USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 2
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" This name spelled "D'Abbadie" by Gayarre, but "L'Abadie" by Martin, and spelled "D'Abbadie" by Du Terrage. Pittman says that he gave "an ex- clusive grant for the commerce with the Indian nations on the river Missouri" to a company of merchants. (Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, p. 94.)
5 I Billon's Annals, p. 51, citing Archives, vol. 4, May 25, 1767. L'Abbadie was appointed Director-General March 16, 1763, and reached New Orleans June 29th following, and Laclede departed with his boat and goods in August.
6 Du Terrage, Les Dernieres, &c., p. 223, note I.
7 Joseph Datchurut and Louis Viviat were merchants in Ste. Genevieve prior to the founding of St. Louis. Viviat also was a merchant in New Orleans
3
LACLEDE
This tribunal evidently held that the firm had no exclusive right to the trade on the Missouri river.
Pierre Laclede Liguest, Margry says, was a native of Bedons Valle d'Aspre, diocese d'Oloron in Bearn, about fifteen leagues from Pau, and removed to Louisiana in 1755, where he states he "founded a commercial establishment in New Orleans." 8 However, this last statement may be questioned, because there is no evidence that Laclede was ever in business in New Orleans.9
It is likely that Maxent, then one of the principal merchants of New Orleans, to secure this upper Louisiana trade, furnished the goods and capital and that Laclede agreed to give his personal
Jackde Liguent د
attention to the business, and for this received a share in the profits of the new establishment, and that thus the firm of Maxent, Laclede & Company originated. The fact that at the time of his death he was found to be greatly in debt to his partner, Maxent, seems to confirm the idea that he was merely a partner in the profits of the business.10 Personally, in New Orleans he entered into relations
at one time. Calvé was employed by them in the fur trade, but afterwards came to St. Louis in 1765. Married Theresa, daughter of Nicholas Marechal at Fort de Chartres. On account of an offence, in 1768, Calvé absconded from St. Louis, and in consequence his house and lot were sold there September 26, 1768. He returned in 1769 and sold his property afterward to Ignace Pinçon- neau, dit Rigauche. Calvé seems to have been in the employ of the English prior to the attack on St. Louis, but returned to St. Louis and in 1786 removed to St. Ferdinand. Of his children, Joseph, junior, married Eulalia Dubreuil; Antoine Pierre married Cecile de Jarlais; Marie Therese, Joseph Rapieaux; Victoria, Jean B. LaChance; Josette, Joseph St. Germain; Françoise, Jean B. Presse, Joseph Calvé, senior, died August 17, 1817, at St. Ferdinand.
8 See letter of Margry to Washburn, published in I Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 64.
"But Judge Douglas tells me that papers found in New Orleans describe him as " officier de milice et negociant."
10 Shepard says that his partner "got possession of his property and disposed of it in the following year, 1779, for a trifling sum, and left no slab to his mem- ory." What a perversion of facts, and as to the "slab," what an incongruity of the idea with the times. (Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 23.) In 1779 Governor de Galvez writes de Leyba that Laclede is largely in debt to Maxent,
4
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
with Madame Chouteau11, who, it is said, owing to mistreatment, had abandoned her husband and, contrary to the rules of the Church, contracted a civil marriage with him.
Laclede, on the 3rd of August, 1763, sailed up the Mississippi from New Orleans with his boat of merchandise, accompanied by Madame Chouteau and family, including young Auguste Chouteau,12 des- tined to play no inconsiderable part in the settlement and establish- ment of the new trading post on the Mississippi, and the foundation of St. Louis. After a voyage of nearly three months, Laclede with his boat arrived at Ste. Genevieve, but, finding no place there to store his goods for the winter, proceeded to Fort de Chartres,13 where he arrived on November 3, 1763. Fort de Chartres was then, and had been for a number of years, the seat of the civil and military govern- ment of all the Illinois country, an indefinite dominion, stretching westward toward the Rocky mountains and east and north toward
the liability amounting to more than 41,000 livres. The real estate in St. Louis Maxent sold for $3,000 to Chouteau in 1788, then in greatly dilapidated con- dition (I Billon's Annals, p. 148), being a stone house sixty by twenty-three, with a rotten roof, and another stone house fifty by thirty feet, with no floor, in ruins, and a piece of ground three hundred feet square.
