Village of New Santa Fe
This is the small village we lived south of up on Waid's or Wayne's Hill. The
village proper was between State Line Road and Wornall Road, across from the
present Avila University. The main street of the village was the Santa Fe Trail
which runs behind Avila over to Holmes Road. The Santa Fe Trail ruts may be seen
in a portion of the Red Bridge Park. There was once a Christian church that I
attended VBS at as a child and mom purchased a large metal slide from a rummage
sale there once. The church was torn down when I was in high school. All that's
left is a cemetery and a historical marker.
- D. Rush, 2011.
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Village of New Santa Fe
Taken from the book called Jackson County Pioneers. By Pearl Wilcox, 1975.
It was in the village of New Santa Fe that two trails to the West met the one
from Westport and one from Independence which came through Blue Valley. Today
the official Santa Fe Trail marker stands at State Line and the one street of
the town at 125th Street. This village of the trail days, as well as Westport,
owed its very beginning and the period of its greatest commercial importance to the Santa Fe trade and all commerce to the Southwest.
New Santa Fe was created when Dabney Lipscomb and his wife, Elizabeth, on May 6,
1851, deeded a small part of their land for a townsite. The plat contained
eighteen lots. The street on the west side was State Line; on the north side,
Prairie Street; on the east, Shawnee Street. The road through the center running
east and west, Main Street, continued to Independence.
The village of New Santa Fe consisted of two general stores, a shoe shop, a drugstore, the Watson Place Inn, a blacksmith shop and the post office, established August 2, 1853, with Benjamin C. Westfall as first postmaster. A saloon was on the state line, making it possible to transact business in Missouri or Kansas, and in the building was Dr. Harrison's office. One of the store buildings was built by James Bridger and George W. Kemper. The storekeeper was J.P.Smith.
The first Masonic Lodge in Jackson County was organized in New Santa Fe and met in J.P.Smith's store. This store was burned in 1856 during the border warfare, destroying the Masonic records. As the lodge had only twelve to fifteen members and border conditions were so turbulent it was disbanded.
In the 1860 census, the following tradespeople are listed: blacksmiths, Stephen
Abston, Henry Westhoff, Isaac Bryant, Frank Davis; carpenters, Jacob T. Palmer,
Benjamin Thurman; saddler, John B. Short; wagonmaker, Francis Theobold;
freighter, Henry T. Chiles; cooper, Henry J. Newman; stonecutter, James Ingram;
merchant, M.S. Burr; physician, Thomas M. Bacon; dentist, Charles W. Jones;
hotel keeper, David Jones; butcher, J.C. Overall.
Previous to the actual breaking out of hostilities between the North and South he was deeply conservative in his sentiments. He deprecated any attempt toward the disruption of the Union, and steadily opposed the steps looking to the ultimate succession of his state from the national Government. After the rebellion was actually inaugurated, however, his sympathies were with his native state and the South, and he did all in his power to aid the Confederate cause, though personally he took no active part in the struggle. He remained in Pickens county through the war attending to his professional duties and engaged in the management of his plantation. The close of the war left Alabama in a chaotic and confused condition. The labor system was subverted, property depreciated, and society rested on no sound and substantial basis. In this state of affairs Dr. Spruill determined to remove to another state. From 1866 to 1868 he practiced his profession at Trenton in Western Tennessee.
In the spring of 1868 he removed from Tennessee to Missouri, and settled in the neighborhood of New Santa Fe, in Jackson county. He bought a tract of 400 acres of land, formerly known as the Chiles farm, and moving on this property continued to practice his profession, and at the same time carry on farming He had charge of a large practice in that part of the county, but in the spring of 1877 removed to Kansas City where he is now following his profession with the success which his skill and attainments as a physician merit. The Doctor began his political l career as a member of the old Whig party, and the memorable presidential campaign of 1844 gave an earnest and ardent support to Henry Clay, the Whig nominee for the presidency. He continued to vote for the candidates of the Whig party, for Taylor, Scott, Fillmore and the other statesmen whom the great Whig organization honored with its support. He supported Bell and Everett in 1860, believing that those candidates represented most fully the Union sentiment of the South to which he was warmly attached. Since the diruption of the Whig party he has acted with the Democrats. In 1874 his friends in Jackson county presented his name as a candidate for representative in the 28th General Assembly -- a position to which he was elected by a large majority. As a member of the Legislature he was known as a man of sound a moderate views, conscientious in the performance of his duties, and a reprenstative who reflected credit on his constituents. Dr. Spruill has nine children living.