KANSAS CITY MISSOURI Its History and Its People CHAPTER I. AT THE KAW'S MOUTH. It has been conceded since the earliest times that climate, soil and natural surroundings have vast importance in shaping the history of states. What is true of nations is even more true of cities. There is a good reason why every great metropolis is where it is. The physical conditions that surround a city-the rivers, seas, valleys, hills and plains-determine its great ness. In ancient and mediæval times when "might made right," the clans and tribes of the Old World sought the fastnesses of the hills where all approaches might be guarded, the more easily to defend themselves from the attacks of their enemies. Changing conditions later developed systems of barter and trade, and men devoted themselves more to commercial pursuits and less to strife and warfare. In the New World adventure developed commerce and trade demanded means of transportation. Rivers and lakes, the highways of nature, solved the problem. The location of settlements, villages and cities, in pioneer days, was determined largely by the blue strips of water in the form of rivers or lakes. Travel in the early days by boat, horseback or stage required stopping places for man and beast. In consequence settlements were established on river banks, in foothills, in valleys and on the plains where necessity required rest and refreshment for the travelers. These natural stopping places became commercial centers that developed into towns and cities. Trading posts, as some of the centers were called, attracted a thrifty class of people. Prosperous merchants, through their desire for better conditions of living, brought together various classes of tradespeople and mechanics, and in this manner progressive communities were formed. Kansas City, of all the great inland cities of America, is the most fortunately situated. A river, having a carrying capacity equal to one hundred railroads, flows past its port in an endless stream. For her tributary ter ritory Kansas City has the great Southwest, an exceedingly fertile region. The center of the national domain, as demonstrated by William Gilpin in his discussion of "The Cosmopolitan Railway," is one hundred and twenty miles west of Kansas City. The author and philosopher discovered these interesting facts: "If from a point where the junction of several small streams forms the Kansas river, 120 miles due west from the Missouri as a center, a circle be described touching the boundary line of 49 as a tangent, the opposite circumference of the circle will pass through the seaport of Matagorda, in Texas, through New Orleans and Mobile. This point is, therefore, the centre between the northern and southern boundaries of our country. If from the same center a larger circle be described, it will pass through San Francisco, and through Vancouver City, on the Columbia, grazing almost the entire coast between them. The same circle will pass through Quebec and Boston on the Atlantic, through Havana on the Gulf, and through the city of Mexico. The same point is then the center between the oceans. "Thus at the forks of the Kansas river a point exists, in latitude 38° 45', and longitude 97° west of Greenwich, which is the geographical centernorth and south, east and west-not only of the Mississippi basin, but of our entire national domain." In the early days of Kansas City, the Missouri river and its tributaries drew from the mountains, hills and plains the riches supplied by nature for the use of the pioneers of commerce. From the distant regions of the Rocky mountains, where outposts had been established, down the treacherous waters of the Missouri, came small craft laden with furs to be sold to traders at the Kaw's mouth. The fearless boatmen in the employ of the fur traders were the tentacles that reached out into the wilderness and brought forth its riches. To these traders, hunters, trappers and boatmen, Kansas City owes its beginning. The shrewd commercial instincts of the early pioneers led them to realize the geographical value of the site at the confluence of the Missouri and Kaw rivers as a location for a trading center. The importance of the fur trade as a factor in the colonization of the great West, must be appreciated to understand the beginning and development of Kansas City. To the Spanish explorer the gold and other precious metals of the South country brought reward, but no less profitable was the traffic in furs carried on by the early French settlers and English adventurers. From Louisiana up the Mississippi river came hunters and trappers in the employ of the trading firm whose junior partner was Pierre Laclede Liguest, known as Laclede, this company having, in 1762, obtained from the Governor-general of Louisiana exclusive control of the trade with the Indian tribes as far north as St. Peter's river. The fur trade extended from New York to Montreal, through Canada into the Northwest. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 opened a new and wonderfully rich territory for the traffic of pelts. Transportation was afforded by means of Indian canoes, keelboats and other small river craft. The new acquisition included the great water shed of the Missouri river and a large part of the Western country. It was known throughout the Lewis and Clark expedition that this wilderness abounded in fur-producing animals. John Jacob Astor was not slow to perceive the possibilities of the fur trade in the new territory. He organized the American Fur company in 1808 in New York, and established the Pacific Fur company in 1810. The fur trade along the Missouri river, however, was largely controlled by the Chouteaus. Chouteau is a name familiar in the annals of the West. The members of this French family were noted for their business foresight and their ability to deal successfully with the Indians. Auguste Chouteau, head of the family and one of the founders of St. Louis, was born in New Orleans, August 14, 1750. His brother, Pierre, with whom he was associated in the development of the fur trade in the Missouri river valley, was six years younger. With St. Louis as the base of operations, the Chouteaus extended their fur traffic west to the Kaw river and into the wilderness beyond. Increase in the volume of fur trade and the demand for more systematic business methods led the Chouteaus and several associates to organize the Missouri Fur company in 1808. After several years of intense rivalry between this company and the American Fur company, the two firms were merged in 1813. In an effort to monopolize the fur trade of the West, in 1821 the American Fur Company sent Francois Chouteau, son of Pierre Chouteau, into this territory to establish new trading posts and to bring independent fur traders into subordination to the larger firm. A location was desired that would be accessible to the greatest number of trading points reached by river craft and by overland transportation. With the good judgment that characterized the Chouteaus, Francois discerned that a position near the junction of the Missouri and Kaw rivers would be the most desirable and he chose a site in the Missouri river bottom, opposite Randolph bluffs, about three miles down stream from Kansas City. He brought with him about thirty active men, couriers as the French called them, with whom he was able to concentrate at the central depot the trade of the Tran-Mississippi country. The family of Francois Chouteau came from St. Louis in canoes and pirogues, the journey requiring twenty days. Francois Chouteau's younger brother, Cyprian, came to the central agency in the following year and established a trading post on the north bank of the Kaw river near the site of Bonner Springs, and the post became known |