USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 14
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MISSOURI GEOGRAPHY
name came from the Cole family, of Cooper county, who had been in the habit of camping on the creek when on their hunting expeditions.
Meramec, Alias Catfish.
Tradition has it that Indians gave the Meramec river its name because it abounded in catfish. Judge Wilson Primm, an authority on Missouri nomencla- ture in the vicinity of St. Louis, accepted this and quoted his neighbor, Captain Samuel Knight, who was a fisherman. The captain told the judge that in the fall of 1820 he was deer hunting in the vicinity of the mouth of the Meramec. The water was so clear that objects on or near the bottom were distinguished. The captain saw great numbers of catfish, so many that they actually dammed the water. These catfish were lying side by side as close to each other as the fingers of the hand. Their heads were in a line, from shore to shore, Knight said. The fish were of large size. They lay motionless, not attempting to seize the small fish swimming near them. Captain Knight said he mentioned this astonishing spectacle to Ben Fine, McGregor Fine, and John Horne, who had lived for years near the mouth of the Meramec, and they told him they had seen the same curious spectacle every fall. Judge Primm said that while Mer- amec was the common form of spelling, the Spanish had called the river the Maramec.
When Daniel Webster visited St. Louis in 1837, he appeared at the Market street entrance of the old National hotel on Third street, where he was being entertained, and. said to the cheering throng :
"In coming up the Mississippi river today, about twenty miles below your flourishing city, I passed the mouth of a stream called the Meramec. It is a name sacred and dear to me. I was born upon the banks of the Merrimac in New Hampshire, and whether a man be born upon the banks of the Meramec of Missouri, or the Merrimac of New Hampshire, I am proud to meet him as a fellow countryman, and greet him with the right hand of friendship and fellowship."
Bonhomme, which is the name of a road following a spine of the Ozark foot- hills, also of a creek in St. Louis county, derived its name from neighbors' appre- ciation of Joseph Herbert, an early settler. Herbert, according to Judge Primm, was easy going, honest, obliging and popular, so much so that the French set- tlers gave him the name of "Bonhomme" Herbert. From this, Judge Primm said, Bonhomme road, Bonhomme creek and Bonhomme township got their names. Judge Primm thought that the French may have called it La Riviere au Bonhomme, from its nearness to Herbert's home, and that when the change of government and later immigration came, the name was Americanized to Bonhomme creek and Bonhomme road. Judge Primm accounted for the nam- ing of the River des Peres, which has bothered St. Louis engineers for two generations.
The River of the Fathers.
"A number of the religious order of Trappists or Monks from Canada had, under the authority of the Bishop at Quebec, Canada, settled at Cahokia in what is now St. Clair county, Illinois. A few members of this order, attracted by the beauty of the mouth of this stream, commenced the formation of an establishment there; but through
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fear of Indian depredation or fearful of sickness, they abandoned the work which they had begun. Henceforth the stream was known and called the Des Peres, the River of the Fathers."
For Creve Coeur, the name of the long lake, which had been once a channel of the Missouri river, Judge Primm had an explanation based on one of the French traditions. Alexis was the bellringer at the Catholic church in the good old colony days of St. Louis. He took to himself a wife and started his new home on the border of the lake where fish and game were abundant and where the Missouri bottom soil was rich beyond compare. "After a year in what was then frontier for Laclede's settlement under-the-hill, Mdme. Alexis came in to visit with relatives. She replied in French to their inquiries, that life at the lake was a weight on her heart. And that, Judge Primm said, was what was best expressed by "creve coeur." The young wife meant that she missed the ringing of the church bells and was depressed by the surroundings of the lake- side home. Alexis yielded to the entreaties of the wife, moved back to the village and resumed his vocation of official bellringer in the church. The name of Creve Coeur remained.
The Climate Charmed.
