USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 22
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MIAMIS, 4th May, 1787.
Dear Sir :- We learn from common report that you had left Port St. Vincents, with an intention to seize Mr. Louis Lorimier's goods. We have received from him about eight packs, and on our arrival here Mr. Sharp went to see him, on purpose to know his reasons for leaving this country. His reasons appeared to him pretty good, and as he had no property along with him, on purpose to get his peltry and gain his good will, we were induced to advance a few things, as he says, to assist him. A few days after Mr. Sharp left him, he got intelligence of your going to seize his goods, and he wrote a letter expressing his surprise at our duplicity.
What we have to say on the subject is neither more nor less than this, that the Spaniards have invited the Delawares and Shawnees to their side of the Missis- sippi. With a tribe of the latter Mr. Lorimier goes, and expects the Spaniards will allow him to follow them. If this is the case and he well inclined, we think he may do better than was expected, and as the company means to have some-
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CAPE GIRARDEAU POST ESTABLISHED
body there to do this business, it might in some measure atone for the loss of the Port Vincent's (Vincennes) trade, which will never be renewed.
We wrote you yesterday at some length. You will be the best judge how to act in regard to Lorimier, but we think his intentions are honest.
Sir, your very humble servant,
To Hugh Heward, Mouth Illinois. 12
GEORGE SHARP, THOMAS SHEPERD.
In 1787 Lorimier resided in the Ste. Genevieve district, engaged in the Indian trade apparently in partnership with Peyroux and Menard. He then lived on the Saline about five or six miles from the present town of St. Mary's, not far from what is now New Bremen, probably at or near a place still called the Big Shawnee spring. After settling with the Miami company, under authority of Baron Car- ondelet already mentioned, he removed to where the city of Cape Girardeau now stands, and became founder and commander of the post. As showing the extent of his business, and former trade rela- tions at Vincennes it is worth mentioning, that while living on the Saline, in July 1791, he made a note for 2062 livres, payable "in shaved deer skins" to adjust a debt due François Vigo and Antoine Gamelin both then residents of Vincennes, and that this note was duly recorded in New Madrid, being witnessed by Louis Largeau. This note was also given probably in settlement of an old account.
In 1792 the threatened invasion of Louisiana by French-American filibusters greatly excited the Spanish authorities. Much reliance was placed, to secure correct information, upon the Shawnee and Delaware Indians, and which were under the control of Lorimier, and consequently his services were in great demand. But in his trading operations, he had come into conflict with the Spanish commandant Portelle, of New Madrid, consequently some friction existed between them, and he was induced with some difficulty, fearing arrest, to visit Portelle at New Madrid, then supposed to be greatly in danger of attack. Being assured as to this matter, he visited New Madrid, and on the suggestion of Portelle, he then employed Louis François Lar- geau as his secretary and he kept a daily journal of his operations during that exciting period. Largeau had been secretary of Portelle before that time, and it is not at all unlikely that he was sent as secre- tary with Lorimier to observe his conduct, and that thus the Lorimier Journal originated. This journal, however, found preserved in the Spanish archives, gives a vivid picture of the daily occurrences during
12 Heward seized the goods and Lorimier sued him for damages in the Cahokia court in 1787, but the court held that the matter should be settled by arbitrators to be selected "from either side of the river." Illinois Hist. Collection, vol. 2, p. 299 (Alvord).
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1793-4, near the mouth of the Ohio. Lorimier's services during this period led to the establishment of Cape Girardeau as an independent post in May, 1793.
In 1796 Gen. Collot was at Cape Girardeau, and, in his opinion, it was the most favorable location for a military establishment above the Ohio, dominating the mouth of that river and protecting upper Louisiana from an hostile attack, and he says, that the importance of this location did not escape the attention of "M. Laurimier, Francais, au service d'Espagne, dont les talen s militaires et la grande influence indiennes sont tres-utiles a cette puissance," and that the Shawnees and Loups were under his control and command. He thought a naval station ought to be established at this point.13 When Lorimier received his concession from Caron- delet to establish himself, and Indians, and trade from the Mississippi to the Arkansas rivers, Lieutenant Governor Trudeau wrote him as follows :
"ST. LOUIS, May 1, 1793.
