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_SRCT:
_FIELD: TX-AUTHOR
Text: Marion J. "Jim" and Julia Laughlin
_FIELD: DT-PUBLICATION_DATE
Date: 1992
_FIELD: TX-TITLE
Text: Descendants of John Laughlin and Tabitha Trimble
_FIELD: TX-PUBLISHER
Text: self-published
_FIELD: TX-REFERENCE
Text: Gray 3
_FIELD: RP-REPOSITORY
Repository:
_AUTO: 0
[S1377] Laughlin/Trimble Book page Gray 3
In Jackson County Missouri we find few records of our Gray ancestors. They were farmers, raising a large family and no doubt, left many descendants that we have not had time to document.
In the "Vital Historical Records of Jackson County", surviving Church and Cemetery records have been collected and compiled. Among the Church records we find names of our Gray family.
William Gray became a member of the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Independence "by letter 1867". W.C. Morton is mentioned in their records as early as 1858. Also mentioned are Daniel Gray, Ira Gray, and Edward Gray. We find these men on census, living in the area with our William Gray.
During the 1860s Civil War years our ancestors were among those who had to leave their homes along the state line between Missouri and Kansas because of the marauders who pillaged and killed, Order #11 by Gen. Ewing. 1870 we found William and Elizabeth living inland, with son, Hugh, in Prairie Twp. Then in 1880 they are again near the state line in New Santa Fe, the small village which was so important as the first stop on the Old Santa Fe Trail, out of Independence and Kansas City.
History of New Santa Fe (from Vital Historical Records, page 134)
In the very early days "Little Santa Fe" or as it was called later "New Santa Fe" was at the eastern edge of the Historic Santa Fe Trail and "Big Santa Fe" in New Mexico was at its western edge. It was here that the two trails met, the one from Independence which came through Blue Valley, and the other from Westport which came south along State Line. Over these trails came the covered wagon trains as they wound their way westward.
Mr. Dabney Lipscomb, who came to this community from Kentucky in 1839, platted the village in about the year 1851. In those days the three most important businesses in a village were the Blacksmith Shop, the General Mercantile Store, and the Tavern, and "Little Santa Fe" had all three of these, with others besides. For years the town grew and game promise of continued growth, then came the Civil War days and the residents of this thriving community had a hard struggle. It must be remembered that "Little Santa Fe" was on the border between Missouri and Kansas and knew full well the struggles of those days on the border when families were driven from their homes and property was destroyed. It is said that no section of Jackson County is linked more closely with the early history of Kansas City, Missouri than the section which was called "Little Santa Fe".
Among the residents of this community who were active in the development of Kansas City were: Joel Lipscomb, who came to Little Santa Fe in 1839 - Turner A. Gill, Mayor of Kansas City 1875/6 - William S. Gregory, who was one of the first merchants in the village, became the first Mayor of Kansas City, and was one of its first wholesale grocery merchants.
George B. Longan, who, with his wife, Emma Lard Longan, daughter of Moses E. Lard, an early pioneer preacher of the Christian Church of Kentucky and Missouri, came to Little Santa Fe from Kentucky in 1869 and taught school in the village. Professor Longan became assistant Superintendent of the Public Schools in Kansas City, and Mrs. Longan became an authority on Parlimentary Law throughout the state.
New Santa Fe Christian Church
About the year 1869 those members of the Bethlehem Church at Hickman Mills who were living in the southwestern part of the county, organized the Christian Church at what was then called "Little Santa Fe", a village directly south of Kansas City at what would now be 125th Street and State Line.
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