Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-12-08
KANSAS TOPICS.

Atchison. Regis Loisel was en- route to the
waters of the Upper Missouri. to establish
a trading station in behalf of himself and
his partners, Pierre Chouteau and Jacques
Clamorgan. At that moment, says John ].
ingalls,, in a sketch in the old Kansas
Magazine, George III. was king of Eng
land. France was republic Paul /. was
emperor of Russia. Selim Ill. was sultan
of the Eastern Empire. John Adams was
the imperious president of n federal Union,
comprising sixteen states, of which Ken
lucky and Tennessee were the outposts and
extreme western border. The first terri
torial legislature of Ohio had just met at
the huddle OF log huts called Cincinnati.
Kansas was 4 Spanish province under the
dominion of Charles ", and Manuel
Dodoy, Duke of Alcudia and Prince of
Peace. The naughty hidalgo with sable
dropping plume and subtle rapier was the
predecessor of the border rufflan, the Jay
hawker and the bulIwhacker upon the
banks of the Missouri. To his successor
he bequeathed an unsubstantial heritage,
and laid deep in the soil the substructure
and underpinning of that fragile archi-
lecture which has given to every creek,
crossroads and Shutdown its airy Chat
teauN en- Espagne.' The Spanish sway in
Kansas was brief and barren of results.
The. Castilian immigrants fingered by the
shores of the Gulf and seldom penetrated
inland. They were n race of buccaneers
and pirates. sensual, selfish avaricious-
haunting the coral groups and tranquil
lagoons of the tropics. alternating between
frenzied raids for silver in the mines of
Zacatecas and aimless wanderngs in
search of the fountain of youth in the land
of perpetual flowers"
But not SO with the harder Frenchman.
He went into the wilderness and got close
to God and nature. True he did not appre-
ciate the value of his magnificent inland
domain, for Napoleon sold Kansas at the
rate of more than a hundred acres for a
cent, but he strove to make the best of
what he saw around him. Pierre Chouteau
| one of Loisels partners, was a descendant
of the wife of the founder of the city Of
st. Louis, and Jacques CIamorgan, the
other partner. was a French Creole from
Guadalupe, educated at Paris, whose
dusky amours have given to st. Louis a
race of laundresses and BARRIERS like Shake
speare's Cuckoo buds of yellow hue"
OF the ancestor of Pierre Chouteau, Mr.
ingalls, says: "Laclede was a cercantile
adventurer of noble descent from Bor-
deaux, long domiciled in New Orleans.
where he had fallen victim to the volup-
fIIouS charms NJ ~, rbnn,aau t;,a wife
OF baker of bread and pies for the
| hungry, and a vendor of ale and wine for
the thirsty villagers. Monsieur Chouteau,
| the baker, was presumably a crusty fell
| low, neither we'll bread, nor in the -four Of
his youth: dough-faced loaf-er and a pie
bitter of the deepest dye. Be this as it
| may, madame preferred the plume and
sword of her dashing lover to the paper
| cap and rolling-pin of her liege lord, ard
| lit out in the summer Of 1863 with the ex-
petition for St. Genevieve, arriving ON No
vember 3, when they went into winter
quarters. After a careful examination of
| the topography of the country, Laclede
| selected the present site of st. Louis and
established a trading post February 10,
| 1854. erecting a large house and four stores
| on the levee. In due time he died, be-
queathing his name TO a street and hotel
| in the city he had founded Madam Chou
| teau long survived him. residing in st.
Louis until her death, leaving 4 numerous
| progeny of Chouteaus. and a lame that
| smells sweet and blossoms in the dust. She
was a woman of great strength of chardc-
| ter and marvellous personal beauty, ard
| ruled st. Louis with despotic sovereignty"
| From his landing at the present town
site of Atchison. Regis Loisel proceeded
to the Upper Missouri and established a
| trading post in what is now North Da-
kota. This he carried on between the years
1898 and 1904. having received from the
| governor of Upper Louisiana a grant Ct
land five by fifteen miles. In 1904 he de-
seconded the river to New Orleans for the
mining venture. and in this town he was
| taken sick and died. On his death bed he
made will in which he left his property
| to my daughters, Manette and Clementine
and to the child of which my wife il
| pregnant
The child born after Loisers death grew
to manhood, became a priest and Gied.
| The two daughters grew to womanhood.
became mothers and left numerous pro-
geny. After the death of Loisel his land
| grant was ostensibly sold to his executors
| for so. payable in shaved deerskins at
| 10 cents a pound. Contest arose over the
executors claim, and nothing was done
until congress, in 1858. passed an act au-
| thorizing the issue of a patent for SSH
| acres of land to the legal representatives
| of Loisel, to be located on any vacant
| lands of the United States. In 1859 these
lands were located in the counties of Mem
aha, Marshall. Jackson and Pottawatomie,
| in Kansas.
| Meanwhile" says ingalls,. legislatures
and generations of lawyers wrangled in
| frutless efforts to determine who was IN
titled to this imperial Observation-Disclosures
the title descended 10 the lineal descendants
| of the testator. or whether It passed in
! 1904 TO the executor. jacques ClamOrgan
by the alleged sale for twenty-five pounds
of shaved deer hides. that did not appear
to have been paid"
The drama finally closed in the courts
| of Nemaha county. Mr.. ingalls, himself
appeared as one of the attorneys in the
case. We think. for some of Loisel's de-