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Pictures and Illustrations.

Future Great City

L. U. Reavis

Office of the Tribune

Daniel Randall Garrison

General William T. Sherman

B. Gratz Brown

Hon. Carl Schurz

Captain John J. Roe

Francis P. Blair

James H. Lucas

James Harrison

James L. D. Morrison

Erastus Wells

Louis Vital Bogy

Thomas Allen

General William S. Harney

James B. Eads

Britton A. Hill

Joseph L. Stephens

Thomas H. Benton

Hudson E. Bridge

George R. Taylor

William S. Pope

Samuel Gaty

James Preston Beck

A. W. Slayback

Lee R. Shryock

Adam Hammer, M. D.

David P. Rowland

Stilson Hutchins

Auguste Amedee Mellier

Capt. Henry J. Moore

Josiah G. McClellan

Thomas Kennard, President of the St. Louis Medical Society

Charles Henry Peck

Frank G. Porter, M. D.

H. W. Leffingwell

Ralph Sellew

Western Brewery, Wm. J. Lemp, Proprietor

Western Engraving Company, St. Louis. Steel Plate and Lithography. Democrat Building, Fourth and Pine Sts. C. C. Cheney, Prest. James Lawton, Secy. A. A. Meredith, Treas.

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Dedication.

TO
DANIEL RANDALL GARRISON:

A citizen great in the attributes of manhood; one who has woven out from his individuality, his superior brain and restless activity, a large contribution to the city of my theme, and to my country; one who, in building up his own fortunes, has impressed his character upon many material interests, and who gives promise of still greater usefulness in the future:

THIS VOLUME,
Which illustrates a fadeless hope, and a profound conviction in the future of St. Louis, is respectfully inscribed by
THE AUTHOR.

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Preface.

IN presenting to the public a new work, more ambitious and comprehensive than anything of a similar character yet issued, a few words relative to its scope and its design are deemed essential to a proper appreciation among those who know the circumstances under which the labor has been performed, and the purpose which the work is designed to subserve.

In its character and scope, the work is designed to be commensurate with, and representative of, the fame and material grandeur of St. Louis. To this end the information and the arguments have been grouped in general departments, and each of these has been treated with such elaboration as its importance seemed to demand.

In the history of the city, the greater attention has been given to that dim traditionary period, the record of which is fragmentary, and which, therefore, requires our efforts to preserve from that decay which follows all events inscribed only in the recollection of men. The records of our later history as a city, have been too fully and voluminously kept to run the risk of oblivion, and their elaboration is left to some future historian.

The statistics and facts, which set forth the present advancement of St. Louis in her material growth, have been collected with care, and are presented without exaggeration or any unnecessary ornament. In their simplicity they are eloquent of a present full of grandeur, and a future glowing with brighter promise than the achievements of the past can even measure. In that promise, so plainly to be read, so far on its way to fulfillment, I see the consummation of my great ambition for the city of my home, the city of my ardent hope and love.

That portion of the work devoted to biography, embellished, as it is, with the best productions of the engraver's art, is designed to be a faithful reflex of the moving force, the life and soul behind the marble, the iron and the brick, that in stately piles typify the swelling power of a new and wonderful civilization planted upon a congenial soil. As a whole, it is no egotism to say that it constitutes a mine of information and instruction from which may be gathered some of the choicest events and episodes in the history of our country, and some of the brightest examples of well-directed endeavor. In this department, so essential to history, there will be found neither flattery nor unmerited compliment, but such a representation as conscientious performance of a worthy labor can alone produce. Could we subtract biography from all history, we would have left but a succession of barren facts, in which there

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would be nothing to attract our sympathies or to guide our judgment. It is, therefore, becoming in those who record the efforts of individuals, to do so with a full sense of their responsibility, and in the consciousness that the teaching conveyed will grow stronger with each succeeding generation.

Actuated by these deep convictions this work has been prepared, and I therefore trust that its usefulness will extend far beyond my own times, and that when it is looked upon as a memento of the past, it will also be regarded as a prophecy that has met a triumphant fulfillment.

With a full conviction that the city of London is not fixed in history as the final great city of the world, but that it heralds the one great city of the future, which all civilization is now hastening to build up on this continent, as the culminating work of the westward movement of the world's people on the globe, it is with heart-felt gratitude that I have been enabled to see some good results, as I believe, come to the public from my own labors. Especially am I grateful for the achievement won in being able to send out this volume to my people, representing, as it does, so much of their life and greatness — a people who, I believe, will in turn kindly regard it, and be charitable in criticism, and generous in promoting its usefulness.

In determining who was worthy of a place in the book, counsel has been taken of old citizens, most competent to judge, and while it cannot be claimed that it is complete in including all who are worthy a place in its pages, it is yet representative in its presentation of those of our citizens who have illustrated and influenced our advancement in the higher walks of business and professional life.

In the preparation of this work, it is but just to say that I have received valuable assistance from Messrs. RICHARD T. BRADLEY, JOHN S. DORMER, and Colonel E. H. E. JAMESON, gentlemen well known, not only in St. Louis but throughout the country, for their ability and scholarly attainments, their experience in journalism, and their literary accomplishments.

L. U. REAVIS.

AUGUST 1, 1875.

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An Explanatory Word.

THIS WORK IS DESIGNED TO BE A PRESENTATION OF CAUSES IN NATURE AND CIVILIZATION, WHICH, IN THEIR RECIPROCAL ACTION, WILL FIX THE POSITION OF THE FUTURE GREAT CITY OF THE WORLD IN THE CENTRAL PLAIN OF NORTH AMERICA; SHOWING THAT THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD'S COMMERCE AND CIVILIZATION WILL, IN LESS THAN ONE HUNDRED YEARS, MOVE FORWARD IN ITS WESTWARD CAREER, AND BE ORGANIZED AND REPRESENTED IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, AND BY ST. LOUIS, OCCUPYING, AS SHE DOES, THE MOST FAVORABLE POSITION ON THE CONTINENT AND THE GREAT RIVER.

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Prophetic Voices About St. Louis.

St. Louis alone would be an all-sufficient theme; for who can doubt that this prosperous metropolis is destined to be one of the mighty centers of our mighty Republic. — CHARLES SUMNER.


Fair St. Louis, the future Capital of the United States, and of the civilization of the Western Continent. — JAMES PARTON.


A glance at the map of the United States shows what an interesting place St. Louis is destined to become, when the white population has spread itself more westwardly from the Mississippi, and up and along the Missouri River, perhaps it may yet become the capital of a great nation. — DUKE OF SAXE-WEIMAR EISENACH, "Travels in North America in 1825-26."


NEW YORK TRIBUNE,
NEW YORK, February 4, 1870.

DEAR SIR — I have twice seen St. Louis in the middle of winter. Nature made her the focus of a vast region, embodying a vast area of the most fertile soil of the globe. Man will soon accomplish her destiny by rendering her the seat of an immense industry, the home of a far-reaching, ever-expanding commerce. Her gait is not so rapid as that of some of her Western sisters, but she advances steadily and surely to her predestined station of first inland city on the globe.

Yours,
HORACE GREELEY.

L. U. REAVIS, Esq., Missouri.


I also remember that I am in the city of St. Louis — destined, ere long, to be the great city on the continent (renewed cheers); the greatest central point between the East and the West, at once destined to be the entrepot and depot of all the internal commerce of the greatest and most prosperous country the world has ever seen; connected soon with India by the Pacific, and receiving the goods of China and Japan; draining, with its immense rivers centering here, the great Northwest, and opening into the Gulf through the great river of this nation, the Father of Waters — the Mississippi. Whenever — and that time is not far distant — the internal commerce shall exceed our foreign commerce, then shall St. Louis take the very first rank among the cities of the nation. And that time, my friends, is much sooner than any one of us at the present time actually realizes. Suppose that it had been told to you — any one of you here present, of middle age, within twenty years past, that within that time such a city should grow up here, with such a population as covers the teeming prairies of Illinois and Indiana, between this and the Ohio, who would have realized the prediction? And so the next quarter of a century shall see a larger population west of the Mississippi than the last quarter of a century saw east of the Mississippi; and the city of St. Louis, from its central location, and through the vigor, the energy, the industry and the enterprise of its inhabitants, shall become the very first city of the United States of America, now and hereafter destined to be the great Republican nation of the world. — GEN. B. F. BUTLER.


St. Louis is surrounded with dilapidated fortifications, which were at no period in a complete condition. The town is now in a state of very rapid improvement. Its situation is not only advantageous, but interesting; occupying a point where so many vast rivers mingle their streams, an increasing, rapid and lasting prosperity is promised to this town. Including Louisiana, St. Louis is the most central town yet built in the American Union. It may be in the course of human events the seat of empire, and no position can be more favorably situated for the accumulation of all that comprises wealth and power. — WILLIAM DARBY, 1818.


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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, ST. LOUIS. MO., July 16, 1875.

L. U. Reavis, Esq., St. Louis, Mo.:

DEAR SIR — I have your letter of July 15 asking me to express to you some thoughts about this city as the great city of the world.

This is a big subject, and too large for me to grapple. I have every faith in the future of St. Louis, and have in part shown sincerity by making it my home, and the future home of my family.

