History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 190

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 190

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" Although that description is correct as far as it goes, it does not attempt to describe the landscape at this place, nor when and how Duncan's Island and Bloody Island were formed, and why so named ; nor why the only ferry from Illinois to St. Louis had to be from Cahokia below the island, opposite South St. Louis, and landed on the Missouri shore near the site of the United States arsenal; nor when and by whom the Wiggins Ferry at this point was first established. A ferry at this point at that date would have been worse than useless, because it could not have been reached by the inhabitants of Illinois until a road was made, and the River L'Abbé was bridged above its junction with the Slough, which then ran at the head of said island, and which is now known as Cahokia comuons, south of East St. Louis. And all the space above the Slough, between the rivers Mississippi and L'Abbé, including the Ferry Division of East St. Louis and what is now known as Bloody Islaud, and the dike and ponds of water in that vicinity, was then bottom land, covered with majestic forest timber, interspersed with pea-vine, rushes, and winter-grass, upon which stock kept fat all the scasons of the year. The distance between the two rivers was then half a mile in width. This was also used as the commuon camping-ground for all the friendly Illinois Indians that traded at St. Louis, and sometimes by hostile Indians. Therefore to build the first bridge and make the first road was not only costly and laborious, but an extremely dangerous un-

And that those of us who came to the country and improved land since 1783 may be confirmed in a right of pre-emption to their improvements is the humble request of your petitioners. And we, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

" JAMES PIGGOTT, " and forty-five others."

1869

CARONDELET AND EAST SAINT LOUIS.

dertaking; for although Col. Clark, in 1778, had taken all the Territory northwest of the river Ohio from the British Lion, yet that country's allies, the Indians, like tigers thirsting for blood, still claimed aud occupied and, like lords of the forest, roamed through this vast region of wild country. . .. Except- ing a few French villages in this bottom, the whole country northwest of the Ohio River was the abode of ferocious beasts and wild inen. Those first heroes of the West were without roads, bridges, newspapers, or mail-carriers. Many of them had assisted in the ereetion and defense of Fort Jefferson in 1780-S1, and had come with their captain and had formed the first purely American settlement at the Great Run.

" When Governor St. Clair, in 1790, first organized civil gov- ernment in Illinois, he held council with the people, and in view of the prospective importance of this place, he advised his newly - made judge (Piggott) to establish himself at this placc. To look at the surroundings of the country, it had very much the appearance of a forlorn hope, but the Governor knew his man. The inhabitants of both sides of the Mississippi felt the great need of such a ferry and co-operated heartily in it. At that time there was no other man willing to take the risk. In the summer-time men could not work herc. In the winters of 1792-93, while the River L'Abbé was frozen, Judge Piggott erected two log cabins at this point, and continued every winter to carry on his improvements till 1795. After Gen. Wayne had conquered and treated with the hostile Indians, he then removed his family from his fort at the Great Run to this point, among the friendly Indians.

" As soon as the judge had completed his road and bridge and established his ferry from the Illinois to the Missouri shore, he petitioned (15th day of August, 1797) for and obtained the exclusive right to collect ferriage in St. Louis (at that time a Spanish province)."

With regard to the changes in the course of the Mississippi and the Cahokia Creek, the same authority adds,-

" The main channel of the Mississippi in 1800 ran nearly straight from the Chain of Rocks, supposed to be about nine miles above St. Louis, toward and close to the old western boundary of the Cabanne Island, and from thence striking the rocky shore of Missouri above St. Louis, near where the Stur- geon Market now is, thence running deepest against said rocky shore to Market Street, below which a sand-bar formed which grew into what is now ealled Duncan's Island, causing the current to defleet to Cahokia Island, and carried off a great part thercof. Meanwhile accretions accumulated on the west side of the Cabanné Island. This caused the current to carry off a great deal of the Missouri shore, and formed what was called the Saw- yer Bend, above what is called Bissell's Point. In the fall of 1798 a sand-bar was formed in the Mississippi similar to the one now opposite this place and near the same locality. It increased rapidly, and soon became an island, covered with willow and cottonwood. In time this island received the prefix 'Bloody,' from the many bloody duels it was the theatre of.

