A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the ...

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Cfiarlrs B. Woodruff Bool^ Fund

A HISTORY OF MISSOURI

A HISTORY

OF

MISSOU RI

FROM THE EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS AND
SETTLEMENTS UNTIL THE ADMIS-
SION OF THE STATE INTO
THE UNION

BY

LOUIS HOUCK

VOLUME II

CHICAGO
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY

1908

^rr/.s

COPYRIGHTBD. I908
BY

LOUIS HOUCK

%\fi EafcrsiHe Vrcss

R. R. DONNELLEY * SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO

CONTENTS

PACK

CHAPTER XII I

St. Louis — Trading Privilege of Maxent, Laclede & Company —
Pierre Laclede Liguest — Madame Chouteau and Children — Voyage from
New Orleans to Fort de Chartres — Site of St. Louis Selected by Laclede
as a Trading Post — Foundation of St. Louis — His Prophecy — French
Immigration to " Lkclede's Village" or " Paincourt" — Common-fields of St.
Louis — ^Visit of Indian Band, 1764 — Peorias Build a Village — Land Allot-
ments Made by Laclede — Jurisdiction and Authority of St. Ange — Early
Grants Made by St. Ange — Piernas the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor
Arrives — Survey of Town Lots and Common-fields Ordered and St.
Ange's Grants Confirmed — Oldest Recorded Document in St. Louis;
First Mortgage Recorded ; First Child Bom; First Marriage; First Death
Recorded ; First Cemetery — Early Physicians — Cost of House of Dr.
Valleau — First grist-mill — Administration of Don Francesco Cruzat —
Inadequate Money Supply — Administration of Don Fernando de Leyba
— Death of Laclede — War Declared between Spain and England —
Gratiot's Trading Boat Pillaged by British and Indians — Indian Attack
on St. Louis Planned by British Officials — English-Indian Forces Attack
St. Louis, May, 1780 — Death of DeLeyba — Second Administration of
Cruzat — Expedition under Capt. Pourfee Invades British Territory East
of River — Cool and Daring Exploit of Pourfee 's Cook in Retaking Boat
and Crew from Robbers — Great Flood of 1785 — Administration of Don
Manuel Perez — Of Don Zenon Trudeau — American Settlers Attracted —
Trudeau's leniency to Protestant Ministers — Administration of DeLassus
— Origin of Village of Carondelet — St. Ferdinand and other Early Settle-
ments — Names of Pioneer Settlers of St. Ix)uis and other Points.

CHAPTER XIII 79

St. Charles — Boundaries of District Vaguely Defined — Settlement of
St. Charles Founded by Blanchette — Don Santiago Mackay Commandant
of a Post Named St. Charles, but Evidently Another Place — Don Carlos
Tayon, Commandant — Survey of the Village by Chouteau — Common-
fields of St. Charles — Chouteau's Attempt to Build a Water-mill — Village
of St. Charles and Population 1797 — Names of Early Settlers of St. Charles
and Vicinity — Portage des Sioux Settlement — How it Obtained the Name —
Military Importance of This Post — Creole Immigration — ^Names of Pioneer
Settlers of Portage des Sioux — Surveys on Salt River Interrupted by Indian
Attacks — Settlement of Charette — Daniel Boone — ^Names of Pioneer Set-
tlers of La Charette — Femme Osage — The Boone Settlement — Names of
Early Settlers — The Cuivre Settlement — Names of Early Settlers — First
Settlers on the Pemique — Names of Early Settlers — The Claim of Clam-
organ — Settlement on the Dardenne — Other Settlements and Names of
Early Settlers.

CHAPTER XIV 103

New Madrid — Physical Features of the New Madrid Ridge — ^Hunters
and Traders the First Settlers — "An Aboriginal Station "^Abundance of
Game — "L'Anse k la Graise" — The Le Sieurs — Delaware Village at the

vi CONTENTS

Mouth of Chepoosa River — Report to Miro of Captain McCoy, 1786 —
Colonel George Morgan — ^His Life — Receives a Grant from Gardoqui —
Extent of Grant — Explores the Territory between the Mouth of the St.
Cosme and New Madrid — Letter Describing Country Published in Phila-
delphia — Reveals Spanish Designs — Preparations of Morgan to Settle his
Grant — Plan of Surveying the Same — New Madrid Laid Out — Distribu-
tion of Lots — ^An Agricultural Settlement — Professional Hunters not Favor-
ed — Morgan's Advertisement — Morgan's Plans Antagonized by Wilkinson
— ^Miro Objects to Grant — Morgan's Plan Destroyed by Miro — Peyroux
Cancels Grants Made by Morgan — Pierre Foucher Appointed Command-
ant of New Madrid — Builds Fort Celeste — Morgan 's Estimate of Foucher
— Letter to Gardoqui — Great American Immigration to New Madrid —
La Forge Details Work Foucher Accomplished — General Forman at New
Madrid — Thomas Portelle, Commandant in 1791 — ^Population of New
Madrid — Americans Open Farms in 1790 — Small Progress of Settlement
— Thomas Power, Spanish Agent at New Madrid — Gayoso there in 1795
— Portelle Succeeded by DeLassus — Biography of DeLassus — New Ma-
drid Gateway of Commerce to the Gulf — New Madrid Attached to upper
Louisiana in 1799 — Peyroux, Commandant, 1799 — Succeeded by La Valine
in 1803 — Fort Celeste Residence of Commandants — Antoinc Gamelin —
Pierre Antoine La Forge — Three Companies of Militia — Galleys Stationed
at New Madrid — Names of Early Settlers — Merchants — Richard Jones
Waters — Captain Robert McCoy — Barthclemi Tardiveau — The King's
Highway North — Settlers on the Same — Territorial Limits of the New
Maidrid District — Principal Settlements — Bayou St. John — Lake St. Mary
— Lake Ann — Bayou St. Thomas — Little Prairie Settlement Founded,
1794 — The Portage of the St. Francois — Tywappity Bottom — Prairie
Charles — Oath of Loyalty Administered to Early Settlers.

CHAPTER XV 167

District of Cape Girardeau — Boundary of — Probable Origin of Name
— Location of the Post of Cape Girardeau — Louis Lorimier Established
there in 1793 by the C)rder of Carondelet — Biography of Lorimier — His
First Wife Charlotte Pemanpieh Bougainville, a Shawnee Half-blood —
Traded in Ohio in 1782 at Laramie's Station — The Miami Company —
Lorimier in Ste. Genevieve in 1787 — Moved to where is now Cape Gir-
ardeau in 1792 — Letter of Trudeau — As Spanish Agent Lorimier Visits
Ohio and Indiana — His Grant Made in 1795 by Carondelet — After Death
of his First W^ife Marries Marie Berthiaume — Lorimier Dies in 181 1 — Bar-
thelemi Cousin his Secretary, Deputy Surveyor and Interpreter — Pros-
perity of the Cape Girardeau District during Spanish Government — First
Residents of the Post of Cape Girardeau — Water-mills — American Immigra-
tion Dates from 1795 — Andrew Ramsay and others Settled near Cape Gir-
ardeau in that Year — ^The Byrd Settlement — Settlement on Hubble Creek
— German Settlement on Whitewater — Settlements on Castor River and
various other Points — Lorimier (Grants three hundred Arpens to each Mem-
ber of Cape Girardeau Militia Company.

CHAPTER XVI 193

Spanish Occupation of Louisiana — The "Illinois Countr>'" Defined
— Spanish Colonial Government — Public Offices Sold at Auction — Duties
of Officers — Judicial Procedure — System of Jurisprudence — ^Notable
Changes in Existing System — Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction — Procedure
in Appeals — Powers of Lieutenant-Governor — Names of Early Syndics —
Some Early Causes — Copy of Cost-bill — Civil Controversies Arbitrated —
Judicial Sales made on Sunday — Population of Early Settlements — French
and Spanish Relations with Indians Harmonious — ^The Turbulent Osages
— Plan of Chouteau to Control Osages — Specifications for Fort Carondelet

CONTENTS vii

— Influence of Louis Lorimier over Shawnees and Delawares — ^Treatment
of Indians by Spain and by English-speaking People Compared.

CHAPTER XVII 231

Agriculture — Hunting — Primitive Mechanical Arts and Trades —
Voyageurs and Engagis — Farming in Common-fields — Farmers Dwelling
in Villages — Ste. Genevieve Common-field — Maintenance of Fences —
Primitive Agricultural Implements — French Cart — Small Horses — Cattle
— First Cattle Brought into the Mississippi Valley — New Orleans Market —
Prices for Agricultural Products — Spain Paid in Specie — DiflFerence in
Prices when Paid in Barter — No Common-field at New Madrid — La-
Forge's Complaint as to French-Canadian Farmers — Development of
Agriculture after Advent of American Settlers — Agricultural Production
of New Madrid and Little Prairie, 1796 — Agriculture in Cape Girardeau
District — Productions of the District — Domestic Slavery — Indian Slaves
— Spanish Ordinances Prohibiting Slavery — ^Treatment of Slaves — Man-
umission — Fur Trade — Forest Peddlers — Early Merchants of St. Louis
— Nicknames Among the French — Effect of Brandy and Rum on Indians
— Contraband Traffic with English Traders — Intimate Relations of Voy-
geurs and Coureurs des Bois with the Indians — Their Prodigality — Inter-
marriage with Indians — Fascination of Life in the Wilderness — De-
struction of Fur Bearing Animals — Profits of Traders — Value of Fur Trade
— French and Spanish Laws to Protect Same — Under French Dominion a
Monopoly — Under Spanish Ordinances a Monopoly not Allowed — Traders
Assigned to Districts — Contract with Forest Traders — Change in Method
of Handling Fur Trade — Trading-houses and Forts — Annual Meetings
— Gradual Extension of Trading-houses and Forts up the Rivers — Invasion
of Territor>' by English Traders — Cheaper English Goods — Spanish EflFort
to Exclude British Companies — Carondelet's Agreement for the Estab-
lishment of Forts on the Missouri — Exploring Expedition of Clamorgan
and Mackay — Advantage of Traders Residing on the Missouri and Mis-
sissippi — Shipment of Salt and Bear's Meat to New Orleans — Agricultural
Shipments — Ancient Salt Works on the Saline — Extent of Business — Salt
Works on Salt River, the Maramec and in Boon's Lick Country — Grist-
mills — Flour Contract with Spanish Government — Distilleries — Tan-yards
— Scarcity of Metallic Money — Spanish Troops Paid in Specie — Paper
Money — Barter — Peltry Currency — Carrots of Tobacco Medium of Ex-
change.

CHAPTER XVIII 261

Isolation of Early Settlers — Slow and Perilous Mode of Travel by Land
— River Navigation — Description of a " Keel-boat" — Perils of River Navi-
gation — "Cordelling" a Boat Up-stream — Down-stream Traffic — Charm
of the Virgin Land — The Early French-Canadian Inhabitants — French
Frontier Costumes — Personal Property Highly Prized — Some Personal
Estates — Stocks of Merchandise — Manners of Pioneer French-Canadians
— Characteristic Traits — The Carnival Season — Training Given Children
— Hospitality — Taverns and Inns — French Schools and Teachers —
Religion — The Sabbath and Religious Festivals — Pioneer French Cookery
— Frugality — Sobriety — Political Indifference — Pioneer Houses Described
— Osage Indian Raids — American Immigration to Early French Settle-
ments — Some Early English-speaking Residents — Only Few Spanish
Settlers.

CHAPTER XIX 287

Activity of French Missionaries — Marquette in Missouri — Fathers
Allouez and Gravier — Father Gabriel Marest — Conflict of Early Church

viii CONTENTS

Authorities — Friendly Relations Between Missionaries and Indians —
Voyage Down the Mississippi, in 1699, of Fathers Davion, Montigny and
St. Cosme — Fathers Vivier, Tartarin, Aubert, Wattrin and DeGuyenne
— First Resident Priests of Ste. Genevieve — Perils Incurred by Priests Visit-
ing Settlements — Father Meurin — Father Gibault — ^His Unique List of
Baggage — His Influence Causes the French to Espouse the American
Cause — Denounced by the British Commander — Tribute to, by Patrick
Henry — Father Hilaire and his Controversy with his Parishioners — Father
James Maxwell — "Maxwell's Hill" Near Ste. Genevieve — Father Valin-
tine, First Resident Priest of St. Louis — Ceremony of Dedication of First
Church Bell of St. Louis — Building a New Church in St. Louis, 1776 —
Report on Condition of St. Louis Church Building in 1797 — The Church
of Florissant — The Parish of St. Isidore — Salaries of Parish Priests —
Cession of Louisiana Affects the Church Property Ceded to Congregations
— Church Authorities and Eminent Catholic Dignitaries at Time of Cession
— Tour of Bishop Flaget, 18 14 — Bishop Dubourg — Father Felix DeAnd-
reis — His Marvelous Talents and Acquirements—Colony of Priests of the
Congregation of the Missions in Missouri — Establishment of St. Mary's
Seminary — First Colony of the Order of the Sacred Heart at St. Charles
— Removed to Florissant in 1809 — ^Madame Duchesne — The Germ of
the St. Ix)uis University.

CHAPTER XX 329

The Louisiana Purchase — Westward Movement of American Pioneers
— British Proclamation, 1763, Prohibits Settlements West of the Alle-
ghanies — Virginia Colonial Assembly, 1769, Asserts Authority over Bote-
court County "on the Mississippi" — Relations of France and Spain to
Colonial Boundary Claims — Territory Northwest of Ohio to the Lakes
Becomes Part of Virginia by Conquest — By Treaty of 1783 Free Naviga-
tion of the Mississippi Secured to United States and Great Britain — Boun-
dary Lines of Canada Fixed by the Military Operations of Virginia — Sig-
nificance of Erection of Fort Jefferson South of the Mouth of the Ohio —
Free Navigation of Mississippi Denied by Spain Leads to Louisiana Pur-
chase — New England and Eastern States Disposed to Acquiesce'^in Spain 's
Denial of Free Navigation — Indignation Aroused in Kentucky — Inde-
pendent Spirit of Western Pioneers — Isolation and Dissatisfaction of
Western Population Basis of Spanish Intrigues — New Madrid a Spanish
Port of Entry — ^Spanish Espionage of River Commerce — The District
of "Miro" — General James Wilkinson Chief Agent of Spain — His In-
trigues and Efforts to Deliver Kentucky to Spain — Sentiment for Inde-
p^dent Government in Order to Secure Free Navigation of the Missis-
sippi — Colonial Scheme of Colonel Morgan Frustrated by Wilkinson —
Gayoso Goes to Mouth of the Ohio to Meet American Emissaries — Free
Navigation of the Mississippi Secured under Treaty of 1795 — Louisiana
Acquired by Napoleon, 1800 — Free Navigation of the Mississippi again
Denied — Universal Discontent of Western Population — Warlike Prepar-
ations Authorized by Congress — ^Negotiations by Monroe and I-ivingston
in Paris — Motives Impelling Napoleon to sell Louisiana — Sale Quickly
Consummated — Marbois' Account of the Conclusion of the Treaty —
Objections to Ratification of Treaty in United States — Constitutional
Impediments — A Conceded Unconstitutional Precedent — Predicted Con-
sequences of the Purchase of Louisiana — Dissolution of the Union
Planned in Massachusetts — Popular Approval of the Louisiana Purchase
— Survival of the Union Due to the Purchase of Louisiana.

CHAPTER XXI 355

Retrocession of Louisiana to France, and Transfer to the United States
— Official Correspondence Relating to Transfer — ^Instructions to Captain

CONTENTS ix

Stoddard, Agent for United States — Official Letters Between Stoddard and
DeLassus — ^Instructions of DeLassus to Spanish Troops — Letters De-
manding and Yielding Possession of Upper Louisiana — Proclamation by
Governor DeLassus—Official Documents Certifying Transfer — Cere-
monies Attending Change of Governments — Official Circular to Spanish
Commandants — Ceremonies a£ New Madrid — Regret at Change of Gov-
ernment there — Satisfaction at Cape Girardeau — ^Riot at Mine k Breton
— ^Trouble of DeLassus to Secure Transportation — Auguste Chouteau
Builds Boats — Delay of Departure — Letter of Major BruflF— Spanish
Forces Leave November i6, 1804 — Journal of DeLassus of Voyage Down
the River — At Ste. Genevieve — ^At Cape Girardeau — At New Madrid —
Arrival at New Orleans January 18, 1805 — Proclamation of Captain Stod-
dard — Address to the People by Stoddard — A Proclamation Concerning
Land Grants — Measures Taken Concerning Slaves and Militia.

CHAPTER XXII 376

Louisiana Divided by Act of Congress of 1804 — The Louisiana District
Attached to the Indiana Territory — Executive, Judicial and Legislative
Power Vested in the Governor and Judges of the Indiana Territory — Wm.
H. Harrison, Governor of the Louisiana District — Arrives in St. Louis
October i, 1804 — ^The St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, St. Charles, Caj>e Gir-
ardeau and New Madrid Districts Organized and Lieutenant-Governors
or Commandants Appointed for Same — ^The Spanish Land Grants — Strin-
gent Criminal Laws to Prevent Surveys under Spanish Claims — Courts
Organized — Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions established —
First Court and Grand Jury of St. Louis District — First Court of Ste.
Genevieve and Grand Jury there — First Court of the Cape Girardeau
District— Of the New Madrid District— Of the St. Charies District— Addi-
tional Judges for the St. Louis District under Act of 181 5 — Political Agi-
tation — Letters to Jefferson — Dissatisfaction with Act of 1804 — First Con-
vention West of the Mississippi River — Members of this Convention —
Memorial to Congress — ^Aug^ste Chouteau and Eligius Fromentin Ap-
pointed Delegates — Treaty with the Saukees and Fox Indians in 1804
— Indian Troubles Caused by this Treaty — Upper Louisiana Detached
from Indiana Territory by Act of 1805-— General Wilkinson Appointed
Governor — James B. C. Lucas, John Cobum and Rufus Easton appoint-
ed Judges of the Superior Court — Visit of Aaron Burr to St. Louis —
Joseph Browne, Secretary of the Territory, his Brother-in-law — Wilkin-
son Suspects Burr — Plan Suggested to Remove all the Settlers West of
the Mississippi to the East Side — Hostility to Wilkinson's Administration
— Laws Enacted by the Territorial Legislature, Composed of Wilkinson
and the Judges — General Court of Appeals Created — Wilkinson Removed
from Office — Wilkinson Goes South in 1807 — Merriwether Lewis
Appointed Governor — Militia Organized — Revenue Laws and Taxation.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BissEL, Captain Daniel

363

Blackhawk 397

Cape Girardeau, Environs of. From CoUot*s Dans L'Amerique . 177
Cerre, Gabriel. From a picture in the Missouri Historical Society . 47
Cerr£ House. From the Missouri Historical Collections 60

Chouteau, Auguste. From a painting in the Missouri Historical

Society .......... 6

Chouteau, Madame. From a painting in the Missouri Historical

Society .......... 8

Chouteau, Pierre. From a picture belonging to Mr. Pierre Chou-
teau ........... 366

Chouteau Residence. From a picture belonging to Mr. Pierre

Chouteau .......... 282

De Andries, Father Felix. From a picture in his Life . . 322
DeLassus, Don Carlos. From a painting in the possession of the

Missouri Historical Society . . . . . -135

DeLisa, Manuel. From an oil painting of the Missouri Historical

Society .......... 51

DuBOURG, Bishop of Louisiana. From a painting in the possession

of the Missouri Historical Society 316

First Catholic Church of St. Loms. From a picture belonging

to Mr. Pierre Chouteau 309

Flaget, Bishop of Bardstown. From a picture in his Life . .314
Flat-boat. From a picture drawn by Warin .... 266
Government House. From a painting belonging to Mr. Pierre

Chouteau .......... 361

Gratiot House. From a picture belonging to Mr. Pierre Chouteau . 48

Harrison, William Henry 378

Keel-boat, on the Mississippi. From a picture belonging to Mr.

Pierre Chouteau ......... 264

Laclede House. From a picture belonging to Pierre Chouteau 14

LaForge, Pierre Antoine. From a portrait belonging to Mrs.

Keller of Maiden ......... 139

La Vall^e, Don Juan. From a portrait belonging to Mrs. Keller

of Maiden .......... i^g

Leduc, Marie V. From a portrait of the Missouri Historical Society . 136
LeSieur, Godfrey. From a photograph in the possession of Dr.

O'Bannon .......... loy

• m

vn

Vlll

ILLUSTRATIONS

Lev^is, Merriwethek

Morgan, George From a published silhouette .

New Madrid, En\trons of. From Collot's Dans L'Amerique

Pa-she-pa-ho .........

Plan of New Madrid. From Vol. i of the New Madrid Archives

in j:ossession of the Missouri Historical Society .
Plan of St. Louts. From a drawing in the possession of the Mis

souri Historical Society .......

ROBIDOUX, Joseph. From a picture in St. Joseph

RosATi, Bishop of St. Louis. From a painting in the Missouri

Historical Society .......

Saugrain, Dr. Antoine. From a picture belonging to the family
Seal of the Territory of Louisiana
Signature of the Bishop of Louisiana

SiGNATLTlE OF CeRR± .....

Signature of Don Francesco Cruzat
Signature of Don Carlos DeLassus
Signature of Fernando De Leyba
Signature of Father Gibault
Signature of Pierre Antoine LaForge
Signature of Laclede Leguist
Signature of Francis LeSieur
Signature of Joseph LeSieur .
Signature of Don Louis Lorisaier
Signature of Father Lusson
Signature of Roberto McCoy .
Signature of Father Maxwell
Signature of Don Manuel Perez
Signature of Don Pedro Piernas
Signature of Thomas Portelle
Signature of Amos Stoddard
Signature of Don Zenon Trudeau .
Soulard, Don Antonio. From a painting of the Missouri Historical
Society. ......

Wilkinson, General James

409
108
121

395
114

61

253

324
28

412

3"
47
31
63
32

298

139

3
ic6

107

180

310

143

305

52

29
131
373

59

225
403

ERRATA

On page 57, line 19, read " three " for *' there."

On page 83, line 14, read, "Mr." for "Dr."

On page 89, line 2, read, '* assigning " for ** assinging."

On page 169, line 17, read, "appearing" for "rising."

On page 189, line 16, read " era " for " war."

On page 344 and 345, read " Nicholas " for " Nichols."

HISTORY OF THE EXPLORATION
AND SETTLEMENT OF MISSOURI

CHAPTER XII.

St. Louis — Trading privilege of Maxent, Laclede & Company — Pierre La-
clede Liguest — Madame Chouteau and children — Site of St. Louis
selected by Laclede as a trading post — French immigration to " Laclede's
Village" or "Paincourt" — Common-fields of St. Louis — Visit of Indian
band, 1764 — Land allotments made by Laclede — Jurisdiction and
authority of St. Ange — Piernas the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor arrives

— Survey of town lots and common-fields — Oldest recorded document
in St. Louis; first mortgage recorded; first child born; first marriage;
first death recorded ; first cemetery — Early physicians — First grist-
mill — Administration of Don Francisco Cruzat — Inadequate money
supply — Administration of Don Fernando de Leyba — Death of Laclede

— War declared between Spain and England — Gratiot's trading boat
pillaged by British and Indians — English-Indian forces attack St. Louis,
May, 1780 — Death of De Leyba — Second administration of Cruzat —
Expedition under Capt. Pour^e invades British territory east of river

— Great flood of 1785 — Administration of Don Manuel Perez — Of
Don Zenon Trudeau — American settlers attracted — Administration of
DeLassus — Carondelet — St. Ferdinand and other early settlements —
Names of pioneer settlers.

It is usually said that shortly before the cession of Louisiana to
Spain, in 1762, Governor Kerl^rec/ the last French governor of
Louisiana, gave the firm of Maxent,' Laclede ' & Company license to

* Was a captain in the French navy, a distinguished officer in active ser-
vice for twenty-five years; appointed Governor of Louisiana in 1753; in 1763
was ordered to France to give an account of his administration, and when he
arrived was imprisoned in the Bastile. (Gayarre's History of Louisiana, vol.
If P- 95-) D'Abbadie, his successor, merely held the country until the arrival
of the Spaniards. While he was awaiting their arrival he fell a victim to the
climate, in 1765, and Captain Aubry of the French Regulars, and the senior
officer at New Orleans, succeeded him. Aubry had distinguished himself at Fort
du Quesne. (Gayarre's History of Louisiana, vol. i, p. 84.) Whether D'Abbadie
died a natural death or not seems also to have been a question at the time.
Bossu says: "Mourat d'une pretendue colique de peintre." There seem to
have been questions "d cause de malversations relativement aux int^rdts du Roi."

* Maxent was written in various ways. Laclede spelled the name " Max-
an*' sometimes. The full name of Laclede's partner was Gilbert Antoine de
St. Maxent. He was a brother-in-law of Luis de Unzaga y Amesaga who suc-
ceeded O'Reilly as Governor of Louisiana. Gayarre names St. Maxent as a
leading merchant of New Orleans. Don Bernardo de Galvez, Governor of
Louisiana and afterward Viceroy of Mexico, was his son-in-law, and his wife
Felicitas de Saint Maxent was a native of Louisiana, and " a lady of surpassing
loveliness, and as charitable, gracious, and indulgent as she was beautiful,"
says Gayarre. Galvez died at the early age of thirty-eight years.

* Full name Pierre Laclede Liguest, but he signed his name invariably " La-

fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

the exclusive trade with the Indians on the Missouri, but as Laclede
did not leave New Orleans until after the arrival of D'Abbadie/
appointed by the king of France commissioner of Louisiana, and
as such in charge of the province ad interim, until the arrival of the
Spanish officers, it is almost certain that M. D'Abbadie confirmed
the grant of this trade made by Gov. Kerl^rec.* Du Terrage
erroneously says that D'Abbadie gave the trade privilege to Laclede
**et Pierre Chouteau^ ^ This privilege, according to Margry, was
granted to Laclede as a reward for services he had rendered.
The character and nature of these services are not detailed, and it is
doubtful whether any such services were rendered at all. At any
rate, if Laclede performed any ser\'ices for the government, they
were of a nature so slight as not to have been in any way recorded.
It is also doubtful whether the firm ever had a grant to the
exclusive trade with the Indians on the Missouri, as is generally
stated. In April, 1765, shortly after Laclede established his trad-
ing post, at his instance, the officers of the French government,
who still exercised jurisdiction in the countr>' west of the Missis-
sippi, seized a boat-load of merchandise on the Missouri river, in
charge of one Joseph Calvfe, as clerk, but belonging to Jean Datch-
urut and Louis Viviat, merchants of Ste. Genevieve at that time,
Laclede claiming for his firm the exclusive right of trade with the
Indians on the Missouri river. But Datchurut and Viviat made a
contest and brought the case before the Supreme Council at New
Orleans where it waa decided against Maxent, Laclede & Company,

and they were condenmed to pay for the goods seized, and costs. ^

clede Liguest." Seems to have dropped the name of ** Pierre" and by his
associates was simply called " Laclede." This was a practice among the early
French settlers. Thus Antoine Vincent Bouis was simply called "Antoine
Vincent." Baptiste Lamie Duchouquette, "Baptiste Lamie." Benito Vas-
quez, "Benito." Charles Fremon de Lauriere, "Fremon." The last Span-
ish Governor signed himself "Charles de Hault DeLassus" but his full name
was, Charles de Hault DeLassus de Luzierre, and his father, who was comman-
dant as New Bourbon, always added "de Luzierre." Camilc DeLassus was a
brother of the governor. So also Jacques MarccUine Ceran de Hault DeLassus
de St. Vrain, and who was known generally by the name of "St. Vrain."

*This name spelled "D'Abbadie" by Gayarre, but "L'Abadie" by Martin,
and spelled "D'Abbadie" by Du Terrage. Pittman says that he gave "an ex-
clusive grant for the commerce with the Indian nations on the river Missouri"
to a company of merchants. (Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, p. 94.)

* I Billon's Annals, p. 51, citing Archives, vol. 4, May 25, 1767. L'.^bbadie
was appointed Director-General March 16, 1763, and reached New Orleans
June 29th following, and I^aclede departed with his lx)at and g(XKis in .August.

•Du Terrage, Lcs Dernieres, &c., p. 223, note i.

' Joseph Datchurut and Louis Viviat were merchants in Ste. Genevieve
prior to the founding of St. Louis. Viviat also was a merchant in New Orleans

LACLEDE

This tribunal evidently held that the firm had no exclusive right to the
trade on the Missouri river.

Pierre Laclede Liguest, Margry says, was a native of Bedons
Valle d'Aspre, diocese d'Oloron in Beam, about fifteen leagues
from Pau, and removed to Louisiana in 1755, where he states he
" founded a commercial establishment in New Orleans." ' However,
this last statement may be questioned, because there is no evidence
that Laclede was ever in business in New Orieans.®

It is likely that Maxent, then one of the principal merchants of
New Orieans, to secure this upper Louisiana trade, furnished the
goods and capital and that Laclede agreed to give his personal

^yA:XJ^^^c/^

attention to the business, and for this received a share in the profits
of the new establishment, and that thus the firm of Maxent, Laclede
& Company originated. The fact that at the time of his death
he was found to be greatly in debt to his partner, Maxent, seems to
confirm the idea that he was merely a partner in the profits of the
business.*® Personally, in New Orleans he entered into relations

at one time. Calv^ was employed by them in the fur trade, but afterwards
came to St. Louis in 1765. Married Theresa, daughter of Nicholas Marechal
at Fort de Chartres. On account of an ofifence, in 1768, Calv^ absconded from
St. Louis, and in consequence his house and lot were sold there September 26,
1768. He returned in 1769 and sold his property aften\'ard to Ignacc Pinjion-
neau, dit Rigauche. Calv^ seems to have been in the employ of the English
prior to the attack on St. Louis, but returned to St. Louis and in 1786 removed
to St. Ferdinand. Of his children, Joseph, junior, married Eulalia Dubreuil;
Antoine Pierre married Cecile de Jarlais; Marie Theresc, Joseph Rapieaux;
Victoria, Jean B. LaChance; Josette, Joseph St. Germain; Franfoise, Jean B.
Presse, Joseph Calv^, senior, died August 17, 181 7, at St. Ferdinand.

• See letter of Margry to Washburn, published in i Scharfif's History of St.
Louis, p. 64.

•But Judge Douglas tells me that papers found in New Orleans describe
him as " officier de milice et negociant."

*• Shepard says that his partner "got possession of his pro|>erty and disposed
of it in the following year, 1779, for a trifling sum, and left no slab to his mem-
ory." What a perversion of facts, and as to the "slab," what an incongruity
of the idea Hith the times. (Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 23.) In 1779
Governor de Galvez writes de Leyba that Laclede is largely in debt to Maxent,

fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

with Madame Chouteau", who, it is said, owing to mistreatment,
had abandoned her husband and, contrary to the rules of the
Church, contracted a civil marriage with him.

Laclede, on the 3rd of August, 1763, sailed up the Mississippi from
New Orleans with his boat of merchandise, accompanied by Madame
Chouteau and family, including young Auguste Chouteau," des-
tined to play no inconsiderable part in the settlement and establish-
ment of the new trading post on the Mississippi, and the foundation of
St. Louis. After a voyage of nearly three months, Laclede with his
boat arrived at Ste. Genevieve, but, finding no place there to store his
goods for the winter,* proceeded to Fort de Chartres," where he
arrived on November 3, 1763. Fort de Chartres was then, and had
been for a nimiber of years, the seat of the civil and military govern-
ment of all the Illinois country, an indefinite dominion, stretching
westward toward the Rocky mountains and east and north toward

the liability amounting to more than 41,000 livres. The real estate in St. Louis
Maxent sold for $3,000 to Chouteau in 1788, then in greatly dilapidated con-
dition (i Billon's Annals, p. 148), being a stone house sixty by twenty-three,
with a rotten roof, and another stone house fifty by thirty feet, with no floor, in
ruins, and a piece of ground three hundred feet square.

" Maiden name Marie Therese Bourgeois, bom in New Orleans in 1733,
married Auguste Rene Chouteau in 1749, bearing him one child*, Auguste
Chouteau, bom September, 1 750. Then, it is said, on account of ill treatment,
abandoned Chouteau "and went to live" with Laclede, by whom she had four
children, Jean Pierre, Pelagie, Marie Louise, and Victoire, but according
to French law, bearing the name of "Chouteau." (i Scharff*s History
of St. Louis, p. 179.) It is said that Madame Chouteau, "by and with the
advice and consent of her friends, contracted a civil marriage with Laclede."
Madame Chouteau died August 14, 1814. She seems to have been a "thor-
ough business woman and obove a hard bargain now and then," acquired a
great deal of property, being a trader in goods and furs, as well as real estate ;
sued her son-in-law Joseph M. Papin to recover the value of a negro slave ac-
cidentally killed, and recovered the value. Her children all married well, and
the family was very prosperous. The archives of St. Louis also show that
in 1768 Laclede made a gift to the children of Mrs. Chouteau.

" Margry gives his full name as "Pierre Etienne Auguste Chouteau," but
on what authority does not state. (Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 64, note i .)
He was born at New Orleans, August 14, 1750, and died at St. Louis, Feb-
ruary 29, 1829, in his 79th year. During the Spanish domination he was the
-"K^t prominent merchant and business man of the town, and in a large meas-
fcontrolled the fur trade. He enjoyed the confidence of the Spanish officials
jki New Orleans. Baron Carondelet especially seems to have placed much con-
fidence in him and his brother Pierre in regard to matters relating to the Osage
Indians. When the United States acquired Louisiana Chouteau was appoint-
ed one of the Judges of the St. Louis Court of Common Pleas and Quarter
Sessions. In 1808 he was Colonel of the militia and afterward U. S. Pension
Agent. At various times he was appointed U. S. Commissioner to treat with
the various Indian tribes of the west. He married Marie Therese Cerr6,
daughter of Gabriel Cerr^ September 21, 1786.

" Fort de Chartres was located a few miles above Ste. Genevieve in the
southwest comer of what is now Monroe county, Illinois.

PROSPECTS THE COUNTRY

Canada. Neyon de Villiers" was then commandant of the fort, and
in the adjacent village, by permission, Laclede stored his goods and
secured a home for Madame Chouteau and his family and followers,
and then looked out a location for his trading establishment.

During the month of December Laclede prospected the country as
far north as the mouth of the Missouri, and some distance up
that river. The beauty, no less than the commercial advantages of
the country, bordered on the north by the Missouri, on the south by
the Maramec, and on the east by the Mississippi, now embracing St.
Louis county, seems to have attracted the attention of the earliest
voyagers, and it is supposed led to the first transient establishment of
a Jesuit missionary station in the Mississippi valley, near the mouth
of the Des P^es. Surrounded on three sides by these large, navigable
waters, and intersected by many smaller streams, navigable in the light
canoes of the voyageurs and fur-traders, at least during a part of the
year, all parts of this district were easily accessible in those days of
primitive water transportation. Much of this favored locality was
gently rolling upland, sweeping far away to the horizon, alternately
prairie and open woociland, covered with a high and luxuriant growth
of grass, on which herds of deer and buffalo then grazed in peace
and plenty. Along the banks of the rivers now and then perpendicu-
lar cliffs of rocks separated these uplands from the bottoms, but at
other places gradually and almost imperceptibly the upland descended
to the lowlands, and these were covered with noble and tower-
ing forests. From many hillsides gurgling springs broke forth, and
in clear and limpid streams meandered through little valleys to
larger branches, into creeks and into the great rivers almost surroimd-
ing this delightful and pleasant land. The soil was fertile, the climate

**In June, 1764, Chevalier Pierre- Joseph de Neyon de Villiers, the last
French commandant of Fort de Chartres, withdrew from the fort in anticipation
of the arrival of the English forces. He took with him to New Orleans seven
officers and sixty-three soldiers, leaving Captain St. Ange de Bellerive and
about forty soldiers and officers to guard the fort. A number of French families
from de Chartres, St. Philippe, and Prairie du Rocher, accompanied de Villie'-^
(Davidson & Stuve's History of Illinois, p. 1 63.) He descended the river in twei
one bateaux and seven pirogues. He was a brother-in-law of Kerl^rec.
Du Terrage says that in 1 735 he was ensign in the regiment de Choiseul ; in 1738,
Lieutenant in the Marainville regiment, Aide-Major in the Royal LfOrraine,
and wounded at Wissembourg ; Captain at the battle of Landfelt in 1 747, attach-
ed to the Louisiana Regiment in 1749 ; in command of Fort de Chartres; returned
to Paris in 1765 ; aided Kerl^c in his defence; Colonel of the Guadeloupe Regi-
ment; Brigadier-General in 1775 and Governor of Marie-Galanta, died in
1785. This de Villiers was born in Lorraine " d'une famille plus noble que
riche " — ^and should not be confounded with the Coulon de Villiers. This Neyon
de Villiers of Fort de Chartres was in no way related to this family.

6 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

genial, neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter; and autumn
was the loveliest season of the year. In the center of the eastern edge
of this district Laclede selected the location for his trading post,
and when he returned enthusiastically assured the commandant
of the fort, so it is said by Chouteau,
" that he had found a situation where he
intended to establish a settlement which
might become hereafter one of the 5nest
cities of America."" Chouteau, at that
lime was only between thirteen and four-
teen years old, and does not tell us
whether he was present when this con-
versation took place, but in the light of
subsequent events undoubtedly ihis proph-
ecy stands justified whether actually made
or not. Hulchins, who was a man i)f
great intelligence, and travelled up and
down the Mississippi shortly after the
occupation of the east bank of the Mississippi by the English,
speaks of the location as one of "the most healthy and pleasurable
situations of any known in this part of the country." "

Brackenridge thus describes the appearance of the country west of
St. Louis, when St. Louis was still a small town, some forty years
afterward: "Looking to the west, a most charming country spreads
itself before us. It is neither very level nor hilly, but of an agreeable,
waving surface, and rising for several miles with an ascent almost im-
perceptible. Except a small belt to the north, there are no trees ; the
rest is covered with shrubby oak, intermixed with hazels, and a few
trifling thickets of thorn, crab-apple and plum trees. At first glance,
we are reminded of the environs of a great city; but there are no
country seats, or even plain farm houses ; it is a vast waste, yet by no
means barren soil. Such is the appearance, until turning to the left,
the eye catches the Mississippi. A number of springs take their rise
here, and contribute to the uneven appearance. The great part flow
to the southwest, and aid in forming a beautiful rivulet, which a short
distance below the town gives itself to the river. 1 have been often
delighted in my solitary walks to trace this rivulet to its sources.
Three miles from town, out within view, among a few tall oaks, it
" Chouleau's Journal, in Si. Louis Mcrcantiie Libran'.
"Hutchins' TopographicBl Description, p. j8.

ST. LOUIS FOUNDED

rises in four or five silvery fountains within a short distance of each
other : presenting a picture to the fancy of the poet or the pencil of the
painter. " *^

When Laclede located his trading post it was already well under-
stood that the country east of the Mississippi, with the Canadas, had
been ceded by France to England, and that all her possessions on the
west side of the river had been ceded to Spain, although this cession
had not been officially announced.*' Of course, the transfer of
the country east of the river to the hereditary enemy of France
produced great excitement among the French inhabitants. It is more
than likely that this general alarm and anxiety to escape English dom-
ination may have first suggested to Laclede the idea of establishing a
village at the place he had selected for his trading post, and inviting all
those dissatisfied and alarmed by the transfer of the country to Eng-
land to establish themselves with him on the west side of the river. It
is also probable that he may have interested the French officers at
Fort de Chartres in the locality where he proposed to establish his
post, and suggested to them to establish the seat of their authority
for the western country there, as soon as the English took possession
of Fort de Chartres and the country east of the Mississippi. The fact
that the officers afterward did actually remove to the post established
by him would point to this conclusion.*® Be this as it may, as soon as
the river was free from ice in the spring of 1764, Laclede sent his boat
in charge of Auguste Chouteau to the place selected for the trading
post. On February 14th Chouteau landed there,^® and he says that
on the next day he put the men and boys who came with him on the

" Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, p. 221 (Baltimore, 1817).

'• The cession of Louisiana to Spain was officially proclaimed in New
Orleans in October, 1764. (i Martin's I^uisiana, p. 346.) But from Du
Terrage it appears that Kerl^rec was unofficially advised of the cession in
January, 1763. Les Dernieres, etc., p. 157.

^* Pittman says "that for the security and encouragement of this settlement
the staff of French officers and commissary were ordered to remove there, upon
rendering Fort Chartres to the English." Pittman's Mississippi Settlements,
p. 94.

'* Some question exists whether the boat arrived on the 14th of February
or the 14th of March, 1764, a matter really of no importance. Have adopted
February 14th in the text, because it is to be supposed that Laclede was anxious
to start his establishment as quickly as possible. But if the winter was severe
and the river full of ice, it is quite likely that the boat did not reach the site
selected as a location for a settlement until March 14th. With Chouteau who
was about 12 years of age when he came to St. Louis in 1764, on the boat came
Jean Baptiste Riviere, who was born at Fort de Chartres. (Hunt's Minutes,
Book 2, p. 102, Mo. Historical Society Archives.) When the Indians made
the attack on St. Louis in 1780, he was taken prisoner at "Cardinal

8 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

boat to work. Madame Chouteau and her children came up from
Fort de Chartres in a cart through the American Bottom, accompanied
by Laclede and arrived at Cahokia about
the same time that the boat reached the
site selected for the trading post. Laclede,
after securing a place of residence for her
at Cahokia, came over the river and spent
the summer in erecting his establishment,
and after the completion of his building,
brought up his goods from the Fort,
and finally, in September following," he
also brought Madame Chouteau over to
the new village to the home prepared for
her — her familybeing considered Laclede's
family.'* But, during the summer, a number of other settlers from

Springs," a place now in the center of St. Louis, while sleeping in the house of
Jean Marie Cardinal, and from St. Louis the Indians took him to Chicago as
a prisoner, but from there he escaped and returned to St. Louis, and in 1785
moved from St. Louis to Florissant (St. Ferdinand) (Hunt's Minutes, Book i,
p. 50. Missouri Historical Society Archives). In 1793 had a horse-mill on his
lot, Margaret Vial Rivifcre, assignee. The names of the boatmen arc not
known, Amable Le Toumeau is supposed to have been one by Scharff, (His-
tory of St. Louis, vol. I, p. 17a.) lliis Le Toumeau was a Canadian voy-
a^eur, and in 1770 was banished from the settlement for ten years, for a
tnvial oBense.

" Colonel Pierre Chouteau, senior, says that he came to St, Louis about six
months after the founding of the village, and this would fii the lime of the settle-
ment of Madame Chouteau on the west side of the river, as stated. (Hunt's
Miautes, Book 3, p. 100, pp. 3S2, 383.^ 1 Commissioner's Minutes.) Pierre
Chouteau was bom at New Orleans October 10, 1758, and died at S(. Louis,
July 10, 1849. He was engaged in the fur trade from early manhood. For
many years lie personally annually visited many of the Indian tribes of the west.
He was master of their language. He had tiie greatest influence among the
Osages — was in command of Fort Carondelet on the Osage river under con-
tract with Carondelet. Aithou^ Auguste Chouteau, somewhat over-
shadows in reputation Pierre Chouteau, it is nevertheless a fact, that the great
influence the Chouteau name for many years exerdsed over the Indians of the
west must be ascribed to Pierre. Auguste Chouteau seldom visited the Indians,
but Pierre Chouteau during the early days of the fur trade was in their villages
most of bis time. When Jjjuisiana was ceded to the United States Pierre Chou-
teau was appointed the first Indian agent of the country by President Jefferson.
He conducted the first delegation of Indians from the new territory to Washing-
ton. He was one of the principal owners of the First Missouri Fur company and
afterward identified with the American Fur company. When the Indians in
early days visited St. Louis they always camped on his grounds and bis home was
their home. He occupied many and impoitant public positions during his long
and honorable life. His first wife was Pelagic Kierccreau, who died February
9, 179J. He afterward married Brigitte Saucier, daughter of Francois Saucier
of Portage dea Sioux, and who died in :83q.

" t Billon's Annals, p. 19. It should be noted here thai Shepard in his
"History of St, Louis," page 14, does not seem to have in mind that Liguest

NEW SETTLERS

Cahokia crossed over and established themselves," building housegr
and making other improvements, and these, too, with their families,
brought over their goods and merchandise. The total number of
persons forming the new settlement in the first six months aggregated
about thirty.

was married to Mrs. Chouteau. Speaking of St. Ange he says, ^'He (St. Ange)
was the intiinate friend of Mr. Liguest, founder of the town, and like him was
never married." St. Ange, it should be remembered, died at the residence of
Madame Chouteau, (i Scharff's History of St. LfOuis, p.. 72, note 4.)

^ In addition to Laclede, then about forty years old, and Antoine Riviere,
Senior, dit Baccane, who was bom in 1706, therefore forty-eight years of age
in 1764 when he drove up the cart with Mrs. Chouteau and children from Fort
de Chartres to Cahokia, and who moved to St. Ferdinand in 1790, and died
there in 181 6, having attained the age of one hundred and ten years, the oldest
person we have any knowledge of at that day, the following persons, according
to Mr. Billon, were the first settlers (Annals of St. Louis, vol. i, pp. 17, 18), and
thus gave vitality to the village, namely, Joseph Michel, dit TaiUon or Tayon,
miller, forty-nine years old when he came to St. Louis, bom in Canada in 17 15,
married Marie Louise Bissett, bom in 1728. He died in St. Louis at the age of
ninety-two (1807), and was probably the surveyor on the Maramec in 1799
of that name. His wife diea at sixty -nine in 1797. According to Billon, old
Joseph Michel, dit Tayon, was one of the syndics of the town. Carios Tayon,
his son, was commandant of St. Charles, his family adopting the name
"Tayon;" Roger TaiUon, miller; Joseph Mainville, dit Deschenes, was
an early carpenter of St. Louis, and may have come up on the boat with Chou-
teau; Jean Baptiste and Joseph L. Martigny were both traders. The Mar-
tigny brothers came from Quebec, Jean Baptiste married Helene Herbert at
Fort de Chartres, was a prominent, and, for that time, a wealthy man, built a
stone house at the comer of what is now Main and Walnut streets, and this house
afterward became the Government house, he was captain of the militia for
a long time and died in September 1792, at the age of eighty, his brother Joseph
Lempine Martigny was engaged in the Indian trade in St. Louis as late as 1789,
built a house which he afterward sold to Nicolas Royer, dit Sansquartier,
a soldier; Nicolas Beaugeneau (Beaugenoux) fanner, forty-five years old,
"Soldat de la companie de Mimbret" at Fort de Chartres in 1758; was a
native of Canada, died in St. Louis in 1770, his wife was a Henrion, also
bom in Canada; his oldest daughter, Marie Joseph^, was married in April, 1766,
the first marriage recorded in St. Louis; his oldest son also named Nicolas, csilled
"Fifi," bom iq. Canada in 1741, married Catherine Gravelle; died in St. Louis
in 1795, and she died in 1826, aged fifty-five years. The name of Feefee creek
in St. Louis county derived its name from his nick-name "Fifi," (Billon's Annals
of St. Louis, vol. I, p. 416) which is pronounced in French like Feefee.
Alexis Cott^, fanner, was twenty-one yeara old when he arrived, married Eliz-
abeth Dodier in 1768, in 1796 owned property in St. Charles. A Jean Cot^ (or
Cott^), was a habitan of Canada in 1639, and Alexis may have been related to
this family (2 Suite Canadiens Fran^aise, p. 92) ; Gabriel Dodier, Junior, far-
mer, owned property in Prairie des Noyers and on Little Rock creek ; moved to
St. Charles in 1795; Margaret Bequette, widow of Gabriel Dodier, lived on
the prairie below "Mound d' Grange." Gabriel Dodier was a son of Gabriel
Dodier of Fort de Chartres, who died there in 1763, his widow coming to St.
Louis where she died in 1783. This Dodier, Senior, was a Canadian, a black-
smith by trade. The Dodiers were among the first settlers of Canada, and
Suite gives the name of Sebastian Dodier as a habitan in 1639. According to
the testimony of Marly, Morin, and Auguste Chouteau, Gabriel Dodier, Junior,
was known as Auguste Dodier in St. Louis, and had two sons named respec-
tively Auguste Gabriel, and Rene. (Hunt's Minutes, vol. 3, p. 135, Missouri
Historical Society Archives.) Auguste Gabriel, Junior, married Pelagie Ri-

lo HISTORY OF MISSOURI

When the Indians residing on the west side of the river heard of
the new settlement made on their lands, a band of one hundred and
fifty warriors, with women and children, came to the new village in
the fall of the year, ostensibly to secure a supply of provisions, and in a
friendly and familiar manner located their dwellings as near as pos-
sible to their new acquaintances, manifesting the utmost pleasure and

vi^re; Jean B. Hervieux, gun-smith and royal annorer; Paul Kiercercau, a son
of Gregoire Kiercercau, (de Kesignac) native of Port Louis, diocese of Vannes,
Brittany, France, settled in Cahokia as early as 1740, where he died in
1770, his wife was Gillette LeBourg, or Boulque, widow of one
Pothier; his son Paul was born in New Orleans, married Marie Joseph^
Michel, dit Tayon, in 1766, in St. Louis; their only child, Pelagie, married
Pierre Chouteau, Senior, in 1783, and died in 1793, leaving four children,
Auguste P., Pierre, Junior, Paul L., and Pelagie, who afterwards married
Barthflemi Berthold; another son, Rene, dit Renaud, was lx)rn in 1723 in
France, and married Marie M. Robillard, who died in St. Louis in 1783, and he
died in St. Ferdinand in 1798; he was chanter or chorister of the church, and
in the absence of the priest officiated at funerals, but as to this Rene, dit Renaud,
see note 28 in Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 436. His eldest son, named
Gregoire, born in 1752, married Magdalen St. Francois in 1774, a daughter
named Julie married Gabriel Latreille (De La Treille) in 1800, and another daugh-
ter named Marguerite married Louis Aubuchon of Ste. Genevieve district,
in 1804. Marie Kiercereau, a sister of Rene and Paul, l)orn in 1788. married
Antoine Deshetres, an interpreter, who died in 1798, and was sur\'ived by his
wife seventeen years; their oldest son was Gregor>' Kiercereau Deshetres; Alex-
is Picard, farmer, age fifty-three when he settled in St. Ix)uis, in 1794 at St.
Ferdinand, and prior to 1801 in New Madrid district. Francois Dclin, carpenter
possibly same as Fran9()is Delain; Joseph Labrosse, trader, raised corn on his
lot in 1798, and in 1802 gave property to his god-son Joseph Labadic. in 1794
owned property at St. Ferdinand; Theodore Labrosse; Joseph Chanccllier and
Louis Chancellier, afterwards sub-lieutenant of militia. These Chancelliers
were brothers of Mrs. Joseph Mainville, and born in the \'illage of St. Philippe,
and also came to St. Louis in the first lx)at; Joseph married Elizabc^th, daugh-
ter of Jean B. Becquette (or Bequetta), the miller, and after his death she
married Antoine Gauthier (or Gaultier), of St. Charles; Louis married Marie
Louise Deschamp, and after his death she married Joseph Beauchamp. dit
Bechant, also of St. Charles (i Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 421). Jean B.
Gamache (see Carondelet); Louis Ride, Senior, born in Canada, and died in
St. Louis in 1787, his first wife was a daughter of Louis Marcheteau; Julian
LeRoy, trader, married Marie Barbara Saucier, at Mobile in 1755, according
to Billon was a well informed man; the family dropped the "Le" simply calling
themselves "Roy" ; the son Charles married Susanne Dodier in 1709. a daughter
Madalaine, married Francois Hebert in 1774, at the age of sixteen; Julicn, Jun-
ior, married Marie Louise Cottfe and at her death the widow of Pierre A. Marie,
in 1797; another son named Pierre Patrick married Victoire Stark; and Henri
Francois married Jeanne Montardy in 1793. It seems that Julien, Senior,
did not die in St. Louis. Jean Salle, dit Lajoie, trader, in 1 769 built a stone
house on what was after\vard known as Block 57, and in 1792 returned to Bor-
deaux, France, separating from his wife, Marie Rose Panda, who attained the
age of 104, dying in St. Louis in 1830; one Jean B. Bequctte was a blacksmith
and the first owner of the southeast (luarter (^f Blcxk 36. and another Jean B.
Bequette was a miller. Jean B. Becjuette, Senior, and Junior, in 1797 were
in Ste. Genevieve. Antcjine Pothier, trader; Antoine Villiere Pichet, a car-
penter; I^egrain died in 1776; and probably related to the wife of Michel
Kolette, dit I^deroute, who was a Lagrain, a soldier who came from Fort de
Chartres with St. Ange; Marcereau and La Garrosse.

** VILLAGE SAUVAGE" ii

contentment in their new homes, and exhibiting their willingness to
engage in all the liberties and enjoyments the place aflforded.'^ In a
f)eaceful way I^aclede endeavored to rid himself of his unwelcome
guests. In the hope that aversion to steady work would induce them
to leave, he employed them to dig the cellar of a house he was then
building, and the squaws worked in carrying away the dirt in wooden
platters and baskets, but the warriors would not work, and, appropri-
ating everything that they could lay their hands on, although it could
hardly be called stealing, the patience of Laclede finally became
exhausted, and he peremptorily ordered them away, threatening to call
in the troops from Fort de Chartres, and then reluctantly his unwel-
come guests withdrew.^ Subsequently, in 1766, a band of Peoria
Indians were allowed to build a village at the lower end of the town,
and this locality about a mile below where the United States arsenal
now stands was called "Prairie de Village Sauvage. " ^®

After the settlement was begun, ten additional' settlers, anxious to
escape British rule, came to the new village,^^ so that at the end of the
first year forty families were congregated at the future metropolis, and
which Laclede named "St. Louis," in honor of the sainted king of
France. Popularly, however, the place was at first known as " La-
clede *s Village,* * and then as " Paincourt. "^' In the year following

** "Having remained here fifteen days, in the course of which I had the
cellar of the house which we were to build, dug by the women and children, I
gave them in payment vermillion, awls, verdigris. They dug the largest part of
it, and carried the earth in wooden platters and baskets, which they bore on their
heads," says Auguste Chouteau in his Journal. "The Illinois Indians claimed
the land where St. Louis now stands," says Chouteau. (Hunt's Minutes,
Book I, p. 127, copy in Mo. Hist. Society Archives.)

*Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 13.

*• Drake's Life of Blackhawk, p. 124 quoting MSS. of Major Thomas Forsyth,
dated 1820 as follows: "Some 40 or 50 years ago the Sauks and Foxes attacked
a small village of Peorias about a mile below St. Louis and were defeated."

" These were Gabriel Descary, an Indian interpreter from Fort de Char-
tres; Michel Rolette (Rollet), dit Laderoute, a former French soldier from Fort
de Chartres, his wife, Margaret Lagrain ; Louis Tesson, dit Honore (or Honore •
dit Tesson), a trader from Kaskaskia, was the father of Francois, Baptiste,
Michael and Noel, all living at St. Ferdinand and elsewhere, a native of Canada,
his wife was Magdalena Patterson, and evidently of English descent. Had a
grant at Cul de Sac, and in 1796 received a grant of 1,600 arpents at Village i.
Robert, also had pro|>erty at Portage des Sioux and River Jeffron in St. Charles
district, died in St. Louis in 1812; Jean B. Cardinal, a farmer from St. Philippe;
Louis Deshetres, an Indian interpreter from Cahokia, in St. Ferdinand in 1794;
Alexander Langlois, dit Rondeau, trader from Cahokia; Jean B. Provenchbre,
a wheel->\Tight, from Cahokia, was the father of Jean Louis Provenchbre ; Rene
Buet, trader from Cahokia.

^* It has been suggested that some of the early settlers in grateful recogni-
tion of Laclede's services proposed to call the town "Laclede." (i Scharf's
History of St. Louis, p. 69.) This sounds like a pious fiction. The first settlers

12 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

additional immigration from Fort de Chartres, Kaskaskia, Cahokia,
and, it is said, from Ste. Genevieve arrived,* and finally in October,
1765, when the British Highlanders, under Captain Stirling*** reached
Fort de Chartres, Captain St. Ange de Bellerive," who was left in
command when De Villiers departed for New Orleans, withdrew his
force to this place on the west side of the river, probably acting on
his own initiative in selecting his new headquarters. With St. Ange

of St. Louis, according to Pittman (Mississippi Settlements, p. 95) secured
their flour from Ste. Genevieve, and hence probably the nick-name "Paincourt"
— meaning without, or short of, bread. (See also Reynolds' Pioneer History
of Illinois, p. 62.)

'•Among them, Charles Routier, mason; his daughter Genevieve mar-
ried Louis Blssonette, who was here also in 1765; Francois Bissonette; Jean
Baptiste Durand, married Marie Marcheteau; Michael Laml or Lamy (Du
Chouquette) ; Hyacinthe St. Cyr (St. Cir), bom near Quebec, a leading man
in early St. Louis, died in 1826, the father of fifteen children, in 1786 had grant
between the Mississippi and Maramec, and In 1798 at St. Charles where he had
a horse-mill on his lot; Colonel Howard says St. Cyr had met with losses in the
service of the Government, his sons Hyadnth, Junior, born 1786, and Leon N.,
born in 1791, received grants in 1800 in consideration of his services; (Frangols)
Cottin, the first constable In St. Louis, conducted the first sale In 1768 at
the church door; Joseph Bour^ a rope maker, and Francois Jourdan. To
these names should also be added: Paul Sigel, a tanner by trade, who died
August 1769 at St. Louis. This Sigel, Billon says, was a native of Malta, but
the name Is indubitably German. Other early settlers who died shortly after
their arrival and settlement were : Franjois Eloy, who died in New Orleans in
1767; Jean A. D'Aunis, dlt St. Vincent, died in 1769; Nicolas Marechal, a
native of France, died 1770; Joseph De Tailly, an Indian interpreter, died
October, 1771. (i Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. i, p. 80.) Jean DeLage,
a native of Pierre d' Olien, Angoumols, France, was a resident and died in 1772 ;
his estate brought 836 llvres "in silver," and of this amount Alexander Langlois
received 530 for board and Martin Duralde 127 for legal fees, the curate of the
church, Father Valentine 67 and Dr. Conde and Dr. Connand 80, for medical
services, Rene Kiercereau 8, for the grave and Louis Dubreull and Lachance,
the balance as creditors. Foubert La Grammont, of Granville, France, set-
tled in 1772.

•• Captain Stirling was the accredited commissioner of his Britannic Ma-
jesty, and as such, formal possession of the Bllnols country east of the Mississ-
ippi river was delivered to him, October 10, 1765. Auguste Chouteau says,
tnat St. Ange and his troops reached St. Louis July 17, 1765, but probably
did not remember the date particularly. (See Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 126,
Missouri Historical Society Archives.)

*^ Louis St. Ange de Bellerive (original name Groston) a Canadian, a
son of Robert Groston dlt St. Ange, was about sixty years old when Fort de
Chartres was transferred. He had served in the army of France and Canada,
and in the Illinois country, for about forty years; was with de Bourgmont in his
expedition against the Padoucas in 1724, as cadet with his father, who was a vet-
eran officer of the French troops, having served from 1685. He was never mar-
ried and died in St. Louis at the house of Madame Chouteau, December 27,
1774, as already stated, aged about seventy years. He left property to the chil-
dren of de VUUers. His half sister married Francois Coulon de Villiers, a
brother of JumonviUe, and to the children of this marriage he left his
property. It is said that Governor Piemas conferred upon St. Ange the
rank of Captain of Infantry in the Spanish service, (i Scharff's History of
St. Louis, p. 203.) But this, Uke a good many other things passing current as

FEAR OF ENGLISH RULE 13

came Captain Francis de Volsay** and other officers and soldiers to
the number of about twenty men. How anxious the French settlers
were to escape English rule is shown by the fact that Renault's town,
St. Philippe, was completely abandoned by the eight or ten families
living there, one family leaving a mill and other property. The cap-
tain of the militia alone remained." This, no doubt, led Lieutenant
Frazier to write that " the greatest part of those who inhabited our side
of the river abandoned it on our getting possession of the country. " '*
It is apparent that the rapid growth of Laclede's trading post in
the first few years of its existence must be attributed to the cession of

St. Louis history, is to be doubted. It is not thought that Piemas had the power
to confer this rank, but in a Spanish official paper it is stated that he is Captain
of Infantry in the service. In connection witn this a certificate made by Piemas
is not without interest. In about 1772 the Notary of Vincennes, and who as
such had possession of the grants made by St. Ange when in command there, ran
away and it became a matter of interest to ascertain to whom grants had been
made while he was in command. Accordingly the following certificate was
issued by Piemas : "Nous Don Pedro Piemas, Capitaine d' Infanterie, Lieutenant-
Govemeur des Establissments des Illinois et leur Dependans appartenans k sa
Majeste Catholique, certifions k tous qu' il appariendra que Mons. St. Ange
est Capitaine reforme et employee au service de sa Majeste Catholique'' (2 Inm-
ana Hist. Society Publications p. 29). Whether this means that St. Ange was
in the military service is uncertain, because the *' Capitaine reform^," refers to
the French military force stationed in the lUinois country. I do not think that
at any time the Spaniards had any so-caUed *' reformed " troops in the country.
This however is clear that St. Ange at the time when Piemas made the certifi-
cate was in some sort of Spanish service. It is said that he was popular with the
Indians, that the Great Pontiac was his personal friend and that he brought the
body of Pontiac over from Cahokia and had his remains interred near where the
Southern Hotel now stands. This statement, although it would reflect
credit upon St. Ange, is doubtful. It is also said that when Captain Stir-
ling, the first English commander at Fort de Chartres, died in Janiiary,
1776, that on the request of the inhabitants there, he came over from the
Spanish possessions to take charge of the post of Fort de Chartres imtil the
arrival of Captain Stirling's successor. Major Frazer, from Pittsbiirgh. This
romantic incident in the life of St. Ange no doubt is a fiction. It is not at all
likely that the other English officers would give way to St. Ange, although the
incident is dted in Monnett's ''History of the Mississippi Valley," p. 411 ; and
in Reynolds' "My own Times," p. 50. Mason also repeats this story (Mason's
Chapters from Illinois History, p. 238), but no authority is given by these writers.

"Afterward it is recorded in the domestic annals of 'Taincourt" that
Rene Kiercereau, dit Renaud, fled to the other side (that is to say, the Illinois
country east of the Mississippi river), with De Volsay's wife, a niece of St. Ange,
who did not enjoy the best reputation among the early habitans, taking away
all the movable property, while De Volsay was away in France on business. In
1 781, Cruzat sent her to New Orleans "against her will, because of the occasion
of one Malvo," and is advised by the Governor that "we shall do our best to
settle this matter, which appears a trifle difficult." Gen. Archives of Indies,
Seville. — Letter of Feb. 15, 1781. One Gaston Leopold de Volsay died in Ste.
Genevieve in 1760, 38 3rears of age, may be a relative.

** Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, p. 91, — but in Hutchins' Topographical
Description, p. 38, it is said two or three families remained.

** Letter of Lieutenant Frazier, 2 Ind. Historical Publication, p. 411.

14 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

the count 17 east of the Mississippi to Engliind, and consequent immi-
gration of the old French settlers across Ihe river, because after the
first excitement of the transfer died away the growth of the new
village was very slow.

The first building of the new trading post was erected by Laclede
and located on the block of ground now bounded by First and
Second and Walnut and Market streets, and according to Pittman
this was a "large house." The other settlers established themselves
along the river above and below this place. A narrow belt of timber

f

LACLEDE HOUSE. WITH VILLAGE PRISON' (CALABUZO) ATTACHED l)N HIDE

then extended along the river, as far back as what is now Fifth
street or Broadway. Ueyond, stretching far westward, was an open
prairie, long known as " La Grande Prairie. "^ Various sections
of this prairie received different names. Thus the open land near
the town was called " St. Louis Prairie.' ' The section southwest
was called "Prairie des Noyers." The space between "St. Louis
Prairie" and "Prairie des Noyers" was called the "Cul de
Sac."" The open land south of the town was called "Little
Prairie." "White Ox Prairie" was se^-cral miles north. The
creek running through "Cul de Sac," along wooded and
grassy banks, was known as "La Petite Hivifere." In order to

* " An extensive jjrairie, which affords |jlenly of hay, as alsii pasture for the
caUle and horses of the inhabitants." Stoddard's Louisiana, \i. iii)-

" Williams rails il " Cul de Sac of ll.e Grand Prairie,"

LACLEDE ASSIGNS LAND 15

secure water-power for a mill, this creek, which afterward became
luiown as "Mill Creek," was dammed up, and the pond thus
formed was long known as "Chouteau's Mill Pond." The great
St. Louis railroad yards now mark this vidniiy.

It has been asserted, without any evidence whatever, that the
grant to Maxent, Laclede & Company to trade with the Indians on
the upper Missouri also vested in this firm, or Laclede as its represent-
ative, discretionary powers of government, and hence the authority to

grant allotments of land. But it is certain that the claim that Laclede
could grant land or make allotments of land, or was clothed with even
the semblance of authority as governor or commandant in the new
village, is erroneous. No doubt Laclede a.ssigned to settlers who
came with him, or settled at his post, pieces of ground, and may be
these assignments were accepted by (he settlers and his authority thus
recognized, but this rather by reason of his own no doubt forceful and
dominant character than by reason of any legal warrant of the fwwer
he thus exercised. The firm Maxent, Laclede & Company received
no grant of land in upper Louisiana from the French government,
nor was Laclede authorized to lay out a town or village.*' Whatever

o lo C
.789, ■

i6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

steps he took in that direction were forced upon him by circumstances
The change of government in the territory east of the river, the conse-
quent influx of immigrants from that side to his trading post, necessi-
tated action. That under such circumstances he did act clearly dem-
onstrates that he was a man of no ordinary enterprise and ability. But
no title to any land whatever in St. Louis was ever based on any
right or grant made by Laclede. The right even to the land claimed
by Maxent, Laclede & Company, in the new village was founded on
a concession made by St. Ange, the last French officer holding legal
authority in the coimtry west of the Mississippi.

In order to magnify the importance of this early period in the his-
tory of Laclede's trading post, it has been deemed necessary to say
that when Captain St. Ange arrived with his officers and soldiers he
was induced to assume governmental functions, so as to maintain order
and to make grants of land ; that St. Ange was apparently imwilling to
assume the whole responsibility of granting land, and hence associated
with himself Joseph Lefebvre ; that he was placed in authority by the
"sound judgment of the people," and that "necessity" at once
assigned him to the place, and that " by their unanimous desire, he was
vested with the authority of Commandant-General, with full authority
to grant lands, and to do all other acts consistent with that office as
though he held it by royal authority." By a stretch of the imagina-
tion, it has even been said that "the people imanimously vested in St.
Ange the powers of the civil government until the arrival of his legally
appointed successor." * But all this is strangely out of accord with
the habits and practices of "the people" living in the French and
Spanish colonies, and the ideas that had been implanted among the
population. The spirit manifested in such proceedings as detailed
belongs to another age and another people.

As a matter of fact, St. Ange was in authority all the time and in
legal control of affairs, because before he arrived at the village, and

drawn the plan of a city and given it a name (which is the exercise of a power
appertaining to the sovereign alone) and what is worse, that you have called it
*Our City.* " (2 Gayarre's History of Louisiana, p. 265.)

" And how far fetched the conclusion stated in Scharff: *'It is a singular
incident in the history of St. Louis that its first government, though instituted in
a period of imperialism, was distinctively republican in character. The authority
under which de Bellerive ruled was conferred by popular action. In its methods
of creation this self -constituted government was purely democratic." (i Scharfif's
History of St. Louis, p. 75, et seq.) Also see Snepard's History of St. Louis, p.
14, where we find a similar poetic account of how authority was conferred on
St. Ange by the people of St. Louis, with the approbation of Aubry, because
St. Ange was "too honorable an officer to administer an authority without the
approbation of his superiors."

ST. ANGE IN AUTHORITY 17

while commandant at Fort de Chartres, he held jurisdiction not only
over the territory on the east, but also on the west bank of the Missis-
sippi, practically as far as the dominions of France extended — to the
Rocky mountains and the Pacific. That Laclede fully understood
this is shown by the fact that he threatened his unwelcome visitors,
the Indians, to call in the troops from the fort to induce them to de-
part; also, that he called on these officers to seize goods belonging to
Datchurut and Viviat.* So that when St. Ange surrendered to Cap-
tain Stirling, Fort de Chartres and the territory ceded to England, he
retired with his troop of soldiers and officers,*® and military stores
to territory still under his jurisdiction, although ceded to Spain, and
in which he was the only embodiment of legal authority until the ar-
rival of the authorities of the new sovereign.** His authority on the

•• Merchants in Ste. Genevieve before the founding of St. Louis. (28 Dra-
per's Collection, [Clark MSS] p. 90.)

*• The names of his officers and men were : Pierre Francois de Volsay, first
lieutenant and brevet captain already named, and Picote de Belestre, lieu-
tenant, died in St. Louis in 1780, married Joachi de Villiers, grand-daughter
of Madame St. Ange. In 1666, a Picote de Belestre, together with Charles
LeMoyne were at die head of the Montreal militia, and this Picote undoubt-
edly was the ancestor df our lieutenant de Belestre; Frangois de Bergueville,
lieutenant; Joseph Brunot Lefebvre Des Bruisseau, a cadet lieutenant, son of
Joseph Lefebvre d' Inglebert Des Bruisseau, afterwards store-keep)er at the
Fort "El Principe de Asturias" and an absconding defaulter; Pierre Montardy
and Phillibert Gagnon, sergeants in 1766; Nicholas Antoine Vincent, sergeant
in 1767. A Pierre Vincent in 1671 settled at Port Royal in Arcadia, and a
Jean Vincent was one of the One Hundred Associates of New France; Jean de
Lage, corpond in 1767. The little squad of soldiers were D' Amours de Lou-
vieres, likely a descendant of Mathieu D' Amours Sieur de Choufours et de la
Morandiere et de Louvieres, a distinguished name in the annals of Canada,
(7 Suite Canadiens Francais, p. 42) and a numerous family; Nicholas Royer, dit
Sansquartier; a Guillaume Agnet was also nicknamed Sansquartier in Detroit
in 1709; Michel Rollette, dit Laderoute; Claude Tinon; Jean Comparios, dit La-
Pierre; Lambert Bonvarlet; Blondin Pion; Ayot; St. Marie; Beauvais; Des
Jardins ; Lamotte ; Langlois and Marechal, as near as Mr. Billon has been able
to ascertain, and all became prominent residents of the little village. (Billon's
Annals of St. Louis, p. 69.) Some of these names are evidently nicknames, i. e.,
Bonvarlet,' Blondin, Pion and Ayot.

** In the case of Wright's Admr. v. Thomas, 4 Mo. 345, Judge McGirk also
seems to think that the French at St. Louis, at tliis time, had no legal govern-
ment at all, overlooking the fact that certainly before the actual surrender of
Fort de Chartres the country remained under the French Government, and was
governed by the conunandant of that fort, as it always had been before the
treaty of 1762. The simple fact that afterward the fort and the country east
of the Mississippi was surrendered to the English did not divest the commandant
of his authori^ in the remaining territory, although this too had been ceded to
Spain. By removing to the part of the territory not ceded to England, he re-
mained in authority there until Spain assumed jurisdiction. The learned judge
seemed to think that St. Ange could not bring any authority to St. Louis wiUi
him, but as a matter of fact he was in authority all the time on both banks of the
river, until actually superseded by the new government. It is laid down in Kent
that the national character of a ceded country continues as it is until the country

i8 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

west side of the river remained in full force and did not require action
on the part of " the people, " as has been imagined. He was not
elected ** unanimously," and his popularity or unpopularity in the
village did not affect his authority. It is to be presumed that St.
Ange understood this. In all his official proceedings, after removing
the seat of his government to the new town, he substantially followed
the procedure followed at Fort de Chartres, having associated with
himself a council, probably the same council he had at Fort de
Chartres, a body sometimes called "superior council of the province of
Illinois," and which originally embraced within its jurisdictional lim-
its the territory on both sides of the Mississippi. Accordingly, we
find that Joseph Lefebvre Des Bruisseau, who had exercised the
functions of a civil judge at Fort de Chartres, continued to exercise
these functions when he came to St. Louis, until he died in 1767."
He was succeeded after his death by Joseph Labusciere,** who

is actually transferred, and that full sovereignty cannot be held to pass until
actual delivery of the country, (i Kent's Commentaries, p. 177.) Until actual
delivery of the country to Spain therefore St. Ange was not only de facto but
also de jure in authority.

** Full name Joseph Lefebvre d'Inglebert Des Bruisseau, a native of France,
came to New Orleans in 1 743, and to Fort de Chartres in 1 744, having obtained
from M. de Vaudreuil, Governor General of Louisiana, the grant of an exclu-
sive right to trade with the Indians on the Missouri. After his trade privilege was
given to others he served as judge of civil cases at Fort de Chartres for a number
of years, and came to St. Louis with St. Ange. Married in France Marie Ursule
Diacre. Pierre Francois des Bruisseau, became lieutenant in the French service,
married Margaret de Laferne, daughter of Pierre Ignace Bardet de La-
feme, surgeon-major in the King's service at Fort de Chartres, and who
married Marie Ann Barrois. Pierre Francois des Bruisseau died in New
Orleans in 1770, leaving no children, his widow married Joseph Segond, mer-
chant, and died in 1844, leaving a numerous posterity, (i Scharff's History of
St. Louis, p. 73, note.) Her elder sister, Marie Anna, married Dr. Auguste
Condc, a surgeon, and who removed to St. Louis in 1766. The marriage
contract between Pierre and Margaret was filed in St. Louis in 1768. When
the elder Des Bruisseau died, in 1767, an inventory was taken, from which it
appears that among his assets were fourteen grenadier's guns, sixteen half
axes, twenty-seven tomahawks, a block of copper to press paper, one thous-
and pounds of bar lead, six hundred and sixteen dog-head knives, thirteen and
one half dozen butcher-knives, seventy-four blankets, one hundred and twenty-
seven small bells, fifteen hundred gun flints, eleven cannon-balls, four hun-
dred and thirty-seven gun screws, five hundred and ninety-seven fire steels,
three hundred and twenty-two large springs, three hundred and forty-nine
gun-pan covers, two hundred and fifty-nine gun-cocks, three hundred and
nine gun-nuts, etc. (i Billon's Annals, p. 49.) Des Bruisseau it should be
remembered from 1744 to 1749 under French government, had the exclusive
trade on the Missouri, and was under contract to build a fort on that river.
This may account for much of these military stores.

** Joseph Labusciere was a notary and the King's procureur, or attorney,
an important p)ersonage always, under the French law, and of course most im-
portant in the eyes of the early French settlers of the Mississippi valley.
His wife was a lady of some education. Left three sons, Joseph, Junior,

ULLOA'S INSTRUCTIONS 19

had been royal attorney and notary. One Pierre Peri dit St. Pierre
at that time was public scrivener.

From the instructions of UUoa, as well as original complaints
preserved in the archives at St. Louis, it also appears that St. Ange
during the presence of Rui was not superseded ; ** on the contrary,
when dissensions arose among the Spaniards at the fort on the Missouri
he even took cognizance of complaints against and acted for the
Spanish officers. Thus Labusciere in a judicial paper, dated
August, 1768, states that he is acting "as judge and deputy of the
Commander of Louisiana and proxy of the King's Attorney Gen-
eral of Illinois," and as such entertained a complaint of the Spanish
officer "Joseph Barelas," (may be Varelas) cadet engineer of the
Garrison of "Fort Charles'* against another Spanish officer "Don
Fernando de Gomez, Lieutenant Commandant of the Fort."

UUoa, in the instruction he gave Captain Rui, seemed primarily to
contemplate the formation of a new settlement north of the Missouri,
of which Rui was to be chief, not interfering with the existing settle-
ment of " the Illinois " south of the Missouri. From the fact that Rui
did not interfere in the litigation brought before St. Ange against his
soldiers and officers, it may be supposed, also, that he construed his
instructions to mean that he had no authority to question or interfere
with the jurisdiction of St. Ange. Again, in 1769, Ulloa ordered the
fort "El Principe de Asturias" to be evacuated and delivered to
Captain St. Ange. From all this it is clearly manifest that he was fully
recognized as the supreme civil and military commandant by the
Spanish authorities of the Illinois country west of the Mississippi for
some time after the Treaty of Fontainebleau.

Louis and Francois. All the early documents in the archives, except the first
fifteen written by Lefebvre, are in the handwriting of Labusciere. Was a resi-
dent of St. Louis for twenty-five years, connected officially with the government
at first, afterwards legal adviser and attorney of the people, and prepared their
legal papers; a p)erson of consequence, useful and valuable to the village. During
the time that St. Ange administered the government, he was custodian of the
archives; countersigned land grants, and when Governor Piernas appeared to
take possession of the country, duly delivered the archives. Between April 20,
1766, and May 20, 1770, prepared, according to Billon, one hundred and forty-
four papers of various kinds, which were then transferred. (Scharff 's History of
St. Louis, p. 72, et seq., note 2.) In the case of Hill et al., vs. Wright, 3 Mo.
Rep., p. 136, no doubt on full investigation it is admitted that Labusciere in
1782 or 1783 moved from St. Louis to Cahokia, Illinois, and that he died there
April 29, 1792. His notarial record he carried across the river, and it is now
in Belleville, Illinois, according to Alvord in his "Old Kaskaskia Records," An
Address, p. 42. Also see note 15, page 340, vol. i.

** Pittman says, that he was "forbid to interfere with the civil government
of their settlements in the Illinois country, where Mons. De Saint Ange contin-
ues to command." (Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, p. 16.)

20 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

The oldest document recorded in the archives of St. Louis relates
to a sale of a lot made by Jacques Denis, a joiner, to Antoine Hu-
bert, a trader, and is dated January 21, 1766, apparently for a lot
assigned to Denis by Laclede, because it was not until in April follow-
ing grants of land were made by St. Ange, countersigned by Lefebvre,
and after his death by Labusciere. These grants of St. Ange were all
duly recorded in the Livre Terriefty or Land Book, which was com-
menced as soon as he began to makie grants of lots and lands. The
first grant of St. Ange was made to Joseph Labusciere, the notary,
of a lot in St. Louis, fronting three hundred feet on Rue Royal
(now Main street) by one hundred and fifty feet in depth to the river.
The system of land grants pursued by St. Ange was very simple.
The concession merely stated the name of the applicant, the date and
description of the property ceded, and concluded " under the condi-
tion of settling it within one year and a day, and that the same shall
remain liable to the public charges,'* duly signed " St. Ange," and by
"Labusciere." St. Ange granted eighty-one lots* from April 27,

• These grantees not already mentioned, and other early settlers comprise
the following list: In 1765, Jean Ortes or Jean Baptiste Ortes, a carpenter,
and Jean Cambas, who seem to have had a grant in partnership ; Gilles Cemin
or Chemin; Constantine Philipp)e De Quirigoust, died in 1769 or 1770; Jacques
Chauvin, an officer in the French service, from Fort de Chartres, lived in St.
Louis about thirty-five years, when he received a large concession from DeLas-
sus on the Missouri, opposite St. Charles, and died there in 1826, aged eighty-
three years, was probably a son of Joseph Chauvin, dit CharleviUe, of Kaskaskia,
and who died there in about 1783-84, according to Billon. These Chauvins are
perhaps related to the Chauvins, dit Lafreniere, mentioned by Gayarre (History
of Louisiana, French Domination, p. 187) and so distinguished in the annals of
lower Louisiana, came into the Mississippi valley with Bienville. The wife
of Gilles Chauvin of Detroit was his cousin, and he may be the ancestor of
Jacques, as these Chauvins all seem related. Gervais raised tobacco on
part of his lot; Louis Reed, his son Laurent testifies, was born in St. Louis
about 1763, evidently meaning 1764-65, a wooden block house or bastion was
on Louis Reed's lot, so testified Frangois Duchouquette who lived here at this
time ; Louis Bour^, dit Grand Loui, rope maker, raised peaches and plums on
his lot prior to 1800; Jacob La Sabloniere, in 1793 went to Prairie du Rocher,
his daughter married Titus LeBerge, a Jacques Brunei La Sabloniere also lived
in St. Louis; Guillaume Hebert, dit Lecompte, had a stone quarry in St. Louis in
1799, and Chouteau testified he got stone from him in that year, paying him
five sous per load, lived also at St. Ferdinand ; Jacques Egliz, on River des Pferes;
Antoine Flondrain (or Flandrin), died in 1822; Susan Jeannette, a colored
woman. In 1 766, Sieur Devin ; Joseph Dub6 ; Louis Marcheteau, dit DesNoyers,
married Veronica Panisse ; Jean Marie Thoulouze ; Jean Prevot (or Prevost) ;
a Nicolas Proveau (of Proveaux) was an "habitan de Concession les des Mines"
in 1746 — perhaps the same family. Louis Chauvet Dubreuil, a merch-
ant, and in 1790 at St. Ferdinand; in 1799 a Louis Dubreuil had a
grant on Cuivre in St. Charles district; Antoine Hebert, dit Lecompte,
a merchant ; Thomas Blondeau (also spelled Blondain) ; Jacques Lacroix, in
1 791 in the New Madrid district; Jean Baptiste Jacquemin; Jean
Baptiste Butaud, dit Brindamour; Francois La Chapelle; Alexis Marie; Louis
Merlet Desloriers, a merchant; Philibert Gagnon, dit Laurent, soldier, also find

PIERNAS • 21

1766, to February 7, 1770, when Don Pedro Piemas, "a captain of
infantry," the first Spanish lieutenant-governor, assumed the govem-

a Laurent Lerouge (or Rouge), dit Gagnon, in St. Louis; and may be the same
person; Pierre Lacroix, married Helen I'Arche in 1767; Nicolas Hebert, dit
Lecompte; Jacques Noise, dit Labbe (or L'Abbe), and was known as Pierre
Noise; Ignace Herbert; Joseph Marcheteau, dit DesNoyers ; Alexis Loise; Jean
B. Hamelin; Frangois Larche or L'Arche, a Paul L'Arche, "Maitre Cordon-
nier*' at "Fort Nouvelle de Chartres de I'lllinois" in parish St. Anne, in
1748 — no doubt related to him; Jean B. Bidet, dit Langoumois; Mich-
ael Audilier; BarthMemi Blondeau; Pierre Rougeau Berger, married Theresa
Hebert; Francois Laville, dit St. Germain; Louis Desfonds; Louis Robert, or
Robar, at Glaize k Bequette in 1 785 ; Charles Parent ; Ignace Laroche ; Louis
Laroche, from Kaskaskia, afterwards in 1797 lived at St. Ferdinand; Isadore
Peltier, slave owner, also at Ste. Genevieve; Charles Peltier, also lived at St.
Ferdinand ; Antoine Peltier, dit Morin, from Kaskaskia, owned four slaves, and in
1796 on the Mississippi and at Petite Gingras; in 1767, Joseph Pouillot, a trader ;
Louis Lambert, dit Lafleur, was afterward agent for Joseph Robidoux, and culti-
vated land for him at St. Ferdinand in 1 794, but a Jean Louis Lambert, dit
Lafleur, was a prominent merchant in Ste. Genevieve in 1766, died 1771 ; Pierre
Fouch^, merchant; Claude Tinon, in 1771 was a cultivator of the common-field
of Carondelet; Antoine Donnay St. Vincent, may be the Antonio Venzan — a
corporal in the ist militia company in 1780; Nicolas Barsaloux, married Made-
laine Lcberge ; Francois Moreau, married Catherine Marechal this year, and Jo-
seph Gamache married Charlotte Louviere; Jean B. Langevin; Michel Pichet;
Jean B. Vien, dit Noel, a billiard-table keeper, which he leased for three years
to Louis Vigo in 1 770, Vien was a son-in-law of Joseph Vachard ; Joseph Franch-
ville ; Bareras or Barelas, was the first bankrupt trader who absconded, his effects
being seized. In this year we note that Laclede made a contract with one John
Hanoilton, no doubt an Englishman, and one of the first west of the Mississippi.
Joseph Picote de Belestre possibly Picote de Belestre; Joseph Leroy; Joseph
Dubord; Placy, Duplacy or Placet, likely Jean Baptiste who also lived at Ste.
Genevieve, a Kaskaskia family, where we find Dupay, Plade and others; Pierre
Dagobert, a merchant in Ste. Genevieve, and interested in lead mining there, but
seems also to have been engaged in business in St. Louis; Frangois Cailloux, dit
Cayon, testifies he was bom in 1766 and came to St. Louis in 1767, in 1800
he had a grant on 1,600 arpens on the river Matis; Eustache and Louis
Cailloux (or Caillou) brothers, and Pedro Caillou, all may be of same family,
and related to Cailloux (or Calliot), dit Lachance, of Ste. Genevieve district;
Pierre Cailloux moved from Kaskaskia to St. Louis about 1780. In 1768,
Louis Beor (or Bour or Bourfe) may be "Grand Loui;" Guillaume' Bizet
(Bissette) also at Cul de Sac of Big Prairie, his widow married Jean Bap-
tiste Provenchfere; Frangois Thibault, a carpenter, and Charles Thibault, a
blacksmith; Jean Perin, dit Boucher; Ignatius Laroche; Charles Bizet or Bis-
sette, murdered by the Indians in 1772; T. B. Petit, in 1795, lived at St. Charles;
Joseph Alvarez Hortiz, a Spaniard, resident of Louisiana after the country was
ceded to France by Spain, employed in various civil and military matters, but
declined, according to Auguste Chouteau, rank in army, was never paid for his
services, but solicited and accepted a grant of land in 1800 as compensation ;
Christoval de Lisa, in service of Spain, came to the country with Eugene Alva-
rez in 1768, and died in the service of Spain, bis sons, Joachim and Manuel
were bom in Spanish -America, but it is also claimed that Manuel was bom in
New Orleans in 1770; Francois Moreau, a resident of St. Louis in this year,
but in 1796 received a grant near St. Ferdinand, also claimed a grant by assign-
ment of Fran9ois Poillivre on the forks of the Maramec in Ste. Genevieve dis-
trict, but in 1797 settled on river Establishment, built a house, "made a park,"
and raised a crop, (2 P. L., p. 600), was also on the Mississippi near Ste. Gen-
evieve, and claimed the four arpens square that had been granted to Francois
Azor, dit Breton, for discovering Mine k Breton ; Jean Baptiste Dechamps lived

22 • fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

ment of the Illinois country. ^ It was thus that St. Ange became the
l^al founder of St. Louis.*' After receiving grants from St. Ange, it

in St. Louis in 1768, but in 1780 was on river aux Cardes, and on account of In-
dians compelled to abandon same, Toussaint Dechamps, dit Hunot, cultivated
this property for one year, but he, too, was compellecl to abandon it. In 1798
Jean Baptiste was at Portage des Sioux, the first house built there being on lus
lot, also owned property at St. Charles prior to 1803; Joseph Morin or Marin,
carpenter, in 1 795 lived on Prairie Bocuf Blanc and Prairie Des Noyers both
now within the limits and in center of St. Louis; Bonaventure Collel, a native
of Barcelona, merchant of St. Louis, in 1793 at St. Ferdinand, his property sold
at the church door by order of the Governor, in 1794 was in New Madrid, mar-
ried Constance Conde, but it was discovered that he had a living wife in Spain
and he absconded and in 1802 one Frangois Collel, also sells at New Madrid
the property of one Bonaventure Collel — ^may be same person; Francois M.
Benoit (Benoist). We also find in this year in the early records, the names of
Beaujeu (may be same as Bogy); Louis Bowpart or Poupast; Foncalt, who
either lived in St. Louis or made that place headquarters when they came in
from tl^e Indiai> villages ; M. Dutillet, a merchant; Antoine Berard, a native of
Bordeaux, France, came to New Orleans in 1768 and shortly afterwards to St.
Louis, where he engaged in trade, a man of education, died in October, 1776,
thirty-six years of age; Dominique Bargas, a Spaniard, bought the store and
house where he did business and also died there in 1779, aged thirty-eight years,
of apoplexy, su{>erinduced by excessive heat, so said Dr. Bernard Gibkins; Gille
Henrion, made a sale to Laclede in this year. In 1769, Louis Dufresne; Joseph
Bouchard or Boucher; Laurent Trudeau; Joseph Langlois, in 1795 was near
St. Charles ; Francois Durcy ; Jean Baptiste Chauvin ; Kierq Marcheteau Des
Noyers; Jean Paille; Antoine St. Frangois; Veuve Hebert, from Kaskaskia;
Antoine Roussel, dit Sans Souci ; Nicolas Choret ; Amour LaVienne ; Nicholas
T. (Francois) Dion, married Theresa Hervieux, daughter no doubt of the royal
armorer, in this year; PhiUbert Gaignon to Marie Newby, evidently an English-
woman ; Jean Baptiste Savoie (Savoye), dit Cadien married Louise Ladurantaie —
also find a person of same name at St. Charles. Pierre Durcy, perhaps a brother
Df Francois, engages his services to Louis Butand ; Pierre Roy ; Jean Marie Papin ;
Jean B. Trudeau; Jean St. Andre; Nicolas St. Andre; Joseph Chartrand;
Antoine DeGagne; Louis La Traverse; Francois Henrion, who died in 1781;
Louis Barada, dit Breda, Senior, miller and butcher, in 1797 moved to St.
Charles owned property on Prairie DesNoyers ; Antoine Barada, Junior, in
1796 married Elizabeth Tesson.

*• Don Pedro Joseph Piernas was a Spaniard by birth, came to New Orleans
with Ulloa, a captain in the Spanish service, married Fecilite Robineau de Port-
neuf, at New Orleans, who was the sole heiress of Louis Nicolas Robineau de
Portneuf and also heiress of half of the estate of Madame Marguerite Philipjse
D'Aneau de Muid, widow of Rene Robineau, Lord of Portneuf. She was born
at Fort de Chartres Sept. 25th, 1745. Piernas in 1785 was colonel of the
Louisiana Regiment at New Orleans, succeeding Governor Estevan Miro.
Ulloa in a letter to Marquis de Grimaldi says that he was very popular with the
troops under him on account "of his methods, joviality, and good treatment"
they received from him; and that at Natchez he succeeded with the fort and
settlement although he had "less than one half the people that were in Misuri."
Piernas held command in New Orleans while Galvez was absent on his expedi-
tion to conquer the British p>ossessions on the Mississippi. He was in the Span-
ish service 30 years, and his father before him served 48 years

*' Says Martin, "St. Ange, the French commandant there (at Fort de Char-
tres) crossed the Mississippi with a number of his countrymen, who were desir-
ous to follow the white flag, and laid the foundation of the town of St. Louis."
(Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. i, p. 350.) In this "Histoire de la Louisiane"
Victor De Bouchel says, "Pendant que Saint Ange quittait a fort de Chartres de
Plllinois pour aller fonder la villede Saint Louis, sur les rives Mississippi," page 60.

GRANTS OF ST. ANGE 23

is also to be noted that some of the settlers erected more substantial
buildings. But Jean B Martigny, one of the most substantial and
wealthy immigrants, erected, in 1766, a stone building, which was
afterward long occupied as a residence of Ihe lieutenant-governor,
and this house was the " Government House " where the transfer
of Upper Louisiana was made.*'

The grants made by St. Ange were never questioned by the Span-
ish authorities, although it is said that some apprehension as to the
legal status of those grants existed at the time.* The description of
the various lots granted clearly shows that no survey or plat of the
town was made prior to 1 770. Nor was a survey of town lots required
afterward under the Spanish government, when the same were granted,
as in the case of grants of land.^ Thus the lot granted to Laclede by
St. Ange, when he came to St. Louis, and after Laclede and others had
built houses, is described : " Three hundred feet square, the square
reserved for the church on one side, on one side a cross street from
Marcereau and Hubert, the other from Taillon.' * Again, a few days
after, he granted "one hundred and twenty feet by one hundred
and fifty front on Royal street, in the rear Roger Taillon, on one
side lot of Joseph Taillon, on the other side a cross street separating
it from Veuve Marechal." Pierre Francois de Volsay is granted
" two hundred and forty by three hundred, one side a cross street
from the lot of Blondeau and Lamy, on the north another cross
street." Jacque Denis, a carpenter (joiner), is granted one hundred
and twenty by one hundred and fifty, described: "opposite the
church, west of Bam Hill, on one side Hubert, on the other a
cross street from Beausoliel." Laville, the first tailor in St. Louis,
received a lot "near the Barn Hill, one side Chauvin, the other a
cross street from Montardy." Pierre Roy *s lot is thus designated:
"opposite Comparios dit Gascon, one end Sarpy under Blondeau, the
other end a cross street from Hunaud's lot." Not only is it evident
from these descriptions that no survey of the lots was made, but it is

*' When Louisiaha was ceded to the United States, St. Lx>uis had thirty-three
stone dwellings, one hundred and thirty-one built out of posts and logs, and
seven out of posts and stones. The French log houses were built by posts set
in the ground, and these were bound together by timber, and the interstices
filled with stone and mortar.

*• "But Governor Piernas allayed their apprehensions by a public confirma-
tion of all the land titles which St. Ange had granted." (i Scharff's History of
St. Louis, p. 203.) In the most public manner confirmed all the grants that had
been made by his predecessor St. Ange de Bellerive. (Shepard's History of St.
Louis, p. 20.)

'• See Clark vs. Brazeau, i Mo. Rep., p. 294,

24 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

ako apparent that during the administration of St. Ange, only one
street was known by a distinct name, viz., " Rue Royal," now Main
street. For convenience cross streets or alleys existed, but none of
these were officially designated at first by any name. Naturally, the
few streets of the town in course of several years received designations,
based on some local circumstance. Thus the street (now Market) out
to the path leading to the Bonhomme settlement, became known as
" Rue Bonhomme,* ' the street (Walnut) leading to the tower on the
hill, "Rue de la Tour," the street (Second) on which the church
stood was called "Rue de PEglise," and the street farthest back
(Third) on which the bams were located was the " Rue des Granges,"
or Bam street. This locality was then also described as " the hill
of the barns in the rear of the village.* '

The first survey of the lots of the town granted by St. Ange was
made by M. Martin Duralde, who was appointed surveyor by Piemas.
After completing this work, he filed his report and plat May 20,
1772.*^* It is also highly probable that he made a plat of the village
showing unoccupied lots, streets and alleys, although no such plat
made by him has been preserved. Pierre Chouteau says that he
studied surveying under Duralde, who surveyed not only the village,
but a large number of the prairie common-fields, near the village, into
what may be called farm lots.

The agricultural operations of the first settlers of St. Louis were
carried on in a common-field, and in this work all the settlers were in-
terested, because after the erection of their new homes the production
of breadstuffs was a matter of prime importance. The first com-
mon-field of the old Nnllage of St. Louis, according to the statement of
Auguste Chouteau, extended from near Market street, north to the
Big Mound, and from what is now Broadway as far west as JeflFerson
avenue. Like the common-fields elsewhere, the common-field of the
settlers of St. Louis comprised a quantity of land large enough to sat-
isfy the wants of the inhabitants of the adjacent village, and in the
common-fields each settler or habitan, at that time by petition, could

" I Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 142. It is said in Scharff's History of
St. Louis, page 203, " To define the bounds of real property and avoid litigation,
the settlers solicited an official survey of land grants. The Governor promptly
complied with the request of the petitioners and appointed Martin M. Duralde,
a Frenchman, to the surveyorship which he created. The honors bestowed on
their countryman, and the practical benefits of the government, fully recon-
ciled the French settlers to their new allegiance." How like a newspaper report
of the present day! In Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 20, it is said, "As if
to add satisfaction to security, he appointed Martin Duralde, a Frenchman, sur-
veyor, to make and define their boundaries."

THE "COMMONS" 25

secure a lot. These lots so granted were considered the individual
property of the cultivators, and were one arpen in front by forty in
depth. As soon as the settlement was founded, the settlers began to
enclose the common-field described, and for a long time the east fence
of this common-field was the west boundary of the village. But in
addition, south and southwest of the village, the country through which
La Petite Rivifere, or Mill creek, ran, and where numerous springs fed
this branch, a tract of land was also enclosed by the settlers for com-
mon pasturage, and in this enclosure the inhabitants kept part of their
cattle and stock for safety and convenience.*^ This enclosure was
known as the " Prairie,' ' but after the American occupation became
known as the " Common " or " Commons," and under decree of
Cruzat embraced 4293 arpens. These " commons* ' were held to be
common property or land of. the inhabitants of St. Louis, and as such
were confirmed to St. Louis afterward." They were first fenced in
1 764. The " commons " were originally smaller, but grew in size as the
town increased in population. All the people of the village cut wood
on these "commons." When, in 1792, Sylvestre Labadie secured a
grant to a part of this tract of land, the people remonstrated and
he was prohibited by the lieutenant-governor to cultivate the same."

From the St. Louis archives it appears that the first mortgage
made and recorded in St. Louis was dated September 29, 1766, and
executed by Pierre Rougeau Berger to Franjois Boyer, both merchants,
engaged in the fur trade. The mortgage fails to specify any particular
property mortgaged, but pledges the goods of the mortgagor as security
for the payment of a certain specified nimiber of deerskins at a cer-
tain time, no value being mentioned. Several years afterward, how-
ever, the mortgagee acknowledges by his attorney that payment has
been made, and this acknowledgment is attested by the notary and

•'This district is now covered with buildings and railroad tracks, and fol-
lowing the course of this valley westward it presents far from a lovely picture.
Railroad cars of every kind, locomotives puffing up clouds of smoke, old shanties,
dilapidated houses, black and dirty, great factories smoke begrimed, and the big
shed of the Union Station dominate the landscape.

" The "Conmions" were by act of Congress confirmed to St. Louis in
181 2, and in 1835 the legislature of Missouri authorized the city of St. Louis to
sell the property, the proceeds of the sale to be used for school purposes. The
land was sold and brought $425,000, at public sale; but the purchasers in many
instances failed to take the pro{>erty. In 1843, 3'^^ 5 ^n^ns of the land were
resold, and brought nearly $50 p)er acre, or about $163,680. At the time the low-
est price fixed by the dty was $21.75 P^r acre. Some 591 acres, not sold in i860,
were valued at $581 ,39 1 . The totaljvalue of the property originally'embraced in
the "St. Louis Commons" can not be far short of $100,000,000 now, or even more.

^American State Pa{>ers, 2 Public Lands, p. 671.

26 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

recorded. Among these archives are also found the judgment of the
council, and other documents relating to the sale of the eflFects and
salt works of Mr. Datchurut of Ste. Genevieve, showing that after the
transfer of Fort de Chartres all such important matters of conveyance
pertaining to the country on the west bank of the river were taken cog-
nizance of by St. Ange at St. Louis. That St. Ange exercised great
powers is shown by one document recording a sentence to death of one
Michael Degoust,** as well as by an ordinance preserved in these
archives which he seems to have promulgated in 1 768 against the sale
of ardent spirits to the Indians. But generally the documents depos-
ited in the archives relate to sales of lots, sales made under executions
or to bonds and obligations assumed, bargains and trades and
engagements for services.

That the marriage relation was entered into with due circum-
spection in St. Louis in those early days is evidenced by the fact
that from 1766 to 1770 not less than sixteen marriage contracts were
made and duly recorded by the notary in the new village. The first
marriage was celebrated on April 20, 1766, and the high contracting
parties were Toussaint Hunaud, from Canada, a hunter and trapper,
and Marie Beaugeneau.*^ The first child born in St. Louis was John
B.Guion, September, 1765, son of Amable Guion, Senior, a stone
mason by trade, "^ and Margaret Blondeau. And the first death of
which we have a record is that of Jean B. Olivere, buried January
7, 1 77 1, Rene Kiercereau ofldciating.*' The first graveyard was the
church-yard on Second street. A graveyard seems also to have been
located near or on the present courthouse lot, and which was unconse-
crated ground and where Protestants and Indians were buried. It was
in this graveyard that it is supposed that St. Ange had Pontiac interred.

Dr. Aiiguste Andre Conde, who settled in the village in 1766,
and died November, 1776, was the first physician of St. Louis,*'

** See St. Louis Archives, cited i Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 74.

•• Toussaint was a son of Louis Hunaud of Ste. Genevieve. Antoine and
Louis Hunaud, junior, were his brothers; the widow, Charlotte Hyacinthe, of
Louis Hunaud, in 1776 married Louis Ride, senior, (i Billon's Annals of St.
Louis, p. 419.)

" This on authority of Judge Wilson Primm, related to the Guion family.
The family came from Kaskaskia. Amable Guion, senior, had a grant on Lit-
tle Prairie near St. Louis, and was killed by the Indians in 1780. Amable Guion,
junior, owned property at Carondelet, and died there September 18, 1813, aged
fiftv vears.

'• But it is quite certain that between the first settlement of St. Louis and
January, 1771, deaths occurred among the residents, although not recorded.

*• Dr. Conde was a native of Aunis, France, surgeon in the French service at

EARLY PHYSICIANS 27

and, according to his books, nearly every family in the town was in
debt to him for professional services, among the list of debtors
being St. Ange de Bellerive, who died December 26, 1774. Dr.
Jean B. Valleau, who came up the river with Captain Rui in
1768, secured a concession of a lot from St. Ange, and made a
contract with Peter Tousignan, one of the early carpenters and
builders of the town, to build a house of posts eighteen feet long
by fourteen feet wide, shingled roof, stone chimney, partitioned in the
center, door in partition and door on the outside, two windows and
shutters, well floored and sealed with well jointed cottonwood plank,
and the pay for this work to be " sixty silver dollars,' ' Dr. Valleau to
furnish the iron and nails. When it is remembered that this work was
all done by hand, even the plank sawed out of the logs by hand, no
machine work and steam to help,**sixty silver dollars" must seem an
extraordinary low price to us in our day. Dr." Valleau did not live
long in St. Louis, but died on the 24th of November following. His
will is dated the 23rd of November, and in it Duralde is named as
executor, and it is witnessed by St. Ange, Labusciere and Joseph Pa-
pin, then a trader in St. Louis. Duralde sold the house and lot in
December, 1768 for 251 livres ($50), but his personal effects, it ap-
pears, were sold in 1771, after the arrival of Piernas "in the village
of St. Louis, in the Spanish part of the Illinois. " "^ Shortly after the
death of Dr. Valleau, in 1771, we find that "Joseph Connand,
surgeon,' ' purchased a stone house from Papin dit Lachance,
and infer from this that he was a practicing physician in
St. Louis at that time." Dr. Antoine Reynal arrived in St.
Louis about 1780, and began to practice his profession, re-
maining until 1799, when he removed to St. Charles, where he

Fort de Chartres where he married Marie Anna Bardet de la Feme, July 16,
1763, died November 28, 1776; his widow married Gaspard Roubieu, dit Euro-
pean, removed to St. Charles with him, and they both died there.

•• Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. i, p. 60. i Scharff's History of St.
Louis, p. 185.

•* This Connand lived in this house for seven years (Billon's Annals of St.
Louis, vol. I, p. 161). His name occurs several times during that time. Seems
to have moved away. In 1781 a Dr. Jacques Frangois Connand was "as master
of surgery received in the jurisdiction of Illinois," and likely the same person.
(53 Draper's Collection, Clark MSS. No. 78.) A Joseph Connand in 1784,
and whose signature, says Draper, looks like that of Dr. Connand, meaning
Jacques Frangois, was in Havanna on the island of Cuba in that year, and
afterwards trader from the Illinois to New Orleans down the Mississippi. A
Joseph Connand seems to have been an early settler on Burginon river near
Natchitoches, in lower Louisiana, and may be the Dr. Joseph Connand of St.
Louis. Perhaps his name was Joseph Jacques Francois Connand, and he may
have used sometimes the first and sometimes his other Christian names.

aS HISTORY OF MISSOURI

died in iSao. Contemporary with Dr. Reynal as a physician, we also
find Dr. Ciaudio Mercier, who carae up to St. Louis from New
Orleans in 1784. Dr. Mercier was a native of Lavasiere, Dauphiny,
France, where he was born in 1736, and died in St. Louis in January,
1787. Dr. Bernard Gibkins, a native of Germany, who afterward
lived in Ste. Genevieve where he died
! "^ in 1784, during the years 1779 and 1780

was also a resident physician of St. Louis.
The most eminent of the eaxly physicians
was Dr. Antoine Saugrain," who came
to St. Louis in i8cx). He was a native of
Paris, France, and removed lo the United
States in 1787. Dr. Saugrain was a man
of great scientific attainment and a per-
sonal friend of Benjamin Franklin, at
whose instance he emigrated to the United
States. He first resided at Gallipolis, but
moved to upper Louisiana, no doubt in-
duced by tbe liberal land policy of the Spaniards. As to the general
health of the country, Trudeau, in 1791, wrote that the "mortality
has been heavy, and came only from colds in the chests," the only
"dangerous illness" of the country; that in general work-people have
been victims " because of the badly founded preconceprtions of some
against bleeding, and the lack of a blood-letter forothers."

The first grist-mill impelled by horse or ox power, was built in
St. Louis in 1766 by Joseph Taillon usually pronounced Tayon.
To secure water-power he first darned the PetiU RivHre with a
small dam. Before this mill was built the settlers used mortars
and hand-mills to make meal and flour. Taillon, in 1767, sold out to
"Dr. Saugrain was born in 1763, he married Genevieve Rosalie Michau,
also born in Paris July 13, 1776, in Kanawha county, Virginia, opposite Galli-
polis, March lo, lyg^. He first came to the United Stales with M, Piquet, a
botanist, and M. Raquet, in 1787; he then prepared to establish himself in
Kentucky. Jefferson recommended him as well as Mr. Piquet warmly to General
Georee Rogers Clark in a letter. (16 Draper's Notes, Trip i860.) In the same
year he went to Pittsburg, from Philadelphia, and on a Bat boat descended the
Ohio, where near [he Falls of the Ohio ihe boat was attacked by the Indians.
M. Piquet was wounded and drowned in Ihe river, and M. Raquet killed and
scalped by the Indians. Saugrain was captured, but in the night escaped with
a man by the name of Pierce. After this experience Dr. Saugrain returned
to France, but in 1790 returned and became one of the founders of Gallipolis,
and in 1799 moved to Portage des Siom between Missouri and Mississippi, and
from there Co St, Louis in iSoo, where he received a large grant of land from De-
Lassus; was also at Carondelet. He died May 19, iSio, his wife survived him
forty years and died at the age of eighty-four, July 13, i860.

GRANTS OF ST. ANGE CONFIRMED 29

Laclede, who raised the mill dam to increase the water-power and
equipped the mill with two pair of mill-stones. After Laclede's death
Auguste Chouteau, in 1779, acquired the property and operated a
mill here during a half century. In 1784 or 1785 Jos. Motard
built a windmill out of stone on what is now Third street.

After Piemas assumed control of the affairs " of the establishment
of Illinois and the dependencies belonging to his Catholic Majesty,' '
under orders of O 'Reilly he caused a census to be taken, and accord-
ing to this enumeration the population of all the Illinois country, west
of the Mississippi river, then did not exceed 891 — distributed in the
various small settlements.*" And a large number of these settlers

zdx^

ze/x/nfis

had only recently crossed into the Spanish territory. How small, then,
must have been the population on the west side of the river prior to
1762! In 1772 the total population had increased to 1288, of which
803 were whites and 485 slaves. St. Louis then had a population of
399 whites of both sexes, and 198 slaves.

All the official papers executed from the year 1768 to the 20th of
May, 1770, were delivered to Piemas by Labusciere, and also the
"Register of the Concessions of Land and Lots in the village of St.
Louis.' ' After the survey of the village of St. Louis to i&x the bounda-
ries of the lots, Piemas expressly confirmed all grants of lots made by
St. Ange, and continued to make other grants until April 24, 1775,
when he was superseded by Don Francesco Cruzat. Piemas was a
" man of dignity," and this, so it is said," made him distasteful to the
Indians."** Shepard says that he was an officer of " kind and liberal

•* Gayarre's History of Louisiana, vol. i, p. 355.

** It is said that on account of his dignified manner an Osage chief took
ofifensei ''mistaking his reserve, so different from the affability of the French,
as evidence of p>ersonal dislike", and resolved to kill him in revenge for a fan-
cied insult, but while intoxicated betrayed his murderous secret to a Shawnee
Indian, who prevented the assassination by slaying the intended assassin, (i
Scluuffs History of St. Louis, p. 202.) And Mr. Shepard says that the Shawnee
was a chief and came to treat for some lands in the rear of Ste. Genevieve. But
if this story depends on the Shawnee chief, it is manifestly a fiction, because the
Shawnees did not come into the Spanish possesions until afterward. (Shep-

30 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

disposition," and conducted affairs "with that wisdom and prudence
which seldom failed to make both the governor and the governed
happy." * It was also remarked that, after the arrival of Piernas,
the town or settlement of St. Louis did not increase in population as
rapidly as during the first few years of the establishment of the village,
the French residents on the east side of the river evidently having
recovered from their first fear of the English and English government.*"
During the administration of Piernas in 1774, the first village prison
was constructed, a small stone structure fifteen by twenty, built
against one of the gable ends of the stone house built by Laclede, and
in which the governor resided. The cost of this prison was $165."'

Piernas was succeeded by Don Francesco Cruzat, a lieutenant-
colonel of the stationary regiment of Louisiana. We are told that
he was a mild and agreeable gentleman, who conducted the adminis-
tration so quietly " in the healthful channels of his predecessor* ' that
he was considered a man of very ordinary capacity then, but whom
" the good and the wise will always desire to praise and imitate, as
he made all about him happy, contented and prosperous. ""* It was
during this period that the traders of the town began to evade **the
oppressive imposts by systematic smuggling,' ' that is to say, imported

ard's History of St. Louis, p. 2 1 .) The statement of Shepard that "The Shawnees
and Delawares were assigned lands at that time near Ste. Genevieve, and built
villages on them, and cultivated them while the Spanish laws remained in force
in the territory," (Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 22), and during the admin-
istration of Piernas, is based upon misapprehension.

* According to the Spanish law his successor, Cruzat, obtained a certificate
from the citizens of St. Louis in May, 1775, that they had received justice from
Piernas, that he treated them well and paid his debts, and this certificate was
signed by ^ty of the leading habitans. But before he came to St. Louis, in a
memorial of the French insurgents of lower Louisiana, addressed to the Superior
Council, Piernas is charged with having impressed two rowers (voyageurs) from
a French boat coming down the river at the Ecores k Margot, Piernas then being
accompanied by one Chouriac, the Spanish store-keeper and commissary of the
Illinois country, and that he threatened to fire on the boat with a swivel gun if he
was not obeyed, and to put the men in chains; that he refused to stipulate for
wages, but that Chouriac told them they must go to work for the King without
further discussion, (Gayarre's History of Louisiana, vol. i, p. 241), and again
these petitioners say, that when Piernas was Spanish commander at Natchez, he
compelled Chanard's boat going to the Illinois country to turn over provisions
to him, having a piece of artillery loaded to compel compliance with his demand .

•• I Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 124.

•^ It is interesting to know that Antoine Roussel dit Sans Souci did the stone
work, Frangois Delin the carpenter work, that Guion and Labbe furnished the
iron work, and Joseph Mainville dit Deschenes the lime for this primitive jail.
A Francois Rousel was a **soldat de la compagnie de Grandpr^" at Fort de
Chartres in 1745. This Rousel was a native of Franche Compte and no doubt
related to the stone mason.

•' Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 22.

CRUZAT 31

goods without paying legal duty. Cruzat, it seems, did not stop this
illegal traffic. Under such circumstances, his popularity is well
accounted for; and "his genial fellowship,'* the historians tell us,
in strains of panegyric, " endeared him to the people fond of social
enjoyment,' ' and it might be added, dealing in " contraband goods,' '
thus adding much **to their commercial profits." Under his adminis-
tration a ferry was established across the Maramec by Jean Baptiste
Gamache, facilitating intercourse between the mining districts and
Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis. Both Piemas and Cruzat resided in a

house on the comer of what is now Main and Walnut streets, and
Shepard says that it "was the seat of hospitality and high school of
fashion during both their administrations." •• During Cruzat 's
administration, we note the "unaccountable disappearance^' of the
parish priest. Father Valentine,'® and who in 1775 had inaugurated
the construction of the first church. Pierre Lupien dit Baron, the
carpenter, was the contractor, and died during the progress of the
work, in 1775, and Jean Cambas completed the building in 1776.

At this time, and long afterward, the great and constantly recur-
ring trouble was the inadequate circulating medium. The merchants
and people had large quantities of furs but little actual money,
and were ready and could pay in furs, but not in actual silver dollars,
and this caused frequent controversies. Thus, one Etienne Barr^, a
boat owner, brought six barrels of rum and some dry goods for Benito
Vasquez, from New Orleans to St. Louis, delivered to him by one
Roy, the freight being $25 on each barrel of rum, but instead of pay-
ing the freight " in dollars," as contracted, Vasquez proposed to pay in
peltries, which Barrd refused to accept, because he says he was "obliged
to pay his outfit and expenses in dollars," and accordingly he appealed
to Cruzat for justice and to compel said Vasquez " to pay him as per
agreement." It was such troubles as this that caused the merchants of
St. Louis to appeal to Cruzat to make rules for the inspection of furs
and peltries, and weighing same, and Cruzat accordingly made such a

••Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 72.
'• I Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 131.

32 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

decree in March, 1 776. During the administration of Cruzat a system
to fortify St. Louis was first considered, but before actual work was
begun he was superseded by Don Fernando de Leyba, in July, 1778.'^
De Leyba was, for some reason, not popular with the people of
the village, and is said to have been " singularly deficient in the qual-
ities which conmiand political success — devoid of tact and discretion,
rabidly penurious and intemperate." By Shepard he is characterized
as a "drunken, voracious and feeble-minded man, without a single
redeeming qualification.' ' '' But these sweeping assertions seem in
no wise sustained by proof. It may be that De Leyba strictly enforced
the Spanish trade r^ulations and tariff, which Cruzat quietly ignored*
and that this may have been the cause of his allied unpopularity.
Naturally, the traders who were ill^ally bringing English goods into
the Spanish possessions would feel aggrieved, in a case of this kind.
It is admitted that on his arrival at St. Louis, De Leyba immediately

sought to make provision for the protection of the village. He caused
a stockade to be erected,^ and the work on the northwest bastion and
northeast demilunes was commenced. The stockade was simply a
straight line of pickets firmly set in the ground and bound together
near the top by sapling switches ; but whatever the character of the
stockade, it evidenced that he was not unmindful of the duties devolv-
ing upon him as lieutenant governor and commander of the country.

During the administration of De Leyba, Laclede died, June 20,
1778, aged fifty -four years, at Arkansas Post, on his way from New
Orleans to the village he had founded. He was buried in the wilder-
ness there. Hardly anything is known about him personally. That

" Fernando de Leyba was a native of Barcelona, Spain; and was a Captain
in the Stationary Regiment of Louisiana. In September, 1779, his wife died
and was buried in the church "in front of the right hand ballustrade," and in
June, 1780, Don Fernando de Leyba was buried by her side in the same church.
M. de Liboa, Colonel of Infantry in command of a corps of grenadiers under
O'Reilly in 1769, at New Orleans, may have been a relative. (Bossu's Nou-
veaux Voyages, p. 20.)

*' Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 22.

" So stated in Schaxff's History of St. Louis, vol. i, p. 138. But Chouteau
himself says, "In regard to the line of fortification, I only traced it in 1780, by or-
der of the government." What he means by "traced" he does not explain.

LACLEDE'S DEATH 33

he was a man of enterprise, of courage, of resolution and tenacity of
purpose is certain ; that he was far-seeing and not devoid of imagina-
tion is shown in the selection he made of the site where is now located
his great city, and whose glory and magnificence he could even then
see in the dim future. The fact alone that he, of all the Frenchmen
locating trading posts at that early day in the Mississippi valley, did
select, not by chance but evidently upon mature consideration, a
location for a great city, which has been ratified by all men since
as eminently wise impresses upon us his great intellectual fore-
thought. That he was full of energy is shown by his frequent journeys
to New Orleans ; for it was then no easy task for travelers to go a
thousand miles up and down a great and lonely river, enduring every
privation, beset by every danger. That he also traveled through the
interior of our state ; that the paddles of his canoe dipped the waters
of the Missouri, the Osage, the Gasconade, and even the Platte, we
feel certain. That he was a man of liberal spirit is shown by the fact
that, without hesitation, he invited his countrymen to his own trading
post, when they became agitated about the cession of the country east
of the Mississippi to England, thus bringing competitors to his own
door. That when an emergency arose he was capable of decided
original action, is shown by the fact that, although his firm only had a
concession to trade with the Indians, and no land grant, he never-
theless assigned to all new immigrants landed locations, exercising
a power not del^ated or granted, and at that period, both under
French and Spanish rule, requiring more than ordinary self-reliance.
That he was wise is shown by the fact that he induced St. Ange to
remove the seat of his government from Fort de Chartres to his trading
post rather than to Ste. Genevieve, the nearest, oldest and most im-
portant settlement on the west side of the river, and then caused
St. Ange to expressly grant the lots assigned by him to the first settlers,
opening a record of land grants, and in this way placing on a firm
basis his work. All these characteristics we can infer from what he
did, but no more. In personal appearance he is said to have been about
five feet eleven inches high, and to have had a " very dark olive com-
plexion, a broad forehead, a prominent nose, and penetrating, black
and expressive eyes. " ^* The spot where he is buried is unknown,
and no stone marks his grave ; but the great city which has grown up
where he so wisely established his trading post is his monument.
Shortly after the death of Laclede, Spain and England became

'* Prof. Waterhouse in Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 204.

34 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

involved in war, and on June i6, 1779, King Geoi^e III. advised
Parliament that Spain had resorted to arms. About this time the
inhabitants of the village became alarmed by rumors of Indian attacks.
It has been suggested that the report of the outbreak of hostilities
could not have reached a remote post in the wilderness like St. Louis
as early as March, 1780, and that the British officers could not
have organized an expedition before the close of the winter of
1779, and hence that it may well be doubted that any such
uneasiness existed in the village. In support of this view it is said
that Charles Gratiot, a merchant of Cahokia, in March, 1780,
sent a barge loaded with goods and provisions to Prairie du
Chien for the purpose of trade, and that this barge was captured
and pillaged by the British and Indians, and that he afterward
testified, in 1780, that he was absolutely ignorant of the declaration
of war. But it should be remembered that his boatmen, in a suit
brought before Governor Cruzat for wages, in 1781, charged collu-
sion on the part of Gratiot with the public enemy. The captain
of the boat was John B. Cardinal. The crew, consisting of Peter
Lafleur, John Durand, Francois Chevalier, Louis La Marche and J.
A. Matthews, apparently an early English or American settler, were
plaintiffs except La Marche and Matthews. In their petition the
boatmen aver that the pillage of the barge supplied the Indians with
the provisions and ammunition without which it would have been
impossible to have reached or attacked St. Louis,^ and that these same
Indians afterward did attack St. Louis was fully established in this
suit. In all things except as to the charge of collusion with the enemy,
the statement of facts, as made by the plaintiffs, was confirmed rather
than controverted by the other witnesses.^* It is very strange that in
March, 1780, a man of the intelligence of Gratiot should not have
heard that in June previous war had been declared, and hostilities had
actually broken out between the Spaniards and the English, in Sep-
tember previous, in Florida. It is true, news traveled slow in those
days, but hardly as slow as that, from New Orleans to Kaskaskia,
Cahokia or St. Louis. ^'

™ Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 207.

'• I Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 207.

** But Gratiot as a merchant of Cahokia, in 1780, certainly was not ignorant
of the fact that war prevailed between England and the United Colonies at that
time. How can his attitude viewed from that standpoint be explained? By
the people of Cahokia (Cahos) in May, 1780, he was solicited to ask the pro-
tection of Colonel Clark "contre les incursions des sauvages dont on etoit men-
ace" (i ScharflF's Historj' of St. Louis, p. 205, note 3), and yet in March of that

ST. LOUIS ATTACKED 35

Governor Reynolds says that an expedition was planned by the

British authorities at Mackinaw to recapture Cahokia, but from the

Haldimand papers it appears that not only the recapture of Cahokia

but also St. Louis and other Spanish posts on the west side of the river

was planned.'* Reynolds connects with this attack on St. Louis

one Dominique Ducharme,^ a Canadian, who was engaged ill^ally

in the Indian trade on the upper Missouri, somewhere near Loutre

island, in the Spanish possessions, and whose goods were accordingly

seized and con^ated by the authorities, and who personally barely

escaped with his life.*^ He supposes that, out of revenge, this

DucHarme diverted the expedition against Cahokia to the Spanish

settlement on the west side of the river. Concerning this Ducharme

incident, which occurred at least eight years before the attack on St.

Louis, Captain Vattas writes to General Haldimand, June 16, 1773,

from Michilimackinac as follows : " One Ducharme, a trader, has

been plundered in the course of the winter by one Lasaide (Laclede),

who follows some business on the Spanish side. This Ducharme

went, I believe, beyond our limits, and was served so in consequence

of it, by order of Mr. Purenasse (Piernas), the Spanish commandant

of Missouri. The Spaniards, I 'm told, want much to engross all the

trade with the Sax's (Saukees), and prevailed on them very lately

against the Osages, with whom they had since engaged ; that fifteen of

the former had been killed on the spot and the rest had fled much

" dissatisfied' ' with the expedition.' *•*

same year he sent a boatload of goods up to Prairie du Chien, at that time under
British control. His removal to St. Louis to the Spanish possessions, seems
not wholly unconnected with this transaction, so inimical to the United States.
If Gratiot did not knowingly supply the goods to the enemies of Spain, did he
supply goods knowingly to the enemies of the United States ? In a note in 1 1
Wisconsin Collection, page 151, it is said "as a matter of fact he was aiding
the Americans with supplies," referring to 10 Wisconsin Historical Collection,
page 239. Gratiot in a letter to General Clark says that he removed from Caho-
ida to St. Louis on account of the "excessive and unbridled license" that pre-
vailed there, and because he had been charged "by three men with treason"
(Draper's Collections, Clark MSS., No. 78). The English officers explaining
the failure of the attack on St. Louis, charged afterward that in Marcn it was
generally known throughout the country that the expedition was being organ-
ized. Gratiot was a merchant, but also had a saw-null on the River des P&es.
He was a large land owner, owning property on the Ohaha, Maramec,
'Mississippi and Missouri.

'* 19 Michigan Historical Collection, p. 529, Haldimand Papers.

*• Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 99.

** Ducharme's island, what is now Loutre island. (28 Draper's Collec-
tions, Clark MSS., p. 48.) Full name was Jean Marie Ducharme. He was a
native of Lachine; oied at Sault St. Louis in 1791, eighty-five years old. Cerr^
saw him there.

** 19 Michigan Historical Collection, p. 303, Haldimand Papers.

36 fflSTORY OF ^^SSOURI

The Haldimand papers conclusively show that a direct attack on
" Pancour' ' was planned by the British officers at Michilimackinac,
for at that time the true name of the town of St. Louis was to them not
even known," because June i6, 1779, the day after war was declared,
Lord Geot^e Germain wrote Haldimand "to reduce the Spanish
posts on the Illinois." ^ In pursuance of this order, a body of Cana-
dians, traders and their servants were assembled on the upper
Mississippi early in 1780. On the 17th of February, 1780, Sinclair,
lieutenant-governor of Michilimackinac, ordered a Mr. Hesse,
" formerly of the 60th (Royal American) regiment,' ' but then a trader
among the Indians, to assemble th^ " Minomines, Puants, Sacks' and
Rhenards' ' in the neighborhood of the Portage of the Wisconsin and
Fox rivers, and to collect there all the canoes and corn in the country,
for his own use and the use of other Indians, who would be ordered to
join hun at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, but
he was particularly ordered not to make any movement from where he
was stationed until instructions should be sent him by Sergeant (J. F.)
Phillips of the 8th regiment, who would set out from Michilimackinac
on the loth of March with a very noted chief, Machiquawish, and his
band of Indians. The distinct object of assembling these forces was
to reduce " Pencour' ' by surprise, and which from the easy admission
of the Indians at that place, and from assault of those without, having
for its defence as reported, only ** twenty men and twenty brass
canon,' ' Sinclair did not consider very difficult. The capture of this
place, Sinclair writes Governor Haldimand, would secure the rich fur
trade on the Missouri, and redress the injuries done English traders
who "attempted to partake of this trade. " In order thoroughly to
interest these English traders in this enterprise they were assured that
any pecuniary advantages they might deny themselves in order to
make this enterprise successful would be amply recompensed by a
better and surer trade in case of success.

On the 2nd of May, 1780, Machiquawish and his band, having
arrived from Michilimackinac, seven hundred and fifty Indians,
together with Captain Hesse and other traders and servants, pro-
ceeded down the Mississippi. While these Indian forces were being
assembled by Hesse, an Indian detachment of "Minomines"
stationed at Prairie du Chien captured the large armed boat, already
mentioned as belonging to Charles Gratiot, of Cahokia, coming up-

■' Papers from Canadian Archives, 1 1 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 151 .
" Canadian Archives, Report, 1885, pp. 276 and 302.

GRATIOT'S BOAT 37

stream with provisions, a boat which Sinclair says '' was loaded at
Pencour/ ' and in charge " of twelve men and a rebel commissary. " •*
At the lead mines a supply of lead was also obtained, and " seventeen
Spanish and rebel officers " captured. Thus a war spirit was kindled
among the Indians by the chiefs Machiquawish and Wabasha, who
led the Indians. To cover the meditated attack, Sinclair ordered
Captain Langlade with a chosen band of Indians to be stationed on
the "plains" between the Wabash and the Mississippi to guard
against hostile attacks from that direction. So confident was Sinclair
that the attack would be successful that he ordered Captain Hesse to
remain in command of "Pencour," and the chief Wabasha was
ordered after the capture of the town to attack Misere (Ste. Genevieve)
and Kacasia (Kaskaskia), and to such traders as would secure or
capture posts on the Spanish side of the river, he promised the
exclusive trade on the Missouri, and ^^ that their canoes should be
forwarded." The "Minomines** and Winnebagoes seem to have
composed the principal part of this army. It was a band of thirty-six
"Minomines" that captured the Gratiot boat coming up the river
loaded with provisions. Supplied principally with the provisions
obtained from the boat of Gratiot, this army moved south, and about
the end of May reached the vicinity of St. Louis. The country there
was full of rumors of the approach of this hostile force, and Sinclair in
his letter to Haldimand laments this want of secrecy and which he
said "must always be hurtful to the service." On account of this
want of secrecy he states that the Spaniards at St. Louis threw up " a
breastwork around a stone house." •* But Reed says that a line of
intrenchment was made by the people and governor along or near
what is now Third street (Rue des Granges), on the west side of the
town. The Intendant Navarro writes that a wooden tower was

•*In November, 1780, David McCrae and John Kay presented a memorial
to Governor Haldimand in which they set out that they sent "a certain Charles
Gratiot" with goods to the Illinois country to trade, and that finding "the rebels"
in possession of the country, he traded on the goods belonging to them, and
that he only made one remittance of 700 or 800 pounds, "Halifax currency
value in furs," that in April, 1780, Gratiot sent a boat load of goods under a Span-
ish pass up the Mississippi, to be disposed of there, but that the boat was seized
by Lieutenant Alexander Kay of the Indian department, a brother of one of the
memorialists, and the goods sent to Michiliraackinac, except the provisions,
tobacco, rum, etc., which were used by order of Governor Sinclair at Prairie du
Chien by the Canadians and Indians on their way "to attack the Illinois," and they
pray that the goods seized and used may be paid for, and the remainder delivered
to Uiem. (12 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 55.) It is an oj)en question
whether the petitioners received these goods and payment or not, likely, however,
the goods were paid for by the government.

• II Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 154.

38 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

built at one end of the town, overlooking it, and that five cannon were
placed in it ; and that two other intrench ments were built, and that
these intrenchments were manned by twenty-five veteran soldiers and
two hundred and eighty-one militia.

About the 24th of May, 1780, the English-Indian forces reached
the neighborhood of Cahokia, lurking around in the woods on the east
side of the river and near Cahokia, where Gratiot then lived ; and on
the 25th the Indians, accompanied by twenty volunteer Canadians, a
few traders and their servants crossed the river** several miles above
St. Louis, and Rividre says that the attack was made about noon on
the 26th of May, on the north side of the town where no opposition
was expected, but here this attacking party was repulsed by the mili-
tia. For some time a vigorous fire was kept up on both sides, so the
Intendant Navarro writes. The Indians finally discovering that the
town could not be taken, scattered about over the country, where they
found several farmers and slaves at work who, although rumors of
the contemplated Indian assault prevailed, did not believe that an ac-
tual attack would be made, paying so little attention to these rumors
that they were out in their fields at work when the Indians appeared.
Thus Jean Baptiste Rividre, then residing in St. Louis, was captured
by the Indians in the Grand Prairie at a place known as " Fontaine
k Cardinal," belonging to Jean Marie Cardinal, while sleeping in the
house there. '^ Cardinal was also there, and in making his escape was
wounded by the Indians, and died upon reaching Marais Castor (a
name under which Beaver Pond was then known), about three miles
away.'* Rividre himself was tied to a tree near the spring, and when
ihe Indians retreated was taken by them to Chicago, and after re-
maining in captivity for some time escaped, returning to St. Louis,
where, long afterward, in his testimony before Commissioner Hunt, he
gives this account of the attack. It is evident, however, that Revidre
only details incidents relating to himself. Chouteau in his evidence
gives no particulars, and merely states that the year of the Indian at-
tack was known among the residents as "Ann^e du Grand Coup,"
and erroneously gives the date of the attack to have been on May 6,
1780.** The burial register of the St. Louis Catholic Church shows

•« Ibid., p. 155.

** Jean Marie Cardinal, came from St. Philippe and must not be confused
with Jean Baptiste Cardinal. The Cardinal place or claim was afterwards
bought by Dr. John Watkins.

*• 2 Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 51, Missouri Historical Society Archives.

*• I Hunt's Minutes, [Book i, p. 126, Missouri Historical Society Archives.

NAVARRO'S LETTER 39

that among others Amable Guion, Guillaume Bissette, Joseph Calvb,
Junior, and Chancellier's n^ro were all "murdered" on the 26th
day of May by the Indians, thus giving the true date of the attack.
No mention is made of the burial of Cardinal, who, Riviere says,
died from the effect of his wounds.

The only detailed report of the attack on the village is preserved in
Navarro's letter dated August 18, 1780, written to Don Joseph de
Galvez, then minister of the Indies. Navarro's report probably is
based on a report of this attack made by De Leyba. Reed in his evi-
dence says that at the time the Indiajis made the attack on St*. Louis
he was ^venteen years old, and that he mounted guard in Michael
Lami's bam, along the line of intrenchments built by the government
and people.'® This statement is about the only evidence of an actual
resident of St. Louis at the time, that an actual attack was made on the
town, but is confirmed by Navarro. Sinclair himself says that the
Winnebago Indians without exception attempted **to storm Pancour,"
that they lost a chief and three men on the spot, had four men wounded,
one of them mortally, that they were "enraged against the backward-
ness of the Canadians, and the base conduct of the Sacks, who had
been debauched by the rebels on account of the lead mines, and the
traders in their country."'* He further says that the Indians
" would have stormed the Spanish lines, if the Sacks and Outagamies
under their treacherous leader, Monsieur Calv^, had not fallen back
so early as to give them but too well grounded suspicions that they
were between two fires."'* According to Sinclair, the Indians
brought off fort>'-three scalps and eighteen prisoners, whites and
blacks, and that in all about seventy persons were killed, although
"beat off on their attack." We have only the names of four
persons killed in this attack on St. Louis, yet Rividre says
that fifty-eight or fifty-nine persons were killed and taken prisoners,"
but it has generally been considered that his testimony gives an

•* I Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 107, Missouri Historical Society Archives.

•* II Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 154.

•' 1 1 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 156. Calvfe complained to
Haldimand in a letter dated April 23, 1780, of the reception lieutenant-governor
Sinclair accorded him and the "Sacqs, Renards and the Aimaiois" (Menom-
onees) on their return, "of our campaign" when he arrived at Michilimackinac,
and which be says greatly surprised him, as he "had no reason to expect it,"
and he applies to Haldimand for an opportunity to prove that his conduct has
been "irreproachable." (12 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 52.) Calvfe
seems still to have been in English service in 1783. (12 Wisconsin Historical
Collection, p. 66.)

" 2 Hunt's Minutes, Book 11, p. 51, Missouri Historical Society Archives

40 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

exaggerated account of the events of this attack. The statement,
however, contained in Sinclair's letters to Haldimand lends support to
Riviere's testimony. Navarro's letter gives the number of whites
killed as fifteen, wounded six, and prisoners fifty-seven, and slaves
killed as seven, wounded one, and prisoners thirteen. No doubt,
in the number of persons reported by Sinclair to have* been killed
are included all persons killed on this raid on both sides of the river.
The failure of the attack was attributed, by the English, to the
treachery of Calvfe and Ducharme, who were partners in trade and
interpreters for the English among the Saukees and Renards, and
who preferred " a little underhand commerce in that country " to the
promise of the advantages " of the trade the British agents held out to
them" on the Missouri, provided they would gain and garrison the
Spanish Illinois country. Calv^ and Lecroix, Sinclair aften^ard
complains, although in English employ, sent one Provencal equipped
with goods to the Spanish country to winter there, " which they made
a sham attack upon, " •* and he is much mortified to find that " the
protection Monsieur Calv^ and others have received should meet so
perfidious and so ungrateful a return."" In connection with this
attack it has been attempted to make it appear that General George
Rogers Clark sent troops to St. Louis to aid the people to resist the
attack. Cerrd, a most intelligent and reliable man, says that he has
no recollection of any such thing. In 1828 Mr. Chouteau, in his
conversation with the Duke of Saxe- Weimar, does not mention it.*'
At the time of the attack Clark was at the Iron-banks, engaged in
building " Fort Jefferson" and had two hundred men with him, and a
flotilla."^ De Leyba may have sent Gratiot to him to ask for help,
but there is no evidence that troops crossed the river, or would have
reached St. Louis in time; then, too, Cahokia and Kaskaskia were
threatened as well as St. Louis. Colonel Montgomery says nothing
about Clark having gone to St. Louis or sending men there, but says,
"Luckily, he joined him at Cahos in time enough to save the country,"
as the enemy appeared within twenty-four hours after his arrival, and
says that the Indians, after "doing some mischief on the Spanish shore"
returned, and that the mischief could have been prevented if the high
winds had not prevented the signals from being heard. In Bradford 's

•* II Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 158.
••Ibid., p. 161.

•• Travels of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, vol. 2, p. 103.
•^ Draper's Collections, vol. 28, Clark MSS., p. 9.

DE LEYBA DIES 41

Notes (Stripp's edition), pages 54 and 56, it is said that the Spanish
commandant offered to confer upon him (Clark) the conmiand of St.
Louis ( ?), but that he declined to accept it until he was certain that the
assault would be made, and that he remained in St. Louis only two
hours — yet at the time Clark was at the Iron-banks, or Kaskaskia.'*
It is very likely true that Clark sent three hundred men under Mont-
gomery to follow the Indians, and this may be what is meant when it is
said that he sent three hundred men to the relief of St. Louis, because
undoubtedly such a movement would have had the effect to relieve St.
Louis. The expedition up the Illinois destroyed the Indian towns on
Rock river." Peck thinks he sent two hundred of " his gallant men
to the ferry opposite the town, and made a demonstration of crossing
with two hundred men, " and that " this disconcerted the Indians and
caused the Indians to retire after killing sixty of the inhabitants and
carrying thirty into captivity." *^

Collot says that out of this attack a mass of " absurd exaggera-
tion has been invented," and Professor Waterhouse states in a letter
to Draper dated March 29, 1882, that "old French documents
convince him that no attack was made at all," but he does not
specify the documents upon which he rests his opinion. As
a matter of fact, documents and records make it clear, that an
attack was made. If any doubt ever existed as to this attack
on St. Louis, and attempt to capture the town by the English, the
correspondence of Governor Haldimand and the detailed report of
Intendant Navarro (a copy of which I recendy received from the
Spanish archives in Seville) should set all such doubts at rest.

