On the other side of the Mississippi, three miles south of St. Louis, in the little French village of Cahokia, January 19th, 1813, John J. Anderson, the well-known banker of St. Louis, was born.

During the war of 1812, his father, Reuben Anderson, was connected with the army, and emigrated from the state of Delaware when some military companies were ordered West. He had charge of the military stores when the troops were stationed at Bellefontaine, and in the change of location incident to military life, he had to move from station to station until his connection with the army was severed. He had married Miss Margaret Byron, daughter of Captain Byron, of the United States army, and the eldest child of the marriage was the subject of this memoir.

The first recollections of John Anderson are associated with the French hamlet of Cahokia, surrounded by the thick forest trees in which it then nestled, and which concealed it almost totally from view, until the visitor entered upon the open space which surrounded the romantic village. He remained there until Belleville was made the capital of the county, when his father removed from Cahokia to the new seat of government, and was soon after appointed sheriff, which responsible public office he held for eight years - or until his death, which took place in 1822. By his death the family was left in rather straitened circumstances, and young John J. Anderson, who was then attending school, soon after was removed from the school-house, at the early age of thirteen. It was necessary that he should earn his own livelihood, and, entering thus early upon the eddying currents of life, he came to St. Louis July 2d, 1827.

The first business experience of John J. Anderson was in the store of Richard Ropier, where he was employed first as a boy, but being of an ambitious and diligent nature, as he advanced in years, he was gradually promoted, until he became the confidential clerk of the proprietor, and in 1834 became a partner in the concern, the firm then becoming Ropier & Anderson. Two years afterward, Mr. Ropier retired, and the junior partner purchased the whole business, which he conducted upon a most extensive scale, and for many years in the most profitable manner.

Commercial life is ever precarious, and subject to uncertainties and fluctuations, which the most observing and cautious cannot at all times control. In the year 1842, the pecuniary pressure was so great that many of the strongest firms in the country were forced to submit to the stringency of the times, and could not meet their financial contracts. John J. Anderson was of this number. He failed; but all of his debts, when fortune again smiled upon him, he cancelled in an honorable manner.

With all his worldly wealth swept away, and having debts hanging over him, and feeling keenly the torture of the rankling shafts of adversity, the spirit of John J. Anderson was not subdued, but was nerved to greater efforts. He conducted mining and merchandising for a short time, and was then appointed clerk of the City Council in the spring of 1843.

About this time, Joseph S. Morrison, of Pennsylvania, came to St. Louis, and, becoming acquainted with Mr. Anderson, had so much confidence in his business capacity, that he offered to take him as partner in the banking business, which offer being accepted, the new banking-house went into operation under the title of John J. Anderson & Co., which continued until 1849, when Mr. Morrison retired.

Every one who has been a resident of St. Louis for a little more than a score of years, remembers the great fire of 1849, and the terrible visitation of the Asiatic cholera. The general conflagration in the eastern part of the city burnt the banking-house of Mr. Anderson to the ground, but quickly he commenced building the structure in which he is at present located, at the corner of Main and Olive streets, and then took Reuben Anderson, his brother, into partnership.

Mr. Anderson has taken an active part in the government of St. Louis, and was a member of the Common Council for four years. He took an active part in all measures tending to the improvement of the harbor, and ably seconded the effective efforts of the Hon. Luther M. Kennett, to whom St. Louis owes so much for having removed the obstructions of the harbor. He was the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, when one million of dollars was appropriated to the Ohio and Mississippi and Pacific Railroads - half a million each. He was two years director in the Pacific Railroad, was a director in the Iron Mountain Railroad, and is now a director in the North Missouri Railroad. He procured for the Bank of St. Louis its charter, subscribed liberally to its stock, and is now its efficient president.

So popular was John J. Anderson from his official service in the City Council, that he has been since frequently importuned by his friends to become a candidate for other high and responsible public offices, but has always declined. The new marble building which he has erected is a monument of his liberal enterprise. The marble was brought from the quarries of Vermont, and it was the first entire marble building that was erected in St. Louis. Its cost exceeded $80,000. He is one of the ten gentlemen that have undertaken the building of the Southern Hotel, of this city, which will be one of the palatial structures of the Union - costing $600,000.

On April 23d, 1835, Mr. Anderson was married to Miss Theresa Billon, daughter of Charles L. Billon, of Philadelphia. He has worked out a destiny of which anyone might be proud; and whatever of wealth, public confidence, and social position be has achieved, he owes to the self reliant and energetic elements which make up his character.

John J. Anderson, pioneer merchant and banker, was born January 19, 1813, in Cahokia, Illinois, son of Reuben Anderson, a native of Delaware, and a soldier in the War of 1812. Mr. Anderson was reared and educated at Belleville, Illinois, and then came to St. Louis, where he was trained to commercial pursuits. In the early years of his business career he was a successful merchant in that city, but in 1842 he met with financial losses which swept away his accumulations and made it necessary for him to begin life anew. After that he became associated with Joseph S. Morrison, of Pennsylvania, in the banking business, was long head of the hause of John J. Anderson & Co., and occupied a prominent position among old-time bankers. He was also identified with the building of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, the Pacific Railroad, the Iron Mountain Railroad and the North Missouri Railroad. He married in I835, Miss Theresa Billon, daughter of Charles L. Billon, of Philadelphia.

Moses Austin, the first projector of American colonization in Texas, was born in Durham, Conn. In early manhood he became connected with lead mining and the manufacture of sheet lead in Wythe County, Virginia. There his children were born. Failing in business, in 1799 he removed to the then Spanish territory of Missouri, and received a grant of land in the lead region covering the present town of Potosí, where he established works for the manufacture of sheet lead. He prospered, established a fine home, the seat of hospitality, and ever enjoyed the respect of the surrounding country. His probity and integrity were recognized by all, as well as his enterprise and intelligence, but owing to changes in the mining laws and a financial crisis, he again suffered financial reverses about the year 1818.

After paying his debts he had something left, however, and having lived under Spanish rule from 1799 to 1804, and believing the Mexican revolution against Spain was substantially at an end, he conceived the idea of founding an American colony in the wilds of Texas. For this purpose, late in 1820, he visited, at considerable hazard, San Antonio de Bexar, and there made application, through the local governor, endorsed by the local authorities, to the proper authorities of the interior, for n grant of land upon which to establish a colony. This, thus endorsed, was forwarded to the intendant-general at Monterey, by whom the right was conceded Jan. 21, 1821. Pending its consideration and confident of success, Mr. Austin returned to Missouri to prepare for carrying out the enterprise. The trip through the wilderness to Natchitoches and thence by river steamers to Missouri was long, the streams swollen, and the weather inclement. He contracted disease and reached home only to die, leaving an injunction that his son, Stephen F., should assume his place. The name of Moses Austin must ever stand as the pioneer in planting civilization in the Texan wilds. The date of his death was June 10, 1821.

Madame Elizabeth Ortes was born September 27th, 1764, at Vincennes, a French military post of great importance on the Wabash. To have been in Indiana at that early date, was to have been in a wilderness, and a vast region on both sides of the Mississippi went by the name of Illinois. Her mother's name was Marguerite Dutremble, and that of her father Antoine Barada, who, previous to his marriage, was a French soldier, and served for some years in the French army, then commanded by Louis St. Ange de Bellerive. When Vincennes had been given up to the English, the very year after her birth, her parents still remained at the post; but seeing, day by day, the old customs gradually dying away, which, from long use, had become necessary to their existence; and feeling, also, that dislike to the English natural to the French, they removed to St. Louis in 1768. Madame Ortes was then four years of age, and St. Louis was founded seven months before her birth.

At the age of four years, the memory had commenced to retain upon its delicate tablet impressions of external objects, and Madame Ortes distinctly recollects her removal from Fort Vincennes to St. Louis, and knows well the time when the little log church was built on Second street, near Market, on the same square where the cathedral now stands. The church was built by Jean B. Ortes, who became her future husband. She distinctly recollects the time when the French flag was lowered, and the town was delivered to the Spaniards by Louis St. Ange do Bellerive, who was then commandant. She well remembers the appearance of that distinguished general of the French, and the time when he died, at the house of Madame Chouteau, situated on the square opposite the Missouri Republican office. She distinctly remembers Pierre Laclede Liguest, the founder of the city, and was thirteen years of age when he died, on the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Arkansas.

At fourteen years of age, Mademoiselle Elizabeth Barada was married to Jean B. Ortes, one of the companions of Liguest, who was a native of the same place, the county of Bion, on the borders of France; and their birth-spot was in the shadow of the towering Pyrenees. Both emigrated to America at one time, and they were together when the site of St. Louis was chosen and the trees marked where the erection of the buildings was to be commenced. He was a carpenter and cabinet-maker, and died in 1813, at the age of seventy-five years.

Madame Ortes is now nearly ninety-six years of age, and has lived ninety-two years in St. Louis. She has seen all the different phases of the Mound City, from 1768 to the present time. She was a little girl during the first French domination, and saw Piernas, the first Spanish governor, when he arrived in the town. She had grown to womanhood when the town was attacked by the savages, in 1780. She was intimate with the families of the different Spanish commandants, and was in the fortieth year of her age when the city was again delivered to the commissioner of the French, and on the following day was consigned to a representative of the United States, and the star-spangled banner floated from the battlements. She has witnessed all the changes St. Louis has undergone during the almost century of its existence. She has seen the little log cabins of one story, as they grew tottering by the decaying fingers of Time, supplanted by palatial buildings. She has seen the gay, convivial, and happy inhabitants that once formed the population, go, one by one, to their "narrow house;" and a new people, with different tastes, and animated by mercenary motives, are living and breathing around her. Every thing has become more attractive to the eye — shows the march of intellect and civilization; but the atmosphere created by sympathetic influence has been chilled, and the warm sunshine of happiness, which radiated the days of the former inhabitants, is now wanting.

Time has dealt gently with Madame Ortes. Though ninety-six years of age, her health is good, spirits buoyant, and her mind lucid and active. Her memory is most astonishing, and she loves to talk of the time that has passed, of the persons who were the companions of her childhood, and with whom she associated in the spring and summer of her life. She was always of a happy nature, lived a retired life, never was troubled by worldly wants, and, to use her own graphic expression, "her cellar was always full." To these salutary causes is to be attributed the health and the length of life she has enjoyed. We are happy to relate that she has resided, since the death of her husband, in the house of Mr. Joseph Philibert, her son-in-law, having at her command all worldly comforts. She is surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and in their society almost forgets the infirmities and regrets of age, and lives a life of comparative happiness.

Louis Barada was born in St. Louis, and settled with his parents in St. Charles about the year 1800, where he resided during the rest of his life. He died in March 1852, and his wife died in February 1873.

Mr. Barada followed various occupations, but devoted most of his time to the butchering business and milling. He assisted in the building of the famous old stone flouring mill, in which at one time owned an interest. He also helped to build the old stone Catholic church, and was one of its trustees for many years, serving in that capacity until his death.

He married Ellen Gagnon by whom he had eleven children: Louis, Jr., Danaciene, Louise, Ann N., Mary, Pierre, Benoist, Ellen, John B., Lucille and Eaulie. Louis, Jr., Danaciene, Benoist and Eulalie died in childhood and Pierre died at the age of ten years. Louise married David Knott, who died in St. Louis in 1848. His widow still resides in that city. Ann N. married Antoine LeFaivre, who died in 1883; she is still living Mary married Charles Cornoyer, who died in St. Louis in 1871, and his widow still resides there. Ellen was married twice; first to John LeFaivre, who died two years afterwards and she subsequently married Joseph Widen, who died from injuries received from the explosion of the steamer George A. Wolf. His widow lives in St. Louis. John B. was the clerk on the steamer Robert, and died in St. Louis of Yellow fever, contracted in New Orleans. Lucille married Lucien F. LaCroix, and died in St. Louis in 1863. Mr. LaCroix married again, and is living in Helena, Montana, publishing the Daily Independent.

Joshua Barton was born in Tennessee, son of Rev. Isaac Barton and brother of David Barton, one of the first United States Senators elected from Missouri. He came west soon after his elder brother settled in St. Louis, and read law here under the preceptor ship of Rufus Easton. After his admission to the bar he was associated with Honorable Edward Bates in practice until the State Government of Missouri was organized, when he was made Secretary of State. This office he resigned to accept the appointment of United States district attorney for Missouri, a position which he held until his tragic death, which occurred on the 28th of June, 1823. On that date he was killed in a duel fought with Thomas C. Rector on Bloody Island.

Note: Most all other soures indicate his death occurred on 30 Jun 1823.

Nicholas Beaugenou, Sr., with his family, came over from Fort Chartres, where they had lived for a number of years, with the first comers, accompanied by Mrs. Beaugenou's two brothers, Charles and Francis Henrion, both single men.

Nicholas Beaugenou, Sr., born in Canada, died in St. Louis, in 1770. Mrs. Beaugenou, née, Henrion, born in Canada, died in St. Louis Sept.,1769. Their children, born in Canada and Fort Chartres, were then all minors except the oldest of them, Nicholas, Jr.