"In the progress of time the main channel for steamboat navigation ran east of Bloody Island, and the current thus deficeting against the Illinois shore it was worn away rapidly. I believe the whole Mississippi River would ere now have been running east of this place had it not been prevented by diking. But before dikes proved a success the Mississippi hnd washed away all the land heretofore described as the Indian camping- ground, lying between the rivers, and filled up the bed of the old Miry Creek at the southwest corner of Illinoistown, and turned the channel thereof from its former route past Cahokia

to opposite St. Louis. For some time the ferry-boats landed at Illinoistown about the northwest end of Mnin and Market Streets and a mile below it. Various and expensive efforts were made to force the Mississippi back to its old channel west of this island. After several dikes or rock piers had been made along the Illinois shore so far as to deflect the current towards the Missouri shore, and also Dike Avenue having stopped the current from running on the east of this place, the slough which had run there has been rapidly filling up.

" An examination of the old plat of Illinoistown shows that at the northwest end of Main and Market Streets is the place where the bridge and road made in 1795 erossed the River L'Abbé, which is now in the bed of the slough. .. . The slough at the head of the island is already filled up. It is again attached to the mainland, and the other part of it is dikcd in several places and rapidly filling up. Properly speaking, this place is no longer Bloody Island, but the law-abiding Ferry Division of the city of East St. Louis."

After the establishment of the ferry by Capt. Pig- gott, various attempts were made to establish towns, some of which were laid out immediately on the shore of the river, and soon washed away. Among these were Washington and Jacksonville. The present city of East St. Louis is built in part on Cahokia common, which extended from the old village of Ca- hokia to the east bank of Cahokia Creek. Illinois- town, as East St. Louis was originally named, was laid out in the autumn of 1817, as is shown by the following advertisement in the Missouri Gazette of October 25th of that year :

"Illinois City, situate in the prairie near the mounds, oppo- site to the upper end of St. Louis, laid out on an extensive and liberal plan, the principal streets being ninety-nine and none less than seventy-onc and a half feet wide; eight lots of one hundred and four and a half by one hundred and ninety- seven feet in a square, each square divided by an alley of twenty fect in width.

" There will be offered at publie sale on Saturday, the;1st day of November next, at Savage's tavern, sundry lots in the above- mentioned place. The terms will be made known on the day of sale, the sale to commence at eleven o'clock A.M.

" JOHN HAYS, " N. JARROT, " J. B. THOMAS, " JOHN HAY, " M. TURCOTTE, " Commissioners."

The land belonged to John McKnight and Thomas Brady, merchants of St. Louis, and had formerly been owned by Etienne Pensonau, and occupied and possessed by one Vanorsdall.1 The town was laid out by Col. Thomas F. Riddick, agent for McKnight & Brady. On Monday, Nov. 3, 1817, an auction sale of the lots advertised took place in St. Louis, but some of the lots were disposed of at private sale be- fore and afterwards. The town thus provided for formed the southeast portion of what is now the city

1 History of East St. Louis, p. 24.

1870

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

of East St. Louis. Soon after this transaction Illinois City was platted and laid out on land once known as a part of Cahokia common. The whole arca sur- veyed was about thirce hundred and sixty-nine acres, including streets and a public square. There were sixty-three squares and four hundred and ninety-six lots. The survey was located in what is now the northwestern portion of the city. The plot was recorded in 1825. In 1837 the town of St. Clair was platted by the county surveyor, John M. Mes- singer, in the employ of John L. St. John. The surveyor's certificate was dated April 13, 1837, and the record made by Mr. St. John, April 19, 1837. It comprised what is now the central part of the city.

In 1859 the town of East St. Louis was platted and entered of record (November 28th). It was a sub-division of lands belonging to Samuel L. Barlow, Henry Chauncey, William H. Aspinwall, and Samuel W. Comstock, lying within United States surveys No. 626, in the name of Richard McCarty ; No. 625, in that of Jean F. Perry; Nos. 131 and 132, in that of A. Chouteau ; No. 130, in the name of Jean St. Germain; and No. 129, in the name of Gregoire Sarpy. It extended from the central to the northern part of the city, and included a tract once owned by John Jacob Astor. In April, 1865, Henry Holbrook, St. Clair County surveyor, in the employ of the Wig- gins Ferry Company, surveyed and laid out seven hundred and thirty-four town lots, under the name of the Ferry Division of East St. Louis. Other divis- ions have since been added. On the 20th of Septem- ber, 1872, Oebike and Kase Addition of sixty-seven lots was platted and surveycd. The town was incorpo- rated as Illinoistown Feb. 19, 1859, and at the first town election, April 4, 1859, W. J. Enfield, Samuel W. Toomer, Andrew Wettig, and Henry Jackeisch were elected trustees, and William Hamilton police magistrate and ex officio president of the board of trus- tees. George Johnson was appointed marshal by the trustees, who held their first meeting April 16, 1859. At an election held on the 1st of April, 1861, the citizens changed the name of the town from Illinois- town to that of East St. Louis. The following officers were elected : President of Town Council, Samuel W. Toomer ; Town Council, Samuel B. Walker, Florence Sullivan, John Moneghan, and Francis Karle ; Police Magistrate, John B. Bowman ; Town Marshal, John Henessy.