De Leyba died a short time after this event, June 28, 1780, and was

buried in the littie church of the village. His death, it is claimed, was

hastened by " dissipation and remorse. " But it will be difficult to

sustain this statement. By hearsay, in every respect, the memory of

De Leyba has been covered with obloquy, but the archives show that

he was a man of clear intelligence, business knowledge and sound

judgment. His insight into the principles of law and his impartiality

in the administration of justice are unmistakable evidence of high

qualities.*"* He was on terms of intimacy with George Rogers Clark,

and omitted nothing in his power to show his attachment to the

•• Annals of the West, p. 241.

•• 28 Draper's Collections, Clark MSS., p. 9.

*•• Beck's Gazetteer, pp. 220-225.

*•* See a number of cases, cited in i Billon's Annals of St. Louis, pp. 152 et
seq.

42 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

American cause during the Revolution.^^ As soon as Clark took
possession of the Illinois country, he opened a corres]>ondence
with him, and Clark says that he was surprised to hnd him free from
the reserve that characterizes the Spaniards.*"'

Upon the death of De Leyba, Don Silvia Francisco de Cartabona,
lieutenant of the Spanish troops at Ste. Genevieve, acted as governor
ad inUrimy until the arrival of Don Francesco Cruzat, who for a
second time was appointed lieutenant-governor, and until October 7,
1787, administered the affairs of the Illinois district of upper Louisi-
ana. Immediately on his arrival he divided the militia into two
companies for the defense of the village, as had been suggested by
De Leyba. Before the death of De Leyba Don Benito Vasquez had
been made captain of one company and Auguste Chouteau and
Pedro Montardy lieutenants; of the other company, Don Eugenio
Pour^e was captain and Carlos Tayon and Luis Chevalier were lieu-
tenants, this company being a company of cavalry, although the offi-
cers were commissioned as infantry officers. Don Benito Vasquez
was afterward appointed adjutant (AyudanU Mayor), to instruct the
force in the essential parts of "royal military service," he having
seen active service ; and then Auguste Chouteau became captain of
the first company. The fortifications of the village were also ex-
tended and strengthened, but St. Louis was not attacked again.

It was during the second administration of Cruzat, in January,
1 78 1, that a military expedition was organized in St. Louis by him to
invade the British possessions east of the river, under orders from
Havana. Of this expedition, Don Eugenio Pourfee,*^ known
as " Beausoliel,' ' was made chief, Don Carlos Tayon being appointed
second in command, and Don Luis Chevalier sub-lieutenant and
interpreter. Pourfee's force consisted of sixty-six Spaniards and
Frenchmen and sixty Indians — Outagamies, Saukees and Pottowato-
mies, designated in the Madrid "Gazette" of March 12, 1782, as
" Outaguos, Sota and Putuami. " With this small force. Captain
Pourfee in mid-winter marched through the wilderness, a distance of
six hundred miles, his soldiers carrying their supplies on their backs
through snow and ice, through forests and prairies, environed by

*•* Vigo was at the time of the conquest in partnership i^-ith De Leyba the
governor of upper Louisiana, and furnished Clark all the supplies needed from
both sides of the river. (8 Draper's Collections, Clark MSS., p. 33.) Vigo
was a native of Genoa, and came to New Orleans in about 1774.

*•• Clark's Campaign in the Illinois, pp. 35-46.

'•* Name usually spelled "Pour^," but he signed himself *Tour6e."

CAPTURE OF FORT ST. JOSEPH 43

unknown perils and hostile Indian tribes, and successfully accom-
plished the object of the expedition by capturing the little British fort,
St. Joseph, located within the present state of Michigan. Here
Pour^ raised the standard of His Catholic Majesty, hauling down
the flag of England. The fort was plundered and the supplies found
there divided among the Indian allies of the Spaniards. After
remaining at the fort for a short time, the expedition returned to St.
Louis, bringing along the captured British flag and delivering it to the
lieutenant-governor at St. Louis. For his services in this expedition
Pour^e received the rank of lieutenant in the army, with half pay.
Tayon was appointed sub-lieutenant with half pay, and the governor
of Louisiana was authorized to assign Chevalier an appropriate
"gratification."

Concerning this affair of St. Joseph, a letter of De Peyster to
Brigadier-General H. Watson Powell, dated Detroit, June 8, 1781,
gives additional facts, as follows: "A detachment from Cahokia,
consisting of sixteen men only, commanded by a half Indian named
Jean Baptiste Hammelain, timed it so as to arrive at St. Josephs with
pack-horses when the Indians were out on their hunt, an old chief and
his family excepted ; they took the traders prisoners and carried off
all the goods, consisting of at least sixty bales, and took the route to
Chicagou. Lieutenant Dagreux de Quindre, w ho was stationed near
St. Josephs, being informed of it immediately assembled the Indians
and pursued them as far as the Petite Fort beyond the Riviere du
Chemin, where, on the 15th of December, he summoned them to
surrender, and they refusing to do so, he ordered the Indians to attack
them. Without the loss of a man on his side, he killed four, wounded
two and took seven prisoners; the other three escaped in the thick of
the woods * * * I look upon these gentry as robbers and not
prisoners of war, as they had no commission that I can learn other
than a verbal order from Mons. Trottier, an inhabitant of Cahoes."
As a consequence, on the 23rd of January, he says that he was visited
by a great number of St. Joseph Indians, who "make event" of
their loyalty. But in a subsequent letter De Peyster writes that
afterward " the enemy returned, or rather a fresh party arrived in St.
Joseph and carried the traders and the remainder of the goods off. "
This time De Quindre could not rapidly enough assemble a party
large enough to pursue them, but he reports the substance of Mr.
"Bean Solid's" speech or proclamation, to the Indians, amusingly
enough making out of Captain Pour^e's nickname " Beausoh'el," the

44 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

English words "Bean Solid."** DePeyster also remarks that the
Canadians are not to be depended upon, and that hence he cannot
establish a reliable garrison at this fort.

This insignificant conquest of this insignificant fort, St. Joseph,
afterward, when the terms of the treaty of peace were discussed
between France, Spain, England and the United States, was made the
basis of a claim by Spain to all the territory along the Illinois river to
Lake Michigan, and caused the commissioners of the United States,
who arranged the terms of the treaty, no little anxiety. So important
was this military exploit considered that a translation of the detailed
account of this expedition, as published in the Madrid Gazette, was
promptly transmitted to Philadelphia by the United States representa-
tive.*««

Captain Pour^e, who so successfully conducted this expedition,
died at St. Louis April 30, 1783. He was a merchant, and well
known by the nickname of " Beausoliel " (Sunflower). No particulars
of his life are now known, further than that he was one of the original

** 19 Michigan Historical Collection, p. 600.

iM «Qy g^ letter from the commandant general of the anny of operations
at *the Havanna,' and governor of Louisiana, his Majesty has advices that a
detachment of sixty-five militiamen and sixty Indians of the nations Otaguos,
Sota and Putuami, under command of Don Eugenio Purrfee, a captain of the
militia, accompanied by Don Carlos Tayon, a sub-lieutenant of militia, by
Don Luis Chevalier, a man well versed in the language of the Indians, and by
their great chiefs Eleturno and Naquigen, who marched the 2d of January.
1 781, from the town of San Luis of the Illinois, had possessed themselves of the
Post of St. Joseph, which the English occupied at 220 leagues distance from that
of the above mentioned San Luis, having suffered in so extensive a march, and
so rigorous a season, the greatest inconvenience from cold and hunger, exf>osed
to continual risks from the country being possessed by savage nations and hav-
ing to pass over parts covered with snow and each being obliged to carry pro-
visions for his own subsistence and various merchandise which were necessary
to content, in case of need, the barbarous nations through whom they were
obliged to cross. The commander, by seasonable negotiations and precautions,
prevented a considerable body of Indians who were at the devotion of the Eng-
lish, from opposing this expedition, for it would otherwise have been difficult
to have accomplished the taking of said fort. They made prisoners of the few
English they found in it, the others having perhaps retired in consequence of
some prior notice. Don Eugenio Purr^ took possession in the name of the King
of that place and its dependencies, and of the river Illinois in consequence
whereof the standard of his Majesty was displayed during the whole time. He
took the English one, and delivered it on his arrival at San Luis to Don Fran-
cisco Cruzat, the commandant of that post. The destruction of the magazine
of provisions and goods, which the English had there (the greater part of which
was divided among the Indians and those who lived at St. Joseph, as had been
offered them in case they did not oppose the troops) was not the only advantage
resulting from the success of this expedition, for thereby it became impossible
for the English to execute their plan of attacking the fort of San Luis of the
Illinois, and it also served to intimidate these savage nations, and oblige them
to remain neuter, which they do at present." (Extract from the Madrid Ga-
zette, in 8 Spark's Diplomatic Correspondence, pp. 77, 78.)

CAPTAIN POUREE 45

settlers of St. Louis, and captain of the militia. In 177 1 he sold one
Peter Lupien dit Baron a lot of merchandise, and to secure him,
Lupien dit Baron mortgaged a building and billiard table, likely the
first table of that kind in St. Louis. This mortgage was made with
due formality, Lieutenant-Governor Piemas being witness, as well
as Labusciere and Benito Vasquez. It also appears that a M. Beau-
soliel was a merchant in Kaskaskia in 1779, and sold merchandise
to General George Rogers Clark, evidently the same person.^®'
According to Judge Primm, on another occasion when he came up the
Mississippi from New Orleans with a boatload of valuable merchan-
dise, he and his vessel were captured by river robbers. It is said
that the daring and presence of mind of a n^ro, the cook of the boat,
named Cacasotte, saved the crew and the merchandise, and Pour^ *s
fortune. As soon as the robbers had taken possession of the boat,
Cacasotte appeared overjoyed, danced, sang and laughed, showed
them every attention, so that they at once were induced to believe
that he was overjoyed to have been liberated from slavery by them,
and hence allowed him to go about the vessel unmolested. He
secured an opportunity to speak to Pourbe and obtained his consent
to make an attempt to rid the boat of these dangerous guests. Tak-
ing into his confidence two other negroes, also on board, it was agreed
that the signal for dinner should also be the signal for action. When
the dinner hour arrived the robbers assembled on the deck and sta-
tioned themselves on the bow and stern of the boat, and some also sat
down on the side of the boat, to prevent any attempt at resistance on
the part of the crew, but Cacasotte went among them with great
unconcern and as soon as his two comrades had taken their station, he
managed to place himself in the bow near one of the robbers, a stout,
herculean feUow, well armed, and when he gave the signal for dinner
he with a lunge pushed this robber overboard. While he was strug-
gling in the water, with the speed of lightning he ran from one robber
to another sitting on the side of the boat and pushed them overboard,
and thus in a few seconds had thrown overboard several more; then,
seizing an oar, he struck those on the head who attempted to save
themselves by grappling the running board, and, taking the rifles that
had been left lying on the deck of the boat, shot some others. His
comrades in the meantime assailed other, robbers in the same way at
the other end of the boat, and so the boat was cleared. Thus Pourfee

^^ 18 Draper's Collections, Clark MSS., No. 116. In 1724 a Pierre du Vaud
dit Beausoliel lived in Kaskaskia. See Church Records of Ste. Genevieve, p. 13.

46 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

and his merchandise and crew were saved from robbers. This inci-
dent took place near an island in the Mississippi long known as
" Beausoliel Island, " and maybe from this island Pour^ acquired
his nick-name. Some confusion exists as to the date of this incident,
which is placed by Rozier, following Primm, in the year 1787.*^
Evidently this is a mistake, because, as we have seen, Pourbe dit
j^eausoliel died in 1783. It is probable that this incident occurred, if it
occurred at all, some time in 1778 or 1779. Pour^*s name occurs
for the last time in the old Spanish records in November, 1782.
Shortly before his death he brought a suit against Auguste Chou-
teau, on account of extra labor incurred in bringing up for him
some goods on the Mississippi from New Orleans. In his petition he
states that on accoynt of an attack of the English near the Yazoo
he was compelled to return to Natchez to save the cargo, increase the
number of his men, and that, afterward coming up the river in com-
pany with the boats of L 'Abbadie and Vall^, he found that the cargo
would also be imperiled by an attack of the Chickasaws near Ecore
de Margot, and that therefore he went up to Arkansas Post, where he
unloaded the goods for safety ; afterward he reloaded them, and finally
safely brought them to St. Louis, but that Chouteau refused to com-
pensate him for the extra expense and labor incurred for the protec-
tion of his goods. This suit was brought before Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor Cruzat, on the 9th day of November, 1782, and process duly
served on the i6th of November on Chouteau, by Demers, Aiiissfer.
Owing to the lawless condition, that prevailed in the eastern Illi-
nois country shortly after the conquest by Gen. George Rogers Clark,
many of the leading citizens of Cahokia and Kaskaskia removed to
the Spanish possessions on the west side of the river. Among others
Gabriel Cerr^, the leading merchant of Kaskaskia and one of the
most influential men removed to St. Louis. Cerr^ came to Kaskaskia
in about 1755 from Canada ^^ and it is said when the English after-
ward invaded Canada, that he returned and served in the French
Colonial troops in the defence of Quebec under Montcalm. In his
extensive trading operations he annually by land went from Kas-
kaskia to Montreal. Many are the adventures he had and strategies
he necessarily practiced in order to carry his goods safely to and
from these trading places. When Gen. Clark captured Kaskaskia
he was, in his words, "one of the most eminent men in the

*•• Rozier's History of the Mississippi Valley, p. 60.
*•• Mo. Hist. Society Collection, vol. 2, No. 2, p. 59.

CERRE

47

len. Clark concluded

country, of great influence among the people," Although advised
that he was not favorable to the Americans, Gen. Clark concluded
to secure his influence, because "he might be
a valuable acquisition." Cerrd at this time
was in St. Louis on his way to Canada, but
learning that Clark had protected his property
by a guard, he concluded to return and ;
Ste. Genevieve received assurance from the
Spanish of!icers that he could do so safely.
When he arrived at Kaskaskia, Clark advised
him, what was charged gainst him, but he
replied that he was a mere merchant, that he
did not concern himself about state affairs any
further than the interests of his trade required.
Clark then readhimaletter from Gov. Hamilton to Rocheblave in which
he was alluded to with much affection and he answered, that while
at Detroit he behaved himself as became a good subject, that he had
never encouraged Indian warfare and that no doubt much informa-
tion had been given Gen. Clark by persons indebted to him in order
to get clear of debt by ruining him. On a full investigation Clark
gave him permission to db-
pose of his property as he
pleased, or if he chose to
become a citizen of the
Union. He then explained,
that many doubts in his mind
had been cleared by this interview and that he was ready to
take the oath of allegiance, and Clark concludes his report by
saying, "he became a most valuable man to us.""" Cerri was
appointed Judge of the Court of the District of Kaskaskia and
served in that capacity for some time, but the conditions that pre-
vailed immediately after the conquest, the want of an organized
government, the constant change, the arbitrary and lawless conduct
of many of the of&cials, and constant political agitation and contro-
versies did not impress him favorably vrith popular government. In
1779 he purchased property in St. Louis and several years afterward
removed with his family to the west side of the river. He doubtless
was an important acquisition to the commercial interests of St. Louis.
"• Clark's Report of his Campaign in English's Conquest of the Northwest,

HISTORY OF MISSOURI

In 1782 he described himself as "Gabriel Cerr^iVedoodeeste Pueblo
de Sd Luis." '" Id the census of that year it is stated that 42 persons
were members of his family, embracing his employees. About the
same time Charles Gratiot the leading merchant of Cahokia, also
removed to St. Louis. He too, was the most conspicuous citizen at
the time of the village of Caholda and the transfer of his business
and capital to St. Louis greatly tended to make St. Louis the trade
centre of the east side of the river. Many others also immigrated
across the river and says Major Hamtramck : " the greater part of our
citizens have left the country on this account to reside in the Spamsh

CHARLES GRATIOT HOUSE

Dominions; others are now following, and we are feariul, nay certain,
that without your assistance, the small remainder will be obliged to
follow their example. " '" Under the flag of Spain these immigrants
found safety, law and order. The inducement held out by the
Spanish officials to allure this immigration — free land and no taxa-
tion — not only attracted the French habitans but Americans as well.

About this time Godfrey Linciot visited St. Louis and remained
there for some time."* This Linctot was a Frenchman and lived at
Cahokia. It is not certain whether he resided there before the con-

'" Mo. llUt. Sotiely CiiUeclion, vol. 1, No. a, p. 71.

'" Alvord'8 Ills, HisL Colleciion, vol. 1, p. cxliv.

'"51 Draper's Collections, Clark MSS., No. 78.

LINCTOT 49

quest. But afterward he organized a company of militia in that town.
He seems to have been personally acquainted with Jefferson and en-
joyed his confidence and was appointed Indian agent of Virginia by him.
When Clark contemplated an attack on Detroit he was ordered up the
Illinois to pacify the Indians in that district and secure their friendship.
He was a master of some at least of the Indian dialects and from this
it may be inferred that he was at some time a trader among them. He
seems to have been a very useful man. While in St. Louis he learned
that a man by the name of Clairmont with six others had been sent
from Michilimackinac with a letter addressed to the people of
Cahokia and Kaskaskia inviting them to raise a company of militia
to be paid by the King, to resist his enemies. When Cruzat ascer-
tained his errand he quickly arrested him. Nor was such a plan at
that time hopeless, for from a letter of Antoine Girardin to Governor
Sinclair preserved in the Cahokia archives it appears, that he then
assured him "of the good sentiments of the inhabitants of these
regions," that the people would not "be offended at seeing them-
selves again dependent and subject to the English government," and
that " the English flag would be weU received." He also advised him
that his deputies (Clairmont and the others) made "too many mis-
takes to expect success from their journey," for says he: "they
stopped at St. Louis, which they should not have done," and that
the Spaniards "have arrested them without cause." Perhaps in
consequence of this attempt Cruzat promulgated an ordinance
prohibiting the circulation of false and unreliable reports in the
village, but no doubt with little success. To prevent surprises,
he also published an ordinance that every person, whatever his rank,
occupation or condition, "should not leave his dwelling by day or
night without being armed, " so as to be provided for every emergency.
By other ordinances the people of St. Louis were prohibited from
advancing or giving credit to soldiers for more than twenty-five sols,
without permission of their superior officers. He prohibited horse
racing in the streets of the town, and no one was allowed to ride horse-
back or drive a cart faster than a trot (le petit pas). Slaves were
forbidden to hold assemblages at night in their cabins, or to leave their
cabins after the beating of the retraite^ unless on some errand for their
masters, on a penalty of receiving fifty lashes, nor were they allowed to
have a dance without express permission from their masters and
government, either at day or night, and negroes, either free or slave,
were prohibited to dress like the Indians and savages. An ordinance

50 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

was promulgated fining persons in whose house a person dangerously
sick might be, for failure to advise such person to make his will, and
" to perform the duty of a good Christian, " and to notify the lieu-
tenant-governor, so that " we ourselves may go to the dwelling of him
who wishes to regulate his conscience by a will or other act by which
his legitimate heirs may not be deprived of inheritance," thus to
avoid '^ the lawsuits and chicanery which almost always result from
the death of a person, who had died without making a will, which has
already occurred only too often." He ordered that in St. Louis kids
and goats must be kept shut up, and plows, carts, sledges, carriages,
etc., not left on the street. Particular rules were made by him for the
extinguishment of fires in the village. Any one quartering or assisting
a deserter was punished by a sentence of six years' service in the
arsenal or public works, or if a nobleman, to six years' exile."*

To engage forest traders from a foreign district was strictly for-
bidden under penalty of imprisonment and heavy fine, and, much
fraud having been practiced by notes showing on their face to have
been given for "equipment" to such forest traders, because such
notes enjoyed a preference, when in fact nothing had been furnished
by way of equipment, the lieutenant-governor promulgated a new
ordinance which provided that the holder of a note, to enjoy this
preference, must have it signed by the commandant, in the presence
of all interested parties, and that an itemized statement must be pre-
sented of the " equipment " furnished, and filed with the commandant
at the time he so certifies such a preferential note. Nor were the
merchants aUowed to advance more than a reasonable amount to such
forest traders, so that when they returned to the village they would have
something with which to pay other debts. Then and long afterward
the principal business of St. Louis was the fur trade. In this trade the
forest trader played no unimportant part. It was the forest trader
who went among the Indians and obtained the furs by trading off the
goods (equipment) purchased from the merchants, who resided per-
manently in one place and furnished the outfits. The forest traders
usually left St. Louis and settlements in the fall, spending the winter
with the Indians, and returning in the spring with the proceeds of
the trade. In 1776, when Cruzat was lieutenant-governor, Auguste
and Pierre Chouteau, Martin Duralde, Benito Vasquez, J. M. Papin,
J. B. Sarpy, Antoine Bernard, J. F. Perrault and Joseph Motard
were the principal merchants, and at their instance Cruzat also made

"* Archives of the Indies, Seville — Copies of Cruzat's ordinances.

le exclusive trade with

Q

DE USA SI

regulations for the belter inspection of the furs and peltries brought
to the market there.

The Indian trade under the Spanish government was open' to
every merchant, but the Chouteaus enjoyed the exclusive trade w
the Osages under contract and on the expir-
ation of this contract the trade was given to
Manuel de Lisa, then a merchantof New Or-
leans. Lisa, nho had been engaged in the
Indian trade on the Waliash, the Ohio and in
the New Madrid district first came to St. Louis
in i8o3 and went up to the Osage villages.
But this change of traders did not satisfy all
these Indians and as a consequence a large
number of them residing on the Osage river
seceded and removed to the Arkansas, where
the Chouteaus still enjoyed a trading privi-
lege. All (his led to much controversy. How Lisa secured the trade
privilege with Osages has never been explained. It is certain that
he was not in favor with DeLassus or with Morales. In 1789 Juan
Munie, a resident of St. Louis, discovered the Ponka tribe on the
upper Missouri, p>enetrating for a distance of i ,400 miles up the river,
an unusual enterprise, in the pursuit of trade. This tribe was un-
known up to that lime, and in consideration of his services Munie—
or Munier— was granted the exclusive trade with these Indians.

The year 1785 became memorable on account of a great flood of
the Mississippi. Auguste Chouteau says that in April of that year
the river rose twenty feet above the highest known water-mark, and
that for the purpose of procuring plank he went with a boat through
the woods of the American Bottom, to the village of Kaskaskia.
Governor Miro, reporting the overflow to De Galvez, says that it
"entirely submerged the village of Santa Genoveva, so that the
people were compelled to abandon their houses," and their furniture
and other possessions, that the fields of wheat were very completely
lost, that the commandant, Don Cartabona, was compelled to retire
with his troops to the hills, and that the .American district on the
opposite side of the river was affected in the same way. Among the
old French inhabitants this year was known as "L'ann^e des
Grandes Eaux, " "' and subsequent events were dated from it."*

" See copy of Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 126, Missouri Hislorical Society
3 of residents not heretofore given, and

%

L *■ 'x

52 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

In 1787, when Don Manuel Perez was lieutenant-governor, the

Osage Indians became distinctly imfriendly, and bands of these sav-

^..^^ ^y. ages prowled around the vil-

SymCC^LJilOU \y'C4C€/2 lage and killed many unwary-

^ settlers. Perez is credited

facts as to some already named, chronologically arranged, may interest some
readers. We note: In 1770, Veuve Beaugeneau; Frangois Marechal, one of
the first settlers of St. Ferdinand in 1785. The name Vigo first ap|>ears in St.
Louis in this year, and Francois Baribault, then a boy of nineteen years, bound
himself to Jacques Denis, to learn the joiner's trade, for a period of two years ;
Jean B. Cois; Louis Chamard (Voise); Madame St. Germain, probably from
Cahokia also lived here; Denau DeTailly (DeTaille), Indian interpreter, came
from St. Philippe, married an Indian and died in St. Louis in 1 771, and his widow
married Nicolas Marechal> Benito Vasquez, a native of Gallicia, Spain, came
to St. Louis with Piemas, married Julia Papin, had a family of twelve children,
his sons were, Benito, Junior (1780), Antoine F., dit Baronet (1783), Joseph
( 1 786), Hypolite ( 1 792) , arid Pierre Louis ( 1 798). Jos. Robideau — or Robidoux —
from Montreal came to St. Louis in 1770. His son Jos. Robidoux and grandson
Jos. Robidoux were all engaged in the fur trade. His grandson founded St.
Joseph. Pedro Lupien, dit Baron; Louis Perrault; Joseph Turgeon, likely
came over from Kaskaskia; Emilian Yosti, a prominent person in the early
annals of St. Louis, also land speculator, ran a lime kiln and stone quarry in
1799, was also at Carondelet and on the Missouri : Yosti was a native of Italy;
Claude Dupois; Jean Marie Cardinal, had a root house or caveau near St.
Louis, owned Cardinal Springs in White Ox prairie (now in the city)
which was so named for him, and where he was killed by the Indians in
the attack on St. Louis in 1780, also owned property in Carondelet; Joseph
Hubert; Louis Langlois, dit Rondeau, came from Kaskaskia to the west
side of the river, died somewhere on the Missouri river. In 1771, Charles
Paran, died in this year; Louis Pouillotte.

In 1773, Jean Vaudry; Veronique Guitar (or Guitard, which name occurs
often in the St. Louis Archives) ; Joseph Guittare ; Louis Bolduc, afterward in
Ste. Genevieve district as early as 1 788 with Baptiste Vall6 on the Mississippi,
and at Marais Polchecoma, in 1798, on Duclos Fork with Parfait Dufour, and
common-field of Ste. Genevieve and New Bourbon. His widow afterward
holding property, a large land owner, and had a number of slaves ; Stephen Bol-
duc, also owned property in Ste. Genevieve district; Louis Bolduc, Junior;
Charles Simoneau.

In 1774, Francois de Lui, owed St. Ange seventy livres for money loaned,
and therefore mentioned in his will; Joseph Vachard, dit I'Ardoise, married
Marie Mondion, widow of Jean B. Vien, dit Noel, he was a son of Louis Vachard
who came from Montreal in about 1775, died in St. Louis in 1786, his wife was
Isabella Bissette, a sister of Guillaume Bissette. His other sons were Antoine,
dit Mimi I'Ardoise; Louis, residing at New Madrid, but also in St. Louis, in
1797, and Charles, dit Creole I'Ardoise; Nicholas Briesbach, from Lucerne,
Switzerland, died in this year.

In 1775, Jean B. Perrault, dit Duchfene, a trader among the Indians; Fran-
cois Barrere, a baker, native of France ; Jean Baptiste Sarpy, died in New Or-
leans in 1798; and Sylvester Delor Sarpy, a brother of J. B., natives of France
both merchants, and Sylvestre, public scrivener, dying in New Orleans in 1799.
Another member of the family, Pierre L. Sarpy, came to St. Louis in 1786, and
Gregoire Berald Sarpy about the same time, who died at St. Louis 1824, mar-
ried Pelagie, daughter of Sylvestre Labbadie, and Jean B. Sarpy (2) who became
one of the leading merchants engaged in the fur trade, was his son; Francois
Faustin, dit Parent, married Rosalind Kiercereau in 1781, at Grand Glaise in
1 799 and St. Ferdinand ; Joseph Rivard ; Diego 1' Arrive ; Alexis Loise, married
Elizabeth Beaugeneau in 1773; Jean Baptiste Lorain, had a tannery near St.

PEREZ S3

with conceiving the policy of introducing friendly Indians, Shaw-
nees and Delawares, between St. Louis and the hostile tribes,

Ferdinand, which he sold to Manuel Lisa in 1800, was on the Mississippi near
Portage 6es Sioux and in prairie near St. Charles; Louis Lemond.

In 1776, Louis LaSudray.

In 1777, Francois Deslorier (Deloire or Delauriere), dit Normandeau, for-
geron (blacksmith) from Cahokia or Kaskaskia, Sub-Lieutenant of militia, after-
ward in 1794 at St. Ferdinand, raised tobacco on his lot in 1802, on river
Loutre in St. Charles district; Regis Vasseur, married Fran^oise Guitard dit La
Grandeur.

In 1778, Jean B. Lachappelle, constable in this year; d' Avignon; Pierre
Parans; Sylvestre Labadie, a native of Tarbes, capitol of the Department Hautes
P3rrenees, France, a merchant and Spanish Indian agent before Pierre Chou-
teau was appointed to this place, and often otherwise employed in public affairs,
made a claim under grant of Governor Miro to a tract of land running back to
the road to "Vide Poche" (Prairie Catalan), and on remonstrance of the jjeople
was stopped in improving this land by the lieutenant-governor, until the inten-
dant at New Orleans should be made acquainted with the circumstances.
(American State Papers, 2 P. L., p. 561.) A son, also named Sylvestre, bom in
1778, a land speculator, one of his claims being the Isle of Bocuf in the Missis-
sippi river above the mouth of the Missouri ; Charles Sanguinette, owned property
on Isle Cabaret near St. Louis, a Canadian and engaged in the fur trade, says
his business greatly interfered with by the formation of the Fur Company, mar-
ried a daughter of Dr. Condb. A Sanguinet at St. Ferdinand in 1800; Louis
Lirette, a boatman ; Nicolas F. Guion, a blacksmith.

In 1779, Francois Villette, dit St. Cloux; Jean B. Lepire (or LaPierre), for-
geron (blacksmith), also owned property at L'Anse a la Graise or New Madrid;
Demers, constable; Jean Baptiste Brugierre; Jean Baptiste Domine, also owned
a lot in St. Ferdinand, and sixty-five miles north of St. Louis in 1 799.

In 1780, in the records of the burials we find the name Tremblee,
and one Demige, no Christain names being given ; Raymond Quenel ; Hebert
Lacroix; Celeste Laland^, wife of Joseph DePIacie; Alexis Laland^; Joseph
Pepin, dit Lachance; (Joseph) Calv^, Junior, murdered by the Indians in this
year. At the same time a negro, owned by Chancellier, was murdered by the
Indians; Alexander Grimaux, dit Charpentier, and Louis Crepeau, his brother-
in-law; Francois Duchemin; Antoine Stefanelly; Frangois Hebert, dit Bel-
homme, killed in what is now Forest Park, his widow a daughter of Julien
LeRoy, married Jean B. Trudeau; Pierre Gladu, a Canadian, also killed by the
Indians; in May, 1780, Pierre Dorion, a name afterward made famous by
Brackenridge, and then a resident of St. Louis, asked ]:>ermission of General
Clark to settle at Kaskaskia, but did not stay there, apparently, but see note 154.

In 1 781, we find the name of Belkemier, as a purchaser at the sale of Louis
Dubreuil; Frangois Cailhol; Joseph Labusciere, in prairie adjacent the village
at the end of the Pallisades of post, sold in this year to Joseph Labrosse, also
owned another place near the Pallisade.-

In 1 781, Joseph Brazeau, Junior, received a grant from Cruzat on the Missis-
sippi and on Gingras for services, his wife was Marie Delisle; a Joseph Brazeau
had a grant in 1797 on river Antonio, in St. Charles district, and on the Missis-
sippi in St. Charles district. His father, Joseph Brazeau, Senior, came to
Kaskaskia from Canada, and was killed by the Indians in 1779, his widow came
to St. Louis in 1787. Louis Brazeau. dit "Caioua," was another son, and he
also married a Delisle, Marie Fran^oise, a daughter Fran^oise married Jean B.
Chauvin, dit Charleville, already mentioned. Louis Brazeau, dit "Caioua," was
about the only French resident at Kaskaskia who advocated resistance to Gen-
eral George Rogers Clark, when he was marching upon Kaskaskia, of which the
people were then pretty well advised. He was a man of medium size, or under,
says Menard. (25 Draj^er's Collection, Clark MSS., No. 58.)

In 1782, Antoine OHviere (Oliver), dit Bellepeche; Charles Henrion ; Marie
Joseph Godeau or Gobeau.

54 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

and it is said that he sent Louis Lorimier to visit the tribes east

of the river to induce them to settle on the west bank of the Missis-

In 1783, Joseph Verdon, a cabinet maker and turner, died at the age of nine-
ty-five years in 1813; Jean Baptiste Vien, dit Noel (1783), probably a son of a
Vien of the same name heretofore named, testified to events on the pver Aux
Gardes as early as this year, in 1797, at St. Ferdinand or Carondelet.

In 1784, Francois Marmillon, merchant of St. Louis, had a grant on the
Mississippi ; Duchemin ; James Bums in this year sold one half of his land to
Claiboume Rhodes.

In 1785, Jacques Loise, the best apples in the town grew on his lot says
Andrew L'Andreville, tavern keeper and merchant; a Paul Loise here later,
also Joseph at Portage des Sioux ; Joseph Delisle ; Louis Delisle dit Bienvenue ;
Francois Dion, perhaps a relative of Nicolas who married Theresa Hervieux.
in 1 769, no doubt a Kaskaskia family ; Henry Duchouquette, dit Lafleur, married
Felice Quior San Filip, and Jean Baptiste Duchouquette, dit Lami, married
Marie Brazeau, this Duchouquette was at the mouth of the Osage in 1800 at
C6te sans Dessein where he claimed that he established a vachcrie ; Louis Bou-
doin, on Prairie des Noyers, and afterwards at Carondelet, married Marie
Theresa Tesson in 1789; Joachim Roy, acquired property owned by Jean Rion
(or Jean Cadet Rion) ; in 1 790 Roy raised wheat on his lot, and in 1 793 raised three
hundred bushels of corn; a Carlos Charrion, dit Jean Rion, herein this year;
Jacques Faustin and one Chartron cultivated the lot of Fran^-ois Faustin, dit
Parent. They were his nephews, and at the death of Chartron the lot became
the property of Jacques Faustin ; Herbert, dit Berry Tabeau, father of Jacques
Tabeau, at Carondelet in 1786 and at St. Ferdinand in 1794; Joseph Larava or
Lavarre ; Antoine Marechal married Mary Catherine Tabeau, and lived at St.
Ferdinand in 1796; Paul Guitard at this time owned a place called "Guit-
ard's Cul de sac" in the prairie.

In 1786, Francois Flory (or Fleury, dit Grenier); Catherine Crepeau Tou-
g^rd, probably a relative of Joseph Crepo the soldier; Joseph Sumande, in this
year sold property to Jacques Glamorgan; Claude Duflon (or Dufloc), dit Pari-
sien, sold property this year to one Francisco ; Pierre Choret in this year married
Marie Josepnine Kiercereau.

In 1787, Claude Mercier, surgeon; Antoine Vincent Bouis, merchant, native
of Marseilles, Sub-Lieutenant of militia, got out stone on his lot in St. Louis in
1790, was also on the Missouri in 1795 ; Dorlac, probably Francois, had a grant
on Prairie des Noyers; Florence Flory, negress, willed her property to her daugh-
ter Marie Flory ; Charles Roy, here and at Portage des Sioux; Joseph DeSautelle,
married Theresa Mainville in this year; Jean P. Pourcelly, a Provencal, was
a master baker of St. Ferdinand, moved to Carondelet prior to 1803.

In 1788, Carlos Leveille, a colored man, it seems resided in the block
fronting on the river south of the present Lombard street; Botelar; Joseph
Biancour; Louis Biancour; Jean Baptiste Belland, afterwards lived on the
Missouri opposite St. Charles and then in St. Charles; Francois Cotard (1788),
seems to have been the earliest resident on Mill creek, he cultivated land for
Joseph Motard, and in 1807 was at St. Ferdinand. Joseph Motard claimed
land on Mill creek in 1788 and had an orchard bearing fine apples, and in 1793
Louis Dubreuil testified that Motard had a number of people working under
him there, and that his (Dubreuil's) father bought produce of him. Michael
Marli rented the place for several years as also Charles Vachard. Calvin
Adams and Patrick Lee were successively the owners of this claim and his inter-
ests in the neighborhood.

In 1789, Simon Coussot (or Cuseau), in St. Charles in 1799; Noel Langlois;
Amable Flamant, a stone mason.

In 1790, Gabriel Melody; Antoine Reihl (Reylh, Rheil or Reilhe), a mer-
chant, lived on the river des Peres, and in the common -field near Carondelet
one Antoine Reilhe, from Two Rivers, was the proprietor of a general store at
Michilimackinac in 1783; Jean B. Dufaut, dit Benoni (also s]:>elled Deffau, De-
faut, Defaux), vestryman, married the widow of Louis B. Laroche, died 1802;

LORIMIER 55

sippiy and to protect the village. At a later date, however, Lorimier
acted in these negotiations directly as commissioner of Carondelet,

one Dubois, may be son of the old soldier Louis Dubois, afterward found at
St. Charles; Joseph LaCroix, afterward at St. Ferdinand; Frangois Vallois;
Jean Baptiste Tardif (Tardit), in his will made Jacques Glamorgan, merchant
of St. Louis, his heir; Pelasde Primo; Pierre Barribeau, in 1706, at Cr^ve Cccur
and Pierre Troye (Troge), aub-Lieutenant of militia at St. Charles.

In 1792, Alexander Bellisime, bom in Toulon, France, came to America
during the Revolutionary war, died in 1835, sixty-seven years of age, hotel-
keeper between what is now Myrtle and Spruce on 2nd street, opposite the old
"Green Tree."

In 1793, Theresa Desmoulin; Ginginbre, returned to France in 1801 ; Joseph
Calais, from Kaskaskia, also on the Missouri and at St. Fernando in 1797 ; Am-
able Ouimate (Wimet); Jean Baptiste Ambroise Duval, dit Degroisiellier;
afterward in 1799 in St. Charles district; Paul Guitard, a shoemaker, near St.
Louis on Prairie des Noyers; Louis Guitard, dit La Grandeur, and Vincent Gui-
tard were his sons, Louis was also north of St. Louis on the Mississippi, his sons
were natives of Illinois; Jean Baptiste Marli died in 1797, his son Duke and
brother Michael also here ; Joseph Roy ; Joseph Lecompte.

In 1794, Joseph Pallardy, died in this year; Jean Baptiste Desmoulin, stone-
mason, at St. Charles in 1800, and was 65 miles north of St. Louis; Marie La-
Bastielle, a free colored woman, the garrison for the Spanish troops was imme-
diately in the rear of her lot; Jean Beaufils; Joseph Oneille (O'Neil) (1793),
native of Quebec, Canada, son of Pierre O'Neille, and Joseph Chandonair, a
merchant in St. Louis prior to this time owned property on Lake St. Mary, New
Madrid district and lake St. Isidore bought of Pedro Saffray in 1803.

In 1795, Antoine Chenie, also at St. Ferdinand; Louis Dumont (or Du-
mond); Henry Belestre; Marie Bennet; Jean Belony Latresse; Catherine La-
Violette, from Kaskaskia; Louis LaCroix, first came to St. Louis, but in
1798 a Louis LaCroix settled on the road leading to Mine LaMotte, in Ste.
Genevieve district, near St. Michel, and may be the same. Joseph Labbadie,
dit St. Pierre, afterwards moved to Florissant, a Joseph LaPierre in St.
Louis in 1 793, and perhaps same ; Fran^oise Leveille, negress, no doubt related
to Carlos already named; Joseph LavalUs; Titus LeBerge, Susa Leberge mar-
ried Francois Tesson in 1787; Bazil Bissonette; John Stotts; Joseph Chartrand, •
owned property in the upper prairie near St. Charles on the Missouri in 1796,
at Carondelet in 1797; Amable Chartrand, Senior, from Kaskaskia, at Portage %
des Sioux and Carondelet in 1802; Amable Chartrand, junior, and Thomas, «
also from Kaskaskia and afterwards at Carondelet ; Adam Martin, in 1 797 had
a grant on the Missouri in St. Charles district, where in 1803 he employed a
man by the name of Price to gather his corn, paying him two cows and calves ;
this place was on the frontier and the Indians were troublesome, lived at Marais
des liards; Theresa Barois (or Barion) near here on River des Pbres; Frangoise
Brazeau, widow of Baptiste Charleville had a grant on the river des P^res.

In 1796, Joseph Louis (Lewis) in Bellevue valley; Franjois Collard, near
St. Louis.

In 1 797, Jean Drouin, in St. Charles district, in 1 799, 65 miles north of St.
Louis; Jean Baptiste Morin, at Portage des Sioux in 1802, his brother Michael
and mother Pelagie Morin were here prior to this time, and another brother
Henry, later; John E. Allen testified to events in this year on the river des P^res,
in St. Charles district in 1804; Claude Paneton; John Ball, on River des P^res
near St. Louis and on Grand Glaise.

In 1798, Pierre Quenel; Margaret Martigny; Paul Depuis (Dupois); John
Lard (or Lord), at Spanish Ponds; Dr. Mackay Wherry, in 1800 at Portage des
Sioux, and raised com on his lot there in 1802, also in the St. Charles district
in this year; Louis Martin, afterwards at St. Ferdinand; James McDaniels on
the River des P^res and Cold Water and Missouri; Jean Baptiste Louis Col-
lin, in commons north of Grand Rue, St. Ferdinand in 1800 — seems to have
moved up from New Madrid.

S6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

and invited these Indians to settle on the west side of the river
to protect all the Spanish settlements from the incursions of t)ie

In 1799, Louis Barois; Rene Brian; Hyacinth E^iz was also on the Missis-
sippi and Maramec, and owned two tracts near Cr^ve Coeur by purchase;
Bazil Proulx, merchant, owned an estate consisting of a stone house, poultry
house, petite mill, etc., was also at St. Charles in 1800, and on the Missouri;
Pierre and Elizabeth Datchurut at New Madrid, 1792; Arend Rutgers, from
Kentucky, merchant, was on the Dardenne in St. Charles district in this year,
had a mill, store-houses, etc.

In 1800, Pierre Guerette, dit Dumont (or Dumond) from Kaskaskia ; George
Doggett was a witness to events in this year; Robert Forsyth; Henry Gratiot
says as a boy played ball against Motard's mill with other boys, was a sort of re-
sort for them ; Mordecai Belli in 1802 was on the Missouri, but sold his property
there to Amos Stoddard, and after that this property was always called "Stod-
dard's Mound;" Patrick Lee, merchant in St. Louis, bought property on Mill
creek in 1802; Gabriel Lord; Edward Bradley near St. Louis and on the
Missouri; Francois Dupuis (or Dupois), a mongrel, descendant of Claude
Dupois; Pedro Saffilard, a witness in St. Ferdinand.

In 1 80 1, Joseph Neptune, sailor, died in this year; Hypolite and Sylvester
Papin ; Hyacinta Hamelin (Ainelin) ; Pierre Bequette, from Kaskaskia, a very
andent family there, part of them coming to St. Louis at an early date, and
others in Ste. Genevieve.

In 1802, Pierre Coudaire (or Couderre), a Provencal; Louis Ambroise; Fran-
cois Guinelle ; Marie Simoneau ; Phillip Guillory or Guillay ; Louis Grimard, dit
Charpentier at St. Charles in 1799. Prior to and in 1803, other residents were:
Francisco Brichinelle; Julien Papin Benito; Dominique Uge; Baptiste Belcour;
Helen Lereux; Joseph Descary ; Baptiste Molere or Molair; Jacques Lageuness;
Mary NicoUe Lebois; Jean Baptiste Erebour, ditMatiirin (or Mataurin); Helen
Delorier; Joseph Leblond; Jean Baptiste Girard; Felix Fontaine; Joseph Que-
nel ; Jean P. Roy, dit Lapense, his property sold at public sale ; Francois Cha-
tillon, ditGodin; Robert Simpson bought property here prior to 1805; Francois
Dorion, Junior; Mary Gyol de Guirau; Juan Gates; Charles Bosseron; Joseph
Laprisse, was also at St. Ferdinand; Joseph Phillibert; Mathew and John Kerr;
George and James Kennerly; Jean B. Larrade; Theresa Labbadie Joyal, daugh-
ter of Labbadie, dit St. Pierre; Hugh Connor; Baptiste Corno; Pierre Lirette;
Frangois Labreche; Louis Blanchette, married an Indian; J. B. Lamarche, dit
Bricot; Pierre Chalifour; William Clark, a blacksmith in St. Louis; Barth^lemi
Courtmanche; Francois Laplante Lerige; Jean Baptiste Dubay; Alexis Thi-
beaut or Thibault; Jean B. Ferrot, merchant; Antonio Bonnemain, merchant;
Jean P. Comegys; Michael Foucher; Joseph Montaigne; Robert Duncan;
Ralph Davis ; Eugene Dorys (Dorsieres) Denaux ; Calvin Adams ; Etienne Barre,
merchant; Lagarciniere, merchant; Gaspard Roubieux (probably Roubiere,
dit European) merchant; Gabriel de la Claire, merchant and soldier; Francois
Barrouselle, a native of St. Domingo, merchant; Louis Coignard, merchant,
native of Chatillon ; William Bellsa ; Pierre St. Jean, dit Sans Souci, also at Ca-
rondelet; Louis Gibeau; Pierre Bordeau; Pierre Bourg; Samuel Solomon;
Joseph Joinal LaBonte; Thomas Liggette; Jacob Brady; Jean P. Cabanne,
native of Pau; Joseph Fayet; Louis Bouder; Pierre Valentine Ignace; Jean
Jacques and Jean B. Lebeau; a Baptiste Lebeau in St. Charles in 1800; Jean
B. Monier; Gabriel Paul; Pierre Panet; Andre Petteliar (or Peltier); Franjois
Doyon Emmons; White Matlock on the Missouri; Catherine Dodge on the
River des P^res; Frangois Hebert on the River des P^res; Mathew Remy (Ram-
ey) and son Nathan ; Francois Noise testifies he was a child in St. Louis when
Francois Moreau in 1 796 lived there, and fought with his son, Alexis Moreau,
was also at Carondelet ; Joseph Sorin, merchant, native of LaRochelle ; Joseph
Segond, merchant; Antoine Senacal; Provencal, (may be Pierre Coudaire) a
trader, and may be the same who is referred to by Sinclair as "having been
equipped with goods by Calvfe to trade in the Spanish country," and who refused

GEORGE MORGAN 57

Osages and other hostile tribes."' At the time these Indians from the
east side came to upper Louisiana it was also the policy of the
Spanish government to strengthen in every way the military
position of Spain in upper Louisiana, because the rapid expan-
sion of American influence and increase of the population on the Ohio
and in the territory between the Ohio and the Lakes filled the Span-
iards with apprehension. The free navigation of the lower Missis-
sippi was then a constant source of friction and controversy.

Colonel George Morgan, who came to upper Louisiana with a
view of establishing an American colony in the Spanish possessions
near the mouth of the Ohio, under a supposed grant of Don Diego
Gardoqui, the Spanish ambassador at Philadelphia, visited St.
Louis in connection with this project. Perez, in a letter to Governor
Miro, informs him that Morgan was accompanied by seventyheads of
families intending to settle, if he found a suitable location, and that in
addition he had with him eleven Indians from on the Ohio ; that he
gave these some presents which made them " very happy,' * and that
they promised to tell the chiefs of their tribes how well they had been
received. He furnished Colonel Morgan provisions and there
guides. The visit of Colonel Morgan resulted in the founding of
New Madrid. It is said that while Perez was commandant, in 1792,
honey-bees came for the first time to St. Louis."® Perez was an old
soldier. He was in the Spanish military service 38 years and 10
months. Entering as a private, he finally attained the rank of lieu-
tenant-colonel of the Stationary Regiment of Louisiana; he saw
active service in Spain and Portugal, and came with O'Reilly to
Louisiana in 1763; participated in the campaigns in Florida under
Galvez; in 1773 was at the siege and capture of Fort Manchack, and
in 1780 at the capture of Mobile and Pensacola."*

Perez was succeeded in 1792 by Don Zenon Trudeau, " lieutenant-
colonel and captain of grenadiers of the Stationary Regiment of

to go to Michilimackinac and therefore is denounced by the English Commander
as a "man of infamous character." (11 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p.
158.) Julien Roy, married Marie Barbara Sauder, their son Louis in 1802
married Catherine Millette, daughter of Jean Baptiste Millette of New Madrid.

"'American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 800.

"'Scharff*s History of St. Louis, vol. i, 212.

"•In 1793 he retired from the service on account of advanced age and ill-
health contracted during the "rigorous winters which he endured" while "com-
manding the settlements of the western part of Illinois for the space of five years"
and prayed for the monthly pay of a lieutenant-colonel retired, but Carondelet
thought the "pay of a retired Captain enough as it is known that he enjoys
a fortune quite sufficient to support himself and family with decency."

58 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Louisiana. " ** The population of the country now began to increase
rapidly. Many Americans immigrated into the Spanish settlements,
influenced by the free and generous donations of land. Probably in
consequence of these numerous land grants and the increased value of
land Don Antonio Soulard was appointed surveyor of upper Louisiana
and acted as such from February 3, 1795, until the cession of
Louisiana. Soulard was also captain of the militia, and Ayudante
Mayor of St. Louis. In 1800 he was commissioned by the Marques
Casa Calvo, then governor-general of Louisiana, and Don Ramon de
Lopez y Angulo, intendant-general of Louisiana, to make a report of
the fortifications and necessary repairs and afterward, accordingly,
made a full report to Lieutenant-Colonel Don Carlos Howard, mil-
itar>' commandant of upper Louisiana, in regard to the same.
Soulard was a native of France, had served in the French navy, and,
wrecked in fortune came to Louisiana. In a memorial to the com-
missioners to adjust land titles, he complains that the services he
rendered were never adequately rewarded, and that he only received
a concession of about four thousand acres of land, when he might
have received much more "from the well known munificence of
the Spanish government,*' which granted so much to "strangers
scarcely known."

Shortly after he assumed his office Trudeau was surprised by the
arrival of one Don Pedro Vial in St. Louis, who, accompanied by two
young men, came "from the city of Santa F^ of the Kingdom of Nuevo
Mexico, having been commissioned by Governor Don Fernando de la
Concha to open a road from that city to St. Louis." Trudeau prompt-
ly advised Baron Carondelet of the arrival of Vial, and that he reported
that he had not encountered an obstacle that he had not conquered,
and that he could have marched from there to St. Louis in 25
days. Trudeau took a deep interest in the exploration of
the upper Missouri river, and in the expansion of the fur trade.
Under his advice, in 1794 some of the merchants of St. Louis

formed a company to exploit the fur trade on the upper Mis-

*^ Trudeau was born in New Orleans Nov. 28, 1748 — a son of Sieur
Jean Trudeau, a lieutenant " des trouj^es de sa majeste d^tach^ en cette col-
onic." His mother was Marie de Carriere. He was well educated, had a family
of several sons, one of his sons was Don Carlos Laveau Trudeau, surveyor general
of Louisiana. Don Juan Baptiste Trudeau, the first school teacher of St. Louis,
was his relative. Among the militia who enlisted at Montreal in 1663, we
find the name of Etienne Trudeau, may be a common ancestor of Zenon
and Jean Baptiste Trudeau. (Suite Canadien Frangaise, p. 9.) Zenon Tru-
deau in 1 781 married Eulalie De Lassize, daughter of Nicolas DeLassize, cap-
tain in the royal army, and commandant of the militia of New Orleans.

TRUDEAU 59

souri, combining their capital for that purpose, and also agreed to use
their exertions to penetrate the sources of the Missouri and **beyond
if possible to the Southern Ocean." Glamorgan was active in organ-

^^J^zdJ-^^^^

izing this company. At his instance the syndic of St. Louis called
together the commercial community — comercia — of the town to
organize a company to secure this exclusive trade **farther up than the
Ponkas/ * the exclusive trade with this tribe having been granted to
Juan Munie. All the merchants of St. Louis at that time were present
at this meeting — viz., Reihle, Papin, Yosty, Motard, Sanguinette,
Vasquez, Sarpy, Cerr^, Roy, Saint Cyrete, Conde, Andreville, Vincent,
Lafleur, Du Breuil, Marie, L'Abbadie, Chouteau Senior, Robidoux,
Chauvin, CoUell, Duroche, La Valle, La Goye, Chouteau Junior,
Gratiot, Delor and Clamorgan. The articles of association approved
by the government were submitted, but Reihle, Motard, Durocher,
Vasquez, Robidoux, Sanguinette, Helena St. Grasse, Du Breuil,
and Clamorgan only entered into the corporation. Clamorgan
was selected as director, and in a letter to Carondelet explains that
some merchants did not join for fear of loss, and others " with the
intention of harming, if they can, in the future the enterprise," and
hence, since the company was about to incur" immense expense," peti-
tioned that the exclusive trade on the upper Missouri be guaranteed
the company for the first ten years, and Carondelet accordingly
approved **the exclusive privilege" of trade for ten years.

This Missouri trading company was not a profitable venture;
dissensions among the members, jealousies and want of confidence in
Clamorgan making success impossible. Clamorgan, himself, under
the name of Todd & Company, it was charged, monopolized the trade
of the upper Missouri, and diverted it from New Orleans. Joseph
Robidoux made an efifort, without success, to have the company

6o

HISTORY OF MISSOURI

reorganized by Gayoso, and Glamorgan excluded from it,**^ chai^ng
that Glamorgan's "probity was suspected by several," that he was
" intriguing, of fluent tongue, pliant and even servile," but admits
that he had been accustomed to conduct great operations. It also
developed that at least some of the merchants who had refused to take
shares in the company afterward petitioned that the exclusive trade
of the company might be revoked, as Glamorgan had anticipated.***

-■■ *

a*^'

THE CERr6 house

In 1796, when the expedition under Lt. Gol. Don Garlos How-
ard *^ came up the river to St. Louis in keelboats and galleys, as
already related, with a force of one hundred men, then almost an

*** A native of Guadalupe, a merchant, fur trader, explorer, and land specu-
lator, acquired a claim of Regis Loisel to 157,062 arpens on the Missouri ; made a
claim for 136,904 arpens on the Mississippi below New Madrid (now in Arkansas)
to establish a roj>e walk and form a Canadian establishment ; made another claim
of 500,000 arpens fronting on the Mississippi, between the Dardenne and Cha-
rctte, to pay him for an exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, as chief
ofTicer; and another large district on the Maramec under grant of Trudcau,
dated 1795, and various other smaller claims, the whole of his claims amounting
to nearly 1,000,000 arpens. He was in Mexico in 1808.

'2' See ^^em()rial of Manuel Lisa, Chas. Sanguinette, Gosti, Guillaume Hubert,
Grcgorio Sarpy, G. I*'. Robidoux, Patrick Lee, F. M. Benoit, Andre dit Le-
compte, Joseph Marie, Andreville, Jacento Egliz, A. Reihle, J. Moutard, Emi-
leon Yosti, Antoinc Reynal, Francois Valois, Gabriel Proulx, G. R, Spencer,
Mackay WTierry, \V. Lacroix Pricur, J. B. Monier, Antoine Janis. — In Archives
of the Indies, Seville, cf.

*^ Howard was an Irishman in the Spanish service.

62 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

army, this event at the time created no little sensation. The
year of the arrival of these boats became knqwn as the *^ Ann^ des
Gaines" among the inhabitants."*

Trudeau, on August 29, 1799, was succeeded by Carlos De-
Hault DeLassus de Luziere, transferred to St. Louis from New
Madrid, where he had been stationed as commandant since
1796. New Madrid conmiercially at that time was the most impor-
tant station on the upper Mississippi. It was a port of entry, and all
vessels going up or down the river, to or from New Orleans, were
compelled to land there for inspection. The river traffic was rapidly in-
creasing, and DeLassus complained that his duties were very onerous.
Very likely on his application, he was transferred to St. Louis, so as to
be nearer his father, the commandant at New Bourbon. Prior to the
appointment of DeLassus, as lieutenant-governor of upper Louisiana,
New Madrid was a separate and independent post, and the com-
mander there exercised the power of a subdelegate. When DeLassus
was transferred to St. Louis, New Madrid and its dependencies were
attached to, and first came under the jurisdiction of, the lieutenant-
governor of upper Louisiana. He was particularly advised by Gayoso,
to encourage immigration from Canada, " as this is really the people
we want," and he instructs him to ascertain " how it would be best
to bring the people from Canada under the lowest expense. "^'^ De-
Lassus was the last Spanish lieutenant-governor of upper Louisiana.
While he was lieutenant-governor the people of St. Louis made a
patriotic war contribution to aid Spain in the war.^*

Small-pox first appeared in St. Louis in 1799, and hence the year
was called " Ann^e de la Picott^. " The winter following being unu-
sually severe, the year 1800 was known among the people as " Ann^

^^ I Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 127, Missouri Historical Society Archives,
Chouteau's evidence.

**• Letter Gayoso to DeLassus, March 2, 1799 — Chouteau Collection.

**• The subscription list preserved in the Archives of the Indies gives the
names of "well-to-do people" of St. Louis who contributed on that occasion,
and the several amounts, as follows: Gregorio Sarpy, 5oi>esos; Carlos Gratiot,
50 pesos; Carlos Sanguinette, 50 pesos; L. P. Didier, 12 i>esos; Francisco Marie
Benoit, 30 pesos; Patricio Lee, 20 pesos; Pedro Chouteau, 50 i>esos; Bernardo
Pratte, 25 pesos; Silvestre Labbadie, 25 pesos; Jos. Robideau, 50 pesos; Ftancis-
co Vallfe (Vallois) 10 pesos; Benito Vasquez, 10 pesos; Andres L'Andreville, 10
pesos; Jos. Brazeau, 20 pesos; Don Luis Labeaume, 10 pesos; Luis Coignard,
10 pesos; Don Jos. Hortiz, 25 f)esos; Antonio Reihle, 10 pesos; Jacinto St. Cyr,
50 pesos; Don Santiago Chauvin, 10 pesos; Don Antonio Soulard 30 pesos;
Mackay Wherry, 20 pesos ; Pasqual Cer^, 20 i>esos; Juan Baptiste Trudeau, 5
pesos; Manuel de Lisa, 10 pesos; Don Auguste Chouteau, r 00 pesos; and Don
Antonio Vincent Buois, 50 pesos. Total 762 pesos.

DELOR DE TREGET 63

du Grand Hivfer. " Chouteau says that in this winter the thermom-
eter fell thirty-two degrees below zero.**' In 1801 the Spanish gov-
ernment established a military hospital at St. Louis and of this
hospital Dr. Saugrain was appointed Surgeon at a monthly salary
of 30 dollars."* St. Louis, says Austin, at this time contained
more than two hundred houses, "some of stone,'* ** had a number
of " wealthy merchants and an extensive trade from the Missouris
and on the upper Mississippi," but Morales complained in 1802
that the secret importation of English and American goods is de-
priving the Government of its revenue and New Orleans of
trade."® The immigration of farmers from the United States
also continued to increase, and to these settlers DeLassus made

many grants of land. At the close of 1803 nearly one-half of the
population of upper Louisiana was Anglo-American, residing mostly
on farms and isolated homesteads.

Several years after Laclede established his trading post, Clement
Delor de Treget,**^ born at Quercy, Cahors, in the south of France,
established himself on the Mississippi near the mouth of the Riviere
des Pferes, about ten miles below Laclede's village, probably on the
site of the original Jesuit missionary settlement. De Treget, it is
said, had been an officer in the French navy. When he first arrived

*" I Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 127, Missouri Historical Society Archives.

*" Letter of Morales to De Lassus, August 5, 1801.

"• And "was better built than any town on the river" and asserts that some
of the best hewn stone of Fort de Chartres were taken there.

**• Letter of Morales to De Lassus, January 21, 1802.

"* Pierre Delor de Treget, son of Clement, was a captain of militia at
Carondelet, and on the death of his father acted as commandant. Had a grant
on road leading from St. Louis to Carondelet and on the Gravois. The first wife
of Clement Delor de Treget was Catherine Marin, who died December 14, 1776,
leaving four children, Pierre Delor de Treget, intermarried with Sophia Chou-
quet; Madelaine, intermarried with Frangois Cailhol in 1781, and afterwards
with Lambert Lajoie ; Marie Rose, intermarried with Alexis Marie, 1 784 ; his
second wife was Angelique A. Martin with whom he intermarried February 15,
1779, and of their four children Angelique intermarried with Hyacinth Pidgeon ;
Felicite with Antoine Moitier; Margaret with J. B. M. Chadllon, and Agnes
with Leon Constant, all early residents of upper Louisiana. The Ste. Gene-
vieve church records show that one Jos. Delor de Treget resided there in 1774.

64 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

in Louisiana, he settled at Ste. Genevieve, but in 1767 from that place
came up the river with his wife; Charmed with the beauty of the
country, the hills gently sloping to the shore near the mouth of
the Riviere des P^res, and the diversified landscape of prairie and
open woodland, he resolved to settle there, and here St. Ange made a
grant, of land to him. At the foot of what is now known as El wood
street he built a small stone house, residing there until his death. The
stone house stood for a hundred years, but finally gave way to im-
provements made by the Iron Mountain railroad in that locality. A
village soon sprung up near his place of residence, known at first as
**Delor's village,'' but afterward as " Catalan's prairie," so named
for one Louis Catalan, also an early settler. Then the village was
named Louisbourg, and finally, shortly before the acquisition of
Louisiana, was called Carondelet, in honor of Baron de Carondelet,
governor-general of Louisiana. Generally, however, the village was
known as "Vide Poche" (Empty Pocket), a nick-name bestowed
upon it by the habitans of St. Louis. It was also known as " Pain de
Sucre." The village grew slowly, and for a number of years not
more than twenty families lived there, principally engaged in agri-
culture, cultivating an adjacent common-field, **a farming people,"
Chouteau testified.*'* The village had a common of 6,000 arpens,
in fact more ** commons" than they were able to pay Chouteau for
surveying, and the whole town was present when the survey was
made. When Louisiana was acquired, according to Stoddard, the
place consisted of fifty houses and had a population of about two
hundred and fifty. Pierre Delor de Treget, son of Clement Delor de
Treget, was syndic of Carondelet after his father's death. "A man
with no capacity, he neither reads nor writes,'* says DeLassus, and by
way of apology for this appointment, adds that he " was appointed
captain commandant for want of others. "^ In 1 793 Carondelet first
appointed him as sub-lieutenant to form a company of militia at "San
Carlos del Misury " because "a person of courage, energy and good
conduct." How rapidly, in many instances, the descendants of the
French settlers retrograded intellectually and educationally in the wil-
derness this instance shows. Delor de Treget himself undoubtedly
was a man of culture and education, and that he should have allowed
his family to grow up without even the rudiments of knowledge shows
how indifferent to the importance of education the surrounding wil-

**' American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 672.
^^ American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 672.

ST. FERDINAND . 65

demess and isolation from civilized and civilizing influences made
him, as well as many of the other early French and American settlers.
Apparently without a struggle to impart to his family the knowledge
he personally possessed, De Treget allowed his children to grow up
in the grossest ignorance, little higher in the intellectual scale than
the Indians by whom he and they were surrounded.***

*** Other residents of Carondelet were, Auguste Amiot (or Amyot) (1777),
colored, in 1780 in St. Louis; Coussot (1778), Simon Coussot was in St. Louis
in 1789; Jean B. Menard (1778); Louis and Joseph Menard (1786); Francois
Lacombe (1791) on the Gravois near Carondelet, also owned a tract of land
on the Maramec, which was granted to McFall but abandoned by him, another
tract on the Isle k Boeuf, and in 1800 was a merchant in New Madrid, others of
this family at Ste. Genevieve; Louis Ronde (or Ronday) dit Motie (1792), also
a resident of Prairie Catalan near the village. The de la Rondes, according to
Suite, were "interpretes et agents dans les contrees sauvages*' (7 Suite's Cana-
dien Fran^ais, p. 41); Julien Chouquette (1793), owned property at the fork of
the Mississippi and River des P^res, was captain of the militia, and had a sugar
house which ne sold in 1804 to Antoine Pinoyer; Jean Baptiste Dauphin (Dol-
phin or Dofine) (1794), on river Feefee in 1798, and at Portage des Sioux in 1802 ;
Joseph Lemai (or Lemay) (1794); Frangois Fournier (1793); Frangois DeSalle,
dit Cayolle (i 795), Louis Degieure (DeGuire) (i 795). A DeGuire family in Can-
ada in 1 75 1, received the grant of a seigneury in Yamaska county, under name
of DeGuire DesRosiers. A native priest of Canada in 1750 also named De-
Guire. (7 Suite Canadien Frangaise, p. 45.) To this family the DeGuires
in Missoiui may be related. A Louis Gcgieure was here in 1795, and likely
the same person; Gabriel Constant, dit Laramie, Senior (1795), from Vin- /
cennes, and Gabriel, Junior, at Belle Point near Carondelet, Julien Leon, Cath-
erine and Joseph Constant, dit Laramie all lived in and near Carondelet, Joseph
also at St. Ferdinand; and Gabriel, Senior, on the river Cuivre in St. Charles •
district in 1800; Veuve Rondon (Rondeau); Auguste Gamache, Junior (1795);
J. B. Gamache, Senior, and son J. B., Junior, (1795) ;Jean Baptiste gave his name
m Hunt's Minutes as "DeGamache" (3 Hunt's Minutes, p. 103, Missoiui His-
torical Society Archives.) The Gamache name famous in Canadian history.
In 1652 Genevieve Gamache, dit Lamarre, married Julien Fortin, dit Bellefon-
taine, in 1762 Nicolas Gamache and Louis Gagnier, dit Belleadvance, received
the seigneury of Lafrenage. A Nicolas Rohault, Marquis de Gamache, a
native of Picardy, gave 30,000 ecu to the Quebec seminary in 1639 ; his son, Rene,
a Jesuit, induced his father to make this gift; Lambert Salle, c^t Lajoie(i795),
may be a relative of Jean of St. Louis; Charles Vall6 (1797)1 owned a tract on
the Gravois near Carondelet, but did not live on it ; Christopher Shultz and his
two sons Peter and George (1797), evidently Germans, ana also had property
in St. Louis; Frangois Roy (1800), also on the Mississippi in St. Charles dis-
trict; Henry Chouauette; Joseph Leduc (1801), in St. Charles in 1802; Pierre
Villeroy (or Villeray) (prior to 1802) from Vincennes. Others we find here prior
to 1802 were: Frangois DesNoyer, also at St. Louis; Pierre Mason, probably
a relative of Amable Partenay, dit Mason, of Ste. Genevieve ; Michael Tesson, dit •
Honore, who had a two-horse power grist-mill, Victoire Tesson married George
Shultz; Gabriel Hunot, also in St. Louis; Franjois Porier, in the common-
field; Nicolas Gay, dit Gravir; Manuel Andre Roque, was the interpreter, ap-
pointed by the English, to attend "Wabasha" in 1780, and perhaps a relative
or the same person, who was associated with Calv^, also an English interpreter,
had a son too was an interpreter; Augustine Dubay(or Dube); Jean Baptiste
Bouvet (Beauvet or Beauvais); Louis Moques (or Mouques). Others who
owned property here by right of purchase in early times: Louis Constant, dit La-
ramie; Mary Ann Black; Pascal Mallet (Mayette) from Vincennes; Dominique
Eugene (probably Uge of St. Louis) ; Antoine Pinoyer (1804) bought sugar-house

66 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

When the United States took possession of Louisiana, the St.
Louis district embraced all the territory between the Maramec and the
Missouri and extended indefinitely west. The largest settlement in
this district outside of St. Louis was St. Ferdinand, or San Fernando
de Florissant. This village then contained sixty houses. The date
when the first settlement was made here is not now known. It is, how-
ever, supposed that about the time Laclede established his post some
of the French immigrants from the east side established themselves
near, and on Cold Water creek, engaged in hunting and incidentally
opened up little farms in a conunon-field in the adjacent prairie. In
1767 Francesco Rui established "Fort El Principe de Asturias"
near the Missouri, eight miles or so from where the village of St.
Ferdinand is now located and it may be that the history of the first
settlement of this village is connected with the erection of the fort.
The ancient village of St. Ferdinand was located on rising ground
on one side of Cold Water, opposite a fertile prairie two miles wide
and twelve miles long, running parallel with, and about two or three
miles from the Missouri river. This region was known as Florissant
or " Fleurisant" long before it received the name of St. Ferdinand or
" San Fernando de Florissant, " and no doubt was so named because
here we can well imagine the wild flowers then bloomed luxuriantly in
the open prairie, and deeply impressed by their beauty even the rude
hunters and trappers who first beheld the virgin land. Fountain ^
Biche or Cold Water, however, was called Fernando river (Rio
Fernando) by the Spaniards. According to Perrin du Lac, Floris-
sant was established in 1790 by "some inhabitants of St. Louis," ^
but in this he is evidently mistaken, because many families resided in
this locality long before this time. San Fernando de Florissant is also
supposed to have been a missionary station, but of this we have no
definite evidence. Although this suggestion is not improbable,
because the Jesuit missionaries at that time traveled far and wide to
promote the cause of religion. The location of St. Ferdinand "would
have been most agreeable, if the inhabitants had not sacrificed
everything to the proximity of the stream, which, however, contains

of Julien Chouquette; Devance Guion (1804); William Glenn; Jean Eugene
Leitensdorfer; Francois Lemai; Louis Rivience (or Revence); Jacques Brunei;
John Fardon ; Jean Baptiste Mousset ; William L. Long a witness of matters at
Carondelet, and had an interest in a two-horse power grist-mill, and Z. Sapping-
ton had a two-horse power grist-mill, Hyacinth Pigeon, Amand Micheau, had
a shot factory below a landmark on the "commons" known as the **Sugar Loaf."
Henry Morin, Amable Chartrand; Louis Courtois, also lived here. ,

*** Travels of Perrin du Lac, p. 48.

DUNEGANT 67

water only one half the year.' ' ^* However, the village was located
in a fertile land, fresh springs gushed from the hill-sides, and park-
like woods interspersed with prairies made a charming landscape.
Perrin du Lac observed, in 1802, that the people could live here in
opulence if they were able to exchange at a reasonable rate the pro-
ductions of their lands for clothing and other necessaries. During the
Spanish occupancy of the country Francois Dunegant dit Beaurosier,
was commandant of this village. DeLassus says that he was *^ an
honest and brave officer;'' but that he could "not read and write," a
poor man financially, but says Pascal Cerr^ **as to character, one of
the best amongst us.' ' ^ Dunegant was in conunand of the settle-
ment from 1780 until the acquisition of the country by the United
States.**' The extent of his territorial jurisdiction as commandant
seems to have been somewhat indefinite, but extended over the village
and adjacent country to the Missouri, and as far east as the Missis-
sippi.** A company of militia was also organized in this village.
Of this company Don Francisco de Lauxier was sub-lieutenant in
1793 — so also Francesco Moreau. In 1782 the Indians were very
troublesome in that neighborhood. The earliest resident in the
neighborhood of St. Ferdinand was Nicholas Hebert, dit LeCompte,
who lived there in 1765. *** Nicola^.'Antoine and Francois Mare-
chal, Jacques Marechal, and others of the same name were also here
certainly as early as 1 785. Hyacmth Deshetre, an Indian interpreter,
came over from Cahokia about the same time."* Pierre Deveaux
(Devot), Joseph Montreaux and Noel Brunet were settlers in 1784,
and Jean Baptiste Creeley, Creliz, or Crely, came from Kaskaskia in
1787. He owned a wind-mill on the Mississippi in 1798. In 1824
Joseph Presse*** gave evidence before Conunissioner Hunt as an " an-

**• Travels of Perrin du Lac, p. 49.

*" American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 612.

^ I Billon's Annals, p. 301. Auguste Chouteau erroneously says that he
founded the village in 1796. — Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 127.

"• Prior to his appointment as commandant, says he was a laborer at the
post of St. Louis, in 1782 was at Fontaine des Biches.

**• American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 613.

*** The Deshetres were a family of Indian interpreters; Louis Deshetre
was one of the first settlers of St. Louis; Antoine Deshetre, another member of
the family, married Marie Kiercereau in 1788, died in St. Louis in 1798, his
wife surviving him seventeen years; and Jean Baptiste Deshetre was in St. Louis
in 1768; and one Joseph Deshetre, a resident of St. Ferdinand, testified before
Commissioner Hunt to events prior to the cession of Louisiana.

*** Among other residents we find, Pierre Rousel (or Roussel) (1785), his
property sold at public sale, also on the Cuivre in i8co; Auguste B. Trudelle
(1786) also at New Madrid; Joseph Aubouchon, dit Yoche (1786), built a mill

68 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

cient inhabitant. '' Hezekiah Lard settled in this neighborhood in
1797, and erected a grist and saw-mill, which was in operation in

later, also had a grant of an island in theMissouri river; Louis Reno (or Renault
or Renaud) (1786) ; Joseph Hubert or Herbert (1788), seems to have been in the
country in 1770, but afterwards in 1800 was in St. Charies district on the Cuivre,
and on the Mississippi north of St. Louis. Frangois and Michel Creliz from Kas-
kaskia(i787), no doubt relatives of Jean Baptiste Creliz. Alexis Cadot (1789);
Francois Riviere (1790) ; Louis Ouvre (1790) ; Paul Dejarlais (1790), also on the
Cuivre; Antoine Dejarlais (1790) on the Missouri and Cuivre in 1800; Baptiste
Presse (1792) on Grand Rue, a Louis Baptiste Presse was here in 1796; James
Williams (1790) from New Madrid; Quebec L'Evecque (1792) evidently a
nick-name, an early inhabitant; Jean Baptiste DeLisle (1792) from Kaskaskia,
in 1797 had property outside of the town on rivers Fernando and Cuivre, and
in 1802 on Lake Gayoso in New Madrid district; Jean Baptiste Billon (or Billot)
(1792), a Baptiste Billia or Billieu here in 1796, and married Pelagie B. Mare-
chal Latour; Louis Picard (1794); Joseph Rivet (1794) ; Jacques Tabeau (1794) ;
Joseph LaPierre (i 793), who may be Joseph Labbadie, dit St. Pierre, or LaPierre ;
Frangois Honore(i793), at Portage des Sioux in 1802, also Village h, Robert;
Herbert (Hunert) Talbot (or Tabeau or Tabot) (1794), seems also to have been
in New Madrid; Michael Talbot; Francois Menard (1794) from Kaskaskia,
where he served in the militia; Louis and Joseph Rapieux, dit Lamare (1794) ;
Joseph Lagrave (1794) ; Baptiste (or Jean Baptiste) Lachasse (Lachaise) (1794)}
Jean Baptiste Lachasse changed his name to Hunt, he was at Marais des Liards
in 1802 and at St. Louis; Charles Lachaise; Madame Ladoucier (Ladouceur or
Ladousier), an ancient resident and probably widow of Antoine ; Francois Men-
delle (or Mendelet, dit Bracome), and Auguste Buron cultivated land as partners
in 1794; Buron was also in St. Louis; Amable Gagne (1794) from Kaskaskia,
where he made sugar on the Marais Apaquois or river Gagne; Louis Marie
(1794) also in St. Louis; Joseph Cadien (1794) from Kaskaskia, where he served
in Uie militia; Antoine Roy, dit Desjardin (1794), afterwards was on the Missis-
sippi near St. Louis, where he built a wind-mill, also on Prairie Boeuf Blanc;
Toussaint Robideau (or Robidoux) from Kaskaskia; Francois St. Cyr (1794);
Michael Hebert (1794); Louis and Baptiste Aler (1795); there also seems to
have lived here a Misset (orMinet) Alares, a Kaskaskia family, and the name is
spelled in the American State Papers in every possible way. Alary, Alere, Allard,
Allaire and Allari. It may be it should be spelled Allart, the name of one of the
early missionaries, a Recollet priest; Joseph Presse (1794), also owned property
sixty-five miles from St. Louis; Father Didier, priest of the village; Antoine Du-
breuil (1795) and was on river Aux Boeuf s in St. Charies district in 1799; and
Pascal Dubreuil, son of Louis, also Frangois; Romain Dufresne (or Dufrene or
Dufraine) (1795). One of the one himdred associates of New France in 1627
was Charles Dufresne, and secretary to the general of the galleys. Charles Mer-
rier (1795) probably a branch of the Kaskaskia family of that name; Louis Tib-
Ion, dit Petit Blanc (i 795) ; Pierre Payant, dit St. Ange (i 795), also in New Madrid
district; Jean Baptiste St. Germain (1796); Noel Marechal (1796); Marion
Labonne (1796); (Augustine) and Francois Bernard, dit L' European (1796);
Franfois in 1797 had a grant in St. Charles district; J. Thp. (Theophile) Bou-
doin (1796); Michael Castello (1796); Jacques Pera (Perez) (1796); Jean Bap-
tiste Laurain(or Lorain), Junior ( 1 796) ; Louis Collin ( 1 797) ; Bernard Fetir ( 1 797) ;
Jean Farrot (1797), very likely Jarrotte or Jarrette, or Farrow, all of which
names are mentioned; Joseph Couder (Conder or Coudaiere) (1797), from Kas-
kaskia where he served in the militia; Braconia (1797) Jean Bonin(i797), from
Kaskaskia, on the river (creek) Fernando, and at Marais des Liards ; Toussaint
Tourville (1797); Pierre Tourville (1797), between the Missouri and St. Fer-
nando rivers, his land sold at public sale to Frangois Marat; Charles Tibeau
(1797), on the Missouri and Fernando; Etienne Labonte (1790); Louis Liretet
(1797) ; Auguste B. Lagasse (or Lagasa), sold in 1802 to George Fallis, an early
American settler; Benjamin Verger (1797); Amable Montreuil (1797), probably
a Kaskaskia immigrant; Palmer; Gabriel Aubouchon (1798); Baptiste Derosia

BELLEFONTAINE 69

1799. Tnideau assisted Lard in the construction of his mill by
loaning him $200. The United States cantonment. Belief ontaine, was

(DeSoca), dit Canadian (1798), may be the same as Jean Baptiste Derosier;
L'Abbe Delorier (Delaurier) (1798); Amable St. Gem (or St. Jeme) (1799),
probably related to the Beauvais, dit St. Jeme family of Ste. Genevieve ; Joseph
Moreau (1799); Baptiste Lachall (1799); Joseph Tibeau (or Thibault) (1799);
Louis Laior, dit Lajoy(e) (1799)) also in St. Charles district in 1800; Antoine
Lenacal (Senacal) (1799) ; Charles Dejarlais (1799) at Portage des Sioux in 1802 ;
Joseph Lamirande, Lamer or Lanunare (1800), from Saint Antonio Parish,
lower Canada; Rincaid Caldwell (1799). on the Missouri near St. Ferdinand;
Jean Baptiste Tesson (1799), and was at St. Louis, and also owner of property
on Salt river in St. Charles district; Antoine Rancontre (1800) on the Missouri
near St. Ferdinand, also in St. Louis; Jean Louis Vincent (1800) ; Louis Moreau
(1800); Francois Drucis (1800); Amable St. Cenne (1800), came to the country
and was in the employ of Mr. Bernard; Pierre Bargeron (1801); Eugennie Jer-
rette or Madame Therbum, dit Jarette, in 1801 exchanged property with Joseph
Lagasse; Francois Payant; Pierre Provench^re; Jean Mane Courtnay; Joseph
Pelair (Pilaire); Amable Louis May (1804), on the Missouri and Fernando;
Philipine Duchene (or Duchesne); Pelagic Belleville; Frangois Boulanger;
Delas; Joseph Joinal (Joutal); Marie Joseph Dunand, priest of the village;
Antoine Deroche ; Planchet, captain of militia at St. Ferdinand ; Baptiste, Mi-
chael, Francois and Noel Honore, sons of Louis Honore, afterwarcf members
of this family lived at Marais des Liards; Antoine Smith.

In addition to these we find the following American settlers, either in the
village and south of fork of the Missouri river, or in the adjacent territory: Ed-
mond Hodges, who was syndic in the neighborhood in 1787; James Williams
(1790) ; Cumberland James (i 793) ; William Musick (i 795), from Kaskaskia, also
David and Thomas R. Musick, David was also at Marais des Liards in 1797, and
part of the family on Feefee in 1800; John Brown (1796), from Kentucky, after-
ward moved to Fox river, and in 1797 owned property at Marais des Liards,
his son B. G. Brown taught school for many years; William Griflfen (1796);
Isaac Crosby (1797), who in 1798 sold to Charles Mercier his claim in the com-
mon-field; Thomas Williams (1797), on the Maramec and Williams creek in
1800; Samuel, William, and Amos Duncan (1797), Amos afterwards removed
to Pearl river in the Mississippi territory; Thomas Wilkinson (1797); Thomas
Hooper (1797); William Palmer (1797), on the Missouri near St. Ferdinand,
also claimed 1,000 arpents in the St. Charles district; Gilbert and Daniel
Hodges (1798); Samuel Hodges, Senior, and Junior, (1798), also on the Dar-
denne; Ebenezer Hodges, Senior and Junior (1798), all these seem to have been
on the Missouri near the town; David Brown (1798), from Kentucky; James
Smith, Senior, (1798), and his sons James, Eli and Levi; George Smith (1798),
and at Marais des Liards; John Patterson (1798), from Kaskaskia, seems to
have lived on the Mississippi in the Ste. Genevieve district, and also in the New
Madrid district; George Fallis, land speculator (1798) owned a number of tracts
of land around St. Ferdinand, had a tract on the Missouri near St. Charles in

1800, bought Joseph Rivet claim, paying him in wheat; Bona venture Marion;
Baptiste Marion, who was also in St. Charles district; Sarah James (1799)
on the Missouri; John G. James (1800), who owned considerable property;
Farquar McKenzie (1800); Peter and John Ellis (1800); William Herrington
(1800); William Hartley (1800); Joab Barton (1800).

Others here at an early date : James Whitesides ; James English, from Ten-
nessee; Franfois Mandene; John Huit (Hewett); Uriah Campbell on the Mis-
souri near the town ; Joel L. Musick ; J. J. James ; the fatl".er of Judge Hyatt was
also an early and prominent resident here. At this time so much confidence
was shown in each other, it is said that the first lock on a smokehouse caused
great indignation. Hezekiah Crosly (or Crosby) ; Alexander Clark (also at Por-
tage des Sioux), Joseph Todd and James Mitchell in 180 1 were residents near
St. Ferdinand; Pierre Vial, dit Marritou (probably Meritoire), William Hart
and Ira Nash (1801).

70 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

afterwards located near his plantation. *^ Pascal Cerr^ and
others said that all the springs in this locality were called " L'eau
froid" since 1787.

West of St. Louis, James Mackay, a native of the Parish of Kil-
donan, county of Sutherland, northeast part of Scotland and one of
the first English-speaking settlers of upper Louisiana, established a
settlement known as "Sn Andre del Misuri,'* and of this settlement
in May 1798 was appointed commandant by Gayoso. This village
(now in the river) was laid off by one John Henry, in that part of the
Missouri river bottom known as Bon Homme. Mackay was a man
of education, a surveyor by profession and conversant both with the
French and Spanish languages, was an able executive ofl&cer, a
captain of the militia, and managed his settlements without friction,
keeping down all dissension among the settlers. DeLassus says that
he was an " officer of knowledge, zealous and punctual,' * and that " he
caused roads and bridges to be constructed by the inhabitants.' ' In
1797 he built a horse-mill on Wild Horse creek. In 1795 and 1796
Mackay was employed by Carondelet, as " a person of great loyalty
and merits'' to make an exploration on the upper Missouri, and in
his letters to the Prince of Peace states that prior to that time he had
been employed by the English with great success in an exploration of
the countries on the Missouri " with the intent of opening communica-
tion with the South Sea."*** As a general agent of the Com-
pany of Missouri he was dispatched by Glamorgan, to discover
the Pacific ocean, and left St. Louis in August, 1795, accompanied by
a number of picked men, going by boat up the river. He made one
of the earliest maps of the upper Missouri region, until that time an
"unknown part of the world." His journal of this expedition deliv-
ered to the Governor Don Manuel Gayoso, was never published by
the Spanish government, but in search of material for this history,

*** Other settlers in the neighborhood of Cold Water were : Elisha Herrington
(1796) originally from Tennessee, but came here from Kaskaskia, where he
served in the militia, was a mill-wright by trade, and built a mill in 1799 at St.
Ferdinand, and had a flour and saw-mill on the Mississippi and Petite riviere
St. Roman (or Sandy creek) in St. Charles district, in 1801 at Charboneau;
John B. Hart (1797) ; Morris James in 1797 secured a grant on this stream and
the Missouri, and began to farm in 1803; John N. Seeley (1800); Guy Seeley
(1800); William Patterson (1803), a person of same name in New Madrid dis-
trict; James James (1804); John Colgin (1799) near the village St. Andre and
on Wild Horse creek; Mathew Wichant (1799), a German, on the Missouri near
St. Andre; Leonard Farrow (1802) bought -Wichant property; David Cole; Na-
thaniel Porter; William Tardy; Daniel Lyon; John Carpenter; Jonah Henry;
all resided near the post of St. Andre.

^** Letter to Prince of Peace, General Archives of Seville, dated June 3, 1796.

MACKAY 71

in the Spanish archives, has been recently found. In 1798 Mackay
complained to Gayoso that although he had been ordered to receive
all honest and industrious persons, and especially good farmers, that
the order to receive only Roman Catholics had been a ** mortal blow
for upper Louisiana," and that the Indians as a consequence were
beginning to plunder the people who had settled, of their cattle and
horses. He says that to people the country wholly with Roman Catholics
"is entirely impossible without great expense, and that in the United
States not one in a thousand persons belongs to the Catholic church,"
and, concluding, remarks that "as we are deprived of the advantages
of having a priest and church I hope that your Excellency will please to
send us a flag to show the people when it is Sunday. " ^** One of the
earliest settlers of this Bon Homme district was Richard Caulk, who
arrived here in 1796 with his father-in-law, Lawrence Long, and was
appointed syndic, acting in this capacity until the country was ac-
quired by the United States, also acting as commandant in the absence
of Mackay."* Subsequently he lived in the St. Charles district on
the Mississippi Bluff and river Calumet, where he received a grant,
Mackay says, as compensation for his services as syndic.**^

** Mackay married Isabella, a daughter of John Long after the cession,
lived on Gravois creek; died in 1823. His children were John Zeno, George
Anthony, James Bennett, Eilza May, Catherine May, Jean Julia, Emclia Anne
and Isabella Louise.

^** Caulk was from Maryland, and an officer in the militia and also received a
grant of four thousand arpens on the Maramec.

"^ Others who settled here were, Theopolis McKinnon dit McKinney (i 796) ;
Jacob Coontz (1797) who resided near the mouth of the Bon Homme, at St.
Ferdinand in 1798, also Marais des Liards and on the Dardenne in St. Charles
district; Charles Kyle (1797) ; John Richardson came to the Spanish possessions
in 1787, and lived here in 1797, from Kentucky and was a land speculator; Jesse
Richardson (1797) from Kentucky; John Bayse (Basey or Beasy) (1797) on
Missouri and Bon Homme, and in 1798 on the Mississippi; Lawrence Long
(1796) father-in-law of Richard Caulk, was a large slave owner, settled on a
grant of 1,000 acres including site of Chesterfield, and erected a flour-mill and
saw-mill in this neighborhood; James McDonald (1797) of Mondelear, at Bon
Homme settlement on the Missouri, also at Marais des Liards on Louis Hon-
ore's claim ; William Massey (1797) a Catholic from Kientucky, owned two slaves,
in 1799 was at Point Labadie on the Missouri, returned to Kentucky to get his
family but seems never to have returned ; Joshua Massey at Marais des Liards,
and Agnew Massey in Tywappity Bottom may have been relatives; Ephraim
Musick (1797) at Marais des Liards; Asa Musick (1797) in this settlement on the
Missouri; Abraham Musick (1797) sold to John Bear; Hugh Stephenson (1797)
on Missouri; Michael Odum (1798); William Stewart (1798); John Stewart
(1798) at this point on the Missouri, on the Grand Glaise in 1799; William
Hamilton (1799) from Kaslraskia, who seems to have originally resided at Vin-
cennes, was in military service; Jean Henry (femme) (1798) claimed a residence
at a place called "The Taverne" on the Missouri; afterwards moved to Louisi-
ana; Elisha Goodrich (1799) on the Missouri; John Lafleur (1799) a French-
man, one of the voyageurs who accompanied Mackay on his voyage of dis-

72 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Another considerable settlement existed near and on Cr^ve Coeur
in this neighborhood.**' Conway says that the name originated from
this circumstance: That in 1796 after a big flood of the Missouri
there was much sickness in the bottom and among the flrst French
settlers there, that a large number died, and that the survivors aban-
doned the locality, and hence the name "Cr^ve Coeur," broken-
heart. The lower lake then was three miles long, and one fourth
of a mile wide, but the other lake much smaller. At Point Lab-
badie on the Missouri river, near the present county Une between
St. Louis and Franklin counties, a settlement was also made, "• and

covery up the Missouri, received this grant through Mackay for his services;
Lydia Quick (1799) a widow who residwi at Spanish Pond, Robert Bay (1803) ;
John Bell; Edward Young (1803).

**• Among the first settlers on, and in the neighborhood of Crfeve Coeur lake,
we find: Peltier (or Pelletier) Senior, (1787), a native of Vincennes where
the family were ancient residents, his son Pierre was bom there in 1785,
this Pierre bought property on the Missouri at St. Charles, and after his deadi
his widow married Jean Baptiste Belland; Joseph Bodoin (Boudoin) dit L*
Habitant (1788), trader and voyageur, on Rio Fernando in 1794 and in St. Louis,
he was a son of Jean Bodoin who settled here at an early day, an Irish Catholic ;
Jean Cordell (1796); John Long, Junior, (1796); Francois LeBerge (1796) was
also at Portage des Sioux, and his land afterwards became the property of Ed-
ward Richardson, originally of North Carolina, but an immigrant from Ten-
nessee; George Gordon (1796); Joseph Conway (1797), was bom in Greenbrier
county, Virginia in 1 763 ; moved to Kentucky with his father's family who settled
at Ruddle's Station ; was there when the Station was attacked ; drove off the
Indians; went out to reconnoitre, caught, tomahawked, had his skull broken
and was scalped and was left for dead ; was at Ruddle's Station when Col. Byrd
attacked it two weeks afterwards ; was captured and taken to Detroit wounded
and with his head bandaged, but recovered and came to this settlement, and is
the progenitor of the Conway family of Missouri ; died in 1830 ; John Ward (i 797)
likely the same John Ward who came with Morgan to New Madrid in 1787;
Gabriel Long (1797); James McCourtney (1797); Oliver Caldwell (1797), was
a tenant of Lawrence Long; Robert Baldridge (1798); Joe Sip (1798) at Point
bas de Creve Coeur and Missouri; Mary Sip married Noel Tesson in 1802;
Thomas Whitley (1798), and at Village St. Andre, owned two slaves; Jonathan
Wiseman (1799), Irishman; Robert Buchanan (1799), at Carondelet prior to
1803, and St. Louis; Samuel Smith (1799) an Irish Catholic; Eli Musick (1799) ;
Thomas Cropper (1799); Andrew Kincaid (1800); Andrew McQuitty (1800);
Samuel Hibler(i8o2); Richard Young (1803); Edward Young (1803), in 1804
on Maneto Saline ; George Washington Morrison, afterward a recruiting officer
in the United States army and deputy surveyor, killed in Kentucky by an acci-
dental shot in 1809, also acquired land in this neighborhood either before 01:
inmiediately after the cession. According to James Long, Lawrence Long, Jos.
Conway, Richard Caulk, James Green, John Chandler, Solomon Whitlpy
with their families and several young men, among them Wm. Stewart of Ken-
tucky, reached the Mississippi just before Christmas, 1797, opposite St. Louis,
the ice running and river partially frozen over, and that they remained there
until the ice broke in 1 798, and that the Governor of Upper Louisiana sent them
tents, coffee, etc., and all settled in this region and Bon Homme bottom. —
Draper's Notes, vol. 24, pp. 151-204, inclusive.

**• The earliest settlers here seem to have been, Ephraim Richardson (1798),
who was driven away by the Indians in 1802, but returned; John Dey (or Day)
(1798), one McCoy lived here in 1799; George Pursley (1798), in 1803 was driven

MARAMEC 73

farther up the Missouri on Dubois creek, emptying its waters into the
Missouri not far from Washington, in Franklin county, another settle-
ment was formed by a number of Americans. **®

But the oldest American settlement in upper Louisiana was on the
Maramec. The name Hildebrand, twisted into "Albrane** by the
Spanish officials, is found in the old archives as early as 1770. The
Hildebrands or Hildebrants, came from Monogahela county, Penn-
sylvania, and were Germans ; according to Mrs. Elizabeth McCourtney
some of them were at Fort Jefferson; from there in 1782 came
to upper Louisiana, where a member of the family had settled
before that period. The name of Thomas Tyler is also notable as
being here in 1774. In 1779 he acquired the* Hildebrand place, and
in 1 791 transferred it to Jacques Glamorgan. In 1788 Tyler who had
lived for six or seven years, near the Maramec had about eighty acres
in cultivation, but, in 1 791, the Indians became hostile, and about this
time Peter Hildebrand was killed by the Osages. Some of the settlers
then fortified themselves, removing to a point in the fork of the

off by the Indians, but gave George McFall permission to live on his place,
which he did that fall, and made sugar there in 1804, also had property at Bon
Homme; James Pritchett (1800), and at Isle aux Boeuf ; Peter Pritchett (1801),
testified that in April, 1803, a man by the name of Ridenhour(John) was killed
by the Indians in this neighborhood (on the Femme Osage across the river),
which broke up this settlement until the following fall when most of the inhabi-
tants returned, but Captain Joseph Conway says he was killed in 1801, and
that the Indians were pursued by the settlers but escaped. Ridenhour and his
wife were out hunting horses, and upon meeting the Indians who demanded the
horses Ridenhour refused to give them up and rode off. The Indians began
to shoot him and he fell off and soon died. His wife dismounted, took off the
bundle and scared her horse away and the other horses followed. The Indians
when they came up slapped her for scaring away the horses, but let her go.
(Draper's Notes, vol. 24, pp. 151 to 204, incl) William Fullerton (1802); Am-
brose Bowles (1803) on Labiadie creek, the present town of Bowles located
about here, and named for this family, and some of the descendants still live
there; Noel Musick (1805) at Point Labadie and river Feefee; Uri Musick
(1805); John McMickle (or McMichael) (1799), saddler and tanner, secured a ^
land grant to establish tannery; Daniel Richardson (1803); James Stephenson '
dit Stephens, an early resident; Thomas Gibson (1802) also on river aux Boeuf s.

*'• Dubois creek was at this time on the extreme frontier, and here we find,
William Hughes (1794), who removed from Kentucky to Kaskaskia, then to this
creek, was at Point Labadie in 1799; John SulUns (1799), on this stream and
aux Boeuf, owned two slaves; John Long (1797), from Kaskaskia, makes a
claim for 5,000 arpents under concession from Trudeau, and 5,000 on St. John
creek and on Crfeve Coeur. A John Long seems to have had a claim on the Ho •
mochitto in the Mississippi territory in Pearl river district ; Ezekiel Rogers (1800)
was a renter here; John S. Farrow (1800); David Collum (1803), Leonard Far-
row, was on Fox creek on road leading from the Richwood to St. Louis and
Missouri in 1799; Smith Collum (1803); James Cowan (1803) lived also in Ste.
Genevieve district; Alexander McCartney (or McCourtney) in 1799, with
Adams McCourtney acquired property at Bon Homme; Jonathan Vineyard
(1803), from Georgia, also in Bois Brule Bottom in Ste. Genevieve district.

74 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Maramec in the middle of the settlement for that purpose. That a
considerable settlement existed at that time, on both sides of the Mara-
mec, is shown by the fact that the first regular ferry established
in Missouri, was established on this stream by Jean Baptiste de
Gamache "^ so that regular intercourse might not be interrupted,
between St. Louis and the settlements of Ste. Genevieve. Gamache*s
ferry was established near the mouth of the Maramec, and remained
in operation until about 1780, when, on account of the Indian dis-
turbances, he or his employees were ordered away. Gamache was
among the first residents of Carondelet, where he raised tobacco on
his lot in 1795, and operated a primitive mill on the river des P^res.
Louis Courtois, senior, made an improvement on the Maramec in
1780, living here six years (unusual) owning a tract of 7,086 arpens,
but in 1788 resided at Carondelet. Gabriel Cerr^, according to
Chouteau, located a claim on the Maramec in 1782 near a salt spring.*"
David Hildebrand was Cerr^^s tenant on the Negro fork in 1785.
William Crow, from Kaskaskia, lived on this river in 1785, where he
died and his widow married George Bowers. The Osage Indians on
the Maramec seem to have been more troublesome than in other locali-
ties, and Clamorgan says that in 1793 the settlers were driven away by
the Indians repeatedly. *^ In 1800 Adam House, a farmer living
near the mouth of the Maramec, was killed by the Osage Indians.*^*

*'* Was born at Quebec 1733, married Charlotte D' Amours May 3, 1767,
was with the first boat that landed at St. Louis, but moved to Carondelet where
he died.

*" Don Gabriel Cerr6 owned large tracts of land in the St. Louis
and Cape Girardeau districts. In 1782 had a grant on the bead waters
of the Saline and Maramec, including a lead mine, which he said
he paid an American $200 to show him, owned a number of slaves
and also worked a number of white men in his salt works on the Ma-
ramec. In 1787 he received a grant on the Gravois and River des P^res, on
which to build a saw-mill and flour-mill, establish a fruit garden and sow maize,
but was frightened away "through fear of inroads of savages", and in 1804
• assigned this claim to Reuben Smith. In 1798 he had some trouble with Louis
Lorimier claiming the land where Lorimier had settled, and app>ealed to Gov-
ernor Gayoso de Lemos, setting forth services he had rendered the government,
but Gayoso decided the matter in favor of Lorimier and ordered the same amount
of land to be surveyed elsewhere for Cerr6 as compensation for his services.
In 1800 he owned property at St. Charles, and also in New Madrid.

*** 2 Public Lands, p. 566.

^** Of this murder Pierre de Treget makes this brief and graphic report:
"Repaired to the Renault Forks, with the few militia I could assemble in pur-
suit of the Indians, on reaching the place I found an old man dead, head cut
off and laid at his side, scalp taken and body full of wounds from musket shots,
and a few paces by a boy eight or nine years old, head cut ofiF lying near him,
face smeared with blood, with a small piece of maple sugar in his mouth, no
wounds on his body from either musket or knife." (i Billon's Annals of St. Louis,
p. 298.) Robert Owen of Marais des Liards was appointed guardian of the

RAIDS 75

Not only the Osages, but the Indians living in what is now Pemi-
scot, New Madrid, Stoddard and Dunklin counties, and perhaps
composed, as De Lassus says, of runaway Creeks, Cherokees,
and other vagabonds of the tribes from the southeast Gulf
territory, would make raids into this district. Against these the

minors Betsy, John, and Peggy House, by Pascal Leon Cerr6, ensign of the
militia. At this time (1800) there also resided in this neighborhood Mathew
Lord; Jame s C raig; Andrew Park; James Gray; Adam Stroud; Joshua Mc-
Donalci; also "William Belle w, a settler on the Maramec in 1778, and on
Wild Horse creek, and Missouri at Bon Homme settlement in 1795-97; David
Hildebrand (1780) on Negro fork, in 1795 at Village i, Robert, also St. Louis
and Isle i. Boeuf ; Abraham Hildebrand (1780) also on Negro fork; Bazil Des-
Noyers (1783) who owned two Indian slaves, was driven off his place by maraud-
ing Indians ; Jean Gerrard( 1 782) ; Philip Fine ( 1 786) near the mouth of the Mara-
mec, a brother of David; in 1795 at Village i, Robert, on the Mississippi in 1800
and in St. Louis; Jacob Schelling, a German (i 788) ; John Pyatt (i 790), on Negro
fork, was driven away by the Indians, lived at Marais des Liards in 1798,
returned in 1800 to the Maramec, and was again driven away, and some of the
farmers were killed here in 1805, according to the testimony of James Richard-
son; Philip Shultz (1790), on Negro fork, apparently a German; William Boli
(1794), Mary Bolli married J. B. Tesson in 1802 ; Francois Bittick, had a grant
adjoining Courtois; Francois Poillevre in 1793 received a grant on the Mara-
mec from Trudeau, road to St. Louis ran through this grant, which he sold to
Charles Gill of Grand Ruisseaux de Kaskaskia, including a "petite tan yard",
one Catalan had lived on the land, made some improvements and then deserted
it, this Poillevre also received 1,600 arpens from DeLassus in 1800 on the river
Elstablishment, but never settled it. It may be that Poillevre was known as
Catalan-Gill (or Guill), also had a grant on Gravois in 1797 and on Sandy
creek, in 1798 sold his land on the Maramec to Tersy (Jesse) Keyne, and this
may be Jesse Cain who lived in St Charles district, and afterwards on Byrd or
Hubble creek ; Joseph Neybour (or Neubauer) 1 794, a German, also at Marais
des Liards in 1795 ; John Neybour (1794) German, at Marais des Liards in 1795,
sold his property there, and was on the Mississippi in Ste. Genevieve district;
James Head, from Kaskaskia, settled on this river prior to 1793, but abandoned
his claim; Isaac Hildebrand dit Asie Ellebrand (1795) also at Marais des Liards
and St. Louis; Madame Loitie, prior to 1796 owned property on the north side
of the Maramec, lying between the Ruisseau de la Fontaine and Ruisseau Bap-
tiste Poriot, part of which she sold to Jacob Wickerham, a German, in 1796,
and part in 1797 to Jacques Glamorgan. Wickerham also had a claim on
Negro fork in 1797, but claimed the Indians interfered with his improvement
there; John Coleman (1796) an Irishman, lived on a farm below Mill creek at
Gorman Point; Thomas Donner (1796), likely a son of Jacob Donner, appar-
ently a German; George Sip dit Sheepe (1796); John Cummings (1797), on
this river and the Missouri; Christopher Carpenter (1797), relative of John on
the Missouri; Dr. John Watkins, an American speculator, made a claim to a
league square, or 7,056 arpens, of land here granted him in 1797, but never lived
on it, seems to have lived in St. Louis, and from there removed to New Orleans ;
Jean Baptiste Rouillier dit Bouche lived on Black Water emptying into the Ma-
ramec in 1797, but sold his farm to John or James Stewart dit Tuckahoe, who
was also an early resident on this creek; Mathias Vanderhider (1797) on Negro
fork; Mark Wideman came to the country in 1798, and with his family settled
on the Negro fork by permission of Francois Vall6, also John Wideman ; Sarah
Pruitt (or Prewitt) widow of Charles Prewitt, lived here in 1798, was a sister
of John Wideman; John and Samuel Prewitt, also said to l)e early settlers in this
neighborhood. Pascal Leon Cerr^, a son of Gabriel, claimed a league square,
including a big salt spring, on the Maramec, granted in 1798 by Gayosa de
Lemos in consideration of the service of his father, owned several slaves, was

76 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Renards and Saukees also made predatory excursions, meeting on the
tributaries of the Maramec. "*

sub-lieutenant of militia, and says he made a journey to Canada in the interest
of the government; John Boli (1798) had a ferry on the Maramec, served in the
militia under de Treget at Carondelet; Francois Bourasses (1799) ; Joshua Sha-
fers (Shaver) also an early settler here; Paul Robart dit Robar (1799) was after-
wards employed to assist in surveying Gamache's claim on this stream, was
also at Carondelet; Hardy Ware, cultivated land here in 1799, was on Little
Rock creek and at Mines in 1803; Michael Fostin (1799) from Kaskaskia, his
grant extending across the Maramec; Jonathan Hildebrand (1799); Bernard
Pratte (1799) a resident of St. Louis and also had claims on the St. Francois;
John Williams, senior, (1800); Ninian Bell Hamilton (1800), the Orphan
Protectorate founded by the Catholics situated on part of his grant, also
at Bon Homme; Andrew Hamilton; Jacob Collins (1802) on Negro
fork; James Stewart (1802) on Black Water fork of this river; William E^tep
or Elstes (1802); David Delauny (1800), a Frenchman, Spanish officer, formerly
an inhabitant of the Isle of St. Domingo, first came to Ste. Genevieve in 1799,
but was induced by DeLassus to come to St. Louis and had property in St.
Charles district; James Davis (1803) land speculator on Negro fork; Jacob
Connor (1803); James Sweeney (1803) owned ten slaves, afterwards moved to
Louisiana ; Joseph Horn (1803) ; Hugh McCullough (1803) ; Joseph Kiver (1803) ;
Peter Lashaway (1803 or prior); John Caldwell (1803) on this stream and the
Missouri, but stopped by the Indians from improving; Samuel Bay (1803);
Aquilla Wickerham (1803) on Negro fork; T. Thomas Moses (or Mores) ; John
Brindley; Mary Gill (1807;; Christian Ewalt (Devalt or Twelt) Hildebrand
(1804) on Negro fork; Pierre Tornat or Tournat dit Lajoie (1800) had a tract
in the bottom on this river,Giguire (DeGuire) and Boudoin (probably Jean
Boudoin dit THabitant) worked for him living in camp made of clap-boards;
and Levi Thiel.

On Grand Glaise creek, a branch of the Maramec we find Alexander Mc-
Donald (1797); Andrew Parker (1797); John and Paul Whitley (1799); Levin
Cropper (1798), from Kaskaskia, where he served in the militia; Joshua Tansy
(1799) on this stream and at Marais des Liards; Edward Butler (1801) and
Philip Roberts (1802) and their mother Mrs. Ann Skinner, who was also on
the Joachim; Jonathan Skinner; William Drennon (or Drenning) (1801) at
White Oak Springs; Peggy Jones (1803) ; William Miller (1803) ; Thomas Henry
(1803); John Hensley (1803); William and David Hensley (1799); John Ball
(1803) ; Thomas and Edward Mason, from Kaskaskia. On Little Rock creek,
another branch of the Maramec, the early actual settlers were all Americans,
thus we find Samuel Wilson and his son John(i8oi); John Henderson (1802);
John Gillmore (1803); George Smirl, senior, (1801); James Smirl (1802), and
George, junior, on Sandy creek in 1801 ; Joseph Uge.

On Gravois, another branch, were Pierre Lajore (Lajoie) (1790), a witness
for the settlers on this stream and the Maramec ; Francois Lacombe of Caron-
delet (1791); Hugh and Samuel Graham (1798); Sophia Bolaye (Boli) (1796),
on aux Gravois near the mouth of the river des Pferes; Barthfelemi Harrington
(1798); Pierre Dodier (1803), who sold to John Sappington and he erected the
first horse mill for grinding grain in the township ; Pierre Lejeuness, from Kas-
kaskia, where he served in the militia; Louis Courtois, junior, (1799) on this
stream 69 miles from the mouth of the Maramec, was a resident of St. Louis.

On another branch, the Matis, Mattest or Mathias, we find David Fine,
who came to the country with Elisha Baker in 1798, made a settlement, and
with Eli Musick and wife, and Judge Joseph Sale, organized the first Baptist
church in 1809 or 10 in the township, which in 1883 was still standing, and
known as Concord church; John Romine was in the neighborhood in 1798;
Michael Masterson (1799).

**• Autobiography of Black Hawk, as published in Pioneer Families of Mis-
souri, p. 463.

VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS 77

In addition to these important settlements, American pioneers
pitched their locations on Fifi or Feefee creek,*** on Gingras, ^^ on
Wild Horse creek,"* on Maline creek,"* and on Sandy creek.***
Also a village near the Missouri river, only about three or four miles
from St. Ferdinand, was laid out by permission of the lieutenant-
* governor, Trudeau, by Robert Owens,*** who had been a resident of
the country since 1 789, and where, in 1 793, Francois Honore and others
had first formed a station to protect themselves against the Indians.
Maturin Bouvet, as deputy surveyor, surveyed and platted the place
in 1794. The settlement became known as "Marais des Liards,"
and also as **Village k Robert." The Wabash railroad now passes
here and the station is called Bridgeton. After the cession the
inhabitants obtained one thousand arpens as a common-field.

*** Richard Sullens (1799), on this stream and the Missouri; Nathan Sullens
(1802); Absalom Link, who lived here made a visit to Kentucky, and brought
back clover seed, which he cultivated until it came into common use, it had
never been cultivated up to this time; he was also at Marais des Liards; John
Murphy (1799), on Feefee and at Marias des Liards; Edy or Ewel (Uel) Musick
(1800) ; Samuel Harris, on this stream and Fox creek, his son William, afterwards
a member of the State legislature, was bom here in 1809 ; Lanham Hartley, from
Kentucky ; Nicholas Hebert dit Lecompte also had a claim, but probably never
lived on it.

*•' On this creek, George Crumb or Crump (1803) and in 1800 a person of
the same name on Missouri river. Here also Antoine Vincent Bouis of St. Louis
made claim to land.

^••JiVilliam Bell, from Kaskaskia, settled in 1797, was on Cold Water and
also in St. Louis; Alexander Graham (1798); James Calvin (1798), from Kas-
kaskia, in 1797 lived in L'Aigle prairie in the Illinois country, on the Cuivre in
1799 and remained there until 1804, and was resident on the Missouri. Henry
McLaughlin says that Edward Perry in 1797 lived for a year on this creek.

*•• The first settlers here were Seth and Richard Chittwood (i797),and Isa-
bella Chittwood, widow of John Pound (1797); John Allen (1798) probably
John F. Allen who was a witness for various claimants of land on river des P6res
in 1798; James Richardson had a still-house on this creek in 1799. He was one
of the earliest American settlers in the St. Louis district ; came from Kentucky ;
killed a man there and hence fled to upper Louisiana. His family followed
him to upper Louisiana and he settled near Marias des Liards.

*•• William Jones (1798), at Grand Glaise in 1797 and Bellevue settlement
in 1803; John and Ben Johnson (1800), Ben was afterwards a justice in this
locality; William Null, senior, (1800), and on Joachim in Ste. Genevieve district,
also William Null, junior; David Boyle (1803) also on the Joachim; Roger
Cogle; Gabriel Cobb (1803); Richard Glover (1803); William Moss (1803);
John Litten (1803); Wm Johnson.

*•* This Owens came from Maryland; could talk French and was intimate
with the French settlers ; was shoemaker by trade, and even after he became a
farmer would occasionally make a pair of shoes. He first settled on the Mara-
mec, but when the Indian troubles began there moved to the place which became
known as Owen's Station. Adam Martin, Thos. Hardy, Wm. Hooper, Jacob
Lurty and Wm Clark joined Owens in "fortine". He afterwards moved to
Big River, and died there in 1829. His wife died at the age of 90 in 1840.
(Mrs. Elizalseth McCourtney's narrative in Draper's Notes, Vol. 2, pp. 151-204.)

78 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

A number of Americans opened up isolated farms in this neigh-
borhood, or cultivated a part of the Marais des Liards common-
field,**' and in 1806 established a school in the village. Other
pioneers further up the river secured concessions and settled on
the south side of the Missouri, ^^^ and still others located themselves in
various parts of this extensive district, far away from the village of
St. Louis.

*•* Thomas Worthington and son seem to have been among the earliest set-
tlers in the village in 1 794, but one Birot claimed the lot on which Worthington
lived, in the name of one Solomon. This Thomas Worthington was a revolu-
tionary soldier. James and Joseph Worthington who settled in the Cape Girar-
deau district may have been his sons or relatives, so also Charles Worthington
of Opelousas in lower Louisiana. Joseph St. Germain first settled here, but in
1796 went to St. Ferdinand, was also in St. Louis; William Belon (1795) also in
St. Louis; Alexander Clark (1797) but because he had no spring on his land he
claimed the adjacent land where there was a spring, also had a grant fifteen
miles northwest of St. Louis, in St. Charles district, from DeLassus, also bought
of Jean Baptiste Mortes (or Hortes) who was here in 1797, but afterwards in
St. Louis; Jonas and John Sparks (1797); John Chambers (1797) from Kas-
kaskia, originally from Kentucky; William Campbell (1797) on St. Fernando
river; Joseph Williams (1797) near here on the Missouri, was also on Bourn's
land on Grand Glaise; Solomon Petit (1797) also at Portage des Sioux; Elias
Metz'(i797) on the Maline; Charles King (1798) from Kentucky, Timothy
Ballew; Jean Baptiste Buron (1798); Solomon Link (1799) at White Oak Run;
Juan Wedsay dit John Whitesides (1799), his widow Phoebe Wallace; Jacob
Lentz ; Louis Rogers dit Indian Rogers, chief of a part of the Shawnee Indians,
who planted themselves here about thirty miles northwest of the lead mines.
Rodgers was a ver>' respectable and worthy man and a warm advocate of Indian
civihzation, offering a teacher who would stay with the Shawnees "plenty of com
and plenty of hogs", and to erect a house for him (Morse's Report, p. 236);
Joshua Massey (1803) at White Oak Run ; Mathew Ramsey ; Peter Tamp (iSioi;^

*•* These were, John Scarlet and John Waters ( 1 796) had a concession of
four hundred arpens on this river; John Chandler (1797), came to the coun-
try with Richard Caulk in this year, and secured a grant from Trudeau on this
river; Sam and Ebenezer Farrow; Peter Rock (or Roque) (1797); John Scott
(1797) ; Peter Vaughn (or Valign) (1797), in 1800 sold to William Brady; Joseph
Griffin (1797) had a coal mine on this river, his son Joseph, junior, lived on
the Missouri in St. Charles district in 1800; John Howe; William Burch dit Burts
(may be Busch dit Bush) was here prior to 1798; Vincent Carrico (may be Tor-
rico) (1798) ; Dennis Kavenaugh (1798) ; Aaron Colvin (1798) on a stream above
Tavern Rock south of the Missouri, " sur ruisseau au dessus de la roche du Tav-
ern rive sud du Missouri;" John Bishop (1799) a German; Louis Delisle, junior,
(1799) Creole, on Santa Buxa del Rio; David King Price (1799); Robert Ram-
say (1799); Lawrence Sidner (Sydener) (1800); John Doghead, (1801), likely
a relative of Isaac Doghead, who settled on Big river; Robert Barclav.

CHAPTER XIII

St. Charles — Boundaries of District Vaguely Defined — Settlement of St.
Charles Founded by Blanchette — Don Santiago Mackay Commandant of
a Post Named St. Charles, but Evidently Another Place — Don Carlos
Tayon, Commandant — Survey of the Village by Chouteau — Common
Fields of St. Charles — Chouteau's Attempt to Build a Water-mill — VDlage
of St. Charles and Population 1707 — Names of ^arly Settlers of St. Charles
and Vicinity — Portage des Sioux Settlement — How it Obtained the Name —
Military Importance of This Post — Creole Immigration — Names of Pioneer
Settlers of Portage des Sioux — Surveys on Salt River Interrupted by Indian
Attacks — Settlement of Charette — Daniel Boone — Names of Pioneer Set-
tlers of La Charette — Femme Osage — The Boone Settlement — Names of
Early Settlers — The Cuivre Settlement — Names of Early Settlers — First
Settlement on the Pemiqut — Names of early Settlers — The Claim of Clam-
organ — Settlement on the Dardenne — Other Settlements and Names of
early Settlers.

The district of St. Charles embraced all the territory within the
limits of the Spanish boundaries north of the Missouri river, and
extended vaguely westward.^ No particular limits either on the
north or west of this district were ever officially promulgated. That
the district was supposed to extend indefinitely to the north is shown
by the fact that one Basil Giard claimed a league square of land
opposite Prairie du Chien as being within this district, the famous
coureur des bois, Pierre Dorion, Senior, being produced as a witness
to prove this claim.^ The so-called "Spanish Mines," a tract em-
bracing 148, 176 arpens of land, or twenty-one leagues square, near
the city of Dubuque, Iowa, claimed to have been granted to Julien
Dubuque by Carondelet, was also considered in this district.

St. Charles, the earliest and most important settlement north of the
Missouri river and in the district, was at first known as "Les Petite
Cdtes" and afterward as " Village des C6tes" — this from the fact that

* American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 715, Testimony of Albert Tis-
son.

' American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 529. This Basil Geard, or
Giard, "settled upon Prairie du Chiens" in 1781, together with Pierre Antaya
(Pelletier) and Augustine Ange. These names all occur in the Ste. Genevieve
church records. A Basil B. Geard married there in 1 783, so also a Franjois
Ange in 1790 and a Michel Antaya resided there in 1784. These are pre-
sumably ail related to the first settlers of Prairie du Chien, who, in 1781,
purchased from the Indians through Gov. Patrick Sinclair, then at Mackinaw,
nine square miles of land. They were all Indian interpreters and traders. The
Giards were very early settlers in the American Bottom. The name appears
in the St. Anne Church records in 1726. Gabriel Cerr6 married a Catharine
Giard at Kaskaskia in 1 764, where she was born.

79

So fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

the village was situated at the foot of a range of small hills, sufficiently
high to protect it from the overflows of the Missouri. The census of
1787 calls the village : " Establecimiento de los Pequenas Cuestas "
— ^Village of Little Hills. Shortly before the cession the village was
officially known as "San Carlos del Misuri.*' The first settler was
Louis Blanc hette. Perez, in 1792, speaks of him as " fundator y
prim^ro habitdnte de Sn. Carlos del Misury." It is usually said that
Blanchette le Chasseur (the hunter) was the first settler, and hence
the ordinary reader, unfamiliar with French, often conceives the idea
that " Chasseur* ' was the name of the founder of St. Charles. This
Blanchette was a native of the Parish St. Henry, Diocese of Que-
bec, Canada, and a son of Pierre Blanchette and Mary Gen-
sereau. In 1790 he married Angelique, a Pawnee woman.'

There seems to be reason to believe that, for a time, at least,
Blanchette's settlement was officially known at New Orleans by
the name of **San Fernando." In 1793 Baron de Carondelet made
an order referring to the fact that a new settlement had been formed
"in the district of Ylinoa by the name of San Fernando," and
it "being necessary to provide for the civil and military govern-
ment of the same, because of good conduct, distinguished zeal,
exactitude, probity and disinterestedness, which are requisite to
insure confidence in the administration of public affairs, and these
qualifications being united in Mr. Blanchette, therefore, exercising
the authority in me vested by said royal decree, I declare and nomi-
nate for special lieutenant, with the rank of captain of militia of the
said settlement of San Fernando, its boundaries and jurisdiction, the
said Mr. Blanchette, immediately subordinate, however, to the cap-
tain commandant of the establishment of Ylinoa." Blanchette at no
time lived in the village of "San Fernando de Florissant," where
Francois Dunegant dit Beaurosier acted as civil and military com-
mandant as early as 1791, and hence I conclude that when Baron de
Carondelet in 1793 made the order appointing Blanchette lieutenant
and captain commandant of "San Fernando" he referred to the
village Blanchette had founded. Blanchette no doubt acted as the
first civil and military commandant of the settlement St. Charles
prior to 1792 — but it is not certain thpat he acted as such in 1793
under this order which appears to have been issued by mistake.*

' *' Angelique, sauvagesse, nativois des Panis Piques d' autre part *' it is
said in the marriage contract preserved in the St. Louis archives.

*I am indebted to Judge Walter B. Douglas for the following additional
facts as to Blanchette :

DON CARLOS TAYON 8i

Don Santiago Mackay is also often referred to in ancient documents
as the conunandant of St. Andrew and St. Charles, but this must be
some other place known as St. Charles, because before he came to
upper Louisiana, in 1792, Don Carlos Tayon had been appointed as
commandant of the district of St. Charles and its dependencies, and
remained in command until Louisiana was acquired by the United
States. Tayon was one of the original settlers of St. Louis. He
entered the Spanish service in 1770, participated in the capture of Fort
St. Joseph, as second in command under Captain Pour^e dit Bcau-
soliel, and on account of the valuable services rendered by him in that
expedition received the rank of lieutenant in the stationary regiment of
Louisiana. He rendered other services afterward to the government
in operations against the Indians, training the militia and protecting
the district, using a great part of his own property in public employ-
ment. His rank as lieutenant was the only compensation he received
in addition to the monthly stipend of $11 as commandant of St.
Charles, and which it was claimed was " seldom paid." ^ In consider-
ation of his services in 1 786, Don Francesco Cruzat made a grant to
him of sixteen hundred arpens of land on the river des P^res in the
neighborhood of the present Forest Park, now in the city of St. Louis;

"The census of 1787 of St. Charles or the " Habitaciones del Estableci
miento de las pequenas cuestas" contains the following about Blanchette:

"Juan Bapta Blanchet, aged 51,
Maria Su Mujer, .... " 48,
Sus Hijos { Bapta . . " 24,
\ Maria.. " 21."

His occupation is given as "Labrador" or farmer. His household con-
tained in adciition to those named above, one carpenter, one huntsman and
four laborers. The occupation of his son Baptiste is given as huntsman
(Cazador). In this census his name is placed three-fourths of the way down
the list, and nothing is said about his having an} official position ; indeed, no
official is designated in the census.

In the census of 1791, the first name in the St. Charles list is " Don Luis
Blanchette." This census does not give the occupation of the men or
designate the officials. But in the Florissant list the first name is Beaurosier,
whom we know to have been the principal officer of the village. In Carondelet
the first name is " Don Clemento Delor," and in Ste. Genevieve " Don Enrique
Peyroux." From this it is to be inferred that Blanchette was in 1791 the chief
officer of St. Charles. Also from an affidavit of allegiance taken by several
persons before Blanchette it appears he was the chief officer of the place. His
signature is written by Caspar Roubieu, lieutenant, and is written Luis
Blanchet. Blanchet makes his mark."

I may also observe that the statement made by Auguste Chouteau, as
noted down in Hunt's Minutes, Book i, p. 127 (Copy in Mo. Hist. Society), " les
Petites Cotes was established by Blanchette Chasseur A. D. 1796, and called
St. Charles, 1804," undoubtedly was misapprehension by Hunt of what Chou-
teau said.

* American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 779.

82 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

but this land, not being- promptly surveyed and his official duties
preventing his settling on it, was, as land increased in value and
many Americans flocked into the country, taken possession of by
others, " to his surprise. "• So, in order to avoid trouble and because
of his "love of peace," he asked Governor DeLassus, in January,
1800, for another grant "in any other part of the vacant domain,"
and accordingly DeLassus, "having taken cognizance of this matter"
and "as a proof of our approbation," ordered that "the surveyor of
this part of upper Louisiana, Don Antonio Soulard, shall survey in
favor of Don Carlos Tayon the quantity of land mentioned in his
above title and concession (i. e., made by Don Francesro Cruzat) m
any other vacant place in the royal domain, at his will and choice."'
In addition to this, another grant of ten thousand arpens was made as
a reward for his services to Francesco Tayon, Junior, his son. This
concession was on the River Renaud (Fourche k Renault), in the dis-
trict of Ste. Genevieve.* DeLassus, in his report to Captain Stoddard,
as to the personal characteristics and qualifications of the command-
ants of the various posts, says that Tayon "is a brave officer and
zealous in obeying orders he receives when he can comprehend them,"
but that "he gives himself to drink" and "that he recently committed
an injustice to the inhabitants of his post," and which "is already
too important for his capacity to regulate as he should," and he adds
"as he neither reads nor writes." ^ That he was "zealous in obeying
orders" is shown by an incident given in the testimony of Francois
Duchouquette, who says that when his brother Pierre was attacked
and wounded by the Delaware Indians, he made complaint to Gover-
nor Perez, and that he sent out a party under Tayon to punish these
Indians. Tayon, with an energy and promptitude that astonished
the Spanish officials, vigorously pursued the Indians and killed a
number of them. For this he was afterward ordered to New Orleans
to "explain" his "zealous" conduct, and after no inconsiderable
trouble and, no doubt, numerous explanations and excuses, he was
finally permitted to return " vindicated." The killing of Indians was
by the Spanish authorities not overlooked as a mere venial offense.
La Trail says that Tayon when he was commandant at St. Charles
occupied the lot upon which the first house in the village was built,

• American State Pap)ers, 5 Public Lands, p. 780.
' American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 780.

• American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 779.

• I Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 336.

FIRST SURVEY 83

being the square now numbered 19 bounded on the south by Mc-
Donald, west by Main, east by Missouri and north by Water streets,
and from this we infer that Blanchette must have first erected his hut
on this block when he made a settlement at what is now St. Charles.
This lot had a front of two hundred and forty by three hundred feet
in depth.

The first survey of the village was made by Auguste Chouteau,
under order of the Spanish authorities, but the map of the village, if
Chouteau ever made a map, has not been preserved. Gabriel La
Trail says that he assisted in this survey, likely carrying the chain.
This Gabriel La Trail in 1824 was one of the oldest residents of St.
Charles, and one of the principal witnesses before Commissioner
Hunt testifiing as to the ownership and occupancy of many of the lots
in this village, and according to Dr. Mackay Wherry, he was always
considered " a man of truth." *° Louis Barrada, Senior, also assisted
in this survey. Another old resident was Joseph Laurain, who settled
in St. Charles in 1784. He, too, was an important witness before the
commissioners, as well as Jean Filteau or Felteaux, who afterward
went to St. Louis. Jean Baptiste Belland, Senior, appears to have
been one of the earliest residents of St. Charles, but this Belland
also was an early resident of St. Louis. Jean Provost, Francois
Dorlac (or Durlac)," Baptiste Brusier, upon whose lot was situated a
spring called "Maxwell Spring,'* Don Antonio Gautier, Gotier or
Gaultier (1786), lieutenant of militia, near St. Charles at Marais le
Temps Claire and Marais Croche, and in 1796 at Cul de Sac; and
Michael La Sage severally were among the pioneer settlers. Don
Pedro Troge — who had emigrated from Cahokia, where in 1780 he
was huissier — in 1791 was one of the prominent residents of the
village. In 1793 he was commissioned by Governor Carondelet as
lieutenant of the militia.

All the early inhabitants of St. Charles, although engaged more
or less in hunting and the fur trade, were engaged in tilling the soil,
cultivating two common-fields adjacent to the village, one known as
the upper" and the other as the lower field. The lots in these com-

*• Hunt's Minutes, vol. i, p. 40, Missouri Historical Society Archives.

" A Francois Dorlac, one of the earliest residents of Ste. Genevieve, owned
property in the Big field in 1760; a resident of the village in 1774, may be the
same person. Perhaps a German, as I have seen the name spelled " Dur-
lach " in the Ste. Genevieve Church records. Judge Douglas tells me that the
name is a Breton name, and that the family is still living in St. Louis and is not
German.

*' American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 68g et seq.

84 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

mon-fields were similar in extent to the common-field lots in St. Louis,
being one arpent in front by forty in depth. The St. Charles com-
mon-fields were bounded on the east by Marais Croc he (Crooked
Swamp) and west by the public lands, and embraced considerable
extent of ground. In addition, fourteen thousand arpens belonged to
the villagers in common. This grant the inhabitants secured for
their necessary fencing and fuel from Lieutenant-Governor Trudeau
in 1797, and in making this grant he says: "Having been informed
that the land demanded for timber is not at all fit for settlement, on
account of its overflow every year, and that the said timber growing
on it is only fit for firewood, and can renew itself in a short time, not
being like that of the hills, which it is experienced never grows up
again (sic), and said lands being nig best and at proximity to the vil-
lage of St. Charles and of the several tracts granted in the prairie of
said village, whose inhabitants would have to procure wood from a
much greater distance, the same shall remain (as well as all the other
adjoining it, either ascending or descending the Missouri, and which
were demanded by the several petitions to us directed, with the present
one of M. Tayon) to the king's domain, and for the common use of
said village of St. Charles, as well as for the use of all the lands granted
or to be granted in future in the prairie of said jurisdiction of whi( h
M. Tayon will notify the inhabitants, and particularly those who have
petitioned for the same, and whose petition I herewith remit to
him."*^ And in i8oi DeLassus, with reference to the same sub jei I,
writes that "if the common of the inhabitants of St. Charles is not
sufficient, we do permit them, provisionally, to enlarge it according
to their wishes, without insuring to them the right of property for
which they are to petition as above," i. e., to his lordship the Intend-
ant of this province. Pierre Blanchette, one of the leading inhabit-
ants, testified before the commissioners to adjust the land titles, that
unless the people had secured these commons to supply them with
fencing and fuel, they would have been compelled to abandon
the cultivation of their lands.** These commons were surveyed by
Mackay and his deputy, John Ferry (or Terry), who afterward was
killed by the Indians. La Trail also claims to have assisted in this
work. In 1797 the village of St. Charles was surrounded by a fence, *^

*' 3 vol. Minutes of Commissioners, p. 68.

^* American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 672.

'* Chouteau vs. Eckert 7 Mo. Rep. 15.

POPULATION 85

a part of this fence separating the town from the common-fields
and common wood and pasture land.

In 1787 Auguste Chouteau received a concession to build a mill
about "fifteen arpens above St. Charles," on a branch called St.
Augustine, but he assigned this claim to his brother, Pierre Chouteau,
who started work on the mill, getting out timber to build a dam, Noel
Mongrain, nephew of Cheveux Blanc, assisting in the work. A
quantity of clay was hauled for the dam to strengthen it, but in the
spring of 1788 the milldam, such as had been constructed, was swept
away by the flood. We have no evidence that this water-mill was
ever built. In 1790 John Coontz (or Coons), a German from Illinois,
however, had a mill in operation on his lot in St. Charles. This
Coontz was a slave owner, and before he came to St. Charles, had
been a resident of Illinois for fourteen or fifteen years. Hyacinth
St. Cyr, a former resident of St. Louis, had a horse-mill in the
village in 1796. John Cook, also, had a mill there in 1799. Cook
owned property on the Dardenne, on Cook's run. Francois
Duquette, a French-Canadian, born in 1774, first lived at Ste.
Genevieve, but came to St. Charles in 1796. He established a
wind-mill in a stone circular tower — about 30 feet in diameter,
which had been erected as a fort. He was one of the
principal traders and merchants of the village, a large land own-
er, and in 1794 married Marie Louise Beauvais, daughter of Vital
Beauvais, of Ste. Genevieve. Rene Dodier, one of the original
settlers of St. Louis, cultivated land for him in 1801.

The population of the village of St. Charles at no time prior to
the cession of Louisiana exceeded one hundred families. Antoine
Lamarche says that the village was composed of eighty families in
1797. The houses, about one hundred in number, in which the four
hundred and fifty inhabitants then lived, were scattered along a single
street about one mile long, running parallel with the river, each
house being located in a large lot surrounded by a garden. At that
time the population was chiefly composed of French-Canadians and
their descendants. "In their manners they unite,** says Lewis, "all
the careless gaiety and ample hospitality of the best times of France,
yet, like most of their countrymen in America, they are but ill qualified
for the rude life of the frontier. Not that they are without talent, for
they possess much natural g»inius and vivacity; not that they are
destitute of any enterprise, for their hunting excursions are long and
laborious and hazardous, but their exertions are desultory, their

86 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

industry is without system and without perseverance. The surround-
ing country therefore, though rich, is not generally well cultivated.
The inhabitants chiefly subsist by himting and trading with the In-
dians, and confine their culture to gardening, in which they excel.""
But Gen. CoUot, who visited the village in 1796, says: " Aussi est-
il difficile de trouver un rassemblement d'invididus plus ignorans,
plus grossiers, plus laids, et plus miserables." — all of which he at-
tributes to extreme poverty.^'

One of the principal inhabitants of the village was Noel Antoine
Prieur, the secretary of the commandant, Don Carlos Tayon. This
Prieur was a cripple, having lost his leg while pulling down a small
house which had been presented him by Fran9ois Duquette. Prieur
was "chanter" in the little chapel of the town; he owned property in
the upper fields of St. Charles, also on the Dardenne ; two of his sons
had grants in Portage des Sioux. Another important resident was
Dr. Antoine Reynal, who, in 1799, removed from St. Ix>uis to St.
Charles, and resided there as a physician until his death in 1821, at
the age of 80 years.^®

*• Lewis & Clark's Expedition, vol. i, Coues' Edition, p. 6.

" Collot's Voyage dans L*Amerique, vol. i, p. 578.

