Rev. Isaac McCoy

Rev. Isaac McCoy (1784-1846) = Baptist Missionary. Surveyor. US Commissioner Indian Agent. Ferry operator. Born in Pennsylvania and reared in the frontier settlements of Indiana and Kentucky.

Isaac brought his family of six west in 1830. His son, John Calvin, born in Indiana in 1811, his daughter, Delilah, and his son-in-law, Dr. Johnston Lykins. When the Rev. McCoy arrived, he knelt, offered prayer and dedicated the land.

Isaac built a log cabin high on a hill (northeast corner of Main and Linwood Blvd.) overlooking what was to become Westport.

In August of 1830, Isaac McCoy addressed a council of Shawnees on the subject of establishing a Baptist mission. He wrote in his diary: "The Methodists have been talking of forming an establishment among them. Today more than twenty Shawanoes assembled in obedience to a call of Major John Campbell, [sub-agent] to whom I made a pretty lengthy address on the subject of a mission being established among them. The celebrated Shawnaoe prophet, who was so often heard of in the last war, and brother to Tecumseh, replied briefly to me. An answer will be deferred, until I return from my tour in the wilderness."

Isaac McCoy surveyed the Indian reservation land in Kansas. Mrs. Eliza McCoy, a niece, worked at the Wea Baptist Mission near Paola in 1848.  

On July 13, 1835, Isaac purchased a female slave named Chiney for $15 to prevent her from being torn from her husband and family. He was against slavery, but promised to provide her freedom when Chiney had paid him back.. He left Chiney to his wife in his will and Jotham Meeker, another Baptist missionary, witnessed it.

A marker was placed at McCoy’s  home, near what became St. Luke’s Hospital on Wornall Road, in 1961 by the Jackson County Historical Society.

 More to Read:

McCoy Papers, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, KS KSHS.org
The Annual Register of Indian Affairs within the Western (or Indian) Territory. By Isaac McCoy, 1837-1838. KSHS.org
The Memoir of Mrs. Eliza McCoy. Calvin McCormick, Dallas, Texas, 1892.
Jackson County Pioneers. By Pearl Wilcox. 1975
A Historic Outline of Grinter Place from 1825 to 1878. Compiled by Harry E. Hanson. c. 1970.
“The Trail of Death” by Marilyn Mullins, Osawatomie and Its People. Osawatomie Historic Society, 1995
Annals of Shawnee Methodist Mission. Compiled by Martha B. Caldwell. Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, KS. 1977.
John Brown and the Legend of Fifty-Six. By James Claude Malin. 1942.
The History of the Jackson County Historical Society: 1909 to 1996. By Wilda Sandy. 1996.
Here Lies Kansas City: A Collection of Our City’s Notables and Their Final Resting Places. Wilda Sandy. 1984.
 “New Red Bridge Spans River, Tracks, & History” by Seann McAnally. Jackson County Advocate. Nov. 23, 2011, page 1.

Places to see in Mo & KS.

Westport Landing, Missouri River & Grand Ave, Kansas City
Residence Marker, near St. Luke’s Hospital on Wornall. Kansas City, MO. Jackson County Historical Society. 1961.
John Calvin McCoy’s former home, 711 Olive Street, Kansas City, MO.
John built a two story log cabin in 1833 at 444 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO.
Mary Ann Isaacs Dagenette Peoria's home, 708 E. Kaskaskia St., Paola (Private home).
Wea Baptist Mission History, Miami County Historical Museum, Paola, KS.
Red Bridge, spans Red Bridge Road between Blue River Parkway and Holmes Road, Kansas City, MO
Union Cemetery, 227 East 28^th Terr., Kansas City, MO.

Rev. Nathan Scarritt

Rev. Nathan Scarritt (1821-1890) = Methodist Preacher and Teacher. Missionary. Nathan was born in Edwardsville, Illinois on April 14 and was educated at McKendree College, in Lebanon, Illinois.

He arrived in the Kansas City area in September of 1848 to teach the classics at Rev. Thomas Johnson’s Shawnee Methodist Indian Manual Labor School. He also taught at early grammar schools in Westport, at a seminary for young women and at a Bible training school for missionaries.

