| 1918 KANSAS AND KANSANS | Chapter 8 | Part 7 |
The town of Franklin, in Howard County, Missouri, was opposite the present City
of Boonville. In 1828, the entire site of the town was washed into the Missouri
River. It was the cradle of the Santa Fe trade, and for some years it was the
eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. As population spread to the westward
other towns were established along the Missouri River and the headquarters of
the trade followed the population. When the Trail was surveyed, in 1825, Fort
Osage, on the Missouri, at Sibley, was made the starting-point. Independence,
Missouri, was laid out in 1827, and it was soon the head-quarters of the Santa
Fe trade. Other Missouri towns engaged in the Santa Fe trade, and even the towns
of Northwest Arkansas. All these towns opened roads to the Santa Fe Trail. That
is why old roads as far south as Fayetteville, Arkansas, are known locally to
this day as the Santa Fe Trail. The roads all entered the real Santa Fe Trail
east of Council Grove, and most of them came into it east of the present town of
Baldwin, in Douglas County, Kansas. One of these trails, known locally as the
California Road came out of Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas through
the present Fort Scott, Kansas. It passed through what are now Miami and
Franklin Counties, Kansas, crossing the Pottawatomie at the present town of
Lane. That was Dutch Henry's Crossing, where John Brown and his men slew the
Border-Ruffians in the old border wars. This main California Road had other and
lesser "California Roads" coming into it. This statement of the different "Santa
Fe Trails" and "California Roads" is intended to explain the confusion which
often resulted when strangers passed over the country, in early days. In their
letters the Santa Fe Trail may be spoken of as having been in Southwest
Missouri, or even as leaving Fort Smith. In such instances it is always the
local road of that name which was meant.
The business of outfitting traders made Independence a thriving town. There were
dealers in wagons, flour, bacon, oxen, mules, guns, ammunition, ropes, chains
and all kinds of hardware, and of the groceries of those days, including
whiskey. In the spring when the caravans were getting under way the town
presented a busy appearance; and there was almost as stirring times, when, after
having completed the tour of the Plains, they drove into the great public square
upon their return.
The supplies for one person from Independence to Santa Fe consisted usually of
fifty pounds of flour, fifty pounds of bacon, ten pounds of coffee, twenty
pounds of sugar, some beans, and some salt. Each man carried a gun, usually a
Hawkins rifle, made at St. IJouis, and a supply of powder and lead.
The wagons first used in the Santa Fe trade were such as could be obtained at
the local towns in Missouri. Some of them were made, no doubt, by local
mechanics. As the trade assumed volume the necessity for uniform and strong
wagons attracted the attention of manufacturers. Those in use when the trade was
at full tide, and even after, were made at Pittsburg, Pa. The pioneer wagon
first used had the high curved bed, but those used later had but a slightly
curved bed, - only enough to hold the bales and boxes from sliding in going up
or down hills or grades. All the wagons had covers of heavy cloth stretched upon
bows fixed over the wagon-beds. The device for locking or "putting on brakes" in
descending steep places consisted of a chain attached to each side of the bed
with which to "chain" or "lock" the hind-wheels. There was a multiplicity of
chains used about the equipment of these wagons, the rattling and clanking of
which could be heard at considerable distance.
In the beginning of the trade the merchandise was carried on packhorses. The
first wagons used were drawn by mules. After the escort of 1829, when Major
Riley used oxen to draw his baggage wagons, oxen came to be used as much as
mules. They drew heavier loads, but did not bear the trip so well after the
country of the buffalo grass was reached. The continual traveling of the oxen
over a grass-covered country wore their hoofs smooth and tender, making it
difficult for them to travel in the latter stages of the journey. In that day
few knew how to properly shoe oxen with iron, and they were sometimes shod with
raw buffalo-skin - often an excellent makeshift.
As the trade was conducted through the Indian country, and, from the Arkansas
River, through a foreign country as well, it was necessary for the wagons to
form a single body or caravan. This organization was effected at the Council
Grove, now the town of Council Grove, Kansas. Any early arrivals there awaited
the coming of the others. The time was spent in resting and grazing the animals,
in the final overhauling of the lading, in the repair of harness, yokes, and
wagons, and cutting and preparing timbers to be used in case a breakdown should
occur on the road beyond. For there was no substantial timber to he had after
passing that point.
