si Ulaxs
^\f ' - \tj
V.V
'\
HISTORY
\y
OF THE
Development of Missouri
AND
PARTICULARLY
OF
Saint Louis
^^
VOLUME I.
Edited ^^
MARSHALL Sv SNOW, LL. D. '
Professor of History in Washington University ' '' ^ ->
>^ .,^ '
3 J 3 >
NATIONAL PRESS BUREAU. Publishers. \ , ^] \\} \ V ; , ', f '/
Saint Louis. Mo.. 1908
THE KEV/ YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
837629
ASTOR. LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
R 1918 L
B^^^abMAbMkAUB
*7y]*ITH few exceptions, the
photos In this work,
some of which are copyrighted,
have been furnished by J. C.
Strauss, the photographer, to
whom we wish to acknowl-
edge obUgations and thank
for many courtesies.
«•<
c t
c
c
c
c c
(«•
• c <
I it
. I. c
PREFACE
HE History of Missouri has more than
once been written in great detail. It may
well be rewritten once in every decade,
so much new and \'aluable material is
constantly coming to light.
This book is not a history of the state.
It is rather an attempt to summarize its
rise and growth so that the steps in its development
up to the present time may be seen clearly. But
little mention therefore is made of individuals and
manv interesting events are passed over in silence.
It is hoped it may fill a suitable place in the chron-
icles of a great state.
The photographs inserted in the work are those
of men who have been of aid and prominence
in the later steps of progress in St. Louis. It
has been impossible for many and obvious reasons
to make this a complete list. The faces here pre-
sented will, however, add a living interest to the
text.
M. S. S.
St. Louis,
April, 1908.
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
T^HE name "Missouri" has been attached to
^ that part of the United States now known as
the "State of Missouri" since the year 1812. In
that year this name was given by Congress to the
Territory of Louisiana, which thus became the
"Territory of Missouri." In 1821 this Territory
became a State, divided then into 24 counties. Now
Missouri includes 114 counties and the City of
St. Louis, separated from St. Louis County in
1876.
Missouri has been well named "The Imperial
State." In wealth and population the fifth State
in the Union, including w^ithin its borders 69,415
square miles and upwards of 44,000,000 acres of
arable land, more than all the New England States
combined, with an unsurpassed variety of natural
resources, it may well claim a high rank among its
sister States.
Recent trustworthy official statements assure us
that of all the corn produced in the world one-
tenth comes from Missouri ; that in live stock of
all kinds, horses, mules, cattle, swine and sheep,
and in poultry Missouri takes the lead. Her large
extent from north to south makes possible the
6 HISTORICAL SKETCH
growth of a great variety of fruits; orchards and
vineyards abound. Coal, building stone, lead,
nickel, zince make the annual mineral output of
Missouri enormous.
No State is better adapted to every phase of
agricultural life, and her forests abound in all the
useful woods. Her population has increased with
great rapidity during the past quarter of a century
and is given in tlie last census report as 3,106,665.
The growth uf the State was during several gen-
erations necessarily slow as judged by modern stan-
dards. The natural resources were all there : but
many things prevented their full development. Ante
bellum conditions with the svstem of slaverv as a
hindrance, civil war which sorely distressed this
border State, the slow recovery when war had
ceased, these and other conditions made progress
slow for many years.
Within the past twenty-five years, however, Mis-
souri has, in common with all the e^reat West and
Southwest, felt the quickening life of every form
of activity, mental, social and material. Immigrants
from the East and the Xorth have poured into the
State and have been made welcome.
Cities have grown; rural life has been vastlv im-
proved ; education has been broadened and widelv
extended, and [Missouri is no longer looked at
askance by those at a distance as a place where life
must of necessity be uncomfortal)le. not to say
dangerous, as was the case a quarter of a century
HISTORICAL SKETCH 7
or more ago. The following chapters are intended to
convey some notion of the extent and character of
this more recent development of Missouri and of
the men and means by which this has been
accomplished.
IN the rooms of the Alercantile Library, St. Louis,
has hung for many years a painting of much
interest, both as an example of artistic work and
as a suggestion to all who see it of the connection
of a famous name with the State of Missouri and
the City of St. Louis. This painting is entitled
"The Burial of De Soto,'* and pictures the solemn
scene when in the stillness of midnis^ht the body
of the brilliant explorer was sunk in the middle of
the great river which he had discovered and
explored.
