Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 45

Author: Stevens, Walter Barlow, 1848-1939
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1074

USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 45

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One of the oldest and best informed citizens of Missouri, connected with the Southwest Branch and associated with General Fisk in the reorganization period, replying to an inquiry for his recollections of state operation of the road, wrote : "What we of the southwest wanted was the completion of the road and to that end we bent all of our energies."

The Reckless Railroad Bond Issues.

The financial condition of Lafayette county in 1875 illustrated well the evil results of the reckless bond issues in Missouri up to that time. Lafayette was settled largely by well-to-do pioneers from Kentucky and Tennessee. Its fer- tility of soil made it one of the most prosperous of the Central Missouri coun- ties. Although the county had a frontage on the river and enjoyed the benefits of water transportation, the progressive people voted readily, even lavishly, in encouragement of various railroad projects. Lexington, the county seat, was one of the wealthiest cities of the state. It offered extraordinary advantages in the way of higher education. "Limerick Lawn" on the outskirts of Lexing- ton was one of the finest country estates in Missouri. In February, 1875, a com- mittee of citizens, composed of William T. Gammon, William C. Beattie, J. O. Lockhart, W. B. Major and A. A. Lessueur, reported the results of their in- vestigation of the county's indebtedness. They found that Lafayette county and townships had outstanding $1,346,436 with unpaid coupons of $105,000 more. This was a little more than 21 per cent of the total assessed valuation, real and personal, of the county. The people of Lafayette had voted, either stock or bond, support to five different railroad propositions. Some of these elections had been held when many citizens were disfranchised on account of the Civil war. The committee summed up Lafayette's general condition :

"Lands in the county are reduced in value and are almost unsalable; successive bad crops, with the burdensome taxation, have impoverished many of our farmers to the

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TRAILS AND TRACKS

extent that they are compelled to borrow money to pay their taxes, or let them go un- paid. Business is prostrate and emigration to our midst has ceased. The rate of taxa- tion, which in some of the townships is over five and one-half per cent, is an oppressive one in a flourishing community, and doubly so in one like ours, where we have been visited with successive droughts, and the plagues of various insects which have ruined many large sections of country in sister states, and which have had the effect in this county not only of destroying our crops, but of decimating our flocks and herds to such an extent that in many instances our farmers will have to mortgage their farms to pur- chase stock for the season of 1875. The private debt of the county has been continually increasing until, were the amount of mortgages upon real and personal estate included in our report and added to the grand total of our indebtedness, it would be startling."

Railroad Dispatching in the Early Days.

At the end of fifty years' continuous service on the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, Engineer I. N. Wilber retired. Among his recollections of pioneer railroading in Missouri was this :

"In the early 60's we were on a westbound train and had an order to meet an east- bound train at Bevier at midnight. Bevier was the great coal mining town. On arriving we found the other train had not yet reached there. It was a beautiful summer night and my fireman and I got out on top of the cab and laid down to take a nap in the moonlight. It appeared the conductor and brakeman were also taking a snooze on top of the caboose. At day break the conductor woke up and aroused us. When we all got stretched out and thoroughly awake we decided to proceed, but one thing bothered us- had that train gone through? If it had, not one of us had heard it. Bevier was not a telegraph office then. Some future great railroad man suggested that we walk over to the coal shed and make a search through the coal tickets and if we found on file there a coal ticket with the number of the engine we had orders to meet we would know that the train had passed us in the night. Sure enough we found the ticket there. We reached the division at Brookfield four hours late. No questions were asked us and we had no statements to give out. I don't suppose the superintendent or dispatcher ever discovered our little dereliction, for every fellow worked out his individual salvation in those days the best he could."

How Gould Bought the Missouri Pacific.

Jay Gould bought the Missouri Pacific railway in November, 1879, paying therefor $3,800,000. Three days earlier he could have closed the contract for half that sum. At the time Gould was controlling the Wabash and was very apprehensive about competition by the Missouri Pacific. B. W. Lewis, for many years a prominent Missourian, had been president of the old St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern. On the consolidation it became a part of the Wa- bash. Lewis was placed in charge of affairs of the Wabash representing Gould. He had intimate acquaintance with the Garrisons who controlled the Missouri Pacific. By reason of that personal understanding Lewis was able to preserve pleasant relations between the Wabash and Missouri Pacific managements. Commodore C. K. Garrison of New York was the moneyed man behind the Mis- souri Pacific. His brother was the chief executive officer. Between Commodore Garrison and Mr. Gould there was no good feeling. It was gossip that the com- modore had said if Gould ever came into his office he would have him put out.

