USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 11
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157 On this creek, George Crumb or Crump (1803) and in 1800 a person of the same name on Missouri river. Here also Antoine Vincent Bouis of St. Louis made claim to land.
158 William Bell, from Kaskaskia, settled in 1797, was on Cold Water and also in St. Louis; Alexander Graham (1798); James Calvin (1798), from Kas- kaskia, in 1797 lived in L'Aigle prairie in the Illinois country, on the Cuivre in 1799 and remained there until 1804, and was resident on the Missouri. Henry McLaughlin says that Edward Perry in 1797 lived for a year on this creek.
150 The first settlers here were Seth and Richard Chittwood (1797),and Isa- bella Chittwood, widow of John Pound (1797); John Allen (1798) probably John F. Allen who was a witness for various claimants of land on river des Peres in 1798; James Richardson had a still-house on this creek in 1799. He was one of the earliest American settlers in the St. Louis district; came from Kentucky; killed a man there and hence fled to upper Louisiana. His family followed him to upper Louisiana and he settled near Marias des Liards.
180 William Jones (1798), at Grand Glaise in 1797 and Bellevue settlement in 1803; John and Ben Johnson (1800), Ben was afterwards a justice in this locality ; William Null, senior, (1800), and on Joachim in Ste. Genevieve district, also William Null, junior; David Boyle (1803) also on the Joachim; Roger Cogle; Gabriel Cobb (1803); Richard Glover (1803); William Moss (1803) ; John Litten (1803); Wm Johnson.
181 This Owens came from Maryland; could talk French and was intimate with the French settlers; was shoemaker by trade, and even after he became a farmer would occasionally make a pair of shoes. He first settled on the Mara- mec, but when the Indian troubles began there moved to the place which became known as Owen's Station. Adam Martin, Thos. Hardy, Wm. Hooper, Jacob Lurty and Wm Clark joined Owens in "forting". He afterwards moved to Big River, and died there in 1829. His wife died at the age of 90 in 1840. (Mrs. Elizabeth McCourtney's narrative in Draper's Notes, Vol. 2, pp. 151-204.)
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
A number of Americans opened up isolated farms in this neigh- borhood, or cultivated a part of the Marais des Liards common- field,162 and in 1806 established a school in the village. Other pioneers further up the river secured concessions and settled on the south side of the Missouri,163 and still others located themselves in various parts of this extensive district, far away from the village of ·St. Louis.
162 Thomas Worthington and son seem to have been among the earliest set- tlers in the village in 1794, but one Birot claimed the lot on which Worthington lived, in the name of one Solomon. This Thomas Worthington was a revolu- tionary soldier. James and Joseph Worthington who settled in the Cape Girar- deau district may have been his sons or relatives, so also Charles Worthington of Opelousas in lower Louisiana. Joseph St. Germain first settled here, but in 1796 went to St. Ferdinand, was also in St. Louis; William Belon (1795) also in St. Louis; Alexander Clark (1797) but because he had no spring on his land he claimed the adjacent land where there was a spring, also had a grant fifteen miles northwest of St. Louis, in St. Charles district, from DeLassus, also bought of Jean Baptiste Mortes (or Hortes) who was here in 1797, but afterwards in St. Louis; Jonas and John Sparks (1797); John Chambers (1797) from Kas- kaskia, originally from Kentucky; William Campbell (1797) on St. Fernando river; Joseph Williams (1797) near here on the Missouri, was also on Bouré's land on Grand Glaise; Solomon Petit (1797) also at Portage des Sioux; Elias Metz (1797) on the Maline; Charles King (1798) from Kentucky, Timothy Ballew; Jean Baptiste Buron (1798); Solomon Link (1799) at White Oak Run; Juan Wedsay dit John Whitesides (1799), his widow Phoebe Wallace; Jacob Lentz; Louis Rogers dit Indian Rogers, chief of a part of the Shawnee Indians, who planted themselves here about thirty miles northwest of the lead mines. Rodgers was a very respectable and worthy man and a warm advocate of Indian civilization, offering a teacher who would stay with the Shawnees "plenty of corn and plenty of hogs", and to erect a house for him (Morse's Report, p. 236); Joshua Massey (1803) at White Oak Run; Mathew Ramsey; Peter Tamp (1801)}
163 These were, John Scarlet and John Waters (1796) had a concession of four hundred arpens on this river; John Chandler (1797), came to the coun- try with Richard Caulk in this year, and secured a grant from Trudeau on this river; Sam and Ebenezer Farrow; Peter Rock (or Roque) (1797); John Scott (1797); Peter Vaughn (or Valign) (1797), in 1800 sold to William Brady; Joseph Griffin (1797) had a coal mine on this river, his son Joseph, junior, lived on the Missouri in St. Charles district in 1800; John Howe; William Burch dit Burts (may be Busch dit Bush) was here prior to 1798; Vincent Carrico (may be Tor- rico) (1798); Dennis Kavenaugh (1798); Aaron Colvin (1798) on a stream above Tavern Rock south of the Missouri, " sur ruisseau au dessus de la roche du Tav- ern rive sud du Missouri;" John Bishop (1799) a German; Louis Delisle, junior, (1799) Creole, on Santa Buxa del Rio; David King Price (1799); Robert Ram - say (1799); Lawrence Sidner (Sydener) (1800); John Doghead, (1801), likely a relative of Isaac Doghead, who settled on Big river; Robert Barclay.