Missouri climate charmed the newcomers of one hundred years ago. It received the emphatic commendation of the travelers and visiting scientists. John Bradbury, an English naturalist, came to Missouri about 1811 and re- mained several years. He wrote from experience :
"The climate is very fine. The spring commences about the middle of March in the neighborhood of St. Louis, at which time the willow, the elms, and maples are in flower. The spring rains usually occur in May, after which month the weather continues fine, almost without interruption, until September, when rain again occurs about the equinox, after which it again remains fine, serene weather until near Christmas, when winter ·commences. About the beginning or middle of October the Indian summer begins, which is immediately known by the change that takes place in the atmosphere, as it now becomes hazy, or what they term smoky. This gives to the sun a red appearance, and takes away the glare of light, so that all the day, except a few hours about noon, it mav be looked at with the naked eye without pain; the air is perfectly quiescent and all is stillness, as if nature, after her exertions during the summer, was now at rest. The winters are sharp, but it may be remarked that less snow falls, and they are much more moderate on the west than on the east side of the Alleghanies in similar latitudes."
Bradbury became enamored with Missouri and made his home here. He built a house near a sulphur spring on the banks of the River des Peres and was living there as late as 1819.
"Winter of the Big Freeze."
Winters of extreme severity have been so rare in Missouri as to make them historic. In thirty-six years after the United States weather bureau was established in St. Louis the mercury in December dropped below zero in only twelve of them. The bureau was established in 1874. The winter of 1874-5 is one of the few that constitute the exceptions to Missouri's uniform record of favorable temperature. That winter ranks with "the Winter of the Big
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MISSOURI GEOGRAPHY
Freeze"-1856. The river closed the last day of December and so remained until the 2nd of March. The long cold period ended in one of the heaviest snow storms ever seen in Missouri. In January, 1875, the mercury registered 16 below zero. It has been quite the rule of Missouri climate, as shown by the government records, to have December temperatures forecast the character of the entire winters. A mild December has usually been followed by a mild winter.
The winter of 1874 preceded the completion of the Eads bridge. For sixty- two days no ferry boats ran. Immense quantities of merchandise, besides the city's supply of coal, were wagoned over on the ice. Booths were built midway of the channel. Liquid refreshments were served and some amusements were conducted. The ice bridge was used by travelers arriving and departing from the stations of the eastern railroads on the Illinois side.
The Long Expedition.
Great expectation attended the government expedition headed by Major Long, which left St. Louis in 1819. The destination was the Upper Missouri. The purpose was a comprehensive military and scientific exploration of the country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. In an editorial. the Missouri Gazette of April 21 said :
"The importance of this expedition has attracted the attention of the whole nation, and there is no measure which has been adopted by the present administration that has received such universal commendation. If the agents of the government who have charge of it fulfill the high expectations which have been raised, it will conspicuously add to the admiration with which the administration of James Monroe will hereafter be viewed. * * * * If the expedition should succeed, as we fondly hope and expect, and the views of the government should be carried into effect, the time will not be far distant when another nation will inhabit west of the Mississippi, equal at least, if not superior, to those which the ancient remains still found in this country lead us to believe once flourished here, a nation indeed rendered more durable by the enjoyment of that great invention of American freemen-a Federal Republic."
To show the "very erroneous opinions entertained by our eastern brethren as to the mountains and rivers between this valley and the Pacific," the Mis- souri Gazette republished this paragraph which was going the rounds in 1818, the year before the Long Expedition started up the Missouri :
"Government is fitting out an expedition to the Rocky Mountains and the Northwest Coast. It is said to be an expedition of discovery and is to be conducted by able and scientific men, attended by a military force A steamboat is now building at Pittsburg for this expedition, and which, it is expected, will be able to proceed up the Missouri to its source. It is ascertained that there is a passage through the Rocky Mountains, and, at the distance of about five miles after you pass the mountains, a branch of the Columbia commences running to the Pacific Ocean. It is intended to take the steamboat to pieces and rebuild her in this river. The expedition is to traverse the continent by water, and to be absent about two years. It will pass the first winter on this side the Rocky Mountains."
The Wonderful Western Engineer.
"White man bad man, keep great spirit chained and build fire under it to make it work a boat." This was an Indian's description of the Western Engi- neer, the craft which transported these government scientists.