11 Maiden name Marie Therese Bourgeois, born in New Orleans in 1733, married Auguste Rene Chouteau in 1749, bearing him one child, Auguste Chouteau, born September, 1750. Then, it is said, on account of ill treatment, abandoned Chouteau "and went to live" with Laclede, by whom she had four children, Jean Pierre, Pelagie, Marie Louise, and Victoire, but according to French law, bearing the name of "Chouteau." (I Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 179.) It is said that Madame Chouteau, "by and with the advice and consent of her friends, contracted a civil marriage with Laclede." Madame Chouteau died August 14, 1814. She seems to have been a "thor- ough business woman and drove a hard bargain now and then," acquired a great deal of property, being a trader in goods and furs, as well as real estate; sued her son-in-law Joseph M. Papin to recover the value of a negro slave ac- cidentally killed, and recovered the value. Her children all married well, and the family was very prosperous. The archives of St. Louis also show that in 1768 Laclede made a gift to the children of Mrs. Chouteau.
12 Margry gives his full name as "Pierre Etienne Auguste Chouteau," but on what authority does not state. (Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 64, note I.) He was born at New Orleans, August 14, 1750, and died at St. Louis, Feb- ruary 29, 1829, in his 79th year. During the Spanish domination he was the most prominent merchant and business man of the town, and in a large meas- ure controlled the fur trade. He enjoyed the confidence of the Spanish officials at New Orleans. Baron Carondelet especially seems to have placed much con- fidence in him and his brother Pierre in regard to matters relating to the Osage Indians. When the United States acquired Louisiana Chouteau was appoint- ed one of the Judges of the St. Louis Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. In 1808 he was Colonel of the militia and afterward U. S. Pension Agent. At various times he was appointed U. S. Commissioner to treat with the various Indian tribes of the west. He married Marie Therese Cerré, daughter of Gabriel Cerré, September 21, 1786.
13 Fort de Chartres was located a few miles above Ste. Genevieve in the southwest corner of what is now Monroe county, Illinois.
5
PROSPECTS THE COUNTRY
Canada. Neyon de Villiers14 was then commandant of the fort, and in the adjacent village, by permission, Laclede stored his goods and secured a home for Madame Chouteau and his family and followers, and then looked out a location for his trading establishment.
During the month of December Laclede prospected the country as far north as the mouth of the Missouri, and some distance up that river. The beauty, no less than the commercial advantages of the country, bordered on the north by the Missouri, on the south by the Maramec, and on the east by the Mississippi, now embracing St. Louis county, seems to have attracted the attention of the earliest voyagers, and it is supposed led to the first transient establishment of a Jesuit missionary station in the Mississippi valley, near the mouth of the Des Pères. Surrounded on three sides by these large, navigable waters, and intersected by many smaller streams, navigable in the light canoes of the voyageurs and fur-traders, at least during a part of the year, all parts of this district were easily accessible in those days of primitive water transportation. Much of this favored locality was gently rolling upland, sweeping far away to the horizon, alternately prairie and open woodland, covered with a high and luxuriant growth of grass, on which herds of deer and buffalo then grazed in peace and plenty. Along the banks of the rivers now and then perpendicu- lar cliffs of rocks separated these uplands from the bottoms, but at other places gradually and almost imperceptibly the upland descended to the lowlands, and these were covered with noble and tower- ing forests. From many hillsides gurgling springs broke forth, and in clear and limpid streams meandered through little valleys to larger branches, into creeks and into the great rivers almost surround- ing this delightful and pleasant land. The soil was fertile, the climate
14 In June, 1764, Chevalier Pierre-Joseph de Neyon de Villiers, the last French commandant of Fort de Chartres, withdrew from the fort in anticipation of the arrival of the English forces. He took with him to New Orleans seven officers and sixty-three soldiers, leaving Captain St. Ange de Bellerive and about forty soldiers and officers to guard the fort. A number of French families from de Chartres, St. Philippe, and Prairie du Rocher, accompanied de Villiers. (Davidson & Stuve's Historyof Illinois, p. 163.) He descended the river in twenty- one bateaux and seven pirogues. He was a brother-in-law of Kerlérec. Du Terrage says that in 1735 he was ensign in the regiment de Choiseul; in 1738, Lieutenant in the Marainville regiment, Aide-Major in the Royal Lorraine, and wounded at Wissembourg; Captain at the battle of Landfelt in 1747, attach- ed to the Louisiana Regiment in 1749; in command of Fort de Chartres; returned to Paris in 1765 ; aided Kerlérec in his defence; Colonel of the Guadeloupe Regi- ment; Brigadier-General in 1775 and Governor of Marie-Galanta, died in 1785. This de Villiers was born in Lorraine " d'une famille plus noble que riche "-and should not be confounded with the Coulon de Villiers. This Neyon de Villiers of Fort de Chartres was in no way related to this family.
