Ste. Genevieve
Some ten to fifteen years after the founding of Ste. Genevieve, the signature of Treaty of Paris in 1763 marking the end of the French and Indian War (called the Seven Years’ War in Europe) meant that the French no longer laid claim to their colony in North America but transferred most of that claim to the British. However, not all of what France had claimed became British. In a significant move for what would become the state of Missouri, everything west of the Mississippi River (in addition to the town of New Orleans) became part of the Spanish empire. This meant that Ste. Genevieve and its residents became subjects of the Spanish crown, although it would be several years before representatives of the Spanish administration assumed command in the region.
This change did have an effect on the population of Ste. Genevieve, as the population of the village went up considerably between the 1752 census (when nine families lived there) and one taken by the Spanish administrators in 1772. On the east side of the Mississippi River, towns like Kaskaskia were now part of the British Empire, and apparently a fair number of the French-speaking habitants of those towns did not wish to live under British rule, and chose to move to the territory claimed by Spain, today’s Missouri. It appears as though movement across the Mississippi River from the now-British villages on the east side also accelerated as the British crown designated the formerly French territory, except for Quebec, as “Indian Territory” and forbade other residents to stay there without permission. For their part, Spanish authorities (once they arrived) welcomed the French-speaking newcomers.
The rate of increase in the population of Ste. Genevieve rose again after 1786, when the British colony on the east side of the river became part of the new United States of America. The French-speaking habitants were more comfortable with what the Spanish crown had to offer at a time of considerable unrest among the Native people in the Illinois territory. In addition, the American newcomers to the region were culturally quite different from the French-speakers. The French-speaking habitants were also worried that the United States might outlaw slavery in the territory, for many of them were owners of enslaved Native or black people.
Who were the residents of the growing village? At the head of administration during the Spanish period were a military commandant, Philippe Rastel de Rocheblave, and a civil judge, François Vallé père, who became one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of the town. A 1791 Spanish census shows that, though agriculture was the most important economic activity for the town, there were many artisans in residence: blacksmiths, coopers, cabinetmakers, masons, and so forth. There were also inhabitants who were more itinerant: traders and boatmen, for example. Some Ste. Genevieve residents could read and write, but many were illiterate. As was the case for all of the French-speaking villages in North America, there were both black and Native slaves in Ste. Genevieve. Some of the wealthier families had between ten and twenty enslaved people. In addition, similar to the population of the Illinois Country villages of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, there were multiple mixed relationships between French-speaking men and Native women. The village was thus a place of varied population.
A town situated so near the Mississippi River was naturally subject to periodic flooding. Beginning already in the 1770s, floods cut into the common fields, but disastrous floods occurring in the mid-1780s caused the residents to move to a new site some two miles north, where the town of Ste. Genevieve is located today.
Within the village, houses were built on lots surrounded by fences. A number of these houses have been preserved, and several can be visited today: examples are the Guibord-Vallé House, constructed in 1806, the Bauvais-Amoureux House, constructed in 1792, the Jean-Baptiste Vallé House, built in 1794, and the Green Tree Tavern, built in 1790. These residences were constructed in the poteaux en terre style typical of the French Illinois Country and Louisiana colonies. In this construction technique, upright pickets or posts were inserted in the ground and the area between them filled with a mix of straw and clay or stones and mortar. (Alternatively, in the poteaux sur sol type, which was also sometimes used, the upright pickets were inserted into a beam on the ground.) Often the houses were surrounded by galleries, sometimes on all four sides.
The parish church of Ste. Genevieve played an important role in the everyday lives of the residents. The town had a church building—constructed in the vertical log style—from its earliest days, and when the new town was constructed, a new log structure was erected. In the years before 1800, there was not always a priest in residence, but from the earliest days church records memorialized births and baptisms, marriages and deaths, and the church year provided a rhythm of feast days from Christmas and Easter to Corpus Christi, Pentecost, and Assumption, among others, occasions for celebrations.
