Notables
Jackson County Notables
Events, locations, and industries important
to Jackson County history.
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PARODY OF A TOWN: INDEPENDENCE
John C. McCoy's early life in remote settlements with his missionary parents had given him a vision of the trend of civilization. When he came of age, September 28, 1832, he decided to become a businessman in his own right. Reason told him that changing conditions would eventually result in the establishment of a trading center at the intersection of the 2 great highways extending southward from the mouth of the Kaw River and the frontier town of Independence.
With this in mind, he constructed a 2-story log building, stocked it with merchandise, and began a business known as J. R. HICKMAN & COMPANY. His partners were HICKMAN and J. H. FLOURNOY. The site was on the NE corner of the intersection of what later became Westport and Pennsylvania avenues, purchased from JOHNSTON LYKINS in 1833. McCoy then conceived the idea of starting a town, and advertised by handbills, a public sale of lots, this was not very successful, as the highest price paid for any lot 75 X 150 feet was only $14.00. "Oh, what a parody was that on booms....The fact was that I had set my stakes too much ahead of the star of the empire", stated McCoy. Unfortunatlely, there were no records of these first lots "knocked down" by McCoy. He must not have considered it of sufficient importance to issue or receive a deed until the embryo city began to show signs of life.
For the past 5 years Independence had been the undisputed capital of the western trade of the trails, but it was soon to discover potent and vigorous rivals in the towns of Westport and Westport Landing.
It goes on to talk about the shipments of trade goods from St. Louis at Wayne City Landing where the boats were constantly arriving with cargoes of baled, boxed, crated and more or less loose merchandise. The freight was hauled from the steam-paddled boats over the dusty or muddy ox-road to Independence where the cargo was shifted into the caravans of western commerce. In 1834, when the next shipment came in the steamboat "John Hancock", McCoy met the captain of the boat and told him of a better place to drop off the merchandist, where there was a natural rock landing, and only a few miles up the river.
The captain didn't want to do it, but decided he didn't care if the merchandist fell into the river, so he tried it....and to his surprise, it was a wonderful place to unload. McCoy's father (the preacher) operated a ferryboat at this location, and that's why John was familiar with it. It was at the foot of what would become Main Street. The rock ledge was near the junction of where the Kaw and MO rivers joined and after the John Hancock began dumping freight, other shippers learned of the excellent landing and started dumping there, as well....they called it Westport Landing, after McCoy's town, out south.
A few years ago, one of these steamboats, "The Arcadia", was found in and recovered from the mud that once was a part of the river, and is now on display here in Kansas City. After it was cleaned up, it was found to be full of merchandise on its way to general mercantiles.....it included canned foods, dishes, silverware, cookware, lamps, clothing, boots...it's pretty interesting to see.
In 1833, store prices were cheap. A record book of the McCoy store dated Nov. 18, 1833, gives a list of articles sold to a
party going to survey Indian lands:
75 pounds of beef, 3 cents a pound
3 bushels of corn, 75 cents
1 dozen fish hooks and lines, 75 cents
Then, in 1847, the store was owned by McCoy & Martin...it's not John C. McCoy, but a younger McCoy. Their account books shows that people brought in homegrown tobacco, feathers, cowhides, and other things and traded them for goods. Many articles that were handled are rarely heard of today, such as bed-cords, calico, saleratus, whalebone, indigo, linsey, satinette and drilling
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This page was last updated August 2, 2006.