A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III, Part 19

Author: Louis Houck
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: R. R. Donnelley & sons company
Number of Pages: 405


USA > Missouri > A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III > Part 19


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For a time after the cession of Louisiana, where would be the principal business and political center of the new territory of upper Louisiana, was a matter of doubt. Ste. Genevieve had a larger popu- lation than St. Louis. The principal and most important American


16I *


ST. LOUIS


settlement was located near the post of Cape Girardeau, although no town had been laid out formally in the Cape Girardeau district. The French population predominated in the St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve districts. The New Madrid district was largely settled by Americans, but the older French settlers before the cession neglected agriculture and the population began to decline. Scattered through all the districts was a large English-speaking population, which Stod- dard at the time of the purchase estimated to constitute fully one- half of the population of the country. The Spanish Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of upper Louisiana had his residence in St. Louis, and only a few years before the cession, the sub-intendency of New Madrid was attached to upper Louisiana, consequently giving increased impor- tance to St. Louis as the seat of government and the capital. Much, therefore, would depend upon the enterprise of the people of the respective places as to where the seat of government, and conseq- uently, the commercial and political center of the new territory, would finally be established. When Stoddard took possession of upper Louisiana, he was instructed by Jefferson to make no changes. Accordingly, he simply assumed the position of DeLassus, the last Spanish Governor and Commandant, taking up his residence in St. Louis. After, in 1804, upper Louisiana was attached to the Indiana territory, Vincennes, the seat of government of this territory, also became the seat of government for upper Louisiana. When the of- ficials came to St. Louis, in 1804, they divided the country west of the river into five districts, and for each district appointed a Lieutenant- Governor Commandant, and a Sheriff and Recorder, and also in each district established courts of Common Pleas and Quarter Ses- sions. These district officials resided in St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, St. Charles, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, and were independent each of the other and the courts were held in these places. After the Act of 1805 was passed and General Wilkinson appointed Governor of the new "Louisiana Territory" he took up his residence in St. Louis, although the Act of 1805 did not provide that that place should be the seat of government of the new territory, but in 1806, the new territorial legislature provided that the general court of the territory "should sit twice a year in St. Louis, in May and October." When Lewis was appointed Governor to succeed Wilkinson, he also made St. Louis his seat of government.


St. Louis being the place of residence of the Governor, the territorial officers and the Supreme court, this soon brought there


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some of the most enterprising Americans. The French traders of St. Louis had always been the most progressive and enterprising men in upper Louisiana under the old regime. Men like Pierre and Auguste Chouteau, Manuel de Lisa, Clamorgan, Cerré, Gratiot, Bouies, Robidoux, Pratte and others, as soon as they adjusted themselves to the new condition of affairs, were not slow to take advantage of the new and larger opportunities offered them by the change of government. Thus, aided by a location near the mouth of the Missouri river, then the artery to the great field of the fur trade, and the country along this river rapidly settling up with an intel- ligent and progressive American population, St. Louis quickly became the commercial metropolis of the new territory, the center of military operations, legislative action and political activity in the west.


When Stoddard came to St. Louis in March, 1804, the town con- tained one hundred and eighty houses; some were built of stone, but not a greater number than in Ste. Genevieve. He says that some of the houses were in squares, enclosed with high stone walls; this, with the rocks scattered about the streets, accounts he thinks for the place being "uncomfortably warm in summer." A small sloping hill ascended to what is now Third street and beyond this an extensive prairie afforded plenty of hay and pasture for the cattle and horses of the inhabitants. The town had two long streets running parallel with the river, along which the houses of the inhabitants were scattered at intervals. At the edge of the town could be seen a few stone towers, erected in 1797, and a wooden blockhouse stood near the lower end. The stone towers were unfinished, abandoned and dilapidated in 1804. Such was the appearance of St. Louis when Stoddard came there. In 1806 Ashe says that the town had "three hundred houses and eighteen hundred souls." 57 Schultz, with greater probability of accuracy, says that, in 1807, the town only had two hundred houses; but he is impressed with their appearance, for he says that, "the whiteness of a considerable number of them, as they are rough cast and whitewashed, appears to great advantage as you approach the town."58 General Bissell, when he arrived in 1809, describes the levee as marked by a per- pendicular ledge of rocks, and the village as bounded on the west by Third street; that there were only a few buildings west of Second, and that where the Courthouse now stands was back in the prairie,


