USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 28
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46 Letter of John Rice Jones, American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 605.
47 Ibid., p. 606.
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discover mineral, under a concession of Perez dated 1788. The widow Moreau claimed 500 arpens of mineral land under a concession of DeLassus in 1799; Auguste Chouteau, 810 arpens under a concession of DeLassus, dated 1800; J. B. Pratte, 1,000 arpens mineral land in Ste. Genevieve county; Easton and Bruff, under Gerrard & Fleming, 840 arpens at Mine à Joe, a famous lead mine to this day; Camille DeLassus, 2,400 arpens in Ste. Genevieve county, under concession dated October 1799; La Beaume and DeLaurier, 10,000 arpensin the same county in Prairie à Rondo, and Joseph Decelle 630 arpens near Mine à Breton, where he acted as syndic. DeLuziere, father of Don Carlos DeLassus, no doubt without much difficulty, secured a grant of 7,053 arpens on the waters of the St. Francois, near the place where the town of Farmington now stands, and J. B. Pratte, St. James Beauvais, Francis Vallé, and John B. Vallé made a claim to Mine la Motte under grants from DeLassus, although it is certain that this mine had been previously granted to Renault during the French dominion; John Perry and Bazil Vallé also claimed 639 arpens at Mine à Breton ; Thomas Armstrong, under Rufus Easton, 640 arpens, at "Armstrong's Diggins" in Ste. Genevieve county. Finally John Smith T., a bold and daring speculator set up a claim to 10,000 arpens under Jacques de St. Vrain, embracing "Mine à Liberty, " also "Shiboleth" and "Bellefountaine mines," and to 1,000 arpens mineral land near Mine à Breton, and under Decelle, he claimed 300 arpens at "Doggett's mine," 300 arpens at "Renault mine," 250 arpens on McKee's Branch, 200 arpens at the first mineral fork at the Maramec, 300 arpens at " Mine à Robina," and 294 arpens more at "McKee's Diggins." He also set up a mineral claim on White River, Arkansas, in what was then the New Madrid district. 48
Next in importance to these lead mine claims, were the various salt springs which had been discovered. Salt springs, in those early days, were deemed very valuable property. Among others, Don Carlos Tayon, Commandant at St. Charles, secured a concession on the Dardenne for 320 arpens on which a salt spring was found. Jacques Clamorgan and John Hildebrand made a similar claim for 320 arpens near the Maramec; Charles Gartiot, under Benito Vasquez, set up a claim to a salt spring tract of 7,056 arpens on the same river ; Pascal Cerré, under Gabriel Cerré, to one of 800 arpens, also on this river; DeLaurier under LaBeaume claimed 10,000 arpens on the Salt river, in St. Charles district, under grant of
48 American State Papers, 3 Public Lands, pp. 607, 608.
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DeLassus, dated March 1801; and John Scott, Henry Dodge, and Edward Hempstead, under Peyroux, claimed 7760 arpens on the Saline creek in Ste. Genevieve district, embracing then the most profitable salt springs in the territory. In addition Charles Gratiot, under Maturin Bouvet, claimed 400 arpens on the river Ohaha, or Salt river, now in Pike county; James McKay claimed a saline of 400 arpens on the Bonne Femme in the Boon's Lick country, now in Howard county; and Victor La Gotoire, 400 arpens on the Ohaha, or Salt river, also in Pike county. John Smith, T., made a claim to a salt spring under a concession to Jacques de St. Vrain of sixty-four arpens, six or seven miles from the Missouri river, near the dividing ridge between the Bonne Femme and Salt river, to one of sixty-four arpens near the Grand Minotaur, then in the St. Charles district, to seventy arpens near the Lemoir creek on the Missouri, and twenty-five arpens on which was a salt spring near White river, now in Arkansas, but then in the New Madrid district.
