acres.

Northwest quarter of southwest quarter Sec. 9, Tp. 49, Joseph Boggs, Sr., 40

Southwest quarter of northwest quarter Sec. 9, Tp. 49, L. W. Boggs, 40 acres. 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 the 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 slices 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. Northrup, 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.

breeds of Westport Landing, at their winter balls and reunions. decorum, decency and politeness always prevailed.

The strictest

"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 settlement 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 snow birds." 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.

66

CHAPTER III.

THE GREAT INDIAN TRADE.

Proposed Removal of the Indians to the West-The Numbers to be Moved-The Removal-The New Locations-Effects on Western Trade-Founding of Westport—And Concentration of The Trade There.

Having thus briefly sketched the fur trade and its result in the recognition of the advantages of the point at which Kansas City came subsequently to be built, and the recognition of the same advantage by the various exploring parties sent into the unknown west, it comes next in order to state a set of contemporaneous facts which led to a most important increase of the Indian trade of this section and its relations to the future city.

The close of the British war of 1812, which occurred in 1815, was followed by an immense immigration to the west and northwest during the ten years following. Mr. Schoolcraft, in his history of the Indian tribes, says that no such movement of people into a new country was ever witnessed before in the entire history of the world. This brought the whites into contact with the Indians in the northwestern territory, in the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, and in the southwest in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The indigenous tribes still lived in these localities. This pressure upon the Indians and curtailment of their hunting grounds led to constant conflicts and bloody

wars, and the necessity of removing the Indians to more distant localities became every year more apparent, and a policy of that character gradually shaped itself.

PROPOSAL TO REMOVE THE INDIANS TO THE WEST.

In pursuance of this fact, President Monroe, Jan. 27th, 1825, sent a message to Congress, formally proposing such a course. At the same time Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, furnished Congress with a statement of the numbers and locations of the Indians proposed to be removed. The whole number was 92,664, divided as follows: In Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and New York 13,250, which he proposed should be removed to the country north of Illinois and west of Lake Michigan. In Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi 53,625, which, together with the Wyandottes, Shawnees, Senecas, Delawares, Kaskaskias, Munsas and Eel Rivers of the northwest, 3,082; the Seminoles, in Florida, 5,000, and Delawares, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Weas, Peorias, Iowas, Prankashaws, Quapaws, Osages and Cherokees of Missouri and Arkansas, he proposed to locate on the territory west of Missouri and Arkansas, occupied at that time by the Osages and Kansas.

OF POSITION TO REMOVAL.

This proposition of removal was severely opposed by the people of all the States mentioned. The Legislatures of some of them adopted resolutions strongly protesting against it, and memorials were sent to Congress from the people protesting against it. Most of the Indians were receiving annuities from the Government, and their trade was a valuable item of business which the people desired to retain. The wildest stories regarding the sterility and uninhabitableness of the country proposed for them were circulated among both whites and Indians, and the communications of Gen. Clark, of Missouri and others well acquainted with the country, from expeditions they had made through it, were inadequate to quiet such misrepresentations. Hence delegations of Indians were sent out to examine it for themselves. Among these delegations was one consisting of representatives of several tribes in the northwest, in charge of Rev. Isaac McCoy, father of our esteemed fellow citizen, John C. McCoy. This party crossed the country to Younger's Ferry, on the Missouri River, at Randolph Bluffs in 1828, and pressed on into the Indian country west of Missouri and Arkansas. This fact is mentioned here because Mr. McCoy several years afterward, in 1831, after the removal of part of the Indians had taken place, caused the establishment of Shawnee Mission, eight miles south of this city, Dr. Johnston Lykins, recently deceased, being placed at its head.

THE REMOVAL AUTHORIZED.

The Government and the Indians having become satisfied of the suitableness of the proposed country, Congress on the 28th of May, 1829, passed an act authorizing President Jackson to cause the removal of the Indians, and to allot the different tribes their portion in the new territory. The Kansas Indians, an indigenous tribe, who occupied a large tract of the country in Missouri and a large part of the State of Kansas extending from the great Nemaha southward, had in 1825 ceded it to the government, so that a part of the land for the new reservation was already in hand. Subsequently in 1833 the Pawnees were induced to relinquish the title to that part of Nebraska lying between the Platt and the great Nemaha, for the same purpose.

THE REMOVAL.

In pursuance of the authority given by Congress, President Jackson caused treaties to be made with the Indians for the relinquishment of their eastern reservations and removal to the west. These treaties were made as follows: With