Rev. Scarritt preached at the Delaware Indian Methodist Mission White Church organized by Rev. Thomas Johnson for a time. In 1852, the Independence Methodist circuit was dropped and a new Kansas and Westport circuit filled, with Rev. Scarritt appointed as preacher. He attended the St. Louis Methodist Conference at Springfield, MO. on Wednesday, October 24, 1855. Nathan was presiding elder over the Lecompton district in the fourth session of the Kansas Methodist Mission Conference held in Tecumseh on September 23, 1859.  In 1858-59, he was appointed to the Shawnee Reserve, and for the next two years he was the presiding elder of the Lecompton district. Later he preached at the Washington Street Methodist Episcopal Church, a preaching point begun by a Methodist layman, W.B. Barber in 1877.

Nathan married Martha Matilda Chick, daughter of Col. William Miles (1794-1847) and Ann Eliza Smith Chick (1796-1876) and produced nine children. Originally, Nathan and Martha lived in Westport, in a tidy two-story frame house, but moved to a farm in 1862, close to today’s Cliff Drive and Gladstone Blvd in Kansas City. Still standing is his eldest son’s 1898 Scarritt-Royster home.  In October of 1874, he married Mrs. Ruth E. Scarritt, the widow of his brother Isaac.

Nathan died on May 22 and is buried in the Mt. Washington Cemetery in Independence, MO. 

More to Read:

Kansas City Then & Now 3. By Monroe Dodd, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.
Here Lies Kansas City: A Collection of Our City’s Notables and Their Final Resting Places. Wilda Sandy. 1984.
He Came To Pray: History of White Church Christian Church: 1832-1996.
Lecompton Methodist Church" By Iona Spencer. Bald Eagle. Lecompton Historical Society, Lecompton, KS. Summer, 1998.
Methodist Episcopal Church, South History. By Rev. Joab Spencer.
Postcards from Old Kansas City. By Mrs. Sam Ray. 1980.

 

Places to Visit in KS. & MO.
Shawnee Indian Mission Historic Site & Museum, 3403 W. 53^rd, Fairway, KS www.kshs.org/places/shawnee/
White Christian Church/Delaware Indian Mission (see stained glass window), 2200 N. 85th St., Kansas City, Wyandotte County, KS.
Lecompton & Tecumseh, KS.
Former home stood at 4038 Central street, Kansas City, MO.
Kessler Park, Scarritt Spring, Cliff Drive, Kansas City, MO.
Scarritt Building, 9^th & Walnut, Kansas City, MO. (completed in 1907)
Scarritt-Royster home, 3500 Gladstone Blvd, Kansas City, MO.
Mt. Washington Cemetery, 614 Brookside Drive, Independence, MO.

Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace Truman

Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace Truman (1885-1982) = Former First Lady. Favorite colors: Plum, Blue. Born in Independence, MO on February 13 to David Willock, a banker, and Margaret "Madge" Gates Wallace . She was the eldest and only daughter of four children. With blue-eyes and golden curls, Bess, in her future husband Harry S. Truman's estimation, was the "sweetest, prettiest girl" he had ever seen when he saw her for the first time in Sunday School at the age of six. She was very popular and she graduated from the Independence High School in 1901. She also attended the Barstow School for Girls in Kansas City, for a year.

When Harry moved to Grandview, MO. to help his father with the farm and while he was away at war, they wrote letters regularly.

They were married on June 28, 1919, at an Episcopal Church and lived in her widowed mother's home. In 1924, Mary Margaret, their first and only child, was born there.

When Harry became active in politics, first in Kansas City, then in Washington D.C., she traveled with him and fulfilled the social obligations of her position as a Judge's wife, a US Senator's wife, and First Lady after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During Harry's second term, they were denied the pleasure of living in the White House until early 1952, while the century-old Executive Mansion underwent a major renovation. During this time, they lived in Blair House instead. In  late 1952, she welcomed Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower as the new First Lady to the White House. She was looking forward to going home to Independence. Her chief enjoyments there were reading books from her library and devoting time to friends and family such as her daughter, Margaret, and husband, Clifton Daniel, and their four grandsons.

More to Read:

Our First Ladies: Martha Washington to Pat Ryan Nixon. By Jane & Burt McConnell. 1969.
The First Ladies. By Margaret Brown Klapthor. White House Historical Association, Washington, D.C., 1979.
American Inaugurals: The Speeches, the Presidents, and Their Times. By Kristen Woronoff. Blackbirch Press, New York, 2002.
The Presidents In American History. By Dr. Charles A. & Wm. Beard, PhD. Julian Messner, New York, 1935; re-printed 1977.
Presidents of the United States. Jane & Burt McConnell.
Childhoods of the American Presidents. By William O. Foss. McFarland & Co, 2005.
Homes and Libraries of the Presidents. By William G. Clotworthy. McDonald & Woodward, 2008.