I know that you are engaged in preparing a work on this subject, and I beg you will excuse me if I ask you to deal with my name in this connection as lightly as possible. My office is national. I may be ordered from one part to the other of the United States on a minute's warning, and cannot claim to be my own master. Therefore I must not localize myself; I must not claim for St. Louis what other places have a perfect right to claim for themselves.

I know your intense earnestness, and hope you are right in your prognostications, and that you will make your work a credit to the city and to your self.

With great respect, your obedient servant,
W. T. SHERMAN, General


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IF it were asked whose anticipations of what has been done to advance civilization, for the past fifty years, have come nearest the truth — those of the sanguine and hopeful, or those of the cautious and fearful — must it not be answered that none of the former class had been sanguine and hopeful enough to anticipate the full measure of human progress since the opening of the present century? May it not be the most sanguine and hopeful only, who, in anticipation, can attain a due estimation of the measure of future change and improvement in the grand march of society and civilization westward over the continent?

The general mind is faithless of what goes much beyond its own experience. It refuses to receive, or it receives with distrust, conclusions, however strongly sustained by facts and fair deductions, which go much beyond its ordinary range of thought. It is especially skeptical and intolerant toward the avowal of opinions, however well founded, which are sanguine of great future changes. It does not comprehend them, and therefore refuses to believe; but it sometimes goes further, and, without examination, scornfully rejects. To seek for the truth is the proper object of those who, for the past and present, undertake to say what will be the future, and, when the truth is found, to express it with as little reference to what will be thought of it as if putting forth the solution of a mathematical problem.

J. W. SCOTT.

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Saint Louis: The Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. Letter from Judge Nathaniel Holmes.

L. U. Reavis, Esq.:

DEAR SIR — Since you do me the honor to suppose that any ideas on the subject of your book may have some value, or some interest, I venture to lay the following observations before you for what they may be worth.

The great cities of the world were not built in a day. The populous cities of the ancient world were, indeed, situated in the fertile valleys of great rivers, and far from the sea — as Thebes and Memphis on the Nile, Ayodha on the Ganges, and Babylon and Nineveh on the plains of Mesopotamia; and some others again, like the primeval Sogd and Balkh, upon elevated interior plateaus. They were the work of centuries, and some of them survived the vicissitudes of several thousand years. The strides of the central marts of European commerce from Alexandria to Venice, to Lisbon, to Amsterdam, to London, are measured by periods of centuries. Population and trade move at more rapid rates in our time. Imagination easily leaps over a thousand years. It is not impossible that our city of St. Louis may be "the future great city of the world," but if we are to come to practical facts for our day and generation, and take the safe and sure way. I think we may be content to set it down as both the present and future great city of the Mississippi Valley.

The first leading feature that impresses me is this: that St. Louis is a central mart, seated on the great southern water line of transport and traffic, by the river, the gulf, and the ocean; and that Chicago is another, less central or quite eccentric, situated at the end of the great northern line of traffic and travel, by the lakes, canals and rivers to the sea. Both are, and will be, great centers for internal distribution; but St. Louis is, or will be, in all the future, in this, the more central and important of the two. For exportation of products, Chicago has been, of recent years, the greater in quantity and value: but St. Louis, in this, has of late rapidly approached her, and in the near future may be expected even to surpass the City of the Lakes. Both

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reach out over the vast, fertile areas extending from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, and from the northern boundary to the Gulf of Mexico, to grasp in the growing trade of the Valley, both of import and export. Chicago reaches out by railroads; St. Louis by both railroads and rivers. And here it may be well to mark the changes that have taken place in the last thirty-five years or so.

In 1839 (say), Chicago had vessels on the lakes (there were no railroads in those days), and had some four or five thousand inhabitants gathered upon a mud flat at the mouth of a deep ditch; and a traveler could go by stage to La Salle, or Peoria, and thence by steamer to St. Louis; or he could take the stage to Detroit, if he thought the voyage through Lake Huron would be too long, or if the lakes were frozen up. Galena, the chief town of the Upper Mississippi, was nearly beyond all practical access from that quarter, and her rich productions in lead, and all her trade, had to come down the river to St. Louis. St. Louis then had some sixteen thousand inhabitants, spreading over beautiful slopes and levels, and rested on solid foundations of building rock and brick earth, and commanded the whole navigation and trade of the rivers, from New Orleans to the falls of St. Anthony, and from Pittsburg to where Fort Benton now is, and beyond to the region of furs, and up and down the Illinois, the Arkansas, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee rivers. As to navigation, it was all the same thing then, and is now, and always will be, as if all these rivers met at one common point of junction, here at St. Louis; for each one, counting the Upper and the Lower Mississippi as two, had then, and still has, its own distinct trade and class of steamboats. But then, too, the greater part of Illinois and Michigan, nearly the whole of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, all Nebraska and Kansas, and the entire region westward to the Rocky Mountains and to the Pacific Ocean, was a wide, howling wilderness, and a mere hunting ground for the Indians.

There was, of course, a large internal traffic, and a very considerable import and export through New Orleans and the sea, and through Pittsburg and the Ohio, to the Eastern cities and to Europe, and to Brazil and the Islands and shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Emigration swarmed to the West from all the States of the Union, and from half the States in Europe. It astonished none but the blind that the population of the city of St. Louis grew, in twenty years, from sixteen to one hundred and sixty thousand. That in ten years more (from 1860 to 1870), during the war period, it grew to 310,000, might well astonish the most sanguine. Nearly all the heavy groceries (salt, sugar, molasses, coffee, etc.,) from Louisiana, the West Indies and Brazil, and a large part of the heavier kinds of merchandise from Europe (iron, tin, hardware, crockery, liquors, German gimcracks included,) were then, as they are now (with the addition of many other leading articles), and will continue to be, more and more, in the future, imported, either directly, or more or less indirectly, into St. Louis, and distributed from this market; and the bulky products of the surrounding country, that could be spared to go abroad,

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were exported mainly by the same channels. Such manufactures as could be made here, and were in demand for the Western country, rapidly grew up, and the manufacturers (as of stoves, castings, saddlery, mill machinery, steamboat machinery, white lead and oil, refined sugar, bagging and bale rope, tobacco, etc., etc.,) grew rich. And St. Louis had overtaken Cincinnati before the war. Five years ago, the value of the imports paying duties here or at New Orleans, was five millions; this last year it was eleven millions. This must be taken as simply the small beginnings.

The railroad system, in its westward movement, embraced Chicago first; the regions immediately around Chicago first became the more densely settled and cultivated; and Eastern capital pushed her railroads out in all directions, largely taking away the trade of the Northwest from the rivers and St. Louis, and they had extended them even into Northern Missouri when the war shut up the Mississippi, and also stopped the progress of our incipient railroads; and then, of course, the larger part of the trade went to Chicago, because it could go nowhere else. In the earlier days of the railroad era, you may have heard, it was with great difficulty that a charter could be obtained from the Illinois Legislature for the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, to terminate at St. Louis. Alton was to be the future great city. The Chicago and Alton Railroad had to stop short at Alton, and so the Alton and Terre Haute Railroad; but at length some shrewd operators managed to get a new charter for a new road from Alton to Belleville, leaving the route so vaguely defined by the bill, that it admitted of being so warped to one side in the location as to touch the river opposite to St. Louis, on its way to Belleville; and so the terminus was practically established where the exigencies of commerce required it to be. The result now, is a second railroad straight from St. Louis to Terre Haute, and a great bridge for the accommodation of that and all the rest, which now seek a common depot in the heart of the city. In like manner, the Illinois Central Railroad was to be of no particular benefit to St. Louis. Cairo was to be another great city, and outstrip St. Louis. Now, practically, St. Louis is a principal terminus of that road, and it runs trains in and out to Cairo, Chicago, Dubuque and Sioux City — for such are the laws of trade and the exigencies of human affairs. Gradually, also, and more recently, the great lines of railroad running westwardly through Canada and from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, have been hauling down from the North, and stretching directly in straight, consolidated lines to the common central terminus at St. Louis. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, by the mouth of the Big Sandy River and Louisville, is fast coming, also; and the Southeastern (St. Louis and Nashville), reaches into Georgia and South Carolina, practically terminating at Charleston — two new spokes of the wheel. The war times built the Grand Central and Union Pacific Railroad, but it had to terminate at Omaha or nowhere, and go straight on to Chicago and the East. It was probably not expected to do St. Louis much good; but St. Louis has tapped it at Omaha, and will soon strike it at Fort Kearney, by two or three

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distinct lines, nearly straight, in continuation of the Missouri Pacific and the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railroads, the great western and northwestern spokes of the wheel, and one hundred and fifty miles, at least, shorter than from the same point to Chicago (not forgetting the Kansas Pacific Railroad to Denver and Cheyenne); and, again, it may be anticipated that the exigencies of trade and commerce will make that road, also, so far tributary to St. Louis as the great central mart may require.

In the meantime, while the incubus of war is scarcely yet lifted, and many people are but half awake to the coming future, still dozing in the penumbra of the depression period (as if it were to last forever), St. Louis, I observe, has run out several important spokes of the great railroad wheel whereof she is the hub, or they have been run into St. Louis, stretching southeast, southwest, south, west, northwest, northeast, and north — to nearly all points of the compass — and when all are completed that are now in progress, or in prospect at no very distant day, they will present the wondrous spectacle of long lines of railroad radiating from the centre to the circumference, not merely of this valley but of the whole United States. It is even now made apparent to any one, by a glance at your map, showing the direction of the more prominent lines of railroad, that such another railroad centre as St. Louis is now, or is fast becoming, is not possible on the map of the United States.