The within is a permit which the Governor General gives you to make your trade with the Delawares and the Shawnees, so extended that there may be nothing more to desire, without fear that you will be troubled by any officer of the king as long as you do as you have heretofore done. He recommends you to maintain order among the savages, and to concentrate them, so that he may be sure that they will take position more on the frontier of our settlements in order to lend us help in case of a war with the whites, and they will thus also be opposite the Osages, against whom I shall declare war forthwith, a thing I have not yet done, because I have to take some precautions before that shall reach them. Inform the Delawares, Shawnees, Peorias, Pottowatomies and the other nations which presented a memorial last September, that it is on account of the bad treatment that they have suffered, that the Governor General has deter- mined upon the war, in order to procure quiet for our land. The Osages are at present deprived of aid, and harassed by us and by them, they will surely be open to reason; that consequently all the red nations must agree to lend a hand; it is their good which the government seeks; and it is of that you must convince them, so that the offended nations will take some steps toward the others to secure their aid, and particularly that the Iowas, Sacs and Foxes shall not consent to let the Osages come so far as to trade on the river Des Moines, and that still less shall they allow the English to introduce themselves by that river, which is a possibility.
Protected by the Government, you owe it your services in closely watching over all that tends to its prosperity, and averting everything which is to its detri- ment. At this moment we fear nothing from Congress, but from the ill-disposed which depend upon it. Posted in an advantageous place to give advice of the least assemblage, I am confident that as soon as you are cognizant of it you will make it known to the Commandants with whom you are connected, as much for our safety as for your defence.
The Governor has approved of the distribution of the twenty thousand beads, which I have given the Delawares, and to which you have contributed. It has been my intention to reimburse you, and to-day I can do it with greater facility. because they have offered me the means without looking for them elsewhere, so
13 Dans L'Amerique, vol. I, p. 300.
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LORIMIER'S SERVICES
you may draw on me at the rate of six per thousand, which the king has agreed for me to pay.
I am told that you are coming to St. Louis with your savages. Because I am deprived of all merchandise, their visit will be a little embarrassing. There- fore I ask you to come by yourself (when your presence here is necessary) and attend to it, that when the boats arrive you are here to make a suitable present to the savages.
May God take you in His holy keeping. Zenon Trudeau.
P. S .- I keep your permit for an occasion to which I can intrust it. It states that you shall not be troubled from the Missouri to the Arkansas in your trade, also in the settlements or encampments which you have formed with the savages, the Shawnees and Delawares, etc., and that you shall be protected at Cape Gir- ardeau.
Mr. Louis Lorimier." 14
After the threatened invasion had collapsed, principally through the' energetic action of the new Federal Government, Lorimier seems to have been much employed by the Spanish officials. In 1796 he traveled through the wilderness of Indiana and Ohio as Spanish agent to induce the subdued and dejected Indians to emigrate to upper Louisiana. That, as an emissary he visited the various Indian tribes on such a mission, appears from a letter of Winthrop Sargent, ad- dressed to Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, in which this scheme of the Spanish authorities to induce the Indians to emigrate into upper Louisiana is set forth. He says that "for this purpose Mr. Lorromie (Lorimier), an officer in the pay of the crown, made a tour over all the country last fall (1796), since which time several Indians have been seen on the same errand, and generally furnished with plenty of cash to defray their expenses. A large party of Dela- wares passed down White Water, about the 6th of May, on their way . to the Spanish side, bearing the national flag of Spain, some of them from St. Louis. They have, above the mouth of the Ohio on the Mississippi, several row galleys with cannons." 15
No doubt Lorimier, after he settled in upper Louisiana, with his Shawnee and Delaware "savages", proved to be a very active and valuable man to the Spanish authorities, in inducing these Indians and others to take up their residence in the colony. When he crossed the Mississippi and settled in upper Louisiana he became a Spanish subject by taking the oath of allegiance. Nor is there any reason to suppose that he was very friendly disposed to the United States. He, as well as the Shawnee and Delaware Indians who came with him, had suffered great loss and defeat in the Northwest
14 This letter copied as translated in the History of Southeast Missouri, p. 261. 16 Dillon's History of Indiana, p. 374.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
territory. His store had been sacked and plundered, and station burned. The villages and corn-fields of these Indians had been destroyed and set on fire. Of these Indian corn-fields, General Wayne said in 1794, "the very extensive and highly cultivated fields and gardens show the work of many hands. The margin of these beautiful rivers, the Miamies of the lakes (Maumee) and Auglaise, appear like one continued village for a number of miles, both above and below the place; nor have I ever beheld such fields of corn in any part of America from Canada to Florida." 16 And it was from this country, so well cultivated and advanced, so rich and fertile, that many of these Indians and Lorimier had been expelled a few years before, and from which the remainder were virtually expelled by the Americans after Wayne's campaign.
