History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 5

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 5

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).

Confidence of the Citizens of St. Louis in the Natural Advantages and Future Destiny of their City .- We may now proceed to consider how and how greatly the several constituents of a great and permanent volume of trade, production, conversion, and exchange have each in their turn, by the force of natural and acquired advantages, contributed to make St. Louis a trade centre. It is first to be noted, however, that from the very beginning the people of St. Louis have been conscious of. its transcendent natural advantages and confident of its destinies as the trade centre of the America of the future. This has been the case from the time of Henry M. Brackenridge's first remark- able horoscope of the infant town's destiny down to the day of the abortive " convention" to make St. Louis the capital of the United States.2

2 The enterprise was premature, and therefore not so wise as it might have been, but it has been laughed at probably more than it deserved. At present it may be said to sleep, for no one can pronounce it dead while the power, population, and wealth of the United States continue to gravitate so strongly towards the heart and centre of the valley of the Mississippi. The centre of population, which is now in Kentucky, just west of Cincinnati, is moving upon a parallel of latitude that will take it to St. Louis before A.D. 1900, and at that date more than two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives will be elected from districts west of the meridian of Pittsburgh, which was a far western frontier town at the day when the site of the Federal city was chosen upon the Potomac. As a matter of record, some of the proceedings of the "Capital Convention" are worth preserving. It assembled in the hall of the Mercantile Library on the afternoon of Oct. 20, 1869, and was called to order by L. R. Shryock, who was followed in prayer by Rev. R. G. Bransk, of the Central Presbyterian Church. The States and Territories which were represented were Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Alaska, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ten- nessee, Utah, and Missouri,-17. The delegates from the last- named State were Governor J. W. McClurg, John IIogan, E. O. Stanard, Enos Clark, B. Poepping, G. A. Mozier, George Thelenius, T. T. Tracy, M. L. DeMotte, James H. Birch, A. J. Harlan, H. J. Drumond, F. Muench, G. R. Smith, W. Galland.

I Such was the view of the Windom Committee in 1873.

1006

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

We could produce, if it were necessary and we had the space, a long chain of testimony from the earliest period down to the present day to show how confident the thinking people of St. Louis have always been in

John D. Caton, of Illinois, was made president, with a vice- president for each State and Territory, and a staff of secretaries. Mr. Medill, of Illinois, read the following as the report of the committee on resolutions :

" WHEREAS, The present site of the national capital was se- lected as the most central point when the people of this repub- lic, only a few millions in numher, inhabited only a narrow strip of country along the Atlantic coast; and,

" WHEREAS, The population of this republic has increased thirteen-fold since then, and spread over a vast continent of which the States in existence when the seat of government was located formed only the eastern edge; and,

"WHEREAS, The present location of the national capital is notoriously inconvenient in times of peace, and, as the darkest pages of our national history demonstrate, in times of war or domestic turbulence is so dangerously exposed as to require vast armaments and untold millions of money for its especial defense ; and,

"WHEREAS, All the reasons which caused the location of the seat of government where it now is have hy the enormous de- velopment of the country and a corresponding change in the wants of the people hecome utterly obsolete ; therefore,

" Resolved, 1. That it is ahsurd to suppose that the handful of inhahitants in 1789, just emerging from colonial vassalage, before steamboats, railways, telegraphs, or power-presses were dreamed of, or a mile of turnpike or canal constructed, pos- sessed the authority or desired to exercise the power of fix- ing the site of the capital forever on the banks of the Potomac, against the will and the interest of the hundreds of millions who might come after them.

" 2. That the people have endured the present illy-located capital for three-quarters of a century, patiently waiting for the vast territory of the Union to he peopled and organized into States, and until the centre of population, area, and wealth could he determined, when a permanent place of resi- dence for the government could be selected. That time has now come; all sectional issues are settled, all dangerous domes- tic variances are disposed of, a new era has heen entered upon, and a new departure taken.

