Kansas Before 1854, A Revised Annals, Part Nine

1836-1837

Compiled by Louise Barry

Spring 1963 (Vol. 29, No. 1), pages 41 to 81

JANUARY 5. From Westport, Mo., Isaac McCoy mailed Rep. J William H. Ashley a memorial, addressed to the house of representatives, asking that the mail route (in "Oklahoma") from Fort Towson to Fort Gibson be extended from the latter post to Fort Leavenworth (see item on petition of 1834 under February 2, 1835, entry).

As set forth in the memorial (dated "Western Territory 1835") the distance would be 318 miles: Fort Gibson to the Creek subagency, seven miles Union Mission, 22 miles A. P. Chouteau's, on east bank of Neosho river, 16 miles W. C. Requa's [Hopefield Mission], 15 miles Osage Agency, 65 miles Harmony Mission, a few miles within Missouri, 75 miles Wea Mission, 50 miles Westport, Mo., 35 miles "Delaware Smithery" (near the Delaware's Kansas river ferry), 10 miles Fort Leavenworth, 23 miles. (The distances vary from those given in the 1834 petition noted above.)

The memorial's 38 signers were: Col. Henry Dodge, Capt. David Hunter, Capt. Matthew Duncan, Lt. G. P. Kingsbury, Lt. Asbury Ury, Lt. Enoch Steen, Lt. L. P. Lupton, Lt. B. D. Moore, Lt. J. S. Van Derveer, Lt. B. A. Terrett, Asst. Surg. S. Preston Moore, Lt. J. W. Hamilton, L. V. D. Stryker, J. H. Freligh, Anthony L. Davis (emigrating agent for Pottawatomies), John P. Smith (Kickapoo blacksmith), Wea missionaries the Rev. Joseph Kerr, Henry Bradley and Francis Lindsay, Agent Richard W. Cummins, the Rev. Isaac McCoy, Capt. Lemuel Ford, Dr. J. A. Chute, W. W. Kavenaugh, C. M. H. London, W. T. Loudon, Charles Findlay, Nat. H. Scruggs, H. C. Davis, J. B. Chiles, Michael Farmer (?), Peter Duncan, James M. Hunter [these last 11 were Westport, Mo., residents], the Rev. J. C. Berry man, Jotham Meeker, Robert Simerwell, Dr. Johnston Lykins, John C. McCoy. [The persons whose names are in italics were not among the signers of the 1834 petition for a post route. One name notably absent from both lists is that of the Rev. Thomas Johnson.] (See, also, March 19 entry.) Ref: Isaac McCoy's copy of the memorial (in McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 23, KHi ms. division), with note on verso of attached page that he has enclosed the original to Ashley with a letter of January 5, 1836.

MARRIED: Moses R. Grinter (aged 26?), an operator of the Delawares' Kansas river ferry (See KHQ, v. 28, pp. 180, 181), and Anna Marshall (aged 16), half -Delaware, daughter of Indian trader William Marshall, in January, on the Delaware reserve (present Wyandotte county).

(41)

42 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

To this couple 10 children were born. The Grinters' land (north of the ferry site), was on Sec. 20 and 21, T. 11, R. 24 E., in Wyandotte township of today. A two-story brick house, erected by Moses Grinter in the late 1850's, on his farm, still is in use (1963). Grinter died June 12, 1878. Anna (Marshall) Grinter died June 28, 1905.

Ref: Goodspeed's Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas . . . Chicago, 1890), pp. 622, 623; Wyandotte Gazette, June 14, 1878 (or, see Biographical Clippings, "G," v. 3, p. 287, in KHi library); Kansas City (Mo.) Star, June 28, 1905 (or see Biographical Clippings, "G," v. 7, p. 321); U. S. census, 1870, Wyandotte tp., Wyandotte co., p. 4 (which lists Moses R. Grinter, 61, native of Kentucky; his wife Ann, 50, native of Indiana; and son William, 28, born in "Kansas").

On January 29 John C. McCoy, founder (in 1834) of Westport, Mo. (also its first storekeeper, and first postmaster), wrote (in a letter to his father): "We have sold out our stock of goods to Col. [William M.] Chick of Chariton [Mo.] for cost and 12 per cent and I have rented my house to him for one year." Chick succeeded McCoy as Westport postmaster, also.

("We" referred to McCoy and his partners J. H. Flournoy and J. P. Hickman operating under the name J. P. Hickman & Co. The partnership was dissolved on February 6, 1836. ) Ref: Isaac McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 23.

As shown by Comm'r Elbert Herring's January 30 report, employees of the Department of Indian affairs in "Kansas," were:

Northern Agency of Western Territory Agent Richard W. Cummins; Interpreters Joseph James, James Connor, Peter Cudjoe [Cadue], Henry Clay, Joseph Parks; Blacksmiths and gunsmiths John P. Smith, Claybourne Colbert, William Donalson, Lewis Jones, Robert Dunlap, William Carlisle, and assistants William V. Smith, Preston Moore, R. D. McKinney, John Barnes, Samuel Boydston, and Jackson; also William Barnes, miller for the Delawares and Shawnees; Teachers Jerome C. Berryman and John D. Swallows for the Kickapoos, and Henry Rermick for the Delawares.

Osage Subagency Sub agent Paul Ligueste Chouteau; Interpreter Baptiste Mongrain; Blacksmith Gabriel Philibert, and assistant E[tienne] Brant. Ref: 24th Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc. No. 95 (Serial 288). Spellings of some names have been corrected from the printed listing.

BORN: at Delaware Methodist Mission (present Wyandotte county), on February 25, Mary (or Margaret?) Jane Peery, daughter of the Rev. Edward T. and Mary S. Peery. Ref: Si and Shirley Corn's Our Family Tree (1959), Section 4. Mary Jane Peery married Henry B. Bouton on September 2, 1852 (Jackson county, Mo., marriage records). In 1860 they were Westport, Mo., residents and had two children Julia (4) and Edward H. (1), according to the U. S. census, 1860, Jackson county, Mo.

BORN: at Kickapoo Methodist Mission (present Leavenworth county), on March 4, Gustavus P. Smith, son of the government blacksmith for the Kickapoos, John P. Smith, and his wife Elizabeth. Ref: KHi 16th Biennial Report, p. 66; G. J. Remsburg, in Atchison Daily Globe, April 13, 1914. In 1837(?) the John P. Smith family moved to Platte county, Mo.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 43

Early in March, about a mile above the mouth of American Chief (now Mission) creek (in present Shawnee county), a party of workmen, supervised by the Rev. William Johnson, began erecting two logs cabins for a Kansa Methodist Mission. (By survey description, the site was the N. W. & (apparently) of Sec. 33, T. 11, R. 14 E., Dover township.) American Chief's village (see KHQ, v. 28, p. 59) was not far away; and down near the creek's mouth, was Frederick Chouteau's American Fur Company trading post (see KHQ, v. 28, p. 58).

(Appointed missionary to the Kansa at the Methodists' Missouri conference in the fall of 1835, Johnson had twice visited the Indians before winter set in, to make preliminary arrangements. See KHQ, v. 28, p. 179, for his earlier, short-lived Kansa Mission.)

On June 7, 1836, William Johnson wrote: "We have now 20 acres of good soil, fenced and planted; two cabins built, and a garden nearly finished. We removed into our cabins about two weeks since. [He had married Mary Jane Chick, of Chariton, Mo., in May, 1834.] The Indians have . . . gone out to hunt for buffalo. ... We are preparing to instruct these people . . . but shall not be able to do much before winter, as we have our dwelling house to build also to depend upon our new farm for provision, as we are 100 miles from the nearest white settlement. . . . [The Kansa] have some corn, and but little of anything else . . . no cattle or hogs, and few horses . . . The . . . agent [R. W. Cummins] . . . is at this time having about 300 acres of land [near the mission] fenced and planted for them."

As reported in February, 1837, the mission buildings were: a not-yet-completed, hewed-log dwelling ( 36' x 18' ) a story and a half high; a kitchen, and a smoke house ( each 18' x!8' ) under the same roof, with a 10-foot passage-way between. The occupants were the Johnsons, and a farmer. A 20-acre fenced farm was ready for cultivation.

Apparently no formal school was ever undertaken. A few Kansa children lived at the mission for brief periods, and were taught as time permitted. The Johnsons also labored faithfully among the adult Indians till William Johnson's death in 1842. The Kansas Methodist Mission on American Chief creek was maintained (though twice suspended in the 1840's) till the end of 1846. Ref: Christian Advocate and Journal, New York, v. 10, pp. 138, 186, v. 11, p. 130; Kansas Historical Collections (KHC), v. 1-2, pp. 277, 278 (contains errors, especially in dates), v. 8, pp. 426, 428, v. 9, pp. 196-201 (also has errors), v. 16, pp. 229-236, 239-241, 251, 253-266; J. S. Chick letter, April 19, 1906 (in KHi ms. division); J. T. Peery letter, December 30, 1880 ( in ibid.); Comm'r of Indian affairs (CIA) Reports, 1838-1846; Baptist Missionary Magazine, Boston, v. 20 (1840), pp. 42, 43.

According to a March 8 report (published as Senate Report 288, 24th Congress, 1st session) on the number and situation of Indians on the frontiers, about 31,000 Indians had been removed west of the Mississippi, and some 72,000 were yet to be removed. Below are some statistics relating to "Kansas" from the report's "Census of Indian Tribes." Also listed, for comparative purposes, are figures

44 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

published in Isaac McCoy's Annual Register for 1837 statistics apparently obtained in late 1836, which, for the emigrant tribes, are more realistic than those of the "census." (See KHQ, v. 28, p. 358 for 1834 statistics.)

Indigenous Tribes '"Census" McCoy
Kansa 1,471 about 1,606
Osages * 5,120 about 5,510
Emigrant Tribes
Pottawatomies from Indiana 441 444
Kickapoos 588 625
Delawares 826 921
Shawnees 1,250 of Kansas river 823
Ottawas 200 79
Weas 222 206
Piankeshaws 132 157
Peorias and Kaskaskias 132 142

*From one-third to one-half of the Osages were in "Oklahoma." Ref: 24th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Report 228 (Serial 281); Isaac McCoy's Annual Register for 1837, p. 7 (McCoy states most of his materials were collected prior to January, 1837). N lies' Weekly Register, Baltimore, v. 50 (August 27, 1836), pp. 435, 436, has a table (with varying figures) prepared "at the topographical bureau."

March 19. A resolution of congress authorized the postmaster general to establish the following post roads: (1) from Fort Towson (in present southern Oklahoma) to Fort Gibson (in present east-central Oklahoma); and (2) from Fort Gibson by way of Fayette [ville] in Arkansas territory, Barry [county, Mo.] courthouse [i. e., Cassville, Mo.], Van Buren [county, Mo.] courthouse [now Cass county, Mo., county seat Harrisonville], Jackson [county, Mo.] courthouse [i. e., Independence], Fort Leavenworth, Liberty (Clay county, Mo.), Plattsburgh (Clinton county, Mo.), and Fort Des Moines, to the town of Dubuque [Iowa]. Ref: 17. S. Statutes at Large, v. 5, p. 131. The name of Van Buren county, Mo., was changed to Cass county on February 19, 1849. See J. N. Kane's The American Counties (New York, 1960), p. 326.

April 7. Reaching Liberty, Mo., from the East (after a trip up the Missouri on the Chariton) was a missionary party in the service of the American Board of Comm'rs for Foreign Missions. Bound for the Oregon country were Dr. Marcus Whitman and his bride Narcissa (Prentiss) Whitman, the Rev. Henry H. Spalding and his wife Eliza (Hart) Spalding; and with them two(?) Nez Perces boys (brought East the previous autumn by Whitman see October 26, 1835, entry). Also, there were Dr. Benedict Satterlee (sent out as missionary to the Pawnees), with his seriously-ill wife, and Emeline Palmer (bride-to-be of Samuel Allis see April 17 entry), whose destination was Bellevue (Neb.) .

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 45

The Whitman-Spalding party, by previous arrangement, was to join the American Fur Company's caravan at Bellevue for the overland journey to Oregon. Remaining at Liberty for three weeks, this group outfitted while awaiting arrival of the American Fur Company's Diana for passage of some of the group to the Council Bluffs. During this interval William H. Gray (a skilled mechanic), arrived to join the Oregon party. See, also, next entry, and April 27 and May 1 entries. Ref: Eliza S. Warren's Memoirs of the West . . . (Portland, Ore., 1916[?]), pp. 57, 58 (for Mrs. Spalding's diary); Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions, Portland, 1891, pp. 81-94 (for Mrs. Whitman's letters); C. M. Drury's Marcus Whitman . . . (Caldwell, Ida., 1937), pp. 133-140; also his Henry Harmon Spalding (Caldwell, Ida., 1936), pp. 120-131.

April 17-23. The steamboat Diana, which had left Bellevue (Neb.) April 15th, stopped at Fort Leavenworth on the 17th, enroute to St. Louis. A passenger who disembarked, and remained three days, was Missionary Samuel Allis (who had reached Bellevue on April 1, after spending the winter with the Pawnee Loups).

(The Diana, on her first upriver voyage of the season, had left St. Louis in March, but as reported hit a snag below Lexington; sank in shallow water; was delayed for repairs and drying of cargo; and did not get to Bellevue till April. )

Samuel Allis arrived at Liberty, Mo. (overland from Fort Leavenworth), on April 21; and on the 23d was married to Emeline Palmer of Ithaca, N. Y. (who had reached Liberty on the 7th, in company with the Whitman-Spalding party). The Rev. Henry H. Spalding officiated. Ref: KHC, v. 9, p. 301, v. 14, p. 710; C. M. Drury's Henry Harmon Spalding, pp. Ill, 126, 131; Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions (19th annual reunion), 1891, p. 81 (for Mrs. Narcissa Whitman's comment on the Diana's mishap); op. cit., p. 58.

BORN: at Shawnee Methodist Mission (present Wyandotte county), on April 20, Eliza Shallcross Johnson, daughter of the Rev. Thomas and Sarah T. (Davis) Johnson.  Ref: KHC, v. 12, p. xii; KHi 15th Biennial Report, p. 35. (Eliza S. Johnson married John Wornall. She died July 5, 1865, aged 29.)

April 21. On the San Jacinto river (about 22 miles east of present Houston, Tex.) Samuel Houston's Texas army defeated a Mexican force under Santa Anna in a brief battle which won independence for Texas, and avenged the massacres of the Alamo (March 6) and Goliad (March 27).

One inscription on the San Jacinto Monument (at the battle site) reads (in part):

"Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the

46 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma. . . ." Ref: Walter P. Webb, editor-in-chief, The Handbook of Texas (Austin, 1952), v. 2, p. 554.

