|
The names of
Independence and Jackson
County are torchlights on
the towers of history. Both
the county and the county
seat were named for Andrew
Jackson. The county was
given his name by a band of
dashing heroes and hero
worshippers. The county
seat was named Independence
for Jackson's chief quality,
independence of character.
These monumental names were
conferred in honor of the
victor at New Orleans before
he became President of the
United States, and hence
were complimentary to
General Jackson, not
President Jackson.
Immediately after the names
were conferred on Jackson
County and Independence,
Andrew Jackson was elected
chief magistrate of this
nation. The new county and
the new county seat rejoiced
in being ahead of the world
in their identification by
name with the new President.
The ground chosen for the
county seat was covered with
timber. The woodman came
with his axe and cut away
the forest on the site of
the county seat and logs on
the ground were assembled
for the first county
building. The log house was
the pioneer's mode of
architecture. All dwellings
were constructed of logs,
all school-houses and
churches and the first
college buildings. The
pioneer's lowly log house
was the forerunner of our
mansions of today, of
churches and cathedrals, of
marble depots and business
blocks, of our magnificent
federal, state, county and
municipal structures. Let
us reverence the log
buildings of our forebears.
Jackson County's log court
house is yet standing and
may be seen on the city hall
campus, a treasured
reminiscence of an honored
by-gone generation.
Around this primitive county
court house clustered
presently other log houses,
stores, dwellings, hotels,
blacksmith shops, set in
among the trees or in little
clearings. The men were of
the Jacksonian type, hardy,
brave, undaunted. With the
ax in one hand and a rifle
in the other, they were at
once prepared to hew or slay
-- they did a great deal of
both, slaying wild Indians
and wild animals.
This little log
house settlement in the
heart of the wilderness was
the newest thing on the map,
a rising metropolis on the
outer verge of civilization,
on the peak of a cape
projecting into the west.
Already the world seemed to
know that a great city was
destined to rise in the West
and the wisest prophets
said, "There it is,
Independence," and it became
the best advertised town
west of St. Louis.
Independence advertised the
west as a desirable
habitation and as a business
region of great promise.
Towns that spring up around
gold mines have seldom
attracted more publicity
than Independence attracted
with her commercial assets
and flaming prospects.
Intense business activity
and the bustle of explorers
and travelers and the voice
of movers rang through the
primeval woods. Roads were
opened and trails or traces
were established. From here
set out wagon trains, scouts
on horseback, armies and
cavalcades; and home
seekers; people were coming
and going and there were fur
traders and trappers and
hunters and Indians, and
Indian fighters. From here
commonwealth builders set
forth to the west, the
northwest, the south and the
southwest; Missouri, with
Independence in the
vanguard, was the founder
and mother of Texas and of
Oregon and of New Mexico and
of Kansas and California --
and all other states to the
west or south, except
Arkansas. Missouri is not
responsible for Arkansas.
Tradition vouches for only
one Missourian who ever went
to Arkansas and he taught
the natives the correct
use of the fiddle and the
bow. He is immortalized as
the "Arkansas Traveler."
But if Arkansas is listening
tonight on this address, I
will say that no other state
ever built up such and
admirable commonwealth with
such slight help from
Missouri as the world
witnesses in Arkansas.
Independence was a place of
national import from its
founding and the historian
must crowd out the minor
events to make place for the
larger epochs. Scarcely five
years from the date of the
founding of this city, the
second steamboat to come up
the Missouri River passed
the Independence water
front, the Yellowstone, in
the Spring of 1832.
Heretofore the chief
navigators of the Missouri
River had been the catfish,
the teal duck and the sand
hill crane, disturbed
occasionally by a keel boat
or a canoe. The Western
Engineer was the very first
steamboat to pass the future
site of Independence, 1819,
a brave little craft with a
smokestack about the size of
a stove pipe belching out
volumes of wood smoke and no
whistle. The steam whistle
was invented in England
about this time.
Almost simultaneously with
the coming of the trade on
the river began the trade
across the plains. This
trade grew from year to year
and Independence waxed
wealthy and her fame as a
trade center reached the
mountains, and to the
eastern seaboard.
Within five years after the
founding of Independence,
the government began the
removal of the Indian tribes
east of the Mississippi
River to what is now Kansas,
then the Great American
Desert. These tribes were
located along the western
boundary line of Jackson
County, which was the
western boundary line of the
State of Missouri. These
tribes received annuities
from the government and the
astute business men of
Independence did not fail to
profit by trade and traffic
with the Indians.
Independence grew rich on
Indian annuities and Indian
trade. Indians who
heretofore sold their
peltries at Fort Osage
henceforth sold the same at
Independence.
Beyond the reservations of
these civilized tribes along
Missouri's border were the
wild tribes, the Apaches,
the Comanches, the Pawnees
and other equally
bloodthirsty nations. To
hold these back the
government established forts
along the river and in the
mountains and on the plains.
The troops for these forts
were recruited in Missouri,
largely from Jackson County
and Independence. The
farmers who settled near
Independence found a ready
market to the west for mules
and horses and cattle and
grain and bacon and a demand
for men, and leaders of men.
In those days Independence
prospered on Indian
Annuities, on trade to the
mountains and to Santa Fe
and she grew rich on
steamboat traffic.
Independence, unlike all
other new towns, never
suffered for the lack of
money; she always had it.
She earned it from the
government, from the
Indians, from the Mexicans
and from the forests and
fields around her. But the
great bulk of her business
came in over the plains from
Santa Fe and Chihuahua, a
foreign trade which came
here to connect with the
river traffic.
How did it happen that
Independence permitted the
little upstart ten miles off
westward to run ahead in
municipal development?
|