CHAPTER XVII
Agriculture-Hunting-Primitive Mechanical Arts and Trades-Voyageurs and Engagés-Farming in Common-fields-Farmers Dwelling in Villages -- Ste. Genevieve Common-field-Maintenance of Fences-Primitive Agri- cultural Implements-French Cart-Small Horses-Cattle-First Cattle Brought into the Mississippi Valley-New Orleans Market-Prices For Agricultural Products - Spain paid in Specie- Difference in Prices when Paid in Barter - No Common-field at New Madrid- LaForge's Complaint as to French-Canadian Farmers - Development of Agriculture after Advent of American Settlers-Agricultural Production of New Madrid and Little Prairie, 1796-Agriculture in Cape Girardeau District-Produc- tions of the District-Domestic Slavery-Indian Slaves-Spanish Ordinan- ces Prohibiting Slavery-Treatment of Slaves-Manumission-Fur Trade -Forest Peddlers-Early Merchants of St. Louis-Nick-names Among the French-Effect of Brandy and Rum on Indians-Contraband Traffic with English Traders-Intimate Relations of Voyageurs and Coureurs des bois with the Indians-Their Prodigality-Intermarriage with Indians -Fascination of Life in the Wilderness-Destruction of Fur Bearing Animals-Profits of Traders-Value of Fur Trade-French and Spanish Laws to Protect Same-Under French Dominion a Monopoly-Under Spanish Ordinances a Monopoly not Allowed-Traders Assigned to Districts-Contract with Forest Traders-Change in Method of Handling Fur Trade Trading-houses and Forts-Annual Meetings-Gradual Extension of Trading-houses and Forts up the Rivers-Invasion of Terri- tory by English Traders-Cheaper English Goods-Spanish Effort to Ex- clude British Companies-Carondelet's Agreement for the Establishment of Forts on the Missouri-Exploring Expedition of Clamorgan and Mackay .- Advantage of Traders Residing on the Missouri and Mississippi-Ship- ment of Salt and Bear's Meat to New Orleans-Agricultural Shipments- Ancient Salt Works on the Saline-Extent of Business-Salt Works on Salt river, the Maramec and in Boon's Lick Country-Grist-mills-Flour Contract with Spanish Government-Distilleries-Tan-yards-Scarcity of Metallic Money-Spanish Troops Paid in Specie-Paper Money-Barter -Peltry Currency-Carrots of Tobacco Medium of Exchange.
Agriculture was the principal occupation of the first settlers of the French villages in the territory now within Missouri. A few merchants supplied what could not be produced on the land; but all the men were also more or less engaged either in hunting during at least a part of the year, or in the fur trade. Some residents of the villages followed the primitive mechanical arts, among them being stone-masons, black-smiths, gun-smiths and cabinet makers.1
I "The mechanic arts did not flourish. Mason work of that day was good, but of the rest I can say nothing in praise of them. The cooperage of the coun- try amounted to very little more than making well-buckets. The carpenters were unskilled in their profession. They framed houses and covered them with peg-shingles; made batton doors, and in a rough fashion. No shoemakers or tanners, but all dressed deer-skins and made moccasins. Almost every inhabitant manufactured his own cart and plough, and made his harness, traces, and all out
231
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
The primitive garments worn by the people, were woven at home out of cotton or wool, the former raised by the farmers, the seed being picked from it by the children, while the wool was shorn from the little flocks of sheep which had to be carefully guarded against the wolves. Flax too was cultivated and spun and woven into linen. The skin of the deer furnished the hunting shirt and a raccoon skin the cap. Moccasins, or rude boots and shoes were worn by the people; these were made from leather tanned in the small tan-yards found in every village. Military uniforms and more pretentious clothes were ordered from New Orleans. Although the merchants and traders (negociants) of these villages carried on a comparatively extensive business, it would be a mistake to suppose that these mer- chants had "open shops or stores"- and displayed their goods as the merchants of our day. Merchandise was then kept in different chests, under lock and key. These chests were only opened and merchandise shown to purchasers, when inquiry for a certain class of goods was made. The goods were kept at the residences of these merchants, and not in separate stores. Kettles, pots, hoes, guns, flint-locks, etc., etc. were all carefully looked after and not allowed to lie around loose, such manufactured articles being considered valuable possessions, and generally imported from Europe.
