USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114
The St. Louisan of the first decade did not have to go beyond the limits of Laclede's village for his building material. He was given a quarter, a half, or a whole block of ground, according to his ability and his desirability as a new citizen. Trees were awaiting the axe. Laclede, the born engineer, had noted and spoken of the favoring forest when he selected the site, and told Auguste Chouteau where to begin building. Along the river front and out-cropping in many places were ledges of limestone easily quarried. Everywhere beneath the mold was tenacious clay.
The St. Louisan of this latest decade does not have to go beyond the city limits for much of his building material. The quarries are accessible and in- exhaustible, as they were in Laclede's time. The brick is here. The sand is pumped from the river bed in never failing supply. Lime, cement, sewer pipe,
.
436
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
tiles, terra cotta are local products, turned out in millions of dollars worth every year.
Evidences of the Spirit.
Incidents which illustrate the characteristic spirit of St. Louis are innumerable. In 1896 a cyclone swept across one section doing many millions of dollars dam- age. It came at a time when the city's recovery from the nationwide financial depression was beginning to be apparent. The moral fibre of the community showed itself in the prompt action of the whole community to relieve the local distress, but even more in the message immediately sent forth by the mayor, Cyrus P. Walbridge, thanking other cities for the generous tenders of aid, but declining all and declaring that St. Louis could and would take care of the stricken. The business of the city went on, the devastated sections were rebuilt, all obligations were met, and a world-wide impression which might have done the city incalculable harm at a time when it was entering upon a period of greatest progress, was corrected and changed to unstinted admiration. At the time when the spirit of St. Louis prompted this courageous, self-reliant stand, one business organization of the city, the Merchants' Exchange, had a record of cheerful giving showing nearly $1,000,000 contributed in thirty years toward the relief and encouragement of localities sustaining losses from various forms of calamity. This record opened with handsome amounts given for relief of destitution in Georgia, Alabama and other southern states in the two years of 1866 and 1867 following the close of the Civil war. Then followed contributions well up in the thousands for sufferers from yellow fever, that one-time awful scourge of southern cities. In four different epidemics these St. Louis relief funds were sent south. The earthquake in Charleston and cyclones in Texas and Arkansas, the Galveston flood and successive overflows of the Mississippi were occasions to which St. Louis responded promptly and generously.
The Mantle of Philanthropy.
Once in its history the St. Louis Provident Association faced a crisis which threatened to close its doors. Philanthropy knows what a panic means. The winter of 1893-4 drained the resources of the charity organizations." One day Mr. Scruggs and Mr. Cupples found themselves facing an empty treasury and the demands for relief almost without precedent. They sent for Adolphus Busch and on a Sunday afternoon the three men sat in the parlor of Mr. Cupples' home and discussed ways and means to keep the institution open. The next day Mr. Busch came back. He brought $10,000. Half of it was his individual gift. The remainder was from Mr. Lemp and other brewers. The Provident Association clid not suspend.
More than one hundred philanthropic organizations occupy the St. Louis field. With very few exceptions they are conducted upon the cardinal principle of helping the unfortunate to help themselves. The heart of St. Louis is charitable but in the exercise of charity practical judgment goes with the humane sentiment. That, in large measure, explains why St. Louis has no slums, like the plague spots of the other large cities of the country. As he rode about St. Louis, several years ago, Archbishop Farley of New York commented: "In St. Louis the workingmen and poorer classes are much better taken care of in their homes
ST. LOUIS MUNICIPAL BRIDGE AND APPROACH
PR
SAVING S
INSTITUTION
THE OLD MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE OF ST. LOUIS
Built before the Civil War. Located on Main between Market and Walnut Streets. On the square which Laclede reserved for a plaza and which the village, town and city of St. Louis utilized for a market place for fifty years.
439
THE SPIRIT OF A CITY
than similar classes in New York. I have seen no districts in St. Louis that I could call squalid. In fact, there seems to be no real squalor in the city."
Contributing Factors of the Spirit.