" 3. That in the language of James Madison, in the Congress of 1789, ' an cqual attention to the rights of the community is the basis of republics. If we consider the effects of legisla- tive power on the aggregate community, we must feel equal in- ducements to look to the centre in order to find the proper seat of government.' This equal attention has not and cannot he given to the interests and rights of the people so long as the capital is located in an obscure corner of the Union.

"4. That the vast and fertile region known as the Mississippi valley must for all time be the scat of empire for this continent and cxcrt the controlling influence in the nation, because it is homogeneous in its interests and too powerful ever to permit the outlying States to sever their connection with the Union. This vast plain will always he the surplus food- and fibre-pro- ducing portion of the continent, and the great market for the fine fabrics and tropical productions of other sections of the republic. . . : This immense basin must have numerous out- lets and channels of cheap and swift communication by water and rail with the seaboard for the egress of its products and ingress of its exchanges. Therefore whatever policy the gov- ernment may pursue that tends to multiply, improve, or enlarge

the city's future and its destinies. This has made them calm even to the appearance of apathy, equally in times of high tide and times of low, when pros- perity was at its flush and when evil fortune and dis- aster were being drained down to the very dregs. They have never been in a fever nor in a collapse, because they have always felt secure. A few ex- .

these arteries of commerce must result in common advantage to the whole Union, to the seaboard States equally with those of the centre.

"5. That the natural, convenient, and inevitable place for the capital of the republic is in the heart of the valley, where the centre of population, wealth, and power is irresistihly grav- itating, where the government, surrounded hy numerous mil- lions of hrave and Union-loving citizens, would he forever safe against forcign foes or sectional seditions, and where it would neither require armaments nor standing armies for its protection.

"6. That while advocating the removal of the seat of gov - ernment to the Mississippi valley, we do not mean to serve the interests of any particular locality, hut that we urge Congress to appoint a commission for the purpose of selecting a conve- nient site for the national capital in the great valley of the Mississippi, pledging ourselves to be satisfied with and to abide hy the decision to be arrived at hy the National Legislature.

"7. That in urging the removal of the national capital from its present inconvenient, out-of-the-way, and exposed location in the far East we are in earnest, and that we shall not cease in our efforts until that end is accomplished, firmly helieving that the absolute necessity of the removal will hecome inore apparent every day, and the majority of the American people will not long permit their interests and conveniences to he dis- regarded.

"8. That the removal of the national capital being only a question of time, we emphatically oppose and condemn all ex- penditures of money for enlargement of old government build- ings and the erection of new ones at the present seat of the national government as a useless and wanton waste of the prop- erty of the people."

Mr. Clark, of Kansas, offered the following resolution :

" Resolved, That this convention do recommend and request all congressional nominating conventions in the various States, without distinction of party, to incorporate in their platform a demand for the removal of the national capital to a more cen- tral and convenient locality."

Mr. Jones, of Illinois, moved to strike out "without distinc- tion of party." Adopted.

On the suggestion of Mr. Hogan, of Missouri, the following was added to the resolution :

" And that the State Legislatures instruct their senators in Congress to advocate and vote for such a proposition."

Mr. Carr, of Illinois, offered the following resolution :

" Resolved, That a standing committee of onc from each State here represented be appointed hy this convention, to which the president of this convention shall be added, to act as a ' per- manent committee upon the subject of capital removal,' with power to act on behalf of this convention, and to publish an address to the people of this country, with power to call an- other convention at such time in the future as they may deem expedient and proper."

An executive committee was appointed, of which the chair- man of the convention was made president and L. U. Reavis secretary, and after a harmonious interchange of views and a good many speeches the convention adjourned.

1007

SAINT LOUIS AS A CENTRE OF TRADE.

amples, taken hap-hazard, will suffice to illustrate this equanimity and this unvarying confidence in their own resources.