In 1795 through Juan Barno y Ferrusola, as his agent or attorney, Lorimier first petitioned Governor-General Carondelet for a grant of land where Cape Girardeau is now situated. This petition was in- dorsed with a favorable recommendation of Don Thomas Portelle, Commandant of New Madrid, and dated September Ist, 1795. Carondelet, on October 26th, 1795, made the land grant as requested and instructed Soulard to "put the interested party in possession of forty arpens in front by eighty in depth, in the place mentioned in the foregoing memorial," on the express condition, however, that the con- cession should be null and void if within the precise time of three years the land "is not settled."17 On October 27th, 1797, Soulard certifies, that he has placed Lorimier in possession, and that his grant is located at "the same place as the village of Cape Girardeau," and also states, that he delivered him a "figurative plat on which was noted the dimensions and natural and artificial boundaries of said land." In addition to this grant on October 26th, 1795, Carondelet granted Lorimier other land on condition that within one year he "make a road and regular improvements. "18 It should be noted that this concession of land was made to Lorimier several years after the exclusive trade privilege with the Shawnees and Delawares between the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers had been granted him. His grants aggregated about 8,000 arpens, and since, for some time prior to
16 Letter of General Wayne, August 14, 1794, to the Secretary of War.
17 Carondelet calls the place where Lorimier established himself in 1793 simply "Girardeau."
18 On the map of Cape Girardeau and its environs, made by Warin, Adjutant General of Collot, these roads are laid down as well as other improve- ments then existing in that locality.
PLAN
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Shawanoens
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CAPE GIRARDEAU AND ENVIRONS IN 1906 FROM COLLOT'S DANS AMERIQUE
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the concession, Lorimier had established himself on this land, the conditions imposed by Carondelet were certainly not onerous. In 1799, Lorimier, according to Leduc, had in course of erection a large building as a residence on his land. This building, known as the "Red House," was located on the lot at present occupied by the St. Vincent Catholic church. Says Collot " une tres-belle ferme, ou il fait sa residence." At that time a large level space intervened between this house and the river, now called "Aquamsi Front." Not far from his house was the big spring, on the corner of Williams and Fountain streets, and from there a spring branch then ran in a northeastward direction to the river. The sloping hillsides around the spring were covered with a fine growth of timber, and here Lori- mier's Indian relatives and friends often encamped when they visited him, or were called to his post on business or to receive presents. An Indian village was located near the present Fair grounds, not far from the road which now leads to Jackson. The land grants made to Lori- mier by Carondelet undoubtedly were connected with his journey into the Indiana and Ohio wilderness in 1796, to induce the Shawnee and Delaware Indians to cross the river and settle among the Spaniards.19
In 1798 Gabriel Cerré made a claim to the land inhabited and cultivated by Lorimier, and a controversy arose between them about the matter. Lorimier appealed to the Governor General, Don Man- uel Gayoso de Lemos, who decided the case in his favor, but ordered land to be given to Cerré elsewhere to the same amount, saying Lorimier had rendered services which entitled him to the land. He remained undisturbed on his grant thereafter, maintaining order in his settlement, and among the Indians, and enjoyed the confidence of the Spanish authorities at New Orleans. Incidentally we learn that during this period, General Ben Logan, of Kentucky, returning from New Orleans by land, visited Lorimier at Cape Girardeau in order to secure a negro woman whom the Shawnee Indians had captured from him on one of their raids into Kentucky, and who was in the hands of Lorimier. He did not find him at home at this time, but made an- other trip afterward for the same purpose and says he found him in bad health, that he then told him that this woman was his only help, and so Logan took a few ponies in settlement of his claim.20
19 So completely was he identified with the Indians and as responsible for their misconduct in the minds of the early American settlers, that after his death in 1812, Garah Davis, a blacksmith made a claim against his estate of $1.50 "to one hog killed by an Indian," in 1808.
