{{Short description|Dutch geologist, physician, and pioneer (1786–1859)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}} {{Infobox person | image = Dr. Benoist Troost Portrait.png | caption = 1859 George Caleb Bingham portrait of Troost | other_names = {{hlist|Benoît Troost|Benoit Troost}} | birth_name = Benedictus Troost | birth_date = {{birth date|1786|11|17}} | birth_place = 's-Hertogenbosch, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands | death_date = {{death date and age|1859|2|8|1786|11|17}} | death_place = Kansas City, Missouri, US | family = Gerard Troost (brother){{br}}William Gillis (uncle-in-law) | occupation = {{hlist|Geologist|pioneer|physician}} | known_for = Cofounder of Town of Kansas }} '''Benoist Troost''' (born Benedictus Troost; also Benoît Troost, Benoit Troost; November 17, 1786 – February 8, 1859) was an Americanized Dutch geologist, medical doctor, and American pioneer. He was one of the 14 founders of the American frontier town of Kansas, Missouri which became Kansas City, Missouri, with its namesake street Troost Avenue.
==Early and personal life== Benoist Troost was born to Catholics Everardus Josephus Troost and Anna Cornelia van Heeck on November 17, 1786, in 's-Hertogenbosch. He was the younger brother of Gerard Troost.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Euston |first=Diane |date=July 31, 2022 |title=Dr. Benoist Troost: Beyond the Street Which Bears His Name ... For Now |url=https://martincitytelegraph.com/2022/07/31/dr-benoist-troost-beyond-the-street-which-bears-his-name-for-now/ |newspaper=Martin City Telegraph}}</ref>
In 1813, Troost married Rachel Tage, the sister of his brother's wife, Margaret.<ref name=":1" />
==Career== From July 1807 to March 1810, while living in Paris as a scholar of the National Museum of Natural History, he was employed by Louis Bonaparte to oversee his mineral collection.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Corgan |first=James X. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xmcIBAAAQBAJ&dq=Benoist+Troost&pg=PA44 |title=Geological Sciences in the Antebellum South |date=June 15, 2014 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-8173-5798-6 |language=en}}</ref> Though with historically uncertain medical credentials, he was reputedly a medical steward in Napoleon's army.<ref name="KCPLTroost"/>
In 1816, Troost took a geological trip to New Jersey organized by William Maclure, and remained in America. In the mid-1820s, he and his older brother, Gerard, mapped the geology of Philadelphia and the land of the American frontier.<ref name=":0" /> They owned a successful lead works in Pittsburgh. He moved progressively toward the western American frontier, to St. Louis and then Independence, Missouri, around 1844<ref name="TSKC">{{cite news | first=Hannah | last=Schmidt | date=January 11, 2017 | work=KSHB-TV | title=Taste & See KC: The history of Troost Avenue | url=https://www.kshb.com/lifestyle/tasteseekc/the-history-of-troost-avenue | access-date=August 7, 2023}}</ref> and 1845.<ref name="KCPLTroost"/>
Troost moved to the frontier village variously called West Port Landing or Kansas, and became its first resident physician.<ref name="KCPLTroost">{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Janice |date=2003 |title=Biography of Benoist Troost (1786-1859), Physician and Early Settler |url=https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%253A115405}}</ref> In 1846, he married Mary Ann Troost, the niece of his friend and fellow pioneer William Gillis.<ref name="MCTGH">{{Cite web |last=says |first=Bob Wolff |date=March 14, 2022 |title=The Old Gilliss House Hotel tells the story of Kansas City's growth |url=https://martincitytelegraph.com/2022/03/14/the-old-gilliss-house-hotel-tells-the-story-of-kansas-citys-growth/ |access-date=February 19, 2024 |language=en-US}}</ref> That year, he bought five lots of land as one of the 14 co-founders of the Town of Kansas Company. From 1849 to 1850, at the peak of the California gold rush, he and Gillis built the village's first hotel on the river levee, named Troost House and later renamed Gillis House.<ref name="KCPLTroost"/><ref name="KCSslave"/> It was called the "finest building in the city", and later the "free state hotel" due to the slavery-driven border wars called Bleeding Kansas.<ref name="KCSslave"/>
He was listed as a trustee when Kansas, Missouri was finally legally incorporated as a town by Jackson County in 1850. He was a trustee again when the Missouri General Assembly reincorporated and renamed it as the City of Kansas in 1853. He and William S. Gregory entered the election as the first mayor, and Gregory won.<ref name="KCSslave">{{cite news | newspaper=The Kansas City Star | date=May 28, 2021 | title=Yes, Kansas City's Troost Avenue was named for a slaveholder. And that's not all we found | first=Cortlynn | last=Stark | url=https://www.kansascity.com/news/your-kcq/article251695313.html | access-date=August 7, 2023}}</ref>
In 1854, he founded the ''Kansas City Enterprise'' newspaper. In 1857, he incorporated the city's first Chamber of Commerce. He died on February 8, 1859, in William Gillis's mansion in Kansas City, Missouri.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Union Historical Company |last2=Birdsall, Williams & Co. |date=1881 |title=History of Jackson County, Missouri |url=https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/mocohist/id/10293 |publisher=Missouri State Library |pages=414, 418, 437}}</ref><ref name="BTKCPL">{{cite book |last=Lee |first=Janice |date=2003 |title=Biography of Benoist Troost (1786–1859), Physician and Early Settler – KC History |url=https://kchistory.org/document/biography-benoist-troost-1786-1859-physician-and-early-settler |publisher=Kansas City Public Library|location=Kansas City, Missouri |series=Missouri Valley Special Collection|access-date=August 11, 2023}}</ref>
==Legacy== Benoist Troost is the namesake for Troost Avenue, Troost Park, and Troost Lake Park in Kansas City.<ref name="KCSslave"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21451/benoist-troost Find a Grave] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troost, Benoist}} Category:1786 births Category:1859 deaths
Category:Founders of populated places in Missouri Category:Medical doctors from Missouri Category:American geologists Category:Dutch emigrants to the United States Category:19th-century Dutch geologists Category:People from Kansas City, Kansas