1. Nicholas Jr. (Fifi), born in Canada in 1741, married Catherine Gravelle in 1775; she died in St. Louis, 1795, and he in 1826, aged eighty-five years.
2. Charles.
3. Maria Josepha, born 1748, married Toussaint Hunaut in 1766, at eighteen (the first marriage recorded in the archives); she died in 1799.
4. Helen, born in 1751, married to Jamea Brunel, La Sabloniere, in 1771, at twenty years.
5. Therese, first married to Joachin D’eau, from Canada, in 1777, and secondly to Jacques Noise in 1781; she died h Cahokia in 183-
6. Agnes Frances, to Joseph Hugé, from France, in 1776, died in 1797.
7. Elizabeth to Alexis Loise, 1773.

Note: Name was also spelled Beaugenoux.

Residence of Nicholas Beaugenou at southwest corner of Almond and Main streets

Nicholas Beaugenou, Jr., called Fifi, was born in Canada, 1741, came with his father, first to Fort Chartres and then to St. Louis in 1764.

He married here Catharine Gravelle in 1775, who died in 1795; they raised three children.

1. Julie, born 17776, married to Francois Valois, February 4, 1794, at eighteen.
2. Nicholas
3. Vital

This second Nicholas Beaugenou lived here and about from the origin of St. Louis, 1764, to his death at St. Ferdinand in 1826, a period of over sixty years; he lived in various parts of the village and surrounds, was much on horseback, made and traded off several farms. Fee Fee creek in our county, received its cognomen from his juvenile nick-name of Fifi. He died in St. Ferdinand in 1826, aged eighty-five years.

Another of the influential families of the old village was the St. Gems, or as they are frequently known St. Gem Beauvais a shortening of St. Gem de Beauvais. Some members of the family finally discontinued the use of St. Gem in their name and became known as Beauvais. The founder of the family in this country was Jean Baptiste, who came to Kaskaskia about 1720 and was married in 1725 to Louise LaCrois at Fort Chartres. Their family consisted of five sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, Jean Baptiste, Jr., and Vital St. Gem, or as he was often called, Vital Beauvais, removed from Kaskaskia when that place was captured by Clark, to Ste. Genevieve. The former of the two brothers built what was perhaps the first grist mill west of the Mississippi. The house in which he lived for many years is still standing in Ste. Genevieve. He was an office holder for a number of years being one of the first judges of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions remaining in office until his death. He was the father of six sons, Raphael, Joseph M. D., Bartholomew, Vital, John B. and August.

Vital St. Gem, the brother of Jean Baptiste, lived for a time at the Saline but came to Ste. Genevieve in 1791, the house in which he lived until his death was afterward occupied by Mrs. Menard and is still standing. He died in 1816.

Was born in Albany, New York, of an old Knickerbocker family, about the year 179-. He came to St. Lewis in 1819, a young lawyer, and was associated for a brief period with Josiah Spalding as Lawyers and Land Agents.

He died Sept. 4, 1821, a young unmarried man, after a brief residence in the place of less than two years.

See also Freemasonry in Early St. Louis

Doct. Lewis C. Beck, a younger brother of Abraham Beck, came here with him, from Albany, New York, in the year 1819, he remained in the State about a couple of years, principally occupied in perambulating the different sections of the Sate, gathering the matter for a Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri, he was then engaged in preparing for publication, which having accomplished, added to the death of his brother in 1821, he returned to Albany, and produced his book in the year 1823.

He was yet living in 1848, as in that year in New York he produced a small volume, entitled, “Botany of the United States, north of Virginia.”

Louis A. Benoist is one of the few citizens of St. Louis who can boast of having first seen the light in its precincts. He was born in St. Louis August 13, 1803. His father, Francois M. Benoist, was a native of Montreal, Canada, and his mother, who is still living, is daughter of Charles Sanguinette, who came to St. Louis at the early day when the French surrendered Fort de Chartres to the English, according to the terms of the treaty of 1763.* Francois M. Benoist, according to the customs of most of the early French, was a trader with the Indians, and removed from Canada to St. Louis in 1790, so as to carry on the peltry trade with the numerous tribes who inhabited the banks of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Louis a Benoist received from his father all the opportunities of education which the new settlement at that time afforded. He went to school to Judge Tompkins, one of the territorial judges, who kept for a short period a school, and at the age of fourteen went to St. Thomas College, Kentucky, kept by a Dominican priest, where he remained for two years, and returning to St. Louis, he commenced reading medicine under the instruction of Dr. Todson. After a trial of two years, medicine not being agreeable to his taste, he commenced to study law in the office of Horatio Cozens.

There was a good deal of conveyancing done at that period in St. Louis, and Louis A. Benoist got employment in the office of Pierre Provenchére, a conveyancer of some note, which furnished him the means of continuing his legal studies. In 1823, he went to Europe to look after an estate belonging to his parents, and fully accomplished his object; but on his return voyage, was wrecked in the Bay of Biscay. After some suffering and much detention, he finally reached St. Louis, when he commenced to buy and sell real estate, loan money, etc. He pursed this business for a short time, and in 1832 opened an exchange office, in which, in connection with the banking business, he vended lottery tickets, at that time a favorite mode with all classes of trying the fitful favors of fortune. This was the first banking-house established in St. Louis, and that very spot where he first opened, though in a different building, Mr. Benoist still carries on the banking business.

In 1838, the business of Mr. Benoist had increased to such an extent, that he deemed it practicable to establish a branch house in New Orelans, which he did under the firm of Benoist & Hackny, and which is the large banking-house now known in the Crescent city as Benoist, Shaw & Co. In 1842, there was a tight pressure in the money-market, and the banking-houses in St. Louis was forced to suspend, though in one month after, its door were thrown open, and ten per cent. Was paid on liabilities. The branch of New Orleans did not suspend.

Mr. Benoist may truly be said to be one of the favorite sons of fortune. The moment he commenced the great battle of his life his course has been onward. Whatever he has touched has prospered, and he is now numbered among the wealthy citizens of St. Louis.

During the great panic of 1857, the banking-house of Benoist & Company outrode the storm, which compelled almost every private banker and corporate banking institution in the Union to succumb for a while to the force of circumstances. It did not suspend, nor did the one in New Orleans.

Mr. Benoist, as has been seen, was not born to affluence, but began from an humble commencement, and owes alone to his efforts and industry his present position and fortune. What he has done can be done again if the same method be used for its accomplishment. Any young man who will copy his perseverance, economy, and industry, and like him be sedulous in preserving his reputation and credit, must attain affluence and reach a respectable position. Who properly sows in spring must reap a harvest, and who in youth commences life with the practice of temperance, industry, and economy, must gather bountifully of the fruit they naturally produce.

Mr. Benoist has been three times married, and has had seventeen children, ten of whom are living. His first wife was Miss Barton, of Kaskaskia; his second, Miss Hackney, of Pennsylvania; and the third, Miss Sarah E. Wilson, daughter of John Wilson, of New Jersey. In 1851, he took with him on a European tour his eldest son, Sanguinette H. Benoist. It was during the World’s Fair at London, when the English capital was thronged with strangers. Born in St. Louis, Mr. Benoist has witnessed all the wonderful changes in his native city since his boyhood. His youth, his manhood, all of his business relations, have been identified with St. Louis - he is one of the old landmarks, and no one better than he is known and appreciated.

Note: Louis A. Benoist died 16 Jan 1867 and was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery | Headstone Photo

Benoist, Louis A., pioneer banker and financier, was born August 13, 1803, in St. Louis, then a French village under Spanish domination and about to become a possession of the United States. He was the son of Francois Marie Benoist, and his mother was a daughter of Charles Sanguinet, both numbered among the men who laid the foundations of the present metropolis of the Southwest. Both of these ancestors came of noted families.

Francois Marie Benoist was the only son of Jacques Louis Benoist, the eldest son of Antoine Gabriel Francois Benoist, Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, which honor he received from Louis XV of France in recognition of his distinguished services in the French armies in Canada from 1735 to 1760. The Benoists were an old and illustrious French family, descending directly from Guillaume Benoist, chamberlain of Charles VII of France. Francois Marie, the father of the subject of the present notice, was born in Montreal, Canada; and on his maternal side was the great-grandson of Lemoynede Sainte Helene, the second of the famous sons of the renowned Charles Lemoyne and brother of De Bienville, the founder of New Orleans, and of D'Iberville, the first to enter the mouth of the Mississippi River, and one of the greatest captains of his day. Francois Marie received his education at Laval University in Quebec, and, while yet a young man, came to St. Louis.

Like many of his contemporaries, he became a fur trader, prospered in that business, and was able to give his family all the social and educational advantages which our country afforded at that time.

Louis A. Benoist obtained his early education under private tutorship and was at one time a pupil of Judge Tompkins, later one of the judges of the Territorial Court of Missouri. Afterward he was sent to an educational institution in Kentucky, which was known as St Thomas' College, and was under the charge of Dominican priests. After remaining there three years, he returned to St. Louis and began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. Trudeau, one of the pioneer physicians of the city. He devoted two years to the study of medicine, rather for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the science than with the intention of becoming a medical practitioner. At the end of this two years, he took up the study of law in the office of Horatio Cozzens, and in the course of time was duly licensed to practice that profession. He then formed a-partnership with Pierre Provenchére, a well known lawyer and conveyancer of that period, which lasted until he was called upon by his father to make a trip to France, for the purpose of settling up his grandfather's estate. His trip abroad was made in a sailing vessel and the voyage required six weeks. Six months thereafter were devoted to the business which he had been sent to France to take charge of, and at the end of that time he set sail for America, to meet with a thrilling and perilous experience on the way. While in that arm of the Atlantic Ocean which is west of France and north of Spain, the Bay of Biscay, noted for its storms, die vessel upon which he had taken passage was wrecked, and he had a narrow escape from death as a result of that catastrophe. It was months before he could get passage on another vessel bound for America, but he finally reached this country and in due time his home in St. Louis. The bent of his mind was toward the conduct of financial affairs rather than the practice of law, and after his return to St. Louis he abandoned his profession and engaged in the brokerage and real estate business. He became the representative of numerous nonresident capitalists and money-lenders, and soon built up an extensive money-loaning business.

In 1832 he engaged regularly in the banking business, and in 1838 his financial operations had developed to such an extent that he established a branch banking house in New Orleans, which was conducted, first under the name of Benoist & Hackney, and later under the name of Benoist, Shaw & Co. Both the parent house and the New Orleans branch became known as leading financial institutions of the Southwest, and did a large business until 1842, when the St. Louis house was compelled temporarily to suspend, as a result of the financial panic which had swept over the country in the years immediately preceding that date. Very soon, however, Mr. Benoist's financial genius enabled him to triumph over his embarrassments and he opened the doors of his tank, paid all depositors what was due them, with ten per cent interest on the same for the time during which their funds had been tied up, and resumed his banking operations with a stronger hold than ever upon public confidence and esteem. It 'may truly be said of him that he was not only one of the great Western financiers of his day and generation but was a remarkably progressive man in every respect. During the financial panic of 1857, when banking houses were failing all over the United States, his bank weathered the storm, its resources unquestioned, his honor and fidelity to the trust reposed in him being regarded by the public as a guarantee of the stability of the institution of which he was the head.

He died in 1867, while temporarily sojourning in Cuba, leaving an estate valued at more than five millions of dollars. He was a man of numerous and varied accomplishments, well read in law, medicine, and general literature, and as a banker and financier he had few equals in St. Louis or in any part of the Southwest.

Note: Louis A. Benoist died 16 Jan 1867 and was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery | Headstone Photo

The most distinguished statesman accredited to Missouri, was born March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, North Carolina, and died in Washington D.C., April 10, 1858. His father was Colonel Jesse Benton, a lawyer, of North Carolina, and his mother was Ann (Gooch) Benton, and came of the Gooch family of Virginia. Half orphaned by the death of his father when he was eight years of age, Thomas H. Benton grew up under the care of his mother, and in his early youth had few opportunities for study. The extent of his academic training appears ro have been attendance for a time at the grammar school and a short course of study at the University of North Carolina. He left the last-named institution remove with his mother's family to Tennessee, where they occupied a large tract of land, which had been acquired by his father, and founded what became known as "The Widow Benton's Settlement." Later this place took the name of Bentontown, and is so called at the present time. Benton studied law with St. George Tucker, land in 1811 was admitted to the bar under the patronage of Andrew Jackson, at that time a judge of the Supreme Court and his warm friend. Elected to the Legislature of Tennessee, he obtained the passage of a law for the reform of the judicial system of the State, land another by which the right of trial by jury was given to slaves. In the War of 1812 he was for a time Jackson's aid-decamp, and also raised a regiment of volunteers. Later, owing to a quarrel, in which his brother, Jesse, and William Carroll, afterward General Carroll, became involved, he and his former friend, General Jackson, became bitter enemies. On the 4th of September, 1813, the Benton brothers and General Jackson had an encounter in Nashville, in which knives and pistols were freely used, and Jackson received a ball in his left shoulder, while Jesse Benton received severe dirk wounds.