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Upon the arrival of the expedition at St. Louis, the Enquirer said of this remarkable marine architecture :
"The bow of the vessel exhibits a huge serpent, black and scaly, rising out of the water from under the boat, his head as high as the deck, darted forward, his mouth open, vomiting smoke, and apparently carrying the boat on his back. From under the boat. at its stern, issues a stream of foaming water, dashing violently along. All of the machinery is hid. The boat is ascending the rapid stream at the rate of three miles an hour. Neither wind nor human hands are seen to help her, and to the eye of igno- rance the illusion is complete, that a monster of the deep carries her on his back smoking with fatigue and lashing the waves with violent exertion."
The Indians thought they could see a long tongue dart out when the steam puffed from the serpent's head. They were horror-stricken. The expedition performed its mission without interference.
"The Great American Desert."
The Long expedition gave to American geography "the Great American Desert." Long and his party of scientists explored Nebraska, Colorado, Kan- sas and Oklahoma. They left the Missouri near Omaha. They went as far as the Rocky Mountains. They divided into groups and covered considerable territory, before they arrived at Fort Smith. In summing up his conclusions on the expedition, Major Long included in his sweeping condemnation northern Texas and the Dakotas.
"In regard to this extensive section of country," he wrote to the govern- ment, "we do not hesitate in giving the opinion, that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation and, of course, uninhabitable by a people depending upon agri- culture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fertile lands considerably extensive are occasionally to be met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will prove an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. This objection rests not only against the immediate sec- tion under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to a very much larger portion of the country."
It is here that Major Long spreads his desert idea over part of Texas and all of the Dakotas. He adds :
"Agreeably to the best intelligence that can be had, concerning the country northward and southward of the section, and especially to the references deducible from the account given by Lewis and Clark of the country situated between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, above the river Platte, the vast region commencing near the sources of the Sabine, Trinity, Brazos and Colorado, extending northwardly to the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, by which the United States is limited in that direction, is throughout of a similar character. The whole of this region seems peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes, wild goats, and other wild game, incalculable multitudes of which find ample pasturage and subsistence upon it."
Major Long found reason to congratulate the government that this Great American Desert was where, according to his observation, it was.
"This region, however," he wrote, "viewed as a frontier, may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inasmuch as it is calculated to serve
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MISSOURI GEOGRAPHY
as a barrier to prevent too great an extension of population westward, and secure us against the machinations or incursions of an enemy that might other- wise be disposed to annoy us in that quarter."
Long was an officer of the government engineer corps, of high attainments. He had in his party a botanist, a zoologist, a geologist, a naturalist, a painter and topographers. These scientists of one hundred years ago agreed that Mis- souri was "the farthest west" for the march of American civilization.
The Modern View.
To a Boston audience in 1913, Rev. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, of Plymouth church, Brooklyn, offered this forecast of the Center State and its tributary country :
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"God built this country like a ship, with the Mississippi for the keel, and the rivers, like the Ohio and the Missouri and their various branches, stretching forth on either side like ribs from the keel; but the center of the ship always is the captain's treasure chest and in that central spot are assembled all the riches of the cargo. Long ago Mr. Glad- stone prophesied that the Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds of the twentieth century would be in the Mississippi Valley. He held that cities of a million population would spring up in that region, where the food products are abundant and where the freight upon raw cotton would be little and the freight upon manufactured goods less. Already that prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled. Many a shrewd Englishman manufacturer will move his spindles and looms to the banks of the Mississippi and take advantage of the food materials and the raw cotton and flax and wool, with the iron and the coal and the water power that lend such unique and such strategic advantage to the Mississippi Valley region. The region where the Ohio, the Missouri and Mississippi Valleys meet . is to be the most densely populated region on the face of the earth, not less than the richest and the most prosperous region. New York, indeed, will always be the London, but it will be supported by the manufacturing districts. We now seem to be within sight of the era when the center of economic gravity is to change."
When Joseph W. Folk had come to know the Center State, after four years of the governorship and much journeying to and fro, he summed up the nat- ural and developed advantages of the commonwealth:
"If a wall were built around Missouri the state could still supply every want of those within. There are fewer mortgaged homes in Missouri than in any other manufacturing state, fewer mortgaged farms than in any other agricul- tural state, and fewer mortgaged men than in any of the United States. One- tenth of the wheat and one-twelfth of the corn of the entire world are grown in Missouri. In horticulture as well as in agriculture, Missouri leads the other states. The largest orchards on the globe can be found in Missouri. We have no silver mines of consequence, but the output of the Missouri hen each year exceeds in value the total production of all the silver mines of Colorado. We have no gold mines, but the minerals the miners bring up from the bowels of the earth into the Missouri sunlight each year exceed in value the total mineral production of the golden state of California."