*• Other settlers of St. Charles, some of whom cultivated land in the upper
and lower common-fields were, Barth^lemi Courtmanche (1782); Ix>uis
Blanchette (1785), raised wheat on his lot (1799); Isidore Savoye (1791), who
was a resident of Cahokia in 1787, cultivated land in both the upper and lower
common-field; Jean Louis Marc (1788), at one time lived on the "Tudros
Trace", which seems to have led from St. Louis to St. Charles, and was the In-
dian road to their hunting grounds. Marc's wife was frequently insulted by
these Indians, so he moved to St. Charles for protection ; he made a trip up
the Missouri, and in 1798 was a tenant of Antoine Vincent Bouis on the Mis-
souri, making sugar on his place; this land was situated between the land of
Emelian Yosti and Nicolas Lecompte; Marc also seems to have lived at St.
Ferdinand, and had a concession sixty -five miles north of St. Louis; Pierre
Gagnon (1789) afterwards moved to Cul de Sac. This Pierre Gagnon in 1780
lived in Cahokia. Andrew Roy (1790) ; Nicolas C. Coontz, probably a relative
of John, also a slave owner, was here in 1 795 and was employed in expeditions
against the Indians, in 1796 owned property at Marais Croche; John B. Grazer,
in 1 789 built a bam on the lot of Gagnon ; Claude Paneton was here about 1 790,
was also a resident of St. Ferdinand, and in 1786 appears to be a resident of
Cahokia; Paul Lacroix (1794), no doubt also related to the Cahokia fam-
ily ; Jos. Laurain ( 1 794) ; Joseph Beauchemain ( 1 795), on the Perruque in 1 800 ;
Charles Cardinal (1795), and cultivated a field in Upper Prairie; Louis Can-
noyer (or Comoyer); Jean Baptiste Contara(i795); Romaine Dufraine or Du-
frene (1795); Deshomets (1795); probably Bazil Hebert dit Deshomet of St.
Ferdinand, who we find here in 181 2; Auguste Felteau (1795); Joseph Fortier
(1791); Pierre Palardi (1795), in 1802, moved to Perruque creek; Quenel
(1795), probably Pierre of Cahokia; Antoine Bricot (or Bricant) dit Lamarche
(1796), and his son Antoine, junior; Paul Canoyer (1796); Comme (1796) died
in this year, and his property sold at auction to one Tuton, or Tusson ; Tous-
saint Cerr6 (1796), in 1800 owned an island in the Mississippi river, six miles
from the mouth of the Missouri, called by the French "Le Grand Isle de Paysa" ;
Pierre Didier (or Dodier) (1796) ; Edward Hempstead afterward acquired con-

PORTAGE DES SIOUX 87

The most important settlement in the St. Charles district was Por-
tage des Sioux, located on the Mississippi on the tongue of land between
this river and the Missouri, and where the Missouri approaches near-

siderable property in this district, as well as in St. Louis and near St. Ferdinand ;
Jean Baptiste Lamarche (1796), a Canadian, on the Maramec and Missouri in
1798, on Lamarche creek and also a resident in St. Louis; Baptiste LaFlame
(1796), no doubt a descendant of Charles LeBoeuf dit LaFlame (see Alvord's
Illinois Hist. Col., Vol. IL, page 627); Clement Misty (1796), in the lower
fields; Jacques Metot (1796), owning field in upptr fields; Marie Ann Quebec
(1796), also cultivated land in the lower fields; Joseph Rivard (or Rivare)
(1796); John B. Senecal (1796) Joseph Tayon(i795), and son Joseph, junior;
Charles Vall6 was in this district in 1796, and find him at St. Charles in 1802;
Joseph Voisard (1795), in 1802 opened a farm of twelve arpens on the Dar-
denne; Jeremiah Wray (1796); Louis Human or Hunot (1796) in the upper
fields, in 1797 on Cuivre at "Prairie des Butes,'* died in 1802; Louis Bartolet
(1797)1 Antoine Barada (1797); Ukely related to same family in St. Louis, or
the same person; Francis Tabien (1797); Francois Jourdan (1797), at Portage
des Sioux in 1800; Antoine LaFranchaise (or Frianchise) (1797) son of Madame
LaFranchaise who owned a lot also in the town; Isidore Lacroix (1797); Wil-
liam McConnell (1797)1 slave owner, and in 1803 was Commissaire and syndic
of the rivifere aux Cuivre district, in 1797 a firm under name of McConnell &
Spencer did business in St. Charles; Frans'oisPresseau( 179 7); Nicolas Royer
dit Cola (1797); Baptiste Roy (1795); Bertran (1798); Nicolas Fay (1796);
George Gatty (1798), from Pennsylvania, in 1 799 on the Dardenne and Mis-
soiui; John Henry (1798), on Bonne Femme in 1798; Pierre Bissonette(i799),
also in St. Louis; Jean Marie Bissonette (1799) ; Louis Louisgrand (1799), near
St. Charles, (possibly Louisgow), or Louisgand, the same who lived in Cahokia
in 1780; Pierre Rondin (1799) a negro, sold in 1805 to Pointe AuSable; Gre-
goire Tessero dit Bebe (1799); John Vallet (or Vall6) (1799); Claude Boyer
(1800); Pierre Clearmont (1800), at Portage des Sioux in 1801; Jean Bap-
tiste Doe (or Dow) (1800); Pierre Dubois; Baptiste Lebeau (1800), also m
St. Louis; Joseph Lamarche (1800); a Joseph P. Lamarche on Salt river in
1800; Nicolas LaForret (1800), sold to Pierre Bequet (or Bequette) who sold to
Ortiz, and in 1803 sold to Pierre Chouteau; Joseph Marie (1799), in 1800 sev-
enty-four miles north of St. Louis; Pierre Provench^re (1800), Uved with Char-
les DeHault De Lassus a number of years; August Robert (1800); Francois
Carbonneaux (or Charboneau) (1801); moved away from Kaskaskia where he
had been clerk of the court, on account of lawlessness there ; Pierre Canoyer (or
Comoyer) (1801), a Frenchman; Baptiste LeSage (180 1); Joseph Peache (or
Pichet) (1801); Patrick Roy (1801), also at Portage des Sioux; Pierre Teaque
(1801); Jean Tayon (1801), and on the Mississippi; Francois Girard (1802) near
St. Charles; Baptiste Janis (1802), but sold in 1805 to meet his obligations;
Antoine Lamarche (1802), also owned property on Lamarche or Spencer creek ;
Joseph Larava also in St. Louis (1802), owned a lot in partnership with Nich-
olas Fay; Baptiste McDaniel (1802); Baptiste Penrose (1802); Bazil Pickard
(1802), also at Portage des Sioux; Baptiste Picard (1802); Francois Ragotte
(1802); Manuel A. Roque (1802), and in St. Louis; Jean Baptiste Simoneau
(1802); Louis Tayon (1802), son of Carlos, senior, in 1802 moved to a stream
north of the Missouri; Alexander Vall6 (1802); Pierre Berje (spelling of name
uncertain); Ayme (or Agnice) Buat(i796) in the upper fields of St. Charles;
Nicolas Boyer; Baptiste Cote (or Cotte) ; George Collier; Veuve Ellen Cheval-
lier; Joseph Hubois; Etienne Dorwain, in 1798 sold his property here; Baptiste
and Auguste Dorlac ; Michael Deroy ; Antoine Derocher (or Deroche) ; Duples-
sis, (or Duplacy) ; Joseph Girard also seems to have been in Ste. Gene\'ieve
district and elsewhere; Pierre Garreau; Antoine Janis, junior; Nic-
olas Janis; Joseph Jervais, also on Little Prairie; Pierre Labre dit St. Vincent;
Jean Baptiste and Francois Langlois; Baptiste Lucier; James and Jesse Mor-
rison (1800), from New Jersey, bought and operated the salt works at Boon's

88 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

est lo the Mississippi, north of the mouth of that river. According to
Beck, Portage des Sioux derived its name from the fact that the Mis-
souris, ^ho at one time had their huts near here, being at war with
the Sioux, and having heard that the Sioux were coming down the
Mississippi on a foraging expedition, with the hope to surprise them,
ambushed themselves at the mouth of the river in considerable num-
bers, but the Sioux, being more cunning, instead of going to the mouth
of the river, landed at a point since known as Portage des Sioux, above
the mouth of the river and carried their canoes across to the Missouri,
and thus evaded their enemies, and escaped with their spoils.

The village of Portage des Sioux was established at the instance
of the Spanish authorities in 1799, and to countervail, in the words of
Trudeau, "a military post which the Americans intended to form at a
place called Paysa,'* a point near the present site of Alton, not far
from the mouth of the Missouri, on the opposite or east side of the
Mississippi. Although no such military establishment was formed
there by the Americans, no doubt it was rumored that such an estab-
lishment would be made. It was a point always thought to be a
favorable location for a military post to control the trade on the
Missouri river. When the English first took possession of the Illinois
country on the east side of the Mississippi river a military post near
the mouth of the Missouri was recommended as highly import-
ant. Frazier, in 1768, urged the establishment of a fort opposite
the mouth of "the Missouries'* river, "which would give us com-
mand of that river."" So, also, when the Spaniards took possession
of the Illinois country west of the Mississippi, the first military
movement was to establish a fort north of the mouth of the Missouri.
In 1799 the Spanish authorities appear again to have been deeply
impressed with the importance of a post at or near the mouth of the
Missouri, and accordingly Francois Saucier, at that time a resident of
St. Charles, was requested to form a settlement at what was then
known as "La Portage des Sioux," and to draw to that point Creole
inhabitants from the east side of the river, and who, according to

Lick, Jesse Morrison afterwards moved to Illinois; owned property on the
Dardenne, and in 1803 on Brj'ant or Lost creek ; Marie Marchand (or Merchant)
Charles Machett, may be Joseph C. Machett whose name is found in the ar-
chives; Joseph Aubouchon; Joseph Picketts; Francois Prieur; Pierre Quebeck;
Jean Baptiste Savoye, at St. Louis in 1801 ; Toussaint Soliere or Soulair; Abra-
ham Smith; Joseph Tabeau; Randolph or Rudolph dit Rody Veriat, also on
the St. Francois river in the Ste. Genevieve district; William Wooton; Louis
Laurain, (Lorain) ; Joseph Cote.

*• 2 Indiana Historical Publications, p. 415. A place known as*'Payssa**
existed there in 1783. Alvord's Ills. Hist. Coll., vol. 2, p. 153.

SAUCIER 89

Trudeau, had expressed a desire to settle there, and this being a
"population analogous to the one wanted in this country.** Such a
settlement he also thought would be a respectable guard to stop
the depredations of the Indians from "the rivers Illinois and Missis-
sippi upon the plantations in the interior of the country/' on the
Missouri, but of course making no reference to the no doubt silent
object of also protecting the country against a possible American
invasion, of which the Spaniards were then as apprehensive as of the
Indian "depredations." Trudeau selected Saucier to establish the
village, because he enjoyed the confidence of the Creoles on the
American side of the river. Saucier himself was a native of the Illinois
country, born near Fort de Chartres in 1740. His father, also named
Francois Saucier, was a captain of the French marines, and under
his direction Fort de Chartres was finished. In 1765, when Fort
Massac was surrendered to the English, Francois Saucier, Junior, was
in command there, and after the surrender removed to the west side of
the Mississippi, then still in the French possession. Trudeau, in
furtherance of the idea of establishing a village at Portage des Sioux,
urged Saucier to quietly induce the Creoles living on the American
side of the river to settle near the post, and to encourage them by
giving every facility to form a village, assinging to the settlers land
near the same, so as *Ho enable them to live at ease and be forever
content," and thus "to collect the greatest number of people.**
Soulard was ordered to be ready "on his first demand** to go to the
spot "where it is fit the village in question should be, ** and to make a
survey. Saucier was also assured, if he succeeded in accomplish-
ing what Trudeau proposed, that this important service would be
appreciated by the government. Saucier accordingly took up his
residence at Portage des Sioux early in the spring of 1799, had the
village laid out, induced many Creoles to settle there and acted as
commandant of the post until Louisiana was ceded to the United
States. Soulard says that Saucier was the father of twenty-two
children. He died August 6, 1821, at the age of eighty-one years, in
the village which he had founded.^" For his services. Saucier received

^ Says the St. Charles "Missourian" of August 8, 182 1, He was the founder
of the village and one of the first settlers of upper Louisiana, he lived as he died,
"beloved and respected." His five daughters married respectively: Colonel
Pierre Menard, Colonel Pierre Chouteau, senior; James Morrison; Jesse Mor-
rison and Jean Francois Perry. Fran<;^ois Saucier's second wife was Fran^oise
NicoUe Les Bois, widow of Charles Le Febvre, of Cahokia. She was the eldest
daughter of Etfenne Nicolle Les Bois and Marie Angelique Giard, his wife, of
Cahokia. They were both poisoned by their negroes (Alvord's Ills. Hist. Coll.

90 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

a grant from DeLassus of 8,000 arpens of land. This concession was
made to him by DeLassus on the i8th day of September, 1799, and was
located on Salt (Auhaha, or 0-ha-ha) river, and the deputy surveyor,
Charles Freraon DeLauriere was ordered to make the survey by Sou-
lard. DeLauriere says that he experienced great difficulty in making
the survey, and that he was twice driven away by the Saukee and Fox
Indians, although well armed. This grant, except 1,000 arpens, was
rejected by the first board of land commissioners, but in 1832 the
remainder, 7,800 arpens, were confirmed to Saucier 's heirs. The
Saucier grant was adjacent to the grants of LeBeaume and De-
Lauriere on Salt river, at a place called "La Saline Ensanglant^e "
(Bloody Saline). Here we should note DeLauriere made salt in 1799
at the extreme frontier, fortified himself against Indians and had a
cannon to resist their attacks.^^

Among the early inhabitants of Portage des Sioux we find Pedro
Vial, who was sent by the governor of New Mexico to explore a route
from Santa F^ to St. Louis in 1798; Francois Lesieur, who claimed
four hundred arpens near Portage des Sioux, and three thousand
in the St. Charles district, which he assigned to Antoine La Marc he.
But this Francois Lesieur should not be confounded with the Francois
LeSieur, commandant of Little Prairie. Other settlers were August
Clermont, who came from the village of Prairie Du Pont, in
the Illinois country, likely in 1795; Simon and Antoine Le
Page, also from the Illinois country; Baptiste Pujol; David
Esborough, and Mathew Saucier. Patrick Roy, Charles Le Fevre and
Solomon Petit came to Portage des Sioux from the lower fields of St.
Charles. Claibourne Rhodes was a resident of the town in 1799, but
relinquished his claim in 1800, and secured a concession of land
on the Mississippi, intending to establish on it a distillery, cutting the
logs for it, but was deterred from building by the Indians, who killed
three men near the tract of land he had secured. Another early
resident of Portage des Sioux was Antoine Le Claire, a blacksmith,
who died there in 1821. He was a native of Montreal, and
married into a prominent Pottowatomie Indian family in 1792. In
1800 he was a trader, living in Milwaukee, and thence removed to
Peoria, and from there in 1809 to Portage des Sioux. At the time he

vol. ii, p. 19). Franfoise was bom Sept. 19, 1761, and married Saucier Oct.
7, 1793. Her sister married Francois LeSieur Jan. 28, 1799, also one of the
first settlers of Portage des Sioux. Madame NicoUe Les Bois was bom at

Kaskaskia, daughter of Antoine Giard, and sister of Madame Gabriel Cerr^.
** American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 731.

LA CHARETTE 91

lived in Milwaukee he was the only trader there. He was a man six
feet high, well built, and a successful trader. His son, Antoine Le
Claire, Junior, was United States interpreter in 1833, at the Saukee
and Fox agency, when J. B. Patterson secured the autobiography of
Black Hawk. Le Claire, the son, was a prominent citizen of Por-
tage des Sioux and on intimate terms with the Indian agent, Major
Thomas Forsythe.'' In 1818-19 the American Fur Company had
one of its traders, Antoine St. Amont, stationed at Portage des
Sioux."*

Fifty miles up the Missouri river from the village of St. Charles,
in what is now Warren county, and where a creek empties into the
Missouri river from the north, there was a settlement known as La
Charette. The original French name of the settlement has disap-
peared, and for it the name of Marthasville, located about a mile from
the river, has been substituted. Three miles north of this vill^e still
stands the house in which the famous Daniel Boone died. La Charette
creek and another creek known as Tuque creek, flowing parallel to it,
meander through a fertile bottom. A Spanish fort, "San Juan del
Misuri," was established here, and of this fort one Antonio Gautier,
lieutenant of the militia, and who in 1796 was an "inhabitant of St.
Charles," had command. What manner of fort this "San Juan del

'* 3 Minnesota Historical Society Collection, p. 140.

^ Among other early settlers and inhabitants of Portage des Sioux, we may
enumerate, Auguste Charan (1797); Alexander Clark (1799); Charles Eber
(1799); Joseph Louis Gow (or Goe) (1799); Baptiste McDonald (1799); John
Mc Quick (1799); Estevan Papin(i799); Baptiste Pujol (1799); Louis Charles
Roy (1799); Jacques Godfrey (1799); Mathew Saucier, junior, (1799);
Crosby (1799), possibly Hezekiah, whose name we find later; Charles
Hebert (1800); Francois Leclaire (1800); Baptiste Presse, senior, (1800), and
his son Baptiste, junior, also of St. Louis and St. Ferdinand ; Charles Saucier
(1800), son of Francois; Abraham Dumond (1801) at Carondelet in 1802;
Michael Gow (or Louisgaud probably of Cahokia) also here; Charles and
Alexis Lefevre (1801); Francois Moquez ' (1801) ; Julien Roy (1801), and
Julien, junior; Joseph Challefous (or Challefoux) (1802); Joseph Guinard
(1802); Joseph Gravier (1802); Joseph Gravelin (1802), and Joseph, junior;
Joseph Papin (1802); Jacques Perras (1802); Francois Racine 1802), had
a blacksmith shop here in this year; Joseph Lapatry (1803); Thomas Lusby,
native of Ireland, came first to Illinois and in 1800 to the Spanish territory,
his son Elliott, it is claimed was the first white child bom in the town; John
A. Seitz (1803) ; Ebenezer Ayers, from an eastern state, settled at the Point near
Portage des Sioux, at a very early date, had a horse-mill, and was a large fruit
grower; the first Protestant sermon north of the Missouri, it is said, was preached
in his house; in 1804 he was appointed justice of the peace, one of the first
under the American government; Charles Roy; Etienne Bienvenue; Joseph
Couder; Catharine Delisle; Jean Baptiste Dofine; John King; Francois
Longval (or Louval) ; Napoleon LeSieur, also at New Madrid ; Edward LeSieur ;
Lefevre LaNoire ; Marie Ombre ; Louis Pujol ; Charles Picard ; Alexander and
Simon Roy ; Pelagie Robideau ; Julien Papin Vasquez ; Richard Taylor on the
forks of the Cuivre.

92 HISTORY OF ^USSOURI

Misuri' * was, we do not know, nor whether the garrison was a squad
of Spanish soldiers or compobcd of local militia; but most likely this
fort was a small log-house built to protect the first settlers against the
Indians. All remembrance, however, of "Fort San Juan del Mis-
uri'* in 1804 appears to have faded from the recollection of the
people there. Gass names the settlement **St. John," in his journal
of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and this name may be a survival
of the name of the fort once located at this place. Among the earliest
inhabitants of the vanished village La Charette, we find the name of
Joseph Chartran (sometimes mis-spelled Shattrons), who was the
syndic of the settlement, probably a relative of Amable Chartran,
of Cahokia, and, no doubt, of the family found in Montreal as
early as 1668. Joseph Chartran came there from St. Charles. In
1796 he was one of the lot owners of the Upper Prairie. Gass describes
La Charette as "a small French village, situated on the north side,"
and says that the expedition camped one quarter of a mile above it,
and that "this is the last white settlement of white people on the
river. " According to the official report of the expedition. La Charette
consisted in 1804 of "seven small houses and as many poor families, "
who have fixed themselves here for the convenience of trade.'*
Brackenridge, when he passed up the Missouri river in 181 1,
says: "La Charette is a little village composed of about thirty
families, who hunt and raise a little corn. It was founded by the
original French colonists, and was for a time the residence of
Daniel Boone, after he removed farther up the river from the
Femme Osage." ^

Above the village La Charette,^ and the creek of that name,
was, as the early French pioneers named it, "Riviere Tuque."
Tuque is sometimes written "Duque" in these days. On this creek
Joshua Stockdale (or Stogsdill) settled in 1799 ; so, also, John Haun, a

'* Lewis and Clark's Expedition, p. 9, Coues' Edition.

* Brackenridge's Journal, p. 19.

*• Among other settlers of this region, in the town and on the stream, we
may enumerate, Abraham Darst (1799), had an orchard on the creek in 1804,
perhaps the earliest orchard north of the Missouri river, if it was indeed planted
as Thomas Smith testified (2 P. L. p. 474); Joseph Chartron, junior, was also
a resident of the village on the river; Thomas Witherington (probably Worth-
ington) and son John in 1799 had property on the river Charette; Jean Baptiste
Luzon, Louison or Leauzon ( 1801) settled between LaCharette and the Missouri ;
Pierre Burdeaux (1801) on the river; Joseph Arnois (or Arnoux); Pierre Blan-
chett (or Blanchette) received a grant on the Missouri near the village, and
on the Tuque; James Meek (1803); Adam McCord (1803); Moses Russell
(1803); Pullet (Polite) Cardinal, in 1805 had sugar camps on the waters of
Charette; Veuve St. Franceway (Franjois).

FEMME OSAGE 93

German ; William and Stephen Hancock in the same year opened a
farm at the mouth of the creek; Frangois Woods, who came to the
country with the Hancocks, originally made a settlement here, but
afterward sold his property and lived on the Perruque.'^

About twenty miles from St. Charles, the Femme Osage empties
its waters into the Missouri. This creek is about thirty yards wide,
and during the Spanish dominion an American settlement was
formed here. The earliest settler was Daniel Morgan Boone, in
1797, a son of Dan'el Boone, and a slave owner, then indicating a
man of wealth.^* His father subsequently, in 1799, came to the
country on the invitation of Trudeau, who promised him a grant of
one thousand arpens of land.* In 1800 he was appointed by De-

" On this stream James Bryan or Bryant settled in 1 799 ; he was also on the
Missouri and in St. Louis, if the same person ; David Bryan settled on this stream
in 1800 near the present town of Marthasville, he was a native of Maryland, and
had a large orchard which he grew from apple seed brought from Kentucky
in his pocket; his aunt married Daniel Boone, and they were both buried on
his farm; John Burnet (1801); Gabriel Marlowe (or Marlot) settled here under
permission of the syndic Chartran in 1802, but in the same year sold out his
claim to John Busby ; Benjamin Rogers ( 1 799) a witness for settlers on this
stream, probably lived here; William Spencer (or Spence) (1800) ; George Arey,
(Ajrreys or Ayers) (1803); Robert Baldridge, from Ireland, one of the earliest
settlers, obtained the grant on which Pond's Fort was built, his son Malachi,
and two other men, named Price and Lewis, were killed by Indians while hunt-
ing on Loutre Prairie; Andrew Kincaid (or Kincaird) (1800); Jean Marie
Cardinal.

'• Colonel Boone and his son laid out a town near here on the Missouri
river, called Missouri ton, and built a horse-mill, but the place where the town
was laid out has long since been washed away by the river. Nathan Boone,
son of Daniel, was a surveyor, in 1812.

'• Boone started for Upper Louisiana in September, 1799, going over-land
with the stock, accompanied by George Buchanan, an Irishman, and a negro
named Sam, belonging to Daniel M. Boone, Flanders Callaway, Forest Hancock,
William Hays, senior, William Hays, junior, and Isaac Van Bibber. He reached
the Mississippi in October and crossed his stock at the mouth of the Missouri,
and from there went to the Femme Osage, where his son Nathan had established
himself several years before. The boat in which Boone's wife, Nathan Boone
and his wife, Daniel M. Boone, Callaway and others went arrived at Femme
Osage before he came. From Femme Osage Boone went to St. Louis, where De-
Lassus had succeeded Trudeau; but Trudeau still being in St. Louis secured
him the concession of land he had promised. In 1800 Boone hunted beaver on
the Bourbeuse with a faithful negro boy named Deny, and in that year caught
thirty or forty beaver. While on the Bourbeuse he visited Captain Fish of Rog-
er's band of Shawnees and an old squaw with whom he became acquainted
when a prisoner among the Indians in Ohio in 1778. In 1801 he hunted beaver
on the Niango, called by the Spaniards "Yongo" and in 1802 W. T. Lamme
and Nathan also hunted there. Hatters came from Lexington and offered to
buy Boone's beaver skins. Lamme and Nathan Boone in 1802 captured nine
hundred beaver and sold the skins at $2.50 a skin. But in this year the Osages
robbed Daniel Boone and Wm. Hays, junior, who hunted with him (Draper's
Notes, vol. 6, p. 241). This Wm. Hays, junior, died near Fulton in
Callaway county in 1846; he was born at Boone's Station in 1780.

94 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Lassus commandant of the Femme Osage district. When he first
arrived in the country he lived with his son, Daniel Morgan Boone,
for several years, afterward with another son, Nathan, and finally
moved further up the Missouri to La Charette, where he died.
He did not cultivate his grant of land on the Femme Osage, because
advised by DeLassus that, as commandant, under the Spanish law, he
did not come within the meaning of the rules and regulations requiring
cultivation of land before title could be perfected. By the commis-
sioners, however, for the settlement of Spanish land titles, his claim to
the land was rejected, but afterward in 1814, confirmed by a special
act of Congress. Near here, on the Missouri, James Stephenson, in

1799, made a settlement, but in about 1800 his house was burned and
he was robbed of everything he had by the Indians. He made claim
for an additional grant as compensation for his loss, and on recom-
mendation of Daniel Boone, DeLassus made another grant to the son
of Stephenson, named John, Junior, antedating the same so as to cor-
respond to the original grant. David Darst, Senior, a native of Vir-
ginia, came to upper Louisiana from Kentucky in 1797, and received
a concession near this stream. His son, David, a cripple, also
received a grant adjoining his father, from Zenon Trudeau, although
only fourteen years old, but "intended as his support." William
McHugh, in 1801, lived on Bryant or Lost creek, about twelve miles
beyond this settlement, and William Ewing, who lived with him,
testified that in 1803 McHugh had three sons killed by the Indians,
also some cattle, and was frightened away from his place. Robert
Hall lived on the Femme Osage in 1799, but left the country prior to

1800, and never retiurned. Francois Wyatt came from Montgomery
county, Kentucky, in 1800, secured a land grant, and also applied for
concessions for a number of other people from Kentucky.'^ Isaac

•® Other early residents on the Femme Osage were, Joseph Haines (1797);
James Baldridge (1797), ^^^ on this stream and the Missouri, also on the Dar-
denne ; Samuel Clay (i 797) ; sold his property in 1800 to Alexander McCourtney ;
Jeremiah and Santiago Clay (1799); John Marshall (1800), owned six slaves;
Jonathan Bryan (1799), brother of David, Irish descent, native of Mar>'land,
brought his family from Kentucky in a keel boat, and first settled near Cap au
Oris, in what is now Lincoln county, but owing to the exposed position to Indian
attacks, and supposed sickly location, he moved to the mouth of the Femme
Osage, where in 1801 he built a water-mill; the millstones were carried from
Kentucky on horse-back, and an old musket barrel formed the sluice or water-
race; William Coshow, step-son of Jonathan Bryan, native of North Carolina,
came with Bryan, and afterwards ser\'ed in the Indian war ; David McKinney
(1800), came to the country with Fran9ois Wyatt; John McKinney also came
in this year, and probably of this party, he was a native of Virginia and served
in the war of the revolution, but moved from there to Kentucky, his son Alex-
ander also came with him, married Nancy Bryan, was a sun'eyor and afterward

CUIVRE RIVER 95

Vanbibber, a native of Virginia, who was raised by Daniel Boone,
and came with him to the Spanish territory, settled in the Femme
Osage Bottom, which at this time was also called "Darst's Bot-
tom. "** Vanbibber was major of the militia in the Indian war, under
Daniel Morgan Boone. Near the head-waters of the Femme Osage
and Dardenne, James Beatty made a settlement in 1800. He came to
upper Louisiana with letters from Governor Garrard of Kentucky,
and presented these letters to DeLassus, who, after reading same, said
to him that he would "be received with pleasure" and that he
would grant him land. Beatty, however, after making his settle-
ment remained in the country only a year, selling out his claim.''
The Cuivre settlement was located on Cuivre river, or Riviere aux
Boeuf (Buffalo river), which drains the western part of Lincoln
county. This river is formed by the junction of the north and west
forks. The junction of these streams is in about the center of Lincoln
county, and thence the river flows around the southern end of the
main ridge o£ hills extending south parallel with the Missouri, and
being joined by Big Creek and Eagle's Fork, runs in an easterly
direction debouching into the Mississippi about 30 miles above the
mouth of the Missouri. This stream was in the early days called
Cuivre or Copper river, because it was supposed by the early French
pioneers that copper was, or would be, found in the country tributary
to it. In the wide and fertile bottoms of this stream, well wooded and
shut in by bold escarpments of rock, many American settlers secured
grants from the Spanish ofl&cers. Where the two forks of the Cuivre
meet, Richard Taylor secured a Spanish grant. James Mackay made a
claim for 13,835 arpents on the Cuivre river, as a reward for services

served in the State Legislature several sessions; Arthur Burns (1800), an Irish
Catholic, in 1803 sold a tract on the Mississippi blufif on the Dardenne, seems
also to have owned property on the Perruque ; his son, Arthur, in 1805, had prop-
erty on Sandy creek; James Montgomery (1800); Thomas Smith (1799), on this
stream and Missouri, also near or at St. Charles; Peter and Thomas Smith
(1800), from Kaskaskia on the hills above Prairie du Rochcr; William Dunn
(1802), in the Femme Osage and Cuivre districts; David Kincaid (1803), also
on fork of the Charette; John Littlejohn (1803), secured permission to settle
from Daniol Boone; Phillip Miller; Samuel Watkins; Joshua Dodson of Ste.
Genevieve district seems to have bought property here; Samuel Meek (1803);
in 1798, John Lindsay, Josiah Dotson, Sam Clay and Sam Watkins, all young
unmarried men settled near Daniel M. Boone and for some time that settlement
was known as "Bachelor's Bottom."

" In this bottom David Cole, a German, settled in 1798; Benjamin Gard-
ner, a hunter and trapper, settled in 1801, going on hunting trips lasting from
four to six months each, on his fourth trip returned home sick and died. Other
settlers were John Manly (1801); Isaac Darst (1801).

" Commissioner's Reports, vol. 4, p. 495.

96 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

rendered the Spanish government, in making an exploration in 1795
of the upper Missouri, under the orders of Baron de Carondelet,
Governor-General, and Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, Intendant-
Generai at New Orleans. James Lewis in 1 799 owned a flour-mill on
this stream, but in the spring of 1803 was compelled to abandon it on
account of the Indians, returning in the fall." The settlers on Cuivre
were much exposed to Indian attacks, and often obliged to leave
their lands on account of Indian depredations.'*

The first settlement on the Perruque, in what is now St. Charles
county, was made in 1796 by French Canadians. In that year, Louis
Marchant, who subsequently moved to Belland's creek, Andrew
and Jean Baptiste Blondeau, dit Duzey (or Drezy), made a settlement
which they described as "at a place called La Perruque." Christo-
pher Sommalt or Zumalt (or Zumwalt), Senior, a German, and a
Revolutionary soldier, here in 1799, established a mill. He

" American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 473.

'* Among the earliest grantees and settlers in this locality are to be named
Louis Boisse (1791); Isaac Hosteller (or Hostetter) (1797); Henry McLaughlin
(1797), on the Missouri and Cuivre; Adam Sommalt (Zumalt) (1797), came with
Christopher Sommalt, also Jacob; William Hays (1798), and a witness in Darst
Bottom in 1801; Squire Boone (1798) owned ten slaves, and says had serious
difficulty in making his settlement; David or Daniel Rowland (1798); Dr. Mac-
kay Wherry (1798), his grant was made for a sugar plantation, in 1802 raised
com on his lot in St. Charles, was afterwards sheriff of the county; Baptiste
Champlain (1799); Paul and Cerr^ Chouteau (1799); Joseph Cottle (1799);
Baptiste Delisle, junior, (1799); Lewis Krow (1799) near the Cuivre on Krow's
or Charles' Run ; Francois La Riviere ( 1 799) same p>erson was also in New Madrid
it would seem; Daniel McCoy, came to Upper Louisiana in 1797 or 1799 with
his brothers, John and Joseph, and father-in-law Henry Zumalt, in 1804 was
lieutenant of a company of militia in St. Charles district; Zadock Woods (1799),
owned five slaves, was also in St. Louis district on the Missouri ; George Weiland
(1799) ; Joseph Baptiste Billot (1800); Godfrey Crow or Kroh (1799) on Krow's
Run, in 1806 was deputy surveyor; Charles B.Thibeault (1799), also in St. Louis;
William Craig (1799) adjacent Daniel McCoy; Andrew Cottle (1799); Henrv'
'Crow (1799), adjacent to Godfrey Crow; Michael Crow (1799), and in 1802 on
the Perruque; Jacob Grosjean (1799), German Catholic; Louis Charboneau
(1800); Andrew Chartrand (1800); Toussaint Gendron (1800); Abraham Keith-
ley (or Kielty) (1800), was obliged to abandon in the spring of 1803 on account
of Indians, but returned in the fall, was killed by his horse on this stream in
1813; Augustine Langlois (1800), seems also to have been in St. Louis; Fran-
cois Paquette (1800) may be the same p>erson living in the New Madrid district
in 1794; Benjamin Quick (1801); Daniel Quick (1801) also lived in this district
and p)Ossibly here; Hugh Swan (1802), on Eagle Fork; Nathaniel Simonds(i8oi)
also in St. Louis and St. Charles, a witness to claims on the Dardenne; Robert
Burns (1800); William Linn (or Lynn) (1802); Jonathan, Sylvanus, and Isaac
Cottle, (or Cottell) (1800); Joseph Jamison (1802); Jonathan Woods (1802),
afterwards moved to St. Charles; Martin W^oods; John Barnabag; David Boyd;
William Farnsworth (or Farrisworth), and his son who lived with him; Jere-
miah Grojean; Henry Sommalt, junior; Christopher Clark; Benjamin Jones.
In 1800 Gabriel Cerr6 received a grant of an island in the Mississippi at the
mouth of the Cuivre.

DARDENNE 97

seems to have brought a number of other settlers with him, as other
petitioners said they belong to his family. His sons, Peter and
Christopher, Junior, also located on this stream in 1799. Jacob
Zumalt built the first hewed log-house ever erected on the north
side of the Missouri; his sons, Andrew and Jacob, Junior, came
with him, Andrew settling on the Brazo (Brazeau). William Tarbet
came with this party and settled on the Cuivre.*

The Dardenne flows in a northeasterly direction through what is
now St. Charles county, almost parallel with the Missouri, and from ten
to twelve miles north of it. It empties its waters into the Missis--
sippi above the mouth of the Illinois. In early documents it is
variously spelled "Darden" and also "Dardonne." It has
been suggested that the name is derived from Terre d^Inde i. e.
Turkey Land, but is more probably derived from the Dardenne
family, early pioneers of the Mississippi Valley. A Touissant
Dardenne from Montreal, Canada, married Marie Fran^oise
Lever, "veuve de feu Michal Vieu," at St. Anne de Fort de
Chartres, Novbr. 21st 1747. One of these Dardennes may have
first camped and hunted on this creek, and thus given it his
name. The lands along the banks of the Dardenne are fertile and
productive, and it is a fine riiill stream. One of the first pioneers on
the Dardenne was Jean Baptiste Blondeau, the same Blondeau we
find on the Perruque. He made an improvement in about 1796 and
raised a crop on a grant on this stream, afterward assigned by him
to John Mullanphy. Frangois Howell, a native of North Carolina,
removed to what is now Missouri, about 1797; he first settled
thirty miles west of St. Louis, then moved to what has since been
known as "Howell's Prairie,' ' on the Dardenne and erected several
small mills." James Kerr in 1798 petitioned for a grant to build

•* Other settlers were, John Ridenhour (1790); William Linx (i8oo)j Mel-
chior Amant Michau (1800); David Edwards (1801); Almond Cottle (1803);
Angus Gillis, a witness in this neighborhood in 1803; Samuel Holmes (1803);
Francis Woods (1800), came to the country with Hancock; David Conrad
{1803) ; James Swift {1803) had a concession, but in the winter of the same year
moved away; Samuel Lewis; Elizabeth Due; Daniel Johnson and Ira Cottle
seem to have had a concession in partnership on this stream ; Francois Kissler
(1804), but on account of sickness was compelled to move to St. Charles; Henry
Stephenson (1804); Matrom Lewis; Andrew Edwards; David Kichelie. James
Wealthy settled on this stream in 1799 and after living here a year sold out to
one Kielty. Andre and Jean Baptiste Blondeau also had a grant adjacent to the
grant of Louis Marchand on this stream.

•• A son of John Howell of Pennsylvania. Four of Franjois Howell's sons,
John, Thomas, Francois, jimior, and Benjamin, served as rangers in Captain
Callaway's company, Francois, junior, was also Colonel of militia, and Benja-

98 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

a mill, which likely never was built. In 1799 Arend Rutgers
secured 7,056 arpens on the Dardenne, from Trudeau, to induce
him to build a mill there. Rutgers at this time lived at Red
Banks, or Lexington, Kentucky, and on his request by letter,
Soulard had a survey made of. this land by Mackay, his deputy, in
1800. After this survey it seems Rutgers actively b^an work
on his mill, and Pierre Provench^re, his son-in-law, says that in
1803 a large dwelling had been erected on the premises and a
large field cleared, timber hewed and hauled for a mill and mill-dam.
Rutgers brought a number of workmen from the United States to
work on his mill and grant. Several times the mill-dam was carried
away by water before it was completed, and altogether Rutgers seemed
to have had some difficulty in getting his water-mill started, but in
1803 he had erected a store-house on the Dardenne and kept a store
there. Thomas Howell, who resided at this time with his father Fran-
cois, was in the employ of Rutgers. Afterward Rutgers lived in St.
Louis where he was a large land owner, and also acquired property on
the Femme Osage and Cuivre. Alexander Andrews lived on this
creek in 1797, but sold his property in 1800, and moved to the St.
Louis district. Isaac Wilder, a blacksmith, located here in 1799, and
John Draper, a well-digger, had a concession in 1802. A number of
claims to land were made by persons along the Dardenne not actual
settlers. Among others Pelagie Chouteau (veuve Pelagie L* Abadie),
as assignee of Etienne Bernard; Antoine Janis; James Morrison, as
assignee of Joseph Beauchamp.*^

min, captain of a company of rangers. Another son, Lewis, taught school a
number of years, was deputy sheriff, and afterwards adjutant of the St. Charies
militia ; another son James F. was colonel of a regiment.

" .\mong other early settlers on the Dardenne we may enumerate, Joseph
Genereux (i796\ who seems to have been in partnership with Joseph Langlois
on the Missouri and Dardenne; Etienne Bernard, (1796) also a resident of St.
Charles; John Parquette (or Parkett"); Joseph Beauchamp dit Bochant (1796)
also a resident of St. Charles and Marais Croche, where he sold in 1798 to An-
toine Janis, junior . The following named persons who evidently were from
the United States also made claims to land on this stream John Lewis (1797)1
on the Dardenne and Missouri; Perr>' Brown (179S), on the Missouri and this
stream; Warren Cottle (1709), *'ancirn habiiiim des E. U.," a native of Vermont,
ser\-ed in the war of iSi 2 ; his son, Warren, junior, was a physician and came with
his father in 1 799. Other sons of Warren, senior, Ira, Stephen and Marshall, also
on this stream. His son Lorenzo founded the town of Cottle>*iUe in 1840;
George Hoffman (1799), native of Pennsylvania, but lived in Virginia where he
married, and came from there to Missi.>uri ; his sons Peter and George, junior,
came with him and lived on this stream, Peter was a soldier in the war of 181 a ;
Louis Jannetot (or Jeannette'i i^i7Q9>; Thomas Johnson (1799) Irish Catholic,
in 1800 on the Slaramec; Conrad dit Leonard Price (1799), one of those who
came with Christopher Somnudt (Zumwalt); John Adam Smith (1799) sol-
dier of the Revolution; Milton Lewis (1800"^; one Harrington settled on tbe

SALT RIVER 99

The largest and most notable claim, on account of its vast extent,
was the claim of Clamogran to five hundred thousand arpens of land,
which was located between the Dardenne, Cuivre, and Mississippi.
This claim was based on services in exploring a pathway across the
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific ocean, but never was allowed or
confirmed.** For many years the confirmation of this claim was
and is still urged with great vigor, in and out of Congress. To some
extent, for a time, it retarded the settlement of the country, but finally
the land claimed was surveyed by the government and made sub-
ject to entry.

On the Auhaha or Salt river, Maturin Bouvet, a resident of St.
Charles in 1792, had a saline, at a place called " Le Bastile, " but the
Saukee Indians took away all his effects, kettles, etc., and three
valuable mares. He remained on his place alone one winter, and
while absent the Indians again destroyed his furnace, dwelling-house
and ware-house, which latter was about thirty-five feet in length;
he himself sometime later on his return was burned to death by the
Indians.* He also had a grant at Bay de Charles, on the Mississippi,
for depositing his salt for shipment. *° This Bouvet came from the

Dardenne in 1801 on a grant made to Don Carlos Tayon, and which included a
salt spring; John McConnell (1801); Andrew Walker (1801); Michael Reybott
(or Rybolt) (1802), on this stream and the Missouri; John Rouke (or Rooks)
(1802) also spelled Rouke; Warner Gilbert (1803) ; Noel Herbert (1803) ; Dame
Loxiise Langevin dit Baillettc (1803), wife of Etienne Bernard, formerly widow
of Joseph Violette; John Alexander Michau (1803); George Price (1803), a
witness and probably a resident; Christian Dennis; Charles Denney (or Dennys)
a German, and herb doctor, lived on this creek and had a water-mill, afterward
had a distillery; Micajah Baldridge ; Peter Tisne ; Christian dit Christopher Wolf ;
Laurent Derocher ; Etienne Pepin (1800) had a grant at a pond called "k Bequet"
four or five miles northwest of Portage des Sioux ; he was a Canadian and an
old resident. On this stream St. Vrain, brother of DeLassus received a grant of
10,000 arpents; St. Vrain died insolvent, sold his grant at twelve and one half cents
an acre payable in goods, and goods were sold at such a high price that accord-
ing to Tesson, John Mullanphy got the land for about two cents an acre.

•• American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 629.

*• Others who were on this stream were, Louis Bour^ (^799) J Charles Main-
ville (1799) ; John Baptiste Jeff re (1800) ; Jean Baptiste Bourette or Bour^ (1801)
Dr. Antoine Saugrain had a claim for land here on which to erect a distillery and
mill and establish a stock-farm.

*• Amable Roy made an early settlement here in 1785, but abandoned it on
account of the Indians being troublesome; Jean Baptiste Tesson (1799) ; Albert
Tesson (1793) had a claim of 7,056 arpents, but was driven off his claim by Indi-
ans, he was a surveyor, and attached to the administration of DeLassus from its
beginning to the end, and lived with him; he testified that Trudeau wrote his
own grants, but that DeLassus' were written by Soulard or others and that it was
ciistomanr to date the concession the day the petition was dated or a day or so
afterwara, although the petition may have been made two years prior. He
also had a claim at Rich Woods settlement but never lived there. John Guion
(1801); George Ayrl (1801); Edmond Chandler (1803).

loo HISTORY OF MISSOURI

East side of the river to upper Louisiana. In 1786 he was civil
and criminal Judge of St. Philippe. From there it seems he moved
to Cahokia. Finally no doubt owing to the lawless condition
prevailing in the American Illinois settlements at that time he
came to the Spanish country. Other settlers in that locality
secured land donations on Sandy or Romain creek/^ and on the
Mississippi and Missouri bluffs.** A small settlemeipt was made
sixty five miles north of St. Louis** and still another on Bryant or Lost
creek, a stream also known as Ramsay creek, because in 1799
Captain William Ramsay made a settlement here called Ramsay's
Lick, and where he made a hunting camp. This Ramsay was a sol-
disr of the Revolution, was at the battle of Yorktown, and during the
Indian war commanded a company of rangers. John Ramsay who
lived on this stream was his son, and another son, Robert, lived near
Marthasville, where his wife and three children were murdered by the
Indians.^^ At the time of the cession a number of settlers lived

** On the Mississippi and bluffs we find, Etienne Guitard (1799) ; Jean Bap-
tiste Challefoux (1799) ; William E wings (1800), and in 1803 lived with William
McHugh on Br>ant creek; William Jamison (1800); Francois Louis; Baptiste
and Joseph Roy (1799) brothers; Francois Shaver (1803) at the forks of the
Mississippi and Missouri; Francois Bouthellier (1803); Andrew Blondeau;
Henry Langhom, senior and junior; John Francois Misheau (Michau) (1802).

*' These were, Louis Charleville (1799); Baptiste Domine (1799); Louis
Grimard dit Charpentier (1799) ; Dominick Uge (or Huge) (1799); Marie Philip
Leduc (1799) received a grant but did not settle on it; Louis Lamalice (1799);
Baptiste Marley (1799) ; Francois Motier (1800) ; William Clark (1800) and may
be the blacksmith in St. Louis in 1802; St. James Beauvais (1800); Antoine
Bizet (Bisette) (1800); Jean Baptiste De Quarry (1802); John Godino; Louis
Varre; Jean Baptiste Bravier (1800), probably Bravier dit Ciril.

^ On this stream Aristides Auguste Chouteau had a grant in 1798; Thomas
Caulk (1800), had lived here prior to this time cultivating land for Richard
Caulk; a Thomas W. Caulk was in New Madrid district in 1792; Frederick
Dickson (1802); Ralph H. Flaugherty (1801); Moses Kinney.

** Robert T. (or J.) Friend, arrived in this district "with his family, mer-
chandise, slaves and cattle" in 1798, and settled on the Missouri and cultivated
Indian wheat, seems also to have lived on the St. Francois; Isaac Fallis (1798);
George Buchanan (1798) came to the country with Daniel Boone, was on the
Dardenne in i8ox ; Samuel Griffith of New York, seems to have settled on the
Mississippi and Missouri in 1795, owned two slaves; Forest Hancock (1798)
came with Daniel Boone; James HofiF (1798), and afterwards sixty-five miles
north of St. Louis; Antoine Janis (1795) on the Missouri and Dardenne, in 1798
at St. Charles; Ira Nash (1798), employed at the Spanish fort, received a grant
of land on the Missouri in what is now Howard county, a man by the name of
H. Nash (or Mark) was appointed deputy surveyor between 1799 and 1803;
WiUiam VanBurkelo (1798), settled near the junction of the Mississippi and
Missouri in 1798, he was a ranger in Captain Musick's company, and killed
by the Indians about the close of the war, was married three times; John Wat-
kins vi797)» probably Dr. John Watkins who was a land speculator on the Ma-
ramec, a Catholic, sold in 1802, to Leonard Farrow; William Stewart
(1798) on this river at Green's Bottom, one of his sons Elias C. was sheriff of the
county several times, and his brother Jackey was a ranger in Callaway's com-

LARGE GRANTS loi

scattered near or along the Missouri and Mississippi at various
points. Many large grants for land,^ as a reward for services,

pany ; Francois Smith (1799) ; Daniel Kiseler or Klieseler (1799) ; Anthony Kelle r
( 1 799) German, Catholic ; John Journey (1799) also James; Joseph Leduc (1800) ;
Rob«t McKlinney (1800), returned to Kentucky prior to 1803; William Nash
(x8oo); Laurence Sydener (1802); H)rpolite Bolon (may be the Indian interpre-
ter of the Ste. Genevieve District) (1800) and at Carondelet; James Clay (1799)
and on Charette in 1802; Joseph Deputy (1800) ; Baptiste Duchouquette (1800)
on the Missouri, opposite the Osage; James Flaugherty (1799) on the Missouri
at Green's Bottom, was one of the first justices of the peace appointed under the
American Government in 1804; Antoine Gagnier (1800) on this river in Howard
county; Antoine and Francois Gaguirie (or Giguares) (1800); Stephen Hancock
(1799); James Piper (1800) testified to events at Portage des Sioux in 1798;
Newton Howell (1801) on this river below the mouth of the Femme Osage,
William Stewart had a sugar camp on his property by permission of Stewart ;
Timothy Kibby (1801), in 1802 at St. Charles and also on Dardenne; James
Vanbibbcr (1803) of Virginia, was afterwards coroner, and his son Joseph was
a surveyor; Jacques Eghse; John Ferguson, at the forks of the Missouri and
Mississippi; William Griffith; James Griffin, junior, (1800); Peter, Joseph
and James Jemey (or Journey) on the Missouri at Green's Bottom; Stephen
Jackson (1803) on the Tuque in 1802, where he began cultivating a garden, but
was taken sick, and on his recovery was compelled to hire out to pay James
Mackay, for said concession, and who charged him considerably more for same
than at first; Levis Lucas, forks of the Missouri and Mississippi ; William Meek
(1803), in 1804 on the Xuque; David Miracle; John McMichell ; William Van-
tico, forks of the Missoiui and Mississippi; Peter Valign.

• Thus Andre L* Andreville (1788), tavern-keeper and merchant, also a res-
ident of St. Louis claimed 4,000 arpens, but never settled the land; Charles
Bruire (1800) claimed 800 opposite Cedar island but it does not appear that
he or Joseph Bissonette (1799) lived on their claims; Joseph Brazeau (1797),
Antonio Brazeau probably a relative of the Brazeau's of St. Louis, and Fran-
9ois Belonge (1799) claimed land in this district but did not reside on it; James
W. Cockran (1800), forty miles west of St. Louis; George Crumps (1800) two
miles west of St. Charles, built a house on his claim; Therese Crely (1803) wife
of Louis Honore dil Tesson claimed 3,500 arpens on the river Jefifron but lived
at Florissant; Jesse Cain (1799) planted com on his land; also Hved on the Ma-
ramec before he came to this district, in Nathan Boone's company of rangers in
181 2; Fran9ois Cayolle (1799) opposite Prairie du Chien on river Jaune, proba-
bly Franipois De Salle dit Cayolle of Carondelet, claimed 7,000 arpens which he
sold to Dubuque; Jean B. Chartier; Daniel Clarkland speculator made claims
under Louis Charbouseau, Francois La Riviere, Vincent Guitard and others on
the river Loutre, on the Aux Vase in 1804 and Cuivre, also bought several tracts
in the St. Louis district; Franjois DeLauriere dit Normandeau (1799) on Loutre
river; Pierre Derbigne (Derbigny) (1799), of New Madrid; Veuve Susan-
nah Dubreuil(i799) the mother of ten children, her husband did not receive
a concession claimed 7,000 arpens; Louis Dupree (1799) ; Louis DeUsle claimed
2,500 arpens in this district and Louis Dehsle, junior (1799), 800 on the Bonne
Femme; Jacob Eastwood (1801) claimed 800 arpens sixty miles northwest of
St. Louis; Pierre Gamelin (1799); Daniel Griffith (1801); Duritt Hubbard
located thirty-one miles northwest of St. Louis, and Euribus, Daniel and Felix
Hubbard about 1800 located sixty miles northwest of St. Louis; Purnell Howard
( 1 799) on Smith creek, also in the forks of the Missouri and on the Femme Osage;
Jean Baptiste Lacroix (1795) at Cul de Sac, in 1797 at St. Charles and in 1799
at Portage des Sioux; Pierre Lord (1799) at Bay du Roy, sold to John Camp-
bell and White Matlock in 1805; John Long (1801) on Bonne Femme; James
Michew (Michau) ; Alexander McClean, on McClean's creek ; Baptiste Marion
(1800); Mrs. McKnight (1800) of Tennessee, said to have killed several Indians,
her son came to this district in 181 7, and was the owner of McKnight island

I02 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

were also claimed in this district and upon which no actual settle-
ments had been made.

in the Mississippi ; Jean McMillan in 1 799 was a saddler on a stream north of
the Missouri; Thomas Overstreet; John Orain had a claim on the Cuivre; Paul
and Pierre Primo (1799); William Palmer dit Beaulieu in 1802 was at Cape
au Gris; Andrew Peltier (1800) maybe came from Vincennes; James Rankin
(1800), deputy surveyor sometime between 1799 and 1803, in 1804 was at Creve
Coeur, also St. Ferdinand; Seneca Rollins (i8io2); Joseph and James Russell
(1802); George Robert Spencer (1797) on river Jacob; a Robert Sf)encer was at
Portage des Sioux, on river Cuivre and Dardenne at Spencer's Run; Benjamin
Spencer settled on Grand Glaise in this district and worked a saline, according
to Charles Fremon; Thomas Spencer also on the Grand Glaise; Andrew Som-
malt or Zoomalt (Zumwalt) senior, a son of Jacob, (1799) came with the family
of Christopher Sommalt; Etienne St. Pierre (1799) a resident for a long time, had
a grant at foot of hills below mouth of riviere k Berger including Point Basse, to
establish stock-farm ;Thomas Todd (1801) sixty miles northwest of St. Louis;
Samuel Watkins; John Wedder (or Wedden) (i8io2) ; Rowland Willard; Nathan-
iel Warren dit Waring (1802); Joseph Drouen (1799); Daniel Baldridge, thirty-
five miles west of St. Louis; Josiah M. Lanaham and Jacob Hany were residents
in this district as assignees of Antoine Lamarche; John Young (1801); Albert
Tesson( 1 793) claimed land fifty-one miles north of St. Louis and on Salt river, also
owned property in New Madrid ; on the Missouri and Isle aux Boeufs, John and
Hugh Morel, and in 1797 secured a grant, they were Irish Catholics, and in 1798
sold to Robert Young of St. Andre; James Pritchett; John Phillips made a claim
under date of 1803 on the aux Boeuf with Thomas Gibson, and Charles Phillips,
witnesses. So also the Kaskaskia land speculator Jean Francois Perry claimed
that he received a grant on the aux Boeuf 130 miles north of St. Louis in 1798.
On Mill creek Harry Cook, from Kaskaskia, where he rendered military
service, made a claim to land as heir of one McCormack. He was a son
of John Cook, who came to the Illinois country from the Eaton's station,
Cumberland, near Nashville, in 1787. Of this John Cook the Kaskaskia com-
missioners for land claims do not speak in complimentary terms, saying "This
man is a Dutchman without property, fond of strong drink, and without char-
acter," and that although not long in the country he has given testimony to sup-
port about two hundred claims. (P. L. p. 126.) Christy Romine (1798) was
another settler on this stream ; Jenisha Edmonson (1803); Benjamin Horine;
Israel McGready ; Henry Pinkley, a witness on this stream, one Antoine Gaguier
in 1800 on the Missouri as far up as Howard county — a settler.

CHAPTER XIV.

New Madrid — Physical Features of the New Madrid Ridge — Hunters and
Traders the First Settlers — "An Aboriginal Station" — Abundance of Game
— "L'Anse k la Graise" — The Le Sieurs — Delaware Village at the Mouth
of Chepoosa River — Report to Miro of Captain McCoy, 1 786 — Colonel
George Morgan — His Life — Receives a Grant from Gardoqui — Extent
of Grant — Explores the Territory between the Mouth of the St. Cosme and
New Madrid — Letter Describing Country Published in Philadelphia —
Reveals Spanish Designs — Preparations of Morgan to Settle his Grant —
Plan of Surveying the Same — New Madrid Laid Out — Distribution of
Lots — An Agricultural Settlement — Professional Hunters not Favored —
Morgan's Advertisement — Morgan's Plans Antagonized by Wilkinson —
Miro Objects to Grant — Morgan's Plan Destroyed by Miro — Peyroux
Cancels Grants Made by Morgan — Pierre Foucher Appointed Com-
mandant of New Madrid — Builds Fort Celeste — Morgan's Estimate of
Foucher — Letter to Gardoqui — Great American Immigration to New
Madrid — La Forge Details Work Foucher Accomplished — General Forman
at New Madrid — Thomas Portelle, Commandant in 1791 — Population
of New Madrid — Americans Open Farms in 1790 — Small Progress of
Settlement — Thomas Power, Spanish Agent at New Madrid — Gayoso
there in 1 795 — Portelle Succeeded by Dc Lassus — Biography of De
Lassus — New Madrid Gateway of Commerce to the Gulf — New Mad-
rid Attached to Upper Louisiana in 1799 — Peyroux, Commandant, 1799
— Succeeded by La Vall6e in 1803 — Fort Celeste Residence of Commandants
— Antoine Gamelin — Pierre Antoine LaForge — Three Companies of
Militia — Galleys Stationed at New Madrid — Names of Early Settlers —
Merchants — Richard Jones Waters — Captain Robert McCoy — Barth^l-
emi Tardiveau — The King's Highway North — Settlers on the Same —
Territorial Limits of the New Madrid District — Principal Settlements —
Bayou St. John — Lake St. Mary — Lake Ann — Bayou St. Thomas — Little
Prairie Settlement Founded, 1794 — The Portage of the St. Francois —
T3rwappity Bottom — Prairie Charles — Oath of Loyalty Administered to
Early Settlers.

Long before the advent of the white pioneers in the valley of the
Mississippi, the region which became known as the New Madrid
district was inhabitated by a numerous pre-historic population.
The main physical feature of this New Madrid district is a low, par-
tially clay and alluvial ridge which, beginning at the Scott county
hills, runs south parallel with, and at some distance from, the Missis-
sippi, to near where the St. Francois river empties into it. This
ridge, however, is not of uniform height, but here and there is bisected
by low depressions through which the river flows when at flood
tide. At New Madrid, at Point Pleasant and at Little Prairie (now
Caruthersville), in Missouri, this ridge touches the Mississippi and at
these points the soil for many ages has crumbled away under the

erosions of the mighty river, at New Madrid making the great bend

103

I04 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

where is located this ancient settlement. Here everything combined
to attract the early voyageurs and coureurs des bois ; here the open
prairie with its scattered trees, lending a park-like appearance to the
landscape, and near by a large lake of clear and limpid water
bordered with a white sandy beach, overshadowed by great isolated,
wide-spreading oaks that had withstood the storms of centuries,
invited the tired hunters and oaibmen to rest; here, a fruitful soil
yielding a hundred-fold when tickled with the hoe or scratched with a
wooden plow, made its cultivation a matter of pleasure ; here, a prai-
rie covered with luxuriant grass offered forage at all seasons ; here,
and in the adjacent cane-brakes was found an abundance of the game
of the virgin land, the bear, the deer, the otter, the beaver, and other
fur-bearing animals, and the fowls of the air, prairie, and water.
Northwardly this ridge extended for many miles, an open forest. In
the spring, the earth covered with vari^ated and fragrant flowers,
filled the air with perfume. The high hills of the Ozarks separated
and protected this district from the untempered blasts of the north-
western winds. The varied year vouchsafed just enough winter to
fully mark the beauty of spring and the magnificent splendor of
summer. In autumn all the manifold beauties of the season over-
spread the landscape. The oaks here grew to immense proportions ;
the pecan and hickory, the walnut and butternut yielded a never-
failing harvest, the gum raised its serried columns to the clouds, the
sassafras, the elm and beach, the hackberry and ash, — all found a ge-
nial soil. The paw-paw, the plum, the mulberry and the wild grape
flourished, and the redbud, the dogwood, the burning bush and many
other blooming shrubs made the woods splendid in the spring with
their blossoms.

The earliest white inhabitants of this part of Missouri raised their
humble huts at this favored spot — hunters, tr5.ders, and adventurers.
An Indian village was situated here. Along the ridge going north a
great Indian trail and warpath led to the hills in what is now Scott
county, and farther on to the Saline and the hunting grounds on the
banks of the Missouri and tributary streams. A trail and war-path
also led south to the mouth of the St. Francois and the Arkansas from
here, and another west to the hills on the other side of St. Francois,
crossing it at a point long known as the "Indian Ford," and
thence to the Ozark highlands, as yet uncovered with timber, and
where, in the high prairie grass ranged herds of buffalo, lords of the
plateau.

L'ANSE A LA GRAISE 105

On this New Madrid ridge, at many places, the works of the
mound-builders were visible. " The site of the town* ' says Nuttall,
who visited the place in 1818, "bears unequivocal marks of an ab-
original station, still presenting the remains of some low mounds,
which as usual abound with fra.gments of earth- ware. *'^ Numerous
mounds marked the trails and war-paths. Everywhere ancient
earth-works and fortifications, many of which have long since been
leveled by the plow, were noted by observing and thinking early trav-
elers. A few only, comparatively, of these, protected by the forests,
have been preserved. This locality evidently was the favorite habita-
tion of a people which had disappeared before the advent of the
Indian. It is certain that on his march northward De Soto bivouacked
on this ridge.'

The bend of the river where the town of New Madrid is situate
became known as "L*Anse k la Graise** — cove of fat or grease.
Coxe, in his " Carolana," published in 1772, speaks of the place as "a
good landing just below the mouth of Chepoosa creek,' * the name by
which St. John 's bayou was then known. Pope says that the name
**L* Anse k la Graise,*' according to the governor of Pensacola,
"originated from the river forming an extensive curve, where, upon the
first settlement of the place, great quantities of bear meat were stored
up for the use of the garrison and the French and Spanish navigators
up and down the Mississippi, which meat is of a very oleose quality,
though in my opinion the greasiness of the soil, with the divexity of
the river, sufficiently justify the epithet.' '* And La Forge in his
report, dated 1 796, says that the first traders "found abundance of
game, and especially bears and buffaloes, hence the name " L 'Anse
k la Graise.' '*

And this abundance of game and consequent certainty of trade,
caused traders to congregate annually at "L'Anse a la Graise,"
at the mouth of the Chepoosa river, and here eventually some of
of them settled. Among the first settlers were Francois and Joseph
Le Sieur, natives of Trois Rivieres of Canada. According to Godfrey
Le Sieur, they were at "L'Anse h, la Graise" in 1783, having been
sent there by Gabriel Cerr^, the principal merchant, at the time, of
St. Louis. But as stated, no doubt at a much earlier period, traders

* Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 46.
' Nuttall 's Arkansas, p. 251.

' John Pope, His Tour, pp. 21-22.

* Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. i, p. 264.

io6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

annually came to this locality and it is also certain that some remained
there with the Indians. But Francois and Joseph Le Sieur must be
considered the founders of the New Madrid settlement.* At the time

the Le Sieurs came to what is now New Madrid, Godfrey Le Sieur says
they found a village of Delaware Indians located where the town was
afterward established. But it is a matter of doubt whether these In-
dians were permanent residents there, because it was not until some
time subsequent that the Shawnee and Delaware Indians were induced
to emigrate to the Spanish possessions, by Lorimier at the instance of

the Spanish authorities. Yet in 1789 Morgan found a Delaware
village on the Chepoosa or St. John bayou in what is now Mississippi*
county. In 1783 an Indian village was located at or on the margin of
what is now known as Lewis Trairie, and another in Big Prairie near
the present Sikeston, all within a comparatively short distance from

* It is worth mentioning that in the Spanish Census of 1787 both Joseph and
Franfois Le Sieur appear as members of Cerr^'s household and that consisted
then of 48 persons. They were natives of Machiche, parish of St. Ann, Three
Rivers, Canada; sons of Charles Le Sieur. Joseph Le Sieur married
in Canada; had two sons; died in New Madrid in 1796; and, also
his two sons, leaving no descendants. Francois Le Sieur, his brother,
married Cecile Guibault (Guilbeaut), a native of Vincennes in 1791,
and in 1794 removed from New Madrid to Little Prairie, becoming
the founder of that settlement, and syndic. He was a lieutenant of the
second company of militia; a merchant, owned many tracts of land, and in 1801
owned a floiur-mill. He died in 1826 at or near Point Pleasant, to which place
he removed after the disastrous earthquakes of 181 1, He was married three
times. By his first marriage he had seven children ; by his second marriage with
Miss Bonneau, a native of Vincennes, he had one son. In 1820 he married a
third wife, Mrs. Loignon, the widow of Charles Loignon of Little Prairie. In
1798 Raphael Le Sieur, a nephew of Joseph and Francois Le Sieur, also came
from Canada to New Madrid: He too reared a large family. Godfrey Le
Sieiur and Francois V. Le Sieur who both have given us interesting accounts
of the early settlements of New Madrid, were the sons of Francois Le Sieur.
Francois V. Le Sieur married a daughter of Gen. Augustus Jones, son of John
Rice Jones.

THE LE"SIEURS 107

" L'Anse k U Graise" and which at that time must have bem the
trading place of these Indians.

The Le Sieurs, having traded successfully at " L'Anse k la Graise"
the first season, returned to St. Louis and reported what they had
seen and the advantages that would result from building a trading
house there. They consequently returned in the following year with
a stock of suitable goods for the Indian trade, and this venture also
proved exceedingly profitable.* After this second venture, the Le
Sieurs permanently established themselves at New Madrid, and a
settlement sprang up. They were followed by Ambrose and Franf ois
Dumay; Godin, dit Chatouiller; Pierre'Saff-
ray; Francois Berthiaume; the St. Marjs,
Hunots, Racines and the Barsaloux, all from
Vincennes. Some of these settlers naturally
began to cultivate the rich and fertile soil.
But Captain Robert McCoy says, that in
1786, when he was on his way to New Orleans
from Vincennes, he stopped where New
Madrid was afterward located, and that then
no one lived there, that it was a perfect
"wilderness." McCoy says also that while in '^''"'"*»i;ms"iVsiEr.'' "'
New Orleans Governor Miro sent for him to
secure information as to the condition and situation of the place,'
from which it may be inferred that "L'Anse i la Graise" must then
have been at least recognized or known as a favorable location for
the establishment of a trading post. In 1787 on his return up the
river McCoy found that a trading post had been established, and
among the traders was Joseph Le Sieur.

Whatever the origin of the settlement at the mouth of the Che-
poosa, "L'Anse h la Graise," it is certain that it existed at first with-
out a commandant, either civil or military. No one was clothed with
any authority to enforce any rule of law. The Indian traders and
early setders managed to get along without a commandant, and ac-
cording to La Forge "all were masters, and would obey none of
those who set themselves up as heads or commandants of the new
colony." While this condition of afiairs existed a murder was com-
mitted, and "then their eyes were opened, they began to feel the

' See letter of Godfrey Le Sieur, dated March i, 1871, published in the Mis-
souri "Republican."

' a Hunt's Minutes, p, 144, Missouri Historical Society.

fflSTORY Of MISSOURI

necessity of laws, and some one at their head to compel their observ-
ance."* No doubt this lawless state of affairs at "L'Anse i la
Graise" was known to the commandants at Ste, Genevieve and at St.
Louis, and may have been reported to the governor-general at New
Orleans, and perhaps induced him to make inquiries from travelers
who came down the river.

About this time the district in which was located "L'Anse k la
Graise" was granted to Colonel George Morgan, as he at least sup-
posed. Morgan, a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Princeton,
was a remarkable man. Now very Utde is generally known
of him, yet in his day his exploits, his scheme,
^^^^^ his vast projects, attracted great attention.

^^^^^^ At a time when a trip from the Atlantic states

^^^^^^P to the Mississippi valley consumed weeks,

f^^^^P and involved great personal hardship and

^^^^^ endurance, we find this bold and daring spec-

^^^^^^ ulator and adventurer frequently crossing the

^^^^H^^ mountains and traversing the western wilder-

^^^^ I ness on horseback, and paddling his canoe

- ^^ up and down solitary rivers, no doubt dreaming

^O ^' of vast projects. In 1764 he traded with the

yj^^^ ^/?^^. -Indians of Kaskaskia,* in co-partnership with

Baynton, his father-in-law, and Wharton. In
1 766 he was one of the judges of the general court there, under the
English government. He was with O 'Reilly 's fleet when he ascended
the Mississippi river, and took possession of New Orleans. On the
breaking out of the war between England and the colonies, he entered
the Revolutionary army and acted as Indian agent for the Middle De-
partment at Fort Pitt. He had great influence among many of the In-
dian tribes of the west, and understood well their characteristics. It is
said that on one occasion, in 1776, while at one of the Shawnee towns
on the Scioto, he received intelligence of three Six Nation warriors
having passed with two boys they had taken sixteen days before from
Virginia and who he afterwards ascertained were the sons of Andrew
McConnell. Morgan followed them and got to their town before they

' I Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 3S4.

' He was on inlimate temis wiih the old French families of Kaskaskia, the
Janis', Datchuruls, Charlevillcs, Bcauvais, Picards, and others. In a tetter dated
Princeton, December i, i;8o, addressed to Captain Jno. Dodge, he sends his
regards to Mr^. Janis, Madame Felidte, "el toules des enfans". He knew well
the country and its ancient inhabitants.

GEORGE MORGAN 109

got there, prevented the usual punishment of the prisoners on their
entry, and insisted that they be delivered to him unless they intended
this breach of the peace as a declaration of war. The boys were sur-
rendered to him, and he brought them to Fort Pitt and delivered them
to their uncle, a resident of Westmoreland county.*^ In 1777 he was
in command of Fort Pitt. While in command of this important post
he kept up an active correspondence with Don Bernardo de Galvez,
then governor of Louisiana, and his daring and enterprising character
is shown by the fact that he proposed to Galvez to surprise Mobile
and Pensacola, then in British possession, if allowed to purchase or
charter vessels and procure artillery on short notice at New Orleans.
In his letter to Galvez he says, " Should we be able to procure trans-
ports at New Orleans, I think we could easily surprise Mobile
and Pensacola, destroy their fortifications and possess ourselves of
all their munitions, unless these forts are better fortified and
defended than we imagine.'*" Subsequently Galvez himself suc-
cessfully carried out this plan, thus first suggested by Morgan.
On September 14, 1779, he presented a memorial to the Con-
tinental Congress setting out that at an Indian congress held at
Fort Stanwix in 1777, in consideration of the loss of some
eighty-five thousand pounds of sterling sustained by certain trad-
ers, the Six Nations granted them a tract of land lying on the
southern side of the Ohio, between the southern limits of Pennsylvania
and the little Kanawha river, called "Indiana,** that before the
Revolutionary war began this tract of land was included within the
bounds of a larger territory called "Vandalia,** and by the King and
Council separated from the dominion which Virginia claimed, that as
the memorialists are advised the tract is subject to the United States
and not within the jurisdiction of any particular state, and that
Virginia is directing the sale of the lands in question within the
territory of " Vandalia,' ' thereby intending to defeat the interposition
of Congress. And very actively Colonel Morgan pressed his claims
and even applied to the state of New Jersey, some of his partners
being citizens of that state, for the protection of his interests. But
this claim, like many others to vast districts of land, title being derived
by purchase from the Indians, finally was held invalid and ignored.
The states and United States were firm in the determination to deny
the power of the Indian tribes to alienate any portion of the soil to

'• Draper's Collections, vol. 16, Clark's MSS., p. 128.
^^ Gayarr^, Spanish Dominion of Louisiana, p. no.

no fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

private parties. So Colonel Morgan became bankrupt He consid-
ered, however, that he had been despoiled of a fortune, that he had
been wronged by Virginia and by the United States, and when the
agitation arose in the country west of the Alleghanies for an outlet via
the Mississippi to the sea. Colonel Morgan was quick to perceive
another opportunity to secure a fortune. While at New York he
entered into negotiations with Don Diego Gardoqui, the Spanish
ambassador. In a memorial addressed to him Morgan proposed to
establish a colony near the mouth of the Ohio, and in territory now
within the limits of Missouri, and says, that within ten years at least
one hundred thousand souls will inhabit this district if the conditions
he proposed should be accepted and strictly adhered to. One of the
conditions was that the settlers should have the right of self-govern-
ment, and another, that the colonists should be exempt from taxai,tion.
In glowing words he depicted the advantages that would result to
Spain if his scheme should be adopted, and in conclusion asks that the
rank of Colonel, held by him in the Army of the United States, be
secured to him in the Spanish service, that he be granted a concession
of twenty square miles with a pension for life, and other advantages
and privileges for himself and family. Don Gardoqui was captivated
by the brilliant plans and glowing picture of a Spanish-American
state at the mouth of the Ohio, and expressed his warmest approbation
of the scheme of colonization and advised Colonel Morgan that he had
forwarded it to be submitted to his king, but assured him that all that
had been asked would be granted. In order to facilitate the establish-
ment of the colony he transmitted a passport and letter to the Spanish
authorities in New Orleans, in the words of his letter, " so that you
may go at once and examine the territory in which you contemplate
making your settlement."

Morgan was also assured that the Governor would aid him to
carry out his plan, and advised him " in his progress through the west
on his way to the capital of Louisiana to assure'the inhabitants of
His Majesty's desire to grant them all the favors and privil^es
which might secure their prosperity." The concession granted by
Don Diego bordered about three hundred miles on the Mississippi
from the mouth of the St. Francois, near Helena, Arkansas,
north to Cape St. Cosme, within the limits of what is now Perry
county, and extending westward embraced from twelve to fifteen
million acres of land. Full of hope Morgan started west to take
possession of his principality. Influenced by the advice of his friends.

AT MOUTH OF OHIO iii

he associated with himself a number of leading men of western
Pennsylvania, and induced them to accompany him to visit and ex-
plore the country which he supposed had been granted him to colonize,
expecting that upon their return they would report as to the'situation,
soil, climate, natural productions of the territory explored, and thus
confirm his own statements. To this force he added a number of
paid workmen. This whole body of explorers was well armed,
under military discipline, and under his command for security against
the savages. On his way down the Ohio, he sent word to the north-
western Indian nations to meet him in united council at Muskingum,
and at this meeting informed the Indians of his purpose, and asked
them to appoint two of their " wise men* * to accompany him to bear
witness of his conduct and proceedings, knowing that if he established
his colony without the consent and approbation of the Indians, that
this would arouse their jealousy and, may be, active hostility. The
Indians instead of two, sent with him ten of their leading men, two
delegates from each of the principal tribes north of the Ohio, with
strings and belts of wampum, for such Indian nations as they might
probably meet. Although this added much to the security of the
party, it also greatly increased the expense. In order to bring to the
knowledge of the Germans of Pennsylvania his scheme to establish
a colony west of the Mississippi, he made a circuitous route through the
German settlements of that state. For " these people," he afterwards
said in his letter to Don Gardoqui, ** have been a valuable acquisition
to America, and I find great numbers who pay high rents for land,
extremely desirous to embark with me; and numbers who have
small farms of their own wish in the same way to provide for their
children. A greater number of these than I expected to meet with are
Catholics,' ' and of these Germans ten accompanied Morgan on his trip.
On his way down the Ohio with his party, he gave notice of his grant
and plans. At Louisville he was detained for some time by the severity
of the season, and while there did not fail to impress upon the people
the great importance of his enterprise, and that in his new colony
they would enjoy " perfect freedom in religious matters,* ' and great
advantages of trade, and he thought this ^^ would make converts of the
whole country.**

On the 14th of February, 1789, Morgan reached the Mississippi
with his party, and landed opposite the mouth of the Ohio,
where he found encamped a band of twenty Delaware Indians,
and with these Indians he removed a few miles into the interior, in

112 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

what is now Mississippi county, to good hunting grounds. Morgan
arranged that forty of his men should remain there, while he and
the others went to the post of St. Louis, to deliver the letter of
Don Gardoqui to Don Manuel Perez, then commandant of the Illi-
nois country. He thought this trip would only occupy about twenty
days, but found this journey to St. Louis one of great hardship.
Snow storms, severe cold weather, rivers filled with ice, and high
water, impeded his progress. Some leagues above his camp
he found the river frozen over and great gangs of buffalo crossing
on the ice. Finding that his tour would occupy a longer time
than he anticipated he sent two messengers back, advising the
remainder of the party of the circumstances, and requesting the
Indian chiefs to conduct his party to their town on what was
called the Chepoosa river (now St. John's bayou), and to
remain there until his return. Owing to the continuance of the
snow storms and cold weather, Morgan and his party journeyed
through the woods as far as Kaskaskia, and from there in carriages
and on horses went to St. Louis, where he was received by Don Manuel
Perez with great politeness. Perez furnished Morgan and his party
with horses, guides, and provisions to visit the interior of the country,
and Morgan said that he found it to be "superior to any part of
North America*' they had seen, possessing many advantages "which
even the fine lands in Kentucky are deprived of,* ' but, owing to the
fact that the lands near the rivers, are subject to inundations the'
" beauties and advantages of the higher grounds which are more or
less distant from the bed or current of the river, according to its
sinuosities** are not known to the people. After his return from St.
Louis to his camp on the Chepoosa, he resolved to lay out a city near
the present site of New Madrid, and make a survey of some of the land.
Among the persons who accompanied Colonel Morgan were, Major
McCully, Colonel Shreve, Colonel Christopher Hays, Captain Light,
Captain Taylor, John Dodge, David Rankin, John Ward, John
Stewart, James Rhea, Captain Hewling, and others. In a joint
letter, addressed by these gentlemen to Dr. John Morgan, of Phila-
delphia, dated New Madrid, April 14, 1789, they give an interesting
account of their discoveries west of the Mississippi, and thus we
catch a glimpse of the virgin land in which these early American
adventurers rode around. In this letter they say :

** The inclemency of the season and the precaution necessary for
the advantage and security of our party and enterprise, rendered our

REPORT 113

voyage down the Ohio a long, though not a disagreeable one. We
have now been in the Mississippi two months, most of which time has
been t^tken up in visiting the lands from St. Cosme on the north to
this place on the south ; and westward to the St. Francis river, the
general course of which is parallel with the Mississippi, and from
twenty to thirty miles distant. Colonel Morgan with nineteen men
undertook to reconnoitre the lands above or north of the Ohio. This
gave him the earliest opportunity of presenting his credentials to Don
Manuel Perez, Governor of the Illinois country, who treated him
and the others with the greatest politeness. Their arrival after their
business was known created a general joy throughout the country
among all ranks of its inhabitants, — even the neighboring Indians
have expressed the greatest pleasure at our arrival and the intention of
settlement. There is not a single nation or tribe of Indians who
claim or pretend to claim a foot of the land granted to Colonel
Morgan. This is a grand matter in favor of our settlement. The
governor very cheerfully supplied our party with everything necessary
demanded by Colonel Morgan, and particularly with horses and
guides to reconnoitre all the lands to the western limits and from
north to south in the interior country. In an undertaking of this
nature it is not to be doubted but different notions prevailed amongst
us as to the most advantageous situation to establish the first settle-
ment of farmers and planters. A considerable number of reputable
French families on the American side of the Illinois who propose to
. join us, wished to influence our judgment in favor of a very beautiful
situation and country about twelve leagues above the Ohio. A number
of American farmers, deputed from Post Vincent (Vincennes) and
some others of our party, were delighted with the territory opposite
the Ohio, one league back from the river, to which there is access by a
rivulet that empties into the Mississfppi about three miles above the
Ohio.

We have united in the resolution to establish our new city, whence
this letter is dated, about twelve leagues below the Ohio at a place
formerly called L*Anse k la Graise, or the greasy bend, below the
mouth of a river marked in Capt. Hutchins' map (Sound River).
Here the banks of the Mississippi for a considerable length are high,
dry, and pleasant, and the soil westward to the St. Francis is of the
best for com, tobacco and indigo, and we verily believe that there is not
an acre of poor land in a thousand square miles. The country rises
gradually from the river into fine, dry, pleasant, and healthful grounds.

114 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

superior to any place in America. The limits of our 'city of New
Madrid are to extend four miles south and two miles west, so as to
cross a beautiful living deep lake of purest spring water, one hundred
yards wide and several leagues in length, emptying itself by a constaot
and rapid stream through the center of the city. The banks of this
lake, which is called St. Ann, are high, beautiful and pleasant, the
water deep, clear and sweet ; the bottom a clean sand, well stored
with fish. On each side of this beautiful lake streets are to be laid
out one hundred feet wide and a road to be continued round it of the

L

MAP OF NEW MADRID FOUND l.V VOLUME

same breadth, and the trees are directed to be preserved forever for
the health and pleasure of the citizens. A street 1 20 feet wide on the
banks of the Mississippi is laid out and the trees are to be preserved.
Twelve acres in the central part of the city are to be reserved, orna-
mented, etc., for public walks, and forty lots of an half acre each are to
be appropriated to such public uses as the citizens wish to recommend,
and one lot of twelve acres is to be reserved for the King's use. One
city lot of a half an acre and one lot of five acres to be a free gift to each
of the six hundred first settlers. Our surveyors are now engaged to
laying out the city lots and the country into farm tracts of three hun-
dred and twenty acres. We have built cabins and a magazine for
provisions. Are making gardens, and we shall plow and plant one

APPREHENSIONS 115

hundred acres of the best prairie land in the world with Indian com,
hemp, flax, cotton, tobacco, and potatoes. Several French gentlemen
of Ste. Genevieve offered to conduct Colonel Morgan to as fine iron
and lead mines as any in America in a small day's journey from the
river. One thousand acres are being surveyed for the choice and
settlement of families who will come here next fall. After the
surveys are completed Colonel Morgan and Major McCully will
proceed to New York via New Orleans and Cuba, and Colonel
Shreve, Captain Light, and Captain Taylor with all others who con-
clude to return immediately for their families, will ascend the Ohio in
time to leave Fort Pitt again for this place in October. Captain
Hewling and a number of single men will plant one hundred acres of
com, and other crops, and will build a mill. Not a single person of
our part)', consisting of seventy men has been sick, but all are in
good health and spirits on the discovery of this pleasant clime.* *

A copy of this letter, which was published in Philadelphia, coming
into the hands of Madison, he wrote Washington that it " contained
the most authentic and precise evidence of the Spanish project that
has come to my knowledge,* * and also wrote Jefferson that " no doubt
the project had the sanction of Gardoqui,** and that the Mississippi
was "the bait for the defection of the western people.***' Dawson,
in a letter from New York to Governor Beverly Randolph, in 1 789,
gives additional information as to the origin of Morgan's enterprise,
and the ultimate consequences of which he views with undisguised
apprehension. He says that Colonel Morgan was in treaty with
Congress for a large tract of land on the Mississippi, but being dis-
gusted at some conditions annexed to the ordinance, which he thought
illegal, entered into a plan with Gardoqui, the Spanish minister
there, for settling a large tract of land, to be bound by the parallel of
Cape Cinque Homme (St. Cosme) on the north, the parallel of the
mouth of the St. Francois on the south, the Mississippi river on the
east, and extending west two degrees of latitude, *' a country as fine in
soil and superior in trade to any in America.** This transaction,
Dawson said, he considered of the most interesting nature, and would
probably produce a remarkable era in American history, as a door
would be opened through which the United States would lose many
thousand of her best citizens, and he adds, that he has certain infor-
mation that Morgan has already entered into engagements with the
most reputable characters, and most useful farmers and tradesmen, to

'* Windsor's Westward Movement, p. 366.

ii6 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

go to New Madrid with him next year, that a number of judicious
people have gone with him to enter and survey the land on a plan far
superior to that of Congress, and to lay out ground for a large city as
near opposite the mouth of the Ohio as they should judge expedient.
Dawson thinks that added " to these circumstances the most sacred
assurances in religious matters, and free navigation of the Mississippi
to New Orleans, clear of all duties and taxes, besides being entitled to
all the commercial privil^es which the citizens of New Orleans enjoy
in any of the King of Spain *s rich dominions, are inducements suffi-
cient to draw the attention of the industrious and enterprising," and
that although the lands on the Ohio and its branches are very fine and
productive, that nothing can be drawn from them more than a bare
subsistence without a market for the producers, and consequently
without commerce, and that the best inhabitants on these waters will
emigrate to the equally good lands on the west side of the Mississippi,
where particular privileges will induce them to oppose nations having
the same advantages, and he thinks that this will cause discontent
in Kentucky against the government of the United States, and that
eventually separation will ensue, and conunercial and other treaties
will be formed between Spain and the western Anglo-Americans for
their mutual advantage and security."

Morgan made extensive and elaborate preparation for the settle-
ment of large numbers of people in his new province. Sufficient
land for three hundred and fifty families was ordered surveyed at once
into farms of three hundred and twenty acres each, and to be divided
among the persons who accompanied him, for themselves and their
friends, on condition, however, that the land so divided among them
should be settled on or before May i, 1790, the settlers taking the
oath of allegiance to His Most Catholic Majest}', and his successors,
and paying the sum of forty-eight Mexican dollars for each three
hundred and twenty acres. Under this plan Morgan thought that
annually one thousand families would settle in the new colony. So
well pleased was the party who accompanied Morgan, as well as the
various persons employed by him for wages, that they all agreed to
take land in payment of what was due them, and even the surveyors
who came with Morgan agreed to take in payment of the principal
part of their fees land for themselves and their friends. These survey-
ors were Colonel Israel Shreve, Peter Laght, and Colonel Christopher

" Virginia Calendar, vol. 4, pp. 554-5- 33 Draper's Collection, Clark MSS.,
pp. 1 12-13.

SURVEY 117

Hays. It is interesting now to note with what great particularity
Morgan provided the manner in which the surveys should be made
"on a plan far superior to Congress" says Dawson. The system of
rectangular surveys applied to public lands adopted in the following
year by the government of the United States in surveying the territory
northwest of the Ohio, it would seem was really first devised by him,
for in ordering the survey of the lands of his new colony, he directed
that after the first meridional line was fixed, the east and west lines
only should be run, except where a new meridional line should be
necessary, and that then this new line should be run exactly five miles
distant from the last line, and from which new set-offs were to be
made, to run the east and west ranges, and all of which should first be
extended to the river, and then west to the main branch of the river St.
Francois. The first meridional line he ordered should be run' at a
certain distance from the bank of the Mississippi, and the second
meridional line five miles west of it, and so on. All east and west
ranges were to be run exactly two miles apart. In running the ea^t and
west lines, or ranges, his r^ulations provided that a post should be
erected at the place of departure on the meridional line, and the bear-
ings of some remarkable trees taken, measuring the distance from these
trees to the post, blazing the trees opposite the post and marking same
under the blaze one notch. All lines or ranges were to be strongly
marked by blazes on three sides, i. e., on the east and west ranges, the
east and west sides of the tree were to be blazed strongly and smoothly
so as not to injure the trees, but the tree was to be only slightly blazed
on the side next to the line. All trees found to be directly on the lines
were to be notched five feet from the ground. The surveyors'
instruments he ordered should all be compared with and rectified to a
standard, and in like manner the chains were to be regulated and no
allowance was to be made in measure. He particularly provided
that all the surveyors should in their field books, carefully note the
distances run, all mountains, hills, valleys, bottom lands, timber trees,
quality of soil, fresh, mineral or salt licks, minerals of iron, copper,
lead or coal, and all appearances of rock or stone, and the quality
thereof; all mill-seats that should come to their knowledge, also
noting all other remarkable and permanent things over which the
lines or ranges should pass; and he also further required that the
surveyors should make a drawing of every kind of beast, bird, fish or
insect, they might kill or see in the country, and note the kind of trees,
shrubs, vines, and plants, which might come under theit view ; and

ii8 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

make a drawing of all such not common in Pennsylvania. Any sur-
veyor neglecting to perform his duty with proper exactitude, as thus
defined, he ordered should instantly be dismissed from the service.
The three principal surveyors, already named, were to have a choice
each of a tract not exceeding forty square miles in the colony, to be
settled by them and their friends. Colonel Israel Shreve was to have
first choice of forty square miles for himself and associates, and the
sole distribution of these forty square miles was intrusted to him ;
then Peter Light was authorized to make a choice of forty square
miles for himself, and next Colonel Christopher Hays of a like
quantity for himself and associates. These surveyors, it was pro-
vided by Morgan, should make their selection in writing, and the land
so selected the surveyors were authorized to sell at such prices as they
thought proper. Moreover each of the surveyors was entitled to one
city lot and outlot in New Madrid for each farm they so sold, paying
only one dollar for the patent. The hunters, chain-carriers, markers,
horse-masters, and other attendants ** on the gentlemen surveyors, "
were also entitled to a single tract of land in any district or range
where they assisted in the work. Next, all persons "going down in
my employment, either as artificers or laborers," he ordered should
have one farm each on due application .

The lots and outlots of New Madrid, Morgan provided should be
distributed free, to the first six hundred persons who should build
on the lots and reside one year in the new city. The lots were all to be
one half acre in extent, and the outlots five acres, but after the distribu-
tion of the first six hundred lots, the remainder were to be sold to
future settlers, according to their value. In addition to this, forty lots
of the town, of one half acre each, were reserved for such public uses
as might from time to time be recommended by the citizens or chief
magistrate, these lots to be distributed in different parts of the city as
equally as possible, and a lot of twelve acres was ordered reserved for
the King, an additional lot for public walks, to be improved by the
magistrate of the city for the time being, " for the use and amusement
of the citizens and strangers.' ' With a forethought for the future
seldom manifested, Morgan expressly ordered that " the timber, trees,
and shrubs now growing thereon shall be religiously preserved as
sacred, and no part thereof shall be violated or cut down, but by the
personal direction and inspection of the chief magistrate for the time
being, whose reputation must be answerable for an honorable and
generous discharge of this trust, meant to promote the health and

NO WHITE HUNTERS 119

pleasure of the citizens.* * How much more beautiful and attractive
would be the towns and cities of this country if the same generous
provision for adornment had been made and wise forethought had
been exercised, where new towns have been laid out. But not only
for New Madrid, but throughout the country in this new colony, did
Morgan make similar provisions for the preservatior^ of forest trees.
He expressly ordered there should be a reserve of one acre at each angle
of every intersection of public roads or highways, according to the plan
of settlement of the country laid.down by him, and by which means he
thought no farm house could be farther than two and one half miles
from this reserve, and which he provided should be forever dedicated
to the following several uses, that is to say, one acre on the northeast
angle for the use of a school ; one acre on the northwest angle for a
church ; one acre on the southwest angle for the use of the poor of the
district, and the remaining southeast angle for the use of the King.
No trees in any street of the city, nor in any road throughout the
country, he expressly ordered, should be injured or cut down, except
under the direction of the magistrate of the police or an officer thereof,
and who was to be accountable in the premises, and no timber injured
or cut down in any street or road, as regularly provided, was to be ap-
plied to private use under any plea whatsoever, because no doubt he
had well observed that the anxiety to s^'iire for private use the lumber
in trees standing on public roads, too often led to the wanton destruc-
tion of the same. The landing at New Madrid, he also provided, should
be free to all persons ; the space between the river and the lots was not
to be less than one hundred feet, and here, too, he ordered that relig-
ious care should be taken to preserve all timber growing thereon. In
New Madrid lots were dedicated to the use of the Roman Catholic
church and school. Episcopal church and school, Presbyterian church
and school, German Lutheran church and school and German Cal-
vinistic church and school.

Morgan, in order to secure farmers and tillers of the soil for his
new colony, in his regulations provided that " no white person shall
be admitted to reside in this territory who shall declare himself to be a
hunter by profession, or who shall make a practice of killing buffalo or
deer, without bringing all the flesh of their carcases to his own family,
or to New Madrid, or carrying it to some other market,^* and this
regulation, he said, was intended for the preservation of those animals,
and for the benefit of the neighborhood Indians, whose dependence
was hunting principally, and that his settlement being intended to be

I20 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

wholly agricultural and commercial, no encouragement should be
given to white hunters. Of course contraband trade on any ac-
count was strictly prohibited, but care was to be taken to instruct the
settlers what was contraband of trade, so that they might not offend
innocently. Persons who received permission to settle in the territory
were allowed to bring their respective families, slaves and servants, and
effects of every kind, but to export no part thereof to any other part
"of his Majesty's Dominions, " because being contraband. Navi-
gable rivers in the colony were declared to be highways. No obstruc-
tion to navigation was permitted for the emolument of any person
whatever. Recorders * ofl&ces were also provided to be erected in the
district, mortgages were to be recorded, and an alphabetical index to
be kept open for examination, and all these regulations and directions,
Morgan says, " are meant as fundamental stipulations for the govern-
ment, and happiness of all who shall become subjects of Spain and
reside in this territory,' ' and were dated April 6, 1789.

In his advertisement Morgan states that those who settle at New
Madrid in the ensuing year shall have plough irons or other iron works
and farming utensils transported from the Ohio gratis, also their
clothing, bedding, kitchen furniture and certain other articles which
may not be too bulky. Schoolmasters he promised should be engaged
immediately for the instnictiAi of the youth. Ministers of the gospel,
he said, would meet with every encouragement and grants of land
were to be made to each and every denomination immigrating with
a congregation before the year 1790, besides particular grants of
land to each society. And then adds, " This new city is proposed to be
built on a high bank of the Mississippi river, near the mouth of the
Ohio, in the richest and most healthful part of the western country,
about latitude 37 degrees. Those who wish for further information
will apply to me in person as aforementioned, or at the new city of
New Madrid, after the first day of next December, where surveyors
will attend to lay out the lands.' '^*

But Morgan thus employed with his plans was secretly antagonized
in a manner he did not suspect, nor his patron Don Di^o Gardoqui.
Don Estevan Miro, Governor of Louisiana, and Gen. James Wilkin-
son of the army of the United States, were at this time engaged in a
deep plot to dismember the Union, separating the people of Kentucky
and the West from the Atlantic states, and hence the establishment of
a colony such as Morgan proposed did not harmonize with their

" 53 Draper's Collection, Clark MSS., No. 79.

PI. I.\

oClIu- KOHT
oCXcw.MADUII)

l.ySE.I/.lf.HIISSK

122 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

scheme. Gen. Wilkinson was then in the secret employment of
Spain. When Morgan published his plans, Gen. ^^Ikinson actuated
at once by self-interest and fear advised Governor Miro, of the
dangerous tendency of the proposed colony. In a letter dated Feb-
ruary 12, 1789, he refers to the fact that Morgan, although a man of
education, is a profound speculator ; that he has twice been a bankrupt ;
that he is in poor cirounstances, and that none of the colonists he is
settling in the new colony are from Kentucky. Then discussing
Morgan's project he says, '*In a political point of view Morgan's
establishment can produce no good result, but on the contrary will
have the most pernicious consequences, because the Americans who
settle there will on account of their proximity to, and their constant
intercourse with their countrymen of this side of the river, retain
their old prejudices and feelings and continue to be Americans as if
they were on the banks of the Ohio. On the other side the intention of
detaining the productions of this vast country* at a point so distant
from their real market, whilst the .\mericans shall remain the carriers
of that trade, cannot fail to cause discontent and embroil the two
countries in difficulties. Probably it will destroy the noble fabric of
which we have laid out the foundation and which we are endeavoring to
complete. If it be deemed necessary to keep the .\mericans at a distance
from Louisiana, let the Spaniards at least be the carriers of the pro-
duce they receive at their posts and of the merchandise which is ac-
ceptable to the Americans. In this way will be formed an impene-
trable barrier without any cost to the King, because in less than thirty
years His Catholic Majesty will have on the river at least thirty
thousand boatmen and which it will be easy to keep and convert into
armed bodies to assist in the defense of the province from whatever
quarter it may be threatened. " Concluding he says, that " it is long
since Morgan has become jealous of me, and you may rest assured
that in reality he is not well-affected towards our cause, but that he
allows himself to be entirely ruled by motives of the vilest self-interest,
and therefore he will not scruple on his return to New York to destroy
me."

While Morgan was surveying his city and diligently laboring to
lay the foundation of his fortune. Governor Miro was i>erusing Gen.
Wilkinson's letter, and when Col. Morgan came to New Orleans in
the following May to secure approval of the concession of Don Di^o
Gardoqui, he found his scheme effectually ruined. On May 20,
1789, Governor Miro addressed a dispatch to his government in

MIRO 123

which he disapproved the policy of making a large concession to Col.
Morgan, and of granting to the colonists the right of self-government,
exemption from taxation, thus creating an imperium in imperio.
On the 23d of May, with profound dissimulation, he wrote Morgan
that he was surprised, on reading in the papers submitted to him, that
the extent of territory conceded was so large, although he was fully
advised by Gen. Wilkinson of its extent, and that the privileges
attached to the grant were exorbitant and completely inadmis-
sible. And then stating the terms upon which he would allow the
establishment of a colony, he says with consummate deception, "Truly
it is a matter of deep regret, because having been made acquainted
with the fine qualities for which you are distinguished I was awaiting
yourarrival with impatience and with the hope of approving your plan.
I am therefore much disappointed at being obliged to resist its execu-
tion, because it would be extremely prejudicial to the welfare and
interest of the kingdom to permit the establishment of a Republic
within its domains, for such I consider the Government which you
have conceived, although retaining some shadow of submission to his
Majesty.'* He then expressed regret that Col. Morgan should have
caused it to be circulated through Ohio and Kentucky that he had
received so extensive a concession, and that under the impression that
it was final, he caused the plan of a city to be drawn and should have
given it a name, the exercise of a power appertaining to the sovereign
alone, and that in a letter addressed to certain persons at Fort Pitt
(no doubt referring to the letter heretofore set out) he should have
gone so far as to designate it as " our* ' city, although Don Diego
Gardoqui only authorized a survey of the land, and concluding he says,
" How wide a difference is there between what you did and what you
had a right to do.* * All these acts, however, he was willing to attri-
bute to imprudence and excessive zeal to serve the king, and that
if he should be disposed to remain in the service of his Majesty he
would authorize him to induce families to settle in the Natchez district,
and that if successful, he, Miro, would reward him in a befitting
manner, promising a concession of one thousand acres of land for him-
self and each of his sons. He also advised him that a fort would be
constructed at the place where he had located New Madrid, and that
a detachment of soldiers would be sent there, and that the commander
would be instructed to receive all immigrants favorably.

Thus Morgan's principality vanished like the "baseless fabric of
a vision.' * He submitted with good grace and dignity, and we cannot

124 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

withhold from him pur sympathy. The next day he answered
(jovernor Miro *s letter, apologizing for his course, sa3ring that if he
had erred it was with the best intention and from ignorance, thanking
the Governor for attributing what he had done to his excessive zeal to
serve his Majesty. " As I have always kept up the character of a man
of honor,' ' said he, " I am sure you will remain convinced that I shall
never act knowingly in violation of the laws of his Majesty.' * Then
explaining his motives for leaving the United States he says, '* Among
the inducements which I had to leave my native country must be
reckoned the desire of increasing my fortune, establishing my family
in peace under a safe and secure government. If you have occa-
sionally read the Acts of Congress you may have seen that my
father-in-law, Baynton, myself and my partners were unjustly dis-
possessed by the state of Virginia of the largest territorial estate
within its limits, and that it was not in the power of Congress to
protect us, although that Honorable body manifested the best dispo-
sition to do so.**

Miro reported to his government his coiwse in the matter, and
observed that if he had acquiesced in Morgan 's plans an independent
republic would have been organized within the limits of Louisiana.
On the conditions set out in Morgan's plans he says he himself would
undertake to depopulate the greater part of the United States and
draw all their citizens to Louisiana, including the whole of Congress.
He also states that Thomas Hutchins, Surveyor- General and Geogra-
pher of the United States had written to ascertain if Morgan's con-
cession had been approved, and that if accepted, he would become a
subject of His Catholic Majesty and resign the office and salary he
now enjoyed, and that the proposition to allow the colonists to govern
themselves, but the King to pay their magistrates, would attract a
prodigious number of people."

At first the Commandant of Ste. Genevieve, Henri Peyroux,
exercised jurisdiction over the new settlement at New Madrid,
the territory then being considered within the Ste. Genevieve district.
Morgan when he explored the country visited Ste. Genevieve and
while there told Peyroux that he intended to found his new city
opposite the mouth of the Ohio, but Peyroux then advised him that
the land there was low and subject to overflow, that the first high
land on the west side of the river, and from which a prairie ex-
tended north was found at L' Anse k la Graise, and Peyroux says

*' Gayarr^'s Spanish Dominion of Louisiana, p. 267.

FOUCHER 125

that this led Morgan to establish his city there. After Morgan's
failure to secure approval of the grant made by Gardoqui, Miro
ordered Peyroux to New Madrid with a small police force of six
soldiers to preserve order among the new settlers. While there he
opened several roads for carts and wagons, made land grants, and
called the settlers together to have them determine whether they
desired to cultivate their land in separate fields or in a common-field,
and these American settlers then decided in favor of separate fields,
each farmer to fence his own land. Accordingly no common-field
was established in New Madrid. The settlers also selected, as a
" common " for wood and as pasture land, a large tract on the other
side of Cypress bayou and requested that grants of land be made to
encourage the building of a mill, distillery, tannery, and brick-yard.
These several matters Peyroux submitted to Governor Miro. In an
order preserved in the Spanish archives of New Madrid, dated June
27, 1789, he, however, declares that he will not grant any of the
lands marked out by Colonels George Harrison and Benjamin
Harrison,*" and which they gave notice they reserved for themselves
and their friends, the lands so designated extending twenty miles
north of New Madrid and embracing two hundred separate tracts,
exclusive of lakes and marshes, all no doubt located on the high
ridge north of New Madrid known as Big Prairie."

Governor Miro, in July, 1789, dispatched Lieutenant Pierre
Foucher, of the stationary regiment of Louisiana, with two sergeants,
two corporals, and a detachment of thirty soldiers to New Madrid to
build a fort and take civil and military command. Foucher, in 1788,
was one of the ordinary alcaldes of New Orleans,^' and seems on the
whole to have been well qualified for the position of commandant.
His instructions were to govern the new colonists in such a way " as to
make them feel that they had found among the Spaniards the state

*• This General Benjamin Harrison was among the most prominent men of
the new settlement. He came from Kentucky where he had distinguished
himself in the Border wars. He was a man of property, a slave
owner, and had a large family. He fully entered into Morgan's plans and pro-
posed to bring a large number of settlers into the country. His two sons, Law-
rence and William, were also among Morgan's followers. Another son, Benja-
min, Junior, was also here. With General Harrison came Benjamin Hinkston,
his son-in-law, and son of the celebrated John Hinkston (or Hinkson), who him-
self came to New Madrid from Kentucky. In 1802 while General Harrison
was absent on a trip to Kentucky, George N. Reagan forced his son to surrender
a negro slave, claimed as part payment of land bought of Reagan, but afterward
Harrison recovered the slave by suit.

" Letter of Peyroux in New Madrid Archives.

"2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 79.

126 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

of ease and comfort for which they were in quest." ^' In 1 791 Foucher
reports that 219 new settlers had presented themselves between the
I St of January to the end of April and taken the oath of allegiance.
Many of them were from Vincennes and Gallipolis.

Morgan subsequently wrote to Gardoqui that he owed it to his
own character to say that the only partial adoption of his enterprise

by Miro, his apparent displeasure at the steps Gardoqui had taken to
make a settlement of so great consequence to Spain, his extreme
anxiety to be thought the first proposer and promoter of a settlement
opposite the mouth of the Ohio, and his appointment of a young
French officer to command and govern this infant settlement, would
in a great measure defeat the expectation which had so justly been
formed from the measures he, Gardoqui, had recommended. He
further wrote, that he believed that the young French gentleman
appointed to the command at New Madrid had real merit as a
gentleman and officer, but the fact that he was a trader would certainly
not "promote his Majesty's service in any respect,'* on the contrary
he believed that this fact alone would have pernicious consequences
and retard the settlement of the country, that he did not think that
any officer holding the position of commandant of a post, or governor
of .a settlement should dishonor the King's commission by being a
trader ; that he could not suppose that he had either the knowledge or
the experience equal to the task of the position; and, that whatever his
ability might be, the fact that he did not speak the English language
would greatly embarrass him ; that if he had been appointed merely
to build the fort, command the troops and deal with the Indians, he
might have been highly useful and agreeable to him, but no further.
And, in conclusion, Morgan says, "I wish to be candid, sir, but not to

*• According to Martin *'a company of infantry was sent to build a garrison
and fort near the intended site of the city." (2 Martin's History of Louisiana,
p. 90.) Foucher built Fort Celeste "which was named thus in compliment to
the wife of Estevan Miro, the governor of Louisiana," according to McCoy. (2
Hunt's Minutes, p. 154.)

SALE OF LANDS 127

give offence. The trust reposed in me, and the importance of my
conduct to the King's service, however, induce me to say that I do not
believe his Excellency, Governor Miro, is possessed of the necessary
ideas respecting the object his Majesty has in view ; and his warmth
of temper and passions prevent his obtaining the knowledge and
information requisite to his station. His copartnership with General
Wilkinson has been exceedingly injurious to his Majesty's colony, and
will, I fear, be attended with more very, very inconvenient conse-
quences. His warmth, on the liberty we took in calling the proposed
settlement New Madrid, treating it as highly criminal, instead of
viewing it in the light we meant it, viz., to show our determined reso-
lution to become subjects of the King, and our respect and attachment
to the nation — and the offense he took at the mention of " our city"
in the circular letter, are proofs to me that his mind does not embrace
the objects which his Majesty appears to have in view. It is scarcely
possible for you to conceive the warmth of resentment with which he
expressed himself on your having listened to my proposition at any
rate, for he really did not understand them ; nor did he condescend
to ask a single explanation of them nor of any part, but he has
been extremely pointed in his aversion to freedom in religious
matters — but he gradually cooled and softened down to the
temper which produced the two commissions and instructions
annexed. At parting, he gave me the letter I have had the
honor to forward to you in which, he informed me, he had warmly
recommended me to you. If the acquisition of eight or ten thousand
industrious subjects by your or by my means is desirable to his Ma-
jesty, I cannot but think the Governor ought not to have discovered
jealousy or displeasure at names or straws; as a gentleman he
might have proposed an alteration to avoid giving offense to his
Majesty, where only respect was intended. " '®

Miro especially objected to the sale that Morgan contemplated of
the lands in his projected colony, but Morgan thought that giving lands
away, as an encouragement to gain settlers, had a bad effect, and was
only an encouragement to settle to those who were extremely poor and
indigent, and he desired to make a trial in his proposed settlement of
New Madrid, of making sale of land at a small price, while grants at
Natchez, Illinois, etc., were made free, so that the relative merit of the
the two plans might be verified by actual workings, and he says " it is
an experiment worth making, for if it succeeds to my expectations the

*• See letter of Morgan to Gardoqui.

128 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

immense tracts of his Majesty's waste lands in America will be a
Peruvian mine to him.' ' He supposed that there were about eight
hundred million acres of land on the Mississippi and its waters,
which might be sold at an average of 12 J cents per acre, and that the
advantages derived from such a sale would be as nothing compared
"to the advantages derivable of the subjects who would populate the
lands," and that the foundation for peopling this vast domain ought to
be the best possible regulations, and not left "to chance or to desperate
men.'* "

Miro authorized and empowered Morgan to introduce into
Louisiana and part in Natchez, any number of families, farmers,
traders and laborers, and wrote him on the 29th of May, 1789,
that he would himself recommend " to his Majesty the merit that you
will acquire in the commission, " and that he was sure he would be
rewarded in proportion to the number, who by his influence and ex-
ample should make a settlement, and that for his own part he would
assure him of a grant of one thousand acres of land, and as many for
each of his children, in any part of the province ; and on June 26th he
issued a conmiission to Morgan in case of the death of the officer
he had appointed as conmiandant of New Madrid and in which he
says "reposing special trust and confidence in your ability, fidelity,
and honor, I do hereby nominate and appoint you commandant of
the said territory until further orders from me, subject to the
instructions I have already given you, and those which you may
hereafter receive from me."

In this manner Miro set aside the plans of Gardoqui and annulled
Morgan 's incomplete grant, but authorizing grants of land to those
who had been induced to settle in the New Madrid district. No ex-
clusive right to trade with New Orleans" was given the settlers at New

^ After this failure Morgan turned his attention to an estate bequeathed
to him in Washington county, Pennsylvania, by his brother, and here he set-
tled, naming his estate "Morganza," and here he died after a checkered and
strenuous life, in 1810. It was at his residence at "Morganza", at a dinner, that
it was charged that Burr made treasonable remarks against liie United States.
Cuming, who, in 1807, enjoyed the hospitality of General Morgan, describes
his house as a long narrow frame building with two ends lower 3ian the main
body of the house, by way of wings, and says that the situation for the house was
not well chosen when he had apparently the choice of better locations, and says
that one is more apt to be struck by anything like false taste in any work that
has been finished under the direction of a man of education and refinement,
"which in addition to liberal hospitality is General Morgan's character, as well
as that of his amiable and accomplished lady." Cuming's Tour to the West
p. 217.

"Windsor's Westward Movement, p. 306.

FOUCHER'S ACTIVITY 129

Madrid, as stated by Windsor. Morgan *s project laid the foundation
for the peaceful conquest by the Americans of at least upper Loui-
siana, for, owing to the impulse given American immigration by the
wide advertisement of Morgan 's plans, and the liberal land policy of
the Spanish authorities, a majority of the population in upper Loui-
siana, when the territory was ceded, was already composed of Amer-
icans. So great was the immigration into upper Louisiana, when
Morgan first published his plan, that Major Hamtramck wrote in
1789, that '*all of our Americans of Post Vincennes will go to Mor-
gan," that within twenty days **not less than 100 souls have passed
daily" to his new colony.*" After the collapse of Morgan's scheme,
the Spanish officials continued to encourage settlers to come to the
Spanish side, says Hamtramck "by giving them land gratis."'*
This immigration into the Spanish territory was greatly increased
by the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, and which led people to
believe that the negroes northwest of the Ohio would be freed as
soon as a territorial government should be established.**

LaForge tells us that Foucher " was the man that was wanted for
the creation of this colony ; busying himself at the same time with
his own interests as of those of the inhabitants, with his own
amusements as well as theirs, but always after having attended first to
his business, and by a singular address if he sometimes plucked the
fowl, he not only did it without making it squall, but set it to
dancing and laughing."** During his administration of eighteen
months Foucher "divided the country into districts, laid out the town
into lots, built an imposing fort, promulgated the laws of the King and
made them respected, and, when he departed from the post, was
lamented, regretted, and demanded again from the governor-general
by the unanimous voice of all the inhabitants.' '*^ Foucher seems to
have directed all the affairs of the settlement. He laid out all the
public works, explored the cypress swamps of the locality, and selected
timber there for the government buildings, laid out the streets and
lots of the new town, compass in hand. While he was in command a
large number of American immigrants, who had no doubt been at-
tracted by the publicity Morgan gave to the country, settled in the
town and adjacent country.

" Hanner PaperSi vol. 2, p. 50.

'^Ibid., p. 371.

* Harmer Papers, vol. 2, pp. 18 and 90.

*• LaForge's Report in i Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 266.

" LaForge's Report in i Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 266.

I30 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

When Pope went down the Mississippi in 1 791 , he breakfasted and
dined with "Singior Pedro Foucher, Commandant at Nuevo
Madrid.'* At that time the garrison was well supplied with food and
raiment, and he had at his command " an excellent train of artillery,
which appears to be their chief defense,' ' but Pope thinks that " two
regular companies of musqueteers with charge-bayonets could take
the town." He says that Foucher was of the same opinion, and
that he claimed "that he was not well supported." Foucher was,
according to Pope, "a Creole of French extraction, of Patagonian
size, polite in manners and of a most noble presence.'*** Pope left
New Madrid on the evening of March 12, 1791, in a boat called the
" Smokehouse,' ' bound for New Orleans, and the first night after his
departure anchored on the " Georgian^ ' shore, about thirty miles be-
low New Madrid.*

In the previous year. General David Forman, passing down the
Mississippi says that he stopped at "L' Anse k la Graise, which
place, or adjoining, bears the name of New Madrid, which is the
American part of the little village settled under the auspices of Colonel
George Morgan,' ' and from which it would appear that the American
settlers then lived in one part of the town and the French settlers in
another part. General Forman while in the port of New Madrid
with his craft called on the commandant, and thus describes his
visit : " Arrived at the gate, the guard was so anxious to trade his
tame raccoon with our men that he scarcely took any notice of us. We
went to headquarters ; there was but little ceremony. When we were
shown into the commander's presence, I stepped toward him a little
ip advance of my friends and announced my name. I was most
cordially and familiarly received. Then I introduced my friends,
naming their respective places of residence. After a little conversa-
tion we arose to retire when the commandant advanced and politely
asked me to dine with him an hour after 12 o'clock, and bring my
accompanying friends with me. I turned to the gentlemen for their
concurrence, which they gave, and we all returned to our boats. I
then observed to my friends that the commandant would expect
some present from us, such was the custom, and what should it be?
Mr. Bayard, I believe, asked me to suggest something in our power to
tender. I then remarked that as we had plenty of good hams that we

'• See Pope's Tour, p. 22.

*• See Pope's Tour, p. 23. Evidently he thought that Georgia extended
to the Mississippi at that place.

PORTELLE 131

fill a barrel and send them to our host ; that they might prove as ac-
ceptable as anything. The proposition met the approval of all,
and the hams were accordingly sent at once, with perhaps an
accompanying note. At an hour after 120 'clock I remember well
that we found ourselves comfortably, seated at the hospitable board of
the Spanish commandant, who expressed much delight at receiving
our fine present. He gave us a splendid dinner in the Spanish style,
and plenty of good wines and coffee without cream. The command-
ant addressing me while we were indulging in the liquids before us,
said that we must drink to the health of the ladies in our sweet liquors,
"so," said he, "we will drink the health of Mrs. Forman," meaning
my worthy cousin, who had preceded us in the visit to the garrison.
After dinner the commandant invited us to take a walk in the fine
prairies. He said he thought he could "drive a coach and four through
these open woods to St. Louis."

In September, 1791, Foucher was succeeded by Thomas Portelle.

Foucher, in 1797, was a half -pay captain in New Orleans. Dur-
ing a number of years the settlement of his accounts for the con-
struction of the "Fort Celeste" at New Madrid, gave him much
trouble, the vouchers which he had delivered to Don Francisco
Gutierrez de Arroya, "an ofl&cial of the chief accountancy of the
army," having been destroyed by fire. Foucher claimed that for
making and planting the palisades of the fort he paid 2,500 pesos,
and that having the lumber sawed and made for the roof of the
barracks cost 700 pesos; for clearing the ground around the
fort Pedro Lemieux and Santiago Cuturre received 700 pesos.
He petitioned the King for relief, and relating his services says,
that from 1778 to 1780 he served as a "volunteer carabineer," that

132 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

he then purchased a commission as lieutenant of the Louisiana
regiment and participated in the campaign against "Manchak,
Baton Rouge, Movila and Pensacola." After many petitions he
finally secured a settlement and adjustment of his accounts.

Portelle, according to LaForge, was **a man of distinguished merit
equally in the military as in the cabinet, and who was superior to his
position/' and who ''if he failed, it was because he did not place him-
self on a level with the people he had to govern."*® Portelle remained
in conmiand from 1791 to 1796. The population of New Madrid
during this period was made up of traders, hunters, and voyageurs.
Trading and hunting were the principal occupations of the inhabit-
ants. Very little land was cultivated, and no progress was made in
agricultural development. The French settlers preferred hunting to
rural labor. " It was so convenient with a little powder and lead,
some cloth and a few blankets, which they obtained on credit from the
stores, to procure themselves the meat, grease, and suet necessary
for their sustenance, and pay a part of their indebtedness with
some peltries." But the game began to disappear, the Indians
removed farther into the interior, and it became more difficult to
gain support, and then these early inhabitants began to complain
and regret the happy days "when they swam in grease, and when
abundance of every description was the cause of waste and extrava-
gance.** They were a merry and social people, those early French
5etders of New Madrid, just as everywhere else in America.
Festivals and balls were their delight and only came to an end when
their purses were empty.

In 1790 three or four American setders began to cultivate the fertile
soil, and plant for the first time large areas with Indian com. They
soon were able to sell their French and Creole neighbors com, butter,
milk, cheese, eggs and chickens. When the Indians failed to come to
New Madrid to trade, the French, too, b^an to plant com, but before
the com was laid by, LaForge says, they all enrolled in the militia to
resist the threatened invasion of 1794, abandoned their crops, and
when they were paid off were again without supplies and in want. In
this year five galleys came to New Madrid from New Orleans and
remained during the summer, but the conunandant finding no
provisions or com in New Madrid was compelled to send for subsist-
ence to the Illinois setdements and to Kentucky. On this occasion

'* Portelle was commandant at Apalachy before he came to New Madrid.
The name is usually spelled "Portel" but he himself spells it "Portelle"or "PortieU."

GROWTH OF VILLAGE 133

Don Portelle, Commandant, did not fail to impress on the inhabitants
that they should have been in condition to furnish the necessary food
and supplies.

In 1795 the establishment of Fort San Fernando des Barrancas,
near the present site of Memphis drew away from New Madrid the
little surplus com. Ste. Genevieve and Kentucky again supplied
com not only to San Fernando, but even to New Madrid. The desire
to farm then b^an once more to take root among the French
habitans. Nearly all the American immigrants as soon as they
arrived made ready to farm. "Then" says Laforge "the French
inveighed against the Americans, and, stimulated by jealousy, deter-
mined that they too would farm." Thus it was that in 1796 farming
was taken up as a serious occupation in New Madrid. But from 1794
to 1796 the population remained stationary.^

Yet no great material progress in the wealth of the settlement was
made during the administration of Don Portelle. A large majority of
the inhabitants were French and Creoles, and LaForge mournfully
comes to the conclusion "that the Creoles will never make this a
flourishing settlement. It will be the Americans, Germans and
other active people who will reap the glory of it. " In his report he
also refers to the fact that although grants of land were made for
some time to Francois Racine, to the Hunots, Paquins, Laderoute,
Gamelin, deceased, Lalotte and others, not a single tree had been cut
on the land so granted, and that the St. Maries, Meloche, and others
had barely commenced work. On the other hand, he points out
that when the Americans secure a grant of land they energetically
begin to work on it. Of the 1 59 families of New Madrid 53 had no
property, which La Forge thinks " is an evil to which it would be easy
to apply a remedy. In a country destined to agricultural pursuits and
the breeding of domestic animals, it is too much that one third of its
inhabitants should stand isolated from the general interest, and that
the other two thirds should be exposed to be the victims of a set of idle
and lazy people, always at hand in their slightest necessities to satiate
their hunger by preying on the industrious.""

From the Spanish records of concessions the general growth and
prosperity of the village may be reasonably inferred during this period.
Thus between November 30, 1 789, and May i , 1 799, the oath of allegi-
ance was administered to 601 persons. In 1791 forty-seven lots for

'* La Forge's Letter, i Billon's Annals, p. 266.

'* La Forge's Letter to De Lassus, i Billon's Annals, p. 272.

134 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

houses were granted in the village, but during that same time an equal
number of lots were abandoned. In 1792 six lots were granted, but
fifteen lots abandoned. In 1793 fifty lots were granted and eight
abandoned. In 1794 thirteen lots were granted. In 1795 twenty-five
lots were granted and one abandoned. In 1796 forty-six concessions
of lots were made.

It was while Portelle was conunandant at New Madrid that the
greatest activity prevailed to separate the western country from the
Atlantic states. Portelle on one occasion sent $9,640 in cash, packed
in barrels to Wilkinson, from New Madrid. Thomas Power, the
agent of the Spanish government, an Englishman, was then a resident
of New Madrid. In 1 795 Gayoso de Lemos came to New Madrid on
a confidential mission to meet a Kentucky delegation, and from New
Madrid, sent Power with dispatches to Wilkinson. From New
Madrid Gayoso went to the mouth of the Ohio, and at what afterward
became known as Bird's Point, erected a small stockade fort to
amuse himself, while waiting for a reply. Here he was met by
Judge Sebastian, in September, 1795, and together they went by boat
to New Madrid and down the river.

Juan Bamo y Ferrusola, in 1794, was greffierof New Madrid,
Antoine Gamelin, in 1794, Captain of the Second Company of the
militia; Louis Scipion Benoist de Marquet, Captain of another
company, and Pierre de Rocher, Captain of the First Company.
He was a native of Nantes, France, and a merchant of New
Madrid.** John Shanklin, in 1796, was ensign of the troops, one
of the first Anglo-American Spanish officers. It was during the
administration of Portelle that the youthful Brackenridge arrived
at New Madrid. "As we approached the landing," he says, "a
soldier or officer made his appearance on the bank and flourished
his sword with a fierce and consequential air, — all this for the
purpose of indicating the place for us to land."'* During his
stay at New Madrid at that time, Brackenridge, then a child,
records that ** coarse, black bread, a kind of catfish soup, hot with
pepper and seasoned with garlick, was about the only food they
gave us."

" Son of Francois Alexis DeRocher and Marie Naude; married Rosalie La-
fond of Kaskaskia, daughter of Dr. Jean Baptiste Lafond and Charlotte La-
course. In 1 793 had a concession on Lake St. Isidore, and on Lake St. Mary ;
after his death this property was granted to his wife. The name is also spelled
Deroche.

'* Brackenridge's Recollections of the West, p. 18.

DE LASSUS 135

Portelle in 1796 was succeeded by Don Carlos DeHault DeLassus
de Luziere. He was ason of Don Pierre DeHault DeLassus de Luziere,
heretofore mentioned as commandant of Nouvelle Bourbon, in the
Ste. Genevieve district. Don Carlos De
Lassus entered the Spanish service as second
lieutenant of the fifth Battalion of the Royal
Guards of Waloonian infantry, participated
in the campaign of the army of Rosellon as
first lieutenant, was one of the first at the
assault of Fort San Thelmo; by good mili-
tary conduct and bravery distinguished him-
self and was breveted lieu tenant- colonel. In
order to be near his family, who were in great-
ly reduced circumstances, he petitioned to be
transferred from theWaloonian Guard* to the

Stationary Regiment of Louisiana. In his petition, dated Madrid,
July 5, 1794, he says that his father was a fugitive from France with
his wife and children, that during the space of three years, after un-
heard of hardships "in traveling through lands, crossing seas, the
American rivers, and living among all the savage tribes found on the
Scioto river in North America,' ' he reached the Spanish Illinois in
the Province of Louisiana, and that there he established himself and
built up a small colony in order that he might acquire the means to
sustain his life, and " that of his numerous family in his advanced age.' '
In the following August DeLassus was transferred with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel to the Louisiana Regiment, but with the pay
only of captain, and on August 11, at San Ildefonso, received his
passports to sail from Cadiz, "with a servant, arms and baggage," in
order to join his corps. It is said that DeLassus enjoyed the personal
acquaintance of King Ferdinand of Spain, and that the King was
interested in his welfare and the welfare of his family, but Ibis state-
ment may well be doubted, because subsequently when he petitioned
that with the rank of lieu ten ant -colon el he might also get the pay of a
lieutenant -colonel, so as to assist his unfortunate family and main-
tain himself with the honor that his rank demanded, the petition was
denied repeatedly, although strongly recommended by Carondelet.
The report was likely circulated to justify the large grants of land

" CuerjMi de guardiaa Walonas ronsisttd in Spain of more than 4000 men,
in 56 companies, who oame from Flanders, then a dependency of Spain, and
in service of the Spanish kings until the time of Ferdinand VII.

136 mSTORY OF MISSOURI

made to the family at diGferent times by the Spanish officials,** with
whom undoubtedly he was a great favorite." Carondelet says that he
was " a very honorable man.' '

At the time DeLassus was in command at New Madrid he was
very busy. New Madrid was then the gate-way of commerce to the
Gulf of Mexico, of all that part of the United States situated west of the
the Alleghany mountains, and that commerce at that time began to
assume gigantic proportions, at least in the eyes of the inactive and
torpid Spaniards. In June, 1797, DeLassus writes to Soulard that he
wascontinually occupied with attending to the business of all manner of
people coming down the Ohio "et a present avec le passage de
Messieurs des Americans," In fact, he
was so busy that he had no lime to give
attention to his own individual aflfairs, or
the grant of twenty thousand arpens of
land he had received in the previous year
from Don Zenon Trudeau, Lieutenant-
Governor of upper Louisiana. The grant
was not located at any particular place,*"
and he expected Soulard to look after the
matter for him. In his, no doubt, trying
work at New Madrid he was assisted at
first, as secretary, by Pierre Derbigny, who
was also interpreter " los idioms estrangeras i la langua Espangol. "

"In 1798 petitioned tor a grant of 30,000 arpens on Salt river, three leagues
above its mouth, to establish Iwa manufactories, one for making soap, and the
other for a tan-yard, as of great ulility (o the public, since thus they could pro-
cure si>aj) and leather much cheaper than by bringing them from Europe as
they were then d<Hng.

" Andrew Miehaux, in his journal, says that one Louisiere or Delousiere
was exiled from F'ranie for having l>cen concerned in the plot lo deliver Havre
to the combined English and Spanish fleets. In 1J93, Michaux says, thai this
Louisiere or Delousiere was in partnership with one Audrain at Piltsburg, but
he says thai Delousiere was nol in Piltsburg at that lime. It may be that some
connection existed between the Delousiere, the French royalisl, who attempted
lo turn over the French fleet 10 the English and Spanish, and the Delouaere after-
ward in Upper Louisiana, and the letter of Carondelet of April 36, 1 793, shows
that ihis Louisiere, or Delousiere is DeLassus DeLuziere, and that he was in part-
nership with Tardiveau and Audrain, and came from Gallipolis to Nouvelle
Bourbon. His son St. V'rain was an ofliier in the Royal French navy. The
Audrain Michaux mentions was no doubt the same trader, afterwards in
Upiicr L<)uisiana, in partnership with Tardiveau and DeLassus. A trader
named Audrain lived on the Missouri nol far from Fort Osage after the
cession. Audrain county so named in honor of Colonel James Audrain, a
pioneer trader and merchant of Missouri, and son of Pierre Audrain,

" American State Papers, i Public Lands, p. 686.

LA VALLfeE 137

Derbigny afterwards removed to New Orleans, and Marie Philip
Leduc, who came to New Madrid in 1792, then acted as his secre-
tary, and with him subsequently went to St. Louis.

DeLassus was made lieutenant-governor of upper Louisiana in
1799, and removed to St. Louis. Here he was in command at the
time of the transfer of Louisiana. Prior to 1800 New Madrid was in
no wise attached to the Illinois country or upper Louisiana. The
commandant there exercising the power of a sub-delegate, acted
independent of the lieutenant-governor of Illinois country, residing
at St. Louis. In the register of Spanish Illinois villages, made in 1 796,
neither New Madrid or Cape Girardeau are included, evidently
either Cinque Hommes creek, or the Riviere des Pommes (Apple
Creek) was considered the dividing line between the Spanish Illinois
villages and the New Madrid district. After DeLassus was trans-
ferred to St. Louis, New Madrid, it. seems, was attached to upper
Louisiana.*

DeLassus was succeeded in New Madrid, by Don Henri Peyroux
de la Coudrenaire,*® Captain of Infantry, as commandant. He
came to New Madrid from Ste. Genevieve in August, 1799, and
where he had been commandant in 1789. Peyroux remained in
command at New Madrid for nearly four years, and then resigned
his position, very likely in consequence of his dispute with the
Spanish officials as to the northern boundary of the district. From
a letter dated January 11, 1803, it appears that at that date he
was still commandant of New Madrid. After his resignation he
went to France where it is said he had large possessions. Being
old and infirm he never returned, but made an agreement of
separation with his wife, who did not accompany him, transferring
and relinquishing to her all his property and possessions in Ameri(::a,
apparently, however, with the exception of his land grant on the
Saline, which he leased.

Don Juan La Valine succeeded Peyroux as commandant of New
Madrid and held the position until the country was transferred to the
United States. During his administration the expedition of De
Lassus to punish ^*the run-away Indians*' then residing in the country
west of New Madrid, took place. La Valine was a very competent

'• 2 Martin's History of Louisiana, p. 171.

*• Henri Peyroux, captain of arms, civil and military commandant, vice
patron of Parish St. Isidore, married Demoiselle Prudence Rodrique. In 1801
ne bought of Tardiveau & Co., a saw-mill, grain-house, canal and land where
mill was located at New Madrid.

138 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

man, a man of education and intelligence. He was a native of France

and for a number of yeai^ a leading merchant and trader. De

Lassus says of him, that he was a "zealous and skilful officer,

recommended for a long time for captain,"

^^^^^^ and that "every time I employed him, he

^^^^^^^^ gave me great satisfaction in the manner

^^^^3^^^^ >n which he acquitted himself. He speaks

^^^E^^^^^H and writes Spanish and French and English,

^^H^^H^^^H and is a firm and brave and prudent man.'

^^^H ^^^^H The Spanish commandants resided at Fort

^^V J^^^^K Celeste, which was situated on the Mississippi

^H ^^^^^ river, and erected in 1789, under the super-

^, ^^^^ vision of Don Pedro Foucher." A Spanish

DOH JUAB LA vALiiiE garrisoH was always maintained here, and the

names of some of the Spanish soldiers have

been preserved in the New Madrid archives, principally as witnesses."

This " Fort Celeste " was originally constructed near the river

bank, altogether unmindful of the fact that the river at this point

washed away the land. Gradually the intervening land between

the river and the fort disappeared and in 1796 when General Collot

visited New Madrid a part of the structure had tumbled in the
river. The old fort had been evacuated and a new fort constructed
farther away from the river bank. This new fort was an irreg-
ular square with four blockhouses as bastions at the comers, con-

" One of the cotitrattors. lo build the fort, a stone-mason, was Pierre Querez
(or Guerez), dit La Tulipe. The carpenter work was done by Jacob Myer.i.

'' Thus we find the names of Pedro Maltruvin Besnard, a sergeant of infan-
try who, in 1 7Q3. was emploj-ed by Pierre DeRocher to stay on his place on Lake
St. Isidore; Ramon Perez, in 1795, a sergeant; Pascal Palazois. in 1 794, a corporal
of infantry; Diego Domini^uez, in 1794, a corporal of artillery, who afterward
died at New Madrid ; Juan Jose Garcia, in 1 795, soldier of the fifth company
of the first battalion of the stationary regiment of Louisiana; Antonio Gonzalez,
soldier of the third company of second battalion of the regiment of LouiMana;
Domingo (or Dominique) Rucla (or Kouette), baker and soldier of the second
comf>any of the first battalion of the fised or stationary regiment; died in 1804;
BarthJIemi Rodriques, in 1792. a corporal; Jose Bernardo, sergeant of infantry
in the fixed regiment; Antonio Bermet, in 1791, soldier of the garrison, and
Jean Ramos also a soldier; Antonio Molina, 1794.

LA FORGE 139

nected by palisades twelve feet high and the whole surrounded
with a ditch twelve feet wide and three feel deep. The fort was
then armed with (8) eight-pound cannon and garrisoned with 34
soldiers of the regular army — ^had poor barracks for ic» men and
a powder magazine made of plank. Gen. CoUot had a very poor
opinion of this fort and country and says that the place can never
be made a " une place de guerre, " nor a large population attracted
to reside there.

One of the early distinguished French Canadian residents of New
Madrid was Antolne Gamelin, whose name is signed to many docu-
ments In the archives, between 1791 and 1794- He came to
New Madrid in 1791, from VIncennes. He
was a man of some education, was a trader
among the Indians in Indiana and acted as
interpreter and Indian agent for General
George Rogers Clark in 1778 and 1779. In
1790, he was sent by Governor St. Clair as a
messenger to the Wabash Indians, and in an
interesting journal, made a report of his mis-
Mon." He died in New Madrid in 1796.
He was a son of Ignace Gamelin of Montreal,
and his mother was a daughter of Captain de
lajesmerie — celebrated In the military annals
of Canada. Another prominent citizen of old Spanish New Madrid
was Pierre Antoine La Forge, exiled by the Revolution to the shores
of America. Originally educated for the priesthood, he fell in love

1794. He came to

'a^^2to7^**»?^i

with his cousin, Marguerite Gabriel Colombe Champagne, and
married her, and after that devoted himself to the study of law. With
many other French immigrants he settled at GalHpolis and shared

I40 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

in all the misfortunes of that settlement. In 1791 he abandoned
Gallipolis and came to New Madrid, giving his wife power of attorney
in 17941 to sell his property there. His education, intelligence, great
common sense, energy, public spirit and literary ability soon secured
him a prominent and leading position. Being master of several
languages he acted as interpreter. He was an officer of the militia,
commis^oner of the police, syndic, and executed many confidential
missions for the several commandants. His report of the condition
of New Madrid, published in 1796, and to which we have heretofore
niade reference, shows his keen, observing mind, and the relentless
logic with which he could condemn the lethargy and want of enter-
prise of his own immediate countrymen, and the Canadian -French,
and the admiration he felt for American enterprise and energy.
DeLassus greatly admired him and says that he performed all his
various offices with "correctness and precision," that he was a man
"active, earnest and useful for the public service." He owned well
improved -property in New Madrid, and after the acquisition of
Louisiana was appointed civil commandant and judge of the court
of common pleas in New Madrid. He was sick when the earth-
quake of 1811 occurred, and died from exposure, having been re-
inoved from his house to a tent.

Don Louis Francois de Marquet, a trader, Chevalier of the Order
of St. Louis, at one time a captain of cavalry in the French service,
resided one league and a half north of New Madrid, and died there
prior to 1794. His son Louis Scipion Benoist de Marquet, also a
French officer, died in New Madrid in 1794, and judging from the
inventory, for that time possessed a very lai^e estate. Another
resident was Auguste Chevalier Brbar de Breville but nothing is
known of him. Anna Claude Francois Riche Dupin in 1790, was
sub- lieutenant of militia, and sexton of the parish St. Isidore, and in
1800, captain of militia." Joseph Charpentier was royal interpreter
and in many instances acted as attorney. He was also a trader.
Another prominent resident was Pierre Derbigny who came to
Louisiana with Antonio Soulard in 1794 — and to New Madrid in
about 1795 and while a resident there acted as a royal interpreter. He
was a profound linguist, understood the French, Spani^ and En^^ish
languages and was a classical scholar. During his residence at New
Madrid he was captain of a. company of militia. He was also

" [If niiimcd Jeanne Dentiir and in 1804 had adauahler named Framaisc
.Adelaide

MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS 141

engaged in trade as a partner of LaForge. In 1800 he removed to
New Orleans and after the acquisition of Louisiana came into
prominence in political affairs. In 1805 he was sent by the people
of Orleans Territory to Washington. He was admitted to the prac-
tice of the law. When the State government of Loiusiana was organ-
ized be was appointed by Gov. Claiborne one of the Judges of the
Supreme court. In the celebrated Batture controversy in 1808, Jeffer-
son greatly relied upon his opinion to sustain the claims of the Gen-
eral government to the Batture. He claimed 6,000 arpens of land
in the St. Charles district underaconcession of DeLassus, dated 1799.
New Madrid, in 1803, had three Spanish military organizations.
One of these was a company of dr^oons, of which Richard Jones
Waters was captain ; GeorgeN. Reagan, lieutenant, and John Baptiste
Barsaloux, ensign,*^ The two other companies of infantry militia
were respectively commanded by Don Juan LaValWe, as captain;"
Pierre Antoine LaFoige, as lieutenant; and Joseph Charpentier, as
ensign ; and of the other infantry militia company, Robert McCoy
was captain, appointed by Gayoso when Don Pedro Derbigny moved
to New Orleans; Joseph Hunot, lieutenant;" and John Harte,
ensign." A number of Spanish galleys, or what we would now call
revenue cutters, were then in cotnmission at New Madrid. Don
Francesco Langlois* was in command of the "Phillipa" in 1795-

** A resident of New Madrid in 1 795, owned ten slaves, and in iSoo he, Dr.
Samuel Dorsey, and Joseph Lafrenays (perhaps should be spelled Lafresniere)
make reauest for giants on the St. Franjois river, the first two (or ten thou-
sand, and the Ust for five thousand acres.

** A merchant in New Madrid, sub-lieutenant of mililia of the post, store-
keeper of the magazine of the king, and just before the cession, commandant
of New Madrid. His wife was Jeanne Chauvin, and a son Edward Octave was
baptized in 1S04 at New Madrid ; he owned a negro named Joseph, who acted as
interpreter of the French language for the negroes.

* Native of Detroit ; married Marie Josephe Robert, who seems to have owned
property in Detroit. Owned property on portage Mingo, in Little Prairie,
and portage of river St. Francis i died in 1804 i after his death his wife in a peti-
tion to the commander regaiiUug the estate says, it was on account of being cru-
elly deceived in business transactions he decided to come to the Louisiana ter-
ritory. His son, Joseph Hunot, Junior, in 1800, married Elizabeth Millette,
dftu^ter of Jean Baptiste Millette and Angelique Paradol, natives of Ste. Gen-
evieve. In 1804, this son was accused of being an accomplice in theft committed
bj Thomas, n^ro slave of R. J. Waters, but was vindicated. Another son,
IgH^r^ was in New Madrid in 1791, and afterward on small Bay Portage river
StTnn^oia.

" John E. Hute was a resident of Bayou St. Thomas in 1795.

** "Creole de los Illinois," native of Detroit; in 1792 with Didier Marchand,
Vincent Barras, Jean Camus, Jean Nicholas Toussainte and Jean Baptiste
Louis CoQin, hired to James Turcotle as wood cutters, etc., for fifteen piastres
ft month, liui Collin may be the same who was "held in iroiu" at Cabokia

142 raSTORY OF MISSOURI

The "LaFleche," and the "Vigilanta" were also stationed at New
Madrid in that year. Don Bernardo Moline was captain of the
"Victoria** in 1797. Another galliotte was named "L'Activa" in
command of McCoy, and Don Pedro Rousseau was commandant of
the "Fuerzai.** Rousseau in 1795 was in command of the Spanish
squadron on the Mississippi, when Fort San Fernando was established
at what was then known as Ecore des Margot, commanding His
Majesty *s galley "La Venganza** before "Campo de Esperanza/*
By order of Gayoso he cleared the woods for the fort, clearing six or
seven arpens in one day. The Chickasaw Indians seeing that he did
this work with his men all unarmed were greatly pleased and asked
Gayoso through their chief, Ligulayacabe, the privilege to give him
a name, and named him "Payemingo," meaning "without fear." He
was so charmed with the place he cleared for the fort that he says
that "it would be a grief for such important lands to fall into the
hands of the Americans." *®

The names of the settlers who came to New Madrid, induced by
Morgan's splendid scheme, cannot all be ascertained, but the number
was larger than now generally supposed. Free land and no taxation
were undoubtedly great inducements. So also the knowledge of the
fact that no vexatious obstructions existed as to the shipment of the
agricultural produce of the Spanish country to New Orleans. Among
those who were attracted by Morgan to New Madrid were David
Gray" and Joseph Story, both of Massachusetts. Gray, prior to his
immigration to New Madrid, lived at Kaskaskia. In New Madrid he
was a merchant, and held the position of interpreter, being master of
the Spanish and French languages. Little else is known about him.
He, however, as well as his wife, were possessed of a degree of culture
and education unusual at that time in the district. He owned prop-
in 1788. His son, Francois Langlois, Junior, in 1802 married Barby St. Aubin,
daughter of Jean Baptiste St. Aubin and Marie Louise Dennir, deceased, natives
of Vincennes.

*• Received the special thanks of the king for meritorious service while under
command of General Don Bernardo de Galvez in East and West Florida; was
commandant of the brigantine "Galveztown ;" also served at the fort of Natchito-
ches; aided in capturing William Bowles, and took him to Havanna; took artil-
lery to New Madrid in 1793 when threatened by the French-American filibus-
teros ; captured a number of small English vessels loaded with artillery and flour.
An active man. His son, Pedro Andre Rousseau, a cadet in the Louisiana
regiment.

