The history of Linn county, Missouri. An encyclopedia of useful information, Part 9

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo., Birdsall & Dean
Number of Pages: 906

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Through the efforts of Bishop Kemper, Kemper College was founded near St. Louis, but was afterward given up on account of pecuniary troubles. In 1847, the Clark Mission began and in 1849 the Orphans Home, a charitable in- stitution was founded. In 1865, St. Luke's Hospital was established. In 1875, there were in the city of St. Louis, twelve parishes and missions and twelve cler- gymen. This denomination has several schools and colleges, and one newspaper.

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

This denomination is made up of the member of the Associate and Associate Reformed churches of the Northern States, which two bodies united in 1858, taking

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

the name of United Presbyterian Church of North America. Its members were generally bitterly opposed to the institution of slavery. The first congregation was organized at Warrensburg, Johnson county in 1867. It rapidly increased in numbers, and had, in 1875, ten ministers and five hundred members.

UNITARIAN CHURCH.

This church was formed in 1834, by Rev. W. G. Eliot, in St. Louis. The churches are few in number throughout the State, the membership being probably less than 300, all told. It has a mission house and free school, for poor children, supported by donations.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The earliest written record of the Catholic Church in Missouri shows that Father Watrin performed ministerial services in Ste. Genevieve, in 1760, and in St. Louis in 1766. In 1770, Father Meurin erected a small log church in St. Louis. In 1818, there were in the State, four chapels, and for Upper Louisiana, seven priests. A college and seminary were opened in Perry county about this period, for the education of the young, being the first college west of the Missis- sippi River. In 1824, a college was opened in St. Louis, which is now known as the St. Louis University. In 1826, Father Rosatti was appointed Bishop of St. Louis, and, through his instrumentality, the Sisters of Charity, Sisters of St. Joseph and of the Visitation were founded, besides other benevolent and charita- ble institutions. In 1834 he completed the present Cathedral Church. Churches were built in different portions of the State. In 1847 St. Louis was created an arch-diocese, with Bishop Kenrick, Arch-Bishop.

In Kansas City there are five parish churches, a hospital, a convent and sev- eral parish schools. In 1868 the northwestern portion of the State was erecte i into a separate diocese, with its seat at St. Joseph, and Right-Reverend John J. Hogan appointed Bishop. There were, in 1875, in the City of St, Louis, 34 churches, 27 schools, 5 hospitals, 3 colleges, 7 orphan asylums and 3 female pro- tectorates. There were also 105 priests, 7 male, and 13 female orders, and 20 conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, numbering 1, 100 members. In the diocese, outside of St. Louis, there is a college, a male protectorate, 9 convents, about 120 priests, 150 churches and 30 stations. In the diocese of St. Joseph there were, in 1875, 21 priests, 29 churches, 24 stations, I college, I monastery, 5 convents and 14 parish schools.

Number of Sunday Schools in 1878 2,067

Number of Teachers in 1878 18,010

Number of Pupils in 1878

139,578

THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS.

Instruction preparatory to ministerial work is given in connection with col- legiate study, or in special theological courses, at :

Central College, (M. E. South) . . Fayette.

Central Wesleyan College (M. E. Church)

Warrenton.

Christian Univesity (Christian) . . Canton. Concordia College Seminary (Envangelical Lutheran) St. Louis. Lewis College (M. E. Church) . Glasgow.

St. Vincent's College (Roman Catholic) . Cape Girardeau. Vardeman School of Theology (Baptist) . . Liberty.

The last is connected with William Jewell College.

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

ST. LOUIS.

Her First Settlement-Arrival of the First Steamboat-Removal of the Capital to Jefferson City-When Incorporated-Population by Decades-First Lighted by Gas -- Death of one of her Founders, Pierre Chouteau-Cemeteries -- Financial Crash-Bondholders and Coupon-clippers -- Value of Real and Personal Property-Manufacturers-Criticism.