So extensive a system of railroads cannot be completed in a day. The wonder is, that so much has been done in the short period since the war. It matters little whether it be the work of St. Louis capital or of foreign capital. Commercially, St. Louis is scarcely one generation old. In the Eastern cities are the accumulations of one or two centuries. The capital accumulated here, however large, is all employed in the immediate business of the city. The vast amount required for this rapid construction of long lines of railroad, must come chiefly from abroad. Meantime, it is not surprising that the business men of St. Louis turn their faces to the South and Southwest, where they have an almost exclusive monopoly of the trade, rather than to the North and Northwest, where they come into more stringent competition with Chicago and the Eastern cities. Everything cannot be done at once. At present the people of the Northwest are left to do mainly what they can for themselves to reach St. Louis. They have the rivers and some railroads already, and the important river improvements now in progress will offset in some degree the obstructions of railroad bridges, and more railroads are soon to come.

The Chicago railroads stretch directly westward across the Mississippi to the Missouri River, and some of them are bending southward through Missouri and Kansas, toward Texas and New Mexico. The St. Louis railroads cross them from north round to west, and in the race for competition it comes to the question here, to what extent, and in what kinds of merchandise, either central mart can command the advantage in traffic. Besides the St. Louis. Alton and Chicago, the St. Louis, Jacksonville and Peoria, and Louisiana,

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Quincy and Burlington, and the St. Louis, Rockford and Rock Island Railroads, two great northern spokes of the wheel, the St. Louis, Hannibal, Keokuk and Burlington Railroad, reaching by Cedar Falls to St. Paul, and by Galesburg to Chicago, and the northern branch of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railroad, reaching by the Central Railroad, of Iowa, to St. Paul and Duluth, not to mention others, are now nearing completion. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad has, no doubt, been built in the interest of the North and East; but the practical result, so far, is a terminus at St. Louis. To the extent that it will pay best, it may be expected to remain there. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad has been constructed so far, probably, with little or no idea of conferring any special benefit upon St. Louis, but rather because the company saw money in the enterprise, and believed it would be a paying institution, even for capitalists of New York and Boston. The Iron Mountain Railroad is more especially a St. Louis road, but it requires the help of foreign capital (which can be had on good security and at good rates of interest) to extend it into Texas. It reaches now to New Orleans, Mobile, Memphis and Chattanooga, constituting the great Southern spoke of the wheel. The natural competition of Chicago, as it sweeps round southwestwardly, gradually diminishes, and here comes nearly to zero.

Consider, now, what is to be the state of things, particularly with reference the States lying northwest of the Mississippi River (for in other directions the matter is to need special comment), when the system of railroads is completed. The distances by railroad will be, in general, shorter to St. Louis than to Chicago. The radiation of railroads will be somewhat analogous to the radiation of rivers, and St. Louis will have both systems in conjunction; for the longer railroads, as naturally as the rivers, and by the same exigencies of trade and commerce, tend to concentration into one common centre at the great metropolitan city of the West. Here we come upon matters that lie peculiarly within the knowledge and experience of mercantile men. If I may hazard an opinion, I should say that there will be in this quarter a divided empire, with field enough for both competitors, and that the division will be much according to kind of merchandise and the sources whence it comes. Many kinds may reach that region more readily by the great Northern water route and the railroads from Chicago, while many other kinds will be obtained to greater advantage from the St. Louis market — as, for instance, our own manufactures, and many importations of European manufactures and products, the heavy groceries from the West Indies and Brazil, and teas and silks from China and Japan. Various articles that are brought from distant parts of the globe in sailing vessels will continue to be imported almost exclusively into the Atlantic cities, where the necessary capital is, and where these vessels are built and owned, and these articles will reach the interior of the Northwest more easily by the northern water route than by railroads across the Alleghanies; they cannot be imported from Europe, I presume, because they cannot pay one duty going into Europe, and another duty coming

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into America from Europe. But manufactures and products of the States of Europe can be imported directly into St. Louis as well as into the Atlantic cities, when regular lines of steamships are established between European ports and New Orleans.

The data furnished by experienced men demonstrate that the bulky produce of the country tributary to St. Louis can go from here to Liverpool by the great Southern water route in bulk, cheaper than it can possibly be carried across the country by railroad to be exported from the Atlantic cities; and when this route is fully inaugurated, as it doubtless will be before long, it stands to reason that importation to a much larger extent, and of more kinds, than has been dreamed of heretofore, will come back the same way to St. Louis, and be distributed from this market, even into the Northwest, cheaper than it can be done via Chicago — though the war swept American vessels from the ocean. Iron barges, elevators, a St. Philip canal, or the South Pass Jetties, improved rivers and steamships, and more railroads, will do the business, and St. Louis, to a large and important extent, will become the rival so far, not merely of Chicago, but of New York and Boston, as an importing and exporting city; so that it may be said some day, if not now, that St. Louis is the Southwestern and New York the Northwestern focus of the whole ellipse. In this fact lies one principal advantage of the position of St. Louis (if there be any at all) over Chicago, as an interior mart for the distribution of general merchandise. Our position in the centre of the coal fields and mineral regions of the Valley, and our facilities for various kinds of manufactures, not only of iron and steel, but for queensware, stoneware, tinware, plated ware, glass, zinc, silver, white lead and oil, refined sugar, tobacco, furniture, agricultural implements, and many other articles, is another great advantage of position. And a still greater is the position of St. Louis at the conjunction of the radiating river and railroad systems, in reference to the bulky agricultural products of the whole vast circuit of country (especially west of the Mississippi,) which they penetrate in all directions, comprising within a six hundred mile circle described on this centre nearly the entire area of the most fertile soil of the Mississippi Valley, the garden of America, if not of the whole earth. The importance of St. Louis in this particular, lies first, in its being a central mart for the internal distribution of home products in every direction, and second, in its being a receiving mart for exportation of the surplus. The annual statistics exhibit the present magnitude of this business. The increase in five years in grain, pork and cattle, is next to fabulous. Within the same period, the swell of the daily clearings, at the St. Louis Clearing House, from half a million a day to four and five millions a day, may be taken as some sure index of the increase in volume of the general commercial operations. The annual statement for the year 1872, shows an aggregate of clearings of $989,000, and an increase over the previous year of $133,000,000. The aggregate clearings were, for the year 1873, $1,099,154,351.90; for the year 1874, $1,192,532,761.70.

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In this view: as in the beginning we glanced backward over a period of thirty years and more, suppose now we look forward through the next thirty years. Considering the rate of progress in that past time, (and the rate will surely be no less in the future,) let any one try to imagine what will then be the condition of the country lying west of the Mississippi River, and for which St. Louis is clearly to be the principal commercial mart in this Valley. Population has, indeed, reached scatteringly nearly to the western limit of the fertile plains where sufficient rains make crops sufficiently certain. It has reached in some places even beyond the limit, where, without railroads or river navigation, it will pay to raise more crops than can be consumed on the ground. Not a tenth part of the intermediate area is occupied, and scarcely one-half of any one State is under improvement, much less under actual cultivation. These States are much in the condition now that Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin were thirty years ago. What will be the amount of products to be exported, or of merchandise to be imported, or manufactures to be supplied, for these States, when they have attained to the present condition of Illinois and Indiana, or Ohio? It surely needs no prophet to foresee that it will require all the navigation that improved rivers and new arts can furnish, and all the railroads that time and money can build, to do it all; and yet both may have enough to do. There is more now than both can do, and that is the great trouble. The remote Iowa or Nebraska farmer burns corn for fuel, because it costs more than it is worth to carry it to any market. When the rivers are low and frozen up, the railroads put on killing freights in sheer self-defense against the impossible.

It takes time to settle, people, and improve a new country like this. I don't know that we should be in any great hurry to get it all done at once. It has, in former times, taken centuries to people a new country or to build a great city. I am quite sure it is not wise to undertake to build a city in a decade that might very well occupy a century. The growth of St. Louis is certainly rapid and extensive enough to answer all reasonable expectations, if not quite to amaze the most sanguine and impatient. In respect of population, in view of the average rates of increase for each period of ten years from 1840 to 1870, and particularly for the period between 1860 and 1870, during which the rate was for the whole period 15,000 a year and for the latter half of it at 21,000 a year, the average rate for the period between 1870 and 1880 cannot be expected to be less, and will, in all probability, be more than 20,000 a year; and this will give a population of more than 500,000 in 1880. Already (1875) the population, on a safe estimate, exceeds 450,000. Let anyone look over the past five years, and consider what has been done in that time: the additions that have been built up, the water-works constructed, the streets and wharves that have been improved, the splendid buildings that have been erected, the manufactures that have been initiated, the packet and barge lines and the elevators, the grain trade that has been created, the flour, pork and cattle trade, the tobacco and cotton trade, the millions invested in iron

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works, the railroads that have come into existence and are in progress, the great bridge and tunnel and the new Lindell Hotel now completed, the new Chamber of Commerce nearly finished; the new Post-office and Custom House Building well under way and to cost millions, — and then sayif he remembers any period of five years before the war in which anything like an equal advance was made.

