François Chouteau

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François Gesseau Chouteau (1797 - 1838) is traditionally credited as being the founder of Kansas City, Missouri. He and his wife, Berenice Chouteau, often are cited as being the first white settlers of Kansas City. He was the nephew of René Auguste Chouteau.

In 1821, he set up a permanent trading post in the great bend in the Missouri River that makes up Kansas City's Northeast Industrial District (crossed today by the Chouteau Trafficway). He referred to the post as "the village of the Kansa." After Indians agreed to leave the westernmost six miles of Missouri to the confluence of the Kansas 1825 the area were referred to as "Chouteau's Landing". In 1826, following a flood, Chouteau moved his trading post to higher ground near present-day Troost Avenue's intersection with the river. ^[1]

His family financed the area's first Catholic church, which was located on Quality Hill at what the present-day intersection of 11th and Pennyslvania Streets, on the site of the present-day Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, known for its "gold dome," which is the seat of the Archdiocese of Kansas City and St. Joesph.