It was nearly a century and a quarter ago that St. Louis's first arrival proclaimed the site of the future metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. In 1762 M. Pierre Laclede Liqueste and his two companions, Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, landed upon the site which was destined to become a great city. They were the avant-couriers and principal members of a com- pany which had certain privileges secured to them by the governor of the Territory of Louisiana, which then included the whole of Missouri, that of trading with the Indians, and which was known as the Louisiana Fur Com- pany, with the privilege further granted of establishing such posts as their business might demand west of the Mississippi and on the Missouri rivers. They had been on a prospecting tour and knew something of the country, and on February 15, 1774, Laclede, with the above named companions, took possession of the ground which is now the city of St. Louis. They estab- lished a trading-post, took formal possession of the country and called their post St. Louis. In 1768 Captain Rios took possession of the post as a part of Spanish territory, ceded to it by France by the treaty of Paris, and it re- mained under the control of successive Spanish governors until March 10, 1804. The Spanish government, by the treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, retroceded the territory to France, and, by purchase, France ceded the whole 1 country to the United States, April 30, 1803. In October of the same year Congress passed an act approving the purchase, and authorizing the presi- . dent to take possession of the country or Territory of Louisiana. This was done February 15, 1804, when Captain Amos Stoddard, of the United States army, and the agent of the United States, received from Don Carlos De- hault Delapus, a surrender of the post of St. Louis and the Territory of Upper Louisiana. On the 10th of March the keys to the government house and the archives and public property were turned over or delivered to the representative of the United States, the Spanish flag was lowered, the stars

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

and stripes thrown to the breeze, accompanied with the roar of artillery and music, and the transfer was complete. In 1805 St. Louis had its first post office established, and the place was incorporated as a town in 1809. It did not grow very fast, but was the recognized headquarters for the territory of the west and northwest. The French from Indiana and other points had settled there, and the town was decidedly French in its character and population. The Missouri Fur Company which had its headquarters there was organized in 1808, of which Pierre Chouteau was the head. His associates were Manuel Lisa, Wm. Clark, Sylvester Labadie, and others, and such familiar names as the Astors, Bent, Sublette, Cabanne, General Ashly and Robert Campbell were prominently identified with the town and its progress. The first paper was issued July 2, 1808.

In 1812 the Territory of Louisiana, or that part north, was changed and named the Territory of Missouri, and was given Territorial rights, with a representation on the floor of Congress. St. Louis was the seat of the Ter- . ritorial government until 1820, and the first legislature met in that town, and part of its proceedings was the removal of the seat of the government to St. Charles, where it remained until located at Jefferson City in 1826. In 1822 St. Louis began to take on more style, and was incorporated as a city December 9th of that year. There had been a bank established in 1817, and quite a large number of business houses were built and occupied, and a number of loan offices chartered. When St. Louis became an Ameri- can city her population was 925; this was in 1804. When the Territory was named Missouri, and she was the seat of government in 1812; her pop- ulation had reached 2,000. William Deckers laid the first pavement in 1818. A ferry had been started in 1804. The first steamboat arrived in 1817. It was a low-pressure steamboat, built at Pittsburgh, and named the General Pike. It arrived August 2d, and was greeted by the entire popula- tion, who gazed upon her with wonder and astonishment. The Indians were a badly scared crowd, and could not be induced to come near it. The first steamboat stemmed the tide of the Missouri in 1819, and the same year the first steamboat from New Orleans put in its appearance at St. Louis. It was twenty-seven days en route.

BOUNDARIES AND INCORPORATION.

In 1820 the population had reached 4,928, and when incorporated in 1822 was believed to number about 5,000, not much immigration having come in. The boundary lines of the city when she received her charter were defined as follows: The line commencing at the middle of Mill Creek, just below the gas works, thence west to Seventh Street and up Seventh Street to a point due west of " Roy's Tower," thence to the river. The city plat embraced 385 acres of ground.

The first church was built in 1824, and was of the Presbyterian denomi- nation. The second was an Episcopal Church, erected in 1825. A new

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

court-house was built in 1827, and also a market-house. These old-time landmarks have long since disappeared, and no mark is left to tell the tale of their being. The spot or location is recorded, but what that availeth is not of comprehension to the generation of to-day.

ADVANCEMENT.

The first brick house was said to have been erected in 1814. The first mayor of the city was Wm. C. Lane. The St. Louis University was founded in 1829; the Catholic Cathedral was completed in 1832 and consecrated by Bishop Rosetti.

