Westport High School - Herald Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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20 Tl-IE wEsTPoRT H1oH SCHOOL HERALD- ! W ,Z A ft I .,f,.-f...,,....,,,.,.f 1. . if 'T 'A' ' ' ' 1 . -.' .. -vw ,li f . M..- l 1,4-N A, W' Q 43 ,f W .. .Z ,- I fi ,V J? V' tn, 'X W. wa... 7. M M . va , Q wi-W fr 'Mk5,.x.,7,a..-aww-3 ' .. .. . v ,,,W,,,,.V..,x sm. if '44 3 4 A ua... 'fi Xl , f,jQ 4 714- A THE PORT and is very deep, forming an excellent port. The town was started off with a boom. Men with their families poured in. Many thought it would become the great commercial cen- ter of the West. The town was platted out into 5,355 lots and the construction of a levee commenced. A landing-place about a quarter of a mile long and from one hundred and sixty to two hundred and forty feet wide was built along the water front. At either end of this, reser- vations were made for mills, factories and even railroad shops, so great were the ex- pectations of the founders. Quindaro was to be the county seat, and perhaps the capi- tal of the state. A large public square was reserved so there would be a suitable place for municipal, county and state buildings. Extremely wide avenues were laid out and these were all lettered and numbered. A few rods from the river a stone hotel with forty guest rooms was built. It was one of the prides of the town and even of the state. Many substantial houses were going up and Quindaro was becoming a Queen City of the VVest.f' A newspaper was started. It was called the Chindowan after on Indian name meaning leader. The editor was an energetic man, just the right kind to boost a new town. This paper was distributed throughout eastern circles. 'It created interest and brought in eastern money and inliuence. Even Horace Greely declared that Quindaro would be the great metropolis of the middle West. VVarehouses were built for the storage of goods the steamboats would bring in, and indeed they soon began to make bi-weekly trips between this town and St. Louis. A public fund was raised to encourage industries, Out of this fund a ferry was established between Park- ville and Quindaro. Another part was set aside to encourage railroads to build through the town. Civic growing tions an there. 3 as if the The tow democra were bu lt was a lots wel that wo' Quint tory has false. if the tow came, a Lincoln vivors 1 The rai ests he Kansas centerQ Quin

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the dark- Ll resented l, by driv- precedent he lowest s monarch their part the stage estions of the atten- zm one of ng of the ital. The e problem 7 men to a eased cost ' the pres- n aroused gh strikes, Lccomplish reasure in fere right. 1as settled otherwise lusso-Jap- inder the ' character ie greatest itandpoint, e achieve- ibel Peace ion of the last fifty Jwing and the -public 2 point of is typical that have ights. Like fr the gen- 'owth, will n the end, n the past THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. I9 Thus. through all the ages, along with the intellectual development of man, there has come to his soul that spirit of righteous resist- ance to injustice and wrong. Revolutions and wars may come and gog kings may be created and dethroned, but the invincible soul of man still marches on in progress toward the light, toward the right, toward liberty in conformity to law. May it be that the day will come when the cause of righteous revolution will lead us where the war drums throb no longer and the battle flags are furled in the parliament of man, the federation of the worldf' GENEVIEVE M. HERRICK, 'l1. Old Qtlindaro OUBTLESS you have at some time stood upon the roof of one of Kan- sas City's skyscrapers and viewed the vast city spread out below you. One may look in almost any direction, and as far as the eye can see, the city stretches on. One hears the hum of business life, sees the bustling activity of a vast city, and feels a certain sense of pride that they belong to a vital, throbbing community. But such a city as this does not spring up in a night. lt requires growth and development. Many of us little realize that this city was com- menced three miles above the present site, but because of the misplaced judgment of its founders, soon became overshadowed by the rising city further down the river. ln the early part of the last century it was a common everyday occurrence for a town to spring up and gain prominence in a short time, Ours was a building nation. lt was a time of expansion. The country was beginning to grasp hold of the mighty Rockies, reaching out on the one hand to the Gulf and on the other to the Great Lakes. . Cities were being built numerously. Some have gone down to utter ruin, while others have become the pulsating centers of the great XYest. There is no chapter in Kansas history that is more pathetic than that which tells of the rise and fall of some of the early towns. Today they exist only in the memory, or perhaps ruins bear a silent tes- timony to the misplaced judgment of brave and loyal men. Such was Quindaro, founded in 1856, by men eager for the building of a nation. Kan- sas at this time was a state much embroiled in political issues, but the greatest question was whether Kansas should be a free or a slave state. This was left to her own dis- cretion, and as a result both free and slave- holding men poured into her territory. Those were the blackest days in all the an- nals of Kansas' history. 'Men of both sides ravaged, burned and even slew for their cause, such was their advocacy. The men who first came and settled Quin- daro were Free State men from New Eng- land, men who were brawny and fearless, men who held a religion and a faith grounded in firm and deep principles. These men knew what it meant to leave their comfortable New England abodes for homes on the Kansas frontier. They realized what it meant to leave a peaceful community to enter into a border warfare. But they were men of principle, of religion, who, if neces- sary, would lay down their lives that their principles might be sustained. The Free State men wanted a t'Port of Entryn of their own on the Missouri River. Leavenworth and Wlestport Landing were either neutral or dominated by Southern sympathizers. The town was called Quin- daro after the name of 'one of the settlers. The river at this point makes a big bend,

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v w..., Q1 PM :WA .J . flwgfzf' X 1 even of tses were :oming a ewspaper hindowan ier. The the right raper was rcles. 'It 1 eastern ce Greely the great arehouses 'oods the :leed they s between fund was ut of this een Park- t was set :l through THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. ZI Civic spirit ran high. The town was growing by rapid strides. State conven- tions and denominational assemblies met there. More families flocked in. It looked as if the founders' hopes were to be realized. The town government was of the pure, clean, democratic New England type. Churches were built and a public school established. lt was a temperance town from the first, and lots were sold with a clause in the deeds that would keep it so. Quindaro started off with a boom, but his- tory has shown us that the indications were false. At the very time when the growth of the town demanded its men, the Civil Wlar came, and the men being true followers of Lincoln, left for the front. When the sur- vivors returned, the town had ceased to be. The railroad had left her, and men's inter- ests had turned in another direction, for Kansas City was fast becoming a business center. Quindaro was forgotten, became a part of the past. The ruins of this old town are just outside of Kansas City, Kansas. It is but an hour's walk up the river, and it would pay anyone to take the trip. Out there one forgets the city and its busy life. One can see the same hills and the same streams that greeted the first pioneer of Quindaro. VValking along the foot of those bluffs, fol- iage-covered as they are, one is not surprised that men were attracted to the spot. Below one lies the Missouri, running slugglishly along. You become engrossed in the scen- ery and reach Quindaro before you realize it. VVhat is left of the old town sets back in a ravine some few rods from the river, there being only three or four old ruins left. Al- most hidden beneath a mass of creeping, thick-leaved vines, inhabited by owls and bats, infested with snakes and insects, the gray walls are slowly crumbling-down' from age and decay. The most prominent ruin is that of the THE OLD FORT