In conclusion, and in reference to population in general, I will merely glance at a topic that may not be wholly foreign to your purpose, but is too large to be handled effectually in this place. It is the remarkable fact that the several successive streams of westward migration of the white Aryan race, from the primitive Paradise in the neighborhood of the primeval cities of Sogd and Balkh, in High Asia, long separated in times of migration, and for the most part distinct in the European areas finally occupied by them, and which, in the course of its grand march of twenty thousand years or more, has created nearly the whole of the civilization, arts, sciences and literature of this globe, building seats of fixed habitation and great cities, successively, in the rich valleys of the Ganges, the Euphrates, the Nile, the rivers and isles of Greece, the Tiber and the Po, the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Seine and Thames, wandering children of the same great family are now, in these latter times, brought together again in their descendants and representatives, Semitic, Pelasgic, Celtic, Teutonic, and Sclavonic, here in the newly discovered common land of promise, and are commingled (especially in this great Valley of the Mississippi,) into one common brotherhood of race, language, law and liberty.

Yours, respectfully.

N. HOLMES.

ST. LOUIS, July 23, 1875.

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Dedicatory.

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WHEN it was determined to dedicate this work to some one of the enterprising and prominent citizens of St. Louis, who had contributed in a high degree to her commercial and manufacturing growth, the author consulted many good men on the subject, and in reference to who was the man, among so many, most worthy to receive the compliment. The favor was to be bestowed upon some man who had already done well for the city, and gave promise of still greater usefulness, and that man was thought to be DANIEL R. GARRISON, as the following complimentary cards will testify:

DEAR GARRISON: — Mr. Reavis has just called on me, and I hear he intends to dedicate his new book to you.

I know of no one who has done more for the prosperity of this city, or led a more active and useful life to the public than yourself, and I think, for the public benefit, as well as your own, you ought to have the dedication of the book.

Your friend,
C. GIBSON.
April 20, 1875.

MY DEAR GARRISON: — Mr. Reavis showed me, a few days since, a dedication of his forthcoming work to yourself. It met my cordial approval, and I now wish to say to you, as I learn that you have had some diffidence and modesty about the matter, that I do not know of any representative man of our great industrial interests, (and St. Louis is industrial or nothing,) to whom it could more appropriately be dedicated than to one who found our city with arms of clay, and who will have left it with arms of iron and steel. I think, therefore, that you should unhesitatingly accept the prominence it will give, and I can assure you that no one of your friends more truly rejoices in your growing and well-earned fame than myself.

Very truly, yours,
B. GRATZ BROWN.
ST. LOUIS, April 29, 1875.

L. U. Reavis, Esq., St. Louis, Mo.:

DEAR SIR — I have received your letter of the 27th, saying that you propose to dedicate your "great work" to DANIEL R. GARRISON, Esq., of this city. In a busy, prosperous community like this, it is a hard task to select a special one, but I surely agree with you that it would be hard to choose a name more worthy of honor than that of D. R. GARRISON.

Long identified with the industries of St. Louis, active, busy, generous and manly, he certainly is a model man for the growing millions of this region, and if your book will be construed to mean this, I surely approve your choice.

With great respect, yours truly,
W. T. SHERMAN, General.
ST. LOUIS, June 28, 1875.

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Daniel Randall Garrison.

TO young men, making their entrance upon active life, with great ambitions, conscious capacities, and high hopes, the prospect is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, most perplexing. They see every avenue of prosperity thronged with their superiors in experience, in social advantages, and in the possession of all the elements of success. Every post is occupied, every office filled, every path crowded. Where shall we find room? It is related of Mr. Webster that when a young lawyer suggested to him that the profession to which he had devoted himself was crowded, the great statesman replied: "Young man, there is always room enough at the top." Never were wiser, or more suggestive words spoken. There unquestionably is always room enough at the top, where excellence lives. Mr. Webster was not troubled for lack of room. Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun were never crowded. All the great legal lights of the present day have plenty of space around them. The brilliant pulpit orators of the time would never know, in their personal experience, that it was hard to obtain a desirable ministerial charge. The profession is not crowded where they are. Dr. Brown-Sequard, Dr. Willard Parker, Dr. Hammond, are not troubled for space at their elbows. When Nelaton died in Paris, he died like Moses, on a mountain. When Von Graefe died in Berlin, he had no neighbor at his altitude. Stevenson, the engineer, and our own Fulton, worked out the great problems of steam and its uses, as applied to the locomotive and steamboats in their day, and still there was an abundance of room for others to solve more completely their problems and practical theories.

It is well that all young men should learn that nothing will do them so much injury as quick and easy success, and that nothing will do them so much good as a struggle which teaches them exactly what there is in them; educates them gradually to its use; instructs them in personal economy; drills them into a patient and persistent knowledge of work, and keeps them at the foot of the ladder until they become strong enough to hold every step they are enabled to gain.

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The first years of every man's business or professional life are years of education. They are intended to be so in the order of Nature and Providence. Doors do not open to a man until he is prepared to enter them. The man without a wedding garment may get in surreptitiously, but he immediately goes out with a flea in his ear. It is probably the experience of most successful men, who have watched the course of their lives in retrospect, that whenever they have arrived at a certain point where they are thoroughly prepared to go higher, the door to a higher place has swung back of itself, and they have heard the call to enter. The old die, or voluntarily retire to rest. The best men who stand ready to take their places will succeed to their position, its honors and emoluments.

One can fancy that every calling is pyramidal in its living constituency, and that while one man is at the top, there are several tiers of men below him who have plenty of elbow room, and that it is only at the base that men are so thick that they pick the meat out of one another's teeth to keep from starving. If a man has no power to get out of the rabble at the bottom, then is he self-convicted of having chosen a calling or profession to whose duties he has no adaptation. In the realm of eminent acquirements and eminent integrity, there is always room enough. Let no young man of industry and perfect honesty despair because his profession or calling is crowded. Let him always remember that there is room enough at the top; and that the question whether he will ever reach the top, or rise above the crowd at the base of the pyramid, will be decided by the way in which he improves the first ten years of his active life in securing to himself a thorough knowledge of his profession, and a sound moral and intellectual culture.

We have in DANIEL R. GARRISON, whose life-like portrait on steel accompanies this sketch, a man who has compassed within his own experience an amount of beneficent enterprise and well-directed labor that, were what he alone has accomplished thus far, in his busy life, parceled out among half a score of men, it would make the life-work of each very large. He is one of the many who stood at the base of our imaginary pyramid many years ago, and, by the force of his wonderful energy and indomitable will, has reached the top. No detail of his great enterprises has been too trivial for his attention; no operation so stupendous as to prevent his entire comprehension of it.

He was born near Garrison's Landing, on the Hudson River, in Orange County, New York, November 23, 1815. That favored section, so rich in historical associations and every charm that nature can supply,

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was his boyhood home. From that section, nurtured in an atmosphere of grand traditions, have come many of the men who have been the admired of capitals, the oracles of senates, the statesmen of great emergencies, and the devotees and patrons of literature and the arts.

His father, Captain Oliver Garrison, owned and commanded the first line of packets that ran between West Point and New York, before steamboats were known. His paternal ancestors were of the old Puritan stock of New England. His mother came from the old Holland stock which had settled in that section of New York at an early day. Her family connections embraced such names as the Schuylers, Buskirks and Coverts — all historical names — she being a native of New Jersey.

In 1829, Daniel's father removed to what was considered the far West, and settled in Buffalo, where his son obtained employment with the firm of Bealls, Wilkinson & Co., engine builders, with whom he remained until 1833. On the tenth of June of that year, occurred an incident of considerable importance in young Garrison's life. Mr. Webster was then on a visit to Buffalo, and Mr. Garrison was one of three young men who presented that distinguished statesman with a skillfully-constructed card table, which they had made themselves, and which was composed of nearly every description of American wood. A silver center-piece bore an appropriate inscription, together with the makers' names, and the date of presentation. The gift was a testimonial of their indorsement of Mr. Webster's tariff views.

In the fall of 1833, Mr. Garrison went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and engaged himself, as an employe, at the pattern and machine business, in one of the largest establishments in that city. Here he remained for two years. In 1835, he came to St. Louis and secured employment, at the head of the drafting department, in the foundry and engine works of Kingsland, Lightner & Co., where he applied himself closely to work. He remained in this employment for a period of five years, when, in 1840, in connection with his brother. Oliver Garrison, he commenced the manufacture of steam engines. The many advantages St. Louis presented as a manufacturing point had been thoroughly revolved in his mind — a mind naturally so quick in its perceptions as to seem instinctive rather than philosophical, and his judgment was seldom at fault. Manufacturing establishments at this time were comparatively few, and nearly all manufactured articles were brought here from other points. No large capitalists had then invested their wealth in the establishment of manufactories west of the Mississippi, and it was by slow advances, at first, that any progress was made in that direction. Coal and iron were to be

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had in abundance; labor was cheap; and it was only a question of time as to when St. Louis would present her claims to be regarded as one of the great manufacturing centres of the Union.

The shops of the Garrison Brothers were commenced on a moderate scale, but, as business prospered, their capacity was increased to meet the growing wants of the times, until nearly every kind of steam machinery in use was manufactured by them. This enterprise of the Garrison Brothers gave great impetus to the manufacturing interests of the city, and the example of their success induced others to erect similar establishments. During these busy years, Mr. Garrison found really no time for leisure. Every piece of work turned out from his establishment, from its inception to its completion, passed under his personal supervision. All the drafting of the establishment was done by him; and there was no detail of the business that he was not thoroughly conversant with, — no part of the work to be done so trivial that he did not examine and understand it.