Places to Visit:

National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame (Harry's plow), 630 Hall of Fame Drive, Bonner Springs, KS. www.aghalloffame.com
Bess Truman Clinic, East Truman Hospital, Lee's Summit, MO.
Truman Home, 219 North Delaware, Independence, MO.
Truman Library, 500 West US Highway 24, Independence, MO.www.trumanlibrary.org
Bess and Harry are buried on the site of the Truman Library.

Dwight "Ike" David Eisenhower

Dwight "Ike" David Eisenhower (1890--1969) = West Point Graduate. University President. Army General. 34th US President. Born in Denison, TX on October 14 to David Jacob and Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower. He was their third son of seven. When Ike was nearly two years old, they moved to Abilene, KS. with a colony of River Brethren or the Church of the Brethren in Christ, a Mennonite sect from Pennyslvania and he grew up there. 

Ike and his "best girl,"  Mamie Geneva Doud (1896- 1979), were married on July 1, 1916 in Denver, Colorado, where Mamie grew up. Their first home consisted of two rooms at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The Army moved them frequently.  While stationed at Camp Meade, Maryland, sadly, their first son, Doud Dwight "Icky", then 3 yrs old, died of scarlet fever. Their second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, was born in Denver on August 3, 1922. John married Barbara Jean Thompson in 1947 and their four children , Dwight David, Barbara Anne, Susan Elaine, and Mary Jean, often visited the White House with their parents after Ike was elected to the US Presidency in 1952. Ike and Mamie moved into a rebuilt and renovated Executive Mansion after the Trumans left Washington, D.C.

During his eight years in office, he traveled more than three hundred thousand miles around the world on diplomatic missions to promote peace and justice. Ike had little time for relaxing, but occasionally he enjoyed porch-sitting on the upstairs balcony at the White House and on the back porch at their Gettysburg, PA farmhouse. Ike and the 86^th Congress chartered the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs, KS. to honor the American farmer.

When he died on March 28 in Washington, DC., he was buried in Abilene, Kansas.

More to Read:

American Inaugurals: The Speeches, the Presidents, and Their Times. By Kristen Woronoff. Blackbirch Press, New York, 2002.
Presidents of the United States. Jane & Burt McConnell.
The Presidents In American History. By Dr. Charles A. & Wm. Beard, PhD. Julian Messner, New York, 1935; re-printed 1977.
Soldier of Democracy. By Kenneth S. Davis.
Eisenhower: The Inside Story by Robert J. Donovan. 
Our First Ladies: Martha Washington to Pat Ryan Nixon. Jane & Burt McConnell. Thomas Y. Crowell Co, New York, 1969.
The First Ladies. By Margaret Brown Klapthor. White House Historical Association, Washington, D.C., 1979.
The Interpretive Site Coalition (ISC) Kansas City’s Passport to Adventure.
Childhoods of the American Presidents. By William O. Foss. McFarland & Co, 2005.
Homes and Libraries of the Presidents. By William G. Clotworthy. McDonald & Woodward, 2008.

Places to Visit in Kansas:

Territorial Capitol-Lane University Musuem [f. 1865, Ike's parents married here], Lecompton, KS.
NationalAgricultural Center and Hall of Fame, 630 Hall of Fame Drive, Bonner Springs, KS.
Eisenhower Library, 200 Southeast Fourth St. Abilene, KS.

Daniel Lewis LaRue

 Daniel Lewis LaRue (1867-1934) = Farmer. Stonemason. Born to Amos Tiffin Davis "AT" (1830-1900) and Sarah Ann STROUD LARUE (1831-1891), Sr. in Madison County, Indiana on August 22. He was their 7th child of eight and he moved to Burr Oak, Rooks Co., Kansas when he was seven with his parents. His siblings names were: Amos, Jr., Elizabeth, Mary, John William, Jacob, Joseph, and Sarah.

