Historical essay by Ray Breun, December 1982. Original dates and historical interpretations are preserved as the author’s period account; the arrival and expedition chronology is flagged for verification.
Most people think of all the steamboats along the St. Louis levee when they dream of arriving by boat at the Gateway to the West. Arriving three weeks to the day after the transfer of Upper Louisiana, William C. Carr came in on a keelboat pulled by ropes upstream from Louisville, Kentucky.
He was originally from Virginia, but he moved west after getting his law degree.
It was the last day in March, 1803, when he landed on the spring mud of the rising Mississippi. Lewis and Clark were camped here, putting the final touches on their plans for heading up the Missouri to the Pacific Coast.
They left on May 14 that year, returning in September of 1806. Carr stayed in St. Louis barely a month that first time off the keelboat.
He decided Ste. Genevieve was a much more promising city so he headed south and opened a law office in the oldest city in Upper Louisiana.
A year later, however, he realized his mistake and came back to St. Louis to settle in for the duration.
As the historian Billon puts it, Carr “was very successful in the management of his pecuniary affairs having acquired a handsome competency.” He became wealthy quickly, acting as an advocate in numerous land trials and other legal matters.
In 1815 he built the fifth brick house in St. Louis and the first one exclusively as a dwelling.
It was at the southeast corner of Main and Spruce Streets, not far from where he got off the keelboat just eleven years earlier.
In 1809 the district Court of Common Pleas approved a petition from the citizens of St. Louis to incorporate as a town.
On Nov. 27 of that year an election was held to name the Board of Trustees. William C. Carr was among the five elected to the Board, the others including Auguste Chouteau, Jean Cabanne, Edward Hempstead and William Christy.
In 1817, when the first school board of St. Louis was named, William C. Carr was among them also. Neither group was illustrious for what they did collectively; the individuals in each case led singularly exciting and aggrandizing lives. Carr was among the larger benefactors who assisted in the construction of the first stone cathedral at St. Louis.
The old log church was torn down in 1818—it would have fallen down shortly anyhow. Just a couple years before, Carr, Clement B. Penrose, Charles Gratiot and Stephen Hempstead had organized the first Presbyterian Bible society in St. Louis, and in 1817 helped establish the first Missouri Presbytery. Nearly all the early Americans to St. Louis were Calvanists by inclination.
They supported the construction of the new stone cathedral because it was essential to the character of the town and their own positions.
In 1826 Governor John Miller, the fourth governor of the state of Missouri, appointed William C. Carr Circuit Judge of the St. Louis. Circuit.
He served in that position for eight years.
His year of appointment was also the year of the establishment of Jefferson Barracks, replacing Fort Bellefontaine, and the year the permanent capital of Missouri was established at Jefferson City.
When Judge Carr resigned from the bench in 1834, he was succeeded by the famous Luke E. Lawless. Like his close friend Wilson Hunt, William C. Carr bought land west of the town of St. Louis, i.e., west of what is now Third Street. Hunt and Judge Lucas eventually put in a special residential area just west of what is now Tucker Boulevard, called Lucas Place. Just north of that, Carr Square was formed by Judge Carr, and he also established a rather elite residential enclave.
In 1842 he gave the park, Carr Square, to the city.
By that time the Bents, Frosts and numerous other significant citizens lived in the area. Carr’s second wife (his first died rather young) was Miss Dorcas Bent, daughter of Silas Bent, Sr., and thus a greataunt of Charles M. Russell. Carr Street and Carr Square on the near north side memorialize William C. Carr. Successful, wealthy, influential and abrupt, Carr left a mark on early St. Louis.
When he died at the age of 68 years in 1851, St. Louis had grown from a river outpost of less than 1000 to a city of over 70,000.
He had accumulated wealth before the first steamboat arrived in 1817, thirteen years after he arrived by keelboat pulled by ropes.
He participated in some of the most significant changes St. Louis went through in its earliest years after the Purchase.
Originally published in The Neighborhood Paper, December 1982.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: The essay prints March 1803 for Carr’s arrival while other relative dates imply 1804. The Louisiana transfer and Lewis and Clark chronology require independent verification. Source wording is retained, not silently corrected.
Original source: SD_Times1982_12.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