In the year 1848, news of the discovery of gold in California spread over the whole country, and excited the cupidity of all. Mr. Garrison early came to the conclusion that there was presented a new and profitable field for enterprise. He correctly reasoned that steamboats would find lucrative employment on California rivers, as soon as they could be obtained. With this object in view, Mr. Garrison left for San Francisco February 15, 1849, and after a somewhat tedious journey, by way of the Isthmus, he reached San Francisco in safety. Finding the reports of the rich gold discoveries fully confirmed, he immediately wrote to his brother, Oliver, to send him at once three large engines. These were forwarded to San Francisco in due course of time, by the way of Cape Horn, and reached their destination in the fall of 1849. One of these Mr. Garrison sent to Oregon, for service in a steamer which he built near the mouth of the Willamette river; another was put in a boat built for the navigation of the Sacramento river; and the third was placed in a saw mill at some point in the interior. These enterprises, and others engaged in, resulted in great pecuniary success.

Having finished his business in California, he made a trip to Puget Sound, going through Oregon by the Cowlips river, in a canoe propelled by four trusty Indians. While making this trip, he met with a small vessel in Puget Sound loading with furs and peltries on London account, which had been sent to that point by the Hudson Bay Company. His business completed, he took passage on this vessel for home, but, after some time of fair sailing, the vessel was becalmed, and drifted idly for

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many days in the current of the Pacific Ocean. In passing along what was then known as the great California coast, he, at a former time, had observed a gigantic rock, on whose barren and bleak top a cedar tree had taken root. This was a conspicuous object, and when, after drifting through dense fogs, the vessel was found to be in its immediate vicinity, Mr. Garrison knew its exact position. When on board of the United States steamer California, Lieutenant Budd commanding, this object had been pointed out to him, and Lieutenant Budd had put it down upon his chart as Cape Ray. Being near the coast, the winds favored them again, and the vessel was turned for the harbor of San Francisco, where fresh supplies of water and provisions were taken aboard, and a new start on the homeward bound trip was commenced.

Mr. Garrison returned to St. Louis via the Isthmus of Panama in 1850; and soon after, himself and brother retired from the machine works they had founded, each the possessor of a handsome fortune which they could enjoy as best suited their tastes and inclinations. But a man of Mr. Garrison's active temperament was not likely to remain long at leisure. One great wonder of the day — uniting St. Louis directly with the East — had been completed in 1847; but the theme of the magnetic telegraph had lost its novelty. There was a mania abroad in the land about this time, for railroad extension, and the paramount desire of almost every Western city of importance was to become a link in the great chain of railroads which was being fast extended throughout the Union, thus placing distant points in close proximity. While one or two lines of railroad had been commenced and only partially completed on the west side of the Mississippi, St. Louis had no railroad connection whatever in any direction at this time. On the east, railroad connection had been made with Cincinnati, and it was the grand project to extend this connection so as to unite the Mississippi river and the East by rail, making this city the objective point. It is not necessary here to enter into all the details of the grand project. Suffice it to say that it was decided that St. Louis must have an outlet by rail to the East; that the "Ohio and Mississippi" railroad must be completed, and that the proper man to undertake the task was Daniel R. Garrison. At the earnest solicitation of his friends and prominent citizens of St. Louis, he undertook the task, and became vice-president and general manager of the road. To aid in completing it, the propriety of taking measures to authorize the city of St. Louis to subscribe five hundred thousand dollars was considered at a public meeting called for the purpose, at which a good deal of bitter opposition was developed. However, the

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Legislature was applied to, with success, to pass a law authorizing the people of St. Louis county to decide the measure by popular vote. The vote was taken, and the requisite stock subscribed. The fact that Mr. Garrison had undertaken to complete the road was full assurance that it would be done. Messrs. Page & Bacon, who were doing an extensive banking business at that time, had embarked largely in the enterprise previously, and had met with many serious difficulties; but when Mr. Garrison took the enterprise in hand, they saw their way clear. He pushed the road to Vincennes, Indiana, and in 1855 it was completed from that point to Cincinnati. The energy and consummate skill shown by Mr. Garrison in the completion of this road in the face of many discouragements, is fairly typical of the genius and energy of the man. Citizens of St. Louis, and those residing in the counties along the line of the road in Illinois, who had almost violently opposed public subscriptions to the project, used every argument and means in their power to thwart him in every measure he sought to have adopted. Those not personally cognizant of the surrounding circumstances, can have no correct idea of the difficulties he had to contend with. Old residents of this city, who had observed all Mr. Garrison's movements, inform us that but for the almost herculean labors he performed, the appliances he brought to bear in the prosecution of his work, and the indomitable will and energy of the man, many years would have elapsed, in all probability, before the road would have been completed. As it was, he laid the last rail of the first railroad that cemented the Mississippi with the East, and gave St. Louis her first railroad connection with the world beyond her to the East.

An incident worthy of note occurred about the time the road was approaching completion, which will serve to show the pluck of the man, and the tactics he resorted to in order to finish it, without further outside or legal interference. When all but about seven miles of the road had been finished, Mr. Garrison discovered that he was short of iron. Where to obtain a supply, to make up this deficiency, was a serious question. There was not a single pound of railroad iron to be had anywhere in the country for any consideration whatever. He had iron then on the way from England, and its arrival had been daily expected, but for all he knew it might have been deposited in the depths of the ocean. Days and weeks, and even months, might elapse before it would reach here and be available. Here was a serious emergency; and the question as to what was best to do, forced itself upon his mind. That a great enterprise on which millions of dollars had been expended,

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and on the speedy completion of which the great commercial marts, situated along the grand central line or the commercial traffic of the country were dependent, should be delayed for want of seven miles of iron, was certainly a misfortune. It so happened that a considerable quantity of railroad iron, belonging to the old Terre Haute Road was lying on the St. Louis levee, and was not then wanted for immediate use by the Terre Haute Company. This iron had been imported from England. and was certainly not intended for use, by the Terre Haute Company, in the building of any competitive road. No monetary consideration could have purchased a pound of it for such a purpose. It was necessary, however, that this iron should be transferred to the east bank of the river for use by the company owning it. It is quite probable that when this transfer was being made, at this very opportune time, a portion of it reached the immediate vicinity of the Ohio and Mississippi Road; and it is also possible that a sufficient amount to complete seven miles of any road may have been misplaced on the construction cars of that road. Mr. Garrison had a very large force of men in his employ at that time, and it was, perhaps, impossible to keep a close watch of all their movements. They might have supposed that this iron being transferred was a part of that belonging to the Ohio and Mississippi Road, which had been daily expected for some weeks. Be these suppositions as they may, another effort was now made to thwart Mr. Garrison in his efforts to complete the road. One morning the Sheriff of St. Clair county, Illinois, with a posse of men, appeared upon the scene with a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Garrison and authority to seize about seven miles of railroad iron which, the warrant alleged, was the property of the old Terre Haute Road. Here was a dilemma, and how to get out of it was the question that at once presented itself to Mr. Garrison. His men may have made a mistake, but the grand project was to finish the road at all risks. If possession was nine points in law, the law was certainly in Mr. Garrison's favor, and he had no time, just then, to argue the tenth point. His quick mind suggested a plan of escape. He received the Sheriff and his men kindly, and, having some urgent business along the line of the road, invited the Sheriff and his men to take a ride, when the matter could be talked over and either settled or compromised. The Sheriff accepted the invitation, and, with his posse, stepped into the car to enjoy the novelty of a ride over the newly laid rails of the Ohio and Mississippi Road. After a word in private with the engineer, and certain imperative orders given, in a quiet way, to the section foreman, Mr. Garrison joined the

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Sheriff and his party in the car, and with the cry of "all aboard," the engineer opened the throttle valve of his engine and the entire party were at once speeding away at the rate of full thirty miles an hour. Mr. Garrison soon placed himself beyond the jurisdiction of St. Clair county, where the Sheriff and his men were powerless to serve any legal papers. There he left them. Suffice it to say that before the Sheriff was enabled to reach his home, the Ohio and Mississippi Road had been completed — the last spike driven — through the systematic, harmonious and far-sighted policy of Daniel R. Garrison.

The completion of this road was a marked event in the commercial history of St. Louis. It was appropriately celebrated, and the merchants of St. Louis presented Mr. Garrison with a costly and magnificent service of solid silver, as a mark of their respect and appreciation of his efforts in giving to St. Louis her first railroad connection with the East.

