Statement by Mary Holmes Simpkinson

               In1907, Mary Simpkinson made this statement in Kansas City, Kansas:

            "I came fifty years ago.  There were no bridges over the rivers in those days.  My husband brought six frame houses with him upon a steamboat from St. Louis."

            "They were the first frame houses to be built in old Wyandotte.  At that time there were quite a number of log houses.  Mr. Wolcott's "ready to use" dwellings were quite an innovation.  The lumber had all been cut and matched and needed only the carpenter's hammer to put them up.  The new houses caused quite a stir.  All of the new arrivals who intended to locate, and had been dependent upon the Garno House for food and shelter, were anxious to occupy one of the new houses.  The Indians came for miles around to look upon the wonderful new wigwam of the white brother, which needed only a few strokes of the hammer to make it a tepee far beyond their wildest dreams of splendor.  As a consequence of the feverish anxiety of the white settlers to live in one of the "modern structures", Mr. Wolcott disposed of five of his dwellings at a big price.  The sixth one he finished in what was then the finest style, for his own home.  His success in disposing of his ready to nail together houses, may have somewhat influenced his future career, as he afterward became a lumber merchant."

"At the time of Mr. Wolcott's arrival in old Wyandotte, Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong was working as a missionary among the Wyandotte Indians. Her husband, John McIntyre Armstrong, was a member of the Wyandotte tribe. Some of his descendants are still living on the West Side.  He had come to Kansas from Ohio with the Wyandottes and was himself a missionary among his people.  He built a little frame church near what is now the corner of Fifth Street and Washington Avenue."

"John M. Armstrong died before my husband and I came to Wyandotte", said Mrs. Wolcott, "but his wife, Lucy B. Armstrong, was carrying on his work. Every Sunday the  Indians would congregate in that little church and listened so attentively to that dear woman's interpretation of the Bible and its application to their daily life, as do the most cultured congregations in the finest of our churches today.  No one knows what strange thoughts were warring in their semi-savage breasts, but this I know, that by no  word of mouth or action did they betray their feelings."

(The First Congregational Church)

Shortly after Mrs. Wolcott arrived, the church members of all denominations gathered in that little mission house and held union services.

(Listed below are some of the changes she had seen over the years)

"When I crossed the Kaw River on a ferry boat in 1857, I did not at that time dream that fifty years later I should be crossing it again on such a grand structure as this" said a little gray haired woman, on one of the fine trolley cars that run between Kansas City's  West Side, and Kansas City's East Side.

She was Mrs. Mary H.S. Wolcott, a widow, now 72 years old, who is spending the golden years of her long life with her children in Chicago, Cincinnati and Kansas City.  She is now at the home of her son, John A. Wolcott, 1018 Sandusky Avenue, West Side.  Mrs.  Wolcott came to old Wyandotte in 1857.  She and her husband, Albert Gallatin Wolcott, were raised in Ohio.  He was born there.  They moved to Kansas, shortly after they were married, in search of a new country in which they could build a home.

Mrs. Wolcott walked across the first bridge built over the Kaw River on the day it was opened.  That bridge was known as the old Wyandott. The old Southern Bridge was built in 1859.  It was used by many of the freighters who were going over the Sante Fe Trail.  Forty-eight years later, Mrs. Wolcott walked across the inter city viaduct on the day it was opened to the public.

(A forbidding looking place).

"It seems like a dream to me," said Mrs. Wolcott, in speaking of the changes that have taken place in Kansas City since she first saw it. "I remember the first time I first saw these bluffs.  My husband and I were coming up the Missouri River on one of the steamers, which ran from St.Louis to Kansas City.  I thought it the most forbidding place I had ever seen.  We landed at the foot of Minnesota Avenue in old Wyandotte.  There was no regular landing place.  The deck hands threw out a plank and we walked down it and up to the old Garno House, the only hotel in the city. We were there for some time before we built a house of our own."

