Page "Oswego, Kansas" Paragraph 3

A study of the baptismal records of the Jesuits at Osage Mission reveals that several white or mixed white and Osage families lived in or near Little Town before the Civil War.

Several mixed white and Cherokee families also lived in or near the present site of Little Town, likely just east of the village in the Cherokee Neutral Lands or to the south, near Chetopa.

One family of mixed Osage blood that lived at Little Town before the Civil War was the John Mathews family, who operated a blacksmith / gunsmith shop on the site and ran a trading post.

Mathews first purchased the trading post at Little Town from Augustus Chouteau in either 1838 or 1843, depending upon the source.

Mathews was married to both Mary Ann Williams and Sarah Jane Williams, daughters of William Sherley Williams, better known as " Old Bill Williams " and his Osage wife, Wind Blossom.