Historical February 1987 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
It was St. Valentine’s Day when a boat with thirty men landed on the western shore of the Mississippi at the first large stone bluff south of the mouth of the Missouri. Pierre Laclede, the leader of the group, was not there on that day.
He had come earlier to select the spot, but had decided to talk French settlers on the eastern shore into joining his trading post settlement rather than be subject to the British.
But that is to get ahead of the story. Laclede, a partner with Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, left New Orleans on August 3,1763. Governor Kerlerec, the last French governor of Louisiana, had given the firm of Maxent, Laclede & Company a license to trade with the Indians at the mouth of the Missouri.
This privilege was confirmed by the French commissioner at New Orleans who succeeded Kerlerec, D’Abbadie, who took command before Laclede sailed upriver.
It was nearly three months for the trip to Ste. Genevieve. Laclede found the settlement too small when he arrived toward the end of October, so he wintered at Fort Chartres, arriving there on November 3, 1763.
After settling in, Laclede explored the entire western shore of the Mississippi from just above the mouth of the Missouri down to Ste. Genevieve.
In December, he settled on a spot and began to draw up a plan for the distribution of land in a grid pattern along shore in addition to strips of farmland west of the trading post for growing crops. That year, 1763, saw the French lose the Seven Year’s War to the British.
The French were forced to surrender all their remaining New World lands. Louisiana was ceded to the Spanish in order to keep the British from gaining the entire continent.
Most of the French settlements east of the Mississippi, therefore, were technically British after the war. Laclede knew he could bring most of the French in these places to St. Louis to escape British hegemony.
On Tuesday, February 14,1764, the first boat of Frenchmen in Laclede’s party landed at the bluff where the trading post, St. Louis, was to be built. Auguste Chouteau, son of Laclede’s paramour, Madame Chouteau, was present at the landing and is sometimes referred to as the leader since Laclede was busy marketing his new settlement to the anglophobic French in Illinois country east of the Mississippi.
The following day, Wednesday, February 15, preparation of the trading post began. Trees were blazed, cut, and prepared for use in the construction of buildings. Streets were laid out.
It is this day which is usually given as the founding day of St. Louis.
The locality of St. Louis was rather picturesque. Situated on a limestone bluff above flood level, the trading post and its buildings were near easily navigated streams. Deer, buffalo, and other game were abundant.
The weather was temperate and seasonal.
The soil was productive, making farming successful.
In two years, it will be 225 years since Laclede’s men landed on St. Valentine’s day and began to build St. Louis on February 15, 1764. Founder’s Day is not a major celebration at this time, but perhaps it is not a fruitless suggestion to urge such an annual event during the commercially slow time of the year The Riverfront Marketing Committee is discussing it, and perhaps between now and the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase in 2003, Founder’s Day can grow into an annual festival.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1987.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Historical founding account reproduced as Ray Breun’s 1987 interpretation; exact landing chronology and colonial claims not independently reverified for this archival import.
Original source: SD_Times1987_02.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
