Kansas City, Missouri

===After the Louisiana Purchase (1803)===
{{see also|Bleeding Kansas|History of slavery in Missouri}}
[[File:Kansas City in 1843, drawing from Centennial History of Oregon.png|thumb|In 1843, Kansas City was depicted in a history of [[Oregon]].]]
After the 1803 [[Louisiana Purchase]], [[Lewis and Clark]] visited the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, noting it was a good place to build a fort. In 1831, a group of [[Mormons]] from [[New York state]] led by [[Joseph Smith]] settled in what would become the city. They built the first school within Kansas City's current boundaries, but were forced out by [[mob violence]] in 1833, and their settlement remained vacant.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Ernest L. |title=Brigham Young University: The First 100 Years |location=Provo |publisher=BYU Press |year=1976 |volume=1 |page=7 }}</ref>

In 1831, Gabriel Prudhomme Sr., a Canadian trapper, purchased 257 acres of land fronting the Missouri River.  He established a home for his wife, Josephine, and six children. He operated a ferry on the river.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

In 1833, [[John Calvin McCoy|John McCoy]], son of [[Baptist]] missionary [[Isaac McCoy]], established [[Westport, Kansas City|West Port]] along the [[Santa Fe Trail]], {{convert|3|mi|km|abbr=off|adj=off|sp=us}} away from the river. In 1834 McCoy established [[Westport, Kansas City|Westport Landing]] on a bend in the Missouri to serve as a landing point for West Port. He found it more convenient to have his goods offloaded at the Prudhomme landing than in Independence.  Several years after Gabriel Prudhomme's death, a group of fourteen investors purchased his land at auction on November 14, 1838. By 1839, the investors divided the property and the first lots were sold in 1846 after legal complications were settled. The remaining lots were sold by February 1850.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

In 1850, the landing area was incorporated as the Town of Kansas.<ref>{{cite web | title=Why is Kansas City located in Missouri instead of Kansas? | url=http://www.kclibrary.org/kchistory/why-kansas-city-located-missouri-instead-kansas | access-date=January 2, 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716232838/http://www.kclibrary.org/kchistory/why-kansas-city-located-missouri-instead-kansas | archive-date=July 16, 2010 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> By that time, the Town of Kansas, Westport, and nearby [[Independence, Missouri|Independence]], had become critical points in the [[Territorial acquisitions of the United States|westward expansion]] of the United States. Three major [[Historical roads and trails of the United States|trail]]s – the [[Santa Fe Trail|Santa Fe]], [[California Trail|California]], and [[Oregon Trail|Oregon]] – all passed through Jackson County.

On February 22, 1853, the City of Kansas was created with a newly elected mayor. It had an area of {{convert|0.70|sqmi|km2}} and a population of 2,500. The boundary lines at that time extended from the middle of the Missouri River south to what is now Ninth Street, and from Bluff Street on the west to a point between Holmes Road and Charlotte Street on the east.<ref>{{cite web | title=Early City Limits | url=http://images.kclibrary.org/localhistory/media.cfm?mediaID=95980 | access-date =September 11, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927175946/http://images.kclibrary.org/localhistory/media.cfm?mediaID=95980 |archive-date = September 27, 2007}}</ref>