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Discover Mid-America — July 2006
Museum recounts struggles of early-day Kansas
For decades, a small trading post north of Pleasanton, KS, was the center of a dangerous and bloody frontier.
An 1825 map shows the Marais des Cygnes River, with a trading post known as Establishment de Chouteau. The map, drawn by Belgian cartographer Phillipe M. Vandermaelen, indicates that the Trading Post remains the oldest settlement in the state still in existence. A copy of the map is on display in the Trading Post Museum.
According to museum director Alice Widner, between 1838 and 1846, the Potawatomie and Miami tribes would be moved into the area. Few white settlers had ventured onto this wild prairie, and none were allowed to settle in the Indian Territory west of the Military Road, which ran through Fort Leavenworth, south to the Marais des Cygnes River and beyond.
Only one man, Michael Giraud, an American Fur Company trader, was granted a license to trade with the tribes at the Trading Post. “In return for pelts and feathers,” Widner said, “the Indians received kettles, blankets, clothing, sugar, bells, tobacco, calico and other goods.”
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The settlement was a busy place. “Giraud hosted weddings and baptisms at the Trading Post, and providing lodgings for travelers,” Widner said.
The Kansas Territory would be a battleground for slavery well before the admission of Kansas as a state in 1861. In the 1850s, proponents of slavery were facing off with abolitionist forces in a violent run-up to the War Between the States.
On May 19, 1858, a band of “border ruffians” led by Charles Hamilton, a pro-slavery advocate from Georgia, rode into Trading Post, captured 11 “free state” men, and rode out of town.
Reaching an area now known as Marais des Cygnes Massacre Park, the ruffians shot their captives, killing five and seriously wounding five others. The sixth man feigned death and survived the massacre uninjured. A monument in the Trading Post Cemetery commemorates the event.
“One of the ‘ruffians’— probably an unwilling participant — was later apprehended in Kansas City and hanged,” Widner said. “But Hamilton, who led the massacre, returned to Georgia and after the Civil War was elected to the state legislature.”
Famed abolitionist John Brown built a log fort near the massacre site and patrolled the area that summer. The door from his cabin is exhibited at the museum, along with other John Brown memorabilia.
Widner said the museum is a source for anyone researching John Brown’s history.
The violence continued as the Civil War raged. Gen. Sterling Price, retreating from his defeat at the Battle of Westport on Oct. 23, 1864, marched his Confederate army south on the Missouri side of the border to West Point, then turned west into Kansas. They entered Trading Post on the afternoon of Oct. 24, and camped in the field across from the present-day museum. At the Trading Post Mill, the Confederates ground corn and wheat they had confiscated en route.
The next morning before dawn, the Union Army attacked. The battle moved to Mine Creek where the rebels were soundly defeated in a short but bloody confrontation — the largest cavalry battle west of the Mississippi. The Union commander was Gen. Alfred Pleasanton, for whom the nearby town of Pleasanton is named.
The Trading Post settlement reached its heyday in the 1880s with three general stores, a saw and grist mill, blacksmith shop, drug store, two hotels, broom factory and sorghum mill. The Trading Post School, still standing, was used as a school until 1955, and is on the State Register of Historic Places.
In 1974, local residents Charles and Susie Murray founded the Trading Post Museum. The same year, the Trading Post Historical Society was founded to preserve the Trading Post and Linn County history. Collections in the museum include arrow points, military sabers and weapons, old photos and maps, dolls, tools and many other items.
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Widner, who discusses area history with enthusiasm, doesn’t have a history degree. “My education began when I took this job 28 years ago,” she said. “I’ve read and researched many areas, especially Indian and Civil War history, and John Brown lore,” she added.
Present day Trading Post is a small community with only a few residents — probably less busy than it was in Chouteau’s day. Other sights in the area include the Marais des Cygnes Massacre Site, Linn County Historical Museum in Pleasanton, the Mine Creek Battlefield Park, the Marais des Cygnes Wildlife Area, and the Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge.
The Trading Post Museum is open April 1 through Nov. 7. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tours and groups are welcome. Call 913/352-6441.
Ken Weyand can be reached at kweyand1@kc.rr.com
> Traveling with Ken Archive — past columns
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