In the spring, on a 320-acre tract leased from the Shawnees (a tract some four miles west of Westport, Mo. ) , native workmen employed by the committees of Ohio, Indiana, and Baltimore yearly meetings, Society of Friends, began erection of three Shawnee Mission buildings ("two houses of hewn logs, twenty feet square, one and one-half stories high, with a brick chimney in each end, and another for school and meeting-house, of same dimensions, to be warmed by a stove").

The original land survey plat of the 1850's shows the Friends' mission land principally within the S. E. & of Sec. 7, and extending southward into the N. E. & Sec. 18, T. 12, R. 25 E. It is now partly within the city limits of Merriam, Johnson county.

Apparently the log houses of 1836 were completed by midsummer. Jotham Meeker, of the Baptist mission two miles to the northeast, wrote in his diary on August 29: "Attend at the Quakers' buildings to witness the Shawanoe Councils, &c preparatory to their drawing their annuities on to-morrow."

Beginning in mid-1837 (see, June, 1837, entry) and continuing, except for brief interruptions, till 1869, a boarding school for Indian children was maintained by the Friends. In 1845 a 24 by 70-foot, three-story, stone-and-frame permanent mission house was erected. During the 1860's most of the pupils were orphans. Ref: KHC, v. 8, pp. 250-269, especially pp. 262, 267, 268; Meeker "Diary," in KHi ms. division; CIA reports, from 1838; Kansas Historical Quarterly (KHQ), v. 10, p. 348 (gives the text of the historical marker for Shawnee Friends Mission).

April 27. The Rev. Henry H. Spalding, William H. Gray, three Nez Perces boys, and a hired man, left Liberty, Mo. (see April 7 entry), with the Whitman-Spalding party's outfit (two loaded wagons, horses, mules, and 17 head of cattle) to cross the Missouri at Fort Leaven worth (which they did, after delays, on May 2) and head northward across "Kansas" to the Otoe Mission (six miles above the Platte's mouth). Some 40 miles beyond the fort, a young man traveling alone joined them. He was Miles Goodyear (aged 19) who later became "the first white settler in what is now the State of Utah." See, also, May 1-19 entry. Ref: William H. Gray's History of Oregon (Portland, 1870), pp. 113-142; KHC, v. 14, pp. 710, 711; Utah Historical Quarterly, Salt Lake City, v. 21 (July, 1953), pp. 195-218 (for Dale L. Morgan's article on Miles Goodyear); C. M. Drury's Henry Harmon Spalding, pp. 131-133; and his Marcus Whitman, p. 140.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 47

In April, after a tour of the Southwest during the winter of 1835-1836 (on a mission for U. S. commissioners Montfort Stokes and Gen. Mathew Arbuckle), Paul Ligueste Chouteau reported on the Indians of that region, as follows:

Comanches Claim and occupy all the country bounded North by the Arkansas river, South by the Mexican Settlements, West by the Grand Cordillera, and East by the Cross Timbers. The numerical Military force of the Comanches ... is estimated ... by the Mexican Government at 8,000; but, from my own personal observation I have been induced to calculate the number of Comanche warriors at 4,500.

Kaywahs [Kiowas] Occupy at pleasure during the different seasons of the year, such parts of the Comanche Country as suit their immediate convenience. This is done by full consent of the Comanches, who consider the Kaywas their closest allies, Number of Warriors (at least) 1,500.

Cah-tah-kahs or a band of Apaches; Reside generally with and under the protection of the Kaywahs. Military force estimated at about 300.

Wee-che-tah [Wichita], Tow-wac-car-ro, Wacco and Keetz-ash Bands of Pawnee Picts; Are corn planters occupy several permanent villages and reside within the limits of the Comanche Country; which last nation together with the Kaywahs are supplied by them with corn and other production of the earth. Their force has been variously estimated but I think it would not be exagerated at 1,000 men.

Calculating the respective numbers ... as one to six, to the whole population, would make the latter amount to 43,800. [Comanches: 27,000; Kiowas: 9,000; "Cah-tah-kahs": 1,800; Wichitas (and other Pawnee Pict bands): 6,000.] Ref: Grant Foreman's Advancing the Frontier 1830-1860 (Norman, 1933), p. 148,quotes P. L. Chouteau's April 25, 1836, report.

May 1-19. The Diana (upbound on her second trip of the season, and with a new captain) passed Liberty Landing, Mo., on May 1, refusing to stop, or "take a pound for any person." This occurred as the Oregon-bound missionary party (see April 7 and 17 entries), awaiting the steamboat at Liberty, was preparing to bury Mrs. Benedict Satterlee (who had died the day before).

On May 3, having made hasty arrangements to journey overland to the Council Bluffs, the Whitmans, Mrs. Eliza Spalding, Doctor Satterlee, and the Allises, started for Fort Leavenworth. (Allis purchased a wagon and three yokes of oxen; Doctor Whitman hired a team, wagon, and driver; the three women rode on horseback.) They reached the fort on May 5. Samuel Allis set out to overtake Spalding, Gray, and the wagons (see April 27 entry). The others remained at the post guests of Capt. Matthew Duncan, and of Alexander G. Morgan (postmaster-trader) till the evening of May 7; then continued five miles northward to the Kickapoo Methodist

48 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Mission, where they spent Sunday, the 8th, with the Berrymans, and journeyed northward again on May 9. Allis, meantime, had traveled to within 30 miles of Bellevue before overtaking Spalding, Gray, and the wagons on May 8. Gray and Allis returned to the Big Nemaha, and from there Allis continued to backtrack till he met his party about 45 miles north of Fort Leavenworth. On May 11 they all reached the Big Nemaha.

The Whitman-Spalding-Gray group, in haste to join the American Fur Company caravan setting out from Bellevue, hurried on ahead, crossing the Platte on May 19 and 20. (The Allises and Doctor Satterlee proceeded more slowly; stopped for three days at the Otoe Mission; and reached Bellevue on the 27th.)

Headed by Thomas Fitzpatrick, the American Fur Company caravan (which included Capt. William Drummond Stewart's hunting party) had started up the Platte from Bellevue on May 15. The Whitmans, Spaldings, and Gray set out in pursuit on May 21; and by making forced marches caught up with the caravan four and a half days later.

Subsequently, the fur traders, Stewart's party, and the Oregon-bound missionaries reached "Fort Laramie" on June 13; crossed the continental divide by way of South Pass on June 4; and reached the rendezvous (on a branch of Green river, near present Daniel, Wyo.) on July 6.

Under escort of John McLeod (and Thomas McKay) of the Hudson's Bay Company, the missionaries continued westward reaching Fort Hall on August 3, Fort Boise on August 19, and Fort Walla Walla at the beginning of September.

Narcissa (Prentiss) Whitman and Eliza (Hart) Spalding were the first white women to cross the Rocky mountains. The Spaldings' light wagon, though not the first to cross the mountains, was the first wheeled vehicle (at Snake river it was converted to a two-wheeled cart) to go as far as Fort Boise, in present Idaho. Of the missionaries' 17 cattle, the eight which completed the journey from Liberty, Mo., to Fort Walla Walla were the first to be taken over the Rockies and through to Oregon. Ref: C. M. Drury's Marcus Whitman, pp. 141-154; C. M. Drury's Henry Harmon Spalding, pp. 132-152; KHC, v. 14, pp. 710, 711 (for Samuel Allis' journal); Oregon Historical Quarterly, Salem, v. 38, pp. 355-369 (for William H. Gray's journal); Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions (19th annual reunion), 1890, pp. 40-68 (for Mrs. Narcissa Whitman's journal); Warren, op. cit., pp. 59-68 (for Mrs. Eliza Spalding's diary); Bernard De Veto's Across the Wide Missouri (Boston, 1947), pp. 244-250, 440 (for the American Fur Company party).

About May 7 Capt. Benjamin L. E. Bonneville left the Missouri frontier on his second journey to the Rocky mountains (where he would "make a final close" of his fur trade interests). Presumably he crossed "Kansas/ 7 but nothing is known of his route, his companions, or even the point of departure (which may have been Fort Leavenworth). (See August, 1835, entry, also, for item on Bonneville.)

Henry Dodge (1782-1867) was colonel of the (First) U. S. dragoon regiment from its organization in 1833 to mid-1836, when he resigned to become governor of the new territory of Wisconsin. From Autumn, 1834, to Spring, 1836, he was commandant at Fort Leavenworth, headquarters of the (First) dragoons. Reproduced is Catlin's portrait of Dodge, in hunting garb, painted during the 1834 expedition to the Comanche and Wichita country. (From Iowa Historical Record, Iowa City, October, 1889, courfesy State Historical Society of Iowa.)

Stephen Watts Kearny (1794-1848) became colonel of the (First) U. S. dragoons on July 4, 1836. He succeeded Col. Henry Dodge (see verso) as commandant at Fort Leavenworth, arriving in mid-1836 and remaining till August, 1842. For brief periods he was at the post again: in 1845 (heading a dragoon expedition to South Pass), in 1846 (as commander of the Army of the West), and in 1847. On June 30, 1846, Kearny became a brigadier general; and in August, 1847, was brevetted a major general.(Photo from an oil portrait, courtesy Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.)

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 49

He reached Fort William (Fort Laramie) after June 6; probably did not go beyond Powder river (Wyo.); left the mountains in July; and by August 6 had reached Fort Leavenworth.

Awaiting at the army post was a War Department order (of April 22) reinstating Bonneville as a captain in the Seventh U. S. infantry. He set out, at once from Fort Leavenworth, on horseback, for his designated station Fort Gibson (Okla.). Ref: Washington Irving's The Adventures of Captain Bonneville . . ., edited by E. W. Todd (c1961), pp. xxx, xxxvii, xxxviii, xliii; Lt. G. K. Warren's "Memoir," in Reports of Explorations and Surveys . . . for a Railroad ... to the Pacific Ocean (1861), v. 11, p. 33 (for quote of Bonneville's letter of August 24, 1857: "I left the mountains in July, 1836, and reached Fort Leavenworth, Missouri, the 6th of August following"); Niles' Weekly Register, v. 51 (September 3, 1836), p. 16; Dale L. Morgan's letter of June 9, 1962, to L. Barry, for the "after June 6" statement; 23d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 97 (Serial 273) for trading license issued to "Astor, Bonnville & Co." on April 16, 1834; William Clark's statement of licenses granted from March 7 to May 3, 1836, in "Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs" (microfilm from National Archives), for April 19, 1836, license issued to B. L. E. Bonneville to trade with the Arapahoes at a point of timber (on the south side of the Platte) called "Laramai's point."

May. A steamboat named Kansas was advertised for the Missouri river trade. On May 21 a St. Louis newspaper carried notice that the Kansas and the John Hancock would leave soon for Missouri river; and a June 25 issue noted the scheduled departure of these same two steamboats for the Missouri on June 27.

Other boats advertised for the Missouri between April and July included: the American Fur Company's Diana (the only one to go beyond the Council Bluffs), the Iowa, the Howard, the Boonville, the St. Charles, the Tiskilwa, the Chariton, and the Dart. On November 30 the Missouri Republican, St. Louis, stated that five steamboats had been lost on the Missouri during the season past. One was the Diana which sank "in Diana bend," above Rocheport, Mo., on October 10, 1836, with a valuable cargo of furs. A few days later the Chariton went down (but was apparently salvaged see April, 1837, annals). On November 26 the John Hancock (heavily laden), hit a snag "at Bellefontaine" and sank in 10 feet of water. Ref: Nebraska Historical Society Publications, Lincoln, v. 20, pp. 65, 66; KHC, v. 9, pp. 301, 305 (the Kansas is said to have been piloted by Joseph La Barge); Jeffersonian Republican, Jefferson City, Mo., October 22, 1836.

May 23. By an act of this date, the President was authorized to raise an additional regiment of dragoons. As a result the existing U. S. dragoon regiment (organized in 1833) commanded by Col. Henry Dodge, and headquartered at Fort Leavenworth, became the First U. S. dragoons. See, also, July 4 entry. Ref: U. S. Statutes at Large, v. 5, pp. 32, 33.

Beginning May 25, and ending in the fore(?) part of June, John C. McCoy and a party of "seven or eight poorly-armed men," surveyed the north line of the Osage reservation (treaty of 1825)

50 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

from the northeast corner (a point now in southwest Bourbon county), due westward as far as the Arkansas river (in present Sedgwick county). See map facing p. 177 (KHQ, v. 28) for visual reference.

Nine years earlier see KHQ, v. 28, pp. 33, 34 Angus Langham had canceled a survey of this line, due to Osage hostility. McCoy, too, met opposition. In an address, in 1889, he told of the experience. As he and his crew approached the Neosho they worked only about three miles above the Little Osages' village (the uppermost Osage town north of present Chanute, Neosho co.). Braves on horseback, watching and following them, became increasingly restive claiming their land extended much farther north. McCoy found it expedient to pay a visit to the head chief Nicheumanee (Walking Rain). He and Charles Findlay, with an Indian escort, rode to the village (over 100 lodges), "situated on a high prairie hill a mile or so west of the Neosho." There, in the chiefs large, centrally-located lodge (of bark, over a framework of poles), the surveyor faced Nicheumanee and several hundred head men and braves of the Little Osages. He remained firm in the face of threats. The council (much of it conducted in sign language, for lack of an interpreter) ended in a stalemate. McCoy says: "Findlay and I took our departure. . . . We found our horses at the [lodge] door, with the tail of my horse completely denuded of hair. I was glad to get the horse, even with his corn-cob tail." Back at the surveyors' camp, meantime, an Osage attempt at robbery had been thwarted.

The survey westward was continued "without serious molestation." The line of march across Township 26 South of today ran a few miles south of present Eureka and El Dorado. (McCoy states that the Arkansas tributary now called Walnut river was then known as the "Little Neosho"; and the stream now named Whitewater river was then called the "Little Verdigris"!). They reached the Arkansas at 124 miles from the point of beginning, about five miles above the mouth of the Little Arkansas. Ref: KHC, v. 5, pp. 308-311 (for McCoy's 1889 address), v. 8, p. 199 (where the northwest corner of the Cherokee Neutral Lands [identical with the northeast corner of the Osage line as noted by McCoy, v. 5, p. 309] is described as 20 rods south of the north line and three-fourths of a mile east of the west line of Sec. 26, T. 26 S., R. 21 E., Bourbon county); SIA, v. 1, pp. 267-269 (for McCoy's plats) and pp. 276-283 (for his field notes, dated "West Port, Mo., Septr 16th 1836"). The field notes contain little of interest beyond the comment, that, on the highlands as they approached the Neosho they crossed "an Indian Trace [running north and south] leading from the little Osage village to the Wea settlements. . . ."

May. The annual spring caravan to Santa Fe was overtaken several days out on the trail by Charles Bent's seven-wagon train which traveled in company (for protection from Indians) as far as Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas. The experienced mountain man Robert ("Doc") Newell (see KHQ, v. 28, p. 50) was one of Bent's party.