20 Draper's Notes, Vol. 18, p. 166.
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BARTHÉLEMI COUSIN
After the death of his first wife 21 in March 23, 1808, Lorimier married Marie Berthiaume, daughter of François Berthiaume,22 a gun-smith for the Shawnees who at the time resided about five miles above the mouth of Apple creek, and not far from the Shawnee villages and where afterward was established Ingram's mill. The wife of Berthiaume was also either a half or whole-blood Shawnee woman. Menard says that Lorimier's second wife was "a natural daughter of Beauvais St. Gem, who commanded the Shawnees on Grant's Hill" when General Braddock was killed. He claims that this Beauvais was a brother of his great grandfather, who was also present at that rout, but says that his grandfather Pierre Menard was not present, as Governor Reynolds would have it.
Lorimier was commander of the post when the first settlers from the United States crossed the river and settled in the immediate vicin- ity of Cape Girardeau, in 1795. He was engaged in the Indian trade up to the time of his death in 1812, and then had on hand a large stock of goods. His purchases for the trade he made from Bryan and Mor- rison, of Kaskaskia. He built the first water-mill which was known as the "lower mill," in the district on Cape LaCruz, about where the bridge of the Scott County road south of Cape Girardeau is now located. Afterward he built another mill on Hubble creek, the stone work being done by the Butchers and Bloom, of Ste. Genevieve. Isaac Ogden was the mill-wright. The mill-stones for these mills were brought from the Ohio. Abner Hathaway was the miller for both mills. All the horses and ponies ranging in the woods were claimed by Lorimier, and after his death, his claim to the same was assigned to John Logan 23 who had married his widow.
21 This is the inscription upon her tomb in the old Cape Girardeau graveyard :
" To the memory of Charlotte P. B. Lorimier, consort of Maj. L. Lorimier, who departed this life on the 23d day of March, 1808, aged 50 years and two months, leaving four sons and two daughters.
Vixit, Chaoniae praeses dignissima gentis;
Et decus indigenum quam laps iste tegit ; Illa bonum didcit natura - -* magistra.
Et, duce natura, sponte secuta bonum est, Talis honos memorum, nulla cultore, quotannis Maturat fructus nitis oliva suao.
And translated is as follows :
She lived the noblest matron of the Shawanoe race,
And native dignity covered her as does this slab.
She chose nature as her guide to virtue,
And with nature as her leader spontaneously followed good,
As the olive, the pride of the grove, without the planter's care, Yearly brings its fruit to perfection .
* This word by time obliterated on the slab.
22 dit Barume - dit Bethune.
23 This John Logan was the father of General John A. Logan. After the death of his first wife, the widow of Lorimier, he removed to Jackson county,
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Barthélemi Cousin, acted as secretary for Lorimier, and was deputy surveyor of the district, and interpreter. He was a man of education, of linguistic attainments, master of the German, French and Spanish languages and many Indian tongues, and, says Menard, "a man of great talents" who had "rendered important services to the Government" and accordingly was "held in great considera- tion." Nearly all the immigrants who came from the east side of the river to Cape Girardeau district applied to him to write their Li Lorimien petitions for permission to settle and requêtes for land. He seems to have greatly favored this American emigration. Lorimier too no doubt appreciated the in- creased value of his great landed concession and the importance his post must attain by a large population. Lorimier himself was not an educated man; he could not read, but could write his name. He was a man of keen intellect and great executive ability. He did noth- ing without thoroughly understanding the subject, never signed a document without having it fully explained. That he knew how to promote the public welfare is evidenced by the fact that in ten years, from 1793 to 1803, he made the Cape Girardeau district the richest and most prosperous community of upper Louisiana, not excepting St. Louis. Stoddard, speaking of the various settlements of upper Louisiana, says of the Cape Girardeau district, "Certain it is, that the richest and most industrious farmers in this part of the world are pro- prietors of the lands in this district, not more than four French men living in it, and the rest being English-Americans." 24 DeLassus, in a letter dated January 13, 1803, to Don Manuel de Salcedo says that he "must further recommend him (Lorimier) as a man of the highest utility for any military service, especially in what concerns the Indi- ans," and suggested that he be promoted to some military post with pay. Salcedo said of him, "The merit of Don Louis Lorimier is of the most distinguished character, and is worthy of the greatest notice of the Government, which at all times has shown it to him, soliciting for him the favor of the sovereign in order to obtain the grade of captain which your lordship asks in his favor."