In 1813 Benton was appointed a Lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army, and set out to serve in Canada, but peace being declared soon afterward, he returned and resigned his commission. In 1815 he came to St. Louis, and began the practice of law here. About the same time he established a newspaper, "The Missouri Inquirer," and through this journal he vigorously advocated the admission of Missouri as a State. A tragic incident of the early years of his residence in St. Louis was his duel with Charles Lucas, fought on Bloody Island, in 1817, which resulted in the death of Lucas. Notwithstanding this unfortunate affair, and the extent to which it prejudiced him in the public mind, he became a recognized leader in the councils of the young commonwealth of Missouri, and when the State governm1ent was formed he was elected, at the end of a prolonged and bitter contest, one of the first United States Senators from this State. Possessed of a commanding intellect, an assiduous student, resolute, temperate, industrious, and endowed with a memory whose tenacity was marvelous, he soon placed himself among the leaders in the national council. One of his earliest efforts was to secure a reform in the disposition of the government lands to settlers. A pioneer himself, he sympathized with the demands of the pioneer, and in 1824, 1826 and 1828 advocated new land laws. He demanded (1) a pre-emptive right for all actual settlers; (2) a periodic reduction according to the time the land had been in the market, so as to make the prices correspond to the quality; (3) the donation of homesteads to impoverished, but industrious persons who would cultivate the land for a given period of years. He presented a bill embracing these features, and renewed it every year, until it took hold upon the public mind, and was at length substantially embodied in one of President Jackson's messages, which secured its final adoption. Becoming reconciled to General Jackson, he was one of the ablest and most loyal supporters of his administration, and gained great influence in the Democratic party. He was one of the earliest advocates of a railroad to the Pacific, and was prominent in directing explorations in the far West, in encouraging overland transit to the Pacific, and in working for the occupancy of the mouth of the Columbia. He also favored the opening up and protection of the trade with New Mexico; encouraged the establishment of military stations on the Missouri and throughout the interior, and urged the cultivation of amicable relations with the Indian tribes, and the fostering of the commerce of our inland seas. In the first annual message of President Jackson strong ground was taken against the United States Bank, when the depository of the national moneys, and subsequently, when he directed the withdrawal of the deposits and their removal to certain State banks, the result was disastrous to the business of the country. Colonel Benton took up the matter, addressed himself to a consideration of the whole question of finance, circulating medium and exchange, and urged the adoption of a gold and silver currency as the true remedy for the existing embarrassment. He made on this subject some of the most elaborate speeches of his life, which attracted attention throughout the United States and Europe, and the name of "Old Bullion" was given to him. His style of oratory at this period was unimpassioned and very deliberate, but overflowing with facts, figures, logical deduction and historical illustrations. In later life he was characterized by a peculiar exuberance of wit and raciness that increased with his years.

From 1841 until 1851, under Presidents Tyler, Polk and Taylor, he participated in the discussions that arose in regard to the Oregon boundary, the annexation of Texas and other important subjects. During the Mexican War his services and intimate acquaintance with the Spanish provinces of the South proved most useful to the government. At one time it was proposed by President Polk to confer upon him the title of lieutenant-general, with full commland of the army, in order that he might carry out his conceptions in person. Questions in regard to slavery were brought on by the acquisition of Mexican territory. These were adjusted by rbhe compromise acts of 1850, which were introduced by Clay; were opposed by Benton, and defeated as a whole, but passed separately. In the nullification struggle Benton was Calhoun’s leading Democratic opponent, and their opposition to each other developed into a life-long animosity. In 1847, in answer to the "Wilmot proviso," which excluded slavery from all territory subsequently acquired, Calhoun introduced resolutions that embodied his doctrine of State rights. Colonel Benton denounced Calhoun's resolutions as a "fire-brand." The resolutions never came to a vote, but they were sent to the Legislature of every slave state, were adopted by several of them, and were made the basis of after conflict and party organization. In his hostility to Benton, Calhoun sent the resolutions to Missouri, and confided them to certain Democrats in the Legislature whom he knew to be unfriendly to Benton's re-election to the Senate. By skillful management the resolutions were passed in both branches without Benton's knowledge, and a copy was sent to Washington. He promptly denounced them as not expressing the sense of the people, and containing disunion doctrines, designed to produce separation and disaster, and declared that he would appeal from the Legislature to the people. On the adjournment of Congress he returned to Missouri and canvassed every section of the State in a series of speeches famed for their bitterness of denunciation, strength of exposition and caustic wit. The result was the return of a Legislature, in 1849-50, with Benton men in the plurality, but composed of opposite wings, and he was defeated by a coalition between his Democratic opponents and the Whigs. At the close of his term he therefore retired from the Senate, after six successive elections and thirty years' continuous service. In 1852 he stood as a candidate for Congress, made a direct appeal to the people of his district, and was elected over all opposition. He gave his warm support to the administration of Franklin Pierce, but when the Calhoun party obtained the ascendency, he withdrew this support. The administration then turned on him and displaced from office all his friends throughout Missouri. Soon afterward the Kansas-Nebraska bill was brought up, and he delivered a memorable speech against it, which did much to excite the country against the act, but failed to defeat its passage. At the next election he was defeated for Congress, and retiring from active politics, he devoted two years to literary pursuits.

In 1856 he became a candidate for Governor of Missouri, but while his old friends rallied to his support, a third ticket, and the consequent division of political forces, lost him the election. In the presidential election of 1856 he supported Buchanan, in opposition to his son-in-law, Colonel Frémont, giving as a reason that Buchanan, if elected, would restore the principles of the Jackson administration, while he feared that the success of Frémont would engender sectional parties, fatal to the permanence of the Union. In 1854 he issued the first volume of his "Thirty Years' View" of the workings of the government, which presented a connected narrative of the time from Adams to Pierce, and dealt particularly with the secret political history of that period. The second and last volume appeared in 1856, and the work is known everywhere as one of the most important contributions to the political history of our country. In the closing years of his life he underrtook the task of abridging the debates of Congress, and this work, which was brought down to the conclusion of the great compromise debate of 1850, was published in fifteen volumes.

Colonel Benton married Elizabeth McDowell, daughter of Colonel James McDowell, of Virginia. She suffered a stroke of paralysis in 1844, and from that time he was never known to go to any place of festivity or amusement. She died in 1854, leaving four daughters, the second of whom married General John C. Frémont.

Additional Biographical Sketch of Hon. Thomas H. Benton

Headstone & Marker - Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis

Note: It is possible that Joshua may have met Thomas H. Benton during the War of 1812 and became friends. in 1839, Benton formally recommended Joshua to the Indian Office for the appointment to the St. Louis superintendency. Joshua also participated in the 1839-1840 Democrat campaign in support of Benton; and when Joshua drew up his Last Will & Testament on 18 Nov 1842, he left the $3,800 note Benton owed him to be held in trust for Benton's daughter Susan until she became of suitable age.

The second son of Jean David Billon and Marguerite Robert, was born in the Town of Locle, Canton of Neufchatel and Valangin, Switzerland, on January 10, 1766. His ancestor's were French Huguenots, that had left France at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis 14th.

In 1787, at the age of twenty-one years, having acquired the profession of a Watch-maker, he came to Paris, where he remained nearly four years, during which he witnessed those exciting occurrences, which preceded the breaking out of the French Revolution, and the destruction of the ancient monarchy. *

In September, 1790, Mr. Billon crossed over to England, with the passport of the King Louis 16th (now in my possession), and resided during the next five years in London. In 1795 he came to the United States and established himself in Philadelphia, the then Capital, carrying out his original intention on leaving his native land of becoming an American citizen.

On May 12, 1797, he was married at the Trinity Catholic Church in that City, to Miss Jeanne Charlotte, daughter of Pierre Hubert Stollenwerk, born in Cape Francois, Island of St. Domingo, Sept. 17, 1781, her parents being of old French families, who had emigrated to that Island from Paris about the year 1765.

Charles Billon, Sr., continued in business with varied success, in Philadelphia, for nearly twenty-four years. In 1818, with his wife and numerous family of eight children (having lost four others), he removed to St. Louis, where he resided four years, until his death Sept. 8, 1822, at the age of 56 years and 8 months.

His widow, after having survived her husband the almost unparalleled period of nearly 58 years, died April 12, 1880, at the very advanced ago of nearly ninety-nine years.

Their children, all born in Philadelphia, were:
Frederic Louis, born April 23, 1801, married Eulalie L. Generelly, May 20, 1829. Had twelve children.
Charles P., born June 20, 1803, married Frances, daughter of Col. Thos. F. Riddick, he died Jan'y 19, 1863.
Virginia Jane, born May 9, 1805, married Paul B. Gratiot; she died Nov'r 29, 1871.
Caroline Emily, born June 2, 1809, widow of Capt. Jno. Atchison, of Galena.
Paul Gustavus, born Feb'y 29, 1812, of Richland, Mo.
Henry Adolphus, born Feb'y 29, 1812, died July 3, 1824, aged 12 years.
Charles Alfred, born June 20, 1815, of Davenport, Iowa.
Antoinette Theresa, born March 23, 1817, widow of John J. Anderson.

* The destruction of the Bastile, July 14, 1789, the confederation of the Champ de Mars, &c., speedily followed by the execution of the King, Louis 16th.

Born in New Orleans on 14 Jan 1733, Marie was the daughter of Nicholas Bourgeois, who died when she was aged five. At the time of his death, his widow Marie Joseph Tarare, was pregnant and had three young children but married the year following to Nicholas Pierre Carco, who raised young Marie.

A marriage was arranged for her at the age of fifteen to René Auguste Chouteau who was a New Orleans baker and tavern keeper ten years her senior. The marriage proved to be an unhappy one, and some speculate that René had been cruel to her. In any case, it is clear that he abandoned Marie and their young son Auguste and sailed to France.

Finding the company and attentiveness of the educated and polished merchant Pierre Laclède engaging, and he equally impressed, the two bonded and considered themselves married although the Roman Catholic law forbid any such legal union as Marie was still legally married.

In August of 1763 Laclède, along with his young assistant Auguste Chouteau (son of Marie T. Bourgeois and René Chouteau), led a party up the Mississippi River in search of a place to establish a fur trading post. They located a site eighteen miles south of the Mississippi and Missouri confluence, marked their spot and Laclède then sent Auguste back to the location to begin building the trading village.

When Laclède returned to the small village in September 1764, he brought with him Marie Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau and their four children: Jean Pierre, Pelagie, Marie Louise, and Victoire. All given the name Chouteau, René had not returned from France so clearly these were not his biological children but rather Laclède's. Pierre, Marie and the children resided here until 1768 when he built a stone house.

René Chouteau eventually returned to New Orleans and found the whereabouts of his wife Marie. He had set about to bring her back to New Orleans, but died three years later on the 21st of April 1776 with her never having left St. Louis or Pierre. Despite René's death, Marie did not marry Pierre and was always referred to as "Veuve" or Widow Chouteau. Although it was a well-known fact that Marie and Pierre lived in the same house, she remained a respected resident of the community and was held in good esteem, some defending her reputation and stating her relationship with Pierre was a platonic one.  

In 1778 Pierre died. The home and other properties were willed to Auguste Chouteau and the four Laclède children, but Marie was to have use of the house so long as she lived. After his death, she was considered a good business woman and was well respected in the social circles. The matriarch of this founding family had lived fifty years in St. Louis - long enough to see it grow from an outpost to a significant town and gateway to the west. She died on 14 Aug 1814 at age eighty-one, seven months and is honorably laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery.

*Various Sources: The Pierre Chouteau Collection - MHS; The Chouteau-Papin Collection - MHS; The P. Chouteau Maffitt Collection - MHS; Gateway Heritage Quarterlies, MHS: After the Journey was Over: The St. Louis Years of Lewis and Clark by Glen E. Holt - Vol. 2, No. 2 - Fall Issue 1981; Veuve Chouteau, a 250th Anniversary by Katherine T. Corbett - Vol. 3, No. 4 - Spring Issue 1983; The Laclède-Chouteau Puzzle: John Francis McDermott Supplies Some Missing Pieces by William E. Foley - Vol. 4, No. 2 - Fall Issue 1983; ed. by Christensen, Lawrence O.; Foley, Wm. E, Kremer; Gary R.; Winn, Kenneth H.,University of Missouri Press, 1999. [MHS - Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis]

Henry M., author, born in Pittsburgh, Pa., 11 May 1786; died there, 18 Jan 1871. When seven years old he was sent to a school at St. Genevieve, in upper Louisiana, to learn the French language, and remained there three years, after which his father took personal charge of his education. He began the study of law at the age of fifteen, and was admitted to the bar in 1806. After a year or two more of special study with his father, he began practice in Baltimore, Md., but soon removed to Somerset, where in the intervals of business he read history and studied Italian and German.

He revisited Louisiana in 1810, and, after practicing law a short time, went to St. Louis. Here he began to collect materials for a work on Louisiana (Pittsburgh, 1812), and also began the study of Spanish. In 1811 he descended the river in a " keel-boat" to New Orleans, and in a month or two was appointed deputy attorney-general for the territory of Orleans, as it was then called. He became district judge in 1812, though only twenty-three years old, and gave his attention for several years to the study of Spanish law.