Another hand, not experienced, was young Richens Lacy ("Dick") Wootton (hired as a mule driver) whose account of the journey (his first to the west) was included in reminiscences pub-

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 51

lished in 1890. By Wootton's recollection, the caravan numbered some 150 men and 57 wagons. (Josiah Gregg, in 1844, listed the Santa Fe-bound trade statistics for 1836 as 135 men [35 of them proprietors], 75 wagons, and $130,000 in merchandise.)

On night guard at the Little Cow creek camp (present Rice county), Wootton shot "Old Jack" (a mule) mistaking it for an Indian. At Pawnee Fork 250 or more Comanches "charged through the camp three or four times, trying to make the mules break loose." They failed, and lost three warriors in the attempt. After leaving the caravan at Cimarron crossing, to continue up the Arkansas, Bent's small train was met by Ceran St. Vrain and a mounted party from Fort William ("Bent's Fort") and escorted to that post. Ref: H. L. Conard's "Uncle Dick" Wootton (Chicago, 1890), pp. 28-42; Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies . . . (New York, London, 1844) v. 2, p. 160; David Lavender's Bent's Fort (Garden City, N. Y., 1954), pp. 166, 167, 393, 394. Henry Inman, in a tale entitled "How 'Pawnee Rock' Was Named" (published in his Stories of the Old Santa Fe Trail [Kansas City, Mo., 1881], pp. 1-10), attributed the mule-shooting incident to "Kit" Carson on an alleged first trip west in 1833. But see KHQ, v. 28, p. 29, for Carson's first (1826) journey on the Santa Fe trail. James Hobbs may have been another tyro hand with this Bent, St. Vrain & Co. party. In his reminiscences (Wild Life in the Far West fast published in 1872) Hobbs told of being taken captive by Comanches (near the Arkansas, west of "The Caches") during his first trip west in 1835 (but perhaps, correctly, 1836) as a Bent, St. Vrain & Co. employee; and of being ransomed four(?) years later by William Bent.

Kickapoo Catholic Mission had its beginning on June 1, when the Rev. Charles F. Van Quickenborne, S. J., and three lay brothers (Andrew Mazzella, Edmund Barry, George Miles) debarked from a Missouri river steamboat at Kickapoo Landing (about five miles, by water, above Fort Leavenworth), and took up temporary residence in a log cabin of American Fur Company trader Laurence Pensineau, whose post was at the landing. (They had left St. Louis on May 25.)

At a site over a mile west of Pensineau's post, and near both Kickapoo settlements Chief Pa-sha-cha-hah's village (half a mile southwest) and Kennekuk's town (a quarter-mile south) the first mission building (a one-story, hewed-log schoolhouse, 16'xl5') was erected, after some delays. Ready for use in October, it served as mission headquarters during the winter, and until completion, in the spring of 1837, of a log house and chapel house (48'x20'xl6'). Father Christian Hoecken (who had arrived some weeks after Van Quickenborne's party) then opened a school which, in the autumn, was reported to have 20 pupils.

At the end of 1836 the mission church had only two Kickapoo members (both children). The chief obstacles to converting these Indians were: (1) their addiction to whisky, and (2) the increasing opposition of the Kickapoo Prophet (Kennekuk) who had his own religion, many followers, and a government-built church in which to preach. Nor did the school prosper, for the Kickapoos felt they did not need it having already the government school run by Methodist missionary J. C. Berryman.

52 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Father Felix L. Verreydt replaced Van Quickenborne in July, 1837. Later, Father Anthony Eysvogels became head of the mission. Chief Pa-sha-cha-hah and his followers moved some 20 miles distant in 1839(?), leaving the Catholics few supporters. The school dwindled to eight students and the government withdrew its $500 per annum support (given since 1837) in 1840.

On September 19, 1840, the decision was made to close the Kickapoo Catholic Mission. Apparently its last use for church services was in late December. Ref: G. J. Garraghan's The Jesuits of the Middle United States . . . (New York, 1938), v. 1, pp. 395-421 (p. 421 contains a footnote on the subsequent use of the mission house); R. J. Bollig's History of Catholic Education in Kansas . . . (Washington, D. C., 1933), pp. 10-12.

June 7. An act of this date provided for the extension of Missouri's western boundary to the Missouri river. (The existing line ran due north and south from the mouth of the Kansas see map in KHQ, v. 28, facing p. 177.)

Prerequisites for adding this area (the "Platte Purchase") to Missouri: (1) extinguishment of Indian title to the land lying between Missouri's boundary and the Missouri (i. e. by the Little Platte country), and ceding of jurisdiction to the State of Missouri, (2) assent of the State of Missouri to the act's provisions, (3) a Presidential proclamation see March 28, 1837, annals entry. Ref: U. S. Statutes at Large, v. 5, p. 34.

June 11. At Fort Leavenworth, Capt Matthew Duncan (the commanding officer), together with Agent John Dougherty, held a council with 49 chiefs and head men of the Missouri band of Sac (and Fox) Indians who had arrived the day before to seek redress of grievances (relating to a claim for annuities; and in regard to their removal to the southwest side of the Missouri). Ref: Capt. Matthew Duncan's June 18, 1836, report, in "Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs" microfilm from National Archives. Col. Henry Dodge see July 4 entry had already left Fort Leavenworth.

June 13. Capt. Matthew Duncan and Agent R. W. Cummins, at Fort Leavenworth, counciled with the Kickapoo Indians in regard to a war dance recently held at their upper village (Pa-sha-cha-hah's settlement) a dance reportedly in celebration of an Indian victory over U. S. troops in Florida. Ref: Capt. Matthew Duncan's report, loc. cit.

June 15. Arkansas, a territory since 1819, was admitted to the Union as a state. Ref: U. S. Statutes at Large, v. 5, p. 50.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 53

July 2. President Jackson approved the enabling act for the better protection of the Western frontier. It provided: (1) for the surveying and opening of a military road from a point on the upper Mississippi to Red river in the south; (2) that the road should pass west of Missouri and Arkansas ( after getting the assent of the Indians through whose territory it would run); (3) for the construction of military posts along the road (locations unspecified);(4) for the use of U. S. troops to perform the required labor; (5) he sum of $100,000 to accomplish the objects of the act. Ref: Ibid., p. 67; KHQ, v. 11, p. 117.

At the northeast corner of the Kansa lands (in present Jackson county), on July 2, John C. McCoy and a work party began a survey of the north boundary of the Kansa reservation (treaty of 1825). Before July ended they had proceeded west for 206 miles (to Rooks county of today), where they terminated the survey "on [a] high level prairie covered with short curley Buffalo grass. . . . Solomons fork about 1& miles to Stouthl."

Ten years earlier (1826-1827) Angus Langham had surveyed the east and south Kansa lines (see KHQ, v. 28, p. 28); and six years earlier (1830), John C. McCoy had accompanied his father on a survey of the Delaware Outlet's north line (see KHQ, v. 28, p. 176) a boundary which paralleled the Kansa north line and ran only 10 miles above it. (See map facing p. 177 in KHQ, v. 28, for visual reference.)

It appears that the northeast corner of the Kansa lands was (by current description), about the southwest comer of Sec. 22, T. 7 S., R. 15 E., Franklin township, Jackson co. The line then ran due west through Township 7. McCoy, in his field notes, mentions "Soldier creek" (crossed between 10 and 11 miles from the beginning point); "Egoma Saba (or Black paint) Creek" [since McCoy was in present Pottawatomie county, the stream referred to is the Red Vermillion creek of today]; the "blue earth river" [Big Blue] crossed between 52 and 53 miles west; the "Republican fork of Kanzas" between 79 and 80 miles west; and the bank of "Solomon's fork" between 121 and 122 miles west. This last-named stream is mentioned again at 151 miles, at 192-193, and 195-198 miles, as well as at the end of the survey. Ref: Superintendency of Indian Affairs, St. Louis, "Records" (SIA), v. 1, pp. 271-275 (for McCoy's survey plats) and pp. 284-294 (for his field notes, dated "West Port, Mo. September 16, 1836").

July 4. Col. Henry Dodge (whose resignation as head of the First U. S. dragoons was effective this date) took the oath of office as governor of the newly created Territory of Wisconsin, at Mineral Point (Wis.).

To rank from July 4, Lt. Col. Stephen Watts Kearny was promoted colonel of the First U. S. dragoons, Maj. Richard B. Mason became the regiment's lieutenant colonel, and Capt. Clifton Wharton its major.

54 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Colonel Kearny, who had been at Fort Des Moines since the autumn of 1834, received orders in July to move to Fort Leavenworth and assume command. (See KHQ, v. 28, p. 175, for his earlier, brief, tour of duty there.) Ref: Iowa Historical Record, Iowa City, v. 8 (July, 1892), pp. 300, 302; D. L. Clarke's Stephen Watts Kearny . . . (Norman, c1961), pp. 69, 70; F. B. Heitman's Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army . . . (Washington, 1903).

July 18. In the settlement of Frenchmen and Indians, at the mouth of the Kansas (present Kansas City, Mo.), Father C. F. Van Quickenborne (of Kickapoo Catholic Mission) baptized 14 mixed-blood Indian children (Flatheads, Kutenai, Iroquois, etc.), all, apparently, from 12 families which had "lately come down from the Rocky Mountains." Also on the 18th he performed two marriage rites (the earliest recorded in that vicinity). Both parties in the first ceremony were Iroquois Indians: Benjamin Lagautherie (son of Victor) and Charlotte Gray (daughter of John and Marianne). The other rite for Clement "Liserte" (Lessert) and Julia Roy renewed a civil marriage of 1829 (see KHQ, v. 28, p. 53).

In a letter of October 4, 1836, Van Quickenborne referred to the recent settlement on the "low level ground that skirts the right bank of the Kaw at its junction with the Missouri" of 12 families which had "lately come down from the Rocky Mountains"; and stated that on the second of two visits to the Indians he "found them all sick, and, in despair of being able to live here, they were talking of going back to their mountains." With his sketch map of "the Indian country" (also October 4, 1836) he wrote this descriptive note relating to the Kaw's mouth settlement: "Place where the American Fur Company has built a small church ["Chouteau's Church" see July, 1835, entry] here live 25 families 20 of which are Indians or half breeds. . . ." Ref: Garraghan, op. cit., v. 1, pp. 259, and between 402 and 403 (for map). Benjamin "Logatree" was deeded land near "mouth of the Kansas," on April 10, 1836, by Francis G. Chouteau Jackson County (Mo.) courthouse, in Book E, p. 564.

BORN: within the Kickapoo reserve (present Leavenworth county), on July 23, Brigitte Aimable Pensineau, daughter of Trader Paschal Pensineau and Catharinette, "an Indian woman (Kickapoo) vulgo Greenwood." (She was baptized January 4, 1837, at "Kickapootown," by the Rev. C. F. Van Quickenborne, S. J.) Ref: "Kickapoo Register," at St. Mary's College, St. Marys, courtesy of the Rev. Augustin C. Wand, S. J.

Gholson Kurcheval (appointed July 2) superintended the removal west, during the summer, of several hundred more Pottawatomies of Illinois. Capt. John B. F. Russell was the disbursing agent. Apparently they were the Indians who had spent the preceding winter in southeastern "Iowa" see December 2, 1835, entry.)

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 55

These Pottawatomies joined the emigrants of 1835 in the Little Platte (Mo.) country. They were placed under the temporary supervision of Emigrating Agent Anthony L. Davis (whose residence was at "Kickapoo town" above Fort Leavenworth).

Expenditures by the government for the emigrants included payments of $2,352.20 and $7,977.30 to [J. T. V.] Thompson and [Hiram] Rich for provisions; $56 to N. W. Hutchins for transporting Indians on the steamboat Siam; $8 to Francis L. Vallier for service as interpreter.

Though a December 1, 1836, report stated that the number of Pottawatomies (and united Chippewas and Ottawas) removed west of the Mississippi was 1,712, a later report (1840) estimated their number did not exceed 1,455. (In November, 1835, the figure had been given as 1,200[?].) Ref: Grant Foreman's The Last Trek of the Indians (Chicago, c!946), p. 107; 24th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 137 and H. Doc. No. 141 (both in Serial 303); 24th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Ser. 297) for CIA report of December 1, 1836; 24th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Report 228 (Serial 281), p. 5, for November 24, 1835, report; Report of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs for 1840 (Document 3, with the report).

August 26. After an official inspection of Fort Leavenworth, Col. George Croghan wrote:

. . . it is not only not a fort but is even devoid of the regularity of a common barrack. Of defences it has none. Colonel [S. W.] Kearny [the new commandant] having very wisely recommended the erection of block houses, has . . . contracted for the building of two . . . both of them will be finished, it is believed, by December. . . . Ref: F. P. Prucha, ed., Army Life on the Western Frontier . . . (c 1958), p. 24.

William Clark's journey to Fort Leavenworth in September (see, also, next entry) may have been his first and only visit to that post. He traveled there aboard the steamboat Boonville, leaving St. Louis on August 30. George Rogers Hancock Clark (his 20-year-old son, serving as secretary), an interpreter, and a servant, accompanied him. After the treaty was concluded in mid-September, Clark returned to St. Louis on the American Fur Company's Diana.

In 1804, bound up the Missouri with the Lewis & Clark expedition, and again in 1806, returning, he had passed the site of the future fort. But there does not appear to be any record that William Clark returned to that vicinity in the 30 years between 1806 and 1836, though he was situated no farther away than St. Louis, as superintendent of Indian affairs, during most of the intervening time. Ref: "Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs," St. Louis Superintendency (National Archives microcopy 234, Roll 751) George Maguire's September 2, 1836, letter, and William Clark's abstract of disbursements from October 1, 1836, to September 30, 1837. See, also, next entry references.

September 17. At Fort Leavenworth William Clark (sup't of Indian affairs, St. Louis) negotiated a treaty with the lowas, and the band of Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri. By its terms, the Indians

56 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

(1) Gave up all claim to lands lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri river and received a present of $7,500. (This was the "Platte Purchase" country, where they were residing. )
(2) Were assigned a reserve across the Missouri a small strip of land between the Kickapoos' north line and the Grand Nemaha, extending "back and westwardly" from the Missouri to encompass 400 sections, to be divided equally between the lowas and the Sacs & Foxes. (See map of 1834, in KHQ, v. 28, facing p. 177, for general location.) The rectangular tract of land as surveyed in 1837-1838, was divided by a diagonal line into "twin reserves." (See May, 1837, entry, p. 67.)
(3) Agreed to move as soon as arrangements could be made. In return, the government was to do these things for the lowas: build five comfortable houses; fence and break up 200 acres of land; furnish a farmer, blacksmith, teacher, interpreter; provide agricultural implements (for five years), rations for one year, a ferry boat, a mill, 100 cows and calves, five bulls, 100 stock hogs; and assist in removing them to the extent of $500. For the Sacs 6- Foxes the terms were the same, except only three houses were to be built, and but $400 provided for removal. "Mo-hos-ca" (White Cloud), "Nau-che-ning" (No Heart), and 10 others signed for the lowas. "Cau-ca-car-mack" (Rock Bass), "Sea-sa-ho" (Sturgeon), and 13 others signed for the Sacs & Foxes.

