Grinter Place
Grinter Place sits on a hill overlooking an important site—the Delaware Crossing of the Kansas River. The Delaware Crossing ferries helped the U.S. military move goods and people between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scott. They also helped settlers as they traveled west on the Oregon-California Trail. White Americans weren’t the only people to use the site. The Crossing, named after the Delaware (Lenape) tribe, was a place of sadness. Native Americans used the Delaware Crossing as they were forcibly moved west, away from their homelands. Moses and Annie Grinter built their house, the oldest in Wyandotte County, in 1857, a time when Kansas and the United States were facing great change.
After the Louisiana Purchase, land west of the Mississippi River became available to white settlers. However, the U.S. government ran into a problem—what to do with the Native Americans who lived in the region. Wanting the land settled, the government supported a policy of creating treaties, which would give Native American tribes land farther west and money for supplies, if they gave up their current land. This policy was finalized with the Indian Removal Act signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1830. Due to Indian Removal, some tribes moved to Kansas, which wasn’t yet a territory. Among the tribes to move to Kansas was the Delaware (Lenape) Tribe.
Windagamen (better known as Annie) Marshall, a Delaware woman, was forced to move with her tribe from Ohio to Missouri and then finally to Kansas in 1831. The Delaware settled near the Kansas River. She met her husband Moses Grinter, a white man originally from Kentucky, in Kansas and they married around 1838. Moses operated a successful ferry business and trading post.
The couple built their life in Wyandotte County. Moses and Annie had 10 children, with five living to adulthood. Moses operated a successful ferry business, which transported people and goods across the Kansas River. Most of his customers were the military and people traveling west on the Oregon-California Trail. In 1855 he purchased a trading post and began selling goods to the Delaware. Thanks to his successful businesses, Moses earned enough money to build a house and farm for his family.
The Grinters built their home in 1857. The two-story brick house is supposedly modeled on a home young Moses saw in Kentucky. While building a house is never easy, it was even harder in the 1800s. A kiln was on site so bricks could be made instead of purchasing and then transporting them. After Moses and Annie died, their daughter and son-in-law took over the farm. The house stayed in the family until 1950 when it was sold to Harry and Bernice Hanson.
The Hansons purchased Grinter Place and operated a chicken dinner restaurant. After 12 years in business, they moved their restaurant to the newly renovated barn. Knowing the history of the home, when they retired they wanted to make it a historic site. With the help of the local Junior League, the house was purchased and presented to the State of Kansas in 1970 and became a state historic site. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 1971. The Kansas Historical Society maintains Grinter Place.
Quick Facts
Date Built: 1857
City: 1420 South 78th Street, Kansas City
County: Wyandotte
Significant People: Annie Marshall Grinter
Architect: Moses Grinter
Style: Colonial
State site: 1970
Timeline
1809, March 12 – Moses Grinter born in Russellville, Kentucky
1820, January 8 – Annie Marshall Grinter born in Miami County, Ohio
1828 – Moses Grinter arrives in Kansas, possibly as a soldier at Cantonment Leavenworth
1829, September 24 – The Delaware sign treaty that creates reserve in Missouri and Kansas. They move west soon after
1831 – Annie Marshall Grinter and her family arrive in Kansas
1838 – Annie and Moses marry
1839, December 26 – Annie and Moses welcome their first child, a daughter named Frances Catherine. They had 10 children, with 5 living to adulthood.
1854, May 30 – Kansas Territory created with Kansas-Nebraska Act
1855 – Moses purchases the Chouteau trading post and its inventory
1857 – Grinter Place is built
1866, July 4 – Delaware sign treaty to relocate to a reserve in what is now Oklahoma. If any Delaware remained, they had to become U.S. citizens. Annie and 68 Delaware stayed in Kansas
1878, June – Moses passes away
1905, June 28 – Annie passes away
1950 – Harry and Bernice Hanson purchase Grinter Place from Annie and Moses’ granddaughter
1970, October 12 – Acquired by the State of Kansas as state historic site and listed in Register of Historic Kansas Places
1971, January 25—Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
Sources
- Grinter Place, National Register of Historic Places
- Grinter Place, 1956, Kansas Memory
- Hanson, Harry E. A Historic Outline of Grinter Place from 1825 to 1878.
- Kansas Historical Society Interpretation Manual, Rodney Staab.
