the air of revival was blowing through a new nation Americans were returning to the church by the thousands the Second Great Awakening had begun for 13 years baptist missionary Isaac McCoy ministered to the american indians of the Ohio Valley his love and work for the Potawatomi the Ottawa and Delaware's caused McCoy to sense the need of a permanent Indian country where the tribes could be free from the corrupting influences of the frontier people and thus Isaac became a champion for the Indian Removal Act of 1830 when the tribes moved west Reverend McCoy and his 20 year old son John Calvin moved west with them they want to survey the new land minister and establish and maintain missions and schools the US government had paid the tracks for abandoning their homes and with the new influx of cash and ninety thousand American Indians moving through the area John Calvin McCoy soon saw the financial benefit of conducting business with the American Indians in 1833 on the western side of Missouri John constructed a two-story building that was both a general store and a residence two years later McCoy plotted the land surrounding the store and filed it as the town of Westport McCoy's attempt to sell the lots surrounding the store failed so he began to give away the land to people that would build a saddle maker and a tavern owner were some of the few who accepted John's offer and the town quickly grew to a population of 50 in 1837 Captain John Setter also opened a store in westport but according to John McCoy the captain was bankrupt within 18 months Setter sold his remaining possessions to mccoy and moved to California sometime later while building a mill one on his California land John Setters workers on the first gold nuggets that started the California Gold Rush originally McCoy received his goods from nearby independence a day's haul from Westport and the furthest west the steamboats would dock luckily McCoy found a suitable natural ledge adjacent to the Chouteau's warehouse and the prodrome farm along the Missouri River and only three miles north of westport soon McCoy would have steamboats pulling along the dock and throwing his Goods the dock became known as Westport landing Westport not only serve the American Indians to the West but also the growing number of Europeans moving west along the Santa Fe Trail by 1845 westport had replaced independence as the starting point for the Santa Fe Trail and the center of all American Indian trade in 1863 John McCoy was forced to leave Westport because of his southern sympathies under the Civil War general order number 11 he was eventually allowed to return John Calvin McCoy died in 1889 the same year of the town he fathered became officially known as Kansas City Wesport is Kansas City's oldest entertainment district you can eat in McCoy's public house named in honor of the westport founder and visit a statue of John McCoy in pioneer park on broadway and westport road the founders continues next monday on Flatland KCPT's digital magazine