Daniel married twice and had a total of thirteen children. In 1890, he married Amanda Jane MOON (1870-1891), daughter of Jonathan D. (1846-1916) and Harriett WALL MOON. Amanda died the following year giving birth to Earnest Preston (1891-1972). Daniel, then 22, was unable to care for his newborn son and left the little tyke in his sister, Sarah's (1870-1952) care until he was nine. Four years later, Sarah married Amanda's brother, Linton Henry MOON (1871-1950), producing seven children of her own.

Meanwhile, Daniel met Deliah "Della" E. (1879-1943) in Hebron, Nebraska. She was there caring for her sister, Belle, who had married one of Dan's cousins, Marion LaRue and contracted tuberculosis. Dan & Della tied the knot on August 27, 1898 in Stockton, KS. Della was the daughter of James A. (1828-1903) & Hester Ann MORRIS BAILEY (1844-1925) of Stanberry, MO. Since Dan was a stonemason, they moved where there was work. Their first five children were born in a different towns every two years. Eventually, when number six came along, they had reached Hill City, KS where they lived a number of years. In 1920, they moved to Topeka, KS where Ernie was residing at the time.

Following a broken neck caused by a drunk driver in a head-on collision, Daniel died in Bell Memorial Hospital, Kansas City. Both he and Della rest in peace together in the Waverly, Kansas cemetery.

More to Read:
Ash Rock Church
Captain Osborn's Legacy. By Patsy Redden. (Biography of first pastor of Ash Rock Church, Rev. R. S. Osborn).
Ash Rock and the Stone Church. by Leo E. Oliva
Woodston: The Story of a Kansas Country Town. by Leo. E. Oliva.

 

Click to Enlarge.

My great-grandfather helped construct this stone churchhouse,

Ash Rock Church (org. 1878; stone bldg. built 1883), near Woodston, Rooks County,Ash Rock Twp., KS. 

 

Jim Bridger

James "Jim" Felix Bridger (1804-1881) = Explorer, Guide, Mountain Man. Scout. Storekeeper. Storyteller. Trapper. Best known to have discovered the Great Salt Lake in 1824, Yellowstone in 1840 and founded Fort Bridger on the Oregon Trail in 1843.

Born on March 17 in Richmond, Virginia, he grew up to not only speak English, but French and Spanish as well as six Native American languages. He was reported to have been made chief of five tribes as well. He traded with the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanche, Kiowas, and the Sioux Indians, bringing the furs in to Chouteau's trading post. 

When the fur market in Europe crashed and ended his trapping career, Bridger switched to storekeeping, buying a general merchandise store which his son-in-law operated in Westport (present-day Kansas City, MO). In 1855 he bought a farm near the old Dallas community south of Kansas City on State Line running from 103^rd to 107^th St and east to Wornall Road where on the crest of the hill south of Indian Creek he built a stone farmhouse. It is said that he and George W. Kemper also built a store in Little Santa Fe (f. 1852) which is on the old Santa Fe Trail 2o miles from Independence, however it  burned in 1856 during the border warfare.

Jim acquired a pair of elk horns as a prize once for the fastest steamboat on the Missouri River to mount to their prow. They were first presented to the Polar Star, then the James H. Lucas. Lucas beat the Star's record from St. Louis to St. Joseph by three hours and 16 minutes.

Bridger died, blind at 77, on July 17 and was buried about 200 yards northwest of 101^st and Jefferson streets where he lay until he was removed to Mt. Washington Cemetery in 1904.

Historical Note #1: One of biggest things that led to the downfall of the fur business was the discovery of the detrimental effects of mercury poisoning to the hat makers in Europe. Mercury was used to felt the fur then.

 

More to read:

Here Lies Kansas City: A Collection of Our City’s Notables and Their Final Resting Places. By Wilda and Hal Sandy. 1984

History of Jackson County, Missouri. By W. Z. Hickman. Historical Publishing Co., Topeka, KS.; 1920; reprinted Southern Historical Press, Greenville, SC; 1990.
Jackson County Pioneers. By Pearl Wilcox. Independence, MO; 1975.
Jim Bridger: Frontiersman & Mountain Guide. By Charles W. Maynard. PowerKids Press, NY.; 2003.
Photo
The HeritageLeague of Greater Kansas City History Map. PO Box 10366, Kansas City, MO.
The History of Jackson County, Missouri. Union Historical Co, Birdsall, Williams & Co; KCMO; 1881; reprinted by Ramfire Press, Cape Girardeau, MO; 1966.
Oregon-California Trail Association, 524 South Osage Street, Independence, MO 64051-0519, (Map brochure -- Following the Trails in Jackson County, Missouri; magazine & newsletter -- Overland Journey; News From the Plains)
Oregon Trail Tourist Brochure, National Park Service, www.nps.gov/oreg
“New Red Bridge Spans River, Tracks, & History” by Seann McAnally. Jackson County Advocate. Nov. 23, 2011, page 1.

