Eudora Community Heritage of Our USA Bicentennial, 1776-1976
History Committee, Eudora Becentennial Committee, 1977

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Pages 4-6

The history of the Eudora community must start when Spain claimed this area, which now is a part of the United States. Frence and Spain disputed the area for over 100 years. In 1673 France claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River, including the Kansas area.

Near the end of the French Indian War on November 3, 1762, France ceded to her ally, Spain, all the territory west of the Mississippi River plus New Orleans. Spain left the Kansas area to the native Indians, not settling here.

French explorers, coming up the Mississippi River in the 18th Century, visited the indians in the Kansas area. Accounts of these trips lacked detailed descriptions of the routes taken, but they generally followed Indian and animal trails along rivers. They wrote down some of the names of the Indian tribes they visited.

The Historical Atlas of Kansas (by H.I. Socolofsky and Self, 1972) establishes the earliest recorded route by French explorer Etienne de Bourgment through the Eudora area in 1824. Fur traders transversed Kansas from St. Louis to Santa Fe.

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, many early American settlers moved west of the Mississippi River and beyond for choice farm sites, expanding westward.

An official exploration of the Eudora area was done by the American explorer, Thomas Say, detachment of Major Stephen H. Long in 1819, when he followed the rivers from the Missouri to near Manhattan, Kansas, along the Kansas River. He must have come in a drought year since he called Kansas "The Great American Desert", which discouraged settlers from coming to Kansas for about 30 years.

During 1821-54 Kansas was considered unorganized territory and Indian country. Non-Indians were allowed to pass through the area at their own risk, but were not to settle on claims on the land.

Trailblazers

Jedediah S. Smith:

Jedediah Strong Smith was an early day trailblazer, fur trapper and map maker, who followed the Kansas River in the Eudora area in 1824, then went north to Nebraska. He spent the winter in a Pawnee Indian village, but later while excorting a wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail, he was killed by Comanche Indians at Wagon Body Springs in southwest Kansas in Seward County.

John C. Fremont:

"The Pathfinder of the West", John C. Fremont traversed the Eudora area in 1842 and later on, the Santa Fe Trail, as head of explorations. He made notes of the native vegetables and growth. Eudora had a mosaic of bluestem prairie grass with oak and hickory forest in the flood plain area.

Fremont was the first Republican candidate for President in 1856, but was defeated by President Buchanen.

Dr. Still , son of the Missionary Minister-Doctor, was a scout Surgeion at one time for General Fremont. Black Beaver of the Delaware Indian Tribe, across the Kaw river, also led Fremont to the Pacific. The trail from Westport ot Eudora was named Fremont-Westport Trail for the Pathfinder.

Buffalo Bill Cody:

Buffalo Bill passed along the Oregon, Fremont Trail as he has his name carved on a rock near the new highway #10 bridge being built over the Wakarusa, southwest of Eudora.

Jim Lane:

Abolitionist Jim Lane was recorded visiting Eudora.

 

 

Under Other Flags / Indian Lands / Oregon Trail / Mission / Becomes a City / Council Growth / Sad Years / Railroads / Business / Education / Eudora Schools / Area Schools / Religion / Ethnic Groups / Clearfield / Fall Leaf / Hesper / Prairie Center/ Weaver

Published by West Junior High, NEH project, with permission; Eudora Community Heritage, History Committee, Eudora Bicentennial Commission, 1977.