On the 17th of January, 1865, the Council ap- pointed a committee, consisting of the president, S. W. Toomer, and Messrs. Oebike, Bowman, Kase, and Millard, to draft a city charter. Subsequently the new charter was submitted and approved, and a motion

to change the name of the city to St. Clair defeated. In the same year (April 3d), at the first election for mayor, J. B. Bowman was chosen.

In March, 1865, a St. Louis journal said,-

" The people of East St. Louis have obtained from the Illinois Legislature charters for a gas company, water-works, and a grain elevator. A weekly newspaper is also about to be established there. Mr. James L. Fawcett, formerly well known as the pro- prietor of the St. Louis Herald, has moved his printing material across the river, and intends issuing in a short time the first number of the East St. Louis Weekly Herald."

Since then the city has attained a remarkable de- velopment, and being the centre of a vast railroad system, enjoys a steadily increasing prosperity. Con- nected with St. Louis by the great bridge, its interests are identical with those of the metropolis, to whose trade, commerce, and industries it is a most important contributor.

CHAPTER XLII.

COUNTY OF SAINT LOUIS.

ALTHOUGH the present city of St. Louis was the place where the first settlement in the region was made, other points in the vicinity were settled soon afterward, if not contemporaneously with it. The trading-posts and missionary stations that werc first established soon became the nucleuses of agricultural settlements, which gradually extended as the danger from predatory attacks of the savages diminished. The increase of the population was not at first rapid, although the fertile soil gave ample returns for the little labor bestowed on it ; there was no near market for the surplus produce, and the ample facilities for transportation to distant markets which now exist werc not then dreamed of.

The earliest settlers were French, and although the territory was under the dominion of Spain till the beginning of the present century, the French char- acter of the inhabitants was retained, and the habits and customs of the people were such as they brought with them from their native country, only modified by the different circumstances which here surrounded them.

" At the outset French husbandry 1 was limited to the production of food for home consumption. The farms were small. Near the beginning of the present century a tract of eighty arpens was said to be the

1 This portion of this chapter, relating to the early agriculture of St. Louis County, was prepared for this work by Professor S. Waterhouse.

1871

COUNTY OF SAINT LOUIS.

largest inclosed farm in the country.1 No adjacent villages afforded a market for surplus crops, and the French were too fond of leisure to raise more than was necessary for the satisfaction of their own wants. At first maize was the principal grain erop, but in a few years after the erection of Laclede's water-mill they added wheat to their breadstuffs.

" The costliness of foreign goods, together with the poverty of the people, led to the cultivation of cotton. Most of the inhabitants were clad in homespun gar- ments. Enough cotton was raised to supply the domestic wants of the colony.2 The cloth woven in their rude looms was indeed coarse, but it was also strong, and answered well the needs of the simple villagers.

" The common vegetables-potatoes, beans, pcas, turnips, pumpkins, melons, cabbages, and radishes- were raised in abundance. The village orchards yielded a partial supply of good apples. Small quan- tities of tobacco and sugar were also produced.3

" The early inhabitants devoted themselves more to gardening than to farming. No hay was staekcd for domestic animals. The wild prairie grasses were plentiful and nutritious.4 In winter the horses and cattle were allowed to graze at will on alluvial lands, and they always contrived to keep themselves in good condition. A bountiful supply of beef,5 poultry, and eggs measurably relieved the early settlers of the irk- some labors of agriculture. In a country abounding with game, a race of men naturally fond of hunting would not be apt to devote themselves to the severe

and monotonous toils of farming.6 All the neighbor- ing forests were full of game. 'Dcer have been shot near the site of the Planters' House, in St. Louis City. Every adjacent stream was alive with fish. Chouteau's Pond was a favorite resort for fishing prior to the great flood of 1844. In 1803 beef was worth from two dollars and fifty cents to three dollars a hundred. At the time of the cession some of the French farmers already owned hundreds of cattle and swine.7