In 1879 Mr. Lewis desired to retire from railroad management and take up other business. He offered his resignation to Gould who demurred. Mr. Lewis insisted that his resignation be accepted. Gould explained that he believed the

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continuance of good relations between the two railroads depended upon the re- tention of Mr. Lewis. The latter was still determined to leave the Wabash.

"But where will I get any one who can take your place and get along with the Missouri Pacific?" asked Mr. Gould.

"Why not buy the Missouri Pacific?" responded Mr. Lewis.

"I never thought of that," replied Mr. Gould, "but it can't be done."

"How do you know? Have you tried it?"

"No, but it can't be."

"Yes, it can," insisted Mr. Lewis.

As the result of the information which Mr. Lewis gave him about the Mis- souri Pacific Mr. Gould drove to the office of the Garrisons. He did not see the commodore. He saw another member of the family and said:

"I will give you $1.500.000 for that old Missouri Pacific road of yours."

"It ought to be worth $2,000,000 at least," was Mr. Garrison's answer.

After some further conversation Mr. Garrison said he would consult with the commodore and see Mr. Gould again. There was a meeting the next day at which the commodore was present, and when the question of price came up the commodore said the amount would have to be $2,800,000.

Mr. Gould expressed surprise and said: "I could have bought it yesterday for $2,000,000."

"But you can't today," said the commodore in a decided manner. The in- terview was a very brief one. The Garrisons had their doubts whether Mr. Gould really intended purchase. The next day Mr. Gould called again and said he was ready to close, whereupon the commodore informed him that the price had been raised since the day before to $3,800,000 for the road. This time Gould did not hesitate. He simply said :

"Well, if this increase is going on right along I guess we had better stop it right here. I will take it."

The Garrisons. according to the best information obtainable turned over to Gould $600,000 of the $800,000 capital stock in the company, but when the com- pany affairs were transferred there were $1,500,000 and a number of bonds in the treasury. The $600,000 par value of stock bought from the Garrisons cost Mr. Gould $2,500,000. In August; 1880, came the consolidation of the branches including the St. Louis and Lexington, the Kansas and Eastern, the Lexington and Southern, the St. Louis, Kansas and Arizona, the Missouri River and Leavenworth and Atchison and Northern, into the Missouri Pacific system. This gave Mr. Gould a system having 995 miles.

Previous to the purchase of the Missouri Pacific Mr. Gould had been looked upon as a speculator rather than a railroad financier. He now began active work to extend the system. He purchased from Thomas Allen, Henry G. Mar- quard and others the control of the Iron Mountain. As the deal was being closed Mr. Gould tendered to Thomas Allen his check for $1,000,000. Mr. Allen, with a conservatism characteristic of him, said he would like to have the check certified. Mr. Gould smiled and went with Mr. Allen to the bank upon which the check had been drawn, had it certified and handed it back to Mr. Allen.

KANSAS CITY'S UNION PASSENGER STATION

Completed November 1, 1914. The main building, 510 feet long and 150 feet wide, exceeded in size by only one other terminal in the United States

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Missourians and the Transcontinental Railroad.

The Union Pacific railroad, as Congress planned in 1862, was to be a trans- continental line with a fork at the east end. It was to start from Kansas City and Omaha, the two branches uniting at the one hundredth meridian. The company first reaching the junction was to have authority to go across the con- tinent and to receive the subsidies. The rivalry between the Kansas and Ne- braska builders was sharp. It went beyond the mechanical problems of rail- road construction. The Kansas men came to St. Louis for help. John D. Perry was the first man of means who listened to the appeals. He advanced money. He was joined, in the organization of the Kansas Pacific Railway company by Carlos S. Greeley, Adolphus Meier, Giles F. Filley, William M. McPherson, Stephen. M. Edgell, Robert E. Carr, Sylvester H. Laflin, John How, James Archer and Thomas L. Price. Later George D. Hall and Daniel R. Garrison be- came associates of the others. It was a St. Louis organization, through and through, even to the messenger boy in the general offices of the company at Lawrence, who was Lilburn G. McNair, descendant of Missouri's first governor.