When the traders had all arrived at Council Grove a meeting was held for the
purpose of effecting a quasi-military organization for the remainder of the
journey to Santa Fe. There was elected a Captain of the Caravan, whose duty it
was to direct the order of travel and select the camping-places. The caravan was
separated into divisions, the number depending on its size. For each division a
lieutenant was selected. His duties were to ride in advance and inspect the road
and the crossings, to look out for bad points on the trail and give notice of
the same, and to superintend the forming of the encampments at night. The
encampment was formed by parking the wagons and making an enclosure. The first
wagon was halted at an angle. The second wagon was driven by it to the same
angle, halting with its "near" hind wheel against the "off" front wheel of the
first wagon. This process was continued until the enclosure was completed. It
was sometimes in the form of a squareÑone division to each side if the caravan
was composed of four divisions. But it was as often in a circle or an oval. The
wheels were frequently chained and locked solidly together. Thus was constructed
a sort of temporary fort or stockade. In case of attack it afforded a defense,
and the animals were sometimes driven into it. The encampment was made where
wood and water were to be had, if possible, - and where the grass was sufficient
for the animals of the caravan. Guards were always set at night, and every man
was expected to take his turn at guard-duty. Sometimes a second lieutenant was
elected for each division, as well as a chaplain, and court, composed of three
members, for the caravan.
The teamsters, or drivers, became expert in their duties. The wagons were
usually drawn by eight mules or the same number of oxenÑfour spans of mules, or
four yoke of oxen. The driver of a mule-team rode the "near" wheel mule - that
is, the mule on the left-hand side of the span hitched next to the wheels of the
wagons. He carried a heavy leather whip with a short flexible handle, and he
held in his hands lines for the guidance of the spans of mules hitched ahead of
him. The driver of an ox-team walked on the left-hand side of his team. He did
not use lines to guide his oxen, but depended on his commands, delivered in a
loud voice, and reinforced by a long plaited leather whip having a handle or
staff of such length as he might choose, usually a little better than four feet.
This staff was made of second-growth hickory, tough and flexible, tapering from
a heavy butt to the diameter of half an inch at the end where the whip was
attached. This whip was always pointed with a buckskin "cracker" fifteen inches
in length. It was a cruel implement, but the good driver rarely struck an ox
with the full force of it. In the hands of an expert it would lay open the side
of an ox for several inches at each stroke. Many teamsters boasted of having
driven to Santa Fe and return without "cutting the blood" from any ox on his
team. The ox is an intelligent animal, and he soon knew whether he or the
teamster was to be master. If he had a poor driver he would "lag in the yoke"
and not pull his part of the load unless closely watched and sometimes punished.
On the other hand, if he recognized in his driver a master, he "pulled up in the
yoke" and did his part. The Americans always yoked their oxen by attaching the
yoke by a bow around the neck. This method enabled the ox to throw his whole
weight and all his strength against the yoke pulling his load instead of having
to push it when the yoke was bound upon his horns, as was the Spanish and
Mexican custom.
The whip used for driving oxen in America has not been entirely neglected in
literature. In that masterpiece of Ingalls - Blue Grass - there is a crucifixion
of the Border-Ruffians of Missouri, the redemption of whose country he submits a
plan for:
Gregg compiled a table showing the extent of the Santa Fe trade for a number of
years. It is the best authority on the subject and is appended:
One of the most important stations on the Santa Fe Trail, as originally located,
was Bent's Fort. It was situated on the Arkansas River in what is now Bent
County, Colorado. It is deemed necessary to give some account of it because of
the fact that it was the largest post on the trail and exerted a considerable
influence on the trade of the Plains. In some form and in different locations it
persisted until a very late day.
