Moses R. Grinter

Moses Reid Grinter (1809-1878 ) = Farmer. Ferryman. He was born March 12, in Logan County, Kentucky to Frank and Susannah Reid Grinter. Moses emigrated to Kansas at nineteen.

Anna Marshall was born January 8, 1820 in Miami County, Ohio. Her father was a white trader and her mother a Lenape (Delaware) Indian. She survived the forced march from Ohio to Kansas under the administration of the Fort Leavenworth Indian Agency. When she arrived here, she was 12 years old.

Moses married Anna in 1836. They raised a family of ten children. It was said of him that he was a kind man.

Moses operated a trading post, opened a post office in 1850 in Muncie, presently part of Kansas City, Wyandotte County, KS. and a ferry across the Kaw or Kansas River at Delaware/Secundine Crossing. He charged fifty cents for passengers and two dollars for wagons to cross the river. He operated the ferry until 1860.

The Grinters farmed and planted an apple orchard on the Wyandot-Delaware Reservation land Anna received from the government. Their large two-story brick home was completed in 1857. It sits on top of a hill overlooking the Kansas River.

After relocation, the Delaware invited Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian preachers to build missions among them to teach American customs. The Johnson brothers, Reverends Thomas and William helped establish a circuit of Methodist missions in response to their invitation.  The Grinters were prominent members of the White Methodist Episcopal Church, South and there is a stained glass window in the present church in memory of them. The first log meeting house was replaced in 1844 by a white-painted, wood frame church. Later, it was rebuilt using native stone and includes many other stained glass windows. Moses died at his home on June 12, 1878 and Anna died June 28, 1905.

More to Read:

1. He Came to Pray: History of White Church Christian Church, 1832-1996.

2. A Historic Outline of Grinter Place from 1825 to 1878. Compiled by Harry E. Hanson. 

3. The Interpretive Site Coalition (ISC) Kansas City’s 2011 Passport to Adventure.

4. Grinter Place State Historic Site Tourist Brochure & the back of a Photo Trading card.

5. Frontier Military Scenic Byway Tourist Brochure

6. National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide: Western Missouri Through Northeastern Kansas, National Park Service, US Dept. of the Interior, Sept. 2005. www.nps.gov

7. History Map Directory of Historical Sites & Organizations. The Heritage League of Greater Kansas City. Fourth Edition Brochure. 2010.

8. Grinter Times. Applefest, September 26/27, 1998. 

9. The Marriage Records of Jackson County, Missouri: 1827-1850. By Mrs. John Vineyard, Independence, MO, 1967. Vol. 1.
10. History of Wyandotte County, Kansas: and its people. Edited by Perl Wilbur Morgan.  Vol. 1
11. 1849 Kansas Territory Indian Reservation Map
12. Grinter Chapel Cemetery Index. Wyandotte Co. Historical Museum, Kansas City, KS.
13. White  Church Cemetery Index. 2200 N. 85th St (north of Parallel Ave), KCKS

14. Findagrave #13941288

Places to Visit in KS.

1. Kaw or Kansas River.

2. Grinter Place State Historic Site, 1420 South 78^th Street, Kansas City,

3. Grinter’s Applefest, usually in September.

4. White Christian Church/Delaware Indian Mission/Cemetery, 2200 N. 85th St., (north of Parallel Ave.), Kansas City
5. See John Calhoun's Candlebox, Constitution Hall, Lecompton

Historical Note: The first mission was established in 1830 among the Shawnees, on the south side of the Kansas River near the present site of Turner, Kansas. Another mission was located north of the river approximately at 78^th Street just north of Kansas Avenue in 1831. Rev. Thomas Johnson relocated to the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway, Ks. in 1839 and White Church grew out of these two nearby missions.