When the St. Louisans reached Fort Riley, they decided not to turn north- ward to the proposed junction with the Omaha line, at the one hundredth meridian, but to build on through Kansas to Denver. The bond subsidy only aided them to Monument, 400 miles from Kansas City. From that point to Denver the road was completed without government help in 1870. Three years before, Mr. Perry and his St. Louis associates had put surveying parties in the field to run the lines for a transcontinental line through New Mexico and Arizona to the coast. With the engineering information showing the ad- vantages of the route the St. Louisans went to Congress offering to build through to the coast if given the encouragement which had been extended to the Union Pacific. Again influences at the capital, operated in favor of the northern route. If the proposition of Mr. Perry, Mr. Meier, Mr. Greeley and the other St. Louisians had been accepted, the reduction in army expenses would have offset, almost, the subsidies ; a southern line to the coast would have been put through ten years earlier than it was. The purpose of the enterprising St. Louisans was to build from some point on the Kansas Pacific, in western Kansas, south- " westerly through southern Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona to San Diego and thence to San Francisco. Boston capital subsequently took up the plan and the route and built the Santa Fe. St. Louis waited, through no local fault, for the transcontinental road which she had nursed in 1849.

One more act of injustice was done St. Louis when the Kansas Pacific / reached Denver and connected with the Union Pacific. The Kansas Pacific was entitled to interchange of traffic. The obligation was repudiated by the Union Pacific management. St. Louis directors carried through the panic of 1873 a floating debt of the Kansas Pacific which would have been taken care of easily if the Union Pacific had followed the act of Congress. Through co-operation of foreign bondholders the St. Louisans bore that burden and the expected sale to which other interests were looking for the acquisition of the road was averted. This arrangement with the bondholders followed a visit of the president of the road, Robert E. Carr, to Europe, and a frank presentation of the situation. In the history of railroad financing in the United States there is no more admirable

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chapter than that of the handling of the Kansas Pacific by John D. Perry and his St. Louis associates.

Agricultural Pathfinder of the Plains.

When the Kansas Pacific was completed through to Denver, a St. Louisan went up the Kaw valley and over the plains teaching the world that there was 10 Great American desert. In 1870, Richard Smith Elliott began the series of demonstrations. He broke prairie in Kansas with buffalo staring at him from the dunes. He carried on his little experiment stations where nobody else believed things would grow. He sowed the first grain in a belt which now sends many . millions of bushels of wheat to market. He started the tree growing which lias since dotted central and western Kansas with groves. Henry T. Mudd and Charles W. Murtfeldt, president and secretary of the Missouri state board of agriculture, Elliott's neighbors in Kirkwood, went out, saw the results of the experiments and reported on them with confidence. Eastern agricultural editors traveled out to Kansas, saw Elliott's green patches on the plains and came back marveling. Their editorials encouraged the migration of tens of thousands to farms west of the Missouri. Elliott of St. Louis .was the agricultural pathfinder of the plains.

Courtesy Missouri Historical Society

WILSON PRICE HUNT

Chosen by Astor to head the expedition up the Missouri River and across to the Columbia.

ANTOINE SOULARD

Surveyor of Upper Louisiana. Author of "The Incalculable Riches Along the Banks of the Missouri, March 1805."

From the Pierre Chouteau Collection

BULL BOATS ON WHICH FURS WERE BROUGHT DOWN THE MISSOURI RIVER TO ST. LOUIS

Vol. 1-27

CHAPTER XII

THE SPIRIT OF A CITY

"The First Thirty"-The Landing-Auguste Chouteau's Journal-When "the Spirit" Was Born-Vain Projects to Rival-De Treget's Daughters-Rise and Fall of Fort St. Charles-No Favors to Royalty-British Trade Competition Thwarted-Ambitious North St. Louis-French Habitants Buildcd Well-From Forty-fourth City-Labor, Capital-Labor and "the Spirit"-A Series of Crises-Fire, Flood and Pestilence-The Decade of Disasters-Financial Honor Demonstrated-Civil War's Paralysis of Com- merce -- The Oldest Trading Body in the United States-From Rivers to Rails-The After-War Handicap- Political Favor for Northern Routes-The Vital Test Well Met -Americanisation of the Community-Relations with Trade Territory-A National Financial Recognition-Renaissance of the Gallery-Architectural Misfits-The Climate Libel-A Record of Cheerful Giving-Some Factors in the Creation of "the Spirit"- The First Agricultural Socicty Formed in 1822-"A St. Louis Manufactured Stove" -The St. Louis Fair-Pioneer Exhibits-The St. Louis Exposition-How the Way to the World's Fair Was Paved-Aftermath of the Universal Exposition-When St. Louis Dealt with Graft-Solidarity a Characteristic through the Century-Wisdom of the Founders Vindicated.