" The farming tools were rough, awkward, and heavy.8 The plows 9 had wooden furrow-boards, and the snaths were either straight or conveniently bent by the accident of growth. The harness of the ponies was a rude combination of straps and ropes, fastened, in lieu of buckles, with strings of buckskin. The oxen were yoked in a primitive oriental fashion. A strip of wood about three inches square and five feet long was strapped to the horns, and the tongue of the cart was attached to the centre of this yoke. The re- sistance was encountered with the neck and not with the shoulders.10 The only article in the country on wheels for long years was a charrette, a primitive cart, constructed of two pieces of scantling some ten or twelve fcet long, joined together by two or more cross-pieces, upon one end of which the body of wicker-work was placed, and the front ends rounded to serve as the shafts, and the whole set on the axle- tree of the wheels. Almost the only use they had for it was to haul in their corn and hay to their barns back of the village. It was sometimes used to take ladies and children out riding. All the males and most of the females rode on horseback.

" Laclede brought up his family from Fort Char- tres in 1764 in one of these carts, and F. L. Billon rode up in one from Ste. Genevieve in 1818.

1 In the neighborhood of the Meramec, " Thomas Tyler had eighty arpens under fenee, forty planted with tobacco and corn, then (about 1790) considered the largest farm in the country."-John Boli, July 30, 1860, Commissioners' Minutes, vol. i. p. 438.

" Reynolds' My Own Times, pp. 14-38, 71. According to this authority goods woven by machinery were not introduced into the Illinois settlements till about 1818.

"Sixty years ago Gervais cultivated tobaceo in the Little Prairie."-Aug. Chouteau, June 1, 1825, Hunt's Minutes, vol. ii. p. 4.

3 " Since ten years ago John Boli made sugar every year on the Meramee River."-Jacques Clamorgan, July 17, 1806, Commis- sioners' Minutes, vol. i. p. 410.

"In 1799 there was a sugar-eamp established on Soulard's land, on the Missouri River, and sugar (maple) made."-Gre- goire Sarpy, Sept. 7, 1806, Ib., vol. ii. p. 7.

4 Hunt's Minutes, vol. ii. p. 109.

5 Reynolds, speaking of the Illinois colonists, says, "The French searcely ever troubled themselves with milking cows, but turned the calves out with the other cattle, and made little or no butter."-My Own Times, p. 91.

From the similarity of the French methods of farming in the different settlements, it is probable that the same indifferenee to milk and butter existed in St. Louis.

6 Reynolds' My Own Times, p. 38. It is a singular faet that while the first settlers of St. Louis were mostly hunters, boatinen, or traders, the inhabitants of Carondelet were all farmers. " About twenty-five years ago there were ahout thirty families of farming people in Carondelet who had no other pur- suit."-Auguste Chouteau, July 9, 1808, Commissioners' Minutes, vol. iii. p. 217.

" Carondelet contained, twenty-five years ago, about forty families, all fariners."-J. B. Provenche, July 9, 1808, 1b., p. 218.

7 Reynolds : My Own Times, p. 38.

8 One of the farmers had an ingenious device. By a portahle lodge he provided convenient quarters for himself and a place of security for his tools. "Nie Barsaloux cultivated a piece of land south of Mill Creek. Barsaloux had a small house built upon wheels, and used to have it hauled on said piece of land when he wanted to work on the same."-Rene Dodier, March 5, 1803, Commissioners' Minutes, vol. vi. p. 110.