From the Missouri Gazette, June 20, 1811 :

"We are happy to find that a spirit of enterprise and indus- try is every day manifesting itself among the people of this Ter- ritory. They begin to be convinced that the peltry and fur trade is diminishing in value, and that it is necessary to give up in part the old staple, and turn their attention to the more important one of lead. During the last two weeks several boats have left this place in order to enlarge the mineral estab- lishments made many years ago by Julien Dubuque at a place called the 'Spanish Mines,' on the Mississippi.

"The present adventurers have become the purehasers of a part of these mines under an order of the General Court of this Territory, and have taken with them near one hundred hands, provided with all the implements necessary for mining and car- rying on the lead business."

The same, March 1, 1809 :

"The culture of hemp has occupied the attention of our farmers, and a rope-walk will shortly be erected in this town. Thus we have commeneed the manufacturing of such articles as will attraet thousands of dollars to our Territory ; thus we will progress in freeing John Bull or Jack Ass of the trouble of manufacturing for us."

The same, July 17, 1813 :

" In despite of the savages, Indians and British, this country is progressing in improvements. A red and white lead manufac- tory has been established in this place by a citizen of Philadel- phia by the name of Hartshog. This enterprising eitizen has caused extensive works to be erected, to which he has added a handsome briek house in our principal street for retailing merchandise. We understand that his agents here have already sent several thousand dollars' worth of manufactured lead to the Atlantie States."

In 1816 a bank was found to be necessary. The citizens at once subscribed the stock and started one. It fell soon into financial straits. The citizens re- newed its capital, doubled it, and started another bank with three times as much capital. The confidence with which J. B. C. Lucas and Auguste Chouteau kept themselves poor, almost penniless, by investing all their money in lands and never selling was matched by the composure of Manuel Lisa in risking all the profits of his fur-trade adventure in a water- front merchant's mill, an experiment as yet untried. We have elsewhere quoted from Paxton's first St. Louis directory, 1821. In concluding his summary of beings and havings Paxton said, "St. Louis has grown very rapidly. There is not, however, so much improvement going on at this time, owing to the check caused by the general and universal pressure that pervades the country. This state of things can only be temporary lierc, for it possesses such perma- nent advantages from its local and geographical situa- tion that it must erc some distant day become a place of great importance, being more central with regard

to the whole territory of the United States than any other considerable town, and uniting the advantage of the three great rivers, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois, of the trade of which it is the emporium." In 1831 the press said the same thing. The city was growing rapidly. Fine, substantial houses were being built. The arts and useful manufactures were multiplying and improving; " mills, breweries, me- chanical establishments, all secm to be advancing successfully for the good of the country, and, we hope, for the great profit of our enterprising and industrious fellow-citizens. The trade and navigation of this port are becoming immensc. Stcamboats are daily arriving and departing from east, west, north, and south, and as this place has decided advantages over all the ports on the Ohio River for laying up and repairing, we have no doubt that in a few years the building and repairing of steam-engines and boats will become one of the most important branches of St. Louis business. We have all the materials, wood and metal, in abundance and of the best quality. Already we have a foundry, which, it is hoped, will soon rival the best in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and many skilled and enterprising mechanics. A bright prospect is before us, and we look confidently to the day, and that a not distant one, when no town on the western waters will rank above St. Louis for industry, wealth, and enterprise." In 1835 again : "The prosperity of our city is laid broad and deep. Much as we repudiate the lavish praises which teem from the press, and little as we have heretofore said, we cannot suffer the occasion to pass without a few re- marks on the changes which are going on around us. . . . A tract of land was purchased by a gentle- man now living, as we have understood, for two bar- rels of whiskey, which is now worth half a million of dollars. . . . No one who consults the map can fail to perceive the foresight which induced the selection of the site on which the city is founded. She al- ready commands the trade of a larger section of terri- tory, with a few exceptions, than any other city in the Union. With a steamboat navigation more than equal to the whole Atlantic seaboard, with internal improvements projected and in progress, with thou- sands of immigrants spreading their habitations over the fertile plains which everywhere meet the eye, wlio can deny that we are fast verging to the time when it will be admitted that this city is the ' Lion of the West.''