Cape Girardeau was not regularly laid out as a village or town by Illinois, nearly opposite Cape Girardeau county, where he married the mother of Gen. Logan.
24 Stoddard's Louisiana, page 214.
18I
EARLY SETTLERS
Lorimier while he was Spanish commandant of the post. The fact that he claimed all the land upon which the village of Cape Girardeau was located, as well as all the land in the immediate vicinity, and that after the cession this great claim was rejected by the Commissioners, was ruinous to Cape Girardeau at a critical time in the history of the place. Yet even with this draw-back, the population of Cape Girar- deau county in 1820 was 7,800, and of St. Louis county 8,200; the greatest part of the population in St. Louis county residing the town, and the population of Cape Girardeau residing on farms.
Cousin, the most conspicuous resident of the post, resided not far from Lorimier near the corner of the present Main and Themis streets, in a small log house. The road along the river was then called "Rue de Charette." Above Cousin's residence in 1799 there were located near the river, according to tradition, the trading houses of Steinback and Reinecke, Michael Quinn and perhaps others, all American traders doing business here. Solomon Thorn, a gun-smith, also resided in the village. Thorn, who came to Illinois with the George Rogers Clark regiment, was a soldier in Captain Dillard's company. After the conquest he lived at Vincennes, then resided at Kaskaskia, and thence moved across the river to the Spanish country. He bought the lot he lived on from Samuel Bradley, who seems to have resided at the post for a time. This Solomon Thorn was a brother of Daniel Thorn, who appeared in many cases as a witness before the Board of Land Commissioners for the district of Kaskaskia, and made a bad record. Solomon although not as greatly discredited as Daniel, also left a doubtful record there.25 After he settled in the Spanish country he was em- ployed by Lorimier to work for the Indians living on Apple creek in 1798 and 1799, and in different parts of the district, repairing guns, and in other public service, and received a land donation from him. He never lived long in one place. At one time he owned Cypress Island, situated opposite Cape Girardeau; but sold his interest there in 1824. Where he finally died is not known. One John Risher was the blacksmith of the place, and received as a present, or purchased from Lorimier the piece of ground upon which St. Vincent's college is now located, and where after the cession he laid out a town and named it "Decatur." Other blacksmiths were John Patterson and Charles Seavers, who both lived at this post in 1802. David Wade was the carpenter, and also sold lumber - of course, hand-sawed.
The small water-mill on Cape La Cruz, originally built by Lori- 25 American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 125.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
mier was afterward operated by Steinback who married Lorimier's daughter Agatha, in 1808. Another small water-mill, belonging to Rodney, was in operation on Hubble creek near the present village of Dutchtown. Farther up Hubble creek Ithamar Hubbell ran a mill, and on Byrd's creek the Byrds also had a mill. The largest mill of the district was situated on White Water and belonged to George Frederick Bollinger. This mill was celebrated far and wide, and is operated as a water-mill to this day. Pioneer settlers on the St. François, Black and even White rivers, 75 or 100 miles away, came to this mill to have corn and wheat ground into meal or flour. The mill-dam was at first built out of logs, but Bollinger in after years erected a stone mill-dam.
No regular Catholic church was erected at Cape Girardeau during Spanish rule, and no church of any other denomination was permitted. Tradition says that a small Catholic chapel existed near what is now the corner of Lorimier and Independence streets. Rev. James Max- well, Vicar General of upper Louisiana, certainly occasionally held service at the post. Likely after the cession the chapel fell into decay and ruin. The lot on which it stood was subsequently acquired by James McFerron.
The American emigrants settled in this district, early established schools, and the names of several of the early school-teachers have been preserved. Thus it is known that William Russell and Dennis Sullivan, (otherwise also a blacksmith) taught school in the Byrd settlement and that Frederick Limbaugh (Limbach) was a German teacher in the German settlement. The teacher at Mt. Tabor school in the Ramsay settlement is not now known, although it is a well established fact that at Mt. Tabor was established the first English school west of the Mississippi river. It is supposed that McFerron was the teacher there.
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