Kirkman - Forgotten Tales of Kansas City

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Paul Kirkman

All rights reserved

Illustrations by Kristen Solecki

First published 2012

e-book edition 2012

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.738.9

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print ISBN 978.1.60949.615.9

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

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PREFACE

In the 1800s, the easy way west ended at Missouris western border, the political boundary of the United States until 1854. The Missouri River turns north near the mouth of the Kaw, and travelers had to go overland from that point on. The hard way, the long rideor, more often, the long walk beside a wagonstarted here.

Expansion hesitated at the Missouri line. People paused at the edge of the prairie, where water, trees and safety became sparse. Uncertainty, deserts, mountains and untamed land spread before the traveler. Wild beasts and wilder men inhabited the land between the trails head and the trails end. This area was settled by French trappers, mountain men, trailblazers and missionaries. Kansas City grew up with the help of risk takersland speculators, merchants and trail outfitters who catered to a diverse and rough clientele.

From the first white settlement, and long before, there were Native Americans here: Kansas, Osage, Shawnee, Wyandotte and Delaware. Some had met at the rivers junction for centuries to trade, while others had been forced or bribed to move here from lands far to the east. There were Mexicans who brought trade from Santa Fe. African Americans, some free but most of them slaves, were here from the towns beginnings as well. For most of the nineteenth century, one could leave Kansas City and go west for hundreds of miles without hitting a large community, let alone a city. The town was like a port at the edge of a vast prairie sea. The diverse group of inhabitants, along with waves of immigrants constantly coming to or through the city, gave it a unique character.

Today, Kansas City is more than one city. The Greater Kansas City area includes Kansas City, Missouri, the largest city in Missouri; Kansas City, Kansas, the third-largest city in Kansas; Independence, Missouri, the fourth-largest city in Missouri; and dozens of other towns and cities, large and small, from Peculiar up to Roosterville.

Kansas Citians experienced the settlement of the West firsthand, including the fur trade, the steamboat era, the pioneer trails, the fight against slavery, the cattle drives and the railroad connecting East and West. All these shaped the character of the people here. From Old Weststyle shootouts in the streets to Civil War battles raging through town to political corruption and gangland murder, Kansas City has had more than its share of wild times. All the while, there was the steady push forward of visionary leaders to keep the city on track.

There have been countless books written to tell the story of Kansas City history, but not every story fits in a standard form. Wrong turns, diversions, embarrassments and odd instances that dont fit in the forward march of civilization dont usually make it into the final draft.

These are the forgotten stories of Kansas Citys wild youthforgotten events and forgotten individuals who marched to a different beat. Tucked away in out-of-print books, boxed up in archives and chronicled in old newspapers (many of which are just now becoming accessible via the Internet), these stories are just itching to be told.

As part of The History Presss Forgotten Tales series, Forgotten Tales of Kansas City presents the offbeat, the weird and the lost or forgotten stories of Kansas Citys past.

FORGOTTEN TALES OF KANSAS CITY

PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF WARTS?

In the July 12, 1873 issue of Scientific American, it was reported that Kansas City had experienced a shower of frogs that darkened the air and covered the ground for a long distance. Freak storms of fish, snakes and other small critters, like the frog storm in Kansas City, have been noted periodically across the globe. They are thought to be caused by waterspouts or tornados lifting animals or objects suddenly and then depositing them some distance away. A few weird downpours have even been reported elsewhere in Missouri. In Independence on June 9, 1907, there was a fish storm, where it was estimated that nearly a ton of small silver-colored fish fell from the sky and covered the town square. Residents picked them up by the handful as souvenirs. On July 4, 1995, a tornado picked up a number of unopened cans of cola from the Double Cola bottling plant in Moberly, Missouri, and deposited them over 150 miles away in Keokuk, Iowa. On November 6, 1943, a storm of over two hundred geese fell on the town of Galena in southern Missouri, possibly as victims of a lightning strike.

Kansas City, by comparison, got off lucky with its amphibious aerial assault, as frog legs are considered a delicacy, while the residents of Galena said the geese that pelted their community had an odd electrical taste, and Independences fish werent big enough to be keepers. There were no reports of the explosive results of Iowans opening cans of cola that had been through a tornadobut it would have made a great video.

NIGHT OF THE FALLING STARS

On the night of November 12, 1833, a meteor shower like no other lit up the sky over northwest Missouri. Meteorites fell by the tens of thousands; estimates ran as high as 200,000 per hour. In the little communities along the Missouri River, people watched in awe, and many wondered if the aerial pyrotechnics werent some sort of sign from heaven. Fear or joy at the approach of apocalypse gripped those men who had professed religion, as well as those who hadnt, a few hours before. The celestial fireworks came about as the result of Earth passing through the tail of a comet, later named Tempel-Tuttle after the astronomers who discovered it. It was an intersection that had happened often before (but never so spectacularly) and is now known as the Leonid meteor shower.

But on that night, the unparalleled display made many wonder if heaven and earth were at odds. The founder of the Mormon religion, Joseph Smith, saw and commented on the event: I arose, and to my great joy, beheld the stars fall from heaven like a shower of hailstones; a literal fulfillment of the word of God, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and a sure sign that the coming of Christ is close at hand. However, in Jackson County, and more specifically, in the county seat at Independence, many locals felt that the fire and brimstone in the sky was more likely a sign that they should rid themselves of these strange new neighbors with their odd beliefs. The singular experience excited superstition and fear in many and was used to justify the expulsion of hundreds of Mormon settlers from Jackson County.