Saint Louis, Missouri

“ Louis is built on the western bank of the Mississippi River about twenty miles below the mouth of the Missouri, since everybody knows that. But the present generation thinks of the city only as it is to-day, with its more than half a million of inhabitants, extensive parks, palatial residences, well-constructed churches, imposing business blocks, great railroad bridges spanning the river, unrivalled central depot and attractive trolley cars. But all this has flowed from its wonderful development since the close of the Civil War. ”

“ Louis, the commercial capital of Missouri, already had many great merchants and enterprising manufacturers, who were not only throwing out their lines of trade into every part of the State, but also into all the surrounding States and territories. It was linked by the Mississippi and Missouri, fed by numerous and important affluents, with a vast territory which was probably the richest on the earth’s surface. ”

“ The "institution" was brought more prominently before us there than it has yet been, as St. Louis is the first town where we have seen it proclaimed in gold letters on a large board in the street, "Negroes bought and sold here." In the papers, also, yesterday, we saw an advertisement of a "fine young man" to be sold, to pay a debt.
We took our departure in the Alton steamboat, in order to see the first twenty-four miles of the Upper Mississippi, and the junction of that river and the Missouri, which takes place about six miles below Alton ”

“ They resolved anew to resist with all their heart, and with all their mind, and with all their strength the secession of Missouri from the Union. Any that had been timid became suddenly courageous; any that had been weak became strong in spirit. These unconditional loyal men, surrounded by a morass of difficulties, beset on every side by insidious, plotting political foes, often utterly at a loss in whom to confide, with everything seemingly against them, at last, fully aroused and braced for the conflict, became the hope, and, as it proved, the political salvation of St. Louis and Missouri. ”

“ Louis; many Americans and foreigners removed here, and brought their property and their industry with them: and by the introduction of the use of steam-boats, a new and easy intercourse was opened with the shores of the Ohio, and with New Orleans, that important depôt of the western states. A glance at the map of the United States shows what an interesting place St. Louis is destined to become, when the white population has spread itself more westwardly II.97 from the Mississippi, and up along the Missouri river. ”

“ What spirit is it that vociferously threatens St. Louis with deadly legislation if her citizens should dare to turn out any other than a Democratic majority—the same citizens of St. Louis whose political independence you praised when, in 1870, they gave an almost unprecedented majority against disfranchisement? What spirit is it which, in the first platform the Democratic party of Missouri has made alone since 1868, commits itself to the principle of repudiation, and thus seeks to ruin the credit and to tarnish the good name of the people of Missouri? ”

“ Still, every one that joined it took the oath of allegiance to Missouri and the United States. But this did not reassure us, since the significance of that act depended on each man’s view of State sovereignty and on his construction of the Federal Constitution.
The citizens of St. Louis looked on thoughtfully. Some of them were happy; but that very fact tended to make those of opposite views apprehensive. If the 90new encampment had been just what it professed to be, simply a place for military drill, there was not a loyal man in the city who would have thought of disturbing it. ”

“ Louis, 1, One of the great commercial cities (575) of the United States, capital of Missouri State; situated on the Mississippi (here spanned by two fine bridges) , 21 m. below its confluence with the Missouri; is a handsomely built city, and equipped with every modern convenience, entirely lit by electric light, &c.; has spacious parks, two universities, public libraries, &c.; is a centre for 18 railroads, which with the great river-way enables it to carry on a vast trade in grain, cotton, wool, furs, live stock, &c.; its tobacco manufacture is the greatest in the world. ”

“ A city that owns itself, with a proper sense of dignity, it has never advertised itself in the modern meretricious fashion. And so the story of St. Louis, an honest tale, will speed best being simply told.
COLONEL AUGUSTE CHOUTEAU, ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF ST. LOUIS. FROM A PAINTING IN MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION.
St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclede Liguest and a few companions, all French voyageurs, in 1764; at least it was in that year that Laclede's lieutenant, Auguste Chouteau, cleared away the site of the present city. ”

“ Louis, preaching to some Indians on the way, until they reached Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, early in 1831. That county forms a part of the western border of the state, and from 1832, until the railroad took the place of wagon trains, Independence was the eastern terminus of the famous Santa Fe trail, and the point of departure for many companies destined both for Oregon and California. Pratt, describing their journey west of St. Louis, says: "We travelled on foot some three hundred miles, through vast prairies and through trackless wilds of snow ”

“ St Louis is normally Republican in politics, and Missouri Democratic. Taxes for state and municipal purposes are collected by the city. The school board, as in very few other cities of the country, has independent taxing power. The city owns the steamboat landings and draws a small revenue from their rental. The heaviest expenses are for streets and parks, debt payments, police and education. ”

“ Louis, and thence South, by way of Memphis, Tenn., into exile. I would have returned to Missouri after the war closed but for the restrictions put upon ministers of the gospel by the new Constitution.
“Eternity alone will reveal what I have suffered in 290exile. The St. Louis Conference is properly my home, and her preachers have a warm place in my affections. They are very near my heart. May they ever be successful.”
Rev. Mr. Arrington pines for his old home and friends, and few men have a deeper hold upon the hearts of the people in Missouri. ”

“ He found Ste. Genevieve unacceptable because of its distance from the Missouri river, and unsanitary location. Consequently he left Fort de Chartres in December, taking along a trusted young man, and surveyed all the land from Fort de Chartres to the Missouri river.
Page 2 He was enchanted to see the location where St. Louis presently stands. He did not hesitate a moment to found the settlement he planned. In addition to the beauty of the site, it had all the advantages one could wish for in a place which might become very important in the future. ”

