Osage trace across the county in a direct route to Grand Pass until after the location of the county seat at Marshall, in 1839, when it was changed to pass through Marshall.

Other Public Roads And Highways

For many years much of the time of the Legislature of the territory and state was occupied in passing acts to authorize state roads, and for that reason the matter of establishing and opening roads was conferred by general law on the county courts in the various counties.

But for many years after the organization of this county the public roads were located, marked out and opened under special acts of the Legislature, and were called "state roads." These state roads were opened under the supervision of commissioners appointed by the governor, who selected a surveyor to survey and mark out the road. Nearly all of these original roads have long since been vacated or changed.

And after the control of the public roads was conferred on the county courts, a general statute was passed authorizing a change in the ])ublic roads in any case where the owner of the land on which the road was located desired to fence and cultivate the same; it might be changed bv the county courts, on petition for that purpose, to the congressional lines. This statute resulted in almost every one of the old state roads being changed and put on other ground. Originally the roads were direct from one place to another on the most favorable and suitable route. Now, however, they follow all the right angles created by the rectangular surveys as originallv made.

Under the special laws creating state roads, there were at least two main state roads established, marked out and opened through Saline county. One from Boonville, west through Arrow Rock and Marshall, on to Lexington and Independence, a sixty-foot-wide road. This was a mail route over which a line of daily four-horse stages was operated for many years previously and up to the beginning of the Civil war, from St. Louis through Jefferson City to Lidependence. This stage route was usually well equipped with large, roomy and comfortable coaches, and good teams of four horses each that were changed every eight or ten miles at stage stands along the route. When the weather and roads were good, travel by these stages was quite comfortable and expeditious, but decidedly otherwise in winter, when cold and rough.

There was also a state road through the southern part of the county, from Boonville through Warrensburg to Independence, following the divide between Rlackwater and Heath's creek. But this road was never traveled very much by movers, at least, the main travel being on the road near the river. There were other state roads in the county, but they were nearly all disregarded when the matter of roads was turned over to the county courts.

There was a great throng of emmigrants through Saline county to California on the river road in 1849 and 1850. In the early spring of that year, the covered wagons of these immigrants were hardly ever out of sight at Arrow Rock.