In 1833 the population of St. Louis was about six thousand, and the tax- able property, real and personal, aggregated $2,745,000. St. Louis, like all other cities, felt the blighting effects of the financial crash of 1837. still her progress was not wholly checked. Her vitality was great and her resources spread over the territory, in many cases, out of the reach of the troubles of the times. Her fur trade was immense and the crash had little to do with that, so that while she felt the depression in her financial circles, her commercial prosperity was in no wise checked. There is very little more in the history of St. Louis to record than the noting of her general prosper- ity and steady onward progress for the next decade.

Her population in 1840 had risen to 16,469, and in 1844, 34,140. The population had more than doubled in four years. Fine buildings had arisen in place of the old fur warehouses of the early French settlers. Stately res- idences appeared in the suburbs; and in all that gave promise of a great and influential city, she had advanced and was advancing rapidly. The Mercantile Library was founded in 1848, and gas had been introduced the year pre- vious, the city being first lighted on the night of November 4, 1847. In the great cholera year, 1849, the disease assumed an epidemic form, and of that dread scourge the people had a fearful experience. The progress of St. Louis had been handsomely commemorated on the eighty-third anniversary of its founding, the date being February 15, 1847. Among the living, and the only survivor of the memorable trio who first landed and located the city, was the venerable Pierre Chouteau, who, with his brother, had accompanied Laclede Liqueste, to locate a trading-post for the fur company of which they were members. He was a prominent figure in the celebration, and though at an advanced age, he was in the enjoyment of his full faculties, and was keenly alive to the wonderful progress of the city in the eighty-three years of its life. In 1849, the epidemic year, all that was mortal of Pierre Chou- teau was consigned to its last resting-place, and with him all living memory ceased of the first settlement and of the rise and progress of the city. From that date history could record but written facts, the oral record had ceased to exist. His elder brother, Auguste Chouteau, had preceded him to the mystic beyond, having departed this life in February, 1829.

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

EXTENSION OF CITY LIMITS.

The city limits had been greatly extended in 1841, embracing an area of two thousand six hundred and thirty acres, instead of the three hundred and eighty-five acres in December, 1822. This showed the wonderful growth of the city, which, even then, was contracted, and its suburbs were fast fill- ing up.

The Institution for the Blind was incorporated in 1851, and the popula- tion had increased to 94,000 in 1852.

CEMETERIES.

St. Louis took pride in her " cities of the dead," for she has several ceme- teries, with wooded dales and sylvan retreats, well suited as the last resting- place of those whose remains are deposited in the " Silent City." We will speak here of only two, because of the care taken of them, their size, and their rich and diversified surroundings, which give them a lonely, yet pleas- ant look, to all who visit them. The Bellefontaine was purchased by an as- sociation of gentlemen who secured an act of incorporation in 1849, and at once commenced the improvement of the ground: In 1850 the first sale of lots took place. The cemetery comprises two hundred and twenty acres of land. The Calvary Cemetery has 320 acres, of which 100 are laid out and improved. This resting-place of the dead was purchased in 1852, by the Archbishop of the Diocese of St. Louis, and like the first above mentioned, is a lovely and secluded spot, well suited for the purpose intended.

BRIDGE DISASTER.

In 1854 the terrible accident, known as the Gasconade Bridge disaster, occurred, when many prominent citizens of St. Louis lost their lives.

FINANCIAL CRASH.

In 1857 the financial crash had a greater effect upon St. Louis than the one of 1837. Her merchants had been prosperous and extended their line of credits and the rapidly growing city had brought many new and venture- some people, who, believing in its future, had embarked in business enter- prises which required a few more years of steady rise and progress to place them on a stable foundation. These, of course, went down in the general crash, but the stream was only temporaily dammed, and the debris was soon cleared away. The flood-tide had set toward the west, and the greater thie crash the greater swelled the tide of immigration toward the setting sun.

The era of a healthy, and it would seem, permanent prosperity, again dawned upon the metropolis of the Mississippi Valley in 1861, and this time not even the civil war, which then began to cast its baleful shadow over the Union, checked its onward career, and at the opening of this terrible drama St. Louis claimed a population of 187,000 souls. The war added to its

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

financial and commercial prosperity, for it became the entrepot of supplies for the army of the southwest, and the headquarters of army operations. The valuation of real estate and personal property which had only been a little rising two and a half millions of dollars in 1833, was now, in 1860, $73,765,670.