6
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
genial, neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter; and autumn was the loveliest season of the year. In the center of the eastern edge of this district Laclede selected the location for his trading post, and when he returned enthusiastically assured the commandant of the fort, so it is said by Chouteau, " that he had found a situation where he intended to establish a settlement which might become hereafter one of the finest cities of America." 15 Chouteau, at that time was only between thirteen and four- teen years old, and does not tell us whether he was present when this con- versation took place, but in the light of subsequent events undoubtedly this proph- ecy stands justified whether actually made Ang. Couteau or not. Hutchins, who was a man of great intelligence, and travelled up and down the Mississippi shortly after the occupation of the east bank of the Mississippi by the English, speaks of the location as one of "the most healthy and pleasurable situations of any known in this part of the country." 16
Brackenridge thus describes the appearance of the country west of St. Louis, when St. Louis was still a small town, some forty years afterward: "Looking to the west, a most charming country spreads itself before us. It is neither very level nor hilly, but of an agreeable, waving surface, and rising for several miles with an ascent almost im- perceptible. Except a small belt to the north, there are no trees ; the rest is covered with shrubby oak, intermixed with hazels, and a few trifling thickets of thorn, crab-apple and plum trees. At first glance, we are reminded of the environs of a great city; but there are no country seats, or even plain farm houses ; it is a vast waste, yet by no means barren soil. Such is the appearance, until turning to the left, the eye catches the Mississippi. A number of springs take their rise here, and contribute to the uneven appearance. The great part flow to the southwest, and aid in forming a beautiful rivulet, which a short distance below the town gives itself to the river. I have been often delighted in my solitary walks to trace this rivulet to its sources. Three miles from town, out within view, among a few tall oaks, it
15 Chouteau's Journal, in St. Louis Mercantile Library.
16 Hutchins' Topographical Description, p. 38.
7
ST. LOUIS FOUNDED
rises in four or five silvery fountains within a short distance of each other: presenting a picture to the fancy of the poet or the pencil of the painter. " 17
When Laclede located his trading post it was already well under- stood that the country east of the Mississippi, with the Canadas, had been ceded by France to England, and that all her possessions on the west side of the river had been ceded to Spain, although this cession had not been officially announced.18 Of course, the transfer of the country east of the river to the hereditary enemy of France produced great excitement among the French inhabitants. It is more than likely that this general alarm and anxiety to escape English dom- ination may have first suggested to Laclede the idea of establishing a village at the place he had selected for his trading post, and inviting all those dissatisfied and alarmed by the transfer of the country to Eng- land to establish themselves with him on the west side of the river. It is also probable that he may have interested the French officers at Fort de Chartres in the locality where he proposed to establish his post, and suggested to them to establish the seat of their authority for the western country there, as soon as the English took possession of Fort de Chartres and the country east of the Mississippi. The fact that the officers afterward did actually remove to the post established by him would point to this conclusion.19 Be this as it may, as soon as the river was free from ice in the spring of 1764, Laclede sent his boat in charge of Auguste Chouteau to the place selected for the trading post. On February 14th Chouteau landed there,20 and he says that on the next day he put the men and boys who came with him on the
17 Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, p. 221 (Baltimore, 1817).