Silas Bent was born in Massachusetts, in 1744, and it is said that he was one of
the party who threw the British tea into Boston harbor. He married Mary Carter,
by whom he had seven children, the eldest being Silas. This son was born in
1768, and in 1788 he went to Ohio, where he practiced law and held various
offices. In 1806 he was appointed by Albert Gallatin a deputy surveyor of Upper
Louisiana, and moved to St. Louis. He held numerous offices there and died in
1827. By his intermarriage with a Virginia lady, Martha Kerr, he had eleven
children, - Charles, Julia Ann, John, Lucy, Dorcas, William, Mary, George,
Robert, Edward and Silas. Charles was appointed Governor of New Mexico by
General Kearny. The Bent brothers were engaged in the fur trade, those best
known in that connection being William and Charles. Associated with them was
Ceran St. Vrain, of Canadian-French extraction; the firm was at one time known
as Bent, St. Vrain & Co. They built a fort on the Arkansas River above the
present city of Pueblo, at the mouth of Fountain Creek, in 1825. This proved a
poor location, and in 1828 they abandoned the place and went down the river, and
in 1829 completed Fort William, so called for William Bent. This fort was long
known as Bent's Fort, and in later years was spoken of as Bent's "old" fort. It
was one of the most important posts in the West, being situated at the point of
the Santa Fe Trail where the travel north and south from the Platte country to
the Santa Fe Trail crossed it. The walls were of adobe, six feet thick at the
base and four feet at the top; the floor was of clay, and the roofs of the
covered portions were of clay and gravel supported on poles. At the northwest
and southwest corners were round towers thirty feet high and ten feet clear on
the inside, and loopholed for artillery and musketry. The entrance was on the
east, and was closed by a heavy gate of wood. Inside the fort were two divisions
- one for offices, living-rooms, and store-rooms; the other for yards for
wagons, stocks, etc. The dimensions of the fort were about as given by Hughes,
though other authorities vary from these figures slightly. In 1852 William Bent
destroyed the fort, burning the combustible portions and blowing up the walls
with gunpowder. In 1853 he built Bent's "new" fort, about thirty-five miles
lower down the Arkansas and on the same (north) side. It seems that he had long
contemplated this removal, as the following quotation from the work of Emory
will show:
Bent transacted business at the new location until 1859, when the fort was
leased to the Government. In the winter of 1859-60 Bent moved up to the mouth of
the Purgatoire. The name of the fort was changed to Fort Wise in 1860, and in
1861 again changed, this time to Fort Lyon, in honor of General Nathaniel Lyon,
the hero of Wilson Creek. Because of the encroachments of the river on its walls
the fort was moved twenty miles lower down the river in 1866, but it served as a
stage station for some years longer.
Francis Parkman arrived at Bent's Fort shortly after the "Army of the West" had
passed, and thus describes it:
William Bent was married to a Cheyenne woman.
The supreme authority on the Santa Fe Trail and the trade developed over it is
The Commerce of the Prairies, by Dr. Josiah Gregg. It is the foundation
of every work on the subject since its appearance. It was published in 1844 in
New York, and London. Dr. Gregg was born in Overton County, Tennessee, July 19,
1806. His father moved to Missouri in time to have his family interned in the
blockhouse in Boone's Lick settlement in the war of 1812. After that war he
settled in Jackson County, Missouri, just north of Independence, where he grew
up, as he says, "on the frontier." He was far above the ordinary in
intelligence. He graduated from the Philadelphia Medical College, and was a
successful physician until his health failed. Then he took to the Plains, making
eight trips from Independence to Santa Fe and beyond - sometimes to Chihuahua.
For a biographical sketch of Dr. Gregg, see pages 162 et seq Connelley's
Doniphan's Expedition.
The American Fur Trade of the Far West, by H. M. Chittenden, New York,
Francis P. Harper, 1902. This work has much concerning the Santa Fe Trail.
Doniphan's Expedition, by John T. Hughes, is a work which has much about
the Santa Fe Trail. The edition edited by Connelley contains many valuable
notes, portraits, and biographies.
There are many documents, clippings, minor works, and articles on the Santa Fe
Trail in the Library of the Kansas State Historical Society.
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans , written and
compiled by William E. Connelley, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, 1998.
