The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-30

trade at that place were washed away.
 I don't know where they came from but
 several houses came down the stream
 from up the Kaw river, but most of the drift was large trees that had been
 uprooted by the waves.
 Soon after the exodus to Kansas be- gan, there were fully 1000 Wyandotte Indians in old Wyandotte. They elect ed silas Armstrong chief of the tribe and he held that place until his death. Chief Armstrong secured the titled to 4e0 acres of land in the bottoms, in- cluding the present site of the Armour packing house, and also farm of 400 acres, where Grandview addition to Kansas City. Kan. now is. The Wy andotte holdings extended as far west asMuncie, Kan. and part of the land was bought of the Deleware Indians who still owned land farther West. A tribe of Shawnee Indians were also To- cated north and west of the lands of the Wyandottes.
 . 'Silas Armstrong, formed a barter ship with William Overton, and built
 a mill in the woods near where the
 Missouri Pacific shops now stand. Here
 they turned out the umber with which the first permanent houses in Wyan-
 dotte were built. With a part of this
 lumber. Silas Armstrong built the first
 dry goods store room in Kansas City,
 Mo, and operated it for several years
 in partnership with Joseph Chick. Soon
 after this Armstrong built the first
 brick building in Wyandotte, a rart of
 which now forms the walls of the brick
 store building at the northwest corner
 of Fifth street and Minnesota avenue and occupied by clothing store" Mrs. Thomas although only young girl at the time, has a vivid recollec- tion of the days of border warefare in Kansas.
 My father at that time owned pom toon bridge of logs which he had thrown across the Kaw river near the present location of the Central aveen- ue bridge" she said. We heard that Price was coming by forced marches to raid Wyandotte. My father, when the news reached him, went to the river and with the assistance of number of men drew the east end of the bridge
 
 the river and found the bridge impas- sible he turned about with his men and wents back to Westport, saving us, doubtless, from bloody battle and probably a massacre. Many of the ablebodied men of our tribe were away fighting on the Northern side in the border warfare Whenever we would hear a knock at he door of one of our houses the women always answered the call, as it were not safe for a man to do so. Bands of guerrilla inarauders passed through our lands occasionally and stole everything they could get their hands on, and we suffered great ly until the close of the civil war Mrs. Thomas relates many interests | ing stories illustrative of the high state of civilization out of the wilds of na- ture Most of the members of the tribe were church members, and the largest number of them belonged to the Methodist Episcopal denomination, all although some affiliated with the An geliean and Catholic churches. The first place of worship built by the Wy andottes stood in Huron place and be- longed to the Methodist Episcopal church, South. A Methodist Episcopal church, North, stood near the present location of White Church west of Kan sas City, Kas
 Mrs Thomas says during her early womanhood in Wyandotte she nor any member of her tribe ever knew what it was to suffer on account of poverty. Each of us, said Mrs. Thomas, ire ceived $100 twice a year from the gov- ernment There were fourteen mem bers of my fathers family so that you
 see we received $2,S0O a year without putting forth a greater effort than that required in drawing the money. My father, Silas Armstrong, used to dis I tribute the government money each six | months to the members of the tribe | The money was all in gold, and we hat several thousand dollars at time We never thought of locking the doors al | night, and we never lost a dollar of the
 money by reason of thieves
 | Mrs. Thomas is a good example ot
 Indian hardihood. Although she has ] already passed the limit of three score
 and ten years, she looks no older thar