17 Ashe's Travels, vol. 3, p. 132.


58 Schultz's Travels, vol. 2, P. 39.


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ROADS


while at that time there was not a brick building in all the village. This was within five years after the acquisition of the territory. Flint remarks that as you approach the town "it shows like all the other French towns in this region, to much the greatest advantage at a distance." " Darby describes it as located on "a sloping hill rising from the first to the second bottom, and behind this an open prairie,""0 and the hills which lie south and west of the town "branch off in so happy a manner that they form a great number of charming vales, enlivened and enriched by numberless rills of water.""1 St. Louis was then "full of gardens and fruit trees" and the air "in the proper season" was filled with fragrance "highly pleasing." "2


In 1808 the judges of the court of Common Pleas, on the petition of two-thirds of the inhabitants, incorporated the town, and it thus became the first incorporated town or village in what is now Missouri, and west of the Mississippi river. Of course only a small area was embraced within the corporate limits. On July 3d, 1808, Auguste Chouteau, Edward Hempstead, Bernard Pratte, Pierre Chouteau and Alexander McNair were elected the first trustees, and Joseph W. Garnier, town clerk. In December, 1808, a meeting was called to meet on Sunday at the house of Auguste Chouteau to consult in reference to municipal affairs, for at that time a meeting of the people on Sunday, according to the practice during the Spanish government, was still deemed appropriate. Amongst the subjects engaging the attention of the village authorities were the ferry, and rates of the same, and the slaves and patrols. As to the latter any free person "associating with slaves at their balls or other amusements" was subject to a fine of ten dollars; if a free white person, free negro or mulatto was found in the company of an unlawful meeting of slaves he was subject to a fine of three dollars, and on failure to pay same it was ordained that such person "shall receive on his or her naked back twenty lashes well laid on." The whipping post of St. Louis was located where the Courthouse now stands. 63


In 1808 the territorial legislature established the first public territorial road from St. Louis to New Madrid, through Ste. Gene- vieve and Cape Girardeau, and the road was opened in 1813. This


" Flint's Recollections, p. 110.


60 Darby's Emigrant Guide, (1819), p. 143.


1 Ashe's Travels, vol. 3, p. 123.


"? Ibid., p. 122.


" Hyatt's Biography, in Book of Letters, Missouri Historical Society.


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SURVEY OF ST. LOUIS BY BROWN


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RECEIPTS


road became the principal post route from St. Louis to southeast Missouri. In the following year (1809) the subject of streets and sidewalks began to be agitated in St. Louis. Although the amount of business was comparatively small, the village became important as a point where Indian trading expeditions for the west were fitted out. In 1810 the first ordinance levying a license tax on tavern keepers, merchants, on barges, carriages, slaves, wheels of fortune, billiard tables, and on every dog over and above one for each family, was adopted. The dog tax was fixed at $2 an animal. The total revenue from all sources only amounted to $529.68 in that year, and of this sum the clerk, Garnier, received $115.86 for his services, and Mr. Charless for printing the laws, $114. Usually little money was in circulation; in fact, not as much as during the Spanish government. Under ordinance the citizens were also enrolled into two fire companies, of which Pierre Dodier and Bernard Pratte "4 were respectively made cap- tains. The failure to obtain money to pay for a fire engine by means of a lottery, as authorized by the Act of 1817, resulted in the organiza- tion of the "North " and "South " St. Louis fire companies, and in 1819 two small rotary fire engines were purchased in Cincinnati, the money being secured by private subscription. These engines were very primitive in construction, "the pumping machinery" being worked by two large iron wheels, one on each side, revolved by the hands of persons standing on the ground and communicating the power through cogs. One of these first engines was called "None-such."


In 1811, rules and regulations were made for improving the streets of St. Louis. In that year the total revenue amounted to $632.87, of which sum the Markethouse, then in course of construction, ab- sorbed $420, and Mr. Charless received $50 for printing the ordi- nances. In the same year the first ordinance punishing a breach of the Sabbath day was enacted, and it was distinctly ordained that no person should keep open "any store for the purpose of vending goods or merchandise." What a revolution in customs and manners this must have appeared to the old French settlers!


