Wyandotte County History
"The Wyandot Tribe and How They Came to Kansas"
Wyandotte Gazette, Jul. 7, 1876
The Wyandots from Ohio and Michigan
landed on the south side of the Missouri
river, and at the western line of the State
of Missouri from two steamboats, the 28th
and 31st of July, 1843, and encamped on
the land between the said state line and
the Kansas river. They numbered seven
hundred. Sixty of their number died on
this first camping ground, though the
nation moved from it to the site of Wyandot City and its vicinity in October.
This land the chiefs purchased of the
Delaware, thirty-six sections, at two dollars per acre, the Delaware presenting
them with the three sections next the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.
The leading chiefs from that time to
the time they became citizens of the United States in 1853, were Francis A. Hicks,
Teuroome, James Bigtree, James Washington, Sarrahass, (the father John Sarrahass), George Armstrong, John Grimm,
John W. Greyeyes, Henry Jacques, Wm.
Walker, Silas Armstrong, George I.
Clark, Matthew Mudeater, James T. Charloe�and others. The chiefs were elected
annually. They had written laws. In
1851, an election for delegates to a national convention was held, and the convention held, to which John M. Armstrong
was Secretary, who drafted a new constitution which was adopted by the people.
A national council assembled. This provided for a Legislative Committee, and�John M. Armstrong was Secretary to that
and codified the laws.
The first United States Agent to the
Wyandots in Kansas was Maj. Phillips,
from Columbus, Ohio. The United States
Interpreter was John M. Armstrong, who
with George I. Clark was also church Interpreter.
In October 1846, the long-with-held pay
for their improvements in Ohio, was paid
to them. In the winter of 1844 they had
a city laid out, and called it Wyandot
City. The lots were one acre square, not
123 by 23 feet.
The leading Wyandots each selected
his lot and intended to build a good house
on it, when this fund should be paid, but
the fruit trees etc. had been planted around
the cabins, and the new houses were generally built on the farms, and the city
abandoned for that time, especially as it
was considered unhealthy.
It should have been stated that the Wyandots found but two houses on the land
they at first supposed to be included in
their purchase, and James Bigtree one of
the chiefs purchased one of them near
Quindaro, and the other, in the same
neighborhood was bought by John Williams. Matthew R. Walker, afterwards
the first Probate Judge of Leavenworth
county, settled in the winter of 1844/45, on
the place still occupied by his widow, and
Charles Garrett purchased the first improvements made on what has since been
known as his farm, from Francis A.
Hicks and George Spybuck, who first settled there, and placed his son William on
it, who died there in 1847, after which
Mr. Garrett moved there himself, Matthew Mudeater, James Charles, George I.
Clark and others were distinguished for
the energy manifested in making improvements, planting orchards etc. Silas and John M. Armstrong planted the first fruit trees in 1845.
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