In 1839, Rev. Dr. Humphrey wrote somc " Letters by the Way," in one of which we find St. Louis de- scribed and its future once more prognosticated. Says the learned divine,-

1008

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

"St. Louis is larger than I had supposed, and appears to be advaneing more rapidly than any other town that I have seen in the West. The city proper now contains about fifteen thou- sand inhabitants, and there are nearly as many more without the limits in the immediate neighborhood. Many hundreds of houses were built last year, notwithstanding the pressure of the times, and many moro are going up this year. Rents are enormously high, higher than in any eastern city, not except- ing New York itself, and I believe higher than anywhere else on the continent of America. For a handsome two-story brick honse, with one parlor in front, you would have to pay seven or eight hundred dollars per annum. St. Louis must, from its position, become a very large commercial city, and there is no prospeet that any other town on the Mississippi abovo New Orleans will be able to compete with it. Already the landing, covered with iron and lead and all kinds of heavy goods, re- minds you of one of the front streets of New York or Phila- delphia. But why don't they build wharves here ?

"In the lower and much the oldest part of the town, where the French chiefly reside, the streets are narrow and filthy. The buildings are for tho most part small, and constructed with the least possible regard either to elegance or comfort. Hogs and dogs seemed, the morning I passed through it, to have undisputed possession of the ground, and the latter had many a comfortable wallowing-place in front of the houses.

"St. Louis," says the reverend doctor, "like most of our young and rising towns, especially where there are oceans of territory, is without any public parks or promenades. A vacant square, however, was pointed out to me, in the heart of the city, which may be had at a fair price, though it will now cost much more that it was offered for two years, ago. Surely nothing should prevent the corporation from purchasing it. Let it be handsomely laid out in graveled walks, and planted with shade-trees and shrubbery, and it would be worth more to St. Louis tban if it were all covered over with gold. But even this would be inadequate to the rapid extension and growing wants of the place. It is a bad maxim, 'Let posterity take care of themselves.' Now is the time to secure fifty or a hun- dred acres for a grand park, as a place of common resort for relaxation, health, and pleasure. This might now be done within two miles of the heart of the city for a small sum. In riding out with a friend I saw three or four fine locations, cov- ered with a thrifty growth of young trees, offering the city the strongest inducements to be beforehand with private pur- chasers. It would not be necessary to lay out a dollar in pre- paring and ornamenting the grounds for the present. But I repeat it, at the hazard of being set down as an enthusiast in matters of this sort, the purchase ought forthwith be made, and whatever tbe present generation of utilitarians may think, I pledge the little credit I have for foreeast that a hundred years hence St. Louis will be prouder of her great park than of any thing else she will have to boast of."

What would the learned gentleman say to-day if he could visit St. Louis, and learn that the city has well- nigh on to an acre of park for each head of a family ? Dr. Humphrey adds, --

" As a proof of the rapid increase of business and population in St. Louis, I may mention that one of the largest hotels I have ever scen is now going up. It appears to me to be quite as large as the Astor House in New York, and although it will cost a very large sumn, I believo everybody regards it as a good investment. Certainly such a ' strangers' home' in this great thoroughfare of western travel will be highly appreciated by thousands. But where is St. Louis, in the west or the east . or somewhere near the centre of the United States ? I confess

I do not know. But my impression is that, making an allow- ance of one or two thousand miles, which cannot be of mneh consequenee one way or the other, St. Louis will be found somewhere in the great West.

"Let St. Louis go on and lay all her foundations broad and deep. She has most unquestionably a high destiny before her, and who can tell how much the present generation may do in making it?"