Treaty witnesses were: Col. S. W. Kearny (commandant at Fort Leavenworth), Agent John Dougherty, George R. H. Clark (son of William Clark), Subagent Andrew S. Hughes, William Duncan (farmer for the lowas), Sutler Joseph V. Hamilton, Joseph Robidoux, Jr., Sgt. Maj. William Bowman (of the First dragoons); interpreters Jeffrey Dorion, Peter Cadue, Jacques Mette, and Louis M. Dorrion. Ref: C. J. Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties (Washington, 1904), v. 2, pp. 468-470; KHQ, v. 16, p. 2 (for item on George R. H. Clark); KHC, v. 8, p. 82.

About September 19 John C. McCoy and a work party left Westport, Mo., and set out southward, to survey the Cherokees* reserve. They reached a beginning point on the Arkansas (location not identified) on October 14. (A dragoon escort from Fort Leavenworth, detailed to accompany McCoy, did not leave that post till October 19.) After completing between 60 and 70 miles of the survey, illness and bad weather forced suspension of work till 1837. (See p. 63.) Ref: Isaac McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 23 (Isaac McCoy letter of December 15, 1836).

September 26. At Fort Leavenworth Col. Stephen W. Kearny was dinner host to British army captain William Drummond Stewart, who was en route East after a summer's hunting expedition in the Rocky mountains.

Captain Stewart's party (a companion "Mr. Sillem, a German gentleman"; three servants; two light wagons; some fine horses; and two dogs) had traveled to the mountains with the American Fur Company caravan (headed by Thomas Fitzpatrick) which left Bellevue (Neb.) on May 15 and followed up the Platte. It is supposed that Stewart and party returned to Bellevue

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 57

with Fitzpatrick, by the same route, in August and September. (See, also, October 26-31, 1835, entry.) Ref : Clarke, op. eft., p. 73; De Voto, op. cit., pp. 244, 270.

BORN: at Delaware Baptist Mission (present Wyandotte county), on October 7, Lydia Blanchard, daughter of the Rev. Ira D. and Mary (Walton) Blanchard. Ref: Jotham Meeker's "Diary," October 7, 1836, entry; A. J. Paddock correspondence, in KHi ms. division.

October 15. At Bellevue (Neb.) the Otoes, Missourias, Omahas, and Yancton & Santee bands of Sioux, after a council with Agent John Dougherty and Subagent Joshua Pilcher, signed a "convention" giving up all claim to lands lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri river. (See the June 7, 1836, "Platte Purchase" annals item.)

The acting secretary of the proceedings, who also signed the document as witness, was "Jtoseph] Varaum Hamilton, sutler, [First] U. S. dragoons," of Fort Leavenworth. Ref: Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 479-481.

October 21. The chiefs and leading men of the Delawares, Shawnees, Piankeshaws & Weas, Peorias & Kaskaskias met in council with Agent Richard W. Cummins (head of Northern Agency, Western Territory), and signed an agreement giving "our full consent that the United States, open and establish a road through each of our countries, and establish therein such military posts, as the Government of the United States may think proper. . . ." (See July 2, entry.)

In return, the Indians were paid $900 in goods (the Delawares and Shawnees, $300 each; $150 each to the two smaller Indian groups). Delaware signers were Nah-comin, Captain Ketchum, Nonon-da-gomin, Captain Swanock, "Sackindeattun" (Secondine), and four others; for the Shawnees, John Perry, George Williams, Young Blackhoof, Letho, Little Fox, Peter Cornstalk, and two others signed; Charley, Swan, Go-to-cop-wah, and six others signed for the smaller nations. Witnesses to the agreement were: Dr. J. Andrew Chute, W. W. Kavanaugh, Angus G. Boggs; also, interpreters Joseph Parks and Baptiste Peoria. Ref: SIA, v. 1, pp. 262, 263, v. 26, p. 78.

November 5. Jesse Overton received payment (from Lt. Thomas Swords, assistant quartermaster) of $1,795 for having made three farms for the Kansa Indians. (According to Isaac McCoy, these fields, "fenced and ploughed," were at the "lower village" and of 130, 140, and six acres in size. Earlier, 10 acres had been ploughed and fenced.) Ref: 25th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. S62 (Serial 330), p. 86; Isaac McCoy's Annual Register for 1837, p. 32.

58 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

In November Capt. Edwin V. Sumner, and Company B, First U. S. dragoons, arrived at Fort Leaven worth, from Fort Des Moines. They had left the latter post on October 30. Ref: Louis Pelzer's Marches of the Dragoons in the Mississippi Valley . . . (Iowa City, 19 17), p. 62.

DIED: Ten-squa-ta-wa (the Shawnee Prophet), in November, at his small settlement (four huts) on the Shawnee reserve (within the bounds of present Kansas City, Wyandotte co.). He was probably about 68. (The year of his birth is given as 1768.)

A brother of famed chief Tecumseh, Ten-squa-ta-wa ("the open door" a self -given name) was, in the early 1800's, a powerful and influential man. (Throughout his life he claimed to have direct communication with the Great Spirit.) He abetted Tecumseh in the plot to unite the Indian nations against the United States. When the Battle of Tippecanoe (1811, in Indiana) ended in defeat for the Indians, Ten-squa-ta-wa's prestige declined, and he became an obscure figure.

It is said that he came to "Kansas" in 1828, from the Shawnee settlement in the Cape Girardeau, Mo., area, where he had lived two years; that he settled on the N. E. X of Sec. 32, T. 11, R. 25 E., but moved to the N. E. X of Sec. 30 about a year before his death. See his portrait (by Catlin), in KHQ, v. 28, facing p. 336. Ref: KHC, v. 9, pp. 164n, 165n; Kansas City Sun, March 5, 1909; the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, March 27, 1950, shows a picture of "White Feather" spring (described as "in a ravine which bisects Ruby avenue," in the block west of 38th street, Kansas City, Kan.) and notes that the Shawnee Prophet is buried near by; Bureau of American Ethnology, Fourteenth Annual Report, pt. 2, pp. 673, 674.

According to the December 3 report of the secretary of war, the army's Western Department force (under Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines) totaled only 2,458 troops.

At Fort Leavenworth the aggregate strength was 321 men seven companies of the First U. S. dragoons. In present Oklahoma there were 132 men at Fort Gibson, 44 at new Fort Coffee, and 158 at Fort Towson. Ref: 24th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 1 (Serial 297), pp. 107, 146.

MARRIED: The Rev. Robert Clark Ellifrit and Ann Eliza Jefferson (teacher), both of the Kickapoo Methodist Mission, on December 20, at Shawnee Methodist Mission, by the Rev. Thomas Johnson. (In the fore part of 1837 the Ellifrits were at Delaware Methodist Mission,but moved, in the latter part of the year, across the Missouri, where they were early settlers in the "Platte Purchase.") Ref: Jackson County, Mo., marriage records, Independence, Mo., v. 1, p. 102; W. M. Paxton's Annals of Platte County, Mo. (Kansas City, Mo., 1897), see index; KHC, v. 9, p. 206; "Remsburg Scrapbook," v. 1, p. 252 (in KHi library); Isaac McCoy's Annual Register for 1837, p. 30. It is said that Mrs. Ann Eliza Ellifrit was a relative (grand niece?) of Thomas Jefferson.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 59

C A gold mine (or buried treasure) was the quest of a party of men who were guided, in 1836, by Jesse Chisholm, from Arkansas to the mouth of the Little Arkansas river (present Sedgwick county).

James Mead told of this journey in an address made in 1907, and thereby contributed an item to "Kansas" buried treasure lore. He stated that the search was undertaken partly because Antoine S. Le Page du Pratz's map of 1757 (see reference in KHQ, v. 27, p. 92) showed "A Gold Mine" in that vicinity; and also because of a tradition "that long ago a party from New Mexico, descending the river in boats, were surrounded by Indians in the night at this point, and after a siege of several days were all killed but one, who escaped, after he had buried their gold and silver." Ref: KHC, v. 10, p. 9. Mead no doubt heard this tale direct from Chisholm.

1 Employed in "Kansas" by the Indian Department during all, or part of the year 1836, were the following persons:

In the Northern Agency, Western Territory Agent Richard W. Cummins [whose headquarters was the old Shawnee Agency (present Johnson county, near state line)]; Interpreters Joseph James [Kansa], Joseph Parks [Delawares, etc.]; Gun and blacksmiths John P. Smith [Kickapoos], Lewis Jones [Shawnees], Elias M. Walker [Kansa], Nelson A. Warren [Kansa], Robert Dunlap [Delawares], William Carlisle [Weas, etc.]; Assistant gun and blacksmiths William V. Smith [Kickapoos], Preston Moore [Kansa], R. D. McKenney [Shawnees], John M. Owen [Kansa], Samuel Boydston [Delawares; and Shawnees], John Barnes [Shawnees], Peter Duncan [Delawares], Jackson [Weas, etc.], James Whitlock [Shawnees], P. G. Cayton [Weas, etc.]; Teachers J. C. Berryman [Kickapoos], John D. Swallows [Kickapoos], Henry Rennick [Delawares]; Millers William Barnes [Shawnees & Delawares], John Allen [Delawares], James Allen [Delawares].

In the Osage Subagency Subagent Paul Ligueste Chouteau; Interpreter Baptiste] Mongrain; Gun and blacksmith Gabriel Philibert; Assistant Smith E[tienne] Brant.

"Assistant agent in the emigration of Indians" Anthony L. Davis [temporarily situated at "Kickapoo-town" above Fort Leavenworth] in charge of the Pottawatomies who had emigrated west between 1833 and 1836 (and who were residing both on the Kickapoo reserve, and across the Missouri in the "Platte Purchase"). Ref: 24th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 141 (Serial 303); 24th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 137 (Serial 303), pp. 27-30; 25th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. 362 (Serial 330), pp. 86, 87.

BORN: on January 17, at Fort Leavenworth, George Kearny, third son of Col. Stephen W. and Mary (Radford) Kearny. (He died on October 6, 1837.) Ref: Clarke, op. cit., p. 76.

BORN: on January 30, at Shawnee Baptist Mission (present John-

60 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

son county), Eliza(?) Rollin, daughter of the Rev. David B. and Sarepta(Reed) Rollin. (The Rollin family David B., wife, and infant son Edward had arrived at Shawnee Baptist Mission on November 5, 1836, after a "protracted journey of more than four weeks" from the Baptist mission to the Western Creeks [near Fort Gibson, "Oklahoma"], which had been suspended due to Indian opposition. The Rollins remained in "Kansas" till the spring of 1839 removing to Commerce, Mich., where Mr. Rollin died on May 12, 1839. When they left "Kansas" they had three children. Of the third child born in 1838? no information is available.) Ref: Jotham Meeker's "Dairy," November 5, 1836, and January 30, 1837, entries; Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. 17 (February, 1837), p. 45; v. 19 (August, 1839), p. 202; J. R. Rollins' Records of Families of the Name of Rawlins or Rollins . . . (Lawrence, Mass., 1874), pp. 85, 155-158.

February 11. In a treaty concluded at Washington with the chiefs of several small bands of Indiana Pottawatomies, the United States agreed to give the Pottawatomies of Indiana, a tract of country "on the Osage [Marais des Cygnes] river southwest of the Missouri river, sufficient in extent, and adapted to their habits and wants; remove them to the same; [and] furnish them with one year's subsistence after their arrival there."

Qui-qui-to (a "Kansas" resident on the Kickapoo reserve since 1833 [see KHQ, v. 28, p. 333]) was the first to sign; followed by Che-chaw-kose, Ash-kum, We-saw (or Louison), Muck-kose, Sin-qui-waugh, and Po-ga-kose. The U. S. commissioner was John T. Douglass. John C. Burnett, Abram B. Burnett, and William Turner were the interpreters. All three of the latter were part Pottawatomie, and all three subsequently migrated to the "Osage" river reserve.)

This first Pottawatomie reserve in "Kansas" was subsequently laid out by Isaac McCoy. Its northeast corner was a little over 16 miles west of the Missouri line, at a point a few miles below the Weas' and Piankeshaws' southwest corner. It bordered, on the north, generally, the lands of the Peorias and Kaskaskias, and the Ottawas. The reserve's width, as stated by Isaac McCoy, was 24 miles; the distance the land would run west had not been determined. (See map in KHQ, v. 28, facing p. 177, for visual reference.) Ref: Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, p. 488; Comm'r C. A. Harris' letter of July 21, 1837, in McCoy's "Manuscripts," v. 24; A. L. Davis' May 15, 1838, letter in Office of Indian Affairs (OIA), Letters Received from SIA, St. Louis (Microcopy 234, Roll 752, National Archives), contains a drawing of the Pottawatomie lands and the Indian reserves north of it; McCoy's Annual Register of Indian Affairs for 1838, p. 58.

March 4. Inauguration Day. At Fort Leavenworth, as the Rev. Thomas Johnson passed by, en route to the Kickapoo mission, "the cannon was firing in honor of the new president" Martin Van Buren. Ref: Christian Advocate and Journal, v. 11 (July 7, 1837), p. 182.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 61

Early in the spring William C. Requa established an Osage mission Hopefield (No. 3) near the southeast corner of the Osage reserve, on La Bette creek, about nine miles from its junction with the Neosho (southwest of present Oswego, Labette co.). Requa, who had closed Hopefield (No. 2) or New Hopefield in present Mayes county, Okla., in 1835 (?) see KHQ, v. 28, p. 170 and then occupied Boudinot Mission (abandoned by the Nathaniel B. Dodge family in 1835 ibid., p. 169), had himself abandoned the Boudinot site in late 1836, or early 1837, to relocate at a place more favorable to begin an Indian farming community (such as Hopefield had been).

He "made considerable progress in preparing the requisite buildings and other improvements, and hoped soon to have a colony of 50 [Osage] families around him." But during the summer the "hostility of other portions of the tribe" caused Requa to discontinue the mission. ("The cattle belonging to the station were killed . . . other property was seized, and some of the [Osage] settlers were threatened and actually assaulted and beaten by their savage countrymen.") In July he removed his belongings and abandoned Hopefield (No. 3) .