CHAPTER XIII
St. Charles - Boundaries of District Vaguely Defined - Settlement of St. Charles Founded by Blanchette-Don Santiago Mackay Commandant of a Post Named St. Charles, but Evidently Another Place-Don Carlos Tayon, Commandant-Survey of the Village by Chouteau - Common Fields of St. Charles-Chouteau's Attempt to Build a Water-mill-Village of St. Charles and Population 1797-Names of Early Settlers of St. Charles and Vicinity-Portage des Sioux Settlement-How it Obtained the Name- Military Importance of This Post-Creole Immigration-Names of Pioneer Settlers of Portage des Sioux-Surveys on Salt River Interrupted by Indian Attacks-Settlement of Charette-Daniel Boone-Names of Pioneer Set- tlers of La Charette-Femme Osage-The Boone Settlement-Names of Early Settlers-The Cuivre Settlement-Names of Early Settlers-First Settlement on the Perruque-Names of early Settlers-The Claim of Clam- organ-Settlement on the Dardenne-Other Settlements and Names of 1 early Settlers.
The district of St. Charles embraced all the territory within the limits of the Spanish boundaries north of the Missouri river, and extended vaguely westward.1 No particular limits either on the north or west of this district were ever officially promulgated. That the district was supposed to extend indefinitely to the north is shown by the fact that one Basil Giard claimed a league square of land opposite Prairie du Chien as being within this district, the famous coureur des bois, Pierre Dorion, Senior, being produced as a witness to prove this claim.2 The so-called "Spanish Mines," a tract em- bracing 148, 176 arpens of land, or twenty-one leagues square, near the city of Dubuque, lowa, claimed to have been granted to Julien Dubuque by Carondelet, was also considered in this district.
St. Charles, the earliest and most important settlement north of the Missouri river and in the district, was at first known as "Les Petite Côtes" and afterward as "Village des Côtes"-this from the fact that
1 American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 715, Testimony of Albert Tis- son.
2 American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 529. This Basil Geard, or Giard, "settled upon Prairie du Chiens" in 1781, together with Pierre Antaya (Pelletier) and Augustine Ange. These names all occur in the Ste. Genevieve church records. A Basil B. Geard married there in 1783, so also a François Ange in 1790 and a Michel Antaya resided there in 1784. These are pre- sumably all related to the first settlers of Prairie du Chien, who, in 1781, purchased from the Indians through Gov. Patrick Sinclair, then at Mackinaw, nine square miles of land. They were all Indian interpreters and traders. The Giards were very early settlers in the American Bottom. The name appears in the St. Anne Church records in 1726. Gabriel Cerré married a Catharine Giard at Kaskaskia in 1764, where she was born.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the village was situated at the foot of a range of small hills, sufficiently high to protect it from the overflows of the Missouri. The census of 1787 calls the village: " Establecimiento de los Pequenas Cuestas " -Village of Little Hills. Shortly before the cession the village was officially known as "San Carlos del Misuri." The first settler was Louis Blanchette. Perez, in 1792, speaks of him as " fundator y primero habitante de Sn. Carlos del Misury." It is usually said that Blanchette le Chasseur (the hunter) was the first settler, and hence the ordinary reader, unfamiliar with French, often conceives the idea that "Chasseur" was the name of the founder of St. Charles. This Blanchette was a native of the Parish St. Henry, Diocese of Que- bec, Canada, and a son of Pierre Blanchette and Mary Gen- sereau. In 1790 he married Angelique, a Pawnee woman.3