"We did not go out calling in those days as women do now," said Mrs. Wolcott.  "It was too far from house to house to make many calls.  I remember one day when a very distinguished personage was stopping at the old American House at the foot of Main Street, on the levee. Three other Wyandotte women and myself decided to visit her.  Our only means of travel was by horseback.  We crossed the Kaw River on the ferry, at the foot of what is now Barnett Avenue, and followed the wagon road, which ran through the woods over the ground now occupied by the Armour Packing Company.  After a pleasant visit, we started for home.  On reaching the ferry we found that the ferryman had locked up his boat and he refused to take us over.  After much pleading and some tears, he consented to carry us over in his little skiff, but made us leave our ponies on the other side.  We found our husbands waiting for us at the landing, very much worried over the lateness of our return.  The next morning our husbands went over and brought the ponies back."

(This article was copied from a newspaper clipping)

"Uncle John Simpkinson" as he has been familiarly and affectionately known for a generation or more among Methodists in these parts, has removed to Chicago.  So passes out of Cincinnati circles one of the best-known characters.  Mr. Simpkinson was for years a pros-perous businessman, conducting one of the largest financial reserves, which he bore with Christian manliness.  During the days of affluence his home first on West Sixth Street and later on Walnut Hills, was the scene of openhearted hospitality.  Many Methodists celebrities at home and abroad were welcome guests at his board, and his parlors were often thronged by the old-fashioned evening companies now supplanted by high teas and what not.

In these social festivities the late Mrs. Simpkinson entered with a zest second only to that of her husband.  Mr. Simpkinson was an official member of the old Ninth Street Church, the predecessor of the present Trinity Church, which latter church he helped to build. Removing to Walnut Hills some thirty years ago, he entered heartily into the enterprise, which resulted in the erection of the largest and finest of our suburban churches.  He has always been distinguished by a gracious and cordial manner and an immaculate toilet.  During the visit of President McKinley to Walnut Hills some time since, "Uncle John" did the honors of the occasion and ushered him to his seat. Having been raised an Episcopalian, he was somewhat annoyed by the demonstrativeness of a revival held in the old "Ninth Street" by the late Wm. I. Fee, the pastor of the Church.  Brother Fee was accustomed to tell with his inimitable humor how on one occasion "Uncle John" came under the spell of the meeting and through his inexperience in "shouting" made certain inarticulate sounds of a very surprising character, and no one enjoyed the story more  than Uncle John himself.

The recent Quarterly Conference at Walnut Hills was in receipt of the following characteristic communication, elegantly penned although the writer is in his eighty-seventh year: "I herewith tender to you my resignation as trustee, as I expect to leave Cincinnati in a few days to take up my residence in Chicago.  Please accept same with kindest Christian regards to you all, with the hope that the cause of the Master will continue to prosper under your official control.  I remain yours in Christ, John Simpkinson."  Dr. Young, the pastor, presented a minute of respect, part of which is as follows: "In accepting his resignation, we would express our appreciation of his long and faithful services.  Into this church building and organization he incorporated money, time, zeal, and devotion from its very beginning, thirty years ago, without stint.  We pray for  God's blessing upon him in his old age.  His life is a part of the life of our Church."  Mr. J. Gordon R. Wright moved the adoption of the resolution.

Mary Holmes Simpkinson left a wealthy home in Cincinnatti, Ohio, with the man of her choice and a son three years old, to settle in Wyandotte, Kansas (now called Kansas City, Kansas) when there was nothing there but forest and Indians.

Twenty-seven years later, their second living daughter, Evelyn was born to them.  Four years later, her husband, Albert passed away, and Mary Wolcott and her small daughter returned to Cincinnati, to care for an aging grandfather.  (Some of these dates don't agree with my dates)  (I show Evelyn was born 26 years after Mary and Albert were married and I show Evelyn was two years old, almost three, when her father passed away).

I received the following letter from a relative in Pennsylvania:  Albert was named after the Famous Albert Gallatin 1761 - 1849  - American (Swiss born) Financier and Statesman.

The children of Albert and Mary Wolcott are:

1.  Charles E. S. Wolcott

2.  Ana Elizabeth (twin) Wolcott

3.  John Albert (twin) Wolcott

4.  Elizabeth Somers Wolcott

5.  Francis Alonzo Wolcott

6.  Henry Holmes Wolcott

7.  Linus Sheldon Wolcott

8. Frank Ebersole Wolcott

9.  Luella Evelyn Wolcott (my grandmother)