USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 31
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North of the Missouri river, in 1795, Maturin Bouvet made salt on Salt river, but experienced a great deal of trouble with the Indians, who finally destroyed his establishment and killed him. On this account this stream was also known as Saline Ensanglanté (Bloody
49 May be a relative of Capt. Jos. Collins in New Madrid, in 1794.
60 Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 86.
51 Michaux' Travels, p. 146.
52 Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 411.
63 Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 112.
64 Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 86.
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MILLS
Saline).55 It is claimed that Bouvet shipped salt from his works to St. Louis. When Boone and his followers settled in the so-called "Boonslick" country, they began to manufacture salt there, but for local use only, and as an article of prime necessity.
Of course gristmills were established in various portions of upper Louisiana. The French located theirs in the villages, operated them with horses, for they were small and insignificant concerns; excepting however the windmill of Motard in St. Louis, which seems to have been a more pretentious establishment. Chouteau too had a fine watermill near the village - secured the power by damming up the Petite Rivière - the dam forming the well-known Chouteau's mill pond where are now the St. Louis railroad yards. When the Americans settled in the country, they located their mills near where they lived, and wherever possible on water-courses, so as to secure cheap and ample power. Trudeau says that they all "desire to ob- tain good sites for mills," and he was astonished that two small water- power mills were constructed by them "where no one would have imagined even that one could really work. "58 It is recorded that some of the mills located on these water-courses were + repeatedly carried away by freshets, as for instance the gristmill of John Stur- gess, located on the Plattin in the Ste. Genevieve district. Thomas Maddin began to build a mill on the upper portion of the Saline in 1799. George Frederick Bollinger, in the Cape Girardeau district, erected a more extensive mill on White Water, with a mill- dam built of logs and stone. Richard Jones Waters established a saw- and gristmill at the mouth of the bayou St. John, on the Mississippi river, at New Madrid in 1799, and St. Vrain in the same year contracted for another mill, although it does not ap- pear that it was ever built. Israel Dodge operated a mill on the Spring Branch near New Bourbon, originally built by Vallé in 1793. William Montgomery had a saw- and flourmill on the Terre Blue, where this stream empties into Big river, and Jonathan Doely built the first gristmill on the St. Francois in 1801. Elias Coen, in 1798, had the first mill in Bois Brule bottom. Michael Placet in 1787 erected a mill in the city of Ste. Genevieve, although it is certain that other small mills were in operation in that village before that time. Elisha Herrington in 1798 built and operated a horse mill in St. Ferdinand. In 1798 Duquette built a windmill in St. Charles. From a part- nership contract made in 1793 it appears that Tardiveau and Pierre
55 American State Papers, 2 Public Land, p. 682. Ante p. 99.
66 Trudeau's Report of 1798, General Archives of the Indies, Seville.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Audrain were to furnish the Spanish government annually 6,000 barrels of flour. They agreed to build a mill and baking house in New Madrid, and a second mill at Ste. Genevieve, this mill to be under control of Pierre Derbigny and Pierre Menard. The flour of these mills was to be marked "Social." Audrain, it was agreed, should buy the grain, and build light barges to ship the grain and flour in; the biscuit bakery was to be managed by Joseph Vanden- benden and Pierre Tardiveau.
But all the mills mentioned were large establishments compared with the corn-mills of the solitary settlers called hand-mills, which consisted of two stones, the upper stone being made to revolve horizon- tally upon the disk of the other, a child, usually, or a woman, introdu- cing through a perforation of the upper stone a few grains of corn at a time, which was thus ground into meal. A still more primitive way of making meal consisted merely in putting the corn into an excava- tion on the top of a stump and fraying it with a pestle.57
The manufacture of whiskey was an important industry after the Americans began to settle in the country. Auguste Chouteau secured a concession of land on Beaver Pond (Marais Castor) in the St. Louis district, from DeLassus, for the purpose of procuring fuel for a dis- tillery, which he truthfully and ingeniously said could not be kept in operation without fuel. DeLassus, apparently deeply impressed with the importance of the matter, made a grant of wood land for the distinct and expressed reason that a distillery was considered "by the Government as an establishment of public utility and benefit. ">58 James Varnum in 1801 built a distillery between the Plattin and ' Joachim and operated the establishment until 1804. Thomas Mad- din also operated one on the lower Aux Vase. Lieutenant-Governor- Trudeau made an additional grant of land to Jeduthan Kendall for the purpose of enabling him to enlarge his tan-yard at Ste. Gene- vieve, by adding to his establishment a shoe factory and distillery. Whether the shoe factory was established is not recorded, but it may almost be considered certain that the distillery was put in operation. On the Aux Vase, in the Ste. Genevieve district, Pascal Detchemendy operated a tan-yard, which he sold in 1799 to Jean Guibourd. Fran- cois Poillevre in 1793 operated a tan-yard on the river Establishment, in the same district.
