“Mother of Kansas City”: Bérénice Ménard Chouteau is so called because (among other reasons) she was the first white woman known to have lived in the area that would become Kansas City.
When Bérénice traveled to the area in 1822 with her husband François Chouteau, she was a young wife of just 21 years of age, already mother to two infant boys. The couple settled on the banks of the Missouri river, about where the Chouteau bridge is now, to open a trading outpost of the Chouteau fur empire.

Bérénice avait des tripes, as we might say now: she had guts!
She left a very comfortable life in Kaskaskia, IL (where her father was a wealthy prominent businessman, and the first lieutenant governor of the state) to carve out a home on the far western edge of the young state of Missouri. It wasn’t quite “Little House on the Prairie” – they traveled up the Missouri on multiple keelboats full of household and farm goods and equipment, and several slaves. The boats were rowed and hauled by teams of French (and French-Native American) “voyageurs” or “engagés” (meaning basically “employees”), some of whom would remain with them at “Chouteau’s” (also refered to as “Chez les Canses” for the native tribe who primarily traded with François) as the settlement would be known for decades.
Nonetheless, Bérénice had to create a self-sufficient life in the wilderness, far from the support of family and the comforts of St Louis or Kaskaskia. The first years must have been hard.
There were the expected challenges: clearing land so it could be farmed, establishing the trading post, caring for their small children, but also the unexpected setbacks, for example, the devestating flood of 1826 that not ony destroyed all the buildings of “Chouteau’s” but also covered their fields in sand so deep it could not be used for farming again.
It was at that point that François, Bérénice, and their engagés moved to higher ground on the south bank of the Missouri, to a site just west of the where the new Current Soccer Stadium sits today.
From what we know of her, Bérénice was up to the challenges. One anecdote gives a sense of her strength -- of both arms and character!
Pregnant with her third child, Bérénice travelled back to St Louis to give birth accompanied by her father-in-law who had been visiting the trading post. When a boatman’s error almost capsized their pirogue, a furious Pierre Chouteau (known for his fierce temper) yelled at him “A terre! A terre!” (literally “to land”) and pulled out a handgun. He was preparing to fire at the boatman (who was still attempting to bring the boat to shore) when, recognizing the folly of shooting the man steering the pirogue, Bérénice jumped up and grabbed onto the pistol, keeping hold of it until her father-in-law’s temper cooled, and they arrived safely on shore. Life at “Chouteau’s” wasn’t all hard work and troubles.
Like most Franco-Americans (for want of a better term), Bérénice loved music and dancing. Every week she hosted bals, where they would play music, dance, and socialize. It is rumored that she loved music so much that she had a piano tied to one of the keelboats and hauled from St Louis to her home!
We know for a fact that she stood up to the first priest sent to minister the sacraments to the small French- speaking community that had grown up around the mouth of the Kaw River when he preached against the weekly bals as Father Roux complained about her, and her influence over the community, in a letter to his Bishop in St Louis.

Next month: From wife to matriarch