** Native of Dunbar, son of Alexander Gray and Margaret Melville, in
1800 married Dinah Martin, widow of Azor Rees and daughter of Matthias
Martin and Eleanor Grififen, of Pennsylvania. On account of cruel treatment
his wife secured a separation from him.

McCOY— WATERS 143

erty both in the village and in Big Prairie. Joseph Story, the deputy
Spanish surveyor of the district, was a son of William Story and Jane
Appleton of Boston, Massachusetts, and came to New Madrid with
Morgan to assist in laying out the city. He married Catherine Seek,
daughter of Jacob Seek and Margarite Keser, of Pennsylvania, at
New Madrid in 1 794.

Captain Robert McCoy and Captain Richard Jones Waters,
already mentioned, were perhaps the most prominent American
residents of New Madrid at this period. McCoy originally resided
in Vincennes, but setded in New Madrid in 1787 and engaged
in the Indian trade. For a number of years he was an active citizen in
Spanish New Madrid, an ofl&cer and adjutant general of militia, and
in command of a Spanish galley, no unimportant position at that
time at New Madrid, when all vessels navigating the Mississippi
river, under the Spanish rules and regulations, were compelled to land
there, and all the cargoes destined for New Orleans, or points in the
Spanish possessions, were sub-
ject to inspection. McCoy
remained in the Spanish naval
service until the arrival of
Don Henri Peyroux. Before
the arrival of Peyroux, and from June to August, 1799, he acted
as commandant of New Madrid. In 1800 he was commandant
in the Tywappity Bottom. This Tywappity Bottom is situated
opposite the mouth of the Ohio, and at that time many Americans
coming down the river sought the privilege of settling in this rich and
fertile district, and McCoy's services were very valuable to the
Spanish government as well as to the new immigrants. He died
and was buried at New Madrid in 1840.''

Richard Jones Waters " was a physician by profession. He
was induced by Morgan's glowing scheme to settle at New

*' 2 Hunt's Minutes, pp. 144-5, Missouri Historical Society Archives.
Years afterward, when the old cemetery of New Madrid was gradually washing
into the river, an old negro one morning came to the old graveyard with his
wagon and dug up the bones of his old master, carried them to another place,
and re-interred them. McCoy married Marie Lafond, daughter of Dr. Lafond.

" Native of Maryland, son of William Waters and Rachel Jonce (Jones);
in 1800 married Franjoise Godfroy (widow of Louis Vandenbenden, engineer of
Upper Louisiana) daughter of Rene Godfroy and frangoise Randu, natives of
Contance in Normandy, province of France. He died in 1806, leaving an es-
tate of $60,000 in cash, a very large sum at that time. Had no children, but
adopted two sons of Mrs. Jacob Myers. These boys were respectively named
John and Richard Jones Waters. John left the country when a youth, disap-

144 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Madrid. He possessed energy and enterprise; built the first
water-mill in New Madrid at the mouth of the bayou St. John ;
was a merchant, and extensively engaged in the Indian trade;
was a speculator in land, and became a very large land owner.
After the acquisition of Louisiana he was a leading and active member
of the first convention assembled west of the Mississippi river, and his
name appears on the remonstrance addressed by that convention to
the Congress of the United States. According to DeLassus, " he was a
very zealous officer, of extensive knowledge, but of somewhat extrava-
gant disposition and very quarrelsome,' ' evidently referring to the
litigation in which he was involved with almost every one.

Among other prominent traders in New Madrid, in addition to
those already enumerated, were Barth^lemi Tardiveau & Co.**
Barthfelemi Tardiveau was no doubt the most distinguished settler
attracted to New Madrid by Morgan. Roosevelt remarks that he
has found several disconnected notes about him that prove his
importance in the development of the west. He was a native of
France, but had lived in Holland, a man of education and culture.
In 1780 he was a merchant in Louisville and furnished supplies
to General George Rogers Clark. While there he addressed
a letter to General Clark, recommending that a certain
Shawnee squaw be sent as a messenger with peace proposal to the
tribes in Ohio, which suggestion was adopted with good results.
After peace was established between the colonies and Great Britain he
removed to Kaskaskia. During the turbulent and lawless period
that prevailed in the country after the conquest Tardiveau la-
bored earnestly to protect the rights of the old French habitans.
When Gen. Harmar came to Kaskaskia he was greatly impress-
ed with Tardiveau's ability, relied on him in his relations with the
French residents and made him his interpreter. As attorney he
represented the French settlers before the old Continental Congress
in New York, endeavoring to secure a confirmation of the old
French titles, to land that had been in the possession of these habi-
tans for almost a century. He was bitterly assailed, principally

■

peared and never was heard of, but Richard remained with his adopted mother
and finally inherited all the property.

** The members of this firm were, Tardiveau, Pierre Menard and
Pierre Audrain. Menard was a merchant at Kaskaskia, a large slave owner,
and in 1800 sold property to Edward Robertson, including horse-mill and dis-
tillery, with all machinery and stock, taking in part payment slaves. In 1804
this firm owed Jean Baptiste Sarpy of New Orleans 11,991 piastres for mer-
chandise.

TARDIVEAU 145

because these French settlers agreed to pay him for his services with
a part of the land, title to which was thus to be perfected, and
the only means the settlers had to pay him for his trouble.
Morgan, too, interested in securing for his new colony a large im-
migration, sought to discourage Tardiveau and intrigued to defeat
Congressional action. Although thus opposed in his work, princi-
pally through his efforts, Congress between 1788 and 1791 passed
several acts securing the French settlers their land claims, and in
addition made grants to all who had served in the militia and to
the American settlers who had made improvements on land
granted by the American officials. To the French settlers these
grants were of little benefit. Their lands and claims soon
fell into the hands of speculators. Tardiveau, too, seems to have
realized that these simple French were in no wise a match in the
grasp for land and wealth with their American compeers. At any
rate, in 1792 he wrote a letter to Count Aranda outlining a plan
to attract the French population on the east side of the Missis-
sippi to the Louisianas, and finally himself removed to New
Madrid in 1793. Tardiveau was a man of literary ability, an ac-
complished linguist, spoke and wrote French, English and Span-
ish and also was familiar with some Indian languages. He was
Spanish interpreter at New Madrid at the time of his death."

Two German traders, Steinbeck & Reinecke,*' who had estab-

" His library was inventoried as follows : a Greek and Latin dictionary, ten
volumes of Greek and Latin books, an English-Spanish dictionary, a French
dictionary of two volumes, Johnson's English dictionary, a treatise on agriculture,
a Dictionary of Commerce, the works of Montesquieu in six volumes, Necker's
works on Finances in three volumes, three volumes of the American Agricultur-
ist, Restant's Grammar, and nine French volumes. From a letter to St. James
Bcauvais, dated New York, 1788, it appears that Barth^lemi Tardiveau was
there to secure a grant from Congress of 500 acres to each of the inhabitants of
Kaskaskia. After much delay he finally secured a report favoring a grant of
400 acres, but hopes that the full 500 acres will be finally granted. Here he met
Colonel Morgan, and writes that Morgan much discouraged him in his work,
assuring him that Congress would grant nothing, that he (Morgan) was about
to purchase 2,000,000 acres with some 200 persons of means, and he ought to
join him in this enterprise. It was also charged that he favored a land-grant
by Congress because he intended to buy out the French settlers anyway
who were going across the river into Spanish territory, and finally some asserted
that the French had lost nothing by Clark's troops, all of which greatly
harassed Tardiveau, but finally the act was passed. The St. Louis archives
show that in 1786 Madame Chouteau sold Tardiveau a farm in Grand Px-airie
6 arpens by 80 for 10,000 pounds of flour, a house built of posts 80 feet long
and divided into several apartments was located on this land. Evidently Tardi-
veau at this time had some idea of settling in St. Louis.

*• Frederick Reineche (Reinecke) merchant, native of "Brunswick en Al-
magne," son of deceased Jean Frederick Reinecke and Margaret Karley ; in 1804
married Rebecca Butler, native of Montgomery county, Maryland; daughter

146 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

lishments at Cape Girardeau and at Little Prairie also did busi-
ness at New Madrid. Other traders were Derbigny, LaForge &
Cq.,*^ and Etienne Bogliolo, who afterward entered into partner-
ship with McCoy. Bogliolo originally came from the island of
Guadaloupe with considerable property.**

Dr. Samuel Dorsey, a native of Maryland, during the Spanish
government, was surgeon of the post, receiving a monthly salary of
thirty dollars. He came to New Madrid in 1793 from Vincennes,
and in 1795 married a Miss Jose Bonneau, daughter of Charles
Bonneau, at New Madrid, where she died in 1799." Dr. Hugh
McDonald Chisholm was another physician of New Madrid. He
settled in the town in 179 1, and came to New Madrid from Kaskaskia.
He had rendered military service there. He was a land speculator
and merchant. In 1795 he had a grant on the forks of the bayou St.
Martin and St. Mary, but in 1808 the Mississippi had washed this land
away. Dr. Henry Masters was also an early physician in New
Madrid. In 1804 he was appointed justice of the peace of the
district. But perhaps the earliest physician who located in the
New Madrid district was Dr. Elisha Jackson, who came to the
country in 1790. He was a man of property and a slave owner.
Dr. Jean B. Lafond, who was a resident of Kaskaskia when Gen-
eral Clark took possession of that place lived and died here.
With Father Gibault, Dr. Lafond piloted the combined American
and French forces to Vincennes, and greatly assisted in the capture
of that place, by inducing the French habitans of the Illinois country
to espouse the American cause. Subsequently Dr. Lafond removed
to Ste. Genevieve, and from Ste. Genevieve to New Madrid.**.

of Jean Butler and .\nne Chene. Christopher Frederick She(i)ver performed
the ^.^remony. Charles Gross. Robert Mitchell and Reuben ll Bockett, being

witnesses.

*' In 1 70Q bought prx^perty of R. J. Waters, including mill.

^* BoglioK) and his st.>n Matteo were engaged in much early land litigation.
.\ granddaughter of Etienne Bogliolo married Honorable T. J. O. Morrison
for manv \Tars senator from New Madrid district.

^ Son of Nathan lX>rsey and Sophie Owen. Dr. Dorsey was a large land
owner, and fn^m New Madrid R*mo\-ed to the Cape Girardeau district, where
he marrieti his seix>nd wife, a daughter of Jeremiah Thompson; he resided in
the Cape Girardeau district until iSu, and then remox-ed to Claiborne county,

Mississippi.

•• Among the settlers of the \-illage of New Madrid during the Spanish
gi^\-emment were: rienv -\rvhambeau vi 701^ ^ Charies Bonneau (i 791); Louis
Brouillet. Senior UTOi^ nati\'e of Canada, son of Jose|>h Brouillet and Elixm-
beth Dulud; marrie\i Marianne Thibault of Mncennes, dau^ter of NicoUs

A PROTESTANT MINISTER 147

Among those who were led to settle west of the river, by Morgan,

was Andrew Wilson, a native of Scotland, and it is 'said that he

was a Presbyterian minister. Of course he did not exercise his

Thibault and Josephe St. Aubin. Their son, Louis Brouillet, Junior, also a
resident here; Antoine Gamelin (1790), came from Vincennes where he was a
resident in 1770; in 1791 he inherited property from the estate of Ignace
Gamelin, his father, of Montreal, Canada, who died in 1789; his wife was
Lisette de La Jesmerais, probably a daughter of Captain de La Jesmerais, who
Randot reported left "a wife and six children to beggary" upon his death in
1708; Jean Baptiste Bissette (1791); Francois Berthiaume (1790); Charles
Nicolas Bolot (or Blot) (1791); Thomas Chambers (1791) apprenticed his
son Bradshaw Chambers, in 1791, aged six years, to John Hemphill, master
carpenter, for a term of fifteen years; and in 1800 the same boy was bound out
to R. J. Waters for five years; Jean Baptiste Chandellier, Chandillon (or
Chatillon) (1791) also owned a tract on the river St. Frangois; Jacque Coutu,
or Cottu, or Coutue, dit Chatoyer (1791), a trader, son of deceased Etienne
Coutue and Theresa Briant, natives of Canada, parish of St. Antoine, Montreal,
married Charlotte Maisonville, daughter of Joseph Maisonville. Coutue seems
also to have been a carj)enter, says he turned over the buildings he had put
up under contract to Ignace Chatigny ; Francois Champagne, or Compagnotte
(1701) master carpenter; Renez Couder; (or Codere); Jean Baptiste, Toussaint
and Santos Coder or Coudert (1791) Hypolite Campeaux (1791) ; Antoine Cerr^
Senior, (1791); also at Ste. Genevieve and New Bourbon, Ignace Chatign)
(1791), in 1792 sold prop)erty including tanyard, and afterward near Hill or
Pine Tree. Probably the same Chatigny who in 1780 was arrested for speaking
disrespectfully of the court of CahokJa. Louis Toussaint Denoyon (1791); in
1801 on Big Lake and Grand Marais; Samuel Davis (1791); Francois Dumais
(1791), son of Ambroise; Jean Denys (or Dennis) (1791); Joseph Deganne
(1791); Benjamin Davis (1791); Aaron Day (1791); Joseph Dutailler (or
DuTallie (1791), also on river St. Francois; Jean Derland (1791), Forf
Celeste; Francois Derousser (Desrousses), dit St. Pierre (1791) from
Vincennes, married Veronique Metayer, in 1800 owned land on Big
Prairie, on bayou St. Henry and St. Mary; Jean Fasten (1791); John
Fulham (or Fulhorn) (1791), corporal of a company of militia under
Richard Jones Waters; Joseph Fernandez (1791); Louis Gaultier (1791)
appointed Antoine Gamelin to receive a stock of goods for him at New
Madrid, among Joseph L'Amoureux* papers is an account from one
Gaultier dated in 1769, evidently a resident of Vincennes; John Hemphill (or
Hanyshill) (1791) master carj)enter, from Vincennes, parish St. Francois, was
a slave owner; James Hemphill (1791) owned land on lake St. Ann; Gabriel
Hunot, pere, (1791), merchant in the town, had a grant on Lake St. Ann, also
at Carondelet in St.. Louis district; Edouard (Edward) Huettner (1791)1 a
German, merchant and solicitor for Pierre Deroche and Pierre Audrain ; Jere-
miah Kendall (1791); Pierre Latour (1791), also on Big Bay Portage, river St.
Francois; Francois Lacoste (1791), dit Languedoc; Joseph Lafleur, a resident
of Vincennes in 1770, came to New Madrid in 1791 ; Joseph LaGrande (1791),
merchant, "creole de los Illinois," in 1799 received a grant on Big Bay portage,
river St. Francois, from DeLassus for services rendered the government with
the Indians; Madame Lagrand (Veuve) (1791), a Charlotte Legrand, daugh-
ter of deceased Gabriel Legrand, native of Detroit, parish Assimiption, was also
here in 1791, a sister of Jean Marie Legrand. This Charlotte Legrand seems
also to have been in Ste. Genevieve. The La Grande came originally from
Detroit. Louis Laffelier, dit Jasmin (1791), a man by name of Jasmin was at
Vhicennes in 1786, a trader; Francois Lavoix (1791), may be Lacroix of Ste.
Genevieve; JosiahWhittredge (1791) ; Antoine Boitleleau (1791) ; Arthur Mellon
(1791) owned several tracts on the lakes near New Madrid; Joseph Millette
(1791) alsoon river St. Francois; Jean Baptiste Millette (i 791), native^of Canada,
formerly a resident of Vincennes, married Angelique Lafleur who seems to have

148 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

ministry after settling in the Spanish possessions, nor is it known that
he ever preached a sermon in New Madrid even after the country was
acquired by the United States, but he taught school there for a time.

been widow of Joseph Peradeau (Paradot), in 1792 had two grants in Ste. Gen-
evieve district for himself and son, but abandoned them, regranted to Guibourd,
in 1802 was on the St. Francois; Joseph Maisonville, Senior and Junior (1791),
from Detroit, Canada, parish of St. Ann, lived in 1 783 for a time at Vincennes ;
Hibernois (Ibernois), dit Meloche (1791) (evidently an Irishman), afterwards in
Little Prairie; Antoine Mallet (Millette) (1791), of Vincennes, married Cather-
ine Bordeleaux in 1775 at Vincennes, died 1793, had two children, Catherine and
Antoine, Junior, Catherine married Michel Clermont (1794), and is evidently
the Catherine Millette widow Barsaloux in 1791, who afterwards lived at Ste.
Genevieve and died there in 1804; Joseph Montmirel or Monmirel, dit Durant,
or Duren (1791), near Ste. Genevieve in 1795; Jean Baptiste Morelle (1791)
merchant, died in Vincennes in 1793; Kiete or Quiete Naeleman or Naheliman
(1791); MarieOuarllia(i79i); Amable Perron (1791); Francois Paquin, Pasquin
or Pequan (i 791) near the village, in 1802 asks for a grant of land for his sons Fran-
cois, Noel, Antoine and Pierre, which had been abandoned by Charles Bonneau ;
Pierre Porior, dit Desloge (1791)1 furnished material to Joseph Michel for his
house, also material for &e public work of Fort Celeste; Samuel Power (1791) ;
Eustache Peltier (1791), married Angelique Languedoc, but signs her name
Angelique Lacoste, he was in Little Prairie in 1803; Jean Presset (or Gresset)
(1791) ; Pierre Gurez (or Querez), dit LaTulip)e (1791), one of the contractors to
build Fort Celeste, married Marie Josephe Peltier, sold his house to Pierre
Deroche, including all fruit and plants in 1791; Jacob Hans Stillman (1791)
German, married Marie Presle, died in 1792 at Little Prairie; Joseph
Reindeau (or Reguindeau) dit Joachim (1791), of Vincennes, married Therdsa
Raphiante, he owned tracts of land on lakes St. John and St. Thomas, and in
1801 at Little Prairie. A widow of Pierre Peron also seems to have married a
Joseph Riendeau, possibly the same. James Ryan, (1791), boarded for a time
with Conrad Carpenter, in 1794 sold property on bayou St. Thomas to Tardi-
veau, Audrain & Co.; Francois Racine (1791) on lakes St. Marie and St.
Isidore, his sons Franjois, Junior, and Andrew also lived there ; Jean Baptiste
Richard (1791); Azor Rees (1791), slave holder, married Dinah Martin who
afterwards marrie4 David Gray; Veronique Reaume (Veuve Legrand) (1791),
and in the same year we find Veronique Legrand Babinge or Babing;
Charles Boyer dit Laffond or Lafifont (1791) ; John Reburn (1791) ; Joseph Sans-
fa^on (1791); Alexander Sampson (1791), afterwards in Little Prairie and river
Gayoso; Louis St. Aubin, senior (1791), his son Louis, junior, in 1800 was on
Big Lake, also lived at Little Prairie; Jean Baptiste St. Aubin (1791); Pedro
Saffray (1791), merchant and trader, owned property on Lake Ricardo, in 1804
he arranged to leave the post to spend the winter and trade among the Indians,
but was detained by a suit on accounts, in 1800 engaged himself to Gabriel
Cerr^ for two years as clerk and book-keeper, but Cerr6 says on account of
drunkenness, etc., was compelled to dismiss him in 180 1, Saffray remained at the
post, however, subject to his command till the end of the engagement, and
claimed his salary; Pierre Sabourin (1791) merchant, native of Parish of Point
Claire, Montreal, Canada, married Marie Anne(Marianne) Dubez, native of
Vincennes; Sanschagrin (1791); Louis Tonnelier (1791), a witness at the mar-
riage of Joseph Laplante; Louis Violet (1790), had a son named Emanuel Vio-
let he left in care of Jean Dennir, who it seems raised him ; Francois Vachette dit
St. Antoine (1791); Samuel Black (1792), a native of Flanders; Henry Bagley
(or Baclcy), a trader, died in New Madrid in 1792, seems to have been a man of
means as he had a large inventory; a Henry Badley was here in 1791, and a
firm called Baclcy, Hewet & Co.; Don Juan Bartelet (1792), a dealer in New
Madrid, slave owner; Joseph Theodore Baillet (1792); WilUam Bartelet (1792);
Philip Briscot (1792); Joseph Blacborn (Blackburn) (1792); Noel Berthiaume
(1792) ; Hypolite Canyseau (Camp)eau) (1792) ; Ephraim Connor (1792), a native

FIRST SHERIFF 149

His son George Wilson was the first sheriff of New Madrid after the
cession of the country. He was a merchant, and in 1802 sexton
of the parish.

of New Hampshire, son of Benjamin Connor and Marie Fogne in 1793 mar-
ried Lucy Morris, a native of Maryland, Prince George county, daughter of
John Morris and Nancy Mason; Philippe Chifler (Schiffler) (1792); Francois
Cockrel (1792); William Cohen (Cowen), also spelled Culhoon and Caouenne,
a native of Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania (1792) laborer, married
Marie Block, daughter of Henry Block and Marie Hamer of Huntingdon,
Pennsylvania; Joseph Cerezo or Ceres (1792) was in service of Antoine Gamelin
and Pedro Saffray as book-keeper and manager of their distillery, was also at
Portage of river St. Francois; Julia Campeau (1792) widow of Jean Baptiste
Charetier (Chartier) their son Jean Baptiste, junior, native of Vincennes also
lived in New Madrid, in 1803 married Frangoise Latremonille, daughter of Jac-
ques Latremonille and Marie Lafleur, natives of Vincennes ; Toussaint Coder
(or Godair) (1792); John Davis (1792) married Nancy Pritchett and who sur-
vived him living in New Madrid in 1796; Thomas or David Davis dit David
Johnson (1792) on lake St. Marie; Moses Decker (1792) ; Baptiste Foucher(i792)
married Anne Gabriel Besnard ; Bonaventure Foucher, a resident of Vincennes
in 1770, came to New Madrid in 1792; Charles Guilbeaut, Guilbourd, Guil-
bault(orGuilbert) ( 1 791), from Vincennes, parish St. Francois, slave owner, in
1801 at Little Prairie and lake Isidore; Joseph Gonet (1792), in 1802 on river
Gayoso; Claude Joseph Gonet (1793) native of parish of St. Julien in, France,
son of deceased Claude Joseph Gonet and Barby Juliet; Richard Gras (or
Grace); Russell Huitt (Hewitt) (1792) carpenter, employed by McCoy, was
one of the heirs of Henry Bagley, also owned property on lake St. Thomas;
John James (1792); Francisco Jourdin (1792); Jacob Myers (1792) dit Rober-
son Pearson, official carpenter, in this year built probably a temporary church, for
which he received from Portelle $400, and in 1 793 another church, was sergeant
of a company of militia, and in 1795 conducted a public tavern for one year, obli-
gating himself not to sell liquor or strong drink to any Indians or colored slaves
under penalty of thirty piastres and the confiscation of his liquor. This Jacob
Myers was a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; in 1801 married Cheriat Lee,
a native of Maryland. Moses Lansford (1791) lived at or near Fort Celeste, also
owned property on the Mississippi in St. Louis district at Petite Rocks, in 1800,
which he bought of Jacques Glamorgan, who had acquired it of Jean Dodje
(Dodge) of Ste. Genevieve; George Lansford also lived in New Madrid; Paul
Portneuf dit Laderoute (1786) native of Illinois, son of Paul Portneuf dit Lade-
route and Louise (or Lisette) Debois, in 1793 married Marie Ann Derosier,
(widow of deceased Joseph Dubez) native of village St. Pierre of Illinois, daugh-
ter of Bonaventure Derosier and Judith Larivier. Two of the witnesses to mis
marriage were, Frangois Leonas and Bonar Arizabel. Juan Christianero (1792)
(a German whose real name was Johann Christian Gerold) soldier of infantry at
Fort Celeste; John Frangois Laloue or Laluz (1792) at Fort Celeste; Pedro
Languedoc (1792); Francois Languedoc (1792); Jean Moise (Moses) Malboeuf
(1791) ; William Mack (or Mock) (1792), native of Virginia, son of Rudite (Ran-
dolph) Mock and Catherine Trombeau, married Ruth Morris, daughter of
John Morris and Nancy Mason, natives of Prince George county, Maryland,
was on lakes St. Ann and St. Frangois; Marie Morgan (1792) in the village on
the Mississippi; James McCulloch (1792) also on lake St. Thomas; Frederick
Ostman (1792), his property at his death sold to J. B. McCourtney; Pierre Phil-
berry (1791), sold in this year to Don Thomas Portelle five thousand shingles
at six pesos per hundred; Pedro Padget (1792); Thomas Pardon (or Purdon)
(1792); Antoine Petit (1792) contracted with Joseph Michel to do carpenter
work; Ebenezer L. Platte (1792); Etienne St. Marie (1792), on lake St. Mary
and Bay of Portage of river St. Frangois, his children were Thereza, Ursula,
Etienne, Joseph, Louis and Francois; William Spann (or Spahn) a German,
(1792) married Ann Catarina, daughter of Andrew Toucanbroud; Andrew

ISO fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Not long after the establishment of the post of New Madrid in

1789, the public road, — el camino real, — the King's Highway, — was

marked out, following the old Indian trail running from New Madrid

Toucanbroud, a German (Trockenbrot) (1792), in 1794 on lake Eulalie; John
Toucanbroud was here in 1793; Jean Baptiste Tailtreau (1792) engages him-
self to Joseph Turcotte for one month as bucheur (wood-chopper) at 16 piastres ;
Isaac Thomson (1792), in 1802 on Mill Prairie, slave owner; Conel Boyle (1794) ;
Jacob Bogard (or Beaugard) (1794), in 1800 on road to Illinois adjacent to
John Friend; Noel Berthiaume (1792), his wife Marie Louise Berthiaume, still
uved in New Madrid in 1802; Francois Boudean (Bandean) corporal 2d com-
pany militia of New Madrid, died 1793; Joseph Barbier (1793); Pierre Brou-
illet, son of Louis Brouillet and Louise Denoyer, died in New Madrid in 1 793 ;
Charles Curott (or Curote) (1793) merchant, twenty-eight years of age, after-
wards on lake St. Mary, his son Charles baptised in 1804; Pedro Champagne
(1793) ; Francois Michel Chilard (1793) ; Clodio (Glot) Antoine Gabriel Coupin
(1793); William Chambers (1793) engages himself to Philip Ducomb as car-
penter for four months; Benjamin Clermont (1793); Jean Baptiste Fovrct died

1793, was buried at New Madrid, was native of Masquas of Three

Rivers, Canada ; Philip Ducomb married Mary Gilbert (or Guilbert) ; Jean
Baptiste Droulliez (1793); Juan Dunn (1793); Jacob Alcorez (1793) soldier;
Carlos Depaw (Depauw) (1793) ; Eloy Frere (1793) ; Thomas Faidome (or Var-
dome) (1793) employed by McCoy to cultivate and build on his land at lake
St. Isidore; Juan Simon Guerin (1793) mason and brick layer in 1799; Frangois
Hamelin (or Amelin (1793) Joachim (1793), probably corrupted to Joseph
Swashon a resident in 1800; Frangois Grand; Jean Jeram (Germain) (1793)
John Klein (1793) German; Nicholas Lesieur (1793) ; Joseph Amoureaux(i793),
native of BdUcheville, Canada, married Marie Louise Dapron at Vincennes in
1 780, daughter of Guillaume Dapron and Louise Clermont, and they had one
son, Joseph, junior. Joseph, senior, was a blacksmith at Vincennes as early as
1769, and after his removal to New Madrid was in partnership as lock and
blacksmith with Pierre Payant ; owned a number of slaves ; a Creole slave of his
bought his liberty for $100; Miquel Emile Joseph Lefebre (1793) ; Frangois Leo-
nard (1793) witness at wedding of Paul Portneuf; Jean Adrian Langlois(i793)
native of Paris, France, parish of St. Germain, merchant living formerly at Kas-
kaskla, also owned property in Gallipolis, slave owner, his son Jean Adrain in
1802 married Theresa Bouillette, daughter of Guillaume Bouillette and Mary
Madalaine Gosse, native of Brienne, France; Cirile Leduc (1793) and on lake St.
Mary; Didier Marchant (or Marchand) (1793) soldier of the militia;
Robert McMahan (1793); John Pritchard (1793) (or Pritchet); Juan Nicolas
Pierre (1793) stone mason; Frangois Juan Pierre Glot (1793); Francois Patier
(1793); Jacob Pain (1793); Joseph and Pierre Perodot (or Paradot)( 1793) also
Elizabeth, widow of Jean Baptiste Berton dit St. Martin, daughter of Joseph
Perodot and Angelique Lafleur; Ramona Pamar (or Romain Damar or Ramar)
(1793)1 or "^ay be Ramos; Frangois Picard (1793); Susana Preston (1793) Irish
descent; Antoine Perra (1793) soldier of artillery; Pinto (1793) soldier; one
Pritchet (1793) engages Philip Ducomb to teach his son Thomas Pritchet, aged
12 years, to read and write French; George Robock (or Roebuck) (1703) and
on lakes St. Francois and Isidore; Antoine Jose Rouby (1793) also on lake St.
Isidore; Jose Rindo (1793) ; Thomas Riviere dit Ricard (1793) died at the home
of Joseph Michel; Carlos Leonardo Soudry (1793); Juan Baptiste Sallier (1793)
a slave owner; Carlina Seek (widow) (1793), German; Frangois St. Aubin (1793) ;
Baptiste Tonnelier (1793) Andre Tardiveau (1793) at Fort Celeste; Pierre Tar-
diveau (1793); Marie Warlia (1793); Philberry Wilson (1792) secured a divorce
from his wife; Thomas Yous (1793) ; Jean Baroes (1794) ; Joseph Collins (1794)
possibly Captain Joseph Collins who, in 1799, went to the West Indies, and was
the son of Mrs. Nancy Gill, wife likely of James Gill; James Adams (1794);
Laurent Amelin (Hamelin) (1794); Michel Clermont (1794), his wife Cather-
ine Mallet died in 1804; Jacques Cottee (or Cotte) (1794), merchant, on lake

EL CAMINO REAL 151

north to St. Louis. This road passed through what is now known as
Big Prairie and the Rich Woods, to Scott county ; thence across the
hills to Cape Girardeau, to Ste. Genevieve, and from there to St.

St. Marie in 1800, his wife Suzanne Legrand, seciired loan with property, includ-
ing billiard table near bayou St. John along the Butte de Lesieur; Jean Bap-
tiste Chodion (1794); Jacob Cross (or Croise) of Pennsylvania in 1794 sold a
slave in New Madrid; Pierre Riche Dumay (1794) owned two slaves, in 1799
on lake St. Mary, on Hubble creek, in 1804 at Tywappity and in 1800 at the
old Cape in Cape Girardeau district; Thomas Diez (1794); Jean Baptiste Du-
chassin (1794) Dr. Domingo Fleitar (1794) (a German) doctor of medicine at
New Madrid; Jean Marie Hanimer (1794); John Handley (1794) from Ken-
tucky: Jean tourdin (1794) employed by Nicolas Jean Pierre; Francois La
Riviire (i 794) ; Joseph Michel (i 794), merchant and trader, son of deceased Jean
Baptiste Michel and Madeline Vital, natives of Longeville, dependence of Gener,
married in 1804 Elizabeth Lafond, a native of Ste. Genevieve, daughter of
deceased Dr. Jean Baptiste Lafond and Charlotte Lacourse, a sister of Eliza-
beth married Robert McCoy. Michel also owned property on the Pemiscon,
was a slave owner, and had a horse-mill on lake St. Mary ; Louis Augustin Tar-
teron de Lebeaume (1792) a Frenchman, and speculator, his wife Adelle Du-
temple; Francois Morel (1794); Paul Porier (1793); Parisien (1704); Antoine
Peine (1794); Pierre Servan (or Servant) (1794); Nicolas Tessier (1794); Gre-
goire Reso (1794) Hyacinth Berthiaume (1795) merchant, also on river St. Fran-
cois; Hypolite Bolon or Boulon (1795) interpreter of the Indian languages for
the king was also a resident here for a time ; Cologne ( 1 795) ;Portell Coutre ( 1 795) ;
Charles Campbell (1795) son of Thomas and Lucreda Grant Campbell, of
Culpepper county, Virginia, married Catherine Brown, of Washington county,
Pennsylvania, daughter of John Brown and Marie Lordenberg, mar-
ried by the commandant of the post in this year; Jean Comb, died in New Mad-
rid in 1794 at the home of Madame Marquet; Antoine Denoyon (1795); Gir-
ard Derlac (1795), native of Bordeaux, France, son of Bernard Derlac and
Jeanne Lagune, married Marie Constance Guibault, daughter of Charles Gui-
bault and Cecelia Thiriot, native of Vincennes, in 1802, at Little Prairie and
Grand rue Gayoso: Manuel Diaz (1795) soldier; Michael Fortier (1795) trader
at New Orleans, but not in New Madrid ; Andrew Godare (Goder or Godaire or
Godair dit Tagarouche) (1795), native of Vincennes, son of Pierre Goder (or Go-
dair) and Susan Boulan, married Barbe Hunot, daughter of Joseph Hunot and
Marie Josephine Robert, natives of Vincennes, afterwards in 1803 Godare married
Frangaise Bonneau, native of Vincennes, present at wedding Andre Goder, Jeune ;
Carlos Grimar (1795); Jean Baptiste Grimar (or Grimaird) (1795) son of de-
ceased Pierre Grimar and Genevieve Colon, natives of Vincennes, and in 1804
married Fran^aise DesRousse, native of Vincennes, widow of deceased Fran-
cois Paquette (daughter of Francois DesRousse and Veronique Mittaye), Ti-
rart was brother-in-law of Frangaise, Grimar also owned property on lake Gayo-
so; Augustine Grande (or Grandes) (1795), sergeant at New Madrid, but after-
ward commandant of the post near the present Memphis named "Campo
Esperanza"; MadeUne Hunot (1795); Tacob McCluny, of Washington, Pa.,
asks pa)rment of cargo of flour wrecked near New Madrid in 1795, through
his agent David Cook ; Fernando Munos, a sailor, died in New Madrid in 1 795 ;
Joseph McCourtney (1795) native of Ireland, son of William McCourtney and
Margarita M. Kalchender, married Prudentia Pritchet, native of Virginia, daugh-
ter of John Pritchet, Michel Raille (or Riley) a witness ;^urwell Overby (1795)
a merchant, in 1799 purchased property in St. Louis; Francois Paquette (or
Pacquette) (1794), native of Montreal, Canada, parish St. Vincent, son of Pierre
Paquette and Marie Agnes Charisson, married Fran^oise DesRousse, native
of Vincennes, daughter of Francois DesRousse (or Derousser) and Veronique
Mittaye, (she afterwards married J. B. Grimar); Manuel Perez, sergeant of
troops; Ambroise Seraphine (1795); Manuel Sanchez (1795) sailor; John Barry
(1796); Frandsco Couteley (Coutley) dit Marchekterre (1796), a Canadian, in

152 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Louis. The road is still a great traveled highway on substantially the

original line from New Madrid north to Ste. Genevieve. It was also

known by the eariy American pioneers as the "Illinois" road because

1 799 on bayou St. Thomas ; Joseph Charpentier (i 796) ; Anna Collins Gill, ( 1 796) ;
Rosalie and Louisa Gamelin (1796) ; William Goudin (1796) ; Jacob Gool (1796) ;
Juan Halley (1796); Alexander Laforge (1796); Pierre Sabourin (1791) a native
of Montreal, married Marianna Dub^, her mother Marianna De Rozier, came
to New Madrid from Vincennes; John Russell (1796); Luis and Hy]X)lite St.
Jean (1796); Antoine Vachette dit St. Aubin (1796), (probably instead of **Va-
hette" should be "Casse", and Antoine Vachard dit Mimi L' Ardoise was also
here in 1796, and in St. Louis district prior to 1790. He was a Canadian, and
in 1806 married Margaret Saborough (or Laborough). Jean Vian (or Viot) dit
Gascon (1796), afterwards at bayou St. John, Grand Marais and Big Lake,
was brother-in-law to Jean Baptiste Chartier, junior ; Jean Baptiste Bonneau
(1797); Rouette Boulanger (1797) at Fort Celeste; John King (1797!; Florencio
MiUan (1797) first sergeant of the Fixed regiment of Louisiana; AnsHmeMcColum
(1797); Joachim Riendeau (1797) a teamster at New Madrid; Daniel Wagner
(1797), seems to have been in New Madrid; Walling Fitch (1797) carpenter;
Barth^lemi Corvaisier ( 1 798) ; Samuel Hill ( 1 798) boarded with Burweli Overby ;
Joseph Laferny (Lafresniere) (1799), merchant in New Madrid, creole de las Illi-
nois, slave owner, owned property in Big Prairie on lake St. John near where Sike-
ston now is, and in 1802 owned property on lake St. Mary including horse-mill
and buildings; Jean Baptiste St. Marie, junior, (1799), son of Francois St. Marie
and Marie Ann Boyer, had property near New Madrid on lakes; Claude Thiriet
(orThiriot) (1796) merchant, in 1800 on bayou St. Henry in Big Prairie; John
Whelan (1797); Elie (or Elias) Carter (1800) on lake St. John; Jesse Claywel
(1800) his wife was Catherine Cooper ; Charles Crabbin (1800) ; Charles Castniget,
Chasturget (or Castonget) (1800), orphan who seems to have lived with Antoine
Vachard, was on lake St. Mary and twenty -seven miles north of New Madrid;
Francqis and Jean Baptiste Dupine (or Dupin) (1800); Peter Garreau (1800),
married a Miss Perrodeau (or Paradot), in 1802 in Little Prairie on the Mis-
\ sissippi and also owned property on lake St. Mary ; Tames Rogers lived near the
village ; Sarah Hansberg in 1 799 was a resident of New Madrid, having lived there
for several years; George Johnson (1799), was in business in New Madrid and
owned property on lake Ricardo; Charles Logan (1800) also on the St. Francois
in the St. Genevieve district; Francois Lacomb (1880) did business in New Mad-
rid as a merchant, probably the same who was in St. Louis district; Gabriel
Parquer (or Parks) (1800), merchant from Kentucky, slave owner; John Robb
(1800) American merchant; Nicholas Savage (1800); Jonathan Shelby (1800)

son of David; Jean Thiriot (1800), son of Julia Campeau, native of

VtHcennes; Nicolas Tirart (or Tirard), lived at New Madrid prior to 1800,
native of Vincennes, also lived at Little Prairie, his son Louis, a Creole, in 1800
married Marie Reine DesRousse (daughter of Francois DesRousse) of Vin-
cennes, their daughter Marie was baptised in 1804, in 1802 this Louis lived on
river Gayoso; Jean Butter (or Butler) (1800), evidently John Butler, who brought
suit against Jesse Demint and Andre Simpson (i8oi),'a farmer from Pennsyl-
vania, was imprisoned at one time; Francois D' Hibercourt (or D'lftb^ourt),
a French interpreter; William McKem (1801) near the village; Pierre Matry
(1801); Francois McCoy (1801); Louis Pelard, a witness at New Madrid; Am-
broise Bissonnet (1802), his wife Julia Harpin (it seems she also married George
Germain); Joseph Belan (Bellan or Bolon) dit Laviolette (1802) in village
fronting the Mississippi, married Louise Prudhomme, native of Montreal, Can-
ada, his son Ignace Belan in 1804 married Rosalie Millette (daughter of deceased
Jean Baptiste Millette,) Joseph Belon in 1804 engaged himself to Etienne St.
Marie to go to the river St. Francois to trade with the Indians; Adam Boyne
(1802); William Daperon ^1802) and on portage of river St. Francois; Carlos
Chartres (1802); Joseph Etre (1802); Joseph Eastus (1802) six miles south of
New Madrid, on'lake St. Francois ;^Benjamin Fooy(i8o2) seems to have been a

ROAD NORTH 153

it led to what was then known as the " Illinois country ' * north of
Apple creek and to St. Louis as far as the Missouri river. This
road passed through Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve, but paths
led from it to the chain of rocks above Commerce, and to the
mouth of Apple creek, and connected with old traces and paths on
the east side of the river. Captain Charles Friend, from Monon-
gahela (Monongalia) county, Virginia, in 1799 ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ earliest
settlers on this road, near the present town of Benton, at the foot
of what is now known as the Scott county hills. Captain Friend
was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and with nine sons and
two daughters came to upper Louisiana in the year named.*^ The

surveyor here in 1804 but afterwards at £spera.nza encampment; (James Ferres
( or Fe rrer), junior, Jean and Humphrey Ferres (1802J,' Jean Bapt^e Hemault
(1S02) near thie villttge; Fanny Hard (1802), a white woman, a captive among
the Shawanoes; Guillaume Hinkson (1802) (1803) sergeant of the ganison;
Jonathan Stoker (1802); Mathias Belsome (1803), carpenter; Marie Block
(1803) presented a bill to estate of Thomas Powers for nursing in last sickness;
Chenne dit Stephen Dumas; Isidore Dupin, native of Montreal, Canada, son
of Xavier Dupin, married Marie DeRousse, and their son Frangois was bap-
tized in 1804; Elizabeth Gamelin (1803); Christopher G. Houts; Samuel Hous-
ton ; John Henthow (Henthorn in Cape Girardeau militia company) Abraham
Kiner (1803); Michel Amoureaux (1803) recorder of district of New Madrid,
bought property on lake St. Ann, seems also to have been interpreter, in 1806 was
deputy surveyor, and in 1808 judge of probate; Jean Baptiste Aime prior to
1803 owned property on the Mississippi one mile from New Madrid, and was
probably Jean Baptiste Aime, junior, son of Charles Aime, deceased, native
of Ste. Genevieve, who in 1802 married Marie Louis Belon, daughter of Joseph
Belon (or Belan — Beland) dit Laviolette; David AUein (1802), locksmith by
profession; Jean Baptiste LaTremonille, a cooper; Antoine Lafond, owned
property on lake St. Isidore; Major J. B. McCourtney; Frangois Martinez,
corporal ; Peggy Curtis Snaling (Snelling), lived at home of Francois Barth^lemi
Corvaisier, was a cousin of his wife, and of Elisha and Philip Craig, who came
to New Madrid in 1804; Pierre Antoine Tabeaux (Thibaul^ merchant
from Cahokia; Louis Vachard, married Marie Ann Thibault, their daughter
Julia baptised in 1804; Elisha Winters (1801); Ephraim Dunbar (1804) ser-
geant of the garrison of the post of New Madrid; Joseph Gravier (1802) mer-
chant making frequent trips up the Mississippi, also in Little Prairie and Mill
Prairie, his wife was Louise Chauvin whom he divorced in 1804, she was a sister-
in-law of LaVall6e; William Swan (1804); William Scott (1804), merchant.
Louis Baby was another early resident of New Madrid. He was a mem-
ber of the distinguished French-Canadian family, a name grouped by Suite
"avec la noblesse authentique formait la classe superieure du Canada."
Ap|X)inted Jacques Baby, negociant at Detroit, as attorney to receive for him
his succession of the estate of Louise de Conagne, his mother, of Montreal, Can-
ada, widow of Colonel Louis Baby, his father, he being the only child. Was on
Lake St. Mary in 1800, and owned property on river Gayosa that year.

•* The sons were named respectively, Aaron, Israel, Teene, Charles, Jacob,
John, Alexander, David and Jonas. Jonas, John, Jacob and Charles each se-
cured a grant of land under the Spanish government in Tywappity. School-
craft mentions an Augustine Friend as a settler on White river, five miles below
the shoals, in 1819, and where he was treated with much hospitality. Doubtless
a member of the same family of pioneers. — Tour of the Interior of Missouri and
Arkansas, p. 71 (London Ed. 1820).

154 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

principal settlement in what was then and ever since known as Big
Prairie, in the New Madrid district was located on or near this old
highway.

The precise territorial jurisdiction of the commandants at New
Madrid and Cape Girardeau were for a time a matter of dispute.
This New Madrid jurisdiction appears to have at one time extended
at least as far north as the so-called Big Swamp, a bottom about three
miles wide, located immediately south of Cape Girardeau city, and
called by the French Grand Marais. The New Madrid district always
embraced the Tywappity bottom, situated opposite the mouth of the
Ohio, as well as all the country as far west as White river.*' Before
the establishment of the civil and military post of Cape Girardeau,
the jurisdiction of the commandant of New Madrid extended as
far north as Cinque Homme creek, this creek being named as the
northern limit of the claim of Morgan. On the south, the juris-
diction of the Arkansas post seems to have extended as far north
as the mouth of the St. Francois and west to White river, this being
the limit of the New Madrid district in that direction, thus apparently
making the limits of the district co-extensive with Morgan's claim.

The principal settlement near New Madrid was located on Lake St.
Ann, and among the first settlers on this lake was Joseph Story, already
mentioned. Story for a time lived in the town of New Madrid, but in
1799 had a farm on lake St. Henry. Along bayou St. John, emptying
its waters into the Mississippi at New Madrid, there was another
settlement, extending north and along this bayou.** On lake St.

•' The Indian name of White river was "Niska."

* The settlers here were, Thomas Young Horsley (1792); John Harvey,
a resident of the village in 1792, had a tract fronting on the Mississippi and
this lake; Jean Biggs (1793), native of London, England, son of Samuel Biggs
and Elizabeth Massendow, married Martha Ann Smith (widow of deceased
MiUer) native of England "en une partie de Irlanda", daughter of John and
Rachel Smith. This wife died, it seems, in about three weeks, and he after-
wards married Elizabeth Robertson (widow of Aaron Henry Thompson) in
the same year, native of Dunfrees, north of Brittany, daughter of Daniel Robert-
son, David Dabbyan one of the witnesses. He sold a slave he had acquired
from his first wife, Martha Ann, to Elisha Jackson for S200. Soloman and
Charles Thorn, brothers, were witnesses; Juan Frederick (1793); James Gill
(1794), born 1736 at Drogneda, Ireland, was sawyer and bombardier in
Captain John Bryce's company, received his discharge in 1781, at Philadelphia,
and in 1784 was at Cape May sawing for Edmonston & Living, and in 1793
was master of a grain boat sent from Pittsburg to Fort Washington to
John Bailie, deputy quartermaster; in 1798 in New Madrid; John Homer (or
Nomer) (1796) ; Thomas Johnson (1795), in 1800 left New Madrid on a voyage,
making La Valine his attorney; John Summers (1794) sold in 1800 to John T^vel;
Francois Fordney, (Fordoneyor Fordonic) (1796); Thomas Brucks (1798) also
a resident of the village, in 1803 property was sold by his widow, Ann Bnicks,

VANDENBENDEN 155

Marys, Stephen and Joseph St. Marie, though residents of New
Madrid, in 1791, had their plantations, so also Francois St. Marie dit
Bourbon.** They all came from Vincennes, and were ancient inhabit-
ants of that place. Francois married Marie Ann Boyer. In addition
Louis Vandenbenden, who lived at New Madrid in 1795, had prop-
erty on this lake and lake St. Isidore. He was a native of Flanders
and a civil engineer, came to New Madrid from Gallipolis, and by
Baron Carondelet was appointed to erect the fortifications of St. Louis
in 1797. He also enjoyed the friendship of Gayoso. His brother
Joseph with Audrain, Tardiveau & Company, was interested in a
flour contract with the Spanish government. To supply the
flour under this contract the firm built a mill on bayou St. Thomas,
which in 1796 was much admired by General Collot. He says that
the mill was erected on pilework and that the work was done with

whose first husband was James Gill ; a DeBrucks seems to have been here prior
to 1803; or maybe the same as Thomas Brooks; Daniel and William Frazier
(1799), in 1801 at Tywappity and 1802 on lake St. Mary, were sons of John ; Jen-
kins Harris (1798) presented a bill for service in sickness of Thomas Brucks,
his daughter Elizabeth married Antoine Lafond; David Devore (1802) son of
Luke, two miles from mill of R. J. Waters; Alexander Frazier (1802); John
Elliott; Henry Block, sold his property in 1806 and moved to lake Ricardo.

•* The first plantations were opened by David Shelby (1796), of Pennsyl-
vania, relative of Isaac, married first Elizabeth Bolon, they had two children,
James living in the state of Pennsylvania, and Elizabeth the wife of James
Bums of Bois Brule; his second wife was the widow of James Farris, Catherine
Belle, they had three children, Reese, £^ie and Marie, all minors in 1802; he
also had a son, Jonathan, in 1800 his widow sold land at a place called New
Hampshire, on lake St. Mary^ shie died in 1802 ; Jacob Crow (1795) also on lake
Thomas; Nicolas Da]>eron (or Dapron) (1797), and in 1802 in the town, his
wife was Marie Louise Racine, their son Nicolas, junior, was baptised in 1804;
Peter Daperon (1797) William Cox (1800) and in 1802 at Tywappity; Peter
LaBombard (1800); Pierre Sans Quartier (1800); Antoine Trudell (1800);
Jean Baptiste Langlois (1800); Daniel Ritchel (1801); William Dunkin (Dun-
can) (1801), a Madame Dunkins presented a bill against the estate of Thomas
Brucks for nursing him in last sickness; Daniel Hazel (1801); William Harris
Glass (1801), in 1803 was implicated in an affair which caused him to be fined,
and he left the post; Charles Nelson (1802); Jacob Self (1803), on this lake and
in Big Prairie; Patrick Connor (1803) ; Martin Coons (1803), and lake St. Mary;
Francois Collell (1802), sells at public sale the property of Bonaventure Collell
on lake St. John; Jesse Demint (1800) carpenter; Etienne Dumay (1803) a
miller by profession, brother of Joseph Etienne, junior, also here ; Luke Devore
(1801) also at lake Ricardo; Jones (1803); Hugh Burnett (1803); Amos Rawls
(1801), son of Hardy Rawls, at Cypress swamp on this lake, cowhided Jacob
Myers, who sued him for damages, getting $150; Baptiste (or Jean Baptiste)
Lafleur (1796); Elie Pettibone (1802); Daniel Wentzell (1804) was a saddler
by profession, and in 1801 kept a tavern at Louisville, as he came up the Mis-
sissippi in a barge his wife, Marie Dufile died, and was buried at a place called
Clover creek, they had one child named David who lived with his father and
followed his profession; William Hunter and son Harris came with them;
James McKinley; Joseph Westbrook, farmer. Christopher Bryant (1796)
described as ''haviendo una grande familia y tres hijos hombres."

iS6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

much " solidite et d'intelligence '' by M. Vandenbenden, an
" ingenieur Hollandais." Louis Vandenbenden married Fran9aise
Godfrey, in New Madrid in 1797.*

Five miles north of New Madrid, on the highest point of lake St.
Marys, Benjamin Myers,** a carpenter, leased a plantation, and prob-
ably lived there, though he was a resident of the village in 1 793. Six
miles north of the village Hardy Rawls had a clearing; he was a
native of Kentucky and a slave owner. Seven and one half miles

* Residents of New Madrid and others who settled on this lake were :
Thomas Ward Caulk (1792) slave owner, and in 1804, owned property
at Bon Homme settlement, his son Thomas, junior, also here in the same year;
Ambroise Dumas (1792) native of Canada, came from Vincennes to this dis-
trict, his son Ambroise, junior, came in 1791; Francisco Falconer (1794) died
in 1797; George Yuros (Unos or Norris) (1796) near this lake and lake St.
Eulalie; William Bouillette (or Brouillette) (1797), native of Brienne, France;
Joseph Brant (1795) on this lake northeast of Dry Run, in 1801, was a shoe-
maker in New Madrid; Patrick Cassidy (1797); John Crow (1796); Alexander
Auguste FaUin (or Follin) (1797); Francois Foisy (1798) and on lake Le Sieur;
John Lamb (1798) a carpenter, and in 1801 on lake St. John. James M. and
Daniel McMillan (1798); John McCleland (1796); Samuel Parker (1798), on
this lake in MiU Prairie; Andrew Scott (1798) and in 1799 on Big Prairie; Isa-
dore Skerett (Skerritt) (1796), married Sarsih MiUer, and in 1804 at Wappenok
bayou near Hope Field, (Esperanza) as assignee of Adam Boynton; Leonard
Rope (Roper or Raper) English (1797); Robert Rogers (1796) slave owner;
John Tucker (1797), in 1802 at Tywappity; Robert White (1798) in 1800 on
ikke Ricardo, and others; Christopher Windsor (1796), in 1799 exchanged prop-

^ erty with David Shelby, was in business in New Madrid in 1801; Richard
Westbrook; David Johnson (1799) from Kaskaskia, native of Fort Pitt, son of
David and Pallee Johnson, in 1804 married Elizabeth Skerritt, native of "State
of Cumberland" (Tennessee), daughter of Isadore Skerritt- Jean Chosier; Mo-
deste Bouillette and Margaret Raper wer witnesses; Madame Leduc (1799);
James Smith (1799) a blacksmith and loctismlth on this lake in Mill Prairie,
sold out in 1802; Robert Caldwell (1800) farmer from Kaskaskia, where in
1804 four hundred acres were confirmed to his heirs, four or five miles from the
headwaters of Richland creek in St. Clair county; Conrad Carpenter (1798)
bought property here and on lake St. Thomas, the latter he sold in 1803 includ-
ing a cotton-mill; he died about 1803, was twice married, his first wife being
Catherine Law — four children, Barbe, Margarite, Benjamin and Silas; his
second wife, Marie Karn, (widow of one Custeau) had two children, Catherine
and James. Carp>enter and Armstrong worked at Lafernay's mill; Francois
Dupah (or Dupit) (1800); Antoine Dumay (1800); John Frazier (1800) in Big

y Prairie on lake St. Mary; James Farris (1800) married Catherine Belle (who
afterwards married David Shelby, who also left her a widow), their three sons
were Jean, Humphrey and James, lived at New Madrid; Peter Kline (1800);
• Tames Ferry (1801); James Dunkin (1802) John Lathan (1801); Richard Mas-
fers (1801) ; William Zanes (1801) ; James Scott (1802) in New Madrid in the pre-
vious year; John McQuilkin (or McKouilkin) (1802); Auguste Delarebondiere
(1803); Alain Burgsuebb (a German) (1803); Allen Bird Grob (or Grubb)
(1803) slave owner; Jonas Carl, laborer, also on lake St. Ann; Peter Newkirk
(1803) John Wiley (or Whyley) (1803); John Link (1803); Germain Ouillet (or
Ouillette (1800) ; LeRoy Pope, from Georgia, bought prof)erty on this lake.

•• German, native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, son of Jacob Myers and Helen
Ventricle; in 1804 married Rebecca Patterson, native of New Brunswick, daugh-
ter of Benjamin Patterson and Betsy Safford.

BIG PRAIRIE IS7

north, Augustine Trudell lived in 1794, but afterwards sold his place
to Jean Baptiste Barsaloux (1796) and removed to the Arkansas dis-
trict, where he secured a concession from Francisco Casso y Luefigo,
commandant of the Arkansas post in 1802. Sojourner bought from
Barsaloux and lived on this place in 1804. In 1802 Richard and
Daniel Hazel lived ten miles north of New Madrid, and Robert
Quimby, a blacksmith of Tywappity in 1801, opened a farm at
the foot of the hills, now in Scott county, in 1803. His nearest
neighbors were John, Charles, and Jacob Friend.

Three miles northwest of New Madrid, and west of this lake St.
Marys, Jean Baptiste Racine, dit L * Empeigne,*' lived on lake St.
Isidore in 1793. He was a native of France. Benjamin Patterson
settled on a grant on lake St. Isidore in 1 797. Jean Baptiste Gobeau,
an interpreter, in 1797, was on this lake; he married Rosalie Lafond,
daughter of Dr. Jean Baptiste Lafond.** Edward Robertson, a
trader and a merchant, removed from the Cape Girardeau district to
Big Prairie in 1798, and was made syndic of this settlement; owned
slaves, and was also authorized **to sell and jxit off liquor at his place."
He had served in the Revolutionary war. and came to the Spanish
possessions in 1795, settling first in the Cape Girardeau district,
adjoining Andrew Ramsay, but sold out his claim there to him. In
1800 he sold his property in Big Prairie to John McCoulkin, including
orchard, horse-mill, and distillery.* It is not known where he died.
Peter Egains or Higgens, native of Pennsylvania, county of York, in
1 798, was a resident of this prairie ; for a time he made his home
with Benjamin Demint on bayou St. Thomas, and seems to have
been a man of considerable property. Daniel Barton in 1799 bought
property in this prairie where he had a mill and other buildings.'®

On bayou St. Thomas, a stream west of the waters of bayou St.

•^ Probably the same L'Empeigne who was courier and spy in the employ
of the Spanish authorities in 1 793-1 794, when Genet's filibustering enterprise
threatened upper Louisiana. See Lorimier's Journal, p. 8 et seq.

•■ Also lived in the village of New Madrid. His children were, Marie,
Louise, Francois, Celeste, Pierre and Auguste Samuel.

•• Joel Bennett was another resident on this lake as early as 1 796 ; Joseph
Lewis (1796) Robert McCoy going with him to the commandant as interpreter;
Benjamin Douglas (1802) lived with this Joseph Lewis, or on his land; James
Macee (or Massey) (1796).

'• Married Catherine Medard, and his daughter married Moses Hurley*
In 1802 he boarded with Andrew Scott, paying $10 per month, including sewing
and washing; he made a trip to South Carolina ; on his return did work in
connection with cotton-mill of Christopher Winsor, who was to pay him in
ginned cotton packed and inspected, at 25 piastres per hundred, agreeable to
the rules of the district.

iS8 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

John and about six miles north of New Madrid, one of the oldest

settlements in the country was made. Here Joseph La Plante, dit

Thitant, Thisant or Thifault, a merchant of New Madrid in 1791,

opened a farm in 1792. La Plante came from Kaskaskia where he

had rendered military service, having emigrated to Kaskaskia from

Vincennes. '^ The first farm in Brushy Prairie, about eight miles

north of New Madrid, was opened by Louis Sojourner in 1802, who

bought property from Elisha Jackson on Big Prairie for a horse and

rifle. Andrew Bums, in 1803, had a farm here; and George Hacker

opened a plantation about the same year. Jean Baptiste Peltier,

from Kaskaskia, where in 1790 he served in the militia, was on bayou

Carondelet in 1801. Pierre " and Jean Baptiste Perron, brothers,

and both residents of New Madrid for a time, also cultivated land on

this bayou.'' On what was known as lake Eulalie, John Garton

^^ Son of Jacques Laplante, of parish St. Magaline, Quebec; married Gen-
evieve Thibault, a sister of Nicolas Thibault; their son Isidore was baptised
in 1804 at New Madrid. Other settlers were John Baptiste Thibault (1795)
was a resident on Big Prairie, and on Prairie des Peches; he was a son of
Nicolas; Francois Hudson (1799) from Richmond, Virginia, was an iron
worker and locksmith, married a daughter of General Benjamin Harrison,
native of New Hampshire or New York, was also a resident of New Madrid ;
Peter Cline (1799); Antoine and Bernardo Lafond (1799) **creole des los
Illinois'*, also found on lake St. John and Isidore; John Lovell (1799);
Peter Lovell (1799); Andrew Ramsay (1799); Nathaniel Shaver (1799)
probably the same who was in the St. Louis district; Elizabeth McCardele
(1799); Zachariah Thorpe (1799); Thomas and Elisha Windsor (1799)
also on bayou St. Henry, Elisha seems to have done considerable work
on the plantation of Pierre Higgins, and in 1804 was justice of the peace;
Jacob and Conrad Wheat (1799) ; Solomon Armstrong (1800) ; Upton C. Butler;
David Heaton (or Hatten) (1801); Peter Neal (or Oneal) (1802) in this prairie
on lake St. Mary; John Brooks (1802) on the big road; Andrew Robertson
(1802), his daughter Elizabeth in 1805 married John Friend; Andrew Robert-
son, junior, also here; James Riley (1802); Moses Vanses (or Vance); James
Douglas, and on lake St. John; John Hawthorn (1802); Jonathan Hurley, on
bayou St. Thomas; Fraflcois Millette.

'* Native of Vincennes, Pierre Riche Perron married Therese Laviolette,
(who afterwards married Joseph Riendeau) their son, Pierre, junior, in 1804
married Marie Ann St. Marie (daughter of Francois Xavier St. Marie and
Marie Ann Boyer) natives of Vincennes.

" Others wKo were on this bayou and in the neighborhood were : Ben-
jamin Green (1795) and on lake St. Henry; James or Joseph Demint (1796);
Sampson Archer (1797), married Catalina McDowell, and both died prior to
1799, the children mentioned in the inventory were, William, bom 1787, Dorcas
( 1 789), Singleton ( 1 796), Thomson (i 792), in 1800, property at a place called New
Hampshire was sold as belonging to this estate, fronting on lake St. Thomas;
John Moore (1797) from Ireland; Mathew McCormick (1795); James Bingston
(1798) in 1804 sold to his son Holman, and in 1800 transferred property to his
son Henry fronting on lake Antoine, another son Daniel owned property here in
1799, and adjacent; Thomas Twentyman (spelled"Tuintiman*' in the census
of 1796) who afterwards moved to what is now Cooper county, was a member
of the first grand jury there after the county was organized in 1820; Fran9ois
Stockley (1792), in 1795 sold out by Portelle for debt; Thomas Neely, from

LITTLE PRAIRIE 159

lived in 1792. Another small settlement existed on lakeLe Sieur.^*
John Wall, a carpenter, was the first settler on lake Ricardo'^ in 1793,
but removed to the Red River country in 1796; married Nancy
Archer, a daughter of Capt. Sampson Archer.^*

South of New Madrid, in what is now Pemiscot county, near where
the city of Caruthersville stands, Francois Le Sieur established a
trading post, known as Little Prairie in 1 794. He was a lieutenant of
the militia, and as such exercised control over the post as civil and
military commandant until 1797, although not regularly appointed.^
He was the leading and controlling spirit of the settlement. DeLassus
says, that he could not write, but his signature to some documents
shows that he could at least write his name. The village of Little
Prairie was regularly laid out by Joseph Story, surveyor of the New
Madrid district, according to plans suggested by Pierre Antoine La
Forge, representing the commandant of New Madrid, sometime
after Le Sieur made a settlement. The lots each contained one ar-
pen. A fort called San Fernando was constructed on the Mississippi,
but both this fort and the site of the original village have long since
been carried away by the abrasions of the river. In 1800, Le Sieur
erected a horse-mill here, the first industrial establishment of the
town. A number of old residents of New Madrid moved to Little
Prairie'* from time to time after the village was established. It was a
prosperous settlement until the earthquakes of 181 1.

Tennessee, a relative of William Neely (1797), son-in-law of Anthony Bledsoe;
Louis Coignard (1798) of St. Louis, officer of militia, in 1800 bought property in
New Madrid where he engaged in business as a merchant, married Julia Benito,
their son Charles Napoleon was baptised in 1804 ; (Is this not the Coignard
that gave Carondelet anxiety as a leader of the St. Louis sans-culotte ?) ; Pierre
Chevalier; Jesse Pendergrast (1801); Adestine Rogers (1800) on Dry Run
near this lake; Robert Trotter (1802); Abraham Keeny (1803), also on bayou
St. John; Joseph McAlpine (1798). , •

'* Here resided George Lail, probably George Lail, junior, who in 1800
inherited property from his father George Lail, residing in Bourbon county,
Kentucky, prior to 1797 ; John Hodgcns (1802) ; Dennis I^verture in the militia
As early as 1796 Jean Baptiste Dupuys resided on this lake, but removed to
Iberville parish, Louisiana, where he lived in 1803; John Watkins (1802) may
be Dr. John Watkins, also found at St. Louis a year later and in 1805 at New
Orleans. •

^ Others on this lake were : Patrick McDuff (1801) ; John Masters (1802), his
sons were Richard, Samuel, Henry, Robert, and Lemuel, Henry afterwards was
justice of the peace ; William Wiley (or Why lee) (1801) ; Jennie Pendegrass (1801).

'•From Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1792, Captain of the 2d
Company of the 2d Batallion of the Westmoreland Regiment.

" See letter of DeLassus to Stoddard, in Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. i,
P- 370-

'• Among the early inhabitants of Little Prairie we find : John Gallaher (1801),
habitant of Washington county, Pennsylvania, on river Penuscot near the

i6o raSTORY OF MISSOURI

North of Little Prairie on Pemiscot (then called Pemiscon) bayou,
Hypolite Tirard or Tirart was an early settler. '^ Rangon (Ransom)
Thacker in 1801 had a grant to establish a flour-mill, and Captain
George Ruddle, an inhabitant of Littie Prairie, who served in the
militia as lieutenant and captain, both before and after the purchase
of Louisiana, in 1 796 opened a farm on this bayou. His family, when
he settled in the Spanish possessions, consisted of a wife and six
children. He was a slave owner, and a man of substance. Caronde-
let made a grant of land directly to him. Abraham Ruddle also
settled on Pemiscot bayou. They were both sons of Isaac Ruddle, of
Ruddle *s Station, Kentucky. When Ruddle's Station was captured
by the Indians and the English under Colonel Bird, the family of
Isaac Ruddle was taken to Ohio and divided among the Indians.
Thus Abraham and Stephen, then young boys, came to be assigned to
the Shawnees and were taken to Piqua where they were adopted and
raised by the Indians. As boys they were playmates of Tecumseh.

village; Hyacinth Gayon (1801); Jean Derlac (1801) in the prairie near the
village; Peter Nobless (1801) at Grand Cdte; Franfois Ouelette (1791) native
of L'Islet parish of Notre Dame, Quebec, Canada, son of Francois Ouelette and
Marie Reine Caron, and either he or his son Francois married Archange Peltier of
Vincennes, daughter of Andrew Peltier; Charles L. Onion (or L'Onion) (1801);
Joseph Peigne, (1801) English, also spelled Peignel (or Payne); John Ruddell
(or Ruddle or Rudole) (1801) in the prairie on river Pemiscot, his daughter
Fanny married Francois Jervais in 1805; Andrew Summers (1801), also in
Cape Girardeau district, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, married Elizabeth, a
daughter of George Ruddle; James Simpson (1801), also at Big Prairie, mar-
ried Pegne (or Peggy) Lovel; Robert Simpson (1794) a resident at one time of
Redbanks, Kentucky; Madame Michel-Lacourse (1801); Ebenezer Folson
(or Folsom) (1802); Joseph Genereux (1802), probably same who in 1796 was
in St. Charles district; Jean Baptiste Hebert dit Fournier (1802), also owned
property on rivers Gayoso and St. Francois; Richard Jicaye (1802); Firman
LeSieur (1802) ; James Martain, in the prairie on river St. Francois; John Oqueny
(1802) near the village ;• Abraham Smith (1802); Jesse Taylor (1802) on
Mississippi near the village;* John Watkins (1802) in the prairie near the
mill of Mr. Ruddle; Richard Lecoy (or Leroy) (1802); Noel Burke (1803) in
prairie on river St. Francois; Eloy Dejarlais; Baptiste Ernard near the village;
Amable Gayon (or Guion) slave owner; Thomas Harris, in the prairie; Richard
Sicay; Pierre Grimard on the Mississippi in Little Prairie, resident of Big Lake
and New Madrid.

'• James Clemens (1801), slave owner, had a plantation on this Pemiscot
bayou; Benjamin Chaviron (1800); Peter Louis (1801); Absalom Hicklin
(1801); Alexander Roy (1802); William Thacker (1802); Abraham Ruddle
(1802) ; Wilson Cummins (or Cummings) (1802) ; also John and Robert Cummins,
on fork of the Pemiscon; Jean Culberson (1802) on this stream near Little
Prairie, also lake Gayoso and lake Lesieur; James Canaway (1802), on the
south fork of this river; Joseph Jacobs (1802) on north and south fork of Pem-
iscon; Francois Michel (1802) slave owner, seems to have been in territory in
1793; Alexander Sommerville, on the north fork of Pemiscon; Benjamin Lewis
VanAmburg, slave owner, also resident of town; William and Jeremiah Cana-
way (or Conway) ; Hezekiah Day of north fork of Pemiscon, and Mississippi.

PORTAGE BAY i6i

Abraham Ruddle was six feet one inch high, spare and bony, and
in his conversation betrayed that he had been raised by the Indians.*®
He died in about 1830, on Lake Gayoso. Only a short distance from
Little Prairie a number of settlers also received concessions."

The most important settlement, south of New Madrid, was
at the big Portage of the St. Francois, as it was designated at
that time, near what is now Portageville in New Madrid county. At
this point, from a very early period in the history of the country, a
portage had been established between the waters of the St. Francois
and the Mississippi. Here canoes and pirogues, came up the St.
Francois and Little rivers through Portage Bay, and cargoes, were
carried across the land to waters connecting with the Mississippi.
Among the French-Canadian voyageurs who lived here and secured
grants, we note Joseph Hunot, who was lieutenant in the militia,
and an early resident of New Madrid. His name is signed as witness
to many documents from 1791 to 1799. Toussaint Godair or Goder,
who at one time resided in the Cape Girardeau district, and after-
ward in New Madrid, had a concession here."

On Open Lake near Portage Bay, and connecting with it. Major
Jean Baptiste Olive made a settlement in 1797. He was a native of
France, and one of the few emigrants residing in upper Louisiana
who directly immigrated to the country from France. He first settled
at New Madrid, where he was sub-lieutenant of militia, and baker in
the army; was also a merchant, and in 1805 a justice of the peace;

^"Draper's Notes, vol. 22, No. 45. Isaac Ruddle married Elizabeth
Bowman, in Kentucky, in 1779, daughter of Colonel Bowman of the Illinois
Regiment. He settled at Ruddle's Station with several families, in 1 780, where
they were captured. Captain Isaac Ruddle and wife were released through
influence of Major Lenoult of the English army who found Captain Ruddle
was a fellow-Mason ; but the two boys who had been given to the Shawnee Indians
could not be found. After they escaped they were much engaged in the Indian
wars of the time, and at one time Abraham was again captured by the Indians
and in great danger of being killed.

** Among others farming on lake Gayoso were: Antoine Poriere (1801);
Francois Trenchard (1802) and John Montmenia (or Monmirel), the last two
named at one time resided at New Madrid; Francois DeLisle (1802), in 1806
married Cesell Gilbeaugh; Charles Loignon (1802); Pierre Robert (1802), son
of deceased Pierre Robert and Therese St. Aubin, natives of Detroit, married
Jeanne Riendeau, daughter of Joseph Riendeau and Therese Raphiante, or
Monmirel, Vincennes; A. P. D. Robert also here; Alexander Jackson (1802);
Steward Cummings (1802); Joseph Coupneau (or Coussincau) (1803); Joseph
Ferland (1803).

•* He married Elizabeth Chapart, and lived for a time at Vincennes; their
son Toussaint, junior, in 1800 married Marie Victoire Hunot, native of Vin-
cennes, daughter of Joseph Hunot, senior. A cousin-german Andrew Goder,
was present at this wedding.

z6a fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

his wife, Anne Victoire Auguste, owned a number of tracts of land in
this section." Benoni Patterson opened the first farm on the road
between Little Prairie and New Madrid. John Patterson, from Kas-
kaskia, in 1802, and Hiram Patterson lived in the neighborhood at the
same time.

The extensive bottom on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite
the mouth of the Ohio, from the Scott county hills on the north, to St.
James bayou (then called St. Jacobs bayou) on the south, and extend-
ing westward to Little river, was then and is still known as Tywappity
bottom, the word being variously spelled, ** Theouapita," "Tiwap-
paty. " It was in this bottom of the river that Major Hamtramck
wrote that in 1788 a village by the name of " Ze-wa-pe-ta " was
formed, thirty miles above the mouth of the Ohio, likely not far from
the present town of Commerce, which he says in the summer of
that year consisted of 30 to 50 families,^^ the settlers all being Ameri-
cans and induced by the Spanish officials to come over the river by
liberal land grants.** The soil of this Tywappity bottom is of

** Probably the first residents on this lake and river were : Jean Baptiste
and Francois Dubois, residents in 1791 ; Louis Dubois was another early resident,
native of Montreal, Canada, in 1797 married Madalaine Hunot (widow of
Antoine Gamelin) whose parents were also natives of Canada; Robert Upham
(1796); Daniel T. Vaughn (1797); Michel Lacourse (1797), married Josephe
Desjarlais, sold property on this lake to Joseph Tremblay, a native seem-
ingly of Canada; Thompson Crawford (1802); Philip Lady (1802); Jean
Baptiste Maisonville (1800), also Fran9ois Maisonville, the same who for a time
lived among the Shawnee Indians on Apple creek, and there married a sister
of Tecums3i; Etienne St. Marie, junior, son of Etienne residing in the village
of New Madrid as early as 1792; Louis Legrand (1803) also atSte. Genevieve;
Henry Goder (Godair) (1795) of Vincennes, brother of Andrew; John Benoist,
(or Benoit) (1803); Jean Baptiste Chatillon (1803), also seems to be spdled
Chandillon; John Dany (1803), between Big and Small Bay of Portage;
Thomas Graves (1803); Pierre Lausson; Labruissier (Labuziere); Joseph
Perez, formerly a soldier; Antoine and Michel Bonneau; Etienne Boveau;
Ignace Belon; Joseph Badeau; William Crafford (or Crawford) may be the
same also found on the] St. Fran9ois in New Madrid district; Joseph Dimiay,
laborer, west of this river; Eustache De Lisle, on small Bay of portage; William
Doyle, on this river and Cypress creek; Joseph Lapointe.

••See Harmer Papers, vol. 2, pp. 50 et seq,

" Probably the earliest settler in this bottom was William Smith, who came,
from Kentucky and settled on the Mississippi in 1797, and built an establish-
ment for the convenience of strangers opposite Wolf island, evidently a sort of
tavern, in 1800 sold to John Tolmson; John Bannister (1800); Lemon China
(1800); Frankie (or Franklin) and James Bradbum (1801); Moses Burnet
(1801) who married Elsie Bowie; Jesse Blanks (1801) and in prairie on Brushy
pond; John Cleminss (or demons) (1801), afterward moved to New Madrid;
John Clement (1801); Jesse Clauck (or Clark) (1801); Isaac Devore (1801);
Charles Demos (1801); William Doss (1801), sold in 1802 to John Tucker;
Daniel Freiseu (or Frazcr); Elisha Friend (1801); Richard Green (1801);
William Gibson (1801), also in New Madrid; Thomas Ho£F.(or Hoss), senior
and junior (1801) owned slaves; Etienne and Stephen Jones (1801) slave ownen;

REAZON BOWIE 163

wonderful fertility. It was then covered with great forests, inter-
spersed with small prairies, numerous lakes, (the remnants of former
beds of the Ohio and Mississippi), and many sluggish streams called
bayous flowed throughit. Partof this bottomproduced rushes eight feet
high, so large and thick that it was difficult for a man to make his way
among them. On one of the lakes, Marais des Peches (Fish Lake),
Reazon Bowie of Georgia, and famous as the inventor of the bowie-
knife, settled prior to 1800. He was appointed syndic of the Tywap-
pity settlement. With him came his son David Reazon, Junior, and
his brother John. Reazon Bowie was a brother of James Bowie, who
died with Crockett and others in the defense of the Alamo, and
whose name has thus been apotheosized. The Bowies were slave
owners; their sister, Elsie, who came with them, married Moses
Burnet, of whom mention has already been made. About 1802
Reazon Bowie and his family moved to Bushley's bayou in what
was then known as Rapides parish, lower Louisiana, settling near the
Catahoula prairie, and here the name became famous in the annals of
western Louisiana and Texas.** On the Marais des Peches also
settled John Robertson, with his son John Robertson, Junior, who

Phoebe Jones (1801) widow, owned three slaves ;*Emsley Jones (1801) in this
bottom on the Mississippi, expelled from the Cape Girardeau district and
afterwards hung at Kaskaskia, (Reynolds' Histroy of Illinois, page 254) ; Mirab
Jones (1801) ; Caleb Malachi and Richard Jones (1802) all owned slaves; Robert
Lane (1801) on the Mississippi; Benjamin Laugherty (1801); Josiah Quimby
(1801); Stephen Quinly (or Quimby) (1801); Nicholas Revely (or Revillee) (1801)
of Caf>e Girardeau district; Nicholas Rabley (1801); John Smith (1801); John
Wilbum (or Welbom) (1801) ; James Currins (or Curry) (1802), on the Missis-
sippi, owned nine slaves; Thomas Bruce (or Cruce) (1802), slave owner; Henry
Canon (1802); Henry C^ockerham (1800) on the Mississippi; Thomas Clark
(1802); Jesse Bouding (1802) from Kentucky, one slave; Fran9ois Beardin
(1802) leased to Daniel Stringer for three years; Silas Fletcher (1802) had a
grant with David Haten, but aoandoned by them ; Louis Miller FuUwood (1802) ;
William Hacker (1802); Samuel Kenyon (1802); Agnew Massey (1802);
Charles Lucas (1802) in Cape Girardeau militia company in 1802 ; John Lloyd
at Cypress swamp ; Alexander Milegin (or Millikin) (1802) ; John L. Norrisses (or
Norris) (i8o2)at head of this bottom; James Norris (i8io2); George Stringer;
Daniel Sexton, on Mississippi and Brushy pond, Reese Shelby, farmer, son of
David; Mary Smith (1802) widow; Joshua Sexton (1802); Daniel Stringer

(1802) married Eliza McCollack; Daniel Stringer, junior, in 1802 on Big
Prairie; widow Tash (1803); Josiah Vicery (1802), on the Mississippi; Brous-
saille (1803) fronting on LaiLe Broussaille; Peter Laflin; John Nicholas Shrum

(1803) at a place ten and one half miles above the mouth of the Ohio, called
"Shrum's Poinf *.

** In 183 1 Reazon Bowie and eight others on the San Saba resisted success-
fully an attack of one hundred and sixty Commanche Indians, killing twenty-
one of them, among whom was the chief. This exploit at the time attracted
sreat attention, and was fully reported by Colonel James Bowie, his brother.
(Brown's History of Texas, vol. i, p. 170.) By mistake usually the invention
of the Bowie-knife was attributed to James Bowie, when in reality Reazon
Bowie first made this knife out of an old iron wheel-tire.

i64 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

married Polly Friend, in 1805, daughter of Charies Friend.'^ North
of Fish Lake was Bayou de Boeuf ,•' and a few miles west of the lake,
the prairie where the city of Charleston, in Mississippi county, is now
situated. This prairie was known during the Spanish occupancy as
"Prairie Carlos,'* but afterwards among the American settlers
became known as **Mathew *s Prairie. " It was a favorite pasture of
buffalo, and in 1781, when Fort Jefferson was besieged by the Indians
Jospeh Hunter crossing the river, hunted and killed buffalo here, and
carrying the meat to the river thus supplied the starving garrison.
The first pioneer settler was Charles Finley, in 1800. He sold his
claim to Abram Bird, Senior. Edward Mathews came to this
prairie in the same year; so also Edward, Junior, Joseph and
Charles Mathews.* Abraham Bird in 1798 received a grant from
De Lassus on the Mississippi — opposite the north of the Ohio and
which thus became known as "Bird's Point". He and his brother
Thompson were related to the "Byrds" of the Cape Girardeau
district, although spelling their names differently. The original
grant has long since been carried away by the Mississippi and
much other land belonging to the family. It would lead us too
far to mention here the numerous other settlers,'® but in a sub-

*' Others found on this lake were : James and DaWd Trotter (1801). David
in 1802 seems to have been murdered by the Mascoux Indians; Jean
Tanhill prior to 1802 settled on this lake; Charles Hogens (1802); James
Jameson (1802), near Prairie des Peches, and in 1804 at Lake St. Mary;
boarded five months with William Deakins, and after his death in 1804 his
property sold to pay board; Spencer Adams.

"The first settlers on bayou Boeuf were: Charles and Joseph Mathews
(1800); Louis L'Ardoise (1800) likely a relative of Antoine Vachard dit Mimi
L' Ardoise, and perhaps of Charles L'Ardoise of Illinois, who came into the Span-
ish country in 1799; Eli (or Elijah) Fords (1800); John Johnson (1800) from
Kentucky, and large slave owner; who afterwards removed to bayou Tesson
in lower Louisiana; Abraham Bird, senior (1802), bought property two miles
from mouth of the Ohio, had five sons, one of whom, Abraham, junior, was in
the military service under Solomon Thorn.

••Residents of Prairie Charles (Carlos) were: Alexander Bailey (i8oi)-,
William Talbot (or Talbert) (1801) ; Jesse and William Masters (1802); Je:»se
was appointed justice of the peace; Joseph Smith, senior and junior (1801;
Abner Masters cut hay here in 1802.

••These settlers were Jean Berton dit St. Martin (1791) bought mill prop-
erty of Pierre Latour, who were both in New Madrid and on the St. Francois;
Michael Byrne (1791), adjacent to James Williams; Charles Bergand dit Jean
Lours (1791); John Becket (1789) on St. Georges river, came with Colonel
Morgan; Nicholas and James Cuny (1789) on St. Georges river, and came with
Morgan; James Dunn (1789) St. Georges river, and one of those who came
with Morgan; John Gregg (1789) St. Georges river, came with Morgan; Fran-
cois Reneaud dit Delorier, a resident of Vincennes in 1 780, seems to have been
in this district; Louis Valois (1791), a resident on the river Zenon (Hubble creek)
and in 1792 at New Madrid; Antoine Vermet (1791) possible Bcrmet; Fransois

NAMES OF SETTLERS 165

joined note we give the names of some who settled in different
sections of this district, cultivating land or engaged in business.

Boyer (1792); Pierre Christien (1792); Francois CharlevilJc (1792); Joseph
Dubee (or Dubez), from Vincennes, died prior to 1791, his wife Marianne
DeRozier; Etienne Drouin (1791); Elizabeth Dachurut (1792); Guillaume
Ispain (1792) on Lake St. Martin; Joseph Janis (1792) son of William Janis,
from Kentucky, slave owner, sold a pirogue to John Harvey for $40; Carlos
St. Marie (1792) on Lake St. Martin; Walter Bealle (1793); Catherine Cam-
pagnot ( 1 793) ; Baptiste Collel ( 1 793) Pierre Etier ( 1 793) ; John Gilkinson ( 1 793) ;
Andrew Giroux (1791); Pierre Guittar (1793); Absalom Hooper (1792); John
Hunot (1792); Bele (Billy) Jones (1792) mulatto, hires himself to Joseph Ber-
thiaume for two years, the first jrear he was to receive only food and clothing,
the second year sixty piastres in money, peltries or merchandise, but during
the two years to be furnished in tobacco and shoes ; Charles Law ( 1 793) ; Bazil
Lachapelle (1793) from Kaskaskia; Thomas McKibbin (1791) ; John and James
McCormick (1791) ; Samuel Morris (may be Norris) (1792) ; Patrick McGlough-
lin (1793); George Onrow (Unruh) (1793) German, on lake St. Eulalie, also
St. Isidore and St. Mary, and seems also to have been at St. Charles; James
Norflet (1792); Francois Portine (1793); Manuel Serrano (1793); Antoine
Bolsi (1794); Jean Baptiste Louis Chemin (1794); Anthony Drybread (1794)
spelled also **Tum broad" ; Alexander Douglass (1793); Michael Keely (1794);
Auguste Roch (1794); Rouette (1794); Racio (1794); William Toulay, junior
(1794); M. Ventura (1794); Mathew Cormeck (1795); Frederick Hoffmann
(1795); Michael Laccaigne (or Lacassaigne) (1795), a trader; Isiah Packard
(1795) may be related to the Isaac Packard of the Ste. Genevieve district; Juan
Somors (John Summers) (1795); Pierre Loissiere dit Deloge (179-); James
Mack (1796); Daniel Mulline (or Molene) (1796); Marianne Romagon (1796)
widow of Jean Baptiste Cardinal; George Ridley (1796); John Shanklin (1796),
ensign; Jean Baptiste Carron (1797), laborer; Daniel Brant (1798) also in the
Cape Girardeau district on White Water in 1802; George Costero (1799);
James Carothers (or Caruthers) (1799); William Marche (1799); Joseph Saxton
(1798); Juan and Mathew Villars (1796); John McCoy (1800), twelve miles
from New Madrid on the Mississippi, has a man by name of James Hill arrested
for stealing propertv from him and boat crew; John Neely (1800); Thomas
Ortes (Ortiz) (1800) sailor on the galere I'Activa; William Patterson (1800)
on the Mississippi; Pivolen (1800), an Indian of the Shawnee tribe, sold a negro
slave to Jacques Cotter, named Chakolekoy, he was accompanied by Hiacynth
Berthiaume, interpreter of the Indian language; Jonathan Stotler (or Stoker)
(1800) ; Peter Van Iderstine (1800) on the Mississippi; Etienne Bouilleau (1801),
trader making a trip into the country with peltries; Jean Bjrred (John Byrd)
(1802); Nancy Ferguson (1802); McHindgey (or Hudgens) Harris (1802)
on Big Lake; Petten Holsen (1802); Jean Haas (Hoos), commonly called
Jean Roberts (1802) from Kentucky, settled at Brushwood Prairie, mar-
ried Molly Jarret, also Jean, junior; Francois Jacob (1802); John Lewis
Lefevre (181 2) on the Mississippi; Pedro Lefevre of the post of Arkansas
bought property here in 1793; Joseph Mantauvert (1801); Sarah Williamson
(1802) on the Mississippi; William Winkson (may be Hinkston) (1800); J. B.
Brant (1803); John Custeau (1803) step-son of Conrad Carpenter; WiUiam
Jackson (1802) claimed grant for services rendered; John Block, six miles
northwest of New Madrid, in 1806 married Mary Woodruff ; Holmon Bank-
son; Thomas Crispin, of Grand Bayou, native of Berks county, Pennsylvania,
a wheel-wright; in 1800 sold to James Binkston; Martin Coontz, twelve miles
northwest New Madrid ; Joseph Doiron (Dorion) one and one half miles south
of Little Prairie, here in 1802; Jacob Devore, on the Mississippi; John Ward
Gurley; James Kerkindall, on Big Lake and the Mississippi; Nicholas Kely;
Jacques Maxwell ; Jean Moise Malboeuf (or Malberry) ; McCologue ; Antoino
Molina; Sieur Mejagat (1802), German; Norris Mundy, of New Jersey, was
arrested in 1804 on complaint of Jean Byrd, for theft in connection with contract

i66 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Many of these settlers became Spanish subjects and took the oath
of allegiance."

between them; Samuel Masson; Abuccs Marten (1802); Jean Montmirel, mar-
ried Margarite Ravallee, their son Jean Baptiste was baptised in 1804; M. J.
Peigny (Payne) (1802), on the Mississippi, probably same as Joseph Peigny;
James Novins (1802), Willow Swamp; John Neil, laborer, eleven miles south
New Madrid, a John Neely here in 1800, and Thomas Ncely; N. OTarrell;
James O'CarroU, on the Mississippi two miles north of Little Prairie; Joseph
Payne, on Mississippi six miles south of New Madrid ; Joseph Perrillot (may oe
Peridot) (1802) merchant of New Orleans, bought slaves in New Madrid; Jacob
Price (or Prue) ; Elisha Patterson, sergeant of garrison, married Jane Myers,
daughter of Jacob Myers; Marie Joseph Robert; Philip Shackler, twenty-two
miles north of New Madrid; £li Shelby, fifteen miles north New Madrid, son
of David ; Thomas Thomson, eight miles southwest New Madrid ; one Demint
took up his residence on bayou St. Anthony in 1799. In a settlement known
as Cypress swamp, Robert Wiley (1801) was probably the first resident; John
Hortes (1802) ; John and James Shorter (or Shooter) (1802) ; Amos Cox (1803) ;
Louis Roy lived in this swamp on small bay Portage. West of New Madrid on
what was known as Black Water, fork of White Water, near what is bow known
as Como, we find located in the primeval woods James Vincent, surgeon and
major in the Spanish service; Antoine Nicolas, Franjois and J. B. Janis, not
certain whether related to the Janis family of Ste. Genevieve and Joseph Guinolet
(or Guignotely), all bear hunters of unenviable reputation, if we can believe the
accounts of Francois V. LeSieur. Still further west of New Madrid, on the
Big island of the St. Francois, in what is now Dunklin county, Pierre Saffray
a trader of New Madrid lived in 1795, perhaps the earliest trader in that
county; Peter Power and James Francois Chattingney also ^resided there in
1801. These early inhabitants of Dunklin county likely were all hunters and
trappers; we also find the name of Choachican (1804) a Shawnee Indian; Bap-
tiste Dietramble (1798); Bcaugard Canonier (1798); Franjois St. Pierre (1798);
Wingsay (1798).

•* The oath of allegiance (names spelled as found in the Spanish archives)
was taken in 1793 by Chnstoval Roque Marco, Pierre Duncan, Francisco
Cayole, Nicholais Esdien, Jean Baptiste Moyso, Benjamin Miller, Jose Casa
Grande, Enoch Bodwell, George Myer, Juan Masedt, Peter Droullard, Joseph
Thompson, Stephen Burk, Patrick McLaughlin, Philip Boyle, John GiU, Bar-
tholomew McLaughlin, George Junnex, Lucas Desperentrdoux, Philip Du-
comb, Noel Antoine Prieur, Jose Barbier, Johann Klein, Baptiste Monix, Lor-
enzo Abeemo, Barth^lemi Tardiveau, Pere Gibault, George Wilson, Jacob
Bogan, Juan Collins, James Congwell, John Ward, Cornelius Tecon, James
M. Miller, Joseph Bogard. In 1 794 Sam Hill, Franjois Caperon, Alexis Thipet,
Michael Ryard, James O' Bryan, Charles Tela, William Pillsnoeth, John
Elliott, Demaiseuire, A. Breard Briand de Breville. In 1795 Samuel Lloyd,
junior, Joseph McCourtney, Charles Campbell, F. Birin, Cornelius Secley, Sam
Frisor, I. Buzenet & Gidou, George Ruddall, Robert O'Hara, Isadore Dupuy,
Louis*Gerard, Pascal.

CHAPTER XV.

District of Cape Girardeau — Boundary of — Probable origin of name — Location
of the Post of Cape Girardeau — Louis Lorimier established there in 1 793
by the order of Carondelet — Biography of Lorimier — His first wife Char-
lotte Pemanpieh Bougainville, a Shawnee half-blood — Traded in Ohio in
1782 at Laramie's Station — The Miami Company — Lorimier in Ste. Gen-
evieve in 1787 — Moved to where is now Cape Girardeau in 1792 — Letter of
Trudeau — ^As Spanish Agent Lorimier visits Ohio and Indiana — His
grant made in 1795 by Carondelet — After death of his first wife marries
Marie Berthiaume — Lorimier dies in 181 1 — Barth^lemi Cousin his Secre-
tary, Deputy Surveyor and Interpreter — Prosperity of the Cape Girardeau
District during Spanish government — First residents of the Post of Cape
Girardeau — ^Water mills — American immigration dates from 1 795 — Andrew
Ramsay and others settled near Cape Girardeau in that year — ^^The Byrd
settlement — Settlement on Hubble Creek — German settlement on White-
water — Settlements on Castor River and various other points — Lorimier
grants three hundred arpens to each member of Cape Girardeau Militia
Company.

The Cape Girardeau District during the period of the Spanish
government was bounded on the north by Apple creek ; and on the
south until 1802 the Tywappity Bottom was vaguely considered the
boundary between this district and the New Madrid District.* To
settle the southern boundary definitely, Casa Calvo in that year made
an order fixing the limits of the District on the south five leagues below
the post and running thence west, and Don Antonio Soulard, the
Surveyor of Upper Louisiana, was directed to make a survey of
the line. This boundary line ran east and west four or five miles
south of the present town of Commerce, Scott county.' The
western boundary of the district was also uncertain and this led
to a controversy between Lorimier and Peyroux, the latter objecting
to grants made by the former west of his post on the St. Frangois,
claiming that all this river was within the New Madrid District,
also charging that Lorimier made unauthorized grants of land of
a league square in that locality. To this DeLassus replied that

* According to Stoddard the Cape Girardeau district extended from "Ti-
wappaty bottom on the Mississippi to Apple creek, a distance on the Mississippi
of about thirty miles, and without any definite boundary to the westward."
Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 214.

' General Ardfcives of the Indies, Letter of Don Carlos DeLassus to Soulard,
dated Nov. 25, 1 80 1 ;? letter to Don Carlos DeLassus, dated Jan. 30, 1802 ; letter
of DeLassus, dated May 20, 1803; letter of Soulard, dated Oct. i 1802; letter
of Peyroux, dated Jan. 11, 1803.

167

i68 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Lorimier had no right to make grants of land of a league square to
any one, but that the St. Francois river could not be located in any
one district on account of the course of its branches which extended as
far as the neighborhood of New Bourbon.' Subsequently DeLassus
ordered Peyroux not to interfere with Lorimier's German grantees
on the forks of the St. Fran9ois west of Cape Girardeau. The New
Madrid District seems to have been bounded on the southwest by
White river, but since the right to trade with the Indians was granted
to Lorimier, and he was made Spanish agent for the Indians as far as
the Arkansas river, it is also probable that his jurisdiction as Cape
Girardeau Commandant was recognized as far south as that river.
According to Stoddard the jurisdiction of the Commandant of the
post of Cape Girardeau extended " without any definite boundary to
the westward."

Before a settlement was established on the Mississippi within the
limits of the present county of Cape Girardeau, this stretch of the
river was designated on the old maps as "Cap Girardot," and so
known to the voyaguers passing up and down the river. On the map
of Lieutenant Ross, published in 1765, we find the bend of the river
above the site of the present city named " Cape Girardot, " and yet
no settlement existed at that time in this region. How this locality
received the name of "Cape Girardot" cannot now be definitely
known. It is conjectured by Mason * that the name is derived from
that of an ensign of the French troops named " Girardot," who as
early as 1704 was stationed at Kaskaskia. The supposition is that
a person named "Girardot" removed from Kaskaskia to the west side
of the river and took up his residence in the charming woodlands ex-
tending to the water's edge on the promontory above the present town,
trading and trafficking there with the Indians, and that thus the name
was bestowed on this river promontory by the early voyageurs. No
authentic information is now available as to this point. The church
records of Ste. Genevieve give the name of one " Girardot " as an
ancient inhabitant of the country, residing in 1765 at Fort de
Chartres.* It should also be observed that the name is spelled on

' See letter dated March 8, 1800, in New Madrid Archives, Vol. 2.

^ Kaskaskia and its Parish Records, p. 1 1, (Chicago 1881).

* From the Church records of the Parish St. Anne of Fort de Chartres it
appears that one Sieur Jean B. Girardot, October 14, 1 721;- was an ensign of
the " troupes de Marine " and marries Thercse Nepveu, had son who was
baptised July 30, 1726, and named Pierre, God-father was Mons. de Liette,
commandant of the province of the Illinois, God-mother, Marie M. Quenal.

LOUIS LORIMIER 169

the ancient maps " Girardot " and " Girardeau," and also "Girardo."
Perrin du Lac in 1802 spells the name "Girardot." In 1797 the
settlement which had grown up around Lorimier's residence was
also referred to as "Lorimont" by some of the petitioners for
land,' but this name did not supersede the traditional name.^

Evidently the beauty of this location and landscape attracted
early attention. In 1789 when Colonel George Morgan with his
party of adventurers traveled through this territory, many persons
urged him to establish the capital of his supposed principality on
the western shore of the Mississippi about twelve leagues above
the mouth of the Ohio, as near as can now be ascertained, at
the present site of Cape Girardeau. Hills gradually sloping upward
from the river bank to undulating high lands, extending for many
miles northward, made this place a natural trading station. From
this point the St. Fran9ois basin stretches south 300 miles along the
Mississippi river, and west 60 miles to the St. Francois and Black
rivers. Isolated hills rising like islands in a sea, the remnants of a
once continuous chain of highlands, which by the constant erosions of
centuries had been washed away, leaving only these detached hills as
evidence of its former existence, arise here and there in this alluvial
district, and arrest the attention of the careful observer. Through
this basin also run, generally north and south, numerous low, black
and sandy alluvial ridges of marvelous fertility. Where the last out-
runners of the Ozarks gently slope in a southeastern direction to the
river and the low lands of the St. Francois basin, a region, at the time
of which we speak, full of game and fur-bearing animals of every
variety, Louis Lorimier established his trading post in 1793. The
uplands extending north and northwest from his settlement were
then covered with a growth of towering oaks. Here only on the west
side of the Mississippi in an isolated belt extending about twenty-five
miles from his trading post, and sweeping in a southwest circle to
the St. Francois and Black rivers the leridendron ttdijera — the tulip

Pierre de Girardeau, "ensign d'infanterie, fils de feu Mons. Jean Pierre de
Girardeau, officier des troupes detach^ de la Marine," married Madaline
Loisel, widow of " Mons. Andre Chevalier, garde magasin pour le Roy au Fort
de Chartres." In 1782 her son Jos. Chevalier, by her first husband, married
Marie de Guire. daughter of Andre de Guirc at Ste. Genevieve, her second
husband, Pierre de Girardeau, then also deceased.

• See Requfete of John Giboney in 1797 for land; also that of John Randall
in 1798.

^ In Stoddard the name is spelled '*Cape Gerardeau". — Stoddard's Louis-
iana, p. 214.

lyo fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

tree — the magnolia of the north — grew to immense proportions, —
from five to eight feet in diameter, and one hundred feet to the first
limb. Beneath these forest giants grew the ash, the hickory, the
hackberry, the elm, the sassafras, the mulberry, the pawpaw, the
hazel, and the beech on the edge of the low lands spread its wide ex-
tending branches over the fertile soil. Blue-grass was the natural
growth of the country. The creek bottoms were filled with cane.
Numerous springs broke from the hill-side and meandered their way
through the woods to these creeks running the whole year through
with clear and cold water.

In this favored spot Louis Lorimier established himself in 1793
under authority of Baron de Carondelet, as follows :

** Baron de Carondelet, Knight of the Religious Order of St. John, Colonel
of the Royal Armies, Governor, Intendant General, Vice Regent of the Province
of Louisiana and western Florida, Inspector of the Army, etc.

Know all men by these presents, that in consideration of the true and faithful
services which Louis Lorimier has rendered to the State since he became a sub-
ject of his Catholic Majesty, we permit him to establish himself with the ]')ela-
wares and Shawnees, who are under his care, in such places as he may think
proper in the province of Louisiana on the west bank of the Mississippi, from the
Missouri to the river Arkansas, which may be unoccupied, with the right to hunt,
and cultivate for the maintenance of their families, nor shall any commandant,
officer, or other subject of the King hinder them, nor occupy of the land for him
and the said Indians, sown, planted or laid out, so much as is judged necessary
for their maintenance; and be it further understood that in case they should
remove elsewhere, the said lands shall become vacant, and as for the house,
which the said Sir Louis Lorimier has built at Girardeau, it will remain in his
possession, nor can he be removed for any causes, except those of illicit trade,
or correspondence with the enemies of the State.

In testimony of which we have given these presents, signed with our hand
and the countersign of the secretary of the Government, and caused to be affixed
our official seal at New Orleans, the 4th of January, 1 793.

The Baron de Carondelet.

By order of the Governor: Andres Lopez Armesto."

Under this broad and extensive grant Lorimier exercised control
over these Indians in the territory between the Missouri and Arkansas
until the change of government.

These Shawnees and Delawares first began to migrate in consider-
able numbers, to the west side of the Mississippi in about 1788'
and principally it is thought through Lorimier's efforts were induced to
leave the United States. He was connected by marriage with the
Shawnees, his first wife, Charlotte Pemanpieh Bougainville, being
a half-blood Shawnee.* This marital relation gave him great

• Harmar Papers, Vol. i, p. 478.

• As shown by the inscription on her tomb in the old Cape Girardeau grave-
yard. From the name Bougainville, it would appear not improbable if we arc
allowed to speculate, that she may have been a natural relative of Louis de
Bougainville, Chief of stafiF of Montcalm

LORIMlfeR'S STATION 171

influence with these Indians, and those allied with them. He
understood their customs, knew their prejudices, was a perfect
master of their language and possessed their unbounded confidence.
One Lorimier, likely the ancestor of this Louis Lorimier, imder the
celebrated St. Luc de la Come, General of the Indians, had command
of the Shawnee and Delaware contingent at the siege and capitulation
of Fort William Henry.

Lorimier was bom in 1 748 at Lachiene on the Island of Mon-
treal. A Lorimier family resided there at an early period in the his-
tory of the colony. These Lorimiers were undoubtedly descendants
of Captain Guillaume de Lorimier, a son of Guillaume and Jeanne
Guibault de Lorimier, natives of Paris, and who came to Canada in
1695.^*^ Louis Lorimier and his father before him traded with the
Indians at the Portage of the Miami and Maumee rivers at a place
called Pickawillany, in 1769. In the treaty of Greenville, in 1795,
the exact place where Lorimier's store stood is described as follows :
" thence westerly to a fork of the branch of the Great Miami river
running into the Ohio at or near which fork stood Laramie's store,
and where conmiences the portage between the Miamis and the Ohio
and the St. Mary's river which is a branch of the Miami which runs
into Lake Erie." " The name is often spelled "Laramie" because
" Lorimier" is thus pronounced by the French. The Lorimier trad-
ing place in Ohio in 1782 was known as "Laramie's Station," and
also as **The Frenchman's store.'* During the Revolution Lorimier
was a violent Tory. His place was the center of Indian and British
intrigues, and many Indian foraging expeditions were equipped

*® Guillaume de Lorimier came to Canada in 1695. He was bom at St. Leu
and St. Gilles diocese of Paris, son of Guillaume and Jeanne Guibault; on his
arrival in Canada he was appointed Commandant at Fort Rolland, in 1705
married Marguerite Chorel, bom 1666, a name well known in Canadian annals
— and died at Montreal July 27, 1709; Madame Lorimier seems to have been
in good circumstances. In the Jesuit Relations it is said that she loaned money
on personal property, thus to a man on his shirt. 67 Jes. Rel., Burrough's Ed.,
p. 69. She died March 28th, 1736. One of his daughters Marie Jeanne, mar-
ried Joachim Le Sacquesp^; one of his sons, Claude, born 1705, married
Louise Le PaiUeur, January 7, 1730; his other sons were named Nicolas and
Guillaume. The children of Claude and Louise Le PaiUeur were named
respectively Marie Marguerite, bom 1730, at Lachiene; Catherine Elizabeth,
Marie Louise, Marie Hypolite, married Benjamin Mathieu D'Amours, Jos.
Ant. Guillaume married Madaline D'Amours, and Francois Thomas married
Marguerite De Sabrevois. His son Jos. Ant. Guillaume also lived at Lachiene
and had several children. Francois Thomas de Lorimier was sieur de Vemeuil.
That Louis Lorimier was related to this family may be inferred from the fact
that he named one of his sons "Vemeuil," and who was generally known as
•'Verny."

" Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians, p. 121.

172 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

there. On one occasion, in 1778 accompanied by forty Shawnees
then living on the Miami, and hence misnamed Miamis, Lorimier
and D'Aubin made a raid into Kentucky, attacked Boonesborough
and captured Boone and took him to Chillicothe, the principal
Shawnee village on the Little Miami. "Laramie's Station" was
known on both continents. General Clark and his Rentuckians,
in 1782, surprised, captured and plundered the store, and Lorimier
barely escaped with his life. He never re-established himself in
Ohio. For a time seems to have lived at Vincennes — and from there
removed west of the Mississippi. General Wayne afterward in
1798, built a fort on the main fork of Auglaize at a carrying place
which was known as "Laramies Encampment," likely at the place
where he had his store before driven away.

A letter on file in Ste. Genevieve in a suit instituted against Lori-
mier there, by the Miami Company, in 1787, makes it clear that the
Lorimier of "Laramie's Station" is the veritable Louis Lorimier who
established the Spanish post of Cape Girardeau. This Miami Com-
pany was a fur trading concern with considerable capital. George
Sharp and Thomas Sheperd managed its aflfairs at Post St. Vincent,
by which name Vincennes was then known. Both these worthies
have long since faded into perfect oblivion. A letter, however, gives
us a glimpse of long forgotten matters, — the reasons that seemed
"pretty good" to Mr. Sharp why Lorimier left the country, why
they advanced him "a few things" and also definitely advises us
that Lorimier went to the country of "the Spaniards" with the
Shawnees and Delawares. Hugh Heward, too, who had his habi-
tation at the "Mouth Illinois," and evidently a man in authority
in the Miami Company, has vanished completely, even as the
Miami Company. But here is the letter:

MiAMis, 4th May, 1787.

Dear Sir : — We learn from common report that you had left Port St. Vincents,
with an intention to seize Mr. Louis Lorimier's goods. We have received from him
about eight packs, and on our arrival here Mr. Sharp went to see him, on purpose
to know his reasons for leaving this country. His reasons appeared to him
pretty good, and as he had no property along with him, on purpose to get his
peltry and gain his good will, wc were induced to advance a few things, as he
says, to assist him. A few days after Mr. Sharp left him, he got intelligence of
your going to seize his goods, and he wrote a letter expressing his surprise at our
duplicity.

What wc have to say on the subject is neither more nor less than this, that the
Spaniards have invited the Delawares and Shawnees to their side of the Missis-
sippi. With a tribe of the latter Mr. Lorimier goes, and expects the Spaniards
will allow him to follow them. If this is the case and he well inclined, we think
he may do better than was expected, and as the company means to have some-

CAPE GIRARDEAU POST ESTABUSHED 173

body there to do this business, it might in some measure atone for the loss of the
Port Vincent's (Vincennes) trade, which will never be renewed.

We wrote you yesterday at some length. You will be the best judge how to
act in regard to Lorimier, but we think his intentions are honest.

Sir, your very humble servant,

George Sharp,
To Hugh Heward, Mouth Illinois. *' Thomas Sheperd.

In 1787 Lorimier resided in the Ste. Genevieve district, engaged
in the Indian trade apparently in partnership with Peyroux and
Menard. He then lived on the Saline about five or six miles from
the present town of St. Mary's, not far from what is now New Bremen,
probably at or near a place still called the Big Shawnee spring. After
settling with the Miami company, under authority of Baron Car-
ondelet already mentioned, he removed to where the city of Cape
Girardeau now stands, and became founder and commander of the
post. As showing the extent of his business, and former trade rela-
tions at Vincennes it is worth mentioning, that while living on the
Saline, in July 1791 , he made a note for 2062 livres, payable "in shaved
deer skins" to adjust a debt due Francois Vigo and Antoine Gamelin
both then residents of Vincennes, and that this note was duly recorded
in New Madrid, being witnessed by Louis Largeau. This note was
also given probably in settlement of an old account. «

In 1 792 the threatened invasion of Louisiana by French-American
filibusters greatly excited the Spanish authorities. Much reliance
was placed, to secure correct information, upon the Shawnee and
Delaware Indians, and which were under the control of Lorimier, and
consequently his services were in great demand. But in his trading
operations, he had come into conflict with the Spanish conmiandant
Portelle, of New Madrid, consequently some friction existed between
them, and he was induced with some difl&culty, fearing arrest, to visit
Portelle at New Madrid, then supposed to be greatly in danger of
attack. Being assured as to this matter, he visited New Madrid, and
on the suggestion of Portelle, he then employed Louis Francois Lar-
geau as his secretary and he kept a daily journal of his operations
during that exciting period. Largeau had been secretary of Portelle
before that time, and it is not at all unlikely that he was sent as secre-
tary with Lorimier to observe his conduct, and that thus the Lorimier
Journal originated. This journal, however, found preserved in the
Spanish archives, gives a vivid picture of the daily occurrences during

*' Heward seized the goods and Lorimier sued him for damages in the
Cahokia court in 1787, but the court held that the matter should be settled
by arbitrators to be selected "from either side of the river." Illinois Hist.
Collection, vol. 2, p. 299 (Alvord).

174 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

1793-4, near the mouth of the Ohio. Lorimier's services during this
period led to the establishment of Cape Girardeau as an independent
post in May, 1793.

In 1796 Gen. CoUot was at Cape Girardeau, and, in his opinion,
it was the most favorable location for a military establishment
above the Ohio, dominating the mouth of that river and protecting
upper Louisiana from an hostile attack, and he says, that the
importance of this location did not escape the attention of
''M. Laurimier, Francais, au service d'Espagne, dont les talens
militaires et la grande influence indiennes sont tres-utiles a cette
puissance," and that the Shawnees and Loups were under his control
and command. He thought a naval station ought to be established
at this point." When Lorimier received his concession from Caron-
delet to establish himself, and Indians, and trade from the Mississippi
to the Arkansas rivers. Lieutenant Governor Trudeau wrote him as
follows :

"St. Louis, May i, 1793.

The within is a permit which the Governor General gives you to make
your trade with the Delawares and the Shawnees, so extended that there may
be nothing more to desire, without fear that you will be troubled by any officer
of the king as long as you do as you have heretofore done. He recommends
you to maintain order among the savages, and to concentrate them, so that he
may be sure that they will take position more on the frontier of our settlements in
order to lend us help in case of a war with the whites, and they will thus also be
opposite the Osages, against whom I shall declare war forthwith, a thing I have
not yet done, because I have to take some precautions before that shall reach
them. Inform the Delawares, Shawnees, Peorias, Pottowatomies and the other
nations which presented a memorial last September, that it is on account of the
bad treatment that they have suffered, that the Governor General has deter-
mined upon the war, in order to procure quiet for our land. The Osages are at
present deprived of aid, and harassed by us and by them, they will surely be
open to reason ; that consequently all the red nations must agree to lend a hand ;
it is their good which the government seeks; and it is of that you must convince
them, so that the offended nations will take some steps toward the others to secure
their aid, and particularly that the lowas. Sacs and Foxes shall not consent to
let the Osages come so far as to trade on the river Des Moines, and that still less
shall they allow the English to introduce themselves by that river, which is a
possibility.

Protected by the Government, you owe it your services in closely watching
over all that tends to its prosperity, and averting everything which is to its detri-
ment. At this moment we fear nothing from Congress, but from the ill-disposed
which depend upon it. Posted in an advantageous place to give advice of the
least assemblage, I am confident that as soon as you are cognizant of it you will
make it known to the Commandants with whom you are connected, as much
for our safety as for your defence.

The Governor has approved of the distribution of the twenty thousand beads,
which I have given the Delawares, and to which you have cbntributed. It has
been my intention to reimburse you, and to-day I can do it with greater facility,
because they have offered me the means without looking for them elsewhere, so

*• Dans L' Amerique, vol. i, p. 300.

LORIMIER'S SERVICES 175

you may draw on me at the rate of six per thousand, which the king has agreed
for me to pay.

I am told that you are coming to St. Louis with your savages. Because I
am deprived of all merchandise, their visit will be a litUe embarrassing. There-
fore I ask you to come by yourself (when your presence here is necessary) and
attend to it, that when the boats arrive you are here to make a suitable present
to the savages.

May God take you in His holy keeping.

Zenon Trudeau.

P. S. — I keep your permit for an occasion to which I can intrust it. It states
that you shall not be troubled from the Mislouri to the Arkansas in your trade,
also in the settlements or encampments which you have formed with the savages,
the Shawnees and Dela wares, etc., and that you shall be protected at Cape Gir-
ardeau.

Mr. Louis Lorimier." **

After the threatened invasion had collapsed, principally through
the energetic action of the new Federal Government, Lorimier seems
to have been much employed by the Spanish officials. In 1796 he
traveled through the wilderness of Indiana and Ohio as Spanish agent
to induce the subdued and dejected Indians to emigrate to upper
Louisiana. That, as an emissary he visited the various Indian tribes
on such a mission, appears from a letter of Winthrop Sargent, ad-
dressed to Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, in which this
scheme of the Spanish authorities to induce the Indians to emigrate
into upper Louisiana is set forth. He says that ''for this purpose
Mr. Lorromie (Lorimier), an officer in the pay of the crown, made a
tour over all the country last fall (1796), since which time several
Indians have been seen on the same errand, and generally furnished
with plenty of cash to defray their expenses. A large party of Dela-
wares passed down White Water, about the 6th of May, on their way
to the Spanish side, bearing the national flag of Spain, some of them
from St. Louis. They have, above the mouth of the Ohio on the
Mississippi, several row galleys with cannons." ^

No doubt Lorimier, after he settled in upper Louisiana, with his
Shawnee and Delaware ** savages", proved to be a very active and
valuable man to the Spanish authorities, in inducing these Indians
and others to take up their residence in the colony. When he
crossed the Mississippi and settled in upper Louisiana he became a
Spanish subject by taking the oath of allegiance. Nor is there any
reason to suppose that he was very friendly disposed to the United
States. He, as well as the Shawnee and Delaware Indians who
came with him, had suffered great loss and defeat in the Northwest

^* This letter copied as translated in the History of Southeast Missouri, p. a6i.
^ Dillon's History of Indiana, p. 374.

176 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

territory. His store had been sacked and plundered, and station
burned. The villages and corn-fields of these Indians had been
destroyed and set on fire. Of these Indian corn-fields, General
Wayne said in 1794, "the very extensive and highly cultivated
fields and gardens show the work of many hands. The margin of
these beautiful rivers, the Miamies of the lakes (Maumee) and
Auglaise, appear like one continued village for a number of miles,
both above and below the place; nor have I ever beheld such
fields of com in any part of America from Canada to Florida."**
And it was from this country, so well cultivated and advanced, so
rich and fertile, that many of these Indians and Lorimier had been
expelled a few years before, and from which the remainder were
virtually expelled by the Americans after Wayne's campaign.

In 1795 through Juan Bamo y Ferrusola, as his agent or attorney,
Lorimier first petitioned Governor-General Carondelet for a grant of
land where Cape Girardeau is now situated. This petition was in-
dorsed with a favorable reconunendation of Don Thomas Portelle,
Conmiandant of New Madrid, and dated September ist, 1795.
Carondelet, on October 26th, 1795, made the land grant as requested
and instructed Soulard to "put the interested party in possession of
forty arpens in front by eighty in depth, in the place mentioned in the
foregoing memorial," on the express condition, however, that the con-
cession should be null and void if within the precise time of three
years the land "is not settled."*^ On October 27th, 1797, Soulard
certifies, that he has placed Lorimier in possession, and that his grant
is located at "the same place as the village of Cape Girardeau,"
and also states, that he delivered him a "figurative plat on which was
noted the dimensions and natural and artificial boundaries of said
land." In addition to this grant on October 26th, 1795, Carondelet
granted Lorimier other land on condition that within one year he
* * make a road and regular improvements. " ** It should be noted that
this concession of land was made to Lorimier several years after the
exclusive trade privilege with the Shawnees and Delawares between
the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers had been granted him. His
grants aggregated about 8,000 arpens, and since, for some time prior to

*• Letter of General Wayne, August 14, 1794, to the Secretary of War.

^^ Carondelet caUs the place where Lorimier established himself in 1793
simply ** Girardeau."

*• On the map of Cape Girardeau and its environs, made by Warin,
Adjutant General of CoUot, these roads are laid down as well as other improve-
ments then existing in that locality.

178 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

the concession, Lorimier had established himself on this land, the
conditions imposed by Carondelet were certainly not onerous. In
1 799, Lorimier, according to Leduc, had in course of erection a large
building as a residence on his land. This building, known as the " Red
House," was located on the lot at present occupied by the St. Vincent
Catholic church. Says CoUot " une tres-belle ferme, ou il fait sa
residence." At that time a large level space intervened between
this house and the river, now called "Aquamsi Front." Not far
from bis house was the big spring, on the comer of Williams
and Fountain streets, and from there a spring branch then ran in a
northeastward direction to the river. The sloping hillsides around
the spring were covered with a fine growth of timber, and here Lori-
mier's Indian relatives and friends often encamped when they visited
him, or were called to his post on business or to receive presents. An
Indian village was located near the present Fair grounds, not far from
the road which now leads to Jackson. The land grants made to Lori-
mier by Carondelet undoubtedly were connected with his journey into
the Indiana and Ohio wilderness in 1796, to induce the Shawnee and
Delaware Indians to cross the river and settle among the Spaniards."

In 1798 Gabriel Cerr€ made a claim to the land inhabited and
cultivated by Lorimier, and a controversy arose between them about
the matter. Lorimier appealed to the Governor General, Don Man-
uel Gayoso de Lemos, who decided the case in his favor, but ordered
land to be given to Cerr^ elsewhere to the same amount, saying
Lorimier had rendered services which entitled him to the land. He
remained undisturbed on bis grant thereafter, maintaining order in
his settlement, and among the Indians, and enjoyed the confidence of
the Spanish authorities at New Orleans. Incidentally we learn that
during this p>eriod. General Ben Logan, of Kentucky, returning from
New Orleans by land, visited Lorimier at Cape Girardeau in order to
secure a negro woman whom the Shawnee Indians had captured from
him on one of their raids into Kentucky, and who was in the hands of
Lorimier. He did not find him at home at this time, but roade an-
other trip afterward for the same purpose and says he found him
in bad health, that he then told him that this woman was his only
hdp, and so Logan took a few ponies in settlement of his claim.*"

ipletely was he idenli&ed with the Indians and as responsible for their
in the minds of the early American settleis, that After bb death in

t, Gorah Davis, a blacksmith made a claim against his esute of Si. Jo "to

liog killed by an Indian," in i3o8.

"Draper's Notes, Vol. 18, p. 166.

BARTHELEMI COUSIN 179

After the death of his first wife^* in March 23, 1808, Lorimier
married Marie Berthiaume, daughter of Francois Berthiaume," a
gun-smith for the Shawnees who at the time resided about five
miles above the mouth of Apple creek, and not far from the Shawnee
villages and where afterward was established Ingram's mill. The wife
of Berthiaume was also either a half or whole-blood Shawnee woman.
Menard says that Lorimier*s second wife was **a natural daughter of
Beauvais St. Gem, who commanded the Shawnees on Grant's Hill "
when General Braddock was killed. He claims that this Beauvais
was a brother of his great grandfather, who was also present at
that rout, but says that his grandfather Pierre Menard was not
present, as Governor Reynolds would have it.

Lorimier was commander of the post when the first settlers from
the United States crossed the river and settled in the immediate vicin-
ity of Cape Girardeau, in 1795. He was engaged in the Indian trade
up to the time of his death in 181 2, and then had on hand a large stock
of goods. His purchases for the trade he made from Bryan and Mor-
rison, of Kaskaskia. He built the first water-mill which was known
as the "lower mill," in the district on Cape LaCruz, about where the
bridge of the Scott County road south of Cape Girardeau is now
located. Afterward he built another mill on Hubble creek, the
stone work being done by the Butchers and Bloom, of Ste. Genevieve.
Isaac Ogden was the mill-wright. The mill-stones for these mills
were brought from the Ohio. Abner Hathaway was the miller for
both mills. All the horses and ponies ranging in the woods were
claimed by Lojimier, and after his death, his claim to the same was
assigned to John Logan ^ who had married his widow.

** This is the inscription upon her tomb in the old Cape Girardeau graveyard :

"To the memory of Charlotte P. B. Lorimier, consort of Maj. L. Lorimier,

who departed this h'fe on the 23d day of March, 1808, aged 50 years and two

months, leaving four sons and two daughters.

Vixit, Chaoniae praeses dignissima gentis;
Et decus indigenum quam laps iste te^t;

Ilia bonum didcit natura * magistra.

Et, duce natura, sponte secuta bonum est,
Talis honos memorum, nulla cultore, quotannis
Maturat fructtis nitis oliva suao.

And translated is as follows:

She lived the noblest matron of the Shawonoe race,

And native dignity covered her as does this slab.

She chose nature as her guide to virtue,

And with nature as her leader spontaneously followed good,

As the olive, the pride of the grove, without the planter's care.

Yearly brings its fruit to periection .

* This word by time obliterated on the slab.

" dit Barume — dit Bethune.

" This John Logan was the father of General John A. Logan. After the
death of his first wife, the widow of Lorimier, he removed to Jackson county,

i8o HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Barth^emi Cousin, acted as secretary for Lorimier, and was
deputy surveyor of the district, and interpreter. He was a man of
education, of linguistic attainments, master of the German, French
and Spanish languages and many Indian tongues, and, says Menard,
"a man of great talents" who had "rendered important services to
the Government" and accordingly was "held in great considera-
tion. " Nearly all the immigrants who came from the east side of
the river to Cape Girardeau district applied to him to write their
petitions for permission to settle
piU_ i^'V-^ * *, and requites for land. He seems

ot' • oCf U^fiYPZ£%yy\^ to have greatly favored this
American emigration. Lorimier
too no doubt appreciated the in-
creased value of his great landed
concession and the importance
his post must attain by a large population. Lorimier himself was not
an educated man ; he could not read, but could write his name. He
was a man of keen intellect and great executive ability. He did noth-
ing without thoroughly understanding the subject, never signed a
document without having it fully explained. That he knew how to
promote the public welfare is evidenced by the fact that in ten years,
from 1793 to 1803, he made the Cape Girardeau district the richest
and most prosperous community of upper Louisiana, not excepting
St. Louis. Stoddard, speaking of the various settlements of upper
Louisiana, says of the Caf>e Girardeau district, "Certainit is, that the
richest and most industrious farmers in this part of the world are pro-
prietors of the lands in this district, not more than four French men
living in it, and the rest being English -Americans." " DeLassus, in
a letter dated January 13, 1803, to Don Manuel de Salcedo says that
he "must further recommend him (Lorimier) as a man of the highest
utility for any military service, especially in what concerns the Indi-
ans," and suggested that he be promoted to some military post with
pay. Salcedo said of him, "The merit of Don Louis Lorimier b of
the most distinguished character, and is worthy of the greatest notice
of the Government, which at all times has shown it to him, soliciting
for him the favor of the sovereign in order to obtain the grade of
captain which your lordship asks in his favor."

Cape Girardeau was not regularly laid out as a village or town by

niiTinis, uparh oppo^te Cape Girardeau county, where he married Ihe mother
' - n. Logan.

Slodrinrrt's LnuUuu, page 314.

EARLY SETTLERS i8i

Lorimier while he was Spanish commandant of the post. The fact
that he claimed all the land upon which the village of Cape Girardeau
was located, as well as all the land in the immediate vicinity, and that
after the cession this great claim was rejected by the Commissioners,
was ruinous to Cape Girardeau at a critical time in the history of the
place. Yet even with this draw-back, the population of Cape Girar-
deau county in 1820 was 7,800, and of St. Louis county 8,200; the
greatest part of the population in St. Louis county residing the
town, and the population of Cape Girardeau residing on farms.

Cousin, the most conspicuous resident of the post, resided
not far from Lorimier near the comer of the present Main and
Themis streets, in a small log house. The road along the river
was then called "Rue de Charette." Above Cousin's residence
in 1799 there were located near the river, according to tradition,
the trading houses of Steinback and Reinecke, Michael Quinn
and perhaps others, all American traders doing business here.
Solomon Thorn, a gun-smith, also resided in the village. Thorn,
who came to Illinois with the George Rogers Clark regiment, was a
soldier in Captain Dillard's company. After the conquest he lived
at Vincennes, then resided at Kaskaskia, and thence moved across the
river to the Spanish country. He bought the lot he lived on from
Samuel Bradley, who seems to have resided at the post for a time.
This Solomon Thorn was a brother of Daniel Thorn, who appeared
in many cases as a witness before the Board of Land Commissioners
for the district of Kaskaskia, and made a bad record. Solomon
although not as greatly discredited as Daniel, also left a doubtful
record there.* After he settled in the Spanish country he was em-
ployed by Lorimier to work for the Indians living on Apple creek in
1798 and 1799, and in different parts of the district, repairing guns,
and in other public service, and received a land donation from him.
He never lived long in one place. At one time he owned Cypress
Island, situated opposite Cape Girardeau ; but sold his interest there
in 1824. Where he finally died is not known. One John Risher was
the blacksmith of the place, and received as a present, or purchased
from Lorimier the piece of ground upon which St. Vincent's college is
now located, and where after the cession he laid out a town and
named it "Decatur." Other blacksmiths were John Patterson and
Charles Seavers, who both lived at this post in 1802. David Wade
was the carpenter, and also sold lumber — of course, hand-sawed.

The small water-mill on Cape La Cruz, originally built by Lori-

** American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 125.

i82 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

mier was afterward operated by Steinback who married Lorimier's
daughter Agatha, in 1808. Another small water-mill, belonging to
Rodney, was in operation on Hubble creek near the present village of
Dutchtown. Farther up Hubble creek Ithamar Hubbell ran a mill,
and on Byrd's creek the Byrds also had a mill. The largest mill of
the district was situated on White Water and belonged to George
Frederick Bollinger. This mill was celebrated far and wide, and is
operated as a water-mill to this day. Pioneer settlers on the St.
Frangois, Black and even White rivers, 75 or 100 miles away, came
to this mill to have corn and wheat ground into meal or flour. The
mill-dam was at first built out of logs, but Bollinger in after years
erected a stone mill-dam.

No regular Catholic church was erected at Cape Girardeau during
Spanish rule, and no church of any other denomination was permitted.
Tradition says that a small Catholic chapel existed near what is now
the comer of Lorimier and Independence streets. Rev. James Max-
well, Vicar General of upper Louisiana, certainly occasionally held
service at the post. Likely after the cession the chapel fell into decay
and ruin. The lot on which it stood was subsequently acquired by
James McFerron.

The American emigrants settled in this district, early established
schools, and the names of several of the early school-teachers have
been preserved. Thus it is known that William Russell and Dennis
Sullivan, (otherwise also a blacksmith) taught school in the B)rrd
settlement and that Frederick Limbaugh (Limbach) was a German
teacher in the German settlement. The teacher at Mt. Tabor school
in the Ramsay settlement is not now known, although it is a well
established fact that at Mt. Tabor was established the first English
school west of the Mississippi river. It is supposed that McFerron
was the teacher there.

The Cape Girardeau district was almost exclusively settled by
Americans. Only four French names are found among the Spanish
grantees of this district, Godair, Largeau, Mariot and Berthiaume,
and even these it seems did not live long, if at all, in the district.
The first American settlement in the Cape Girardeau district
was formed just outside of Lorimier's grant, three miles south-
west of the post of Cape Girardeau, and the first settler here
was Andrew Ramsay, who opened his plantation in 1795. For sub-
sequent American emigrants his plantation became for several years
an objective point. From bis place all the new immigrants who

RAMSAY SETTLEMENT 183

came to Spanish country to settle were directed to desirable locations,
accompanied often by Ramsay personally, who, of course, was deeply
interested in securing American neighbors. Many of these settlers
established their homes not far from where he had located. Ramsay
came to the Spanish country from the neighborhood of Harper's
Ferry, at matiu^ age, accompanied by a large and well grown-up
family. It is said that he was among the Virginia troops at
Braddock's defeat. It is certain that his brother, John Ramsay,
who subsequently settled in what is now Scott county, was in a
Virginia regiment. After Ramsay had established himself near the
post of Cape Girardeau, he was followed by several of his family
connections.*' Thus it was that Alexander Giboney, Nicholas
Sea vers (Saviour,) Jeremiah Simpson, and Dr. Belemus Hayden, with
their families and servants, and his sons-in-law, William Dougherty
and Samuel Tipton came to this district. All these setded in his
immediate neighborhood on the waters of Ramsay and Giboney
creeks, except William Dougherty who established his plantation on
Hubble creek near the present city of Jackson. Ramsay was a man
of some property, a slave owner and exercised a decided influence
in the settlement during the Spanish government, as well as after the
cession of the country to the United States. In 1804 he was one of
the largest land owners of the district. He removed to White River
near where the city of Batesville, Arkansas, is now situated, in about
1815, and died there. In 1802 De Lassus was greatiy impressed

^ History of Southeast Missouri, p. 272. It is said that the Ramsays were
related to Daniel Morgan, and no doubt participated in the Revolutionary war.
Andrew Ramsay had three daughters, Margaret, who married Stephen Jones,
and afterwards removed to Arkansas ; Mary, married to Captain Peter Craig, -
(who was killed at the battle of the Sink-hole in the year 1814, in St. Charles
county) and Rachel, who became the wife of John Rodney. In addition he
was accompanied to the Cape Girardeau district by five sons, Andrew Ramsay,
Jr., and James, who married respectively Pattie and Rebecca Worthington,

John, who married Hannah, William, who married Elizabeth Dunn, and

Allen Ramsay. Andrew settled on Ramsay creek near his father's plantation,
but subsequently he, John and James removed to what is now Mississippi
county. Alexander Giboney was a brother-in-law of Andrew Ramsay, having
married his sister Rebecca, and he was also accompanied by his family in 1797
when he emigrated to the Cape Girardeau district and settled on Giboney creek,
one mile west of Ramsay's plantation. Alexander Giboney died in 1804. His
family consisted of four sons, John, Robert, Alexander and Andrew, and three
daughters, Aurelia, wife of Jacob Jacobs, Isabel, married to Dr. Ezekiel Fen wick
and Marsaret, married to Lindsay D'Lashmutt. Alexander Giboney, junior,
was killed at the battle of the Sink-hole at the same time Peter Craig was killed.
The whole Ramsay connection was accompanied by a number of slaves. Among
other settlers on Ramsay creek we find William Bonner (Boner) (1797); Jona-
than Ditch (1798), who seems to have emigrated from what is now the District
of Columbia; John Weaver and Peter Weaver (1797); Joseph ThompsoOi

i84 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

with the Cape Girardeau company of Americans which met him on
his march to New Madrid about five miles north of Lorimier's post,
and in his report says, '*! must remark that this company is composed
of the best young fellows one can see, " all well mounted and armed ;
and Lorimier, he says, ''took the precaution to make them a standard
bearing the arms of the King. " There being then no fort or village
in the Cape Girardeau district, the Cape Girardeau company took
the militiamen who came with DeLassus to their homes scattered
throughout the country. DeLassus, Vall^, and the guard with the
standard were entertained at the home of Lorimier, who, DeLassus
reports, treated them "with the greatest generosity." We can well
imagine how the enterprise and independence of this new American
element in the Spanish dominions must have impressed DeLassus.

The Byrd settlement was located on the waters of Byrd's creek
and tributaries, about sixteen miles northwest from the post of Cape
Girardeau. Amos Byrd, senior, the founder of the settlement, was
bom in North Carolina, or rather in the disputed territory between
North Carolina and Virginia, in 1737.*^ He was reared in the Watauga
Valley; afterwards he removed to the Holston river southwest of
Knoxville, where he located Byrd's "Station" or "fort." In 1783
when Green county was organized he was a member of the first
County Court. In 1799 accompanied by his family and connections
he removed to the Spanish country and became the pioneer settler on
the creek that bears his name. The liberal land policy of the Spanish
no doubt induced him and his family to emigrate. The entire Byrd
family and connections who thus emigrated, settled on Byrd, Little
Byrd and Cane creeks. The waters of these creeks flow over gravelly
beds and lime-stone rocks in a southwest direction to White Water,
through a gently undulating country, covered at the time of this settle-
ment with native blue-grass. The sloping hills and creek valleys re-
sembled an open park in which grew every variety of oak, elm, hickory
and the majestic poplar (tulip tree). Byrd " Fort " in Tennessee, was
not far removed from Gillespie " Fort," and thus it came that three of
his sons married daughters of the Gillespie family. With Amos

senior, (1797); Enoch Evans of Virginia (1801); Charles Bradley (1802); Jos-
eph Worthin^on (1803); Joseph Harris (1803); Baptiste Godair (1803);
Nicholas Revielle, who in 180 1 describes his farm as being on Ramsay creek,
about 100 yards on the west side of the creek, at a place known as Big Lick;
was a mechanic and white- washer by trade; Peter Godair in 1799 also had a
settlement right on this creek, and which he sold to Enoch Evans in 1807.

'^ Amos Byrd is noted a delinquent on 1800 acres on Hinkston's Run,
Kentucky, entered by J. Ruddle, 1796.

HUBBELL i8s

Byrd *• came his sons, Abraham, John, Stephen, Amos, junior, and
Moses, and his daughters Polly, married to William Russell, Clarissa,
who afterward married James Russell, and Sallie, who married George
Hayes. In this Byrd settlement John Byrd built the first mill and
distillery on Byrd creek, and also established a blacksmith shop. He
died in 1816. Abraham and Stephen Byrd both became conspicuous
members of this new setdement after the cession of Louisiana, as we
shall note hereafter. William Russell was a native of Scotiand, he
first settled in Virginia and afterwards removed to East Tennessee,
where he married Polly Byrd.

In 1797 Ithamar Hubbell, a soldier of the Revolution in the New
York State troops, settied on the creek which has since been known
by his name, but was then known as the " Riviere 2^non, " so named in
honor of 2^non Trudeau, Lieutenant Governor of upper Louisiana
at that time. Hubbell located where the town of Gordonville is now
situated, and at this point established a water-mill which was until
a few years ago in operation, and subsequently he also established
a saw-mill at the same place. John Summers, and John, junior, sev-
eral miles north of Hubbell made a location a year before Hubbell

*• Abraham, Stephen and John respectively married Elizabeth, Mary and
Ann Gillespie. Abraham Byrid had three sons and six daughters. His sons
were Amos, William Gillespie and Stephen, his daughters were Ingabo, married
to John Bird of Bird's point, Mary, married to W. W. Horrell, Nancy, married
to Edward Kelso, Sabina, married to John Allen, Clarissa, married to Thomas
Horrell, and Emily, married to John F. Martin. Stephen Byrd had a family of
four sons, William, James, John and Amos, and four daughters, Eliza (Mrs.
Thompson Bird), Mary, Serena (Mrs. John Campbell) and Sallie. Amos Byrd,
junior, had three children, Sallie (Mrs. John Wilson), Elizabeth (Mrs. George
Cockran), and John. Moses Byrd had a family of five sons, William, Amos,
John, Abraham and Adolphus, and four daughters, Polly (Mrs. John McLain),
Sallie (Mrs. Joseph Brown), Patsy (Mrs. John Minton) and Edith (Mrs. Foster).
(History of Southeast Missouri, p. 277.)

Among other settiers on Byra creek were Josiah Lee, senior, who came
from Kentucky in 1797 and first settied on Randall creek, then known as
Rivifere Charles, and subsequently on Hubbell creek then known as Riviere
Zenon. Josiah Lee, junior, his son, who had a grant for service also lived on
this creek adjacent to his father. Another settier was Alexander Andrews, sen-
ior, who came from Kentucky in 1797. David Andrews resided on Cane creek
in 1799, but in 1797 on Randall's creek. Joseph Young (1799); John Boyd,
who came from Kaskaskia and settied here in 1 799 ; John McCarty, a black-
smith, who we are told was a Roman Catholic and owned one slave, also lived on
this creek in 1799; Joseph Crutchlow settied in the country in 1797, but on this
creek in 1800. Elijah Everitt resided near the forks of Big and Little Bird Byrd
creeks, and seems, prior to his emigration, to have resided in the Spanish coun-
try, as he claimed to be a subject of His Catholic Majesty and a Roman Catholic.
William Hill on Cane creek in 1799. Jacob Kelley on the forks of the two Byrd
creeks (1800) made a settlement ; he was the owner of five slaves. James Cooper
(1802) settied adjacent to Stephen Byrd, so also John May. Other settiers were,
Patrick|May (1802); David Patterson (1803); Philip Young, near the head-
waters of one prong of^Byrd creek known as "Young's creek" (1803); John

1 86 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

settled on this creek. Also Andrew Summers near the head-waters
of the creek. About eight miles north of Hubbell's place, Colonel
Christopher Hays, under a direct concession of Governor Caso Calvo,
in 1800 made a settlement. Several miles south of Hubbell's mill
Martin Rodney opened a plantation, and at the bend where the creek
leaves the hills and enters the bottom near the present village of
Dutchtown, John Logan took up his residence and erected a water-
mill. Adjacent to Logan's place Jeremiah Simpson, Jacob Jacobs,
James Hannah, the Randalls, James Caruthers and Thomas Foster
established themselves. At the junction of Randall creek and
Hubbell crfeek, John Shields received a concession, and imme-
diately north of his place Abraham Byrd, senior, had a farm.^'

McGee (Magee) (1803); Hugh Connelly (1799); Michael Quinn (1803);
John Dougherty (1800), a carpenter and worked for Lorimier; neglected
to work his grant and afterwards gave as an excuse that Lorimier told him that
he wanted him to work for him, and that mechanics did not have to work or
cultivate the land ceded to them, William Jackson (1803); Jeptha Cornelius
(1803) ; Austin Young (1803) ; John Smith had a sugar camp on tnis tract placed
there by him or by Abraham Byrd, assignee; George Cavender, son-in-law of
McCarty (1803) ; Dennis Sullivan (1803), both a blacksmith and a school teacher.
James Boyd settled adjacent to Stephen Byrd in 1799 ; Michsl O'Hogan located
adjacent to Amos Byrd, senior, in 1803; Robert Patterson had a farm adjacent
to Hugh Connelly and David Patterson on Cane creek. In addition we find
Edward F. Bond; John Hays, assignee (of) Crutchlow; Andrew Patterson
(1805) ; Morris Young (1805) ; James Russell (1806) ; Peter Krytz, as legatee of
Duwalt Krytz ; Henry Howard (1804).