In 1846 the St. Louis Prices Current thus esti- mated the general progress of the community :

"St. Louis seems to continue to be a favorite point for the location of the merchant, the tradesman, and others who, hav- ing left the home of their fathers, resolve to settle at some point in the ' Great West,' if we may judge from the great in- flux of inhabitants which pour into it and fix their residence here from year to year. The official statistics, in part reported to the City Council during the past year, warrant us in saying that the number of houses, factories, ete., which have been erected during the past year within the corporate limits is not less than seventeen hundred, and that its population has aug- mented full four thousand. We estimate its present population to exceed forty thousand, and augmenting with a rapidity un- exampled in the annals of any city either east or west; and its trade and commerce keep pace with its influx of population, as will be shown by some few statistics annexed.

" The assumed value of real estate the past year is more than thirteen million dollars, being an increase over the value in 1830 of more than twelve millions ; and the current eity revenue of 1845 is estimated, per official data, at two hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars, twenty thousand of which are received from our steamboat tonnage, and seventeen thousand from water revenues. These are some data on which the re- fleeting mind may estimate our progress and prosperity.

" During the past year the mercantile and trading interests have had no cause to complain. The merchant has fonnd ready sale for his goods, the tradesman and meehanio have been fully employed, and the laboring classes who were not indisposed to work have had the opportunity to lay up ample stores to serve them during the inclement season now upon us. Our eity has enjoyed during the past year its usual health, and wbile we acknowledge our dependence upon the Author of all our bless- ings, we should not be unmindful of the debt of gratitude we owe to Him from whom cometh every blessing."

In 1848 it was said that "the natural advantages of St. Louis, in a commercial and manufacturing point of view, are greater than those of any city in the West ; and it is only necessary for the general government to pursue a liberal and equitable course towards her, and for her citizens to strengtben these advantages by their enterprise and public spirit, to make her (and that, too, in a very short time) the largest and most important inland eity in the Union. Her immense resources are being daily developed and turned to advantage; her population and business are in- creasing beyond a precedent in the history of this country ; her wealth and prosperity are exciting wonder and admiration, and commanding respeet and attention from every portion of the United States, and wherever else her commerce and name has extended. Situated as she is, on the great Mississippi, in the centre of a fertile and healthy region of country, with the waters of four navigable streams sweeping hier shores, and bearing the mineral and agricultural products of four large and populous States, which must necessarily pass through the hands of ber merehants, in direct communication with all the important towns and cities in the West, enjoying also manu- facturing facilities of the highest order, and holding in her natural grasp the commercial operations of several millions

1009

SAINT LOUIS AS A CENTRE OF TRADE.

of people,-these are resources of which but few cities in the Union, or perhaps in the world, can boast.

"Our city is rapidly improving in wealth and importance, even beyond the expectations of the most sanguine. Manufac- tories and machine-shops are daily springing up in our midst, and many articles hitherto imported for domestic purposes have now become important items of export. The value and quantity of manufactured articles annually imported from the Ohio are rapidly diminishing, and we look forward with a great degree of certainty to the time, and that at no very distant day, when St. Louis will not only prove the great commercial emporium of the Mississippi valley, but also the machine-shop of the entire West. Her facilities for the manufacture of many imported articles are even now greater than the cities from whence they come, and it is only necessary for our manufacturing resources to be properly developed to bring capitalists and mechanics hither, where their money and labor can be employed with cer- tainty and profit.

" In 1840, with the exception of several flouring- and saw- mills of inconsiderable note, we were entirely destitute of manufactories, and even at a later date our establishments in this respect were scarcely worthy of attention. Since, however, cotton, woolen, soap, candle, starch, and various other manufac- tories have sprung into existence, and are now driving a lucra- tive and extensive business, to say nothing of the foundries (about eighteen in number), flouring-mills, machine-shops, ete., with which the city abounds. Our population in 1830 was esti- mated at six thousand six hundred and ninety-four, in 1840 at sixteen thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, and by the late State census at fifty-six thousand, showing that it has more than trebled in eight years."

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.

History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 5

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