The experience of St. Louis affords one of the most impressive object lessons in the benefits of fairs and expositions. As early as 1822 an agricultural society was formed in St. Louis. Fairs were held at irregular intervals to exhibit agricul- tural products. Usually the place selected was the race track. Some years later St. Louis began the holding of what were known then as mechanics' fairs, now called expositions. These fairs were the crude developments of the exposition idea. They were exhibits of St. Louis industries and were given in some suitable building in the city. The agricultural fair and the mechanics' fair of St. Louis were entirely separate, conducted by different organizations, without conflict of dates. Thus, on the first Tuesday of November, 1841, the fair of the agricul- tural society of St. Louis was opened at the St. Louis race course. On the 24th of the same month the mechanics' fair was opened in buildings on the block where today stands the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis. It continued three days. The exhibition of "a St. Louis manufactured stove" at the exposition of 1842 was the public beginning of what became and is now one of the chief industries of the city.
Out of these earlier fairs developed the St. Louis agricultural and mechanical association in 1855, the most ambitious movement of its day to exhibit agricultural resources and industrial products of the West. The association obtained a large tract of ground, erected permanent structures and gave five annual fairs before the Civil war caused suspension. In that time the premium list had grown from $10,000 to $25,000. The attendance from the south and southwest more than doubled. Immediately after the war this annual fair at St. Louis was resumed. It grew to have a premium list of $40,000 a year and an attendance of from 50,000 to 100,000 visitors a day. It was continued more than a third of a century.
The St. Louis Fair.
The first official report of the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical asso- ciation has been preserved by the family of G. O. Kalb, who was for twenty- seven years secretary of the organization. It was issued in 1858. It described the acquisition of "fifty acres of wild and uncultivated ground three miles beyond the city limits." It told of the construction of fair buildings which included "the largest amphitheater in the Union and a gallinarium capable of accommodating any quantity of the feathered tribes."
"What the carnival is at Rome, the fair is at St. Louis," the report stated. Signs "To the Fair" were placarded on all the omnibuses and public vehicles as they hastened to the scene of attraction.
At the fair of . 1858, William Fisch, of St. Louis, received a medal for an exhibition of "an artificial leg and arm, which he wore to the Fair Grounds." Mr. Overmuller, of Ste. Genevieve, received a premium for "a petrified ham, when or how petrified we are not able to ascertain." A prize for "lucifer matches" was awarded to the Missouri Match company, of Hannibal, Mo .. and
-
440
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the board of directors expressed "gratification that the use of lucifers was becom- ing general throughout the state."
The first officers of the association were: President, J. R. Barret; vice- presidents, T. Grimsley, A. Harper and Henry Clay Hart ; treasurer, H. S. Turner ; general agent and recording secretary, G. O. Kalb; corresponding secretary, O. W. Collett.
When the Prince of Wales was touring the United States shortly before the Civil war, he spent a day at the Fair. It is a tradition that the chairman of the reception committee desiring to call the attention of His Royal Highness to a particularly fine specimen of horse flesh, slapped him on the back and said genially :
"Prince ! what do you think of that?"
Edwards' Program of the Fair in 1859 contained this urgent ."back to the farm" argument :
"There is not in this Union a single state that offers stronger inducements to miners, stock raisers and hempgrowers, than the State of Missouri, and yet there are in the City of St. Louis at least one thousand able-bodied professional gamblers, five thousand hale and hearty young men in drygoods stores, shops and other places, performing labor so light that it rightfully belongs to females; and this, too, for salaries which scarcely pay their necessary expenses; and during most of the season an equal number who have no visible means of support."
The Down Town Exposition.
In 1883 St. Louis returned to the plan of separation of fair and exposition. With a capital stock of $600,000 the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall Asso- ciation was organized, with Samuel M. Kennard at the head of it. Upon Mis- souri park, occupying two full city blocks between Olive and St. Charles, Thir- teenth and Fourteenth streets, a building specially adapted to exposition purposes was erected. Nearly a score of years the annual exposition and the annual fair were conducted successfully, being suspended only when the movement to cele- brate the Centennial of the Louisiana Purchase took definite form. In the first ten years of its existence the receipts of the St. Louis Exposition were over $2.000.000. In its twelfth year the exposition paid a dividend to stockholders and contributed $8,000 to cyclone sufferers. The average yearly attendance was 750.000 visitors.
The industrial and commercial upbuilding of St. Louis is to be attributed to its fairs and expositions more than to any other one agency. Moreover these fairs and expositions carried on through five generations of business men paved the way for the World's Fair of 1904 and made possible its success.
