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Eastern Jackson County, MO —
The first Europeans to venture into our neck of the woods were the French fur trappers and traders.
They were here during the rein of the Great Osage Nation and they seemed to have gotten along very well together. The French traded tools, beads and trinkets to the Osage in exchange for their furs and the right to trap beaver on Osage lands. In fact, many French took an Osage squaw to help keep them warm on those long winter nights.
The French knew our neighborhood as the “Blue Country,” because of the blue haze you can see as you look out across the distant hills most times of the year. Something that is very unique to our neighborhood.
The Blue Ridge Mountains back in the Appalachian chain has the same blue haze. A little further out west you run into the Smoky Hills of Kansas, and they received that name because of the smoky or gray haze out that way, much like the Great Smoky Mountains back east.
It was the trappers who named the Big Blue and Little Blue rivers; they also named Sni Creek to the east of us. Those three were some of the best beaver streams in America.
In fact, if Gen. Andrew Jackson had not been so popular back in the 1800s, we would probably live in Blue County, Mo. But, Jackson County was named for the very popular Andrew Jackson, even before he was elected as the seventh president of the United States. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Missouri was opened to American settlement and the Osage ceded all of their lands in Missouri to the U.S. government and moved on toward Indian Territory.
It is evident from all sources that the first settlement in what is now Jackson County was Fort Osage, on the Missouri River, and the little village that grew up around it called Sibley, named in behalf of George Sibley, the man who operated the fort. The government had established the fort in 1808 for the purpose of frontier defense, and also as a trading post for the Osage Indians.
The Osage deeded land for the construction of the fort, along with an additional six-square-mile area for crops and livestock to support the soldiers stationed there. That neighborhood is still known today as the Six-Mile district. For nearly 20 years there would be no other important or permanent settlements within the county. However, just as soon as the Indian title was extinct in 1825, the county was soon settled and organized.
The first Europeans to venture into our neck of the woods were the French fur trappers and traders.
They were here during the rein of the Great Osage Nation and they seemed to have gotten along very well together. The French traded tools, beads and trinkets to the Osage in exchange for their furs and the right to trap beaver on Osage lands. In fact, many French took an Osage squaw to help keep them warm on those long winter nights.
The French knew our neighborhood as the “Blue Country,” because of the blue haze you can see as you look out across the distant hills most times of the year. Something that is very unique to our neighborhood.
The Blue Ridge Mountains back in the Appalachian chain has the same blue haze. A little further out west you run into the Smoky Hills of Kansas, and they received that name because of the smoky or gray haze out that way, much like the Great Smoky Mountains back east.
It was the trappers who named the Big Blue and Little Blue rivers; they also named Sni Creek to the east of us. Those three were some of the best beaver streams in America.
In fact, if Gen. Andrew Jackson had not been so popular back in the 1800s, we would probably live in Blue County, Mo. But, Jackson County was named for the very popular Andrew Jackson, even before he was elected as the seventh president of the United States. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Missouri was opened to American settlement and the Osage ceded all of their lands in Missouri to the U.S. government and moved on toward Indian Territory.
It is evident from all sources that the first settlement in what is now Jackson County was Fort Osage, on the Missouri River, and the little village that grew up around it called Sibley, named in behalf of George Sibley, the man who operated the fort. The government had established the fort in 1808 for the purpose of frontier defense, and also as a trading post for the Osage Indians.
The Osage deeded land for the construction of the fort, along with an additional six-square-mile area for crops and livestock to support the soldiers stationed there. That neighborhood is still known today as the Six-Mile district. For nearly 20 years there would be no other important or permanent settlements within the county. However, just as soon as the Indian title was extinct in 1825, the county was soon settled and organized.
In early-day Jackson County, towns grew up around any place where people congregated – an old mill, a general store or a ferry crossing, for example. Maybe a town grew up at a crossroads, or one of the many fresh water springs, such as Independence and Blue Springs did.
Independence soon became the most important outpost west of St. Louis because of the Santa Fe, California, and Oregon Trails.
The Civil War Round Table is presenting an antebellum homes tour of five houses and one church the weekend of May 19-20 from 1-5 p.m. All locations will be open both days and may be toured in any order. Tickets will be $12 at the Blue & Grey Book Shoppe, 106 E. Walnut St., two blocks south of the Square. Transportation will be by private car, and the houses are not handicapped accessible.
