Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society

Portals to the Past by David W. Jackson

County’s early years were tumultuous

We have divided A River Runs By It: The Story of Jackson County, Missouri, into four installments, this being the second, to drive home the point that each of us is a part of history. Bountiful events in history take place in the course of one person’s lifetime. For example, look at the events experienced by Jackson Countians who lived here between 1826 and 1876:

Just over 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Missouri General Assembly organized Jackson County on December 15, 1826. Is it coincidence that our County Seat was thus named Independence? It’s one theory.

Through the winter of 1827, Independence was nothing more than a fallen tree near a popular spring. But in a few years, entrepreneurs would become the premier outfitters for those funneling here before embarking on western trails. The glory days of Independence as the Queen City of the Trails continued until 1844, when a flood swept away its Missouri River landing.

The stage was set for the town of Westport to become the last stop for westward emigrants leaving the boundaries of the United States at Missouri’s state line. Westport, plated in 1835 by John Calvin McCoy, had its own landing on the Missouri River, connected to the town by a road later named Broadway. McCoy joined a group of other investors in 1838 to pay $4220 for Gabriel Prudhomme’s farm, and platted the Town of Kansas (an archaeological site near the foot of Main St. may one day uncover the foundations of Kansas City’s origin.).

In 1850, the Town of Kansas covered 352 acres and had a population of 150. By 1857, the City Council began leasing space on the Market Square (today the River Market), which has been used continuously as a public market ever since.

In 1859, construction was completed on a new, inescapable Jackson County Jail and adjoining Marshal’s Home in Independence (operated as a museum by the Jackson County Historical Society since 1959). About the same time, hostilities between free state and pro-slavery forces were reaching a boiling point. In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened Kansas Territory to settlement. The act provided for popular sovereignty to determine the issue of slavery, setting the stage for bloody border conflicts between pro-slavery Missourians and anti-slavery settlers moving into Kansas Territory...seven years before the Civil War began in 1861.

In 1862, the Battles of Independence and Lone Jack both ended in Confederate victories and short-lived domination in Jackson County. Missouri remained a union state throughout the war, however, and was occupied by the Union Army.

The next year, Brigadier General Ewing signed General Orders No. 11, requiring all persons living along the state line between the Missouri and the Osage Rivers to leave their homes. The enforcement of the Order resulted in terrible hardships for the people of Jackson County. In 1864, the Union and Confederate Armies met again on three battlefields over three days: Little Blue, Big Blue and Westport. The Union Army won the battle, but 3000 soldiers lost their lives. By 1865, the Civil War came to an end. Jackson Countians, and the rest of the country, started the terrible task of rebuilding their lives and the Union.

People’s quench for history is strong, unbelievably. In this season of giving, support local nonprofit history and heritage sites so they may continue to preserve and make items from the past available to the future.

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