There seems to be reason to believe that, for a time, at least, Blanchette's settlement was officially known at New Orleans by the name of "San Fernando." In 1793 Baron de Carondelet made an order referring to the fact that a new settlement had been formed "in the district of Ylinoa by the name of San Fernando," and it "being necessary to provide for the civil and military govern- ment of the same, because of good conduct, distinguished zeal, exactitude, probity and disinterestedness, which are requisite to insure confidence in the administration of public affairs, and these qualifications being united in Mr. Blanchette, therefore, exercising the authority in me vested by said royal decree, I declare and nomi- nate for special lieutenant, with the rank of captain of militia of the said settlement of San Fernando, its boundaries and jurisdiction, the said Mr. Blanchette, immediately subordinate, however, to the cap- tain commandant of the establishment of Ylinoa." Blanchette at no time lived in the village of "San Fernando de Florissant," where François Dunegant dit Beaurosier acted as civil and military com- mandant as early as 1791, and hence I conclude that when Baron de Carondelet in 1793 made the order appointing Blanchette lieutenant and captain commandant of "San Fernando" he referred to the village Blanchette had founded. Blanchette no doubt acted as the first civil and military commandant of the settlement St. Charles prior to 1792-but it is not certain that he acted as such in 1793 under this order which appears to have been issued by mistake.4
3 " Angelique, sauvagesse, nativois des Panis Piques d'autre part " it is said in the marriage contract preserved in the St. Louis archives.
4 I am indebted to Judge Walter B. Douglas for the following additional facts as to Blanchette :
81
DON CARLOS TAYON
Don Santiago Mackay is also often referred to in ancient documents as the commandant of St. Andrew and St. Charles, but this must be some other place known as St. Charles, because before he came to upper Louisiana, in 1792, Don Carlos Tayon had been appointed as commandant of the district of St. Charles and its dependencies, and remained in command until Louisiana was acquired by the United States. Tayon was one of the original settlers of St. Louis. He entered the Spanish service in 1770, participated in the capture of Fort St. Joseph, as second in command under Captain Pourée dit Beau- soliel, and on account of the valuable services rendered by him in that expedition received the rank of lieutenant in the stationary regiment of Louisiana. He rendered other services afterward to the government in operations against the Indians, training the militia and protecting the district, using a great part of his own property in public employ- ment. His rank as lieutenant was the only compensation he received in addition to the monthly stipend of $Ir as commandant of St. Charles, and which it was claimed was "seldom paid."5 In consider- ation of his services in 1786, Don Francesco Cruzat made a grant to him of sixteen hundred arpens of land on the river des Pères in the neighborhood of the present Forest Park, now in the city of St. Louis;
" The census of 1787 of St. Charles or the "Habitaciones del Estableci miento de las pequenas cuestas " contains the following about Blanchette :
" Juan Bapta Blanchet, aged 51, Maria Su Mujer, . 48,
Sus Hijos ¿ Bapta 24, Maria . 21."
His occupation is given as "Labrador" or farmer. His household con- tained in addition to those named above, one carpenter, one huntsman and four laborers. The occupation of his son Baptiste is given as huntsman (Cazador). In this census his name is placed three-fourths of the way down the list, and nothing is said about his having any official position; indeed, no official is designated in the census.
In the census of 1791, the first name in the St. Charles list is " Don Luis Blanchette." This census does not give the occupation of the men or designate the officials. But in the Florissant list the first name is Beaurosier, whom we know to have been the principal officer of the village. In Carondelet the first name is " Don Clemento Delor," and in Ste. Genevieve " Don Enrique Peyroux." From this it is to be inferred that Blanchette was in 1791 the chief officer of St. Charles. Also from an affidavit of allegiance taken by several persons before Blanchette it appears he was the chief officer of the place. His signature is written by Gaspar Roubieu, lieutenant, and is written Luis Blanchet. Blanchet makes his mark."
I may also observe that the statement made by Auguste Chouteau, as noted down in Hunt's Minutes, Book I, p. 127 (Copy in Mo. Hist. Society), " les Petites Cotes was established by Blanchette Chasseur A. D. 1796, and called St. Charles, 1804," undoubtedly was misapprehension by Hunt of what Chou- teau said.