Many of the men of these French villages, if able to endure the hardship of the business, and otherwise in a situation to leave home, went out annually on long and dangerous trading expeditions far up to the headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri, and their of raw hides." Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 88. Yet in these days of machine work, it may be doubted if we have mechanics competent to build and manufacture by hand, as the mechanics of that time. We give here some of the names of the early mechanics who followed their respective trades in the different villages: Joseph Mainville, Antoine Pritchet and François Delin were the carpenters; Jos. Robidoux was the shoemaker; Jean Hervieux the gunsmith; Jean B. Bequette the blacksmith, among the first settlers of St. Louis, and Jourdan LaRose was the baker. Pierre Payant and Joseph L'Amouroux (or Amoureux), in 1795, were the lock and gunsmiths, of New Madrid, and François Hudson, an immigrant from Richmond, Virginia, an iron-worker. Another blacksmith, named James Kavanaugh, from Ireland, came to New Madrid in 1796, and in 1799 he made a contract with Jacques Dehault de St. Vrain, a brother of Don Carlos, to furnish the blacksmith work for a mill St. Vrain intended to build at New Madrid. Solomon Thorn was the gunsmith at the post of Cape Girardeau and François Berthiaume among the Shawnees on Apple creek. François Lalumendiere, dit Lafleurs, in 1766 was the tailor in the village, and the Butchers and Peter Bloom (Blum), Ger- mans, were stonemasons in the Ste. Genevieve district. Joseph Vandenbenden managed the bakery at New Madrid for Tardiveau & Co., when they had a contract to supply the Spanish forces in Louisiana with "biscuit "; Juan Simon Guerin was the mason and brick-layer of the town in 1799, and Jacob Myers was the carpenter, who built "Fort Celeste" and the church of "St. Isidore."
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COMMON FIELDS
tributary streams, in search of furs going either on their own account or as voyageurs or engagés, returning after months of privation and adventure. The occupation of a voyageur or boatman at this time was not considered a degrading one, on the contrary it was held desir- able that a young man should be able to say that he had performed a long and dangerous voyage in the far interior. However, even before the purchase of Louisiana, this occupation lost character, principally owing to the lawlessness, coarseness and vulgarity of the American boatmen.
The farming of the first French inhabitants of Missouri was carried on in a common field. In St. Louis the farm lots of the common field, as surveyed by Duralde, all had a front of one arpent, and a depth of forty arpens, an arpent being equal to 192 feet and six inches - English measure. The arpent was both a quantitive and linear measure under the French system. Traditionally, it is said, the lands were thus surveyed so that the settlers might be near each other in case of Indian attacks. It is also said, that the custom originated to save fencing, because enclosing large fields under a common fence undoubtedly saves fencing. But fencing could be saved by surveying the land into more convenient bodies. Perhaps the French custom of surveying land in long and narrow strips, from one to four arpens wide, originated on the lower Mississippi or on the St. Lawrence. On the lower Mississippi, because under the rules and ordinances in force, each settler was required to maintain the levee in front of his ground, both under the French and Spanish dominion. As all lands granted to the first settlers fronted on the river, this system equitably apportions the burden of the main- tenance of the levees. On the St. Lawrence, surveys may have been made in this shape to secure all the settlers an equal waterfront, in that colony a matter of prime importance to the early pioneers. Whatever the origin of the custom, as a fact not only the common fields of St. Louis, but the common fields of Ste. Genevieve, New Bourbon, St. Ferdinand, St. Charles, and Carondelet were divided into long and narrow strips with a common front. The surveys and divisions of the common fields adjacent to Kaskaskia, Cahokia, St. Philippe and other French villages on the east side of the river were also made in the same way. These common fields were under the supervision of a syndic and a committee of umpires, whose duty it was to carefully examine the fences and report to the syndic. The common fences were generally viewed on a Sunday in January, and
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required to be of such character that cattle could not get out of, or into, the common field.2
The French settlers generally lived in villages, and these common fields were adjacent or near such villages, and during the farming season, they went out daily to attend to their agricultural labors. Brackenridge, speaking of the common-field of Ste. Gene- vieve, says: "Agriculture was carried on in a common field of several thousand acres, in the fertile bottom of the Mississippi river, enclosed at the common expense, and divided into separate lots, separated by some natural or permanent (surveyed) boundary. Horses and cattle, depastured, were tethered with long ropes, or the grass was cut and carried to them in stalls. It was a pleasing sight to see the rural population going and coming, morning and evening, to and from the fields with their working cattle, carts, old fashioned wheel-plows and other implements of husbandry." This great field of Ste. Genevieve, comprising some three thousand acres, to this day 1907, is cultivated as a common-field under a common fence, the farms of the several owners being in long strips one, two, or three arpens wide, extending from the road, along the foot of the hills that skirt the bottom, across the bottom, to the river bank. These strips of land were sometimes from one half to a mile in length. The rules and regulations for the fencing of these fields was a subject that greatly interested these early settlers and cultivators. All who cultivated land in the common field were required to assist and contribute to build and maintain the enclosures, but those residents who did not cultivate land were held only to aid in making and repairing public roads and bridges, and maintaining the commons for the stock and other conveniences of which they made use.3
At New Madrid a common field was not fenced in and divided among the settlers during the Spanish occupation. The question of enclosing a common field, however, was discussed before the Com-
2 In 1782 Perrault, Brazeau, Cerré, Rene Kiercereau, Joseph Taillon, Joseph Mainville, Chauvin and Auguste Chouteau were the umpires of the St. Louis common-fields, and at that time the most prominent citizens of the village. The Perrault named above a few years before, in 1779, had been captured by the British and Indians on a "Rebel boat", that is to say, on a boat in the service of the United Colonies, on his way up the Mississippi. A Michel Perrault acted as interpreter for General George Rogers Clark, at Vincennes, in 1780. In 1810 only 200 acres of this common field were in cultivation - although formerly several thousand acres were enclosed - the ground then looked like " the worn common in the neighborhood of a large town" and at several places cut open into gaping ravines." Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, p. 221.