The World's Fair.
The total installation of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition represented an expenditure of over $45,000,000. St. Louis, through the city corporation and through subscribing shareholders, contributed $10,000,000. The Federal gov- ernment appropriated $5,000,000. The Federal government loaned, in addition, S.1,600,000. every dollar of which was returned in strict accordance with the act of appropriation. The remainder of the $45,000,000 represented the appropria- tions of states and foreign countries and the cost to exhibitors. The exposition
441
THE SPIRIT OF A CITY
passed into history as the equal, if not the superior, to any held up to that time. Pessimists predicted that the holding of such an exposition would be, ultimately, of more injury than benefit to the city; that there would be a reaction which would depress business and depreciate the value of property and make the people regret that they had undertaken such an enterprise. There was no reaction. Prices of real estate the year after the exposition closed were higher than at any time in ten years preceding and have since steadily advanced. The business of St. Louis-mercantile, jobbing and retail-the year after the exposition was 25 per cent greater than the year previous to the exposition and has been increasing ever since. Industrially, St. Louis gained more in new manufactures and in volume of production during the five years succeeding the exposition than it had in the fifteen years preceding. Nothing else ever contributed so much toward bringing the people of St. Louis together and inspiring a consciousness of strength and of mutual confidence as did the World's Fair of 1904.
During the one hundred and eighty-four days of the Exposition's existence there passed through the turn-stiles and were counted, 19,694,855 persons. These figures do not comprise the census of the Exposition's population. A site far exceeding any preceding World's Fair encouraged conditions which were with- out precedent. A hotel within the grounds having hundreds of employes and thousands of guests was one of the unusual features. The collection of Filipino villages and camps housed a permanent community equal to a small city. The colonies of primitive people spread over many acres and numbered several hundreds of persons. Within their camps the British and Boers dwelt in harmony by night as well as by day. The Jefferson Guard and the Fire Depart- ment were intramural contingents having no occasion to pass the gates when off duty. Military camps and barracks accommodated visiting bodies numbering at one time several thousand uniformed men. The Pike was an avenue of a mile on which communities from all parts of the world had their abiding places for the Exposition period. There were other elements of this permanent population. Many of the buildings erected by foreign governments, states and territories had their sleeping and living rooms as well as public accommodations. Commis- sioners, officers and employes seldom left the grounds.
Financial results of this Universal Exposition were satisfactory. It has come to be the accepted condition of these enterprises that they do not return dividends in cash. Expositions are "Timekeepers of progress," "Milestones of civilization," not money makers. The capital invested looks to indirect but not to inadequate returns. If any exposition pays its way in operation, makes to the greatest good of the greatest number, then the individual, the corporation, the government, the municipality considers the trial balance. satisfactory. So judged the Universal Exposition of 1904 passed into history as having been eminently successful.
The revenue from various sources amounted to $11.500,000, the chief of these yielding as follows :
Admission collections
$6,250,000
Concession collections
3,000,000
Intramural Railroad fares 627,473
Service, power and light receipts 600,000
442
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Interest on deposits
125,000
Transportation Department collections 165,000
Music Department receipts 82,87 I
Premiums on souvenir coins
67,000
The expenditures of the management to the close of the Exposition aggregated $25.000.000 leaving a surplus sufficient to meet the necessities of the Post-Exposi- tion period, economically administered, and for the Art Museum, World's Fair Pavilion and Jefferson Memorial. The principal disbursements were classified as follows :
Construction, grounds and buildings $17,177,864
Maintenance and rents
1,729,249
Division of Exhibits 2,086,580
Division of Exploitation 1,305,792
Protection, police, fire, insurance
1,014,220
Division of Concessions and Admissions
544,650
Executive and administrative
402,44I
Division of Transportation
260,426
Four-fifths of the expenditures of the Exposition was for the buildings and grounds. Of the $11,000,000 earned, the sum of $9,500,000 was from admissions and concessions. The cost of the collection of this revenue barely exceeded $500,000. The handling of the revenues was a model in methods of economy and exactness for all expositions to come.