18 The cession of Louisiana to Spain was officially proclaimed in New Orleans in October, 1764. (1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 346.) But from Du Terrage it appears that Kerlérec was unofficially advised of the cession in January, 1763. Les Dernieres, etc., p. 157.
19 Pittman says "that for the security and encouragement of this settlement the staff of French officers and commissary were ordered to remove there, upon rendering Fort Chartres to the English." Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, P. 94.
20 Some question exists whether the boat arrived on the 14th of February or the 14th of March, 1764, a matter really of no importance. Have adopted February 14th in the text, because it is to be supposed that Laclede was anxious to start his establishment as quickly as possible. But if the winter was severe and the river full of ice, it is quite likely that the boat did not reach the site selected as a location for a settlement until March 14th. With Chouteau who was about 12 years of age when he came to St. Louis in 1764, on the boat came Jean Baptiste Rivière, who was born at Fort de Chartres. (Hunt's Minutes, Book 2, p. 102, Mo. Historical Society Archives.) When the Indians made the attack on St. Louis in ,1780, he was taken prisoner at "Cardinal
8
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
boat to work. Madame Chouteau and her children came up from Fort de Chartres in a cart through the American Bottom, accompanied by Laclede and arrived at Cahokia about the same time that the boat reached the site selected for the trading post. Laclede, after securing a place of residence for her at Cahokia, came over the river and spent the summer in erecting his establishment, and after the completion of his building, brought up his goods from the Fort, and finally, in September following,21 he also brought Madame Chouteau over to - the new village to the home prepared for MADAME CHOUTEAU her-her family being considered Laclede's family.22 But, during the summer, a number of other settlers from
Springs," a place now in the center of St. Louis, while sleeping in the house of Jean Marie Cardinal, and from St. Louis the Indians took him to Chicago as a prisoner, but from there he escaped and returned to St. Louis, and in 1785 moved from St. Louis to Florissant (St. Ferdinand) (Hunt's Minutes, Book 2, p. 50. Missouri Historical Society Archives). In 1792 had a horse-mill on his lot, Margaret Vial Rivière, assignee. The names of the boatmen are not known, Amable Le Tourneau is supposed to have been one by Scharff, (His- tory of St. Louis, vol. I, p. 170.) This Le Tourneau was a Canadian voy- ageur, and in 1770 was banished from the settlement for ten years, for a trivial offense.
21 Colonel Pierre Chouteau, senior, says that he came to St. Louis about six months after the founding of the village, and this would fix the time of the settle- ment of Madame Chouteau on the west side of the river, as stated. (Hunt's Minutes, Book 3, p. 100, pp. 282, 283 .- I Commissioner's Minutes.) Pierre Chouteau was born at New Orleans October 10, 1758, and died at St. Louis, July 10, 1849. He was engaged in the fur trade from early manhood. For many years he personally annually visited many of the Indian tribes of the west. He was master of their language. He had the greatest influence among the Osages - was in command of Fort Carondelet on the Osage river under con- tract with Carondelet. Although Auguste Chouteau, somewhat over- shadows in reputation Pierre Chouteau, it is nevertheless a fact, that the great influence the Chouteau name for many years exercised over the Indians of the west must be ascribed to Pierre. Auguste Chouteau seldom visited the Indians, but Pierre Chouteau during the early days of the fur trade was in their villages most of his time. When Louisiana was ceded to the United States Pierre Chou- teau was appointed the first Indian agent of the country by President Jefferson. He conducted the first delegation of Indians from the new territory to Washing- ton. He was one of the principal owners of the First Missouri Fur company and afterward identified with the American Fur company. When the Indians in early days visited St. Louis they always camped on his grounds and his home was their home. He occupied many and important public positions during his long and honorable life. His first wife was Pelagie Kiercereau, who died February 9, 1793. He afterward married Brigitte Saucier, daughter of François Saucier of Portage des Sioux, and who died in 1829.