Mr. Garrison continued to manage the affairs of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company until 1858, when he had made the road a perfect success. During this time he was elected a director of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, and subsequently became its vice-president. This road, at the time of the outbreak of our civil war in 1861, had been completed from St. Louis to Sedalia, where the work had stopped, partly on account of the war, but mainly for want of means to continue its prosecution. The war clouds had now cast their dark shadows over almost every commercial enterprise in the land, and especially over railroad enterprises in the West — particularly in Missouri — where there was a strong conflict of war opinions. The greatest embarrassments existed in getting anything done. The completion of the Missouri Pacific from St. Louis to Kansas City, a distance of two hundred and eighty-two miles, was a consummation devoutly wished, but it seemed as though for the time being, inventive genius was stifled, improvement despised, and every energy of the people paralyzed. Efforts were made to induce Eastern capitalists to come forward and assist in the completion of the road, but these efforts were only partially successful. It was under the most unfavorable auspices that Mr. Garrison stepped forward and offered to complete it. By many leading citizens a good deal of anxiety was felt, but the question was one of means, and where the money could be obtained to carry it through. Those opposed to Mr. Garrison's policy made a bitter fight against him, and in every possible way he was hindered by some of his colleagues — men who lived long enough afterwards, when he achieved

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success, to regret the bitter and unrelenting warfare they had waged against him. He was by no means disconcerted, however, by their opposition. He had lived the greater portion of his life by the labor of his own hands, and could do so wholly when it became necessary to the fearless discharge of his duty. He saw clearly that if the building of this road was to be left to the mercy of individual selfishness and caprice, it would not be completed at all; at least within any reasonable period of time. He knew well that the general good was only to be obtained through general effort, and that there ought not to be anything narrow, partial, envious or exclusive in the policy that should govern its completion. It is a fact, that the seeming personal interest of many were directly adverse to its construction — impelling them to impede rather than advance it.

Mr. Garrison was not disturbed by the opposition. He knew his resources. He had made up his mind that the road must be built. He first made application to the Legislature to release the State's first mortgage on the road from Dresden west, and to take a second mortgage on the whole road, in which he was successful. He induced the people of St. Louis county to come forward and loan its credit to the road; and he also persuaded counties west of St. Louis, through which the road passed, to raise money for the same purpose.

But the times were out of joint. A desolating war had commenced, and Missouri was the theatre of most active operations between the Federal and Confederate armies. The demoralization of the war, the destruction of the habits and sentiments, the motives and order of peaceful life, which war usually makes; the impaired reverence for legal right, civil authority, and for the sacredness of property and human life, which it generates; the impatience of peaceful economy and regular industry; the thirst for excitement and gambling ventures; the vices and violences wont to wait upon all wars, and especially civil wars, — these constituted the danger to Missouri at this time, and made it hazardous to engage in such enterprises as Mr. Garrison had undertaken.

The great obstacle that presented itself to him in undertaking to carry out his purpose, was the menacing presence of two hostile armies in the State, constantly marching and countermarching over the magnificent domain through which the Missouri Pacific line was to run. Mr. Garrison, at the outbreak of the war, from the very moment when the news was received that the first gun had been fired at Fort Sumter, declared himself an unconditional Union man; and when the Confederate flag was flying openly, over the heads of passers-by, in all the

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principal streets of St. Louis, and the national colors were spit upon, he unfurled the starry banner from the windows of his own house, and stood bravely by, prepared to protect it with his own life, from any treasonable hand that should dare to pull it down. It was, therefore, a seemingly dangerous enterprise for him to undertake to build a road, which required his personal supervision, surrounded by all the circumstances incident to the war. During its progress, he stood, as it were, a kind of mediator between the two contending armies, in order to save his property from destruction. He had to have a large number of men in his employ, also horses and mules, together with ample stores of provisions and feed, which he was obliged to protect from pillage, and which, by his peculiar adaptation to meet all emergencies, he managed to save, although the contending armies were fighting all around him, in desperate conflict for the maintenance of two hostile principles. More than once he periled his life to push forward his undertaking, and repeatedly had warnings that his life was in danger, but to these he paid little attention, and his courage never forsook him.

Before the close of the war, the road was finished, through a magnificent region to Kansas City, on the western boundary of the State. The completion of this line of road was another splendid triumph, and added a fresh laurel to Mr. Garrison's fame.

In its success his own personal fortune was largely involved, together with the fortune of many others, for Mr. Garrison had raised a very large sum of money to complete the road, on his and their responsibility. The directory of the road had millions at stake; but they had an unwavering faith in Mr. Garrison — had given him carte blanche to go ahead; in fact, had staked nearly everything on him. The men who stood by him in the completion of this road, and who comprised the directory, included such names as Robert Campbell, Henry L. Patterson, George R. Taylor, Oliver O. Hart, Charles H. Peck, Robert Barth, Adolphus Meier, and others.

The original gauge of the Missouri Pacific road was five and a half feet, but the directory, at a later period, to conform to that of other roads, decided to change it to four feet eight and a half inches. Could this be done along the whole line of the road from St. Louis to Kansas City, without causing any interruption to travel or to the business of the road? Mr. Garrison decided that it could; that the work along the whole distance of two hundred and eighty miles, could be accomplished in less than sixteen hours; and while all were incredulous, the directory permitted Mr. Garrison to undertake it. Such a thing

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had never before been attempted, but on Sunday, July — 1869, the entire work of changing the gauge, including switches and frogs, was performed in sixteen hours, without any interruption of travel over the entire distance. On the evening of that day Mr. Garrison left St. Louis on the train, carrying the United States mail, and reached Kansas City on schedule time, and the train which left Kansas City also reached St. Louis on time, and without having met with any delay. The gauge of a large number of locomotives and much of the rolling stock had previously been changed to conform to the new gauge. Mr. Garrison performed this feat (which has since been done on the Ohio and Mississippi road and the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada), by his wonderful faculty of concentrating, utilizing and directing labor.

These triumphs of Mr. Garrison's energy, sagacity and industry would doubtless suffice to keep his name fresh in the recollections of our people long after he shall have passed away. But he has achieved other triumphs, and, without mention of them, no sketch of his life would be complete. Enough has been written to show that Mr. Garrison is eminently a self-made man, whose whole mind runs decidedly in the direction of everything that is practical — of the greatest service — and which will confer the greatest and most lasting benefits, not only upon those personally and pecuniarily interested with him, but upon the public at large. In the common acceptation of the term he is not a learned man, but his education has made him a reasonable man. He is a man of vast and comprehensive thought, which seems to direct itself to the development of his country rather than to the consideration of his own interests; but knowing that whatever can be done to develop the city or the country must necessarily benefit every one, directly or indirectly, who resides in and is a part of it. Practically, his mind was very materially enlarged and developed by the building and opening up of these two railroads. He saw, in the building of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, the great future of the country west of the Mississippi river, and he had, by investigation, confirmed his mind in a knowledge of its great resources — mineral, mechanical and commercial. He saw as clearly as though endowed with prescience, the future of St. Louis as a great manufacturing city, and his attention was instinctively turned to iron as the basis of its great prosperity. Having acquired so great a control over moneyed men and capitalists East by his practical operations in the past, he was able, as probably no other one man could be at that time, to combine ample capital for the purpose of building a raill mill, and the consequence of his effort was the establishment of the Vulcan

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Iron Works, at South St. Louis. "I happen to know," said the Hon. John Hogan, in a speech made upon the opening of these works, "that but for the fortunate circumstances of a combination by which Daniel R. Garrison was thrown out of the Pacific Railroad, we would not have been to-day celebrating the establishment of a rail mill in St. Louis. He was thrown out of it, and he went among his friends and gathered up capital, a little, and a little, and a little, and, by diligence and perseverance, skill and energy, when nobody thought that Daniel R. Garrison or any other Garrison would have accomplished the result, he did what we see to-day, and look at it!"

In the spring of 1870 he left the management of the Pacific Road, and upon completing the organization of the company, he was chosen president of the Vulcan Iron Works. Ground was broken for the erection of the works July 4, 1870. A large number of invitations had been sent out, but the attendance was mainly confined to those more immediately interested in the building of the works. In one short year from the commencement of the works, they were completed and in successful operation, being the first mill of the kind built west of the Mississippi River, and one of the largest in the country. The works employ nearly one thousand men, and their annual product is eighty thousand tons of pig and railroad iron. This was the consummation of a grand idea that Mr. Garrison and a few other enterprising citizens had cherished for years — to make, in this iron State, rails out of Missouri iron to build Missouri and other Western railroads.

In connection with the Vulcan Iron Works, Mr. Garrison and his friends constructed the Jupiter Iron Works, one of the largest furnaces in the world. The capital to carry on these great enterprises to completion has been acquired mainly through confidence in the subject of this sketch — the faith and confidence of those interested with him in his ability to prosecute to a successful termination whatever he undertakes, and reliance upon his own judgment as to their positive value.

But these works, grand as they are in themselves, are but the pioneers of other and greater, and more numerous works of power and mechanism and glorious progress, that are to follow. A long-cherished thought of Mr. Garrison has been to construct, in connection with the Vulcan Iron Works, works for the production of Bessemer steel. The announcement is made as we draw this sketch to a close, that the plans of the new works are already matured, and the building of suitable houses will be speedily commenced; and Mr. Garrison has been re-elected president of the consolidated company in charge of the

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Vulcan Iron and Steel Works, under the reorganization which took place May 7. As at present projected, the Vulcan Works are modeled after the J. Edgar Thompson Bessemer works of Pittsburgh, with some improvements which experience in that establishment has demonstrated to be necessary to completeness. The cost of the works, as now projected, will exceed half a million of dollars, making the entire capital invested more than $2,500,000. We have thus marked the point from which St. Louis takes another stride in the onward march to that grand destiny which the future has in store for her.

In all these great enterprises of his life, Daniel R. Garrison has had the countenance and assistance and special advice of his brother, Oliver Garrison, and a few warm personal friends and capitalists of St. Louis.

The indomitable energy of these brothers has produced remarkable results. But for many years past Daniel R. Garrison has been the active working man of the family.

