When Westport was a dry town

By Diane Euston

  Today, Westport is a destination. Although it houses a population of eclectic individuals who prefer urban living near unique shops and restaurants, the bulk of the business to the area is encompassed around entertainment. With flagship staples such as Kelly’s Westport Inn – an iconic bar in operation under several names since Prohibition was lifted in 1934 – the town is today linked to libations, good food and local entertainment. 

  But a closer look at the town shows its uniqueness to the city that grew around it. Oftentimes, Westport, founded in 1833, is referred to as the mother of Kansas City. Its narrower streets, built parallel to the Santa Fe Trail, are highlighted by a slew of independent businesses that cater to customers during the day and transform into a go-to nightlife destination at dusk.

  But the history of Westport tells of a dusty little town that didn’t always comply to what was popular at the time. Even before the town replaced Independence as the outfitting capital of the west in the late 1840s, there was an interesting incident which had Westport businesses agreeing to abandon the sale of booze. 

  The reasons for this ban – and the aftermath when one man opted to defy the orders – tell of a curious time of Westport’s past. And, this incident wasn’t the last time Westport was consecrated as a dry town.

Before Westport

  There can’t be a conversation about the early history of the area without John Calvin McCoy (1811-1889). The son to Baptist missionary Rev. Isaac McCoy, Calvin came to the area when his father was in charge of platting out land in current-day Kansas to relocate Native American tribes.

  Between 1830 and 1834, Calvin assisted his father in 10 different surveys of lands west of Missouri. After one of their exhibitions in June 1832, Rev. McCoy made the decision to buy 50 acres of land in Jackson County, Mo. a half mile east of the state line. He built a two-story log cabin, planted locust trees and a rose garden. The homestead became known as “Locust Hill.” The house sat at current-day 43rd and Wornall where St. Luke’s Hospital is today.

  The first white settlers of the area had arrived in the area about 1821 with Francois Chouteau. As his family had done for generations prior in St. Louis, Francois was stationed near the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers so that he and his companions could continue to trade with Native American tribes being relocated.

  There was another early settler to the area that was already capitalizing trade with Native Americans and the nearby Santa Fe Trail. Daniel Yoacham (1798-1846) and his wife, Roseannah (1799-1849) came to the area in about 1823. Roseannah’s first cousin, John Campbell, was an Indian sub-agent. Family lore states that “when they arrived here, they had worn out their shoes and had walked the last part of the trip barefooted.”

  Daniel chose a location in about 1827 that was located near a spring in a little valley at the current-day northwest corner of Westport Ave. and Mill Streets. The first building the Yoachams erected was a one-story log cabin with two or three rooms. He used it as a tavern, a term used to apply to early hotels in sparsely-settled areas.

 The Early Town of Westport  

 As John Calvin McCoy arrived on the scene, he saw the possibility of a town near Yoacham’s tavern. In 1833, he built a two-story log building on the northeast corner of current-day Westport Road and Pennsylvania to serve as a trading post and residence. He began a lucrative business trading with Native Americans, mountain men and wagon trains going out west.

  The following year, Calvin purchased land and platted the town of Westport. The road to Independence, the center of outfitting for the Santa Fe Trail, passed through the new town in a southwesterly direction, giving the town a “crookedness” we see today. The Kansas City Star wrote in 1934, “Merchants and property owners in the district who complain today Westport is one of the crookedest streets in Kansas City may find [the Santa Fe Trail] the source of their annoyance.” 

  About this same time, Yoacham expanded his business and a two-story addition was built. Adrienne Christopher late wrote, “While not a pretentious place, the tavern had a large main room on the first floor, equipped with a bar, shelves and counter for the sale of merchandise. A steep staircase led to the center of three rooms on the second floor. The roof extended out over the two-story porch across the south side, and fireplaces were at each end of the building.”

  McCoy lamented later about the sale of lots in his newly-formed town. “I advertised by handbills a great public sale of lots, and it proved one sure enough, the highest bid for any lot, 75×140 feet, being $14. Oh, what a parody was that on booms!” He couldn’t sell most of the lots in town due to its isolation, so Calvin told people he would give them a lot if they promised to build on it.