Places to visit in MO.

Missouri River -- Navigable rivers were the first highways. Plan a driving highway trip along the Missouri River from St. Louis to St. Joseph (or visa versa). Imagine you are Bridger, paddling a canoe up or down river.
Stanford and Sons Restaurant, 504 Westport Road, Kansas City
Pioneer Park, Westport Road & Broadway, Kansas City.
1963 Westport Historical Society Marker Dedicated to the Memory of the Pioneers Who Settled the Town at the Westport Shopping Center, 1002 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO.
New Santa Fe Historical Society Trails Center, 9901 Holmes Road, Kansas City, Mo.
Watts Mill markers at 103 St. between State Line Road and Wornall, Kansas City, MO.
Red Bridge Road. Also stop at Minor Park to see the prairie schooner swales and read the DAR marker, on Red Bridge Road, between Holmes Road (east of) and the Bridge. Kansas City.
National Frontier Trails Center, Independence.
Mt. Washington Cemetery, 614 Brookside Dr., Independence
New Santa Fe historical markers, on State Line & the Old Santa Fe Trail, west of Wornall Road near Avila University, Kansas City
Red Bridge (Portrait) spans Big Blue River between Blue River Parkway and Holmes Road on

Historical Note #2: Modes of travel across America during Jim Bridger's lifetime were walking, horseback, canoeing, wagons, prairie schooners, ferries, and steamboats. The steamship Arabia traveled up and down the Missouri River around the same time (1850s) as the Polar Star and the James H. Lucas. Visit the Steamboat Arabia Museum, 400 Grand Ave, Kansas City to see the kind of things steamboats brought to supply shopkeepers such as Bridger along the Missouri River. Steamboats have been described as "a Walmart on paddlewheels."

Paul Henning

Paul Henning (1911-2005 ) = Radio, TV, Film Writer & Producer. Paul was the youngest of ten children, born September 16 on a farm. His artist father decided he didn't care for farming so he moved his family to Independence, MO. Among other jobs, Paul worked in Brown's Drugstore in Independence's town square same as former US President Harry S. Truman and attended the Kansas City School of Law in 1932 The following year, he began his career as a staff member at the radio station KMBC (now KMBZ, f. 1921) in Kansas City.

Paul married Ruth Margaret Barth in January of 1939. Three children were born to this union -- Carol Alice, Linda Kay, and Paul Anthony.

Ruth's grandparent's, Willis and Martha Burris owned a small country hotel in the late 1920s near a railroad station in Eldon, MO. They had five girls and Ruth's mother was the oldest. Ruth said her mother would send her on a train down from Kansas City to visit her grandparents during the summer. This inspired Paul to create three top-rated television sitcom series and their spin-offs in the 1960s; The Beverly Hillbillies (1962); Petticoat Junction (1963); and Green Acres (1965).

Paul was an idea generator and he used that gift many times in his career. Once, his boss at the radio station in Kansas City said he had good ideas and he wanted him to write a program which launched Paul's writing career. Later, when Paul was writing for  the George & Gracie Burns radio show in Hollywood, CA., Mr. Burns fought to get him a deferment from the WWII draft, because he thought it was important to give people something to laugh about in troubled times.

Paul retired in 1975 to spend more time with his family which by this time included grandsons, Alex and Jesse. 

More to Read:

Eldon. . . A Look Back: 1882 to 1982.
"The Ozarks Then & Now" by Russell Hively. The OzarksMountaineer, Nov/Dec 2012, p. 31.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications

Paul Henning

Petticoat Junction

 

Places to Visit in Mo:

Independence Town Square Marker

Main Street and Maple Street by the Rock Island tracks, Eldon.

Ruth & Paul Henning Conservation Area, Branson

Ruth & Paul Henning State Forest. Hwy. 76, Branson

Ralph Foster Museum, College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout (The Beverly Hillbillies truck is here),