Public the public build ings are Convention Hall, which will seat 12.000 persons, city hall, county courthouse, postoffice, public library, many large modern office build ings, large theatres and also libraries and read ing-rooms. The public library, art gallery and museum, located at Ninth and Locust streets. cost $500,000 and is under the management of the board of education. There are 260,000 vol umes in the library, paintings in the art gal lery of the value of $200,000 and a rare collec tion of natural history specimens in the mu seum which is especially rich in Indian curios. There are 40 hospitals, asylums and homes.
Public The present public school system was organized August 1867 and in Oc tober of that year the schools were formally opened in rented rooms. Bonds were issued, sites were purchased and schoolhouses erected.
Sixteen teachers were employed during the first year and about 1,200 pupils were enrolled. From this small beginning the school district has been enlarged till there are 130 elementary and high schools, including a junior college, with buildings, including sites valued at $11, 500,000; with an enrolment of 51,994 pupils, of whom 6,427 are in the four high schools, being the largest per cent of high school pupils in any city in the United States having a popu lation of more than 100,000 inhabitants. There are 1,400 teachers employed in the public schools. The public library in which there are 105 persons employed is also under the control of the board of education. In addition to the public school system there are 60 other schools of various kinds, including private and parochial schools, medical and dental colleges, commercial schools, a school of oratory, fine arts and an excellent school of law. The cost of operating the schools and public library is $2,575,000.
Tice number of churches in Kan sas City is 379. The religious organizations now number: Baptist 78, Catholic 46, Chris tian 28, Church of Christ Scientist 6, Congre gational 13, Jewish 9, Lutheran 17, Methodist Episcopal 82, Presbyterian 27, Protestant Epis copal 15, Reorganized latter Day Saints 15, miscellaneous 43.
The name is derived from an In dian tribe that formerly occupied and owned much of this section of the country, their title to which was extinguished in 1808, except for a narrow strip of land 24 miles wide lying east ward of the State line from Fort Clarke, later known as Fort Osage, and extending south ward to the Arkansas River. The Indians re linquished their title to this strip of land in 1825 and in it lies nearly all of Jackson County. Trading-posts had been established at different points along the Missouri River from 1765 to 1809 as far upward as what is now Saint Joseph by adventurous French trap pers and traders who first explored much of this western country. The settlers who had been checked at the eastern limit of the Kan sas Indian Reservation made a general rush into the newly-acquired purchase. In 1826 a census was taken with the view of forming a county organization, which was effected 15 De cember in the same year. Prior to this date, however, Daniel Morgan Boone, third son of Daniel Boone, the noted pioneer, came from Kentucky in 1787 to Saint Louis, where he made his home for 12 years, residing there during the summers, but in winters hunting and trapping beaver chiefly on the Big and Little Blue, in Jackson County. It was reserved for
Lewis and Clarke to give the first distinct ac count of the country at the mouth of the Kan sas River, dated 26 June 1804. In 1800 Louis Barthelot, known in the early history as Grand Louis, moved from Saint Charles, Mo., and set tled at the mouth of the Kansas River, his wife being the first white woman to have a home on the present site of Kansas City. In 1821, the Chouteaus (q.v.) established a camp opposite Randolph Bluffs. In 1825 the Jesuit fathers organized a mission near the mouth of the Kansas River and built a small log house near the foot of what is now Troost avenue, iust below the bluff, where they wor shipped for several years. A flood in 1826 de stroyed Chouteau's trading-post, the first per manent white settlement within the corporate limits of Kansas City. These settlers were trappers, traders, laborers and voyagers with i their families. Father Roux came in 1830 and took charge of the congregation and five years later he purchased from a Canadian French man a tract of 40 acres upon the hill adjoining the present site of the Roman Catholic cathe dral and the bishop's residence. A part of this tract was cleared of the heavy timber and a log church was erected, and here the congre gation, composed chiefly of French-Canadians and half-breeds, scattered over more than 400 square miles, worshipped for 20 years. As soon as the Indian land was purchased settlers poured into it from the settlements east of it. What is now the busiest part of Kansas City was called at first Westport Landing. The town of Westport was platted in 1833 and lies about four miles south of the landing on the Missouri River. Kansas City proper, that is, 250 acres of land, was laid out in town blocks and lots in 1838, but owing to a disagreement among the stockholders the project was aban doned till 1846, when a new company was formed who advertised and sold 150 lots. The town began to grow and soon had 600 inhabit ants. At this time the chief agency in build ing up the new town was the trade with the In dians and with New Mexico. Besides the French settlers who had established themselves in the vicinity of what is now Kansas City was James H. McGee, who came here in 1828 and whose family was prominently identified with the early history and development of this part of Missouri. Prior to 1828 the only means of crossing the Missouri River at this point was by canoes, but that year a ferry was estab lished, so that the few settlers could cross the river to take their corn to a horse-mill on the north side of the, river.
The population in 1838 was 300; 1880, 55,785; 1900, 163,750; 1918, 313,785. The population of Greater Kansas City, which includes Kansas City, Kan., Independence, Mo., and Rosedale, Kam, is 450000. Consult Case, 'History of Kansas City' 0888); Miller, 'His tory of Kansas City) (1881).