More than two centuries after De Soto's quest
for the fountain of eternal }'()uth and great wealth
had thus dismally failed, here and there along the
western shore of the ^Mississippi the busy and ad-
venturous French hunters, trappers and explorers
made settlements and planted the emblem of French
sovereignty.
Some of these settlements were the rude and
small beginnings of the now great State of
Missouri.
Many historians have told in fascinating narra-
tive of the successful activity in various portions
of the new world of the great colonizing powers
8 HISTORICAL SKETCH
of Europe, Spain, France and England. Spain
from the West India Islands goes to the Florida
coast, and from that shore De Soto departs upon
that wonderful expedition in which he fails to find
any fountain of perpetual youth, but unwittingly
achieves immortality. England generations later
fixes its standard permanently on the coast of Vir-
ginia and the stern shores of Xew England and not
until nearly two hundred years had passed were
Englishmen found \'er}' far beyond the fringe of
Atlantic coast settlements. France making its first
settlements in the cold and inhospitable country
about Quebec worked its way westward and south-
ward, along the great lakes and down the great
rivers.
Writers on the colonial period in United States
History have often called attention to the interest-
ing fact that while the Spaniards as the earliest
colonizing power in the new world had the advan-
tage of a large experience, and the English by their
national traits of fixed purpose and undaunted per-
severance would seem to be certain of dominant
influence, the French by their skill and tact in deal-
ing with savage peoples and securing their confi-
dence, for generations had clearly a great advantage
over Ijuth. How this opportunity was wasted and
lost forms one of the most interesting and sug-
gestive subjects of historical study, but it cannot be
entered upon here.
HISTORICAL SKI:TCH 9
Only brief reference may be made to the expedi-
tion of the two missionaries, Marquette and Johet.
Passing down Lake ^Michigan and through interven-
ing waters, they finally floated into the Mississippi,
past the mouth of the Illinois and the junction of
the Missouri with the ^lississippi. Thus these two
Frenchmen with De Soto, the Spaniard, 132 years
before, were the first white men to enter the terri-
tory now called "Missouri." These adventurers
and great-hearted men traveled down the river
only to the mouth of the Arkansas, returning thence
to the North in September, 1673.
Scarcely had "the simple and true-hearted Mar-
quette," as he has been called, returned to Green
Bay when another expedition was preparing for
exploration to the north and the south.
La Salle, a Norman, of high spirit and ambition,
of education and intelligence, shared in common
with manv others the belief that somewdiere to the
north might be found the northwest passage to the
East Indies. Attempts of this sort made long be-
fore by the English on the northeastern coast of
North America had failed, but the vision still kept
possession of daring and ambitious souls. Per-
haps, probably indeed, there came to the mind of
La Salle the glory which his beloved country and
its great monarch would win did he succeed. To
the court of Louis XIV he went and with the aid
of powerful friends had little difticulty in securing
royal patronage and letters patent with discre-
10 HISTORICAL SKETCH
tionary power. Returning to Canada in September,
1678, he associated himself with a Louis Hennepin,
a Franciscan friar. After nearly two years of
wearisome travel along the lakes and rivers and
with many hardships and dangers, they established
a post on the Illinois near the site of what is now
Peoria. This they named Creve Coeur (Broken
Heart) in memory of many disappointments and
failures. Then came a division of the party. It
was agreed that Father Hennepin should go up the
Mississippi to its source and that La Salle should
go down to its mouth. Hennepin went as far as
the Falls of St. Anthony, named by him in honor
of his patron saint, and then after adventures with
the Indians, returned to Canada, and thence to
France. La Salle finally <m April 5th, 1682, dis-
covered three outlets of the river to the Gulf of
Mexico, and on April 9 took possession of the
country in the name of Louis XIV, in whose honor
it was called Louisiana. The vast territory thus
claimed by rig-ht of discovery as French property
accordino; to the sfeneral custom of the colonizingf
European states included the present State of
Missouri.
Passing over the transfers of this great territory
])}â– tlie King's charter to Crozat in 1712, and again
to John Law's Company of the West in 1720, and
the surrender of Law's charter in 1731, we reach
the more important act of 1762, when by treaty all
that part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi was
HISTORICAL SKKTCH 11
ceded to Spain, one year prior to the Treaty of
Paris, in 1763. which ended the Seven Years' War
and transferred the Canadas and all French land
east of the Mississippi to England.