*• On the west bank of the creek in the order named were settled, John Dry-
bread (1797), a German ; Joseph Fite (Fight) likely also a German ; John Losila
(1797), a German; Renna Brummit (1799); John Latham (1801) also in New
Madrid; James Dowty (1798); Henry Sharadin; Elijah (Elisha) Dougherty
(1803); Robert Green (1799); William Dougherty, heretofore named, (1798);
and Jesse Cain (1799) who afterwards lived on the Maramec in St. Charles dis-
trict. William Dickens (1798); James Mills (1799), located where the city of
Jackson is now situated, and Charles Fallenash (1799) — this Charles Fallenash
was one of the first settlers near Springfield, Ohio, near the mouth of the Scioto ;
was a great Indian fighter and at one time was a fur-trader among the Indians.
In 1793 he married and lived at Massie's Station for about one year. Then he
resided in the Chillicothe region, where he abandoned his wife, a reputable wo-
man, to go on scouting expeditions. He was renowned as a scout in Ohio —
(Draper's Notes, Vol.19, p. 169). In 1810 he was at St. Charles, and is supposed
to have accompanied Astor's expedition, — (Drai>er's Notes, Vol. 6, p. 312).
He is described as a large stout man, *'a kind of Indian-Frenchman," — (Dra-
per's Notes, Vol. 16, Trip of i860). It is not certain at what time Fallenash
moved away from the Cape Girardeau district. He sold his Spanish grant to
Edward HsJl in 1804. He probably lived in what is now Northwest Arkansas
early in the 19th century. A small creek emptying its waters into White river
just above Crooked creek is called *' Fallenash" creek, and it is more than likely
that this creek derived its name from this 0I4 hunter and Indian fighter who
there may have hunted, trapped beaver and died. George Hays (1803) located
several miles above the present town of Jackson. On the east bank of the
creek were settled in the order named, John Strong (1798) just south and north
of IthamerHubbell's place; Waters Burrows (1798); 21achariah Doroty (1800) ;
Lewis Latan; David Patterson (1803); John Patterson, from Kaskaskia;

GERMAN SETTLERS 187

Germans were among the very first white men that traversed the
immense region between the Mississippi river and the Rocky moun-
tains. One of the followers of La Salle's ill-fated expedition to the
mouth of the Mississippi which landed on the coast of Texas, was
one Heins (Heinz) according to Father Anasthasius Douay **a Witen-
berger." Hiens accompanied La Salle from the coast of Texas north-
east across the plains. Together with another white man, living
among the wild Indians of the plain, named Ruter (Ritter) evidently
also a German, he assassinated Litote, La Salle's surgeon. This
Ruter was a chief among the Indians and stood in high honor, because
he had taught them how to sail their boats. These Germans evidently
were sailors, likely ex-pirates who may have been followers of the
greatest of all pirates of the Spanish Main, the German Mansfeldt.
But Tonty, in his Memoirs, in speaking of Heins, says "he was an
English buccaneer. " For expeditions such as La Salle commanded,
doubtful characters of all nations were picked up and enlisted. When
we consider this it is hardly to be wondered that he was murdered
by his own followers. The celebrated John Law, however, was the
first who induced German colonists to settle in the colony of Louis-
iana. On the Arkansas river he had a grant of a large domain — a
dukedom — and this he proposed to settle with German farmers.
To this promised land he sent a colony of Germans, but before all
these colonists arrived the Mississippi Bubble collapsed, and they

Medad Randall (1798) ; Thomas Bull) 1803) from Kentucky — on his place Bethel
church was built in 1806. Jacob Foster, senior and junior, came to the country in
1 799, and resided near the Rodney place on Foster creek. Martin Rodney arrived
in 1 798. John Ferrell lived on this creek in 1803 ; James Campbell on St. Francois
(1801); Elisha Whittaker (1802); James Caruthers (1799). David and John
Ferrell had a grant at Cedar Cliflfs about a half a mile below where Hubbell creek
enters the bottom, and they settled there in 1803. Andrew Franks settled near
them on the edge of the bottom; so also in 1802 Elijah Welsh, Peter Ballew,
James Murphy and William Murphy, all on the edge of the hills leading from
the present station of Whitewater to Cape Girardeau. Louis Tache, dit
Eustache, had a grant adjacent Thomas Bull and Peter Ballew already named,
— must have moved from the edge of the bottom to where the present town of
Jackson is situated, because he received a grant at that p)oint. Jonathan Fore-
man came to the country in 1798 and erected a flour mill on his land in 1800,
his grant being located about a mile west of Jackson. Other settlers in the
nei^borhood of Jackson were Samuel Pew (1802); Henry Hand (1799);
Charles Demos (1803) ; John Hand (1803) ; Lewis, Drusilla and Hezekiah Dick-
son (1803) ; William Hand (1802), and also Lavina MiHs. Near Ithamer Hub-
bell's place Mathew Hubbell settled, so also Allen McKenzie, and immediately
north of his place Andrew Franks, heretofore mentioned as having a place on
the edge of the bottom, also lived. Moses Hurley, in 1 798, in Big Prairie was on
Hubbell creek during the Spanish occupancy of the country, so also Edward
Robertson; William Harper; Joshua Goza; Walter Burrows (1797) from
Kentucky.

i88 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

were left lost and stranded in an immense wilderness. Those who
had reached the shores of the Arkansas river abandoned the posses-
sions of Law and went back to New Orleans and, together with those
who were at New Orleans, secured concessions above the city fronting
on the Mississippi river, and to this day known as the *' German
Coast. " There by their industry and perseverance they established
a flourishing settlement. We know of no other German settlement in
the province of Louisiana until about 1799, when was laid the founda-
tion of a solid and compact German settlement on White Water river
in the district of Cape Girardeau. In that year, Joseph Neyswanger
settled on this stream between White Water river and Caney fork.
He came from North Carolina. Near him John Freeman (Freimann)
also settled in the same year. Thus the settlement began, and within
a few years a number of other Germans from North Carolina and
Swiss Germans established themselves in this locality, i. e., Michael
Snell (Schnell) (1804); Daniel (ELreutz) Krytz (1800); Valentine
Lorr; John Probst (1800). On the main river, however. Major
George Frederick Bollinger in 1800 was the most conspicuous settler
and pioneer. He was a man of great energy and enterprise, and
both before and after the cession of Louisiana one of the leading
characters of the territory. He secured a grant of 640 acres at
what is now known as Burfordsville, for many years known as
Bollinger's Mill. Major Bollinger came from Lincoln county. North
Carolina, and on a trip he made subsequently to his settlement in
the Spanish domains induced one of the first Protestant preachers,
and no doubt the first German Protestant preacher, to come to this
district in the latter part of 1803. The Bollinger family were Swiss
Germans or of Swiss German descent, and the connection emigrating
into the Spamsh country was numerous. They all settled up and
down White Water, and thus formed the farthest western settlement
of the country at the time. These German settlers were greatly
favored by Lorimier and Cousin, his secretary. Cousin located a
large tract of land immediately adjacent to Bollinger's Mill, un-
doubtedly influenced by the idea that this settlement would become
the most important in the district, and thus the value of his land
greatly enhanced. About two miles north of Bollinger's Mill White
Water forks, the main stream running almost due north and the other
prong running northwest and known as Little White Water,'*^ and

•• Immediately north of Major George F. Bollinger, Peter and John Krytz
(Kreutz) settled; next to them John ana Jacob Cothner, followed in order by

RANDALL CREEK 189

near this fork and up both branches of this stream these German
pioneers opened farms.

The first settlers on the upper portion of Castor river, just where
the river empties its waters into Mingo Bottom, where the village of
Zalma is now situate, was Urban Asherbramer (Aschenbrenner or
Asherbrauner) ; who settled there in 1800, and erected a water-mill
to grind com. This mill is yet operated as a water-mill. Near him
Philip Bollinger settled. Daniel Asherbramer (Aschenbrenner) who
settled on White Water with William Bollinger in 1804 was evidently a
relative of Urban. Other settlers on this river were Joseph Watkins
(1803) and Robert Harper sometime prior to 1803; also Edward
Hawthorne. These were the earliest pioneers on that part of Castor
river, in what is now Bollinger county.

Another settlement of early date in Cape Girardeau district was
made on what is now known as Randall's creek, but during the Span-
ish war as "Riviere Charles." Here the Randalls, from Hamilton
county, Virginia, arrived in 1797. •John Randall obtained a grant
situate eight miles from the village "Lorimont" and about one
and a half miles east of the present town of Gordon ville. Samuel
Randall, Medad Randall, Abraham Randall, James Randall, and
Enos Randall all made settlements about the same time on and near

John and Jacob Miller. Above the forks of Big and Little White Water we
find, in what is now Cape Girardeau county, Daniel Bollinger and Henry Boll-
inger secured head-rights; and still further northwest, in what is now Bollinger
county, Mathias Bollinger, Philip Bollinger, John Bollinger, senior, and Daniel
Bollinger. John Bollinger, senior, had three sons, Dewalt, Henry, and Philip.
Mathias Bollinger had one son, David. Philip Bollinger had two sons, Freder-
ick and Henry ; all these settled up and down and in me neighborhood of these
streams, and so also William Bollinger (1802). Other settlers were, Joseph
Baker (Becker) ; Daniel Clingen Smith (Clingensmith) (Klingenschmidt) had a
mill ; and John Krytz (Kreutz), who all had farms in those days on Little White
Water. Dewalt Krytz (Dewald Kreutz) settled about two miles east of John Coth-
ner near Byrd creek. Farther up west, Jacob Slinker, and Frederick (180 1);
Jeremiah Paynish (1801) ; William Tismon (1802) ; John Hoss (1801) ; Conrad,
Adam and Peter Stotlar (Stadler) (1802); Peter and George Grount (1802):
Handel Barks (Bergs) (1803); Frederick Limbaugh (Limbach), a German
school teacher, and his two sons Michael and Frederick, junior, (1800); Peter
Hartle (1802); Benjamin and Daniel Heldebrand (1804); John P. Aidenger
(1802); Daniel Brant (1802); may be the same as in New Madrid in 1798 —
Isaac Miller ( 1 804) . Where White Water leaves the hill country and flows through
the bottom lands, a nimiber of American settlers established themselves and
secured grants, Francis Murphy (1796); James Murphy (1799); Raisin BaUey
(1802); Alexander Par(r)ish (1802); Alexander Thorn (1802); James Horace
Austin (1803); Smith (1803); Jacob Shar(r)adin (1803); William Smith (1802);
Daniel Brant (1802); George (M). Morgan (1803); John Shields, no location,
(1804); Charles Sexton (1803); William Samer; Daniel Asherbrauner; John
Hoss; John Abernathee; Jeremiah Paynish, alias Boining; Christopher
Aidenger ( 1 801); John Ramsay, Jr., owned one slave (1800); William Patterson
(1803); Alexander Summers.

I90 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

this creek, and in 1804 a compact settlement existed in this neighbor-
hood. Among other settlers we also find William Williams (1798).
McKendree chapel is located on his grant.'* Joseph Waller, from
Tennessee (1797) also lived on this creek, but afterwards secured a
grant on the Mississippi river about twelve miles above Cape Gir-
ardeau, where he established a ferry across the river, which was long
known as ** Waller's Ferry."

On the edge of the Grand Marias, freely translated by the Ameri-
cans as "Big Swamp," but really not a swamp, the first settlers were,
John (Seaver) Saviour (1797); David Bowie, a son of Reazin Bowie
of Marias des Peches (Fish Lake) in what is now Mississippi county
and Hypolite Mariot (1799) evidently a French hunter attached to
Lorimier, and to whom he afterwards assigned his land."

At the headwaters of Cape La Cruz (erroneously spelled Cruche)
Isaac Williams made a settlement in 1803, but remained only a short
time and then removed to Mississippi territory. Immediately south
of Williams on the forks of Cape le Cruz creek William Lorimier, a
son of Don Louis Lorimier, was supposed to have a farm, and adja-
cent to him on the west, Lorimier's first secretary Louis Frangois
Largeau made a claim, but whether he ever occupied it is not known.
His rights to this property however were afterwards sold under exe-

** Other settlers on this creek were John Giboney (1797); James Cox,
senior, and his son-in-law, Simeon Kenyon (1797), and his son James Cox,
junior, all from Kentucky; Benjamin Hartgrove or Hargrove; Nicholas Seav-
ers, Sr., 1797); Andrew Franks, (1798); John Guething (1798), a car-

E enter employed by Lorimier in public works, and in apprehending and
eeping in custody prisoners; Hugh Criswell (1799); Joseph Thompson,
who emigrated to this district from Vincennes where he had rendered military
service in 1 790 — (also on Ramsay creek and the Mississippi) ; James and Joseph
Worthington (1799) ; James Hannah (1799) ; Jacob Jacobs (1799) — from Uie
district of Columbia; Daniel Duggan or Duggin, dit Count de Monnangel;
James Arrell or Earls (1798) from Kentucky; Samuel D. Strother (1797), from
Kentucky, first settled on the Saline in theSte. Genevieve district, but in 1 799
lived on this creek; James Dowty, a German (1799); William Thompson;
Jeremiah Tompson (1798), afterwards moved to Mis»ssippi territory; Elisha
Whittaker (1802); Benjamin Lougherty or Laferty (1803). In 1797 Josiah
Lee also lived on this creek. Other settlers here were, Gilbert Hector (1799) ;
Jonathan Ditch.

•* Also William Doss resided on the edge of the bottom, (1800), but after-
wards removed to lower Louisiana; Solomon Thorn, the gunsmith on Apple
creek also had a grant here ; so Mathew and Jesse Scruggs and Terence Dyal or
Dial (1799) ; Charles Bunch (1800) , was employed as a messenger for the Post
of New Madrid in this year, fklward Robertson in 1797 lived here, sold out to
Andrew Ramsay and moved to Big Prairie, where he was allowed to keep a tavern
and house for the sale of spirituous liquors ; Jeremiah Simpson, sold to Mathew
Scruggs. Hugh White received a grant on the Illinois road — on the edge of
the Grand Marais (Big Swamp) where the Rock Levee begins. White says,
he came from Cave de Roque in the Indiana Territory. Micajah Harris (1802)
settled on the edge of this bottom.

LAND GRANTS 191

cution and purchased by John Hays. About half way between Cape
la Cruz creek and Randall creek Enos Randall, already mentioned,
made his settlement in 1797. Moses Hurley also seems to have been
a resident of this locality, because his name frequently appears as a
witness. Immediately north of the post of Cape Girardeau adjacent
to Lorimier^s grant, Pierre Dumay secured a settlement right which
he afterward transferred to Pierre Menard. This Dumay lived in
New Madrid and was a native of Vincennes, and served there in the
militia. Not far from the mouth of Flora creek Stephen Cavender
settled.

At the mouth of what is known as Indian creek, then called Table
River (Riviere Table), Cornelius Averit (t) or Everett established
himself. A projecting rock resembling a table, on the south side of
this creek, originally gave the name to this creek, and this rock was
long pointed out by rivermen as the ^^DeviPs Tea Table," but it has
lately been blasted away by the railroad now running along the west
bank of the river. Where Apple creek enters the river Pierre Menard
of Kaskaskia secured a grant from the Spanish authorities, but no
settlement was made there. Probably he had a trading house at
this place or supposed it would be a favorable point to locate such an
establishment, because the villages of the Shawnee and Delaware
Indians were not far from the mouth of Apple creek, and likely for
this reason managed to secure a concession. Above the big bend
north of Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi, Joseph Chevalier in 1799
made claim under grant of De Lassus. This Chevalier was from
Kaskaskia where he rendered military service in 1790. South of
Chevalier, on the river, George Henderson set up a claim under Lori-
mier, dated 1808.''

Shortly before the cession of Louisiana Lorimier promised to pay
the troops which he was ordered by De Lassus to muster into service
to punish the Indians near New Madrid, with grants of land, no other
means being at his command to pay for this military service.'* Of

" Other settlers on the Mississippi river in the Cape Girardeau district were :
Lemuel Cheney (1797) from Virginia; John Tayon and John Johnson (1800);
David Down^ti; Benjamin Rose (1797), who settled above William Ross.
William Smith from Kentucky also made a settlement near William Ross, but
assigned his right to Thomas W. Waters, one of the early merchants of Cape
Girardeau in 1805. Edward Hogan had a farm opposite Thebes, Illinois, in
1797; the big railroad bridge now passes over his grant. Hogan acquired his
right from Alexander Millilun who came from Tennessee in 1797.

** We insert here the names of the members of this Spanish-American mili-
tary company, arranged alphabetically, as follows: Alexander Andrew, Jr.,
David Asherbrauner; Harris Austin; Washington Abemethie; Comehus

192- fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

course no authority existed under the Spanish law to make such a
grant, but nevertheless he made a grant of 300 arp>ens to each of the
one hundred and sixty-four men who had served for six weeks in that
campaign. These grants were all subsequently confirmed.

Averitt; James Arrell. Daniel Brant; Jonathan Buys; William Bollinger
(John's); Henry Bollinger; Charles Bradley ; John Burrows; Henry Bollinger
(Daniel's); Davalt BoUinger (Daniel's); Phiup Bollinger; Henry Bollinger
(Philip's) ; Frederick Bollinger (Philip's) ; David Bollinger (Mathias') ; Daniel
Bollinger (John's) ; John Bollinger (John's); Stephen Byrd; Abraham B)rrd,
Jr.; John B)rrd; Moses B)rrd; William Bonner; Samuel Bradley; Thomas
Bull; George Frederick Bollinger; Mathias Bollinser; Daniel Bollinger, Sr.
James Cooper; Jeremiah Conway; Jeptha Cornelius; Peter Crytz; James
Cox; Hugh Connelly, Jr.; George Cavender; Timothy Connelly; Hugh
Criswell; Lemuel Cheney; James Cooper; Daniel Clingensmith. Ezekiel
Dickson ; Charles Demos, (died before the cession and his widow made claim
for grant); Elijah Dougherty; John Dougherty; David Downard; James
Dowty; William Dougherty; Peter Franks; Barton Franks; Jonathan
Forman, Jr.; Jacob Foster, Jr.; George Grount; John Guething; Baptiste
Godair; Robert Giboney ; David Green; Michael Guinn ; Daniel Grount; John
Giboney. Jonathan Hubbell, Sr.; George Hays; John Hoss; John Henthom;
Jonathan Hubbell (Itham); Ebenezer Hubbell; Daniel Hubbell (Mathew's);
Jonathan Hubbell (Jonathan's); Lemuel Hargrove; William Hand; John Hand;
John Hays; George Henderson; Daniel Helderbrand; Benjamin Helderbrand;
Thomas Hening; Gilbert Hector; Christopher Hays; William Jackson; James
James; Isaac Kelly; Simeon Kenyon; Benjiah Laugherty; Lewis Latham;
John Latham; John Lorance; Valentine Lorr; Josiah Lee, Jr.; John Losila;
Charles Lucas; James Mills; George Morgan; James Murphy; Rolland
Meredith; Daniel .Mullins; Joseph Magee; John May; Hipolite Marotc;
Allen McKensie ; William Murphy ; Joseph Niswanger; Joseph Niswanger, Sr. ;
Michael O'Hagan; David Patterson ; John Patterson; Samuel Pew; Alexander
Parish; Andrew Patterson ; Jacob Probst; Adenston Rodgers; James Ramsay,
Jr. ; Abraham Randall, Jr. ; Enos Randall ; Thomas Rodney ; Zebulon Reed ;
James Russel ; Nicholas Revelle ; Andrew Ramsay, Jr. ; Andrew Ramsay, Sr. ;
Anthony Randall; James Randall; Samuel kandall; Medad Randall; Enos
Randall, Sr. ; Martin Rodney; Andrew Summers; John Simimers, Jr. ; Frederick
Slinker; John Saviour; John Sineson; Charles Sexton; Alexander Simimers ;
Jacob Sharadin; John Sharadin; Dennis Sullivan; John Henry Smith; William
Strother; Samuel Strother; William Smith; Adam Statler; Conrad Statler; John
Thompson; William Timantz; Solomon Thorn; Jeremiah Thomas; Joseph
Thompson, Sr.; Joseph Thompson, Jr.; John Tucker; Elijah Whittaker;
William James Williamson ; George Welker; Levi Wolverton ; Isaac Williams ;
John Weaver; Elijah Welsh; Jacob Welker; Thomas Wellborn; Joseph
Worthington; Philip Young; Austin Young; Joseph Young; John Zellahon.

CHAPTER XVI.

•

Spanish Occupation of Louisiana — The 'Illinois Country" Defined — Spanish
Colonial Government — ^Public OflSces Sold at Auction — Duties of Officers —
Judicial Procedure-^System of Jurisprudence — Notable Changes in Exist-
ing System — Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction — Procedure in Appeals —
Powers of Lieutenant-Governoi:^ — Names- of Early Syndics — Some Early
Causes — Copy of Cost-bill — Civil Controversies ^bitrated — Judicial Sales
made on Sunday — Population of Early Settiements — French and Span-
ish Relations with Indians Harmonious — The Turbulent Osages — Plan
of Chouteau to Control Osages — Specifications for Fort Carondelet —
Influence of Louis Lorimier over Delawares — Treatment of Indians by
Spain and by English speaking people Compared.

During the French dominion, the territory now within Missouri,
was under the jurisdiction of the Commandant of Fort de Chartres
and the council associated with him. When the Spaniards assumed
possession, O'Reilly, Governor and Captain-General of Louisiana
in March 1770, established the office of Lieutenant-Governor of
"San Luis, San Genoveva and the dktrict of the Ylinneses," * and his
action was approved by royal cedula dated August 17, 1772.^ In
place of the French Superior Council of the colony, O^ReiUy insti-
tuted a Cabildo, composed of six perpetual Regidores, two ordinary
Alcaldes, an Attorney-General, a Syndic, and a Clerk. This tribunal
was presided over by the Governor in person. Nothing will
appear more singular to the reader of the present time than the fact
that the office of the Regidores could be acquired by purchase, and
that when these offices were first established by O^Reilly they were
sold at auction, and that the purchaser acquired a vendible interest
in these offices, the right to sell and transfer the same to a known
and capable person, one half of the appraised value to be paid cash
and the balance at the rate of one-third on subsequent changes.'
These Regidores held, respectively, the offices of Royal Standard Bear-
er (Alferez Real), of Provincial Alcalde, of High Sheriff (Alquazil

^ It should always be remembered that during the French and Spanish
period, the country east of the Mississippi north of the Ohio, and west of the
Mississippi, perhaps north of the Cinque Homme, or Apple creek, in what is
now Missouri, was known as ''Illinois" or the " Illinois country."

' General Archives of the Indies, Audiencia of Santo Domingo, Louisiana,
and Florida, 161 3-1 8 18.

' Gayarre's History of Louisiana, Spanish Domination, p. 3. Martin's His-
tory of Louisiana, p. 10.

193

194 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Mayor), of Depository-General and of Receiver of Fines. They
elected the ordinary Alcaldes and the Attorney General Syndic and
clerk. The salary of these Regidores was only $50 a year.* The
ordinary Alcaldes were the judges in civil and military cases in New
Orleans and summarily disposed of judicial matters without any writ-
ing, where the amount did not exceed $25 in value; but in cases in-
volving larger amounts they sat in Chamber, and their proceedings
were recorded by a clerk and notary. An appeal could be taken from
the judgment of these ordinary Alcaldes to the Cabildo. But the Ca-
bildo did not itself examine the proceeding thus appealed ; it selected
two Regidores to do so, who, together with the Alcalde who had ren-
dered the judgment, revised the proceedings, and if the Alcalde and
the Regidores so selected approved the original finding, the judgment
stood afiirmed. The Cabildo sat every Friday, but the Governor
could convene the body at any time. The principal Provincial Al-
calde had cognizance of all matters out of New Orleans. The Alqua-
zil Mayor (High Sheriff) executed throughout Louisiana all processes
from the different tribunals, personally or by his deputy. The Attorney -
General Syndic was not the prosecuting oflGicer, but represented the
people in the Cabildo, and it was supposed to be his duty to propose
such measures as the interests of the people required. All oflGicers
who received more than three hundred pesos a year were appointed
by the crown, but those receiving less than this sum were appointed by
the Governor. The Governor exercised judicial powers in criminal
and civil cases throughout the colony, but was subordinate to the
Captain General of Cuba. An Intendant had charge of the Royal
revenue, and attached to him as legal advisor was an Auditor. A
Contador, or Comptroller, looked after the accounts. An auditor of
war looked after the military revenues; and an assessor of the gov-
ernment was the legal advisor of the Governor. In addition, various
secretaries, a Surveyor General, Harbor Master, interpreters of the
English, French and Indian languages, Notaries Public and other
minor offices were attached to the central government at New Or-
leans. At every post an officer of the militia or army was stationed
as Civil and Military Commandant, being of no higher grade than
Captain. The duties of these commandants were to maintain peace and
order in their respective districts and places, to examine the passports
of every traveler in the colony (for no one was allowed to travel with-
out a passport), to allow no one to settle in his district without express
* 2 Martin's History of Louisiana, p. 11.

"COUTUME DE PARIS'* 195

license and permission, to punish slaves, to entertain jurisdiction in
civil cases — in lower Louisiana in cases involving less than $20; but in
upper Louisiana for larger amounts, — to make inventory of estates of
deceased persons and to attend sales under execution of judgments.
In upper Louisiana all post commandants were subject to and under
the control of the Lieutenant-Governor, residing at St. Louis, with
the exception of the Commandant of New Madrid, who, until 1799,
when the post of New Madrid was attached to upper Louisiana,
exercised the powers of a sub-delegate, having a jurisdiction and
authority independent of the Lieutenant-Governor at St. Louis.
Spanish was the official language,^ but the use of French was
tolerated and finally in legal matters, says O'Reilly, an Abridge-
ment of the Spanish Law ''prepared by my assessor Don Manuel
de Umistia and by the advocate Don Felix del Rey who made
them by special commission from me/' was made a guide in civil
and criminal cases, for all public functionaries and for the people.
This compendium, however, was merely an index to the body of the
Spanish law.

Thus the laws and customs "of the mayoralty and shreevalty of
Paris" which were extended over "said country of Louisiana," by
the seventh article of the Charter of Crozat, apparently, were super-
seded. Originally the "coutume de Paris" seems to have been se-
lected by the advisers of the King of France, when he granted this
charter, as the system of law under which Louisiana should be placed,
because it was the best digest of the French law and to which it was
proposed to reduce the customary law of all the other provinces of
France.* Nor were the rights of the people, conferred by the laws and
customs of Paris, in any wise limited, changed or abridged by the
transfers made afterward. The third article of the charter of the
Compagnie deslndes Occidentales, expressly stipulates: "The judges
established in all the said places shall be held to adjudge according
to the laws and ordinances of the kingdom and the officers to
follow and conform themselves to the customs of the Prevdte and
Vicomte of Paris, according to which the inhabitants may con-
tract, without that any other custom may be introduced to avoid
diversity."^

' Cnizat, Lieutenant-Governor of upper Louisiana, was expressly ordered
to use the Spanish language, in 1778, in adl official documents.

• Enc. Meth. Jurisp. — Coutume, p. 405.

' I Moreau de St. Marie, p. 100, cited in American State Papers, 3 Public
Lands, p. 83.

196 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Although the Spanish law was introduced, by proclamation
of O'Reilly, practically only the names were changed of the
officers administering the existing law. No change took place in the
essential principles of jurisprudence. • New Spanish officials, desig-
nated by Spanish titles, were substituted for the French officials.
The manner also of the proceedings in the trial of causes where such
trials took place in lower Louisiana to a limited extent was changed,
so as to be in accord with the digest of Urrustia and del Rey, until a
general knowledge of the Spanish language and a more extensive
information of the Spanish law could be secured. The great system
of law relating to property and defining the rights of persons and
things was left untouched, so that all remained in the enjoyment of
these rights by this proclamation.

During the entire Spanbh occupation, it is said that new rules and
ordinances were promulgated only in regard to three subjects. In
1770, O'Reilly publbhed a series of ordinances as to how and in what
manner land would be granted, and subsequently similar ordinances
were publbhed by Carondelet, Gayoso de Lemos, and, finally, by
Don Juan Ventura Morales in 1800. Another subject in regard to
which new laws were publbhed related to the police, and in addition
a number of regulations were made in regard to bridges, levees,
roads, slaves, coasting-vessels, travelers, arms, estrays, fishing and
hunting. These acts, mainly applicable to lower Loubiana, embod-
ied about all the changes made in the exbting system during the Span-
bh occupation of the country. Stoddard says that **An ordinance
regulating dower and inheritance of intestate estates was the only
law promulgated in upper Louisiana, independent of the rules and
regulations in regard to the acqubitions of lands. " ^

The inhabitants of upper Loubiana who were of French descent,
claimed as their inherent birth right, the rights and privileges of
coutume de Paris, and by these usages and customs governed their
own domestic affairs and relations as far as they knew. This they did
without interference on the part of the Spanbh authority, apparently
in ignorance of the O'Reilly proclamation or because the Spanbh
law introduced by thb proclamation in no wise conflicted with the
coutume de Paris.

While the Spanbh language was made the official language,
French so thoroughly remained the language of the country and its

• De Bow's Review for 1847, p. 33.

* Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 285.

JURISDICTION OF COMMANDANTS 197

inhabitants, that judicial proceedings in upper Louisiana were carried
on principally in that language during the Spanish occupation ; but
such cases as went by appeal to the Governor-General at New Or-
leans, were, it seems, presented in the Spanish language, being either
originally so instituted or translated on appeal. Petitions in judicial
proceedings and petitions for grants and lands were indifferently writ-
ten in Spanish or French in upper Louisiana.

No question directly arose during the Spanish occupancy of upper
Louisiana as to whether or not the Spanish law had superseded the
coutume de Paris. The settlements were isolated and unimportant.
Such legal questions as arose involved facts rather than principles of
law, and since the coutume de Paris and the Spanish law were de-
rived from the same common source, it was hardly possible that any
serious difficulty as to any legal question could arise. We may how-
ever conjecture, that possibly if a question of law had directly arisen,
bringing into conffict the laws and regulations as established by the
coutume de Paris and the Spanish Colonial code, that the Spanbh
lawyers and officials would have declared that the Spanish law pre-
vailed in the colony.

In 1787, FcyrouXy then Commandant of Ste. Genevieve, was
instructed that he had power to decide only matters "up to the sum
of fifty pesos, " and that in cases above that sum an appeal must be
made to the Lieutenant-Governor as in all other matters concerning
"inventories and finances because of the death of any of those inhab-
itants," but he was authorised in such cases to take judicial action in
the presence of two witnesses until the cause could be placed in a sit-
uation for the Lieutenant-Governor to pronounce sentence. These
instructions very probably define the extent of the civil jurisdiction of
the several commandants of upper Louisiana, with the exception of
New Madrid. Each commandant had the public archives of his
post under his charge. It was his duty to report, as to the affairs of
his post, to his superiors. It was the duty of the Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor, or commandant-in-chief, says Trudeau, "to go to any of these
villages when any criminal or summary process is to be pursued,"
thus taking cognizance of criminal cases in the several districts, al-
though the local commandants also exercised jurisdiction in some
criminal matters, subject, however, it is quite certain, to an appeal
to the Lieutenant-Governor. In a criminal case which arose
shortly before the cession, one, Moses Burnett was arrested in the
New Madrid district for stealing two horses from Lorimier and

198 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

sent directly to St. louis to be imprisoned and tried by the Lieu-
tenant-Governor there.*^

During the Spanish government, any one aggrieved by the ruling
or decision of these military and civil officers of upper Louisiana,
could not only appeal his case" to the Governor General at New
Orleans, but could take it thence to a judicial tribunal in Cuba, and
from this tribunal to the Audiencia of San Domingo, and from thence
even to the Council of the Indies in Spain." No code of procedure
was ever devised more carefully safe-guarding the rights of the
individual in theory than the Spanish colonial code. It was merely
a matter of money to secure all these rights practically, but the same
observation may be applied to every other system of jurisprudence.
But "Judges, codes of law and prisons were of little use where such

^^This arrest was the cause of a good deal of litigation. Burnett after
his arrest, escaped from the ^'calaboza" of St. Louis, and returned to the
Tywappity bottom in the New Madrid district, where his family resided. His
wife was a sister of Reazin Bowie, who had been S3mdic of this neighborhood.
Burnett remained at home for some time and then with his wife and her slaves
and other property started to move by land to lower Louisiana, but Lorimier
hearing of his return and attempt to move away, followed him with his son, An-
drew Ramsay, and others, and found Mrs. Burnett at the house of Mr. Payne on
the St. Francois river. Burnett, however, was in the woods and could not be
found. Lorimier then took possession of the slaves and twelve horses, all
claimed by Mrs. Burnett. The province in the meantime having been trans-
ferred to the United States, Captain Stoddard made an order for the sale of the
property and then Mrs. Burnett presented her petition to the civil commandant
of New Madrid, setting forth that all this property belonged to her, that Burnett,
at the time of her marriage with him, only had one horse, that the horses and
slaves were inherited by her from her ifather or secured by trades made with her
property. Under the enlightened rules of the dvil law and which prevailed at
the time of her marriage in upper Louisiana, her property was not liable for the
debts of her husband and could not be taken for the debts of the husband. When
the matter was presented to Captain Stoddard he referred the case to the new
courts to be organized, but says: "we doubt whether she can legally obtain the
property mentioned in the petition, because it is personal property and therefore
became the property of the husband on marriage," applying the common law
rule, but which was never the rule under the ci^ law. New Madrid archives
vol. 9, p. 314.

Burnett, after the cession in 1805, sued Lorimier, for damages, in the new
court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, in Cape Girardeau, but was
himself indicted by the grand jurv, at the same term, for burglary, and then dis-
appeared. It is not known what became of him. Likely went to the Red river in
Louisiana, where his brothers-in-law were engaged in bringing negro slaves into
the country via Galveston bay, and which they bought from LaFitte. Was this
Burnett related to David G. Burnett, first president of Texas, and who was
empressario of a s^rant coverin£ the country in which the Bowie's operated?

" Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 285. But appeal must be taken within five days.

^ Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 285. "But in case of appeal the party appealing
was first obliged to pay the amount in dispute, if the matter related to a claim,
to the opposite party, who was required to give bond that in case of reversal
he would repay tiie sum. This regulation was intended to prevent litigious and
vexatious appeab for the purpose of delay and partly to shield the poor from

A PARENTAL DESPOTISM 199

simplicity of manners prevailed and where every one knew how to
confide in his neighbor. ""

The government was a parental desix)tism. To illustrate: the
common field fence was not maintained in front of the lot owned
by a Mrs. Verdon, of the village of St. Louis, as required by the
rules and regulations. Consequently, without any litigation what-
ever, simply by order of the Lieutenant-Governor, the lot was
given to Mr. Chouteau, who took possession of it and kept up the
fence. Such a method Of disposing of the property of a recalcitrant
lot owner hardly seems possible to us under a system of government,
where aU affairs are regulated by fixed law and administered by offi-
cers belonging to different departments. But the Lieutenant-Governor
united in himself at that time executive, judicial and military func-
tions; he made concessions of the royal domain; he ordered and
conducted judicial sales ; he acted as notary and controlled the public
affairs of the province without the interference of any one ; the people
regarded him as the representative of the sovereign. Hence when
property could be secured for the asking, it was not an unusual
thing, if a person to whom property had been granted neglected to
do those things required by the established rules and regulations to
protect the other lot owners, that his property was given to some one
who would do those things."

Cases arising in the several settlements and falling within the
jurisdiction of the local commandants were quickly tried and adjusted
by them or by the Syndics appointed and acting under them. The
Syndics resided usually in the remoter settlements, and in the depend-
encies of the several posts. This position was filled for a time in New
Madrid by Pierre Antoine LaForge, by Pierre de Treget at Caronde-
let, Joseph Decelle Duclos at Mine d Breton, Joseph Chartrand at
Charette on the Missouri river, Richard Caulk at Bon Homme, Ed-
mond Hodges, north of St. Louis in the neighborhood of Spanish
Pond, James Sturgess on the Platin, Robert Owen at Marais des
Liards, about three miles west of Florissant, and Reazin Bowie in
Tywappity Bottom. These Syndics received no salary. To the

the oppression of the rich, and had the desired effect. Appeals were not com-
mon and those who made them could have no other object in view than the
reversal of erroneous judgments." It is not hard to imagine how disastrous
such a rule would now be to the legal profession and how it would lighten the
labors of the appellate courts.

" Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 236.

" Charleville vs. Chouteau, 18 Mo., p. 505. This property is now in the
heart of St. Louis and worth untold milUons. Madam Verdon died in 1796;

200 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

commandants of Ste. Geneveive, New Bourbon and Cape Girardeau
was assigned 150 pesos each annually, but the other commandants
served without pay, although perhaps at greater expense on account
of receiving the Indians and entertaining them on their visits. Tru-
deau thought they were entitled to a salary.

In practice the administration of the laws was simple. After hear-
ing the stories of both parties, the decree of the Commandant or the
Syndic was promulgated, and to that decree, with rare exceptions, all
parties submitted.** It is also true that during the entire period of
the Spanish occupation, only a few cases were carried by appeal from
upper Louisiana to the Governor-General at New Orleans. The
despotism, if so it may be designated, exercised by these civil and
military officers must have been mild and beneficent in character.

Under this judicial system we are told "judgment and
execution might be had in four days," yet, by special indulgence,
which it seems was always extended, time was generally given to a
delinquent defendant so that he could pay without distress or sacri-
ficing his proj)erty. To illustrate: Andrew Ramsay secured a judg-
ment against Edward Robertson before the Post Commandant of
Cape Girardeau, but Robertson was not able to pay, and in order to
secure a stay of execution, addressed the following letter copied
literally in English to this officer :

"To Don Louis Lorimier, Commander Civil and Military of the Post at
Cape Girardeau.

Honoured Sir;

In answer to the order given to Mrs. Ramsay by me, the note Mr. Ram-
say has on me was due in the fall of 1797, which I was ready and willing to dis-
charge it at that time and Mr. Ramsay purchased the note in the fall of 1798,
and if he had sent the note from Kentucky at that time, I was able to have
paid it without any damage to me ; but his knowing that com would be scarce in
this settlement at this season of the year, must certainly have been his reasons for
not sending it forward until now, and as this advantage is taken of me, I am not
able to pay the corn at this season, as it is not to be had in this country and it was
not my neglect that the com was not paid at the season that it became due. I
am in hope that your honor will allow me the same season of the year to pay it
as the note became due. Honoured Sir, if you will please to wait until Mr.
Ramsay comes home and he will take any property, in lieu of the com, that I can
spare, I will immediately on his arrival pay him up. I expect he will be at home
himself in a short time, and is a reasonable man. But as for Mrs. Ramsay, she
is destitute of anything that is consistent with reason, and Sir, you know very
well that I have summoned a number of the inhabitants that was indebted to

her maiden name was Victoire Richelet; she married Joseph Verdon in 1772
and separated from him in 1775. The piece of ground or lot was situated
behind the fort adjoining the land of Chouteau and Marly, and the property
was valued at the time of her death, it seems, at ten dollars.

"De Bow's Review for 1847, P- 33-

CRIMES 20I

me before you in order to recover payment of them to answer my contracts and
am not one dollar the better off, as they are not able to pay me. Therefore, I
pray your Honor will consider my case with them and give all of us time to make
the produce before we can pay it.

his
13th May, 1799." Edourd X Robertson.

mark

It is claimed that fees, costs and legal charges were very low during
the Spanish domination at St. Louis, but the cost bills in the judicial
proceedings that have been preserved do not bear out this statement.**
It was notorious that the costs and expenses of every kind attendant
upon litigation before the Spanish tribunals and officers at New
Orleans were very great. The American settlers in this Spanish
territory generally manifested little inclination to enter into litigation.
Of course, during this period there were no practicing lawyers in the
country, nor was forensic discussion encouraged or even tolerated.

No disposition was shown by the people generally to violate the
criminal code of the province. The French attach more disgrace to
legal punishment than do most other people.*^ The early American
settlers were awed by the dread of the " Mexican mines and the dun-
geons of the Havannah. " However, this threat to send to the mines
was generally only a hrtUum ftUmen, for according to Clark " if a man
suffers in such a business his crime must be aggravated, and then he
is only sent to the mines if devoid of friends or money to bribe his
judges."*® A single instance will show how even small criminal
matters in upper Louisiana were managed: In 1800 one Moses
Moodey, a merchant settler, came to the house of one Griffin in the
night at about eleven o'clock, and demanded " his things and a settle-
ment. " But Griffin said that this was no time to settle, and after
some further dispute, Moodey drew his pistol, threatening both
Griffin and his wife. Griffin then sprang upon Moodey, who evaded
his grasp and escaped. All of this was witnessed by one Dr. Wallis.
Complaint was made by Griffin to Dunegant, the Commandant of
St. Ferdinand, and Six militiamen were at once ordered to search for
Moodey. He was duly arrested and sent to DeLassus in St. Louis
where he was imprisoned. Soulard was deputed to go to St. Ferdi-
nand to take the evidence, and this he did without delay. After
remaining in prison a month, Moodey petitioned DeLassus for release,
acknowledging his guilt, saying that this was his first offense ; that

*• I Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 301.

*' Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 283.

^* 2d Wilkinson Memoirs, Extract from Daniel Clark's Memoir in Appendix.

202 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

he was under the influence of liquor; that he would pay the costs and
hereafter ^'give no cause for complaint." In this petition Griffin
joined, and accordingly Moodey was pardoned."

It can be easily imagined that seditious language, was especially
held in profound abhorrence by the constituted authorities, under
such a combined military and civil judicial S3rstem. Consequently, it
was only at rare intervals that the French settler, politically cowed
and tamed, would allow language in derogation of the existing order
of things to escape his lips, because if such language was reported to
the Lieutenant-Governor or to the Conmiandant of the post, as it
would usually be with promptitude, the punishment was swift and
condign ; no judge nor jury to delay matters, or the execution of the
judgment. We have heretofore referred to the case of one Le
Toumeau, who was banished from the society of the happy and
contentedearly inhabitants of "Paincourt" by decree of Governor
Piemas. Here k the way Governor Piernas got rid of Monsieur
Le Tourneau:

"We, Don Pedro de Piemas, Captain of Infantry and Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor of the Illinois settlements of his Catholic Majesty: In view of the
complaint of Mr. Louis Lambert of the 15th of August against Amable Le
Toumeau, a Canadian, accused of using improper and seditious language in con-
tempt and derision of the ordinance of the King, published by us at the door
of the church on the day of the Feast of the Assumption, and also of Mr.
Joseph Labusciere of the same date of the same affect, we declare the said
Amable La Toumeau duly attainted and convicted of seditious language, and
a disturber of the public peace, and sentence him to ten years banishment
from his Majesty's settlements, with still heavier punishment should he dis-
regard this sentence, and reappear; as also to pay all the costs and expenses
of this prosecution."

"Sentence executed this day — Cottin, Alquazil." ^

'* The. cost-bill in this case was as follows:

Govemor's fees, decree and signature, 8 reals,

Governor's fees, for order to Adjutant Soulard, 8 reals,

Govemor's fees, in reading affidavit, 24 reals,

Of the cost ot 12 pages, one real for four pages, 3 reals,

Signature to cost-bill, 2 reals,

45 reals,
or $5.62!

Soulard's fees : going out of town, 4 ducats, 44 reals,

Horse and feed, each 8 reals, 16 reals,

Two taking affidavits, two ducats each, 44 reals,

Eight and one-half pages, writing 2 reals, 17 reals,

Eight signatures, four reals each, 32 reals,

153 reals,
or $19.12
Total cost 198 reals, or $24.75.

•• I Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 303.

ARBITRATION FAVORED 203

•

But the Le Toumeau family seems to have remained, although
the unfortunate Amable was exiled. After the United States acquired
Louisiana, one Louis Le Toumeau dit Lafieur and his wife, Marie
Bissonette, traded property with one Charles Bosseron and Theresa
Brazeau, his wife, and the difference of $150.00 was settled in "deer
skins at the rate of two and one half lbs. to the dollar. "

Malefactors when apprehended did not fare easily before tribunals
thus organized in these settlements. The foUowing judgment, also
accidentally preserved, in which Don Louis Lorimier, Commandant
at Cape Girardeau, deals out summary justice to a horse thief, shows
how crimes against live property were punished:

" Whereas, it evidently appears by the written depositions of William Lor-
imier and Henry Sheridan, that Robert Pulliam, an inhabitant of Horse Prairie
settlement, in the district of Kaskaskia, territory of the United States, hath
committed a theft in this place the nineteenth day of the month, we, Don Louis
Lorimier, Commander, civil and military, of the Post of Cape Girardeau, by
virtue of the authority vested in us to maintain good order and administer
justice in the said post, have condemned, and do hereby condemn, the said
Robert Pulliam to receive thirty lashes on his bare back, and to defray the
expense incurred by his prosecution, and restore the articles stolen, after which,
the said Robert Pulliam is hereby ordered to depart without further delay from
this post, and to appear no more therein, else he shall be liable to receive five
hundred lashes at every time he shall be apprehended within the limits of our
jurisdiction. We, therefore, do hereby give orders to the inhabitants of this
post not to harbor the said Robert Pulliam in or near their plantations, and
whenever he shall be found within the extent of this post, to apprehend and
bring him before us; and every inhabitant who shall not comply with the
present order shall be culpable and fined accordingly.

Given at Cape Girardeau, the twenty-fourth of July, in the year one thou-
sand seven hundred and ninety nine. L. Lorimier.^'

Civil controversies were often settled by arbitration. As a case in
point may be cited, the controversy between Louis Diard and Jean
Datchurut, a "merchant of Ste. Genevieve in 1769, involving what
were at that time large interests. Diard having obtained, before
Don Luis Unzaga, Governor-General at New Orleans, in January,
1770, a judgment ex parte which was about to be executed in St.
Louis in upper Louisiana, it was agreed that in order to ** put a stop
to a suit which might be ruinous to both, " the whole controversy
should be referred to " three expert arbitrators, knowing their bus-
iness." The men selected were, " Mr. Perrault, merchant, at present
in the post of St. Louis" acting for Diard, and " Mr. Laclede Liguest,
also merchant in this place" and " Mr. Laipbert Lafleur, Lieutenant
of Militia, " as the third, in case of disagreement. After this agree-
ment had been signed by the parties, before Don Pedro Piemas,
Lieutenant Governor, he made the order under the date of June

204 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

ist that "considering the foregoing claim, we order Messrs. Per-
rault, Laclede and Lambert, heretofore named, will decide between
Messrs. Diard and Datchurut and will make report to us of their
award in the case, to be made known to whom it may concern. "
On June 9th the two arbitrators promptly decided the case without
calling on the third man, Lambert, settling the whole controversy in-
volving many complicated questions of commercial law.'^

The first legal controversy within the present limits of Madison
county of which we have any record, arose in 1770. Pierre Mass^
dit Picard and Jean Baptiste LaBastille, lead miners living at " Mine
LaMotte " were the plaintiffs. They had taken out 20,000 pounds of
lead at this mine, when they were interrupted in their profitable work
by another miner, named LaRose who forbade them mining any
more, claiming that the land upon which they had worked belonged
to him and that he had transferred the land to Datchurut, one of his
creditors; he also took possession of the lead they had mined.
Mass^ and LaBastille thereupon applied to Piemas for relief, alleg-
ing that they did not know the land belonged to LaRose ; that the
land was not surveyed and the lines run until after they had brought
out the lead ; that LaRose could not show them his lines when ques-
tioned ; in short, " that the land had not been measured" and " lines
established" before they mined the land. This petition was filed
by them November 30, 1770, and on December ist, Piemas ordered
"that in default of LaRose having measured and marked his land,
the said Picard and LaBastille may take away their lead and mineral
seized by Dachurut and LaRose."

But Mass^ dit Picard was not so fortunate in another case, also
arising in this lead district. One Pierre Dagobert was then a merchant
in Ste. Genevieve ; he also was engaged in operating lead mines, and
therefore employed Massfe as a miner and agreed to pay him one hun-
dred francs a month in lead at 5 cents a pound, current price at that
time, for his work. But when his time was out and he applied to Mrs.
Dagobert for his pay, Mr. Dagobert being absent, she went with him
to Mr. Vall^, the Post Commandant at Ste. Genevieve, who had the
lead in his possession. Vall^ offered payment in cash instead of the
lead, lead having gone up in price. This led to a dispute in which
Mass^ says, in his petition to the Lieutenant-Governor, he was violent-
ly thrown against a trunk by Vall^, who also threatened to have him
imprisoned and then directed his clerk to write on the back of his

** I Billon's Annals, p. loi.

SPEEDY TRIALS 205

contract of agreement to work, an acceptance of the pay offered him
by Vall^, and a relinquishment of his claim to the lead, all this over
his mark of the cross. Massb's petition was filed in February, and in
March the matter was referred to Charpentier for investigation and
testimony was taken. A statement was made by Vall^ at the instance
of Piemas, and in June Lieutenant-Governor Cruzat, who in the
meantime had succeeded Piernas as Governor, ordered Massfe to make
a public retraction and apology to Mr. Vall^ for the injurious impu-
tations made against him in his petiton, '^in the presence of three
notable citizens to be selected by Don Louis de Villars," and to suffer
eight days imprisonment. In November Mass^ asked for permission
to take the case before Governor- General at New Orleans, and this
permission was granted ; but the decision of Cruzat was confirmed by
the Governor- General. Then in June, 1776, the Lieutenant- Governor
gave notice that he had appointed Pierre Laclede, Henry Charpentier
and Martin Duralde to receive the apology, and Diego Blanco and
Jean Olivier, two soldiers, were appointed as witnesses, the Lieutenant-
Governor fixing a day early in November for this purpose, but Vall^
was sick on the day fixed and could not attend in person. He there-
fore appointed Dr. Joseph Connand, at that time a merchant in St.
Louis, to represent him. On the day appointed Mass^ declined to
make an apology, saying " he had not given any offense to Mr. VaU^ ;"
but, apparently having reconsidered the matter, on the 12th of Nov-
ember, he wrote to the Lieutenant-Governor that he " would comply
with the decision in the case. " Although Massfe finally lost his case
it is very evident that he was a sturdy and independent man, not
easily awed and cowed into submission by the constituted officials,
who combined executive, judicial and administrative powers, and
that he did not readily surrender what he considered his rights."

The speedy disposition of cases is illustrated in another instance.
In 1780, Charles Gratiot, a merchant at Cahokia, deposited with
Charles Sanguinet a lot of merchandise, which Sanguinet afterwards
refused to give up, claiming that Gratiot was indebted to him.
Gratiot filed what we would call a petition in replevin with Lieutenant-
Governor DeLeyba on May 8th; Sanguinet replied on May loth;
depositions were taken next day, and on May 12th Gratiot made an
offer to Sanguinet to allow him to keep the goods at his (Gratiot's)

*^ According to Billoiii Masse died July 24, 1780, at the house of Dr. Reynal,
and was buried in the graveyard which then existed on Market street east of
Third street in St. Louis.

2o6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

appraisement. This Sanguinet declined, but on May i6th he pro-
posed that the goods be appraised by arbitrators. This Gratiot de-
clined, and on May 20th Sanguinet finally refused to accept the goods
at Gratiot's valuation, and on May 26th DeLeyba entered the follow-
ing decree :

"All the evidence in this case having been attentively examined
and duly considered, we decide that Mr. Sanguinet is not sustained
in his defence ; that he corruptly detained the goods of Mr. Gratiot
that had been merely entrusted to his care for safe keeping, as is
proven by all the evidence in the case. In consequence, we condemn
the said Mr. Sanguinet in all the costs, expenses and damages of this
suit, and direct him to restore to Mr. Gratiot all the merchandise,
etc., deposited with him by said Gratoit for safe-keeping, under
penalty of imprisonment. "

The rights of laboring men who had entered into an agreement
or engagement to work were then regarded lightly. If a workingman
failed to work as he agreed he was liable to be arrested and sent to
prison until he made up his mind to work, as he had contracted. A
complaint against a laboring man is preserved in the Ste. Genevieve
archives and gives us a vivid idea of how laboring men were managed
then. A man by the name of Mullen had agreed in writing to work
for Moses Austin, but concluded to quit for some reason or other.
Austin objected and filed his petition with the Conunandant of the
district of Ste. Genevieve to make Mullen work as he had agreed
— in words following :

"To Don Francesco Vall^, Commandant Civil and Military of Ste. Gene-
vieve, &c.

Moses Austin of Ste. Genevieve has the honor to represent to you that one
named Mathew Mullen, whom he engaged for one year by written contract to
work at the Mines of Breton, refuses to fulfil his engagement and will not work
for your petitioner.

Your petitioner therefore prays you, Sir, to order the said Mullen to fulfil
his engagement and in case of refusal that he may he compelled thereto by force,
and you will do justice.

At Ste. Genevieve the 29th May, 1799.

Moses Austin."

Upon this petition the Conunandant endorsed the following order :

" Let the present be communicated to the party, that he may give reasons
or adhere thereto. Ste. Genevieve, 29th May, 1 799.

Valle."

It can not be denied that however vicious the system, in many
instances effective and substantial justice was meted out. The cases
were not long delayed or continued from month to month. Short

JUDICIAL SALES 207

cases, short orders or decrees, and mandate to restore property, or to
go to the "calaboza," as the jail of that period was generally desig-
nated, were much in favor.

Offenses against personal character, such as slander and libel,
at that time appear to have been quite prevalent, in " Paincourt" (St.
Louis.) Thus, one Michael Calas was cited for having defamed the
reputation of Madame Montardy and dealt with in a summary
way. It was decreed that he personally apologize and ask her par-
don, and in addition pay a fine of twelve hundred mararedis, one
half to go to the lady,, and the other one half to go to the church.
The order closes as foUows : " and to be banished and chased away
from this part of the Illinois for ten years, as a pernicious calumnia-
tor and disturber of the public repose, as much for the present offense
as other violences committed heretofore. To this effect he will be
conducted by a detail of men beyond the bounds of this province
where this sentence will be read to him by the constable of this
post, enjoining on him to respect his banishment and not to re-
appear under penalty of corporal chastisement if found in the pos-
sessions of his Catholic Majesty." A certain Menard also, who
had impeached the honor of one of the early ladies of St. Louis,
was ordered to publicly disclaim the slander, and in addition con-
demned to suffer "imprisonment of fifteen days as an example to
others. "

Many other cases relating to the women of early St. Louis came
before the Lieutenant-Governor. So Joseph Robidoux was made
miserable by a report, which was spread abroad, breaking up a pro-
posed marriage between him and the daughter of Bequette ; the slan-
derous words being that his family in Canada had harbored " wicked
ones. " Robidoux petitioned that Bequette be compelled to disclose
the informant. The Lieutenant-Governor, however dismissed the
complaint and very sensibly advised all parties to hold their
tongues, recommending Robidoux to secure documents from
Canada establishing the respectability of his family.

The civil and military Commandants were generally vigilant in
enforcing all such rules and ordinances as related to the administra-
tion of public affairs in the country. No one was allowed to settle
on the public domain in the country without express j)ermit of the
Post Commandants. No one, not even an old resident of the country,
was permitted to travel from one village to another more than twenty
miles distant without obtaining from the Post Commandant a pass-

2o8 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

port, in which was specifically stated the road to be travelled going
and returning. **

Judicial sales always took place on Sunday at the church door, at
the close of Mass, at 12 o'clock noon. Everybody was supposed to
attend church, and consequently, this occasion was deemed most
appropriate to execute a judicial process. When real property was
sold it was not finally knocked down to the highest bidder on the first
Sunday, but it was exposed to sale again on two subsequent Sundays,
and if no one bid a higher price at these subsequent days, the sale was
announced as settled. Evidently, real estate speculation was not
favored at the expense of the distressed debtor. At such sales the
commandant of the Post or the Lieutenant-Governor was always
present. On Sunday, too, the decrees, new laws and ordinances of
the Governor-General of the province or kingdom, and the new rules
and regulations of the Lieutenant-Governor or Post Commandant,
were read.

Under the Spanish law the conmiandants were required to make
a register of the inhabitants of their respective districts, and of this
register a copy was required to be sent to the Royal Council of the
Indies.'* Accordingly almost the first official act of Piernas, when he
took possession of upper Louisiana, was the issuance of an order to
take the census. When this was done the total population residing
in the western Illinois country numbered only 891." At that time
the population of the villages of St. Louis and of Ste. Genevieve was
exactly the same.'* The largest part of this population had only
recently settled on the west side of the river. In 1771, according to
Hutchins,*' the total population on the east side, including 230 ne-
groes, was 530, and the total population on the west side, including
120 negroes, 723. But in 1772, there were 497 persons in St. Louis of
whom 198 were slaves; and in Ste. Genevieve 592, of whom 287 were
negro slaves, showing a total population of 1,088, in what is now Miss-
ouri. During the administration of Miro, in 1785, a census of upper
Louisiana shows the population of St. Louis to have been 897, and of
Ste. Genevieve 594, a total of but 1,592. In 1788 the population of
the St. Louis district had increased to 1,197, and in Ste. Genevieve

" American State Papers, Public Lands, p. 451, Letter of Hon. Thomas F.
Riddick.

•* White's Recompilation, American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 225.

* 2 Martin's History of Louisiana, p. 3.

* Gayarre's History of Louisiana, Spanish Domination, p. 23.
" Hutchins' Topographical Description, p. in.

TREATMENT OF INDIANS 209

district to 896. Morgan writes, in 1789, that he was astonished to
find that in twenty years the country had not advanced in agriculture
or population, and that, according to the report made by Hutchins
in 1 769, the present population did not exceed that at the earlier date,
"whereas, at that time, there was not a single farm settled on the
waters of the Ohio, and now in Kentucky alone you will find more
than 150,000 inhabitants. " In 1795 Trudeau reports the total popu-
lation at 2,927, this report not including New Madrid, which in
1 791 numbered 219 persons. In 1796 the total population was
3,083, and in addition New Madrid numbered 457 white persons
and 42 slaves ; but in 1 797 the population of New Madrid had
increased to 693.

When DeLassus was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of upper
Louisiana in 1 799, the first comprehensive and statistical census of
Upper Louisiana was taken, showing the following population: St.
Louis 925; Carondelet 184; St. Charles 875; St. Ferdinand 276;
Marais des Liards 376; Maramec 115; St. Andre 393; Ste. Gene-
vieve 949, exceeding the population of St. Louis ; New Bourbon 560 ;
Cape Girardeau 521; New Madrid 282; Little Meadows (Prairie)
49 ; total population 6,028. The total number of whites was 4,948 —
slaves 883, and free colored 197. During this year 34 marriages
were celebrated and 192 births and 52 deaths occurred. According
to the last Spanish census of 1803, the population of the Cape Girar-
deau district was 1,206, an increase of 622 since the census of 1799,
the population having more than doubled in four years in this
district.

The era of the French and Spanish possession of Missouri was
unmarked by such Indian wars, forays or massacres as occurred in
the Anglo-American colonies. The rules and regulations of the
Spanish government for the protection of the Indians were numerous
and specific, and the Government sought in every possible manner
to protect these aboriginal inhabitants. In upper Louisiana, as
elsewhere in America, the French settlers managed to live in amity
with the Indians. When the savage visited the French villages on
the Mississippi, he felt at home there. These French pioneers
were free from the haughty arrogance and race superiority that
characterised even the poorest Anglo-Saxon pioneer and they were
especially free from the land hunger that consumed even the
humblest English speaking settlers. Hence the two races generally
lived in harmony and exchanged good offices. Then, too the French

2IO HISTORY OF MISSOURI

understood the Indian character and manifested a decent respect
for his customs, his habits and his prejudices and for his institu-
tions; made no attempt to induce him to accept alien and foreign
ideas, always, of course, excepting the French missionaries, whose
labors to Christianize them were unceasing and indefatigable.

But it would be erroneous from what has been said, to suppose
that during the Spanish government, Indian depredations did not
occur. The Osages, especially, always gave the Spanish authorities
much trouble. Trudeau says that they always have " been the great-
est obstacle to the settlement of the country." In 1794 Auguste
Chouteau went to New Orleans with a delegation of Osage chiefs, and
while there with Carondelet devised a scheme to control these In-
dians. In a secret letter, dated May 24th, 1794, Carondelet wrote
the Duke Alcudia that the Big and Little Osages had committed
numerous robberies from the "city of San Luis de Ilinoa," as far
south as "Nuevo Madrid," and Nachitoches, so that the set-
tlers scarcely dared to leave the settlements to cultivate the
fields or hunt. Like his predecessors, he had tried every means to re-
duce them to perpetual peace with the Spaniards, but that he too, ex-
p)erienced the same perfidy. He says, also, that he had tried to excite
other savage nations against them, in the same manner as had been
done with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, Arkansas and other Ind-
ian nations, but that while awaiting the results of these measures, the
expedition organized by the French on the Ohio to invade Louisiana,
made it necessary to take into account the possibility of these French
using the Indians against Spain. He therefore thought it best to
receive a delegation of six of their great chiefs, who came from the
Osage river to make peace, and accede to their request on condition
that they pledge themselves to permit the erection, on a height over-
looking their principal village, of a fort to be garrisoned by Spaniards.
This was to hold their young warriors in check, and to obtain from
them satisfaction in case of robberies committed by them. The Ind-
ians had accepted this proposition. He then adds that he was
informed beforehand that a citizen of "San Luis," Don Auguste
Chouteau, who **enjoys the greatest consideration among the Indians"
had offered to enter into contract to establish such a fort at his own
expense, on condition that he be granted the exclusive trade with
these Osages for six years, and that he receive the annual sum of
$2,060, to be paid a garrison of twenty men of the fort, this sum not to
be paid in case His Majesty should conclude to alter the arrange-

FORT CARONDELET 2n

ment by sending twenty veteran soldiers of the army to the fort.
Carondelet then urges the approval of the contract as follows : " It is
to be observed likewise, that the Commandant of said fort enjoys no
pay whatever, and that His Majesty can replace him by an officer of
his troops whenever he may deem proper, but I hold that until these
Indians become habituated to the intercourse and habits of our na-
tion, it will not be proper to adopt a different system ; and as the six
years of the present contract appear to me sufficient, therefore, His
Majesty will at the end of that time find himself, without the slightest
expense, master of a fort with all the edifices of stone necessary for a
garrison of forty men, and will find a powerful nation under his
dominion, who thus far have been an obstacle to the growth and pros-
perity of the settlements of upper Louisiana, as the Osages have amid
the people of Nuevo Madrid alone stolen more than sixty horses in
one night ; and finally the enemies of this province, whether French,
American or English would be deprived of a resource, always ready
at hand, for introducing themselves into our interior possessions and
extending their incursions three or four hundred leagues. "

Auguste Chouteau in urging his proposal upon the Spanish offi-
cials, writes on May i8, 1794, that the Osages count twelve hundred
warriors, and that in view of the knowledge he acquired of them after
thirty years of commerce with them, he is of the decided opinion that
the only means of subjecting these Indians and preventing them from
destroying and pillaging the settlements, is to construct a fort in
" their very town," maintaining in it a garrison, and thus enabling the
chiefs to " restrain the young warriors and prevent them from making
raids, and chastise with the penalty of death those who conmiit mur-
der in our districts, and bring about also restitution of such robberies
as they may commit. " In order to accomplish this with the appro-
bation of the Osages, he proposed to construct this fort "incurring
the risk with his brother, Pedro Chouteau" who is to be Commandant
of the same, until the government should station a detachment of
regular troops there. To indemnify him for the expense incurred,
he asks for the sjmce of six years, the exclusive trade privileges among
the Osages on the Osage river, " without any other trader or hunter,
except those he may send, on any pretext, presenting himself to trade
with said nation." This proposal Carondelet accepted on the
2ist of May 1794, advising the Duke of Alcudia on the 24th of
May 1794, in the letter already quoted. The plans and specifica-
tions for this fort, which became known as "Fort Carondelet," are

212 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

dated May i8, 1794. It seems they were drawn up at New Orleans,
as follows:

" The said stronghold is to be composed of two parts : The first shall be
of brick or stone and the second of logs ten inches square laid horizontally one
upon the other, as the Americans practice. It shall form a perfect square each
side of thirty-two feet. The second part shall be placed diagonally, that is, so
that each side shall cut and correspond to the angle of the firat story, and each
angle to the middle side of the second story : by which means those defending
the top can exterminate with hand-grenades and guns through the holes in the
plankwork, all those who attempt to force the door or approach the base of the
wall.

The planking of the first story floors shall be at least three inches thick
unless the contractor prefer to use tight bricks or stone of same dimensions.
That of the second story shall be at least two inches thick and that of the gar-
ret shall be of common boards.

The elevation of the first story shall be ten feet between first and second
floors, that of the second story nine feet^in the same manner : the roof shall
have a height of six or eight feet and be covered with tiles, bricks, slate or mud.

All the woodwork shsQl be sustained by four posts, set at equal intervals in
the interior of the edifices, on which the beam shall rest to insure greater
solidity.

There shall be two embrasures in each facade of the first story, ten by
eight inches square, for placing artillery on pillars (?) with a very thick door
as on the vessels.

The door of the fort of the most solid nature with hinges, bolts and lock of
iron, shall be 6^ feet high and five feet wide. The stairway to upper story
shall be solid and well conditioned; there shall be on each side of second story,
ten loop-holes for guns 45^ feet over the floor, and two at the extremities of the
lower sides at a height of six feet, so that they can be used by mounting on a
chair without danger of the enemy being able to insert guns to fire into the
l»»wer story.

New Orleans, May 18, 1794. Auguste Chouteau.

Rubric."

In order to protect the settlers against the Osages and a possible
hostile American invasion, Carondelet as already stated induced
the Shawnees and Delawares to settle permanently in upper
Louisiana. This immigration and settlement was brought about
chiefly by Louis Lorimier. The extent and character of his power
over them is evident from the fact that on one occassion when a
Delaware Indian killed a white man on his way to Vincennes, in what
is now Illinois, he induced the Delawares, although at the time living
without the jurisdiction of the United States, to surrender the guilty
Indian to the authorities at Kaskaskia for punishment. This
incident is noted by Jefferson in his correspondence, and the name
of the man murdered is given by him as Harrison. He instructed
the Secretary of State to write a letter of acknowledgement to the
Marquis de Casa Yurjo, the Spanish Ambassador, and also in-
structed the Secretary of War, General Henry Dearborn, to send a
copy of this letter, together with a letter of thanks to Lorimier, and to

RESPECT FOR INDIAN RIGHTS 213

arrange to interview and give a medal to the principal chief of the
Dela wares, Takinantha (or Captain Allen).*

During the Spanish regime no effort was made to deprive the
Indians of their land by treaty, "to extinguish the Indian title," as
it is euphonistically expressed by the Americans. Under the
Spanish law all the vacant land, as "wasteland,'' was held to be
the absolute property of the Spanish king, requiring no pretended
"extinguishment" of the Indian title. The title, however, of the
Indians to the land which they held in actual possession was fully
recognized, and many rules and regulations were made to protect
this possession.

Only at rare intervals would an Indian rob or kill a French settler.
In fact (if we except Gabriel Bolon * and his nephews, murdered
by the so-called Mascoux and the massacre at Mine la Motte
by the Indians), no record of the murder of a Frenchman by an
Indian, during the Spanish Government in Missouri, has been
preserved. Occasionally American settlers were killed by the In-
dians during the Spanish occupancy. Sometimes too, a French set-
tler would be robbed by an Indian ; but this did not lead to a bloody
Indian war. In some way the matter was always amicably adjusted
by the Spanish authorities. Whenever it was necessary to apprehend
and punish an Indian, great care was exercised to impress and con-
vince his tribe that the punishment was just. The American settlers
never troubled themselves in that way. Whether the chief of the
tribe or the tribe approved or disapproved the punishment was of
little consequence. In fact, the chiefs and other Indians could consid-
er themselves fortunate if they were not killed without ceremony for
an offense by one of their tribe of which they had no knowledge
whatever. The Anglo-American asked permission from no one
before proceeding against the Indians in his neighborhood. He
took the matter in his own hands, and often remorselessly, cruelly,
without the semblance of fair dealing, trampled all argument and all
considerations under foot. If an Indian was tried at all it was in a
forum, the nature and character of which he did not understand and
was unable to comprehend ; matters, also, which no one took the trou-
ble to explain to him. His own chief was not consulted nor asked to
assent to the justice of the sentence. What wonder Indian wars and

*• He lived in the big Delaware (or Loup) village near Apple creek.

'* Came to upper Louisiana from Vincennes; he and his brother Amible
were Indian inteipreters.for General George Rogers^Clark.

214 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

massacres resulted? And yet we hear much of the cruelty of the
Spaniard in his dealings with the Indians. No doubt the early
explorers and conquistadores were guilty of great cruelty, but the
best commentary on the merits of the two methods is the fact,
that in all Spanish speaking countries in Central and South America,
the Indians and their descendants still constitute the bulk of the
population, reclaimed to some extent to civilization and professing
Christianity; while on the other hand, in the English speaking
portion of the continent, they have been exterminated, or if not
exterminated, driven and moved from place to place until now,
finally, even their last resting place, assured them as a common home
" as long as grass should grow and water run, '* against their will, and
in the interest of great railroads and the land-hungry Anglo-Saxon,
is divided among them in severalty, so that in some way white men
may be enabled to secure their last acres. But our procedure is
justified by the commercialism, the business interests of the country.
Upon no subject does greater ignorance or more unfounded preju-
dice generally prevail among the {>eople than in -regard to the
treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards. The Indians in many
instances received cruel treatment from the Spaniards, esp)ecially on
the islands of the Caribbean Sea, but nothing in history can be
compared with the cruel and heartless manner in which the Indians of
North America have been maltreated, robbed, plundered and goaded
into wars of retaliation, in order to absorb their rich heritage.

II

The Royal Domain in Upper Louisiana — Public Lands Donated, Not Sold —
Officials Authorized to Grant Lands — Ordinances of O'Reilly and
Gayoso — Speculation in Land not Favored — Ancient Spanish Land-Laws
Cited — Methods of Securing Title to Public Lands — Popular Neglect of
Same — Regulations of Morales Controverted — ^Authority of Morales Cited
— Letter of Ramiro de Lopez Angula — Liberal Colonial Policy of Spain
— Simple Procedure in Procuring Land Grants — First Official Land
Surveyors — Petition for Land Grants, and Incidental Orders — Large
Land Concessions Preceding Change of Government — Inteiesting
Examples of Petitions Securing Immense Grants of Land — Mining Priv-
ileges — Lead Mine Claims — Salt Spring Concessions.

Neither the French nor the Spanish Governments sold any por-
tion of the Royal domain in upper Louisiana. No instance of such
a sale can be found. Under the French Government grants of land
were made by the Governor and Ordonnateur; but when O'Reilly
took possession of the colony, he recommended to the King of Spain

SPANISH LAND LAWS 215

that the Governor alone be authorized to make such grants, in other
words, be vested with the powers of the Royal Intendants as exer-
cised in the other American possessions of Spain. His suggestion
was approved.'® As such Intendant, O'Reilly published his ordi-
nances in 1770.** So also Gayoso published his ordinances in
1798. These ordinances expressly provided for donations of
land, to actual settlers coming into the province and desiring
to "establish" themselves, and not for the sale thereof. In
1798 the Intendancy of the Province however was severed from
the office of the Governor by Royal decree, and the exclusive
faculty to grant and distribute land vested in a Royal Intend-
ant. Don Juan Ventura Morales was appointed to this office,
and in 1799 promulgated a series of rules and regulations in regard to
grants of land, and particularly defined how donations of land to
actual settlers should be made. Sales of land seem also to have been
contemplated, although none were ever actually made." The first
sale of land by the sovereign of the soil in upper Louisiana was made
by the United States.

In the ordinances of Gayoso, for the first time, reference was made
to the Illinois country. In his ordinances, it is provided that " In the
Illinois, none shall be admitted but Catholics, of the class of farmers
and artisans. They must also possess some property and must not
have served in any public character in the country from which they
come. The provisions of the preceding article shall be explained
to the immigrants already established in the province who are not
Catholics, and shall be observed by them, they not having done it
until this time, being an omission and contrary to the orders of his
Majesty, which required it from the beginning," and "To every
new settler answering the foregoing description and married, there
shall be granted two hundred arpens of lands. Fifty arpens shall be
added for every child he shall bring with him, and in addition, twenty
arpens for every negro that he shall bring. "

These regulations also provided that no land should be granted
to unmarried strangers, not farmers, and without property in negroes,

'° American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 251.

*^ These ordinances were published Feb. 18, 1770, and on Aug. 24, 1770,
the Marquis de Grimaldi informed Don Louis de Unzaga, the successor of
O'Reilly, that they had been approved. In Mackay vs. United States, 10
Peters, 341, the supreme court held that they were not in force in upper Louisi-
ana.

" American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 704.

2i6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

or merchandize or money, until they had resided in the province four
years, and conducted themselves "well, in some honest and useful
occupation," but artisans were fully protected and after having resided
in the country three years could apply for land. On the reconmien-
dation of a farmer any unmarried man, if the farmer was "willing to
give him his daughter in marriage," as soon as the marriage was
accomplished, could secure a grant of land. On coming into the
province it was necessary to take the oath of fidelity to the. king of
Spain. If the immigrant claimed to be married proof of the marriage
was required, and he had to specify what prop)erty belonged to his wife.
No land could be granted to traders. Speculation in land was to be
"by all possible means" prevented, and the new settler to whom
land was granted lost it without recovery, if within the term of one
year he did not begin to establish himself upon it, or if in the third
year he " shall not have put under labor ten arpens in every hun-
dred," and that "after he has produced three crops this settler has a
right to sell his lands. " But in case of his death the land descended
to his lawful heirs, if " he has one, resident in the country, " or if such
heirs lived "elsewhere they must resolve to come and reside on it."
These rules also required that the grants should be made so as "not
to leave pieces of vacant ground between them," since this would
ofifer greater exposure to the attacks of the Indians and render more
difficult the administration of justice and the regulation of the police,
" so necessary in all localities, " and " more particularly in new settle-
ments. "

Under these regulations the Spanish officials of upper Louisiana,
exercising the power of sub-delegates, made grants of lands varying
in number of arpens according to the prayer or petition, and the cir-
cumstances of the case. To a poor settler they would give from 200
to 500 arpens ; but, if he displayed ability and energy in reducing the
land to cultivation, the Spanish officials were always ready to give
him additional land. To the wealthy and influential settler larger
grants would be made, perhaps of several thousand arpens or a league
square, and, although the ordinances of O'Reilly prohibited a grant
of more than one league to a person, the ordinance was construed
as not prohibiting several grants of one league square to the same
individual." Occasionally, in upper Louisiana, grants were made
directly by the Governor-General. Thus, Carondelet directly granted
to Louis Lorimier 7,000 arp)ens of land where the city of Cape

" Chouteau's Heirs vs. United States, 9 Peters, p. 147.

ROYAL INTENDANTS 217

Girardeau is now located, and to St. Vrain 10,000 arpens of mineral
land in the lead district. He also ordered Trudeau to grant Moses
Austin a league of land. Casa Calvo gave Colonel Christopher Hays a
special permit to settle, and under this permit he took up his residence
on Hubbell creek, and obtained a grant of 1,000 arpens from Don
Carlos DeLassus.

In upper Louisiana, there were only two "patented officers,"
says De Lassus, these being the Commandants of St. Louis and New
Madrid, who had the authority of sub-delegates, and as such could
make grants or concessions of land. Commandants at St. Charles,
Ste. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau, were "particular" Com-
mandants, and had no such sub-delegate powers. Prior to 1799
the Commandant of St. Louis was the sub-delegate " for the Illi-
nois, " and the Commandant of New Madrid, sub-delegate for that
district. How these sub-delegations were bounded is not definitely
known ; but it is probable that the New Madrid district extended as
far north as Cape Cinqu€ Homme (St. Cosme) creek, the northern
limit of Morgan's claim. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that
when Don Louis Lorimier, in 1795, made application for a grant of
land, situated south of Cinque Homme, his petition was made to the
Governor-General Carondelet, through Don Thomas Portelle, the
Commandant of the district of New Madrid, and that his petition was
prepared by Juan Bamo y Femisola, the official greffier of this dis-
trict. The order of Carondelet to have the survey made for Lorimier,
however, was addressed to Don Zenon Trudeau.

The primary concessions made by the several Commandants
of the Illinois country, or upper Louisiana, and the rights of posses-
sion thereunder were, without exception, recognized by the Spanish
authorities at New Orleans. Together with the survey made in
accordance with the concession, they formed the foundations for a
claim to a legal title. During the Spanish domination there was an
uninterrupted exercise of the power to grant lands by Lieutenant-
Governors and sub-delegates, which was never challenged, disputed,
or questioned during that period. But land it should be remembered,
was then of little value. And although the nth section of the ordi-
nances of Gayoso expressly says, "No lands shall be granted to trad-
ers, as they live in towns, they do not want them, " this was held to
apply only to new settlers and not to Spanish subjects engaged in
trade. So also it is to be noted, that while under the regulation? of
O'Reilly, no settler was to receive more than a certain number of

2i8 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

arpens in front, in 1 789 the Commandant at New Madrid was advised
" that a greater or less quantity of land, agreeable to the wealth of the
grantee" may be conceded.'* But it would be a mistake to suppose
from this that these officers could at any time, with or without reason
or condition, grant to any one any quantity of land, or that no author-
ity existed to sup)ervise these grants ; on the contrary, as a matter of
law, all grants made by these officials were always subject to the
final approval of the Royal Intendants, these Intendants being the
particular judges of the causes and questions arising under the Span-
ish law in their respective districts, relating either to the sale or
distribution of the Royal domain. Although no case arose in upper
Louisiana where a concession made by the Lieutenant-Governor, or
any sub-delegate, was rejected by the Intendant, it is nevertheless true
that the Intendant had' the power to reject any such grant, and
that until as the King's deputy, he finally approved such grants,
the title to the land remained in the Crown. This seems to have
always been law even before the promulgation of the rules of
Morales.*

But referring to that class of land grants made as a reward and
payment for services rendered, a matter in which many of the early
residents within the present limits of Missouri were deeply interested,
it was argued that, under a decree of Emperor Charles in 1542, the
Viceroys of Peru and Mexico, and the Governors of provinces under
their authority, were authorized to grant such rewards, favors, or
compensation as to them might seem fit, and that in 1588 this decree
was recognized by Philip II., in 1614 by Philip III., in 1628 by
Philip IV., and under Charles II., incorporated into the Spanish
code for the government of the Indies. It was further argued that
these laws were in no wise limited by subsequent ordinances, and
that an order of Philip V., of November 24th 1725, requiring a con-
firmation by the crown, was revoked by an ordinance in 1754, and the
Audiencias authorized to confirm such grants in the King's name;
but that when the sea intervened, the Governors with the assistance
of other officers, were authorized to issue complete titles ; that by the
81 St article of the ordinance of 1786 the Intendants of New Spain
were made the exclusive judges of grants of land;" and finally that

^ Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 251.

" Menard's Heirs vs. Massey, 8 Howard, p. 305.

*• American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 705, where this whole subject
is fully and learnedly^discussed.

RULES OF MORALES 219

this ordinance was extended to Louisiana in 1798, when the Intend-
anty Morales, promulgated his regulations.

The first civil and military Commandant of the United States in
upper Louisiana, Stoddard, evidently an advocate of the claim-
ants, (he seems to have acquired one of these concessions from
Mackay) says that the regulations of Morales "were never enforced ;
certain it is that they were not carried into effect. The reason for the
first is, that the great clamor raised against them, in all parts of the
province induced the Governor-General and Cabildo to draw up a
strong protest against them, and to lay it before the King. The
consequence was, that Morales was removed from office ; though he
was afterwards reinstated to assist in transferring the country to
the French Republic. The reason for the second is, that the assessor
died soon after they were promulgated, which totally deranged the
tribunal of finances, and rendered it incapable of making or confirm-
ing land titles." But Stoddard does not tell us who advised him
"of the great clamor" raised against the regulations of Morales.*'
Nor does he give us any authority for his statements which seem to
rest on hearsay. On the contrary it is known,*that in 1 797 Gayoso dis-
puted the power of the Royal Intendant, Morales, to interfere in mat-
ters pertaining to grants of land, claiming the exclusive power to make
such grants, as Governor-General, and that by Royal order dated
October 22, 1798, it was expressly affirmed that the poipfers of the
Intendant were plenary to divide and grant the land belonging to the
King. After this order Morales published his rules and regulations,""
and the Governor-General of Louisiana ceased to be the Royal Intend-
ant of the province, the office having been, as we have seen, merged
into that of Governor-General, at the suggestion of O'Reilly in 1770.

Under the regulations of Morales, a very small number of titles
in upper Louisiana (according to Williams, only thirteen grants)"

*' Stoddard's Sketches of Louisiana were published eight years after the
Louisiana Purchase, when the *' clamor" against the Regulations of Morales
had become very loud among the American land claimants, and their lawyers,
who had acquired in many instances questionble and doubtful titles, issued in
the last days of the Spanish government. He was not a resident of Louisiana
prior to the purchase of the Territory. It is possible that in his mind he carried
back the ''clamor*' that arose from 1804 to 181 2, and which he heard, to 1799,
when the Regulations were first promulgated. On the 25th of Sept., 1805.
James Mackay conveyed the land to him and which became known as " Stod-
dard's Mound." This land was surveyed by Soulard in 1806.

" Menard's Heirs vs. Massey, 8 Howard, p. 305.

'• Williams' Paper on Land Titles in St. Louis, in Scharff 's History of St.
Louis, vol. I, p. 321.

220 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

were completed, it is said, because the exp)enses of procuring a com-
plete title at New Orleans were enormous, and the fees extortionate.
Then too, in 1802, the Lieutenant-Governor of upper Louisiana was
directed not to forward applications to complete titles until further ad-
vised. Stoddard, explaining the method by which titles could be
secured, says that it was " necessary for a concession to pass through
four, and in some instances seven, offices before a complete title could
be proou'ed, in which the fees exacted, in consequence of the studied
ambiguity of the 13th article, frequently amounted to more than the
value of the land" conceded.*® But it may be observed that a patent
for land from the United States passes through perhaps as many offices
before it is issued. On the other hand, the Spanish government
donated the land to the settlers, while the United States, until the
passage of the Homestead law, received the value in cash. Perhaps
the chief reason why the Spanish land titles of upper Louisiana were
not perfected, may be found in the danger of the journey down the
river to New Orleans and the expense of a trip through the wilderness.
The regulations of Morales may also have been unpopular because
the government reserved the privilege to tax the land, a principle
then very unpopular in the Spanish possessions.

The imperfect titles based upon grants made by the various Lieu-
tenant-Governors, exercising sub-delegate powers, were recognized
as transferable; they could be and were sold for debts and were
passed by devise. But the rules of the Intendant, Morales, were
directly in conffict with this general practice. In the i8th article, it is
said : " Experience proves that a great number who have asked for land
think themselves the legal owners of it ; those who have obtained the
first decree by which the surveyor is ordered to measure it and put
them in possession, others, after the survey has been made, neglect
to ask the title for the property ; and as like abuses continued for a
longer time will augment the confusion, a disorder which will neces-
sarily result, we declare that no one of those who have obtained the
.said decree, notwithstanding in virtue of them the survey has taken
place, and that they have been put in possession, cannot be regarded
as owners of the land until their real titles are delivered complete,
with all the formalities before recited." And says the 20th article:
" Those who without the title or possession mentioned in the preced-
ing article are found occupying lands shall be driven therefrom as
from property belonging to the crown." From which, it is very

^Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 252.

POWER TO MAKE GRANTS 221

evident, that at least this regulation of Morales was calculated to
make definite and certain the title of all grantees.

DeLassus, last Spanish Governor of upper Louisiana, in his testi-
mony before the Commissioners, said that the rules of Morales were
never enforced in upper Louisiana, and, that as Lieutenant-Governor
he had a right to suspend the execution of any order, if to him it ap-
peared prejudicial to the interests of the King or people, until he re-
ceived additional instructions. He said that he did not remember
causing the regulations to be published, that he gave no orders to
his subordinates in regard to these regulations, because he did not
intend to obey them. But in an order dated St. Louis, February 26,
1 801, he says: ''All concessions and augmentations of property must
be granted by the Intendant of these provinces on petition, which is
to be presented by those persons claiming lands. "** And the United
States Supreme court from this concludes that " the Intendant Gen-
eral had the power to adjudge on the equity of the claim and to
exercise the sovereign authority by making the grant as the King's
deputy."

A side light is thrown upon the testimony of DeLassus, when
it is remembered, that it was then supposed that titles to many con-
cessions for large tracts of land made by Trudeau and DeLassus,
depended upon establishing as a fact before the United States Com-
mission, that the rules and regulations of Morales were not in force
in upper Louisiana, and that as Lieutenant-Governor of upper
Louisiana he had the power to suspend the rules and regulations of
the Royal Intendant. Then too, the rule of the King of Spain was
at an end, and it was easy to say that as Lieutenant-Governor he
never intended to obey the orders of the Royal Intendant. Yet the
transfer of the power of Intendant from the Governor to a sep-
arate official, did not affect the powers of the sub-delegate in upper
Louisiana, although DeLassus seems to have thought so.^ But a
delegate could not transfer his power to another, and Morales so
advised DeLassus in a letter dated August 26, 1 799. Even a casual
p)erusal of the preamble of the regulations of Morales must lead to the
conviction that after 1798 no power to make absolute or complete
grants of land vested in the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of
Louisiana. Morales thus sets forth his authority and purpose:
* However, the King whom God preserved, having been pleased to de-

^ Chouteau vs. Ek:khardt, 2 Howard, p. 349.

^ Chouteau's Heirs vs. United States, 9 Peters, p. 145.

222 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

clare and order by his decree, given at Saint Lorenzo, the 2 2d day of
October 1798, that the Intendancy of this province, to the exclusion
of all other authority, be put in possession of the privilege to divide
and grant all kinds of land belonging to the crown, which right, under
his order of the 24th of August 1770, belonged to the civil and military
government, wishing to perform this important charge not only ac-
cording to the 8ist article of the ordinance of the Intendants of New
Spain, of the regulations of the year 1754, cited in said article and
the laws respecting it, but also with regard to local circumstances
and those which may, without injury to the interests of the
King, contribute to the encouragement and to the greatest good
of his subjects, did establish, or who may establish them-
selves in this part of his possessions, after having examined,
with the greatest attention, the regulations made by his Excel-
lency, Count O'Reilly, the iSth of February, 1770, as well as
that circulated by his Excellency the present Governor, Don Manuel
Gayoso de Lemos, the ist of January, 1798, and that the counsel
which has been given me on this subject by Don Manuel Seranno,
Assessor of the Intendancy, and other persons of skill in these matters,
that all persons who wish to obtain lands may know in what manner
they- ought to ask for them; and on what condition lands can be
granted or sold, and those who are in possession without necessary
titles may know the steps they ought to take to an adjustment, that
the Commandants, as sub-delegates of the Intendancy, may be
informed of what they ought to observe, that the surveyor-general
of this city, and the particular surveyors who are under him may be
instructed of the formalities with which they ought to make surveys of
land and lots which shall be conceded, sold or arranged for; that
the secretary of finances may know the. fees he is entitled to and the
duties he is to discharge ; and that none may be ignorant of any of
the things which may tend to the greater advantage of an object so
important in itself, as the security of property under the conditions
to enlarge, change or revoke that which time and circumstances may
discover to be most useful and proper to the attainments of the end
to which the benevolent intention of his Majesty are directed, etc."
Nor can there be any doubt that the rules of Morales were pub-
lished and well known to the principal persons in upper Louisiana.
That these rules must have been published, is shown by the evidence
to sustain the Butcher claim, from which it appears on June 15,
1802, Don Pierre DeLassus de Luziere,.Comniandant of Nouvelle

LIBERAL LAND POLICY 223

Bourbon, approved a p)etition and recommended to Morales, a grant
to these claimants of 1,600 arpens, 400 of which were located near
Mine la Motte, and 1,200 on Big river.*" In 1802 Moses Austin also
secured a complete title from the Intendant Morales, to a league
square at Mine k Breton, and Antoine Reihle a grant near St. Louis.
The fact that Barth^lemi Cousins, secretary of the Commandant at
Cape Girardeau, and also Deputy-surveyor, proposed to purchase
land immediately after the publication of these rules, a sale of land
for the first time being authorized by the rules or Morales, certainly
establishes this publicity. So also the reply of Ramiro de Lopez
Angula, dated Naples, April 2, 1800, to Don Henri Peyroux. This
letter, interesting in more than one respect, is as follows : " It was
never the intention of the King to dispose of the land in such large
quantities (100,000 aqjens), and under such circimistances as stated
in your letter of the 9th of February last. No. 9, and the p)etition of
the inhabitants accompanying it. It is true that in the new regulation
there are provisions for the sale of lands in the manner referred to,
but it is only under the previous formalities therein specified and
with a reference to the ability and force of the persons desirous of
purchasing, because it would not be just, that for a small consider-
ation, one or more speculators could make themselves masters of a
great extent of land to the prejudice of others coming to settle, and
who consequently find themselves driven to purchase those lands
which they might otherwise have obtained free of expense. For
those reasons I cannot accede, at present, to the before-mentioned
proposal, which you may make known to the parties concerned.
God preserve you, etc."

The rules of Morales did not really increase the difficulties of
securing land but they seem to have been prepared to protect the
settler. The careless, loose way in which grants and sur-
veys were made, no record whatever being kept of these transac-
tions under the ordinances of O'Reilly and Gayoso, would have
resulted ultimately in great injury to some of the settlers. The new
rules required that the surveyor should send a copy of his survey to
the office of the Intendant, accompanied by a figurative plat, a cer-

** Bartholomew Butcher, Michael Butcher, Sebastian (Bastian) Butcher
and Peter Bloom (Blum) were German stone-masons, and de Luziere told Mary
Ann LaPlante, who came to Louisiana with the family of DeLuziere, that these
men were such good stone-masons that it was a great object to have such good
workmen and peaceable subjects retained in the country. The Butchers also
did work in the Cape Girardeau district, building a house for Don Louis Lori-
mier in 1802.

224 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

tificate called prochs verbal^ signed by the commandant, or syndic,
or two neighbors, and the surveyor declaring that the survey was
made in their presence, and correct, and that it corresponded with
the concession, gave certainty to the grant and safety to the grantee.
The concession and survey thus attested was duly recorded, and the
settler was furnished with this evidence of title for the land, but he
vas required to perfect his title within three years after settlement on
the land.

The liberality of the Spanish government in donating land to
actual settlers stands in striking contrast with the illiberal policy of
the United States at that p)eriod. The pioneer settling in the Spanish
Dominions in upper Louisiana was not expected to pay for land on
which he established his home. The hardship, the danger, the iso-
lation from all the comforts of civilization seem to have been fully
appreciated by the Spanish government. It was thought unjust,
that in addition to opening a path in the wilderness and with untold
perils and self sacrifice laying the foundation of civilized order, the
settlers should also pay the government for the land so settled, or
should even pay taxes on the same. Yet it has always been fashion-
able to criticise the colonial policy of the Spaniards. However just
these criticisms may be when referring to trade regulations, so far
as the laws and ordinances for the disposal of the Royal domain in
upper Louisiana are concerned, they arc in nowise justified.

The proceedure for securing a concession of land in upper
Louisiana, was simple and direct under the ordinances of O'Reilly
and Gayoso. The new settler, as soon as he arrived in the country,
and possessing '' the necessary qualifications to be admitted among
the cultivators of these provinces," was expected to make applica-
tion to the Spanish Post-Commandant for permission to settle, no
one being allowed to settle without permission. In petitioning for
a grant of land, he was expected to set forth his circumstances, and
if the Commandant favorably considered this application, as seems
always to have been the case, he endorsed the petition with his rec-
ommendation and transmitted the same to the Lieutenant-Gover-
nor at St. Louis. This was the plan at least prior to 1 799, when
the Regulations of Morales were promulgated. The Lieutenant-
Governor granted the request as a matter of course, and ordered
the surveyor of upper Louisiana to make the survey and put the peti-
tioner in possession of the land. A trifling fee to be paid to the sur-
veyor was all the expenses incident to securing a large tract of land.

erification of the facts

SOULARD 335

The application of the petitioner to the Commandant for a grant
of land was technically called a requite, and the recommendation of
the Commandant of the post amounted to a verification of the facts
as expressed in the requite by the petitioner,
to which the commandant usually added that
no objection to the granting of the land was
luiown to exist, sometimes even in strong
terms assigning various reasons which to him
might seem to justify the concession. Land
was held generally of so little value by the
French and the Spaniards, that it was scarcely
thought worth while to accept or to pay fees
for writing the concession or requite.** It
was only in rare instances that such a con-
cession was denied, but in no instance was a
settlement allowed on the crown lands without permission of the
Post-Commandant.

Carondelet favored Americans and told DeLassus when he
went to New Madrid in 1796, to invite inhabitants of the United
States, not hunters, but those who had families and great means, to
settle in his district, and to grant them as much land as they wanted."
No list of concessions was kept by the several Commandants or Lieut-
tenant-Governors, as that was no one's duty. After the land was
surveyed, and the petitioner placed in possession by reducing to
cultivation one tenth of the grant within three years, the title of the
grantee was considered substantially perfected and regarded by the
people and authorities as his property, although it was evidently not
a complete tide under the law.

The first surveyor for upper Louisiana, Don Antonio Soulard,
was appointed in 1795, and from time to time he appointed a number
of deputies, or " Lieutenant-surveyors, " in the several districts. He
first opened a regular office for the registration of land surveys
made by him and his deputies. Soulard's lieutenant-surveyors in
the several districts were, Thomas Maddin, Ste. Genevieve; Bar-
th^lemi Cousin, Cape Girardeau; Joseph Story, New Madrid;
James Rankin, and James Richardson, St. Louis, and James Mac-
kay, St. Andre. Officially, Carondelet, Tnideau and DeLassus
designated Soulard simply as " the Surveyor. " It is not quite clear

** American State Papers, 5 Public Lands, p. 59.

* American State Papery 5 Public Lanch, p. 709.

226 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

when all the country north of the mouth of the St. Francois was first
designated as " Upper Louisiana, " or when the order was made so
naming this portion of the province, if any order was made at all.
But after his appointment in 1795, Soulard and his lieutenant
surveyors made all the surveys in this portion of the province.

In addition to the small and limited grants made to actual settlers,
larger questionable grants were made by the Lieutenant-Governors
of upper Louisiana to reward alleged services, or to favorites, shortly
before the transfer of Louisiana. The grantees of these large con-
cessions were all officers and connected in some way with the govern-
ment. It is evident that when these land grants were made so
liberally, the Spanish officials knew that a change of government
would take place. No doubt it was also thought that a change in
government would add greatly to the value of the land. The great
rise in the value of land east of the river after the American occupa-
tion was well understood. A number of Frenchmen who had resided
in the United States prior to settling in Louisiana, must have fully
explained to the Spanish officials the value in which land was held
in the United States, and the great number of Americans already
settled in upper Louisiana, all anxious to secure land, no doubt also
impressed these officials with the importance of securing concessions
for themselves and for their friends, before a change of government.
The liberal and extravagant land grants made by Trudeau and
DeLassus shortly before the cession of Louisiana may be sought in
such reasons and motives. Many, if not all, of these grants and con-
cessions were suspected of being ante-dated and tainted with fraud,
and for years were the subject of litigation and controversy.

A few examples out of many will show upon what slight and
flimsy grounds large bodies of land were granted to applicants , if
belonging to the favored dass. James Mackay received a concession
of 30,000 arpens from DeLassus in 1 799 to reward him for services in
the years 1 795-6, for a voyage made under a commission of Carondelet
"to the upper and unknown parts of the Missouri. " St. Vrain, a
brother of DeLassus, was granted 10,000 arpens on a petition in
which he says that he desured ** to secure to himself a competency
which may in the future afford him an honorable existence, '' and
in 1799 secured an additional grant upon which to "collect his family
and keep it near him. " Richard Caulk, one of the early American
settlers west of the Mississippi, was awarded 4,000 arpens " in con-
sideration of all his gratuitous services, that were often painful and

\

MINERAL CLAIMS 227

onerous" to him, as commandant of the settlement of St. Andre,
in the absence of the conmiandant Don Santiago Mackay. Francois
Saucier, a descendant of one of the earliest pioneers of the Mississippi
valley, and founder of Portage des Sioux, received a grant of
600 arpens for each of his children — thirteen in number — and
1 ,000 arpens for himself and wife, to reward him for his ^* laborious
task" as Conmiandant of Portage des Sioux, a position he filled,
he says, '^ without remuneration." DeLassus himself while Com-
mandant at New Madrid, received from Lieutenant Governor Tru-
deau a grant of 20,000 arpens on the Cuivre and Salt rivers, twelve
miles west of the Mississippi. Mrs. Vall6 Villars in a petition to
DeLassus says that she has discovered that the lands near Ste.
Genevieve have nearly all been divided, and prays that she may be
granted a league square on the Saline, basing the claim both on the
services of her late husband and her father, being, she says, in her
petition, " overburdened with a numerous family. " Francesco Vall^,
Commandant of Ste Genevieve, also received a league square situ-
ated nine miles southeast of New Bourbon. Jean B. Pratte, Sr.,
got 1 ,000 arpens by stating that he proposed to devote himself to
agriculture as the "only safe" resource "upon which one may
found hopes for the future, " and two weeks afterwards, still full of
enthusiasm as to the profits of agriculture, he secures a whole league
square because " convinced that the resources of agriculture are the
most infallible means to secure to his family an independent exist-
ence, and to shelter them thereafter from the disasters of pover-
ty. " Gabriel Cerr^, in 1800, on the plea that he desured to make a
plantation on an island in the Mississippi, secured the island. He
also states, that "after a while," he intends "to occupy himself in
felling building timber and wood for fuel, both of which will soon
be very much wanted in this town. " Dr. Saugrain although devoted
to science, seems to have had business forethought as well as an
idea of the value of lands, and secured from DeLassus 20,000 arpens
at different places in upper Louisiana, " having in view the estab-
lishment of mills of various kinds, of a distillery, stock farm, etc."
Of course the Chouteaus were diligent in securing concessions of
land when land was so liberally and lavishly distributed. Pierre
Chouteau secured 30,000 arpens in order to secure a great quantity
of timber "necessary for the fabrication of salt," and also "to
maintain a considerable stock farm." Louis Lorimier in 1799, was
granted 30,000 arpens to rq)ay him for "the cares and troubles"

228 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

which he " experienced in fulfilling the various missions with which
he was charged, and the frequent voyages he was obliged to make
to the injury of his private interest during his absence, and even at
the peril of his health and life. " His secretary, Barth^lemi Cousin,
received 10,000 arpens for services, for which he says he never
"received any indemnification," and on the 22nd of March, 1803,
about the time of the cession of Louisiana, 8,000 arpens additional
were granted him " as a reward and in the way of salary. "

According to John Rice Jones, during the Spanish government,
every subject felt at liberty to dig for lead and smelt it when and where
he pleased.** No doubt all the subjects of the King of Spain in the
then far away and out-of-the-way lead district in Missouri, did this,
but not because it was legal. It is, however, true that the discoverers
of mines were favored under the Spanish law, and it was the invari-
able rule to grant to such discoverers the mine discovered, including
four arpens of land adjacent thereto, leaving the neighboring land for
others to dig on.*^ When the United States acquired the Louisiana
Territory, it is said by Jones, that there were only four complete
titles to land in the lead or mineral district. Nevertheless, many
claims were set up to mineral grants made prior to the purchase of
the province by the Lieutenant-Governor and Commandants of the
various posts. Thus Martin Duralde, specifying no location what-
ever, secured a concession for what may be called a blanket mineral
claim ; and James Richardson, who was a Spanish deputy-surveyor,
claimed under Gabriel Cerr^, 400 arpens mineral land on the Mara-
mec. The supposed Renault heirs made a claim which was recog-
nized by Spain on account of an ancient grant made by the Company
of the West. Indeed every grant made by France, prior to the treaty
of Fontainebleau, in 1762, was recognized by the Spanish authorities.
Thirty-one persons set up a claim to "Old Mines," presumably
including one of the mines worked by Renault. Dr. Walter Fenwick
claimed four arpens under Francis Azor, dU Breton, at Mine k
Breton. Moses Austin, under a concession of the Intendant Don
Juan Bonaventura Morales, definitely located 7053 arpens and
thirty-three and one-half feet, at and near the village of Mine k Breton.
St. James Beauvais and Francis Vall^, in order to be perfectly safe,
made a general claim of sixty feet around every hill where they might

*• Letter of John Rice Jones, American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p.
605.

*' Ibid., p. 606.

SALT SPRINGS 229

discover mineral, under a concession of Perez dated 1788. The
widow Moreau claimed 500 arpens of mineral land under a concession
of DeLassus in 1799; Auguste Chouteau, 810 arpens under a
concession of DeLassus, dated 1800; J. B. Pratte, 1,000 arpens
mineral land in Ste. Genevieve county; Easton and Bruff, under
Gerrard & Fleming, 840 arpens at Mine h, Joe, a famous lead mine to
this day; Camille DeLassus, 2,400 arpens in Ste. Genevieve county,
under concession dated October 1 799 ; La Beaume and DeLaurier,
1 0,000 arpens in the same county in Prairie h. Rondo, and Joseph Decelle
630 arpens near Mine k Breton, where he acted as syndic. DeLuziere,
father of Don Carlos DeLassus, no doubt without much difficulty,
secured a grant of 7,053 arpens on the waters of the St. Francois, near
the place where the town of Farmington now stands, and J. B. Pratte,
St. James Beauvais, Francis Vall^, and John B. Vall^ made a claim
to Mine la Motte under grants from DeLassus, although it is certain
that this mine had been previously granted to Renault during the
French dominion; John Perry and Bazil Vall^ also claimed 639
arpens at Mine k Breton ; Thomas Armstrong, under Rufus Easton,
640 arpens, at "Armstrong's Diggins" in Ste. Genevieve county.
Finally John Smith T., a bold and daring speculator set up a claim
to 10,000 arpens under Jacques de St. Vrain, embracing "Mine k
Liberty," also " Shiboleth" and "Bellefountaine mines," and to 1,000
arpens mineral land near Mine k Breton, and under Decelle, he
claimed 300 arpens at "Doggett's mine," 300 arpens at "Renault
mine," 250 arpens on McKee's Branch, 200 arpens at the first mineral
fork at the Maramec, 300 arpens at " Mine k Robina," and 294 arpens
more at "McKee's Diggins." He also set up a mineral claim on
White River, Arkansas, in what was then the New Madrid district.^

Next in importance to these lead mine claims, were the various
salt springs which had been discovered. Salt springs, in those early
days, were deemed very valuable property. Among others, Don
Carlos Tayon, Commandant at Sfe Charles, secured a concession
on the Dardenne for 320 arpens on which a salt spring was
found. Jacques Clamorgan and John Hildebrand made a similar
claim for 320 arpens near the Maramec; Charles Gartiot, under
Benito Vasquez, set up a claim to a salt spring tract of 7,056 arpens
on the same river ; Pascal Cerr^, under Gabriel Cerr^, to one of 800
arpens, also on this river; DeLaurier under LaBeaume claimed
10,000 arpens on the Salt river, in St. Charles district, under grant of

** American State Papers, 3 Public Lands, pp. 607, 608.

230 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

DeLassus, dated March 1801 ; and John Scott, Henry Dodge, and
Edward Hempstead, under Peyroux, claimed 7760 arpens on the
Saline creek in Ste. Genevieve district, embracing then the most
profitable salt springs in the territory. In addition Charles
Gratiot, under Maturin Bouvet, claimed 400 arpens on the river
Ohaha, or Salt river, now in Pike county; James McKay claimed a
saline of 400 arpens on the Bonne Femme in the Boon's Lick country,
now in Howard county ; and Victor La Gotoire, 400 arpens on the
Ohaha, or Salt river, also in Pike county. John Smith, T., made a
claim to a salt spring under a concession to Jacques de St. Vrain of
sixty-four arpens, six or seven miles from the Missouri river, near the
dividing ridge between the Bonne Femme and Salt river, to one of
sixty-four arpens near the Grand Minotaur, then in the St. Charles
district, to seventy arpens near the Lemoir creek on the Missouri, and
twenty-five arpens on which was a salt spring near White river, now
in Arkansas, but then in the New Madrid district.

CHAPTER XVII

Agriciiltxire — ^Huntin^ — Primitive Mechanical Arts and Trades — Voyageurs and
Engagis — Farming in Common-fields — Farmers Dwelling in Villages —
Ste. Genevieve Common-field — Maintenance of Fences — Primitive Agri-
cultural Implements — French Cart — Small Horses — Cattle — First Cattle
Brought into the Mississippi Valley — ^New Orleans Market — ^Prices For
Agrricultural Products — Spain paid in Specie — DiflFerence in Prices
when Paid in Barter — No Common-field at New Madrid — LaForge's
Complaint as to French-Canadian Farmers — Development of Agriculture
after Advent of American Settlers — Ag^cultural Production of New Madrid
and Little Prairie, 1796 — Agriciilture in Cape Girardeau District — ^Produc-
tions of the District — ^Domestic Slavery — Indian Slaves — Spanish Ordinan-
ces Prohibiting Slavery — Treatment of Slaves — Maniunission — Fur Trade
— Forest Peddlers — Early Merchants of St. Louis — ^Nick-names Among
the French — Effect of Brandy and Rum on Indians — Contraband Traffic
with English Traders — Intimate Relations of Voyageurs and Caureurs
des bois with the Indians — ^Their Prodigality — Intermarriage with Indians
— Fascination of Life in the Wilderness — ^Destruction of Fur Bearing
Animals — ^Profits of Traders — Value of Fur Trade — French and Spanish
Laws to Protect Same — Under French Dominion a Monopoly — Under
Spanish Ordinances a Monopoly not Allowed — Traders Assigned to
Districts — Contract with Forest Traders — Change in Method of Handling
Fur Trade — Trading-houses and Forts — Annual Meetings — Gradual
Extension of Tradine-houses and Forts up the Rivers — Invasion of Terri-
tory by English Traders — Cheaper English Goods — Spanish Effort to Ex-
clude Briti^ Companies — Carondelet*s Agreement for the Establishment
of Forts on the Missouri — Exploring Expe£tion of Glamorgan and Mackay
— Advantage of Traders Residing on the Missouri and Mississippi — Ship-
ment of Salt and Bear's Meat to New Orleans — ^Ag^cultural Shipments —
Ancient Salt Works on the Saline — ^Extent of Business — Salt Works on
Salt river, the Maramec and in Boon's Lick Country — Grist-mills — Flour
Contract with Spanish Government — ^Distilleries — ^Tan-yards — Scarcity
of Metallic Money — Spanish Troops Paid in Specie — Paper Money^Barter
— Peltry Currency — Carrots of Tobacco Medium of Exchange.

Agriculture was the principal occupation of the first settlers of

the French villages in the territory now within Missouri. A few

merchants supplied what could not be produced on the land ; but all

the men were also more or less engaged either in hunting during

at least a part of the year, or in the fur trade. Some residents of

the villages followed the primitive mechanical arts, among them

being stone-masons, black-smiths, gun-smiths and cabinet makers.^

^ "The mechanic arts did not flourish. Mason work of that day was good,
but of the rest I can say nothing in praise of them. The cooperage of the coun-
try amounted to very little more tnan maJdng well-buckets. The carpenters
were unskilled in their profession. They framed houses and covered them with
peg-shingles; made batton doors, and in a rough fashion. No shoemakers or
tanners, but all dressed deer-skins and made moccasins. Almost every inhabitant
manufactured his own cart and plough, and made his harness, traces, and all out

231

232 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

The primitive garments worn by the people, were woven at home
out of cotton or wool, the former raised by the farmers, the seed
being picked from it by the children, while the wool was shorn from
the little flocks of sheep which had to be carefully guarded against
the wolves. Flax too was cultivated and spun and woven into linen.
The skin of the deer furnished the hunting shirt and a raccoon skin
the cap. Moccasins, or rude boots and shoes were worn by the
people ; these were made from leather tanned in the small tan-yards
found in every village. Military uniforms and more pretentious
clothes were ordered from New Orleans. Although the merchants
and traders (negociants) of these villages carried on a comparatively
extensive business, it would be a mistake to suppose that these mer-
chants had "open shops or stores" — and displayed their goods as
the merchants of our day. Merchandise was then kept in different
chests, under lock and key. These chests were only opened and
merchandise shown to purchasers, when inquiry for a certain class
of goods was made. The goods were kept at the residences of these
merchants, and not in separate stores. Kettles, pots, hoes, guns,
flint-locks, etc., etc. were all carefully looked after and not allowed
to lie around loose, such manufactiu'ed articles being considered
valuable possessions, and generally imported from Europe.

Many of the men of these French villages, if able to endure
the hardship of the business, and otherwise in a situation to leave
home, went out annually on long and dangerous trading expeditions
far up to the headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri, and their

of raw hides.'' Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 88. Yet in these days
of machine work, it may be doubted if we have mechanics competent to build
and manufacture by hand, as the mechanics of that time. We give here some
of the names of die early mechanics who followed their respective trades in
the different villages : Joseph Mainville, Antoine Pritchet and Fran9ois Delin
were the carpenters; Jos. Robidoux was the shoemaker; Jean Hervieux the
gunsmith; Jean B. Bequette the blacksmith, among the first settlers of St.
Louis, and Jourdan LaRose was the baker. Pierre Payant and Joseph
L'Amouroux (or Amoureux), in 1795, were the lock and gunsmiths, of New
Madrid, and Francois Hudison, an immigrant from Richmond, Virginia, an
iron-worker. Another blacksmith, named James Kavanaugh, from Ireland,
came to New Madrid in 1796, and in 1799 he made a contract with Jacques
Dehault de St. Vrain, a brother of Don Carlos, to furnish the blacksmith work
for a mill St. Vrain intended to build at New Madrid. Solomon Thorn was
the gunsmith at the post of Cape Girardeau and Francois Berthiaume among
the Shawnees on Apple creek. Francois Lalumendiere, dit Lafleurs, in 1766
was the tailor in the village, and the Butchers and Peter Bloom (Blum), Ger-
mans, were stonemasons in the Ste. Genevieve district. Joseph Vandenbenden
managed the bakery at New Madrid for Tardiveau & Co., when they had a
contract to supply the Spanish forces in Louisiana with " biscuit "; Juan Simbn
Guerin was the mason and brick-layer of the town in 1799, and Jacob Myers
was the carpenter, who built " Fort Celeste" and the churdi of " St. Isidore."

COMMON FIELDS 233

tributary streams, in search of furs going either on their own account
or as voyageurs or engagiSf returning after months of privation and
adventure. The occupation of a voyageur or boatman at this time
was not considered a degrading one, on the contrary it was held desir-
able that a young man should be able to say that he had performed
a long and dangerous voyage in the far interior. However, even
before the purchase of Louisiana, this occupation lost character,
principally owing to the lawlessness, coarseness and vulgarity of the
American boatmen.

The farming of the first French inhabitants of Missouri was
carried on in a common field. In St. Louis the farm lots of the
common field, as surveyed by Duralde, all had a front of one arpent,
and a depth of forty arpens, an arpent being equal to 192 feet and
six inches — English measure. The arpent was both a quantitive
and linear measure under the French system. Traditionally, it is
said, the lands were thus surveyed so that the settlers might be near
each other in case of Indian attacks. It is also said, that the custom
originated to save fencing, because enclosing large fields under a
common fence undoubtedly saves fencing. But fencing could be
saved by surveying the land into more convenient bodies. Perhaps
the French custom of surveying lanu in long and narrow strips,
from one to four arpens wide, originated on the lower Mississippi
or on the St. Lawrence. On the lower Mississippi, because under the
rules and ordinances in force, each settler was required to maintain
the levee in front of his ground, both under the French and Spanish
dominion. As all lands granted to the first settlers fronted on the
river, this system equitably apportions the burden of the main-
tenance of the levees. On the St. Lawrence, surveys may have been
made in this shape to secure all the settlers an equal waterfront,
in that colony a matter of prime importance to the early pioneers.
Whatever the origin of the custom, as a fact not only the common
fields of St. Louis, but the common fields of Ste. Genevieve, New
Bourbon, St. Ferdinand, St. Charles, and Carondelet were divided
into long and narrow strips with a common front. The surveys and
divisions of the common fields adjacent to Kaskaskia, Cahokia, St.
Philippe and other French villages on the east side of the river were
also made in the same way. These common fields were under the
supervision of a syndic and a committee of umpires, whose duty
it was to carefully examine the fences and report to the syndic. The
common fences were generally viewed on a Sunday in January, and

234 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

required to be of such character that cattle could not get out of, or
into, the common field. ^

The French settlers generally lived in villages, and these
common fields were adjacent or near such villages, and during the
farming season, they went out daily to attend to their agricultural
labors. Brackenridge, speaking of the conmion-field of Ste. Gene-
vieve, sa)rs: "Agriculture was carried on in a common field of several
thousand acres, in the fertile bottom of the Mississippi river, enclosed
at the common expense, and divided into separate lots, separated by
some natural or permanent (surveyed) boundary. Horses and cattle,
depastured, were tethered with long ropes, or the grass was cut and
carried to them in stalls. It was a pleasing sight to -see the rural
population going and coming, morning and evening, to and from
the fields with their working cattle, carts, old fashioned wheel-plows
and other implements of husbandry." This great field of Ste.
Genevieve, comprising some three thousand acres, to this day 1907,
is cultivated as a common-field under a con^mon fence, the farms of
the several owners being in long strips one, two, or three arpens wide,
extending from the road, along the foot of the hills tj^ait skirt
the bottom, across the bottom, to the river bank. These strips of
land were sometimes from one half to a mile in length. The rules
and regulations for the fencing of these fields was a subject that greatly
interested these early settlers and cultivators. All who cultivated
land in the common field were required to assist and contribute to
build and maintain the enclosures, but those residents who did not
cultivate land were held only to aid in making and repairing public
roads and bridges, and maintaining the commons for the stock and
other conveniences of which they made use.'

At New Madrid a common field was not fenced in and divided
among the settlers during the Spanish occupation. The question
of enclosing a conmion field, however, was discussed before the Com-

' In 1782 Perrault, Brazeau, Cerr^ Rene Kiercereau, Joseph Taillon, Joseph
Mainville, Chauvin and Aug^te Chouteau were the umpires of the St. Louis
common-fields, and at that time the most prominent citizens of the village. The
Perrault named above a few years before, in 1779, had been captured by the
British and Indians on a " Rebel boat", that is to say, on a boat in the service of
the United Colonies, on his way up the Mississippi. A Michel Perrault acted
as interpreter for General George Rosers Clark, at Vincennes, in 1780. In 1810
only 200 acres of this common field were in cultivation — although formerly
several thousand acres were enclosed — the ground then looked like " the worn
common in the neighborhood of a large town" and at several places cut open
into gaping ravines." Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, p. 221.

' See order of Lt. Gov. Zenon Trudeau, anle, vol. i, p. 360.

AGRICULTURAL TOOLS 235

mandant, but the settlers being Americans objected to the scheme.
£^ch farmer preferred the labor, trouble and expense of enclos-
ing his own field, thus evidencing that spirit of individual inde-
pendence and self-reliance which has always characterized the
Anglo-Saxon.

It was remarked early by the Jesuits who visited Ste. Genevieve
that the soil was very fertile. They also observed that the land was
not cultivated with care, that wheat which, according to Piemas in
1769, was the principal crop, yielded only from five to eight fold.
This lack of success in growing wheat, Father Vivier attributed
"to the heavy fogs and too sudden heats," but Piemas thought it
was the fault of the farmers who did not apply themselves. In the
words of Father Vivier, "maize, which in France is called Turkish
corn, grows marvelously; it yields more than a thousand fold;
it is the food of domestic cattle, of the slaves and most of the natives
of the country, who consider it a treat. The country produces three
times as much food as can be consumed in it."' Yet, in 1744, not
enough wheat was raised to supply the colony with flour.*

When we take into account the character of the farming imple-
ments of these early pioneer French farmers, their scanty wheat crops
ought not to surprise us. Their plows were made entirely of wood
without a single iron fastening. The mould-board had only the
curve that would be found in a root of appropriate shape, but the
beam was strong and the wooden point sharpened. A harrow or two
were held as the common property so to speak, of all the culti-
vators of the common-held. Trudeau says that the high price of iron,
for which, in 1 799, the farmer paid from four to five reals per pound,
compelled him " to get along perforce without the most useful tools
for his calling," and hence recommends that the Government en-
courage the establishment of a foundry and forge.* Their other
agricultural implements were, hoes, grubbing hoes, spades, shovels
and rakes, all primitive agricultural tools, of the same general shape
as from remotest antiquity.

The cart in use was "rather a curiosity," says Governor Rey-
nolds, " it was constructed without an atom of iron. When the
Americans first came to Illinois (to the American bottom) they called
these carts 'bare-footed carts,' because they had no iron on the

' 69 Jesuit Relations, p. 219.

* Present State of Louisiana, p. 19 (London 1744)-

* Trudeau's Report, Jan. 1799, — General Archives of the Indies, Seville.

236 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

wheels."* This cart, called *Charrette,* was made of " two pieces
of scantling some ten or twelve feet long, framed 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 shafts, and
the whole set on the axle-tree of the wheels."' It was on such a cart
that Madame Chouteau and her children made the journey to Caho-
kia from Fort de Chartres up the American Bottom, Laclede accom-
panying her on a little French pony, Cahokia being the nearest
settlement to the new trading post of St. Louis. But certainly it
was not easy and pleasant riding in such a "charrette."

The horses of the country were small ponies resembling mustangs,
of the Canadian breed, crossed with wild horses of the plains. "A
fine breed of horses," says Hutchins, "brought originally bythelndians
from the Spanish settlements." ' They were strong, of great endur-
ance and required little attention or feed. Men and women tra-
veled much on horseback, along the trails and paths and through
the open woods; as a consequence saddle horses were highly prized.
"The horses and cattle," says Governor Ford, "for want of proper
care and food had degenerated in size, but acquired additional vigor
and toughness ; so that a French pony was a proverb for strength and
endurance. These ponies were made to draw, sometimes one alone,
sometimes two together, one hitched before the other to the plow or
carts made entirely of wood, the bodies of which held about double
the contents of the bed of a common large wheel-barrow. The oxen
were yoked by the horns instead of the neck, and in this way were
made to draw the plow or cart. Nothing like reins were used in
driving ; the whip of the driver with a handle about two feet long and
lash two yards long, stopped or guided the horses as effectually as the
strongest reins."*

According to Marest, the first cattle were brought into the Mis-
sissippi valley to "Tawarois" in 1712,^® although it is highly proba-
ble that before this time cattle were brought into the Illinois coun-
try, because before this time the French tilled land in the Ameri-
can Bottom. The French, as well as the American settlers in
upper Louisiana, owned large numbers of cattle, which they allowed

• Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 50.
' Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. i, p. 85.

• Hutchins' Topographical Description, p. 100.

• Ford's History of Illinois, p. 37.

*® 16 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 332.

PRICES 237

to roam in the woods and prairies without any care. " The homed
cattle," says Father Vivier in 1750, speaking of the French settle-
ments in the Mississippi valley, " have multiplied exceedingly ; most
of them cost nothing, either for care or for food." Some of these
cattle became almost wild." They abo had sheep and hogs.

French-Canadians settled and cultivated the soil at Cahokia and
Kaskaskia, certainly as early as 1700. They raised grain, built a
mill to grind the same, and altogether seem to have lived content-
ed," enjoying the sourish wine which they made out of the wild
grapes of the country.^* The farmers of the " Big Field of Ste. Gen-
evieve," soon began to ship the produce of their fields just as the
farmers of Kaskaskia, on the opposite side of the river, who shipped
bacon, salt pork, flour, corn and cattle to New Orleans long before
the first settlement of Ste. Genevieve.**

The price realized by these farmers for their products in
the local market was good. The Spanish Commandants paid
in specie for all they bought and consequently purchased at
comparatively low prices. On the American side of the Illi-
nois country, in 1780, Patrick Kennedy says that ten pounds of
peltry was paid for a bushel of com, and thirty pounds of peltry per
100 pounds of flour, that is to say, corn sold for four dollars a bushel,
and flour at twelve dollars a hundred pounds in our present currency.
These high prices in barter Kennedy attributed to the the fact, that
in the Spanish possessions cash was paid for agricultural products
by the Commandants, which led to the export of same resulting in
great scarcity of provisions at Kaskaskia, because on the frontier of
the country and over-run with troops.** A regular ferry was kept be-
tween Kaskaskia and Ste. Genevieve by one Cailloux, dit La Chance,
and we can well imagine that the specie payment, made by the
Spanish officials for produce, attracted the trade of the French
settlers to Ste. Genevieve, and so too the ferry at St. Louis, the
trade of the settlers around Cahokia.

In 1772 St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve produced 5,898 quintals of
wheat,*' and 1,200 quintals of flour were shipped to New Orleans,

" 69 Jesuit Relations, p. 221.

"16 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 332.

'* Account of the Present State of Louisiana, p. 19 (London 1744).

** 69 Jesuit Relations, p. 213.

" Draper's Collection, Clark MSS., vol. 60, p. 36.

*• The old French quintal equivalent to 108 pounds. Century Dictionary
—''Quintal.''

238 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

fifty to Los Arcos and the balance used in the villages. Of this crop
Don Francesco Vall^, of Ste. Genevieve, alone harvested i,ooo
quintals, Carlos de Arbas 466, Enrique Carpentier 261, Carlos Vall^
166, the remainder being small crops of one hundred and less quintals
for each farmer. In 1774 the harvest in both villages amounted to
only 5,018 quintals, but in 1775 the total was 9,097 quintals. In
1794 the Spanish Illinois country north of New Madrid produced
39,251 minots of wheat (a minot being the equivalent of
three bushels), 51,131 minots of com, and 17,040 pounds of tobacco,
and in 1795, — 35,065 minots of wheat, 75,418 minots of com and
24,750 pounds of tobacco and the people owned 3,863 head
of cattle and 618 horses.

The French-Canadian settlers of New Madrid seem to have
been poor farmers, if we are to believe La Forge.^^ After the
Americans settled and opened up farms there, the district quickly
developed agriculturally. The com crop of New Madrid, in 1794,
amounted to only 6,000 bushels but in 1795 to 8,795 minots,
or 26,385 bushels. In 1796, — 17,425 bushels of corn were raised
in the immediate neighborhood of the town, and the farmers
there owned forty-two slaves, ninety-six horses and 608 homed
cattle. In 1797 the com crop yielded 23,060 minots. In addition
the people owned about 3,000 hogs, 730 cows, 1 29 horses and forty-six
slaves. In the first year after the Little Prairie settlement was
founded, 14,040 busheb of com and 190 bushels of wheat were raised
there, and when the census in 1802 was taken, thirty-four families
resided in the settlement, owning sixteen slaves, twenty-two horses,
and 166 head of cattle.

Cape Girardeau, altogether settled by Americans, was the. most
prosperous agricultural district in upper Louisiana, at the time the
colony was acquired. According to the census of 1803, the farmers
of this district, all Americans, raised in that year 2,950 bushels of
wheat, 58,990 bushels of com, 3,100 pounds of tobacco, 9,200 pounds
of flax and hemp, 39,000 pounds of cotton, 19,000 pounds of maple
syrup, and owned 2,380 head of cattle, and 674 horses. These
farmers then owned 179 slaves.

In 1799 the settlers of upper Louisiana owned 7,980 horned cattle
and 793 horses, produced 83,349 minots of wheat, exported 84,534
bushels of corn, 28,627 pounds of tobacco; 1,754 bundles of deer
skins, each valued at forty cents per pound, amounting to $70,160,

'^ See copy of LaForge's report in i Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. a68 et seq.

SLAVERY 239

eighteen bundles of bear skins valued at $256, eighteen bundles of
buffalo robes, valued at $540, three hundred and sixty quintals of
lead at six cents a pound, $3,160, and twenty quintals of flour at three
cents a pound, $60. — total $73,176. In addition 1,340 quintals of
lead were exported to the United States, and i ,000 bushels of salt were
made annually.

Domestic slavery was intimately connected with the agriculture
of the French and American pioneers of Missouri. On both banks
of the Mississippi slavery existed from the first French settlement of
the country. From a letter of Sieur de Ramesay and Sieur Begon,
dated November 7th, 1 71 S, it appears that the first fqrty-seven French
settlers in the Illinois country, who established themselves in the
'* Thamarois," probably in the American bottom near Cahokiat
were then " living at their ease" there, and, says the latter, " they get
as many savage slaves as they wish, on the river of the Missoiuis,
whom they use to cultivate their land; and they sell these to the
English of Carolina, with whom they trade."*^ Thus early an Indian
slave-trade was carried on by the French with the English South-
Atlantic colonies. In the case of Marguerite vs. Chouteau," it was
argued that Bourgmont bought Indian slaves on the Missouri and
sent them down to New Orleans to work on his plantation. Accord-
ing to Rivi^e and Pratte, there were in 1756 many Indian slaves, not
only at Fort de Chartres, but everywhere through the country.'*
These Indian slaves were bought and sold just as negro slaves at
that time. A majority of them were brought down from the Mis-
souri by the traders, although occasionally some were brought up
from the lower Mississippi. After the tragic destruction of the
Natchez tribe, it is recorded that at least one member of that tribe was
brought up the river to Fort de Chartres. Although this Indian
slavery, as a matter of fact, existed in the French settlements during
the French dominion, it is certain that it was not authorised by any
written law. But it has been argued, that because the French
Governor, Perier, transported to San Domingo, 300 Natchez, believed
to have been of the Family of the Sim, nearly all of whom died there,
the remainder being sold into slavery, that this was evidence of the
legality of the institution. It was so held by the Supreme court of

" 16 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 332.

1* 3 Missouri Report, p. 543.

^ Testimony of J. B. Rivibre and Sebastian Pratte in the case of Marguerite
vs. Chouteau, a Minouri Report, p. 71.

240 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Louisiana; but the Supreme court of Missouri in another cele-
brated case, held that Indians could not lawfully be reduced to slavery
during the French government in Louisiana.**

When Spain took possession of Louisiana in 1769, O'Reilly dis-
covered that the French held many Indians as slaves, and in a procla-
mation which he issued,declared this " to be contrary to the wise and
pious laws of Spain," but, while not at once declaring these Indian
slaves free, he ordained '^ that the actual proprietors shall not dispose of
those whom they hold in any manner whatever, unless it be to give them
their freedom" until the orders **of his Majesty on the subject," and fur-
ther that all owners of Indian slaves should make a declaration of the
name and nation of the Indians so held in slavery by them, and the
price at which they valued such slaves. This proclamation was general-
ly understood by the French settlers of upper Louisiana as emancipat-
ing all the Indian slaves. As a matter of fact, however, these Indian
slaves seem to have remained in slavery, either voluntarily or involun-
tarily. When they escaped they were not returned to slavery ; and
when they brought action for their freedom they were liberated.
Thus in 1 786, Governor Miro, in a case that came before him, from
St. Louis, rendered a judgment liberating several such slaves.
Reminded by this judgment that the ordinance of O'Reilly was
not obeyed. Lieutenant Governor Cruzat in June 1787, issued a
proclamation that Indians could not be held in slavery under the
ordinance of 1770, and therefore "judged it expedient to repeat the
aforesaid ordinance so that the public may know its tenor in order to
conform to it," and accordingly the said ordinance was ordered to be
"read, published and posted in the customary places." No order
" of his Majesty on this subject " having been promulgated, in 1 794
Baron Carondelet ordered two Indian slaves to abide with their
masters until the Royal will was expressed. But in that year he
ordered to be liberated, an Indian mestizo slave named Augustin,
a descendant of the Panimahas, and held as a slave by Jos. Michel,
a resident of New Madrid.'*

The first negro slaves brought into upper Louisiana or the Illi-
nois country, came with Sieur Philip Renault, director of the mines
of the Company of the West, in 1719. On his way from France,
Sieur Renault stopped at the island of San Domingo, and there
purchased 500 negro slaves to work in the mines which were to be

^ Marguerite vs. Chouteau, 3 Mo., p. 592.
'' New Madrid Archives, vol. 2.

NUMBER OF SLAVES 241

opened. These negroes he brought up the Mississippi river to Fort
de Chartres. From these slaves are descended the old French-negro
slaves found at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis and
St. Charles. The slaves found in the Cape Gir^deau and New
Madrid districts were brought into upper Louisiana by the American
settlers, and as we have seen, the amount of land granted by the Span-
ish authorities to such settlers, was made to depend on the number
of members of the family, as well as on the number of servants or slaves
brought into the country. These slaves were principally employed
in farming. They were "regarded in the light of bien foncier or real
property, and in fact, as the highest species." This also may be
observed " that the Spanish code was ever more lenient and
benignant toward the negroes than the colonial system of any other
nation." The census of 1799 shows the following number of slaves
held in the respective settlements : St. Louis 268 ; Carondelet, 3 ; St.
Charles, 55; St. Ferdinand, 17; Marais des Liards, 42; Ste. Gene-
vieve, 310; Nouvelle Bourbon, 114; Cape Girardeau, 105; New
Madrid, 71 ; Petite Prairie, 3. Total 988.'' The total population
then was 6,028, thus giving about one slave for every six white inhab-
itants, or on an average, one for every family.

In 1800 the Spanish government prohibited the introduction of
negro slaves into Louisiana, but at the instance of the planters of
lower Louisiana a French firm was allowed to bring into the province
5,000 such slaves. DeLassus it appears, also asked permission to
allow negro slaves to come into upper Louisiana, making an appli-
cation to the Royal Intendant Morales to sanction it. Morales,
however, answered that it was the duty of a good subject "to blindly
obey what is ordered and prescribed by the Royal laws," and then
refers to the attempted revolution of the negro slaves of Virginia
and the Carolinas, and gives it as his opinion, "that the American
government and the owners of the slaves wish to get free of these
people at any sacrifice." He then proceeds , asking: "What would
become of this province if its chiefs with closed eyes, to such an im-
portant matter should introduce in it such a dangerous people?"
and concludes by saying, that it is the duty of "this Intendancy to
see to it that the wise law which prohibits the introduction of negro
slaves is not ignored." DeLassus k ordered to exercise the greatest
watchfulness to prevent the negro slaves from being brought into the

^ Gayarre's History of Louisiana, p. 406. In addition 197 free colored
persons resided in upper Louisiana.

242 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

country,** and if such slaves are introduced to apprehend them and
to report to him. Evidently the Spanish authorities] then were
fearful that the slaves would rise in insurrection as in San Domingo
if allowed to be. brought into the country in large numbers. The
attempted slave insurrection in lower Louisiana in 1791, and
reports of various attempts at insurrection in the American states,
no doubt then current, may also have been the reason for these strin-
gent orders. It is certain the law was generally ignored in upper
Louisiana, and that the American emigrants brought with them
many slaves.

Generally the French slaves were well treated, they had little work
to do and were greatly attached to their French masters, and their
families. They were all Catholics and worshipped in the same
church with their owners. The same freedom from race prejudice,
which characterized the French in their relations with the Indians,
also characterized, usually, their relations with the negro. Holding
him in bondage, they did not regard him with the same prejudice that
marked their English-speaking neighbor. It is true that the early
Anglo-American pioneers usually treated their slaves well, but it can
not be denied that they regarded the negro, as indeed is generally the
case now, as belonging to a distinctly inferior race, and that then the
accepted opinion was that the negro was destined to serve the white
and superior race. In support of this position arguments drawn
from the Bible were deemed ample and sufficient. Duden observed
in 1824 that "so far as bodily comfort, protection from disease and
amount of labor is concerned, the condition of a slave in the state
of Missouri is to be preferred to that of a household servant and day
laborer in Germany."* The largest slave holder in upper Louisiana
at the time the province was acquired by the United States, was
M. Beauvais of Ste. Genevieve.

Occasionally slaves were manumitted by their owners. Thus
Nicholas F. Guion manumitted " a mongrel boy named Alexis, four
years old, son of his Indian slave, Madaline, and one, Louie Leritte
of this place," St. Louis; and Louison a "mestizo slave" of M.
Lorian was freed "by order of the Governor-General of New
Orleans." These Spanish Governors-General were liberal in giving
freedom to slaves whenever cases came before them for adjudica-

** Chouteau Collection in Mo. Hist. Society. Letter of DeLassus dated
May 34, 1802.

* Duden's Bericht aus Nord-Amerika, p. 147 (2d Edition).

FUR TRADE 243

tion. Thus, in 1 783, Charles Henrion bought from Louis Barada his
illegitimate mulatto child, Marianne, nine years of age, to emancipate
her and make her his heir, but neglected to make his will, and
consequently his property came into the hands of the Beaugenous.
The matter became a subject of controversy, and finally was left to
the decision of Governor-General Miro, who in 1787, decreed that
she should be one of the heirs, together with the seven Beauge-
nous."* In 1770 Xouis de Villars, Lieutenant of Infantry in the
battalion of Louisiana gave a negress, by the name of Julia, her
freedom, because of " the zeal and attachment she exhibited in his
service having' completely ruined her health, he desired to set her at
liberty with a view to its restoration."'^ Under the circumstances
detailed certainly a somewhat doubtful liberality. On the other
hand Jos. I'Amouroux — in 1794 — emancipated his "metif creol,
mon esclave, sous le nom de Jos. La Motte," gives him 100 piastres
and recommends that he conduct himself soberly and honestly.**

The Missionary priests are also recorded as having owned slaves,
some of whom they manumitted from time to time. Thus Father
Turgot, Vicar-General of Illinois, freed three slaves belonging to the
mission, to- wit : Apollon, a negro man of sixty years, who it would
seem should have had some doubt as to the true motive of his clerical
master, but for the fact that his wife "Jeanette, aged thirty-eight
years and a child, aged three and one half years, named Anselmo"
were also manumitted at the same time. Father Ledru, missionary
curate, freed his negress Reichelle (Rachel) aged twenty-six years,
for the price he paid M. Reihle for her, a liberality apparently that
did not cost the pious Father much. But Father Gibault mournfully
remarks that he was compelled by want to sell his two slaves, who
he said could have supported him in his old age.