"We are a peculiarly self-centered people. We own our city. We have always stood ready to furnish capital to others. We are strong and prosperous financially. But we are perhaps, too independent- we need to be brought more closely into contact with the outside world. We need to have a certain narrowness of vision altered. We need to learn something of our own merits and possibilities so that many of our own people will realize a little better than they do that St. Louis is, in its own way, as great a city as any on the continent."-"David R. Francis' Inspiration for the World's Fair of 1904.

"The First Thirty," as they were called in colonial days of St. Louis, landed at the foot of what is now Walnut street the evening of the 14th of February, 1764. They had poled and dragged their heavily laden boat up the ice-fringed bank of the Mississippi some sixty miles from Fort de Chartres. It had been a voyage of days. The First Thirty slept that night on the boat.

Where the landing was made was a sandy beach rising gently from the river's edge to a cliff of limestone varying from thirty to fifty feet in height. Back of the bluff of limestone was a plateau with heavy forest growth. Through the limestone strata, the water from springs and rains and melting snows had. in the many years, worn a gully.

In the morning of the 15th of February, Auguste Chouteau led The First Thirty up the gully to the plateau and showed them several trees recently marked. There, began the building of St. Louis. There, was begotten the spirit of a community.

Laclede was a younger son of the dominant family in Bedous, of the famous province of Bearn, in the extreme southwest of France. He was educated to be an engineer. He had the vision of the engineer when he chose the location of St. Louis. But he had more than engineering wisdom when he told the of-

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ficers at Fort Chartres that he was going to form a settlement which might be- come one of the finest cities of America. Those officers were on the point of turning over the great fort, in its time one of the most costly on the western continent, to the British, and were going down the river taking as many of the French settlers as they could induce to leave the country. France had ceded all of the country east of the Mississippi to Great Britain as part of the bar- gain which ended the Seven Years war. Worse than that, was the news which awaited Laclede when he came to Fort de Chartres after his three months of toiling up the river with his expedition to found a settlement. France had ceded the territory west of the river to Spain.

St. Louis-Under-the-Hill.

St. Louis became a city by incorporation in 1823. American newcomers obtained control of the municipal government at the first election, outvoting the French "habitants" by a slender majority of seventeen. The settlement of Laclede ceased to be "St. Louis-under-the-Hill." It was spreading beyond the first ridge, four blocks from the edge of the Mississippi. The "hill" of early St. Louis,-colonial St. Louis,-was where the courthouse stands today. Tra- dition has it that Laclede finally determined upon the site of St. Louis as he stood on this hill, then somewhat higher than it is now. The founder looked eastward down two gentle terraces, through a forest of large trees to the river. He gazed westward over a succession of gentle depressions and elevations.

The story of this selection of the site of St. Louis is told in a journal kept by Auguste Chouteau, written in a firm, careful hand. Auguste Chouteau stood beside Laclede that December day of 1763 when the site of St. Louis was chosen. Laclede and Chouteau had come up from Fort de Chartres, forty miles down the river where the expedition had stopped. Tradition has it that they explored the western bank of the Mississippi as far north as the Missouri river. Auguste Chouteau wrote in his journal still preserved: "After having ex- amined all thoroughly, he fixed upon the place where he wished to form his settlement, marked with his own hands some trees and said,"You will come here as soon as navigation opens and will cause this place to be cleared in order to form our settlement after the plan which I shall give you.'"

And when they had returned to Fort de Chartres, as Auguste Chouteau remem- bered to write in his Journal, "He said to M. de Neyon and to his officers, that he had found a situation where he was going to form a settlement which might become hereafter one of the finest cities of America (une des plus belles villes de l'Amerique), so many advantages were embraced in this site, by its locality and its central position for forming settlements."

Early but Unsuccessful Rivals.

The first attempt to overshadow St. Louis with a rival was only three years after the landing of Laclede's "First Thirty." A high born Frenchman, who had served in the navy of his country and who had considerable fortune, came up the Mississippi in 1767, established himself in a stone mansion and founded a settlement at what he called Carondelet. He had seven very attractive daugh- ters. The young Frenchmen of St. Louis went down to Carondelet, serenaded

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EAST SIDE OF FOURTH STREET FROM CHELN TO MARKET AS IT APPEARED IN 12140.

