Francois and Berenice Chouteau, Part 2

Two hundred years ago Francois and Berenice anchored French pioneers at Kawsmouth, the juncture of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, the very site of future Kansas City. Francois and Berenice brought the Chouteau fur trading empire to Kawsmouth. But they also brought the French way of friendship with Native Americans, nurtured in the great central river systems of America for over 300 years.The life of Francois was a metaphor for the fur trading saga. He was born as it exploded and opened the west. He died in 1838 as the fur industry itself sputtered and died.Berenice symbolized stripling Kansas City. She survived floods, tornadoes, blizzards, disease, and frontier violence. She outlasted a bloody Civil War. She outlived all her nine children. She was the Grand Lady of Kansas City, toasted by another pillar of the boom town.A sketch of the first twenty years of her residence near the Kaw's mouth and her clear recollection of the events and persons of that earliest period would be...a valuable starting point in our city's history.John Calvin McCoy, 1882[She is]...worthy of all honor and our warmest love; not only that, but one above all others that merits the distinctive honorary title of “Mother of Kansas City”... John Calvin McCoy, 1888