The French-Canadian inhabitants of the country before the ac-
quisition of Louisiana, were all practically engaged in the fur trade in
one way or another. Piernas in 1769 says in his report: "The
sole and universal trade consists in furs." French fur-traders
visited the Missouri and Osages in 1689.* Penetrating from Quebec
and Montreal into the far interior in search of furs, in early days,
these voyageurSy and coureur des boisy dazzled the savages in their

*• Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 417.

^ I Billon's Annals of St. Louis, p. 102.

" New Madrid Archives, vol. 2.

* 64 Jesuit Relations, p. 169 (Burrow's Ed.),

244 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

villages with the glittering trinkets in their packs, no less than by
the knives, awls, hatchets, kettles, gaudy calicos, ribbons, gay red
blankets and other European commodities, perhaps until then never
seen by them. Quickly they exchanged these articles for furs, re-
tiuning with their canoes loaded with rich cargoes* They were forest
peddlers, not hunters. For the enormous prohts resulting from this
trade, they endured the hardships and perils incident to traveling
through unknown countries, and unexplored forests. To secure furs,
the paddles of their canoes first disturbed the waters of unknown
lakes and rivers. In this business they followed the Indians, and
joined them on their hunting excursions. They were the middle-
men traders between the Indians and the comparatively well-to-do
merchants of the villages. From these merchants they received, on
credit, the articles needed in the trade, knives, awls and kettles, hat-
chets, guns, amunition, tobacco, calico, blankets, beads and trinkets.
At a later date setting out from Kaskaskia, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis,
New Madrid and other points on the Mississippi in companies of
two, three, or four, usually in canoes, they travelled up and down the
tributaries of this great river, but often went directly across the country
to the head- waters of the Arkansas, Maramec, Gasconade or Osage,
and streams beyond, with packs on their backs or on ponies, to trade
in some interior Indian village. Merchants like Viviat, Datchurut
or Lambert dit Lafleur, of Ste. Genevieve, Laclede, Chouteau, Cerr^,
Robidoux, Lisa, Perrault, Martigny, Clamogran and others of St.
Louis thus supplied with merchandise such forest traders as Francois
Marc, Thomas Benir, Sans Chargrin, Claude Rousell dit Sans Souci,
Pierre Oliver dit Bellepeche, De Coigne, Tous Gaillard, Muslin
Barb, Du Chemin, Anti Regis, La MarguUier, Martin, the Spaniard,
Azeau dit Berthoud, Sans Quartier, Langlois dit Rondeau, Blanchette
la Chasseur, the first settler of St. Charles (Petite C6tes), and many
others. Of these, some were descendants of the original French
pioneers of Canada who had intermarried with the Indians, and hence
had at once something of the wild, untamed and roving disposition
of the savages united with the innate politeness and courtesy of the
Frenchman. Peculiar it is, that nearly all these forest traders seem
to be known by nick-names, showing that in true Indian fashion they
had acquired and become known by some sobriquet.'® These

*' It may interest some readers to glance over the nick-names of some of
the French pioneers, and of a few of the first American settlers among them,
alphabetically arranged: Francois Aubuchon dit Morelles; Joseph Aubuchon
dit Yoche; Guillaume Agnet dit Sansquartier, Antoine Bricot dit Lamarche;

BRANDY AND RUM 245

French-Canadian traders, especially when they brought casks of
brandy and rum, were always welcome, their good cheer, jovial dis-
position and kindness of heart rejoicing their savage hosts.

But in the history of the French fur trade it was soon found that the

Joseph Bodion dit L'Habitant; Nicholas Beaugenou dit Fifi; Nicholas Boyer
dit Cola; Louis Bienvenue dit Delisle; Francois Bienvenue dit DeLisle;
Francois Bernard dit L'European; Bravier dit Ciril; Alexander Bulner dit
Burton ; Charles Bergand dit Jean Louis ; Antoine Barada dit Bardo ; William
Burch dit Burts; Jean Baptiste Beauvais dit St. Jeme; Charles Boyer dit
Laffond; Jean Baptiste Berton dit St. Martin.

Gabriel Caillot dit Lachance ; Rina Coullard dit Depray ; Francois Godin
dit Chatouiller; Joseph Constant dit Laramie; Carlos Charrion dit Jean Rion;
John Comparios dit Gascon; Jacque Coutue dit Chatoyer; (or Jacque Cottc;
dit ChatoiUu) ; Joseph Chauvin dit Charleville ; Jean Comparios dit LaPierre
Francois Comeau dit Martigny.

Jean Baptiste Douval (Duval) dit Degrosillier; Jean Baptiste Douchou-
quette dif Lami, Lamy or Larme ; Baptiste Deroche (Deroksi) dit Canadian ;
Francois Dunegant dit Beaurosier; Francois Derouse dit St. Pierre; Joseph
Doublewye dit Deblois; Francois Desalle dit Cayolle ; Toussaint Dechamp dit
Hunot; Frangois Delauriere dit Normandeau; Andre De Guire dit La Rose.

Francois Fostin dit Parent ; Fleury dit Grenier. Jean Ferland dit Deloriers ;
Pierre Come dit Lajeunesse.

Nicholas Gay dit Gravois or Gravier; Alexander Grimo (Grimaux) dit
Charpentier; Louis Guitard dit LaGrandeur; Pierre Guerette dit Dumont;
Baptiste Grebour (Erebour) dit Maturin; Joseph Gerard (Gerau or Gerar) dit

Megar; William Girouard dit Giroux; Grassard dit GrifiFord; Pierre

Gautier dit Sans Quartier; Louise dit Heloise Guyol; Andre Godair dit
Tagarouche ; Henry Gross dit Groves ; Philibert Gagnon dit Laurent.

Jean B. Hubert (Herbert) dit Lacroix; Charles Hebert dit Cadien; Bazil
Hebert dit Deshomet; Nicolas Hebert dit Lecompte; Robert Hunter dit
Polite Robar ; Hebert dit Berry Tabeau ; John Hilderbrand dit Albrane ; Jo- ^
seph Alvarez Hortes dit Ortis; Jean Baptiste Hebert dit Foumier.

Louis Lambert dit Lafleur ; Pierre Lupien dit Baron ; Louis Lasouse (La-
source) dit Moreau; Louis LeToumeau dit Lafleur; Joseph Labadic dit St.,
Pierre; Richelet Langelier dit Langeliervoles; Laurent Lerouge (Rouge) dit
Gagnon ; Louis LaffeHer dit Tasmin ; Marion Laroche dit Dubreuil ; Nicholas
Laplante dit Plante.

Kierq Marcheteau dit Des Noyer; Charles McLain dit English; Jean Bap-
tiste Maurice dit Chatillon; Joseph Mainville dit Duchene; Joseph Monmirel
dit Durant; William McHugn, senior, dit McGue; Daniel McKay, dit Mackay;
Anthony Meloche dit Hibemois; Moreau dit Parent.

Jacque Noise dit Labbe.

Oliver dit Bellepeche.

Michael Placit dit Michau ; Pierre Payant dit St. Ange ; Joseph Papin dit
LaChance; Antoine Peltier dit Morin; Amable Partenais dit Magon; Conrad
dit Leonard Price ; Paul Portneuf dit Laderoute ; Jeremiah Paynish dit Boining ;
Pierre Porier (Poierrier) dit Desloge ; Eugene Poure dit Beausoliel.

Pierre Quebec dit Violet; Pierre Querez dit LaTulipe.

Antoine Roussell dit Sans Souci ; Jean Baptiste Rouillier dit Bouche ;

Rapieux dit Lamere; Jean Baptiste Riviere dit Baccane; John P. Roy dit
Lapense; Antoine Roy dit Desjardin; Julien Ratte dit Labriere; Michael
Rolette dit Laderoute; Louis Rogers dit Indian Rogers; Alexander Langlois
dit Rondeau ; Joseph Reindeau dit Joachim.

John Stewart dit Tuckahoe ; Lambert Salle dit La Joye ; George Sip dit
Sheepe; James Stephen dit Stephenson; Francois St. Marie dit Bouroon;
Joseph Saurin (Sorin) dit Larochelle.

Pierre Toumat dit Lajoy ; Louis Tiblon dit Petit Blanc ; Gregoire Tessero

246 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

lawlessness of these forest traders was so great as to call loudly for
redress. They paid little attention to the rules and regulations pro-
mulgated by the government, and, over the protest of the Jesuit
missionaries, introduced brandy and rum into the Indian villages,
thus quickly demoralizing the Indians.** Far from the seat of gov-
ernment and authority many of these traders in the woods, learned
to defy the regulations for the fur trade established by law, and
often carried on business denounced as illegal and contraband
with the English traders. In fact all the finer skins went to Canada,
because these English traders paid better prices than the French
at New Orleans.'* On their hunts, together with their Indian
friends, they ranged the woods, lakes and streams, and generally met
the illicit English traders in some central Indian village and
exchanged their furs and peltry for the new guns, powder,
blankets, traps, awls, rivets, camp kettles, hatchets so necessary to
them, and for glass pearls, and silver rings to bestow on their fa-
vorite Indian mistresses. Although not addicted to drunkenness, no
inconsiderable portion of their hard-earned gains was expended for
ardent spirits. Many learned to regard civilized life as an unbear-
able restraint. The liberty of the wilderness became for them a
sweet and joyous existence. Many established some sort of marital
relation with some one or more of the Indian women of the Indian
tribes where they spent their winters, often becoming wedded in the
Indian fashion, to the daughter of some Indian chief, and then
passed through life as semi-barbarians with a brood of young bar-
barians growing up around them.

They affected, too, the manners and fashions of their barbarous
friends^ and on occasion arrayed themselves in the Indian habiliments
of war, not disdaining to bedaub their features with grease, vermilion
and ochre, thus to gain influence among the warriors or to win the
admiration of some native nymph. Nor were they too good to engage

dit Bebe; Lewis Tash dit Eustache; Margaret Tash dit Eustache; Tesserot
4 dit Teporot; Michael Tisson dit Honore ; Francois Thibeault dit Liberge ; J. B.
Thomure dit La Source.

Antoine Vachard dit L'Ardoise; Charles Vachard dit Creol L'Ardoisc;
Rudolph Variat dit Rody; Jean Baptiste Vieo dit Noel; John Vallet dit Bour-
bonne; Jean Viot dit Gascon ; Antoine Vachard dit Mimi L'Ardoise ; Francois
Vachette dit St. Antoine.

John Whitesides dit Juan Wedsay.

We also occasionally find names evidently assumed as: Jos. Sansfa^on,
Peter LaBombard ; Louis Sojourner; Gabriel Latrail ; Pierre Quebeck.

•* i6 Wisconsin Historical Collections, p. 359.

" Duvallon'% Louisiana, p. 141. (New York, 1806).

DESTRUCTIVE CHARACTER OF TRADE 247

in scalping expeditions against other and distant hostile tribes. It
was said, by the Jesuits, that "wherever French and savage come
together there is an open hell."

After months of such a life of barbaric pleasure and hardship,
danger and toil, having disposed of their merchandise, at " very great
profit " " with their canoes and pirogues heavily loaded with furs, the/
returned home. The traders who started out with their packs by
land, generally returned by water in canoes from the head-waters of
the streams where they traded. Such trading expeditions would
consume sometimes a year, more frequently two or three years. On
arrival at the village or fort, these adventurers made a full settlement
with their merchants, and after that, often in a day or two, many of
them scattered and squandered all that had been so laboriously
earned.'* Then with a new pack of merchandise or under a new
engagement they returned again to the forest, to gather again, and
then again to squander, if so fortunate as to escape the many perik
besetting their paths.* Such forest traders or engagSs were scarcely
ever satisfied to remain away from the wilderness and its wild and
illimitable freedom. Many finally perished there by hunger, fatigue,
exposure, the sting of the serpent, the fangs of a wild beast, a fall from
a precipice, in a treacherous stream or lake, or even by assassination
from ambush, by a rival anxious thus to obtain a pack of furs.

To the wild fur-bearing animals of the forest, this fur trade was
especially destructive. Prior to the advent of the European, wild
animals were only hunted by the Indians for food and clothing. As
the country was but thinly inhabited, and the wants of a barbarous
people few and simple, these animals increased in numbers. After
the advent of the Europeans, furs were to the Indians a means of
exchange. To secure furs, i. e. money, they laboriously and diligent-
ly hunted the lordly buffalo, and snared the beaver, the otter, bear,
mink, and musk-rat. Farther and farther they wandered into the
wilderness in order to secure this precious currency, the only means
with which they could secure the coveted European goods. To illus-
trate, on one occassion after the Louisiana purchase, and before the

* Words of Picmas in report dated Oct. 3, 1769.

** *'They quickly waste whatever they gain in revelling and scandalous
chambering as is notorious." — Report of Piemas, Oct. 30, 1769.

'* "And although they have not at times the means for their subsistence
and vices, as they mid men to back them, who will supply them on account
of the future trade, they come out on top and always live in idleness, although
it is known that they corrupt the native youth by their evil example.'' — ^Report
of Piemas, Oct. 30, 1769.

248 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

war of 1812, the Saukee and Renard Indians made a drive hunt in
northern Missouri, the squaws as well as warriors turning out en
masse, all starting at a given point and separating about an equal dis-
tance apart, marched forward, thus concentrating the game within
this line and on that day alone killed seven hundred deer * Thus
all devouring commercial greed soon made the woods tenantless so
far as the most valuable and precious fur-bearing animals were
concerned, although at times the over-stocked French fur com-
panies made an effort to check the supply of beaver skins.*' But
the fear of competition of the English traders always defeated such
schemes. For in case the French did not buy from the Indians, the
English not being subject to tax of one fourth in kind, were ever ready
to buy and pay a better price.

The profits of the traders were usually large. An average profit
of one hundred percent on goods sent out, by no means represented
the whole gain, because the merchandise going out was valued at its
selling price at the post from which it was sent, while the furs were
valued at the price current at the post where they were purchased.
For instance, red cloth might sell at Ste. Genevieve or St. Louis or
New Madrid at four shillings, or one dollar, per yard, including freight
although actually it cost the merchant at the post not more than one
half that sum, yet this cloth when sold to the Indian would bring two
dollars or even more. On the other hand, the beaver skins or furs
with which the Indian paid for such cloth, would be valued at perhaps
two dollars at the post, but they would fetch in London, five or ten
times as much. Stoddard estimated the value of the fur trade of
upper Louisiana for fifteen successive years before the cession,
amounted to about $200,000 per annum, and that this trade annually
yielded the traders a profit of over $55,000, which he justly observes
to be a large sum considering the scanty population."*

The French as well as the Spaniards jealously aimed to protect this
trade. Under the dominion of the former, the fur trade was a monop-
oly granted to individuals or to traders, a certain percentage of the
profit to be paid by the grantees to the government as a tax ; but under
the Spanish dominion all subjects, theoretically, were allowed to trade
with the Indians without discrimination. In the beginning of the
iSth century, the fur trade was a source of constant friction between the

*• Draper's Notes, vol. 23, p. 65 et seq.

"16 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 209.

^ Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 297.

TRADE JEALOUSIES 249

French and English colonies. The invasion of the French territory
by English traders, led to the French-English colonial war, and caus-
ed finally, the destruction of the French-American colonial empire.
Under the Spanish dominion all foreigners were rigorously excluded
from participating in the benefits of the Indian trade. The Canadian
traders, aftet the English acquired Canada, grievously lamented that
they were excluded from the fur trade in the Spanish territory west of
the river. Lieutenant Frazier, stationed at Fort de Chartres in 1768,
says that the English traders can undersell the French at least 25 per
cent; he says that the Spanish conmiandants always shared in the
profits of the traders and that there can be no real peace while the
French are rivals in the trade; that the Spanish officers make "eter-
nal professions of friendship and good offices with every English-
man with whom they have the least intercourse, but their double
manner of acting should put us on guard."" He complains also that
the traders from New Orleans trade in the English Illinois and that
they "are in general, most uncon.scientious rascals'' and who make it
"their interest to debauch from us the Indians and to foment trou-
ble;" but after his arrival, the New Orleans Company, he says, "con-
fined their conmierce in the Missouri river. " Private traders " are
permitted" he says "to go everywhere" and come to the English
side and particularly trade on the Illinois river. The temptation, on
the other hand, of the English-French Canadians to poach, as it were,
in the Spanish territory stretching to the Rocky mountains, for furs,
was almost irresistible. The country was a wilderness of vast extent,
and the savages being friendly, the chances of capture, were doubtful
and remote. Occasionally however, a French-Canadian trader
like Ducharme was entrapped in the Spanish territory, losing his
goods, and barely escaping with his life.*®

The first French grant of a trading privilege on the Missouri was
made, as we have seen, in 1744 by Governor de Vaudreuil to Joseph
Lefebvre des Bruisseau, and it is likely that of the fort he erected

* 2 Indiana Historical Publications, p. 413.

^ This Ducharme's invasion into the Spanish territory is also mentioned in
Rivington's "New York Gazette," September 9, 1 770, where it is said that Duchar-
me "was hardy enough to proceed up that river(Missouri) in direct opposition to the
orders of the Spani^ Commandant on the Illinois; that his trading and supply-
ing the Indians occasioned the Spanish no little trouble, and which caused them
to waylay him and take his pelUy, besides wounding him in the thigh, but he
esca{>ed to the English shore." — 26 Drapei's Collection (Clark MSS.)- No.
15. Ducharme's Island located according to Cerr^ about 20 miles above Jeffer-
son city. Also supposed to be Loutre Idand.

2SO fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Baron de Portneuf was commandant in 1752.^^ Under the Spanish
regulations no monopoly of the Indian trade was authorized.
But the Spanish officials granted to certain traders the exclusive
license to trade in certain districts and with a certain tribe — the
license being usually given to the trader who would pay the com-
mandant or Lieutenant-Governor the largest price. "These exclu-
sive permissions to individuals varied as to the extent of country, or
nations it embraced, and the period for which granted ; but in all
cases the exclusive licenses were offered to the highest bidder and
consequently the sums paid by the individual purchasing, were quite
as much as the trade would bear, and in many instances, from a
spirit of opposition between contending applicants, much more was
given than ever the profits of the traffic would justify."** In such
cases, of course, the individual became bankrupt.

In the districts thus purchased these traders enjoyed the protec-
tion of the government officials and the exclusive trade. When
these territorial limits were changed, or privileges taken away,
no little feeling and antagonism was created. Thus the Chouteaus
had the trade with the Osages, until the Spanish authorities gave it to
Manuel de Lisa, and then the Chouteaus caused some of the Osages
to leave their villages on the Osage river, and move to the Arkansas.
The trade with Poncas was granted to Juan Munier,** because he

** Wallace's History of Illinois and Louisiana, p. 311. — Gayarre's Louis-
iana French Domination — vol. a, p. 23-24. As to the extent of the French
tnuling operations, note Voyage des Freres Mallet avec six autre Francais in 6
Margry, in 1 739-1 740, p. 455. As to this fort on the Missouri, see Bossu's
Nouveaux Voyages, vol. i, p. 157 (Amsterdam Edition, 1769).

*' Lewis' Observations and Reflections on upper Louisiana, Original Jour-
nals Lewis & Clark, vol. 7, p. 369 (Thwaites* Ed.). Bradbury who visited upper
Louisiana shortly ijter the cession thinks, that the political circumstances under
which the country was placed during the Spanish dominion precluded the possi-
bility of prosperity. He says that the Governors were petty tyrants, who con-
sidered their positions simply a means to aggrandize ana enrich themselves and
that the interest of the colony was with them only a ''remote consideration,"
that the most depressing reg^ulations were made to shackle the internal trade of
the country, that no man could sell the smallest article, not even a row of pins,
without a license and that those licenses were sold by them at an extravagant
rate, that a straneer coming into the province, offering to sell goods at a reasonable
rate was arrested and his goods confiscated, that all favors from the command-
ants, such as grants of land, could only be obtained by bribery, and that these
officers defrauded their own government, that for instance, a little triangular
fort above St. Louis, was paid for by grants of land, but that the Governor made
a claim for a large amount against his government for the work and collected
the amount. Bradbury's Travels, p. 284.

^ This name is given as Juan Munie in the Spanish Archives, but evidently
is Jean Munier, of Kaskaskia, where he rendered military service. Proi>ably
removed to St. Louis after the conquest of Illinois, like so many other French
inhabitants of the eastern Illinois country.

ENGAGES 251

first discovered this tribe in 1789. So also the exclusive trade on
the upper Missouri was granted in 1794 to the Spanish Com-
mercial Company, of which Clamorgan was director, for a
period of ten years, in order to exclude the English traders from
that territory. Lorimier seems to have enjoyed the trade of the
Shawnees and Delawares west of Cape Girardeau, as far as the
Arkansas.

When the settlements on the Mississippi, at Ste. Genevieve, St.
Louis and St. Charles were first established, the Indians brought their
furs to these posts, and it was not necessary to take goods into the
country for them. When other posts were established in the upper
country, the Indians ceased to come to these posts, and the fur traders
on the river either had to send goods up to them or go out of business.
Under this system, the traders of upper Louisiana would send
out, directly, agents to trade with the Indians. A contract between
such an agent, Alexander Langlois dit Rondeau, and one Antoine
Hubert, merchant in St. Louis, is now not without interest :

''Before the Royal notary in Illinois in the presence of hereinafter named
witnesses, was present in person Alexander Langlois, a traveling trader living
at the post of St. Louis, who, by these presents, voluntarily binds himself to Mr.
Antoine Hubert, merchant, residing at the post of St. Louis, to go up for him, as his
clerk, to the post of the Little Osages to trade, at that place, his goods to the Indians,
and manage his business, and do all for the advantage of said Mr. Hubert.
Said Mr. Langlois promises to conduct said boat, and bring her back after
said trade is over, as also the peltries he may have acquired and give all the care
to avoid loss or damage to said Mr. Hubert ; and will start from said post of St.
Louis at the first requisition of said Mr. Hubert. This agreement is made for
the sum of eight hundred livres in peltries, deer-skins, or beaver, at the current
price of the same at this post, which they will establish on the peltries of this
trade at his arrival at St. Louis. It is also agreed that in case said Langlois
will take a negro in place of said sum of eight hundred livres in peltries, said
Mr. Hubert obligates himself to deliver him one on the arrival of the convoy from
New Orleans in the next spring, said negro to be sound and free from all disease,
in which case the said Langlois will repay to Mr. Hubert said sum of eight
hundred livres in the same manner in peltries.

"And said Langlois is free to manage the said Hubert's business as he may
think best, promising the said Mr. Hubert to do the best he can for him. All
the foregoing has been agreed to at the post of St. Louis, in the house of Mr.
Hubert in the year 1768, the 14th of August, in the presence of Mr. Chauvin,
merchant, and Joseph Blondeau, trader, witnesses, who have, with said Hubert
and said notary, signed these presents after being read, the said Langlois declar-
ing he did not know how to write."**

**In this case Langlois afterward, by arbitration, lost his compensation
agreed upon, because he did not faithfully comply with his agreement.

252 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

When the agent served for a given compensation as in this instance,
he was called an engagi. When the trade assumed this character a
greater variety of goods was forwarded to the Indian villages, and
larger means were employed in the trade. Often forts and store-
houses were established in the Indian country. These agents thus
supplied with every kind of goods demanded by the Indian trade,
generally made their long, toilsome and dangerous journey in canoes
and pirogues or batteaus up the Mississippi and Missouri, and the
numerous tributaries of these great rivers, and established themselves
in trading houses at some convenient point. From time to time
they would send down rich cargos of furs, remaining themselves some-
times for years in the Indian country — visited occasionally, perhaps,
by their principals. At the trading houses the Indians would
annually gather to sell their furs. From these posts hunters and
trappers were sent out to follow and trade with the Indians, and
successively other posts, or trading posts were established farther up
the stream or farther in the interior.

Thus the Chouteaus established Fort Carondelet on the Osage
in 1794, as well as to secure from the Spanish officials the exclusive
trade with the Osage Indians. The fort was erected "upon a hill
which dominates all the vast plain in which the Osages dwell, " says
Carondelet in his letter to the Duke of Alcudia. Trudeau, who
conducted an expedition for the Spanish Conmiercial Company,
established a fort and trading place, in 1796, on the upper Missouri
which became known as " Trudeau's House, " not far from the present
Fort Randall. Regis Loisel,^ in 1800, had a trading house at a place
which became known as " Fort aux Cedres, " from the fact that it was
built out of cedar logs. He received a grant of 150,000 arpens from
DeLassus at this point, a grant he afterwards assigned to Clamorgan
and which was never confirmed. One, Cruzat, in 1802, had a post
near the site of Council Bluffs. Near Omaha in 1796, Mackay estab-
lished a trading post which .became known as "San Carlos," Mackay
also^ conducting an expedition for the Spanish Commercial Com-

** This "Fort aux Cedars" was a four bastioned fort — which according to
Chouteau, Loisel began to build in 1800. This Regis or Registre Loisel, was a
native of Canada — in 1793 he came to St. Louis, where he married Helene —
a daughter of Jacque Chauvin. In 1804 he made a report to DeLassus,
of the extent of the boundary claim advanced by the Americans after
the cession — and offered his "good services as a faithful vassal** to the
Spanish government. He died in New Orleans in Oct. 1804. One of his
sons — Regis Loisel, Jr., — became a priest and took up his residence at
Cahokia.

A

FORTS as3

pany. Lisa," in 1808, built a trading post on the Big Horn. Chou-
teau's Post was another trading place, three miles below the mouth of
the Kansas river. Jos. Robidoux had a post near the present St.
Joseph, a locality known in early
times as the " Blacksnake Hills."
In 1819 Chouteau, Robidoux,
Berthold and Papin had a trad-
ing house at the mouth of the
Nish-na-botna and Pratte and
Vasquez a similar establishment
above Council Bluffs. Crooks
and McClelland had a post in
1810 near Bellevue. Lisa, in
1813, built Fort Lisa five or six
miles below CouncU Bluffs. In

this way, from time to time, forts and trading places were founded
to exploit the fur trade in all the vast region stretching westward to
the Rocky Mountains.

No doubt the heavy charges made by the Spanish officials for the
privilege of trading with the Indians caused much of the trade to fall
into the hands of the English traders. Then, too, the greater enter-
prise of the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwestern Company
and the cheaper and better goods furnished the Indians by these com-
panies attracted the trade, and caused a great loss to the Spanish
trade. Lewis says that from the Spanish system much evil resulted to the
Indian, that he was compelled to pay enormous prices to Spanish
traders for the articles he purchased from them, and that the greatest
exertions he could make would not enable him to secure tfiose things
which had become necessary to him ; that the Spanish officials gener-
ally became more exorbitant in their demands, the traders conse-
quently raising the price higher, although the fur bearing animals
became scarcer, and that finally the Indians, seeing they could not
buy in many instances, took by force the things they considered

'* Manuel Lisa or De Lisa, bom in New Orleans in 1771, wasoneof the most
enterprising and conspicuous of the Indian traders and merchants of St. Louis.
He was a man o[ restless energy and wonderful enterprise. His father was
Chrisioval De Lisa, who came to Louisiana whetf the Spaniards look possession
of the province, it is said, from South America, Manuel Lisa came to upper
Louisiana in about 1790 and at first settled and traded in the New Mailrid
region and on the Wabash in partnership with Vigo. Then he moved to St.
Louis — although the date is not precisely knonn, but in 1704 when the Spanish
Commerdal Company was organized by Tnideau be was evidently not a resident

254 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

necessary to themselves. This led to a loss of much of the Indian
trade in upper Louisiana, on the Des Moines, St. Peter's, and almost
to the banks of the Missouri, and which was thus diverted to
the British merchants, who were selling cheaper and better goods.
Shortly before the purchase, some of the Indian tribes of these
upper rivers would lay in ambush and capture boats in their
descent of the Missouri to St. Louis, and then compel the crews
to load themselves with heavy burdens of the best furs and carry
them across the country to their towns on the upper Mississippi, where
they would dispose of them to the British traders.

In order especially to exclude the Hudson Bay Company and the
Northwestern Fur Company from this trade, it was proposed
in 1796, to erect a chain of forts on the upper Missouri. Governor-
General Carondelet agreed with the Spanish Commercial Company,
to pay annually, a subsidy of ten thousand dollars to establish, main-
tain and garrison these forts. But the Hudson Bay Company and
Northwestern Fur Company were never successfully excluded from
the upper Missouri river territory of Louisiana. To the cheapness
and superiority alone of the goods of English manufacture sold by
these companies, must be attributed the greater success of the Eng-
lish fur companies, because the French traders were always per-
sonally more popular with the Indians than the English, Scotch or
American traders, and possessed greater influence with them. Yet
it should be observed, that the ease of access into the interior

country by means of the great water system of the Mississippi and

there because his name is not mentioned. In 1800 or 1801, however, his name
is the first one to a memorial, asking that the exclusive privilege of the Commer-
cial Company be cancelled. In 1800 he secured the exclusive trade of the Osage
Indians — a trade the Chouteaus had enjoyed for twenty years. This caused
a division of the tribe and some of these Indians moved from the Osage river to
Arkansas. How Lisa secured the privilege of this trade is not known, but
evidently in the management of the Spanish officials he then was the equal of
the Chouteaus. But Pedro Chouteau, the Conmiandant of Fort Carondelet
was in high favor with DeLassus and he reported to the Governor of Louisiana
— that he was surprised to see *' the confidence which this tribe places in the
Messrs. Chouteau, and the manner in which they get along with them" and
**in particular Don Pedro Chouteau." The life of Lisa after the cession was
one of incessant activity. He was the leading spirit of the first Missouri Fur
Company in 1808, and from that time until his death constantly traded up the
Missouri to the head waters of this great river — where he had a fort on the
Big Horn. As Indian agent in 181 2 he rendered the U. S. conspicuous service. In
1818 he married a dau^ter of Stephen Hempstead and a sister of Edward Hemp-
stead. Compelled to come to St. Louis in 1820 to defend his interests against his
numerous enemies, he was seized with an illness and died on the 12th
of August. He was the most remarkable man among the pioneer merchants
of St. Louis. His wife survived him fifty years and died at Galena, Illinois,
Sept. 3, 1869, aged 87 years.

SALT 255

Missouri, gave the traders, then residing in the trading villages on the
Mississippi, a great advantage and laid the foundation of St. Louis
as a commercial metropolis.

For a long time the fur trade represented the principal commer-
cial activity of the country. A small trade in bear's meat and grease
from the upper country to New Orleans was carried on. It is
said by DuPratz, who traveled with the Indians along the St. Francois
river in Arkansas and Missouri as early as 1745, that in the fall of the
year merchants and traders came up from New Orleans and estab-
lished camps along the banks of that river, to salt down bear's meat,
and for that purpose they had huge troughs hewn out of big cotton-
wood and poplar trees. The meat thus secured was sent by batteau
to New Orleans. This trade in bear-meat and bear's grease was a
comparatively important business at that time. The same business
was also followed on White river, and to this day one of the bottoms
along that stream is named "Oil Trough Bottom." Salted and
dried buffalo tongue and meat, as well as the meat of other wild ani-
mals, was also shipped by boat. Then the people of New Orleans
and the garrison located there depended largely for their meat supply
on salted bear's meat and grease or oil. According to Father Vivier
in 1750, flour and pork were shipped to New Orleans from the
Illinois country.*' Later on, bacon, salt pork and lard were exported
from the upper Louisiana. In 1802 the Cape Girardeau district
exported to New Orleans 371 barrels of salt pork, fourteen barrels
of refined lard, 7000 pounds of bacon, 8675 pounds of beef, 1800
pounds of cotton and in addition maple sugar and corn.

To these exports from upper Louisiana should be added salt,
manufactured on the Saline near Ste. Genevieve. In 1768 Frazier
says, "There is a rich lead mine in that (Louisiana) colony,
from which they get all the lead that is needed in the country,
and the river (the Saline) from the water of which (though
fresh to the taste) they make a sufficiency of salt for the consumption
of the inhabitants; but these latter conveniences are, unluckily, on
the western or Spanish side of the river. "*■ Nothing shows the im-
portance of these salt works on this stream better than the fact that in
1778 an expedition came from Kentucky to the mouth of the Saline
to purchase salt, a necessity of which the settlers in Kentucky had
been deprived since their arrival in that country. For this trip fifteen

*' 69 Jesuit Relation, p. 213.

^ Letter of Lt. Frazieri 2 Indiana Hist. Publications, p. 411.

2s6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

volunteers of Captain Harrod's company were selected ; this on ac-
count of the labor and danger the expedition involved. This little
band — of which Joseph Collins ^ who afterward gave an account
of the expedition, was one — went down the Ohio and then up the
Mississippi to the salt works, and securing the salt after some delay,
returned shortly before Christmas. On their way back four hundred
Indians were in ambush at the mouth of the Tennessee to intercept
them, but they escaped and got the salt to the falls, from whence it was
taken to Boonesboro, arriving there March i, 1779.

In 1769 a village of four or five houses existed at these salt works,
and Piemas complains that the company making the salt supplied
the English at a lower rate than was charged the people at home.
Francois Vall^, in 1797, had salt works on the Saline, Edward Dugan
in 1799, and John Hawkins in 1800. Salt was manufactured exten-
sively there by Israel Dodge and his son Henry ; and that they pushed
this business with true American energy is shown by the fact that Ste.
Genevieve salt was shipped by them in boats to Illinois settlements*^
as well as to the Big Barrens in Kentucky in 1802. Michaux, who in
that year went far into the interior of Kentucky on his overland jour-
ney to Charleston, South Carolina, notes that Ste. Genevieve salt
was sold on the Cumberland river." Stoddard says that in 1804 most
of the inhabitants on both sides of the Mississippi derived their salt
supply, from these works, and that no small proportion of the product
was shipped up the Ohio by boat.'* On this river and on the Cum-
berland Ste. Genevieve salt sold at two dollars a barrel of sixty
pounds. Michaux remarks that saline springs were abundant on
the Cumberland river, yet the scarcity of labor such that salt could not
be profitably manufactured. Dodge had several hundred laborers in
his service at times working his saline, says Reynolds." Salt was
also manufactured during the Spanish occupancy of upper Louisiana
for local use by Cabanne west of St. Louis on the Maramec.'*

North of the Missouri river, in 1795, Maturin Bouvet made salt
on Salt river, but experienced a great deal of trouble with the Indians,
who finally destroyed his establishment and killed him. On thk
account this stream was abo known as Saline Ensanglant^ (Bloody

*• May be a relative of Capt. Jos. Collins in New Madrid, in 1794.

•• Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p.. 86.

•* Michaux' Travels, p. 146.

*' Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 411.

" Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 112.

^ Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 86.

MILLS 257

Saline).* It is claimed that Bouvet shipped salt from his works to
St. Louis. When Boone and his followers settled in the so-called
"Boonslick" country, they began to manufacture salt there, but
for local use only, and as an article of prime necessity.

Of course gristmills were established in various portions of upper
Louisiana. The French located theirs in the villages, operated them
with horses, for they were small and insignificant concerns; excepting
however the . windmill of Motard in St. Louis, which seems to
have been a more pretentious establishment. Chouteau too had a
fine watermiU near the village — secured the power by damming up
the Petite Rivifere — the dam forming the well-known Chouteau's
mill pond where are now the St. Louis railroad yards. When the
Americans settled in the country, they located their mills near where
they lived, and wherever possible on water-courses, so as to secure
cheap and ample power. Trudeau says that they all "desire to ob-
tain good sites for mills, " and he was astonished that two small water-
power mills were constructed by them "where no one would have
imagined even that one could really work. "*• It is recorded that
some of the mills located on these water-courses were repeatedly
carried away by freshets, as for instance the gristmiU of John Stur-
gess, located on the Plattin in tlie Ste. Genevieve district. Thomas
Maddin began to build a mill on the upper portion of the Saline
in 1799. George Frederick Bollinger, in the Cape Girardeau
district, erected a more extensive mill on White Water, with a mill-
dam built of logs and stone. Richard Jones Waters established a
saw- and gristmill at the mouth of the bayou St. John, on the
Mississippi river, at New Madrid in 1799, and St. Vrain in
the same year contracted for another mill, although it does not ap-
f>ear that it was ever built. Israel Dodge operated a mill on the
Spring Branch near New Bourbon, originally built by Vall^ in 1793.
William Montgomery had a saw- and flourmill on the Terre Blue,
where this stream empties into Big river, and Jonathan Doely built
the first gristmill on the St. Francois in 1801. Elias Coen, in 1798, had
the first mill in Bois Brule bottom. Michael Placet in 1787 erected a
mill in the city of Ste. Genevieve, although it is certain that other
small mills were in operation in that village before that time. Elisha
Herrington in 1798 built and operated a horse mill in St. Ferdinand.
In 1798 Duquette built a windmill in St. Charles. From a part-
nership contract made in 1793 it appears that Tardiveau and Pierre
^ American State Papers, 2 Public Land, p. 682. Ante p. ^,
** Trudeau's Report of 1 798, Greneral Archives of the Indies, Seville.

258 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Audrain were to furnish the Spanish government annually 6,000
barrels of flour. They agreed to build a miU and baking house
in New Madrid, and a second mill at Ste. Gene\ieve, this mill to be
under control of Pierre DeHngny and Pierre ^lenard. The flour of
these mills was to be marked "Social." Audrain, it was agreed,
should buy the grain, and bufld light barges to ship the grain and
flour in ; the biscuit bakery was to be managed by Joseph Vanden-
benden and Pierre Tardiveau.

But all the mills mentioned were large establishments compared
with the corn-mills of the sectary settlers called hand-miUs, which
consisted of two stones, the upper stone being made to revohx horizon-
tally upon the disk of the other, a child, usually, or a woman, introdu-
cing through a perforation of the upper stone a few grains of com at a
time, which was thus ground into meal. A stiU more primitive way
of making meal consisted merely in putting the com into an excava-
tion on the top of a stump and fraying it with a pestle.*'

The manufacture of whiskey was an important industry' after the
Americans began to settle in the countr}'. Auguste Chouteau secured
a concession of land on Beaver Pond (Marais Castor) in the St. Louis
district, from DeLassus, for the purpose of procuring fuel for a dis-
tillery, which he truthfully and ingeniously said could not be kept in
operation without fuel. DeLassus, apparently deeply impressed with
the importance of the matter, made a grant of wood land for the
distinct and expressed reason that a distillery was considered ''by
the Government as an establishment of public utility and benefit. "^
James Vamum in 1801 built a distiUery between the Plattin and
Joachim and operated the establishment until 1804. Thomas Mad-
din also operated one on the lower Aux Vase. Lieutenant-Govemor-
Trudeau made an additional grant of land to Jeduthan Kendall
for the purpose of enabling him to enlarge his tan-yard at Ste. Gene-
vieve, by adding to his establishment a shoe factory and distiUer)*.
Whether the shoe factory was established is not recorded, but it may
almost be considered certain that the distillery was put in operation.
On the Aux Vase, in the Ste. Genevieve district, Pascal Detchemendy
operated a tan-yard, which he sold in 1799 to Jean Guibourd. Fran-
cois PoiUevre in 1793 operated a tan-yard on the river Establishment,
in the same district.

Metallic money was scarce among the first settlers of upper Lou-
isiana. The only coin in circulation was the now much despised

" Long's Ezpeditioiii voL i, p. 78.

" American State Papers, 2 Public Land, p. 532.

BARTER 259

Mexican dollar, which was even cut into four or eight equal parts,
popularly called "bits," and passed as current money. The Spanish
troops, when they were paid oflF at all, received hard Spanish milled
dollars, coined in Mexico. Thus about twelve thousand dollars
were put in circulation annually in upper Louisiana. This was by no
means a sufficient supply of money for the commercial needs of the
country even at that time. The amount so distributed quickly disap-
peared, went to New Orleans, or was safely stored away by the French
inhabitants for a rainy day. During the previous French dominion pa-
per money was in circulation, and the French troops were for a time paid
off in such currency. Concerning this early paper money the author
of the "Present State of Louisiana" says, "Perhaps the reader will be
glad to know what we do with our paper notes when they are much
worn ; we sew them up, or when they are too old we carry them back
to the treasury and get new ones, "•• and he says that even the chUdren
"understand paper notes before they know their letters or their
God. " However, during the period of both the French and Spanish
regime trade was mainly carried on by barter among the early inhab-
itants of the country, just as in the first settlements elsewhere. Furs
were the principal currency of the pioneers, up almost to the time
Missouri was admitted into the Union. Beaver skins generally were
the standard of value.'® But tobacco, bees-wax, potash, maple-syrup,
salt, feathers, bear's oil, venison, fish, wood and lead could be ex-
changed for merchandise. All these commodities had a value meas-
ured by the various furs of the country. Thus a pound of shaved
deer skin of good quality represented about twice the value of a livre,
that is to say, forty cents in our present money. A pack of deer skins
was about one hundred pounds in weight, and the fixed price for the
finest deer skin was what would be forty cents per pound, for me-
dium thirty cents, and for inferior twenty cents per pound, in our
present currency. A number of beaver skins, otter or ermine, rep-
resented a certain number of pounds deer skin. A "pack" of the
skins of a certain animal had a definite weight. "In 1804," says
Stoddard, "a bundle of beaver (Castor) skins were worth one hundred
and eighty dollars on the spot, a bundle of l3mx skins five hundred
dollars, a bundle of otter four hundred and fifty dollars, and a bundle
of marten three hundred dollars. A bufiFalo robe (happy times) could

***'The Present State of Louisiana," translated by Capt. Alymer, p. 18.
(London, 1744).

*^27 Bancroft, p. 458. As late as i8o7,Judge J. B. C. Lucas purchased a
residence at St. Louis from Pierre du Chouquette and wife for $600, payable in
peltries.

26o fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

be bought for six dollars and a bear skin for three dollars. " Thus
trade was carried on. The cash value of the peltr\' could be realized
only at New Orleans. It required time and eiq)ense to take peltry-
there, and in addition there was the danger and loss incident to a
long voyage. Until shipped to New Orleans, these furs were care-
fully stored in small warehouses.

But furs were not the only currency. A "carrot" of tobacco also
had a certain accepted value, a '^carrot" being a roll of tobacco in
appearance of the shape of a bologna sausage, and called a "carrot "
because resembling the root of that name. The "carrot " had a cer-
tain weight, and was usually valued at ten livres. "Carrots" were
sometimes prepared by boring one-half inch or one inch holes in a log
of tough wood ; the tobacco, dampened and cured, was wedged in this
hole tightly with a maUet and pegged ; when the plug was tight and
tough as desired, the log was split and it was then taken out This
' carrot " of tobacco then was used and generally accepted as a
medium of payment or exchange.

The effect of this peltry- currency was to greatly advance prices.
"All commercial transactions, unless otherwise especiaUy agreed,
are made conformable to this standard of value, and are taken
in barter at the rate of forty cents per pound, but as they have to be
taken to New Orleans to realize that price, there is much risk and loss ;
so consequendy the merchant sells his goods at a charge proportionate
to the venture he assumes. Everything sells at an enormous price,
the result of which is that the commonest workman receives pay for
labor at the rate of ten or twelve franks per day. "

In an order of sale of the effects of Louis Dubreuil of New Orleans,
ordered by Don Antonio Cruzat, "Lieutenant-Colonel of the Loub-
iana Regiment of Infantry and Conunandant of the western portion
of the Illinois country, " it is expressly provided that the goods sold
should be paid for in deer skins or beaver skins at the current value,
or in money, as the purchaser might elect, on a credit of five months,
good security given. At the sale one hundred and six carrots of
tobacco were sold for one hundred and ninety-two livres; a yoke of
steers sold for three hundred and ninety-nine livres and ten sols, and
one hundred empty bottles for thirty-nine livres, but "a lot of his-
torical books" sold for only "ten sols." Among the early French
and American settlers a public sale was always well attended and the
whole neighborhood would meet on such occasions, making the day of
sale a social reimion, women attending also and bidding for articles.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Isolation of Early Settlers — Slow and Perilous Mode of Travel by Land — River
Navigation — Description of a ** Keel-boat" — Perils of River Navigation —
"Cordelling" a Boat Up-stream — Down-stream Traffic — Charm of the
Virgin Land — ^The Early French-Canadian Inhabitants — French Frontier
Costumes — Personal Property Highly Prized — Some Personal Estates —
Stocks of Merchandise — Manners of Pioneer French-Canadians — Char-
acteristic Traits — The Carnival Season — Training Given Children —
Hospitality — Taverns and Inns — French Schools and Teachers —
Religion — The Sabbath and Religious Festivals — Pioneer French Cookery
— Frugality — Sobriety — Political Indifference — Pioneer Houses Described
— Osage Indian Raids — American Immigration to Early French Settle-
ments — Some Early English-Speaking Residents — Only Few Spanish
Settlers.

It is difficult for us now to imagine the isolation of the early settle-
ments on the upper Mississippi, situated almost in the center of the
continent, surrounded by powerful and warlike Indian tribes. These
settlements were more completely separated from the nearest center of
population, if we take into consideration the hardship to be endured
to make the journey, than the settlements and settlers in the interior
of Africa, at Bulawayo, or those on the Congo are now separated
from London ; or the denizens of Tashkand, or Tobolsk, from St.
Petersburg or Berlin or Paris. The little cluster of small villages
and settlements on the Mississippi at Kaskaskia, Fort de Chartres,
Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia on the east side of the river, and
St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New
Madrid on the west side, were, so to speak, lost in an immense
and what must have seemed to the inhabitants of these locali-
ties, a boundless continent. Taking the nearest and most convenient
water route, it required a journey of a thousand miles through a wil-
derness to reach New Orleans and its adjacent settlements. This
journey must be made in a pirogue on the Mississippi, bordered
as Bossu says, with " trees which appeared as ancient as the world." *

' Bossu's Travels, p. 33. Have not been able to find any particulars about
Bossu. He styles himself in the title page of his '"Travels" as "Captain in the
Marines/' but he does not give his Christian name. The preface is aated "Cape
Francois, Feb. ik, 1751." On the title pa^ of his Nouveaux Voyages, a series of
letters addressee to M. Douin, "Chevaher, Capitaine dansles Troupes du Roi,
ci-'devant son comarade dans le nouveau Monde,'' published in Amsterdam in
1772, he styles himself " Chevalier de Tordre royal et militaire de Saint Louis,
ancien Captaine d'une Compagnie de la Marine." In a note to the preface

261

262 mSTORY OF MISSOURI

Travel thence across the ocean was imperiled not only by the
dangers of the sea, but also by the numerous buccaneers and pirates
then infesting the southern waters. The trip by land through the
interior meant a journey for many hundred miles on foot or horse-
back along Indian trails and war paths, across unbridged streams
and morasses, often over swollen creeks and rivers, at times im-
passable for days, and through unblazed and unfrequented woods,
to the shores of the Great Lakes or across the Alleghany mountains
to the seashore. How far away must Quebec have seemed to the
French habitans of Kaskaskia in 1700, and to those dwelling in Ste.
Genevieve in 1735! How long and difficult the march to the seat
of power on the St. Lawrence through pathless woods and prairies
in the summer heat or on bleak winter days, when all nature was
wrapped in ice and snow! Yet such journeys must be made. Thus,
for instance, Gabriel Cerr^, then one of the principal merchants of
Kaskaskia, and afterward of St. Louis, for a number of years went
'annually to Canada. Scantily supplied with provisions the traveler
began his toilsome march, camped at night beneath the stars or a
cloudy sky, fortunate if in winter he could secure a small Ere and a
dry strip of ground between it and a log to warm his limbs be-
numbed with cold ; he counted himself doubly fortunate if able to
kill some game and to escape the bands of roaming Indians, who,
even if friendly, would devour his meagre substance. Or, from the
forks of the Ohio, he might go up or down, by water, exposed to
many perils. On such a journey down the Ohio Judge H. H.
Brackenridge, a man famous in western Pennsylvania in his time,
sent his little boy scarcely seven years old from Pittsburg in 1793,
to Ste. Genevieve to learn the French language there, a fact inter-
esting because the earliest instance of a pupil being sent to the
Spanish country, now in Missouri, to be educated in a foreign
language. In a canoe the boy passed down the Ohio, with shores
then infested by ferocious Indians, to New Madrid in charge of
J. B. C. Lucas, at that time engaged in the Indian trade. Thence
on a pony with Lucas and a guide he traveled through the wilderness

of these letters, it is said that Bossu served in the wars in Italy — participated in
"diverse actions" particulary at ChAteau-Dauphin in the Alps — that he was
wounded, being one of the first that entered the "embrasures du canon de cette
placet qui fut emport^e d'assaut par les Brigades de Poitou et de Conti, le 19
fuillet 1744. L'epoque de cette brillante joumde sera h, jamais memorable
dans rhistoire de la vie S. A.S. Monseigneur le Prince de Conti et dans les fastes
de la France." Was this Bossu, of the same family as Coimt Bossu in conmiand
of the Dutch army in 1578 ? See Motley's Dutch Republic, vol. 3,p. 334-5.

KEEL-BOATS 263

along an Indian trail to his place of destination, camping out in the
forest or in Indian wigwams. Of this journey he afterward gave a
graphic picture.' When such a journey was made on horseback, a
supply of provisions was taken along, packed on each side of the
horse, with a coffee-pot, tin-cup, a hatchet to cut wood and a blanket
strapped on the saddle for bedding at night, or, as a cover in case of
rain.

A voyage up the Mississippi in a bateau consumed months.
Laclede's boat required four months to reach Ste. Genevieve from
New Orleans. It took Piernas " on one of the bateaus of the king"
from September 4th to November 26th to reach the Isles a la Course
(Race Islands) where he was stopped by the ice, ninety miles below Ste.
Genevieve.' DeLeyba made the trip to St. Louis in 93 days.* At a later
date, these light bateaus were succeeded by keel-boats. In outward
appearance they resembled a canal boat, and were constructed with
gunwales twelve or fourteen inches thick.* The boats were often
propelled by oars, and when the wind was favorable a sail was
hoisted, but usually they were pulled up the river by a cordeUe
('^little rope") fastened to the top of the mast and then passed
through a ring, fastened by a stout rope to the bow of the craft, and
thrown over the shoulders of men who would walk in a stooping
position along the shore. The path along which the men walked in
pulling the boat was called the " tow-path," and in all grants made
by the Spanish authorities this "tow-path" was reserved to the public*
The reason why the cordelle was attached to the mast was to
swing the rope clear of the brush on the bank of the river, and by
passing the rope through the ring fastened to the bow, it greatly
assisted to guide the boat. The setting poles were ten or twelve feet

' See Recollections of West, p. 22.

* Report of Piernas to Gov. O'Reilly, dated Oct. 31, 1769.

* Report of DeLeyba to Gov. Galvez, dated July i, 1778.

* A keel-boat was a craft built on a regular model, with a keel running from
bow to stern, and thus derived its name. From the deck, projecting about four
or five feet, rose the cargo box, where the freight was stored, extending to within
ten or twelve feet from each end of the boat. Occasionally also state-rooms
were fitted up in this part of the boat when it was used for passenger travel.
Such boats were strong and substantial and built in accordance with well settled
principles of ship construction.

* C Fallon vs. Doggett, 4 Mo. Francois Douchouquette in his testimony
before Com. Hunt says, in 1825, that he lived in St. Louis forty eight years;
that it was always understood that a tow-path was reserved along the river for
boats, by the Spanish authorities, and that fences that interfered with this path
were torn down. Hunt's Minutes, vol. i, p. 160, of copy of Missouri Historical
Society.

PERILS OF NAVIGATORS 265

long, the lower end shod with iron and the upper end with a knob to
press against the shoulders. In using these, when the water was of
sufficient depth, the men placed themselves in single file on the narrow
gunwale on each side of the deck near the bow, with their faces toward
the stern, their heads bent low, planting their poles on the river
bottom pointing down stream, and as the boat moved ahead they
walked toward the stern on the gunwales on each side of the cargo
box; and as the one in front reached the end of the gunwales he
would turn about, pass the others and take his position in the rear.
Sometimes the men on the gunwale would drop the setting-poles and
catch the limbs and brush along the shore and thus drag ahead;
this, says Peck, was called "bush-whacking." A long heavy oar
with a wide blade was attached to the stern, and moved on a pivot,
which the pilot or captain managed while standing on the roof, or
deck, or cargo box, as it was variously called.^

The perils of this slow and laborious navigation were neither
slight nor inconsiderable. Sometimes, at night, the boats would
break from their moorings, the small trees and saplings yielding to
the strain while the navigators were asleep or inattentive ; then they
would silently drift down the stream, a distance greater than had been
laboriously covered on the previous day. At times, too, trees would
unexpectedly fall into the stream, wrecking or imp)eriling the boat.
On the Ohio, boatmen would often run on rocks and gravel bars,
especially when the river was falling rapidly, and it required incredible
labor to get the boat safely out of such a situation. Every mile or
two there was what the French boatmen called an " embarrasy^ that
is, rafts often extending out twenty or thirty yards, and here the
current, vexed bv thi*^ interruption, would rush around with preat
violence. Then, too, to pass around enormous trees often over one
hundred feet long, lying in the river at right angles, with limbs out-
stretched like long arms, and holding fast to the shore, with a foaming,
rushing current greatly increased by such an obstruction, was a
task of great difficulty. Sometimes, too, the wind blowing into a
gale would drive the helpless craft to or from the shore. Their es-
capes from such dangers seemed wonderful to those early navigators.
Only on rare occasions could a sail be raised and the boat thus moved
up the river.

No employment can be imagined more laborious or dangerous
than thus pulling a boat against the swift current of the river,

' Life of Peck, p. 83.

366

mSTORV OF MISSOURI

because owing to the character of the short and the numerous
impediments the cordelle often became entangled among snags,
sawyers, limbs of overhanging trees and sfanibs, and hence great
dexterity was required by the leader of the cordelle. Sometimes
the boat fell back for a distance in spite of every effort. Thus, amid
ionamerable difficulties and painful labor, slowly the keel-boat moved
or "worried" up the river in a manner hardly conceivable at this time.
Ten to twelve miles a day up stream n-as a fair average distance for a

KLATBOAT OX THE MISSISSIPPI (IV A RIM

keel-boat to make, and an average distance of eighteen miles was
deemed worthy of record.

A journey down the river of course did not consume as much
time as that up stream. A trip from Pittsbui^ to Louis\-ille, ac-
cording to Michaux, consumed 8 or 9 daj-s. In 1803, the usual
time consumed from Louisnlle to New Orleans vras from thirty
to thirty-five days; from St. Louis about twenty-five or thirty
days. Many of the boats going to New Orleans were flatboats,
called "broad-horses," huge square bottomed and square built
crafts. These never were brought back, but were broken up
and wrecked and the timber and material in them sold ; the
crews, if from upper Louisiana, would return by land, or if from
Kentucky, they would often go to New York or Philadelphia by sea.

FRENCH HABITANS 267

thence to Pittsburg and down the Ohio back home. The freight
rate down the river by flatboat was reasonable enough. In 1802 a
boat containing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred barrels
of flour carried the same to New Orleans for $100.'

Little, however, did those early settlers regard their isolated
situation or the difficulties and perils of a journey to or from
their homes. Many soon became charmed and fascinated by
the boundless and apparently illimitable expanse of woods and
prairies by which they were surrounded, and freedom from
almost all restraint and control. To them it seemed as if they dwelt
in a fairy land. Says Bossu, " Merchants, tradesmen and strangers,
who live here, enjoy as it were an enchanted abode, rendered deli-
cious by the purity of the air, the fertility of the soil and the beauty
of the situation." For them all natiure seemed to provide ; for them
great herds of buffalo, stag and roebuck, in the autiunn season when
the water in the interior country began to run low, seemed to gather
on the margin of the Mississippi and its tributary streams, so that
with ease they could provide provisions for the inclement season of
the year ; for them the fat bear seemed to come out of the St. Francois
basin ; for them the fowls of the air seemed to wing their flight
from the wintry and stormy north, to fill their neighboring
lakes and waters ; for them the prairie hen and the turkey seemed to
fill the land. Here, sa3rs Bossu, " the pleasures of hunting and fishing
and all the enjo3anents of life are abundant," and on both shores of
the Mississippi the pure and delicious waters of this river run " for
forty leagues between a number of habitations, which formed an ele-
gant sight on both shores,"* and then, speaking of the vast extent of
uninhabited country, he adds, ** what a pity, that so fine a country has
no inhabitants but brutes."*®

These French inhabitants of Missouri bore little resemblance to
the "gay and perhaps frivolous"Frenchmen of the age of Louis XV,
and still less to those who participated in and " felt the racking storm
of the revolution."" They were principally descendants of the
French-Canadian pioneers. Driven by the disasters of the revolu-
tion a few families also came directly from France to find a home in

* Michauxs' Travels, p. 182. Bradbunr says that going down the Missis-
sippi below New Madrid ne passed 24 such
Travels.

sippi below New Madrid ne passed 24 sucn flatboats going south in one day.

* Bossu's Travelsi vol. i, p. 24. (London, 1771.)

*'Ibid., p. 112.

" Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 235.

268 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

upper Louisiana. It was observed that the French Canadians spoke
the French language with a purity remarkable, considering that they
were separated so long from their ancestral home and from all
literary and other intercourse with it.*' But it was observed that
they lengthened the sound of words and thus gave the language a
languid softness, by no means disagreeable to the listener, but devoid
of that animation generally possessed by the French. A few words
they added to the language, but many words were in use among them
which had become obsolete in France, just as English words are in
use among us which have become obsolete in England, although
we now travel from one end of the globe to the other in a few weeks.
Volney says that the French-Canadians at Vincennes ** spoke a
pretty good French intermixed with military terms and phrases,
all these settlements having been made by soldiers. " " The primitive
stock of the settlers of Canada belonged to the Regiment Cardi-
gan. But Collot says that the people spoke a corrupt French,
"esp^e de jargon." **

Removed from the great centers of population, trade and fashion ,
these French-Canadians dressed in a peculiar fashion, as best they
could, yet plain and simple. "The men wore a blanket coat of
coarse cloth or coating, with a cape behind which could be thrown
over the head, from which circumstances it was called capote." "
Both sexes wore blue handkerchiefs on their heads, but no hats.
They had "a strong predeliction for the blue color" says
Reynolds. *• Moccasins or Indian sandals were used. These
moccasins were both neat and serviceable. The dress of
the females was generally simple, and the variety of the fashions
few, although in good taste, but the women were dressed neater
and better then the men. The women "caught up the French
fashions from New Orleans and Paris" and "adopted them
to the full extent of their means and talents". Both men
and women were always provided with a proper and neat

" Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 239. See also Stoddard's Louisi-
ana, p. 330.

** Volney 's Views, p. 353.

** Collot's dans L'Amerique, vol. 2, 517.

^* In 1 81 7 Nuttall describing the dress of the French-Canadians at Arkansas
Post says, ** Blanket capeaus, moccasins and overalls of the same material, are
here, as in Canada, the prevailing dress ; and men and women commonly wear a
handkerchief on the head in place of hats and bonnets." — NuttalPs Arkansas,

P- 75-

*• Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 5 1 .

PERSONAL EFFECTS 269

dress for the church and ball room.^^ Brackenridge, who spent
three years as a boy in Ste. Genevieve, describing M. Beauvais,
in who^ family he lived, says that he was ^^ dressed in the costume of
the place," that is, " with a blue handkerchief on his head, one corner
thereof descending behind and partly covering the eel skin which
bound his hair, and a check shirt, coarse linen pantaloons on his hips,
and the Indian sandal or moccasin, the only covering to the feet worn
by both sexes," and M. Beauvais was then the wealthiest man, not
only in Ste. Genevieve, but in upper Louisiana.

The inventory of the house-hold effects of Jacques Louis Lam-
bert, dit Lafleur, a merchant and militia officer, a person of some
consequence in those days, who died at Ste. Genevieve December
26, 1 77 1, gives us a good idea of the articles of dress owned and
of the personal property of the more wealthy early inhabitants.
The great value in which personal property was held is indicated by
the minuteness with which it is noted down. According to this
inventory, Lambert died possessed of a regimental coat and
vest, sword and belt, gun and powder-horn, gold watch worth 200
livres, gold button, silver snuffbox, three pairs of silver buckles,
silver cross, silver spoon, silver fork, two silver rings, hunting knife,
two purses, two looking glasses, one hat, and an Indian pipe.
In addition he died possessed of twenty- two shirts, twelve night
caps, thirty handkerchiefs, six drawers, two umbrellas, two
mattresses, one feather bed, one blanket, one coverlid, one
bed curtain, one pillow case, three cravats, three table cloths,
eight pair of breeches, candlestick, yard stick, brush, powder bag,
clock, muff, capot, curling iron, plates, tureen, bottles, basket, bowl,
pots, copper kettle, barrel, bird cage, and a lot of deer skins and other
property. From this inventory it is also apparent that, in 1771,
real estate was considered of little value and importance in what is
now Missouri. A house and lot valued at 1,000 livres, or 200 dol-
lars, was all the real property one of the richest residents of upper
Lousiana then owned. Nor need this surprise us, for land was
granted by the government gratuitously to all who applied for it in
order to improve or cultivate it, and was only valuable for
cultivation and on account of improvements made on it. The
wealth of the inhabitants was measured by the personal property
they possessed.^*

^^ Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 52.
** Brackenridge's Views of Tjouiriana, p. 938.

270 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

One Jean B. Butand, dit Brindamour, who died in 1771 at the
house of J. B. Sarpy, then a merchant at St. Louis, did not leave so
extensive an estate as Lambert; but the articles of personal dress
of which he died possessed, fairly indicate the value and character
of the worldly possessions of most of the people at that time.
Butand's effects consisted of six white shirts, two red checked
cotton shirts, two blue cotton shirts, three pair of large cotton
breeches, one beaufortbed sheet, two blanket capotes, a blue jacket,
one pair of blue woolen stockings, four pairs of old shoes, six cot-
ton handkerchiefs, one vest, one cottonade jacket, one red cloth
vest, an old tnmk, feather bed with skin cover, one buffalo robe,
a pillow and old couch, one old gun, one hat, seven pewter spoons
and a plate, two iron forks, a pair of scissors, and pair of brass
buckles.

On the other hand, the inventory of the personal possessions of
Denau Detailly, an Indian interpreter, married to an Indian squaw,
shows how small and valueless the personal assets of the poorer classes
of inhabitants of upper Louisiana would be considered now. When
Detailly died, he had one old feather bed covered with skins, and
another with ticking, four delf plates, a tin pan, shovel, seven pewter
spoons, four iron forks, an adz and saw, an oven, table, four old chairs
two sheets, two pairs of old cotton breeches, ragged at that ; a shirt
worn and torn, an old blanket coat, straw hat and mittens ; and these
assets and possessions were deemed then of sufficient importance to
warrant the Lieutenant-Governor Perez, Don Antonio de Oro,
officer of the garrison, and other officials to go several miles out in
the country to cause an inventory to be made. In addition, Detailly
had a claim for thirty-seven livres, and which was duly inventoried,
against one Mongrain for the price of a pirogue.^

The stock of goods carried by the old French traders, or merchants,
also gives us some idea of the manner in which these pioneers of Mis-
souri were clad. From the invoices and inventories of these traders
and merchants which have been preserved, we find that they had for
sale, blankets, blue and red cloth, kersey jackets, blanket capotes,
colimanco cloaks, double flannel cloaks, cotton and plain shirts,
scarlet cloth, also ribbon, thread, pins, (each pin made by hand
because this was before the days of machine pins), table cloths,
cravats; and for the Indian trade, coarse white and grey Indian

'* This Mongrain was doubtless Noel Mongrain, a half breedi nephew of
Chevaux Blanc, the principal chief of the Osages.

CHARACTERISTICS 271

muslin, red cotton handkerchiefs, knit caps and striped caps.^^ In
1796, however, Collot observes that about the same goods and
merchandise find sale in upper Louisiana as in the Western
States of the Union — although in lower Louisiana a better and
finer grade of goods found a market.^^

In their manners, these early French-Canadian settlers were plain
and simple. In ordinary deportment they were sober, sedate and
serious, and "retained the politeness and suavity of their race" with
" something of the gravity of the Spaniard," but happy and hilarious
like the French inhabitants on the east side of the river, when amuse-
ment was the business of the hour.'' But Lieutenant Frazier, for a
time stationed at Fort de Chartres, shortly after the English took
possession of the coimtry east of the river, speaking of some of these
French-Canadians says, that they "are for the greatest part drunk
every day when they can get drink to buy in the colony."" Frazier,
however, evidently was prejudiced against the people and contradicts
himself. For instance, referring to the fact that many of the French
residents had removed to the west bank of the Mississippi he says,
that the country is "well quit of them," but later on inconsistently
adds, that "it is to be hoped that they will see now that they have
been imposed upon and that so many will come back as will be able
to supply our troops plentifully."'*

These old French-Canadians had little of that restlessness,
nervousness and impatience that distinguished their European com-
patriots. In person, men and women were well formed, agree-
able and pleasant in appearance, courteous, indicating a cheerful
and serene disposition, untroubled by want, care or anxiety. Nor
could it well be otherwise, for the necessities of life were easily
secured, and beggary was unknown. Courtesy and politeness was
universal even among the humblest. The children vied with each
other to show kindness to strange children." The gentle and easy
life they led was reflected in their manners and to a certain degree
in the softness and mildness of their languages." Kindness was
manifested in all their domestic relations. "The women were

^ Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 277.

'* Collot's Voyagje dans L'Amerique, vol. 2, p. 273.

** Ford's History of Illinois, p. 36.

^ Indiana Hist. Publication, vol. 2, p. 412.

** Ibid., p. 414.

* Brackenridge's Recollections, p. 20.

* Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 236.

272 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

remarkable," says Governor Ford, who in his youth lived among
these French pioneers, " for the grace and elegance of their manners
and sprightliness of their conversation." '^ The wife was not the
slave but the partner of the husband, and was so considered by law ;
she was consulted and usually decided all affairs relating to the
common welfare. They were faithful and affectionate wives, only
rarely did one abandon or desert her husband. Cases of seduction
were almost unknown.

Honesty and punctuality characterised all their dealings. They
spoke the truth and scrupulously carried out their bargains and those
of their fathers. This is shown by the fact, that after the United
States acquired Louisiana, and lands and lots had consequently in-
creased wonderfully in value, they often ratified and confirmed the
verbal contracts of their ancestors, although legally they could not be
compelled to do so. Says Reynolds, " that sleepless, ferocious ambi-
tion to acquire wealth and power which seizes on so many people of
this day, never was known amongst the early settlers of Illinois,""
and we may add Missouri. They were uneasy when in debt. They
abhorred litigation. Criminal offenses were almost unknown among
them. "In no country," says Stoddard, "were aggravated crimes
more rare than in Louisiana." The people were educated to obey
the laws and the guilty were not allowed to escape with impunity.
They had great respect for law and the constituted authorities.
The flippant contempt with which every law is now regarded, that
does not suit the opinion, prejudice or interest of the individual,
was then unknown in Missouri. "Besides, the French attached
more disgrace to punishments than any other people." *

No caste separated the people and there was scarcely any distinc-
tion of classes, the wealthy and more intelligent were considered more
important, but even this manifest difference was not clearly marked.
It was observed in New Orleans in 1804, that " they feel cordial
and equal respect for all ranks and conditions who have good man-
ners and deportment. 'Tis good conduct which rules with them," '®
— and this was also true in upper Louisiana. At the balls which
often took place on Sunday after Mass, rich and poor mingled

^ Ford's History of Illinois, p. 37.

'* Reynolds' Pioneer History of LoiiisianEi p. 37.

*• Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 282. They paid great deference to ** men in
power," not from obsequiousness, "but from habitual respect." They
yielded obedience "without a murmur to their official superiors," p. 327.

*• American Pioneer, vol. 2, p. 235.

GRACEFUL MANNERS 273

on terms of equality. As a matter of fact, nearly all these early
French-Canadian inhabitants were connected by ties of affinity
or consanguinity. In some places so extensive was this relation-
ship that on account of the death of a relative at an inopportune
time, the carnival season, the greatest occasion for festivity in those
days, was allowed to pass cheerless and unnoticed. Otherwise
during the carnival season, balls and dances followed each other in
rapid succession. The children, too, were permitted to be present at
these dances, not indeed as a place of frivolity but rather as a school
of good manners, and here also the children of the rich and poor were
placed on a footing of perfect equality. The only difference between
them was a more costly, but not a cleaner or neater dress.'* The
strictest decorum prevailed on such occasions and solemnity and
seriousness prevailed, as at a Sunday school. Two aged discreet
persons were chosen to presei*ve order and decorum — called Pro-
vosts — one to select the ladies for the dance, and the other the
gentlemen so that all could dance at their proper turn.** Thte
children were required to be seated, and neither boisterous conduct,
promiscuous running about, confusion or disorder was allowed.
The dances were cotillions and reels, but the minuet was popular.
The customs their ancestors brought from France to the New World
gave that grace of manner to these French pioneers which distin-
guishes the French men and women everywhere. From earliest
infancy, even in the western wilderness, the importance of graceful
and elegant deportment was impressed on the children. No vulgarity
or rowdyism was tolerated and often the priest of the village
graced by his presence these festive occasions. Such manners dis-
tinguished these French pioneers from many of their American
neighbors who were too often coarse and clownish in their conduct.
Flint was much impressed by the amiability, the polish and refine-
ment of the people of Ste. Genevieve." But all the writers do not
give the same charming picture of the training given by the early
French settlers to their children and of these French habitans.
In an account of the early education of the youth of the
French and French-Canadian settlers, one writer says: "The youth
here are employed in hunting, fishing and pleasuring ; very few learn
the necessary sciences, or, at best, it is what is least attended to. The

*' Brackenridge's Recollections of the West, p. 25.
*' Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 53.
" Flint's Recollections, p. 100. •

274 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

children,'^ even of the best sort, know how to fire a musket or shoot an
arrow, catch fish, draw a bow, handle an oar, swim, run, dance, or
play at cards." Strange as it may seem. General Collot contra-
dicts what has been observed by other early travellers. He says:
"Most of the habitans are traders, adventurers, coureurs des
bois, rowers or soldiers, ignorant, superstitious and stubborn, but
they endure great hardship, fatigue and privations and fear no
danger in their enterprises, and which they prosecute to the end ;
they have preserved the French virtue of courage but they are
indolent, lazy and drunken and cultivate only a little land ; they
have even forgotten the divisions of time and the months and
when asked as to certain events answer, du temps des grandes
eaux, des f raises, du mais ou des pommes de terre," that they
will not change their habits or usages and when asked to enlarge
their commerce and expand their farming operations they simply
respond that such has been their custom and they in no wise de-
sire to change it. He says, however, that they love France and
speak with pride of it.* From all of which it would appear that
General Collot was a disgruntled observer and perhaps did not
receive as much attention as he thought he was entitled to from
the residents of upper Louisiana.

Hospitality was universal and " exercised as in the first ages" ^
and none thought of being otherwise.'^ The stranger was welcomed
and never turned from the door. They did not believe what Palfrey,
the distinguished New England historian, so dogmatically asserts,
'' that hospitality is the universal virtue of a lazy and unsettled
people." *' Taverns or public inns, however, were licensed by the
commandants. Thus, at New Madrid Jacob Myers was licensed
" to hold an inn and public tavern," and this privilege was granted
him as the highest bidder "in consideration of 60 piastres payable
in cash in the course of six months." ^

** Dumont's Present State of Louisiana, p. 29. This pamphlet was written
by an officer of New Orleans, London, 1744.

* Collot's Voyage dans L'Amerique, p. 515. Bradbury also says that they
are much attached to the manners of their ancestors and to their practices in
husbandry and that they cannot be induced to abandon them. Travels, p. 260.

** Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 236

'^ ist Niles Register, p. 214.

" Palfrey's History of New England, vol. 3» p. 37.

" This license was granted in 1795, at public outcry at Fort Celeste. Myers
was the highest bidder and entered into bond with Dr. Samuel Dorsey as surety
— in substance as follows: ist to have a house stifficiently large to entertain
voyageurs and other persons with ^* tranquility and safety'' ; 2nd, to have on hand

EDUCATION 275

The cause of education was not so neglected as might seem.^®
There were private schools in Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, and
New Madrid. The schools generally were maintained in connection
with the church of the village, and afforded a modest ele-
mentary instruction. To such a school in Ste. Genevieve, Bracken-
ridge was sent by his father in 1793. Who the teacher was we do
not now know, but the institution seems to have been under the
supervision of the village priest. Father St. Pierre. Jean Baptiste
Trudeau was the first teacher of a boys' school of St. Louis. He was
born in 1748 in Canada and came to St. Louis in 1774 when about 26
years of age. In 1781 he married Madeline LeRoy, widow of Fran-
cois Hebert in St. Louis. Under him, all the old French residents
received the rudiments of an education. He was a relative of Don
Zenon Trudeau, who to show his appreciation and gratitude for the
education given his "numerous family" by Jean Baptiste, made
him a free gift or present of $400 in due legal form, in 1 799. This
form was necessary, because under the Spanish law, a man could
only give away a certain amount of his property although perfectly
free from debt. Trudeau continued to teach school in St. Louis
for 23 years after the cession, and died in 1827 at the age of 79 years.
The first school for girls was established in St. Louis by Marie Josepha
Pin^onneau dit Rigauche. Her maiden name was Payant. She
came from New Orleans in 1777 with her husband, Ignace Pin-
9onneau dit Rigauche, a trader, who died in 1788. Madame Pin-
gonneau was generally known as Madame Rigauche. She opened her
school for girls in St. Louis at the instance of Baron Carondelet, with
whom she probably became personally acquainted in New Orleans.

the necessary eatables and provisions; 3rd| to keep a supply of drink and strong
liquor, not only for consiunption and use in his house, but enough "that
the village may not be in need of it/' and this was an "essential condition/'
and failure to have such a supply on hand of "drink and strong liquor/' for-
feited the license; 4th, that he would not sell to any Indian savage, or to any
slave of color, any liquor or strong drink,' and in case of violation of mis provision
of the bond he forfeits 30 piastres as fine, and all "his liquor" and in addition, was
liable to go 30 days to prison ; 5th, he binds himself not to sell liquor on holidays
and Sunday during divine service, nor in the evening after the beating of the
retraite — under a penalty of 6 piastres, and la da3rs imprisonment; 6th, agrees
not to present any claim or l^al demand to the commandant for any unpaid
liquor bill, on penalty "of his &mand being rejected;" 7th, agrees not to take
pay or surety for any unpaid liquor bill from any soldier, or sailor, or from the
son of a family under 18 years of age, nor from a slave or to accept pajrment for
such a bill in any garment "from foot to head," or shoes or clothing belonging
to either children or slaves, on penalty of a fine of 15 piastres and imprisonment
of 15 days. This bond was entered into Aug. 24, 1795.

^ Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 309. '

3^6 mSTORY OF MISSOURI

The Baron promised ber a Dumthly salary- of fifteen dcdlars, but
ihb amouot was never paid, and in lieu, thereof, she received
from DeLassus a grant of land of [,6oo arpens." Madame
Rigauche died at Si. Ferdinand in 1833, aged 95 years. To hei,
doubtless belongs the honor of having hrst established a school for
the education of girls, west of the Mississippi — in upper Louisiana
at least. In N'ew Madrid in 1793, Thomas Jacob was authorized
to tealcb school. Charles Chartres in 1S03, had a pri\-ate school
there, where English instruction was given. His terms were two
dollars a quarter, school beginning in March and ending in No-
vember. Other teachers in New Madrid were Louis Baby and
Philip Duncomb.

All the French settlers were strict and exemplary Catholics. Thus
Madame Beauvais had some "little compunction at putting bim,
(Brackenridge) a little heretic, in the same bed with her own cbil- .
dren." However, (be inhabitants were far from being bigoted or
superstitious, but as a rule they observed the discipUne of their
church strictly, as well as the holy days of the calendar.*' Says
Reynolds : " I do not believe that there was a more devout people
than these primitive French."*" Some of the more intelli^nt and
influential inhabitants of these villages, it was observed in 1S18 by
Peck, were French liberalists and in&dels.*' Yet he remarks that
the French universally treated all ministers of the gospel who came
to the country, on the acquisition of Louisiana, with great courtesy.

One thing, however, deeply disturbed the religious feeUngs of
Peck, because with them the " Sabbath was a day of hilarity." Mass
was attended in the morning, but in the afternoon the people
assembled for social amusement. Brackenridge says that the Sunday
balls of Ste. Genevieve were comparatively innocent and advises us
particularly that M. and Mm. Beauvais were "rigid Sabbatarians."
Even Stoddard, coming from New England, and witnessing these
universal festivities says: "They play at billiards and other games;
and to balls and assemblies the Sundays are particularly devoted.
To those educated in regular and pious habits, such parties and amuse-
ments appear unseasonable and strange, if not odious, and seem

" American State Fspera, 3 Public Land, p. 466.

" Brackemid^'s Views of Louisiana, p. 337. "Obstinately altached to
(hi! Calholic religion," says Stoddard, p. 330.

* Reynolds' Pioneera of Illin<HS, p. 51.

**LlfeofPeck,p. SS. Bui Stoddard says, "when apprehensive of death they
cling to it u the only anchor of their hope," p. 330.

COOKING 277

prophetic of some signal curse on the workers of iniquity. It must,
however, be confessed, that the French people on those days avoid
all intemperate and immoral excesses, and conduct themselves with
apparent decorum. They are of opinion that there is true and unde-
filed religion in their amusements; much more, indeed, than exists
in certain night conferences, and obsciure meetings, in various parts
among the tombs. When questioned relative to their gaiety on
Sundays, they will answer that men were made for happiness, and
that the more they are able to enjoy themselves, the more acceptable
they are to their Creator. They are of opinion that a sullen counte-
nance, an attention to gloomy subjects, a set form of speech and a
stiff behavior, are much more indicative of h3rpocrisy than of religion ;
and they have often remarked that those who practice these singular-
ities on Sundays will most assuredly cheat and defraud their neighbors
during the rest of the week. At the time we now describe, the greatest
interest in religious festivals and processions was always manifest." **

These religious festivals and processions were admirably calcu-
lated to divert the minds of the people from discontent with the estab-
lished paternal despotism. Great was the excitement which such
occasions would cause in these French settlements. The Christmas
holidays, especially, were always splendidly celebrated. Then the
village church was open all night, the altar illuminated with the larg-
est wax candles the village could afford, and to the young assembled in
the church, the sacred images on the walls, with crosses in their hands,
lent an indescribable awe, the spectacle, appearing to them as
though in reality what they but represented.**

The French have always been famous for their cooking. They
enjoyed the pleasures of the table. With the poorest French, cooking
is an art well understo'^d.*^ They made use of many vegetables and
prepared them " in a manner wholesome and palatable." Fried and
roasted meats were not always on the table, neither was fat hog meat,
hot com bread, nor cold pones, hard as a brick, as in the homes of many
American settlers. Instead, they had soups, fricasses, salads,
chickens, game, etc., prepared as well as by the chefs of Paris. Yet
they were not acquainted with the use of the chum, and made their
butter by beating the cream in a bowl or shaking it in a bottle.**

^ Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 316.
^ Recollections of the West, Brackenridge, p. 25.
*^ Brackenridge's Recollections of the West, p. 21.
^ Views of Louisiana, p. 239.

378 raSTORY OF MISSOURI ■

They extracted "a syrup from a certain tree" — that is to say, they
made maple syiup. They raised wheat and had flour, and " did
not use Indian Com meal for bread to any great extent." Hominy
com was raised for the voyageurs. It was bard, flinty and ripened
early in the fall. Through the simple luxuries of their tables many
of the Americans became enticed by the lives, habits and charms
of the daughters of the French pioneers. The daughters like their
mothers, were generally good and thrifty managers, and neat house-
keepers." On the other band, only on rare occasions did a French
settler intermarry with an American family.

Stoddard attributes the sallow complexion and ^ckly aspects
which characterized some of these French pioneers, "though they
experience a good degree of health, in a great measure to the
nature of their foods, mostly of a vegetable kind, and their
manner of preparing it." Evidently he did not relish the French
cuisine now so popular. But the suggestion, that the use of a vege-
table diet caused their " sallow complexion and sickly aspect" though
"they experienced a good degree of health," clearly shows that
Stoddard did not know that in a new country, where the bottoms were
covered with heavy timber and malaria necessarily prevailed
more or less, a vegetable diet was most beneficial. These
old French settlers were wiser than he. He also says that " they are
temperate; they mostly limit their desires to vegetables, soups and
coffee." This is characteristic of the French everywhere, He also
further observes that "they are great smokers of tobacco" that this
practice " no doubt gives a yellow tinge to their skins," and
contradicting Gen. Collot directly, states that "ardent spirits
are seldom used except by the most laborious class of so-
ciety. They even dislike white wines, because they possess too
much spirit. Clarets and other light red wines are common among
them, and those who can afford it, are not sparing of this bever-
age."*" They also made "a sourish wine in the Illinois country"
which was consumed by those not able to afford imported wines.

These French settlers were not extravagant or wasteful. It is

■ But iee BtWement of Alvord in Ilia. Hist. Coll. vol. i, p. 13, that the
Fimch womcD were poor, caieless and extravagant housekeepers, dtJog Vol-
■er*! Viewi, p. 316. vo\ory quotes the apology of the Ameiicans who natural-
\r fiiactd ill lheTi)s?es ihe FtcDcfa had suffered by the chansc of p>vcmmcnt on
the French themselves Stoddud uys "this passion for cTeaaliness is paiticu-
laily Fihibited 1^ Ihe wornen, who freqiKQlly esrry i( to excess." Stoddatd's
Louisiana, p. 39 S.

" Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 315.

POLITICIANS UNKNOWN 279

remarkable that the use of the spinning wheel and loom was
unknown among them, and that no domestic manufacture was
carried on in their homes." They displayed "great economy in
their family matters, not however, because of a miserly disposition,
nor always because of a want of means but rather as the result
of a conviction that their constitutions" required it. They readily
sacrificed "what may be termed luxury for the preservation of
health." They seldom contracted the diseases that are the result
of excess. Nor need it be thought that these statements, made
on the authority of Stoddard, applied only to the rich or wealthier
class of the French pioneers of Missouri. Any one will recognize
the most salient features of French character in all the accounts
given by early travelers of the habits and customs of the first
French settlers in this country. It is true that the French Cana-
dian voyageurs and coureurs des hois coming from long voyages
or from the hunts, often freely imbibed taffia and other strong and
intoxicating beverages, for a day or more, (and it is probable that
Lieutenant Frazier referred to this class in his letter) but nevertheless,
even among this class, drunkards were few. Although laboring
hard for months and years, far up the Mississippi and Mi<^souri,
and their hundreds of tributary streams, on their return to St.
Louis, St. Charles and Ste. Genevieve, they quickly spent their
earnings. Plain and simple in their wants, without guile, and gen-
erally without ambition to acquire wealth or property, these people
easily fell a prey to their more calculating countrymen, and the
many Americans who, even before the Louisiana purchase, began
to invade the country, and used this harmless and unsuspecting
folk as tools to accomplish their purposes. They were as a class,
neither a persistent, industrious nor money-saving people. But
they were content and happy.

The people were not allowed to participate in public affairs.
Politics and politicians were unknown. The Commandant of the
post was supposed to look after matters concerning the welfare of
the community. The French residents generally were very ignorant
on all such matters. Of an extremely peaceful disposition as to
political subjects, they were also devoid of public spirit. Enterprises
necessary to build up a country, found little support among them.

The houses in which they lived were built of logs planted upright

** Reynolds' Pioneer Histor)* of Illinois, p. 88; Brackenridge's Views of
Louisiana, p. 218.

38o HISTORY OF MISSOURI

in the ground or erected on top of a wall. Sometimes instead of posts
they were made on a frame work, with comer posts, and studs hori-
zontally connected with cross pieces and the intervening, spaces
filled with stone or mortar. These houses so constructed were white
washed. ."The French houses," says Ford, "were mostly of hewn
timber set upright in the ground or upon plates laid upon a wall, the
intervals between the upright pieces being tilled with slone and
mortar. Scarcely any of the houses were more than one story high,
with a porch on one or two sides, and sometimes all around, with low
roofs, extending with slants of different steepness from the comb to
the side of the lowest part of the porch. They were generally placed
in a garden and surrounded by fruit trees, apples, cherries and peaches
and in the village, generally each enclosure of the house or garden
occupied a whole block or square." On the ridge of the house, or
over the gates, one frequently saw a wooden cross."

These long and low dwellings, when owned by the wealthier and
more prosperous, had a chimney in the center of the house, thus divid-
ing it into two parts, and giving a great fire place to each room. One
end served as a dining-room, parlor and principal bed chamber ; the
other was the kitchen. From each of these rooms, however, a small
room was often cut off for a private chamber. But some had spacious
halls in the centre and chimneys at both ends." While many of
the houses had no garrets, or stairs leading to the garret, stairs being
rare in the French villages of the time, some houses like the Vall^
bouse, and other houses owned by the richer habitans, had large
garrets with dormer windows or windows at the gable end, thus
lighting up the garrets. The furniture was simple, consisting of beds,
looking-glasses, a table or two, some chairs and an armoire. The
whole house was one ponderous frame, with walls often not weather-
boarded, but spaces between the timber filled in with clay and rock
andwhite-washed,presentinga neat and attractive appearance." Very
few nails were used in the construction, the timbers being tenented
and mortised and wooden pegs driven to fasten the whole structure
together. Nails being made by hand were scarce. The roofs were
fastened down by wooden pegs or pins. The chimney generally was
made by planting four posts converging toward the top so that the

"Stoddard's LouiJana, p. jaij.

)f YaHi and other houses at Sic, Genevieve, in vol. i. p. 350,
Also the Chouteau and other houses at 5i. Louis, pp. 48 and 60, ante.

HOUSES 281

diameter of the chimney at the top was not more than one half as great
as at the hearth, and the space between these posts was also filled with
rock and mortar. But in Ste. Genevieve many of the houses of the
wealthier class had stone chimneys with fire-places four or five feet
wide. In such fire-places in the kitchen the culinary preparations were
carried on. When the family owned servants, the kitchen was usually
located in a detached building several steps from the main house.
The house had one window of eight or ten panes of glass to each room.
The windows opened like doors, and were protected on the outside
by heavy, solid wooden shutters. This was a protection against the
neighboring Indians, who in Ste. Genevieve would sometimes, when
in an ugly mood, and half drunk, take the town.* " The insolence of
the -other nations who came openly to their villages, the Peorias,
Loups, Kickapoos, Chickasaws, Cherokees, etc., is inconceivable.
They were sometimes perfect masters of the village, and excited
general consternation. I have seen the houses on some occasions
closed up, and the doors barred by the terrified inhabitants." ^ It
can hardly be imagined now that such conduct would not lead to
bloody encounters. Under such circumstances, however, well pro-
tected windows, heavy doors and high picket fences were necessary
it would seem. In St. Louis some of the houses of the wealthier
residents were built out of stone.

The better houses had spacious galleries. In such houses the
floors were made of plank nicely jointed, but those not able to
afford such luxury had puncheons, that is to say, heavy timber
hewed and joined together. The joists were made out of logs hewn
square. All timber was then sawed by hand. The houses were
in enclosed yards, fenced off by pickets seven feet high and eight
or ten inches in diameter, driven into the ground and sharpened
to a point on top, but the Chouteau house in St. Louis was after-
ward surrounded by a stone wall. The yards in front of the houses
were small, but in the rear large, according to the wealth of the owner
and the number of slaves owned, and the amount of stock and stable-
room required. Beyond this enclosure large and spacious gardens
enclosed in pickets in the same manner as the yard, were situated.
In these gardens every variety of the finest vegetables were cultivated
together with flowers and shrubs. There was also an orchard on one
side filled with choicest fruit trees. Thus lived many of the richer

** Views of Louisiana, p. 245.

** Views of Louisiana, p. 146.

282 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

French pioneers in their villages, far more comfortable, and relatively
almost in elegance, as compared with the Anglo-Saxon pioneers, who
dwelt on isolated homesteads on their land-grants.

The first dwellings of the American settlers from Virginia and
the Carolinas, as well as from Pennsylvania, were similar in construc-
tion in all sections of the west. Both before and after the cession of
Louisiana they were usually double cabins, or two distinct log pens,
the logs being laid longitudinally upon each other eight or ten feet
high. The log houses consisted of two single rooms with an open
space between. This space was equal in size to one of the cabins, or
rooms, the roof covering each of the log rooms being extended over
this space, or hallway. Sometimes too, the roof extended over the

CHOUTEAU RESIDENCE IN ST. LOUIS

walls of the houses so as to form a shed or porch in front and in the rear.
The space between the log rooms being thus covered was left open
as a passage-way with the bare earth as a floor, and here, in the sum-
mer time, the family found a cool and airy retreat from the heat of the
day. The roof was made from pole rafters, across which logs were
laid and fastened with wooden pins, or by notches, and on these logs
were laid clap-boards four or five feet long, and upon these three or
four heavy logs, called " weight logs," fastened down at the ends with
withes, holding down by their weight the clap-board roof, thus sup-
plying the place of nails. One or two doors were cut into these
rooms, the spaces between the logs were chinked or daubed with
clay and a few small openings were left for light and air, or when
glass could be procured, for windows. The floor consisted of

ANGLO-AMERICANS 283

puncheons laid on heavy logs. Each cabin had a broad fire-place
built of wood and clay, or made out of rock whenever accessible.
One cabin or room, served as a kitchen, while in the other, in the
winter, before huge log fires, the men and boys assembled to discuss
the news, the latest arrivals in the settlement, the exploits in the field
or chase, the wars and rumors of wars that then were current, and
above all, the Indians and their forays.

In case the family owned slaves another log room, or cabin, was
built for a kitchen, usually in the rear of the hall-way and about the
width of the hall-way from the dwelling. Here the colored women
did thtir work under the supervision and instruction of the mistress,
who trained them to industry and order. The cabins of these servants
usually, were neax'by in the same lot. The wealth, industry and enter-
prise of an American pioneer was shown by the nimiber of his corn
cribs, the size of his smoke house, the number of his live-stock, cattle,
hogs and horses. Trudeau evidently speaking of poorer classes of
French settlers observes, in 1798, that the houses of the new American
settlers were better than the houses of Creoles and Canadians " who
were settled in the villages thirty years ago." *^

The first considerable Anglo-American emigration into upper
Louisiana dates from the visit of Colonel George Morgan in 1 788-^89,
already mentioned. The immigrants came principally from Penn-
sylvania and followed Colonel Israel Shreeve, Peter Light, Colonel
Christopher Hays, — all surveyors — Captain Hulings, John Ward,
and many others who had accompanied Morgan. That the country
attracted them is shown by the fact that they nearly all remained, or,
if they returned home up the Ohio, soon came back with others. In
fact, these explorers with Morgan first spread abroad on the forks of
the Ohio and through what was then the western portion of the
United States, the fame of the beauty and fertility of the soil
of what is now Missouri ; they set in motion that stream of immi-
gration which, a few years afterwards, began to move into Louisiana
and caused Dr. Saugrain to tell Brissot, that the Spaniards sooner or
later would be forced to quit the Mississippi, that the Americans
would pass it and establish themselves in Louisiana, a country which
he said he had seen, and considered ''one of the finest countries in
the universe." " Yet even before Morgan and his adventurers came,

" Trudeau Report of 1798; General Archives of the Indies, Seville.

** Brissot's New Travels, p. a6i. Brissot de Warville was a relative of
Genet.

284 fflSTORY OF ^flSSOURI

English speaking people had settled in the colony. Thus we find
in 1 77 1, Mathew Kennedy in Ste. Genevieve, engaged in trade * In
the village of St. Louis, Marie Newby, the widow of John Claiborn,
evidently an Anglo-American family or of Anglo-American descent,
married one Philibert Gagnon in 1778, and afterward Philip Fine.
This Fine in 1786 settled between the Maramec and the Mississippi.
In the same year Captain John Dodge settled at New Bourbon in the
Ste. Genevieve district not far from Kaskaskia. A family named
''Reed" lived in St. Louis, from the foundation of the settlement
and if they were Anglo-Americans, as the name would certainly
indicate, must be considered the oldest English-speaking fasnily of
upper Louisiana. Laurent Reed said that when the Indians
attacked St. Louis in 1780, he was seventeen years old, that he had
lived in St. Louis all his life, and that he was bom there. This latter
statement, however, must be an error, as St. Louis was not founded
until 1764, and if Reed was seventeen years old when the Indians
attacked St. Louis, he was bom there before the town was settled.
Reed evidently was mistaken as to his age.

As early as 1774, John Helderbrand (or Hildebrand), by the
Spaniards called "Albran," settled on the Maramec.*® In 1780,
Pierre Chouteau went to his place to warn him and others of the
dangers of Indian attacks and depredations. In the same year
this Helderbrand, living on the Negro Fork of the Maramec, was
killed by the Indians, (in 1788 according to a statement of William
Bellew) while in the woods hunting his horses. This William Bellew,
who was on the Maramec as early as 1 788, was probably an American
hunter or trapper. The family of Rev. Ichabod Camp must be
included among the earliest English-speaking residents of St.
Louis. Dr. Camp was a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal
church, born in Durham, Connecticut, in 1726; he graduated at
Yale college 1 743 ; then went to England and was ordained a priest
by the Bishop of London in 1752 ; he returned to the United States
in August, 1752, and commenced his ministry at Christ church, Mid-
dleton. He was married twice, his first wife being Content Ward,
who died in 1754. In 1757 he married Ann Oliver, who survived
him, dying October 27, 1803 at St. Louis. The Camps came down
the Ohio with General George Rogers "Clark on a flat-boat, but they
did not stop at the Falls of the Ohio as most of the others did who

"See vol. I, p. 352, note 39.

** See his petition for land, American State Papers, 5 Public Land.

REV. CAMP 285

came down the Ohio at that time, but passed on to Natchez ; one of
the daughters dying there, Rev. Camp moved up the Mississippi to
Kaskaskia. At this place it seems he was intimately associated with
the early American residents of Kaskaskia, such as Sjj^adrach Bond,
Joseph Hunter (who afterward settled in the New Madrid district),
and James Wiley. While at Kaskaskia in 1785, one of the daughters,
Catherine, married a French-Canadian named J. B. Guion; but
being ill-treated she returned to her father's house. This incensed
Guion and one night while somewhat intoxicated, he went to the
house and endeavored to force her to return to him. Rev. Camp
stood at the door and remonstrated with him, but he drew a pbtol
and shot Camp, and he died of the wound almost immediately, on
April 20, 1786, and was buried at Kaskaskia. Mrs. Camp shortly
afterward removed to St. Louis. Here she purchased property at
the comer of what k now Spruce and Second streets. In 1791 she
received a grant of a lot from Lieutenant-Governor Perez on Third
and Almond streets, and in 1797, another concession from Trudeau
of 2,600 arpens on the Rividre des Peres, at a place which at a later
period, by reason of a spring thereon, became known as 'Xamp's
Spring." She also owned a mill on property on the Cul de Sac
in i8oo.** .

James Richardson, long a deputy surveyor under Soulard, an-
other early American settler, came to the St. Loub dfetrict in 1787,
settling near St. Ferdinand. In 1795 he was a resident of the Village
k Robert, but also owned property on the Maramec in 1796,
and built a still house on the Maline in 1799. Richardson had killed
a man in Kentucky and fled from that state to upper Louisiana.
Thomas Jones was an early American resident on the Maramec.
In 1780 he received a grant on Richard creek from de Leyba but
later he was driven away by the Indians. His son, John Jones,
was a witness before the Board of Commissioners as to the dates of

•' Her daughter Louise married Mackay Wherry of Pennsylvania, March
19, 1800; another daughter, Charlotte, married Moses Bates in 1805.
Bates then lived in Ste. Genevieve, but afterwards removed to St. Charles, and
Catherine the widow of John B. Guion, married Israel Dodge January 4, 1804,
then residing at New Bourbon in Ste. Genevieve county. He settled on her,
by marriage contract, ''a house and grounds in New Bourbon, one thousand
silver dollars, two youn^^ slaves and one thousand arpens of land." The second
daughter married Antome Reihle and died in St. Louis in 1 793. The heirs of
Mrs. Camp April 15, 1804, petitioned Captain Stoddard, the acting Governor
of Louisiana Territory, to amicably partition the estate of Mrs. Camp, which
|>etition was granted and is the first official act imder the American government
m upper Louisiana.

i

286 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

settlements as far back as 1 786, and events in that locality. No doubt

this Jones and his faniily were among the earliest Anglo-American

jl settlers of the country. It also appears from the records, that Gre-

, goire Davy in ^786, and John Gregor in ^787 resided on the Mara-

mec ; Jesse Raynor, from Kaskaskia who served in the militia there,
resided on Sandy creek in St. Louis district in 1785, but removed
from Louisiana in 1799. On June 21, 1788, an Englishman named
Keer resided with his wife and family, about six miles north of St.
Louis on Bellefontaine, but he, his wife, one son and two daughters ^
were killed, a son of fifteen or sixteen and a daughter two years
old escaped. This Keer had just moved from the American settle-
ments across the river, and from the inventory made under the direc-
tion of the Lieutenant-Governor, Don Manuel Perez, it would appear
that he was possessed of ample house-hold effects, valued at 1,773
livres.*' After 1790 English names among the settlers became more
numerous, and in a few years large, exclusively American settlements
rapidily sprang up in the several districts.

No considerable number of Spaniards settled in upper Louisiana.
Most of the Spanish soldiers who were sent up from New Orleans
returned. Spanish names in the records of upper Louisiana are,
Ortes (Hortez), Alvarez, Vasquez, in St. Louis; M^uel Blanco, a
soldier who took up his residence at Mine ^ Breton, was at New
Madrid in 1 794. These are about the only names of Spanish residents
which occur. The prevailing language in the villages was French,
because the villages were almost occupied exclusively by them. The
Americans residing on the land outside of these villages were en-
gaged in farm work, so as to perfect the titles to their lands by actual
cultivation, as required by the rules and ordinances. These land
titles always were a matter of more consequence to the American
settlers than to their French neighbors.

*' Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. i, p. 249.

CHAPTER XIX.

Activity of French Missionaries — Marquette in Missouri — Fathers Allouez
and Gravier — Father Gabriel Marest — Conflict of Early Church Author-
ities — Friendly Relations Between Missionaries and Indians — Voyage
Down the Mississippi, in 1699, of Fathers Davion, Montigny and
St. Cosme — Fathers Vivier, Tartarin, Aubert, Wattrin and DeGuyenne
— First Resident Priests of Ste. Genevieve — Perils Incurred by Priests Visit-
ing Settlements — Father Meurin — Father Gibault — His Unique List of
Baggage — His Influence Causes the French to Espouse the American
Cause — Denounced by the British Commander — TVibute to, by Patrick
Henry — Father Hilaire and his Controversy with his Parishioners — Father
James Maxwell — "Maxwell's Hill" Near Ste. Genevieve — Father Valen-
tine, First Resident Priest of St. Louis — Ceremony of Dedication of First
Church Bell of St. Louis — Building a New Church in St. Louis, 1 776

— Report on Condition of St. Louis Church Building in 1797 — The
Church of Florissant — The Parish of St. Isidore — Salaries of Parish
Priests — Cession of Louisiana Affects the Church — Church Property
Ceded to Congregations — Church Authorities and Elminent CaUiolic
Dignitaries at Time of Cession — Tour of Bishop Flaget, 181 4 — Bishop
Dubourg — Father Felix De Andreis — His Marvelous Talents and Acquire-
ments — Colony of Priests of the Congregation of the Missions in Ml^uri

— Establishment of St. Mary's Seminary — First Colony of the Order of
the Sacred Heart at St. Charles — Removed to Florissant in 1809 — Madame
Duchesne — The Germ of the St. Louis University.

The activity of the French missionaries in the 17th and i8th cen-
turies, in the vast territories stretching from the mouth of the St.
Lawrence across the continent, and from the Hudson Bay to the
mouth of the Mississippi, was unceasing and extraordinary. To
propagate the faith, they traversed the solitude of boundless
forests and prairies, and with their pirogues disturbed the quietude
of unexplored lakes and rivers. Surrounded by unknown and
often dreadful perils, they visited barbarous tribes of savages and
first planted the cross among them, and sowed the seed of a
higher and better life, too often stamped out and destroyed by
the immoralities, and as Father Vivier says, by the "bad example of
the French, who continually mingle with those people," and by
"the brandy that is sold to them."* For this reason, he mournfully
adds, the harvest did not correspond to their labors.

'To propagate the faith. Father Marquette accompanied Joliet
and greatly rejoiced when he found himself "in the blessed neces-
sity" to expose his "life for the salvation of all these people, and

* 69 Jesuit Relations, p. 149.

287

288 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

especially of the Illinois;" he piously vowed that if the great river
should be discovered, he would name it the river of the ''Immaculate
Conception," and that the first mission established among the new
people he might discover, should also be named the " Mission of the
Immaculate Cofiception."' Accordingly oh Marquette's map, the
Missksippi is named the "Rivifere de la Conception," and the
first mission among the Kaskaskia Indians at Kaskaskik, founded
by Gravier, was also named the ''Mission of the Immaculate
Conception" and the present church and parish of Kaskaskia still
retains this name.'

Joliet and Marquette in their downward voyage must have camped
at various places on the right bank of the Mississippi. It may be
that the Illinois villages Marquette visited, which on his map are
named the Pe-8-area or (Pe-8-ar-8-as) and Moingwena, or (M-8-
ingonenas) on the west side of the river, were located in what is now
Missouri, since he states that these villlages were "in parallel 41 and
as low as 40 degrees, and some minutes," although it is well to re-
member that the latitude given at that date, differs from ours by from
one half to a whole degree. If our conjecture be correct, Marquette
was the first missionary who visited Missouri.

Although we have no dbtinct evidence of the fact, it k certain
that Fathers Allouez and Gravier, and two other Jesuit missionaries
visited the Indians residing on the west bank of the river. They in-
deed may have established the first settlement in the Mississippi
valley at the mouth of the "Rivi^e des Pferes," of which Austin
makes mention.^ These missionaries traveled up and down the
river doing missionary work among the Indians in the Illinois coun-
try, then dwelling on both banks of the river, above and near the
mouth of the Missouri on the west side, and above the mouth of the
Ohio on the east side of the Mississippi.

Father AUouez, in 1690, was appointed Vicar-General of the
Illinois country, succeeding Father Marquette who was appointed
Vicar-Geoeral of thk western country when he was selected to
accompany Joliet. The first entries of the records of the "Church
of the Immaculate Conception" of Kaskaskia were evidently
made by Allouez. Father Gravier succeeded him and for a time

'59 Jesuit Relations, p. 108.

' Marquette did not found the ''Mission among the Kaskaskias," as was so
conspicuously, but erroneously, emblazoned in raised letters on the monument
erected in his honor at the late "Louisiana Purchase Exf>osition.*'

* Austin's Journal, 8 American Historical Review, p. 518.

FATHER MAREST 289

resided in the village of the Kaskaskias, which was then situated on
the lower Illinois river in latitude 40 degrees 41 minutes, on the edge
of a prairie on one side, and a ''multitude of swamps,"* on the other.
While Father Gabriel Marest was in charge of the Kaskaskia mis-
sion at this point, these Indians precipitately abandoned this village
and moved further south, establishing a new village on the banks of
a river ever since known as the Kaskaskia. The church records of
1690 were begun at the old village and when the Indians fled to the
new town, they were carried there. Father Gravier greatiy regretted
this emigration as it separated the Kaskaskias from the Pe-8-ar-8-as
and M-8-ingonenas, and he feared it would lead to hostilities be-
tween them.

Father Gabriel Marest, who accompanied the Kaskaskias,
leaving the Pe-8-ar-8-as without a missionary, traveled far and
wide among the Illinois Indians, and was able to endure an incredi-
ble amount of fatigue. He understood their language perfectly
and mastered it in four or Ave months.* Father Marest labored
successfully in the Pe-8-ar-8-as villages which Marquette had
visited, and converted a famous chief of that tribe before his death.
In 1700 he was among the Tamaroas, then residing on Cahokia
creek opposite where St. Louis now stands. At this time, Father
Pinet was also stationed among the Tamaroas, and performed ''in
peace all the duties of a missionary.'' Father Bergier, a Seminarian
priest, Grand- Vicar of the Bishop of Quebec who, however, only
had charge of the French residing in this village, then lived there^,
and ultimately this led to a conflict between the Seminary priests
and the Jesuits. Father Bergier claimed that the Jesuits had the
powers of Vicar-General merely with regard to the savages, and not
over the French settlers among them, and thus he took away the
French communicants from the Jesuits, informing the latter that they
had no authority over them in spiritual matters.* Bergier admitted
that Gravier was Superior of the Illinois missions, and that, although
the Bishop of Quebec gave the power of a Vicar-General to the Su-
perior of these missions, he had been deprived of the^e powers by the
Bishop afterward. All of this Father Gravier denied in 1708,
but, he says that he does not aspire to "nominis umbram" and

*6o Jesuit Relations, p. 161.
* 65 Jesuit Relations, p. 103.
' Ibid.| p. 103.
' 66 Jesuit Relations, p. 227.

290 mSTORV OF ^^^^OURI

would dadl y concede the superiority and the powers of Mcar-Gcneral
to Father Mermct. Father Gravier was e\-idendy gready disliked
by the Seminarian priests, and of course had no lo%-e for them in re-
turn. They called him an " arch-ploner," and he says that Father
St. Cosme "had not made a single Christian among the Natchez,'*
that Father Davion had '"abandoned his mission through fear of the
English and savages," that ''this flight does him no credit,^ that
Father Bergier said, that "on the first alarm of the enemy, he would
abandon the place (Tamarouhar and come to New Orleans,'' and
then, he sarcasticallv remarks, " ne%-er-the-less these gentlemen have
undertaken to pro\ide missionaries."*

The missionaries at Tamarouha, Cahokia (Kaoukia^^ and Kas-
kaskia, dwelling with the Indians there, also \-isited the west
bank of the Mississippi, because these Indians crossed and
recrossed the river on their hunting e3^)editions, and the Jesuit
missionaries were in the habit of often accompanying them on such
occasions. Father Gravier says that the Michigamia, who dwelt
near the St. Franyois when Joliet and Marquette went do^wTi
the Mississippi," wintered in 1700 with the Tamarouha on a fine
bay of the river, coming more than sixty leagues (180 miles) in
order to do so, and that these two tribes at that time formed one
village. A year before, in 1699, Fathers Darion, Montigny and St.
Cosme, missionaries of the Sulpician order, went down the Missis-
sippi.** On the 6th day of December they reached the \'illage of the
Tamarouha and a week afterward leaving the Tamarouha \-illage and
descending the river, St. Cosme relates that he ascended a rock on the
right hand side going down the river, and erected a cross, performing
this interesting ceremony in Missouri within the limits of what is
now Perry county.**

The settlement at the mouth of the Saline which Penicaut found
there in 1700, was \'isited by the Jesuit priests GraWer and Marest.
Father Jean Marest, a "Religieuse of the Company of Jesus, Mis-
sionaries of the Illinios," who died at Kaskaskia in 1735. certainly
came to this setdement on his spiritual errand as well as to the old
village of Ste. Genevieve, on the west side of the river. The Sulpi-

•66 Jesuit Relations, p. 131.
^•66 Jesuit Relations, p. 131.
" 59 Jesuit Relations, p. 151.

»* Penicaut says that D'Iberv-ille met St. Cosme on April 17, 1700. on his
trip up the Mississippi.

"See vol. I, page 241-42-

VISIT ST. GENEVIEVE 291

cians, Maxtigny, Davion, St. Cosme, Zebedie, Lejeune Donne and
others, we may be sure also found this oasis in the vast wilderness of
woods and prairie, although no express mention is made of the
fact. Father Luc, stationed at Fort de Chartres, and Father
Gagnon, a secular priest of the ancient parish of St. Ann, attached
to the Fort, also crossed the river in performance of their religious
work."

After the foundation of old Ste. Genevieve, the Jesuit priests of
Kaskaskia came to the village. No records of these visits exist, but
it is not to be thought that they omitted to cross the river to look after
the spiritual welfare of the settlers there. From 1735 to 1760, Father
Vivier," Father Tartarin," Father Aubert," Father Wattrin," and
Father DeGuyenne" all Jesuit priests stationed at Kaskaskia, can

** Father Gagnon and Father Luc were both buried in the grave-yard of
St. Ann parish, but when the Mississippi began to wash away the Fort and
village, Father Meurin had their bodies removed and re-interred at Prairie
du Rocher in 1768.

** Father Francois Louis Vivier, bom at Issoudun, October 6th, 1714, in
the province of France; entered the Society of Jesus September 1731 ; came to
Canada in 1749; sent to the Illinois countiy in 1749; remained at Kaskaskia
until 1753 or 17541 then transferred to Vincennes, where he died in 1756. His
two letters preserved in the Jesuit Relations give most valuable information
of the life and condition of the French and Indians in the Illinois country. From
1749 to 1750 he was stationed at Kaskaskia in charge of the Illinois missions.

^* Rene Tartarin, a Jesuit priest, bom January 22nd 1695, came to Canada
1727, according to Father Jones he was stationed at Kaskaskia several years;
died in Louisiana September 24, 1745.

" Francois Jean Baptiste Aubert, bom in the province of Lyons, March ist,
1 722 ; entered the Society *of Jesus 1 739 ; came to Canada in 1 754 ; cut6 at Kas-
kaskia until the expulsion of the Jesuits; returned to France in 1764; in 1784
was engaged in the ministry at Grenoble, France.

"Father Philibert Wattrin, or Watrin, also spelled "Vattrin'* by Vivier,
bom at Metz, province of Champaigne, France, April ist, 1697; entered the
Society of Jesus 171 2; arrived in Cai^uia 1732; lived at Kaskaskia and the Illi-
nois countiy thirty years; parish priest at Kaskaskia; Superior of the Illinois
missions; first pari^ priest at Ste. Genevieve in what is now Missouri in 1760.
In 1763 went to New Orleans to defend the interests of the Jesuit Order when
the future state of the order in Louisiana was "still between hope and fear."
69 Jesuit Relations, p. 213. In a pathetic letter relating the troubles of the
Jesuits in the Illinois country he says that they were driven from their own
houses, and that at the age of sixty-seven he departed on foot to find *'a lodging
a league away with a confrere of his, a missionary to the savages, " Father Meurin,
and that the French who met him on the way "groaned to see persecution begun
with him.'' Embarking at New Orleans November 24, 1764, he returned to
France. Wattrin's account of how the decree to banish the Jesuits was carried
out in the Illinois country is highly interesting. 70 Jesuit Relations, p. 213,
et seq.

*• Alexis F. X. DeGuyenne, bom at New Orleans 1696; entered the Society of
Tesus at Paris in 1 713 ; arrived in Louisiana 1 726, but, according to Father Jones,
"in Canada in 1727,'' a missionary among die Alibamu (Alibamas) until 1730,
then among the Arkansas Indians, then among the Miamis, then Superior of

292 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

be reasonably supfK)sed to have been at Ste. Genevieve £rom time to
time in the discharge of their sacied office. But expressly confirming
this, Father Wattrin, in 1764, defending the Jesuits against the
charge of neglecting their ^iritual work, writes, ''but here is >*et an-
other proof of the care that the Jesuits have taken of this parish;
fifteen years ago, at a league from the old village, on the other bank
of the Mississippi, there was established a new village under the
name of Ste. Genevieve. Then the cur^ of Kaskaskia found himself
obliged to go there to administer the sacraments, at least to the sick ;
and when the new inhabitants saw their houses multiply, they asked
to have a church built; this being granted them, the journey of the
missionary became still more frequent, because he thought he ought
then yield himself still more to the willingness of his new parishoners
and their needs. However, in order to go to this new church he must
cross the Mississippi, which in this place is three-eighths of a league
wide; he sometimes had to trust himself to a slave who alone guided
the canoe ; it was necessary in fine, to expose himself to the danger of
perishing, if in the middle of the river they had been overtaken by a
violent storm. None of these inconveniences have prevented the
cur6 of Cascakias from going to Ste. Genevieve when charity call-
ed him thither, and he was always charged with this care until means
were found to place at Ste. Genevieve, a special curd, — which
occured only a few years ago, when the inhabitants of the place
built a house for a pastor. These two villages, that of Cascakias
and that of Ste. Genevieve, made the second and third establish-
ments of the Jesuits in the Illinois country."''^

The church records of Ste. Genevieve begin in 1759. The parish,
or church of the village was then called ''St. Joachin'^ and Father
Wattrin performed the duties of curd in that year. Father VVat-
trin must have come over from Kaskaskia, where he was curd from
1746 to 17499 after he was relieved of his duties there, perhaps as early
as 1750. From 1760 to 1764, Fathers Wattrin, J. B. Salveneuve"

the Illinois missions from 1749 to 1756; died in the Illinois country in 1762;
seems to have been well versed in the Indian languages, and Father Vi\'ier says
that he acted *'as my master in the study of the Illinois language." Father
DeGuyenne spent thirty -six years as a missionary among the Indians; was
cur6 at Fort de Chartres before his death; suffered from partial para^sis. 70
Jesuit Relations, p. 229.

* 70 Jesuit Relations, p. 235.

" Jean Baptiste Francois Salveneuve, bom June 8, 1708; arrived in Quebec,
Canada, in 1743, thirty-five years of age, was assigned to the Huron missions
and remained there until 1761, then came to Illinois country and was stationed

FATHER MEURIN 293

and John LaMorinie '* the church records show, were the ministers
regularly domiciled within the limits of what is now Missouri.
Father Meurin succeeded these missionary priests in Ste. Gene-
vieve and acted as curd of that parish frotn 1764 to 1768, and
together with Father Luc, also parish priest of St. Ann parish at Fort
de Chartres, and Father Collet, had charge of the Kaskaskia parish
at the same time. The people of Kaskaskia, influenced by the domi- ^
nant party in Louisiana, although at the time under English rule,
were hostile to Father Meurin, because he was a Jesuit, and many
would not recognize him, and it is said that not more than ten men
came to communion in four years. Father Meurin could only visit
ICaskaskia by stealth at night, but at Fort de Chartres and St.
Philippe he was very popular, and the people at Prairie du Rocher
offered to build him a house and give him a horse and caliche, as
well as a negro servant, in order to induce him to take up his resi-
dence there.

Father Meurin was the only Jesuit missionary allowed to remain in
the country after the expulsion of the order from Louisiana, and he de-
serves more than passing notice. He was bom in 1 707 in France ; enter-
ed the Order of the Jesuits in 1 729 and came to Canada in 1 741 . The
following year he was sent to the Illinios country where he labored
among the savages uninterruptedly until 1763. In that year he went
to New Orleans with the Superior of the Illinois missions. Father
Wattrin, and others, but instead of going to France, he obtained
permission to return to the Illinois in order to save his savage Illinois
neophytes from forgetting religion, as he felt sure would be the case
if they remained long without a missionary.** He was not a strong
man and his health was never good during the many years he spent
in the wilderness. All the property of the Jesuits had been sold and
he could draw upon no fund for subsistence. No one was obliged to
furnish him anything and all that was promised him when he returned
was, that an effort would be made at court to secure for his support

at Ste. Genevieve until 1763, when the Jesuits were expelled. He returned to
France in 1 764, but it is also said that he died in Louisiana in that year.

** Father Jean Baptiste de La Morinie in charge of the Ste. Genevieve
church in 1762 to 17641 was animated by a "motive and a zeal that refuses
itself to nothing. ** 70 Jesuit Relations, 277. He was born at Puigneux, France,
December 24, 1705; became a Jesuit at the age of eighteen; came to Canada
in 1736; was a missionary among the Hurons at Detroit 1738; at Michilimacki-
nac in 1741, then a missionary in the Miami villages, and finally at Kaskaskia
until the Jesuits were expelled. He returned to France in 1764.

" 70 Jesuit Relations, p. 293.

294 fflSTORY OF NDSSOURI

an annual |)ension of 600 livres, about $125. But nothing daunted,
he returned. "Ste. Geneneve is my residence," he ^Tites Bishop
Briand, "as it was stipulated in the condition of my return to this
country. From it I come even- spring and \-isit other \-illages for
Easter-tide, I retiun again in Autiunn and whene\-er I am summoned
for a sick call. This is all mv infirmities and mv means enable me
to do; and even this displeases and prejudices the people of Ste.
Geneneve." Although his \'isits to other settlements displeased the
people there, he continued his apostolic work in the vast region which,
by order of the French Go\'emment, had \'inuaUy been deprix-ed of
all spiritual laborers. He not only \nsited Kaskaskia, Cahokia and
Prairie du Rocher, but also the camps of many Indian neoph}'tes
on both sides of the ri\'er. The statement that he was present when
Laclede established his trading post where St. Louis now stands is
clearly erroneous, as Father Conwav has well demonstrated.'* It
may be p)ossible that Father Meurin was in St. Louis in 1766, but
this even is very doubtful. It, however, seems to be supposed that
because an entr\' in the marriage records of St. Louis shows that
Toussaint Hunot and Marie Beaugenou were married by Father
Meurin, that this priest must have been in St. Louis, to perform the
ceremonv, but this does not necessarilv follow. It is far more likelv
that the young and ngorous hunter, with his intended wife, walked
over to Cahokia to get married, than that the feeble old priest worn
out by many hardships, would walk from Cahokia over to the east
bank of the river at "Paincourt," and then cross in a canoe, to
perform the ceremony.** In 1769, Father Meurin was appointed
Vicir-General by the Bishop of Quebec. The territorial limits of
his juri Miction seem to have been vaguely defined. In his letter of
acceptance, Father Meurin says, that he feels that he is incapable "of
such an office," and that he has been left to himself so long that he
barely knows the duties of a simple priest, that he is weak in body
and mind, and that he possesses no memor)- and less of firmness. In
conclusion he says, "I am no longer good for anything but to be laid
in the ground." However, this appointment became to him the

*^ Catholic Church of St. Louis, by Rev. J. J. Conway, p. 7.

* Scharf gives a copy of a certificate, dated 1766, in which Father Meurin
states that he baptized in a tent (for want of a church) Mar>', daughter of Jean
B. Deschamps and Mar}- his ^ife. Mr. Rene Tiercerot (Kiercereau) being

god-father, and Mar\' god-mother, all in the country* of Illinois,

St. Louis, which may or may not mean that he was in St. Louis on the west side
of the Mississippi. 2 Scharff's History of St. Louis, p. 1639.

VICAR-GENERAL 295

source of trouble, because, when he obtained permission to return to
the Illinois country, he entered into an agreement with the Capuchin
Fathers at New Orleans, who on the expulsion of the Jesuits claimed
sole spiritual jurisdiction in the Illinois country, that he would always
act as their Vicar, be subject to their visits, their reprimands and cor-
rections, and their jurisdiction in the whole of the country on the Mis-
sissippi. Accordingly, when the Capuchins heard that the Bishop
of Quebec had appointed Father Meurin as his Vicar-General in this
territory, they caused a warrant of proscription to be issued against him.
This would have been promptly executed if he had not escaped from
Ste. Genevieve, where he then resided, to the English territory. Here
he at once took the oath of allegiance as a former resident, and thus
secured himself, as he says, "against Spanish persecution." But
although Father Meurin was feeble physically, intellectually he was
anything but feeble. He was prompt to assert the rights of his
order, and when one LaGrange, who had purchased the property of
the "Mission of the Holy Family among the Cahokias," attempted
to sell this property to an Englishman, he took it upon himself to op-
pose this sale, claiming the property as still belonging to the "Gentle-
men of the Seminary." He so effectively asserted his authority to act
to the commanding ofl&cer, Forbes, that for a time at least he prevented
a sale of the property. Nor was he at all considerate of the feelings
of the persons who had purchased the property of the Jesuits at Kas-
kaskia. Thus, Sieur Jean Baptiste Beauvais, who had purchased
some of it, was continually reproached by him "on that score," so
that "he kept him away from the sacraments for three years," and he
asked the advice of the Bishop in case he should present himself to
him or to another, whither or not " he can be granted absolution and be
dispensed from handing over the said articles to the parish church."
All the property of the Jesuits, he claimed, was wrongfully seized and
confiscated by the French government, because this seizure was made
after the cession of the country to England, a contention in which he
was undoubtedly clearly in the right. His life, however, was truly a
life of poverty and hardship, and during the four years he administered
to the English parishioners he says he "received naught but what was
given me out of charity by some."

Whether Father Meurin could legally exercise the ofl&ce of Vicar-
General in that part of Illinois, west of the Mississippi, under an
appointment of the Bishop of Quebec, the country having been ceded
by France to Spain, is a subject learnedly discussed by Father Con-

4

^ 296 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

]

>

M

way, who holds that under the canonical law he could do so in this
territory ceded to Spain, until the boundaries of the diocese were
j changed by the Holy See. But it is evident that the Spanish officials

% were determined not to recognize the spiritual jurisdiction of the

Bishop of Quebec over the territory, and Father Meurin himself
admits that he was declared a criminal because he received authority
from Quebec "which is so opposed to the intentions and interests of
Spain."'* The question was not considered at the time a canonical,
but a political one. The Spaniards held that all the territory west of
the river was within the spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of San
Domingo. In 1776, at the instance of Spain, the ecclesiastical juris-
diction of the territory of Louisiana was transferred from the diocese
of Quebec to that of Santiago de Cuba. In 1777 when the latter
'i diocese was divided, Louisiana was attached to the new diocese of

i St. Christopher of Havanna, and finally in 1799, Louisiana and the

I Floridas were formed into the diocese of Louisiana. The Right

I Reverend Luis Penalver y Cardenas was appointed Bishop, and

later also Archbishop of Guatamala. That the Spanish officials viewed
the appointment of Father Meurin as Vicar General by the Bishop
of Quebec as a political matter, is shown by the fact, that when it be-
'{' came known De Rocheblave, at the time Commandant at Ste. Gene-

vieve, said to him, "I recognize no English Bishop here, and in
a post where I command I wish no ecclesiastical dominion recog-
nized except that of the Bishop of San Domingo."

When Father Meurin fled from Ste. Genevieve, he first went to
Kaskaskia where he remained until the arrival of Father Gibault.
Then he accepted the offer of the people of Prairie du Rocher,
before mentioned. Father Conway says that Father Meurin
returned to Cahokia, but the Reverend John Mason Peck states that
he removed to Prairie du Rocher and died there in 1777. Peck, an
eminent Baptist clergyman, and deeply interested in everything per-
taining to the early history of the west, says that Father Meurin
"was a very learned man, left a valuable library and a manuscript
dictionary of the Indian and French languages in twenty volumes.*'
• It is surmised that Father Meurin, after he fled from Ste. Genevieve,
visited St. Louis and exercised his spiritual functions there in 1767-68
and 1769, but this conjecture is unfounded.

The first church in the territory, now Missouri, was built in the old
I village of Ste. Genevieve. It was a large wooden structure, and in

"71 Jesuit Relations, p. 75.

1

I

FATHER HILAIRE 297

1794, it was removed to the present town and used as a church until
1835.*^ ^^ this edifice services were held from 1760 to 1764 by Fathers
Wattrin,*^ Salveneuve and LaMorinie, already mentioned. They
were succeeded by Father Meurin* until 1768, then from 1768 to
1773, Father Gibault was parish priest, being succeeded by Father
Fran9ois Hilaire, from 1773 to 1777, who became involved in a con-
troversy with his parishioners. They complained to the Lieutenant-
Governor that the good Father was demanding "the tenth of all the
produce of our land," although "hithereto, we have paid no more than
the twenty-sixth part."'® The matter coming before Governor-Gen-
eral Unzaga, he ordered that "the custom shall not be altered" and
that the "commandant shall not tolerate the introduction of any inno-
vation in the matter," but he allowed the Reverend Father " 50 pesos
fuertes" annually for a servant as an addition to his salary. "It is
to be noted," says Unzaga, "that the King has absolute control of the
tithes in these Kingdoms," and that it is not right, that "while the
King supports" the parish priests, "for them to try and get another
fee," and this he says shall "be told to said parish priest on this
occasion," so that he may " not dare to demand from his parishioners
in the future more than what they are accustomed to pay."'* In
1778, Father Gibault returned and again oflSciated until 1784. Fath-

" Rozier*s History of the Mississippi Valley, p. 116.

^ The first baptism perfonned by Father Wattrin as village priest was
performed on the 24th of February 1760.

* On the 30th of October, 1 764, a religious marriage which took place
at the old village was celebrated by Father Meurin, the parties married being
Mark Constantino Canada and Miss Susan Henn, who had been made a prisoner
about five years before by the Shawnee Indians in Pennsylvania. Canada,
it seems, also lived among the Indians. The witnesses to this marriage were
Jean Ganion and T. Tebriege or (LeBirge). Rozier's History of the Mississippi
Valley, p. 118.

*• The names of these Ste. Genevieve parishioners who remonstrated were :
LaRose, Rosier (Roussin?), Charpentier, Lalumandier, Biyas (Buyat), Luis
LaCroix, Beauvais, Baptiste LaCroix, Tangelier, DeGuire, Pierrop, Lalande,
Lanfenes (Lefrenay), Adelmar, Diehle, Vignon, Bouche, Robinette, Louis
Frasseur, Joseph Motier, Regis (dit?) La Source, Louis La Source, Vall6, jun.,
Pratte, Pierre AubouchoA, Paul LaBrosse, Jean Claimet, Hypolite Robat, Fray
Chean, Aubouchon, Dudon.

" Don Luis De Unzaga, was a colonel in the Havanna Regiment and came
with O'Reilly to Louisiana. He was appointed Governor in 1 770, and his admin-
istration was very popular, as he did not enforce the stringent trade regulations of
Spain, and consequently the Colony was very prosperous, commerce expanding
very rapidly. Slaves being introduced by the English contrary to the Spanish
ordinances the plantations quickly increased in number and size. Unzaga
married a daughter of St. Maxent, the partner of Laclede, and was a brother-
in-law of Galvez who also married a St. Maxent. In 1776 Unzaga was
appointed Captain-General of Caraccas.

298 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

er Louis Guiques was the village priest from 1786 to 1789, and Father
de St. Pierre from 1789 to 1797. In 1796 Father James Maxwell was
appointed Vicar-General of upper Loubiana and parish priest of Ste.
Genevieve, and held that position when the United States acquired
the country until he died.

Father Gibault performed the duties of parish priest at St. Gene-

vieve, while residing at Kaskaskia,

/^ /^'X/y^/Ji fi^'^ ' fromi768toi773,andsoalsoat"La
/; ^^^^UUJ^ f: e/A/^j^^ Salinas," by which name the settle-
ment near the mouth of the Saline
creek was known, and at "Old Mines" now in Washington county,
and probably at St. Louis, as well, although it is not explained why
the Spanish officials should have allowed Father Gibault to discharge
his spiritual functions in these places, and excluded Father Meurin,
when both priests belonged to the Diocese of Quebec. From an or-
der in the archives of New Madrid it appears that Guy Carlton,
"Lieutenant-Governor, Brigadier in command" in 1768, gave a
permit to Father Gibault to go to the Illinois country with his mother,
Marie Gibault, and his sister Louise Gibault, by way of Michilimack-
inac with his baggage '' and that on the 26th day of July he was
allowed to pass there "unmolested," by Spiesmacher," the com-
mandant. He must have arrived there sometime before that date,
because on the 23rd of July he baptized an infant at this post, styling
himself the " Vicaire General des Louisiane," evidently considering that
his spiritual jurisdiction embraced all of Louisiana ,and that no conflict
existed, or if he knew of this conflict, that he did not intend to recognize
the claim of the Spanish Bishop of Havanna. Subsequently, however,
he signed himself simply "Vicaire General des Illinois et Tamarois."'*
He took his mother and sister with him to the Illinois country, con-
trary to the order of the Bishop of Quebec, and for this was severely
reprimanded by him." Arrived at Kaskaskia, he began his laborious
task, and at Easter-tide in 1769 he had brought to their duties nearly

'* His baggage consisted of one bale, four kegs of brandy, four of wine, and
his canoe-men were, Jacques Perrein, Pointe Claire, Jean B. Salle of Longvcil,
Francois LaMarche of Longveil, Jean B. Dubue of Montreal, Pierre La Chapelle,
also of Montreal, and Michael I^aVoix, of Chambley. The passengers who
traveled with him in the canoe were, Francois Loillet of LaVallerie and Fran<,ois
Beaugie of Beaufort, a senior (seigneur). Was this "Beaugic" the ancestor of
the Bogy's of St. Genevieve?

" Major Frederick Christian Spiesmacher, of the 6oth Royal American, a
nephew of Haldimand.

"* 18 Draper's Collection. (Clark MSS.)

•• Letter of the Bishop of Quebec, in New Madrid Archives.

FATHER GIBAULT 299

all the Kaskaskians, that is to say, the French folk of the town, the
Indians camped near the town on the river, and all the Catholics of
the 1 8th Royal Irish Dragoons.'* Afterward he crossed over the
river to Ste. Genevieve and visited **La Salinas" and the "Old Mines."
In fact all the settlements on both sides of the Mississippi, Cahokia,
Prairie du Rocher, St. Philippe and Fort de Chartres were the scenes of
his spiritual labors. In 1770 he visited Vincennes, and he writes the
Bishop of Quebec that the people there crowded down the banks of the
Wabash to receive him, that they fell on their knees unable to speak,
while others could only speak in sobs, and some cried out, " Father,
save us, we are almost in hell." From Vincennes, where he remained
for two weeks, he returned to Kaskaskia and then visited Ste. Gene-
vieve where he met the newly arrived Spanish Commandant, Lieu-
tenant-Governor Don Pedro Piernas, promising him to include
St. Louis in his missionary work. Thus he labored alone in this
wide and boundless field, with unceasing activity, traveling through
the wilderness, visiting the isolated frontier settlements and the In-
dian converts. The report of his apostolic labors, the Bishop of Que-
bec writes him, brought tears to his eyes, and he hopes that by his
power he may "bring back to the fold some of the stray sheep."
The Bishop then says, "Take good care of Father Meurin, I was a
member of his company. People who speak ill of him do so only by
ignorance or on account of the calumnies spread by European-French
people on the rdigieuse of his order. In Europe it is thought to be
the greatest persecution that assailed the church since the persecu-
tion in the early centuries of Christianity."*' In 1775 Gibault went
to Canada, visiting the Indians on his way to Detroit. On his
return he made a second visit to Vincennes, and on the death of
Father Meurin in 1777, for several years he was the only priest in the
Illinois country on either side of the Mississippi, and Vicar-General
of this vast domain. Through all this region he went on foot, or in
a canoe, or on horseback, carrying with him in saddle pouches the
sacred utensils of his ministry. But Father Conway pictures him
as traveling with "his gun across the saddle bow, and a belt about
his waist with pistols and a-bowie knife," a veritable fighting cow-
boy, because he thinks that "the frontier priest went armed" to de-
fend himself "against the otherwise unawed Indian thieves and

*• Conway's Catholics of St. Louis, p. 25. English's Conquest of the North-
west, vol. I, p. 186.

" Letter of the Bishop of Quebec, in the New Madrid Archives, vol. 2.

300 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

murderers, as well as against white ruffians who then infested as they
do yet infest our western frontier." A perusal, however, of the letters
of the early Jesuit missionaries, wherein they so graphically picture
their arduous labors, leaves on our mind a different impression . Gen-
erally these early missionaries went unarmed, relying on moral force
alone, on their benevolent intentions, on the superiority of the trained
and disciplined mind over ignorance, and above all relying on the
divine Master for guidance in the hour of peril, rather than on a gun,
pistol or bowie-knife, if such a thing as a bowie-knife was known to
them at all at that time. It is thus we would prefer to imagine
Father Gibault as moving through the wilderness in his apostolic
work. Physically too, he was not calculated to inspire the savages
with terror, because he was small in size.**

Father Gibault was parish priest of Kaskaskia in July 1778, when
General George Rogers Clark captured the town, and, "to him next
to Clark and Vigo," says Judge John Law, in his History of Vincennes,
"the United States are more indebted for the accession of the states
comprised in what was the Northwestern territory, than any other
man." At the time Clark surprised Kaskaskia with his Virginians,
Father Gibault took a deep interest in everything pertaining to the
spiritual, social, educational and material prosperity of the French
habitans. He was the most influential person there, and it
was through his influence that the people were won over. By his
individual efforts alone were the inhabitants of Vincennes induced
to drive out the English garrison and raise the American flag. When
he saw that Clark was greatly exercised about the situation at Vin-
cennes, he told him to leave the matter to him, and that he would
give the people such advice as would allay all opposition, and induce
them to espouse the American cause. He absolved the people from
allegiance to England, encouraged the French inhabitants to enter
the American service and form military companies. Without the
assistance of these French allies Clark never could have accomplished
the conquest or successfully held the Illinois country. When after-
ward the English made preparations to reconquer the country, and
it was supposed they were approaching Kaskaskia with a large
force, Father Gibault naturally was in some trepidation, and probably
on the advice of Clark, crossed over to Ste. Genevieve into the Span-
ish possessions. That he had good cause for apprehension is suflS-
ciently clear from the vicious denunciations of Colonel Hamilton,

» 18 Draper's Collection. (Clark MSS.)

GIBAULT'S MEMORIAL 301

the British commander in the territory north of the Ohio, who char-
acterized him as "an active agent for the rebels, and whose vicious
and inmioral conduct was sufficient to do infinite mischief in a colony
where ignorance and bigotry give full scope to the depravity of a
licentious ecclesiastic. This wretch," he says, "it was who absolved
the French inhabitants from their allegiance to the King of Great
Britain." He further adds, "to enumerate the vices of the inhabi-
tants would be to give a long catalogue, but to assert that they are not
in possession of a single virtue is not more than truth and justice
requires, still the most eminently vicious and scandalous was the
Reverend Monsieur Gibault." Thus the Englbh conmiander testi-
fied his hatred for the great services rendered by this patriotic priest.
Father Gibault was "the power behind the throne," he it was who
enthused the French population, and induced them to join their
fortunes with that of the colonies. When Clark left Kaskaskia with
his combined American and French forces in February 1779, to re-
capture Vincennes, of which the English, under Colonel Hamilton,
had again taken possession. Father Gibault addressed the small army
and bestowed on it the blessing of the church. Truly Patrick Henry
said, "This country owes many things to Father Gibault for his zeal
and services." These services were recognized by a Resolution of
the Virginia legislature in 1780; but he received no other recompense.
In May 1790, Father Gibault presented a memorial to Governor
St. Clair, for a grant of land. In his petition he recites his services,
saying that he was never backward in venturing his life on many
occasions when his presence was useful to the United States; that
he sacrificed his property ; that he took American paper dollars at the
value at which he could have received Spanish milled dollars,
in payment of his tithes and his beasts, and thus set an example to
his parishioners, who were apprehensive that this currency was
intended to pillage them ; that the want of money had compelled him
to sell two good slaves, who could have supported him in his old age ;
that he rejected all offers made by the Spanish government to settle
in upper Louisiana, and exerted himself to retain the people in the
dominion of the United States, never doubting that he would be
compensated ; and that lie now hopes his demand will be received
favorably; that he expects that a grant of land will be made him, in
full propriety in his private name and not as a missionary and priest,
to pass to his successors, that otherwise he would not accept such a
grant; that it is upon services he has rendered and hopes to render

302 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

that he founds his demand. On the recommendation of St. Clair a
grant of four hundred arpens in the Kaskaskia district was finally
made to him, under Acts of Congress 1788 and 1791, and then he
sold the land to John Rice Jones. This grant was confirmed in 181 1.
He also received two other tracts of land embracing about two hundred
and fifty acres in the Cahokia commons, which he sold to Nicolas
Jarrot. But these land grants became to him a source of trouble.
Bishop Carroll of Baltimore objected to their being made to Father
Gibault individually,'* and from a letter dated 1792, and preserved
in the New Madrid archives, addressed to the Father, it would appear
that the Bishop had been advised that he was converting church
property to his individual use. In 1785 Father Gibault was parish
priest of Vincennes, but in 1786 was superseded as Vicar-General,
or, at least, he ceased to act in that capacity. The Reverend Huet
de LaValiniere, as "pretre vicarie General miss, de la St. Familie,"
appointed in 1788, by the Bishop of Baltimore, claimed superior
ecclesiastical dominion over the western territory of the United
States, — the Illinois country. In 1789 accusations and complaints
made against him apparently induced Father Gibault to request the
Bishop of Quebec to recall him. Yet in 1789 Father Gibault still
appears to be parish priest at Cahokia. In January 1790 the Bishop
of Baltimore writes him about the complaints that had been made
against him, and that "these complaints were confirmed from differ-
ent sources," and he adds, that he is sorry to tell him ** that the Bishop
of Quebec in a letter sent " to him says, *' that his predecessors did not
have as much confidence in you during the last years as they had in
the beginning of your apostolic career. " From Cahokia Gibault re-
moved to Kaskaskia and, in 1792, he crossed into the Spanish terri-
tory on the west side of the Mississippi, settling in New Madrid,
where in July 1793 he was appointed parish priest of the parish of
St. Isidore. In 1792 he seems to have been at Arkansas Post, for he
there received James Dorst, his wife and six children into the
church. Father Gibault afterward was under the immediate spir-
itual jurisdiction of Father Maxwell, of Ste. Genevieve, Vicar- Gen-
eral of upper Louisiana. From letters addressed by him to Father
Gibault it appears that he was considered by his spiritual superior
as entirely too lenient in collecting the legal fees for publishing the
marriage banns, and performing the marriage ceremony, to part of
which fees Father Maxwell was entitled as Vicar-General. In one
* English's History of the Conquest of the Northwest, vol. i, p. 188.