As time passed, more Americans moved into the area of Ste. Genevieve, although many lived in outlying areas surrounding the town. When all of Spanish Louisiana became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the movement of Americans into the area accelerated. Nonetheless, the French-speaking population and their culture remained at the heart of life in Ste. Genevieve until the middle of the nineteenth century, and today the town retains many links, both physical and cultural, to its French colonial past, with numerous events celebrating this heritage occurring each year. Residents like Robert “Bob” Mueller tell of the old tradition of “le bouillon dansant,” a party where neighbors would “make merry” with chicken bouillon being served, at times, in place of coffee.
St. Louis
On the east side of the Mississippi, when Fort de Chartres was turned over to the British in late 1765 its French commander, Louis St. Ange de Bellerive (who had been commander at Fort St. Orleans on the Missouri River as well as at Post Vincennes on the Wabash), came to the fledgling settlement of St. Louis as its chief military and civil authority. Over the next few years, as the Spanish crown gradually put in place their administrators for the entire Louisiana territory and the Upper Louisiana region that included Missouri, St. Ange oversaw the growth of the post and town, as many French-speakers moved across the river to avoid life under British rule.
Early descriptions and maps show that there were two main streets paralleling the Mississippi with several streets intersecting them at right angles. The village had a public square and a church fairly early on, although St. Louis’ first baptism, in 1766, took place in a tent. The first church, an upright log building—which historians think probably looked much like the Church of the Holy Family at Cahokia, Illinois—was on the site of today’s “Old Cathedral.” St. Louis soon became an official parish.
St. Louis was organized in a fashion typical for the Illinois Country, and similar to that of Ste. Genevieve: residences in town, a large fenced ground for agricultural lots, and a common field for grazing. In-town lots were typically fenced, and held small houses as well as, often, smaller outbuildings. The housing style, as at Ste. Genevieve, was primarily poteaux-en-terre or post-in-ground. The agricultural lots were individually held, though the fence surrounding the field area—intended to keep wandering pigs, cattle, and other livestock out of the cultivated fields—was maintained in common. The farm lots were also in the “long lot” style that was so typical of French communities throughout North America: lots were 180 to 360 feet wide by nearly a mile deep. For grazing, a number of common fields outside of town were used. When the Spanish crown did in fact send officials to oversee the town, they respected the land grants that had been previously approved.
St. Louis was primarily a merchant town rather than an agricultural center, and, as the capital of Spanish Upper Louisiana, saw much traffic related to the fur trade. Both Laclède and Chouteau became important businessmen in the town. They owned considerable property and goods but did not hold government positions. The town’s population grew quickly: a 1776 census counted 56 households, which included 257 civilians, the majority of whom were male, as well as 75 slaves. By 1779 there were around 700 residents, and over 1,400 in 1787.
It was a varied population. There was a significant number of enslaved people, both Native and African: one count puts the percentage of Native slaves at over 15% of the total population in 1770. There were many more men of European background than women of European background, with around three men to every woman. As was the case everywhere in the Illinois Country—on both sides of the Mississippi—there were many mixed relationships. Marriages or non-marital unions between French or French-Canadian men and Native women were the most common of these mixed unions. Even as the town came to be governed by Spanish authorities, the character of the town didn’t change. It remained a place typical of the Illinois County and its French and French-Canadian customs and culture.
The trade in peltries that first the French and then the Spanish wanted to develop was primarily upstream—up the Mississippi but especially up the Missouri River. As always, this involved creating and maintaining relationships with the Native people who inhabited that land. To that end, there were frequent visits to St. Louis by groups of Native people, particularly as leadership passed from France to Spain, and Native people—savvy trade partners—wanted to take the measure of their new customers. The city saw visits from Missouria, Kickapoos, Osage, Mascoutens, and others seeking to create and consolidate relationships. The ensuing cultural encounters were not always easy to negotiate, but they did make the town a lively and varied place, and St. Louis did not see violence related to these occasions.