This financial showing does not take into consideration one of the largest items of receipts and of corresponding outgo. To the investment should be added to a loan of $4,600,000 by the United States Government advanced in addition to the original $5,000,000 appropriated. To the disbursements must be added the return of this exact amount to the Government from the revenues of the Exposition period in strict compliance with the letter and spirit of the Act of Congress.
Expansion of the United States found expression in participation by forty- three states, by five territories and by all territorial possessions save Hawaii. This participation cost $9.346,677. Ten years before forty-one states and two territories expended on a World's Fair $5,539,428, and the United States was proud of the showing.
Respect for a World Power showed itself in the presence at this Exposition of sixty-two foreign nations and colonies, and in the expenditure of $8,134,500. This expenditure does not take into consideration that of private exhibitors from foreign countries, but only the amounts expended by the foreign governments. At Chicago, in 1893, were represented forty-five foreign nations and colonies by expenditures aggregating $5,982,894. Paris in 1900, had no approach to this degree of universality.
The material benefits which St. Louis received from the World's Fair were set forth in impressive comparisons by the Business Men's League. During the five years beginning with 1906 and ending with 1910, the people of St. Louis expended $116,536,564 on new buildings. During the preceding five years, begin- ning with 1901 and including the preparation for the World's Fair and the costly
-
MUNICIPAL BRIDGE, ST. LOUIS, OPENED JANUARY 20, 1917
FIRST TRAIN OF COAL OVER MUNIC- IPAL BRIDGE, ST. LOUIS
ST. LOUIS MUNICIPAL BRIDGE
MO.
577/ 5/10?
------
S
ASTŲ
ww-tt/#
city
ST. LOUIS MUNICIPAL BRIDGE AND APPROACHES.
-
445
THE SPIRIT OF A CITY
construction for the exposition purposes the amount. expended was $78, 116,984. Instead of depression after the World's Fair, St. Louis entered upon a period of improvements and general prosperity such as the city had never before known. Business doubled in ten years.
Bank clearings for 1900 were $1,688,849,494 and for 1910 they were $3,727,- 949,379, more than twice as much.
In 1900 the freight brought into and carried out of St. Louis by rail and river was 25.313,330 tons. In 1910 it was 51,918, 110 tons, more than double.
Post office cash receipts, which measure the volume of business, were $2,031,664 in 1900 and in 1910 they were $4,539,185, an increase of considerably more than 100 per cent.
In 1900 the people of St. Louis built 2,513 houses of all kinds at a cost of $5.916,984. In 1910 they built 9,419 houses and spent $19,600,063 upon them.
The assessed value of real estate and personalty of St. Louis in 1900 was $380,779,280, and in 1910 it was $556,725.320.
One Test of Missouri Citizenship.
The native Missourian is increasing in numbers. He is holding his own in the competition for the first rank of successful, useful citizenship. For the com- mittee of two hundred and the board of directors which initiated and conducted the World's Fair of 1904, were chosen representatives of all interests. When the lists were analyzed forty-one native Missourians were found among the two hundred. Of this number twenty-six were on the board of directors. There was no thought of place of birth when the men to carry the World's Fair burden were chosen. But the results illustrated in a striking manner how, from other countries and from many states, have converged in Missouri the men who do things. Serving as directors of the World's Fair were ten men born in Germany ; three, in Ireland; one in Canada; one in England and two in Bavaria. The natives of twenty-three states, adopted Missourians, were directors. They were well distributed. New Yorkers led with nine. Illinois and Ohio contributed six each. The other states and their sons were: Michigan, two; West Virginia, one; Arkansas, ore; Maryland, two; Virginia, four; Massachusetts, two; New Hampshire, two; New Jersey, two; North Carolina, two; Kentucky, five; Iowa, one; California, one; Indiana, one; Connecticut, two; Pennsylvania, three; Georgia, two; Tennessee, one; Vermont, one; Texas, one.
The World's Fair movement tested the quality of St. Louis citizenship as has no other demand upon the municipality's energies. And when the response was studied, it showed from what widely scattered sources were drawn the elements to give the quality. No nationality, no section of this country, predominated. Nations, all quarters of the United States, have contributed to the best business and professional blood of the city.
In the committee of two hundred, besides the nationalities in the board of directors, were represented Wales, Hungary and Austria. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf were scattered the birthplaces of the men who made the World's Fair possible and then made the World's Fair. Missouri is producing the best type of the American in temperament and in action as well.