Under the wise and mild rule of the Spanish
authorities matters in the Spanish part of Louisi-
ana were quiet and peaceful. In 1801 France re-
gained by treaty its former ownership although it
held possession for one day only, from March 9th
to 10th, 1804, when it was finally turned over to
the United States, according to the treaty of Paris
of 1803, by which the purchase of Louisiana by
the United States was agreed upon.
In 1804 by act of Congress the province was
divided into "The Territory of Orleans" in the
south and the "District of Louisiana" in the north,
which latter was more frequently called "Upper
Louisiana." Formal possession of this district was
had by Captain Amos Stoddard of the United States
army in ^larch, 1804, and the flag of the United
States was raised for the first time on its posses-
sions west of the Mississippi, on the official build-
ing of the government in St. Louis.
In the meantime during the Spanish occupation
settlements were made .here and there on the west
side of the river, some by those who had before
occupied the east bank and others by new comers.
It seems to be fairly well established that the
first permanent settlement in ^Missouri was at Ste.
Genevieve, but the date is still a matter of some un-
12 HISTORICAL SKETCH
certainty. The pre^'ailing• opinion has it that this
town was founded l)y emigrants from Kaskaskia
across the river about 1735 or possibly somewhat
later. Kaskaskia was then a thriving town of sev-
eral thousand inhabitants, a source of supplies for
many years for east side settlements, now ahuost
if not quite lost in the changes made by the depre-
dations of the mighty Mississippi. By a great
flood in 1785 Ste. Genevieve was forced to change
its site to a more elevated place and really to found
anew, the present town.
It was not until 1764 that St. Louis was founded
by Pierre Laclede Liguest, and for many }-ears the
future metropolis of the Alississippi Valley was
of second or even third rate importance compared
with its neighbors.
By act of Congress of June 4th. 1812, a terri-
torial government was organized, the first General
Assembly had its first meeting in the residence of
Joseph Robidoux, St. Louis, December 7, 1812. The
names of some of the men most conspicuous in the
political affairs of the new territory are familiar
family names in all the later history of the State
of Missouri. Of St. Louis we find the names of
Musick, Farrar, Carr, Chouteau, Hammond; from
Ste. Genevieve, Bullett, Thomas, IMcGready, Scott,
]\lax\vell ; from St. Charles. Pitman, Spencer, Em-
mons ; from Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Byrd ; from
New Madrid, Shrader, Phillips, Hunter.
HISTORICAL SKETCH 13
During the period of territorial g-overnment. set-
tlements were made in various localities, in Clay,
Callaway, Howard, Boone, Cole and Warren
Counties, and in other wilder and less accessible
places, with many privations incident to rough
frontier life, Indian assaults and troubles incident
to the war with Great Britain from 1812 to 1815.
Missouri asked to be admitted as a State in 1818,
but not until after a heated discussion in Congress,
continued during two years, was admission secured,
and then only after the adoption of the famous
"Missouri Compromise," when by the act of March
6th, 1820, Missouri was added to the growing list
of sovereign States.
In the constitutional convention of 1820 we find
again most of the familiar names referred to above
and in addition to those such well-known names as
Green, Findlay, Ramsey, Talbot, Dawson, Houts,
Barton, Bates, McNair, who became the first Gov-
ernor; Rector, Prather, Perry, Bettis and Riddick.
The constitution then adopted survived all political
shocks and storms until 1865. The most serious
attempt previous to this date to remodel the consti-
tution or to make a new one was made in 1845,
when a convention duly called actually drew up a
new document. This, however, was rejected at the
August election of 1846. The number of votes
cast at this election was about 60,000, and the ma-
jority against the proposed change was about 9,000.
In January, 1865, a convention met to consider
14 HISTORICAL SKETCH
amendments to the existing constitution, pursuant
to an act of the General Assembly passed February
16th, 1864. Amendments so radical that they
meant practically a new instrument of government
were submitted by the convention and were adopted
by the people by a vote of 43,670 in favor and
41,808 against the proposed changes. Some of these
changes are worth noting here as illustrations of
the feeling of the time, just at the close of the civil
war, and of the tendency then beginning to show
itself towards greater restrictions upon the right
of suffrage and in the matter of certain tax exemp-
tions.