5 American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 779.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
but this land, not being promptly surveyed and his official duties preventing his settling on it, was, as land increased in value and many Americans flocked into the country, taken possession of by others, "to his surprise."6 So, in order to avoid trouble and because of his "love of peace," he asked Governor DeLassus, in January, 1800, for another grant "in any other part of the vacant domain," and accordingly DeLassus, "having taken cognizance of this matter" and "as a proof of our approbation," ordered that "the surveyor of this part of upper Louisiana, Don Antonio Soulard, shall survey in favor of Don Carlos Tayon the quantity of land mentioned in his above title and concession (i. e., made by Don Francesco Cruzat) in any other vacant place in the royal domain, at his will and choice." 7 In addition to this, another grant of ten thousand arpens was made as a reward for his services to Francesco Tayon, Junior, his son. This concession was on the River Renaud (Fourche à Renault), in the dis- trict of Ste. Genevieve.8 DeLassus, in his report to Captain Stoddard, as to the personal characteristics and qualifications of the command- ants of the various posts, says that Tayon "is a brave officer and zealous in obeying orders he receives when he can comprehend them," but that "he gives himself to drink" and "that he recently committed an injustice to the inhabitants of his post," and which "is already too important for his capacity to regulate as he should," and he adds "as he neither reads nor writes."9 That he was "zealous in obeying orders" is shown by an incident given in the testimony of François Duchouquette, who says that when his brother Pierre was attacked and wounded by the Delaware Indians, he made complaint to Gover- nor Perez, and that he sent out a party under Tayon to punish these Indians. Tayon, with an energy and promptitude that astonished the Spanish officials, vigorously pursued the Indians and killed a number of them. For this he was afterward ordered to New Orleans to "explain" his "zealous" conduct, and after no inconsiderable trouble and, no doubt, numerous explanations and excuses, he was finally permitted to return "vindicated." The killing of Indians.was by the Spanish authorities not overlooked as a mere venial offense. La Trail says that Tayon when he was commandant at St. Charles occupied the lot upon which the first house in the village was built,
6 American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 780.
7 American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 780.
8 American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 779.
9 I Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 336.
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FIRST SURVEY
being the square now numbered 19 bounded on the south by Mc- Donald, west by Main, east by Missouri and north by Water streets, and from this we infer that Blanchette must have first erected his hut on this block when he made a settlement at what is now St. Charles. This lot had a front of two hundred and forty by three hundred feet in depth.
The first survey of the village was made by Auguste Chouteau, under order of the Spanish authorities, but the map of the village, if Chouteau ever made a map, has not been preserved. Gabriel La Trail says that he assisted in this survey, likely carrying the chain. This Gabriel La Trail in 1824 was one of the oldest residents of St. Charles, and one of the principal witnesses before Commissioner Hunt testifiing as to the ownership and occupancy of many of the lots in this village, and according to Dr. Mackay Wherry, he was always considered " a man of truth."1º Louis Barrada, Senior, also assisted in this survey. Another old resident was Joseph Laurain, who settled in St. Charles in 1784. He, too, was an important witness before the commissioners, as well as Jean Filteau or Felteaux, who afterward went to St. Louis. Jean Baptiste Belland, Senior, appears to have been one of the earliest residents of St. Charles, but this Belland also was an early resident of St. Louis. Jean Provost, François Dorlac (or Durlac),11 Baptiste Brusier, upon whose lot was situated a spring called "Maxwell Spring," Don Antonio Gautier, Gotier or Gaultier (1786), lieutenant of militia, near St. Charles at Marais le Temps Claire and Marais Croche, and in 1796 at Cul de Sac; and Michael La Sage severally were among the pioneer settlers. Don Pedro Troge-who had emigrated from Cahokia, where in 1780 he was huissier-in 1791 was one of the prominent residents of the · village. In 1793 he was commissioned by Governor Carondelet as lieutenant of the militia.
All the early inhabitants of St. Charles, although engaged more or less in hunting and the fur trade, were engaged in tilling the soil, cultivating two common-fields adjacent to the village, one known as the upper12 and the other as the lower field. The lots in these com-
10 Hunt's Minutes, vol. 1, p. 40, Missouri Historical Society Archives.
11 A François Dorlac, one of the earliest residents of Ste. Genevieve, owned property in the Big field in 1760; a resident of the village in 1774, may be the same person. Perhaps a German, as I have seen the name spelled "Dur- lach " in the Ste. Genevieve Church records. Judge Douglas tells me that the name is a Breton name, and that the family is still living in St. Louis and is not German.
