Physician, city father, early entrepreneur in Kansas City, Missouri. He had served as hospital steward in the Army of Napoleon. Arriving here in the early 1840s, Dr. Troost's first wife soon died. In 1846 Troost married the young widow, Mrs. Mary Kennerly. She was a favorite niece of the wealthy and prominent bachelor, William Gilliss. Dr. Troost was physician, city father and early entrepreneur. At the sale of lots of the Town Company of Kansas in 1846, he bought five. In 1849 as the California gold rush peaked, Troost and his wife's uncle built the town's first brick hotel. Situated near the river, the Gilliss House stood at the corner of Delaware and Wyandotte Streets. >From 1850 Dr. Troost served as a trustee of our Town. He was elected a city councilman. But on February 8, 1859, the kindly doctor died at age 72. He was buried in the old Catholic cemetery beside his first wife. Later when that burying ground was closed, both were moved to Mt. St. Mary's cemetery. There the second Mrs. Troost erected a monument, oddly inscribed. Instead of "Benoist" Troost, it reads "Benoit" Troost. The doctor's widow Mary lived another 13 years. Her late uncle, William Gilliss, had left his considerable fortune to her. She, in turn, devoted most of it to creating the Gillis Orphans' Home in his memory.