FATHER GIBAULT'S DEATH 303

letter, dated October, 1801, which has been preserved in the New
Madrid archives, Father Maxwell severely reprimands him for per-
forming a marriage ceremony between a Mr. Randall and Miss Sarah
Waller, the latter being a minor, without the consent of her father
and mother, both being residents of the Cape Girardeau district,
a dbtrict Father Maxwell says, within his ecclesiastical juris-
diction, and also with dispensing with the banns of matrimony
illegally and wrongfully. Father Maxwell further advises him that
heretofore he had granted him his protection ^nd favorably reported
as to his conduct to the Bishop, who he says had instructed him to
keep a watchful eye upon him, but that if he persevered in his con-
duct he would have to pursue a different course. From this it is
evident that Father Gibault was not then in favor with the eccle-
siastical authorities in New Orleans. But while he was parish priest,
Father Gibault built a church in New Madrid, securing from Morales,
in 1799, the necessary funds for that purpose.*® From the time he
took up his residence in New Madrid until his death in 1802, he was
active in all spiritual matters, and as a priest of the parish he received
a regular salary from the government. During this period he also
visited not only Arkansas Post but other isolated settlements of this
district. Upon his death his papers and correspondence came into
the possession of the Commandant of New Madrid, and on the
change of government were transferred and remained in New Mad-
rid, where some of them are still found in the archives, although un-
doubtedly many valuable and important papers have been lost. His
will, dated Ste. Genevieve, 1782, and found in the New Madrid
archives, shows that he had a brother named Jacques Gibault, an
uncle named Antoine St. Jean, living in St. Pierre parish, Montreal,
and that his sister Louise, who came to the Illinois country with him,
married one Joseph Migneau. As executors of his will he named
Francois LeClaire and Jean Baptiste Vall^ (negociants), at that time
in Ste. Genevieve.*^

Of De St. Pierre, parish priest of Ste. Genevieve from 1789 to
1797, we have no further information than that he held this office at
Kaskaskia in 1785, and according to Major Hamtramck, was also

* Letter of Don Juan Ventura Morales, dated February 27th, 1799, in New
Madrid Archives.

** A copy merely of the original will is found in the New Madrid Archives, the
original having been delivei^ to the Missouri Historical Society, according to
memorandum endorsed on the copy left with the Circuit clerk in lieu of the
original.

304 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

priest at Cahokia.*' He caused Bishop Carroll, of Baltimore, some
inquietude, because when he departed from that city he had not ob-
tained from the Bishop the power to administer the sacrament
(pouvoir pour Padministration des sacramens) nor did he satisfy the
Bishop that he came to America with the consent of the superior of
his order, and this inquietude was not lessened by the fact that La
Valiniere reported that de St. Pierre paid no attention to his authority.**
But St. Pierre, by crossing over the river and taking up his residence
in Ste. Genevieve, abandoned the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Balti-
more, and thus probably ceased to disturb his mind. We have
only another notice of Father St. Pierre. When young Brackenridge
arrived at Ste. Genevieve in 1792, and became a member of the
Beauvais family, the fact that he had not been baptised caused Mad-
ame Beauvais no little anxiety, and she felt some repugnance at
"putting a little heretic in the same bed with her own children," but
Brackenridge says, "that the good curate Pere St. Pierre, who made
a Christian of me" soon removed this anxiety, "M. and Madame
Beauvais becoming my sponsors,"** This is all we know of this
parish priest except that from Ste. Genevieve he removed to lower
Louisiana.

Father de St. Pierre was succeeded by Father James Maxwell.
Father Maxwell was a native of Ireland, and appointed Vicar-General
over the English and American settlers of upper Louisiana, his
appointment being dated at San Lorenzo, November 22, 1794.
The Bishop of Salamanca had great confidence in him and brought
him to the notice of the King of Spain. Lopez Armisto, Secretary of
the Province of Louisiana, also relied upon him to convert the many
American settlers in the Spanish dominion, to the Catholic religion,
and in a proclamation issued in 1789, the Commandant of Ste.
Genevieve stated that the King had permitted the Americans to settle
in the province (vagabonds excepted) and that those accepting this
offer might continue their religion in private, but could not exercise

*' Hamtramck's Letter to General Harmer, dated April, 1789. Draper's
Collection, Hanner's Papers, vol. i.

** In his letter to Father Gibault, Bishop CarroU says: " I feel uneasy about
M. De St. Pierre. He left here without the power to administer the sacrament.
I could not give him the power, because I did not know whether he came to
this country with the permission of his superior. Mr. de la Valiniere has in-
formed me that Mr. De St. Pierre pays no attention whatever to the first Vicar,
who is his superior, appointed by me. Please inquire also whether this is true.
I have not had any news from Mr. La Valiniere for some time." Letter in
New Madrid Archives, vol. 11.

** Brackenridge's Recollections of the West, p. 23.

\

FATHER MAXWELL 305

it in public, that all churches must be Catholic, ''and served by
priests from Ireland."**

Father Maxwell came to Ste. Genevieve in 1796, and was a very
active and enterprising man.** -From letters in the New Madrid
archives addressed to Father Gi-
bault, it is evident that he was
vigilant in collecting the ecclesiastical fees due him as Vicar-General,
and in asserting his jurisdiction and authority. He, too, was active
in securing concessions of land. On November 3, 1799, he ob-
tained a grant from Lieutenant-Governor DeLassus for four leagues
square in the forks of Black River in the district of Ste. Genevieve.
This concession was surveyed, and embraced within its limits 112,896
arpens of land. Upon this concession he agreed to establish a colony
of Irish Roman Catholics, but when the concession came before the
Conunissioners for Spanish land grants, he explained that owing to
the existing wars and subsequent prohibition of immigration from
Ireland, he was not able to colonize his grant. He also secured
another concession of two hundred and ninety arpens on Gabourie
creek, and on the loth of September 1799, another concession of
three thousand arpens on the Mississippi, at the mouth of St.
Laurent creek where the little town of St. May's is now situated in
Ste. Genevieve county, was made to him, and this grant was appar-
ently approved by the Intendant-General, the Assessor-General,
and confirmed by the Intendant Lopez Angulo, under date of New
Orleans, July 8, 1800. Upon this claim Father Maxwell built a
large hous^. As assignee of Bernard Pratte, Father Maxwell also
claimed a league square near the St. Francois river, and as
assignee of Henry Dielle another five thousand arpens near the same
river, all in the Ste. Genevieve district. Altogether, Father Maxwell
made claim to about 128,250 arpens of land. His claims, with the
exceptions of two hunded and ninety nine arpens on Gabourie creek,

^ Ashe gives us a description of the altar of the church at Ste. Genevieve as
follows :

''At the upper end there is a beautiful altar, the fronton of which is brass
gilt and enriched in medio-relievo representing the religions of the world,
diffusing the benefits of the gospel over the new world. In the middle of the altar
there is a crucifix of brass gUt and underneath a copy of a picture by Raphael
representing the Madonna and child, St. Elizabeth and St. John. In a second
group there is a St. Joseph, all perfectly well drawn and colored. The beauty
and grace of the Virgin are beyond description and the little Jesus and St. John
are charming." 3 Ashe's Travels, p. 119.

** EUicott's Journal, p. 32. EUicott who met him at New Madrid, on his
way down the Mississippi to survey the southern boundary, says that he ''was
a well informed liberal gentleman."

3o6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

were rejected, but occasionally the story is revived that his heirs
intend to set up claim to these vast possessions. A beautiful elevation
about one mile above Ste. Genevieve, near what is known as
"Little Rock Landing," overlooking the Mississippi, the bottom
lands on both sides of the river, and the railroads now passing through
these fertile fields, is yet known as "MaJtwell's Hill," perpetuating
his name.

Father Gibault no doubt visited St. Louis on his missionary tours,
looking after the spiritual welfare of the people there, although there is
no evidence that he resided in St. Louis from 1770 to 1772 as stated
by Scharff.*! During this period Father Gibault resided at Kaskas-
kia, traveling far and wide in Illinois country in the performance of
his apostolic mission, nor is it likely that the Spanish ecclesiastical
authorities would then have allowed a priest of the Diocese of Quebec,
to actually reside and exercise his spiritual functions in the Spanish
territory, without intervention. Probably, however, no objection
Aras made to an occasional visit by a priest of that diocese, to supply
the spiritual needs of the people, in the absence of the regular priest,
appointed by the Bishop of Havanna. The first resident priest of
St. Louis, as shown by the records of church burials, was Father
Valentine, who, on the 6th of June 1773, ofiiciated there at the funeral
of William Bissette. In 1772 he was at Arkansas Post, and appears
to have removed from there to St. Louis.** The records also show
that Father Valentine remained there for two ye^rs, until June 7,
1775, officiating on that day at the funeral of Joseph DuBreuil. From
St. Louis, he was transferred or removed to Kaskaskia. It is not
explained why the Bishop of Quebec allowed him to take up his
spiritual functions in his diocese, when apparently the dignitaries
of the Spanish church were so jealous of the priests of the diocese of
Quebec. Nevertheless it appears from the church records of Kas-
kaskia that he was probably a parish priest there until 1783, when
he was superceded by Father Bernard who had been his successor at
St. Louis. Father Valentine was a Capuchin Friar and, while
officiating at St. Louis, describes himself as "priest of the parish of
St. Louis and its dependencies." As priest at St. Louis, he officiated
on December 27, 1774, at the funeral of Louis de St. Ange, "Cap-
tian attached to the Battalion of Louisiana" — thus incidentally show-

*' 2 Schartf's History of St. Louis, p. 1630.

*® In Unzaga's Report, dated July 11, 1772, of the religious conditions of
Louisiana, he enumerates among the priests Father Valentine, as of the
"parish of San Luis de los Uinnesses, at the place commonly called Pancorto.*'

FIRST CHURCH BELL 307

ing that St. Ange, at the time ofrhis death, was an officer of the Spanish
military establishment of Louisiana. A few days before the death
of St. Ange, a bell, the first church bell of St. Louis, was duly baptised
"Pierre Joseph Felicite," in honor of Pierre Joseph de Piemas and,
Lady Felicite de Portneuf de Piemas, his wife, — god-father and
god-mother of said bell — by Father Valentine, all of which was
duly attested by the said god-father and god-mother, and Barrois and
Benito Vasquez, as witnesses. Before the advent of this bell, which
was probably sent from France or Spain, the congregation of St.
Louis was summoned to devotion by means of a large iron mortar,
beaten by a heavy iron pestle.^ But in 1799, according to Moses
Austin, the church was only "a frame building, "making an "indiflferent
appearance," and having, he says, "neither steeple nor bell." From
1775 to 1776, no regular priest was stationed at St. Louis, but Father
Hilaire, parish priest of Ste. Genevieve, made occasional visits to the
town, to solemnize marriages and perform the ceremony of baptism.
Father Hilaire was also a Capuchin priest and Apostolic prothon-
otary.

The possession of a church bell was apparently the means of
bringing home to the St. Louis congregation the necessity of a new
church, because two days after the bell had been baptised, on the
26th day of December 1774, the people assembled in the Govern-
ment building, and in the presence of Governor Piemas and Father
Valentine as well as the church warden M. Sarpy, determined to build
a new church. It was resolved that the dimensions of this edifice
should be 30 by 60 feet, and further that the ash posts should be
eighteen feet long, hewed on both sides above the ground, to the
width of six inches. The wooden material for this structure was to
be furnished by the people, according to an assessment "made on
each white and black person of the age of fourteen years and up-
wards," widows and those over sixty years old only excepted. Pierre
Baron, who was present, was made "superintendent of the building
and of the assessment," and promised "to do his duty."*" His
assistants in this work, which undoubtedly then was considered an
undertaking of great magnitude, were Rene Kiercereau, Antoine
Riviere dit Baccane, Joseph Taillon and Jacques Noise dit DesNoyer.
Baron, the superintendent, died soon afterward and consequently, in
January 1776, Francesco Cmzat as commandant of the post, award-

*• 2 Scharflf's History of St. Louis, p. 1649.
*® 2 Scharflf's History of St. Louis, p. 1646.

3o8 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

ed the contract to buUd the church 1^ Juan Cambas as the lowest
bidder, the work to be completed for 1,480 livres, which was to be
paid in shaved deer skins.

In 1776 Father Bernard de Litnpach, a native of Liege^, undoubt-
edly a German whose real name was Bernhardt Von Limbach, was
appointed parish priest by Friar Dagobert de Langwy, Superior and
VicarGeneral of Louisiana, to be duly inducted inlo office as "parish
priest of St. Louis of Illinois, Post of Paincourt, with all its rights and
appendages, upon condition of actual personal residence there, and

not otherwise." This order of appointment Father Bernard duly
deposited for safe keeping in the Government office of St. Louis, as
certified by Don Francesco Cruzat, Commandant. Father Bernard
remained in St. Louis until 1787, and during his administration of the
parish a new stone parochial residence was built for him, in place of
the old log building in which his predecessor had resided. This new
building was forty feet long by twenty seven wide. It was begun by
Jean Cambas and Juan Ortes, the contractors, in July 1777, and
completed the next spring. To this building Father Bernard contrib-
uted 437 livres in peltries, a sum he had received at New Orleans to
pay his passage to St. Louis. An assessment was also made on all the
inhabitants of the town over fourteen years of age, widows and per-

PRIESTS OF ST. LOUIS 309

sons over sixty years of age excepted, for the balance of the amount
necessary to build this parochial residence. Where Father Bernard
was stationed after he left St. Louis, we have not been able to ascer-
tain. While at St. Louis he seems to have visited Kaskaskia, at any
rate the church records of that parish show that he officiated there
occasionally.

Father Ledru succeeded Father Bernard as parish priest of St.
Louis. Before he came to St. Louis he was stationed at Kaskaskia,
and Major Hamtramck writes General Harmer, in 1789, that he leaves
Kaskaskia on account of the lawlessness prevalent there, and that he
regrets his departure. Father Ledru remained until 1794. In 1789
he urged that the church of St. Louis ought to be rebuilt and Lieuten-
ant-Governor Perez in a letter to Miro says, that the ^'habitans do not
refuse to do it," but that the majority are not able to contribute "as
they would like to" because of their poverty. "" After 1794 Father
Ledru was succeeded by Father Pierre Joseph Didier, a priest of the
religious order of the Benedictines of the congregation of St. Maur,
who from time to time, officiated until April 1799. Father Didier,
before he came to St. Louis, was a missionary priest at Florissant.
It may be noted that in 1797, Auguste LeClerc brought suit against
Father Didier to adjust his liability on a note of 2,050 livres, which
Father Didier denied owing. The matter was referred by consent to
arbitrators. Father Didier saying, "If my refusal is not a just one, I
consent to pay." After Father Didier's departure in 1799 from St.
Louis, Father Janin was in charge of the parish until the acquisition
of Louisiana by the United States. Father Janin came to St. Louis
from Arkansas Post, where he was parish priest from 1796 to 1798.
In 1798, Father Maxwell, by order of the Bishop of Louisiana, made an
examination of the church building at St. Louis and reported that
"it is too small for the village," that "its timbers are rotted" and that
"it can not be kept from falling into the river," that the church has
only 1,213 pesos in cash available for a new church, and no fixed in-

" Letter of Perez to Miro, dated Nov. 9, 1 787. Father Ledru came from
France. In a letter found in the New Madrid Archives, Bishop Carroll gives
his real name as Father Jacobin, called Ledru. In this letter he says: "that
according to an agreement with the Father Provincial he was to send me a
letter testifying to the good conduct of Father Jacobin and authorizing him tostav
in America," but that on the contrary he had " received by way of New York
information on the conduct of this religieuse in Acadia, which makes me feel
very sad and causes me to reproach myself for having given him even limited
power. Kindly inquire about him and send me as soon as convenient any
information you can get about his behaviour at Kaskaskia." He was also curiS
of Cahokia for a time.

3IO

HISTORY OF MISSOURI

come, and that the well-to-do inhabitants are obliged, " under the laws
of these kingdoms," to contribute **to the construction of the temple."
This report was submitted to Governor Gayosa by the Bishop, but
with no results.*'

The church of St. Ferdinand, at Florissant, a wooden structure,
was built in 1792, but it is certain that long before that time religious
services were held in this neighborhood. The first entry made by
Father Didier, in the St. Ferdinand church-record is dated August
2, 1792, recording the baptism of Claude Fallot, in the church. Af-
ter the departure of Father Didier, Father Lusson, priest of "St.

Charies of the little Hills
of Missouri," served the
people of Florissant as
well as St. Charles where
a small chapel also
existed, which, it is
claimed, was erected as early as 1772. This parish was created by
the Bishop of Louisiana in 1797.*^ The Bishop never visited the
parishes of upper Louisiana.

After the removal of Father Gibault to New Madrid, he organized
the parish of ** St. Isidore " there, as already stated, and built a church
(fabrique), and for this purpose received a sum of money from the
Intendant Morales at New Orleans. The total value of the church
property in 1804 was estimated to be 1,620 pesos. The church
was an edifice 60 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 16 feet high between
the ground and ceiling. "Its carpenter work" says the report of
the commissioners, made at the time of the cession, "is con-
structed of cypress timber, doubled on the outside with planks
of the same wood. It has a partition in its width for the
sacristy, ten openings with their windows and gratings; an altar,
with a tabernacle of cherry wood ; a picture of the Holy Virgin Mary,
8 feet high, by 5^ feet wide, framed in wood ; a railing in front where
communion is taken; a pulpit of cherry wood; a belfry with a metal
bell weighing 50 pounds," and was estimated to be worth 1,200 pesos.
The parochial residence was a building 21 feet long and 16 feet wide,
"doubled without and within with cypress plank, the floor and ceiling
and a wall of cypress planks, a double brick chimney; four openings

"See Maxwell's Report to Bishop of Louisiana, dated February 14, 1798.
General Archives of the Indies, Seville.

" Report of the Bishop of Louisiana for 1 789-1 797 — Audiencia of Santo
Domingo, — General Archives of the Indies, Seville.

CHURCH CEDED 311

with their windows and doors and gratings ; a gallery in front, with
floor and ceiling ; a cellar under said house, and a stairway to mount
the garret. In addition, to this parish residence, was attached a build-
ing near by, used as a kitchen, 18 feet long by 15 feet wide, estimated
to be worth 350 pesos, and also a bake house, 15 feet long and ten
feet wide, with a brick chimney, and an oven 30 feet in circiynference,
with frames complete made of brick, a roof made of carpenter
work to cover it, and this bake house was equipped with a bread
maker, flour sieve, shovels, poker, casks, canvasses and sheets
for covering the bread and other utensils, all valued at 120 pesos.**
In the parochial residence surrounded by a large garden Father
Gibault lived in ease and comfort with his colored servants, well
able to entertain the Vicar- General of upper Louisiana, Father
Maxwell, as well as Father Lusson of St. Charles, who occasionally
during this period visited him at New Madrid on spiritual errands,
then long and laborious journeys.

During the Spanish government, the parish priests of Ste. Gene-
vieve (including the adjacent settlements of Nouvelle Bourbon,
Saline, Old Mine and St. Michael) St. Louis (including certainly
Carondelet), St. Charles (including it would seem the church of St.
Francois at Portage des Sioux and the church of St. Ferdinand at
Florissant) and the parish of St. Isidore or New Madrid, (including
Arkansas Post and other settlements), received a regular salary of
$600 per annum,, and in addition the burial and marriage fees, which
were not inconsiderable. This afforded a very decent support for
that time. The expense of building and maintaining the several
churches was paid by the Government.**

With the cession of the country to the United States the small
annual stipend to the established clergy and the governmental care
of the church buildings, of course, ceased, and the priests became
directly dependent upon the support of their respective congrega-
tions. The church buildings with the other property belonging to the
church was ceded to the several Catholic congregations. Thus the
church property at Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, St. Charles, St. Ferdi-
nand, of Portage des Sioux, New Madrid and some vacant ground in
Little Prairie (now Caruthersville) was granted to the Catholics of
those villages. In Ste. Genevieve the Catholic congregation also

^ Report of Inventory of Royal Property at New Madrid — Archives of the
Indies, Seville.

"Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 316.

312 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

claimed and was allowed a tract of land three arpens in front by fifty
in depth, — land which is still the property of the church and the
rents of which go to its support.

Among the Catholic priests of the newly acquired territory of
upper Louisiana Rev. James Maxwell, of Ste. Genevieve, was the
most active, being "a learned and practical Irish Catholic priest. " "
He took a deep interest in public and political affairs. In the Act of
1808, incorporating the Ste. Genevieve academy, he is named as one
of the trustees, and in 1813 he was appointed by Jefferson a member
of the Territorial Council, and was elected president of the same. At
the time of the cession he was Vicar-General of upper Louisiana, but
how long after the cession he remained Vicar- General is not certain.
He died in 1814. Rev. Patrick Walsh who was appointed his Vicar-
General by the Right Reverend
^ J /^/ f yf Penalver y Cardenas, BLshop of

CyyUOlJ/ffO ^C^IA Louisiana and the Floridas, re-
^y^ siding in New Orleans, when the

^l i{/7JJct^'70 Ou^^^ territory was transferred to the

v^'— ^^ United States, appears to have

( ^^ remained in charge of the whole

'^ diocese, and it is likely that for a

time at least Rev. James Maxwell also remained Vicar-General of
upper Louisiana. Rev. Patrick Walsh, as Vicar- General after the
cession, removed a priest at New Orleans, but the latter refused to
recognize his authority and appealed to the congregation who then
elected him.**^ This led to litigation. The Vicar-General appealed
to Governor Claiborne, praying for such relief against the ** schismatic
and rebellious conduct** of this priest as could be afforded.

Bishop Cardenas did not reside at New Orleans after 1801, but
removed to Guatamala, having been appointed Archbishop of that
diocese, but in a letter addressed to the Very Reverend Canon Thomas
Hassett, making him administrator of the bishopric, he styles him-
self ** Bishop of Louisiana and Archbishop of Guatamala.'* It is
said by Bishop Spaulding that after the appointment of Bishop
Cardenas to Guatamala, a second Bishop was appointed for "New
Orleans, " although Bishop Cardenas styled himself " Bishop of Louis-
iana," but that the name of this Bishop is not now known. Spaulding

*• Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 60.

^ Gayarre's Louisiana, American Domination, vol. 3, p. 106. He removed
a Spanish priest named Antonio de Sedella, " the same who attempted to intro-
duce the Inquistion into Louisiana in 1789."

ABBt. DUBOURG 313

says that the Archbishop of Baltimore was canonically charged with
the administration of this diocese after Cardenas resigned the charge,
and that Archbishop Carroll appointed Rev. Olivier, Vicar-General
of this diocese with ample jurisdiction, very likely Succeeding the
Very Reverend Patrick Walsh. The Vicar-General Olivier was a
brother of the venerable missionary priest Father Donatian Olivier,
parish priest of Prairie du Rocher, who after the death of Father
Maxwell occasionally visited Ste. Genevieve and administered to
the spiritual wants of the people there until October 181 5, when
Bishop Flaget of Bardstown who then administered the affairs of
the diocese of Louisiana appointed Father Henri Pratte " as parish
priest. Father Olivier died on the 29th day of January, 1841, at
St. Mary's of the Barrens, aged 95 years.'' Rev. M. Sibourd suc-
ceeded Vicar- General Olivier, and succeeding him Dr. Dubourg was
placed in charge of the diocese. The Bishop of New Orleans or
Louisiana was considered at Rome as a suffragen of the Archbishop
of Havanna, and this connection was not officially dissolved until
1826, a very short time before Bbhop Dubourg departed for Europe.
If Bishop Carroll had charge of the bishopric of Louisiana, for by
that name it was then known, it must have been at the request of the
Archbishop of Havanna. In 1807 on the recommendation of Bishop
Carroll four new sees were erected in the United States, but the bull
which created the see of Bardstown strictly speaking only embraced
the states of Kentucky and Tennessee and the country northwest of
the Ohio and east of the Missbsippi,*^ leaving the country west of
the Mississippi within the diocese of New Orleans, or Louisiana, and
the western Floridas. When the Rev. Patrick Walsh ceased to be
Vicar-General of Louisiana is just as uncertain as when the Rev.
James Maxwell ceased to act. But it b recorded that in 18 15 Abb^
Dubourg as the highest ecclesiastical dignitary of the church then
residing at New Orleans received General Jackson at the door of
the ** time-honored cathedral" of that city. Dr. Dubourg was at this
time, says Bishop Spaulding, "administrator of the diocese of New
Orleans," evidently meaning ** diocese of Louisiana."

" Father Henri Pratte was born January 19th 1778 at Ste. Genevieve and
died there September 7, 1822. He in 1803 entered the College of Montreal, Can-
ada, where he was ordained priest. He was very energetic in attending to the

affairs of the church, and during his pastorate the church was much enlarged

red as pi
and St. Michael, frequently visiting these places.

and improved. In addition he served as pastor of the church at Old Mines

•• Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 1 28.
•° Ibid., p. 60.

3U fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

When in 1814 Bishop Flagct of Bardstown visited upper
Louisiana, he did so at the request of Dr. Dubourg." The
Bishop crossed I he river in a canoe at St. Louis on June
30, 1814, but on this visit found a cool reception, and the days
spent there, says his biographer, were
days of "great sadness for him."
General religious apathy prevailed,
"the rich, the fathers, the mothers,
the chUdren over 15 years of age
staid away from the confessional,"
and he complains that he could make
" no impression whatever on their
callous hearts." ** Perhaps this spir-
itual condition could be attributed to
the fact that shortly after the cession
Father Pierre Janin left the St. Louis parish, and that no priest re-
sided there from 1804 to 1813. The interments only were recorded
in the church register by Jean BaptLste Trudeau, the school teacher.
From 1806 and 1810 Father James Maxwell of Ste. Gene^-ieve occa-
sionally visited St. Louis on spiritual errands. In 1808, '09, '10,
and '11, Father Urban Guillet, a Trappist, residing at the monastery
of "Notre Dame de Bon Secours," near Cahokia, made like
visits; so also did the Rev. Marie Joseph Dunand, another
Trappist missionary, in 1808, '10, '11 and '13. Father Bernard, too,
who had formerly lived in St. Louis, came up from Kaskaskia in 1810.
In 1813 Father Savign^, who before this time occasionally had vis-
ited St. Louis, permanently located there. Father Savign^, it is said,
was the last priest sent west by the Canadian mission. When Bishop
Flaget came to Cahokia on his way to St. Louis, as he entered his
house he found Father Savign^ there, "holding the handle of a skillet
to make an omelette,""

From St. Louis, in 1814, Bishop Flaget went to Florissant where
the "entire population turned out with joy to welcome him" — and a
procession headed by chanters was formed, to escort him to the
church. Among those present on this occasion, he records, were two
men, respectively ro; and 108 years of age. He was much affected
by the firm faith of the people here, "who seem to have been true

" Life of Bishop Flagcl, pp. lit), 131.

"IKd., p. 133.

' Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 131.

BISHOP FLAGET 315

Israelites in whom there was no guile." He remained in Florissant
three days, then crossed the Missouri river, sitting in an arm chair
in "a canoe decorated with flowers," and visited another congrega-
tion divided into hostile factions, probably a congregation on the Dar-
denne. From there he went to St. Charles, arriving there on the
i8th of July. On the 21st, he departed for Portage des Sioux,
remaining there until the 28th, when he returned to St. Charles.
Here, also, the congregation was at war with its priest. From St.
Charles he returned to St. Louis, where he arrived August 3, 1814,
but he says that his "sojourn here will be almost useless." He was
treated, however, with every possible attention by Governor Clark,
who prevailed on him to baptize three of his children. Although
the good Bishop was not satisfied with the result of his spiritual
visit to St. Louis, he no doubt accomplished great good, and brought
back into the fold many who had wandered away or had become
indifferent, and also restored harmony in some of the congregations.
From St. Louis on the 14th of September, he departed for Cahokia,
Prairie du Rocher and Kaskaskia.

On the 2ist of September he arrived at Ste. Genevieve where he
was received with great honor. Here he delivered a powerful sermon
against the violation of the laws of abstinence, and against balls and
dancing, the favorite amusement of the people. From Ste. Gene-
vieve he made a visit to the Catholic- American settlement "in the
Barrens," in what is now Perry county. On his return to Ste. Gene-
vieve he preached to an assembly of five hundred negroes, and found
that marriage was not common amongst them. "He threatened
their masters with privation of the sacraments unless they afforded
their servants every facility to enter lawfully into this holy contract."
The people of Ste. Genevieve presented him with a new suit of clothes
and fifty dollars in money. During this "episcopal campaign," as
he calls it. Bishop Flaget says that he traveled 900 miles in order to
visit ten or twelve thousand Roman Catholics, scattered on the borders
of the Missouri and Mississippi, sometimes traveling for days with-
out a human habitation in sight.

In 181 5 Bishop Dubourg was consecrated Bishop of upper and
lower Louisiana at Rome; but he then urged that upper Louis-
iana be detached from his diocese, and Bishop Flaget be made first
Bishop. To this change Bishop Flaget did not object, but the plan
was frustrated by the opposition and loud protest of the people of
New Orleans against the appointment of Bishop Dubourg. This

at least temporarily.

H

316 raSTORY OF MISSOURI

unpleasant situation induced Bishop Dubourg to locate his episcopal
residence at some place in upper Louisiana to be determined upon,
at least temporarily. In a letter to Bishop Flaget, he requested him
3 ascertain from the Catholic residents of
Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis in upper
Louisiana, what they would do to meet his
requirements to secure the residence of a
Bishop among them. These requirements,
which seem modest to us now, were, however,
not so easy for that time. They consisted of
(i) three thousand dollars to defray his trav-
eling expenses and those of missionaries
from Europe, (a) a necessary donation of
■tsHor DDBODKO '^"^ ^°^ ^ cathcdral and episcopal mansion,

and (3) suitable salaries for the missionaries.
Bishop Flaget, accompanied by Fathers DeAndreis and Rosati, and
the lay brothers Blanca, and a Mr. Tucker as guide, visited upper Lou-
isiana on this mission. They found that in upper Louisiana also con-
siderable prejudice had been created against Bishop Dubourg among
the Catholics. In Sle. Genevieve, where the first overture was made to
locate the seat of the Bishopric, he was received with much coldness and
indifference. In St. Louis the people look no more interest, says Bishop
Flaget in aletter to Father David, in the matterof the reception of Bishop
Dubourg "than about that of the Emperor of China," and he describes
the presbytery as without doors, windows, floors or furniture, and the
church as in a still worse condition. He says that "the people were
filled with prejudice against their Bishop whom they had never seen,"
But subscriptions were started, and the example of Jeremiah O'Con-
nor who gave a thousand dollars, at that time a princely sum, had a
good influence with the rest of the population. Bishop Flaget was
shown great consideration by n on -Catholics. Colonel Benton called on
him, and many others, and thus his mission was finally made success-
ful. He returned to Bardslown awaiting the returnofBishop Dubourg.
The latter had sailed from Bordeaux on the ist of July 1817, and
landed at Annapolis on (he 4th of September, accompanied by five
priests, twenty six young men, some of whom were candidates for the
ministry, and others destined to become lay brothers to assist the
missionaries in temporal affairs. On December and he arrived at
Bardstown, and on the 12th departed on the steamboat "Piqua" for
St. Louis, accompanied by Bishop Flaget and a company of priests.

BISHOP DUBOURG 317

On Christmas day they were at the mouth of the Ohio, and on the
evening of that day the boat stopped at or near the farm of widow
Fenwick, a Catholic, opposite Grand Tower, where they were happy
to visit. On the evening of the 30th of December they arrived at Ste.
Genevieve, and early the next morning sent a messenger to the Rev.
DeAndreis to announce their arrival. They were received with
great ceremony, and on the first day of the year, 181 8, Bishop Dubourg
celebrated the first Pontifical mass at Ste. Genevieve. From Ste.
Genevieve the rest of the journey was made by land by way of Prairie
du Rocher and Cahokia to St. Louis. Here he also was received
with great pomp ; and as soon as he became personally known to the
people, was greatly esteemed and loved. Bishop Flaget now re-
turned to Kentucky, and Bbhop Dubourg began his episcopal labors
in a territory extending over the whole western portion of the Mississippi
valley, from New Orleans to the Rocky mountains and the Great
Lakes. In all upper Louisiana there were then only four priests under
his spiritual jurisdiction and to his visible temporal authority, seven
small chapels were subject. But he was a man of zeal, who had well
planned his work before he came to St. Louis.^* While in Italy he
induced Rev. Felix DeAndreis, Rev. Joseph Rosati and others to
come to America to take up their residence in upper Louisiana. They
were members of the "Congregation of the Priests of the Mission of
St. Vincent de Paul." While residing in St. Louis he annually visited
New Orleans and lower Louisiana. In 1824 he removed the seat of
his episcopal residence from upper Louisiana to New Orleans.
Among the priests Bishop Dubourg induced to come to upper
Louisiana, Father Felix De Andreis was certainly the most eminent.
Before his departure from Italy for America Bishop Dubourg appoint-
ed him Vicar-General of his diocese.^ Father DeAndreis was bom
December 13, 1778 at DeMonte, Piedmont; studied rhetoric and

•* Bishop Louis William Valentine Dubourg was born at Cape Francois, on
the island of San Domingo, February 14, 1766; educated in France; studied
theology at St. Sulpice ; driven from France by the Revolution ; fled to Spain ;
came to Baltimore in 1 794 ; a priest'of the order of St. Sulpice in 1 796 ; president
of St. Mary's Seminary; established the Sisters of Charity in Baltimore; in
181 5 went to Rome, consecrated Bishop there of upper and lower Louisiana;
in 1815 founded in America the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; re-
moved from St. Louis to New Orleans in 1824; in 1826 was made Bishop of
the see of Montauban in France, and in 1833 was Archbishop of Besanjon; he
died October 1833. A man of great energy, zeal and piety. " A man," says
Lucas, "of distinguished talents and personal accomplishments." Letter dated
August 18, 181 7.

* Life of Felix DeAndreis, p. 97.

3i8 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

philosophy at Cuneo ; at the age of sixteen made application to join
the Congregation of the Priests of the Mission of St. Vincent ; entered
as a novitiate in the house of the Mission at Mondori, and in 1797
assumed the habit of St. Vincent, and under the guidance of the Rev.
Joseph Giordana applied himself to his holy vocation. In 1800 he
studied at Turin, and afterward at Placentia, and so assiduous was
he in pursuing his studies, " that he became a profound philosopher,
a learned theologian, an erudite historian, besides being well versed
in literature, chemistry, natural history, astronomy, mathematics,
medicine, music, geography, and skilled in Hebrew, Greek, French,
and Spanish languages. As for Latin, he spoke it fluently, and wrote
it with elegance.'* He was "gifted with so piercing an intellect
that he penetrated at first glance, the most difficult questions and
most abstruse theories." His memory was extraordinary, and having
once read a book he could, years afterward, repeat many passages
and give a resumd of its contents. He had a marvelous knowledge of
the sacred Scriptures, the works of the holy Fathers, the canonical
decisions of the church, the moral and ascetic books by the most
eminent divines, and the great writings of St. Thomas, St. Augustine,
St. Bernard and St. John Chrysostom. Such were his qualifications
in 1801, when in Placentia he was promoted to the priesthood. After
his ordination he was at once entrusted with the complete exercise of
the apostolic ministry, and became a conspicuous missionary, teach-
er and director of collegians. But his ardor for knowledge did not
lead him away from the "science of the saints," and he kept contin-
ually in mind the admonition of St. Vincent to students, not to allow
"an inordinate avidity for learning to invade their hearts." Hence
he resolved only to "give to study a stated portion of time," and be-
yond that to "banish every thought of it" because, he says, "Study is
not God, nor even the most direct road to him." He resolved there-
fore to more assiduously "exercise piety" and "practice virtue, "and
labor to "overcome self esteem" because "humility is the gate to
truth," and remembering that the "prudence of the flesh kills the
soul," he resolved to practice mortifications by giving up certain com-
forts of life in which he had indulged, under the pretext that they pre-
served his health and strength.

From Placentia, Father DeAndreis was transferred to Monte
Citoria in Rome, where he soon became celebrated on account
of his missionary labors in many parts of Italy. Here he taught
theology to the priests of his own order and also to the clergymen

FATHER DEANDREIS 319

of the college of the Propaganda, by order of Pope Pius VII,
and thus were discovered the vast treasures of sacred learning
he possessed. Bishop Rosati who attended these lectures says that
they "inflamed" the hearts of his listeners, and that "his words
pierced the inmost depths of the soul." When he spoke of the
"truths of religion," or the "maxims of eternal salvation," his coun-
tenance, naturally pale, "perceptibly changed its color" and it seemed
when he addressed the students of the Propaganda, that he "longed
to transmit to their hearts the heavenly Are that would make them
fervent apostles for infidel lands, to which they were destined." ••
His fame soon filled Rome. Cardinal Delia Somaglia attended his
lectures, and afterwards told the Pope that he seemed to hear a
"St. John Chrysostom or a St. Bernard." During this period of his
career he had frequent presentiments that he would go to America
and die there. As early as 1810, he told Bishop Rosati that they both
ought to learn English, and he then predicted that that language would
be needful to them. This presentiment was finally realised, when
in the year 181 5, Bishop Dubourg came to Rome to be con-
secrated as Bishop of Louisiana. But not without a struggle did
Bishop Dubourg secure this brilliant and shining light of the priest-
hood of Rome. Accidentally, or providentially, some would say, ojie
evening he passed a public hall where he heard a young priest "in
sonorous language address a large audience;" he entered and listened
attentively, and turning to the young student of the Propaganda who
escorted him, asked who was the young priest that was preaching so
well ; he then learned his name and that he was a mbsionary of the
Congregation of the Missions, and said " O, how glad should I be if I
could have some of these priests for my diocese." Then the student
told him that Father DeAndreis desired nothing more ardently than
to be employed in foreign missions. This was enough for Bishop
Dubourg. His rare energy, persistence, intelligence and indomi-
table will were directed to secure Father DeAndreis and missionaries
of his order. He became personally acquainted with DeAndreis, met
many obstacles but overcame them all, and at last, December 27,
181 5, secured the establishment of a seminary of the order of St.
Vincent for Louisiana.

On the 14th of October Bbhop Dubourg surrounded by a
little colony of missionaries, destined to plant a seminary of the
"Congregation of Missions" in his diocese, composed of Fathers

••Life of Father DeAndreis, pp. 18, 31.

320 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Felix DeAndreis, Jean Baptiste Acquaroni and Joseph Rosati
and Mr. Joseph P. Peira, postulant priest, and Mr. Leo Deys, a
student of the Propaganda, and Anthony Boboni, postulant lay
brother, in an audience with the Pope received his apostolic blessing.
The Pope conversed with them for over one hour, exhorting them to
put their entire trust in God, animated them to bear cheerfully the
many labors they must necessarily undergo, and predicting that in-
numerable blessings would flow from their work. They then bade
farewell to all their friends, and on the 21st day of October departed
from Rome. As they went out of the Flaminian gate their
** hearts palpitated with holy joy and the most lively gratitude to GkKi
for the apostolic ministry," to which they were destined in a foreign
land, for the sufferings they would meet ** while laboring to extend
the kingdom of Jesus Christ." Thus was laid the foundation of
**St. Mary's Seminary" established in what is now Perry county
in 18 18, incorporated by the territorial legislature of Missouri,
and generally known among the Catholic hierarchy as "St.
Mary's of the Barrens," the mother-house and the nursery of many
priests and bishops of the Catholic church of the United States.

But a long and arduous journey and many labors were still before
Father DeAndreis and his little band, before they were permitted to
lay the foundation of their seminary in the wilderness, to rear the
humble log cabins in which to preach and practice the precepts of their
order and begin their religious educational labors. Although they
did not understand the English language they yet aspired to preach
and teach in this language. To master the tongue they devoted many
hours and days. Father DeAndreis with brother Martin Blanka,
made the journey across the Alps and expected to meet his compan-
ions with Father Rosati, in the South of France. At this day we can
hardly realize the hardships such a long tour by land across the
mountains in the inclement season of the year then involved. Leav-
ing the balmy air and sunny land of Italy, Father DeAndreis on this
journey crossed Mont Cenis in January, walking much of the distance
through snow knee deep with the cold and frigid wind almost taking
away his breath and incrusting his clothes with a thick coating of
ice. At last he reached Montpelier most anxious regarding Father
Rosati and his companions, of whom he had heard nothing for a
long time. He was then told that of 21 vessels that had sailed from
Italy for the southern ports of France, 19 had perished, and this filled
him with great and lively apprehensions for their safety. But on

TRIP TO BARDSTOWN 321

the 24th day, at Toulouse, he joyfully embraced them all, to learn that
they had been equally distressed on his account.

On the 30th of January they arrived at Bordeaux where they
remained until the 12th of June following. They then embarked
on a brig called the "Ranger," bidding adieu to Bishop Dubourg
who in the meantime, had also arrived but was obliged to remain
in France to adjust some affairs of his diocese. In addition to those
already named. Fathers Carretti and Ferrari, and Messrs Francois
Xavier Dahmen, Joseph Tichitoli and Casto Gonzalez, seminarists,
also joined the party of Father DeAndreis, and three young
laymen, Francois Moranville, Medard Dilatre and John Flegifont,
who had some intentions to enter the order. These missionaries
were almost the only passengers on the brig, and their voyage
across the ocean was made very pleasant because the Captain,
although an unbeliever, facilitated as much as he could, the perform-
ance of their religious exercises, and took pleasure in assisting at
divine service and hearing them speak of religious subjects. But
all efforts to convert him. Father DeAndreis says, failed because he
would candidly say "that the business of this world seemed to him
more important than that of the next ;" on which Father De Andreis
comments: "What lamentable blindness!"

On the 26th day of July, at 10 o'clock in the morning, they landed
in Baltimore. They were received by Father Bout^, the Presi-
dent of St. Mary's College, a house of the Sulpicians, with great joy.
DeAndreis enjoyed "the honor of singing high mass at the cathedral,"
but he says that it was "a painful thing for me, to hear bells pealing
from magnificent temples, and to be told that these edifices belonged
to heretics." In Baltimore they remained until September loth
when they started in "a stage" for Bardstown, Kentucky, then the
residence of Bishop Flaget. As can be well imagined, this journey
was a revelation to Father DeAndreis and his companions. The
falling rain, the frightful roads, the wretched taverns, the swollen
creeks and rivers, reduced them to a pitiful condition, and some of
the party could "not refrain from shedding tears." The expenses,
too, of the trip were such as to threaten to leave the party without
means, and in order to economize they put their baggage into a wagon,
separated into bands and set out on foot, and "then it was," says
Father DeAndreis, "happening to be alone and somewhat apart from
the rest of the company, in the midst of these frightful mountains, in
doubt as to the road, and scarcely knowing how to get on, the smiling

322 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

picture of Rome, its churches, and the friends I had left there, pre-
sented themselves to my mind in glowing colors, and like daggers,
made me experience, for an instant, all the tortures of melancholy."
But, he adds, " God, faith, and the desire of the salvation of souls,
soon brought back to my soul, peace and serenity." On the aand of
September the party reached Pittsburg, and, at last, on the 19th of
November, 1816, they arrived at Louisville and from there, on horse-
back, Father DeAndreis went to Bardstown, forty miles distant.
Here he met Bishop Flaget and accepted his generous offer that he
and his companions remain awhile at his seminary, St. Thomas, four
miles from Bardstown, a resolution which Bishop Dubourg at first dis-
approved, but subsequently, when he arrived on the spot, applauded.
Here DeAndreis met Father David, Superior of the seminary, and

afterward Bishop of Mauricastro in parli-

^^^^ bus, and coadjutor of the Bishop of Bards-

^^^^ town. At this time twenty young ecclesi-

I E^^ astics resided there in a log house covered

i ^^sT "■''i rough boards, the attic of which served

£^^^^^^^L as a common dormitory. Not far from this

^l^^^^^^^^k collegiate building was the episcopal resi-

^^^^^^^^^^A dence, also constructed of logs but two stories

^^^^^^^^^^^H high, the hrst floor divided into three rooms,

^^^1^^^^^^^^ the largest of which sensed as a school room

nTHEit oE *NDiiEi5 ^""^ fcf^ctory, aod in the other two smaller

rooms Father DeAndreis and Rosati were
located. The Bishop occupied a room in the upper story, while
near his room was a small library and cabinet which he also gave up
to one of the band of Father DeAndreis.

Father DeAndreis and associates remained here until September
and learned " many useful things " of which if they had been ignorant,
he says frankly, "might have been very prejudicial to ourselves and
others." He also found that "a certain amount of toleration is
laudable" and, that "if it had always been observed by other mission-
aries, many scandals would have been prevented," that the "enemies
of Christianity would not have had so many arguments against us,"
and that the "adjuration of heretics and the conversion of infidels
and savages would have been a work of much less difficulty." But
the irreproachable and austere life led by the two Bishops of the sem-
inary, the total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors they practiced,
the invariable rule by which they banished such liquors from their

ST. MARY'S OF THE BARRENS 323

table and the seminary table, and refused for themselves to accept
any donation of the same on pretense of thus recruiting their strength,
was an example of mortification, a source of much edification to
Fathers DeAndreb and Rosati, and they determined to follow it in
the same manner as soon as settled in their new home. Of course
Father DeAndreis, during his residence at St. Thomas, daily gave
instructions in theology and other subjects, and he and all his
companions also assiduously studied English. Father DeAndreis
began to preach in English, hear confessions in English, and began to
translate his sermons into English, studied English prose and poetry,
and always in his walks with his pupils conversed in English.

When Bishop Flaget made his trip to upper Louisiana, already
mentioned, to ascertain the sentiments of the inhabitants. Father
DeAndreis accompanied him, and also brother Blanka. When,
after a journey of nine days, he and Bbhop Flaget came to Kaskaskia
he was moved to tears "at the sight of the cross that rose on the spire
of the church," at that time but seldom seen in the cities and villages
of the United States. At Kaskaskia he and Bishop Flaget were re-
ceived with great hospitality at the residence of Colonel Pierre Menard.
From there they went to Ste. Genevieve where Father Henri Pratte
was the parish priest, and thence to St. Louis, arriving October 17,
1817, where Bishop Flaget, as we have seen, successfully arranged
for the residence of Bishop Dubourg.

While they were in St. Louis two members of the parish of
"St. Mary's of the Barrens," situated about eighteen miles from Ste.
Genevieve, came to St. Louis at the instance of Father Dunand,
the last Trappist priest remaining in the Missouri country, who
occasionally visited that parish, and in the name of the other members
of the congregation, numbering thirty five families, requested the
Bishop to intercede with Bishop Dubourg to choose their parish
as the location for the future seminary. They oflFered to donate six
hundred and forty acres of land to that end. They received the
assurance that the wish of the inhabitants, on the arrival of Bbhop
Dubourg, would be favorably entertained. Bishop Flaget then re-
turned to hb own diocese, after leaving Father DeAndreb at Ste.
Genevieve, where afterward, as we have seen, he received Bbhop
Dubourg. Bbhop Flaget sent Father Pratte to St. Loub to remove
any diflficulties that might arise there, prior to the arrival of Bbhop
Dubourg. Father DeAndreb remained at Ste. Genevieve, and thb
was the first scene of hb apostolic labors in the diocese of Loubiana.

3=4 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

From Ste. Genevieve he wrote Father Sicardi, "We need whole col-
onies of missionaries with considerable pecuniary resources in
order to make rapid prepress in these immense woods."

As his Vicar- General, Father DeAndreis went with Bishop Du-
bourg to St. Louis. As soon as the Bishop was settled there, another
delegation from the parish of "St. Mary's of the Barrens" waited on
him and repealed the proposal made to Bishop Flaget. The Bishop
was much impressed by the generosity of the offer, and the ardor of
the faith which animated the people. He promised to personaJly
visit them and examine the location ; when shortly afterward he did
so, he found the location very satisfactory and so reported to Father
DeAndreis, who immediately, as Superior of the order in America,
approved the plan to establish a house
of the Congregation of the Missions
there. The work of erecting St. Mary's
Seminary was now ordered begun which
for half a century was to shine "like a
beacon light of learning in the west,"
and give celebrity to the name of the
"Barrens." The name "Barrens" was
applied to the small prairies of South-
western Kentucky, from whence most
of the early settlers came, and by them
bestowed on the prairies they found in
their new home. In speaking of the seminary, the old students
usually simply refer to it as "the Barrens."

Father DeAndreis now called Father Rosati and the other mem-
bers of his order from Bardstown to "the Barrens," to push the work
of erecting (he new seminary. Father De La Croix, a priest skilled
in architecture, was sent there by Bishop Dubourg. In the spring
of 1818, with the assistance of the people, the work had already made
considerable progress. Some ground had been cleared, log cabins
erected, and the foundation for a church laid. In December, 1818,
all the members of the Congregation had arrived from Bardstown at
"the Barrens" where, says Father DeAndreis, reside "the best Cath-
olics in the diocese, all Anglo-Americans, an honest and industrious
people." In this year Father Carretti, a native of Porto Maurizio who
came to America with Bishop Dubourg, died in St. Louis. Father
DeAndreis also records that Father Francois Xavier Dahmen and
Father Tichitoli studied theology under him in St. Louis. Father

BUILDING THE SEMINARY 325

Dahmen afterwards, from 1822 to 1840, was parish priest of Ste. Gene-
vieve.*' In this year Father Cellini and two students, F. Borgna and
another, arrived there from Italy to attend the seminary. Father
Cellini was parish priest of St. Michaels (Fredericktown) from 1827
to 1849. ^^ d^^ January 6th, 1849 at St. Louis, old age rendering
him unfit for active ministerial duty.

During the progress of the work, Bishop Dubourg and Father
DeAndreis frequently visited '*the Barrens" and gave assistance as
appears from what Father DeAndreis writes to Father Baccaria, the
Superior of the order, at Monte Citerio. In a letter dated 19th of
September, 181 9, he says, "I wish I could give you some idea of our
establishment which covers about one square mile of land, seemingly
uncultivated since the time of Adam. Our house will be habitable
next November; the expense of building in this country is enormous,
though we are as saving as possible and everyone does his share of the
work. Father Cellini labors like any hired workman, and the Bishop
himself does not shrink from helping to carry the lumber, he remains
the whole day in the heat of the sun spurring on the workmen and
superintending the undertaking." In the meanwhile, he says, the
seminary is "in a miserable log cabin" made of logs roughly put
together, and that the rules of the order were observed with as much
exactitude as the situation would admit. He, however, observes
that the fare was very poor, consisting of ill-baked bread, water
instead of wine, meat now and then, potatoes, cabbage and other
vegetables, milk and bread being their choicest food. He complained
of the extremes of heat and cold, and also of the insects, of which he
counted ten different species, "which attack us in the night," but, of
all these, "the tick" which buries itself in the flesh, caused the great-
est suffering, and he concludes, that "the glory of God and salvation
of souls" alone is what induced him to remain. All this, however, did
not prevent Father Beccari, who had succeeded Father Sicardi, from
sending new colonies of missionaries to "St. Mary's of the Barrens."

In 1820, this first and oldest collegiate institution of Missouri was
well established. But now, too, the life of Father DeAndreis was
fast ebbing away, and October 14, 1820, he died at St. Louis, much
regretted and lamented. Father Leo R. DeNeckere, then a young
priest of the "Congregation of the Missions," but afterwards Bishop

" He was the first priest consecrated in St. Louis by Bishop Dubourg;
he had been a soldier in Bonaparte's army. The famous priest Father Charles
Nerinyck on the 24th of August, 1824, died at his house on his return from
Perryville where he had founded the Bethlehem convent of the Sisters of Loretto.

326 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

of New Orleans, watched at his bed-side during the closing dajrs of
his life. From St. Louis his body was carried to St. Mary's of the
Barrens, and there beneath the altar of the church, rest his mortal
remains. Before his death he appointed Father Rosati*' Superior of
the "Congregation of the Missions" in America, and under his
able and energetic management, the Seminary of St. Mary's of the
Barrens soon attained a wide reputation. In 1827, Father Rosati
was appointed Bishop of Tenegra in paiiibus, and in 1829, first Bish-
op of St. Louis. The church of St. Joachim at Old Mines, in Wash-
ington county, consecrated on the 29th day of October, 1820, was one
of the first fruits of the missionary labors of this order.*

Among the many eminent men who received their training at St.
Mary's Seminary Bishop John Timon should also be mentioned.
He became a resident of St. Louis in 181 9 and engaged in business
there. But in 1823 he abandoned worldly pursuits, entered St.
Mary's Seminary as a theological student, was admitted to the priest-
hood, performed much missionary work and died Bishop of Buffalo.
When he entered the seminary it consisted only of several small log
houses. "In the largest cabin," says his biographer, "one story in
height was the university; in the northwest comer of the building
was the theology department for study and lecture ; in the northeast
corner was the room for philosophy and general literature ; the south-
west corner was used for a tailor-shop, and the southeast for a shoe-
maker's department." All the surroundings indicated poverty, but

" Bishop Joseph Rosati, a native of Sora, kingdom of Naples, where he
was born in 1789; became a member of the Congregation of the Priests of the
Mission of St. Vincent de Paul; came to America with Father DeAndreis; ap-
pointed second superior of the order in America; first Bishop of St. Louis;
established the Jesuits in St. Louis, the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Ladies of the
Sacred Heart, the Sisters of Visitation and Sisters of Charity, and founded the
St. Louis Hospital and several colleges for boys and three academies for girls;
member of the Provincial Councils of 1829, 1833, 1837, and 1840; calleid to
Rome, sent on diplomatic mission to Hayti ; consecrated Archbishop Kendrick
as coadjutor; died in Rome September 24, 1843, and buried at Monte Citario
in a chapel dedicated to St. Vincent de Paul.

* This chuich was consecrated by Father Joseph Rosati, the successor as
superior of the order of Father de Andreis, assisted by Fathers Frangois Cellini,
F. X. Dahmen, John Odin, Louis Rondot, John Timon, Philip Borgna, Angelic
Mascaroni, Regis Loisel and Benoit Roux, and the following laymen — Louis
Tucker, Frederick Saucier, Hilary Tucker, George Hamilton, and James Shan-
non. Reverend Henri Pratte, Parish priest of Ste. Genevieve, had chax^ of
this parish until his death in 1822. He was succeeded by Reverend Francois
X. Dahmen, 1822-1828, and he, by Reverend John Bouillier. The parish
register begins April 20th 1820, recording the baptism of Edward Colman. The
St. James Catholic church of Potosi was first attached to the church of St.
Joachim as a mission and the earliest baptism at Potosi, dated 1827, was re-
corded by Father John Timon.

SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEART 327

^'such was the piety and the resignation of the inmates of the semi-
nary under the pious government of Father Rosati that all seemed
to feel happy and advanced in the way of salvation. "'^ In connection
with the seminary a college for seculars was opened in an unfinished
house, and here also many sons of the early Protestant settlers of
Missouri received an education. At the time Bishop Timon attended
the seminary, Father J. M. Odin, afterwards Bishop of New Orleans,
was also a student there.

When Bishop Dubourg was in France in 181 7, he applied to the
Superior-General of the Order of the Sacred Heart for a colony of
those religious ladies to establish a house of their order and a school
in his diocese. This request of the Bishop, who knew so well how
to appeal to the religious and charitable feelings, was acceded to and
five members of this order with Madame Duchesne as Superior were
sent from France to establish a school for girls in that then far away
diocese. This little band of devoted and heroic women sailed from
France in the spring of 181 8, reached New Orleans safely, and on
the 22nd day of August arrived at St. Louis. At first they opened a
school at St. Charles, but through either the poverty or indifference
of the people met very little encouragement. After remaining there
for one year it became manifest to these ladies that with their school
they would not be able to earn even a scanty subsistence at St.
Charles and they therefore concluded to remove to Florissant. Fa-
ther Dunand, the same pious Trappist who had induced the people of
**the Barrens" to petition the Bishop for the location of the seminary
in their neighborhood, now assisted the sisters in their removal to
Florissant, where on Christmas Eve 18 19 they occupied their new
home. Here they remained until 1827 and then began to erect a
convent on a tract of 27 acres of land adjacent to St. -Louis, condi-
tionally donated to them by John Mullanphy. In 1847 ^^^y sold
their convent at Florissant and removed to St. Louis. Madame
Duchesne remained Superior of the order in America until 1840. The
labors and hardships she endured, the holy life she led, and heroic
virtues she manifested, entitle her to a conspicuous place among the
early female educators of our state. Few are the old families of St.
Louis in which some daughters were not educated by the accom-
plished ladies of this order. So conspicuous were the merits of
Mother Duchesne that the Congregation of Rites in Rome, it is
said, has under consideration her beatification.

^' Life of Bishop Timoiii p. 28.

328 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

With the presence of Bishop Dubourg, life and activity began to
characterize the Catholic congregations of the territory which before
his time had seemed to be suffering from dry-rot. Almost imme-
diately after his arrival in St. Louis he laid the comer-stone of a new
brick church to replace the old post and log structure. The archi-
tect of this new church was Gabriel Paul and the builder Hugh
()*Neil. But this church was never plastered and ceiled, for it soon
gave way to a stone cathedral.

In St. Charles and Portage des Sioux, after the departure of Father
Dunand, Father Charles de LaCroix for a time supplied the congre-
gations. Father Dunand was known among the French Catholics
of Florissant and elsewhere as **le Pere Prieur," and was held in high
esteem. In May 1820 he returned to France. From 1804 to the
time of his departure to France he seems to have visited every
Catholic community west of the river, and was indefatigable in his
religious lalx)rs.

Father Francois Niel, a French priest, in 181 8, under the auspices
of Bishop Dul)ourg, opened a school in St. Louis which continued
until 1819. In 1820 Father Leo Deys, Father Andreas Ferrari, Father
Aristidc Anduze and Father Michael Saulnier who came with Father
DeAndreis, at the recjuest of Bishop Dubourg, acted as professors in
this school. At this time F'ather Niel was curate of the cathedral.
This school was the germ from which grew the St. Louis University,
founded a few years afterward by the Jesuits.

.CHAPTER XX

The Louisiana Purchase — Westward Movement of American Pioneers — Britisli
Proclamation, 1 763, Prohibits Settlements West of the Alleghanies — Virginia
Colonial Assembly, 17691 Asserts Authority over Botecourt County "on the
Mississippi'* — Relations of France and Spain to Colonial Boundary Claims
— Territory Northwest of Ohio to the Lakes Becomes Part of Virginia by
Conquest — By Treaty of 1783 Free Navigation of the Mississippi Seciu^ to
United States and Great Britain — Boundary Lines of Canada Fixed by the
Military Operations of Virginia — Significance of Erection of Fort JefiFerson
South of the Mouth of the Ohio — Free Navigation of Mississippi Denied by
Spain Leads to Louisiana Purchase — ^New England and Eastern States Dis-
posed to Acquiesce in Spain's Denial of Free Navigation — Indignation Aroused
m Kentucky — Independent Spirit of Western Pioneers — Iscuation and Dis-
satisfaction of Western Population Basis of Spanish Intrigues — ^New
Madrid a Spanish Port of Entry — Spanish Espionage of River Com-
merce — The District of "Miro'* — General James Wilkinson Chief Agent of
Spain — His Intrigues and Efforts to Deliver Kentucky to Spain — Sentiment
for Independent Government in Order to Secure Free Navigation of the Mis-
sissippi-— Colonial Scheme of Colonel Morgan Frustrated by Wilkinson —
Gayoso Goes to Mouth of the Ohio to Meet American Emissaries —
Free Navigation of the Mississippi Secured under Treaty of 1 795 — Louisiana
Acquired by Napoleon, 1800 — Free Navigation of the Mississippi a^ain
Denied — Universal Discontent of Western Population — WarlikePrej>arations
Authorized by Congress — ^Negotiations by Monroe and Livingston in Paris —
Motives Impelling Napoleon to Sell Louisiana — Sale Quickly Consummated
— Marbois' Account of ihe Conclusion of the Treaty — Objections to Ratifi-
cation of Treaty in United States — Constitutional Impediments — A Con-
ceded Unconstitutional Precedent — Predicted Consequences of the Purchase
of Louisiana — Dissolution of the Union Planned in Massachusetts — Popular
Approval of the Louisiana Purchase — Survival of the Union Due to the
Purchase of Louisiana.

The acquisition of Louisiana, from France, by purchase, will
always be considered by the student as one of the most impor-
tant events in the history of the United States, and in its far
reaching consequences certainly one of the greatest governmental
transactions ever consummated by peaceful methods.

The story of the gradual spread of the English-speaking settlers,
from the Atlantic seaboard across the formidable barriers of the
Appalachian range, through a wilderness tenanted by fierce and
war-like savage Indian tribes, to the waters of the Mississippi, is a
romance of heroic achievement. Slowly, from the frontiers of Penn-
sylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, these settlers moved
westward.* Across the mountains and through the virgin forests

^ Marbois, p. 108. The planters who had come from England at first were
in no hurry to advance toward the mountains.

3*9

330 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

they opened roads, and moved beset by every peril. In the wilder-
ness they reared their rude log cabins, homes and fortresses at once,
and in the unbroken woods opened farms and planted the seeds
of future states.

Before the Revolution, these bold and hardy pioneers had
crossed the Alleghanies, built their homes on the banks of the
Alleghany and Monongahela ; organized society in the valley of the
Watauga; penetrated the wilderness beyond the Chattahoochee;
and, some of the most adventurous spirits following the Ohio,
Tennessee and Cumberland, had reached the mighty waters of the
Mississippi. Nor could the British government restrain this west-
ward movement. Although by royal proclamation, bearing date
October 3, 1763, settlements were prohibited farther west than the
Alleghanies, nevertheless such settlements were made. Evidently
with a view to assert its authority over, and its claim to the west,
when Botecourt county was organized by the Virginia Colonial As-
sembly in 1769, the following clause was inserted, **And whereas,
the people situated on the Mississippi, in said county of Botecourt,
will be very remote from the court-house, and must necessarily become
a separate county as soon as their numbers are sufficient, which prob-
ably will happen in short time ; be it therefore enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that the inhabitants of that part of the county of Bote-
court which lies on the said waters,' shall be exempted from the pay-
ment of any levies to be laid by the said county court for the purpose
of building a court-house and prison for said county."' The
celebrated settlement west of the mountains on the banks of
the Watauga, one of the branches of the Holston, was formed in di-
rect defiance of this royal proclamation and in 1776 was admitted
to representation in the Constitutional Convention of North Carolina.

The Revolution did not impede this westward march; it found
some of its staunchest supporters among the western settlers. Nor
during the struggle did the southern states lose sight of their western
boundary. It was well understood that Georgia claimed the country
to the Mississippi on the parallel of Savannah ; and during the war
North Carolina and Virginia began to survey their boundary lines
from the Atlantic to that river. North Carolina formed the Watauga
settlement into a county out of its territory west of the Alleghanies,
with the Mississippi as a western limit and this territory now consti-
tutes the state of Tennessee.

* Kercheval's History of the Valley of Virginia, p. 154.

k

COLONIAL CONQUESTS 331

Spain observed these claims with undisguised jealousy. In 1777,
Galvez, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, was instructed in case
the Americans showed a disposition to captiu'e the British posts on
the lower Mississippi, and deliver them to his Catholic Majesty, to
receive and hold them "in trust or deposit." ' Nor did France think
it advisable to give the Americans all the strength which was then
attainable. Spain at one time might have secured the largest part of
the territory claimed by the southern states, but failed to do so.
Galvez, however, in several brilliant campaigns conquered both
Floridas, and thus the limits of Spain were extended to the thirty-
first degree of north latitude, on the east bank of the Mississippi;
and it was also afterward claimed, that the expedition of Don Eugenio
Pur6e in 1781, from St. Louis, to the post of St. Joseph, and the cap-
ture of this post, gave possession of the country along **the river of
the Illinois," to Spain. The rupture between England and Spain,
and consequent conquests of the two Floridas by Galvez during the
Revolutionary war, gave the United States great satisfaction; a
minister was sent to Madrid by the Colonies to negotiate an alliance,
and particularly to secure the right of a free navigation of the
Mississippi to the sea, but this right Spain, supported by France, was
not willing to concede.

In 1778, during the Revolutionary war, under commission from
Virginia, General George Rogers Clark conquered all the British terri-
tory northwest of the Ohio River, to the Great Lakes, and established
American authority in the old French settlements on the Mississippi.
This conquered country was erected by Virginia, in 1778, into the
county of Illinois, and Colonel John Todd was appointed County
Lieutenant and Civil Commandant of the same. Under the orders
of Patrick Henry, Gen. Clark built Fort Jefferson at the mouth of the
Ohio.* North Carolina extended her boundaries to the Mississippi,
and Georgia proposed to establish, as the county of Bourbon, the
territory now embraced within the limits of the state of Mississippi.
In addition, the Indian victories of the troops of the southern
colonies in the Cherokee and Chickasaw country, was a palpable
assertion of dominion in this disputed territory.

When finally the negotiations for peace began, the country east of
the Mississippi and north of the Floridas had de facto become the west-

' Gayarre's History of Louisiana, p. iii, — Spanish Domination.

* At the mouth of Mayfield •creek, near the present town of Wyckliffe, in
Ballard county, Kentucky.

332 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

em limits of the southern states. Nevertheless, France and Spain
were anxious to exclude these states from the Mississippi, and de la
Lucerne, French Minister at Philadelphia, obtained from Congress a
resolution that our Minister should, in the peace negotiations as to
the western boundary, then pending, treat under the direction of
France; and further he was directed to "not insist" upon the free
navigation of the Mississippi below the thirty-first degree of north
latitude.

Relying on the proclamation of 1763, which practically conceded
to the Indians, the Shawnees, Choctaws, Creeks, and Chickasaws,
the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, it was
claimed during the peace negotiations between France, Spain, England
and the United States, that the western boundary of the United States
could not extend to the Missksippi, because Great Britain had ex-
cluded the whites from this territory, and thereby acknowledged the
independence of the Indians settled in it. Count de Vergennes
suggested that the western boundary of the United States south of
the Ohio, be a line starting at the north boundary line of Florida, on
the Tombigbee river, up that river northeast until its head was reached,
thence across to the bend of the Cumberland, and down the river to
the Ohio, — all east of this line to be territory of the United States, and
all west to be free Indian territory, but under the protection of Spain ;
and the territory north of the Ohio, Vergennes proposed should be
regulated by the "Court of London." But Spain as already stated
even denied the title of the United States to the territory northwest
of the Ohio, claiming that she had conquered the country "near the
sources of the Illinois," and that all the country not conquered and
owned by her belonged to the Indians, and therefore could not belong
to the United States.* Thus it was proposed to exclude the United
States from the Mississippi river, France conspiring with Spain, and
perhaps looking to the future re-acquisition of the Louisiana country.
But Jay would not assent to these terms ; and after tedious and pro-
tracted negotiations, a final treaty of peace was concluded September
3, 1783, the ratification being exchanged May 17, 1784, which secur-
ed Spain west and east Florida ; and by the eighth article of the treaty,
free navigation of the Mississippi from its source to its mouth, was
conceded to both citizens of the United States and Great Britain.
The Mississippi was made the boundary line on the west between
Spain and the United States and on the south, it was fixed on the

• Carr's Missouri, p. 72

BOUNDARY LINES 333

thirty-first degree north parallel, running due east from the Missis-
sippi to the Appalachicola, thence down the middle of that river to
its junction with the Flint, thence to the head of St. Mary's river,
and down that river to the Atlantic ocean.

The full significance of the energetic action of Virginia during
the Revolutionary war in extending the sphere of her military opera-
tions to the Mississippi, and northwest of the Ohio, is not fully appre-
ciated at this day. Through the maze of hostile intrigues the United
States secured the Mississippi as a western boundary ; but it is certain
that the military operations inaugurated by Virginia made possible
this result. The conquest and possession of the country north
of the Ohio, and the erection of a fort south of the mouth of the
Ohio on the Mississippi, together with military possession of the terri-
tory it implied, could not be denied. Without this actual occupation
of the territory northwest of the Ohio, secured by the brilliant and
heroic campaign of General Clark, the boundary of Canada, instead
of being the Great Lakes might have been the Ohio river on the south,
and the Mississippi river on the west. In the magnitude of its
results, the far seeing statesmanship which prompted Virginia
to send an expedition to wrest from English possession the wilder-
ness country bordering on the Mississippi, will in all future time,
easily stand as one of the pre-eminent events in the annals of
the Revolutionary period. So also the erection of Fort Jefferson
by order of Governor Patrick Henry, made impossible the con-
tention that the country between the Tombigbee, the Cumber-
land and the Mississippi rivers, was neutral Indian territory, because
it was also in part at least, de facto Virginia territory, and the cam-
paigns against the Indians in this country were undoubtedly a prac-
tical assertion of dominion.

The fact that the Mississippi was secured as the western bound-
ary of the United States ultimately led to the Louisiana purchase.
Although under the treaty of 1783, the free navigation of the Missis-
sippi was conceded to the United States, Spain practically withheld
or denied this privilege and almost immediately after the treaty in
1784, Galvez instructed the Governor of Louisiana that the English
and Americans did not, under this treaty, have "the right which they
put forward to the free navigation of the Mississippi." • Don
Diego Gardoqui, the Spanish Minister at Philadelphia, declared

• General Archives of the Indies, Seville, Letter of Galvez dated Aranjues,
June 26, 1784.

334 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

expressly that the Spanish King would never pennit any nation to
use that river, both banks of which belonged to him. Waiving, for
a time, the just claim of the United States, Jay thought it expedient
in order to secure certain trade facilities and mercantile advantages
for the New England and Eastern states, to suggest a new treaty with
Spain "limited, say to twenty or thirty years, the United States stipu-
lating that for the term of the treaty, they would forbear to navigate
the Mississippi below their southern boundary." In Kentucky this
proposal aroused great bitterness. The free navigation of the river
as guaranteed by the treaty, was necessary to the people west of the
Alleghanies. The rich, productive fields of Kentucky yielded bounti-
fully in vain, without this natural great water-way to the sea. It was
the only outlet. When the proposal by which the eastern states, in
order to secure commercial advantages of their own, intended to
sacrifice the interests of the young and growing communities of the
west, was clearly understood the flames of indignation rose high.

The population of the west was rapidly increasing. In 1769 the
wife and daughter of Daniel Boone were "the first white women that
ever stood on the Kentucky river," but in 1785 an aggressive and
high-spirited people had settled in the country. Thoughtful men
already began to see that the Americans would eventually possess
the whole Mississippi valley. When in 1788, Brissot de Warville
traveled through the western country he met Dr. Saugrain, then a
resident of Gallipolis, and records that Dr. Saugrain said, that sooner
or later the Spaniards would be forced to quit the Mississippi and
give up Louisiana, that the Americans would cross the river and es-
tablish themselves in the country, and that he considered Liouisiana
"one of the finest countries of the universe."^

Among the settlers and pioneers of this new western country a
spirit of independence prevailed. People were self reliant. They
felt that their interests could only be effectually protected by the or-
ganization of a new state west of the mountain wilderness, which
seemed to separate them from the east by a topographic barrier.
They had an inadequate government, with no protection at all except
that which their own strong arms afforded. Across the Ohio, wild
and ferocious savages living under British pay, made insecure their
homes by incursions. They petitioned Virginia and Congress for
the privilege to organize a new and separate state of the Union. This

' New Travels in the United States by Brissot de Warville, p. 259. (London
Ed. 1792.)

SUBTLE INTRIGUES 335

privilege was denied. What wonder, when it was proposed to close
up the Mississippi and to subject the productions of their soil to seiz-
ure and plunder, and manifold exactions from a foreign power
planted at the mouth of this great river, that the people should be
dissatisfied.

Of this condition of affairs Spain took notice, and, using this dis-
satisfaction as a basis, almost immediately after the close of the Revo-
lution, a series of complicated and subtle intrigues were begun, to
separate the west from the Atlantic states. The field of operation
was not confined to Kentucky alone, but extended over the whole
southwest, involving many public men, land companies and Indian
tribes, and continued for a period of twenty years, until the final
acquisition of the. Louisiana territory. Nor was Spain alone engaged
in these intrigues. France, too, endeavored to regain Louisiana, and
thus encircle the Atlantic states, and set bounds to the "childish
avarice of the Americans," who, says Rochefoucault-Liancourt,
"wish to grasp everything." Great Britain also had not given up
hope of regaining a foothold in the Mississippi Valley, and in one
instance at least this led to the exposure, humiliation and expulsion
of a United States Senator.*

But the Spanish control of the mouth of the Mississippi was a con-
stant source of friction. Now by vigorous commercial restrictions
it was made manifest to the people of Kentucky, Tennessee and Mis-
sissippi that they were aliens in New Orleans. Then by a generous
policy the advantage of a political connection with Spain was clearly
shown. The object was to make manifest that to secure free navi-
gation of the Mississippi they must attach themselves to Spain, and

" William Blount, bom in North Carolma, a member from that state to the
Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States, appointed, by
Washington, Governor of the territory south of the Ohio ; identified with the
history of Tennessee from the earliest settlement of the country ; a member of
the Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1796. On his motion this conven-
tion adopted as an essential part of the Bill of Rights the declaration, that
"an equal participation of the free navigation of the Mississippi is one of the
inherent rights of the citizens of this state ; it can not therefore, be conceded to
any prince, potentate, power or persons whatever." This was notice, not only
to the hated Spaniards, but also to New England and the Northeastern states,
of the sentiment of the people of the new state. — Parton's Life of Jackson, Vol.
I., p. 172. Blount was elected first United States senator from Tennessee; ex-
pelled July, 1797, on charge that he conspired to set on foot a military expedition
to Invade the Spanish temtories and conquer same for the King of Great Britain.
But he did not lose the confidence of the people of Tennessee, nor forfeit their
good opinion; he was elected to the State Senate inunediately thereafter from
ELnox county, and elected Speaker of the Senate unanimously December 3, 1797.
He died at the age of fifty-three, March 21, 1800.

336 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

that as American citizens they could never enjoy this advantage. The
idea seemed, indeed, well calculated to greatly enlist the sympathy of
the western people. Such an alliance or connection offered immunity
from all kinds of exactions, and apparently opened a vista of great
commercial and financial prosperity. As it was, a military post,
and port of entry, was established at New Madrid and all boats were
compelled to land there. On all conmiodities descending the river
the owners were "compelled to pay an excise duty to the Government,
varying at different times according to the arbitrary will of the In-
tendant, or the orders of the King, from six to twenty-five percent
ad valoreipi." The cargoes were overhauled, and if the Spanish
officers suspected deception, were even required to be unloaded. Fi-
nally, equipped with proper papers, showing that the duties were paid,
the boats were required to land at each port further down the stream,
and to exhibit their evidence that all duties had been discharged,
and in default the batteries were opened, the boat pursued, and the
owners subjected to a heavy fine and imprisonment and confiscation
of goods. The officers along the river often were tyrannical and arbi-
trary, and probably greedy and corrupt. This system, however,
seemed to favor the far-reaching designs of Spain.

Many leading men of the country were enlisted in the scheme
to separate the western country by the free and lavish use of money.
The determination of North Carolina to hold what is now the state
of Tennessee, and the dissatisfaction caused by this policy, among
the people west of the mountain range, for a time greatly aided the
Spanish schemes. The organization of the state of "Frankland" by
General Sevier no doubt was encouraged by Spanish financial aid.
Sevier, in 1788, wrote Gardoqui that, "the inhabitants are unanimous
in their vehement desire to form an alliance and treaty of commerce
with Spain, and to put themselves under her protection." He also
asked for a supply of arms and ammunition to throw off the yoke of
North Carolina. To show their sympathy with Spain and antipathy
to North Carolina, the name of the district was changed by the people,
from Cumberland District to "Miro District," in honor of Don Este-
van Miro," then Governor of Louisiana. And it is quite plain now,

• Succeeded Galvez as Governor-General of Louisiana in 1 786 ; was a Col-
onel of the Royal armies; served under Galvez in his memorable campaign
resulting in the conquest of east and west Florida. Miro's administration ter-
minated in 1 79 1, when he sailed for Spain, where he successively attained the
ranks of Brigadier-General and Mariscal de Campo or Lieutenant-General. Ga-
yarre says, he "had a sound judgment, a high sense of honor and an excellent
heart,'' and that he possessed two qualities not always found together "suavity

WILKINSON 337

that if Miro had actively co-operated with Gardoqui, the general
feeling of dissatisfaction prevailing in this district, might have been
greatly utilized in the interest of Spain. But this opportunity was
allowed to pass.

The chief agent of Spain in all the intrigues to bring about a sep-
aration of the western country from the United States, was General
James Wilkinson. He came to Lexington, Kentucky, in February
1 784, opened a store there and soon acquired great influence. He was
a delegate to the first Kentucky Convention which met in Danville, De-
cember 27,1 784. Although only a short time a resident, and a compar-
ative stranger, he was selected to prepare the resolutions and address in
favor of a separation from Virginia, and this address finally secured
statehood for Kentucky in 1 787. His conmiercial operations becoming
more extended, he naturally began to take an interest in the navigation
of the Mississippi, and when the news reached Kentucky, that Minister
Jay ** had proposed to the Spanish Minister to surrender the navigation
of the Mississippi for thirty years," Wilkinson, Muter,^^ Innis," John

of temper and energy." He was a man of education, master of several lan-
guages, ''remarkable for strict morality*' and "indefatigable industry." —
Gayarre's Louisiana, — Spanish Domination — page 310. He married a daugh-
ter of Macarty and was a brother-in-law of Morris Conway. Daniel Clark
says, in his memoir to Secretary Pickering, that Miro "was a weak man, unac-
quainted with the American government, ignorant even of the position of Ken-
tucky with the respect to his province," and alarmed at the very idea of an
irruption of Kentucky men. — Wilkinson's Memoirs, Vol. 2, Appendix VI.

*• George Muter, a Scotchman, Colonel of infantry in the Virginia State
Line, Commissioner of the Virginia War Office, but forced to resign for neglect
and mismanagement in his office in 1781; came to Kentucky in 1783; impli-
cated in the Spanish conspiracy in 1792; elected Circuit judge, afterwardis a
judge of the court of Appeals; became very unpopular on account of a decision
affecting real estate which it was openly charged was corruptly made; then
reversed himself and resigned on condition that he should be paid a pension of
$300, annually; afterwards this law was repealed and he became a pensioner
of Judge Thomas Todd.

1* Judge Harry Innis, the coadjutor of Sebastian, remained unmolested and
even uncensured by any expression of opinion on the part of any public func-
tionary; was judge of the United States District court, and Marshall called him
"a self convicted illicit intriguer with a foreign power." Innis sued Humph-
rey Marshall for charging him with being "a weak and a partial judge, an enemy
to his government, and one whom he ranked with a Sebastian, a Blount and an
Arnold." The case was tried but the jury did not agree, so the case finally went
out of court, each party paying his own costs. Harry Innis was bom in Virginia
in 1752 ; died in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1816; son of an Episcopalian minister;
lawyer, employed by the Committee of Public Safety of Virginia to superintend
the working of the Chisel lead mines; in 1783 made judge of the District court
in Kentucky; 178J appointed Attorney-General, and in 1787 appointed United
States District Judge; was deep in the Spanish intrigue, and only saved from
expulsion from office and disgrace by his p>osition and his friends, retained the
confidence of George Washington and his friends in Congress protected him.
His daughter married J. J. Crittenden.

338 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Brown,^' Sebastian," and others at once made it the subject of bitter
political agitation, so that both Virginia and Congress were compelled
to make a declaration that no rights would be surrendered.

In June, 1787, Wilkinson, in the garb of a merchant and specula-
tor, went to New Orleans with a boat load of tobacco, flour, butter and
bacon. An order had been issued to seize and confiscate the boat
and its load, but Wilkinson secured an interview with Governor Miro,
and he permitted him to sell his cargo without paying any duty. After
making his sales, Wilkinson remained in New Orleans for several
months, was hospitably feted by Miro and secured the privilege to
introduce, free of duty, tobacco and many other articles of western
trade. In September following he sailed for Philadelphia, and returned
triumphant to Kentucky, announcing that he had secured special trade
privileges for himself, including a contract for the annual shipment
of two hundred thousand pounds of tobacco, on account of the Span-
ish government, at ten dollars per hundred. From this time on,
Wilkinson carried on a cypher correspondence with Miro and his
successor, Carondelet. Being a purchaser of tobacco he thereby se-
cured great influence in Kentucky, because all the planters were anx-
ious to sell this staple to New Orleans, and such sales could only be
made through him. "I am convinced" said Miro in 1788, "that
there is no means more powerful to accomplish the principal object
we have in view * * * than the promise that the Government will
take as much as six million pounds of their tobacco instead of two
million, which are now bought from them."** And the purpose of
Wilkinson is said, by Miro, to have been "the delivering up of Ken-
tucky into His Majesty's hands, which is the main object to which
Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely," and thus forever
constituting "this province a rampart for the protection of New
Spain. "

** John Brown, first Senator of Kentucky, son of a respectable clergyman
of Rock Bridge, Virginia; received a good education; came to Kentucky in
1783, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1786-7.

" Sebastian, says Marshall, was execrated by the sound and honest part of the
community for the guilt and turpitude of his conduct. Marshall's History of
Kentucky, Vol. 2, p. 332. Benjamin Sebastian, not a native of any of the col-
onies, was for a time an Episcopal minister, then became a lawyer and early
drifted to Kentucky where he was elected judge of the Supreme court. He
never complained of his punishment, and took his position as a scape-goat with-
out murmur; he admitted his complicity, and that he received a pension for
services rendered in 1795; was associated with Wilkinson and Brown in 1788;
his pension amounted to $2,000, per annum. When the facts of this Spanish con-
spiracy came to be fully known he was forced out of office.

^* Gayarre's Louisiana, Spanish Domination, p. 208.

DISCONTENT 339

Before Wilkinson's boats arrived at New Orleans, practically no
trade intercourse existed between the settlers on the Ohio, and New
Orleans and lower Louisiana. Now and then an emigrant by dint
of entreaty, or at the solicitation of friends at New Orleans, was allow-
ed to settle near Natchez with his family and slaves, and bring his
cattle, furniture and farming implements into the country with him.
Venturesome traders going down the river were liable to have their
property seized by the first Spanish commanding oflicer whom they
might chance to meet. This policy now was suddenly changed.
Emigration from the western county into the Spanish possessions
was encouraged, the property of the new settlers was allowed to be
brought into the country free of duty, passports were issued to such
settlers to insure their safety, and lands, too, were freely granted.
Among these settlers were many who were only speculators. These
had shipments of supplies made to their address, and which were
admitted free of duty, and having sold these supplies and finished
their business, they would return home under pretense of going
up the river for their families. Only a comparatively small number
remained in the country. But the encouragement given to this
emigration opened a market for the produce on the Ohio. Flour,
bacon, com and tobacco found a ready sale, and consequently
lands in Kentucky began to increase in value. In 1788, Daniel
Clark writes Wilkinson that he can make him rich, if he will
direct his neighbors to him whenever they have business to transact
at New Orleans. He says that a thousand barrels of pork would
sell here annually "at ten hard dollars per barrel.''^ Flour,
which before Wilkinson came to New Orleans sold at $4 per barrel
on the Ohio, increased in price to $9 a barrel, and from ten to fifteen
thousand barrels generally found a ready sale in lower Louisiana.
This restricted and precarious trade however gave life and activity
to the whole upper country, and any regulation or tariflF calculated to
hinder or obstruct it at once resulted in stagnation and commercial
disaster, and led naturally to general dissatisfaction.

In 1788, both before and immediately after the adoption of the
Federal constitution, general discontent prevailed, and the sentiment
was universal for the establishment of a separate and independent
government, in order to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi.
Wilkinson industriously augmented this feeling of unrest. Gardoqui,
the Spanish Minister at Philadelphia, had been instructed by the

** Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 13.

340 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Spanish court to encourage the people of the western country to form
an alliance with Spain. He employed a person named Pierre Wower
d'Arges as his agent to invite people from Kentucky and elsewhere,
to form American settlements in lower Louisiana, by oflFering liberal
concessions of land, permission to introduce slaves and farming uten-
sils free of duty, and promising that the settlers should not be dis-
turbed in their religion, although they could not be permitted to
build churches or have salaried ministers.^' D'Arges had not only
received instructions from Gardoqui, but also from Count Florida
Blanca, one of the members of the cabinet of Madrid, to do all in his
power to dismember the Union, but when he presented himself with
his instructions to Miro, and solicited his co-operation, to his great
astonishment he was detained in New Orleans, on various pretexts,
and not allowed to go up the river. Miro was in the meantime writing
to Count Florida Blanca, explaining his purpose, showing that the
mission of D'Arges interfered with the plans of Wilkinson, and re-
vealing to him the true purpose of Wilkinson's visit to New Orleans.
An important part of the plan of Miro and Wilkinson was to exasper-
ate the feelings of the people and arouse discontent by raising all man-
ner of obstruction to trade and the free navigation of the river.
"The western people," says Miro in his letter, "would no longer have
any inducement to immigrate, if they were put in possession of free
trade with us. This is the reason why this privilege should only
be granted to a few individuals having influence among them, as is
suggested in Wilkinson's memorial, because on their seeing the ad-
vantage bestowed on these few, they might be easily persuaded to
acquire the like by becoming Spanish subjects."

About this time Colonel Morgan addressed his memorial to
Gardoqui, proposing to plant a great American colony near the mouth
of the Ohio, in a district now within the limits of Missouri, And re-
ceived the grant which has been already fully detailed. This gigan-
tic enterprise, if Miro had co-operated with Gardoqui, undoubtedly
would have been successful and exercised a potent influence in the

*• This Pierre Wower d'Arges was a Frenchman, a Knight of St. Louis, who
arrived at the Falls of the Ohio in 1785 ; claimed to be a naturalist engaged in
inquiring into the productions of the country ; his confidential friend was Bar-
th^lemi Tardiveau, then a resident of Kentucky, who afterward removed to
Kaskaskia, and then to New Madrid. D'Arges, Miro said, while residing at
Louisville drew drafts on M. Marbois, then French Consul at New York; finally
lived as one of the family of Count de Moustier, French Minister, before the
French Revolution, and from this he argued that he undoubtedly was still seek-
ing to promote French interests in Louisiana.

WILKINSON FAVORS SEPARATION 341

affairs of the Mississippi valley, and might have given it an entirely
different political destiny. But Miro frustrated this scheme at the
instance of Wilkinson, who wrote him that if he allowed Morgan's
plan to be carried out, "it will destroy the whole fabric of which we
have laid out the foundation." Wilkinson urged upon him that the
Spam'ards should be the carriers of the commerce of the river, and thus
"his Catholic Majesty will have on the river thirty thousand boatmen
at least, whom it will be easy to equip and convert into armed bodies,
to assist in the defense of the province from whatever quarter it may
be threatened." By various devices, tending to cause unrest and
discontent, Wilkinson, subsidized by Spanish gold and trading privi-
leges, for years endeavored to wean the people from allegiance to the
general Government, without, however, unfolding his true purpose.
The question, however, of separation from the United States was
openly discussed at this time by many distinguished inhabitants, but
never brought forward in a formal manner. Everything seemed to
hinge on the demand of the people of Kentucky for admission into
the Union as an independent state.

When the second Constitutional Convention of Kentucky met in
1789, Wilkinson wrote Miro that he would feel the pulse of the mem-
bers, and consult with two or three leading men capable of assisting
him, and then "disclose as much of our great scheme as may appear
opportune, according to circumstances." He was careful in his
promises, and too politic to disclose much of his plan to the public
in general. He knew well that the people, though greatly dissatis-
fied, were not ripe for his scheme. He subsidized a few of the promi-
nent men, and wrote that these were "decidedly in favor of separating
from the United States, and an alliance with Spain," but his hope was
that Spain, by rigorously prohibiting the nj^vigation of the river, and
bringing ruin upon the people, would drive them into rebellion
against the general Government, and disrupt the Union. "Spain,"
he wrote, "ought to consider the navigation of the Mississippi as one
of the most precious jewels of her crown," and further, "if Congress
can obtain the free use of the Mississippi, and if Spain should cede it
without condition, it would strengthen the Union and deprive Spain
of aU influence in this district." In the convention, Wilkinson
declared himself in favor of a separation, so as to secure the free
navigation of the Mississippi, but the matter was referred to a com-
mittee, a long recess was taken, and in the meantime the powers of
the new Constitution of the United States became manifest. Political

342 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

appointments were bestowed on many of Wilkinson's adherents,
Wilkinson himself was appointed Colonel in the new army, and
Spain's opportunity slipped away. Nevertheless Wilkinson, though
an officer in the United States army, maintained his treasonable
correspondence, but the flow of money from New Orieans was no
longer as free as before. Miro was displeased that he should be in
the actual service of the United States, and employed in military oper-
ations elsewhere, instead of remaining in Kentucky to urge secession.
He wrote him that it was his duty to remain there, ''because, according
to the answer received from the court, you are now our agent, and I
am instructed to give you to hope that the King will reward your
services, as I have already intimated to you." Many of Wilkinson's
adherents and malcontents began to fall away at this time, or they
became lukewarm, principally because the people were advised that
the question of the Mississippi was about to be settled amicably be-
tween Spain and the United States. The mere knowledge that some-
thing was being done tended greatly to allay public excitement. The
people were willing to wait if bona fide efforts were made to protect
and secure the rights guaranteed by the treaty. Wilkinson himself,
suspected by Washington, sought to become a Spanish subject in
order to secure protection in an emergency.

Baron Carondelet succeeded Miro in 1791.*^ But at this time he
could hardly hope to accomplish anything. Still he did not give up
the attempt and as his emissary employed one Thomas Power, who
for several years made New Madrid his place of residence. This
Power was an Englishman by birth, but a naturalized Spanish
subject, zealous in the service of Spain, intelligent, cautious and well
educated. Under one pretense or another he visited Kentucky and
endeavored by communication with Sebastian, Innes, Wilkinson and
others to revive the plots to separate the western states from the
Union which had been carried on under Miro's administration.
Through Power, Carondelet endeavored to ascertain the force, dis-
cipline and temper of the army under Wilkinson. He made a strong
appeal to the ambition of the latter, telling him that all it required on
his part was "firmness and resolution" to make the "western people
free and happy." He asked, "Can a man of your superior genius

" Don Francois Luis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, was a native of Flanders,
and in the service of Spain for many years, was a colonel in the Royal armies,
had been Governor of San Salvador and Guatemala, and in 1791 was appointed
Governor of Louisiana. He was an able man. In 1797 he was appointed
President of the Royal Audiencia of Quito.

NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI 343

prefer a subordinate and contracted position as Commander of the
small and insignificant army of the United States to the glory of being
the founder of an Empire, the liberator of so many millions of his
countrymen — the Washington of the West?"" These allurements
produced no effect. Wilkinson and his associates were too wise
to attempt so dangerous a scheme. Still they continued to receive
Spanish money, held a correspondence with the Spanish officials and
their representative, Power. In 1796 one Elisha Winter being at
New Madrid, at Fort Celeste, heard the ' Commandant Captain
Thomas Portelle make some observations he could not understand.
Asking the interpreter for an explanation, he was told that Portelle
had in his chamber up stairs "a Spanish lady, going to visit General
Wilkinson." This aroused Winter's curiosity, and he found that
the reference was to a chest of Spanish dollars, as much as five men
could handle, sent by the Spanish government to Wilkinson. This
of course seemed strange to Winter. Afterward going up the Ohio
in a canoe, no doubt occasionally thinking of this ^'Spanish lady," he
met Power coming down stream on his way to New Madrid, who told
him that he was going there to get some groceries. This convinced
the suspicious Winter that Power was on his way to "gallant the
Spanish lady to headquarters," accordingly he made all haste to see
General Wayne to give him ** information of the approach of so val-
uable a creature."" But Wilkinson never received this money, for
the messenger entrusted with it, Harry Owens, was murdered by
his boatmen, who divided the money among themselves and escaped
into the woods.'®

The matter of the navigation of the Mississippi, however, remained
unadjusted, a source of friction, a constant impediment to the develop-
ment and trade of the western country. The dissatisfaction extended
in 1794, beyond Kentucky to the western borders of Pennsylvania,
whose trade interests on the Mississippi now had become important.

** Gayarre's Louisiana, Spanish Domination, p. 365.

*• Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 35.

^•The $9,640, came to New Madrid in the galley "Victoria," Bernardo
Molino, Patron. At this time Francois Langlois was Captain of militia
in New Madrid and Commandant of the Gafiiot "Flecha" stationed there
and also had under his orders the gun-boat "Toro*' and the batteau- "Prince
of the Asturias." When Harry Owens came up from New Orleans with orders
from Carondelet to deliver the money for General Wilkinson on the Ohio,
Langlois furnished Owens a "patr6n named Pepello and six oarsmen, and
shipped in his canoe $6,000, packed in little barrels. Owens was killed on this
trip by the men, and afterwards Vexerano, one of the crew was arrested, and
also Pepello, and tried as having murdered Owens, at New Orleans.

344 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

Consequently, Wilkinson, Innis, Sebastian, Brown, Murray, Nichols,
and others who had been interested in the Miro plot to separate
Kentucky from the Union, were disposed to take up again their for-
mer relations with the Spanish government, and through Power it
was arranged that some of them would meet a Spanish officer of
rank at the mouth of the Ohio, to discuss this delicate and important
subject. Carondelet selected as his emissary, Gayosa de Lemos,
one of the most distinguished Spanish officials, then Governor of
Natchez. Gayosa had been educated in England; was a man of
polished and familiar manners, accessible to all and of boundless
generosity.^' From Natchez he went to New Madrid, and upon hLs
arrival Portelle sent Power to Kentucky to make the necessary arrange-
ments for an interview with Sebastian, I nnes and their associates." In
the meantime Gayosa proceeded to the mouth of the Ohio, and there,
while awaiting the arrival of the delegation from Kentucky, erected
a small triangular stockade fort opposite the mouth of this river in

" 2 Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 241, note.

'* In 1 795 Gayoso ascended the Mississippi to Fort San Fernando de las
Barancas, (Chickasaw Bluffs), remained there two months and then went to
New Madrid. He advised Portelle that he had dispatches to send to Kentucky
and Portelle engaged Power to carry those dispatches as travelling was his
passion. In 1794 Power was sent to Kentucky by Portelle when Genet started
his agitation, also when the boatmen murdered Owens who had $6,000, for
Wilkinson. On that trip Power left New Madrid with a pirogue, hands and
provisions ; reached Red Banks in six days, where he was detained by the bilious
fever until September 24th, then by land went to Cincinnati, where he arrived
on October 6th ; from Cincinnati, under orders of General Wilkinson, he went
to Gallipolis ; on his return at Red Banks he met Benjamin Sebastin, Harry Innis
John Murray and George Nicholas ; Wilkinson then urged that a military mag-
azines should be formed at New Madrid, well supplied with arms, ammunition
and other military stores. Power was a man of education and literary ability.
In giving a sketch of his experiences, he says in a letter to General Wilkinson,
dated February 6, 1803 : "It is true I have been at the sources of those streams
through which the treasures of the new world flow and empty themselves into
channels through which they are conveyed and separated from the rest of the
globe, but it was merely to experience the sufferings of Tantalus, and return
home with my pockets lighter than when I set off." Then speaking of the mean-
ness of the Spanish officials, he comments on ''their coarse and vulgar vices and
their disgusting vanity; " he says that "they are determined to let me linger out my
life in poverty" and pictures himself to "stand in the midst of them like Rubens'
picture of famine in the gallery of Luxemburg surrounded by opulence and
power." Of Wilkinson he says, "I respect your virtues, admire your under-
standing, reverence and esteem your character and shall ever be proud of your
friendship," all of which encomium Wilkinson afterwards used to good
advantage when the charges against him were investigated by a court martial,
and Power appeared as one of the principal witnesses against him. Power,
Wilkinson says, was a man "of travel ana information; his conversation was
interesting; he was a man of liberal education and polished manners; possessed
capacity and understood character." It may interest some to know that Power
married Josephine Trudeau, daughter of jean Trudeau (2) and Felicite de
Villars in New Orleans.

THE TREATY OF SAN LORENZO 345

what is now Mississippi county, afterwards known as "Bird's Point,"
in order to have it understood that building this fort was the object
of his journey. While here, Julian Poydras and Sarpy, coming down
the river from St. Louis, landed and remained in camp with him for
several days. But Power was greatly disappointed in his mission.
Innes made some excuse and did not come, Nichols, being a lawyer
of great practice, was absent on the circuit and Murray was constantly
inebriated and therefore could not be trusted. Sebastian alone came
down the Ohio with him and met Gayosa, and on his suggestion went
to visit Carondelet in New Orleans, arriving there early in January
1 796. Sebastian remained in New Orleans until spring and then sail-
ed to Philadelphia with Power, carrying with him an elaborate plan
to induce the western country to withdraw from the Union and form
a separate government, and in return to receive aid and support in
arms and money from Spain.

In the meantime the treaty of San Lorenzo, of 1795, was
published. Under this treaty the free navigation of the Mississippi,
below the 31st degree of north latitude, was reafl&rmed, and it
was stipulated that the people of the United States should be
allowed **to deposit their merchandise and effects in the port of
New Orleans, and export them thence without any other duty
than a fair price for the hire of stores." The privileges conceded
by this treaty were to exist for a space of three years and at the end of
that time, were either to. be continued or an equivalent establishment
assigned on another part of the banks of the Mississippi River. It
was further stipulated that the forts at Natchez and Chickasaw Bluflfs
were to be evacuated, and the boundary line between the United States
and Spain established by actual survey. This treaty was secured by
Pinckney because the Spaniards, then on the verge of war with Great
Britain, feared that the Americans would unite with that power
against Spain. The treaty aUayed the existing discontent. Yet
even after the treaty was made, the Spaniards for a time refused
to carry out its provisions, and Carondelet continued to intrigue
to separate the western people from the Union. Wilkinson and his
associates, however, were wise enough to see that the Spanish scheme
had become impracticable, and as soon as the provisions of the treaty
became known, withdrew from all further negotiations. When Power
returned to New Orleans, he so advised Carondelet and explained to
him that the treaty gave the people of the western states all they
desired.

346 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Nothing now impeded the growth and development of • the
country west of the Alleghanies ; and soon the valleys of the Tennessee,
Cumberland, Scioto, and the Ohio swarmed with new settlers.
They moved westward with a celerity that astonished the quiet
Spanish officials on the west bank of the Mississippi. The river
to New Orleans was filled with fleets of keel-boats and "broad
horns," carrying the products of the country, to that great and impor-
tant seaport. When in 1800, it was first rumored that Napoleon, by
secret treaty had acquired Louisiana for France, the minds of the
people were again filled with apprehension, although no open change
of dominion took place. The treaty of 1795 had expired, but the
Spanish officials at New Orleans had tacitly continued to carry out
its provisions, and allow the right of depK)sit as stipulated. For some
reason, however, Don Juan Ventura Morales, the Spanish Intendant,
in 1802, suddenly imagined that such an indulgence might ripen by
proscription into a claim of a right, and determined, by notice, to put
an end to the enjoyment of this privilege. The proclamation to that
effect was issued October 16, 1802. The uneasiness and excitement
which it produced among the people west of the mountains, who from
a few inconsiderable settlements had increased to over half a million,
was great and universal. It was the general opinion that the right
of deposit had been suspended in consequence of a demand of
France," but the public mind was calmed, somewhat, when the
Marquis de Casa Yrujo, the Minister of Spain, in a note dated March
10, 1803, officially declared that the Intendant had acted without
authority, and that in conformity with the treaty another place of de-
posit would be assigned.^*

At this time, the forcible seizure of New Orleans again found
numerous advocates. "France," said Governeur Morris, "will not
sell this territory. If we want it we must adopt the Spartan policy
and obtain it by steel, not by gold." And he further adds, "Put
France in possession of New Orleans, and the time will soon come
when those who cross the mountains will cross the line of your
jurisdiction." The administration was charged with taking only
feeble and weak measures, when decided action, was necessary.
Although as early as February 26, 1801, in a secret session of
the senate, the purchase of New Orleans was authorized, it
was generally thought — and the idea had great weight — that

^ Memoirs of Monroe, p. 7.
'\Marbois, History of Louisiana, p. 245.

LOUISIANA RETROCEDKD 347

if Napoleon once obtained actual possession of Louisiana it could
only be obtained from him at the expense of a war ^Yith France.
Jefferson said, *' There is one spot on the globe, the possessor of which
is our natural and habitual enemy. That spot is New Orleans.
France, placing herself at that door assumes to us the attitude of de-
fiance."

It was evident that some permanent remedy must be discovered.
Nor does it appear that France was ignorant of the possible dangers
of invasion threatening Louisiana, from the American people living
north along the Mississippi. In a secret report, after the cession of
the territory under the treaty of St. Ildefonso, M. de Pontalba speaking
of the dangers that had at various times threatened New Orleans
and the services rendered by General Wilkinson, says : " Four times
between 1786 to 1792, preparations were made in Kentucky and
Cumberland to attack Louisiana, and every time the same individual
caused them to fail through his influence over his countrymen. I
make these facts known to show that France must not neglect to enlist
this individual in her service." Spain knew the aggressive character
of the western people, and by retaining powerful and influential
agents in the west, expected to some extent, to be forewarned and
protected from the sudden forcible seizure of New Orleans and other
Spanish possessions along the river.

The retrocession of Louisiana to France placed the country in
the hands of a strong military power and the people realized the
changed condition of affairs. Because the prosperity of the western
country depended on the free navigation of the Mississippi, popular
feeling naturally rose high. Accordingly, Senator Ross of Penn-
sylvania intnxluced a resolution that the President be authorized
to call into service not exceeding sixty thousand men in North Caro-
lina, Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi Territory
to "secure the indisputable free navigation of the river, and a con-
venient place of deposit for their products and merchandise on the
island of New Orleans." This resolution was not adopted; but it
evidenced the determination of the people. Instead of the resolu-
tions offered by Senator Ross the proposal of Hon. John Breckenridge
of Kentucky, offered by way of substitute, was adopted. Under this
the President was auth(^rized to organize, arm, and equip eighty
thousand men, officers included, to perform such service as might be
prescribed by law, and two million dollars were appropriated to cover
expenses and to defray such other outlays as, during the recess of Con-

348

mSTORY OF MISSOURI

gress, the President might deem necessary for the security of the United
States. The House of Representatives adopted the resolution oflFered
by John Randolph, expressing the unalterable determination of the
country to maintain the boundaries and right of navigation and com-
merce through the Mississippi river, as secured by existing treaty.

Under instructions carefully framed by Jeflferson and Madison,
James Monroe was sent to Paris as Envoy Extraordinary in conjunc-
tion with Robert R. Livingston, our Minister there, to treat with
France upon the navigation of the Mississippi and the purchase of
New Orleans." JefiFerson fully realized the importance of the ac-
quisition of the mouth of the Mississippi. His letter to Monroe, while
paying that great man a merited tribute, demonstrated that his master
mind conceived the plan to acquire by purchase, an outlet for the West.
" If we cannot by a purchase of the country," he says, " insure to our-
selves a course of perpetual peace and friendship with all nations,
then as war can not be far distant, it behooves us immediately to be
preparing for that course without, however, hastening it, and it may
be necessary for you to cross the channel."

Up to this time no one had a thought of acquiring Louisiana. At
most, it was thought that the island of New Orleans and the Floridas
might be acquired by purchase. When, on January ii, 1803, Liv-
ingston was sent as Minister to France, he was instructed to vigorously
insist upon the possession of the " island of New Orleans," or some
other " place of deposit for the products, commodities and commerce
of the country." When Monroe arrived with more extensive powers,
Livingston was already waiting to conclude terms with Barbt Marbois
and Napoleon, for the purchase of upper and lower Louisiana, at a
price so low as to be within the reach of our Treasury. Napoleon was
then in need of money in order to prepare for the war with England,
which he saw was inevitable. He also was too far-seeing not to ap-
preciate the fact that in such a war, Louisiana, instead of being an aid,
would be a burden to him. He thought that by a cession of the territory
to the United States he would be aiding the commerce of France.
He fully realized that the acquisition of Louisiana by the United
States would vastly add to the material strength of the Union, and
that by thus aiding the nascent power of the Republic, he was strength-
ening a rival who would dispute with England the dominion of the seas.
On Easter Sunday, April 10, 1803, he first advised his Prime Minister,

*' This appointment met with serious but unavaih'ng opposition in the Senate
and was finally confirmed by a vote of 15 to 12.

NAPOLEON 349

Talleyrand, that he expected to sell Louisiana. He did not under-
estimate the value of the vast domain, nor the precarious nature of
his position. **I can scarcely say," so he remarked, "that I cede it to
them, for it is not yet in our possession. If, however, I leave the
least time to our enemies I shall only transmit an empty title to those
Republicans whose friendship I seek. They only ask of me one town
in Louisiana, but I already consider the colony as entirely lost ; and
it appears to me that in the hands of this growing power, it will be
more useful to the policy and even to the commerce of France than
if I should attempt to keep it."

Marbois strongly concurred in this policy. So when Monroe ar-
rived, Marbois, without any concealment of the true intention of his
government, directly asked the sum he and his colleague would be
willing to pay for Louisiana. Thus the largest real estate sale of the
world began. Napoleon wanted fifty million francs; Monroe and
Livingston offered thirty million and Marbois named one hundred
and twenty five million. The price finally agreed upon was eighty
million francs. Napoleon urged that the business be closed at once.
Marbois thought that the people of Louisiana, ought to be consid-
ered, but Napoleon cut him ofiF short by sarcastically saying, "You
are giving me in all its perfection, the idealogy of the law of nature and
nations ; but I require money to make war on the richest nation in the
world. Send your maxims to London ; I am sure they will be greatly
admired there, and yet no great attention is paid to them when the
question is the acquisition of the finest regions of Asia. Perhaps it
will also be objected to me, that the Americans may be found too pow-
erful for Europe in two or three centuries, but my foresight does not
embrace such remote affairs. Besides we may hereafter expect riv-
alries among the members of the Union. The Confederations that are
called perpetual only last until one of the confederating parties finds it
to its interest to break them, and it is to prevent the danger to which
the colossal power of England exposes us, that I would provide a
remedy." Such being the sentiment of Napoleon, who ever had but
little regard for the will or wishes of the people, and the possession of
the country being of paramount importance to the people of the Uni-
ted States, the negotiations were rapidly closed, terms and boundaries
fixed and conditions speedily adjusted. On the 30th of April,
1803, twenty days after Napoleon first advised Talleyrand of his in-
tention to sell the Louisianas, the treaty and two conventions accom-
panying it were engrossed in French and signed, dated April 30, 1803.

3SO fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

The actual signing, although of that date, being four days later, this
delay being caused by translating into English the original treaty.

The whole of this tremendous transaction was concluded within
two months after Monroe had sailed from New York. Marbois thus
records the conclusion of this memorable treaty: "The authors of
those solemn instruments, that regulate the lot of nations, can not be
insensible to the honour of having done acts useful to their country.
A sentiment superior even to glory seemed to animate the three min-
isters, and never perhaps did negotiators taste a purer joy. As soon as
they had signed the treaty they rose and shook hands, when Living-
ston, expressing the general satisfaction, said, we have lived long, but
this is the noblest act of our whole lives. The treaty which we have
just signed has not been obtained by art or dictated by force ; equally
advantageous to the two contracting parties, it will change vast soli-
tudes into flourishing districts. From this day the United States take
their place among the powers of the first rank ; the English lose all
exclusive influence in the affairs of America. * * * The instru-
ments which we have just signed will cause no tears to be shed ; they
prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations of human
creatures. The Mississippi and Missouri will see them succeed one
another and multiply, truly worthy of the regard and care of Provi-
dence, in the bosom of equality, under just laws, freed from the error
of superstition and the scourges of bad government."'* When Na-
poleon heard that the treaty had been definitely concluded, he tri-
umphantly said : "This accession of this outlet strengthens forever the
power of the United States ; and I have just given to England a mari-
time rival that will sooner or later humble her pride."

Jefferson was startled by the marvelous success of these negotia-
tions. He called a special session of Congress to meet in October
following, to ratify the treaty. Many objections were made. For
instance, it was contended that France only conveyed a mere quit
claim, because it did not appear that France had complied with the
conditions on which alone Spain had agreed to cede Louisiana. The
treaty of St. Ildefonso, it was argued, was not itself a cession, but
merely an agreement to cede under certain circumstances, and that
the country was still in possession of Spain. In support of this posi-
tion reference was made to the fact that the Spanish Minister at Wash-
ington had entered a caveat or protest with our Government against
the transfer as invalid. In this protest the Marquis de la Casa Yriijo

*• Marbois, History of Louisiana, p. 311.

TREATY HELD UNCONSTITUTIONAL 351

gave publicity to the fact, that by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, Napoleon
had agreed for the French Government, that Spain should have the
preference in case France, in her turn, should be disposed again to
cede Louisiana, and further that one of the express conditions upon
which the King, his master, had transferred the country to France,
was that the latter power should obtain from all the courts of Europe
the acknowledgment of the Duke of Parma as King of Etruria, and
that these engagements not having been fulfilled the treaty of cession
was null and void. Spain, however, was not in a position to assert her
undoubted rights, and although still in possession of the country,
was not able to maintain herself both against France and the United
States. In an ordinary real estate transaction a fraud such as Na-
poleon perpetrated would not avail the purchaser. But this was no-
ordinary real estate transaction. When nations deal with each other
might often seems to make right, national advantage prevails over
justice, fraud sometimes becomes patriotism. However, on the loth
of February 1804, in a letter to Mr. Pinckney the Spanish Minister,
denied that he had been instructed to oppose the transfer of Louisiana,
and declared that "his Majesty thought proper to renounce his pro-
test against the alienation of Louisiana by France.''

Public men were not troubling themselves seriously about the
equities between Spain and France, but the great and serious difficulty
pointed out by Jeflferson himself, so far as the United States was con-
cerned, was that the acquisition of any territory whatever under the
obligation to admit such territory, as a state, to the Union, was not
warranted by the Constitution. The Constitution, it was contended,
was formed for the government of a certain known and defined terri-
tory called the United States, and could not be extended to another
territory without the consent of each of the states. Nevertheless, the
treaty was ratified, — yeas, 24; nays, 7, including all the Federalists
present.

During the debate the unconstitutional character of the treaty was
admitted by many, and particularly by Taylor of Virginia, who
"confessed that the treaty was a violation of the Constitution; but
declared that he would ratify it and throw himself on the people for
pardon, and on Heaven to absolve him of the violation of a trust he
had sworn to maintain." Griswold of Connecticut said, "The
Union of the States is formed on the principal of a co-partnership, and
it would be absurd to suppose that the agent of the parties, the gen-
eral government, who had been appointed to execute the business

352 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

of the compact in behalf of the principals, the states, could admit a
new partner without the consent of the parties themselves. The
treaty therefore, so far as it stipulates for such an incorporation, is
void." Plummer, a Federalist Senator from New Hampshire , caUed
on President Jefferson while the treaty was pending, and during the
course of the conversation Jefferson inquired what his opinion was
respecting the treaty. Plummer answered that he thought the
Senate ''had no constitutional authority to make and execute the
treaty ;" and to this Jefferson replied that was precisely his opinion.
John Quincy Adams also thought that an amendment to the Consti-
tution ought to be proposed to ratify the purchase. "The Constitu-
tion," says Jefferson in one of his letters, "has made no provision for
our holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign na-
tions into our Union. Congress will be obliged to ask from the j>eo-
ple an amendment to the Constitution, authorising their receiving the
province into the Union, and providing for its government." In a
letter to Senator John Breckenridge he further says : " The executive
in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much advances the good
of his country has done an act beyond the Constitution." He also
said that it was his wish that this act might be ratified. The draft
of such an amendment was actually prepared by Madison, but never
formally proposed, because it was doubtful if it would be adopted
by the requisite number of states.

The violation of the Constitution acquiesced in on account of
the evident advantage of the acquisition of Loubiana, was considered,
in 1819, sufficient authority for the purchase of the Floridas, by treaty ;
th" annexation of Texas by resolution; the incorporation of large
portions of Mexico by conquest and purchase; the acquisition of
Alaska by treaty ; and in more recent times the annexation of Porto
Rico by conquest, as well as the Philippine Islands in Asia, seven
thousand miles away. A precedent so established, conceded at the
time to be without constitutional sanction, and held by Jefferson to
be in violation of the Constitution, has been made the basis to add
to the Union territories much more extensive than the original states.
Great as was the advantage of this acquisition, dazzling as was the
prize, intoxicated as were the people, Jefferson never lost sight of
the violation done the Constitution by the purchase. Twenty-five
years afterwards, shortly before his death, he said, "I still think the
ratification of that treaty was the most direct and palpable violation
of the Constitution of which Congress has ever been guilty."

FEARS 353

This purchase not only received the approval of a vast majority of
Jeflferson's own countrymen' but it was approved by England, and
Lord Hawkesbury, the Britbh Secretary of Foreign Affairs, on being
advised of the treaty of cession, wrote Mr. King, then Minister of the
United States at the Court of St. James, "I have received His Ma-
jesty's command to express to you the pleasure with which His
Majesty has received this intelligence."*^ The English govern-
ment, although anticipating war with France, also rendered
essential service in these negotiations for the purchase of Loui-
siana by interposing no objections to the propositions made
by the great houses of Hope of Amsterdam and the Barings of
London to make loans to any amount to the United States at
the usual rate of interest to facilitate the purchase. The knowl-
edge of these oflFers inspired the government of France with
confidence that the stock or bonds of the United States to pay
for the province could be converted into cash at a fair price, for it
should be remembered that the credit of the United States was then
not well established. That England would have seized Louisiana
as soon as war began, is certain. Napoleon disposed of the
country none too soon. His foresight was fully justified, for when
the English ministers were advised of the mission of Monroe,
they realized that the conquest of Louisiana could only be attempted
with the concurrence of the United States, and they therefore pro-
posed to our envoy at the court of St. James, that if the conquest
of Louisiana was made, the province would be retroceded to the
United States. But from all these complications we were happily
saved by the purchase, for the retrocession of the country to the
United States, if once in the power of England, may well be con-
sidered problematical.

Many leading statesmen of the time thought that the acquisition,
of Louisiana would lead to a dismemberment of the Union. At the
time of the purchase this was not an uncommon opinion. "Our
country," said Fisher Ames , October 6, 1803, "is too big for Union."
Rodgers Griswold of Connecticut stated October 15, 1803, in the
House of Representatives, "The vast and unmanageable extent
which the acquisition of Louisiana will give the United States; the
consequent dispersion of the population, and the destruction of that
balance which is so important to maintain between the Western and
Eastern States threatens, at no distant day, the subversion of our

" See 4 Jefferson's Works, p. 62.

354 mSTORY OF MISSOURI

•

Union." Jackson, of Georgia said, February, 1804, "The settle-
ment will affect, what I much deprecate, a separation of this Union."
Drayton, of New Jersey, February 2, 1804, declared, "If upper Loui-
siana is settled, the people there will separate from us; they will
form a new empire and become our enemies." Stone, of North
Carolina, on the i6th of February, said, "The acquisition of Loui-
siana will produce one of two things ; either a division of the Union
or a very different government from what we now have." Plummer,
of New Hampshire, thought October 20, 1803, that "The ratification
of this treaty, and the possession of that immense territory will hasten
the dissolution of our present government. The constitution never
contemplated the accession of a foreign people or the extension of our
territory. * * * Adopt this Western world into the Union, and you
destroy at once the weight and importance of the Eastern States, and
compel them to establish a separate and independent Empire."
And John Quincy Adams, on December 28, 1828, at that time Presi-
dent of the United States, tells us that a dissolution of the Union was
actually planned by the Federal party of Massachusetts " in the winter
of 1803 and 1804 immediately after, and as a consequence of the
acquisition of Louisiana."

The purchase of Louisiana was, however, so decidedly pop-
ular even in New England, that no effective opposition could
be made to it. The people were pleased, and gave themselves
no trouble to inquire whether the purchase was in violation of the
Constitution or not. The present advantages to the piuxhase were
great, apparent and undeniable. The evil of the unconstitutional
course adopted to acquire the vast territory was remote, and per-
haps imaginary. The territorial extent of the Union was doubled
and forever strengthened in power, as Napoleon foresaw. Without
this purchase it is hardly probable that the federation would have
survived the constant and imperious demands of the west for an outlet
to the Gulf, a necessity bom of its geographical situation, and essen-
tial to its prosperity.

It is thus that the territory now within the limits of Missouri was
acquired.

CHAPTER XXI.

Retrocession of Louisiana to France, and Transfer to the United States —
Official Correspondence Relating to Transfer — Instructions to Captain
Stoddard, Agent for United States — Official Letters Between Stoddard
and DeLassus — Instructions of DeLassus to Spanish Troops — -Letters
Demanding and Yielding Possession of Upper Louisiana — Proclamation
by Governor DeLassus — Official Documents Certifying Transfer —
Ceremonies Attending Change of Governments — Official Circular to
Spanish Commandants — Ceremonies at New Madrid — Regret at Change
of Government there — Satisfaction at Cape Girardeau — Riot at Mine k
Breton — Trouble of DeLassus to Secure Transportation — Auguste
Chouteau Builds Boats — Delay of Departure — Letter of Major Bru£F —
Spanish Forces Leave November 16, 1804 — Journal of DeLassus of Voyage
down the River — At St. Genevieve — At Cape Girardeau — At New
Madrid — Arrival at New Orleans January 18, 1805 — Proclamation of
Captain Stoddard — Address to the People by Stoddard — A Proclamation
Concerning Land Grants — Measures TAen Concerning Slaves and Militia.

Although by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, made October ist, 1800,
Louisiana was retroceded to France, the actual possession of the
country remained in the hands of Spain until November 30, 1803.
France, however, during this period, was represented in New Orleans
by M. Laussat, observing events, yet assuming no actual authority.
His powers were well known and understood by the Spanish Gover-
nor, the Marquis de Casa Calvo and Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo,
the Intendant, as well as by many of the leading men in the province.
Although not publicly proclaimed, it seems to have been well under-
stood that the actual possession of the province would soon be trans-
ferred to France, perhaps on the arrival of French troops rumored
to be on the way under the command of General Victor.* It was
during this period of the expected transfer of Louisiana to France,
between October 1800, and 1803, that the negotiations for the acqui-
sition of this territory by the United States were brought to a success-
ful conclusion.

The treaty for the purchase was received in Washington, July 14,
1803, and President Jefferson without unnecessary delay called an

* Moses Austin, then a resident of Mine k Breton, in 1801, seems to have
known that negotiations had been completed for a transfer of the country, and
he wrote James Richardson, Spanish deputy siu^eyor residing at St. Ferdi-
nand, a confidential letter as to the matter, and how best to take advantage of
the change of dominion, so as to increase the influence of the Americans. (See
letter in the Archives of the Missouri Historical Society.)

355

356 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

extra session of Congress for October 17th of that year, to secure its
ratification ; and after the treaty was ratified, M. Laudais, of the
French embassy, at once proceeded to New Orleans to advise M.
Laussat, arriving there November 23d. A few days subsequently,
on November 30, 1803, France formally took possession of the
province, as stipulated in the treaty of St. Ildefonso. France held
possession of the country from November 30th to December 20th,
and on that day M. Laussat as the representative of France trans-
ferred the upper and lower Louisianas to the United States, rep-
resented on that occasion by its Commissioners, Governor William
Claiborne and Major-General James Wilkinson. The actual trans-
fer of upper Louisiana, in which we are more particularly concerned,
did not take place until some time afterward, and, in reference to
this transfer, on January 12, 1804, M. Laussat addressed the follow-
ing letter to Lieutenant-Governor Don Carlos DeLassus, then having
his residence at St. Louis :

New Orleans, 21 Nivose year 12 (Januaiyi 2, 1804).

The Colonial Prefect, Commissioner of French Government, to M. DeHauh
DeLassus, Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois at St. Louis :

I have this day forwarded to Mr. Stoddard, Captain of Artillery in the
United States army, and who is authorized to take possession of the territory
and the establishments where you command for his Catholic Majesty, the fol-
lowing documents :

First. — A letter, unsealed, from M. de Salcedo, and Marquis Casa Calvo,
Commissioners of his CathoUc Majesty, dated 31st day of December, last,
which authorizes you to give possession of the post where you now command
to the ofl5cer or agent that may be sent by me to receive it, in virtue of the treaty
of St. Ildefonso, by which Louisiana was retroceded to the French Republic.

Second. — A letter written by me to Mr. Stoddard, which was approved
by the Commissioners of the United States, who were sent here for the execution
of the treaty of Paris by which France has ceded Louisiana to the United States.
By said letter bearing this date, I transferred to said officer my power to receive
from you in the name of the French Republic, the possession of that part of
Louisiana over which you command, and I authorize him at the same time to
keep possession for the United States.

Third. — Also another letter written by me this day to Mr. Pierre Chouteau,
by which I give him all the necessary power to make, in concert with you, and
for the Republic of France, an inventory and appraisement of the builcUngs and
houses (except, however, the fortifications and works of defence) which belong
to his Catholic Majesty in the country under your command, and possession of
which must also be given to us.

Fourth. — Letters from the Commissioner of his Catholic Majesty, dated
2 1 St December, also unsealed, and addressed to Don Pedro DeHault DeLassus,
Commandant at New Bourbon. Don Francesco Vall^, Commandant at Ste.
Genevieve, Don Louis Lorimier at Cape Girardeau, Don Juan La Vall^, Com-
mandant at New Madrid. These letters are nearly similar to the letter that
was sent you by the same Commissioners. I am ignorant whether your
authority over these Commandants is such, that it would have been suffi-
cient if I had transmitted you alone my dispositions, and that they would
have conformed to these, but the distances are so great and mistakes would
be so vexatious, that I concluded to write them also.

I

INSTRUCTIONS 357

Fifth. — Send also to Captain Stoddard a separate circular to each of these
Commandants.

I pray you, Sir, in all these changes of government to accept the di£Ferenl
powers which I have announced to you so far as they concern the French Re-
public, and I hope that you will graciously receive the persons who will present
them to you.

I have the honor to salute you.

Laussat.

A letter from the Marquis de Casa Calvo, the Governor, and
Manuel de Salcedo, was included in this communication, as follows :

New Orleans, 30th December, 1803.

The King, our Sovereign, having determined to retrocede this province of
Louisiana to the French Republic, according to the announcement in the royal
order issued at Barcelona on the 15th of Ocotber, 1802, to that effect, and having
also commissioned us to carry the same into effect by his subsequent royal order
dated at Madrid on the i8th of January, 1803, we have put in execution the
intentions of the sovereign by delivering up the Governorship of this place and
the command of the province to the Colonial Prefect Pedro Clement Laussat,
Commissioner of the French Republic, on the 30th day of November of the
present year ; and you are hereby requested to deliver up to the agent or oflftcer
of the said Prefect who may be authorized to receive from you the command of
the post and its dependencies, now under the orders of your Excellency, as soon
as he shall present himself before you, under the formalities of the inventory
and valuation to be made by skilful persons in that post, upon oath to act with
due impartiality, all the buUdings which belong to the King not including the
artillery and other munitions of war which must be remitted entire to this place.

Under the same formalities of the inventory the archives with the papers
and documents which concern only the inhabitants of the district, and other
property, shall be delivered, taking for the whole a receipt in order that there
may always be evidence of what has been delivered upon our part to the French
Republic and cause the same to appear on the general inventory.

We particularly enjoin upon your Excellency the punctual execution of the
foregoing, of which you are authorized to avail yourself of all the means which
may be found in the district under your charge.

The Marquis de Casa Calvo,
Manuel de Salcedo.
For Don Carlos DeLassus, Commander of the Illinois.

With these letters of the representatives of France and Spain
Captain Stoddard also received the following ^^ITTiructions from
Governor Claiborne, dated New Orleans, January 16, 1804:

Sir : You will find, under the same cover with this, orders for the evacuation
and surrender of the several military posts in upper Louisiana, which you will
proceed to carry into execution in concert with the officers of Spain with all
convenient dispatch.

You will perceive from the dispatches that you are to exercise two distinct
functions, (i) As Commissioner and Agent on the part of France you are to
demand and receive possession of the country from Spain, (2) As Agent of the
United States you are to occupy and hold the several posts, territories and depen-
dencies which have been transferred by France to the United States. This
arrangement has been made by the French Commissioner to save the expense
and trouble of sending agents on the part of his government to these distant
posts. •

By the treaty between France and Spain the former will be obliged to account
with the latter for the value of all public buildings which ma> be comprised in the

358 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

cession of the several posts. On the subject, particularly, directions are trans-
mitted by the French Commissioner in his instructions. He has not as we know
made any provisions respecting any expenses which may possibly arise in mak-
ing the valuations. It is to be understood that no expenses on that account are
to be charged to the United States. Wc have been requested by the Commis-
sioner on the part of France to give directions to our agents to attend particularly
to her interests, and we ask you, therefore, to use your endeavors that a fair and
just valuation be made of such public buildings and that you give particular
injunctions to the officers who may be sent to take possession of the dependent
posts.

Until some permanent regulations shall have been made by Congress for
the government of the newly acquired province, all the functions, both civil
and military, which have heretofore been exercised by the Spanish Comman-
dants of posts and districts will devolve upon you and your subordinates who
may be sent to take command of the separate posts. With this difference,
however, that whereas under the Spanish government the civil and military
functions were confounded and blended together, by you they must be kept
carefully separate and distinct. To this end you wiU receive herewith a com-
mission from His Excellency Governor Claiborne constituting you civil Com-
mandant of St. Louis with instructions for your government and from the
Commander-in-chief of the American troops your instructions and directions
as to military affairs. Of the nature and full extent of your powers in these
capacities we can not present you with ideas sufficiently defined and you must
judge from such lights a you may be able to collect in the country itself from
the examples of your predecessors, the Spanish Commandants, and most
prudent discretion adapted to the situation and the circumstances of the country
and its inhabitants. It interests us particularly to be notified early of the receipt
of this dispatch, and you will therefore be pleased to acknowledge it as speedily
as possible and by different routes.

Upon the receipt of these various dispatches Captain Stoddard
advised Lieutenant-Governor DeLassus of the same, as follows:

Kaskaskia, 1 8th February, 1804.

Sir: I have just received by express from New Orleans a variety of dis-
patches relative to the late retrocession of Louisiana. Those addressed to you
and entrusted to my care by the French and Spanish commissioners, I do myself
the honor to fon^-ard by a Sergeant of our army who is bound on business to
Captain Lewis.

In a few days the troops under my command shall ascend the Mississippi
in public boats. I shall proceed before them by land and toncert with you the
necessary arrangements before their arrival at St. Louis. The enclosed letter
to Mr. Chouteau I should thank you to deliver to him.

Please accept the assurances of my respectful consideration.

Amos Stoddard, Captain United States Artillerists, Agent and Com-
missioner of the French Republic.

Charles DeHault DeLassus, Lieutenant-Governor Upper Louisiana.

To which letter DeLassus replied, as follows :

Sir: I received yesterday your letter of the iSth of this month with those
entrusted to your care and which you had the kindness to send me, and which
contained the orders of the Brigadiers and Commissioners of his Catholic
Majesty for the retrocession of this colony to the French Republic, and the
disposition of the French Prefect which authorizes you to receive possession of
this part of Louisiana.

I hasten to reply to you by the same Sergeant of the United States Army by
whom you had forwarded to me your dispatches and notify you that Mr. Louis
Lorimier, Jr., is bearer of the necessary orders for each one of the conmiandants
of the posts of this province, and which, joined with those delivered to them by

FINAL ORDER 359

the said Commissioners, will sufficiently authorize them to receive the Com-
missioners that you may deem proper to send to receive from them possession
of the said posts, and as M. Laussat, Prefect, advises me that he has written to
them also on the same subject, and if those letters are trusted to you and if you
wish to avail yoiurself of the opportunity of Mr. Lorimier ' to send such letters
to them you can hand them over to him with confidence, and he is hereby
directed to present himself to you for that object.

I am also informed by your letter that troops under your orders are about
to march for this post; that you come ahead of tnem so that we may understand
ourselves before their arrival. I shall have the honor to receive you, offering
you in advance the most gracious reception which will be possible to bestow
upon you in the name of the King, my sovereign.

I have handed Mr. Pierre Chouteau the letter that you had recommended
to me. I shall be obliged to you if you make known to me in advance the date
of your arrival and if you are coming by land or water.

I write you in French, being informed that the Spanish language is not
understood by you. I have the honor, etc.,

Charles DeHault DeLassus.

To Amos Stoddard, Captain United States Army, and Agent and Commis-
sioner for the French Repuolic.

The dominion of Spain was now drawing to a close in upper
Louisiana and Lieutenant-Governor DeLassus proposed that the
occasion should be characterized by dignity and solemnity, and
accordingly issued the following order to the detachment of the
Stationary Regiment of Infantry of Louisiana quartered at St. Louis :

Regiment of Infantry of Louisiana stationed at St. Louis.

Order of the 23rd of February, 1804.

From this day forth all of this detachment, including the guard, shall keep
themselves in full uniform and with strict regard to cleanliness, etc., so that all
the garrison will be in readiness to take arms at the first verbal order through
Sergeant Juan Robayna to evacuate the fort, with arms at the shoulder and
knapsacks on the back.

Pursuant to this order none will absent himself from quarters either by day
or night except those necessarily so, such as water-carriers, hostlers, etc., imtil
the day of the delivery of these fortifications to the United States.

As all of this detachment is composed of individuals the major part of whom
have been long in the service and know how to comport themselves in a praise-
worthy manner, the Commandant expects that from the day of the transfer
and afterwards until we take up the line of march to embody ourselves with our
countrymen each man will so conduct himself to uphold the reputation of the
Spanish troops so justly acquired and extolled for ages past, and I flatter myself
that during the time they remain at this post their conduct will be such as to
earn for themselves the respect and esteem of the American troops.

At the moment when the United States Commandant will enter this gov-
ernment house to receive possession he will be saluted from the fort by a salvo
from all the cannon that are moimted and in battery. This will be carried into
execution by a signal from a soldier stationed for the purpose at the comer of
the gallery of the house, by waiving his hat to the sentinel at the fort, when the
firing will commence, taking good care that there will be a regular interval of
time between each successive discharge.

Carlos DeHault DeLassus.

Within two days after the promulgation of this order the American
troops arrived from Kaskaskia and landed near Cahokia, opposite
' A son of Don Louis Lorimier.

36o fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

St. Louis, where they encamped for several days, awaiting comple-

tion of the final arrangements for the transfer of the territory.

On the 25th day, Captain Stoddard addressed DeLassus as

follows :

St. Louis, 25th February, 1804.

Sir: The Colonial Prefect Mr. Laussat, Agent and Commissioner of the
French Republic, by an instrument under his hand directed to me, bearing
date at New Orleans the 12th day of January, 1804, has been pleased in con-
sequence of the authority with which he is invested to appoint me sole Agent
and Commissioner on the part of the said Republic with plenary powers to
demand and receive in the name of his nation the quiet and peaceable possession
of upper Louisiana, together with all the military posts at St. Louis and its
dependencies from his Catholic Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor Commandants
agreeable to the late treaty of retrocession, and I do by these presents demand
the quiet and peaceable delivery in due form, of the said territory, posts and
dependencies accordingly.

Accept the* assurances of my respectful consideration.

Amos Stoddard,

Captain Corps of the United States Artillerists and Agent and Commissioner
of the French Republic.

Colonel Charles DeHault DeLassus,

Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana.

And to which DeLassus replied:

' St. Louis of Illinois, February 25, 1804.

Sir : As the terms of the letter which I have the honor to receive from you
accord entirely with those of the Brigadiers of his Catholic Majesty, dated
New Orleans, December 31, 1803, and are also in accordance with the requisi-
tion of M. Pierre Clement Laussat, dated New Orleans, January 12, 1804, and
which contained the dociiments that had been sent to you, and which you had
the kindness to forward to me from Kaskaskia on the i8th and which I received
on the 19th of the present month, in virtue of their contents I have made the
necessary arrangements to give you possession of upper Louisiana.

I am ready to give you possession of this province on the day and hour you
may name in the most authentic form as the circumstances and nature of the
country will permit.

I have the honor to be, etc.,

Charles DeHault DeLassus.

Mr. Amos Stoddard, St. Louis.

Finally, on March 9, 1804, the American troops under command
of Lieutenant Worrell,^ acting as Adjutant for Captain Stoddard,
and also accompanied by Captain Merriwether Lewis, already in
St. Louis, and making preparation under orders of President Jeffer-
son to explore the utmost limits of the country from the Mississippi
to the Pacific, were brought across the river. After being transferred
they marched to the Government House, located on what is now the
corner of Walnut and Main streets, where Captain Stoddard in his
representative capacity as Agent of the French Republic and also
of the United States, was received with due ceremony by Lieutenant-
Governor DeLassus in the presence of the citizens of the village,

'Lieutenant Stephen Worrell, Second Regiment U. S. Artillerists.

UPPER LOUISIANA SURRENDERED 361

nearly all of tbem being assembled in the street in front of the build-
ing. Governor DeLassus then issued this brief proclamation:

"Inhabitsnts of upper Louisiana: By the King's command, I am about to
deliver up this post and its dependencies; the flag under wliich you have been
protected for a period of nearly thirly-sii years is to be withdrawn. From this
moment you are released from the oath of fidelity you took to support it. The
fidelity and courage with which you have guarded and defended it will never
be forgotten, and in the character of representative I entertain the most sincere
wishes for your perfect prosperity."