1
446
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
The Conscience of St. Louis.
St. Louis has had its local aissues from time to time. Individual leaders, elements in the population, geographical sections of the city, have contended sharply for their ambitions or their respective interests. But, from the year of incorporation to the present day, every serious crisis confronting and every momentous proposition appealing have found St. Louisans standing together, so closely ranked, so nearly unified, as to make the majority irresistible, the minority insignificant. This characteristic of St. Louis was effective in the World's Fair of 1904 to a degree that made the nations marvel. It has met repeatedly situa- tions of gravest character. Without the loss of a single life and with the minimum of damage to property, St. Louis passed through the railroad riots of 1877, so disastrous in other centers of transportation and population.
In the early years of the first decade of the new century, the conscience of the community was aroused. Investigation and reform were undertaken, official impurity was found, but the moral fiber was again demonstrated by the vigorous prosecution and conviction of grafters. Conditions in St. Louis in 1900 were not worse than those in other large cities, but St. Louis led the way in exposure and in banishment of official wrong-doers. "The Shamelessness of St. Louis," was an utterance of superficial observance by a stranger. A city which could and did do what St. Louis did to correct the wrongs in official life is not "shameless."
Marvelously the years have demonstrated the wisdom of the selection of the site for St. Louis. The first chamber of commerce was built where Laclede and Chouteau marked the trees. The Merchants' Exchange of today, the great trading mart. is only a stone's throw distant. Within rifle shot of where the First Thirty landed. the trade of the Mississippi Valley still centers. St. Louis spread north, west and south from Laclede's fur warehouse. The Market street of today. which divides the city in halves, extends westward from the Place Publique which the founder reserved when he made his plan for the settlement which was to be "une des plus belles villes de l'Amerique."
-
CHAPTER XIII
ABORIGINAL MISSOURIANS
Archaeologists Disagree-Pussling Stone Implements-Broadhead's Theory -- Missouri, a Rich Field-Beckwith's 50,000 Indian Relics-The Mounds-A Geological Theory-In- . vestigations of Douglas, Whelpley and Fowke-A Prehistoric City-Amasing Fortifica- tions-Adobe Brick-Cave Dwellers on the Gasconade-Dr. Peterson on the Mound Builders-Evidences of a Numerous Population-Laclede and the Missouris-A Far- reaching Indian Policy-The Nudarches-Friends of the French-Massacre of a Span- ish Expedition in Missouri-Attempts at Civilisation-The Murder of Pontiac-Chou- teau Springs-The Osages' Gift to the Son of Laclede-A Spanish Governor's Narrow Escape-Gratifications-The Shawnee Experiment-How Peace Was Made-The Exe- cution of Tewanaye-Good Will Transferred with Sovereignty-The Advice of Delassus -Pike's Diplomatic Mission-British Influence Checkmated-Wisdom of William Clark -Activities of Manuel Lisa-"One-eyed Sioux"-The Treaty of 1812-Elihu H. Shep- ard's Tribute-"Red Head," the Friend of the Indian-The Council Chamber-Gov- ernor Clark's Museum-Ceremonial Calls-The Freedom of the City-Indian Coffee- Home Coming of the Osages-Migrations of the Delawares-The Rise of Colonel Splitlog-An Indian Capitalist.
More than half a century has since transpired and probably every person engaged in that embassy of six nations is dead, but that act of General Clark alone should make his name immortal .- Elihn H. Shepard on Governor William Clark's Indian Treaty of 1812.
A marvelous collection of Indian workmanship in stone fills many cases of the Missouri Historical Society. The quality varies greatly. Garland C. Broad- head, the geologist and archaeologist, analyzing these evidences, inclined to the theory that a superior race preceded the red Missourians known to white men. He said: "On the surface in many places are found flint arrow-heads, both small and large, some roughly made, some very finely worked; also axes of exquisite workmanship. The rougher flints may have been shaped by the present Indians, but there is no evidence that any of the present tribes could shape and polish these stone implements in any way but roughly. Other persons of higher artistic attainments must have shaped them, and these may have been driven off by the present races several hundred years ago. The Toltecs of Mexico have legends that they were driven away from a country inhabited by them, away to the northeast, hundreds of years ago."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.