During the war of 1812 he gave important information to the government, and afterward published a popular history of the war, which was translated into French and Italian. This was undertaken at the instance of a bookseller in Baltimore, where Judge Brackenridge took up his residence in 1814. He joined with Henry Clay in urging the acknowledgment of the South American republics, and wrote much on the subject, his principal publication being a pamphlet of 100 pages, addressed to President Monroe, and signed " An American." This was republished in England and France, and, as it was supposed to represent the views of the American government, was answered by the Spanish minister, the duke of San Carlos. About the same time Judge Brackenridge published, in " Walsh's Register," an elaborate paper on the Louisiana boundary question.

In 1817 he was appointed secretary of the commission sent to the South American republics, and after his return published a " Voyage to South America " (2 vols., Baltimore, 1818; London, 1820), which was highly praised by Humboldt. In 1821 he went to Florida, which had just come into the possession of the American government, and, by his knowledge of French and Spanish, rendered valuable service to Gen. Jackson. In May of that year he was appointed U. S. judge for the western district of Florida, and held this office till 1832, when he removed to Pittsburgh.

He was elected to congress in 1840, but did not take his seat, and in 1841 was named a commissioner under the treaty with Mexico. After this he remained in private life, devoting himself to literature. Besides works already mentioned, he published "Recollections of Persons and Places in the West" (Philadelphia, 1834; 2d ed., enlarged, 1868); "Essay on Trusts and Trustees " (Washington, 1042); and " History of the Western Insurrection " (1859), a vindication of his father's course at that time. He also wrote numerous pamphlets and articles in journals, including a " Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson," delivered at Pensacola, Fla., in August, 1820, and a series of letters in favor of the Mexican war (1847).

Joseph Brazeau, Sr., the first of the name we have found, is mentioned in the archives of Kaskaskia as an early comer to the Illinois country from Canada, who was killed by Indians on the Kaskaskia River in the year 1779, age 78 years, of course born in the year 1701.

His widow, old Madame Francoise Brazeau No. 1, was born in Canada in 1719, and was sixty years of age when her husband was killed.

She came to St. Louis with her children about they year 1787, where she died March 13, 1793, aged seventy-four years, their children were:

First. Joseph Brazeau No. 2, born in Kaskaskia in 1742, and died in St. Louis, Nov. 23, 1816, aged seventy-four years; he had married Marie Therese Delisle, born in Kaskaskia in 1749, and died in St. Louis, Feb., 1834, at eighty-five years. This Brazeau came first to St. Louis in 1781, and no children.

Second. Louis Brazeau, Sr., born about 1745, died Dec. 5, 1828, aged eighty-three, his wife, Marie Francoise Delisle, born 1750 at Kaskaskia, died Nov. 26, 1810, at sixty years.

Third. Francoise Brazeau No. 2 born about 1757, died April 1826, aged sixty-nine, was the widow of John B. Chauvin dit Charleville, who had died at Kaskaskia.

Children of Louis Brazeau, Sr. called “Caioua:”

1. Joseph Jr., married to Julia Phisbac, July 24, 1810, he died August 1825.
2. Louis Jr., to Miss Dumoulin
3. Augustus to Melanie St. Cir
4. Marie to John B. Duchouquette, July 2, 1798. She died July, 1818, and he May 1834.
5. Therese to Charles Bosseron, July 28, 1805.
6. Julia to Alexander Papin, July 24, 1810.
7. Cecile to Charles Sanguinet, Jr., Oct 19, 1816.
8. Aurora to Louis Bompart, Jr., July 24, 1821.

Children of Mad’e Francoise Brazeau Charleville:

1. Genevieve, born 1774, to Pierre Duchouquette, died 1822, at forty-eight.
2. Joseph C. born 1776, to Victoire Verdon, July 15, 1797.
3. Pelagie, born 1778, to F. Tayon, June 8, 1795.
4. John B. born 1780.
5. Louis, born 1782.

Prominent as a business man, and as a representative, also, of one of the oldest families of St, Louis, was born in this city, October 16, 1846. He is the son of John Charles Cabanné, and grandson of Jean Pierre Cabanné, who came to St. Louis from France in1798, was conspicuous among the old-time fur traders and a pioneer who took an important part in laying the foundation of the city. In France the family seat of the Cabarines was at Pau, capital of the ancient Province of Bearn, corresponding nearly to the modern department of Basses-Pyrenees, of which the city of Pau is now the capital. Pau was the ancient capital of Navarre, and the chief resident of its sovereigns, and Henry of Navarre was born there.

The father of Jean Pierre Cabanné was Count Jean Cabanné, and his mother was a daughter of Baron Duteil, lieutenant-general of artillery, who maintained the school of Auxonne some time before the French Revolution. In Bourrienne’s “Memories sur Napoleon," the statement is made that: “in the fourth codicil to his will Napoleon Bonaparte bequeathed to the son or grandson of Baron Duteil the sum of one hundred thousand francs as a memento of gratitude for the care he took of Napoleon when he was a lieutenant and captain under him." Jean Pierre Cabbané married one of the granddaughters of Madame Chouteau; and in this line J. Charless Cabanne is a descendant of the first white woman who established a home on the west bank of the Mississippi River, in Upper Louisiana. In the maternal line he is also descended from ancestors conspicuous among the pioneers of St. Louis. His maternal grandfather was Judge William Carr, who came to St. Louis in 1804, and helped to establish the local government, under authority of the United States government, and who was speaker of the first Missouri House of Representatives, elected in 1812.

Reared and educated in St. Louis, Mr. Cabanné has been identified in various ways with the city's growth and development since early manhood, but for nearly thirty years has confined his attention chiefly to very extensive dairy interests. He embarked in this business in 1868, and in those days a large portion of land, now embraced in Forest Park, belonged to his dairy farm, and nine hundred cows roamed over these pastures. In 1872 he sold his dairy and established the business of receiving shipments of milk by rail from the farmers living in the county adjacent to St. Louis. He was the pioneer in St. Louis in inaugurating the style of supplying milk for city consumption, which has revolutionized prices and brought about a complete transformation in the character of the lacteal fluid which enters so largely into the living of all classes of people. There is good authority for making the statement that thirty years ago no "whole milk" was sold in St. Louis. Skimmed milk sold at the rate of twenty-eight cents per gallon at retail, and cream, containing not to exceed 10 per cent of butter fat, sold at a dollar and twenty-five cents per gallon. Soon after Mr. Cabanné inaugurated his plan of receiving and delivering to consumers pure and wholesome milk, shipped to the city from farms thirty, forty and even as far as seventy miles away, the prices of milk began to decline and its character to improve, as a result of the competition. Whole milk now sells at less than used to be charged for skimmed milk, and cream containing 5 per cent more butter fat is supplied to consumers by the St. Louis Dairy Company at something like forty cents less than the old price. A pure, and nutritious milk supply has been deemed of such importance to the health of the city that attempts have been made by the St. Louis Board of Health to secure legislation regulating the sale of milk and cream in the city, but, for some reason or other, these efforts to inaugurate needed reforms have failed of results. In 1882 the attention of American dairymen was called to the successful experiment of the founder of the Aylesbury Dairy Company, of London, England, who had established a chemical control department in connection with his dairy and thereby protected himself and his patrons against impure, adulterated and diseased milk, and Mr. Cabanné, who had watched this and similar experiments with much interest, determined to make an effort to improve the milk supply of St. Louis by the same means. Associating with himself Colonel T. T. Gantt, Fred B. Ewing, Randolph R. Hutchinson, Charles Chapman, William Sommerville, Dr. I. G. W. Steedman, J. B. C. Lucas, Robert E. Carr, Thomas T. Turner, John F. Lee, Charles P. Hunt, Charles P. Chouteau and Henry Hitchcock, he organized the St. Louis Dairy Company, of which he was appointed general manager. When he announced to the milk dealers of the larger cities of the country that he was going to inaugurate the plan put into operation by the Aylesbury Dairy they predicted that the project would prove a commercial failure for various reasons, but, notwithstanding the prospective difficulties with which he would have to contend, Mr. Cabanné put his plan into operation and began a vigorous crusade in favor of pure milk. During the first four years of its existence the St. Louis Dairy, Company struggled to overcome the obstacles in its way without being able to declare a dividend to its shareholders, but its patronage then began to increase and it has since enjoyed continuous prosperity. In 1895 its original capital stock of $20,000 was increased to $75,000, and in, 1896 the corporation erected a model milk depot at 2008 to 2018 Pine Street, built on scientific principles and equipped with all the modern devices essential to the handling of milk and milk products in accordance with the most approved sanitary methods. In the field of enterprise to which he has devoted so many years of his life, and in which he has brought to bear on the problems incidental thereto broad intelligence and no small amount of scientific research and investigation, Mr. Cabanné has done much for the health and general welfare of St. Louis, while building up a successful business enterprise. His advanced views and the careful attention which he has given to the details of the business in which he is engaged have made him well known to the great dairy interests of the country, and the influence of his methods and example has been far-reaching in its effects. In St. Louis he introduced, in 1872, the covered milk-wagons now in general use, designed to protect drivers from sun and storm. In 1872 he also received the first shipments of milk to St. Louis by rail, and the same year inaugurated in this city the use of ice in handling and delivering milk. In 1876 he introduced the iron-clad milk-cans, now in general use, into St. Louis; in 1878 erected the first creamery for the supply of the trade; in 1880 delivered the first milk in bottles; operated the first separator, and delivered the first separator cream in the city in 1884; introduced parchment paper for wrapping butter in 1887; sold the first bulk condensed milk in 1889, and in 1896 inaugurated the system of filtering milk, which has enhanced in no small degree its purity. He married, in 1868, Miss Susan P. Mitchell, a great-granddaughter of Major William C. Christy, who became a resident of St. Louis in 1804, and who was one of the most noted men among the pioneers of that period .

Gabriel Cerré was born in Montreal, Canada, May 22, 1734, and was one of a large family of brothers and sisters, Pierre; Louis married Bergaye; Marienne married Globlinski; Marie married Louis Panet; Amelie married Leveque, all of whom remained in Canada.

Gabriel Cerré, in his early youth removed to Kaskaskia, where he became the leading merchant and fur trader. He was bitterly opposed to the American cause, in the revolutionary war, until after an interview with Gen. Clark, who not only secured his friendship and sympathy, but also his aid with the Indians of Illinois, over whom Mr. Cerré had great influence. Mr. Cerré married in 1765 Catherine, daughter of Antoine Gerard and Marie LaFontaine of Kaskaskia. He with his family came to St. Louis in 1781, where he continued in the fur business until his death, which occurred April, 4, 1805. Mrs. Cerré died July 31, 1800. The children of Gabriel and Catherine Gerard Cerré were: Therese, married Auguste Chouteau; Julie, married Antoine Soulard; Pashcal Leon, born Oct. 18, 1771, died at St. Louis May 9, 1849, married the only child of Michael Lamie, who was born in Montreal and came to St. Louis in 1765. His son Michael Lamie Cerré, married Helene Lebeau.

See also Gabriel Cerré, trader.

One of the early settlers of St. Louis, came from Kaskaskia after the treaty which gave the Northwest Territory to Great Britain, and engaged in the fur business. In the prosecution of it he sent two young men, brothers, Francois and Joseph Lesieur, down the Mississippi to establish a new trading post among the Indian tribes dwelling on the west bank. They halted at a Delaware village that seemed to be eligibly located on high ground, and easily accessible from the back country. The post afterward became the town of New Madrid. One of Gabriel Cerré’s daughters, Therese, became, in 1786, the wife of Auguste Chouteau, one of the founders of St. Louis.

See also Gabriel Cerré, trader.

Joseph was born in Westmeath, Ireland, July 16, 1772. Being implicated in the Irish Rebellion of 1795, he fled to France and sailed for the United States, arriving in New York in 1796. He added an “s” to his name of Charles, in order to write it as it was pronounced “Charless.” He settled in Philadelphia, and being a printer he worked for a time on William Duane’s Aurora in Franklin Court.

In 1798 he married Mrs. Sarah McCloud, nee Jourdan, a widow with one son, Robert McCloud. In 1800 he removed with his family to Lexington, Ky., where he established a newspaper. In 1806 removed to Louisville, Ky., and in 1808 to St. Louis, Louisiana Territory, where he established the first paper west of the Mississippi river, the “Missouri Gazette," the first number being issued July 12, 1808. The following year he changed its name to “Louisiana Gazette” as more appropriate, and in 1812 again to “Missouri Gazette,” the name of the territory being so changed.

Mr. Charless, Sr., was the proprietor of the paper some twelve years. In Sept. 1820, he disposed of it to James Cummins, from Pittsburgh, who conducted it for eighteen months, and re-disposed of it to Edward Charless, the oldest son of Joseph C., Sr., who changed the name to the Missouri Republican, and issued the first number under that title, March 20, 1822.

Mr. Charless, Sr., some years thereafter established a wholesale Drug and Medicine house, associated with his son, Joseph Charless, Jr.

Their children were:

Edward, born in Philadelphia, April 12, 1799; he married Miss Jane Stoddard at St. Charles in march 1823, and died without children June 22, 1848, aged 49 years and 2 months.

John, born in Lexington, Ky., in 1801; he died in St. Louis, Aug’t 31st, 1816, aged 15 years.

