Seth Edmund Ward was a trader on the California

California Trail

The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...

, Oregon

Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...

 and Santa Fe

Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...

 trails who parlayed his success into a real estate empire that included today's Country Club Plaza

Country Club Plaza

The Country Club Plaza is an upscale shopping district and residential neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile...

 in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

.

Ward was born in Campbell County, Virginia

Campbell County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 51,078 people, 20,639 households, and 14,694 families residing in the county. The population density was 101 people per square mile . There were 22,088 housing units at an average density of 44 per square mile...

. His father died when he was 12 and he was apprenticed to an Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

 farmer. Tired of farming he returned home where his mother gave him $25 and he was left to his own devices. He traveled to Independence, Missouri

Independence, Missouri

Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...

 where he was hired by Lancaster P. Lupton to be a trapper for his company in Colorado and traveled to Fort Lupton, Colorado

Fort Lupton, Colorado

The City of Fort Lupton is a Statutory City located in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The population was 6,787 as of the 2000 census.-Geography:Fort Lupton is located at ....

.

In 1848 with the collapse of the fur trade business, he struck up a business with William Guerrier

William Guerrier

William Guerrier was a businessman and Cheyenne interpretor on the Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trail and is believed to be the first rancher in Wyoming....

 with the firm of Ward and Guerrier to provide supplies for settlers in Colorado and Wyoming.

In 1853 he married Wasna, a Teton Sioux woman, and fathered four children.

On April 30, 1857, through connections with Robert Campbell (Frontiersman)

Robert Campbell (Frontiersman)

For a list of other individuals by the same name, see Robert Campbell.Robert Campbell was an Irish immigrant who became an American frontiersman, fur trader and businessman. His St...

, Ward and Guerrier were commissioned to be the official sutler

Sutler

A sutler or victualer is a civilian merchant who sells provisions to an army in the field, in camp or in quarters. The sutler sold wares from the back of a wagon or a temporary tent, allowing them to travel along with an army or to remote military outposts...

s at Fort Laramie, giving them a monopoly at the busiest post on the frontier. They were to move later to Register Cliff

Register Cliff

Register Cliff is a sandstone cliff and featured key navigational landmark prominently listed in the 19th century guidebooks about the Oregon Trail, and a place where many emigrants chiseled the names of their families on the soft stones of the cliff it was one of the key checkpoint landmarks for...

. Since they were trading goods for oxen from the settlers it is said that Guerrier and Ward were the first ranchers in Wyoming history.

Guerrier died in 1858 when sparks from his pipe ignited a powder keg

Powder Keg

A powder keg is a barrel of gunpowder. The powder keg was the primary method for storing and transporting large quantities of black powder up until the 1870s and the adoption of the modern cased bullet...

.

On February 2, 1860, Ward married Mary Frances McCarty, the divorced daughter of Col. John Harris

John Harris

-Politics and government:*John Harris , English MP for Grampound in 1555*John Harris English MP for Bere Alston in 1640*John Harris , English MP for Liskeard...

 of Westport, Kansas City

Westport, Kansas City

Westport is a historic neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Originally its own town, it was annexed by Kansas City in 1897. Today, it is one of Kansas City's main entertainment districts.-Background:...

. McCarty refused to live in Fort Laramie and Ward eventually moved with her to Nebraska City, Nebraska

Nebraska City, Nebraska

Nebraska City is a city in Otoe County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 7,228 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Otoe County...

 in 1863.

In 1871, when his time as official sutler expired, he moved to Kansas City where he bought the 450 acres (1.8 km²) farm of a trading friend William Bent

William Bent

William Wells Bent was a frontier trapper, trader, and rancher in the American West who mediated among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United States. With his brothers, Bent established a trade business along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early 1830s Bent built an...

.

The farm ran from State Line to Wornall Road, 51st to 55th Street. He incorporated Bent's home at 1032 West 55th St. into a 14-room mansion designed by Asa Beebe Cross.

In 1897 he leased the east pasture for the Kansas City Country Club

Kansas City Country Club

The Kansas City Country Club, founded in 1896, is a country club in Mission Hills, Kansas, USA, an affluent suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. It is the club for which the Country Club District and the Country Club Plaza of Kansas City are named...

's first golf course. In 1925 Ward's sold the land to J.C. Nichols to form the Country Club Plaza after the Kansas City Country Club moved across the border into Mission, Kansas

Mission, Kansas

Mission is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States. The population was 9,727 at the 2000 census. The city is a first-tier suburb in the Kansas City Metro. In 2003, Mission absorbed the neighboring city of Countryside.- History :...

. 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) would become Loose Park

Loose Park

Loose Park is the third largest park in Kansas City. It is located at 51st Street and Wornall Road. The park is home to a lake, a shelter house, Civil War markers, tennis courts, a water park, picnic areas and a Rose Garden...

 in 1926. Ward Parkway

Ward Parkway

Ward Parkway is a boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri near the Kansas-Missouri state line. Ward Parkway begins at Brookside Boulevard on the eastern edge of the Country Club Plaza and continues westward along Brush Creek as U.S. Route 56 until it turns southward across the creek just before the...

 which passes near the homestead which is on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

is named for family (although for his son Hugh Ward)