St. Louis

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ST. LOUIS

St. Louis, known as the Gateway city, is located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Its location made it the natural center of economic and political activity for the region as well as the logical starting point for the western expansion of the United States beyond the Mississippi. St. Louis served as the economic and political center of Spanish Upper Louisiana, the starting point for Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery, and the economic and social center of what would become the state of Missouri.

Settled in 1764 by Pierre Laclède, St. Louis was named for King Louis XV of France and his patron saint, Louis IX. Laclède was unaware that France had transferred its claims to the part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain in 1762. Nevertheless, the region remained under French control until the Spanish governor arrived in 1766, after the French and Indian War (1754–1763). St. Louis then served as the seat of government for Spanish Upper Louisiana until the transfer to the United States in 1804.

The city was also the logical economic center for the fur and pelt trades up both rivers, but especially up the Missouri and its drainage. In fact, city residents were so caught up in trading with the Indians that they took little interest in farming. There were some efforts at agriculture and cash crops in the region, but St. Louis was primarily a commercial city.

In May 1780 the city was the site of one of the battles of the American Revolution. A small British force, along with a few Canadians and Native American allies, assaulted Fort San Carlos. The British were repelled, but the area was on guard for some time after. The conclusion of the American Revolution brought Spain a new, unwanted neighbor, the Americans. The Spanish sought to limit the threat of the Americans to their North American possession. In 1789 the solution was to allow the migration of non-Spaniards into the region on the condition they become Spanish citizens. This offer played a role in the shift of the ethnic makeup of the region away from French and to American, so that by the time of the Louisiana Purchase there was a significant American population already in the region. The city's population growth, not fast by modern standards, was nevertheless steady during the Spanish era, growing to approximately one thousand by 1800.

In 1800 colonial Louisiana was "returned" to the French by the Second Treaty of St. Ildefonso; but France never took effective control of St. Louis or Upper Louisiana. In 1803 France sold Louisiana to the United States. As quoted by William Foley in The Genesis of Missouri, U.S. Army captain Amos Stoddard described St. Louis as containing "upwards of 200 houses, mostly very large, and built of stone; it is elevated and healthy, and the people are rich and hospitable. They live in a style equal to those in the large sea-port towns, and I find no want of education among them" (p. 85).

In 1804 St. Louis served as the starting point for Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery. In 1803–1804 the corps' winter camp was outside of the city in Illinois, but both leaders spent significant time in St. Louis preparing for the trip. In 1806 it served as the finishing point of the expedition. Between 1807 and 1820 both Meriwether Lewis (1807–1809) and William Clark (1813–20) would serve the region as territorial governor.

St. Louis remained central to the new district of Louisiana, which was put under the Territory of Indiana in 1804. When Louisiana became a state in 1812, the region in which St. Louis lies was renamed the territory of Missouri. St. Louis's growth accelerated under the new U.S. government as the city's location continued to make it a trade center for the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers. In 1810 the city had an estimated population of 1,400, out of an approximate regional population of 20,000, and by 1830 the city's population had grown to approximately 5,000. The county's population, including slaves, grew from 5,677 in 1810 to 10,049 in 1820 to over 14,125 in 1830. Slaves made up 18 percent of the population of St. Louis in 1820 and had grown to about 20 percent by 1830. In 1820 St. Louis County was second, behind Howard County in both total population and slaves; by 1830 it was first. The free black population of St. Louis County made up about 2 percent in 1820 but was down to 1.5 percent in 1830.

St. Louis County would remain a significant commercial, cultural and political center throughout the territorial and early statehood period. The United States government's 1810 "Statement on Manufactures" showed the county as the heart of the Louisiana Territory's limited manufacturing capacity (with the notable exceptions of blacksmiths, shoemakers, and distilleries). As the West was opened, commerce accelerated in St. Louis, and the city became an important center for provisioning and preparing those heading out to the frontier. The arrival of the steamboat contributed to this activity. According to the 1820 census, over 45 percent of the people reported as being involved in commerce in the state of Missouri, as well as over 30 percent of those in manufacturing, lived in St. Louis County. The year 1818 saw the arrival of Louis William Valentine DuBourg, bishop of Louisiana and Floridas, making St. Louis a Catholic See city, as well as the founding of what became St. Louis University, the oldest university west of the Mississippi. When the Diocese of St. Louis was created in 1826 Joseph Rosati became its first bishop.

William Clark lost his 1820 bid to become the first governor of the State of Missouri to Alexander McNair as Missouri entered the Union as a slave state in 1821. The capital moved first to St. Charles and eventually to Jefferson City, but St. Louis continued as an important center of commerce and manufacturing in the state. Among the other significant figures with St. Louis connections were Thomas Hart Benton and Auguste and Pierre Chouteau. In 1823 the city of St. Louis changed its form of government, moving from a board of trustees to an elected mayor.

bibliography

Foley, William E. The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989.

Hodge, Frederick. Beyond the Frontier: A History of St. Louis to 1821. Tucson, Ariz.: The Patrice Press, 2004.

Houck, Louis. A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements until the Admission of the State into the Union. 3 vols. 1908. New York: Arno Press, 1971.

Primm, James Neal. Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, distributed by the University of Missouri Press, 1998.

Schroeder, Walter. "Populating Missouri, 1804–1821." Missouri Historical Review 97, no. 4 (2003): 263–294.

Stevens, Walter B. St. Louis, the Fourth City, 1764–1911. St. Louis, Mo.: S. J. Clarke, 1911.

Donald E. Heidenreich Jr.

Encyclopedia of the New American Nation