9 Reynolds' My Own Times, p. 38. 10 Ibid., p. 39.

1872

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

" The division of lands, originally derived from the mother-country, was sanctioncd by the exigencies of the New World. The system combined convenience of fellowship with facility of defense. Generally it began in the village itself with a patriarchal arrange- ment of the honicstead. Often, in imitation of the old French custom, the abode of the father stood in the centre of the lot, and the cottages of his married children were ranged on either side. Sometimes sev- eral generations of descendants were grouped around the patriarchal household. Occasionally the village lot contained one or two acres, but at St. Charles the usual size was one hundred and twenty by one hun- dred and fifty French feet. Some of these features, so characteristic of most French settlements, werc ex- ceptional in St. Louis. In addition to this house-lot, each villager had an equal right in the commons and a proportionate share in the common fields. The latter were lands which the Governor granted to the petitioners for the purpose of tillage.1 The shape of the tract was long and narrow. The common fields at St. Charles were one arpent, or one hundred and ninety-two and a half fect, in width ; and a single lot, measuring one arpent by four, embraced about thirty- four acres. The length of the strip was determined by the number of farmers. Every inhabitant owning a lot in the village was entitled to a section of the common fields proportioned to the size of his family and to his means of cultivation. His tenure was absolute. Invested with the fee-simple, the owner was subject to no restraints in the disposal of his land. The first common fields were adjacent to the village, but as the growth of the place required more land for cultivation other and more remote fields were in- closed.

" The common was also situated conveniently near the village. This tract was not devoted to tillage. It was the public pasture and wood-lot. There were no sub-divisions and no exclusive rights. Its benefits werc alike free to all who were entitled to their enjoy- ment.2 These grants were sometimes very extensive.

The Cahokia common was some three miles long. The Ste. Genevieve common contained about four thousand acres. The St. Louis commons, compris- ing some half a dozen prairies under distinct names, extended to the common fields of Carondclet.3 Ac- cording to the survey of 1806, the whole tract em- braced four thousand two hundred and ninety-eight arpens. By the later and probably more cxact sur- vey of 1833 the area of the St. Louis commons was four thousand five hundred and ten arpens. The lands thus reserved for tillage and pasturage were in- closed at the public expense, but the tax raised for the purpose of making the fence and keeping it in repair could be paid in manual labor. Every minute detail was regulated by law.4 As in some of the French villages, even the form of the door-yard and garden was determined by enactment ; so the method of building and repairing the fences of the common fields, the penalty for the neglect of these duties or for an encroachment upon the rights of others, and the time for plowing, planting, and harvesting were all prescribed by public ordinance. The system of common fields was well adapted to the circumstances of colonial life. It strengthened a fecling of mutual dependence and social attachments. It also afforded a safeguard against the incursions of the Indians. All the. farmers being, by the requirement of law, en- gaged simultaneously in the cultivation of their adja- cent fields, could quickly assist each other in the event of an attack. While the community of interests de- veloped a sense of common brotherhood, the indi- vidual ownership of real estate prevented the evils of tenantry and the growth of a landed aristocracy. There could be no distraint of tenants where all alike were landlords."

New County of St. Louis .- By an act of the Legislature of Missouri, passed in 1875, the town- ships of St. Ferdinand, Central, Bonhomme, Meramec, and Carondclet were separated from the city of St. Louis and erected into a county bearing the same name. The act extended the limits of the city, de-

1 It was the duty of the villagers alternately to guard thier growing erops. "The inhabitants in those days (forty years ago) who had a common field lot had a fenee to keep the cattle of the town from injuring their grain growing in their field lots. It was the customn of the inhabitants of the town to take it in turns to go out and tend their eattle and keep them from doing injury to the same."-Baptiste Rivière, Jr., July 30, 1825, Hunt'8 Minutes, vol. ii. p. 113 ; Monette's History of the Mississippi Valley, vol. i. p. 184.

2 " The common was first feneed in tho ycar 1764, at the ex- pense of the inhabitants, who always kept it in repair, and every person, inhabitant of the village, was in the habit of pas- turing his eattle in the same and eutting wood."-Auguste Chou- tean, May 10, 1806, Commissioners' Minutes, vol. i. p. 289.

3 " A.D. 1790 there was a common fenee that connected with the common field fenee of Carondelet, and extended so as to go round and include Prairie des Noyes, Cul de Sac, and the Big Prairie, and the land inclosed within this was generally culti- vated."-Auguste Chouteau, June 1, 1825, Huut's Minutes, vol. ii. p. 4.

" When he first eame to St. Louis the common extended to the River des Peres, but after that, when Carondelet was laid out, there was an agreement between the inhabitants of St. Louis and the inhabitants of Carondelet that the common field fenee of St. Louis should join the common field of Carondelet." -John Baptiste Lorain, Sr., Nov. 23, 1825, Hunt'8 Minutes, vol. iii. pp. 82-85.

4 Monette's Hist. of tho Mississippi Valley, vol. i. p. 184.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 190

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358