What Missouri Gained.
This generation smiles over Major Long's discovery of the "Great American Desert." But some day an historical student may put up a strong argument
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
that it was the best thing that ever happened for Missouri. Major Long's findings and the government's acceptance of them and action upon them, fixed Missouri for two generations as the farthest west of civilization. Immigration to this state, before the European revolutions of 1848 and the potato famine of Ireland in 1849, was from eastern, southern and middle states. It made the settlement of Missouri during that period distinctively American. And . those who came remained to make their homes and raise Missouri families. The movement of Americans westward beyond the Missouri did not come in large numbers until after the Civil war. The census of 1910 showed that three out of four Missourians are to Missouri born. Out of over 3,000,000 population, Missouri had only 230,000 alien born,-one Missourian of foreign birth to thirteen of American birth. The Great American Desert played no small part, perhaps, in making Missouri the typical and distinctive American state.
OLD GILLIS HOUSE
THE PRINCIPAL HOTEL OF KANSAS CITY IN THE FIFTIES Headquarters of the Anti-Slavery Society for the colonization of Kansas with free state settlers
CHAPTER IV
THE MISSOURI TAVERN
Entertainment for Man and Beast-The Cradle of Statehood-Hotel Environment Elected Benton-Setting for the First Law Making-Nature's Hostelry-Van Bibber's Phi- losophy-Startling Phenomena at Loutre Creek-First Bill of Fare on the European Plan-"Gourd Head" Prescott-Taking Care of a Governor-Old Alexie-A Land- lord's Wife Befriended Little Mark Twain-John Graves' Etiquette-Washington Irv- ing Charmed-Audubon on Cost of Hotel Living-Charles Dickens' Compliments- Judge Quarles and the Towel Criticism-Uncle John Mimms, Peacemaker of the Bor- der --- When Benton Was Shocked-Barnum's Famous Ragout-How Guests Were Identified -- A Duel Averted by Tavern Hospitality-Jefferson City Lodging-A Dance and a Church Trial-The Hotel Raffle-History on a Register-Where Old Bullion Drew the Line-Liberty's Tavern the Outpost of Civilization-Thrift and Horse Feed -Kenner of Paudingville-Court Day with Robidoux-The Montesquieu Tragedy- When Isaac H. Sturgeon Thwarted a Mob-St. Louis Hotels the Undoing of a Presi- dent-The Gillis House Made National History-"McCarty of the McCartys"-Mon- roc's County Seat Contest-The Praises of English Travelers-Lafayette's Experi- ences-An Osark Menu-Missouri Tavern Etiquette-Some Survivors of the Stage Coach-Arrow Rock and the Patriotic .Women-Good Roads and Tourist Motors Mean Renaissance of the Tavern.
JOSEPH CHARLESS
informs the gentlemen who visit St. Louis and travelers generally that he has opened a house for their reception at the corner of Fifth street on the public square of St. Louis, where, by the moderate charges and attention to the comfort of his guests, he will endeavor to merit general approbation Boarding and lodging per week, $4.50
Boarding only,
3.50
Do, less than a week, per meal
.25
Lodging per night in separate bed .25
Where two occupy one bed
.121/2
The State paper of Missouri and Illinois will be taken at a fair discount
Advertisement in Missouri Gazette, September, 1821.
Twelve years Joseph Charless edited and published the first newspaper in Missouri. At the top of the title page of the Missouri Gazette he printed his slogan in black type,-"Truth Without Fear." And he lived up to it, carry- ing a big stick and dodging bullets. Then he retired from strenuous journal- ism and opened a tavern.