Joseph, Jr., born in Lexington in 1804, married Miss Charlotte, daughter of Peter Blow, Sr., in St. Louis, Nov’r 8, 1831.

Ann, born in Lexington, in 1806, married first to Amos Wheeler, May 26, 1822; he died Jun 8, 1822. Secondly, to Charles Wahrendorff, Sept. 8, 1823; he died Aug. 27, 1831, aged 41 years; and third, to Beverly Allen, Oct. 16, 1832. And she herself died Nov. 1, 1832, fifteen days after her third marriage.

Eliza, born in Louisville in 1808, married to john Kerr, St. Louis, Aug. 29, 1827. She died without children June 5, 1833.

Joseph Charless, Sr., died July 28, 1834, aged 62 years.

Mrs. Sarah Charless died March 4, 1852, in her 80th year; her son, Robert McCloud, born in 1795, died may 1, 1832, aged 37 years.

Joseph was born at Lexington, Ky., Jan’y 17, 1804, was early put to the case, didn’t like it and went to school, read law with Josiah Spalding, and finished at Transylvania, Lexington, and tried law for some years; not to his taste, he went into the Drug business with his father in 1828.

Married Miss Charlotte Blow Nov. 8, 1831; died June 3, 1859 (assassinated by Thornton), in his 56th year, leaving but one daughter, afterwards the wife of Louis S. Le Bourgeois, of Louisiana, both now deceased, leaving several children.

Mrs. Jos. Charless still survives at a very advanced age.

Was born in New Orleans, Sept. 26,1750, came up with Laclede in 1764, and materially assisted him in establishing the new Post.

When Laclede died in 1778, he succeeded him as the most important individual in the place, as one of its founders .

At the transfer of the country to the United States in 1804, he was, from his wealth and position, perhaps the most prominent individual in the vilIage, and filled under the new government several important positions at various times.

In 1804, at the first organization of the Territorial Courts, he was appointed Presiding Justice of the Court of " Oyer and Terminer."

In 1808, at the organization of the militia of the Territory, Gov'r M. Lewis appointed him the Colonel of the St. Louis Regiment. *

In 1809, at the first election of Trustees for the Town of St. Louis, he was chosen President of the Board.

Subsequently he was a Commissioner of the United States in negotiating several important treaties with Indian tribes, etc.

Auguste Chouteau was married on July 27th, 1786 to Miss Therese, daughter of Gabriel Cerré, an old Fur merchant. He died Feb. 24th, 1829, aged 78 years and 5 months.

His widow continued to occupy the old "Family Mansion" on Main Street, in the centre of the Town, until 1836, when at the suggestion of her children, she built for herself a residence on the hill and covered the block with thirty-two three story brick business houses, which she divided amongst her children and grandchildren.

She died August 14, 1842, aged 72 years, 8½ months, two months after the death of her third and last daughter, Mrs. Major Thos. F. Smith.

They were the parents of nine children, of whom four sons and three daughters attained maturity.

* This was how be became a Colonel, at nearly sixty years of age, previously only a plain" Mister."

Note: A much more in-depth biographical sketch can be read in The Enclyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, p.358-361.

The second son of Col. Chouteau, was born Dec. 31, 1794, in St. Louis, and except for a few years when a youth, that he was at the Catholic College at Baldstown, Ky., to complete his education, he spent the whole of his long life in St. Louis, superintending the operations of the old Chouteau Mill, at Hickory and Ninth Streets, until after 1853, when the Mill-pond being drained by the City authorities, the old Mill ceased its labors and became a thing of the past.

Mr. G. S. Chouteau died June 18, 1887, having attained the unusual age of 92 years, 6 months. He left the bulk of his large landed estate to the children of his brothers and sisters.

The third son of Col. Chouteau, was born in St. Louis, Feb. 11, 1805, and completed his education at the Catholic College on Second Street in this City.

At the death of Silas Bent, Sr., in December, 1827, Mr. Chonteau, then in his 23rd year, was appointed to succeed him in the office of Clerk of the County Court and Recorder of St. Louis County. This position he filled for fourteen years, until Jan’y 1, 1842, when he embarkd into business as a merchant, and established the house of Chouteau & Riley, afterwards changed to Chouteau & Vallé.

Mr. Chouteau was married on July 10,1827, to Miss Clemence Coursault, from Baltimore, a niece of his two brothers-in-law, Gabriel and Rene Paul. He lost his life at the Gasconade disaster Nov. 1, 1855, at the age of 50 years, 8 months and 21 days, one of the thirty victims of that awful catastrophe. His widow survived him a few years, she died Oct. 6, 1859, aged 49 years and 9 months.

Their oldest son, Henry A., born Nov. 24, 1830, died Oct. 10, 1854, in his 24th year, the result of an accident, leaving a young widow and two children. Another son; Norbert Sylvestre, born May 17, 1841, died unmarried, Oct. 31, 1883.

Their oldest child, Aglae, born in 1828, is the widow of the late Neré Val1é, the former business partner of his father-in-law; she has two married daughters, Mrs. John A. Dillon, of St. Louis, and Mrs. Randolph, of Tallahassee, Florida.

Corinne, born in August, 1843, is the wife of Jno. N. Dyer, St. Louis.

Beatrice, born in October, 1847, is the wife of Jno. O'Fallon Clark, St. Louis.

Lillia Clemence, born in June, 1850, is the wife of John S. Winthrop, of Florida.

And one surviving son, Joseph Gilman Chouteau of this place, born in 1836.

Joseph Gilman Chouteau was born in St. Louis December 2, 1836, son of Henry and Clemence G. (Coursault) Chouteau. His father was also born in St. Louis, spent all the years of his life in this city, and was killed in the memorable Gasconade Bridge disaster in 1855. His mother, who was the only daughter of Commodore Edward Coursault, of Philadelphia - in his day a leading merchant and ship owner of that city - died in St. Louis in 1859.

Mr. Chouteau is a grandson of Colonel Auguste Chouteau, who laid out the town of St. Louis under the direction of Pierre Laclede, and who was the chief citizen of the French settlement, which was the foundation of the city during the early years of its existence. Born to a rich inheritance, he was educated at St. Louis University, and after devoting some time to travel and study abroad, he returned to St. Louis and engaged in the engaged general commission business as head of the firm of Chouteau & Edwards. In the course of a few years the firm of which he was the head obtained control of a large Southern trade, which proved exceedingly remunerative. At a later date he interested himself in the manufacture of flour, and for some years was the owner. of the largest flouring mill in Southern Illinois, located at the town of Waterloo, twenty miles distant from St. Louis. Of this mill, which had a capacity of one thousand barrels per day, and which became famous for the excellence of its products, he was owner for twenty years, disposing of it finally in 1883. Since then he has been interested as an investor in various manufacturing enterprises and in banking institutions as a director and stockholder. He has also been the administrator of several large estates, and to trusts of this character and his private business interests the larger share of his time and attention has been devoted in later years. A thoroughly educated and accomplished gentleman and the master of several languages, he has enjoyed to the fullest extent his extensive travels, and is a cosmopolitan in his manners and tastes. He devotes a share of his time to outdoor sports, is an expert horseman, and a lover of the rod and gun. With this love of recreative amusements, however, he couples studious habits, and has always been deeply interested in the mechanical arts, having been the originator of several valuable inventions.

Julia was born in St. Louis in 1815, and died in this city in 1897. She was the daughter of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and great-granddaughter of the founder of St. Louis. Born to a rich inheritance, she was carefully educated and developed into a lovely womanhood of the old-time French type. Her entire life of more than four score years, was passed in St. Louis and she witnessed its growth from a village to a city of more than six hundred thousand people. She was a child nine years of age when General Lafayette visited this city, and was the guest of her father at the old Chouteau Mansion, on Main Street, near vine Street, and in the later years of her life frequently entertained her children and grandchildren with reminiscences of the grand ball given on that occasion.

She married, in her young womanhood, Dr. William D. Maffitt, one of the prominent physicians of his day, who died in early life. After he husband's death she gave herself up to the care of her large estate, her family, and to numerous works of charity. her living children are Pierre Chouteau Maffitt, Charles C. Maffitt, William C. Maffitt, Mrs. Julia Walsh, Mrs. Nancy Bates and Emily Maffitt.

Pierre Chouteau was born at St. Louis, July 30, 1849, son of Charles P. and Julia Augusta (Gratiot) Chouteau. Mr. Chouteau's lineage runs through two of the historic families of St. Louis, his mother having been a daughter of General Charles Gratiot, whose father married Victoire Chouteau. After receiving a thorough education in St. Louis his tastes and talents inclined strongly to the mechanical arts, and with the object of developing and disciplining them and turning them to active usefulness for the benefit of others he went to Europe and took the course in the Royal School of Arts, Mines and Manufactures, at Liege, Belgium. When he returned in 1874 he contemplated engaging in civil engineering, for which he was well prepared, but his father needed his assistance in the management of his business properties, and he has never found the opportunity to devote himself exclusively to the vocation in which he delighted, and in which he wouldcertainly have risen to eminence. As the father advanced in years his business devolved chiefly upon the son, with the result of making Mr. Chouteau a very busy man of affairs. Nevertheless, he has found time to give same attention to the mechanical arts and to exhibit his genius in the invention of appliances and devices, whose merit is recognized and demonstrated in their general adoption.

Mr. Chouteau's tastes and inclinations are not exclusively mechanical. They incline to literature and art, and lead him into other quiet fields, where he finds recreation after the exacting duties of his business. He is an accomplished writer and accurate critic, and there are few whose opinion of a work of art, whether it be edifice, painting, statue or literary composition, is as valuable as his. He has a fond affection for old things, old names and old places in and around the city founded by his ancestors, and where they have lived for nearly a hundred and forty years, and he. could, with the pictures of old houses and objects in his possession, almost reproduce the appearance of St. Louis as it was three-quarters of a century, ago. He is an active member of the Missouri Historical Society, and has done more, probably, than any one else to collect and preserve ancient documents, papers and books illustrating. the early conditions and history of our city. He is a man of fortune, as his-father and grandfather and great-grandfather were before him for the Chouteaus are far-seeing, prudent men of business, who have usually commanded success, whether in trading, manufacturing or investing, and his purse is always ready to respond liberally to a cause that appeals to his sympathy for the distressed, or to any enterprise in behalf of the welfare of the city of which he has such good reason to be proud.

On November 27, 1882, Mr. Chouteau married Miss Lucille M. Chauvin, who comes, like himself, of one of the old French families of St. Louis.

Major William Christy was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, January 10, 1764. When very young his parents removed to the Falls of the Ohio, and settled in Jefferson County, Kentucky, among the first to come there. In 1788 was appointed Lieutenant of a troop of Jefferson County Cavalry, and in St. Clair's campaign of 1791, was an adjutant of a Kentucky regiment of militia and served in 1794 under General A. Wayne.

In 1792 Major Christy was married to Martha Thompson Taylor, of Jefferson County, Kentucky, and continued on his farm until 1804, when he removed to St. Louis among the first Americans, bringing with him ample means and a number of slaves.

In 1806 he opened a public house in the old Government mansion at the south-east corner of Main and Walnut Streets, which he kept for a number of years, patronized by the best classes of society.

In 1806 appointed a Justice of the Court of Quarter Sessions.

In 1807 appointed clerk of the same.

In 1809 elected a Trustee of the newly incorporated Town. And Major of the Louisiana Rangers.

March 1813, Presiding Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

1814, Auditor of accounts for the Territory, and in 1820 Auditor same for the State.

1820, Appointed by President Monroe Register of the United States Land Office, which he resigned in 1833.

Major Christy, died at his residence, North St. Louis, April, 1837, aged 73 years; his widow survived him until 1819, their children were:

Sarah, the first wife of Doctor Bernard G. Farrar; she died in 1817.
Mary Ann, married Major Thomas Wright, U. S. Army.
Matilda, wife first of Doctor D. V. Walker, and second of Colonel N. P. Taylor.
Frances, wife first of Major Taylor Berry, and second of Judge Robert Wash.
Eliza, wife of General William H. Ashley, member of Congress.
Harriet, wife of Capt. James Deane, U. S. Army.
Virginia, married to Doctor Edwin B. Smith in 1838, yet living, and
Two sons, Edmund, who died unmarried, and Howard, who married Miss Susan Preston, of Kentucky.

William Clark was born in Caroline county, Virginia, August 1, 1770, son of John and Ann (Rogers) Clark, and grandson of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Wilson) Clark. When he was fourteen his family removed to Kentucky, settling on the site of the present city of Louisville, where his brother, George Rogers Clark, erected a fort, in 1777. This place at the time was the scene of frequent Indian raids, and young William grew up with a vast experience of the methods of Indian warfare and an intimate knowledge of their habits. At the age of nineteen he participated in Col. John Hardin's expedition against the Indians across the Ohio, was made an ensign in 1791, served under Scott and Wilkinson against the Indians on the Wabash, was Commissioned lieutenant of infantry, March and in December was assigned to the fourth sub-legion. He was appointed adjutant and quartermaster, in September, 1793, served against the Indians and under Gen. Wayne, and in July, 1796, resigned, owing to ill health. He subsequently regained his health by turning trapper and hunter.