In a journal entry of September 5, 1837, the Rev. David B. Rollin (en route from Shawnee Baptist Mission to visit the Creek Indians) wrote: "Arrived at Harmony [Mo. where the first mission to the Osages had been founded in 1821 (see KHQ, v. 27, p. 511)]. Here, about fifteen years ago, missionary efforts were commenced on a large scale, for the benefit of the Osages. Labors have of late been suspended. At this place, I was introduced to Mr. Requa, the last of many missionaries who have left these degraded sons of the forest. The Osages have recently been very abusive, and Mr. Requa has concluded to quit their country, after a service of about sixteen years. There is now no missionary among this people, and their prospects, for time and eternity, are indeed gloomy." Ref: Report of the American Board of Comm'rs for Foreign Missions for 1837, pp. Ill, 112; Missionary Herald, Boston, v. 33, p. 476; Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. 18, p. 42.

March 28. President Van Buren proclaimed the Indian title extinguished to the lands lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri riverthe "Platte Purchase" (act of June 7, 1836 see p. 52), thereby making the area a part of Missouri, and opening it to settlement.

Six northwestern Missouri counties Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway, and Atchison) subsequently (1838-1845) were organized from the "Platte purchase."

Ref: James D. Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1902 (1905), v. 3, p. 32; State Historical Society of Missouri, comp., Historic Missouri . . . (Columbia, c1959), p. 27.

62 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

C At the beginning of April seven steamboats were reported "engaged in the commerce of the Missouri." They were the Chariton, Phillos, Kansas, Howard, Dart, Bridgewater, and Fayette. The first four had arrived on the same date (April 4?) at St. Charles, Mo., from the upper river, after a long absence. The Dart was still to come down. Ref: Missouri Argus, St. Louis, April 7, 1837 (copied from the St. Charles [Mo.] Clarion).

April 13. Revised regulations adopted by the Indian Department included these changes in the superintendences, agencies, and subagencies, as organized under the July 7, 1834, regulations see KHQ, v. 28, pp. 361, 362.

THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF ST. Louis (William Clark, sup't) was enlarged to include the united Pottawatomies, Chippewas & Ottawas north of the Missouri river, in addition to all the other Indians south of the Missouri and north of the northern line of the Osage reservation. Its subdivisions:

Fort Leavenworth Agency* (Richard W. Cummins, agent) for the Delawares, Kansa, Shawnees, and Kickapoos. [Location: the old Shawnee Agency buildings, in present Johnson county, near the state line.]

Council Bluffs Agency (John Dougherty, agent) for the Otoes, Missourias, Omahas, and Pawnees.

Upper Missouri Agency (Joshua Pilcher, agent) for the Sioux of the Missouri, Cheyennes, and Poncas.

Upper Missouri Subagency (W. N. Fulkerson, subagent) for the Mandans, Blackfeet, etc.

Council Bluffs Subagency (Dr. Edwin James, subagent appointed April 28) for the United Pottawatomies, Ottawas, & Chippewas north of Missouri river. Great Nemahaw Subagency* (Andrew S. Hughes, subagent) for the lowas, Sacs & Foxes of Missouri. [Location: on the Missouri, just above the mouth of Wolf river, present Doniphan county.]

Osage [Marais de Cygnes] River Subagency* (Anthony L. Davis, subagent appointed April 28) for the Ottawas, Peorias & Kaskaskias, Weas & Piankeshaws, and the Pottawatomies south of Missouri river. [Location: on Wea creek, present Miami county, at Wea Presbyterian Mission.]

THE ACTING SUPERINTENDENCY OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY (William Armstrong, acting sup't) was to have three agencies (Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee), and two subagencies: Osage Subagency* (Paul Ligueste Chouteau, sub-agent) for all of the Osages [Location: on the Neosho river, present Neosho county]; and Neosho [Grand] River Subagency for the Senecas, united Senecas & Shawnees and the Quapaws. * Agency, and subagencies with headquarters in "Kansas." Ref: Report of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs, 1837, pp. 660-664 (for new regulations); 25th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 135 (Serial 326) for names of officials. For data on sites, see A. S. Hughes' letter of August 14, 1837, A. L. Davis' letter of May 15, 1838, and R. W. Cummins' letter of May 18, 1838 all in OIA, Letters Received from SIA, St. Louis (National Archives, Microcopy 234, Roll 751).

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 63

April 20. Anthony L. Davis ("emigrating agent" for the Pottawatomies from Indiana, residing on the Kickapoo reserve) set out from Westport, Mo., with Isaac McCoy, Robert Simerwell, Dr. J. A. Chute, Robert Polke and son of Indiana, "Mr. Holliday" (a Pottawatomie), and Lewis McNoff (a Chippewa) to view the country in which he would soon relocate as subagent (appointment date: April 28) of the new Osage River Subagency.

This party reached Wea Presbyterian Mission (present Miami county) on April 21; proceeded next day south and west to the "Osage" [Marais des Cygnes] river; followed up its course to the Peoria & Kaskaslda line; crossed the river and camped. On April 24th these explorers arrived at an "Osage" tributary which (wrote McCoy) "we named Putawatomie creek, supposing that the first settlement of the [soon-to-arrive] Putawatomies would be on it."

Crossing and moving southward, they camped on the Neosho on the 25th. On the night of April 27, after traveling up the Neosho's north bank, they were (according to McCoy) some 70 to 75 miles west of the state of Missouri (in present Lyon? county). On the 28th the line of march was northeast for about 12 miles, then east for perhaps 13 more, to a branch of "Putawatomie Creek." Continuing east on the 29th, McCoy noted: "We . . . examined some very prominent and singular natural mounds at noon" (in present Franklin county one of these landmarks was referred to, in 1845, as "the steamboat mound"). Before evening they had come again to the "Putawatomie Creek" ford, where they crossed to the left bank and moved two miles downstream to make camp. [Apparently this was the ford subsequently known as "Dutch Henry's crossing."]

Concluding the exploration on May 2, two of the party went on to Wea Presbyterian Mission, while McCoy and the others proceeded to the Peoria Methodist Mission (near Peoria, Franklin co., of today). McCoy (and companions) reached Westport on May 3. Ref: Isaac McCoy's "Journal," April 17-May 3, 1837, entries; Calvin McCormick's The Memoir of Miss Eliza McCoy (Dallas, 1892), pp. 58, 59; James C. Malin's John Brown and the Legend of Fifty-Six (Philadelphia, 1942), p. 714; Johnston Lykins' "Journal," April, 1839. Lykins stated that the mound at the forks of the Pottawatomie "appeared above the forest, like an immense steamboat top. . . ."

Leaving Westport, Mo., on April 25, John C. McCoy proceeded southward to resume and complete the Cherokee reserve survey begun in October, 1836 (see p. 56).

Writing some 50 years later, McCoy stated that he surveyed, in 1837, "the south, the west, and the north lines of the land now known as the 'Cherokee strip’ extending west to longitude 100 west from Greenwich, the south line being between the lands of the Creeks and the Cherokees, and the north line [in Kansas] between the Cherokee and the Osage reservations." (For visual reference, see map in KHQ, v. 28, facing p. 177.) Ref: Isaac McCoy's "Journal," May 3, 1837, entry; KHC, v. 4, p. 301. The north line the dividing line between the Osage and Cherokee reserve was three miles north of the 37th parallel (which is the southern boundary of Kansas) see KHQ, v. 1, p. 104, Footnote 5.

64 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

May 5. Journeying west to Kansa Methodist Mission (present Shawnee county), Agent R. W. Cummins, the Rev. Thomas Johnson, the Rev. Nelson Henry, of Independence, Mo., and Cephas Case "met some 4 or 500 of the Kanzas Indians going to the white settlements to beg provisions, for they had nothing to eat at home; and those that had not gone to the white settlements to beg were nearly all scattered over the prairies digging wild potatoes." (Scientist Thomas Say of Maj. S. H. Long's 1819-1820 expedition recorded that the Otoe Indians' word for the Kansas river was to-pe-o-ka, "good potatoe river/' This suggests the origin of the word, Topeka. )

After reaching the mission, Agent Cummins counciled with the Kansa on May 6 and 7. Arrangements were made to "take a few children into the mission family," each chief being given the privilege of selecting one boy. Leaving on May 8, the party of white men returned to Shawnee Methodist Mission on May 9. Ref: Thomas Johnson's letter of August 11, 1837, In Christian Advocate and Journal, v. 12 (September 8, 1837), p. 10; or KHC, v. 9, p. 199; R. G. Thwaites, ed., Early Western Travels, v. 17, p. 300 (for Say).

In the spring (early May?) the American Fur Company's S*. Peters brought employees and equipment up the Missouri, probably to Chouteau's Landing two miles below the Kaw's mouth, in preparation for an expedition to the 13th annual rendezvous of the Rocky mountain trappers. Not since 1834 had the route across "Kansas" been chosen. (The caravans of 1835 and 1836 had started from Bellevue [Neb.].)

At a camp not far west of the Missouri line, two or three weeks were spent in recruiting animals, outfitting and awaiting the "season of grass." Two veteran mountain men in this company evidently holding responsible posts were "Black" Harris and Etienne Provost. Joining the expedition here were Capt. William Drummond Stewart (heading West for the third time) and his well-equipped party (about 10 in all), which included the artist Alfred Jacob Miller, L[evi?] Philh'p^on, F. Y. Ewing, and half-breed Antoine Clement (as "hunter and purveyor").

The cavalcade which left the eastern "Kansas" line some time in May included at least 120 men (company employees; Stewart's group; a band of free hunters; 25 or more Delaware Indians), numerous wagons and carts, and a large number of horses and mules.

No journal of the trip is known to exist. David L. Brown (new to the West in 1837), in recollections printed in 1845, supplied a cursory account. Other information comes from Artist Miller's on-the-spot sketches, and accompanying notes written some years later. [The cover of this Quarterly reproduces Miller's water color of the caravan crossing the Kansas river.] It appears that "Sublette's Trace" the route of 1834 was followed in 1837. If so, the Kansas was forded seven or eight miles above present Lawrence, at the site of the Kansa Agency (closed in August, 1834). Miller made at least two other sketches relating to "Kansas": a portrait of a young Kansa chief "White Plume''

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 65

(White Plume II, apparently see KHQ, v. 28, p. 353); and a drawing of a "Western Log Cabin" the substantial home of a Shawnee Indian (perhaps the residence of Joseph Parks, later head chief of the Shawnees) located near the expedition's outfitting camp. His "Bee Hunter" sketch, too, was probably done in "Kansas."

From Fort Laramie, in mid- June, "Black" Harris went on ahead of the caravan to the Green river rendezvous. Missionary William Gray, returning East, met him there, interviewed him, and jotted down in his journal (under date of July 13) information he obtained from Harris on "names of streams on the East & west sides of the Mts from Independence Mo. to the Grand Round, Oregon" (though no notes were actually recorded for streams west of Independence Rock). Presumably the itinerary from the Missouri line to Fort Laramie described the route the American Fur Company caravan had just traversed. The following table of distances is a summary of the first 13 entries as listed in Gray's journal, with corrected spelling of most place names. (He wrote "Wasse ree saw" for Wakarusa; "Soterel" for Sauterelle, etc.)

The Big Blue 14 miles from Independence "empties into the Cansus"
[Gray's error, surely, for Harris would have known that the Big Blue of Missouri empties into the Missouri.]
Wakarusa 40 miles
Kansas river 25 miles
A small creek near the [Kansa] Agency 4 miles
Sauterelle, or Grasshopper river [now the Delaware] into the Kansas 6 miles
Soldier creek 15 miles (6 miles from the Kansa village it empties into the Kansas) to Prairie creek 15 miles
Black Vermillion 18 miles
Big black creek a fork of the Blue 30 miles
North fork of the Blue [the Big Blue, of Nebraska and Kansas] 15 miles
Big Sandy creek 40 miles
The west fork of the Blue [Little Blue river] "136[?] to the Paune [Pawnee] trails" 25 miles
Across to the Big Platte 20 miles

Ref: David L. Brown's "Three Years in the Rocky Mountains," in Cincinnati Daily Morning Atlas, September 8, 10-13, 1845 (microcard, KHi); De Voto, op., cit., pp. xvii,309-319, 391, 409, 414, 415, 444; Marvin C. Ross* The West of Alfred Jacob Miller (Norman, Okla., c!951), pp. xvii, 17, 48; William H. Gray's "Diary" for July 13, 1837 (typed copy of the Oregon Historical Society's original, supplied to this compiler by Dale L. Morgan, of the Bancroft Library, who also gave additional valuable help on this entry in his letter of December 10, 1962, to L. Barry). Though De Veto's account places Thomas Fitzpatrick at the head of the 1837 caravan, there is no evidence that he was with the expedition while it traveled from Missouri to Fort Laramie.

May. On her way to the American Fur Company's upper Missouri trading posts, the St. Peters probably passed along the "Kansas" shore in the latter part of the month. Among the passengers were Indian agents John Dougherty and Joshua Pilcher; and the boat's cargo included annuity goods for their Council Bluffs and

66 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Upper Missouri agencies. (The St. Peters reached Fort Clark on June 19.) At, or near, Fort Leavenworth, a Company employee a mulatto became ill. Before the St. Peters arrived at Bellevue [Neb.] the Council Bluffs Agency his disease smallpox was fully developed and "had been communicated to several other persons subject to it."

From this introduction (according to Joshua Pilcher) there followed the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1837-1838 which destroyed some, and nearly wiped out others of the upper Missouri Indian nations; and thereby altered the river fur trade. (The nations most affected were the Mandans, Arickaras, Minnetarees, Assiniboines, Blackfeet, and Sioux.)

According to Isaac McCoy, upper Missouri fur traders "conjectured" 15,000 Indians had perished of smallpox by year's end. Ref: Joshua Pilcher's February 5, 1838, letter to William Clark (copy in John C. McCoy Collection, KHi ms. division); Isaac McCoy's Annual Register for 1838, pp. 22-24. There are other versions of the origin of the epidemic. Bernard De Voto has discussed them in his Across the Wide Missouri, pp. 279-301, 442. Apparently he did not know of the Pilcher letter referred to above.

C A Gazetteer of the State of Missouri, compiled by Alphonso Wetmore, was published at St. Louis in the spring. The western border county of Jackson (created in December, 1826; county seat, Independence, established in 1827 see KHQ, v. 28, p. 38) was listed as having a population of 4,522 in 1836 (as against 2,823 in 1830).

In the Gazetteer is a table of distances "From Jackson county to Santa Fe" (calculated as an 897-mile journey). The indications are that it was compiled by Wetmore when he captained an 1828 expedition to Santa Fe (see KHQ, v. 28, pp. 39, 40).