What the war added was more in the line of its financial and commercial development than in the spreading of its area or the building up of its waste, places, but when war's fierce alarm had ceased the tide began to flow west- ward, and with it came the building mania, for homes and houses had to be provided for the rush of new-comers.

Chicago, which had nearly monopolized the railroads as an objective point, seemed now to have secured all that would pay, and St. Louis became the focus of all eyes. Kansas, Colorado and the Southwest began to loom up in its agricultural and mineral resources; the vast quantities of land which had been voted by venal congressmen to great railroad corporations were now thrown upon the market, and Kansas became a leading State for the attrac- tion of the emigrant. In this more railroads were necessary, and the great crossing of the Mississippi was.at St. Louis. Then the bridging of that great river commenced, Capt. Eads having made known his plans for this important work soon after the close of the war. The jubilee was not enjoyed, however, un- til 1874, when, on July 4th, the bridge was completed and opened to the rail- way companies. This was another era which marked a rapid progress in the future city of the valley. Sixteen separate and distinct lines of railway centered at St. Louis with completion of the bridge, and from those lines and the river traffic, St. Louis was evidently sure of her future.

BONDHOLDERS AND COUPON-CLIPPERS.

It was only when a concentration of wealth took a new departure that the glorious future which appeared so near became so far. The energy and en- terprise of the people had, in a large measure, previous to the war, been used toward building up the city, and embarking in manufactures, etc., but soon after the war that wealth was turned into government bonds and the energy and enterprise were concentrated by these rich holders in cutting coupons off of these same bonds every three months, and with few exceptions they are still at the exhaustive work. Whatever of advanced progress has been given to St. Louis the past ten years, outside of her Allens, Stannards, and perhaps a score of others, has been by the new arrivals. It was, in '69 or '70, that her local papers were prospecting on the enervating influence that a hundred first-class funerals would have on the material prosperity of the " Future Great." The light and airy business of coupon-clipping had be- come epidemic, and millions of dollars which ought to have been invested in manufacturing and other enterprises, were sunk in the maelstrom of govern- ment bonds, and, so far as the material advancement of the city was con- cerned, might as well have been buried in the ocean. Still St. Louis im-

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

proved, for new arrivals of the progressive order seeing an opening would drop in, and those who could not clip coupons for a business worked on as their limited capital would permit. And so it was found that in 1870 real estate had reached $119,080,800, while personal property was $147,969,660. In 1875 the value of real estate had advanced $12,000,000, reaching the gross sum of $131,141,000, and personal property $166,999,660, a gain of nearly $20,000,000 in five years. The valuation January 1, 1879, was, of real estate, $140,976,540, and personal property, $172,829,980, or a total valua- tion of real and personal property of $313,806,520, with a population of about 340,000. Great advancement had taken place in blocks of magnifi- cent buildings, in the increase of her wholesale trade, in the area of her city limits, in the enlargement of her working population, so that the coupon- clippers who had stood at the front in 1870 now held a rear position, and were rather looked down upon as drones of society, wrapped in self and the vanity of self importance, and of little use to the progress or to the det- riment of the great city. Railroads run to every point of the compass. Her tunnel and the union depot had become a fixed fact, macadamized roads led to all parts of the country, miles upon miles of streets were paved and side -. walks laid with substantial brick or stone, street cars to every part of the city, and the river-front flashing with traffic, which, in point of develop- ment, has exceeded the most sanguine expectation of those who had believed in its future, while the expressions of those who had built their faith on the railroads depriving a free water-course of the wealth of her offering has been simply one of astonishment.

ST. LOUIS PARKS.

In one respect St. Louis has exhibited commendable sense in having se- cured a number of parks, breathing places for her industrial population and pleasant drives for her wealthy citizens. There are no less than seventeen of these beautiful places, many of them small, but so scattered about the city as to be convenient to all her citizens. Her great park, which is called " Forest Park," has 1,372 acres, and the city has expended in purchases, laying out and beautifying the grounds, nearly one million of dollars. Cor- ondelet Park has an area of 183.17 acres, O'Fallan Park has an area of 158.32 acres, and Tower Grove Park 270 acres. These are the largest, the oth- ers represent but a small number of acres each. Of the smaller ones, Lafayette Park leads with twenty-six acres, while the smallest, Jackson Place, has less than two acres.