About 1804 William Clark removed to St. Louis, Missouri, and in March President Jefferson commissioned him second lieutenant of artillery, ordering him to join Capt. Meriwether Lewis in an exploring expedition from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia river. This expedition lasted two years and was the first to the Pacific coast. The success of the explorations, attended by incredible privations and hardships, where no white man ever set his foot before, was in large measure due to Capt. Clark's knowledge of Indian character and habits. He was military director of the expedition and kept a journal, subsequently published by the United States government. On September 23, 1806, the expedition returned to St. Louis, and Capt. Clark went to Washington. Congress granted him 1,000 acres from the public domain, and on May 2, 1807 he resigned from the army, having been nominated to be governor of Louisiana territory a few days before. His commission for the latter office was dated March 3, 1807, and about the same time he was appointed a general of the territorial militia and Indian agent. In the latter office he remained until July 1, 1813, when he was appointed governor of the Missouri territory by President Madison.

When Missouri applied for admission into the Union in 1818, a controversy followed whether it should be a free or slave state. In anticipation of the admission of the state an election was held August 28, and Clark was defeated for governor by Alexander McNair. In May, 1822, he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis by President Monroe. He held this office until his death, in St. Louis, Missouri, September 1, 1838. Clark's Fork, an important branch of the Missouri, was named in his honor, and Lewis and Clark county, Montana, is in joint remembrance of the two explorers.

Any discussion of the public life and career of the “sage of Ashland” must be reserved for other pages. Here it is proper to note merely a few facts concerning his private life and reference to his marriage and family, since it is his descendants that make up a large and important group of the Clay family in Kentucky.

Henry Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, April 12, 1777, and died at Washington, D.C., June 29, 1852. In 1791 he went to Richmond, Virginia, as an employee in the store of a Mr. Denny. Afterwards he served as desk clerk in the High Court of Chancery. In 1797 he came to Kentucky and two years afterward married Lucretia Hart. Their family consisted of eleven children, six daughters and five sons. The daughters all died within the lifetime of their parents. The son, H. Clay, Jr. was killed at the battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican war, but three of his children survive him at Louisville. Of the other sons, Thomas Clay was a farmer at Lexington, James B. Clay is the subject of a special sketch that follows and a third was John Clay.

Additional biographical sketch of Henry Clay, Statesman

Dr. William J. Cord, a dentist, was born in Mason County, Ky. he is the son of Jas. S. and Margaret Cord. He is a graduate of the Kansas City College of Dental Surgery, and came to St. Louis in 1883 and engaged in the practice of his profession. He was president of the Wilson Club of Webster Groves, 1912. He is affiliated with the Christian Science Church and is a member of the K.O.M. and M.W. of A.

His office is in the Victoria Building and his residence, 217 Selina Avenue, Webster Groves.

Additional biographical sketch of Dr. William J. Cord, D.D.S.
Donovan-Zay-Cord Website by Katie Humphreys (Outside Link at My Heritage.com)

Note: Dr. William J. Cord passed away on 19 Jun 1938 in St. Louis and laid to rest at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Jules De Mun was born in the Island of Santo Domingo, April 25, 1872, and died in St. Louis, August 15, 1843. He came of a noble family in France, eminent in the service of the State and law and letters. His father was owner of a large plantation in Santo Domingo, and he and his wife were accustomed to make occasional visits to the island to look after their interests; and it was during one of these visits that the subject of this sketch was born. The story of his life reads like a romance. After the death of his father, and during the troubled period that preceded the outbreak of the French Revolution, his mother, accompanied by a daughter and the elder son, Amade, made a trip to Santo Domingo, leaving her sons, Louis, Auguste and Jules, in a private school. When, on her return, she reached London, she was warned not to enter France, and the she sent for the three children left there. They had been taken from the school by relatives as a precaution, but in some manner had been lost in the turbulence and excitement that prevailed in Paris. A trusted old family servant, however, undertook to hunt them up, and after a search succeed in finding them in a cellar, where they had concealed themselves. Dressing them in peasants’ clothing, they started for the coast to take passage to England. On their way through Paris they passed by the guillotine in the midst of the execution of Robespierre, who had caused many a noble head to roll in the dust and then had to yield his own. After the restoration of the Bourbons, the king, Louis XVIII, sent letters to Jules De Mun, awarding him the decoration of the Fleur de Lis, and inviting him to return to France.

The two brothers, Auguste and Jules, came to this country shortly after the cession of the Louisiana Territory to the United States, and settled at Ste. Genevieve, where, in 1811, Auguste was killed by McArthur, a brother-in-law of Lewis F. Linn, afterward United States Senator from Missouri. In 1818 Jules De Mun, in company with Auguste P. Chouteau, went on a trading expedition to Santa Fe and Chihuahua. John McKnight and a man named Beard being of the party, but Mexico was in the midst of a revolution, and they were all arrested and thrown into prison. They were kept in prison for two years, when they were released through the efforts of Henry Clay. Jules De Mun, on returning to St. Louis, engaged in business with John Mullanphy, but after a few years went with his family to Cuba, where he was occupied in planting until 1830, when they all returned to St. Louis.

He was an accomplished scholar, and was appointed secretary and translator to the board of commissioners organized under the act of Congress of 1833 for adjusting land titles in Missouri. He was afterward appointed register of the United States land office in St. Louis and on the expiration of his term was chosen clerk of the St. Louis County Court, holding this office until his death, in 1843. Mr. De Mun possessed the graces and breeding of the old regime, inherited from ancestors trained in court manners and accomplishments. One who knew him said of him: “He was a most accomplished scholar, of fine manners, and a finished gentleman in every sense of the word, by nature, habit and education.”

His wife was a Gratiot - Isabelle, daughter of Charles Gratiot, Sr., whose wife was Victoire, sister of Colonel Auguste Chouteau. The Gratiot family is no less distinguished in this country than the De Muns were in France, and the fact that the name is found in many parts of the West and Northwest to this day is proof of the high esteem in which it is held in the places where the bearers of it have lived and served. Isabelle (Gratiot) De Mun was born in St. Louis, October 15, 1796, and was a child eight years old when, on the 9th of March, 1804, the formal transfer of the post of St. Louis from France to the United States was made, accompanied by the hauling down of the French flag and the raising of the “Stars and Stripes.” The ceremony took place on the spacious porch of her father’s hospital mansion, on the northwest corner of Main and Chesnut Streets, and the little girl was an attentive and wondering eye witness of, and participant in, the August proceeding. Seven years later, in 1811, she was married to Jules De Mun. Of this marriage were born Isabelle, who became the wife of Edward Walsh, a successful and influential merchant; Julie, who became the wife of Antoine Leon Chenie, member of one of the early French families of St. Louis; Louise, who became the wife of Robert A. Barnes, a prosperous and estimable merchant, who was for many years president of the Bank of the State of Missouri; and Emilie, who became the wife of Charles Bland Smith, son of John Brady Smith, who was the first president of that bank; Claire, who died at the age of eighteen, and Victoire, who died in infancy.

Mrs. De Mun survived her husband thirty-five years, dying on the 13th of July, 1878, at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Charles Bland Smith, in the eighty-second year of her age. She was a noble and estimable lady, worthy of the distinguished lineage from which she was descended, and of the honorable names she bore. It has been said of her in her youth that “she was recognized in her day as the most beautiful woman of St. Louis”; and in her riper years, that she possessed “in an uncommon degree beauty of a person, mental graces, accomplished manners, and all those refined and refining virtues characteristic of the true Christian lady.”

Manufacturer, born in Hancock, Addison county, Vermont*, March 28, 1837, son of John Deere, the pioneer plow maker, whose parents were William Rinold and Sarah (Yates) Deere: the former a native of England, the latter of Connecticut, of English parentage; her father, Captain Yates, having come to this country as an officer in the British Army during the revolutionary war. Capt. Yates served his king faithfully until the independence of the colonies was no longer a question, when he forswore allegiance to all foreign powers, and thereafter lived in strict loyalty to his adopted country.

John Deere, the founder of the works at Moline, Ill., which bear his name, was born in Middlebury, Vt., Feb. 7, 1804. At an early age he fully mastered the blacksmith’s trade, and he married Demarious Lamb, of an old England family. In 1838 he removed to the new West, and settled in Grand Detour, Ill. Ten years later he went to Moline, and there founded the celebrated plow shops of Deere & Co., of which, from 1868 until his death, he was president.

Charles H. Deere received his education in the village schools of Grand Detour and Moline, and later in Iowa and Knox academies, and as further preparation for his business life, was graduated from Bell commercial college in Chicago in 1854. Mr. Deere became successively bookkeeper, traveler, and purchaser for the firm of Deere & Co. When the plow works were incorporated in 1868 he was made vice-president and general manger, a position which he held until his father’s death in 1886, when he was elected to the presidency of the company. He has had the active part in building up and extending this industry. Mr. Deere is founder of the Deere & Mansur company, corn planter works, president of the Moline water power company, director in various other works in Moline, as well as in the large branch houses of Deere & Co. in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Council Bluffs, and San Francisco. He is connected with various other business enterprises. For several years he held the chairmanship of the bureau of labor statistics for the state of Illinois by appointment of the governor. His appointment as state commissioner of the World’s Columbian exposition is the second he has received of that character, having been appointed a commissioner to the exposition at Vienna in 1873 for the state of Illinois.

Mr. Deere is politically, an active republican, and was chosen an elector-at-large in the presidential campaign of 1888. Mr. Deere is a man of liberal ideas, having traveled extensively in this country and abroad. Socially, he is a pleasant companion, and many a friend in need has found him a friend indeed.

Mr. Deere was married, in 1862, to Mary Little Dickinson of Chicago, where she was well known, and much admired for her fine qualities of mind, as well as for unusual personal beauty. Mrs. Deere identifies herself with the interests of the community in a thoroughly characteristic manner, where she is beloved for her generous, unostentatious charity, her ready sympathy with every movement for the benefit of any worthy object, and her unswerving adherence to principle and duty. Added to a charming presence, Mrs. Deere possesses distinct social talents, which render her a most gracious hostess, and at their beautiful home, “Overlook,” they have drawn about them friends and distinguished guests from far and near, who have been royally welcomed and entertained. Their two daughters were educated in New York City, have traveled extensively, and are attractive and cultured, and well known in society in New York, Chicago, and Washington. The elder daughter married William Dwight Wilman of New York City.

Note* Original states Hancock, Addison county, Illinois.

Andrew Drips, fur trader, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1789. But little is known of his early history. He went to St. Louis in 1819 and was interested with Captain Joseph Perkins in the fur trade. In 1820 both became members of the Missouri Fur Company upon its reorganization. Soon after the organization of the American Fur Company he became associated with it and accompanied many expeditions in its interest, gaining a wide reputation as a mountaineer. In 1842 he was appointed by President Tyler Indian agent for the upper Missouri tribes and was stationed at St. George for four years. At the expiration of his term of office he reentered the employ of the American Fur Company. For some years he lived in the vicinity of Bellevue, Nebraska, and was for a time associated with Lucien Fontenelle and Joshua Pilcher.

In early life he married an Indian woman of the Otoe tribe by whom he had several children. One daughter, Mrs. William Mulkey, of Kansas Citv, Missouri, died in 1904; another daughter is Mrs. F. M. Barnes of Barnston, Neb. Major Drips died in Kansas City, September 1, 1880, at the age of seventy-one years.

Born in St. Louis, February 12, 1830. His father, E. English, who was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1788, was a carpenter by trade, and came to St. Louis in 1816. He married Miss Catherine Foulks, born in Pennsylvania, March 18, 1800. Her father was Christopher Foulks, originally from Germany, and a tobacconist by calling. Mr. English died in St. Louis, August 14, 1866, and his wife died November 28, 1882. They raised a family of twenty-one children, twelve boys and nine girls, Joseph L. being the seventh.

He learned the tinner's trade at his birth place, and when twenty-one years of age went to Chester, Illinois, and open a tin and stove store. In one year he sold out, and returned to St. Louis, and commenced the brewing business, which he continued for four years. In 1853, he came to Warsaw, and resumed the tin and stove business. In 1860, he came to Osceola, and conducted a drug business with Washington Dorrell. In 1862, Osceola was burned, and his stock shared the fate of the city. After remaining here for a year, he returned to St. Louis, entering into work for the government at his trade, and continuing it until the close of the war. After one year's residence in Sedalia, he came to Osceola, and in 1867, formed a partnership with William Shelton, and they built the first tin and stove store in town, and one of the first buildings erected in the town. Since 1870, he has been alone, doing a very successful business. In 1883, on account of poor health, he disposed of his stock of goods and stoves and retired from business.

In 1855, he married Miss Mary Dorrell, the daughter of Dr. W. Dorrell. She died in 1870, leaving two children, Alonzo and Lillie. His second wife was Sarah M. Stovall, of Franklin County, whom he married in 1873. Her father was Thomas Stovall. They have two children, Thomas and Maud. Mr. English votes the Democratic ticket. Mrs.E. is a member of the Baptist Church. He belongs to the I. O. O. F. and the A. O. U. W. fraternities.