3 See order of Lt. Gov. Zenon Trudeau, ante, vol. I, p. 360.
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AGRICULTURAL TOOLS
mandant, but the settlers being Americans objected to the scheme. Each farmer preferred the labor, trouble and expense of enclos- ing his own field, thus evidencing that spirit of individual inde- pendence and self-reliance which has always characterized the Anglo-Saxon.
It was remarked early by the Jesuits who visited Ste. Genevieve that the soil was very fertile. They also observed that the land was not cultivated with care, that wheat which, according to Piernas in 1769, was the principal crop, yielded only from five to eight fold. This lack of success in growing wheat, Father Vivier attributed "to the heavy fogs and too sudden heats," but Piernas thought it was the fault of the farmers who did not apply themselves. In the words of Father Vivier, "maize, which in France is called Turkish corn, grows marvelously; it yields more than a thousand fold ; it is the food of domestic cattle, of the slaves and most of the natives of the country, who consider it a treat. The country produces three times as much food as can be consumed in it."3 Yet, in 1744, not enough wheat was raised to supply the colony with flour.4
When we take into account the character of the farming imple- ments of these early pioneer French farmers, their scanty wheat crops ought not to surprise us. Their plows were made entirely of wood without a single iron fastening. The mould-board had only the curve that would be found in a root of appropriate shape, but the beam was strong and the wooden point sharpened. A harrow or two were held as the common property so to speak, of all the culti- vators of the common-field. Trudeau says that the high price of iron, for which, in 1799, the farmer paid from four to five reals per pound, compelled him "to get along perforce without the most useful tools for his calling," and hence recommends that the Government en- courage the establishment of a foundry and forge.5 Their other agricultural implements were, hoes, grubbing hoes, spades, shovels and rakes, all primitive agricultural tools, of the same general shape as from remotest antiquity.
· The cart in use was "rather a curiosity," says Governor Rey- nolds, "it was constructed without an atom of iron. When the Americans first came to Illinois (to the American bottom) they called these carts 'bare-footed carts,' because they had no iron on the
3 69 Jesuit Relations, p. 219.
4 Present State of Louisiana, p. 19 (London 1744).
5 Trudeau's Report, Jan. 1799, - General Archives of the Indies, Seville.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
wheels."" This cart, called 'Charrette,' was made of "two pieces of scantling some ten or twelve feet long, framed together by two or more cross-pieces, upon one end of which the body, of wicker work was placed, and the front ends rounded to serve as shafts, and the whole set on the axle-tree of the wheels."7 It was on such a cart that Madame Chouteau and her children made the journey to Caho- kia from Fort de Chartres up the American Bottom, Laclede accom- panying her on a little French pony, Cahokia being the nearest settlement to the new trading post of St. Louis. But certainly it was not easy and pleasant riding in such a "charrette."
The horses of the country were small ponies resembling mustangs, of the Canadian breed, crossed with wild horses of the plains. "A fine breed of horses," says Hutchins, "brought originally by the Indians from the Spanish settlements." 8 They were strong, of great endur- ance and required little attention or feed. Men and women tra- veled much on horseback, along the trails and paths and through the open woods; as a consequence saddle horses were highly prized. "The horses and cattle," says Governor Ford, "for want of proper care and food had degenerated in size, but acquired additional vigor and toughness ; so that a French pony was a proverb for strength and endurance. These ponies were made to draw, sometimes one alone, sometimes two together, one hitched before the other to the plow or carts made entirely of wood, the bodies of which held about double the contents of the bed of a common large wheel-barrow. The oxen were yoked by the horns instead of the neck, and in this way were made to draw the plow or cart. Nothing like reins were used in driving; the whip of the driver with a handle about two feet long and lash two yards long, stopped or guided the horses as effectually as the strongest reins."9
According to Marest, the first cattle were brought into the Mis- sissippi valley to "Tawarois" in 1712,10 although it is highly proba- ble that before this time cattle were brought into the Illinois coun- try, because before this time the French tilled land in the Ameri- can Bottom. The French, as well as the American settlers in upper Louisiana, owned large numbers of cattle, which they allowed
6 Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 50.