12 American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 689 et seq.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
mon-fields were similar in extent to the common-field lots in St. Louis, being one arpent in front by forty in depth. The St. Charles com- mon-fields were bounded on the east by Marais Croche (Crooked Swamp) and west by the public lands, and embraced considerable extent of ground. In addition, fourteen thousand arpens belonged to the villagers in common. This grant the inhabitants secured for their necessary fencing and fuel from Lieutenant-Governor Trudeau in 1797, and in making this grant he says: "Having been informed that the land demanded for timber is not at all fit for settlement, on account of its overflow every year, and that the said timber growing on it is only fit for firewood, and can renew itself in a short time, not being like that of the hills, which it is experienced never grows up again (sic), and said lands being nighest and at proximity to the vil- · lage of St. Charles and of the several tracts granted in the prairie of said village, whose inhabitants would have to procure wood from a much greater distance, the same shall remain (as well as all the other adjoining it, either ascending or descending the Missouri, and which were demanded by the several petitions to us directed, with the present one of M. Tayon) to the king's domain, and for the common use of said village of St. Charles, as well as for the use of all the lands granted or to be granted in future in the prairie of said jurisdiction of which M. Tayon will notify the inhabitants, and particularly those who have petitioned for the same, and whose petition I herewith remit to him."13 And in 1801 DeLassus, with reference to the same subject, writes that "if the common of the inhabitants of St. Charles is not sufficient, we do permit them, provisionally, to enlarge it according to their wishes, without insuring to them the right of property for which they are to petition as above," i. e., to his lordship the Intend- ant of this province. Pierre Blanchette, one of the leading inhabit- ants, testified before the commissioners to adjust the land titles, that unless the people had secured these commons to supply them with fencing and fuel, they would have been compelled to abandon the cultivation of their lands.14 These commons were surveyed by Mackay and his deputy, John Ferry (or Terry), who afterward was killed by the Indians. La Trail also claims to have assisted in this work. In 1797 the village of St. Charles was surrounded by a fence, 15
.
13 3 vol. Minutes of Commissioners, p. 68.
14 American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 672.
15 Chouteau vs. Eckert 7 Mo. Rep. 15.
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POPULATION
a part of this fence separating the town from the common-fields and common wood and pasture land.
In 1787 Auguste Chouteau received a concession to build a mill about "fifteen arpens above St. Charles," on a branch called St. Augustine, but he assigned this claim to his brother, Pierre Chouteau, who started work on the mill, getting out timber to build a dam, Noel Mongrain, nephew of Cheveux Blanc, assisting in the work. A quantity of clay was hauled for the dam to strengthen it, but in the spring of 1788 the milldam, such as had been constructed, was swept away by the flood. We have no evidence that this water-mill was ever built. In 1790 John Coontz (or Coons), a German from Illinois, however, had a mill in operation on his lot in St. Charles. This Coontz was a slave owner, and before he came to St. Charles, had been a resident of Illinois for fourteen or fifteen years. Hyacinth St. Cyr, a former resident of St. Louis, had a horse-mill in the village in 1796. John Cook, also, had a mill there in 1799. Cook owned property on the Dardenne, on Cook's run. François Duquette, a French-Canadian, born in 1774, first lived at Ste. Genevieve, but came to St. Charles in 1796. He established a wind-mill in a stone circular tower - about 30 feet in diameter, which had been erected as a fort. He was one of the principal traders and merchants of the village, a large land own- er, and in 1794 married Marie Louise Beauvais, daughter of Vital Beauvais, of Ste. Genevieve. Rene Dodier, one of the original settlers of St. Louis, cultivated land for him in 1801.
The population of the village of St. Charles at no time prior to the cession of Louisiana exceeded one hundred families. Antoine Lamarche says that the village was composed of eighty families in 1797. The houses, about one hundred in number, in which the four hundred and fifty inhabitants then lived, were scattered along a single street about one mile long, running parallel with the river, each house being located in a large lot surrounded by a garden. At that time the population was chiefly composed of French-Canadians and their descendants. "In their manners they unite," says Lewis, "all the careless gaiety and ample hospitality of the best times of France, yet, like most of their countrymen in America, they are but ill qualified for the rude life of the frontier. Not that they are without talent, for they possess much natural genius and vivacity; not that they are destitute of any enterprise, for their hunting excursions are long and laborious and hazardous, but their exertions are desultory, their
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
industry is without system and without perseverance. The surround- ing country therefore, though rich, is not generally well cultivated. The inhabitants chiefly subsist by hunting and trading with the In- dians, and confine their culture to gardening, in which they excel."16 But Gen. Collot, who visited the village in 1796, says: " Aussi est- il difficile de trouver un rassemblement d'invididus plus ignorans, plus grossiers, plus laids, et plus miserables."-all of which he at- tributes to extreme poverty.17
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