The American Revolution did, on the other hand, bring violence to St. Louis in 1780. Spain had declared its alliance with the Americans and their allies the French. Consequently, in May 1780 the town was attacked by a contingent of British-allied Native people and fur traders who had originally organized out of Michilimackinac in Michigan and then came down the Mississippi to St. Louis from Prairie du Chien. In preparation for the encounter the Spanish knew would come, they built a single stone tower as a fortification—it was called Fort San Carlos. The battle, which lasted only one day, saw the small Spanish garrison augmented by militiamen sent by François Vallé from the Ste. Genevieve militia. The forces defending St. Louis carried the day and the attackers retreated to the north. In October 1800, Spain retroceded Spanish Louisiana to France, though the change made little difference in the administration of the town.
The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France and in 1804, the Spanish flag was lowered, the French flag raised and then lowered, and finally the American flag was raised over Missouri. St. Louis was at first governed as part of Indiana Territory and then became the territorial capital of the U.S. Louisiana Territory. The town continued to be an important spot for the fur trade, but the dominant French culture began to change as Americans and others immigrated and the economy diversified. The land on which the early French town had been established is situated at the site of the present Gateway Arch National Park, constructed in the 1960s, so essentially no vestiges of the early town remain.
La Vieille Mine (Old Mines)
Early French visitors to Missouri learned of the existence of mineral deposits not far from Ste. Genevieve, in the Meramac River area. Mention is made of this in 1700 by Jesuit Father Jacques Gravier, who was working out of Kaskaskia. As locating mineral wealth was one of the key hopes that the French held for their colony, in 1715 the governor of Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, came north to search for silver mines in the Illinois Country. He and his men did some preliminary digging in what is now Madison County, Missouri, after following Saline Creek upstream from where it flows near Ste. Genevieve. They found no silver there, but a few years later Philippe de la Renaudière began lead mining in what is today Washington County. Frenchman Philippe François Renault came soon after and, in 1723, received a grant to mine in the area. The Old Mines Historical Society has some evidence in their collection which suggests that there were French-speakers mining there as early as the late 17th century, prior to the Renault grant. It is likely that these earlier miners were successful enough to warrant the successful application for official permission from the French king.
The first known mention of the village of Old Mines dates from 1748: it’s in records of Ste. Anne’s church at Fort de Chartres. Sometime in the mid-1770s the mine called Mine à Breton, located not far from Old Mines was inaugurated, and the village of Mine à Breton sprang up. Surface mining, work with picks and shovels, was the extraction method until Virginia miner Moses Austin arrived in the early 1800s and the first shafts were sunk to extract the mineral. According to representatives from ther Old Mines Historical Society, local residents continued to mine the shallow deposits using small shafts well into the 20th century.
Lead production grew at the mines of La Vieille Mine during the first part of the nineteenth century, though production waned by the mid-1800s. The communities remained quite isolated, and the French language continued to be used on a daily basis until the twentieth century.
The dialect that developed here is familiarly known as “pawpaw” or Missouri French and, though the number of speakers has waned, residents of the area are proud of their heritage, holding festivals and other events to commemorate and celebrate their French past. Singer and fiddle player Dennis Stroughmatt has become a musical ambassador for the traditions, language, and culture of this Missouri community. The film “C’est pu comme ça anymore” by Michel Brault and André Gladu, released in 1977, showcases French speakers from Old Mines as the French tradition continues in culture and music. It can be viewed here.
Cape Girardeau
Another community on the Mississippi River with French origins is Cape Girardeau in what is today southeast Missouri. It takes its name from fur trader Jean Baptiste de Girardot who established a trading post there in the early part of the eighteenth century. The settlement grew after the arrival of Pierre-Louis Lorimier in the last decade of the eighteenth century. Lorimier, who had worked in the fur trade and established posts in what are now Ohio and Indiana, had come to the area just south of Ste. Genevieve in the late 1780s.
He had served the British crown during the Revolutionary War and came to the region west of the Mississippi—then Spanish territory— in response to the flood of Americans moving into Ohio and Indiana. He then moved south to Cape Girardeau, where he formed a militia at the request of the Spanish authorities. He also carried out trading activities. The settlement grew with the arrival of Americans from across the Mississippi, and after the territory became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase, Lorimier stayed on, running his fur trade business and farming the land he had been granted.
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