BUILDINGS AND BANKS.

There were 1,318 brick and 369 frame buildings put up in 1878, at a cost of $3,000,000. A very fine custom-house is approaching completion. They had, January 1, 1879, twenty-nine banks in St. Louis, five of which were national banks. The combined capital of all was $12,406,019. This shows

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

a healthy progress, but one of not more than ordinary in the line of build- ing improvements. It should have reached ten millions to show that ad- vanced progress becoming a city which claims it is destined to become the central sun of the great Mississippi Valley.

In 1878 there was 2,291 arrivals of steamboats, and 2,348 departures. The commerce of the river was some half a million of dollars. The new barge lines and the wheat movement down the Mississippi. for the year 1881, in- cluding her other river traffic, will undoubtedly double the business of 187§. The figures are not in, but the first half year has made a wonderful increase. Her commerce is steadily improving. There is not an article of domestic produce but has rapidly advanced in the amount received the past few years. The cereals and stock, cattle, sheep and hogs, also the roots and vegetables, have rapidly grown in quantity. St. Louis is the greatest inule market in the world.

In its public buildings the United States custom-house stands first. A massive building of white granite occupying a whole square, and when fin- ished will have cost $6,000,000. The business in the custom department will exceed two millions dollars the first year of its opening. The Cham- ber of Commerce is another magnificent structure just completed at a cost of $1,800,000. The county court-house, which also takes a square of ground, and is built in the shape of a Greek cross, with a fine dome, cost $2,000,000. The county building, known as the "Four Courts," and the city prison is a beautiful three story, and half basement structure, which cost $1,250,000. The Polytechnic Institute costing $800,000, and the magnificent Southern Hotel finished, and occupied May, 1881, at a cost of $1,250,000 for building and furniture.

There are public buildings of lesser note, many private structures of magnificent proportions, with a wealth of beautiful surroundings, theaters, hotels, etc., all that go to make up a great city, school-houses of ample pro- portions, churches beautiful in architectural design of Grecian, Doric and Gothic, many of them being very costly in their build. One hundred and seventy-one churches are found within her limits, and the denominations cover all that claim the Protestant or Catholic faith. The Cathedral on Walnut Street is the oldest church edifice, but not the most costly in the city.

The public school library was founded in 1872, and numbers 36,000 vol- umes. The Mercantile' Library has 42,000 volumes, and contains not only many valuable literary works, but many choice works of art.

MANUFACTURES.

In this line St. Louis is fast reaching a commanding situation. So long as railroads commanded the freighting facilities of the city and the great highway to the sea which Providence had placed at her door was ignored for man's more expensive route by rail, St. Louis remained but an infant

HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS.

in manufacturing enterprises-and these had succumbed in many in- stances to the power of monopolies, or to the tariff of freight which took off all the profits, and her more eastern competitors were the gainers. But in the last two years Nature's great highway to the sea has begun to be utilized and St. Louis has all at once opened her eyes to the fact that she has a free railway of water to the sea, the equal of twenty railroads by land, and it only needs the cars (the barges) to revolutionize the carrying trade of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys. The track is free to all. He who can build the cars can have the track ready at all times for use. The Father of Waters lies at her door; a mountain of iron is but a few miles away; coal, also, lies nearly at her gates, and while she has slept the sleep of years, these vast opportunities might have made her, ere this, the equal of any manufacturing city on the globe. She will become such, for no other city can show such vast resources or such rapid and cheap facilities for distribution. Even the coupon-clippers are waking up and believe there are higher and nobler aims for man than the lavish expenditure of wealth in indolence and selfish pleasure. The surplus wealth of St. Louis, if invested in manufacturing enterprises, would make her the wonder of the continent. She may realize this some day-when she does, will wonder at the stupidity and folly that has controlled her for so many years. Foun- dries, machine-shops, rolling-mills, cotton and woolen factories, car-shops, these and a thousand other industries are but waiting for the magic touch of an enterprising people to give them life.

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The history of Linn county, Missouri. An encyclopedia of useful information, Part 9

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Kansas City, Mo., Birdsall & Dean Number of Pages: 906

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo., Birdsall & Dean
Number of Pages: 906