Metallic money was scarce among the first settlers of upper Lou- isiana. The only coin in circulation was the now much despised
57 Long's Expedition, vol. I, p. 78.
58 American State Papers, 2 Public Land, p. 532.
259
BARTER
Mexican dollar, which was even cut into four or eight equal parts, popularly called "bits," and passed as current money. The Spanish troops, when they were paid off at all, received hard Spanish milled dollars, coined in Mexico. Thus about twelve thousand dollars were put in circulation annually in upper Louisiana. This was by no means a sufficient supply of money for the commercial needs of the country even at that time. The amount so distributed quickly disap- peared, went to New Orleans, or was safely stored away by the French inhabitants for a rainy day. During the previous French dominion pa- per money was in circulation, and the French troops were for a time paid off in such currency. Concerning this early paper money the author of the "Present State of Louisiana " says, "Perhaps the reader will be glad to know what we do with our paper notes when they are much worn; we sew them up, or when they are too old we carry them back to the treasury and get new ones, "59 and he says that even the children "understand paper notes before they know their letters or their God." However, during the period of both the French and Spanish régime trade was mainly carried on by barter among the early inhab- itants of the country, just as in the first settlements elsewhere. Furs were the principal currency of the pioneers, up almost to the time Missouri was admitted into the Union. Beaver skins generally were the standard of value.60 But tobacco, bees-wax, potash, maple-syrup, salt, feathers, bear's oil, venison, fish, wood and lead could be ex- changed for merchandise. All these commodities had a value meas- ured by the various furs of the country. Thus a pound of shaved deer skin of good quality represented about twice the value of a livre, that is to say, forty cents in our present money. A pack of deer skins was about one hundred pounds in weight, and the fixed price for the finest deer skin was what would be forty cents per pound, for me- dium thirty cents, and for inferior twenty cents per pound, in our present currency. A number of beaver skins, otter or ermine, rep- resented a certain number of pounds deer skin. A "pack" of the skins of a certain animal had a definite weight. "In 1804," says Stoddard, "a bundle of beaver (Castor) skins were worth one hundred and eighty dollars on the spot, a bundle of lynx skins five hundred dollars, a bundle of otter four hundred and fifty dollars, and a bundle of marten three hundred dollars. A buffalo robe (happy times) could
69 "The Present State of Louisiana," translated by Capt. Alymer, p. 18. (London, 1744).
80 27 Bancroft, p. 458. As late as 1807, Judge J. B. C. Lucas purchased a residence at St. Louis from Pierre du Chouquette and wife for $600, payable in peltries.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
be bought for six dollars and a bear skin for three dollars." Thus trade was carried on. The cash value of the peltry could be realized only at New Orleans. It required time and expense to take peltry there, and in addition there was the danger and loss incident to a long voyage. Until shipped to New Orleans, these furs were care- fully stored in small warehouses.
But furs were not the only currency. A "carrot" of tobacco also had a certain accepted value, a "carrot" being a roll of tobacco in appearance of the shape of a bologna sausage, and called a "carrot" because resembling the root of that name. The "carrot" had a cer- tain weight, and was usually valued at ten livres. "Carrots" were sometimes prepared by boring one-half inch or one inch holes in a log of tough wood; the tobacco, dampened and cured, was wedged in this hole tightly with a mallet and pegged; when the plug was tight and tough as desired, the log was split and it was then taken out. This ' carrot " of tobacco then was used and generally accepted as a medium of payment or exchange.
The effect of this peltry currency was to greatly advance prices. "All commercial transactions, unless otherwise especially agreed, are made conformable to this standard of value, and are taken in barter at the rate of forty cents per pound, but as they have to be taken to New Orleans to realize that price, there is much risk and loss ; so consequently the merchant sells his goods at a charge proportionate to the venture he assumes. Everything sells at an enormous price, the result of which is that the commonest workman receives pay for labor at the rate of ten or twelve franks per day."