Certain sections, for example, provided for an
iron-clad "oath of loyalty." No person who could
not take this oath could vote, hold any office. State,
county or municipal, teach in any schools, preach,
solemnize marriages, or practice law. Xo religious
societv. if in a county, could hc)\(\ mr)re than five
acres of land exempt from taxation, nor in a city
or town more than one acre. An educational quali-
fication for the right to vote was included; this sec-
tion to take effect after January 1st, 1866.
It is nr)t strange that the |)rovision requiring the
oath of loyalty was the cause of great disturbance.
While Missouri had not seceded in 1861, the State
was divided in sentiment upon the questions which
were in\'ol\"ed in the great civil war. By the ^lis-
souri Comi)romise slavery had been excepted in the
act, which forbade slaverv north of latitude 36° 30'.
HISTORICAL SKETCH 15
Large numbers were themselves immigrants from
States which joined the secession movement or were
descendants of settlers from the South. Both con-
tending parties had occupied portions of the State
with their armies. Although by great effort on the
part of the conservative element, secession had
beeen prevented, feeling ran high throughout the
war and was bound to leave its traces for years
afterwards. Four years passed, however, after the
adoption of the constitution of 1865 before this
provision was rescinded. In 1869 an amendment
providing for its repeal was proposed by the Legis-
lature, and this became the main issue in the elec-
tion which followed in the fall of 1870, when by a
decisive popular vote the amendment was adopted.
So many things in the constitution of 1865,
adopted when the turmoil of war was barely over,
seemed to be in need of revision that in the Novem-
ber election of 1874 a proposition to call a conven-
tion to amend or make a new one was laid before
the people and carried. The majority in its favor,
however, was only 283, out of a total vote for
Governor of 261,670. The convention met in May,
1875, and made a thorough revision of the consti-
tution, unanimously adopted by the convention and
finally by the people at an election held October 30,
of that vear, the vote for the new constitution be-
ing 91,205 and against it 14,517. Since that time
many amendments have been proposed and some of
them adopted, but no serious or fundamental change
16 HISTORICAL SKETCH
has been made, and the constitution of 1875 is still
the organic law of the State.
While the leading political parties in Missouri
have been those common to the country at large, in
later years those styled Republican and Democratic,
all parties have found friends here. Socialist, Labor
Socialist, People's party. Prohibition party. The
relative strength of these parties in 1904 is shown
by the results of the presidential election of that
year, as follows :
Republican 321,449
Democratic 296,312
Prohibition 7,191
Socialist 13,009
Labor Socialist 1,674
People's party 4,226
It would seem bv the above table that the Re-
publican party is the dominant one in Missouri. The
following, showing the presidential vote in 1900,
may, perhaps, be regarded as more nearly the nor-
mal :
Republican 314,092
Democratic 351,922
It is to be noted that in 1904 the Democratic
candidate for Governor received 326,659, w^hile
the Republican vote for Governor was only 296,552.
The increase in population since the first enum-
eration in 1820, as shown in the following table,
well illustrates the growth and development of
Missouri in spite of the demoralization of civil war
HISTORICAL SKETCH 17
and the hesitation of many for years after who
desired to enter the State on account of unsettled
condition of affairs, particularly on the western
border :
Per Cent.
Year. Population, of Gain.
1820 66,586
1830 140,455 102
1840 383,702 107
1850 682,044 .62
1860 1,182,012 .70
1870 2,168,380 .83 '
1880.. 2,679,184 .23
1890 3,106,665 .21
Until 1840 Missouri was essentially a border
State, on the frontier. The movement westward
from the country east of the Mississippi went little
further than Missouri, and the great resources of
that State, especially for agricultural pursuits, nat-
urally attracted increasing numbers of immigrants,
especially from the Southwest, who halted in Mis-
souri as a land of promise. Then came a slower
wave of immigration, when from 1840 to 1860
the lands of Kansas and Nebraska were open to
occupancy and the attractions of what was termed
''free soil" were added to those of nature. Recent
years show an increase, which may be termed nor-
mal with possibilities of a larger, rather than a
smaller percentage of increase. Railroad extension,
the development of the vast mineral resources of
18 HISTORICAL SKETCH
the State, demanding an ever-growing number of
skilled and unskilled workers and managers, the
rapid recognition of the richness of soil and oppor-
tunities for its profitable cultivation, the remarkable
growth of educational advantages from the ele-
mentary school to the university, all of these will
bring in a natural way an increase of immigration
and make permanent inhabitants of many who have
hitherto been only temporary sojourners.