Few men have done so much for the real prosperity of the West as Mr. Garrison; and few men having accomplished so much, are so silent and reticent concerning their labors.

Mr. Garrison is a man of powerful frame, and capable of great physical or mental endurance. He is a most plain, unassuming gentleman in his manners — kindly and courteous, yet decided. His expression is very frank and candid, while there is an air of pleasantry and good nature that is wonderfully attractive to a stranger. Mr. Garrison numbers a host of warm friends, with scarcely an enemy.

His life has been a busy one, and his success has not been the result of chance or good luck, which is a futility, but of vigorous, well-directed efforts.

He is now vice-president and assistant general manager of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and its connections. In executive ability and good management, he has no equal in the West, and but few in the country. He is yet in the strength of vigorous manhood, although his children have grown up and married around him.

No other man fills a similar place in the history of St. Louis and her railroads. Daniel R. Garrison stands alone. He is another eminent example of what energy, industry and perseverance will accomplish when judiciously applied, and when he takes hold of an enterprise, however great the magnitude, his name is a sure guarantee of its success.

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By his own efforts he has risen above the crowd at the base of the pyramid, and in the realm of eminent acquirements and eminent integrity he still finds plenty of room at the top.

In presenting this sketch to the public, it is well to say that it is the history of one of those men whom Providence has given to the people to fill a compensating link in the chain of usefulness and adaptation which often, to the eye of the superficial observer, seems to be lacking under the rule of wisdom.

There are times in the affairs of men and nations, when there seems to be an absolute want of those strong intellectual characters so essential to the direction and leadership in commerce and government; when the people feel that mediocrity pervades the entire land; but Providence, true to its exacting law of compensation, always supplies in one field of usefulness that which is wanting in another; and if we have not in our midst a Benton in politics, we have, in the person of such men as Garrison, Caesars in the great field of commercial activity, who, with large brains to conceive, and physical power to execute, are constantly subserving the purposes of Providence by maintaining an equilibrium in the operation of the law of compensation.

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A Historical Review of Saint Louis, from Its Foundation to the Present Time.

Saint Louis, the Future Great City. Historical Review of St. Louis.

In presenting to the public an argument to prove that St. Louis is destined to become the great city of the world, it is proper that the discussion of a claim so pretentious be introduced by a brief historical sketch of the foundation, growth and elements of civilization of the city.

Such a sketch would enable the interested reader to obtain a limited knowledge of the founding and growth of St. Louis, from the first rude settlement by French pioneers, made on the primitive shore of the Mississippi, when wild beasts and savages contested the empire over nature, on through frontier struggles, financial evolutions and constantly accumulating wealth, to the city of civilization that she now is.

If it be true — as I hope to establish by the plainest and most incontrovertible facts and arguments — that St. Louis is destined to be the great city of the world — the all-directing head and central moving heart of the accumulated civilization of the great family of man, the facts of her history will, in time, be sought for by citizens and writers, with an eagerness and a zeal never before called out by the special interests of any other city — not even of Jerusalem, nor of Rome.

The facts and circumstances which foreshadow the destiny of St. Louis — a destiny so important — will not only be of vast moment to the people of the Mississippi Valley, but of this nation, and even interesting to the world.

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The biography of cities destined to become great, like that of individuals born to a life of distinction, are always found to be full of interesting incidents foreshadowing their fame and greatness. The life of the one is analogous to the life of the other. And if the exile or the refugee from one land becomes the hero and benefactor of another, the city founded in the wilderness by the pioneer and the missionary, far away from their native homes, may be also born to greatness. The eventful experience of the one finds a parallel in the history of the other; therefore, if the curiosity of the mind is excited, and the understanding delighted by reading the biography of the great man, it will, with equal interest, peruse the biography of the great city; hence the propriety of narrating the historic career of St. Louis, and especially when the evidence, as will hereafter be presented, is so overwhelmingly in favor of her future greatness and power.

The spirit of modern civilization is different in its operation and character from the social forces of by-gone eras. It is more catholic in its objects, more active and concentrated in its energy, and has wonderfully abridged the time formerly necessary for historical events to work out their accomplishment. Under the singular velocity it has imparted, the scenes and changes of the human drama are enacted so swiftly that the prophecy of to-day, is either authenticated or disproven by the developments of to-morrow. It is this fact which gives us confidence to proclaim the destiny of St. Louis as represented in this book. Already the currents of our civic and political progress are shaping towards its development, and it will not require many years to make it more clearly evident. There are many who now believe in the future of St. Louis as the leading city of the continent and the capital of the United States, who two years ago looked with incredulity upon such prognostications, and regarded them as mere dreams of ardent minds. The agitation of the question has also spread abroad the fame of our stately and expanding city, and a conviction of the glorious future before her is growing rapidly, not only among our own citizens, but among those disconnected in every way with our municipal interests.

Believing earnestly, as we do, in this future, our object is to foster an intelligent anticipation of it in the public mind; and if our volume assists to accomplish this object, it will not have been written in vain, and the time and labor necessary to group and present the facts and argument it contains will be amply repaid.

We, therefore, cannot consider our work as complete without some review of the history of St. Louis. The Past often interprets the

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Future, and is always interesting in connection with it; and, as an appropriate introduction, we present the following historical review, with which is incorporated some valuable and significant statistics, illustrating our present social and commercial condition.

Geographical Location of St. Louis.

The city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, is situated on the west bank of the Mississippi river, in the county of St. Louis, of which it is the seat of government. It is in

  Deg. Min. Sec.
Latitude — 38 37 37.5
Longitude west from Washington — 6 Hrs. 0 45.29

"The site of St. Louis is both commanding and beautiful; high without being precipitous, and gently undulating, affording easy drainage, and sufficiently level, without being flat, to extend every advantage for building and beautifying purposes.

The plane of the levee, or Front street, is thirty-two feet above low water mark. From thence to Fourth street, is a rise fifty-nine feet to the first summit, which is a plane occupied by Fourth, Fifth and in part by Sixth streets. From thence in going west, and taking the center of the city for observation, the ground gently declines to Thirteenth, when we again commence a gradual ascent to Seventeenth street, where, at the intersection of Olive street, we are ninety feet above the levee. Beyond the city limits the same general characteristics of country are maintained, except that for a distance of some three or four miles beyond, it does not attain to the same elevation as Grand avenue; but the wave-like character is still preserved, and filled, as it all is, with gardens and orchards, it constitutes such a view as is excelled by few of our cities.

Political Condition of North America Prior to the Founding of St. Louis.

The 15th of February, 1764, may be accepted as the exact date of the first settlement on the site of St. Louis, and the name of Pierre Ligueste Laclede may justly appear in history as the founder of the city. It is difficult to realize that scarce a century has elapsed since

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the solitude and silence of the forest primeval reigned over a scene now covered with the countless buildings of a stately city, pulsating with the life of busy thousands. There is, however, no doubt as to the date given, as it is a matter, if not of official record, yet so authenticated by collateral circumstances, as to eliminate every uncertainty. At the time of the event, the political condition (if we may so speak of a vast territory for the most part terra incognita) of the North American continent was somewhat confused as to the ownership and boundary. England, France and Spain held nominal possession of vast regions, but with so little certainty of title or jurisdiction that their rival claims would probably have remained an endless source of dispute and conflict had they not been in a measure decided by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. This treaty, however, embraced no adjustment of boundaries, which was practically impossible at the time, but provided for the restitution of conquests made from each other by the powers named, and, not many years after, it was followed by war between France and England. The leading cause of the conflict was the action of the former power in establishing a line of military posts along the lakes, and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, for the purpose of connecting her Canadian possessions with the country bordering the Mississippi river southwardly, over which she also claimed jurisdiction. The bitter and sanguinary hostilities which ensued were terminated by the treaty of Paris, consummated on the 16th of February, 1763, and which closed the celebrated seven years' war on the European continent. The result of this treaty practically left to England and Spain the possession of North America. The former retained the Atlantic seaboard colonies, and acquired the Canadas and Louisiana, lying east of the Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and its territory. She also obtained the Floridas from Spain, by restoring to that power Havana and the greater part of the island of Cuba. By a secret treaty of the same date France ceded the country west of the Mississippi, and known by the general designation of Louisiana, to Spain, but of this illimitable territory little, if anything, was then definitely known.

When we remember the tardy means of communication, at this period, between the Old and New Worlds, it is easy to understand the delay and difficulty in giving any practical effect to the terms of this treaty. It does not appear that Spain exercised any general jurisdiction over the territory acquired until the year 1786, although in the spring of 1764, D'Abadie, the Spanish Governor-General, was instructed to formally promulgate the transfer made under the treaty. The immense territory

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of Louisiana, the upper portion of which bore the name of "The Illinois," consequently remained under French laws and jurisdiction throughout its scant and widely separated settlements until 1768. The English were more prompt in claiming actual control of the territory ceded by the treaty of 1763, and vigorous measures were taken in various directions to obliterate the evidence of French domination. In the vicinity of St. Louis, east of the Mississippi, Fort de Chartres, one of the military posts established by France along the line of her frontier, was surrendered to Captain Sterling, of the English army, in 1765, under the treaty of Paris. This fort was situated in the American Bottom, a short distance above Kaskakia, and the French commander, at the time of the surrender, St. Ange de Bellerive, removed with his troops to the west side of the Mississippi, on the 17th of July, 1765, to the settlement on the site of the present city of St. Louis, which had been made about seventeen months before. Without going into the details of English and Spanish occupancy, we will proceed to the history of St. Louis proper.