John Fowler, manufacturer, who has been prominently identified with the commercial and industrial history of St. Louis for many years, is the son of James and Mary Penhale Fowler, and belongs to an old and well known English family. Identified with different industries, Mr. Fowler was long connected actively with the Majestic Manufacturing Company, of this city, extensively engaged in the manufacture of steel and malleable iron ranges. Through his connection with this and other enterprises, he has become well known to the public as an accomplished man of affairs, and he has a large number of friends in both business and social circles.

He married one of the three daughters of the late John E. Liggett, famous throughout the United States as a tobacco manufacturer.

Joseph V. Garnierwas born at St. Pierre, Isle of Oleron, Saintonge, in France, February 14, 1767, and went a young man to the Island of San Domingo.

At the negro insurrection of 1793, he left the Island and came to New York, where he resided for about ten years.

On the transfer of Louisiana to the United States in 1804 he came out to St. Louis, and became a resident of the place. On the establishment of the Superior Court of the Territory in 1806, he was appointed the first clerk of the same, and held it for several years. He was appointed in 1809, the first clerk of the Town of St. Louis at its incorporation in that year, and for many years was a Justice of the Peace and its Notary Public.

Mr. Garnier was married on April 30, 1812, to Marie, third daughter of Chas. Sanguinet, Sr., and died Sept. 11, 1851, in his 85th year. Mrs. Garnier survived her husband nearly thirty-five years, and died on Feb'y 3, 1885, at the extreme old age of ninety-five years.

Their only child, Harriet, is the wife of the Hon. John Hogan.

Peter Gerhart who has been conspicuously identified with the real estate in interests of St. Louis for many years, and in earlier life with its merchandising and manufacturing interests, came to this city with his parents from Baltimore, Maryland, when he was ten years of age. His father, Henry J. Gerhart, and his mother, whose maiden name was Catharine Hoebre, were born near Strasburg, France; and his grandfather, Jacob Gerhart, also a native of France, served under the great Napoleon as a soldier. Henry J. Gerhart came with his family to this country in 1830, landing at Baltimore, Maryland. After remaining there for some years he came to St. Louis in 1840. He had received a military education in his native land, and had also graduated in medicine, but never practiced the profession for which he had fitted himself, being inclined to commercial and manufacturing pursuits. For some time he made his home at Belleville, Illinois, and in that town Peter G. Gerhart, the son, obtained a good English education and was trained to the business in which his father was engaged. Finding Belleville too small a place to give full scope to his ambition, he came to St. Louis, but after remaining here a few years he removed to Glasgow, Missouri, where he embarked in the stove and hardware trade, establishing a branch house also at Huntsville, Missouri. After conducting this enterprise profitably for several years he disposed of these interests, and, returning to St. Louis, purchased an interest in the steam cooperage establishment of Connor & Co., merged afterward into what is now the Brown Cooperage Company. After helping to lay the foundation of a business which grew to large proportions under the management of the Connor & Co. Cooperage Company, Mr. Gerhart sold his interest in this establishment, and, until the Civil War began, had charge of his father's tin and copper roofing business. In the meantime he made investments in real estate as opportunities offered, and his success demonstrated that he was a sagacious operator in this field of enterprise. Shortly after the beginning of the war he formed a partnership with John Finn, at one time sheriff of St. Louis, and embarked in the wholesale liquor trade and the rectifying of spirits. Five or six years later he sold his interest in this establishment to Mr. Finn, and, purchasing the property at 213 to 217 Locust Street, he engaged in the rectifying business there with Henry W. Dionisius as his partner. Later Captain M. C. Espy succeeded Mr. Dionisius and was associated with Mr. Gerhart for three or four years. At the end of that time Mr. Gerhart became sole owner of the establishment through his purchase of his partner's interest, and until 1881 he continued the business alone. He then turned his attention to real estate operations, associating with himself, first, his sons, Frank H. and Charles B. Gerhart, and later his younger sons, Thomas S. and George J. Gerhart. He was eminently successful as a real estate operator, and he and the younger men associated with him, who have inherited a large share of his energy and business ability, have inaugurated many enterprises of importance and taken a prominent place among those most largely interested in St. Louis realty. The elder Gerhart retired from active business some years since, and has since devoted much of his time to travel and the enjoyment of his accumulations. His summers have usually been spent at his home in this city, but in winter he seeks the genial climate of Southern California, where, relieving himself as much as possible of business cares and responsibilities, he gives himself up to the occupation of growing old gracefully.

A self-made man, he has not only built up a good business for himself, but has at the same time added materially to the growth and advancement of St. Louis by handsomely improving his real estate holdings and assisting with his influence many movements designed to make the city more attractive as a place of residence and a greater center of trade and commerce. From 1866 to 1868 he was a member of the City Council of St. Louis, and, while serving in that body, helped to originate the movement which resulted in the construction of the city sewerage system, beginning with the Mill Creek, Rocky Branch and Carondelet sewers. He was again elected to the City Council in the early "eighties," and as a member of that body distinguished himself by urging the paving of city streets with vitrified brick, which has since been demonstrated to be a most excellent paving material. He has also served as a member of the public school board, and has rendered valuable services in behalf of the educational interests of the County of St. Louis. With Messrs. Leffingwell and McKinley, he was one of the originators of the Forest Park enterprise, and helped get the bill through the Legislature which made provision for the establishment and improvement of one of the finest public parks in America, later serving as a member of the park board. Originally a Whig, he became a member of the Democratic party in later years, and has been consistent and steadfast in his advocacy of its principles and policies. His religious affiliations are with the Catholic Church, and he has been a member of the fraternal orders of Masons, Odd Fellows and Druids. In 1855 he was married in St. Louis to Miss Octavia A. Flandrin, daughter of Francis Flandrin, whose wife was a Miss Chartrand before her marriage and belonged to one of the oldest French families of the Mississippi Valley.

Mr. Flandrin himself was a native of St. Louis, having been born here in 1796, son of Antoine Flandrin, who was born at Bordeaux, France, came with Lafayette to the United States and served under that distinguished French general during the Revolutionary War. Antoine Flandrin settled in St. Louis soon after the close of the independence struggle, and married a Miss Barada, who was a sister of the centenarian, "Madame Ortes." Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gerhart, of whom five were living in 1898, their names being, respectively, Frank H., Charles B., Thomas S., Henry V. and George J. Gerhart, all well-known citizens and all engaged in the real estate business, with the exception of Henry V. Gerhart, who is a prominent physician.

Thomas S. Gerhart, a typical representative of the younger and most thoroughly progressive class of business men in St. Louis, was born in this city October 25, 1864, son of Peter G. and Octavia (Flandrin) Gerhart. He grew up in St. Louis and was educated in the public and private schools of the city. After completing his studies he became associated with his father in real estate operations, and has ever since been prominently identified with that interest. The elder Gerhart, of whom extended mention is made in the preceding sketch, has long been known as one of the most successful real estate operators in the city, and the son inherited both the taste for the business and the ability to conduct it in such a way as to materially benefit the city, while building up a fortune for himself. An intelligent study of trade conditions and close observation of the trend of the city's growth have enabled him to make investments which have yielded rich returns and inaugurated eras of general improvement in different portions of the city. A man of original ideas and abundant resourcefulness, as well as keen perceptions and good judgment, he has had the happy faculty of presenting his views and formulating his plans in such a manner as to make them attractive to the public, and success in every venture has followed as a natural sequence. Seldom has his judgment been at fault in estimating the value of a piece of real estate, and his forecasts of the future, in anticipation of the movements of population and trade, have been unusually accurate. Intensely active and energetic, and, withal, taking a commendable pride in the general growth and upbuilding of the city, he has never been content to hold real property, merely as an investment. On the contrary, it has been his custom to improve his holdings in the most attractive way, and in numerous instances these improvements have been in the nature of innovations in St. Louis, which had only to be introduced to be thoroughly appreciated. As a member of the Real Estate Exchange and the Merchants' Exchange he has wielded an influence which has always been thrown in favor of progress and advancement and the development of all the numerous and varied resources of St. Louis and its tributary territory. Prominent in business circles, he is equally well known and no less popular in fraternal and social circles, being a Royal Arch Mason, a Insight Templar and a member of the Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the St. Louis Turnverein, and of various city clubs.

January 15, 1891, Mr. Gerhart married Miss Martha Lillian Brown, eldest daughter of William Brown, one of the leading manufacturers of St. Louis. One son and three daughters have been born of this union. The son bears the name of his grandfather, Peter George Gerhart.

William Glasgow was born at Christine, near Wilmington, Delaware, in the year 1787. When a young man, was employed at the Brandywine Flour Mills. His health being somewhat delicate, he made a voyage to Cadiz, Spain, where he was employed for some years in the office of the United States consul.

In March, 1815, was at Bordeaux, France, on his return to the U. S. In 1817 he came to St. Louis, one of the firm of "Porter, Glasgow & Nivin," who opened their stock of goods on May 10th in Papin's old stone store, next to Kibby's hotel.

In 1818 he went to Belleville, Illinois, where he was in business for five years. In 1823 he removed to Herculaneum, Jefferson County, Mo., where he was engaged in business and lead mining.

In 1827 he removed to St. Louis, where he was engaged in business until 1841, a part of the time of the firm of Ross & Glasgow.

In 1846 he was appointed by Mayor Peter G. Camden, City Treasurer of St. Louis, which office he held for seven successive years, under Mayors Caulden, Mullanphy, Krum, Barry and Kennett. Subsequently Mr. Glasgow resided in the country near the residence of his son-in-law, Jefferson K. Clark, where he died.

Mr. Glasgow was married at Belleville, Illinois, Nov'r 19, 1818, to Miss Sarah, daughter of Edward Mitchell, and died near St. Louis, April 8, 1876, in his 89th year. Mrs. Glasgow, born in Virginia June 16, 1801, died in St. Louis County March 31, 1883, in her 82nd year.

Their children are:
Edward James, born June 7, 1820, married Harriet Clark Kennerly, Oct. 26, 1856.
William Henry, born Feb. 19, 1822, married first Mary Wright, Oct. 22, 1850, married secondly Miss Charlotte N. Fales in 1860.
Eleanor Ann, born May 1, 1824, married Geo. R. H. Clark, March 30, 1841.
Mary Susan, born Nov. 19, 1828, married Jefferson K. Clark, Aug't 8, 1849.
Two other sons, Charles and John P., died in infancy.

William Glasgow, Sen'rs, grandchildren:
Julien K. and Wm. Jefferson, sons of Edward J. Glasgow.
Ed. J., Jr. , Jefferson Clark, Anita D. and Mary Susan, children of William H. Glasgow.
John O'Fallon Clark; Julia, wife of Robert Voohies; Ellen, wife of ,William Lauderdale, and Seddie, deceased, children of George R.H. Clark, deceased.

The eldest son of Charles Gratiot, Sr., and Victoire Chouteau, was born in St. Louis Aug't 29, 1786. In 1804 he was appointed to the Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1806, and was assigned to the Corps of Engineers as Second Lieutenant in October, 1806. In 1808 promoted to Captain. Feb' y, 1815, Major. Lieut.-Colonel in March, 1819. Colonel and Engineer in Chief in May, 1828.

General Gratiot served throughout the war of 1812-15, on the Western frontier, he built Fort Gratiot at the foot of Lake Huron, in Michigan, planned and superintended the erection of Fortress Monroe, where he was stationed many years, and was retired from the Army in December, 1838.

He married in Philadelphia, April 22, 1819, Miss Ann Belin, born in 1799. They were the parents of two daughters.

Mary Victoria, born Feb'y 17, 1820, who married Nov. 1, 1837, C. F. F. DeMontholou, from France.
Julia Augusta, born Sept. 24, 1824, married Nov. 27, 1845, to Charles P. Chouteau, of St. Louis.

General Gratiot died in Washington City. (Laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery)
Mrs. Gen. Gratiot in St. Louis, Dec. 26, 1886, aged 87 years.

The second son of Charles Gratiot, Sr., was born in St. Louis, April 25th, 1789, and when a young man built a house and improved a farm on his father's league square on the King’s Highway, five miles from the Town, where he lived for some years, previous to and after his marriage. He was married Jan'y 21, 1813, to Miss Susan, born in Hebron, Connecticut, Feb'y 20, 1797, youngest daughter of Capt. Stephen Hempstead, Sr., and continued to reside in St. Louis for some years, the most of their children being born here.

In 1825, with his brother John P. B. Gratiot, he went with the rush to the "Fevre River" lead mines at Galena, Ill., and established themselves, at the place named after them "Gratiot's Grove" fifteen miles from Galena in "Wisconsin," where they were for a number of year's extensively engaged in the smelting of lead ore. In after years Col. Gratiot relinquished the "lead business," and turned his attention to farming, being at same time Indian-Agent.

Early in 1836 important public business called him to Washington, which having accomplished, he had just started on his return home when he died very suddenly at Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, April 27, 1836, at the age of 47 years. His widow survived him a number of years, and died June 2, 1854, aged 57 years and 3 months.