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FOURTH STREET IN 1840

Known for some years as American Street, after the transfer of Louisiana Territory to the United States. Both sides of the street from the Court- house to what is now Union Market are shown. From Painting by Mat. Hastings, in Missouri Historical Society collection.

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de Treget's daughters and danced with them. They ran furious pony races with de Treget's settlers. But they still lived and did business in St. Louis. Carondelet became a town and then a city. It expected to become the "Birming- ham of the United States" and made strides in that direction, building up great industries. It remained a separate community 103 years and voted itself into annexation with St. Louis in 1870.

About the time that de Treget founded his settlement a few miles south of Laclede's, the Spanish governor at New Orleans conceived the plan of build- ing a fort and founding a colony on the high bluffs overlooking the junction of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers some miles north of St. Louis, or San Luis as he called it. The secret instructions given to the expedition that was sent show that the Spanish governor expected his colony to become "of greatest importance." The commander of the expedition was instructed not to take the people of St. Louis into his confidence. The new settlement was intended to distance St. Louis. The fort was to be of much strength for that period. Con- struction was begun. The fort was to have five cannon. A complete and an elaborate plan for the organization and conduct of the community, which was to supersede St. Louis, was provided with detail characteristic of the Spanish colonizers. But the officers in charge of the Spanish governor's ambitious project were not slow in finding out that Laclede had chosen the ideal location and that he had imbued his St. Louis with a spirit that did not quail under difficulties. Some of the Spanish officers and intended colonists settled in St. Louis. Only a beginning was made on the fort. A quartermaster absconded. The Spanish expedition became indebted to the business men of St. Louis. When another Spanish commander was sent from New Orleans to straighten out the affairs of the proposed Fort Charles, he found that the liberty-loving Frenchmen of Laclede's settlement had actually seized the property of the King of Spain and refused to surrender it until their bills were paid. Fort Charles on the bluffs became only a reminiscence.

From that time the spirit of St. Louis dominated in the settlement and de- velopment of the Mississippi Valley. Not that these were the only attempts to establish population and commercial supremacy. There were a score of them, all unsuccessful. St. Louis did not grow rapidly in numbers during the colonial period but the progress in business was illustrative of the spirit of the com- munity. Laclede had come to build St. Louis with what he supposed was an exclusive privilege to trade with the Indian nations of the Missouri region. His grant, conferred by the French authorities at New Orleans, was cancelled as soon as it reached Paris for approval. Nevertheless, within three years after the building began, February 15, 1764, St. Louis, by sheer force of the spirit of the settlement, and without favor, had established the monopoly of the fur trade with twenty-eight Indian nations. These included not only tribes west of the Mississippi, but also east of the river and as far north as the Great Lakes. British agents came west and spent $50,000, a large sum for those days before the American Revolution, in efforts to break Laclede's hold on the trade in their territory east of the river. In five years the fur trade of St. Louis was $80,000 a year. That trade was the commercial cornerstone, the basis of prosperity. Three years after the first steamboat reached the river front, the trade of St.

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Louis was $2.500,000 annually. And it went on steadily mounting until it passed annually the billion-dollar measure.

Ambitious North St. Louis.

The community which threatened most serious rivalry of St. Louis in a business way might have celebrated its centennial four years ago. North St. Louis was incorporated June 29, 1816. The men who intended to build bigger than the St. Louis-under-the-hill were William Chambers, William Christy and Thomas Wright. Major Christy had come to St. Louis at the time of the trans- fer to the United States. He was a Pennsylvanian, stood erect with a soldierly bearing. combed his hair straight back from his forehead after a fashion of his own and let it fall to his coat collar. Easily he was the most conspicuous personality in St. Louis. Meriwether Lewis selected Major Christy, who had seen a good deal of military life to be commandant-in-chief for the Territory of Louisiana as all of the upper portion of the Louisiana Purchase was called, and made him major-commandant of the Louisiana Rangers, because, as he said, Major Christy was "wise in council and swift in action."

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Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 45

Author: Stevens, Walter Barlow, 1848-1939 Publication date: 1921 Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1074

Author: Stevens, Walter Barlow, 1848-1939
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1074