François Chouteau

François Gesseau Chouteau (February 7, 1797 – April 18, 1838) was a French-American pioneer fur trader and entrepreneur from the prominent Chouteau fur-trading family. He is widely regarded as the "Father of Kansas City".

Chouteau was born in St. Louis, which was co-founded within New Spain by his uncle Auguste Chouteau. He learned the family business from his father, Jean Pierre Chouteau, who presided over a vast trading empire. St. Louis was the center of American fur trade, sometimes called the "king of the fur trade". In 1819, he married Bérénice Thérèse Ménard, daughter of Pierre Menard, the first Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. For their honeymoon, they scouted up the Missouri River to find a site for their new trading post.

In 1821, as an agent for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, Chouteau established the first permanent European-American settlement in the area that became Kansas City. Chouteau's Landing became a vital center for trade with Native American tribes, including the Osage Nation, Kansa, Shawnee, and Kickapoo. The settlement was known as Chez les Cansès (French for "at the place of the Kansa"), as the nucleus around which Kansas City grew. Chouteau and his wife were instrumental in establishing the community's first church in a log cabin, which evolved into the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

François Chouteau had ten children: a son, James, with an Osage woman, and nine children with Bérénice. He died in 1838 at age 41. Bérénice continued to manage the family's business interests and was a revered community matriarch known as the "Mother of Kansas City", "Grande Dame of Kansas City", and "the soul of the colony" until her death in 1888. The Chouteau Heritage Fountain is a modern monument commemorating their foundational role in the city's history.