Seed the country down to blue grass and the reformation would begin. Such a
change must be gradual. One generation would not witness it, but three would see
it accomplished. The first symptom would be an undefined uneasiness along the
creeks, in the rotten eruption of cottonwood hovels near the grist mill and the
blacksmith's shop at the fork of the roads, followed by a "toting" of plunder
into the "bow-dark" wagon and an exodus for "outwest." A sore-back mule geared
to a spavined sorrel, or a dwarfish yoke of stunted steers, drag the creaking
wain along the muddy roads, accelerated by the long-drawn
"Whoo-hoop-a-Haw-aw-aw" of "Dad" in butternut-colored homespun, as he walks
beside, cracking a black-snake with a detonation like a Derringer.
Years. Amt.
Mdse. W'gs. Men. Pros. T'n to
Cha' Remarks. 1822 15,000 ..... 70 60 9000 Pack-animals only used. 1823 12,000 ..... 50 30 3000 Pack-animals only used. 1824 33,000 26 100 80 3000 Pack-animals and wagons. 1825 65,000 37 130 90 5000 Pack-animals and wagons. 1826 90,000 60 100 70 7000 Wagons
only henceforth. 1827 85,000 55 90 50 8000 1828 150,000 100 200 80 20000 3 men
killed, being the first. 1829 60,000 30 50 20 5000 1st U. S.
Es. - I trader killed. 1830 120,000 70 140 60 20000 First
oxen used by traders. 1831 250,000 130 320 80 80000 Two men
killed. 1832 140,000 70 150 40 50000 Party
defeated on Canadian. 1833 180,000 105 185 60 80000 2 men
killed, 3 perished. 1834 150,000 80 160 50 70000 2nd U.
S. Escort. 1835 140,000 75 140 40 70000 1886 130,000 70 135 35 50000 1837 150,000 80 160 35 60000 1838 90,000 50 100 20 80000 1839 250,000 130 250 40 100000 Arkansas Expedition. 1840 50,000 30 60 5 10000 Chihuahua
Expedition. 1841 150,000 60 100 12 80000 Texan
Santa Fe Espedition. 1842 160,000 70 120 15 90000 1843 450,000 230 320 30 300000 3d U.
S. Es. - Ports closed.
About 35 miles before reaching Bent's Fort is found what is called the "big
timber." Here the valley of the river widens, and the banks on either side fall
towards it in gentle slopes. The "big timber" is a thinly scattered growth of
large cottonwoods not more than three-quarters of a mile wide and three or four
miles long. It is here the Cheyennes, Araphoes, and the Kioways sometimes
winter, to avail themselves of the scanty supply of wood for fuel, and to let
their animals browse on the twigs and bark of the cottonwood. The buffaloes are
sometimes driven by the severity of the winter which is here intense for the
latitude, to the same place to feed upon the cottonwood. To this point, which
has been indicated to the Government as a suitable one for a military post, Mr.
Bent thinks of moving his establishment.
Bent's Fort stands on the river, about seventy-five miles below Pueblo. At noon
of the third day we arrived within three or four miles of it, pitched our tent
under a tree, hung our looking-glasses against its trunk, and having made our
primitive toilet, rode towards the fort. We soon came in sight of it, for it is
visible for a considerable distance, standing with its high clay walls in the
midst of the scorching plains. It seemed as if a swarm of locusts had invaded
the country. The grass for miles around was cropped close by the horses of
General Kearny's soldiery. When we came to the fort we found that not only had
the horses eaten up in the grass, but their owners had made way with the stores
of the little trading-post, so that we had great difficulty in procuring the few
articles which we required for our homeward journey. The army was gone, the life
and bustle passed away, and the fort was a scene of dull and lazy tranquillity.
A few invalid officers and soldiers sauntered about the area, which was
oppressively hot; for the glaring sun was reflected down upon it from the high
white walls around. - Oregon Trail, pp. 306, 307.
1918 Kansas and Kansans
Previous Section
Next Section
![[TOC]](../images/bttoc.gif){kind=small}
![[Biog. Index]](../images/btbndx.gif){kind=small}
![[1918 Index]](../images/btndx.gif){kind=small}
![[1919 Index]](../images/btndx19.gif){kind=small}
![[KSGenWeb]](../images/btksck.gif){kind=small}
![[Archives]](../images/btarc.gif){kind=small}