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| The drawing of the Grinter Ferry over the Kaw River hangs in the Grinter House Museum. The drawing was given to the late Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hansen, owners of grinter House at that time, by Gordon and Barbara Kensler. Kansan photo by J. Bradley Burgess. |
(Editor's note: This is the 62nd in a series of "then and now" articles on places and things of interest in Kansas City, Kan., compiled by area historian Margaret Landis in observance of the 100th birthday of KCK in 1986. Much of the information has appeared in past editions of The Kansan.)
(Transcriptions are presented without changes except to improve readability.)
The Missouri and Kansas rivers have played an important part in the development of this area.
Prior to the Civil War, steam boats and river traffic were the principal means of travel. For earlier, local transportation, the ferries served the purpose.
Ferries afforded the means of crossing a river or stream. A ferry was a boat used to carry passengers and vehicles across a stream or other narrow body of water.
There were different kinds of ferries. A row boat could be used for foot passengers. Broad flat-bottom scows with end aprons that could be lowered at the landing places were used to convey teams and vehicles. A ferry boat of this sort was fastened by ropes and pulleys to a cable running from shore to shore. There was also a horse ferry. By 1858, the steam ferry was put in operation between Kansas and Missouri.
Early ferries also promoted a way to reach the Indian trade in Kansas. The people on the Kansas side could obtain food and provisions from the Missouri side. The mail was received on the Missouri side and brought over to Kansas via ferry. For people who were journeying beyond Wyandotte, the ferry served to cross the river.
Wyandotte County has two rivers...the Missouri and the Kansas. both had early-day ferries.
In 1825, Richard Linville started a ferry across the Missouri River to the landing place on the Kansas side about a mile and a half north of the junction of the rivers. In 1826, Linville sold the ferry to Calisse Montarges, a French trapper. It became known as "Caleece" and was in operation until 1830.
Moses Grinter served in the Army at the Leavenworth Cantonment in 1828. The government asked him to build and operate a ferry across the Kansas River.
Excerpts from the Kansas State Historical marker at the Grinter House states: "At a point here an Old Indian trail led to the water's edge, Moses Grinter established the first ferry on the Kansas River. (January 1831)" "His ferry was used extensively by travelers over the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Schott Military Road, and by traders, freighters, and soldiers traveling between the forts or to Santa Fe. This place was known as Military or Delaware Crossing, and sometimes as Secondine, and here the first non-military post office in Kansas was established on Sept. 10, 1850."
Soon after the arrival of the Delaware Indians, Henry Tiblow established a ferry across the Kansas River near the abandoned four Houses Trading post.
The Wyandot Indians arrived in 1843. in November 1843 they established a ferry across the Kaw River near the site of the present-day Lewis and Clark Viaduct. The Wyandotte National Ferry was a cable, flat-bat type. September 1856, the Wyandott Tribal Council sold the Wyandott Ferry to Isaiah Walker, the highest bidder. It was recorded "the first public utility in Kansas passed into private hands."
There were a number of other ferries on the Kansas River. Some operated for a short time and some were licensed or chartered but their plans failed to materialize.
Among them were:
"The Chouteau Ferry," also known as "The Cook" and "The Campbell," was about a mile above the "Keeler Ferry" (directly south of Edwardsville). The historical marker includes: "The Chouteau Family, long prominent in the fur trade, operated posts in this vicinity as early as the 1820s." The date of the ferry is not known. At that time, the territory on the south side of the river was in Johnson County.
A number of different ferries operated from Quindaro across the Missouri River. The Territorial Legislature of 1858 granted exclusive rights to keep and maintain a public ferry across the Missouri River at Quindaro to Otis West, Charles Robinson and Charles H. Chapin. They were in business a couple of years. The Territorial Legislature then granted George Veale, Abelard Guthrie, Fielding Johnson and Julius G. Fish ferry rights. This company operated a steam ferry. it was reportedly sunk in September 1861 by Missourians to keep slaves from escaping.
Attempts to organize ferries that did not materialize were made by: "A Municipal Ferry," 1861; "The Quindaro and Parkville Ferry Company," chartered July 31, 1866; "The Kansas and Missouri Ferry Company," chartered May 23, 1867; "The parks" Ferry, application Dec. 2, 1867; and "The Parkville Ferry Company," Oct. 2, 1872.
From 1892 to 1901, William Leimkuhler operated a Quindaro Ferry from a landing at the foot of the present 27th Street.
When bridges were built across the rivers, this eliminated the ferries. In 1858, the first bridge across the Kansas River was built at the crossing of the Santa Fe Road. The toll bridge was known as "The Southern Bridge."
In 1864 (September), a pontoon bridge was completed across the Kansas River at Wyandotte.
The Hannibal Bridge in Kansas City, Mo., was built in 1869.
Today, with all our bridges, we cross over the rivers as if they weren't there. They include: