Penn Valley Park sculpture pays tribute to sacrifices of mothers, pioneer women
Mother’s Day weekend approaching, it is fitting that What’s Your KCQ? respond to a query about Kansas City’s
sculpture in Penn Valley Park.
A memorial to mothers who made the arduous trip west to seek better lives for their families, the 13-foot bronze statue depicts a woman perched sidesaddle on a mount, holding an infant, her expression reflecting grim determination and exhaustion. She is flanked by two men with rifles, who serve as scouts and protectors, and a weary pack horse.
The monument, dedicated November 11, 1927, bears the inscription: “Presented to the people of Kansas City by Mr. Howard Vanderslice to commemorate the Pioneer Mother who with unfaltering trust in God, suffered the hardships of the unknown West to prepare us a homeland of peace and plenty.”
What’s Your KCQ? reader Jesse Barker was curious about the history of the sculpture and the Kansas Citian who commissioned it, Howard Vanderslice. Furthermore, if the statue depicts a pioneer family traveling westward, Barker asked, “why are they heading southeast?”
The story of the begins with the Vanderslice family’s emigration from Kentucky to Kansas Territory in
1853. The same year, Congress passed an Indian appropriations bill that cleared a path for white encroachment on Indian lands in Kansas Territory.
Howard’s grandfather, Maj. Daniel Vanderslice, was appointed by President Franklin Pierce to serve as U.S. Indian agent to the Iowa, Kickapoo, and Sac and Fox tribes in northeast Kansas Territory. His father, Thomas Jefferson Vanderslice, was assigned to give instruction in cultivating crops on the reservation.
Howard was about 4 months old when his mother Sarah Jane, father Thomas, and paternal grandparents began the journey west on foot and horseback to what is now Doniphan County in northeast Kansas.
The party crossed the Missouri River at Westport Landing in August 1853 and headed northwest, settling in present-day Highland, Kansas. The men assumed their duties in Indian affairs, while Sarah and her mother-in-law Nancy built a home life on the western frontier.
Reflecting on his early childhood on the plains, Howard Vanderslice said, “The women did so much yet so little was heard of them.”
They were Kansas pioneers. Howard Vanderslice’s father was elected to the territorial legislature in 1860, the state legislature in 1868, and served two terms as Doniphan County sheriff.
Howard worked as a youth on the family farm and later attended Highland University in his hometown. He relocated in 1873 to Iowa Point, Kansas, took a job as a station agent for the Atchison and Nebraska Railroad, and married Minnie Elizabeth Flinn. The couple then settled in nearby White Cloud, Kansas, where
Howard established a grain business.
Wishing to expand into a larger market, he opened a grain commission house in Kansas
City in 1890 and put down roots there. He later invested in anothWith
Raised in Colorado after his family emigrated by wagon from Iowa in 1871, Proctor became infatuated with hunting and sketching Rocky Mountain wildlife. While his initial art training took place in Denver, he also studied in New York and Paris.
His first major commission came in 1891 when he collaborated with a team of esteemed artists to create sculptures for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
In the years to follow, Proctor, the self-proclaimed Sculptor in Buckskin, made a name for himself creating monumental bronze sculptures of American Indians, cowboys, buffalo, and other iconic imagery of the American West.
In 1923, Vanderslice approached Proctor at an art show in Los Angeles about crafting a monument to heroic pioneer mothers. The artist was interested in the subject matter, having already created a pioneer monument in 1919 for the University of Oregon campus.
Proctor began work on a 4foot-tall, 6-foot-long model based on details provided by Vanderslice about his family’s 1853 migration. He worked out of a studio in Hollywood, California, where human models and props were easier to procure. The completed model was then shipped to Proctor’s New York studio.
The casting was completed in Rome, Italy, where according to Proctor, he could find more skilled artisans for that type of work. When the 16,000-pound bronze statue was completed in 1927, it was transported by ship and rail to Kansas City.
THE UNVEILING
Potential sites for the statue had previously been studied using an enlarged, 14-foot-tall by 8-foot-wide mounted photograph as a model. The Kansas City Arts Commission recommended Meyer Boulevard near the entrance to Swope Park. Westport was also suggested, considering its early history as a trails outpost.
A knoll in central Penn Valley Park, a few hundred feet from the old Santa Fe Trail, was preferred by Proctor and Vanderslice. The park provided ample room to view the statue at multiple angles and was the site of two other iconic monuments, the Liberty Memorial and The Scout.
Large slings were employed to lift the 6-ton statue onto a pink granite pedestal designed by the prominent Wight & Wight architectural firm. It was installed facing southward.
When questioned why it did not look west, in the direction the pioneer group was traveling, Proctor’s pragmatic response was, “A statue shows to the best advantage when facing south and should never face any other way unless it is impossible to have it in that position.” By being oriented southward, the face of the statute received optimal lighting.
An estimated 5,000 people, including Proctor, attended the unveiling on November 11, 1927. The modest Vanderslice refused to take part in the ceremony or have his name on the program.
Vanderslice died from a stroke in 1929. He is best remembered for his work in promoting the arts and purchasing the estate of industrialist August Meyer at 44th Street and Warwick Boulevard to donate to the Kansas City Art Institute for its campus. The institute’s Vanderslice Hall, formerly the Meyer residence, was named in his honor.