7 Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. I, p. 85.
8 Hutchins' Topographical Description, p. 100.
" Ford's History of Illinois, p. 37.
10 16 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 332.
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PRICES
to roam in the woods and prairies without any care. "The horned cattle," says Father Vivier in 1750, speaking of the French settle- ments in the Mississippi valley, "have multiplied exceedingly; most of them cost nothing, either for care or for food." Some of these cattle became almost wild.11 They also had sheep and hogs.
French-Canadians settled and cultivated the soil at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, certainly as early as 1700. They raised grain, built a mill to grind the same, and altogether seem to have lived content- ed,12 enjoying the sourish wine which they made out of the wild grapes of the country.13 The farmers of the " Big Field of Ste. Gen- evieve," soon began to ship the produce of their fields just as the farmers of Kaskaskia, on the opposite side of the river, who shipped bacon, salt pork, flour, corn and cattle to New Orleans long before the first settlement of Ste. Genevieve.14
The price realized by these farmers for their products in the local market was good. The Spanish Commandants paid in specie for all they bought and consequently purchased at comparatively low prices. On the American side of the Illi- nois country, in 1780, Patrick Kennedy says that ten pounds of peltry was paid for a bushel of corn, and thirty pounds of peltry per 100 pounds of flour, that is to say, corn sold for four dollars a bushel, and flour at twelve dollars a hundred pounds in our present currency. These high prices in barter Kennedy attributed to the the fact, that in the Spanish possessions cash was paid for agricultural products by the Commandants, which led to the export of same resulting in great scarcity of provisions at Kaskaskia, because on the frontier of the country and over-run with troops.15 A regular ferry was kept be- tween Kaskaskia and Ste. Genevieve by one Cailloux, dit La Chance, and we can well imagine that the specie payment, made by the Spanish officials for produce, attracted the trade of the French settlers to Ste. Genevieve, and so too the ferry at St. Louis, the trade of the settlers around Cahokia.
In 1772 St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve produced 5,898 quintals of wheat,16 and 1,200 quintals of flour were shipped to New Orleans,
11 69 Jesuit Relations, p. 221.
12 16 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 332.
13 Account of the Present State of Louisiana, p. 19 (London 1744).
14 69 Jesuit Relations, p. 213.
15 Draper's Collection, Clark MSS., vol. 60, p. 36.
16 The old French quintal equivalent to 108 pounds. Century Dictionary -"'Quintal."
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
fifty to Los Arcos and the balance used in the villages. Of this crop Don Francesco Vallé, of Ste. Genevieve, alone harvested 1,000 quintals, Carlos de Arbas 466, Enrique Carpentier 261, Carlos Vallé 166, the remainder being small crops of one hundred and less quintals for each farmer. In 1774 the harvest in both villages amounted to only 5,018 quintals, but in 1775 the total was 9,097 quintals. In 1794 the Spanish Illinois country north of New Madrid produced 39,251 minots of wheat (a minot being the equivalent of three bushels ), 51,131 minots of corn, and 17,040 pounds of tobacco, and in 1795,-35,065 minots of wheat, 75,418 minots of corn and 24,750 pounds of tobacco and the people owned 3,863 head of cattle and 618 horses.
The French-Canadian settlers of New Madrid seem to have been poor farmers, if we are to believe La Forge.17 After the Americans settled and opened up farms there, the district quickly developed agriculturally. The corn crop of New Madrid, in 1794, amounted to only 6,000 bushels but in 1795 to 8,795 minots, or 26,385 bushels. In 1796, - 17,425 bushels of corn were raised in the immediate neighborhood of the town, and the farmers there owned forty-two slaves, ninety-six horses and 608 horned cattle. In 1797 the corn crop yielded 23,060 minots. In addition the people owned about 3,000 hogs, 730 cows, 129 horses and forty-six slaves. In the first year after the Little Prairie settlement was founded, 14,040 bushels of corn and 190 bushels of wheat were raised there, and when the census in 1802 was taken, thirty-four families resided in the settlement, owning sixteen slaves, twenty-two horses, and 166 head of cattle.
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