Another table gives the mileage by water, from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth. By this reckoning the distance up the Missouri from St. Louis to Franklin and Boonville was 204 miles; 115 more to Lexington; 32 miles to Sibley [Fort Osage]; 20 to Liberty; eight to Independence; 12 to [Francis G.] "Chouteau's"; and 40 to Cant. [i. e., Fort] Leavenworth a total of 431 miles. [An up-to-date table would have listed Westport Landing.] Ref: Wetmore's Gazetteer . . . (as noted above); Missouri Argus, St. Louis, May 12, 1837 (contains editorial comment on, and long quotes from, the Gazetteer); J. F. McDermott, ed., The Early Histories of St. Louis (St. Louis, 1952), p. 21.

May 12. John G. Pratt (missionary and printer), with his bride Olivia (Evans) Pratt, reached Shawnee Baptist Mission (where they would replace the Jotham Meekers who were preparing to settle among the Ottawa Indians). Ref: Isaac McCoy's "Journal," May 14, 1837, entry; Jotham Meeker's "Diary," May 11, 1837, entry; J. W. Manning's "John Gill Pratt" (dissertation, 1951, on microfilm in KHi). He states the Pratts arrived at Westport Landing on May 11; and reached the mission on May 12.

May. According to Josiah Gregg's statistics (as compiled for his Commerce of the Prairies, 1844), the goods taken to the South-

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 67

west over the Santa Fe trail in 1837 were estimated to be worth $150,000. The merchandise, belonging to some 35 proprietors, was carried in about 80 wagons; and around 160 men made the journey. Gregg, southwest-bound for the third time, was one of the merchants. (He returned in May, 1838.) Not all the traders, necessarily, went in the spring caravan. Ref: Gregg, op. cit., v. 1, p. 305.

During the spring and early summer, the Iowa Indians, and the Sac & Fox Indians of Missouri, assisted by their subagent Andrew S. Hughes, moved across the Missouri from their old homes in the "Platte Purchase" (northwestern Missouri) to the lands provided by treaty of September 17, 1836 (see pp. 55, 56), settling in present Doniphan county, north of the Kickapoos* reserve.

Subagent Hughes wrote in mid-May that he had recently taken the lowas to the new reserve. On July 31 Brig. Gen. Henry Atkinson (from "Independence landing") sent Isaac McCoy (at Westport) a letter stating: "The lowas & Sauks have generally crossed the river to their own lands, a few being permitted to remain a short time to gather their crops of corn." He urged McCoy to go up at once and mark out the division line between the two bands' reserves as the Indians were fighting over their rights of location. (McCoy went, a few days later, and before August 12, had straightened out the difficulties.)

With his August 14 letter to the Indian department, Subagent Hughes sent a rough sketch showing the new Indian settlements at "Eagle Point," "on the Prairie" along the Missouri's right bank. The Sacs & Foxes were just north of the mouth of Wolf river (now Wolf creek), and the Iowa Indians a little higher up the Missouri (elsewhere, the distance between settlements was given as one mile). Hughes wrote that it was about four miles between Wolf river and the next Missouri tributary to the north which he called "Mill creek" (now Clear creek) and that the Indians were located right on the river between these two streams.

On August 26 Subagent Hughes reported that the Indians had erected 41 bark houses, and that the early-arriving families had small fields or patches of corn, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables. "According to the best count I can make," he wrote, "the loways consist of 992 souls; the Sacs consist of 510 souls." Ref: Isaac McCoy's "Journal," May 19, 1837; Isaac McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 24 (for McCoy letters of August 2 and September 23, 1837, and for an A. S. Hughes letter of July 8, 1837); Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence (microfilm, KHi), for S. M. Irvin and Aurey Ballard letter of August 12, 1837; OIA, letters received from SIA, St. Louis (National Archives Microcopy 234, Roll 751) for Hughes' August 14, 1837, letter, and August 26, 1837, report (the latter is, also, in Report of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs for 1837, but undated there).

May 26. At Fort Gibson (Okla.) delegations of chiefs and leading men from the Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, and Tawakoni tribes, entered into a treaty of peace and friendship with the United States the first such treaty negotiated with these western prairie Indians. Also present were representatives of two "eastern" tribes the Muscogees (Western Creeks) and the Osages of the Verdigris. Auguste P. Chouteau

68 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

and Montfort Stokes signed for the United States. Ta-ka-ta-couche (Black Bird) headed the Kiowa signers; Roly Mclntosh signed first for the Muscogees; and Clermont for the Osages. Ref: Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 489-491; Grant Foreman's Pioneer Day* in the Early Southwest (Cleveland, 1926), p. 231.

June 6. The steamboat Kansas reached Fort Leavenworth (from St. Louis) with 62 dragoon recruits, in the charge of two lieutenants one of them 2d Lt. Philip Kearny (nephew of post commander Col. Stephen W. Kearny). Ref: Clarke, op cit., p. 75. Philip Kearny was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First dragoons as of March 8, 1837. Heitman, op. cit., v. 1, p. 586.

Between June 7 and 18 Methodist ministers Andrew Monroe, William W. Redman, and Nelson Henry, all of Missouri, visited the Peoria, Shawnee, Delaware, and Kickapoo missions of their church, holding business and religious meetings. They left for home on June 20. Ref: Christian Advocate and Journal, v. 12 (September 8, 1837), p. 10; or, KHC, v. 9, pp. 199, 200.

In June Lt. Col. Richard B. Mason and the remaining troops (18 men) of Companies H and I, First U. S. dragoons, arrived at Fort Leavenworth from Fort Des Moines (which had been abandoned on June 1, by War Department order).

(The ranks were depleted because many dragoons had completed an enlistment period and left the army.) Ref: Pelzer, op. cit., pp. 62, 63. Ottawa Baptist Mission had its beginning on June 18 when Missionary Jotham Meeker and family unloaded their wagons at a site (selected in March) on the north bank of the Marais des Cygnes, near present Ottawa, and moved into temporary living quarters ("a small rough cabin intended for a stable"). Before mid-October the mission house had been completed.

Two days earlier the Meekers had left Shawnee Baptist Mission (some 40 miles distant) which had been their home since October, 1833. On the Ottawa reserve there were only 79 Indian residents in June, 1837, but 170 more arrived in October (see p. 75.) Jotham Meeker's first teaching efforts were in the Ottawa language. By report, a school of 26 men, women, and children was opened in January,

1838 conducted by visits of the missionary to the homes of Indians who were interested (many were not). In February, 1838, Meeker went to the Shawnee Baptist Mission and printed 400 copies of an Ottawa First Book.

This stimulated interest in reading, and in the summer he built a schoolhouse, where, on July 9, he commenced teaching in English (at the chiefs request). His day school was conducted with some success. In February, 1839, Meeker reported that 17 Indians attended, but he averaged nine or ten students.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 69

Many Indians refused to send their children because the missionaries did not board and clothe them. Ottawa Baptist Mission was moved, after the flood of 1844, to a site "back on to the hills" some five miles northeast of present Ottawa. Following Jotham Meeker's death in January, 1854 the mission was discontinued. Ref: Jotham Meeker's "Diary"; Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. 18 (June, 1838), p. 140, v. 19 (May, 1839), p. 117, also, later issues; Spooner & Rowland's History of American Missions . . . (1840), pp. 545, 546; Report of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs for 1837, p. 609; KHC, v. 8, pp. 472-475.

At Shawnee Friends Mission a school was opened in June. (For construction of the mission buildings in 1836 and other data, see p. 46.) The first superintendents were Moses Pearson and his wife Sarah (Pearson) Pearson, who came out in covered wagons, from Miami county, Ohio, with their five children (Rhoda, aged 12, Mahala, Timothy, Ann, and three-year-old Joshua), in the late(?) spring. Mary H. Stenton (assistant matron) and Elias Newby (teacher) also came in 1837.

As reported in 1838, the Friends' school had 17 scholars, who were instructed in English, and fed and clothed by the mission. The Pearsons remained in "Kansas" for three years their appointed time and were succeeded in mid- 1840 by Henry and Ann Harvey. Ref: Isaac McCoy's Annual Register for 1838, p. 64; KHC, v. 8, pp. 267, 268} The History of Miami County, Ohio (Chicago, 1880), p. 849; W. W. Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Ann Arbor, Mich., v. 5 (1946), pp. 790, 819; Comm'r of Indian Affairs Report, 1840, pp. 150, 151. As noted hereafter, two sons were born to the Pearsons during their "Kansas" stay one in 1837, the other in 1840.

June-July. As reported at St. Louis in late July, "Captain White's company" of Santa Fe traders had recently returned to Fayette, Mo., bringing between $80,000 and $100,000 in gold dust and silver bars.

During the journey east this party had lost most of its mules. Presumably this company crossed "Kansas" in June. Ref: Missouri Republican, St. Louis, July 28, 1837 (as reprinted in Nebraska State Historical Society Publications, v. 20, p. 67).

On the Shawnee reserve, by mid-year, a saw and grist mill had been completed, at a reported total cost of about $8,000. Michael Rice received a payment of $6,994.40 (from Capt. E. A. Hitchcock, handling disbursements for the St. Louis superintendency) for erecting this mill. (Rice, in 1833, had built a mill costing less than half as much, apparently for the Delaware Indians. See KH<2,v.28,pp.330,331.) Ref: OIA, Letters received from the St. Louis superintendency (Hitchcock's disbursements for the half year ending September 30, 1837), National Archives Microcopy 234, Roll 751; Isaac McCoy's Annual Register for 1837, p. 27.

About July 1 the third issue of Isaac McCoy's Annual Register of Indian Affairs (with a title-page date of May, 1837) was pub-

70 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

lished at Shawnee Baptist Mission, by John G. Pratt, in a 1,500-copy edition. So far as known this was the first work printed by Pratt on the Shawanoe Mission Press (or, "Meeker press"). He had arrived on May 12. Ref: McCoy's Annual Register . . . (as noted above); his History of Baptist Indian Missions (1840), p. 524; D. C. McMurtrie's and A. H. Allen's Jotham Meeker ... (Chicago, 1930), p. 154.

July 9. Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines arrived at Fort Leavenworth on an inspection trip. He subsequently reported: "the first Dragoons as drilled by Colonel [S. W.] Kearny are the best troops I have ever seen." Ref: Clarke, op. cit., p. 76.

BORN: on July 15, at Shawnee Friends Mission, present Johnson county, Abram Pearson, son of the mission superintendent Moses Pearson and his wife Sarah. (See June annals entry.) Ref: The History of Miami County, Ohio (1880), p. 849; W. W. Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, v. 5, p. 819.

In July and August the emigrant bands of united Pottawatomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas residing (since 1835 and 1836) across the Missouri from Fort Leavenworth in the "Platte Purchase," were removed ( under the management of Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines) to the Council Bluffs reserve (southwestern Iowa) set aside for them by the treaty of September 26, 1833.

Aboard the steamboat Kansas, Brig. Gen. Henry Atkinson, Col. S. W. Kearny, Dr. Edwin James (the Indians' newly appointed subagent), and some 100 Pottawatomie women, children, and invalids, arrived at the new location on July 28. A second group of Indians (about 75) reached the Council Bluffs on August 8, aboard the Howard. Meantime the main body traveled overland up the left bank of the Missouri and probably arrived before the end of August.

By November 842 more Pottawatomies had "removed themselves" from east of the Mississippi to this reserve; and on November 26 Lewis H. Sands "delivered" an additional 287 Indians. At the end of 1837 some 2,500 Pottawatomies were under the care of the Council Bluffs Subagency. By official report, up to 1840 a total of 2,734 had been removed there.

The united Pottawatomies, Chippewas, & Ottawas were also called the "Prairie Band of Pottawatomies." In 1847 they moved to "Kansas" to the new Kansas river reserve for all of the Pottawatomies provided by the treaty of June 5, 1846. Ref: Nebraska State Historical Society Transactions, Lincoln, v. 4, p. 184; Missouri Argus, St. Louis, August 8, 1837; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Iowa City, v. 11, pp. 341-363; Indiana Historical Collections, Indianapolis, v. 26, pp. 405, 412, 423, 424, 457-462; Nebraska History Magazine, Lincoln, v. 18, pp. 5-9; Report of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs for 1840 (document No. 3, accompanying report); Grant Foreman's The Last Trek of the Indians (c!946), pp. 107-109.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 71

July 20-22. Anthony L. Davis, head of the new Osage River Subagency, moved from the Fort Leavenworth vicinity (where he had been, since December, 1834, agent for the Pottawatomies squatting along the Missouri in that region) to the "Osage" (Marais des Cygnes) river country.

The "temporary" subagency (to which he had already moved his family) was at Wea Presbyterian Mission, on Wea creek (present Miami county). In May, 1838, Davis was of the opinion his residence had been purchased by the government from the missionaries, and wrote that he considered it eligible for use with $100 to $150 repair; and in his 1840 report the subagent stated his headquarters was still on the Wea lands for lack of orders to erect buildings on the site selected in April, 1837, within the Pottawatomie reserve. Ref: Indiana Historical Collections, v. 26, p. 419; A. L. Davis' letter of May 15, 1838 (cited under April 13, 1837, entry); A. L. Davis, report for 1889, in Report of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs for 1839.

Late July and early August. Aboard the American Fur Company's St. Peters (Bernard Pratte, Jr., captain), Count Francesco Arese (aged 32, from a noble family of Milan, Italy) journeyed up the Missouri from St. Louis to the Council Bluffs. (He was the only passenger not connected with the fur trade.)

"Fort Leavenworth/' wrote tourist Arese, "is the last American post. It has a regiment of dragoons and artillery to keep the savages respectful. Some wretched barracks and a second-rate blockhouse is all there is to what is called the military establishment." Present at the fort "because it so happened that several chiefs of different tribes were ... on their way to Washington to see the President," was "a big gathering of savages ... all in their finest costumes."

A few hours later, above Fort Leavenworth, the St. Peters stopped "at a post of the American Fur Company and landed the boss [Laurence? Pensineau] of the [Kickapoos'] trading station . . . The boat was instantly flooded with savages, to whom tobacco and brandy[!l were given. They greeted the boss . . . affectionately, wringing his hand and calling him 'Papa, Papa’ They played cards with great enthusiasm and even passion, and remained on board very late that night; and three young Indian women remained on board all night . . . with the consent of the Kickapoo chief. . . ."

The St. Peters reached the Council Bluffs "after 11 days on the Missouri." Arese, with two companions, subsequently traveled on horseback across present Minnesota; then, by canoe, and dug-out, made his way to Prairie du Chien; traversed Wisconsin (mostly in canoes); spent some time in the Great Lakes region; eventually reached Boston; and then returned to Italy. Ref: Francesco Arese's A Trip to the Prairies and in the Interior of North America . . ., translated ... by Andrew Evans (New York, 1934); Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, v. 20 (December, 1933), pp. 381-399.