22 I Billon's Annals, p. 19. It should be noted here that Shepard in his "History of St. Louis," page 14, does not seem to have in mind that Liguest
9
NEW SETTLERS
Cahokia crossed over and established themselves,23 building houses and making other improvements, and these, too, with their families, brought over their goods and merchandise. The total number of persons forming the new settlement in the first six months aggregated about thirty.
was married to Mrs. Chouteau. Speaking of St. Ange he says, "He (St. Ange) was the intimate friend of Mr. Liguest, founder of the town, and like him was never married." St. Ange, it should be remembered, died at the residence of Madame Chouteau. (I Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 72, note 4.)
23 In addition to Laclede, then about forty years old, and Antoine Rivière, Senior, dit Baccane, who was born in 1706, therefore forty-eight years of age in 1764 when he drove up the cart with Mrs. Chouteau and children from Fort de Chartres to Cahokia, and who moved to St. Ferdinand in 1790, and died there in 1816, having attained the age of one hundred and ten years, the oldest person we have any knowledge of at that day, the following persons, according to Mr. Billon, were the first settlers (Annals of St. Louis, vol. I, pp. 17, 18), and thus gave vitality to the village, namely, Joseph Michel, dit Taillon or Tayon, miller, forty-nine years old when he came to St. Louis, born in Canada in 1715, married Marie Louise Bissett, born in 1728. He died in St. Louis at the age of ninety-two (1807), and was probably the surveyor on the Maramec in 1799 of that name. His wife died at sixty-nine in 1797. According to Billon, old Joseph Michel, dit Tayon, was one of the syndics of the town. Carlos Tayon, his son, was commandant of St. Charles, his family adopting the name "Tayon;" Roger Taillon, miller; Joseph Mainville, dit Deschenes, was an early carpenter of St. Louis, and may have come up on the boat with Chou- teau; Jean Baptiste and Joseph L. Martigny were both traders. The Mar- tigny brothers came from Quebec, Jean Baptiste married Helene Herbert at Fort de Chartres, was a prominent, and, for that time, a wealthy man, built a stone house at the corner of what is now Main and Walnut streets, and this house afterward became the Government house, he was captain of the militia for a long time and died in September 1792, at the age of eighty, his brother Joseph Lemoine Martigny was engaged in the Indian trade in St. Louis as late as 1789, built a house which he afterward sold to Nicolas Royer, dit Sansquartier, a soldier; Nicolas Beaugeneau (Beaugenoux) farmer, forty-five years old, "Soldat de la companie de Mimbret" at Fort de Chartres in 1758; was a native of Canada, died in St. Louis in 1770, his wife was a Henrion, also born in Canada; his oldest daughter, Marie Josephé, was married in April, 1766, the first marriage recorded in St. Louis; his oldest son also named Nicolas, called "Fifi," born in Canada in 1741, married Catherine Gravelle, died in St. Louis in 1795, and she died in 1826, aged fifty-five years. The name of Feefee creek in St. Louis county derived its name from his nick-name "Fifi," (Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. I, p. 416) which is pronounced in French like Feefee. Alexis Cottè, farmer, was twenty-one years old when he arrived, married Eliz- abeth Dodier in 1768, in 1796 owned property in St. Charles. A Jean Coté (or Cottè), was a habitan of Canada in 1639, and Alexis may have been related to this family (2 Sulte Canadiens Française, p. 92); Gabriel Dodier, Junior, far- mer, owned property in Prairie des Noyers and on Little Rock creek; moved to St. Charles in 1795; Margaret Bequette, widow of Gabriel Dodier, lived on the prairie below "Mound d' Grange." Gabriel Dodier was a son of Gabriel Dodier of Fort de Chartres, who died there in 1763, his widow coming to St. Louis where she died in 1783. This Dodier, Senior, was a Canadian, a black- smith by trade. The Dodiers were among the first settlers of Canada, and Sulte gives the name of Sebastian Dodier as a habitan in 1639. According to the testimony of Marly, Morin, and Auguste Chouteau, Gabriel Dodier, Junior, was known as Auguste Dodier in St. Louis, and had two sons named respec- tively Auguste Gabriel, and Rene. (Hunt's Minutes, vol. 3, p. 135, Missouri Historical Society Archives.) Auguste Gabriel, Junior, married Pelagie Ri-
