Kansas Names: Francois X Aubry/Aubrey

[Detector]

Francis Aubry left his mark on the Kansas prairie through the mid 1800's as a guide, scout and trail blazer. His contributions to Kansas history include Fort Aubry, The Aubry Trail and a famous endurance ride celebrated today as the Santa Fe Great Horse Race.

Aubry's historical ride in 1848 was actually the results of a bet by Kit Carson, and others, that he could not make the trip from Santa Fe to Westport Missouri in six days or less. He made the ride in 5 days 16 hours surviving numerous Indian attacks and the loss of several horses to win the bet of $1000.

A horse named Dolly was Aubry's favorite and Francis claimed Dolly saved his life more then once. During the record run he had stops along the trail where he would get fresh horses. While riding Dolly his planned stop was fouled when Indians had killed the man waiting with fresh horses and had stolen the horse. Dolly came through caring Francis 80 miles to the next stop.

The trail Francis had found was a cutoff from the Arkansas at the mouth of the Big Sandy. The advantage of this route was water every 30 miles whereas the old route required distances of up to 60 miles.

Francis was killed in 1856 by Maj. R. C. Weightman with a knife through the heart. During an argument between the two over an article published by Weightman, alleged to be a lie, Weightman through a glass liquor in Aubry's face and before Francis could draw his revolver Weightman stabbed him in the heart.