Did Marshall Have an Earlier Ferry?
Some historians and local writers have written that Frank Marshall had a ferry beginning in 1849 at Independence Crossing, six miles south of Marysville. In some accounts he is said to have been traveling west in 1849 with a party of gold-seekers, and seeing the need for a ferry at the crossing, he stayed behind and established one. He is variously said to have moved his ferry to Marysville in 1851, 1852, or 1853, or to have operated at both locations for a time, always returning to Missouri in the winter. His name, with that of his wife and one child, appears in the Weston census of 1850, but he might nevertheless have kept a ferry in this area in the spring and summer months.
Historian Louise Barry, whose annals of early Kansas were published in the Kansas Historical Quarterly and later in book form by the Kansas State Historical Society, thought it was unlikely that Marshall had had a ferry at Independence Crossing. In 1966 she wrote: “March 5, 1854—Francis J. Marshall’s license to trade with the Pawnee Indians was forwarded to Washington from the St. Louis Central Superintendency. This earliest-located item connecting him with “Kansas” history, together with other evidence, tend to prove that Marshall established his (first, and only) trading post on the Big Blue (at present Marysville) not earlier than 1852.”
In 1895 Marshall, then nearly 80 and unable to accept an invitation to the Marshall County Old Settlers Reunion, wrote a letter recalling his activities in the county that bore his name. He does not mention any ferry other than at Marysville, and says he came to this area “as early as 1852.”
But several accounts by careful local historians are difficult to refute. Franklin G. Adams and W. F. Boyakin, writing in the Marysville newspapers in the 1870s, both mention Marshall’s ferry at Independence Crossing. Adams further says that James McCloskey camped near Marshall’s unoccupied cabin when he first came to this area with his family in 1855. John Ellenbecker, writing in the 1930s, describes Marshall’s cabin near Independence Crossing in even greater detail.
Still, if Marshall did have an earlier ferry, why is it not mentioned in emigrants’ diaries, while many descriptions of the upper ferry exist? Some local trails enthusiasts today believe that any ferry Marshall had at Independence Crossing was for a very short time. The answer may lie in a still more exhaustive study of available emigrants’ diaries. Or it may be that the truth of this matter can never be known with certainty.
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