The Reverend Isaac McCoy, a missionary to the Indians east of the Mississippi, journeyed to Washington to propose the removal of his charges to western reservations beyond the influence of white settlements. His proposal was favorably received and, in the main, Kansas was selected to provide the reservations, for it was still thought of as desert country and of no value.
In 1825 the Government arranged treaties with the Osage and Kansa, whereby they gave up their lands in eastern Kansas to make way for the emigrant tribes. The first allotment was granted to the Shawnees; then in rapid succession came the Delaware in 1829; the Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Kaskaskia, Peoria, Wea, and Piankeshaw in 1832; the Sauk and Fox and the Iowa in 1836; the Miami in 1840; and the Wyandot in 1843. All were crowded onto small reservations in the eastern part of the State.
With them came the missionaries, who had already taught them the rudiments of civilization. Two Presbyterian missions had been established in 1820 for the Osage, the Union on the Neosho River and the Harmony on the Marais des Cygnes. In the spring of 1827 Daniel Morgan Boone, son of Daniel Boone, was sent by the Government to teach farming to the Kansas Indians occupying the southern part of Jefferson County. There he established his family, the first white family in the Territory; his son, Napoleon, born August 22, 1828, was the first white child to be born within the State. In 1829 the Reverend Thomas Johnson introduced Methodism to the Shawnee, establishing a mission near the present town of Turner in Wyandotte County. Four years later the Reverend Jotham Meeker brought the first printing press to the Shawnee Baptist Mission, and on February 24, 1835, he published the first issue of the Shawnee Sun, the first newspaper in Kansas.
By 1830 trading posts were scattered throughout eastern and central Kansas, reaching from the Platte to the Red River. Within a few years, ferries were strung across the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, roads were cut along the ridges, patches of farm land were cleared and planted, and cabin homes fringed the highways. All this was the work of the Indians, under direction of missionaries and Government agents.
Captain William Becknell had made the first successful trade journey to Santa Fe in 1821, establishing the route of the Santa Fe Trail. Twelve months later he led the first wagon train along the trail, beginning the valuable commerce of frontier days. As a midway course between Benton's proposals for western development and the opposing view, Congress authorized the survey and marking of the Santa Fe Trail in 1825. Fort Leavenworth was established as "Cantonment Leavenworth" in May, 1827. Westport (now Kansas City, Missouri) became a depot on the Santa Fe Trail in 1833, and ten years later the city of Wyandot (Kansas City, Kansas) was begun by the Wyandot Indians.