“ Among the remarkable objects in the vicinity of St. Louis are the ancient Indian barrows, the traces of which I had hitherto in vain attempted to find on the whole course of the Missouri. In order to take a view of them, we crossed the Missouri in a steam-ferry, where there is room for the horses and carriage, and in the upper story of its pavilion, a light, airy chamber. On the opposite bank are a good many houses, inns, and shops, under the shade of lofty old trees. Fish, turtles, vegetables, and other provisions, are daily sent from this place to the market in the town. ”

“ Louis as far as Jefferson City, the capitol of Missouri. A few of the passenger boats were equipped with a calliope, or steam organ, and would play old plantation melodies on approaching or departing from a town. To hear "Suwanee River," "The Old Folks at Home" or "Susannah" reverberating from the hills on a calm summer's evening was charming.
There were not many towns on the Missouri in 1855; the principal ones that I remember were St. Charles, Hermann, Jefferson City, Booneville, Glasgow, Kansas City, Leavenworth and St. ”

“ Louis Chapter, vice state regent and state regent of Missouri. At the sixteenth Continental Congress she was elevated to the high position of vice-president-general of the National Society. She was chairman of the Daughters of the American Revolution at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, where the entertainments arranged by her were a great success. She has served the Daughters well on the Continental Hall Committee, as the liberal contributions from Missouri show. She is a member of the Daughters of 1812, of the Colonial Dames and the Colonial Governors and of many local clubs for betterment. ”

“ Among those men who early in the past century pressed out most boldly in the quest for the heads of the upper Western waters, we continue to find our men of the South very prominent, the sons of the men that moved west from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee into Missouri and other parts of the trans-Mississippi. Many of these made the old town of St. Louis their general starting point, and St. Louis was, in those days, much more a Southern or Western town than it is to-day. As in the time of the Santa Fé trail, the Western man was still what we should call to-day a Southerner. ”

“ Thus, even in the years of the Civil War, there was no apparent set-back. Of the aggregate of 1900, 63·7% lived in “rural districts” (i.e. those outside all places of a population of 2500 or upwards) , and 27·1% in the three great cities of the state, St Louis (pop. 575,238) , Kansas City (163,752) and St Joseph (102,979) ; 5·2% were negroes—their increase from 1890 to 1900 being less than half as rapid as that of the whites; and 7·0% only were foreign-born. Slightly more than half of all foreigners are Germans ”

“ Missouri is bounded south by Arkansas; east by Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee; west by Missouri territory and north by Iowa. It contains about sixty thousand square miles; its length being two hundred and seventy, and its breadth two hundred and twenty miles. Its limits are between thirty-six degrees and forty degrees thirty minutes north latitude; and between eighty-nine degrees and ninety-four degrees ten minutes west longitude. It is divided into fifty-one counties. The city of Jefferson, which has been laid out within a few years, is the seat of government. St. Louis is the largest town. ”

“ Louis, the Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley, Missouri in 1860, after 40 years of Statehood, had only 1,182,012 people, against 1,711,951 in Illinois, 1,350,428 in Indiana, 674,913 in Iowa, 172,023 in Minnesota, 2,329,511 in Ohio, 749,113 in Michigan, 775,881 in Wisconsin, with nearly 150,000 in Kansas and Nebraska.
More than a million settlers who had crossed the Mississippi within a few years had shunned her contaminated borders for the free air of otherwise less attractive localities. ”

“ Louis, three hundred miles through Missouri, to Leavenworth, Kansas, you find a noble region, that needs only a live population to make it a garden. It is mostly rich rolling prairie, but with more timber and streams than in Illinois, and with limestone abounding nearly everywhere. ”

“ Louis, Missouri, where he found himself in the midst of an agitation over the question of the extension of slavery in the States. With great zest he threw himself into the discussion, making use of the newspapers in Missouri and Illinois. Having lost his property, he returned poverty-stricken to Ohio, where he founded in January, 1821, the Genius of Universal Emancipation. A few months later he transferred his paper to the more congenial atmosphere of Jonesborough, Tennessee, but in 1824 he went to Baltimore, Maryland. ”

“ Among the Illinois suburbs thus brought into closer touch with the western side of the river are East St. Louis,—a growing city of about 75,000,—Venice, Madison, Granite City, and Belleville. Being principally manufacturing communities, these cities contribute in no small degree to St. Louis' importance as an industrial center.
A MISSOURI COAL MINE
St. ”

“ Gardens were cultivated in the common fields, cattle fed in the common pastures, and lovers walked in the long and narrow street. The young men went away to hunt furs; their frail bark canoes had been to the distant Platte, and up the Missouri, no one knows how far. 29
Sixty miles north of Kaskaskia lay Cahokia, and opposite Cahokia lay St. Louis.
Now and then a rumour of the struggle of the American Revolution came to St. Louis, brought by traders over the Detroit trail from Canada. But the rebellious colonies seemed very far away. ”

“ A HUMBLE BIRTHPLACE
Florida, Missouri, was a small village in the early thirties—smaller than it is now, perhaps, though in that day it had more promise, even if less celebrity. The West was unassembled then, undigested, comparatively unknown. Two States, Louisiana and Missouri, with less than half a million white persons, were all that lay beyond the great river. St. Louis, with its boasted ten thousand inhabitants and its river trade with the South, was the single metropolis in all that vast uncharted region. ”

“ The construction of the Missouri Pacific Railway system was begun at St Louis in 1850, and various other roads were started in the next two years. For several decades railway development served only to increase the commercial primacy of the city in the southern Mississippi Valley, but in more recent years the concentration of roads at Kansas City enabled that place to draw from the west and south-west an immense trade once held by St Louis. River freighting is of very slight importance. St Louis is a port of entry for foreign commerce ”