In an order of sale of the effects of Louis Dubreuil of New Orleans, ordered by Don Antonio Cruzat, "Lieutenant-Colonel of the Louis- iana Regiment of Infantry and Commandant of the western portion of the Illinois country," it is expressly provided that the goods sold should be paid for in deer skins or beaver skins at the current value, or in money, as the purchaser might elect, on a credit of five months, good security given. At the sale one hundred and six carrots of tobacco were sold for one hundred and ninety-two livres; a yoke of steers sold for three hundred and ninety-nine livres and ten sols, and one hundred empty bottles for thirty-nine livres, but "a lot of his- torical books" sold for only "ten sols." Among the early French and American settlers a public sale was always well attended and the whole neighborhood would meet on such occasions, making the day of sale a social reunion, women attending also and bidding for articles.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Isolation of Early Settlers-Slow and Perilous Mode of Travel by Land-River Navigation-Description of a "Keel-boat"-Perils of River Navigation- "Cordelling" a Boat Up-stream-Down-stream Traffic-Charm of the Virgin Land-The Early French-Canadian Inhabitants-French Frontier Costumes-Personal Property Highly Prized-Some Personal Estates- Stocks of Merchandise-Manners of Pioneer French-Canadians-Char- acteristic Traits-The Carnival Season-Training Given Children- Hospitality-Taverns and Inns-French Schools and Teachers- Religion-The Sabbath and Religious Festivals-Pioneer French Cookery -Frugality-Sobriety-Political Indifference-Pioneer Houses Described -Osage Indian Raids-American Immigration to Early French Settle- ments-Some Early English-Speaking Residents-Only Few Spanish Settlers.
It is difficult for us now to imagine the isolation of the early settle- ments on the upper Mississippi, situated almost in the center of the continent, surrounded by powerful and warlike Indian tribes. These settlements were more completely separated from the nearest center of population, if we take into consideration the hardship to be endured to make the journey, than the settlements and settlers in the interior of Africa, at Bulawayo, or those on the Congo are now separated from London; or the denizens of Tashkand, or Tobolsk, from St. Petersburg or Berlin or Paris. The little cluster of small villages and settlements on the Mississippi at Kaskaskia, Fort de Chartres, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia on the east side of the river, and St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid on the west side, were, so to speak, lost in an immense and what must have seemed to the inhabitants of these locali- ties, a boundless continent. Taking the nearest and most convenient water route, it required a journey of a thousand miles through a wil- derness to reach New Orleans and its adjacent settlements. This journey must be made in a pirogue on the Mississippi, bordered as Bossu says, with "trees which appeared as ancient as the world." 1
1 Bossu's Travels, p. 33. Have not been able to find any particulars about Bossu. He styles himself in the title page of his "Travels" as "Captain in the Marines," but he does not give his Christian name. The preface is dated "Cape François, Feb. 15, 1751." On the title page of his Nouveaux Voyages, a series of letters addressed to M. Douin, "Chevalier, Capitaine dans les Troupes du Roi, ci-'devant son comarade dans le nouveau Monde," published in Amsterdam in 1772, he styles himself "Chevalier de l'ordre royal et militaire de Saint Louis, ancien Captaine d'une Compagnie de la Marine." In a note to the preface
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Travel thence across the ocean was imperiled not only by the dangers of the sea, but also by the numerous buccaneers and pirates then infesting the southern waters. The trip by land through the interior meant a journey for many hundred miles on foot or horse- back along Indian trails and war paths, across unbridged streams and morasses, often over swollen creeks and rivers, at times im- passable for days, and through unblazed and unfrequented woods, to the shores of the Great Lakes or across the Alleghany mountains to the seashore. How far away must Quebec have seemed to the French habitans of Kaskaskia in 1700, and to those dwelling in Ste. Genevieve in 1735! How long and difficult the march to the seat of power on the St. Lawrence through pathless woods and prairies in the summer heat or on bleak winter days, when all nature was wrapped in ice and snow! Yet such journeys must be made. Thus, for instance, Gabriel Cerré, then one of the principal merchants of Kaskaskia, and afterward of St. Louis, for a number of years went