  Attracting businessmen wasn’t the only problem; getting merchandise out to the wilderness was paramount. Steamboats would dock at the time at Wayne City Landing near Independence and unload there. That meant for a 14-mile trip one-way to pick up goods to sell. 

  In 1834, Calvin McCoy found a solution. He convinced the captain of the steamboat John Hancock to travel down further west to a flat rock landing near where the Chouteau’s had established a trading post and where a ferry crossing was in operation. 

  This flat rock landing at the foot of current-day Grand Ave. was only four miles north of Westport, thus cutting days of dangerous travel. After a successful docking by the John Hancock, Calvin could see that there could be a future at this rock landing. It became known as “Westport Landing.” 

  A road led south from Chouteau’s trading post and hooked into the Santa Fe Trail. Calvin later wrote, “I reasoned it out that eventually steamboats would be coming up the mouth of the Kaw, and the intersection where my store stood would be an outfitting place for people across the plains.”

  Calvin was right, but it still would take some time for the town of Westport to take off. 

  According to Susan Yoacham Dillon (1830-1912), daughter of Daniel Yoacham, the early town of Westport “was all tents and looked nearly like the resting place of an army. Few buildings went up. Nearly all the arrivals came with tents and lived in them while waiting for a cavalcade of soldiers for safety going through the plains and over the mountains.” At the time in early Westport history, there were no escorts for traders; soldiers were used to provide “indirect protection” for traders.

  The first post office was established a few miles southwest of Westport and was called “Shawnee.” In about 1833, the post office was moved to Westport to John Calvin McCoy’s store. Mail was carried from Independence once a week by horseback.

  Westport had few permanent structures by the late 1830s, and the isolation of the town made it hard to sell the idea of a commercial outfit. In 1836, William Miles Chick (1794-1847) arrived on the scene with his wife and family. His son, Washington Henry “W.H.” Chick (1826-1918) later wrote, “When we settled in Westport there were probably not over 50 persons living in the town.” 

  William Miles Chick purchased McCoy’s two-story log building and began operation of a general store. He also continued to run the post office from the store, and by about 1839, a road was built across the state and mail was brought by stagecoach from St. Louis twice a week.

  It appeared that the town had some possibility.

Eliminating Alcohol from Westport in 1839

  At the center of early Westport’s economy was the trade with Native American tribes. As part of the various Native American treaties for the cession of lands to the east, the government promised annuities, or fixed payments in cash and goods, to tribal members. When annuities were paid, members of the tribes would often spend their money in Westport.

  W.H. Chick wrote, “The trade at that time was with Indians, Shawnees and Delawares, principally, but many other tribes did much of their trading in town.”

  Trade wasn’t just for the essentials. “The Indians were very fond of whiskey, and, as the dealers were ready to supply them, they drank heavily,” Chick explained. “I have seen as many as 100 drunken Indians in the town at one time riding their ponies at full speed, greatly to the danger of pedestrians.”

  Nelly McCoy Harris (1840-1926), John C. McCoy’s daughter, also noted this “dangerous” period of time. “The Indians of several tribes whose reservations nearby touched the town would come in, get crazy drunk and ride through the streets whooping like madmen,” she wrote in 1914.

  The fact that two historians (W.H. Chick and Nelly McCoy Harris) later recalled this event in Westport’s history and wrote it down indicates how important this event was to the town. In addition, court cases related to the event prove to fill in some of the blanks of when Westport became a dry town in 1839.

  According to court records, the event unfolded on February 1, 1839 on Lot 25 in the town of Westport near current-day Westport Road and Broadway. Leading up to this day, citizens of Westport gathered to discuss the whiskey issue and decided that the merchants of the town would no longer sell alcohol. The businessmen handed over their liquor “to dispose of as they saw fit.”

  It’s more than likely that these men weren’t willing to just let citizens, also fans of whiskey, decide what to do with the booze. W.H. Chick claimed that they asked merchants to turn it over with the idea that the booze would be later restored to them.

