St. Louis - The Fourth City, Volume 1. Walter Barlow Stevens

on both sides of the river repair to this place as the best market for their produce, and to supply themselves with such articles as they may need. The manners of the inhabitants are not different from those in other villages; we distinctly see the character of the ancient inhabitants and of the new residents and of a compound of both. St. Louis, however, was always a place of more refinement and fashion; it is the residence of many genteel families, both French and American.

      The suburbs of St. Louis at the time of Judge Brackenridge's coming began where Fourth street is today. A favorite walk, which was westward into the country, was described by him. The springs the writer mentioned were not far from where the Wabash railroad now crosses Manchester avenue:

       Looking to the west a most charming country spreads itself before us. It is neither very level nor hilly, but of an agreeable waving surface, and rising for several miles with an ascent almost imperceptible. Except a small belt to the north, there are no trees; the rest is covered with scrubby oak, intermixed with hazels and a few trifling thickets of thorn, crab-apple, or plum-trees. At the first glance we are reminded of the environs of a great city; but there are no country-seats, or even plain farm houses; it is a vast waste, yet by no means a barren soil. Such is the appearance until, turning to the left, the eye again catches the Mississippi. A number of fine springs take their rise here and contribute to the uneven appearance. The greater part drain to the southwest and aid in forming a beautiful rivulet, which, a short distance below the town, gives itself to the river. I have often been delighted, in my solitary walks, to trace the rivulet to its sources. Three miles from town, but within view, among a few tall oaks, it rises in four or five silver fountains, within a short distance of each other, presenting a picture to the fancy of the poet, or the pencil of the painter. I have fancied myself for a moment on classic ground, and beheld the Naiads pouring the stream from their urns. Close to the town there is a fine mill, erected by Mr. Chouteau on this streamlet; the dam forms a beautiful sheet of water, and affords much amusement, in fishing and fowling, to the people of the town. The common field of St. Louis was formerly enclosed on this bank, consisting of several thousand acres; at present there are not more than two thousand under cultivation; the rest of the ground looks like the worn common in the neighborhood of a large town, the grass kept down and short and the loose soil in several places cut open into gaping ravines.

      According to John F. Darby, the original boundary of the town of St. Louis began on the Mississippi river near the mouth of Mill creek, called by the French Petite Riviere, and ran nearly due west to a point on Fourth street about a block from Chouteau avenue. Thence the line ran northwardly to a point near where. the northeast corner of the Southern hotel is located, the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, where there was a fortification and round tower. In Spanish times it was the jail or prison house of the government, and it was continued as a jail by the American authorities till the year 1818, when the new jail was built where the Laclede hotel now stands. The old round tower was about forty or fifty feet high, and, standing as it did on the brow of the hill with no building to obstruct, was a prominent object seen from a distance. The west line of the town then ran northwardly from this point nearly to the southwest corner of what is now Third street and Washington avenue, where there was another stone fort. Thence northwardly the line ran to the eastern line of Third street at Cherry, where there was a large fortification called the bastion. That fortification occupied the most ground and was by far the best of the forts, being built strongly of stone; it looked solid and formidable. From that point the line ran nearly due east, a little north, to Roy's tower on the bank of the river. That tower was large and round, of stone, forty or fifty feet high. The southern, western and northern boundaries as thus marked had been enclosed by pickets ten or twelve feet high, firmly planted in the ground and at different points were gates. At night these gates were secured and guarded. In the year 1818 the pickets were gone but the stone fortifications remained.

      John F. Darby was a small boy when his father moved from North Carolina in 1818. His recollections of the two fine mansions of the town were vivid:

       Colonel Auguste Chouteau had an elegant domicile fronting on Main street. His dwelling and bouses for his servants occupied the whole square bounded north by Market street, east by Main street, south by what is now known as Walnut street, and on the west by Second street. The whole square was enclosed by a solid stone wall two feet thick and ten feet high, with port holes about every ten feet apart, through which to shoot Indians in case of attack. The walls of Colonel Chouteau's mansion were two and a half feet thick, of solid stone work; two stories high, and surrounded by a large piazza or portico about fourteen feet wide, supported by pillars in front and at the two ends. The house was elegantly furnished, but at that time not one of the rooms was carpeted. In fact no carpets were then used in St. Louis. The floors of the house were made of black walnut, and were polished so finely that they reflected like a mirror. Colonel Chouteau had a train of servants, and every morning after breakfast some of those inmates of his household were down on their knees for hours, with brushes and wax, keeping the floors polished. The splendid abode with its surrounding had indeed the appearance of a castle.

       Major Pierre Chouteau also had an elegant domicile, built after the same manner and of the same materials. lie, too, occupied a whole square with his mansion, bounded on the east by Main street, on the south by what is known as Vine street, on the west by Second street, and on the north by what is now known as Washington avenue, the whole square being enclosed with high solid stone walls and having port-holes, in like manner as his brother's.

       The town of St. Louis, at that time, contained about two thousand inhabitants, two-thirds of whom were French and one-third Americans. The prevailing language of the white persons on the street was French; the negroes of the town all spoke French. All the inhabitants used French to the negroes, their horses and dogs; and used the same tongue in driving their ox-teams. They used no ox yokes and bows, as the Americans did, in hitching their oxen to wagons and carts; but instead had a light piece of wood about two or three inches thick and about five feet long, laid on the necks of the oxen, close up to the horns of the animals, and this piece of wood was fastened to the horns by leather straps, making them pull by the head instead of the neck and shoulders. In driving their horses and cattle they used the words "chuck! " and "see!" "marchdeau!" which the animals all perfectly understood.

      One of the most notable landmarks of the town of St. Louis disappeared in 1873, when the old Missouri hotel was razed, to give place to a business structure. In its day this was the finest hotel in the west. It was commenced in 1817 and was completed two years later. When the property passed into the hands of Major Biddle an addition was built to increase the accommodations. The major went east and procured a professional hotel keeper, who opened the house with an equipment and appointments which made it the hotel of the Mississippi valley.

      The first legislature under the state's constitution met in this hotel. The first governor, Alexander McNair, and the first lieutenant-governor, Wm. Ashley, were inaugurated there. The first United States senators, David Barton and Thos. H. Benton, were elected there. When the question of Missouri's admission to the United States was pending the new political organization was spoken of frequently by the orators, who addressed their fellow legislators in the old hotel, "as being, by the grace of God, free and independent."

      Capacity for self-government was shown in Laclede's time. Under the Spanish flag the lieutenant-governors ruled by the consent of and with the support of the habitants rather than by any aggressive form of military authority. When the American flag was raised public affairs went on according to established customs. The squad of soldiers who came with the American captain had no turbulence or revolutionary spirit to deal with. When, after a long interim, .Missouri was admitted to the Union, the first governor, McNair, in his opening message could not refrain from comment upon this same self-reliant spirit, this self-governing trait, which had carried the community through every political crisis:

      "Since the first organization of this government," said Governor McNair, "we have exhibited to the American people a spectacle novel and peculiar — an American Republic on the confines of the Federal Union, exercising all the powers of sovereign government, with no actual political connection with the .United States and nothing