Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society
Portals
to the Past by David W. Jackson
Little
Blue Valley holds vistas and history
Summer
is a great time to tour nearby museums and historic sites. As you enjoy your
history community’s offerings, remember that “historic preservation” includes
more than saving old buildings and operating museums. Protecting landscapes
and cultural heritage sites is equally imperative, especially with the swift
encroachment of relentless urban sprawl. Shouldn’t we reserve the few natural
spaces that remain so future generations might enjoy
the pristine splendor of an old-fashioned Sunday drive in the countryside? Consider
the scenic and historic Little Blue River Valley along South Noland and Lee’s
Summit Roads between 40 and 350 Highways, and arterial roads. This picturesque valley may be one of the
last remaining, virtually untouched rural vistas in Jackson County. The
Valley boasts historic sites and homes; farms; family-owned businesses;
sacred burial grounds; pioneer churches; and, Civil War battlefields. Then
there’s the stunning views afforded on drives through these wooded hillsides
that make this a gem needing to be treasured.
Former Native-American paths
along the Valley predate the earliest European emigrant enclave settling
Little Blue, Missouri. One of the first was William Moore, one of a dozen
American Revolutionary War patriots who made it as far west as Jackson
County. Moore’s log cabin beside Ess Road is near
his gravesite located east of the Kemper family’s ‘Walnut Hil’
home that overlooks Little Blue (a stately home built by Kansas City
lumberman Hans Dierks, and later a country retreat
of a Kansas City notable named Pendergast).
Infamous Cole Younger’s father, Col. Henry Washington Younger, owned a
huge plantation in this area until the Civil War when Kansas marauders killed
him, and forced Cole’s mother to burn the family home in the dead of winter.
Younger’s cousin, Armenia (Crawford) Selvey, was
one of several Confederate-sympathizing women who died when their Kansas City
prison collapsed, triggering William Quantrill and his raiders to burn
Lawrence, Ks. Armenia and two other girls from the prison were buried in the
Davis-Smith Cemetery (intermarrying pioneer families that owned adjoining
land). Also laid to rest there are Union and Confederate veterans, and a
second Revolutionary War patriot, Lewis Starr. Preservationists desire today
to mark this historic quarter-acre parcel. Civil War
engagements ravaged this section of the Little Blue Valley, including a
skirmish along White Oak Creek to the south, and another on Grinter’s farm, at the northwest corner of Lee’s Summit
Road and Little Blue Road. This tract is just north of present-day Truman
Medical Center-Lakewood; the hospital’s chronology dates to 1852 when Jackson
County established a 300-acre Poor Farm on this site.
After the Civil War, a multitude of livestock and dairy farms
established and thrived on the fertile grasses of the Valley, and lifted the
area to world-renowned status in the first part of the 20th
Century. W.B. Frey’s Lakeside Dairy Farm surrounding the town of Little Blue,
Missouri was once the world’s largest Hereford farm. Jersey cows on W. L.
Yost’s Cedar Croft Farm (along the west side of present-day Lee’s Summit Road
at Little Blue Road) produced 150 gallons of milk per day. Cedar Croft’s
residence is being restored, but the surrounding property is in jeopardy of
being compromised by subdivision. Four Gates Farm along
Rickey Road was designed by noted Kansas City architect Mary Rockwell
Hook. And, Unity Farm sustained people in need through the Great Depression.
Before going to Washington, Harry S Truman in 1934 promoted reserving
large tracts of Jackson County land for future parks and recreational
facilities in a report titled, Results
of County Planning. A current ‘master plan’ for this section of the
Little Blue Valley is in place, but its recommended
low-density/large-lot residential areas with open spaces are gradually
eroding with each amendment to smaller, denser development.
Will tomorrow’s citizens have physical evidence of this historic
district’s attractions? Before the uniqueness of this area is obliterated
forever, this rural landscape is what the people who live on or own land today in the Little Blue Valley must ally to
preserve. Hopefully preservationists, community development leaders,
contractors, and developers will collaborate with the mindfulness and
foresight championed by Harry S Truman when he launched Results of County Planning nearly 75 years ago. David W. Jackson is archivist for the
nonprofit, membership supported Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society's
Archives and Research Library at 112 W Lexington Ave, Suite 103,
Independence, MO 64050. The Society collects and makes available local
history documents and photographs. For more information, or to donate
historical materials, visit www.jchs.org, call (816) 252-7454, or e-mail
info@jchs.org. |
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