Small Town News

MISSION CREEK

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Wabaunsee and Shawnee Counties, Kansas

In 1829 the Kansa abandoned their large village near the junction of the Big Blue and Kansas rivers and divided into smaller villages in present Shawnee and Wabaunsee Counties. Two of these villages were near the mouth of a stream that had its headwaters near present Eskridge. The Kansa first called the stream Zandje-jinga, which means "small highland grove." This was also the name of a village on the stream. An eastern branch of the stream was called Ma-zegaxe-uli-be and a western Ma-ha-zi-ule.

In 1832 Frederick Chouteau, the youngest of longtime Indian trader Pierre Chouteau's eight sons, moved his government authorized trading post from Horseshoe Lake near present Lawrence to the mouth of Zandje-jinga. The Kansas began calling the stream Co-to jinga u-li-be, "where young Chouteau dwelt." Historians have called the two nearby Kansa villages "American Chief's village" and "Hard Chief's village." In an 1880 letter, Frederick Chouteau referred to the creek as "American Chief creek". Information obtained from the National Anthropological Archives, the source for these Kansa names, also reveals that the Kansa had their own name for Hard Chief's village. They called it Pasuli, "village on a hill-top." It was located where Valencia Road hits the bluff above the river.

In March of 1836 the Reverend William Johnson, representing the Missouri Methodist Conference, supervised a party of workmen in erecting two log cabins for a Kansa Methodist Mission about a mile south of the mouth of Co-to-jinga-u-li-be. Today, this would be somewhere near where Interstate 70 crosses the creek. By February of 1837 the mission consisted of a not yet completed hewed-log dwelling (36'xl8') a story and a half high; a kitchen, and a smoke house (each 18' x 18') under the same roof, with a 10-foot passageway between. The occupants were Rev. Johnson, his wife, Jane Chick Johnson and a farmer. A 20-acre fenced farm was ready for cultivation.

William Johnson remained at the mission until his death in 1842. That same year John Fremont's exploration party visited the mission and its location is shown on maps produced from their observations. The mission was maintained until the end of 1846, when the Kansa were moved to their diminished reservation near Council Grove. This move was part of a treaty that made the former Kansa land part of the newly created Po-tawatomi reservation.

Sometime after the construction of the Methodist Mission in 1836 the stream began to be called "Mission creek", the name it maintains today.



Copyright 2010 The Wabaunsee County Signal-Enterprise, Alma, Kansas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 The Wabaunsee County Signal-Enterprise Alma, Kansas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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