Late in the summer the Pottawatomies residing on the Kickapoo reserve above Fort Leavenworth left that location and journeyed 70 miles southward to the "Osage" (Marais des Cygnes) river

72 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

reserve which had been provided for the Pottawatomies of Indiana by the treaty of February 11, 1837. (See p. 60. )

Jotham Meeker reported that the first migrants arrived at the "Osage" on August 16, but indications are that most of them (681) made the journey in September. An abstract of Indian department expenditures for September 13 shows the following items relating to removing the Pottawatomies from Fort Leavenworth to "Osage" river: to Johnston Lykins $617.50 for his services as assistant agent, and $372 for aiding in the Indians' removal; to Joseph Barrette[?] $60 for "ferriage over Kansas river" of 552 Indians and their horses, etc.; to "Sacarcopy" [Sarcoxie a Delaware] $16.12 for "ferriage over Kansas river" of 129 Indians and their horses, etc.; also, to Charles Johnson, William Mattingly, John P. Smith, William M. Chick, and Joseph Barrette, payments for "hire of a wagon" (two wagons in the case of Chick) in removing the Indians.

These Pottawatomies made their camps along the south side of Pottawatomie creek. According to Isaac McCoy and Subagent A. L. Davis, many of the Pottawatomies who migrated to the "Osage" river reserve in 1837 were either "Kankakee" (111. ) Indians, or "St. Joseph's river" (Mich.) Indians, formerly enrolled in the Chicago Agency and therefore not Indiana Pottawatomies.

On September 27, coming direct from east of the Mississippi, 53 Pottawatomies under the care of George Proffitt, reached the Marais des Cygnes, also. (And see p. 78 for November arrivals.) Ref: Meeker "Diary," August 16, 1837, entry; 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Doc. No. 174 (Serial 347), p. 59; Indiana Historical Collections, v. 26, pp. 405, 419-424, 459-461, 465, 466; Report of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs for 1837 (A. L. Davis' report, incorporated); ibid., for 1840 (Document No. 3 accompanying report); Johnston Lykins' "Journal," April, 1839 (in KHi ms. division); also, the references cited for Pottawatomie Baptist Mission see p. 77.

MARRIED: William Smith Donohoe and Eleanor McCoy, on August 22, at the home of the bride, near Westport, Mo., by her father the Rev. Isaac McCoy. Ref: Jackson county, Mo., marriage records, v. 1, p. 119.

August 30. A Chippewa "exploring deputation" from Michigan (three chiefs of the Saginaw band, three from the Swan creek and Black river bands, their conductor, Albert J. Smith and attendants 10 persons in all), accompanied by the Rev. Isaac McCoy, left Westport, Mo., to examine the country west and south, of the Ottawas* reserve in present Franklin county which McCoy (as agent for the government) had selected for the Chippewas' 8,320-acre reservation (promised under terms of the May 9, 1836, treaty).

[Conductor Smith's abstract of disbursements shows payment, on August 27, 1837, to the Steamboat Kansas of $20 "for self," and of $72 "for Indian chiefs," from St. Louis to Westport. Residents who supplied goods or services were: Daniel Yoacham (who boarded the party), merchants William M. Chick, and Parks 6- Findlay (who outfitted the deputation), and Thomas J.

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 73

Colbert (who was paid for "Transportation of Indians from Westport to Independence" when the Chippewas started home). Notably, this abstract contains one of the early specific references to Westport as an outfitting point.]

On August 31 the deputation reached newly founded Ottawa Baptist Mission (on the Marais des Cygnes, near present Ottawa); and on September 3, after several days of exploring, was back at the mission, en route to Westport.

The Chippewas, and their aides, returned to St. Louis on the Boonville, boarding her at Independence, Mo., about September 9. By the end of the month they had reached their Michigan homes.

(In November, 1839, 62 of the Swan creek Chippewas came to "Kansas" to make their home in present Franklin county.) Ref: 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Doc. No. 174 (Serial 347), pp. 19-21 (for Smith's abstract of disbursements); KHC, v. 11, p. 314; Jotham Meeker's "Diary," August 31, September 3 and 4, 1837, entries; Isaac McCoy "letters" of September 6, 1837, in "McCoy Manuscripts" v. 24.

Between September 1 and October 8 the route subsequently known as the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson military road was located and surveyed by a party made up of Col. S. W. Kearny, Capt. Nathan Boone, Charles Dimmock (civil engineer), his assistant, and a small escort of First U. S. dragoons.

On the exploratory journey southward, through what is now the eastern tier of Kansas counties (after leaving Fort Leavenworth on September 1), the line of march was never more than a few miles within the Indian country, and, on occasion, approached within yards of the Missouri boundary. In the latter part of September, the Kearny-Boone party arrived at short-lived Fort Coffee (on the Arkansas, about eight miles west of the state of Arkansas) the chosen terminus for this middle section of the Western military road (see p. 53 for note on the July 2, 1836, frontier protection act).

The actual survey was made (by Dimmock) on the return trip, beginning at the Arkansas river, opposite Fort Coffee (Okla.) on September 27. It was completed to Fort Leavenworth on October 8. In his report Dimmock commented on the extensive rolling prairies in the "Kansas" portion of the route the 158 miles between Spring river (in present Cherokee county) and Fort Leavenworth. The streams to be forded he listed as "Spring river," "Pomme de Terre" [Cow? creek, Cherokee county], "Wildcat" [Drywood?], "Mermiton" [Marmaton], "Little Osage," "Cotton Wood [Mine?l creek," "Marias des Lygne" [Marais des Cygnes], "Blue" [Big Blue, Missouri tributary], and the "Kanzas." (See, also, October 15, 1838, annals entry.) Ref: KHQ, v. 11, pp. 115-121, also map facing p. 129. Fort Coffee (Olda.) was abandoned in the autumn of 1838. Ibid., p. 123.

September 18. Lt. Thomas Swords (acting quartermaster) made a contract with J. B. Wells to prepare and sow in timothy seed, 100 acres of land near Fort Leavenworth; also a contract with Jesse Overton to prepare, sow in timothy seed, and fence in, by the

74 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

31st of October (1837), and the 31st of May (1838), 500 acres of prairie near Fort Leavenworth. Ref: 25th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 200 (Serial 316), pp. 352, 353, 360.

September 27. An exploring delegation of 18 to 20 New York Indians, conducted by the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, of Utica, N. Y., left Westport, Mo., to examine a tract north of the Cherokee Neutral Lands and the Osage reserve.

This party first entered "Kansas" some 70 miles south of Westport probably a little above the Linn-Bourbon county line of today; proceeded to tour the Little Osage river country, and some tributaries of the Neosho; visited the Osage Subagency; descended the Marmaton; crossed the Missouri line to Harmony; and by October 13 was back at Westport, en route East.

Subsequently, by treaty of January 15, 1838 (which was signed by all the groups of New York Indians those who had emigrated to Wisconsin in the 1820's, as well as those residing in New York), a large rectangular reserve (1,824,000 acres) in the "Kansas" area described above, was assigned to these tribes. (The negotiations involved an exchange of 435,000 acres of the land in Wisconsin which had been given them by the treaty of 1831.) On June 11, 1838, the U. S. senate amended the treaty, but only part of the New York Indians signed the final document.

Though something like 200 New York Indians finally came out to the reserve in 1846 only 32 received patents (for 320 acres each) provided by terms of the treaty, and none settled permanently in "Kansas."

After President Buchanan, in 1860, declared the vacant reserve public domain, open for settlement, the New York Indians filed suit for indemnity. In 1898 their claim was allowed. Ref: John F. Schermerhorn letter of October 13, 1837 (in McCoy Manuscripts," v. 24); also Isaac McCoy letter of November 23, 1837, in ibid.; Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law . . . (Washington, 1942), p. 420; KHC, v. 8, pp. 83-85; Kappler, op. cit., v. 2, pp. 502-512; 52d Cong., 1st Sess., Senate Report No. 910 (Serial 2915), pp. 5, 6. In KHC, v. 4, p. 301, John C. McCoy (in 1889) stated that he surveyed, in 1837, "a. tract south of the Pottawatomies and north of Fort Scott [established in 1842] for the New York Indians. . . ."

Late in September (?) some 100(?) Shawnee and Delaware men, who had been enlisted for six months' service in the war against the Seminoles, left "Kansas" for Florida. The leading Delaware chief Nah-ko-min was in this company, but the captain was Joseph Parks (part Indian; later Shawnee head chief). By one report about 80 of each nation went; however, Capt. Thomas Swords (AQM, Fort Leavenworth), on September 27, made a contract with Joseph White to transport 100 Indians, and the officers in command, from mouth of Kansas river to Jefferson Barracks, Mo.

Thirty Delawares (led by Captain Parks) took part in the battle near Lake Okeechobee, Fla., on December 25. (It was in this engagement that Missouri volunteer troops suffered heavy casualties, and lost their leader, Col. Richard Gentry.) Prior to the battle, the "greater part" of the Shawnees had been de-

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 75

tached, and the rest had refused to accompany Col. Zachary Taylor "under the pretext that a number of them were sick, and that the remainder were without moccasins/' It is said that all these Indians returned to "Kansas" safely in 1838. Ref: Jotham Meeker's "Diary," October 6, 1837, entry; 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Doc. 94 (Serial 346), p. 54; Isaac McCoy letter of December 15, 1837 (published in Indiana Historical Collections, v. 26, p. 474); 25th Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc. 27 (Serial 311); 25th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 227 (Serial 316); KHC, v. 10, p. 400; E. C. McReynolds' The Seminoles (Norman, c 1957), pp. 193, 201; Isaac McCoy letter of July 1, 1839 (for item on Nah-ko-min).

October 6-20. Conducted from Maumee, Ohio, by John McElvain, a party of 170 Ottawas arrived at Chouteau's Landing on the 6th, aboard the St. Peters. Ten wagons and teams, supplied (at $4 a day per team) by Westport merchant William M. Chick, then transported the Indians (between October 7 and 11) to the reserve, in present Franklin county, occupied by approximately 80 Ottawas who had come to "Kansas" in 1832 (see KHQ, v. 28, pp. 204, 363, 364).

The reserve assigned these new arrivals (the Roche de Boeuf and Wolf Rapids Ottawas) was both south, and west, of the tract already occupied; but Jotham Meeker, of the newly founded Ottawa Baptist Mission (near present Ottawa), wrote in his diary on October 20: "Our new Indians have just decided to settle near us." (In August, 1839, 108 more Ottawas came to "Kansas.") Ref: Jotham Meeker's "Diary," October 6-20, entries; 25th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 200 (Serial 316), pp. 2-4; Isaac McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 24, for McCoy's letter of September 30, 1837, and a September 22, 1837, letter by Disbursing Agent Criger; KHC, v. 13, pp. 373-375 (for Joseph B. King's article, which contains errors in dates, etc., but is, in general, correct); Grant Foreman's Last Trek of the Indians, p. 91.

October 9. The Rev. Learner B. Stateler and his bride Melinda (Purdom) Stateler arrived at Delaware Methodist Mission (present Wyandotte county) see KHQ, v. 28, pp. 191, 192, for its 1832-1837 history where the Rev. E. T. Peery and his family had recently resided.

Stateler first preached to the Indians on October 15. Subsequently he was occupied for some weeks in repairing the mission buildings. On January 4, 1838, he opened a school for Delaware children. (The Statelers were transferred to Shawnee Methodist Mission in 1840.) Ref: E. J. Stanley's Life of Rev. L. B. Stateler (1907), pp. 81, 87, 88, 104; Christian Advocate and Journal, v. 12 (February 16, 1838), p. 102 (for Thomas Johnson's report of December 27, 1837 wherein he notes that the Munsees who arrived in December, 1837, settled about three miles from the Delaware Methodist Mission); portraits of L. B. and Melinda Stateler are in KHC, v. 9, pp. 222, 223.

October 11. The Rev. Lorenzo Waugh (a single man) arrived at Shawnee Methodist Mission, to serve as assistant missionary. He lived with the Rev. Thomas Johnson family. As he later recollected: "At the old Shawnee Mission [in Wyandotte county! Then we had only a small farm, and all the mission buildings were poor and

76 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

inconvenient." (Waugh left the Indian country in 1840. Besides teaching the Shawnees, he had also spent some months at the Kansa Methodist Mission assisting Missionary William Johnson.) Ref: Lorenzo Waugh's Autobiography . . ., 2d edition (San Francisco, 1884), pp. 112, 117, 126, 134; KHC, v. 9, pp. 168, 226.

MARRIED: the Rev. Nathan T. Shaler, and Annie Beauchemie (aged 17?, of Chippewa, Shawnee, French, and English ancestry), daughter of Mackinaw and Betsy (Rogers) Beauchemie, in the autumn, at, or near, Shawnee Methodist Mission (present Wyandotte county). Ref: KHC, v. 16, p. 253 (for the Rev. E. T. Peery's statement concerning this marriage); ibid., v. 9, p. 171n and KHQ, v. 28, p. 350 (for items on Mrs. Betsy Beauchemie, and another daughter). Nathan T. Shaler had arrived at Shawnee Mission in late 1836. KHC, v. 9, p. 170. Annie Beauchemie had been educated at the mission. Ibid., pp. 171n and 211. She died in March, 1843. Ibid., v. 16, p. 253.

MARRIED: Joseph Papin and "Kansas"-born Mary Josephine ("Josette") Gonville (daughter of the Frenchman Louis Gonville and a Kansa woman [who was either a daughter, or niece, of Chief White Plume]), on October 25, at "Chouteau's Church," in present Kansas City, Mo., by the Rev. Felix L. Verreydt, S. J. (See, also, KHg, v.28, p.348.)

Ref: Frederick Chouteau's May 5, 1880, letter (in KHi ms. division); 37th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 58 (Serial 1122), p. 2; G. J. Garraghan's The Jesuits of the Middle United States, v. 1, pp. 95, 260 (where the bride's name is given as Mary "Cave" doubtless because of difficulty in deciphering Verreydt's handwriting in the original Kickapoo Register. As early as 1833 a "J. Papin" was an employee of the American Fur Company; and a company trader whom Missionary William Gray described as "a Frenchman by the name of Joseph Papair" [Joseph Papin?], was credited by Gray as saving him from death at the hands of the Sioux in the summer of 1837. De Voto, op. cit., pp. 331, 332. James Beckwourth, in his reminiscences (op. cit., pp. 394, 395) referred to a "Joseph Pappen," on the Missouri river in 1837.

Late in October Pottawatomie Baptist Mission was established when Robert Simerwell moved his family (wife and four children) from Shawnee Baptist Mission (their home since May, 1834 see KHQ, v. 28, p. 343) to a log cabin 50 miles southwest, near the newly arrived Indians.