  Regardless, about a half dozen men complied, but there was one holdout. Although unnamed in both historians’ accounts, the man who refused to stop serving booze was James Welch (cir. 1773-1855). 

  James Welch and his wife came to the area in about 1820 and settled on Sniabar Creek, where, according to the 1881 “History of Jackson County, Missouri,” he “never wore a coat, but his hunting shirt and pants constituted his outer garments, he carried in his belt a hunting knife and sometimes a tomahawk. He hunted deer and bear and was considered a good marksman.”

  James Welch also appeared to possess an enterprising spirit of a true pioneer. In 1826, he took up a claim in today’s East Bottoms near Scarritt’s Point, where, according to John Calvin McCoy, “[Welch] was not especially industrious, although he possessed a certain amount of mechanical ingenuity.” He erected a mill where the family put corn in it at night so the meal or corn hash was ready in the morning. But, according to McCoy, “It happened that ‘possums were just as fond of cornmeal and on one particular morning they found only ‘possum hash.”

  The mill may have ground corn, but it also ground the animals looking for a snack. 

  James Welch tried his hand at operating a grocery store in Westport that made a great deal of money off of the sale of liquor. As everyone else had agreed to stop the sale of booze, Welch wasn’t willing to stop.

  A young man named William A. Jack (1816-1894) gathered with “somewhere between 30 and 50 men” outside of the grocery store.  Welch opened the door, armed with an axe in his hand, and said “he would kill the first man attempting to enter his door.” 

  William Jack cried out, “My Daddy sent me here to represent him and he expects me to do something, an I’m going to do it!” 

  At that moment, 23-year-old William Jack picked up a pole or log in the street and put it on his shoulder, stating, “I must do it. Come on, boys!” as he approached the doorway where a 60-something year old James Welch stood, axe in hand. 

  W.H. Chick wrote, “[William Jack] made a run for the door, knocked [James Welch] down and the door into kindling wood. They rolled the whiskey into the street.” 

  Nelly McCoy Harris claimed that James Welch was tied down and “then the men rolled his liquor barrels into the street and with his axe knocked in the heads of the barrels and firewater flowed undisturbed along (now) Broadway south from Westport [Road].”

  The mob assembled and dispersed in quick order when the men after the deed “retired peacefully to their homes.” 

  Men were charged with “breaking and entering” and harassing James Welch “for two whole days.” Those charged were William Miles Chick, Drury and Greenup Dodson, Charles Findley, Samuel Hensley, William Jack, Robert Johnson, John Calvin McCoy, James M. Simpson and Alphonso Van Bibber. They ranged in profession from merchants to blacksmiths, all “upstanding” citizens of Westport. Court records reveal a few more details as to what was destroyed. It wasn’t just whiskey lost in the raid of the grocery store.

  The list of destroyed items in Welch’s store showcases a bit of what was present in a grocery store in the 1830s and the refined palate of its patrons: “250 gallons of whiskey, 30 gallons of French brandy, 30 gallons of peach brandy, 30 gallons of run, 30 gallons of sweet wine, 40 gallons of Holland gin, 20 gallons of lime juice, 36 bottles of cognac brandy, eight bottles of champagne, 36 bottles of cherry brandy, 35 decanters, 60 bottles of Malaga wine, 60 bottles of claret wine, 40 gallons of cider, 30 glass jars, 200 pounds of tobacco, 100 pounds of allspice, 100 pounds of pepper, one cast stove, one set of scales and weights, 12 cut glass tumblers, 20 casks, 12 pounds indigo, six pounds nutmeg, 36 packs playing cards, 8 grosses of matches, and two water buckets.”

  The value given was $2,000.

  While the stories indicate the booze was dumped into the streets, the recorded depositions of those accused state that they carried it off “a convenient distance” and that James Welch still had “access to it.” 

  The likelihood of this being true is slim.

  After years of battles in the courts for compensation and criminal liability, the Westport merchants named were found to be responsible for only $200 in damages in 1841, two years after the town went dry. A criminal court grand jury found them guilty and fined them $4.92 each.