annually to Canada. Scantily supplied with provisions the traveler began his toilsome march, camped at night beneath the stars or a cloudy sky, fortunate if in winter he could secure a small fire and a dry strip of ground between it and a log to warm his limbs be- numbed with cold; he counted himself doubly fortunate if able to kill some game and to escape the bands of roaming Indians, who, even if friendly, would devour his meagre substance. Or, from the forks of the Ohio, he might go up or down, by water, exposed to many perils. On such a journey down the Ohio Judge H. H. Brackenridge, a man famous in western Pennsylvania in his time, sent his little boy scarcely seven years old from Pittsburg in 1793, to Ste. Genevieve to learn the French language there, a fact inter- esting because the earliest instance of a pupil being sent to the Spanish country, now in Missouri, to be educated in a foreign language. In a canoe the boy passed down the Ohio, with shores then infested by ferocious Indians, to New Madrid in charge of J. B. C. Lucas, at that time engaged in the Indian trade. Thence on a pony with Lucas and a guide he traveled through the wilderness
of these letters, it is said that Bossu served in the wars in Italy - participated in "diverse actions" particulary at Château-Dauphin in the Alps - that he was wounded, being one of the first that entered the "embrâsures du canon de cette placè, qui fut emportée d'assaut par les Brigades de Poitou et de Conti, le 19 Juillet 1744. L'époque de cette brillante journée sera à jamais mémorable dans l'histoire de la vie S.A.S. Monseigneur le Prince de Conti et dans les fastes de la France." Was this Bossu, of the same family as Count Bossu in command of the Dutch army in 1578? See Motley's Dutch Republic, vol. 3,p. 334-5.
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KEEL-BOATS
along an Indian trail to his place of destination, camping out in the forest or in Indian wigwams. Of this journey he afterward gave a graphic picture.2 When such a journey was made on horseback, a supply of provisions was taken along, packed on each side of the horse, with a coffee-pot, tin-cup, a hatchet to cut wood and a blanket strapped on the saddle for bedding at night, or, as a cover in case of rain.
A voyage up the Mississippi in a bateau consumed months. Laclede's boat required four months to reach Ste. Genevieve from New Orleans. It took Piernas "on one of the bateaus of the king" from September 4th to November 26th to reach the Isles a la Course (Race Islands) where he was stopped by the ice, ninety miles below Ste. Genevieve.3 DeLeyba made the trip to St. Louis in 93 days.4 At a later date, these light bateaus were succeeded by keel-boats. In outward appearance they resembled a canal boat, and were constructed with gunwales twelve or fourteen inches thick.5 The boats were often propelled by oars, and when the wind was favorable a sail was hoisted, but usually they were pulled up the river by a cordelle ("little rope") fastened to the top of the mast and then passed through a ring, fastened by a stout rope to the bow of the craft, and thrown over the shoulders of men who would walk in a stooping position along the shore. The path along which the men walked in pulling the boat was called the "tow-path," and in all grants made by the Spanish authorities this "tow-path" was reserved to the public.6 The reason why the cordelle was attached to the mast was to swing the rope clear of the brush on the bank of the river, and by passing the rope through the ring fastened to the bow, it greatly assisted to guide the boat. The setting poles were ten or twelve feet
2 See Recollections of West, p. 22.
3 Report of Piernas to Gov. O'Reilly, dated Oct. 31, 1769.
4 Report of DeLeyba to Gov. Galvez, dated July 1, 1778.
5 A keel-boat was a craft built on a regular model, with a keel running from bow to stern, and thus derived its name. From the deck, projecting about four or five feet, rose the cargo box, where the freight was stored, extending to within ten or twelve feet from each end of the boat. Occasionally also state-rooms were fitted up in this part of the boat when it was used for passenger travel. Such boats were strong and substantial and built in accordance with well settled principles of ship construction.
" O'Fallon vs. Doggett, 4 Mo. Francois Douchouquette in his testimony before Com. Hunt says, in 1825, that he lived in St. Louis forty eight years; that it was always understood that a tow-path was reserved along the river for boats, by the Spanish authorities, and that fences that interfered with this path were torn down. Hunt's Minutes, vol. I, p. 160, of copy of Missouri Historical Society.
KEEL-BOAT MOVING UP THE MISSISSIPPI. FROM A PICTURE BELONGING TO MR. PIERRE CHOUTEAU.