Their children were:
Charles H., born in 1814, married, had several children, died in 1883 at Gratiot.
Edward H., born June 19, 1817, married, had 5 or 6 children, died Dec., 1882, at Platteville.
Mary, born in 1821, died a young woman, unmarried.
Susan, born in 1819, married Mr. Child, died Dec., 1843, aged 24.
Henry A., born in 1823, lives in California.
Adelle, born in 1827, married to E. B. Washburne, died in 1887, aged 60.
Stephen H., died in Washington in 1864.
Eliza, died young.

Mrs. Isabelle De Mun died in St. Louis on the 13th of July, 1878, at the residence of her son-in-law, Charles Bland Smith, aged eighty-one years eight months and twenty-eight days, having been born in St. Louis on the fifteenth day of October, 1796, at the old Gratiot mansion, then situated on the northwest corner of Chestnut and Main Streets. Mrs. De Mun was a descendant of one of the most ancient and distinguished families among the early settlers of St. Louis.

Mrs. De Mun's father was Charles Gratiot, one of the most intelligent, eminent, and distinguished citizens of St. Louis. He was born, as stated in his marriage contract, of record in St. Louis, in Lausanne, in the Canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. His family were French Huguenots, and sought refuge in Switzerland, perhaps from religious persecution in their native land. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he came to America, first to Charleston, South Carolina, about the commencement of the Revolutionary war. He came to St. Louis about the beginning of the year 1777, and commenced business as a merchant. On the 25th of June, 1781, Charles Gratiot married Victoire Chouteau, sister of Col. Auguste Chouteau.

Of this marriage nine children were born: four sons, viz., Charles, Henry, John B., and Paul M. Gratiot; and five daughters, to wit, Julie, who married John P. Cabanné; Victoire, who married Sylvestre Labadie; Isabella, who married Jules de Mun; Emelie, who married Pierre Chouteau Jr., and a daughter who married a Mr. Maclot.

Paul M. Gratiot filled the position of judge of the St. Louis County Court for many years, with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the public. John B. Gratoiot died a few years ago, while he was a member of the Legislature of Missouri from Washington County. Of Charles and Henry an account has already been given. They were all gentlemen of great respectability, character, and standing.

Miss Isabelle Gratiot, the subject of this notice, was married to Jules De Mun, in St. Louis, in the year 1811, in the fifteenth year of her age. She was considered, in her day and time, as the most beautiful woman in St. Louis. Charles Gratiot had educated his daughters well, and no lady born and educated within the precincts of court circles was ever more blessed with the rich gifts of pleasing manners and colloquial conversational powers than was Mrs. De Mun.

Of this marriage with Mr. De Mun, six children were born, to wit, Isabelle, who married Edward Walsh, in St. Louis, both of whom are now dead; Julie, who married Antoine Leon Chenie, and who survives her husband; Louisa, wife of Robert A. Barnes; Emilie, wife of Charles Bland Smith, and two other children who died when they were infants. Isabelle De Mun, just deceased, then a little over seven years of age, was the last living mortal who had witnessed the scene of the first planting of the American flag, an account of which has already been given.

The third son of Charles Gratiot, Sen'r, was born in St. Louis, Feb. 19, 1799, and completed his education at the college at Bardstown, Kentucky in 1818. On November 18, 1819, he married Miss Marie Antoinette Adelle Perdreauville, a young lady froln Paris, whose parents had left France after the abdication of Napoleon, succeeding the battle of Waterloo. In 1825, ,with, his Brother Henry, he went to the lead mines near Galena., Illinois, where he was engaged in smelting lead mineral for a number of years. About the year ____ he came back to St. Louis, removed to Washington County and settled on a farm, representing that County in the Legislature in ____.

He had a large family of five sons and four daughters. His oldest daughter, Antoinette, married Edward Hempstead, of Arkansas. His other daughters were Adele, Marie and Mimmie. His sons were René, Theodore, Julius, Adolph and Charles, some of them are married.

He died in St. Louis in the summer of 1876, at the age of 77 years.

The fourth of the numerous sons of old Capt. Stephen Hempstead, Sr., was born in New London, Conn't, in 1793, and came here with his father's family in 1811; he read law in his brother Edward's office until the death of the latter in 1817. After finishing his legal studies he was admitted to practice.

May 15, 1819, he was married to Miss Rachel Wilt, a sister of Christian and Andrew Wilt, born in Philadelphia in 1795. She died Oct. 28, 1823, at the age of 28 years, leaving two sons, Charles and Edward. Mr. Hempstead remained in St. Louis for some years after his wife's death, and about the year 1828 he removed to Galena, Illinois, where he resided for many years until his death at an advanced age but a few years back.

After his removal to Galena, he married a widow Barnes, one of his sons married a daughter of Major John P. B. Gratiot, and settled in Arkansas, Hempstead County, in that State being named from him.

Was born in New London, Connecticut, June 3, 1780, and studied law, and in 1801, admitted to the Bar. After practicing, three years in Rhode Island, he came west in 1804, stopping for a brief period in Vincennes, and then settled in the town of St. Charles. In 1805 he removed to St. Louis, where, in his brief residence of twelve years, he filled many public positions with credit to himself, and satisfaction to the community.

In 1806, he received the appointment of deputy attorney-general for the Districts of St. Louis and St. Charles. In 1809, appointed Attorney-General for the Territory of Upper Louisiana.

1812, June 4, Act of Congress changed the name from Louisiana to Missouri Territory, and Mr. Hempstead was elected its first delegate to Congress from west of the Mississippi.

In 1814. He was Speaker of the Territorial Assembly of Missouri.

Mr. Hempstead was married on Jan'y 13, 1808, to Miss Clarissa, daughter of Louis C. Dubreuil of St. Louis. On August 5, 1817, in returning from St. Charles, where he had been attending the election, Mr. Hempstead was thrown from his horse, and died from congestion resulting from his fall, on Aug. 9, 1817, after a brief illness of a few days, at the age 37 years; leaving no children, they having died young.*

Additional Biography of Hempstead from Bench & Bar of Missouri

* He was interred on Monday the 11th, at his father, Stephen Hempstead, Sr’s., farm (the property of Ed. Hempstead), now forming the north-east portion of Bellefontaine Cemetery, his funeral was the largest that had ever occurred in the country.

Was born in New London, Connecticut, May 6, 1754, and married Mary Lewis, born Feb'y 24, 1757 in that place, where they continued to reside for many years after their marriage and where their numerous family of sons and daughters were all born. In the year 1811 Capt. Hempstead, then in his fifty-seventh year, with the largest portion of his family came to St. Louis where they arrived on June 12, 1811.

Two of his sons had preceded him to St. Louis, Edward and Stephen, Jr., and three sons and three daughters came with him, with some of his grandchildren, while others of his children remained and ended their days in Connecticut.

The sons who came with him were Thomas, Charles S. and William young men and boys, and long afterwards an older one, Joseph.

The daughters were Mary, the widow of Keeney, with a son a lad, and a daughter of Keeney by a former wife.

Sarah, wife of Elijah Beebe, with her husband and children.

Miss Susan, unmarried.

There was also in his party, an Elisha Beebe, a brother of his son-in-law Elijah, also with a young family. So that the Captain's colony numbered twenty souls, and was an event in our early history long remembered and talked of.

Mrs. Stephen Hempstead, Sr., died in St. Louis, Sept. 13, 1820, aged 63.

Capt. Hempstead, Sr., died in St. Louis Oct. 3,. 1831, aged 77 years 5 mos.

Was born in New London, Connectient, May 13, 1787, and was bred a hatter. In 1808, when he had reached 21 years of age, he emigrated to St. Louis, where his brother Edward had gone before him, and where he arrived on July 15, 1808.

In 1819, his brother-in-law Manuel Lisa, a Missouri Fur trader, employed him to take a stock of goods to the mouth of the Yellowstone river, where he remained a considerable time and then returned to St. Louis, and soon after located in St. Charles, where he resided several years. Thence he went to the gold mines of Virginia, thence to Tennessee, and finally back to Missouri in 1861, since which time he has resided in Callaway County.

Mr. S, Hempstead, Jr., was married in January, 1809, at Portage des Sioux, St. Charles County, to Miss Marie Louise Lefevre, of that village. He died at his home in Cal1away County, June 3, 1873, at the age of 86 years and 21 days. He was gored to death by a furious bull.

Thomas Hempstead was a Pay Master, U.S.A. in St. Louis. He had his office with Captain Ganet, Quartermaster, U.S.A., and during his absence on duty Captain Ganet absconded with money belonging to the Pay Department, which Thomas Hempstead's bondsmen had to make good. This event caused him to leave St. Louis saying he would never return until able to refund to them the amount stolen. He is supposed to have gone to one of the West Indian islands and from there to Spain, dying in Cadiz a prisoner of war.

Endeavors to obtain some trace of him through the National State Department met with but little success.

St. Louisians delight to call him "Honest John" and few ever more merited the appellation. Now past his three-score and ten, the greater part of his life has been spent in securing the commercial prosperity of St Louis, enriching others, but only a meager share of the wealth he has drawn to the city fell to him.

John Hogan was born in the town of Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, on the 2nd of January, 1805, where his father Thomas Hogan was extensively engaged in the bakery business - supplying that and the surrounding towns, as also the British troops, with bread. His mother's maiden name was Mary Burke. She was a native of Ireland and died when John was quite young. The father emigrated to America and settled in Baltimore in 1817, where he died soon after. But he had made provisions for his son by binding him an apprentice at the boot and shoe business, under Mr. James Hance. Being poor, he had been unable to give his son any education - indeed, when the boy entered the shoe shop he did not know the alphabet. With rare precocity he recognized the need of an education and set to work zealously to acquire it. The daily newspaper was his primer and a workman in the shop taught him the letters after work-hours at night. John soon could make out to read by "spelling out" the words; but by perseverance and under difficulties that would have discouraged almost any other boy, he soon became a good reader. Every spare moment was devoted to his book; at night after work was done, with his piece of candle, or lying upon his back on the roof utilizing the moonshine, he read while others were asleep or at play. He bought what books he could, but he had, also, access to the Apprentices' Library in Baltimore; besides this he attended regularly a course of lectures delivered for the benefit of apprentice boys in the city. A young comrade introduced him to attend the Calvert Street Asbury Sunday School, and there twice each Sabbath he received great help in his endeavors to learn. Mr. Hogan looks upon that step as fixing his destiny, for it turned his attention to the more sober realities of life, improved and settled his habits and finally led him to become a Christian. He became a teacher himself, and eventually superintendent of one of the country Sunday schools of the organization.

Mr. Hogan united with the Methodist Church in 1821 and in Baltimore was licensed to preach on July 5, 1826. In August of the same year he came West, in company with Bishop Soule and others, and joined the "Illinois Conference" at Bloomington, Indiana. He was appointed to the "Salem" circuit in Washington and parts of the contiguous counties in Indiana. He continued in the itinerancy four years, traveling in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, when he located in St Louis, August, 1830 - having been in the Missouri Conference and on the St Louis circuit during the previous year.

In the fall of 1830 he married Miss Mary West near Belleville, Illinois. This lady was the daughter of Tilghman and Mary West, and the last named was the daughter of Rev Edward Mitchell, of St Clair county, Illinois. By this marriage he has two children, Sophia E and Mary A; Sophia married Mr. Simon L Boogher of the house of Bradford Bro. & Co. of St Louis. This gentleman, besides being one of the best men of St Louis and a very promising young merchant, comes of an old English and Holland family. He was born in Frederick county, Maryland, 1836. His father, Nicholas Boogher, and his grandfather, Jacob Boogher, were also natives of that county. His great-grandfather, of a noble Holland family, came to America about 1650. His mother's maiden name was Rebecca Davis Combs, born in Montgomery county, Maryland, in 1805. Her mother was a grand-daughter of William Richardson, the son of an English nobleman of that name in England, whose family record appears in "Sharpe's Peerage of England". The last named was the son of John.

Note: His 2nd marriage was to Harriet Garner on 18 May 1847, daughter of Joseph V. Garnier and Marie (Sanguinet). He was laid to rest at Bellefontaine Cemetery, his obituary appearing in The New York Times. (See also Politicians for photo & additional biography)

The stepbrother of Col. Thos. F. Riddick above, was born at Suffolk, Virginia, Oct 2, 1789. In 1809 he followed his brother to St. Louis, and was employed as a clerk to assist him in the Land Commissioner’s office.

On Sept. 22, 1810, when not yet quite 21 years of age, he was married to Miss Marie Antoinette, the youngest daughter of Sylvestre Labadie, Sr., deceased.

They lived together for about five years, when from some cause they parted and were divorced in the year 1815.

Mr. Honey was again married on march 13, 1817, at Herculaneum, Jefferson County, to Miss Clarissa, daughter of Mr. Elias Bates, and took up his residence at that place, where he lived until his death on Sept. 2, 1832, at the age of 43 years.

A daughter is the wife of our former Governor Thos. C. Fletcher.

Marie Antoinette Labbadie, after her separation from her first husband, Jno. W. Honey, was married Oct. 19, 1816, to John Little, an Irish gentleman; she died Feb. 18, 1818, after a brief marriage of but 16 months at the early age of 25 years without children.

John Little died in October, 1820.

Updated 26 Sep 2012
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