Historical April 1985 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
On the first Tuesday in April of 1823 the first mayor of St. Louis was elected.
It happened to be April 1 that year, and it was the second real contested and therefore political election in the history of the town.
Until the election of 1819, only about twenty or fewer ballots were cast.
In 1819, 168 ballots were polled.
The center of contention was between the old French families and the growing American interests who saw the French and their allies as inhibiting to their opportunities.
The newcomers resented the attempts of the original settlers to keep things the same and wanted to have it change. Compromise had been tried and found impossible.
The election of 1819 presaged the changing of the guard in 1823. St. Louis first became a city in 1809 when the territorial legislature declared it so.
From that time to 1823, it was governed by a Board of Trustees. Missouri had become a state in 1821, and the new state legislature approved a city charter for St. Louis which set up a Board of Aldermen with a mayor.
There were three contestants in that first mayoral election: Auguste Chouteau, Marie Phillipe Leduc, and William Carr Lane. Chouteau, of course, was “present at the creation” in 1764 and was the scion of the founding family.
He represented all the ruling landed French aristocracy as well as the holders of the economic funds of the time. Leduc (pronounced Ladue, to which suburb his name went) was old French also, but he did not want association with many of the land practices of his countrymen including Chouteau.
He represented the split in the old guard and may have run for mayor as much to dilute Chouteau’s power as to win. William Carr Lane was a newcomer in every sense of the term.
He had arrived in St. Louis only in 1819—four years before the election. Born in 1789 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, he was educated in medicine and had served with the military surgeon’s department at Fort Harrison, Vincennes, Indiana.
The irony was not lost on the citizens of St. Louis that this man, born in a county named for General Lafayette, was elected in opposition to the French of St. Louis. Auguste Chouteau won 70 votes; Leduc received 28. William Carr Lane won the election with 122 votes.
The only clue we have to what his winning platform was comes from his first speech as mayor to the Board of Aldermen, April 14, 1823.
The newly elected aldermen present were Robert Wash, James Loper, James Lakenan, Archibald Gamble, William H. Savage, and Thomas McKnight.
The new mayor’s speech cited the empty treasury, the condition of the streets and sidewalks, the health problems, the need for a public health facility, the work that needed to be done for the port of St. Louis, and the lack of public schools. Altogether the mayor listed twelve problem areas confronting the new administration and the new board: “We have assumed heavy tasks and high responsibilities; let us not hope to give universal satisfaction.” In those days the mayor and board were elected every year. Thankfully we are spared that inconvenience of political rhetoric on an annual basis. Nonetheless, William Carr Lane was reelected for six terms.
He and the board were never able to resolve the problem of the hogs running wild in the streets (the French never did like the idea of fencing in their animals), but they did get a good start on the port facilities, the basic layout and naming of the streets, and minor health care systems.
The “tree” streets (Poplar, Chestnut, etc.) of St. Louis are named the same as and in the same order as the streets of Philadelphia—Lane was from Pennsylvania as were several of the early American aldermen.
In 1837, the former mayor was named president of the Board of Inspectors when the public schools of St. Louis finally opened in 1838.
In the late 1840s, he was appointed the first governor of New Mexico territory.
After his stint in the southwest, he returned to St. Louis, dying here in 1863.
He was really quite a leader and very articulate.
His speeches have been among the best evidence for the real condition of St. Louis during his life time. Numerous historians quote his words when they attempt to give the picture of what urban frontier life was really about along the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers.
From his documents come some of the best accounts of the efforts needed to make this outpost of the furtrade and the mining business into a real city.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1985.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1985_04.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