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PERILS OF NAVIGATORS
long, the lower end shod with iron and the upper end with a knob to press against the shoulders. In using these, when the water was of sufficient depth, the men placed themselves in single file on the narrow gunwale on each side of the deck near the bow, with their faces toward the stern, their heads bent low, planting their poles on the river bottom pointing down stream, and as the boat moved ahead they walked toward the stern on the gunwales on each side of the cargo box; and as the one in front reached the end of the gunwales he would turn about, pass the others and take his position in the rear. Sometimes the men on the gunwale would drop the setting-poles and catch the limbs and brush along the shore and thus drag ahead; this, says Peck, was called "bush-whacking." A long heavy oar with a wide blade was attached to the stern, and moved on a pivot, which the pilot or captain managed while standing on the roof, or deck, or cargo box, as it was variously called.7
The perils of this slow and laborious navigation were neither slight nor inconsiderable. Sometimes, at night, the boats would break from their moorings, the small trees and saplings yielding to the strain while the navigators were asleep or inattentive; then they would silently drift down the stream, a distance greater than had been laboriously covered on the previous day. At times, too, trees would unexpectedly fall into the stream, wrecking or imperiling the boat. On the Ohio, boatmen would often run on rocks and gravel bars, especially when the river was falling rapidly, and it required incredible labor to get the boat safely out of such a situation. Every mile or two there was what the French boatmen called an "embarras," that is, rafts often extending out twenty or thirty yards, and here the current, vexed bv this interruption. would rush around with great violence. Then, too, to pass around enormous trees often over one hundred feet long, lying in the river at right angles, with limbs out- stretched like long arms, and holding fast to the shore, with a foaming, rushing current greatly increased by such an obstruction, was a task of great difficulty. Sometimes, too, the wind blowing into a gale would drive the helpless craft to or from the shore. Their es- capes from such dangers seemed wonderful to those early navigators. Only on rare occasions could a sail be raised and the boat thus moved up the river.
No employment can be imagined more laborious or dangerous than thus pulling a boat against the swift current of the river, 7 Life of Peck, p. 83.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
because owing to the character of the shore and the numerous impediments the cordelle often became entangled among snags, sawyers, limbs of overhanging trees and shrubs, and hence great dexterity was required by the leader of the cordelle. Sometimes the boat fell back for a distance in spite of every effort. Thus, amid innumerable difficulties and painful labor, slowly the keel-boat moved or "worried" up the river in a manner hardly conceivable at this time. Ten to twelve miles a day up stream was a fair average distance for a
FLATBOAT ON THE MISSISSIPPI (WARIN).
keel-boat to make, and an average distance of eighteen miles was deemed worthy of record.
A journey down the river of course did not consume as much time as that up stream. A trip from Pittsburg to Louisville, ac- cording to Michaux, consumed 8 or 9 days. In 1802, the usual time consumed from Louisville to New Orleans was from thirty to thirty-five days; from St. Louis about twenty-five or thirty days. Many of the boats going to New Orleans were flatboats, called "broad-horses," huge square bottomed and square built crafts. These never were brought back, but were broken up and wrecked and the timber and material in them sold; the crews, if from upper Louisiana, would return by land, or if from Kentucky, they would often go to New York or Philadelphia by sea,
267
FRENCH HABITANS
thence to Pittsburg and down the Ohio back home. The freight rate down the river by flatboat was reasonable enough. In 1802 a boat containing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred barrels of flour carried the same to New Orleans for $100.8
Little, however, did those early settlers regard their isolated situation or the difficulties and perils of a journey to or from their homes. Many soon became charmed and fascinated by the boundless and apparently illimitable expanse of woods and prairies by which they were surrounded, and freedom from almost all restraint and control. To them it seemed as if they dwelt in a fairy land. Says Bossu, " Merchants, tradesmen and strangers, who live here, enjoy as it were an enchanted abode, rendered deli- cious by the purity of the air, the fertility of the soil and the beauty of the situation." For them all nature seemed to provide; for them great herds of buffalo, stag and roebuck, in the autumn season when the water in the interior country began to run low, seemed to gather on the margin of the Mississippi and its tributary streams, so that with ease they could provide provisions for the inclement season of the year ; for them the fat bear seemed to come out of the St. François basin; for them the fowls of the air seemed to wing their flight from the wintry and stormy north, to fill their neighboring lakes and waters; for them the prairie hen and the turkey seemed to fill the land. Here, says Bossu, "the pleasures of hunting and fishing and all the enjoyments of life are abundant," and on both shores of the Mississippi the pure and delicious waters of this river run "for forty leagues between a number of habitations, which formed an ele- gant sight on both shores,"? and then, speaking of the vast extent of uninhabited country, he adds, "what a pity, that so fine a country has no inhabitants but brutes."10
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