In 1812 the new Markethouse was built with fifteen stalls, and the rent for a stall was fixed by ordinance at ten dollars per annum. Under the Territorial Act of 1813 the receipts and expenditures of the town of St. Louis, and of Ste. Genevieve, were required to be published for the years 1814-15. The total receipts of St. Louis for that fiscal year amounted to only $1,202.33.


" General Bernard Pratte moved to St. Louis from Ste. Genevieve in 1794.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


The first brick house in St. Louis was built on the corner of Main and Chestnut in the year 1812 or 1813, by Manuel Lisa. In 1815 the population of the town had increased to 2,600, and the total population of the county and town was reported at 7,395. In this year there was ordered the first survey of the town lots, so as to actually ascertain the size of the blocks and lots of the village. The lot upon which Auguste Chouteau resided was first surveyed and made the basis of this complete survey. Joseph C. Brown, United States Deputy Surveyor, in 1818 finished the survey of the town and made a plat of the same.


In 1819 the first contested village election took place. At this election one hundred and sixty-eight votes were polled as against. fifteen or twenty at former elections.65 This year was also notable because the first work of paving the streets was inaugurated, Market street from Main to the levee being thus improved. From Decem- ber 1817 to January 1819 the total receipts of the town amounted to $1,307.11. Watchmen then received the greater part of the revenue, $768.50; the constable, Warner, $56.25; the Register, $338.25; and for the "Bell-ringer" of St. Louis we find an item of $41; "trum- pets for the watchmen" cost $3.50. About this time the question of a city charter began to be agitated, but the town was not incorporated as a city until after the admission of Missouri into the Union, the first legislature, December 22, 1822, granting a charter. Dr. Wm. Carr Lane 6 was the first Mayor of St. Louis, being elected by one hundred and twenty-two votes, Auguste Chouteau receiving seventy votes, and M. P. Leduc twenty-eight votes. In 1821 St. Louis con- tained 621 dwellings, 232 built of brick and remainder of wood; popu- lation then 5,600.


For their water supply the original inhabitants of St. Louis relied on a few springs which originally existed in the neighborhood where Laclede established his trading post; indeed, it is likely these springs to some extent determined the location of Laclede's warehouse.


" At this election Julius DeMun, Thomas McKnight, William C. Carr, Henry VonPhul, Pascal Cerre and Joseph Charless were elected. The defeated candidates were Fremon Delaurier, Alexander McNair, J. P. Cabanne, M. P. Leduc, Antoine Daugin and Thomas H. Benton. It is very evident that in this election political and not municipal questions were made paramount.


" Dr. Lane was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, December 1, 1789; attended Jefferson and Dickinson's colleges; volunteered to fight the Indians in northwest Indiana; was appointed Surgeon's Mate at Fort Harrison; lived at Vincennes; in 1816 attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1819 located in St. Louis where he died in 1863. He was Governor of New Mexico under Fillmore; a notable figure in the history of St. Louis.


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But after the growth of the village the inhabitants were dependent on the river for their water supply, and they secured it in various ways, principally by carrying the water by hand from the river to their respective homes. Several efforts were made to secure a supply of water by digging wells; Auguste Chouteau sank two, one of these being over one hundred feet deep, going through the limestone; but only a limited supply of water was thus secured.


At St. Charles some jealousy of St. Louis seems to have existed after the seat of the state government was established there. "St. Louis," says The Missourian, "is certainly a place of business. Its advantages, however, result from its water communications, not from its eligibility as a thoroughfare for emigrants by land to Mis- souri." The route upon which the contemplated national road should be built was then a subject of agitation. Whether it should strike the Mississippi above the mouth of the Missouri and lead to St. Charles, or below the mouth of the Missouri opposite St. Louis, was a matter much discussed. The Missourian says that it "feels little anxiety on the subject, and that the chance of getting the road to St. Louis, we think, quite small, believing that Congress will be disposed to favor the emigrant who removes to Missouri with his family, stock, etc., rather than the well mounted gentlemen cav- aliers who travel to see that famous city."