IO
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
When the Indians residing on the west side of the river heard of the new settlement made on their lands, a band of one hundred and fifty warriors, with women and children, came to the new village in the fall of the year, ostensibly to secure a supply of provisions, and in a friendly and familiar manner located their dwellings as near as pos- sible to their new acquaintances, manifesting the utmost pleasure and
vière; Jean B. Hervieux, gun-smith and royal armorer; Paul Kiercereau, a son of Gregoire Kiercereau, (de Kesignac) native of Port Louis, diocese of Vannes, Brittany, France, settled in Cahokia as early as 1740, where he died in 1770, his wife was Gillette LeBourg, or Boulque, widow of one Pothier; his son Paul was born in New Orleans, married Marie Josephè Michel, dit Tayon, in 1766, in St. Louis; their only child, Pelagie, married Pierre Chouteau, Senior, in 1783, and died in 1793, leaving four children, Auguste P., Pierre, Junior, Paul L., and Pelagie, who afterwards married Barthélemi Berthold; another son, Rene, dit Renaud, was born in 1723 in France, and married Marie M. Robillard, who died in St. Louis in 1783, and he died in St. Ferdinand in 1798; he was chanter or chorister of the church, and in the absence of the priest officiated at funerals, but as to this Rene, dit Renaud, see note 28 in Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 436. His eldest son, named Gregoire, born in 1752, married Magdalen St. François in 1774, a daughter named Julie married Gabriel Latreille (De La Treille) in 1800, and another daugh- ter named Marguerite married Louis Aubuchon of Ste. Genevieve district, in 1804. Marie Kiercereau, a sister of Rene and Paul, born in 1788, married Antoine Deshetres, an interpreter, who died in 1798, and was survived by his wife seventeen years; their oldest son was Gregory Kiercereau Deshetres; Alex- is Picard, farmer, age fifty-three when he settled in St. Louis, in 1794 at St. Ferdinand, and prior to 1801 in New Madrid district. François Delin, carpenter possibly same as François Delain; Joseph Labrosse, trader, raised corn on his lot in 1798, and in 1802 gave property to his god-son Joseph Labadie, in 1794 owned property at St. Ferdinand; Theodore Labrosse; Joseph Chancellier and Louis Chancellier, afterwards sub-lieutenant of militia. These Chancelliers were brothers of Mrs. Joseph Mainville, and born in the village of St. Philippe, and also came to St. Louis in the first boat; Joseph married Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Jean B. Becquette (or Bequetta), the miller, and after his death she married Antoine Gauthier (or Gaultier), of St. Charles; Louis married Marie Louise Deschamp, and after his death she married Joseph Beauchamp, dit Bechant, also of St. Charles (I Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 421). Jean B. Gamache (see Carondelet); Louis Ride, Senior, born in Canada, and died in St. Louis in 1787, his first wife was a daughter of Louis Marcheteau; Julian LeRoy, trader, married Marie Barbara Saucier, at Mobile in 1755, according to Billon was a well informed man; the family dropped the "Le" simply calling themselves "Roy"; the son Charles married Susanne Dodier in 1799, a daughter Madalaine, married François Hebert in 1774, at the age of sixteen ; Julien, Jun- ior, married Marie Louise Cotte and at her death the widow of Pierre A. Marie, in 1797; another son named Pierre Patrick married Victoire Stark; and Henri François married Jeanne Montardy in 1793. It seems that Julien, Senior, did not die in St. Louis. Jean Salle, dit Lajoie, trader, in 1769 built a stone house on what was afterward known as Block 57, and in 1792 returned to Bor- deaux, France, separating from his wife, Marie Rose Panda, who attained the age of 104, dying in St. Louis in 1830; one Jean B. Bequette was a blacksmith and the first owner of the southeast quarter of Block 36, and another Jean B. Bequette was a miller. Jean B. Bequette, Senior, and Junior, in 1797 were in Ste. Genevieve. Antoine Pothier, trader; Antoine Villiere Pichet, a car- penter; Legrain died in 1776; and probably related to the wife of Michel Rolette, dit Laderoute, who was a Lagrain, a soldier who came from Fort de Chartres with St. Ange; Marcereau and La Garrosse.
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