The mission station, as constructed in 1839-1840, was on the south side of Pottawatomie creek, in southeastern Franklin county of today. (On good evidence it appears the site was on the S. W. of Sec. 9, T. 19, R. 21 E., about two and a half miles above present Lane, and the ford known as "Dutch Henry's crossing." As described in October, 1840, the recently completed hewn-log mission buildings were: a story-and-a-half dwelling 32'xl8', divided into two apartments above and below, with a stone chimney, shingle roof, and plank floor; a 16'xl6' cookhouse, with a stone chimney; and a 20'xl8' schoolroom, with three 12-light windows and one door. (It is said the Simerwells’ original cabin was a little farther downstream.)

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 77

When Simerwell began visiting the Pottawatomie camps in January, 1838, almost everybody seemed anxious to be taught to read. But in the spring the Indians "commenced drinking," and later the "sickly season" arrived. Many Pottawatomies died; and all the Simerwells were ill. Following the arrival of more Indians in 1838, there was a movement of many Pottawatomies (beginning in March, 1839) to a settlement on Sugar creek (in present Linn county). In October, 1839, the missionary reported that a day school, begun in January for the Pottawatomie creek Indian youths and his own children, had been attended by nine to 14 Pottawatomies. This school was soon suspended. Simerwell subsequently took employment as a government blacksmith, in order that the Baptist Board in Boston might apply his salary for a minister at the mission. But no minister was sent. Jotham Meeker, of Ottawa Baptist Mission (about 14? miles northwest), had pastoral charge, for a time, beginning in May, 1840.

In April, 1844, the Board in Boston "judged it expedient to suspend the station," and "dissolve their connexion with Mr. Simerwell." Four months later Robert and Fanny (Goodridge) Simerwell were appointed missionaries by the American Indian Mission Association (a new Baptist organization, headed by the Rev. Isaac McCoy, with headquarters in Louisville, Ky.). Under the A. I. M. A., Pottawatomie Baptist Mission was continued at the Pottawatomie creek location till 1848; and then was re-established in present Shawnee county after the Indians moved, in 1847 and 1848, to a reservation on the Kansas river. Ref: Jotham Meeker's "Diary," particularly October 27, 1837, and May 4, 1840, entries; Reports of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs for 1837, 1839, 1840; Jotham Meeker letter, January, 1838 (in McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 25); Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. 18 (June, 1838), p. 139, v. 19 (April, 1839), pp. 90, 91, v. 20 (June, 1840), p. 128, v. 23 (June, 1843), p. 140, v. 24 (July, 1844), p. 182; Johnston Lykins' "Journal," for April, 1839; Malin, op. cit., pp. 714-717 (wherein Doctor Malin's thorough research for the history of "Dutch Henry's crossing," and vicinity, provides evidence of the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission location); Bessie E. Moore's "Life and Work of Robert Simerwell" (thesis, May, 1939), pp. 40-56; Spooner & Rowland's History of American Missions, pp. 543, 544.

About November 1 the Rev. Samuel M. and Eliza H. Irvin occupied a recently built log cabin on the Iowa reserve, above the mouth of Wolf creek (in present Doniphan county) and established in "Kansas" the Presbyterian mission for the Iowa Indians which had been founded, in 1835, across the river at the old Iowa Agency in the "Platte Purchase" of Missouri.

(On October 12 Irvin had written: "We have one building put up at the new station and as much hay as will support our cattle through the winter.” The location for the cabin had been determined in mid-August after Isaac McCoy surveyed the dividing line between the lowas and the adjoining Sacs & Foxes of Missouri see p. 67. )

Whereas the mission east of the Missouri had been for the lowas only, the school at the new station (at the invitation of Subagent A. S. Hughes) was to include the Sacs & Foxes. Near the end of December (see p. 80), the Rev. William Hamilton and his wife

78 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

joined the Irvins, at the Iowa, Sac & Fox Presbyterian Mission. (To the missionaries it was the "loway and Sac Mission.")

In 1844 a decision was made to form a "manual-labor boarding-school." A three-story stone and brick building (containing 32 rooms) started in 1845 was completed in 1846. The site of this mission (the surviving portion of this original building is a state museum) is some two miles east of present Highland, within Sec. 24, T. 2, R. 19 E. Ref: Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence (microfilm, KHi), for S. M. Irvin and Aurey Ballard's letter of August 12, 1837, S. M. Irvin's letters of May 16, and October 12, 1837, Eliza H. Irvin's letter of June 2, 1837, and Aurey Ballard's letter of November 20, 1837; Reports of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs, 1842-1861 (especially 1844-1847); KHC, v. 10, pp. 312-321; KHQ, v. 10, p. 348, v. 23, pp. 124, 125; and Spooner & Rowland's History of American Mission*, pp. 724, 725.

In the middle of November, To-pen-e-bee (or, To-pin-a-bee) the principal chief of the Potawatomie nation, and 164 of his people, arrived in "Kansas'* to settle on the "Osage" river reserve. They were from St. Joseph river in Michigan.

Under the superintendence of Lewis H. Sands, and conducted by Capt. Robert H. McCabe, nearly 500 Pottawatomies from Michigan and Illinois had started overland in September crossing the Mississippi at Quincy, 111., beginning September 24. The larger number (287) of these emigrants went to the Council Bluffs (Iowa) reserve; but through the efforts of Luther Rice (part Pottawatomie, whose family was in the party), Moses H. Scott (assistant emigrant agent), and Isaac McCoy, Chief To-pen-e-bee and his followers diverged from the route to Council Bluffs at a point about 40 miles above Westport, Mo., and came down to the Marais des Cygnes, and the settlement on Pottawatomie creek ( see p. 72 ).

With this accession, the total Pottawatomie population in the Osage River Subagency at the end of the year was between 850 and 900. Ref: Grant Foreman's The Last Trek of the Indians, pp. 107, 108; Indiana Historical Collections, v. 26, pp. 433, 438, 439, 457-462; 25th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 395 (Serial 318), p. 2; McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 26 (A. L. Davis' letter of January 22, 1839).

During mid-November Bishop Jackson Kemper, the Protestant Episcopal Church's "missionary bishop of the Northwest” 7 made an overland tour of Missouri river towns, as far as Westport, and also journeyed to Fort Leavenworth to discuss with Col. S. W. Kearny the need for a chaplain there. (He was accompanied from Fayette, Mo., by the Rev. Mr. Peake. )

As a result of this brief visit the first by Episcopalian clergymen to the post a minister of Bishop Kemper's church was appointed, in 1838, as Fort Leavenworth's first chaplain. (See December 17, 1838, annals.) Ref: KHC, v. 16, p. 355; Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Richmond, Va., v. 4 (September, 1935), pp. 198, 199; John Wilson's letter of November 13, 1837, in McCoy "Manuscripts," v. 25.

November 19. The steamboat Boonville, en route to Fort Leavenworth (and laden principally with stores for that post) hit a

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 79

snag a few miles above Independence, Mo., and went down a total loss. Ref: Missouri Republican, St. Louis, November 28, 1837, as reprinted in Nebraska State Historical Society Publications, v. 20, p. 69; the Rev. William Hamilton's November 20, 1837, letter (in Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence microfilm KHi).

December. Accompanied by the Rev. Jesse Vogler, Moravian (United Brethren) missionary, John Kilbuck's party of Munsee (or, Christian) Indians 72 persons in all arrived at the "mouth of Kansas river" early (?) in the month, aboard the St. Peters. By the end of December, these Indians, and their missionary, were established on the reserve of the Delawares (kindred of the Munsees) at a site some eight miles above the Kaw's mouth, and north of the river. Their settlement or the Munsee Moravian Mission in its midst was called "Westfield." (The location: at, and near present Muncie, Wyandotte co., in Sections 14, 15, and 16(?) of T. 11, R.24E.)

More Munsees arrived, in 1839, with some Stockbridge Indians. The Rev. J. Christopher Micksch (and wife) succeeded Vogler at the Moravian mission; and after Micksch's death, in 1845, other missionaries came. Although "Westfield" was within that part of the Delawares' reservation which they granted to the Wyandot Indians late in 1843, the Munsees continued to live there till about the end of 1853. (The Wyandots finally requested them to move.) By the Delaware treaty of May 6, 1854, the Munsees were granted four sections of land located about three miles below present Leavenworth land now occupied by the Wadsworth veterans' facility, and Mount Muncie cemetery. They lived at "Shekomeko" (as the new settlement, or the Moravian mission, was called) for only four years (1854-1858); then sold the reserve; confederated with the Swan creek Chippewas who came to "Kansas" in October, 1839; and moved, as did their missionaries, to present Franklin county. The Munsee Moravian Mission, which began in (or, was transferred from Canada to ) "Kansas" in 1837, continued in operation till 1905. Ref: OIA, Letters received from SIA, St. Louis (Microcopy 234, Roll 751 National Archives), William Clark's abstract of requisitions for 1837 (item for December 4 $432 for transportation of John Kilbuck's party of "72 Delawares from Canada" on the St. Peters); Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. 18 (June, 1838), p. 139; E. J. Stanley's Life of Rev. L. B. Stateler (1907), p. 87; KHC, v. 11, pp. 314, 317-323; Henry R. Schoolcraft's Personal Memoirs . . . (Philadelphia, 1851), pp. 564, 565; Reports, of the Comm'r of Indian Affairs, especially 1840, 1844, 1845; KHC, v. 8, pp. 85, 86; KHQ, v. 21, pp. 454, 459, 485 (for "Shekomeko"). A Munsee(?) burial place is shown on the land plats of the 1850's in Sec. 16, T. 11 S., R. 24 E. The History of Jackson County Missouri . . . (Kansas City, Mo., 1881), p. 684, states: "At this time [1855] Isaiah Walker [Wyandot Indian] . . . lived in the old Moravian Mission House ... at Muncie town."

MARRIED: John Calvin McCoy and Virginia Chick (daughter of William M. and Ann Eliza Chick), on December (?), at Westport, Mo., by the Rev. Isaac McCoy (father of the groom).

80 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

(The William M. Chick family had moved to Westport from Howard county, Mo., in 1836 [see p. 42]. Earlier, in 1834, Mary Jane Chick [older sister of Virginia] had married the Rev. William Johnson, missionary to the Shawnees and the Kansa.) Ref: The Annals of Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo., v. 1 (October, 1924), p. 467; KHC, v. 9, p. 178n. No exact date of this marriage has been located. Apparently it was not recorded at the Jackson county, Mo., courthouse though other McCoy marriages are to be found at Independence, Mo.

On December 28 the Rev. William Hamilton, afoot, and his wife Julia Ann N. (McGiffin) Hamilton, on a mule, crossed the Missouri on the ice from Joseph Robidoux's trading post (now St. Joseph, Mo.) and proceeded cross-country (through present Doniphan county) towards the new home of the Iowa, Sac & Fox Presbyterian Mission 25 miles to the northwest, above Wolf creek.

With them, on a pony, were two small girls (one? an Indian) from "Mr. [Aurey] Ballard's family." (The Ballards still occupied the former Iowa mission station [founded 1835] at the old Iowa Agency east of the Missouri, some nine miles below the Robidoux post.)

Late in the afternoon of December 29, after a night out on the prairie, and some hardships, these travelers reached their destination the mission cabin occupied (since November see p. 77) by the Rev. Samuel M. and Eliza H. Irvin.

The Hamiltons remained in "Kansas" as missionaries to the Iowa and Sac & Fox Indians till 1853. Of five daughters born to them during the 16-year interval, four were living when the family removed to "Nebraska." Ref: Presbyterian Historical Society, American Indian Missions correspondence (microfilm, KHi), for Hamilton's November 20, 1837, and September 29, 1852, letters; Nebraska State Historical Society Transactions, v. 1, pp. 60-73.

John Treat Irving, Jr. The Hunters of the Prairie, or the Hawk Chief. A Tale of the Indian Country, was published at London in 1837. The locale of the novel was 'Wolf Hill" [Fort Leavenworth], and the frontier to the west and north (the country of the Kansa, Pawnees, Otoes, Sioux, and Omahas) a region which the author had visited in 1833 (see KHQ, v. 28, pp. 332, 333, 337, 338, 340).

In the introduction to this work of fiction, young Irving wrote: "The tract of country ... is a wild and luxuriant region of prairies, glowing with gorgeous flowers and rich herbage, and here and there intersected by small rivers of crystal waters, bordered by groves of lofty trees. It is, in truth, a fairy-land, and fitted for wild adventure." The plot, concerning hunters, Indians, and mounted rangers, was an implausible adventure tale. Ref: J. T. Irving, Jr.'s The Hunters of the Prairie . . . (London, R. Bentley, 1837).

Employed in "Kansas" by the Indian Department during all, or part of the year 1837 were the following persons:

KANSAS BEFORE 1854: A REVISED ANNALS 81

FORT LEAVENWORTH AGENCY Agent Richard W. Cummins; Interpreters Henry Tiblow (appointed May 14, 1837), and Clement Lessert (appointed July 15, 1837); Gun and blacksmiths David Shahan (for Shawnees), William Donalson (for Shawnees), John P. Smith (for Kickapoos), Nelson A. Warren (for Kansa), and William F. Newton (for Delawares); Assistant gun and blacksmiths Paschal Fish (for Delawares), John Bluejacket (for Shawnees), William V. Smith (for Kickapoos), Silas Dougherty (for Kickapoos?), John M. Owen (for Kansa), William Pechalker (for Kansa), and Charles Fish (for Kansa); Farmer Cephas Case (for Kansa?); Teachers the Rev. J. C. Berryman, John D. Swallow, and David Kinnear (all for the Kickapoos), Henry Rennick (for Delawares) ; Millers James and John Allen ( for Delawares and Shawnees).

GREAT NEMAHAW SUBAGENCY Subagent Andrew S. Hughes; Interpreters Jeffrey Dorney (for lowas), and Nimrod Henderson (for Sacs & Foxes); Gun and blacksmiths James Duncan (for lowas), James Gilmore (for Sacs & Foxes); Assistant gun and blacksmiths Joseph H. Ficklin (for lowas), Madison Gilmore (for Sacs & Foxes); Farmers William Duncan (for lowas), and Leonard Searcy (for Sacs & Foxes).

OSAGE [MARAIS DBS CYGNES] RIVER SUBAGENCY Subagent Anthony L. Davis (appointed April 28); Interpreters Francis Le Vallier, and John T. Jones (paid for December only); Gun and blacksmiths William Carlisle, and Perry G. Graf ton (assistant).

OSAGE SUBAGENCY Subagent Paul Ligueste Chouteau; Interpreter Baptiste Mongrain; Blacksmiths Etienne Brant and Louison Brequier (assistant). Ref: 25th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 135 (Serial 326); 25th Cong., 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 862 (Serial 330), pp. 84, 86, 87; 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Doc. No. 174 (Serial 347), pp. 58-60.

LOUISE BARRY is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society.

(Part Ten Will Appear in the Summer, 1963, issue.)

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