When Louisiana was acquired by the United States, not a single village had been laid out in the Cape Girardeau district, and accord- ingly Governor Harrison issued a proclamation in which he says that he has not sufficient information to determine upon a site for the permanent seat of justice in this district, and that therefore, until further information, he orders that the courts of Common Pleas and General Quarter Sessions, and of the Orphan's court of said district shall be held at "Cape Girardo" upon the lands of Louis Lorimier; and he appoints the judges of the court of General Quarter Sessions of said district Commissioners to receive proposals for the location of the seat of justice for the district. These Commissioners accepted an offer of Lorimier "at Cape Girardo" of four acres of ground anywhere "between Thorn's creek and the Shawnee path," and two hundred dollars cash and thirty days' labor of a man towards the erection of a public building. Accordingly, in 1806, by proc- lamation, Governor Harrison located the seat of justice for this district at this place. In the same year Lorimier laid out the town. Yet it is singular that from 1793, when Lorimier settled where the


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


town of Cape Girardeau now stands, until the establishment of the courts in this district by the United States, no town or settlement should have been formed there, and that from his isolated residence on the river, simply known as the "post Cape Girardeau" during the Spanish government, he should have managed the civil and military affairs of the district. Immediately after the courts were established, however, a town rapidly developed. A petition filed in 1805 in the new court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, prays for a road from "Lorimier's ferry"- by which name Cape Girardeau seems then to have been known - to William Dougherty's, a farm adjacent to the present city of Jackson. In the same year the settlers petitioned for a road from the William Dougherty's place to connect with the one leading from the upper Delaware town to Ste. Genevieve, thus opening a road from Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau. But when Lorimier's title to the league square, which had been granted him by the Spanish authorities, was rejected by the first Board of Commissioners, the growth of the village stopped at once. Everything was unsettled; all speculation in town lots and land was cut off and, consequently, the more enterprising emi- grants moved elsewhere; nor was the title to this land grant settled until 1836. The surrounding country, however, rapidly filled up with settlers. It was observed by Stoddard, in 1804, that the increase of population in the Cape Girardeau district was greater than any- where else in the territory, with a possible exception of the St. Charles district. After the acquisition of the country by the United States, the farmers of the Cape Girardeau district organized "three large companies of militia."67 The exports of this district at that time were wheat, corn, tobacco, flax, hemp and cotton, and annually considerable quantities of beef, pork, lard, smoked hams, and some peltry, were shipped in flatboats by the farmers to New Orleans. In 1814, owing to the unsatisfactory condition of the title, and the death of Lorimier in 1811, the county seat was moved to Jackson and a new town laid out, ten miles west of Cape Girardeau, in a country even then compactly settled. This town site was pur- chased from General William H. Ashley, who had obtained the same on his marriage with a daughter of Ezekiel Able. This new town, the second in the district, adjoined the land of William Neely, Wil- liam Dougherty and Joseph Sewell, all representatives in the early territorial legislatures and councils. In 1818, this town had a popu- "7 Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 214.


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JACKSON


lation of three hundred souls. It was described by Flint as "a considerable village on a hill, with the Kentucky outline of dead trees and huge logs lying on all sides in the fields." The population had gathered there from almost all parts of the Union, the young men predominating. Peck says that Jackson, in 1818, according to notes he made on the subject, "contained between sixty and seventy dwelling houses, five stores, two shoemaker shops, one tannery, two good schools, one for males the other for females;" and, he adds, the population "in and around Jackson were more moral, intelligent, and truly religious than the people of any village or settlement in the territory." "8 But Flint does not agree with him: "Among these people I sojourned, and preached, more than a year, and my time passed more devoid of interest, or of attachment, or com- fort, or utility, than in any other part of the country. The people are extremely rough. Their country is a fine range for all species of sectaries, furnishing the sort of people in abundance who are ignorant, bigoted, and think by devotion to some favored preacher or sect, to atone for the want of morals and decency, and everything that appertains to the spirit of Christianity."" The first Courthouse at Jackson was a log structure, and so was the jail. On the public square was located the whipping post and pillory. On October 18, 1820, Major Long and party arrived at Jackson,- "after St. Louis and St. Charles" he says, "one of the largest towns in Missouri." At this time Jackson was rapidly increasing in wealth and popula- tion, and was called "a thriving village." Long says that the town then contained "more than fifty houses, which though built of logs, seem to aspire to a degree of importance unknown to the simple dwellings of the scattered and solitary settlers, assuming an appear- ance of consequence and superiority similar to that we immediately distinguished in the appearance and manners of the people. Our horses, never having been accustomed to such displays of magnifi- cence, signified great reluctance to enter the village. Whips and heels were exercised with unusual animation, but in a great measure without effect, until we dismounted, when by dint of coaxing, push- ing, kicking and whipping, we at length urged our clownish animals up to the door of the inn." 70


Flint was greatly interested in the German settlement along


" Life of Peck, p. 119.