  The cry for Westport to be a dry town, albeit a dramatic incident of early history, did apparently work. W.H. Chick claimed, “This, for a time, settled the saloon business of Westport, but soon the saloon again opened, but were disposed to be more careful about selling to the Indians, and Westport enjoyed a season of quiet.”

  Westport merchants continued business as usual through the 1840s, catapulted as a major outfitting town through the Mexican-American War and the California Gold Rush. Whiskey continued to flow yet again. Historian Francis Parkman wrote in 1846, “[Whiskey] circulates more freely in Westport than is altogether safe in a place where every man carries a loaded pistol in his pocket.” 

  By 1857, the town had a population of about 5,000, and boasted 61 commercial businesses, three hotels, two churches, three schools, one newspaper, and 12 lawyers and doctors.

Another Season of Prohibition

  Westport was annexed to Kansas City in 1897 as the town to the north exploded after the Civil War into a metropolis. 

  At the turn of the last century, Westport was more of a residential area than a commercial one. There was a temperance movement across the country, and Kansas City wasn’t immune from its influence; leaders were hellbent on limiting saloons from residential areas.

  At the top of their list in 1913 was the Westport neighborhood where seven saloons operated. Five of them were on Westport Road between Washington and Pennsylvania, and two were on Pennsylvania between Westport Road and Archibald.

  The Anti-Saloon League sent out brochures to area merchants titled “Are Westport Saloons Good for Business?” Also against the seven saloons was the 850-member Westport Community League who wished to limit saloons around them.

  The newspaper reported, “The largest grocery stores serving Westport are not located on Westport Avenue in the center of the district, but at other points. Their owners know that women, who do the family buying, will not brush by a saloon crowd to reach the grocery.”

  Despite initial efforts, the police board renewed all seven liquor licenses in July 1913. Ministers leading the charge took it to court, but the action lost on appeal. The police commissioners, according to the Kansas City Journal, “probably argue that the saloons were a part of Westport long before there any Kansas City or any question of ‘residence section’ as differing from ‘business section.’”

  They weren’t wrong, I’d say!

  A battle continued within the county and circuit courts, often with each overruling the other. 

  The Women’s Christian Temperance Union joined the fight at the end of 1913 to close these saloons in Westport, but the licenses were renewed with one stipulation: the commissioners promised not to grant any more liquor licenses in Westport after July 3, 1914. The bars, it seemed, weren’t welcome in Westport anymore.

  Temperance turned into full-blown Prohibition across the country just six years later, shuttering the legal sale of alcohol in saloons across the city. But Kansas City certainly never was a dry town- and nor was its mother, Westport.

From a Dry Town to an Entertainment District

  When Prohibition ended in 1934, current-day Kelly’s Westport Inn at 500 Westport Road was given a liquor license and operated as The Wrestler’s Inn. And yes, there were wrestling matches inside the oldest building standing in Kansas City.

  Westport was back to its roots!

  The location became known later as Westport Inn in 1947 and is an entertainment and libation destination known far and wide today as Kelly’s Westport Inn, operated by the Kelly family to this day.

  Westport needed revitalization, and in the 1970s, redevelopment in the area led to the opening of several other spots – all aimed at entertaining. The area turned into exactly what was once shunned by Westport’s predecessors. The once-residential neighborhood of the early 1900s morphed into a district that didn’t necessarily care about the historic charm of the town. We lost many landmark buildings that once stood in its heyday as the area transformed into bars, restaurants and shops.

  In 2018, the Westport Regional Business League, Historic Kansas City Foundation, and the City of Kansas City worked together to develop a long-term plan for Westport to ensure there is more protection of the character and appearance of this place.

  Looking at Westport today, it’s impossible to imagine it without draft beer, craft cocktails and unique food offerings. It’s part of its identity, and just over 175 years ago, the town’s leaders tried to shut down all the fun being had by the patrons of the area.

  Suffice it to say that Westport will never be a dry town again. It’s in her DNA.