The Trapper’s Return, George Caleb Bingham, Detroit Institute of Arts
Drive west from Nixa, Missouri on Highway 14, and right before crossing the James River, you will encounter one of the earliest settlements in Southwest Missouri: Delaware Town. Delaware Town was named for the Lenape or Delaware tribe, who were relocated to the west of the Mississippi River in 1817 as part of treaty negotiations in exchange for tribal lands in what is today Ohio. Traditionally the James River valley had been part of the hunting grounds of the powerful Osage Nation, who ceded all land claims to the United States in an 1808 treaty which was negotiated by William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame.
By the early 1820s, the Lenape had moved from Ohio to along the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers to the James. Accompanying them was Joseph Philibert from Kaskaskia, Illinois, and William Gillis, who was employed by the Ste. Genevieve fur-trading firm of Menard and Valle. Ste. Geneviève is considered by many historians as the first permanent European settlement west of the Mississippi, part of the Illinois Country, or Upper Louisiana.
Many of its inhabitants, such as the Menard and Valle families, were originally from French Canada. The firm controlled the commerce in the Ozarks, including the fur trading “factories” at Delaware Town. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thousands of new American settlers rushed into the Louisiana Territory and soon became neighbors (sometimes unwelcome) of the Native American, French, and Spanish inhabitants of the area.
Delaware Town was composed of several smaller villages above and below the confluence of the James and Finley Rivers; each village was led by a sub-chief known as “Captain” (Captain Pipe’s Village, etc.) The Chief of the Lenape was William Anderson, born of a Lenape mother and Swedish father in Pennsylvania.
The Lenape lived in log structures like their European neighbors, although some lived in small round huts manufactured from cedar boughs and covered with grass or animal skins. They planted crops in fields along the James, but several floods washed away their crops such as corn and pumpkins. The Lenape wore European clothing, although they were frequently decorated with beads, metal bells, and glass. They hunted with European guns and used metal tools like hoes and axes, illustrating their dependence on years of trade with Europeans.
Besides farming and hunting, the Lenape also engaged in recreational activities like horse races; a large racetrack was located upstream near the confluence of the James and Wilson’s Creek. While the original location of Gillis’ trading post and residence is unknown, the late Senator and local historian Emory Melton stated that the main settlement was located on the east side of the James, almost due west of modern-day Nixa. Gillis’ home was a traditional “dog-trot” structure, with two “pens” or rooms and a gallery in between under a common roof. Each room had a chimney, window, and door. Evidence from an 1870 trial noted that two enslaved women lived in the dwelling, along with Gillis’ Part-First Nation, part-African interpreter, Baptiste Peoria. It is believed that Gillis, like many of his contemporaries, did take a Lenape woman for his wife, possibly to aid in business connections with the tribe.
As more Americans moved into the area, conflict soon arose. In 1826, William Marshall, who owned a trading post south of Gillis’, claim that Gillis was illegally trading “in the woods”. The U.S. Indian sub-agent, John Campbell, also dealt with American neighbors of the Lenape who traveled up the “Jeems” and began to settle nearby. The most famous example was the Yocum clan, who lived south of the Finley and soon began distributing their own currency, the legendary Yocum dollar. While legend claims the dollars were minted from a lost Spanish silver cache the Yocums were distilling peach brandy and selling it to the Lenape and then melting down their federal stipend to make their dollars.
Another nearby trader was James Wilson; like Gillis, Wilson came soon after the arrival of the Lenape and reportedly had a Native American wife at one time. It is believed that Wilson’s Creek is named for him, and some sources claim that he named Springfield for his hometown, Springfield, Massachusetts. After Wilson died in the early 1830s, his trading post was converted to a stagecoach stop and tavern along the Old White River Road by his widow. The tavern was operating during another relocation of Native Americans, the infamous “Trail of Tears”, which passed through Springfield and Southwest Missouri in the late 1830s. By then the Lenape had moved once again, this time along the Kansas River west of modern-day Kansas City.
The small village named Springfield soon found itself along several roads or traces, such as the White River Road, the Springfield-to-Fayetteville Road, and later, the Telegraph or Old Wire Road, named for the Telegraph Wire strung along it in the late 1850s. The Butterfield Overland Stage briefly used the road from Springfield to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, before being shut down by the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. On August 10 of that year, some 3,000 Federals and 12,000 Southern forces engaged in a 6-hour battle along the banks of Wilson’s Creek.
With the end of hostilities in 1865, the fields near the confluence of Wilson’s Creek and the James were again farmed by returning settlers. Today, the confluence is surrounded by “new” settlements encroaching from Nixa, Springfield, and Republic, and the “old” Ozarks meet the new at the confluence of natural and cultural history. All it takes is a float down the James to catch a brief glimpse of our past.
We’ll see you on the river.
Todd
Sources:
JRBP Member Event: Delaware Town - YouTube
