Gabriel Prudhomme, whose riverfront farm covers much of what is now downtown Kansas City, dies. John Calvin McCoy opens a store to take advantage of trade along the public road between Indian territory and Independence. Town of Kansas Company buys Prudhomme land. Francois Chouteau, around whose trading post the first white settlement rose, dies.
Prices plummet and foreclosures and bankruptcies rise.
Emigrants head west to Oregon, using Santa Fe trailheads in Independence and Westport. Legal dispute over Prudhomme land ends and Town of Kansas begins to grow. Abolitionists, tired of compromise, cry foul and the era of the border wars is ushered in. William Becknell takes a pack caravan from Missouri to Santa Fe and returns with big profits. Treaty insuring safe passage along the Santa Fe trail is signed by U.S. and Indian leaders at Council Grove.