The Missouri tavern was of its own class. Identified with the vocation of tavern keeping in Missouri are the names of some of the best known and most highly esteemed first families in the state's history. Taverns were opened for "accommodation" in the true sense of the word. They established the repu- tation for hospitality which Missouri has never lost. Immigration came in successive high tides. In not a few cases, as was shown by Joseph Charless, homes were opened as a matter of private "accommodation" which led to public Vol. I-8
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"entertainment." About the wide fireplace, the host and his family visited with the wayfarers. They listened to the latest budget of news from the outside world and gave encouraging information as to their own locality and its advan- tages for settlement. Court sessions were held in the early taverns. Counties and towns were organized and political caucuses were held in Missouri taverns. In brief, the Missouri tavern was the center of public affairs during those pioneer decades. In no other state does it appear, from somewhat cursory inquiry, that the tavern has played such important part.
"Every Accommodation but Whiskey."
It is told of the wife of the first editor in Missouri that no one in need was turned away from her door. Mrs. Sarah Charless lived to be eighty-one years of age. She lived in Missouri more than half a century. St. Louis was notably lacking in taverns when Joseph Charless came to start the first newspaper west of the Mississippi. Strangers whose credentials or appearances justified were made welcome at private houses. To accommodate the new comers generally, who often had difficulty in finding shelter, Mr. and Mrs. Charless opened their house, which was a large one on Fifth and Market streets. A sign was hung from a post bearing the announcement: "Entertainment by Joseph Charless." With the house was a garden, one of the finest in St. Louis, occupying half of the square bounded by Fifth, Fourth, Market and Walnut streets. There, fruit and vegetables were grown for a table which became famous. In a card Mr. Charless told through the Gazette that at his house strangers "will find every accommodation but whiskey." Mrs. Charless was one of the seven women who, with two men, organized the first Presbyterian church in Missouri. .
Birthplace of the State.
In a tavern Missouri was born. The first legislature met in that hotel. The first governor, McNair, and the first lieutenant-governor, Ashley, were inaugu- rated in that hotel. The first United States senators, Barton and Benton, were elected there.
In accord with the fitness of things, it was called the Missouri hotel. It was situated well up Main street. Begun in 1817 and completed two years later, the Missouri hotel was ready for its place in the history of the state's making. Major Biddle became the owner of the hotel. He enlarged it, went east and obtained the best professional boniface he could induce to come west. The Missouri was opened with equipment and appointments which made it for more than a generation the pride of the Mississippi Valley. Upon the sign of the Missouri hotel was painted a buffalo.
For many years the Missouri was the place favored for banquets and . balls. There his admiring fellow citizens entertained Barton with a grand dinner when he came back from Washington after making his great speech in the Senate. St. Patrick's Days were celebrated at the Missouri hotel. Ex- peditions were planned there. Principals and seconds met there to arrange preliminaries of duels. General William Henry Harrison, afterwards President, General Zachary Taylor, also afterwards President, General Winfield Scott, who wanted to be but was not President, were entertained at the Missouri.
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THE MISSOURI TAVERN
Thomas H. Benton owed his first election to tavern environment. His friends had been able to muster only a tie vote against the opposition. One of the Benton votes was that of Daniel Ralls who lay in the last stages of ill- ness. Benton's friends won over one vote from the opposition, giving the nec- essary majority if the dying man could be kept alive and brought in when the legislature resumed its session. The fact that the legislature was sitting in the hotel and that the dying member was in a room up stairs made the plan of Benton's friends possible, although desperate. The sick member was carried down stairs by four negro servants and voted for Benton. He died shortly after being returned to his room.
The first constitution of Missouri was framed in a tavern which bore the imposing name of the Mansion House hotel. The delegates met in the dining room. There were forty-one of them. William Bennett, the owner of the hotel, received thirty dollars a week for the use of the dining room and two smaller rooms used for offices. The Mansion House owed its title to the fact that it had been the residence and office of Surveyor-General Rector, built by him in 1816, and at the time one of the show places of St. Louis. Bennett got possession in 1819, made changes and adapted the building to hotel purposes. In his desire to rival the Missouri hotel as the official tavern of the forming state, he offered accommodations at an attractive price. Under the name of the Denver House this birthplace of the first constitution was still standing at Third and Vine streets in the early eighties.
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