White Church, one of the earliest settlements in Wyandotte county, is located in the central portion on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 14 miles west of Kansas City. A Methodist mission was established on the present town site among the Delaware Indians in 1832 by Thomas Johnson. After Kansas was thrown open to white settlement a village sprang up at "the white church," which has continued to be a prosperous community. It is the supply and shipping point for a rich agricultural district by which it is surrounded, has general stores, express and telegraph facilities and rural free delivery from Bethel. The population in 1910 was 152.

Page 905 from volume II of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar.

There is still a church at the location with cemetery with Delaware indian burials.

White Church Christian Church
2200 N 85th St, Kansas City, KS 66109-2016
Phone: 913-299-4056

From Cutler's History of Kansas, 1883:

The next white man to stop within the limits of Wyandotte County was Rev. Thomas Johnson, a Methodist minister. who established a mission school among the Delaware Indians, near "the white church."

In April, 1837, Rev. John G. Pratt located upon Section 10, Town 30. Range 23. about sixteen miles west of Wyandotte City, where he still resides. He established a Baptist mission among the Delawares, published several hymn hooks in their language. and one of his sons married a daughter of Charles Journeycake's, a well-known chief. He is now-the oldest settler in the county and the following account which he gives of the tribe is therefore of more than usual interest and value:

That part of the country on the north side of the Kansas River was first settled by the Delawares in 1829. They came from Ohio, and brought with them a knowledge of agriculture, and many of them habits of industry. They opened farms, built houses and cut out roads along the ridges and divides, also erecting a frame church at what is now the village of White Church. The south side of the Kansas River was settled by the Shawnee Indians in 1823. They also afterward came from Ohio, and were about as much advanced in civilization as the Delawares. They had a Methodist mission about three miles from Westport, a long time, it being presided over by Rev. Mr. Johnson; also a Quaker mission about two miles west of that. The population of the Delaware tribe when it first settled in Kansas, was 1,000. It was afterward reduced to 800. This was in consequence of contact with the wilder tribes, who were as hostile to the short-haired Indians as they were to the whites. Still the Delawares would venture out hunting buffalo and beaver, to be inevitably overcome and destroyed. Government finally forbade their leaving the reservation. The effect of this order was soon apparent in the steady increase of the tribe, so that when they removed in 1867, they numbered 1,160. The ruling chiefs from 1829 to 1867, were Ne-con-he-con, Qui-sha-to-what (Capt. John Ketchum), Nah-ko-mund (Capt. Anderson), Kock-a-to-wha (Sar-cox-ie), Charles Journeycakes, Qua-con-now-ha (James Sacondine or Secundine), Ah-cah-chick (James Connor) and Capt. John Connor."

Capt. John Ketchum, one of the most noted chiefs of the Delawares, died in August, 1857. He lived near White Church on the Lawrence road, and at the time of his death, which occurred at an advanced age, he was almost helpless. His funeral was attended by a large number of Indians, who came in their colored blankets and painted faces, carrying their guns. They were mounted on horseback, and as the procession slowly followed the remains of their chief along the windings of the forest road, they seemed truly the sorrowful survivors of a once powerful race.

So was Martin Trail a Delaware Indian?

John R