Long ago on independence square (Jackson, Queen City: wealthy, gas, park)

[MRG Dallas]

Yeah I remember that one and almost mentioned it in my post. Still, the origin of the wagon trains is not something I knew until now. Maybe I'd seen that marker and forgotten it, but still it's a historic site so near the others, Independence should dress up the area a little bit. Id also put signs around the courthouse pointing to another site of interest. As it is, if you hadn't brought it up I'd never known.

[WCHS'59]

You know, the most famous of those wagon trains was the Donner Party in 1846.

I agree with you--there ought to be some gigantic monument.

[WCHS'59]

One of the wagons in the Donner Party helped slow them down and further delay their ability to get across the mountains before the big snows started.

It was a huge double decked affair that had a heated bedroom--apparently from a pot belly stove. Never saw a photo or a drawing of one but it had six or eight oxen pulling it.

The wagon must have been the "Winnebago" of its time.

[WCHS'59]

This is a photo of the rock work that has been built to hold the output for the famous spring where the covered wagons filled their water barrels before starting out on the Santa Fe, Oregon, or California trails.

The spring is not as productive as during pioneer times. In this photo it is dry.

And its actual location was toward the north under what is now Truman Road. The spring flow was piped almost to the present location at some point during the road building.

When I first saw it in about 1955, there was a steady flow of water coming out of a rock with a sign that said "Do not Drink."

The stonework was added at a later time and the flow again piped to the current reservoir.

The spring is the location of the Indian “Trail of Death” monument shown in my post #126. The monument is just out of the picture on the lower left.

[adams_aj]

I'm really enjoying this discussion thread everyone. Just encouraging you all to keep up the good work with the narrative and photos. Suspect there are a lot of us out here following, but haven't chimed in with encouragement. Let me be their voice!

[WCHS'59]

Thank you for expressing your interest.

Sally36 should be highly commended for starting "Long Ago on Independence Square."

[WCHS'59]

Make that former direction west rather than north.

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Bryant Elementary School is on west College Street about four blocks from the Harry S Truman home on Delaware.


Around 1930 or so, someone tried to kidnap six-year old Margaret Truman from the old Bryant.


Harry Truman was a county judge (county commissioner) at the time.


The principal of the school became suspicious of the man who asked to take her out of class early and foiled the effort with the man fleeing.


As far as I know, the culprit(s) were never caught.

I walked or rode my bike past Bryant many times, as it was on my way to grandparents or to The Square. My buddies in the neighborhood near my parents' store went to grade school there. The kidnapping modus operandi sounds eerily like the Greenlease Kidnapping, except 2 decades earlier.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

The kidnapping modus operandi sounds eerily like the Greenlease Kidnapping, except 2 decades earlier.

MRG, Wow that brings back memories of a different kind.

I was in the 7th grade, I think, when that kidnapping happened and everyone was following the news hoping and praying that six year old Bobby Greenlease would be able to return home unharmed.

Before he called the police, the wealthy father withdrew $600,000 and paid the kidnappers.

But, the kidnappers--a man and a woman--killed the boy by shooting him in the head before they even received the ransom. It was sad and devastating news to all.

Those two were executed in the gas chamber and they got what they deserved.

The father banked at Commerce Bank. The head of that bank at that time was President Eisenhower's older brother.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

“Order No. 11 was the most drastic and repressive military measure directed against civilians by the Union Army during the Civil War. In fact, with the exception of the hysteria-motivated herding of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps during World War II, it stands as the harshest treatment ever imposed on United States citizens under the plea of military necessity in our nation's history.” Albert Castel, Missouri Historical Review 57, State Historical Society of Missouri, July 1963, 357-368.


President Abraham Lincoln personally approved Order Number 11. The Union army commander in Kansas City issued the order on August 25, 1863, against a predominantly enemy population in Jackson and two other area counties. The order imposed a total depopulation of men, women, and children in the affected area.

Most people in Jackson County were sympathetic to the rebel cause and provided aid and assistance to the Missouri Bushwhackers, an irregular and particularly vicious rebel fighting group. Bushwhackers sometimes included Jesse James, William Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson, and others. Order number 11 was an attempt to dissolve the aid.

The order had no direct effect on the citizens of Independence or those living within a mile of Independence, but for the vast majority of those living in Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties; these people without exception had to vacate their homes and farms.

Those who could prove their loyalty to the nearest Union commander received a certificate of such loyalty. A “certified” loyalist could then move into Independence or another military district such as Hickman Mills, Pleasant Hill, or Harrisonville. Loyalists also had the option of moving to the state of Kansas west beyond its eastern column of counties.

It is not that Independence did not have any southern sympathizers, it did. By one account nine-tenths of the people in Jackson County were aiding and abetting the Bushwhackers with food and shelter, ammunition, and Union military movements. However, Union forces occupied Independence and presumably had the rebel population under control.

Those people living in the area of the order who could not or would not prove their loyalty had to move out of the affected counties to wherever they could find. Those who remained were subject to military punishment—forced shipping as far south as Arkansas.

Whether a family was loyal or not, all hay and grain had to be taken to the nearest military district and vacancy completed within fifteen days of the order. If not, the hay and grain were to be destroyed in place by Union forces and those people remaining shipped south.

A story of the Missouri Bushwhackers was most recently told in the 1999 Ang Lee movie “Ride with the Devil” starring Tobey Maguire.

This photo was taken in the Sheriff's office in the 1859 Jail and Museum.