" Flint's Recollections, p. 232.


1º Long's Expedition, vol. 3, p. 146.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


White-water, about six miles west of Jackson, formed during the Spanish government. He says, "the people have in fact pre- served their nationality and language more unmixed than even in Pennsylvania." At a meeting in the woods at which he was present, among four hundred people assembled there not more than half a dozen were of English descent, and while all understood familiar and colloquial English and could express themselves therein, they did so "with a peculiar German accent, pronunciation and phrase." Living along a clear and beautiful stream in the forest, having but little communication with other people, according to Flint they preserved their "peculiarities in an uncommon degree." They were all Lutherans, and anxious for religious instruction, although every farmer had his distillery "and the pernicious poison, whiskey, dribbles from the corn." But Flint laments that they did not want religion to interfere with "the native beverage" of the "honest Dutch," and they argued that "the swearing and drunken- ness of a Dutchman was not so bad as that of an American." Their horses were large; they themselves were of gigantic size, and they were prosperous farmers. The descendants of these "North Carolina" or "White-water Dutch," have now, however, become completely Americanized and forgotten their old tongue, although in many homes the ancient German Bibles are yet to be found.


South of Cape Girardeau, New Madrid was long a most im- portant town, owing to its situation just below the mouth of the Ohio. During the Spanish regime, all boats were compelled to land here to have their cargoes inspected. The harbor was always filled with flatboats, "broad-horns" and keel-boats. Nor did this town lose its importance until some time after the cession. When Flint first went down the Mississippi he thus described the scene on the river at the mouth of Bayou St. John: "In the spring, one hundred boats have been numbered, that landed in one day at the mouth of the Bayou, at New Madrid. I have strolled to the point on a spring evening, and seen them arriving in fleets. The boisterous gayety of the hands, the congratulations, the moving picture of life on board the boats, in the numerous animals, large and small, which they carry, their different loads, the evidence of the increasing agriculture of the country above, and more than all, the immense distances which they have already come, and those which they have still to go, afforded to me copious sources of meditation. You can name no point from the numerous rivers of the Ohio and the Mississippi from which some


.


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NEW MADRID HARBOR


of these boats have not come. In one place there are boats loaded with planks, from the pine forests of the southwest of New York. In another quarter there are the Yankee notions of Ohio. From Kentucky, pork, flour, whiskey, hemp, tobacco, bagging, and bale- rope. From Tennessee there are the same articles, together with great quantities of cotton. From Missouri and Illinois, cattle and horses, the same articles generally as from Ohio, together with peltry and lead from Missouri. Some boats are loaded with corn in the ear and in bulk; others with barrels of apples and potatoes. Some have loads of cider, and what they call "cider royal," or cider that has been strengthened by boiling or freezing. There are dried fruits, every kind of spirits manufactured in these regions, and in short, the products of the ingenuity and agriculture of the whole upper country of the west. They have come from regions, thousands of miles apart. They have floated to a common point of union. The surfaces of the boats cover some acres. Dunghill fowls are fluttering over the roofs, as an invariable appendage. The chanticleer raises his piercing note. The swine utter their cries. The cattle low. The horses trample, as in their stables. There are boats fitted on purpose, and loaded entirely with turkeys, that, having little else to do, gobble most furiously. The hands travel about from boat to boat, make inquiries, and acquaintances, and form alliances to yield mutual assistance to each other, on their descent from this to New Orleans. After an hour or two passed in this way, they spring on shore to raise the wind in town. It is well for the people of the village if they do not become riotous in the course of the evening; in which case I have often seen the most summary and strong measures taken. About midnight the uproar is all hushed. The fleet unites once more at Natchez, or New Orleans, and, although they live on the same river, they may, perhaps, never meet each other again on the earth. " 71 But by 1804, the population had begun to diminish. In 1808 the town, according to Schultz, had not more than thirty indifferent houses, including the chapel which was fast tumbling to pieces.72 The bank of the river was constantly caving and fast taking away the town as laid out by Colonel George Morgan. At that time the greater portion of what was intended as Front street already had been washed away, and every one was making allowance




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