Doniphan started south into Mexico on a campaign of brilliant marches, battles and victories. Doniphan's most notable success was near Chihuahua where a force of about 1,000 Missourians defeated 4,000 Mexicans. From Chihuahua, Doniphan marched to Monterey where General Taylor had his headquarters. Doniphan's men proceeded to the mouth of the Rio Grande river where their march of nearly 3,000 miles was ended. The troops embarked for New Orleans where they were disbanded. Independence had two taverns in 1834, one owned by William Lawrence and the other by Leonard H. Rennich. Smallwood Noland succeeded Lawrence and after the house burned, February 19, 1845, he built on the same site the Merchants' hotel. E. P. West established the City hotel. Lewis Jones and J. W. Modie built the Nebraska house in 1849. While Francis Parkman was in Westport in the spring of 1846, making preparations for a western journey, he visited Independence. The historian gave this account of his visit to the county seat: "Being at leisure one day, I rode over to Independence. The town was crowded. A multitude of shops had sprung up to furnish the emigrants and Santa Fe traders with necessaries for their journey; and there was an incessant hammering and banging from a dozen blacksmiths' sheds, where the heavy wagons were being repaired, and the horses and oxen shod. The streets were thronged with men, horses and mules. While I was in town, a train of emigrant wagons from Illinois passed through to join the camp on the prairie, and stopped in the principal street. A multitude of healthy children's faces were peeping out from under the covers of the wagons. Here and there a buxom damsel was seated on horseback, holding over her sunburnt face an old umbrella or a parasol, once gaudy enough, but now miserably faded. The men, very sober looking countrymen, stood about their oxen; and as I passed I noticed three old fellows who, with their long whips in their hands, were zealously discussing the doctrine of regeneration. The emigrants, however, are not all of this stamp. Among them are some of the vilest outcasts in the country." The government opened a postoffice in Independence in 1827. The first overland mail route west of Missouri was established in 1850, between Independence and Salt Lake City, Utah, the distance of 1,200 miles. James Brown was given the government contract. The government awarded a contract the same year 1850, to David Waldo, Jacob Hale and William McCoy to carry the mail from Independence to Santa Fe. The first regular United States mail that was taken across the Missouri border left Independ ence for Salt Lake City, July 1, 1850, strongly guarded against attacks from the Indians. The undertaking was regarded as extremely hazardous at that time and when the mail carriers returned in safety the second month the event was celebrated in Independence with much rejoicing. The men successfully fulfilled their first four years' contract, demonstrating that a mail service to Santa Fe and other points in the West was practicable. The firm of Hockaday and Hall made this announcement of a new stage line in the Western Journal of Commerce in Kansas City, in 1857: "Santa Fe traders and those desirous of crossing the plains to New Mexico, are informed that the undersigned will carry the United States Mail from Independence to Santa Fe for four years, commencing on the first day of July, 1857, in stages drawn by six mules. "The stages will leave Independence and Santa Fe on the first and fifteenth of each month. They will be entirely new and comfortable for passengers, well guarded and running through each way, in from twenty to twenty-five days. Travelers to and from New Mexico will doubtless find this the safest and most expeditious and comfortable, as well as cheapest mode of crossing the plains. "Fare through: From November 1st to May 1st, $150.00; from May 1st to November 1st, $125. "Provisions, arms and ammunition furnished by the proprietors. "Packages and extra baggage will be transported when possible to do so, at the rate of twenty-five cents per pound in summer, and fifty cents in winter, but no package will be charged less than one dollar. "The proprietors will not be responsible for any package worth more than fifty dollars, unless contents given and specifically contracted for, and all baggage at all times at the risk of the owner thereof. "In all cases the passage money must be paid in advance, and passengers must stipulate to conform to the rules which may be established by the undersigned, for the government of their line of stages, and those traveling with them on the plains. "No passenger allowed more than forty pounds of baggage in addition to the necessary bedding. "Mr. Levi Spickleburg, at Santa Fe, and J. & W. R. Bernard & Company, at Westport, Missouri, and our conductor and agents are authorized to engage passengers and receipt for passage money. July 18, 1857. HOCKADAY AND HALL." Flour mills were in operation in the vicinity of Independence as early as 1835, one on the Little Blue river, eight miles from town, was owned by Michael Rice. A flour mill was built in Independence in 1846 by Jacob Hallar. Independence was incorporated July 20, 1849. The first mayor was William McCoy. The city charter and general ordinances were revised and re-enacted, November 1, 1878. |