From its early days ^Missouri has had no small
influence in national affairs. The very conflict which
raged about the question of its admission as a State
gave it a singular prominence. Its earlier Senators
and many of its Representatives in Congress were
men of marked ability and influence. Thomas
Benton represents in a distinguished manner the
Senator of the old school, whose voice and \'ote were
always noteworthy. Barton, Atchison, Polk, Gratz
Brown, Henderson. Schurz, F. P. Blair, Vest. Cock-
rell, in the Senate: Bates. Phelps, Hall, Darby. Por-
ter. Kennett. Rollins, Blow, Finkelnburg, Stanard,
to name only a few in the list of members of
the Lower House ; these were men of character
and influence who had much to do with shajDing
the course of the fortunes of the nation.
On the Cabinet list may be found some of the
most able and useful advisers of the Presidents of
the United States. The first Secretary of the De-
partment of Agriculture. Xorman J. Colman. was
from ^Missouri. General John W. Xoble. David R.
HISTORICAL SKETCH 19
Francis and Ethan Allen Hitchcock, all now livine,
have each served as Secretarv of the Interior.
Missouri has had her share also of diplomatic and
consular positions, in which the dignity of the na-
tion has heen well maintained.
According to the census of 1900, Missouri has
but three cities of more than 60,000 inhabitants —
St. Louis, 575,238; Kansas City, 163,752, and St.
Joseph, 102,979.
In 1890 twenty-nine cities and towns had a popu-
lation of 4,000 or more, the total being 811,568. In
1900 the number of cities and towns having this
number of inhabitants had increased to thirty-five,
aggregating 1,084,014, an increase of 33.57 per
cent. The rural population in 1890 was 60.15 per
cent of the whole; in 1900, 53.76 per cent. Thus,
in Alissouri, as in other States, notably the older
ones, the urban is growing at the apparent expense
of the rural population. The growth of the three
large cities of this State, however, cannot be
charged to the migration from country to city so
much as to the influx to the cities of all kinds of
workmen, skilled and unskilled, to whom the in-
creasing demands of varied manufacturing inter-
ests offer the means of gaining a livelihood. St.
Louis, for example, has undoubtedly made a very
large gain in number since 1900, but it is safe to
say that this gain has come chiefly from beyond the
State, and that the time has not yet arrived in
Missouri when the farms and fruit orchards are
20 HISTORICAL SKETCH
in danger of being deserted in favor of the attrac-
tions of the large cities. Tlie rural population is
sure to gain steadily in the future, as it has in the
past, on account of the increasing opportunities for
a life in the country of profit, accompanied by
many comforts and conveniences unknown until
verv recent vears.
Generally speaking, then, Missouri has had com-
paratively little to do with the perplexing problems
of modern city government. Such cities, therefore,
as Hannibal, Sedalia, Joplin and Springfield, and
others like them, have little difficulty in managing
their affairs for the best interests of all concerned.
St. Joseph, even, although it has passed the 100,000
mark, has thus far been able to avoid serious
trouble.
Certain waves of eccentric public opinion have
now and then swept through Missouri and have
spent their force without any resulting material
harm. As the general intelligence of the people is
increased and popular education dispels ignorance,
such political spasms as have at times occurred grow
less and feebler. Every year makes more certain
the ability of the people of Missouri to meet suc-
cessfully the varying problems of State and munici-
pal existence.
highe:r e:ducation 21
HIGHER EDUCATION
LITTLE need be said here of the higher education
of Missouri in its earher years. Our purpose
is rather to study the rapid and successful develop-
ment of university and college work and life during
the years succeeding the civil war, and more espe-
cially during the last quarter century. Some of
the leading facts, how^ever, in the beginning of the
work in hio-her education are necessarv as a foun-
dation for more complete understanding of the
great strides made in these later years.
Under the auspices of the Catholic Church the
first provision for higher education of the youth of
the infant Territory of Missouri was made by the