The following official document, testifying to the transfer of the
upper Louisianas was then duly executed :

Srigadier-Generalsof the Royal Aimy and Commissioners of his Catholic Majesty.
for the transfer of the colony and province of Louisiana to the French Republic,
addressed to Don Carlos DeHault DeLassus, Colonel in the same army, Lieu-
tenant-Governor of upper Louisiana and Commissioner appointed by the said
Casa Calvo and de Salcedo, for its transfer according lo the contents of the said
letter they require him to give full and entire possession of said upper Louisiana,
including ihe military posts of St. Louis and its dependencies, to Clement
Ijiussat, appointed by the French Republic lo take possession of the said colony
and province of Louisiana, or any other person which may have been named
(o that effect, according to the treaty of cession, and as by letter also sent from
New OrleaJis dated t ath January of the current year, Ihe said Commissioner of
the French Republic appoints, constitutes and nominates as sole agent ajid
commiss'oner in behalf of his nation, Amos Stoddard, Captain of Artillery of
United States Army, for the purpose of demanding and receiving said upper

362 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Louisiana, comprehending the said military posts of St. Louis and its dependen-
cies in virtue of the respective powers which are explained above ;

Now, be it known by these presents, the above Don Carlos DeHault DeLassus,
in quali^ of Lieutenant-governor of the same at the requirement duly made of
him by the said Amos Stoddard, Agent and Commissioner of the French Republic,
has delivered the full possession, sovereignty and government of the said upper
Louisiana, with all its military posts, quarters and fortifications thereto belongmg
or dependent thereto ; and I, Amos Stoddard, Commissioner, as such do acknowl-
edge to have received the said possession on the same terms already mentioned
of which I acknowledge myself satisfied and possessed of on this day.

In testimony whereof, the aforesaid Lieutenant-Governor and myself have
respectively signed these presents, sealed with the seal of our arms, being
assisted with the witnesses signed below of which proceedings six copies have
been made out, to wit, three in the Spanish and the other three in the English
language.

Given in the town of St. Louis of Illinois, 9th of March, 1804.

Amos Stoddard. (Seal)
Carlos DeHault DeLassus. (Seal)
In presence of

Merriwether Lewis, Captain ist United States Regiment Infantry.

Antoine Soulard, Surveyor General, etc.

Charles Gratiot."

After these official documents transferring the territory had been
duly signed Governor DeLassus thus addressed Captain Stoddard as
Agent and Commissioner of the French Republic :

''Sir : In the King my master's name, I now salute you as the Conmiissioner
of the French Republic, and permit me to congratulate the United States of
America on the purchase they nave made of this fine and rich territory. I have
the honor of presenting you the oflScers of his Majesty, together with, some of
the most respectable inhabitants of his capital who on every occasion manifested
their zeal and fidelity to the Spanish Government, but are now ready to receive'
the new laws under which they are about to reside."

To which Captain Stoddard replied:

"Sir: My reception on this occasion is more grateful to my feelings as it
was wholly unexpected. I consider the civilities bestowed on me as a favorable
omen of our future harmony. Be assured that the United States congratulate
themselves on the acquisition of this fine territory. It will add much to their
pleasure to be informed that the sensible and judicious inhabitants of the
metropolis receive with confidence the government about to be placed over
them. I salute the officers of his Catholic Majesty with that urbanity and
affection which forms a characteristic of military men."

The flag of Spain was then lowered and that of France raised.
On the prearranged signal, a salute was fired from the fort located on
the hill near where the present St. Louis Courthouse is situated.
Thereupon the American troops marched to the fort and were re-
ceived by the Spanish troops under arms and placed in possession of
the quarters of the fort, and the flag of the United States was then
raised on the staff in place of that of France. The Spanish troops
then marched to the temporary barracks which had been rented,
situated on the corner of Elm and Third streets, the house belonging

GRIEF AT NEW MADRID 363

to Manuel de Lisa. After the Spanish troops retired to these tem-
porary quarters DeLassus ordered that the drum must be beat only
in the morning and in the evening and not then until after the drum
beat of the American troops, and in the house only and not in the
open air.

On the same day he addressed an official circular to the several
commandants of upper Louisiana of the change of govemmenl,
as follows, to Don Baptiste Vall^ of Sle. Genevieve; Don De
Hault de Luziere, New Bourbon; Don Louis Lorimier, Cape
Girardeau; Don Juan La Vallfe, New Madrid; Don Pedro de
Treget, Carondelet; Don Santiago Mackay, St. Andre; Don Fran-
cisco Dunegant, St. Ferdinando; Don Carlos Tayon, St. Charles;
Don Francisco Saucier, Portage des Sioui ; Don Pedro Lajoie, Syndic
of Maramec, and Don Fxlmund Hodges, Syndic of Post on the Mis-
souri:

On the 9lh of the present month I relinquished the command of this place
and of all upper Louisiana to Mr. Amos Stoddard, Captain of the ArtiUery of
the United States and Commissioner of the French Republic, and who has
since retained it in the name of the said states. 1 apprise you of this for your
guidance; according to the orders I issued to you of dale February loth, last
passed, notifying you to communicale to the Syndics of your dependency.

God have you in his holy keeping.

Charles DeHault DeLassi^. ,

St. Louis of Illinois, March 13, 1804.

No particular ceremony seems to have marked the transfer
of the other settlements and posts, except at New Madrid. Here
on the i8th of March Don Juan La Vallfe surrendered the fort and
district under his command to Captain
Daniel Bissell, comnussioncd by Captain
Stoddard as agent of the French Republic
to receive it. La Vallfe particularly re-
ports that "in those negotiations forty-five
jjbras of f>owder have been used both in
salutes and by the guards." But the people
of New Madrid were not pleased with the
change of government and he writes that
"this change has caused the greatest anger
among these habitans, who li^'e here, and , ^„mh daniel bissell
especially on the day of surrender, during

the ceremonies of which they have expressed the greatest grief."'
At Sle. Genevieve when the post was surrendered, the flag of

'General Archives of the Indies, Seville — Report of La Vall^ to the
Marquis de Casa Calvo and Don Manuel de Salcedo — dated March ig, 1804.

364 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

the United States was raised by Israel Dodge. At Cape Girardeau
the people, who were all Americans, with the exception of Lorimier
and Cousin, were pleased greatly with the transfer of the country
and seem to have been decidedly hostile, if not to the Spanish
Government, to the Spanish officers. When DeLassus afterward
went down the river with his convoy he ordered the guns to be
loaded in order to repell any hostile attack here. At Mine k
Breton shortly before the transfer, when an attempt was made
by the Spanish Deputy Surveyor Thomas Madden to survey a
tract of land granted Pascal Detchemendy, a riot occurred and the
surveyor and his assistants were driven away, the jjeople, so De-
Lassus writes the Marquis de Casa Calvo, "hallowing Viva Giflfer-
son."p

By letter dated January 7, 1804, DeLassus was ordered to bring
with him all the correspondence belonging to the government "and
which may not have any reference to the proceedings, deeds, conces-
sion of land or with the fortune and interest of these inhabitants."
All the artillery, ammunition and goods belonging to the King in
upper Louisiana were also ordered to be tisiken away, and DeLassus
was authorized to hire boats to transport these effects, but cautioned
to be economical "and watch the interest of the Royal treasury. '*•

But he had no little trouble to secure boats to carry the troops,
artillery, ammunition and royal effects to New Orleans; because
the boats offered for hire were not strong enough to carry the artillery.
Nor was he able to find boats at Ste. Genevieve or New Madrid.
Finally, Auguste Chouteau agreed to build boats strong enough for
the purpose of transporting the artillery and royal effects to New
Orleans to be delivered in October following, but only upon condition
that "everything will be paid in cash " and not in "credit certificates."
These "credit certificates" were "not acceptable." Everybody

It interests us to know that an army ofl&cer was at New Madrid to receive this
post. How long Captain Bissell remained at New Madrid I have not been able
to ascertain. It however, must have been only for a brief p>eriod, because
La Forge seems to have exercised the functions of a civil commandant there,
after the cession, until the organization of the courts of law. Captain Daniel
Bissell in 1804 was stationed at Fort Massac, and v^ry probably came down
from this fort to take over this district. He was a native of Connecticut, born
in 1768, served as Lieutenant in St. Clair's army in 1794, in 1799 was appointed
Captain, in 1809 Lieutenant-Colonel, in 181 2 Colonel, and Brigadier-General in
181 5. He was mustered out of service in 1821 at New Orleans. After this he
resided on his farm about nine miles north of St. Louis, until his death in 1833.

' See Letter of DeLassus to Casa Calvo in Chouteau Collection of DeLassus
letters in the Archives of the Missouri Historical Society.

• Chouteau Collection of DeLassus letters in Mo Historical Society.

i

DIFFICULTIES 365

demanded payment in cash, principally because these "credit certi-
ficates" then could be cashed only at a heavy discount in New
Orleans. But even before Chouteau would undertake the construc-
tion of the boats, DeLassus says, he went out into the woods to make
siu-e that he could find the necessary timber. One boat belonging
to Robidoux, DeLassus secured for the transportation of the
archives and himself and his brother St. Vrain. DeLassus says
that he gave his personal attention to the work of the construction
of these boats and that owing to the lateness of the season when
completed they had to be covered. He then expected that he would
be accompanied by the Rev. Fathers Maxwell, Janin and Lusson
of St. Charles, Don Manual Gonzales Moro, the store-keeper, Don
Juan La Vall^ of New Madrid, Don Eugenio Alvarez, and also by
Dr. Saugrain and Dr. Dorsey and the royal interpreter, Charpentier
of New Madrid, and some Government clerks. And he says many
others would accompany him if able.

DeLassus' difficulties were not lessened by the fact that he had
received no money to pay the soldiers and officers under his command
for about a year, and was compelled to borrow money on his own
personal credit "to buy some clothes and other things for the army
during the winter/* Auguste Chouteau assuming responsibility to pay
for these supplies. Thus nearly the summer passed when in August,
1804, Major Bruff in command of the United States troops at St.
Louis, no doubt anxious to ascertain at what time the Spanish troops
would depart, addressed a letter to DeLassus, making inquiry as to
the matter. He then wrote him that he and his troops had not been
able to depart, because unable to secure boats of sufficient strength
to carry the artillery and royal material, but that boats were being
constructed for that purpose and as soon as finished he would depart
with his troops. It may be that Major Bruff was prompted to make
this inquiry, because at the time it was asserted that the limits of the
Louisiana Territory did not extend far beyond the borders of the
Mississippi and that the country lying on the head-waters of the
Missouri and Arkansas was still claimed by Spain as a part of New
Mexico. DeLassus also in August advised the Marquis de Casa
Calvo of his troubles and was urged by him to depart with his troops
as soon as possible, "so that we will complete all matters concerning
that province"^

' Letter of Casa Calvo to DeLassus dated November 12, 1804, in Chouteau
Collection in Mo. Historical Society.

366 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Finally, after all kinds of vexations and mortifications, the boats
were finished and the artillery and royal effects loaded. On Novem-
ber i6, 1804, at 6:00 o'clock in the morning, DeLassus and his staff,
no doubt joyfully, embarked on one of the boats named "Espcranza."
An hour afterward the clerks and soldiers went on board of the other
three boals, to the number of 67 men. The flag was raised, the
drums were beal, the cables drawn, a salute was fired as the convoy
slowly moved from the shore out into the Mississippi, where
only 36 years before the royal batteaus under the command of Don
Francesco Rui y Morales had unfurled the Spanish standard on
what is now Missouri soil. Elsewhere I have given an account of this
voyage up Ihe river. ' DeLassus has preserved for us some of the
incidents and trials of the voyage down the river, when the Spanish
forces retired from the country. He departed in an inclement season.
The night before he left it hailed and snowed all night long, but the
morning was clear. On the evening of the first day the convoy reached
"Island au Vieux Bour^." The weather was clear and cold next
morning and as the boats drifted down the river DeLassus met " Don
Pedro Chouteau, commander of the Fort of the Osages and General
agent of the Indians for the United States, and who was returning
from Ste, Genevieve, where he had gone to accompany the Governor
William Henry Harrison." A half hour after sunset of that day,
he reached Petit Rocker (Little Rock), then
and now the river landing of Ste. Genevieve.
Here he took aboard the archives and artil-
lery and royal effects of that post, but two
small cannon which had been furnished Mr.
Austin at Mine it Breton to aid him in de-
fending his settlement against the Indians,
Austin did not deliver, sending word that if
" the Spaniards wanted the cannon they could
get them," and this causes DeLassus to
TiimiB cuoiTTEAu remark that "Austin was the principal in the

riot at Mine h. Breton, and that although
he had been greatly favored by the Spanish Government," he
thus showed "his ungratefulness." DeLassus remained at Ste.
Genevieve two days and no doubt met Gov. Harrison, because
he ordered Austin to restore the cannon to the Spaniards. On
the 19th, it was cloudy and "rained very hard," and for this
* See vol. :, p. aSS el itq.

RECEIVED BY LORIMIER 367

reason the boats landed at the house of ''a man called Peter-
son"' below Bois Brul^, and on account of the ''heavy rain"
only one guard was kept on duty in "this terrible weather." An
American boat from the Cumberland with goods for St. Louis
passed him here, but had "no news." The weather was cloudy on
the 20th, but not cold and at 4 o'clock he reached Berthiaume's,
near the mouth of Brazeau's creek. This Berthiaume was the
gunsmith among the Shawnees and who had a village near
there. The next morning was cloudy and foggy and the convoy
did not get under way until 1 1 o'clock. On his way down the river
he met Berthiaume who advised him that the people of the post of
Cape Girardeau were hostile, and hence he ordered the guns loaded
and when he arrived at the post the flag was unfurled and the drums
beat a march. Don Louis Lorimier saluted the convoy with five
loud shots from the top of the hill'® where he resided and sent his
son William to invite DeLassus and the other officers to his house,
explaining that he could not personally come as he was the only
artillerist there. DeLassus with three officers went to the house, and
upon his arrival Lor^ier fired seven more shots in honor of the
occasion. When DeLassus thanked him he says "he could hardly
answer me as he was crying and with heavy tears on his eyes said,
you take the Spanish flag with you, but you cannot take the feelings
that are deeply impressed in my heart." He then told him that he
and the*Shawnee and Delaware Indians would remove to the frontiers
of Mexico if given land, and that 300 Germans would also follow him
if admitted. He surrendered the archives of his post, of which he had
not made an inventory, because he could not read, and did not wish
to trust any one else with these papers. That evening DeLassus
classified and separated the papers. He says that here he was
"greatly insulted by some of the inhabitants." Explaining the salute
with which he was honored, although Lorimier had no cannon at his
post, DeLassus writes that he bored a hole in the trunk of a tree, filled
it with powder and into this hole then hammered another piece of
wood, and that when "the powder explodes it makes a terrible
sound, like that of a large cannon." In this way Lorimier had been

• This is no doubt Jno. Patterson who had a grant near there on the Mis-
sissippi and came over from Kaskaskia. No man named Peterson found in
the Spanish records.

*• Should read " bank of the river," which at time of low water looks Uke a
"hill." Lorimier*s residence was near the river bank and not on the "hills"
which were farther back.

368 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

accustomed to salute all the Spanish commanders as they passed his
post.

On the morning of the 22nd of November, DeLassus left Cape
Girardeau, Lorimier and his wife paying him a farewell visit on
his boat at 6 o'clock in the morning. That night it had hailed
and rained, but the morning was clear. He reached Island du Grand
de Tour on that day. The following day he passed the mouth of the
Ohio and met a boat coming down the river out of the Ohio loaded
with "flour and wines" — more probably whkkey. And that night
he camped at Mine de Fcfy or Iron Banks, 15 miles below the mouth
of the Ohio. The 24th was clear and a "good day," and he stopped
on the Island "Avaloyo," may-be Wolf Island. The next day he
reached New Madrid, where he landed in Bayou St. John, drums
beating a march, men under arms and flag unfurled. Here he re-
mained until the 21st of December.

The boats had now become leaky and men were continually
engaged in pumping out the water. St. Vrain — who was in
command of the boats — advised him that it would be dangerous
to continue the trip without repairs and that at least another
boat must be secured. Capt. McCoy, Don Juan La Valine, Dr.
Samuel Dorsey and other prominent citizens tendered their services
and greatly assisted him here. The boats were unloaded, over-
hauled and repaired. Provisions and meat were secured, but the
only means of payment DeLassus had were the discredited ''credit
certificates." He secured flour and other provisions, he says,
through "a very nice American merchant," although with some
difficulty, because "since the Spanish flag was taken away, they
can't get anything." On the 28th of November, he visited the
American commandant, and he returned the call the following day
and showed him every attention "his position would permit." The
weather was very cold and the American commandant on his request
gave him the use of a house for his soldiers. Thus several weeks
passed in securing a supply of provisions and a new boat and repairing
the old boats for the voyage down the river.

On the 14th of December when DeLassus was about getting
ready to depart he was again short of meat and provisions, but secured
additional supplies. He had more trouble with the boats and some
of them had to be unloaded again. It snowed, hailed, thundered,
rained, heavy ice ran in the river and a severe wind made him very
uneasy "regarding the boats." On the i6th and 17th it still snowed

DELASSUS REACHES NEW ORLEANS 369

and rained and **the river was covered with icicles." On the 19th
of December they all left New Madrid to join the convoy and "talk
over what it would be best to do.** On the 21st of December, he
waited for La Vall^ "who had a certificate to sign." The next day
they were under way and passed a little village on the river, no doubt
Little Prairie, at about lo o'clock and here the inhabitants met him
and the military lieutenant of the place "advised us to camp and
wait until the weather was better." On this day the expedition
passed the southern boundary of what is now Missouri.

On Christmas day, he arrived at Campo de la Esperanza, where
he met Don Augustine Grande, the commandant. Lieutenant
Daniel Hughes, who was in command of the American forces on
the opposite side of the river, called upon him and dined with him,
and tendered him every assistance. After embarking the artillery
"with a great deal of work on account of the snow,** he sailed south
on the last day of the year, firing one shot. At two o*clock he passed
the bluffs on the opposite side under command of Lieutenant Dan
Hughes. Here he "saw the American flag,*' and the "convoy was
saluted with a loud cannon shot** and which he answered "in the
same manner.** After he had gone some distance, another shot was
fired, "and raising the flag, we answered them in the same way, so
that they could see we were prepared to answer them officially.**
DeLassus after a voyage of two months, on the i8th of January,
1805, reached New Orleans in safety."

But returning now to the events immediately following the sur-
render of upper Louisiana, Capt. Stoddard advised under date of
March 10, 1804, Gov. Claiborne and Gen. James Wilkinson, that
he had received possession of the country on behalf of the United
States as follows :

tt

I have the honor to inform you that on the 9th instant the Province of upper
Louisiana was yielded to me in due form as Agent of the French Republic,
and that on this day I occupied the country and government in the name of the
United States. I arrived here as long ago as the 24th ultimo and on the 25th
I made a formal demand of the Province. This delay has been occasioned in
part by the indisposition of the Lieutenant-Governor and in part by the ice in
the Mississippi which obstructed the progress of my company by water. All

" Sec Journal of DeLassus in Chouteau Collection, Mo. Historical Society.
DeLassus from New Orleans was ordered to Pensacola, then headquarters of
the Louisiana regiment of which he had been appointed Colonel in 1803. In
1807 he received a leave of absence to go to France for two years to settle up
his private affairs there. On his return he was stationed at Baton Rouge, but
resigned in 1 810. In 181 6 he removed to St. Louis where he resided for about
ten years, then returned to New Orleans. He died there May i, 1842.

370 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

the papers relative to this transaction will be transmitted to you as soon as I can
prepare them, probably by boat about to descend to New Orleans."

He then issued the following address to the people of upper
Louisiana, and which was forwarded to each of the Commandants
of the several posts :

" Amos Stoddard, Captain of the Corps of the United States Artillerists, and
first Civil Commandant of upper Louisiana, to the people of the same territory :

'' Louisianians : The period has now arrived when in consequence of the
amicable negotiations, Louisiana is in the possession of the United States.
The plan of a permanent territorial government for you is already under the
consideration of Congress and will doubtless be completed as soon as the impor-
tance of the measure will admit. But in the meantime, to secure your rights
and to prevent a delay of justice. His Excellency, William C. C. Claiborne,
Governor of the Mississippi Territory, is invested with those authorities and
powers (derived from an Act of Congress) usually exercised by the Governor-
General and Intendant under his Cathoh'c Majesty; and permit me to add that
by virtue of the authority and power vested in him by the President of the
United States, he has been pleased to commission me First Civil Commandant
of upper Louisiana. Directed to cultivate friendship and harmony among
you, and to make known the sentiments of the United States relative to
the security and preservation of all your rights, both civil and religious, I know
of no mode better calculated to begin the salutary work than a circular address.

It will not be necessary to advert to the various preliminary arrangements
which have conspired to place you in your present political situation; of these, it
is presumed you are already acquainted. Suffice it to observe that Spain in 1800
retroceded the Colony and Province of Louisiana to France, and that France
in 1803 conveyed the same territory to the United States, who are now in the
peaceable and legal possession of it. These transfers were made with honorable
views and under such forms and sanctions as are usually practiced among civ-
ilized nations.

Thus you will perceive that you are devested of the character of subjects
and clothed with that of citizens. You now form an integral part of a great com-
munity, the powers of whose government are circumscribed and defined by
charter, and the liberty of the citizen defended and secured. Between this gov-
ernment and its citizens, many reciprocal duties exist, and the prompt and regular
performance of them is necessary to the safety and welfare of he whole. No
one can plead exemption from these duties ; they are equally obligatory on the
rich and the poor — on men in power as well as those not entrusted with it.
They are not prescribed as whim and caprice may dictate; on the contrary,
they result from the actual or implied compact between society and its members,
and are founded not only on the sober lessons of experience, but in the immutable
nature of things. If, therefore, the Government be bound to protect its citizens
in the enjoyment of their liberty and property and religion — the citizens arc
no less bound to obey the laws and to aid the Magistrate in the execution of
them — to repel invasion — and in j>eriods of public danger, to yield a portion
of their time and exertion in defence of public liberty. In governments diflfer-
ently constituted, where popular elections arc unknown and where the exercise
of power is confined to those of high birth and great wealth, the public defense is
committed to men, who make the science of war an exclusive trade and profession;
but in all free republics where the citizens are capacitated to elect, and to be elected
into offices of emolument and dignity, permanent armies of any considerable
extent are justly deemed hostile to liberty; and, therefore, the militia is con-
sidered the palladium of their safety. Hence, the origin of this maxim that
every soldier is a citizen and every citizen a soldier.

With these general principles before you, it is confidently expected that you
will not be less faithful to the United States than you have been to his Catholic
Majesty.

STODDARD'S ADDRESS 371

Your local situation, the varieties of your language and education, have
contributed to render your manners, laws and customs and even your prejudices
somewhat different from those of your neighbors, but not less favorable to virtue
and good order in society. These deserve something more than mere indul-
gence; they shall be respected.

»i- If, in the course of former time, the people on different sides of the Missis-
sippi fostered national prejudices and antipathies against each other, suffer not
these cankers of human happiness any longer to disturb your repose, or to
awaken your resentments ; draw the veil of oblivion over the past and unite in
pleasing anticipations of the future ; embrace each other as the brethren of the
same mighty family, and think not that any member of it can derive happiness
from the misery or degradation of another.

Little will the example and authority of the best magistrates avail when the
public mind becomes tainted with perverse sentiments and languishes under
an indifference to its true interest. Suffer not the pride of virtue, nor the holy
fire of religion, to become extinct. If these be different in their nature, they are
necessary supports to each other. Cherish the sentiments of order and tran-
quility, and frown on the disturbers of public peace. Avoid as much as possible
all legal contests, banish village vexation, and unite in the cultivation of the social
and moral affections.

Admitted as you are in the embraces of a wise and magnanimous nation,
patriotism will gradually warm your breasts and stamp its features on your future
actions. To be useful, it must be enlightened — not the effect of passion, local
prejudice or blind impulse. Happy the people, who possess invaluable rights
and know how to exercise them to the best advantage ; wretched are those who
dare not think and act freely. It is a sure test of wisdom to honor and support
the government under which you live, and to acquiesce in the decisions of the
public will, when they be constitutionally expressed. Confide, therefore, in the
justice- and in the integrity of our Federal President; he is the faithful guardian
of the laws, and entertains the most beneficent views relative to the glory and
happiness of this territory ; and the merit alone, derived from the acquisition of
Louisiana, without any other, would perpetuate his fame to posterity. Place
equal confidence in all the constituted autnorities of the Union : they will protect
your rights and. indeed, your feelings, and all the tender felicities and sympa-
thies so dear to rational and intelligent natures. A very short experience of
their equitable and pacific policy, will enable you to view them in their proper
light. I flatter myself that you will give their measures a fair trial, and not
precipitate yourselves into conclusions which you may afterwards be forced to
retract. The first official act of my present station, expressly permitted by
higher authority, will confirm these remarks.

The United States, in the acquisition of Louisiana, were actuated by just
and liberal views. Hence the admission of an article in the treaty of cession,
the substance of which is, that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be
incorporated in the Union, and admitted as soon as possible to the enjoyment
of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States;
and in the mean time be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their
liberty, property and religion.

From these cursory hints you will be enabled to comprehend your present
political situation, and ant'cipate the future destinies of your country. You may
soon expect the establishment of a tenitorial government, administered by men
of wisdom and integrity, whose salaries will be paid out of the Treasury of the
United States. From your present population and the rapidity of its increase,
this territorial establishment must soon be succeeded by your admission as a
State into the Federal Union. At that period you will be at liberty to try an
experiment in legislation, and to frame such a government as may best comport
with your local interests, manners and customs; popular suffrage will be its
base. The enaction of laws and the appointment of judges to expound them,
are among the first privileges of organized society. Equal to cither of these,
indeed, is the inestimable nght of trial by jury. Inseparable from many other
obvious advantages are the forms of judicial processes and the rules for the admis-

372 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

sion of testimony in courts of justice. It is also important that a distinction be
made between trials of a capital nature and those of an inferior degree, as also
between all criminal and dvil contests. In fine, upper Louisiana from its
climate, soil and productions and from other natural advantages attached to it
will, in all human probability, soon become a star of no inconsiderable magni-
tude in the American constellation.

Be assured that the United States feels all the ardor for your interests which
a warm attachment can inspire. I have reason to suppose that it will be among
some of their first objects to ascertain and confirm your land titles. They
will know the deranged state of these titles and of the existence of a multitude
of equitable claims under legal surveys where grants have not been procured,
^liat ultimate measures may be taken on this subject does not become me to
conjecture — but this much I will venture to affirm, that the most ample justice
will be done; and that in the final adjustment of claims no settler or land-holder
will have just cause to complain. Claimants of this description have hitherto
invariably experienced the hberality of government; and surely it will not be
less liberal to the citizens of upper Louisiana who form a strong cordon on an
exposed frontier of a vast empur, and are entitled by solemn stipulations to all
the rights and immunities of freemen.

My duty, not more indeed than my inclination, urges me to cultivate
friend^ip among you and between you and the United States. I suspect
my talents to be unequal to the duties which devolve on me in the organi-
zation and temporary administration of government. The want of a
proper knowledge of your laws and language, is among the difficulties I
have to encounter. But my ambition and assiduity will be excited in
proportion to the honor conferred on me. Inflexible justice and impartiality
shall guide me in all my determinations. If, however, in the discharge of a
variety of complicated duties I be led into error, consider it as involuntary, and
not as the effect of inattention, or of any exclusive favors or affections. Destined
to be the temporary guardian of the rights and liberties of at least 10,000 people,
I may not be able to gratify the just expectations of all — but your prosperity
and happiness will claim ail my time and talents; and no earthly enjoyment
could be more complete than Uiat derived from your public and individual
security from the increase of your opulence and power.

St. Louis, March 10, 1804." **

Under instructions, Capt. Stoddard made no change in the
officers of the several posts, nor in any wise interfered with the civil
affairs of the country. He reappointed the Spanish commandants
of the several districts as civil but not as military commandants. ^

*' Copied from an original in the archives of New Madrid. — vol. 11.

**The original commission, issued by Captain Stoddard to Jean Baptiste
Vall^, found in the Missouri Historical Society, dated March 10, 1804, is as
follows:

"John B.\ptiste Valle:

" By virtue of the authority and power vested in me by His Excdlency
William C. C. Claiboume, Governor of the Mississippi Territory, and acting as
Governor-General and Intendant of Louisiana, and reposing a special trust and
confidence in your integrity, patriotism, and ability, you are hereby app<Hnted
Civil Commandant of the District of Ste. Genevieve, in upper Louisiana, with
all the powers and privileges appertaining thereto, and to hold said office, and
to execute the duties thereof during the pleasure of the said acting Governor-
General and Intendant, or during the pleasure of the first Civil Commandant
of upper Louisiana, or until some other provision be made by Congress for the
government of the same territory; and all persons whom it may concern are
warned to take notice, and to govern themselves accordingly.

PEOPLE SATISFIED 373

On this subject Goveraor Claiborne, under date of June 24, wrote
him from New Orleans, as follows :

"Sir: In all judicial cases when you entertain any doubt or feel any diffi-
culty in deciding you will avoid acting and refer the parties to the coiuts that
will be established in upper Louisiana in the month of October. A reference
to me would be improper, for the probabi ity is before a decision could be made
my judicial authority will have ceased. Your proclamation and orders relative
to the banditti of Creeks who have committed recent depredation^ meet my
approbation. With respect to the Indians generally, I doubt not but that you
have endeavored to cultivate their friendship and conciliate their a£fections.
The best way of effecting which is to act towards them with impartial justice,
to protect all peaceable Indians from violence and wrong and to exercise toward
them every act of kindness which your means will permit.

The amount of expenses which you have necessarily incurred either in your
military or civil character I wish you to state to the Secretary of War. The
contingent fund allowed me for the taking possession of Louisiana is nearly
expended, and, therefore, I am desirous that you should apply direct to the
Secretary of War for the adjustment of your accounts. There is no doubt but
the expenses incident to your public offices, such as stationery, interpreter and
office rent, will be paid ; and, I think, the Government would act justly were
they to make some allowances for your increased personal expenses.

It gives me great pleasure to learn the good order and quietude which prevail
in upper Louisiana. It argues much in favor of your judgment and prudence,
and I trust the present happy prospect may long continue.

The conduct of the several commandants acting under your authority should
be strictly watched and carefully investigated. The abuse of office under the
late government was considerable and the commandants of distant posts were
frequently guilty of injustice and oppression. I have found it gooa policy to
recommission several of the former commandants and I learn that you have
pursued a like policy, but we should both take care that these men execute their
powers in justice and in mercy."

Without the least objection on the part of the French population
of upper Louisiana, and to the great satisfaction of the American
settlers, the jurisdiction of the United States was thus extended over
the n^w territory. A few French land speculators, who, before the
transfer of the territory and in anticipation of a change of dominion,
for they were not ignorant of the treaty of St. Ildefonso any more
than the Spanish officers in New Orleans, had secured large and
important concessions of land, no doubt anticipated to reap great

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal at St. Louis, this
tenth day of March, 1804, and in the twenty-eighth year of the Independence
of the United States.

374 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

benefits. They well understood that land values would greatly
increase, because free donations of land to actual settlers would no
longer be made. Under the new government these holders of con-
cessions and their assignees at once became and were regarded as
the landed capitalists of the new territory. Such being the case, it
is very probable that one of the chief beneficiaries of the favors of the
late Spanish authorities became very enthusiastic and called for
"three cheers in honor of his adopted country," as has been stated.
Nevertheless, it is said that Charles Gratiot was about the only man
in St. Louis who took a personal interest in the transfer of the country
to the United States; that the people as a whole were indifferent.
But Gratiot had received large land grants and perhaps under-
stood better than any one in St. Louis at that time the immense
benefit a change of government implied. At the time George Rogers
Clark conquered the country northwest of the Ohio, Gratiot was a
merchant in the village of Cahokia, and no doubt then observed the
wonderful change in land values which resulted from the American
occupation of the country.

The importance of ascertaining the exact character and nature, as
well as the extent, of the Spanish land grants was perceived to be a
subject of greatest importance by the officers of the Government of
the United States, and very likely under instruction, without much
delay, on the loth of March, 1804, Captain Stoddard issued the fol-
lowing proclamation in regard to this subject :

"Amos Stoddard, Captain of the Artillerists of the United States and First
Civil Commandant of upper Louisiana, to the inhabitants of the same territory :

The treaty of cession provides that all the public records of the Province,
esi>ecially those relating to land claims, shall be surrendered to the United States
who are bound to provide for their saife keeping. It has been represented that
the p>eople still have in their hands many other original grants which have not been
entered on the records, as also a variety of original papers relative to land claims
under which full and complete titles have never been procured according to the
late Spanish laws. It is therefore expected and enjoined that on or before the
15th day of May, next, all original grants from the Crown or from those author-
ized by the Crown to make grants, be recorded in the proper offices and that
all original petitions and the orders of survey, whether the land petitioned for
be surveyed or not, be filed or lodged in the office of the District Commandant
in which the land is situated, and the several commandants are authorized and
required either to give attested copies to the claimants of all such original papers
thus filed or lodged with them, if required, or make a record thereof and return
the original to the claimants. The object of this measure is to ascertain the
nature of the several land titles and to provide a safe de|X)sit for all original
records and papers relative to them. It is confidently expected that each
claimant of lands will be well disposed to deposit the evidence of his land claim
as required.

Dated at St. Louis, loth day of March, 1804."

SLAVES — MILITIA 375

The general apathy of the French habitans at the time lead many
to think that the inhabitants were not fit for self-government. In
the debate growing out of the reconmiendations of President Jefferson
and which finally led to the passage of the Act of 1805, it was urged
by many members of Congress that the people of upper Louisiana
were not prepared for self-government. Judge J. B. C. Lucas,
although a native of France, at that time a member of Congress
from Pennsylvania, so maintained and adduced as proof for his
assertion that the French inhabitants when the American flag was
hoisted "shed tears."

A subject which seems somewhat to have agitated the people of
upper Louisiana, immediately after the purchase, was the conduct
of their slaves, among whom, Captain Stoddard was advised, "a
fermentation which may become dangerous" existed, created by the
report spread among them that they would be free before long.
Many of the leading citizens of St. Louk, therefore, requested
Captain Stoddard to take this matter under consideration so as to
insure the tranquillity of the people. Captain Stoddard replied to the
conmiittee that he would take great pleasure in enforcing such rules
and regulations as might "appear necessary to restrain the licentious-
ness of slaves and to keep them more steadily to their duty," and
thus add what he could contribute "to the peace and security of the
respectable town of St. Louis." The conmiittee accordingly sub-
mitted to him a number of rules and regulations which they requested,
after having been carefuUy examined and modified or amended so
as to meet his views, might be promulgated and extended over all
upper Louisiana, and which it seems was done.

Stoddard also organized the militia in all the principal settle-
ments of upper Louisiana embodying the inhabitants of several
settlements into companies. But the companies so organized were
not uniform as to numbers, some consisting of nearly one hundred
men and others of not more than fifty. Several companies were thus
organized in St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New
Madrid.

CHAPTER XXII.

*

Louisiana divided by act of Congress of 1804 — The Louisiana District attached
to the Indiana Territory — Executive, Judicial and Legislative power vested
in the Governor and Judges of the Indiana Territory — Wm. H. Harrison,
Governor of the Louisiana District — Arrives in St. Louis October i, 1804

— The St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, St. Charles, Cape Girardeau and New
Madrid Districts organized and Lieutenant-Governors or Commandants
appointed for same. — The Spanish Land grants — Stringent Criminal
laws to prevent Surveys under Spanish claims — Courts organized — Court
of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions established — First Court and
Grand Jury of St. Louis District — First Court of Ste. Genevieve and
Grand Jury there — First Court of the Cape Girardeau District — Of the
New Madrid District — Of the St. Charles District — Additional Judges
for the St. Louis District under Act of 1805 — Political agitation — Letters
to Jefferson — Dissatisfaction with Act of 1804 — First convention west
of the Mississippi river — Members of this convention — Memorial to
Congress — Auguste Chouteau and Eligius Fromentin appointed Delegates

— Treaty with the Saukees and Fox Indians in 1804 — Indian troubles
caused by this treaty — Upper Louisiana detached from Indiana Territory
by Act of 1805 — General Wilkinson appointed Governor — James B. C.
Lucas, John Cobum and Rufus Easton appointed Judges of the Superior
Court — Visit of Aaron Burr to St. Louis — Joseph Browne, Secretary of
the Territory, his brother-in-law — Wilkinson suspects Burr — Plan sug-
gested to remove all the settlers west of the Mississippi to the east side —
HostiHty to Wilkinson's administration — Laws enacted by the Territorial
Legislature, composed of Wilkinson and the Judges — General Court of
Appeals created — Wilkinson removed from office — Wilkinson goes south
in 1807 — Merriwether Lewis appointed Governor — Militia organized —
Revenue laws and taxation.

President Jefferson thought that it primarily devolved u|>on
Congress to provide a government for the newly acquired territory
and to regulate its affairs. Accordingly, Stoddard, under instructions,
in no wise interfered with the administrative system as it existed in
upper Louisiana when the province was ceded, leaving all the old
Spanish officers, with the exception of Lieutenant-Governor De-
Lassus, in the discharge of their respective duties as defined by the
Spanish laws and customs, confining himself simply to the duty of
preserving public order in the territory under his jurisdiction. It
even seems to have been thought necessary that by express Act of
Congress the President should be authorized to take possession of
the Louisiana purchase, and such an Act was passed October 3,
1803, and the President authorized, in order to maintain order in the
territory, to employ such part of the Army and Navy as he might
deem necessary in that behalf; and it was expressly provided that

376

ATTACHED TO INDIANA 377

until provision for the temporary government of said territory should
be made by Congress that all the "military, civil and judicial powers
exercised by the officers of the existing territory shall be vested in
such person or persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the
President of the United States shall direct, maintaining and pro-
tecting the inhabitants of Louisiana in the free enjoyment of their
liberty, property and religion." *

The whole subject of providing a government for the territory
acquired was left to Congress. In 1804 Congress took cognizance
of the subject and divided the territory acquired into two great sub-
divisions. All that part of Louisiana south of the 33d parallel of
north latitude was erected into a territory and named the "Territory
of Orleans," and the remainder of the province lying north of the
33d parallel and extending to the British line, and indefinitely
west, was designated as the "District of Louisiana" and attached to
the Territory of Indiana. By this Act the executive power of the
Governor of the Territory of Indiana, at that time William H. Harri-
son, was extended over the "District of Louisiana," and the three
judges of the Territory of Indiana were by the Act created a legisla-
tive body with power to enact such laws as might be needful for the
government of the district, from time to time, and conducive to the
good government of the inhabitants thereof. It was also provided
that these judges should hold two terms of court annually within said
district at such places as might be most convenient to the inhabitants
thereof, and in general possess and exercise such jurisdiction as
exercised by them in the Territory of Indiana. The Act also de-
clared that all grants of land made after the treaty of St. Ildefonso
should be void ; provided, that grants made according to the laws,
usages and customs of Spain, to actual settlers, should not be void
if the land grant had been actually settled prior to the 20th of Decem-
ber, 1803 ; and provided further, that the land claimed did not exceed
in extent one square mile;' and provision was made for the punish-

* 2 United States Statutes at Large, page 245.

* 2 United States Statutes at Large, p. 288, Section 14. This section,
in which the people of the territory were more interested than any other
subject, provided as follows: "That all grants for land within the territories
ceded by the French republic to the United States, by the treaty of 30th of April,
in the year 1803, the title whereof was, at the date of the treaty of St. Ildefonso,
in the crown, government, or nation of Spain, and every act and proceeding
subsequent thereto, of whatsoever nature, towards obtaining any grant, title or
claim to such lands, and under whatsoever authority transacted, or pretended, be,
and the same are hereby declared to be, and to have been from the beginning,
null, void and of no effect in law or equity. Provided, nevertheless, that any-

378 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

ment of all unauthorized settlers entering upon the public lands, or

making any unauthorized surveys thereof, and designating boundaries

by marking trees, etc. This Act further provided for diidding the

district into such local districts by the Gover-

©nor, under the direction of the President, as
the convenience of the settlements should re-
quire ; and that the inhabitants of these dis-
tricts should be formed into a militia, with
proper officers, the whole to be under the com-
mand of the Governor.
Under (his Act, which it was provided
should go into eSect October i, 1804, Gov-
ernor Harrison and the three judges of the
WM. B. BAiusoN Tcnitory of Indiana, Thomas Terry Davis,

Henry Vandenberg, and John Griffin, met
at Vincennes and adopted a series of laws to cany out the intention
of Congress, and these laws were published as required by the
Act. Under the advice of President Jefferson, substantially the sub-
division of the territory existing under the Spanish government
for the districts of St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape
Girardeau and New Madrid, and defining ihe boundaries of these
districts, was adopted.' By proclamation of Governor Harrison,
dated October i, 1804, the boundaries of the districts were accord-
ingly defined as follows: All that part of the district of

thing in (his section contained shall not be construed to make void any bona
fide grant, made agreeably to the laws, usages and customs of the Spanish
govenunenl to an actual settler on the lands so granted, for himself, and for his
wife and family ; or to make null and void any bona Ude act or proceeding done
by an actual settler agreeably to the laws, usages and customs of the Spanish
govemmeni, to obtain a grant for lands actually settled on by the penon or
persons claiming title thereto, if such seitlemenl in either case was actually nude
prior to the 20th day of December, 1803: And provided further, that such
grant shall not secure to the grantee, or his assigns, more than one mile square
of land, together with such other and further quantity as heretofore hath been
allowed for the wife and family of such actual settler, agreeably to the laws,
usages and customs of the Spanish government. And that, if any citizen of
the United States, or other person, shall make any settlement on any lands
belonging to the United Stales, within the limits of Louisiana, or shall survey,
or attempt to survej', such lauds, or designate boundaries by marking trees, or
otherwise, such offender shall, on conviction (hereof, in any court of record of
the United States, or of the lemlories of the United States, forfeit a sum not
exceeding one thousand dollars, and suffer imprisonment not exceeding twelve
months; and it shall moreover be lawful for the president of the United States
to employ such military force as he may judge necessary to remove from laoda
belonging to (he Uniled Stales any such citizen, or other penoD who shall
attempt settlement thereon."

• Jefferson Papets, Series i, vol. 10, No. 1 19.

BOUNDARIES OF DISTRICTS 379

Louisiana north of the Missouri river was made the district
of St. Charles; the district of St. Louis was bounded by the
Missouri river on the north and on the south by Plattin creek
from its mouth to its source, thence a line was extended to the
fork of the river Maramec called **Arencau," thence up said
Maramec to the upper settlements on said river and thence west to
the western boundary of Louisiana — by this line the Plattin settle-
ments which under the Spanish government had been a part of the
Ste. Genevieve district were attached to the St. Louis district; the
Ste. Genevieve district was bounded on the north by the St. Louis
district in its whole extent to the western boundary of Louisiana and
on the south by Apple creek from its mouth to its source and thence
west to the western boundary of Louisiana; the Cape Girardeau
district was bounded on the north by the Ste. Genevieve district and
on the south by the boundary that has ** heretofore separated the
commandaries of Cape Girardeau and New Madrid"; and finally
all that portion of the district south of the Cape Girardeau district
was formed into a fifth district called New Madrid district, this
district embracing all the territory from the northern limits of the
Orleans territory. The seats of Justice of the several districts were ,
established at New Madrid for the New Madrid district, at St. Louis
for that district, at St. Charles for the St. Charles district, at Ste.
Genevieve for the district of that name, and at Cape Girardeau at
such point as might thereafter be appointed, for at the time when the
districts were divided no town or village existed in Cape Girardeau
district. For each district a Commandant or Lieutenant-Governor
was provided. In each of these districts courts of Common Pleas
and Quarter Sessions were established, and the offices of Recorder
and Sheriff created.

The laws adopted by this legislative commission formed a pam-
phlet of about 55 pages of the ordinary size of a law book of the
present time. They were few in number, and as a whole, reflected the
Anglo-American sentiment of society at the time of their enactment as
to certain offenses and as to social conditions. These laws introduced
the whipping-post and pillory, altogether unknown to the civil law
which had prevailed in the territory up to this period; also im-
prisonment for debt and the sale of debtors. Evidently the
thought that the feelings of criminals ought not to be lacerated
by exposure in the pillory, that a public whipping-post lowered
the chance of redeeming the malefactor, had not entered into the

380 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

minds of these judicial legislators. The injustice of imprisoning
a man for his debts, and selling him for his debts, was yet to
be demonstrated so as to be relegated to the lumber-room of past
ideas. By these laws arson was made punishable by death, and in
addition, the injured party could recover his damages out of the per-
sonal and real estate of the offender. But burglary in the night time
was punishable only by a fine not exceeding $100, and at the discre-
tion of the court the prisoner could be compelled to file surety for his
good behavior not exceeding one year, and in default might be com-
mitted to jail for one year. If a burglar succeeded in purloining
property he was also fined in triple the value of the article stolen, one-
third to go to the district and two-thirds to the party injured; but
if while committing a burglary in a house or store, taking property
therefrom, he was armed with a dangerous weapon, the offense was
punishable by death. Highway robbery was punbhable by fine not
exceeding $100, but if the robber was armed with a dangerous weapon,
clearly indicating an intention to do violence, the offense was also pun-
ishable with death. Under these laws any person committing forgery
was liable to be fined in double the sum out of which he defrauded a
person by such forgery, and further, on conviction was forever there-
after incapable of giving testimony, acting as juror, or filling an office
of trust ; and it was further provided that the offender should be set
in the pillory for a space not exceeding three hours. Fraudulent con-
veyances were declared void, and parties making such conveyances
liable to a fine not exceeding $300 and to pay double damages to the
party injured. On the subject of marriage these laws provided that
male persons of the age of seventeen years, and female persons of the
age of fourteen years might be joined in marriage, but previous notice
of intention to marry was required to be given by publication for
fifteen days, or at least for three successive Sundays or other days of
public worship, in the church or meeting house of the town where the
parties respectively resided; or, by publication in writing under the
hand and seal of one of the judges of the General Court or Court of
Common Pleas, or of the Justice of the Peace in the district; but if
a license could be obtained from the Governor under his hand and
seal authorizing the marriage, marriage could take place without
publication. The sale of liquor to the Indians was strictly prohibited,
a most important provision, and which we may be certain was
generally not observed. Careful provision was made for licensing
ferries. No person was allowed to maintain a house of public enter-

LAWS 381

tainment without a license from the court of Quarter Sessions under
penalty of $10 per day for every day such person violated the laws.
Stringent and severe laws were made for the government and manage-
ment of slaves. Provision was made for the appointment of Justices
of the Peace, Constables and Coroners in every neighborhood. In
effect, but without making special reference to the fact, the civil law
which theretofore had obtained in the territory was superseded by
the common law. The era of summary justice and combined civil
and military jurisdiction exercised by the several post-Conmiandants
was at an end.

In July, 1804, President JefFerson, in order to give expression to the
friendly feeling of the people of the United States toward the inhab-
itants of the ceded territory, appointed four young men belonging to
leading families of upper Louisiana to West Point, the new military
school then just organized. The young men so appointed were
Auguste Chouteau, Jun.,' Charles Gratiot,' and Pascal Vincent
Bonis,* from St. Louis; Louis Lorimier, Jun.,^° and Auguste
Bougainville Lorimier" from the Cape Girardeau district, and in
1805 Louis Vall^*' was so appointed from the Ste. Genevieve district.

^ Augruste Chouteau, Jun., was a son of Pierre Chouteau. He graduated
June, 1806, and was appointed Ensign of the 2nd Infantry June 20, 1806.
Served on the southwest frontier, as aide-de-camp of Brigadier-General Wil-
kinson. Resigned in 1807 and engaged in the Indian trade from 1808 until
1838. He married Sophie, a daughter of Sylvestre Labadie in 1809. Died
at Fort Gibson DecemDcr 25, 1838.

' Charles Gratiot graduated in 1806 and in October of that year was ap-
pointed 2nd Lieutenant Corps of Engineers and Captain of Engineers 1808. He
was Brevet Colonel of Michigan Militia in 1814; appointed Major Engineer
Corps 1815; Lieutenant-Colonel Engineer Corps 1819; Colonel and Chief-
Engineer United States Army May 14, 1828 and breveted Brigadier-General for
meritorious service May 24, 1 828. He served in the Missouri Territory in 1 806-7,
was Assistant Engineer in the construction of the Charleston harbor ; taught
mathematics at the Military Academy in 181 2-14; was Chief Engineer of the
Northern Army in the War of 181 2 and rendered valuable services in that war;
superintended the fortifications in Delaware Bay in 1816-17 and many other
similar works on the Atlantic coast; he afterward was in command of the
Engineer Corps and as such was ex-officio Inspector of the Military Academy
and member of several Ordinance and Military Boards, but in 1838 was re-
tired from the service. He died in Washington City. His wife, bom at Phila-
delphia in 1799, ^i^ ^^ ^^* Louis at the age of 86 years.

* Pascal Vincent Bouis graduated and appointed 2nd Lieutenant of ist U. S.
Artillery in 1808; resigned 1808; planter near Parish Coup^, Louisiana; died
1811.

*® Louis Lorimier, Jr., graduated 1806, appointed 2nd Lieutenant ist U. S.
Infantry; served on the western frontiers; resigned in 1809 and died in 1830.

" Never graduated.

" Louis Vall^ graduated in 1808, appointed 2nd Lieutenant of ist U. S.
Artillery, but declined appointment; became a merchant at Ste. Genevieve,
where he died on September 24, 1833, aged 43 years.

382 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Governor Harrison and the judges of the Indiana Territory arrived
in St. Louis October i, 1804, and administrative changes in the
government of the territory were then made. Colonel Samuel Ham-
mond*' was appointed Lieutenant-Governor or Commandant
of St. Louis; Major Seth Hunt, Lieutenant-Governor or Com-
mandant of Ste. Genevieve ; Colonel Return J. Meigs *• Lieutenant
Governor or Commandant of St. Charles, and Colonel Thomas
B. Scott *• Lieutenant-Governor or Commandant of Caj^e Girar-
deau. For New Madrid, Pierre Antoine LaForge acted as civil
Commandant. All these commandants except LaForge were army
officers."

The first judges of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter

'* Born in Richmond county, Virginia, Sept. 21, 1757; was at battle of Pt.
Pleasant; served in the Revolutionary war; was at King's Mountain; removed
to Georgia, represented the Augusta district in Congress; lived at "Varello**
near Augusta when offered appointment in Louisiana territory June 36, 1804,
and writes General Dearborn that he accepts reluctantly; in 1830 removed from
Missouri to South Carolina where he filled the position of surveyor-general and
secretary of state, and died in Hamburg in that state Sept. 11, 1842, at the age of
eighty -five years. Jefiferson Papers, 3d Series, vol. 10.

** Born in Middleton, Conn., Nov. 16, 1769; graduate of Yale college, 1785 ;
studied law; accompanied his father, R. J. Meigs, to Marietta, Ohio, and
began to practice law there ; aided in the formation of the territorial government
of, Ohio; territorial judge and Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Ohio; breveted
Colonel of U. S. army, and appointed Commandant of the St. Charles district of
Louisiana Territory, 1804; Judge of the Territory, 1805 ; Judge of the Territory
of Michigan ; elected Governor of Ohio, but declared ineligible ; elected United
States Senator from Ohio; resigned in 1810; elected Governor of Ohio, and
appointed Postmaster General by President Madison, 1814; reappointed by
President Monroe and ser\'ed until 1823; resigned then and withdrew from
public life; died at Marietta, Ohio, 1824. Originally a Federalist, and appar-
ently held office during his whole life.

*• In a letter to Jefferson General Wilkinson says that he is "the soundest and
ablest man in the territory " and will give him correct information as to political
conditions. Letter to Jefferson, dated Nov. 6, 1805, No. 116. John Baytop
Scott was the son of Thomas Baytop Scott and Katherine Tompies and
born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, September 26, 1761. In 1777
he enlisted in a company of Virginia Cavalry under command of his
brother Charles Scott, and served under "Lighthorse Harry Lee'* until the
close of the Revolution. He then entered WUliam and Mary College where
he graduated. In 1799 he was Brigadier General of the Virginia State troops.
In 1805 he was appointed Colonel of the United States Army by brevet and
Commandant of the Cape Girardeau district. He rode from Virginia on horse-
back to this district where he arrived on April 20, 1805. In the following year
he returned to Virginia accompanied by a son of Lorimier, Vemeuil, to be
educated there. After he arrived in Virginia he resigned. In 181 2 he was a
candidate for Congress, but died before the election, aged 53 years.

" Albert Gallatin says, *'I dislike so much the appointment of militar>' com-
mandants in upper Louisiana, and perhaps for that reason think it probable
that the system will soon be repealed, that the choice of proper persons has not
appeared to me to be of first rate importance." Jefferson Papers, 3d Series,
vol. 5, No. 50.

THE NEW COURTS 383

Sessions in St. Louis in 1804, appointed by Governor Harrison,
were, Auguste Chouteau, Jacques Clamorgan, David Delaunay,
James Mackay, and Charles Gratiot, Presiding Judge. James
Rankin was appointed Sheriff, and Marie Philip Leduc, Clerk and
Recorder. Edward Hempstead was selected as Attorney-General
pro tern,, and William Sullivan appointed first Constable. A house
belonging to Jacques Clamorgan was rented for a jail. The first
grand-jury summoned was composed of: Antoine Soulard, Ber-
nard Pratte, Thomas F. Riddick, Wilson Hunt, Joseph Bour^,
Joseph Brazeau, Antoine Vincent, Sylvestre Labadie, Joseph M.
Papin, Jean Baptiste Trudeau, Francois M. Benoist, Boyd Denny,
Pierre Dodier, Calvin Adams, Emelien Yosti, Hyacinthe St. Cyr,
Andre Andreville, Benito Vasquez, Jerome Hubert, Patrick Lee,
Yacinte Egliz, Joseph Ortiz, Louis Brazeau, Joseph Perkins, and
four being absent, Joseph Brazeau, J. B. Trudeau, F. M. Benoist
and Patrick Lee, were fined five dollars each and thus given an
object lesson in the new methods of a free country, expecting every
citizen to bear his part of the civic burden.

In 1805 three additional judges from the country outside of St.
Louis participated in the proceedings of the St. Louis court, namely :
Alexander McNair, Richard Caulk, and Joseph Allen. At this
session John B. Billon was authorized to keep a ferry across the
Missouri at St. Charles, an important matter at that time. The
ferry license across the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was fixed
at ten dollars a year ; the license for a billiard table was made one
hundred dollars a year. It was also ordered that shaved deer skins
at the rate of three pounds to the dollar in the winter months, from
October to April, should be a legal tender, but that at other periods of
the year cash must be paid. At a special term, 1805, Calvin Adams,
Andre Andreville and William Sullivan were authorized to keep tav-
erns. The record further shows that Sheriff Rankin was fined six
dollars for "insolence and contempt " of court, and removed from ofl&ce,
and Josiah McLanahan appointed his successor in June following.

For the Ste. Genevieve district, the court of Common Pleas and
Quarter Sessions was organized on December 11, 1804, at the house of
Andrew Buat. Moses Austin, Jacques Guibourd, Benjamin Stro-
ther, John Hawkins, and Francis Vall^ were appointed judges,
William C. Carr acted as the Attorney of the United States pro tern.
Israel Dodge was appointed Sheriff, and Thomas Oliver, Clerk of the
court. This court appointed Andrew Morris, of New Bourbon,

384 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Peter Lenral of Ste. Genevieve, Joseph Tucker of the Saline,
Thomas Donohoe between the Saline and Cape Girardeau line, John
Paul of Bellevue and Bernard Foster of Mine k Breton, constables
of these localities respectively. The venire of the grand jury was
composed as follows: Joseph Spencer, William Hickman, John
Price, Joseph Pratte, Andrew Henry, Pascal Detchemendy, Charles
Smith, Robert J. Brown, William Murphy, David Murphy, Francis
Clark, Camille DeLassus, James Hunter, John Durget, Samuel
Bridge and Aquilla Low.*'

The court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions for the Cape
Girardeau district, commissioned by Governor Harrison, met on the
19th of March, 1805, namely: Christopher Hays, Presiding Judge,
Louis Lorimier, Thomas Ballew, Robert Green, John Guething,
John Byrd and Frederick Limbaugh, associate judges. Joseph
McFerron produced his commission as Clerk of the court, and John
Hays as Sheriff. The following named persons composed the first
grand jury, and were sworn in as such: Henry Sheridan, James
Earles, Joseph Waller, John Taylor, Daniel Harkelrode, Louis
Lathem, John Patterson, Matthew Hubbell, Elijah Whitaker,Ithamar
Hubbell, Martin Rodney, Samuel Pew, James Boyd, William Boner,
John Abernathy, Samuel Randol, James Currin, Robert Crump,
Samuel Bradley and Frederick Bollinger.*"

For the district of New Madrid, Dr. Richard J. Waters, Elisha
Windsor, Henry Masters, John Baptisle, Olive and Michael Amoreaux
were appointed judges of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter
Sessions, and Joshua Humphreys, Clerk, and George Wilson, Sheriff ;
and thus constituted the court formally organized in March, 1805.

Of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions for St.
Charles district, Francois Saucier was appointed Presiding Justice,
Daniel Morgan Boone, Francois Duquette and Robert Spencer,
associate judges. Rufus Easton was Attorney-General, Dr. Mackay
Wherry, Sheriff; Edward Hempstead, Clerk. The Court first met
in the house of Dr. Reynal, in January, 1805, and on this lot
afterward the court house of St. Charles County was erected. At
this time the whole St. Charles district, embracing all the country
to the northern limits of the United States west of the Mississippi to the
Rocky Mountains, only had a population of 765, including 55 slaves.

A new system of government was thus peacefully inaugurated,

" History of Southeast Missouri, p. 310.
*• History of Southeast Missouri, p. 316.

AGITATION 385

widely different in principle from that under which the people had
lived. For the political peace and order which had prevailed in
these isolated settlements, what must have seemed at least to the
French habitans political anarchy was substituted. Political con-
troversy and loud declamations of political agitators became the
order of the day. Instead of the respect with which the people had
been accustomed to regard the representatives of the government,
openly expressed contempt for such officials was very often mani-
fested. They soon learned that every act of the government and
every representative of the government could be violently and acrimo-
niously criticised with impunity. The rich and influential residents
soon found, that in order to have their rights protected, it was neces-
sary to make their grievances known in an unmistakable manner.

Urged by self-interest the rich, quiet and self-contained French
residents of the new territory with wonderful rapidity adapted
themselves to the new order of things. Hence as soon as it was
found that under the Act of Congress, all land grants made
after the treaty of St. Ildefonso were declared void, a fierce opposi-
tion to it arose. The act was attacked, because it attached the
country to the territory of Indiana, because it was proposed
to transfer the Indians on the east side of the river into the
country, and because it denied the people the right of self government.
The fact, however, that the act did not confirm the land-grants made
under the Spanish regime undoubtedly filled the minds of the people,
thfe French as well as the Americans, who had settled in the province
and received such grants from the Spanish officials, with apprehension
and alarm. Those American settlers who had come into upper
Louisiana, but for some reason had not received land-grants from the
Spanish commandants, but who thought that they had some sort of
equitable claims, also were greatly dissatisfied. Thus it came,
although at the time of the transfer few people expressed any
dissatisfaction or opposition, within six months after the American
occupation great and wide spread dissatisfaction existed, and the
change of government by many was greatly lamented.

In a letter dated August 23, 1804, Major Waters writes President
Jefferson that the country was ** by no means satisfied with some parts
of the law" of 1804, and that a petition has been "drawn up" against
it ; that the distance between Vincennes and the country is so great
'^through a prairie country, almost impassable in the winter, and in a
manner uninhabited," that it '^will make communication almost

386 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

impracticable," and that the people wish to have a Governor and
proper ofl&cers "to reside amongst them." He further says, "They
consider that part of the law of Congress that makes provision for a
treaty to be held with the Indians on the east side of the Mississippi
for an exchange of lands on the west to be dangerous to them in their
present weak state ; their scattered situation up and down the Missis-
sippi, and the great distance between them in and out of settlements,
makes it hard to embody and join them in their common defense.
They did hope that Congress would have passed a law for the strength-
ening of this country by settlements, sales, or otherwise, and put them
in a situation to have defended themselves against those Indians
already on their frontiers who have been robbing and plundering them
with impunity these many years; instead of which they see a law
passed to set other tribes of savages on their frontiers. The people
here that were not concerned in the speculation of lands are much
pleased that Congress has overdrawn all those large grants ; they how-
ever regret that Congress has made no provision for those that would
have been entitled to lands under the Spanish government ; for the
Commandants in many, and very many instances, refused permission
to settle to some whom they did not care to oblige, and these relying on
a change of officers, have got no lands although entitled thereto. They
lose their headright unless Congress passes some law for their relief.
I will observe one thing to you. Sir, that many people here do not like
the change and every law that is passed that puts them in a worse
situation than they would have been under the Spaniards is criticised
and the worst construction put on^ and those that are fond of the
change feel much disappointed at the law that Congress has passed
for the government of this country. Anything like a representative
government would please them much, for the privilege of choosing a
committee has animated them greatly, as it is a privilege they never
could have had under the Spanish government. I am certain if Con-
gress passed a law granting the request of this people, if it should not
be altogether according to the plan first laid down for disposing of this
country and governing thereof, it would be an advantage to America
generally, for in my opinion to gain over the people to be fond of the
American laws and customs will be gaining a great point, and I know of
only one means, and that is by suffering immigration to this country." **

*• Major Thomas Willoughby Waters came to Cape Girardeau from South
Carolina, in March 1804; was a man of property for those days, a slave owner;
in South Carolina had served in the Revolutionary war; engaged in merchan-
dising and farming at Cape Girardeau, in 1804, with one Hall, the firm being

TAXES 387

The large Spanish grantees did not at once realize the great bene-
fits they had hoped for by the confirmation of their grants, and as yet
the stream of immigration was small and the demand for land
limited. Ashe says, "When Louisiana belonged to the King of Spain
the Spanish cultivators valued their improvements at from $20 to
$100 per acre. Now that it appertains to the United States they
offer the same settlements for $1 per acre, — in many instances for
one-fourth of a dollar." But Ashe is not always reliable.^' On the
other hand, it was found that the American occupation of the country
meant taxation and military service without compensation. Stod-
dard says that the French were not reconciled, nor some of the Amer-
icans, on account of the change of government because of the taxes.''
During the time Spain was in the occupation of upper Louisiana no
taxes of any kind were collected from the people, but on the other
hand Spain paid out large sums of money to its officers and soldiers,
all of which was distributed in the country. It was clearly perceived
by the people and land owners, both French and Americans, that
under the new government they would have to pay taxes, work the
roads, render military service, furnish their own rifles, powder and
ball, knupsacks and even provisions, in order to protect themselves
against the inroads of the Indians ; that the settlement of land titles
provided by the Act of 1804 would take a long time, and that the
method of doing business in a summary and quick way, with which
they were familiar under the Spanish government, would be followed
by a slower, more expensive and technical system. It was apparent
that the system of litigation introduced by the Americans checked
trade in upper Louisiana and hence arose great dissatisfaction. Peo-
ple preferred the quick judgment of one man to twelve." The costs

known as ** Waters & Hall. " In his letter to Jefferson he applies for the position
of Commandant, as follows : ** I am, sir, one of those that offer — my situation
in life makes an office for my support by no means necessary ; I offer only be-
cause no one is fit to fill the office, and I filled a higher miHtary office than any one
here, except one man (meaning likely Colonel Christopher Hays) who is upwards
of sixty years old ; and I also hope that my character as an American and as a
gentleman will give me a preference to any that may offer against me."

" Ashe's Travels, vol. 3, page 113.

"Stoddard's Louisiana, page 311. Boone did not enjoy the change of
government; he and others became Spanish subjects "to avoid crowds, to get
and keep cheap land, to avoid taxes, to hunt big game and to live a simple Arcad-
ian life. Thwaites' Life of Boone, p. 227.

'* Stoddard's Louisiana, page 281, and he says, " it is but justice to observe,
that their judicial officers were in most instances upright and impartial in their
decisions" — more than can be said in these days generally about the verdicts
of juries, especially in corporation cases.

388 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

or legal fees in suits under the Spanish regime on notes and bonds
and other undisputed claims, Stoddard says, " even to judgment
and execution never exceeded four dollars."

Nor did the people relish the idea that the District should be
attached to the Territory of Indiana. Undoubtedly by giving the
Territory of upper Louisiana the designation "District" an inten-
tional difference in the government from that of a territory was
intended, and this was one of the causes of popular discontent. Ac-
cordingly, in September of. that year, and within six months after
upper Louisiana had been occupied by the United States, a conven-
tion of delegates selected by the people of the several districts of upper
Louisiana met in St. Louis to give expression to this discontent. The
convention was the first meeting of this character west of the Missis-
sippi, and the manner in which it brought before Congress the
grievances of the people, as well as the persons who participated in
the proceedings, are not now without interest to us. Charles Gratiot
was elected President of the assembly, and J. B. Provench^re, Secre-
tary. After deliberating for some ten days, the delegates addressed
a memorial to Congress in which all the objections to the Act of March
4th are set forth. It is a comprehensive exposition of the condition
of the new territory, and of the needs of the people thereof. Some
of the suggestions embodied in it were subsequently adopted by Con-
gress, and afterward from time to time extended to other territories
carved out of the Louisiana purchase, and also applied to territories
acquired by cdnquest from Mexico. This memorial makes spirited
objection to the transfer of the Indians on the east side of -the
Mississippi into the new territory. The provision of the Act by which
the new territory is attached to the Indiana territory is thus discussed :

*'By the 12th Section of the Act erecting Louisiana into territories and pro-
viding for the temporary government thereof, 'the executive power now vested
in the Governor of the Indiana territory is extended to and to be exercised in
Louisiana.' Your petitioners beg leave to state, that they have read with the
utmost attention the laws enacted at different times, for the provisory Gov-
ernment of the several territories of the Union, and that far from observing in
those laws anything Uke trusting the Governor of a neighboring State or territory
with the government of a newly erected territory, they find on the contrary that
Congress paid the most scrupulous respect to the interests and feelings of the
inhabitants by the wisest precautions, in not only obliging the Governor to
reside in the territory which he governs, but also obliging him to hold a freehold
estate in the same territory. In the Ordinance for the Government of the terri-
tory North -West of the river Ohio, we find this provision, "Be it ordained by the
authority aforesaid, that there shall be appointed from time to time by Congress,
a Governor, whose commission shall continue in force for a term of three years,
unless sooner revoked by Congress ; he shall reside in the District and have a
freehold estate therein in 1,000 acres of land, while in the exercise of his office."

MEMORIAL 389

The petition then says that the

"point of Louisiana nearest to the place where the Governor of the Indiana
territory makes his habitual residence, is not less than 165 miles distant; and
there is not a house to be met with on the road, impassable at many seasons of
the year owing to the number of creeks and rivers which sometimes overflow
their banks, sometimes are entirely covered with ice; so that we may conclude,
that did not justice and sound policy prohibit the alliances in contemplation,
nature itself loudly proclaims its impracticability. Your Honorable Houses
may judge at what immense distance some parts of Louisiana must be from the
Governor to whom an appeal lies in many cases afifecting the property and the
life of individuals.*'

The meagre provisions made by this Act for the settlement of the
Spanish land titles and no doubt the principal cause of the agitation,
the memorial fully discussed. It is claimed that under the provisions
of the Act the [>eople are deprived of rights which they had under the
laws of Spain, that

"Agreeably to the laws, usages and customs of Spain, three years were granted
by the Spanish government after having obtained a full or incipient grant for
making a settlement thereon ; that American emigrants, some time previous to
the 20U1 day of December, 1803, might have bought from the original proprietors
or rather holders of such incipient title, rights to such lands, and taking it for
granted that Congress would allow the same space of time, which was allowed
by the Spanish government, for making a settlement upon land obtained from
the Spanish government, might have returned to the eastern part of the United
States in order to prepare everything necessary for their removal, and with in-
tention of coming back to Louisiana in the following spring, to settle upon these
lands bought bona fide and without fraud, yet Congress in the 14th Section
declares null and void every act, and proceeding, subsequent to the treaty of
St. Ildefonso, made the ist day of October 1800, of whatsoever nature towards
obtaining any grant, title or claim df such lands, and under whatever aythority
transacted or pretended, to be and have been from the beginning, null, void and
of no effect in law or equity, although the King of Spain did not renounce his
sovereignty over Louisiana on the ist day of October 1800, and that at what
period of time an absolute renunciation of Louisiana was made by the' King of
Spain the petitioners can not ascertain; but that they 'conceive that the sov-
ereignty of the United States in Louisiana did not begin previously to that abso-
lute and unconditional renunciation on the part of the King of Spain.' "

And further the memorialists, in support of the grants of the
Spanish officers, argue:

'*That time sufficient must be allowed for the Spanish government to make
known its final treaty with the French Republic to its agents in Louisiana (author-
ized, your petitioners humbly conceive, to grant lands in its name until they
receive official notice of the treaty which ceded Louisiana to France) and that it
is not probable that a government, at a considerable distance can be in a greater
hurry to take steps by which it divests itself of the sovereignty of a country, than
the Government which has just acquired that country, and which is on the spot,
has taken to have its sovereignty acknowledged there, and that ten months and
ten days elapsed after the treaty between the United States and the French
Republic before the United States took possession of Louisiana, your Honorable
Houses must conclude that there may have been grants of land obtained from
the Spanish government, as to which, those who have obtained them, may have
yet more than one year to comply with the laws, usages and customs of the Span-
ish government. But your petitioners (we mean the few who have any knowl-

390 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

edge at all of the laws respecting Louisiana enacted during the last session of
your Honorable Houses) find themselves placed between the necessity either of
not complying with the conditions on which they received lands from the Spanish
Government or of acting in direct contradiction to a law enacted by your Hon-
orable Houses ; and yet what dd those grants amount to which were given since
the I St day of October, 1800 ? If your Honorable Houses will be pleased to call
upon your officers in Louisiana for a correct statement of the quantity of land
given since that epoch by the officers of the Spanish Government your Honorable
Houses will be satisfied that there has been but a very inconsiderable quantity of
land thus disposed of, chiefly in favor of hard laboring men, who owing to the
various rumors which ran over the country ever since the cession to France was
spoken of, the country belonging sometimes' to Spain, sometimes to France,
sometimes to the United States, sometimes to Spain again; at an immense dis-
tance from every source of information very often not understanding the language
of their neighbors, discouraged at first from exhausting their whole in making
improvements on lands to which they had obtained an incipient title, from what
they conceived the precariousness of those titles, likely to result from the inter-
ference of such or such a power to which they were told Louisiana belonged,
prevented by your law from complying with the conditions of Spain, when they
had not it any longer in their power to doubt that the country was ultimately to
remain to the United States and who at the very moment their confidence had
begun to revive find themselves whatever they do liable to be punished by a free
and enlightened nation, for having listened to the dictates of prudence and
placed confidence in the United States.'*

And the memorial continues,

"Your petitioners beg leave to observe further, that it was only on the loth
of March, 1804, that the United States took possession of the District of
Louisiana ; it should seem of course that the inhabitants of Louisiana could not
be bound by any law of the United States previous at least to that government ;
yet your Honorable Houses by a law approved by the President on the 26th day
of March, 1804, deprive of his property, and if he docs persist in his claims
after the first day of October next, condemn to a fine not exceeding 1,000 dollars,
and to sufifer an imprisonment not excecdiijg one year, any man who shall have
attempted a settlement on lands to which he may not have obtained as yet a
complete title, if he has made or attempted a settlement any time posterior to the
20th day of December, 1803, that is more than three months before the law
which condemns him was enacted ; and if your Honorable Houses reflect that
the Act erecting Louisiana into two territories is only to take place on the ist of
October 1804 it will result that a man may be guilty by doing an act indifferent in
itself, in virtue of a law which is to take effect more than nine months subse-
quently according to the law itself, before the provision of that law can be en-
forced, and that too, in the very face of the 3a article of the Ninth Section of
the Constitution of the United States which declares that, 'No bill of attainder
or ex post facto law shall be formed.' "

In conclusion the petitioners ask:

•*i. For the repeal of the Act erecting Louisiana into two territories, and
providing for the temporary Government thereof.

2. That legal steps should be immediately taken for the permanent division
of Louisiana.

3. That a Governor, Secretary and Judges should be appointed by the
President, who shall reside in the District of Louisiana, and hold property therein
to the same amount as is prescribed by Ordinance respecting the territory North-
Wcst of the river Ohio.

4. That the Governor, Secretary and Judges to be thus appointed for the
District of Louisiana, should in preference be chosen from among those who
speak both the English and French languages.

5. That the records of each county, and the proceedings of the courts of
Justice in the District of Louisiana, should be kept and had in both the English

DEMANDS 391

and French languages as it is the case in a neighboring country under a mon-
archial Government and acquired by conquest.

6. That supposing the District of Louisiana to be divided into five counties
ten members, two from each county, shall be elected by the people having a right
to vote in each county according to the rules prescribed by the Ordinance re-
specting the North-West territory, every two years, or such another number as
Congress may appoint, which said members shall jointly with the Governor
form the legislative council of the said District of Louisiana.

7. That Congress would acknowledge the principle of our being entitled,
in virtue of the treaty, to the free possession of slaves, and to the right of import-
ing slaves into the District of Louisiana under such restrictions as to Congress, in
their wisdom, will appear necessary.

8. That Congress, taking into consideration the distance at which we live
from the seat of the General Government, which does not allow the General Gov-
ernment to be Informed with respect to the true interests of this country, but
through the agents of that same government, — Congress should enact a law
authorizing this District of Louisiana to send an agent or delegate to Congress
whose powers as to speaking and voting in the House, Congress may circum-
scribe as to them may seem proper.

9. That funds be appropriated for the support, and lands set apart, or
bought, for the building and maintaining of a French and English school in each
county, and for the building of a seminary of learning, where not only the French
and the English languages, but likewise the dead languages, mathematics, me-
chanics, natural and moral philosophy, and the principles of the Constitution of
the United States should be taught; independent of the obligation of spreading
knowledge, upon which alone a free Government can stand, in a country till now
Unacquainted with your laws and languages, a powerful additional interest will
result, in the opinion of Congress, from teaching principally mathematics and
natural philosophy, when your Honorable Houses reflect that Louisiana abounds
with mines of every description, which can never be worked to any advantage
without powerful engines supplied by those two sciences. '

10. That every private engagement conformable to the laws of Spain, entered
into during the time Louisiana was ruled by the Laws of Spain, shall be main-
tained.

11. That any judgment which was considered as final, according to the
Spanish law, shall not be revised by any of the tribunals to be established in
Louisiana by the United States.

12. That any judgment from which an appeal might be had, according to
the Spanish law, to any sup>crior tribunal, may be appealed from, to a tribunal
of equal dijgnity within this territory, or the United States, and that a final judg-
ment be had conformably to the Laws of Louisiana at the time the suits were
first brought into the court."

This memorial was dated September 29, 1804, and was signed by
Richard Jones Waters and Eligius Fromentin, Deputies of New
Madrid; Christopher Hays, Stephen Byrd, Andrew Ramsay and
Frederick Bollinger, Deputies of Cape Girardeau; J. S. J. Beauvais
and P. Detchmendey, Deputies of Ste. Genevieve ; Charles Gratiot,
P. Provench^re, Auguste Chouteau, Richard Caulk, David Musick
and Francis Cottard, Deputies of St. Louis and dep>endencies ; War-
ren Cottle, A. Reynal, F. Saucier and Timothy Kibby, Deputies of
St. Charles and dependencies. Auguste Chouteau and Eligius
Fromentin were appointed " Deputies, delegates and agents generally"
to present the memorial to Congress.

392 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

It will be noted that the delegates to this convention principally
represented the American settlers who had taken up their residence
in upper Louisiana under the Spanish government prior to the
acquisition of the territory by the United States. Richard Jones
Waters originally came from Maryland to New Madrid; and was
the most influential, intelligent, active and wealthiest citizen of that
locality. Colonel Christopher Hays originally came to Louisiana in
1 787 from Pennsylvania with Colonel George Morgan, and was one
of his ** gentleman surveyors.'' Morgan had set aside forty miles
square of land to him and his a-sociates for settlement. Colonel
Hays afterward, by special permit of the Marquis de Casa Calvo
settled in the Cape Girardeau district. During the Revolutionary
war he was Colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment, and occupied many
offices of trust. He was one of the leading characters in the western
part of Pennsylvania during the entire war. Andrew Ramsay was
the first American settler in the Cape Girardeau district, and immi-
grated to upper Louisiana from the disputed territory on the borders
of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; during the Revolutionary
war he kept a ferry across the Cheat river, and for a time resided in
Pittsburg before coming down the Ohio. His grant adjoined the
grant of Don Louis Lorimier, Post Commandant at Cape Girardeau.
George Frederick Bollinger, another delegate from the Cape Girar-
deau district in 1800 came from Lincoln county, North Carolina to
upper Louisiana, bringing with him a large number of North Caro-
lina Germans who were attracted, by the free donations of land, to
the Spanish possessions. He was a man of wealth, energy and great
influence among the early settlers. Stephen Byrd was an emigrant
from eastern Tennessee, from the Watauga settlement, immigrating
to the Spanish dominion with his father about the year 1800. Rich-
ard Caulk and David Musick, from the St. Louis district, both came
from Maryland, and had served in the Maryland Line during the
Revolutionary war; and Dr. Warren Cottle and Timothy Kibby
were among the first American settlers north of the Missouri river.
Kibby served in the Indian war under General Wayne, was in a corps
known as "Kibby's Spies" under command of his cousin. Colonel
Ephraim Kibby ; and died at St. Charles, January 24, 1813. On the
other hand Beauvais, and Detchmendey, Deputies of Ste. Genevieve ;
Gratiot, Provenchbre, Chouteau and Cottard, Deputies of St. Louis,
and Dr. Reynal and Saucier, Deputies of St. Charles, were among
the richest, most influential and intelligent representatives of the

FROMENTIN 393

French element. Chouteau and Eligius Fromentin were selected
as delegates of the convention to present the memorial of the inhabit-
ants of Louisiana to Congress. The large and extensive business
interests of Chouteau have made his name well known, but of Eli-
gius Fromentin little, if anything, is now known in Missouri; but
among the delegates he was the most learned, and no doubt the
author of the memorial. Fromentin resided at this time at New
Madrid. He was a native of France, was an accomplished scholar
and linguist. Originally a Roman Catholic priest, and a member
of the Jesuit order, he withdrew from the order, removed to the
United States and studied law, and married into a distinguished
Maryland family. He came to New Madrid immediately after the
purchase of Louisiana, but subsequently removed from New Madrid
to New Orleans, where he occupied a prominent position, and in
18 1 2 was elected United States senator from the state of Louisi-
ana. After his term of oflSce in the United States Senate terminated
in 181 9, he was elected judge of a New Orleans Court, and in
1822 appointed United States Judge for the District of Florida by
President Monroe, where he came in conflict with Andrew Jackson at
the time Governor of Florida, and as a result resigned and returned
to New Orleans." Fromentin in 1822, died of the yellow fever,
following his wife within twenty-four hours.

As to the origin of the movement among the inhabitants which
resulted in this memorial, Rufus Easton, writes President Jefferson
under date of January 7, 1805, that when, in April, 1804, the Act
of Congress for the government of the country became known,
about twenty inhabitants of St. Louis assembled to call a meeting
of delegates from the different districts, and that the ostensible
purpose was to remonstrate against the annexation of upper
Louisiana to the Indiana Territory; but that the real ground of
dissatisfaction was the clause relative to the titles to land, that
the whole matter was arranged by the French inhabitants there,
and that not an American was invited, although at least forty

^ It seems that Jackson had caused Governor Jose Caballo, the last Spanish
Governor of West Florida, to be arrested, and that Fromentin issued a writ of
habeas corpus; whereupon General Jackson issued an order on Judge Fromen-
tin to show cause why he interfered with his authority as Governor of West
Florida, and as such "exercising the powers of the Captain General and Intend-
ant of the Island of Cuba over said province of Florida" and also acting "in a
judicial capacity as Supreme Judge over the same, and as Chancellor thereof."
Caballo was charged with the attempt of canying away and secreting papers
relating to the rights of property, all of which led to a heated controversy at the
time. American State Papers, vol. 2., Miscellaneous, page 840.

394 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Americans resided at the time in the town, some of whom were respect-
able merchants; and he further says, "Such measures were taken as
to carry the election of the major part of the delegates in the French
interest by confining the choice of the delegates to the committees,
and the election of those committees to the various French villages in
the country, as may be seen by the proceedings of the committee at
St. Louis herewith sent. And could they have quieted the Americans
p>eaceably settled on their plantations with the plausible declaration
that they were absolutely decided * to never separate the interests of
the town of St. Louis from those of every inhabitant of this country,
French or Americans, wishing that in future that distinction should be
abolished even in the name, their wishes would have been carried
into effect without opposition.*" Easton states that; "The original
intention of this convention was to p>etition Congress for a government
tnilUaire^ a plan of which was shown to the first Commandant of the
country, the leading features of which were: i. To have a Governor
residing in the territory possessing both civil and military jurisdic-
tion; 2. Commandants for each district to possess like powers with
an appeal to the Governor in certain cases; 3. No trial to be by jury
except in such cases as in the opinion of the Governor or Conmiandant
justice should absolutely require it for special causes to b^ shown, and
the practice of lawyers to be entirely prohibited." This scheme was
frustrated according to Easton by a person who resided some years
within the United States in the character of a school master, and who
understood the French language. He further says that the Governor
and judges of the Indiana Territory wpre, in the original draft of the
memorial, compared to foreign Bashaws, to Pro-praetors and Pro-
Consuls under the more modest names of Governor and Judges, sent
out to rule over the people ; that it was declared that Congress had
broken the treaty, and that a motion was made by one of the members
to call upon the Emperor of France to enforce its fulfillment ; that the
memorial, as first drawn up, was presented to the first civil Conmian-
dant, Captain Stoddard, for his approbation and correction, and that
he, though a very good man, only pared off such portions of its wiry
edge as in his opinion would obtain it a hearing, and Easton adds
"delighted, as all characters of his political sentiments would be, with
the indignity offered to the present majority of Congress."*

Harrison in a letter of introduction which he gave to Auguste
Chouteau, says that "nine tenths of the people of the coimtry are

'• Jefferson Papers, Series 6, vol. 10.

INDIAN TREATY OF 1804 39S

warmly attached to the Government of the United States, and it in
ihe petition of which Mr. Chouteau is the bearer, there are found
expressions which appear to contradict this opinion they mi-st be
attributed to the irritation produced by the insulting misrepresenta-
tions of them which have been published throughout the United
Stales, and to the violent language of the soeeches of some of the
members of Congress (particularly Mr. Lyons) on the subject of the
Louisiana bill. It was imagined that they ought not to speak of their
own grievances in terms more moderate than those used by the
persons who did not feel them. The people of this district wish for
nothing more than a separate territorial government of their own in
the second or representative degree. If I had been so fortunate as
to have arrived here before Ihe meeting was dissolved which framed
the petition it would have been clothed in very different language.
I have divided the district of Louisiana into five districts in the manner
you directed and am now employed in organizing the courts and
militia.""

During the administration of Governor Harrison a treaty was
made at St. L^uis, November 3, 1804, with the Foxes (Renards) and
Saukees which eventually became the cause of much trouble with
them. Governor Harrison had been directed
by President Jefferson on June 27, 1804, to
make a treaty with these Indians to obtain a
cession of their lands on both sides of the
Illinois river, and to grant them for the lands
thus ceded an annual compensation. The
treaty was entered into between Governor
William H. Harrison, representing the United
States, and Layowvois or Laiyuva, Pashepaho,
or the Slabber, Quashquama, or Jumping Fish,
Outchequaha, and Hashe-quarhiqua, or the
Bear, who in the treaty are said to represent
the United Fox and Saukee tribes, in the presence of William
Prince, Secretary to the Commission, John Griffin, one of the judges
of the Indiana Territory, James Bruff, Major of Artillery, U. S.,
Amos Stoddard, Captain Corps of Artillerists, P. Chouteau, "Agent
de la kaute Loiiuiana pour le deparlmenf sattvage," Charles Gratiot,
Auguste Chouteau, Stephen Worrel, Lieutenant U. S. Artillery and
D. Deiauney, with the assistance of Joseph Barron and Hypolite

" Wm. H. Harrison to Jefferson. JeSersoD Papers, SerJea 6, vol. 10, N0.38.

396 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Bolon as sworn interpreters. But instead of confining the treaty to
a cession of lands, as outlined by the President, the Indian title to an
immense stretch of country on both sides of the Mksissippi river,
embracing over 50,000,000 acres of land was, by this single treaty,
extinguished. The general boundary of the land to which this Indian
title was thus secured is described in the treaty as beginning " at a
point on the Missouri river opposite to the mouth of the Gasconade
river ; thence in a direct course so as to strike the river Jeffron at the
distance of thirty miles from its mouth and thence down the Jeffron
to the Mississippi; thence up the Mississippi to the mouth of the
Ouisconsing river, and up the same to a point which shall be thirty-
six miles in a direct line from the mouth of the said river ; thence by a
direct line to the point where the Fox river (a branch of the Illinois)
leaves the small lake called Sakaegan ; thence down the Fox river to
the Illinois river, and down the same to the Mississippi."

It is very evident that nothing in Jefferson's instructions war-
ranted a treaty including lands on the west side of the Mississippi.
Governor Harrison was directed to obtain a cession of land on both
sides of the Illinois, and not on both sides of the Mississippi. But
when a clause of this treaty is examined, and to which the Indians
were made to agree, and which provided "that nothing in this treaty
contained shall affect the claim of any individual or individuals who
may have obtained grants of land from the Spanish government,
and included within the general boundary line laid down in this
treaty, provided that such grants have at any time been made known
to the Indian tribes and recognized by them," and with this provision
be coupled the presence of Auguste Chouteau, Charles Gratiot,
Pierre Chouteau, Agent "pour le department sauvage," and D.
Delauney, the mystery why land on the west side of the Mississippi
was included in this treaty becomes somewhat clearer. It was, may
be, to secure such a quasi-endorsement of the large Spanish land
grants held by these persons that this Indian treaty was made to em-
brace land on the west side of the Mississippi. Harrison says that
after the treaty was made he was shown the grant to Dubuque and
in which Auguste Chouteau owned a half interest, and finding that
without this clause this tract of land might be considered as receded,
although the Indians acknowledged the validity of the Dubuque
title, the Indians were induced to agree to the additional article.'^
Black Hawk always claimed that the Fox and Saukee nations were

^American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 454.

BLACK HAWK 397

not properly represented when this treaty was made, that the chiefs
who made it were not authorized to make the treaty, were drunk and*

knew not what they did.

Draper thinks that this treaty was probably the cause of the
alienation of the Rock River Fox and Saukee Indians in the war of
i8ra." Black Hawk, in his autobiography, gives us this version,
"one of our people killed an American and
was confined in the prison of St. Louis for the
offense ; we held a council at our village what
could be done with him, which determined
that Quash-qua-ma, Pa-she-pa-ho, Ou-che-
qua-ka and Ha-shc-quar-hi-qua should go
down to St. Louis, see our American Father,
and di) all they could to have our friend re-
leased by paying for the person killed, thus
covering the blood and satisfying the relatives
of the man murdered. This being the only
means with us for saving a person who had
killed another, and we then thought it was the same with the whites.
The part}- set out with the good wishes of the whole nation, hoping
that they would accomplish the object of their mission. The relatives
of the prisoner blacked their faces and fasted, hoping the Great Spirit
would lake pity on them and return the husband and father to his
wife and children. Quash-qua-ma and party remained a long time
absent. They at length returned and encamped a short distance
below the village, but did not come up that day, nor did any person
approach their camp. They appeared to be dressed in fine coats and
had medals. From these circumstances we were in hopes that ihey
had brought good news. Early the next morning the Council Lodge
was crowded. Quash-qua-ma and party came up and gave us the
following account of their mission:

" On their arrival ut St. Louis they met their American Father and
explained to him their business and urged the release of their friend.
The American chief told them he wanted land and they agreed lo
give him some on the west side of the Mississippi, and some on the
Illinois side, opposite the Jeffron. When the business was all
arranged, they expected lo have their friend released to come home
with ihem, but about the time they were ready to start their friend
was let out of prison, who ran a short distance and was shot

" 3 Minnesota Historical Collection, p. 143.

398 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

dead. This was all they could recollect of what was said and done.
•They had been drunk the greater part of the time they were in
St. Louis.

''This is all myself and nation knew of the treaty of 1804. It has
been explained to me since. I find by that treaty all our country
east of the Mississippi, and south of the Jeffron, was ceded to the
United States for one thousand dollars a year. I will leave it to the
people of the United States to say whether our nation was properly
represented in this treaty, or whether we received a fair compensation
for the extent of country ceded by those four individuals.'"

If we compare the representation of the Saukee Indians alone,
then residing on the Des Moines river, at Portage des Sioux, in 181 5,
when a treaty was entered into with them, the inadequate and ap-
parently fraudulent representation of both the Renards and Saukees
in 1804 appears very manifest. At Portage des Sioux in 18 15, the
United States were represented by William Clark, Ninian Edwards
and Auguste Chouteau as Commissioners, and the Saukee Indians
by twelve chiefs and warriors, to wit : Shamaga, the lance ; Weesaka,
the Devil ; Catchemackesc, the big eagle ; Chekaqua, he that stands
by the tree; Kataka, or Sturgeon; Mecaitch, the eagle; Neshota, the
twin; Quashquama, the jumping fish; Chagosort, the blues' son;
Pocama, the plumb; Namachewana-chaha, the Sioux; Nanocha-
atasa, the brave by hazard ; and Maurice Blondeau, Samuel Solomon
and Noel Mongrain, interpreters. R. Walsh acted as secretary of the
Commission, and Thomas Levers, Lieutenant-Colonel commanding
First Regiment U. S. Inf., P. Chouteau, Agent; T. Paul, C. C. T.;
James B. Moore, Captain; Samuel Whiteside, Captain; John W.
Johnson, U. S. Factor and Indian Agent, and Daniel Converse,
Third Lieutenant, as witnesses. And on the next day, when a treaty
was made with the Renard Indians, these were represented by
twenty-two chiefs and warriors. And in the year following. May 13,
18 16, when a treaty of peace was made by the same Commissioners,
these Indians were represented by twenty-two warriors and chiefs, as

'* Quash-qua-ma was a great treaty signer. Major Forsythe says that he
well knew that there were "many wet souls among them", tha^is among the
Renards and Saukees, "particularly my old acquaintance Quash-qua-ma,"
thus con&ining Black Hawk's statement as to dninkenness. Qu&sh-qua-ma
•was a chief among the Saukees in Missouri ; he signed the treaties of Portage
des Sioux, September, 1815; that of Fort Armstrong in September, 1822, and
Prairie du Chien in August, 1825 ; died opposite Clarksville in Missouri in 183a
Draper says, "he is represented by those who knew him as not tall but heavily
formed, nor did he appear to possess any of the traits of a noble warrior, with a
character not always free from tarnish. '* 3 Minnesota Collection, p. 143.

CONFIRMED 399

follows: Anowart, or the one who speaks; Namawenane, the Stur-
geon-man; Nasawarku, the fork; Namatchesa, the jumping stur-
geon ; Matchequawa, the Bad Axe ; Mascho, young eagle ; Aquaosa,
a lion coming out of the water ; Mucketamachekaka, black sparrow
hawk; Sakeetoo, the thunder that frightens; Warpaloka, the rum-
bling thunder ; Kemealosha, the swan that flies in the rain ; Pashe-
komack, the swan that flies low ; Keotasheka, the running partridge ;
Wapalamo, the White wolf; Caskupwa, the swan whose wings
crack when he flies; Poinaketa, the cloud that don't stop; Bad
Weather; Anawashqueth, the bad root; Wassekenequa, sharp-
faced bear ; Napetaka, he who has a swan's throat around his neck ;
Mashashe, the fox ; Wapamukqua, the white bear.

In all these treaties it was deemed important by the United States
that the treaty of 1804 made at St. Louis in the name of both the
Renard and Saukee Indians should be confirmed. If the chiefs
who made the treaty of 1804 were authorized by the Indian nations
to make the cession that was made, it is clear that in 181 5 or 181 6 no
supplementary stipulation confirming the treaty of 1804 would have
been deemed necessary.'® It is also to be noted that Quashquama, in
1816, said, "You white men may put what you please on paper, but
I tell you again I never sold any land higher up the Missouri than the
mouth of the Rocky river."'* Undoubtedly Quashquama was drunk
when he made the treaty of 1804, and did not understand the nature
or character of the treaty he entered into for his tribe.

Returning now to the legislative history of the territory we find
that this subject deeply interested Jefferson and his advisers. By
some it was suggested that a military government was best adapted
to the country and people. The most influential French residents
favored this system, among them Chouteau, who was then in Wash-
ington. Gallatin had several interviews with him on this and other
subjects while he was in Washington, and under date of 20th of
August, 1804, writes Jefferson, **I had two conversations with
Chouteau ; he seems to be well disposed but what he wants is power
and money ; he proposed that he should have a negative on all Indian
trading licenses, and the direction and all the profits of the trade

'^ In a recent publication of the Black Hawk war an effort is made to white-
wash the treaty of 1804, and to measure Black Hawk by the standard of the
highest civilization, without however, conceding him the right to resist with all
his power and abihty a manifest and palpable fraud perpetrated on his people by a
few drunken Indians pretending to act for the Fox and Saukee Indian nations.
See Stephen's History of the Black Hawk War.

" Beggs' Eaily Histoiy of the West, p. 216.

400 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

carried on by the government ^^ith all the Indians of Louisiana,
replacing only the capital. I told him this was inadmissable, and
his last demand was the exclusive trade with the Osages, to be effected
by granting licenses only to his agents, but that he should not be con-
cerned in the trade with any other nation. The annual consumption
of the Osages he states $140,000, in goods estimated at their vslue
at the Illinois; the annual consimiption of all the Missouri Indians,
including the Sioux of the Mississippi, he estimates at $300,000.
On account of the slowness of the returns, a capital double the annual
consumption is necessary- for carr\dng on the trade. As he may be
either useful or dangerous I gave no flat denial to his last request,
but told him to modify it in the least objectionable shape, and to write
General Dearborn from St. Louis, which he said he would do. As
to the government of upper Louisiana, he is decidedly in favor of a
military one, and appears much afraid of civil law and lawyers. In
some respects he may be right, but as regular laws and courts protect
the poor and the ignorant, we may mistrust the predilection of him
who is comparatively rich and intelligent in favor of the other
system.""

But by the Act of 1805, upper Louisiana was detached from the
Territor}- of Indiana, and erected into a separate territor}-, and which
'* Shall henceforth be known and designated by the name and title of
the Territor}- of Louisiana." The executive power was vested in a
Governor under this Act to be appointed by the President for a period
of three years unless sooner removed, and who was made the Com-
mander in Chief of the Militia of the territor\' and Ex-ofl&cio Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs. A Secretary' for the territory, to hold
his office for four years, to preserve and record all papers of the
territory, was also proWded for. The legislative power was vested
in the Governor and in three judges, or a majority of them, who were
empowered to establish inferior courts, prescribe the jurisdiction of
the same and make such laws "as may be deemed by them conducive
to good government and not inconsistent with the Constitution and the
laws of the United States," all criminal cases to be triable by jury, as
well as all ciril cases involving more than Sioo. The Act provided
that the laws should be published in the territor}-, and reported to the
President and Congress for approval. The judges appointed were
to hold their offices for four years, and required to hold two terms of
court annually at such places as might be most convenient to the

^ Jefferson Papers, ^d Series, vol. 5, No. 83.

THK ACT OF 1805 401

people. New districts from time to time, it was provided, should
be laid out so as to facilitate the administration of justice, and provi-
sion was made for the appointment of other magistrates and civil
officers." Under this Act General Wilkinson ^ was appointed
Governor of the territory, Joseph Browne * of New York, Secretary
of the same, and James B. C. Lucas, John Coburn,'^ and Rufus
Flaston,'^ judges of the Superior court.

" 2 United States Statutes at Large, page 331.

** Albtrt Oallatin, Fthnian- 12, 1806, writes, ''Of the General (Wilkinson)
I have no very exalted opinion ; he is extravagant and nee<ly and would not, I
think, feel much delicacy in speculating on public money or public lands. In
both those resp)ects he must be closely watched; and he has now united himself
with every man in Louisiana who had received or claims large grants under the
Spanish (lovernment, ((Jratiot, the C'hout' aus, Soulard &c). But tho' perhaps
not ver\' scrupulous in that resjH'ct and although I f- ar he may sacritice to a cer-
tain degree the interests of the I'nitt d Stati s to his desire of lx*ing )M)pular in his
ge)vernment he is honorable in his private dealings and of ly-traying it to a for-
eign country' I believe him alte)geth r incapable. Yet, Ellieott's informal *on,
toge ther with this hint may induce caution, and if anything can !>.* don.? which
may lead te) disce)veries either in resjKct o him or others, it woulfl s fm prop t,
but how to proceed I do not kne)w. " J« flferson Paf)ers, 3d Serii s, . ol. 6, No. 84.
Gen. James Wilkinson was lx)rn at Benedict in Maryland in 1757 reeeived a
gexxl education, studied me-dicine, on thr breaking out of the Revolutie)nary
war served in the army, and then in the Indian wars. Retired from the ser-
vice and engaged in the mercantile l)usin' ss in Kentucky. When the new eon-
stitution was ade)pted was apix)int'd Colonel in the army e)f the United States
by Washington. At the battle of the Maumee und-T Gen. Wayne he com-
manded the right wing of the army, after thir dfath of Wayne became com-
mander in chief of the United States army. In the war e)f 1S12 fail 'd in his
militar}' ojH'rations in Uanada. Was tried by a court of inejuiry as to his all g *d
connection u-ith the Spanish ce)nspiraey, ne^ .satisfactory' evidence bjing pnxluced
he was acejuittid, but was discharged from the army. Publi.shed his Memoirs
in three volumes, an elaborate defense. Removed tr) Mexieo wheTe he died
Dec. 28, 1825.

•* A brother-in-law r)f Aaron Burr.

" Born in Philadelphia; came to Kentucky in 1784 on the advice of Luther
Martin ; lived in Lexington until 1 7(>4, then removed to Mason county whe re he
was made Judge of the C-ircuit court; an ardent Demcxrat; friend of Daniel
Boone ; an Act appropriating land in Ix>uisiana Territe)r>' pass-jd for him at his
instance; one of the commis.sioners in 1706 to run a line be'tween Kentucky and
Virginia; held many offices and died in 1823. Cuming's Tour, page 148.

" When JefTerse^n aften\ards failed to reappoint him, he wrote a letter ask-
ing him for an explanatie)n, te) which Je-flferson replied under date of February 22,
1806, as fejllows : " Yejur (^)mmi.s.sie)n as Judge of Louisiana, aceording to its own
terms and thexse of the Con.stitution, is te) e-xpire at the end of the present st*ssion
of the Senate. The nominatie)n of a successor is then by the Constitutie^n as
free as it originally was. In exercising the duty e)f a nomination to office it has
ne've^r been, ne)r can \x' attempted, that,. after a selectiem (is) made of one e)f the
ce)mjH-tite)rs, those whe) are unsuccessful .shall have the right te) have the reason
S|H'eifie*d for which the-y have lx*en prete-rmitte'd, and be he*ard in justification
on the gre)und e)f prote'eting the ir reputation. I always receive such ele)cuments
of eharae ter as the* parties or their frienels e)tTer, serek the best information I can
otherwise get, make up as he)ne\st an o[)inion as I ean anel say nr) me)re about it.
I never even let it be* kne)wn who asks for ofTuv, much less the grounds of not
giving it. Ever)* one must Ix* sensible what kinel of altercatie)n I should l)e in-

402 HISTORY OF MISSOURI

General Wilkinson, prior to his appointment as Governor, was
stationed at St. Louis and located the United States cantonment at
Bellefontaine. Within a short time after Wilkinson*s appointment
Aaron Burr visited his brother-in-law, Joseph Browne, Secretary of
the territory, then in St. Louis. Burr*s term of office as Vice Presi-
dent of the United States had expired only a short time before this
visit, and of course, as was right and proper, he was treated by
General Wilkinson with distinguished consideration. When he
departed from St. Louis Wilkinson sent him to New Orleans in his
ten-oar barge, gaily fitted out, escorted by a Sergeant and ten men
and oarsmen. At a subsequent p>eriod when Burr's alleged scheme
to dismember the Union was published to the world. General Wil-
kinson's courtesy to the ex- Vice President was by many considered
palpable proof of his complicity in the enterprise. But when Burr
visited St. Louis Wilkinson argued his scheme was not suspected,
hence, no one could then suppose that he was implicated with him.
What the secret purpose of Burr's visit to St. Louis was, we are not
permitted to know. In answer to the charge that he had knowledge
of Burr's plans, Wilkinson was able to show that in October, 1804,
he had written to the Honorable Robert Smith, Secretarv of the Naw
under Jefferson's administration, that "Burr was about something"
whether internal or external he could not say, but that "an eye ought
to be kept on him." In view of this letter, and the further fact that
he had been the most potent agent in thwarting Burr's scheme, all
charges of complicity with him were manifestly impossible of being
substantiated. So in 181 1, by a court of inquiry which had been
summoned to investigate these charges, as well as the charge of
ci>mplicity with the so-called Spanish conspiracy to dbmember the
Union, Wilkinson was acquitted. Timothy Kibby of the St. Charles
district, however, in 1807, n^^de an affidavit which was laid before
the court, stating that he met Wilkinson in 1805, at Camp Bellefon-
taine, that he told him then that he was anxious that he should meet
Colonel Burr who had gone to St. Charles on that day, that he in-
quired what was the disposition of the people in the district of St.
Charles, and asked whether they were pleased with the change of

volvcd in, on every nomination, were I to specify the grounds of passing over a
candidate, as you desire in your letter. However, if you think proper to call on
me I will verbally state to you two or three facts and hear anything you may
wish to say respecting them. It is the first time it has ever been asked, and it is
most probable that it is the last time it will ever be yielded to. Accept my salu-
tations and respects." Jefferson Papers, Series i, vol. 11, No. 140.

BURR 403

government, and whether he did not think that the greater part of
them would prefer a govemmenl separate from the government of the
United Stales, that Wilkinson further said as the greater number of
them had lived in the United States and removed to this country
while it was under the Spanish government it convinced him that they
were not pleased with their own, thai in a little time it would be in his
power to place him in affluent circumstances which he was deter-
mined to do, and that he should do the same by Mr. Pierre Proven-
chfere ; but these facts and those of a similar suspicious character stated
by Kibby were not of such a convincing nature as to affect the court."

Burr always ridiculed the idea that he was ever engaged in a
scheme lo dismember the United States, but admitted that his object
was lo cause or promote a revolution in
Mexico, and that Wilkinson was a party to
the projected enterprise. Nor ought Burr's
statement now to be doubted. Wilkinson's
double dealing, treachery and actual partici-
pation in a scheme lo separate the western
country from the Union, and receiving Span-
ish pay, has been amply sustained by docu-
mentary evidence, since brought to light, bul
this, though suspected by many at the time

of this investigation by the Court of Inquiry, was unknown and
strenuously denied by Wilkinson.

Wilkinson suggested at least to one of the residents of the territory
at this time, that the 'Government had in view a scheme to remove
the greater portion of the settlers from the west side to the east side
of the Mississippi. After his arrival in St. Louis he was visited by
representatives of the several districts, and among others by one
Edward F. Bond, a delegate from the Cape Girardeau district.
Wilkinson received him, so Bond says, with "politeness and com-
placency" and bestowed on him "a small share of his confidence"
in giving him several appointments "within his gift," and then told
him that the President contemplated lo transfer a great portion of the
inhabilants of upper Louisiana to New Orleans, or some other point
on the east side of the Mississippi "thereby making the settlements
more compact, facilitating the administration of justice, and making
us more strong in those parts where we are most exposed and vulner-

1 transmitted

admitted that his object

Q

404 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

able from the attacks of foreign enemies." Bond became much
interested in this scheme, " was willing to make a sacrifice to effect it,"
wrote several letters to Wilkinson, sounded the people, and found
among others that Dr. Richard Jones Waters, a man of considerable
influence in New Madrid "and vast possessions in land and other
property" was willing to make an exchange of his lands two for one
and buy up the rights of others, &c., all of which Bond sets out in a
letter to Jefferson, dated October 17, 1806, tendering his services as
agent to acquire property rights to carry out this plan for the Govern-
ment.^ In how far Wilkinson was authorized to proceed in such a
scheme does not appear. Likely in a mere casual conversation with
the President the feasibility of concentrating the population on the
east side of the Mississippi may have been mentioned, because no
doubt fears were then entertained by many patriotic people, that
the indefinite extension of the Union west of the Missouri was
fraught with great danger. That such a scheme should even have
been thought practicable or desirable shows how little the possibilities
of the future were then understood even by the wisest men.

The administration of Wilkinson as Governor of the territory
did not give satisfaction and aroused bitter antagonism. It was
charged against him that he was guilty of improper interference with
the Board of Commissioners appointed to settle the land titles of the
new territory, and consequently Gallatin wrote Jefferson, saying, "I
think that General Wilkinson should be advised that he has nothing
to do with the land business, (which is entirely under the direction of
the Surveyor General, land officers and Commissioners) unless it be
to remove intruders under the existing laws ; that caution given to him
might prevent some of the altercations for authority."*'* It was also
charged against him that he favored keeping the territory under
military rule; that he antagonized the American settlers; that he
was predisposed in favor of the rich French land owners, and ante-
dated and other land grants; that he was a Royalist, a Federalist and
a Burrite. Undoubtedly he was engaged in land speculation, and
the fact that he purchased land adjacent to the cantonment at Belle-
fontaine which had been located there by him, was unfavorably
commented upon, although afterwards he sold this land to the Govern-
ment at the same price for which he purchased it. But in a letter to
President Jefferson dated St. Louis, March 29, 1806, Wilkinson says,

'• See letter of Exiward F. Bond, — Jefiferson Papers, 2d Series, vol. 8, No. 27.
*• Jefferson Papers, 3d Series, vol. 6, No. 3.

POLITICAL CONTROVERSIES 405

"I have so far conformed my conduct to your inclinations I believe
as to avoid every species of interested pursuit since my arrival here,
and I can asseverate upon my honor that I do not at this moment own
a single acre of ground in the territory, directly or indirectly —
exception, a conditional contract at a high price for a small tract made
with views to the accommodation of the public.**^* Rufus Easton,
Hempstead, Lucas, Hammond and others, a short time after his ap-
|X)intment, were all arrayed against him. Wilkinson was so hostile
to Easton, who was the first postmaster at St. Louis, that he
would not let his mail be sent through his post-office. Hempstead
was also very bitter in his opposition to him and denounced him in
vehement language. He writes in November, 1805, that unless
political affairs of the country change for the better he will not make
the country his residence long, and that no person was ever more
displeased with any government than he with the government insti-
tuted in the territory, and says that, "with the principles of civil
liberty in which I have happily been bred, and the patriotic examples
of my father before me, I can not bow the knee to any political Baal,
nor give my approbation to conduct that I am fully conscious is
despotic. With the Governor who now holds the office of Brigadier
General, and in addition is vested with a strange combination of
powers, you can not imagine to what a degree I wish for a change of
times. From a rank Federalist to a suspected Republican he became
a bigot and is now a petty tyrant.'^*'

Wilkinson on the other hand charged that a nephew of Hammond
had wantonly murdered an Indian, and that because he endeavored
to bring him to justice, Hammond became his bitter enemy. In
order to clear himself from this imputation Hammond transmitted
to Jefferson perhaps the first verdict of a coroner's inquest held in
what is now Missouri. This coroner's inquest was held at St. Louis
on the 26th of May, 1806, before Nathan Pusey, Coroner, and John
Murphy, foreman, Calvin Adams, James Smith, James Rankin,
Josiah McLanahan, James Huston, John G. Comegys, Frangois
Hortiz, Joseph LeCroix, William Massey, Hugh Patterson, Gabriel
LeCroix, George Doggett, and Charles LeGuerrien as a coroner's
jury ; and which found that Samuel Hammond, Jr., killed a Kickapoo
Indian in defending Colonel Return J. Meigs and Dr. Antoine

** Jefferson Papers, 2d Series, vol. 85, No. 88.

** Letter of Edward Hempstead, Nov. 20, 1805, in Missouri Historical So-
ciety Archives.

4o6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

Saugrain. The name of this Indian was Naichiwaigochee. The
Coroner's verdict found that the Indian walked the streets of St.
Louis brandishing hb tomahawk in a threatening manner, striking
some one or more doors, terrifying the citizens, and that he attacked
Meigs and Saugrain, and that then young Hammond shot the Indian,
and that while Meigs held the Indian the Indian tried to draw his
knife with his left hand.** And in further justification of this killing
Colonel Hammond sent a statement, that the Indian interpreter,
Bolon, and Charles Sangi^inet who also understood the Indian
language, said that the Indians said to him that ^^the Indian who had
been killed was a fool and that whiskey had done what he had done,
and that they seemed quiet and pacified," and furthermore that they
told the interpreter that they wanted a white flag to put over the
Indian's grave to show that they will never stain that flag, that the
Indians say as soon as that is done they will be fully satisfied, and that
they have applied for such a flag to General Wilkinson.

Why in the short period of one year Wilkinson raised all this
opposition is difficult now to conjecture. It is true he was a specula-
tor, but his opponents were all speculators. Wilkinson was always
anxious to make money, ready to engage in any enterprise that
promised pecuniary advantages, but so were his traducers. In his
administration he aimed to be politically independent and said that
he was actuated by a desire to unite the honest and moderate men of
both parties. This policy, during an era of intense political feeling,
perhaps was the cause of his political unpopularity. It is to be noted
that those who were the most bitter in his denunciation were all pro-
nounced and radical Republicans, as the Democrats were then
called, and the fact that Wilkinson declared that he desired '*to save
the constitution and prevent a division of property which the Demo-
crats" led by that arch-aristocrat, Randolph of Roanoke, "aimed at,"
may have added fuel to this flame of prejudice. The charge that he
sympathized with the French land claimants may perhaps be traced
to the fact that these claimants were generally Federalists, the idea
of a strong central government naturally being more in accord with
their past history as subjects of Spain. Personally General Wilkin-
son was an agreeable and accomplished man, well informed, "most
gentlemanly, moderate, and a sensible Republican' ' says Postmaster-
General Granger. He was familiar with border life, with Indian
wars, with Indian aff'airs, knew the western country and its inhabit-

** Jefferson Papers, 2d Series, vol. 42, No. 30.

WILKINSON'S REMOVAL URGED 407

ants, the history of its settlement and development, but against an
aroused political prejudice all this could not avail. ^* Wilkinson's
enemies made every effort to have him removed from office. Mathew
Lyons also, who afterward for a time lived in the territory, on April
'22, 1806, writes the President suggesting his removal. He says:
"I have been a friend to General Wilkinson for nearly thirty years; I
felt a glow of pleasure last year when I heard of his appointment,
which was incidentally succeeded by a doubt of the propriety of that
appointment, this doubt I endeavored to suppress. In my circular
and private letters I recommended him to the people of Louisiana and
endeavored to transfer to him any little share of popularity I might
have there. I am not in the habit of deserting those I profess friend-
ship to; however, under existing circumstances, I am inclined to
think an order to the General to remove to some place near the Span-
ish frontier where he could conveniently direct the operations of the

** J. L. Donaldson in a letter dated St. Louis July 5, 1806, to his father-in-
law, Dr. William Stewart of Baltimore, gives us this picture of affairs from his
standpoint, not without interest now. He says that he and Penrose were in ses-
sion at the Ste. Genevieve and did a great deal of business in a short time, and
indeed fully wound up the land concessions under "the present law" and that he
hopes the prospect wUl be better for a new and more honest law for the territory,
the necessity of which he would certainly urge next winter at Washington. He
says that it is certain that the governor (Wilkinson) has been ordered down the
river to keep a lookout after the Spaniards, that the system of unprincipled
opposition to which he has been subject instead of diminishing appears to have
gathered ground, that the alliance of Meigs and the open declaration of Ham-
mond against him have given new confidence to this opposition, and says there is
no villainy, private or public, that they are not ready to undertake; and further,
that the friends of order and law will always be able to resist successfully any
attempt of the unprincipled scoundrels who have so long infested this commun-
ity, but that a perpetual contest of this kind at last wears out the steadiest reso-
lution, and he says that he shall not be displeased when he returns from this
disgusting scene ; that if honest men arc appointed he shall return, but if not,
he will bid it eternal adieu. He gives an account of a nephew of Colonel Ham-
mond's who had killed a Kickapoo Indian and whom it was his duty to prosecute ,
that a few days after having prosecuted him in court he received an insolent
note from Hammond demanding satisfaction, that to this he answered verbally
that he was a great fool in challenging an officer of justice for doing his duty, and
that he should again prosecute him for this new outrage, and that he accordingly
ordered out process against him, and which on hearing, he made his escape to the
other side of the river, boasting and declaring that he would attack his life if ever
opportunity offered. Afterwards Donaldson went to Ste. Genevieve, and re-
turning came up through the American bottom, without giving this threat any
further thought, being in company with his wife and Mr. Penrose's family, he
was warned to be on his guard as there was a desperate scoundrel in town who
was determined to assault him, and that in Cahokia he found Hammond, who,
with pistol and dirk advanced upon him, but that his courage seemed to fail him
in the last minute, and when Donaldson, not the least frightened, walked up to
him, he seemed to be astonished, did nothing, and without offering any resistance,
although swearing dreadfully, allowed Donaldson to escort the ladies to their car-
riage and get on his horse and go away. Jefferson Papers, 2d Series, vol. 76, N0.95 .

4o8 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

different detachments and watch the movement of Spanish officers
would give satisfaction to the friends of the Administration. His
place might then be filled more unexceptionally and the murmur pass
away."*^ And the President not having filled the office, Lyons writes
him February 22, 1807, that if he neglects to fill the position of Gover-
nor of the territory that his enemies will charge that he left the
place of Governor unsupplied until the meeting of Congress "to keep
the emoluments of that office for General Wilkinson" and the place
open for him to go there and "commit fresh hostilities against the
rights of the citizens as well as to reward him for his atrocities."^
In order to pacify this opposition, Jefferson finally, on March 3,
1807, removed Wilkinson, and appointed Merriwether Lewis gov-
ernor of the territory, but the news that he would be removed
circulated four weeks before the order came, and Hempstead then
writes: " our prospects are becoming better." Wilkinson wrote
the information was brought to St. Louis by Major Seth Hunt,
who gave the information to W. C. Carr, and that Hammond
was to be his successor, and says that he felt very much humiliated
that this information should have been in circulation long before
he was advised. In a letter to General Dearborn he says that
Major Bruff *^ had declared "that he had friends in Washington
as well as myself, who could procure copies from there of any
information sent forward from here against him." He denounces
in this letter Major Bruff as a traitor.^' Again General Wilkinson
writes General S. Smith, from St. Louis, June 17, 1806, that it
was rumored in St. Louis for some time that he should be ordered
away south, and that at last he received this order, and that
"Bruff, Lucas & Company say the thing is done to get me out
of the way to make room for Hammond. God knows why it was
done, but it was certainly most unexpected after the President's
information to you bearing date 4th day of October, two days only
before the order, which is dated the 6th ; on the 9th I received other
orders from the President by the Secretary of the Treasury concern-
ing certain local interests which demand my attention here. * * *
Hammond is, I verily believe a candidate for this government, but

*• Jefferson Papers, 2d Series, vol. 50, No. 74.
*• Jefferson Papers, 2d Scries, vol. 50, No. 76.

^ James Bruff, Major in the ist United States Regiment of artillerists and
Engineers.

• Letter of Wilkinson to Henry Dearborn Jefferson Papers, 2d Series,
vol. 76, No. 98.

: information was in-

LEWIS 409

I trust such a character wili never receive iionor or emolument
from the hands of our chief. After his nephew had killed the
Indian, the cabal at this place formed an association to form ;
independent company which I had private information was i
tended for the rescue of Hammond if he had
been treated as he merited it. I found that
two-thirds of them either were not residents,
transient persons, vagabonds, boatmen or
whiskey retailers from Kentucky."*

Merriwether Lewis, the new Governor
did not arrive in St. Louis until July, 1807.
In the words of Jefferson: "He found the
territory distracted and contentions among
the officers of the government and the peo-
ple themselves divided by these into factions
and parties. He determined at once to
take no side with either, but to use every endeavor to con-
ciliate and harmonize them. The even-handed justice he admin-
istered to all soon established a respect for his person and authority,
and perseverance and time wore down animosities and reunited
the citizens again into one family." The apprehended war with
England was a subject which then principally occupied the thoughts
of the people. The surprise and attack by a British man of war
of superior force upon the Chesapeake in the waters of the United
Slates in a time of profound peace, and consequent Proclama-
tion of embargo issued by President JeSerson in July, 1807, it was
soon perceived caused great fermentation among the Indians of the
northwest and on the borders of the territory, and naturally filled the
minds of the people on the frontiers with anxiety. The increase of
the military force provided by Congress, seemed to indicate the
approach of war. Accordingly in August, 1808, Gov. Lewis began to
organize (he mililia of the territory. In St. Louis three battalions of
Infantry and Capt. Pierre Chouteau's troop of horse were enrolled.
In Ste. Genevieve two battalions of Infantry, and Captain Bibb's
and Captain Wbitely's troops of light cavalry; in St. Charles two
battalions of Infantry and Captain Mackay Wherry's troop of horse;
in Cape Girardeau two battalions of Infantry and the troops of horse
of Captain Ellis and Captain Bouis; and in New Madrid two battal-
ions of Infantry were mustered into territorial service. This military

" Je&ersoD Papera, id Seriea, vol. j6. No. 99,

4IO HISTORY OF MISSOURI

force was held under requisition until November 28, 1808, when it
was discharged to be again enrolled "as before with the ordinary
militia." The diflBculties with England however remaining unad-
justed and becoming graver in character, in February, 1809, ic»,ooo
men were ordered to be enrolled by the President of the United States
to serve if called upon, "each man to provide his own arms and
ammunition," and the Secretary of War fixed the quota of the Mis-
souri territory at 377 men, and under this requisition Governor Lewis
required each of the districts, St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve,
Cape Girardeau and New Madrid to furnish a company of 77 men.
Of this corps Col. Auguste Chouteau was appointed Colonel of the
Infantry. Major Nathaniel Cook had command of the Riflemen.
On April 21, 1809, under general order dated St. Charles, the Cavalry
companies of territory of Captains Ellis and Bouis of Cape Girardeau,
of Captain Otho Schrader of Ste. Genevieve, of Captain Pierre
Chouteau of St. Louis, and Captain Mackay Wherry of St. Charles
were ordered to rendezvous at St. Louis, May 4, 1809, but were
shortly afterwards discharged.

This military service then was no small burden upon the people.
Under a law passed by the territorial legislature of 1807, a maximum
service of sixty days was fixed, but later on this time was extended to
six months. Nor did the territory at that time trouble itself to pro-
vide arms and accoutrements, but each soldier or ranger was required
to furnish his own arms and accoutrements, and what these arms
should be, and of what these accoutrements should consist, was duly
and legally specified in the territorial Acts. The soldiers were for-
tunate if they secured rations and tents. Under this system theoretic-
ally the whole free male population of the territory in case of war
and invasion was supposed to be under arms, and practically every
section of the territory where Indian wars existed or were anticipated
and forays took place such was the case. Nor did the people of that
,time expect to be liberally reimbursed by high pay for little service.
The people and their government were then in closer touch than now.
Perhaps too, the people then understood better than now that the
more extravagant the governmental expenses the more onerous in
the end would be the tax levies made upon them.

In July, 1809, Governor Lewis* health began to fail and he was
compelled by important business to go to Washington. When he
left St. Louis it was his intention to go to New Orleans and thence by
water to the Federal City, but at the second Chickasaw Blufif, the

DEATH OF LEWIS 411

present site of the city of Memphis, he met Mr. Neely, then Indian
agent among the Chickasaw Indians and concluded to make the trip
from there by land with him passing through the Indian country.
After they crossed the Tennessee river some of the horses of the party
got away and Mr. Neely remained behind in order to find them and
Lewis went ahead with two servants to stop at the house of the first
white man found along the road and wait there until Mr. Neely
should overtake him. The first house was the house of a Mr.
Grinder, and he stopped there, but this man was not at home. Here
it is claimed Lewis showed symptoms of mental derangement and
Mrs. Grinder being alarmed retired to an outhouse. On this night
(October 11, 1809), it is said Lewis committed suicide, "did the deed
which plunged his friends into affliction and deprived the country of
one of its most valuable citizens." But although Jefferson accepted
the report that he committed suicide this was not the case with the
people who lived in the vicinity of the Grinder place at that time. On
the contrary, it was the common report, that he had been murdered
and robbed and many circumstances pointed to that conclusion.
For instance, only 25 cents were found in his pocket, when it was
known that he had a considerable sum in gold with him. So strongly
was Grinder suspected, that he was indicted in the county where the
death of Lewis occurred, but not sufficient testimony could be found
to convict him. He afterward moved away and, although he was
known to be a man of little means there, after he moved away ap-
peared to be in prosperous circumstances, owned farms and slaves.
Lewis was buried at the place where he died.*® In 1843 the legis-
lature of Tennessee organized the county of Lewis out of the territory
and the place where he was buried was made the exact centre of the
county. Here in 1848 the legislature ordered a monument to be
erected on the spot where he was interred."

*® Dr. Coues in his edition of Lewis and Clark's Expedition, vol. i, pp. 43 et
seq., gives a full and complete account of all that has oeen written about this
subject.

** Merriwether Lewis was a native of Virginia, born near Charlottesville,
Albermarle county, August 18, 1774. He belonged to a distinguished family,
long prominent in the colonial and revolutionary affairs of Virginia. Fielding
Lewis, a member of the family married a sister of George Washington. He
was educated at home and enjoyed all the benefits of such local educational
institutions as Virginia then had. At the age of 18. he returned to the farm of his
father and began farming as a serious'^occupation. When the so-called whiskey
insurrection broke out he enlisted in a volunteer company, called out by Gen.
Washington. In 1797 he was appointed Captain in the regular army. In
1 80 1 Jefferson appointed him as his private secretary and in 1803 he was by him
placed in command of the expedition to the headwaters of the MiBSoiui with

412

fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

The legislature of the territory was composed of the Governor
and Judges of the Superior court, and the first meeting of this
legislative body took place June 3, 1806. The legislature thus
constituted continued to exercise legislative functions until Octo-
ber 9, 181 1, when it adjourned "sine die." Edward Hempstead
was the first Clerk of this legislature, and which was called to
assemble June 3d, but actually did not assemble until June nth.

The session was opened
with a spicy correspond-
ence between Wilkinson
and Lucas as to the man-
ner in which this legisla-
ture should be convened.
Nothing was done until
June 25th when this body
proceeded to the election
of a Clerk, Robert Wescot,
Andrew Steele and Edward
Hempstead being respec-
tively placed in nomina-
tion. Hempstead, on the
28th of June, was finally
chosen as Clerk, thus showing that a small legislative body can be
as dilatory as a large assembly.

Among the first Acts of this legislature was a law passed adopting
a territorial seal. On the 6th of May, 1806, a law was enacted
providing for the appointment by the Governor of an Attorney-
General of the territory, and vesting this Attorney-General with
power to appoint suitable deputies in the several districts. On
the 26th of June, 1806, a bill creating the District of Arkansas out
of a portion of the New Madrid District was discussed and after-
wards enacted into a law. In 1808 Governor Lewis issued a proc-
lamation dividing this district, and forming all that portion lying
north of the 33d degree to the second Chicasaw Bluff and running
indefinitely west into the Arkansas District. A law was also enacted

instruction *'to follow the best water-communication which offered itself from
thence to the Pacific ocean.** From this expedition he returned in 1806 and on
February following he and Lieutenant Clark arrived in Washington. Before
Lewis left St. Louis in 1809 he formally appointed William Clark, Alexander
Stuart and William C. Carr as his attorneys and this instrument was witnessed by
Jeremiah Connor and Samuel Solomon

TERMS OF COURTS 413

to punish the discharging of fire arms in St. Louis, not unimportant
at that time. On tke 9th day of June a law regulating ferries, also
fixing a license of ten dollars for keeping a ferry, and regulating the
charges for passage, a subject in which all the early settlers of the ter-
ritory were deeply interested, was passed. A general court, to be a
Court of Appeals, was created, this court to meet twice a year in St.
Louis, in May and October. This General Court was the first
appellate court in what is now Missouri.

In 1807, Governor Wilkinson went south to the scene of the boun-
dary dispute between the United States and Spain, on the banks of the
Sabine, and never returned to the territory. The Secretary of the
territory, Browne, after his departure, became Acting Governor
and the legislative council, then composed of Browne, Lucas and
Qtho Schrader, an Austrian German, who had been appointed
while a resident of Pennsylvania as Judge to succeed Return
J. Meigs, enacted a law providing for a Clerk of the General Court,
to hold his office during good behavior, to be appointed by the Gov-
ernor, the applicant, however, for the position, to produce to the
Governor a certificate signed by at least two judges of the court that
he possessed the necessary qualifications to fill the office. Browne
resigned as Secretary of the territory, and Frederick Bates was
appointed as his successor, and as such acted as Governor of the ter-
ritory from May, 1807, until the arrival of Merriwether Lewis.
At a session of the Legislative Council in July, 1807, while Bates
was Acting Governor, the judicial system as enacted by the Indiana
judges was revised and new powers conferred upon the courts, and
new courts organized. Under this Act the Governor was empowered
to appoint five judges of the courts of Common Pleas and Quarter
Sessions for each of the districts, to hold their offices for four years,
and sessions of the courts to be held in the district of St. Charles the
first Mondays of February, June and October, in the district of St.
Louis the first Mondays in March, July and November, in the
district of Ste. Genevieve the second Mondays of March, July and
November, in district of Cape Girardeau on the third Mondays of
March, July and November, and in the district of New Madrid on
the fourth Mondays of March, July and November every year, and
in case new districts should be created by proclamation of the Gov-
ernor the place and time of holding courts, in such new districts, to
be made known. On the 4th of July, 1807, an Act was passed
dividing the various districts into townships, each township to be

414 fflSTORY OF IVflSSOURI

distinguished by a particular name, and pronding that Justices
of the Peace and Constables be appointed for such townships.
In 1808 an act was passed providing for the incorporation of villages
by the courts of common pleas and in the same year the first Act
establishing a public road in what is now Missouri was enacted.
This Act provided for the appointment of commissioners to view and
lay out a road from the town of St. Louis to the town of Ste. Gene-
vieve, from thence to the town of Cape Girardeau and from thence
to the town of New Madrid; the commissioners to ref)ort their
proceedings to the Governor of the territory for his approval. This
road was established following the old Spanish road or trace,
and is traveled to this day. Roads were a subject as impor-
tant then as now. It was no easy matter to locate, survey, open and
cut out roads through the wilderness, and consequently the laws in
regard to this all-important subject were stringent, if not onerous.
Under the laws enacted in 1806 by this legislature, from two to thirty
days of road service could be required annually, assessed according
to the amount of property owned, nor was any provision made
for commuting the road service by the payment of money, but
non-performance of road service was punished by a fine of $2
a day.

The personal service of the citizen of the Territory of Missouri
at that time was of a two-fold character, that is to say, appertaining to
road work and to military duty. At first military duty was the most
important, and after the danger of Indian attacks had passed away
the personal service required to open and work public roads became
more important. When the people of the territory were practically
surrounded by hostile Indian tribes, the Renard (Fox) and Saukee
Indians on the north and northwest, and the Osages on the west
and southwest, it was necessary that all free white inhabitants, not
exempt by law, should be enrolled in the militia, and that they should
from time to time attend musters, and accordingly the law provided
for five annual musters, requiring at least five or more days of military
service in each year. The amount of actual military service that
could be required was practically unlimited save by the necessities
of the occasion.

But this personal service did not meet all the needs of the terri-
torial government, hence the subject of local taxes, unknown during
the Spanish government, was a subject to which territorial legisla-
tors devoted great attention. The amount required to carry on the

REVENUE LAWS 415

government, measured by our present standard of expenses, was
insignificant, but the functions of the early frontier government of
Missouri extended little further than the protection of life and prop-
erty. Such other subjects as are now deemed absolutely indispen-
sable to organized society, for instance the vast expenditure for the
maintenance of a public school system and eleemosynary institutions,
such as Insane Asylums, Schools for the Blind, Colonies for the
Feeble Minded, Reformatories and Penal Institutions, and all
annually requiring an immense revenue, were not dreamed of then.
The early legislatures had no problems arising out of private cor-
porate interests, and constantly infringing upon the individual rights
of the citizen, nor were sanitary rules and regulations at that time
necessary. But laws establishing public ferries and regulating the
charges of the same were most important to the people, so also the
toll which mills should be allowed to charge for grinding grain.

The first law relating to public revenue in what is now
Missouri was passed on October i, 1804, and entitled "a law regu-
lating county rates and levies." Under this Act all houses in town,
town lots, out-lots and mansion houses in the country of the value
of $200 and upwards, all able-bodied single men not having taxable
property to the amount of $400, all water and wind mills and
ferries, all horses, mules and cattle three years old and upward,
all bond servants and slaves, except such as the court of Quarter
Sessions should exempt for infirmities between 16 and 40 years of
age, were made chargeable for county revenue. Upon the houses,
lots and mills a tax was authorized to be levied not exceeding 30
cents on each $100 valuation. On other objects mentioned a maxi-
mum specific tax was authorized ; the tax for instance on neat cattle
was not to exceed 10 cents per head. Merchants were required to
pay a license tax of $15, but where the merchandise they sold was
produced in the district no tax was levied, thus encouraging home
industry. Under this act a tax of $10 was levied on ferries.

From time to time new subjects were made the objects of taxation,
and taxes were increased. Thus in 1807 the ferry license was
increased from $10 to $100 per annum. In addition to merchants
and tavern-keepers, keepers of public billiard tables, Indian traders,
attorneys, physicians, proprietors of unauthorized lotteries and ped-
dlers were also required to pay a license. The license for public
billiard tables was fixed not to exceed $50 annually, for a tavern license
from $10 to $30 annually, for peddlers $14 semi-annually, and in the

4i6 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

case of Indian traders a proportional rate was at first tried, the rate be-
ing fixed at I per cent of the value of the equipment, but increased
to i^ per cent, and then changed to the fixed sum of $52 per annum.

It is interesting to note that under the law of 1804 farm land was
not taxed at all, but that in 1806 plantations actually cultivated of
the value of $200 and upward, were made taxable and so also horse
mills. But in 1808 the exemption on the basis of valuation below
$200 disappeared, and to the list of taxable real property was added
distilleries and tanyards; and in 1 814 all uncultivated lands which
up to that time had been exempt from taxation, were made subject
to taxation to the extent of 800 arpens (about 660 acres) and in the
following year (181 5) all land was made subject to taxation. Pre-
emption rights were first taxed in 181 5, but the Act was repealed at
the same session. The tax rate on real property, in 1804 did not
exceed 30 cents on the $100 valuation, but afterward a specific tax of
50 cents on every 100 arpens (about 83 acres) was levied by law, and
which in 181 5 was increased to 60 cents. The tax on land (the
title to which was not adjusted) was fixed at 12 J cents per 100
arpens.

At first such personal property only as live stock and slaves was
subject to taxation. The rate on horses, mules and asses, in 1804 did
not exceed 50 cents ; 37 J cents in 1806 ; 37 J cents in 1808, and 25 cents
in 181 5. On neat cattle, until 18 15, the rate was 10 cents a head,
and after that time the maximum was fixed at 6^ cents. Horses kept
for breeding purposes were charged not to exceed the rate of their
services. Slaves were taxed not to exceed $1 by the Acts of 1804,
1806 and 1808. In 1814 ^n additional tax of 40 cents was
imposed, for territorial purposes, and in 181 5 this was raised
to 62 J cents, but the tax not to exceed 50 cents for county
purposes. Pleasure carriages were, in 1808, included in the general
class of property to be taxed, for the first time, and taxes so levied
not to exceed 100 cents on the $100 valuation, but in 1814
a specific charge was substituted for this ad valorem tax. Four-
wheeled carriages were taxed $10 each, others $5 each. In the follow-
ing year the ad valorem system of taxation as to carriages was adopted
again, and $1.50 made the rate on the $100 valuation. The tax on
billiard tables was reduced in 181 5 to $25. Unmarried men with
limited property were subject to a poll tax which varied considerably ;
in 1804 it was placed at from 50 cents to $2 ; in 1806 it was fixed at
$1 ; in 1808 not to exceed $1, and in 1815 it was fixed at 50 cents.

TERRITORIAL REVENUE 417

In order to ascertain the property subject to be taxed, property
owners were required to supply lists of their taxable property. When
these were furnished as provided by law nothing further remained
than to determine the amount of taxes and to provide lists for the
collectors. Where the owners failed to supply such lists or made
false lists and where ad valorem rates necessitated a valuation, the
services of Assessors were required. Sj)ecific rates however generally
prevailed and hence the labor of assessors was small.

The SheriflF was the collector of taxes, except from 1806 to 1808
when the office of County Treasurer existed. The Sheriflf held the
county funds until the same were ordered disbursed by competent
authority. A separate financial administration for the territory
distinct from the districts was first provided by the law of 1806 when
the office of territorial Treasurer was created. In 18 10 the office
of territorial Auditor was provided, who also was ex-officio audi-
tor of the St. Louis district. In 1814 the law made provision for a
separate Auditor for the territory.

Before 1806 no provision existed for a separate territorial rev-
enue. All money collected went into the district treasury for distric t
purposes except 20 per cent, which it was provided should be set aside
for territorial expenses. Two years afterward the income arising
from licenses issued to merchants, tavern-keepers, ferrymen and from
public billiard tables, with the fines and forfeitures incident thereto,
were required to be paid into the territorial treasury. In 18 14 a
larger territorial revenue having become important, it was further
provided that taxes on slaves, pleasure carriages, land, both town lots
and farms, houses and improvements should be levied for the benefit
of territorial government, but the land tax alone for the exclusive use
of the territory. Further the license charges for trading with the
Indians, and special fees for writs and executions, and special fines
for convictions, were diverted to the territorial treasury. In 181 5 the
entire revenue system of the territory was revised, and the source
of revenue for the territory and county almost entirely separated.
Only slaves, as we have seen, remained an object of taxation common
to both.**

In 181 7 the territorial legislature authorized "a lottery for the
purchase of fire engines and other apparatus for the extinguishment

" For further and fuller details of the territorial revenue system, see an
able paper read by Prof. Frederick C. Hicks, before the Missouri Historical
Society.

4i8 fflSTORY OF MISSOURI

of fire for the use of St. Louis.*' Under this Act Auguste Chouteau,
Theodore Hunt, Henry Von Phul, W. C. Carr and Thomas F. Riddick
were appointed commissioners to superintend the lottery. The law
provided for 6,000 tickets, each ticket to be of the value of $5, three
thousand tickets to be blanks and three thousand to draw prizes.
The principal prize was $5,000, second $1,000, four prizes to be of
value of $500 each, and finally 49 prizes of $50 each, and 2,920 of
$6.20. All prfees were subject to a reduction of 12 J per cent, and
payable sixty days after the drawing. Prizes not demanded within
120 days were to be considered donations. But this scheme to equip
the fire department of St. Louis failed, because the people had **set
their faces against lotteries. " ^ Yet at that time and long afterwards
lotteries were deemed a perfectly legitimate method to raise money
for public and educational purposes. This failure, however,would
seem to indicate that the pioneers of Missouri were not much pre-
possessed in favor of this method for raising money.

"Louisiana Gazette, November 13, 1818.

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