The Laclede Expedition — Its Object and Character.

Pierre Ligueste Laclede has left but faint traces in history prior to the time when his name becomes identified with the founding of St. Louis. He was born in one of the French provinces bordering on the Pyrenees, and appears to have emigrated to Southern Louisiana with the design of trading with the Indians, bringing with him credentials from the Court of France that secured him the consideration of the authorities. The New World then offered an exciting field for adventurous minds, and many young men crossed the Atlantic to its shores, impelled either by thirst for gold, which at one time created the dream of an El Dorado beyond the Western Ocean, or the desire to explore the vast continent whose mighty natural features astonished Europe. It is probable Laclede was in part actuated by both these motives, but he was neither a mere gold-hunter, nor a reckless adventurer. Although little is known of his history, except during the period embraced between the years 1763, the year before the founding of St. Louis, and 1778, the year of his death, we can clearly gather the prominent traits of his character. He was brave, self-reliant, and resolute, and his idea of fortune-making in the New World was based on the sober expectation that there was ample opportunity for energy and enterprise in developing the trade in peltries and other articles with the native tribes that roamed over the

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boundless country of forest and prairie. How long he remained at New Orleans, prior to engaging in his famous expedition northward, is not ascertainable, but it appears probable that he was there for a considerable time.

In 1762 D'Abadie, Governor-General, granted to Laclede, in connection with other associates, a charter under the name of "The Louisiana Fur Company," which conferred the exclusive privilege of trading "with the Indians of the Missouri, and those west of the Mississippi above the Missouri, as far north as the River St. Peters." Antoine Maxent and others were interested equally with Laclede in the franchises granted, but he appears to have been the active and leading spirit of the association. Before entering upon some account of the first expedition organized under the auspices of this chartered company, and which resulted in the founding of St. Louis, it is necessary to glance at the progress made at that time in the settlement and exploration of Upper Louisiana.

The town, or city, of New Orleans was the capital of the Louisianas, being in fact the only place of any size or importance in the valley of the Mississippi. The immense territory on either side of the great river northward was very imperfectly known, for, although partially explored by Marquette, Hennepin, La Salle, Cartier and others, but little accurate information had been gained as to its topography and inhabitants. The great valley, the destiny of which, as the centre of our nation's wealth and prosperity, is now so rapidly developing, was then in its primitive condition, with the exception of a few scattered settlements whose people struggled for an existence amid the unfriendly influences of a trying climate and an unsubdued wilderness. Above New Orleans there was a settlement of some consequence in the vicinity of the present city of Natchez, but from that point to Ste. Genevieve there were but few traces of human occupation. On the eastern side of the Mississippi, a few settlements had been formed at Fort de Chartres and vicinity, St. Phillips, Kaskaskia, Cahokia and some other points, but they were comparatively insignificant, and had sprung up under the fostering influences of French military protection. The trade in lead, oils and peltries had concentrated at Ste. Genevieve, then a post of some importance, with several small settlements in its vicinity, and which bore the name of Le Poste de Ste. Genevieve. The settlers at the places named were nearly all of that adventurous type of character usually to be found among the pioneers of civilization in a wild continent peopled only by barbaric and nomadic tribes. They included, however, many persons

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of refinement and education who had come from France and Spain to seek their fortunes in the New World, and were, as a body of men, consequently different from the more reckless and uncouth pioneers of a later date who pushed westward the boundaries of the Union againt the ineffectual struggles of the Indian tribes.

The only inducement at this period for any persons to penetrate Occidental Louisiana, or "The Illinois," was the prospect of trade in furs and minerals, or the love of exploration and adventure, and it is only the daring and resolute who are willing to embark in such pursuits; but notwithstanding this, these pioneers appear to have managed the fierce aborigines with more discretion than their successors, who inaugurated an unextinguishable war.

Such was the condition of the Mississippi Valley, as to settlement, at the period indicated. The rule of the red man had been impinged upon but not broken, and the active and aggressive foreigners had as yet wrought little change upon the face of nature. Notwithstanding the time that had elapsed since De Soto discovered the Mississippi to the South, and Marquette and Joliet to the North, the explorations of the river and its tributaries, and the region through which it flowed, had not been of an active, or exhaustive, character, and the development even of the fur trade was insignificant. Beyond the mouth of the Missouri, the white man had made little or no progress, and whatever trade was carried on between New Orleans and the country north of the mouth of the Ohio, originated south of the present site of St. Louis.

The Founding of St. Louis.

In the summer of 1763, an expedition was organized in New Orleans for the purpose of carrying into operation the powers conferred in the charter granted by Governor D'Abadie to Laclede and his associates. The immediate object in view, was the establishing of a permanent trading-post and settlement on some advantageous place north of the settlements then existing. Laclede was the prominent personage in organizing the expedition, and it left New Orleans under his command on the 3d day of August, 1763. It is impossible to procure accurate information respecting the size and character of the party participating in the expedition, but it was probably not very numerous, and was composed mainly of hunters and trappers accustomed to the hardships and dangers of such enterprises. The means of transportation were the strong, heavily-fashioned boats then in use, in which was stored a large

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quantity of such merchandise as was necessary for trade with the Indians.

The voyage on the Mississippi was a tedious one, and three months after the departure from New Orleans, or on the 3d of October, the expedition reached Ste. Genevieve. This town, which was founded about 1775, and is perhaps the oldest settlement in Missouri, was then a place of some consequence, and the only French post on the west bank of the river. The intention of Laclede was to seek a place further north, and after a short stop at Ste. Genevieve, the party continued their course, their destination now being Fort de Chartres, to which place Laclede had an invitation from the military commander, and where he determined to rest and store his goods while exploring the country for a suitable location for the proposed trading post. At the time of the arrival of the expedition, the fort was commanded by M. de Noyon de Villiers, who, although of a haughty disposition, appears to have welcomed the party with kindness and hospitality. The energetic spirit of Laclede did not permit him to remain inactive for any length of time, while the object of the expedition was unaccomplished, and a few weeks after his arrival at Fort de Chartres, he started with a portion of the party towards the mouth of the Missouri. Among those who accompanied him were two brothers, Pierre and Auguste Choteau, whose family name is thoroughly identified with the history of St. Louis. The prospecting party started in the beginning of February, 1764, and they went as far as the mouth of the Missouri, but without fixing upon a site for the post. On their return along the western shore, Laclede landed at the sweeping curve of the river on which now stands the city of St. Louis, and impressed by its pleasant aspect of woodland and prairie swelling westward from the river, he determined to establish here the settlement and post he desired. This memorable event occurred on the 15th of February 1764, and Laclede, having selected the site, immediately proceeded to clear away trees and mark out the lines of a town, which he named St. Louis in honor of Louis XV of France, evidently ignorant at the time that this monarch had transferred to Spain the whole country west of the Mississippi.

When Laclede and his men selected their trading station, the marvels of its future development were undreamed of. Around them lay a limitless and untrodden wilderness, peopled only by tribes of savage and unfriendly Indians, and in which subsistence could be obtained only by the chase. It is only when we thus contemplate our ancestors struggling with unconquerable energy and daring, amid innumerable dangers and

13

hardships, that we properly estimate their worth and character. It is then that we realize that the natural advantages of the location chosen, formed but one element in the colossal result of their work. The others are to be found in those motives and heroic qualities which give stability and nobleness to human actions. It is pleasant and inspiring to see in the historical perspective of our city examples of frugality, fortitude and self-reliance, for these are the only foundations upon which the prosperity of any community can be immovably erected.

Succeeding Historical Events.

Laclede's party had been increased somewhat in numbers by volunteers from Ste. Genevieve, Fort de Chartres and Cahokia, then colled "Notre Dame des Kahokias," but still, numerically, it was but a small hand, and could have made no sustained resistance to Indians had they disputed their right to settlement. It does not appear, however, that the pioneers encountered any hostility from the natives. Not long after their arrival a large body of Missouri Indians visited the vicinity, but without unfriendly intent. They did not belong to the more warlike tribes, and, being in an impoverished condition, all they wanted was provisions and other necessaries. The settlers were in no condition to support their visitors, but, as they were equally unprepared to provoke their hostility, their arrival caused no small uneasiness, and, it is said, a few of Laclede's party apprehending trouble, re-crossed the river and returned to Fort de Chartres, or Cahokia. By judicious management, and by announcing the anticipated arrival of French troops from the fort, Laclede finally succeeded in inducing the Indians to depart, very much to the satisfaction of his people. After some progress had been made in the actual establishment of a settlement, Laclede returned to Fort de Chartres to make arrangements for the removal to St. Louis of the goods left there, as it was expected that the fort would soon be surrendered to the English. During the ensuing year this event took place, as before stated, and Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, the French commander, removed, with his officers and troops, numbering about fifty men to St. Louis, on the 17th of July, 1765; and from this date the new settlement was considered the capital of Upper Louisiana. At this time M. Aubrey was Commandant-General at New Orleans, M. D'Abadie having died during the preceding year, as stated in Marbois' History of Louisiana, from the effects of grief caused by the transfer of the French possessions to Spain.

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St. Ange, on arriving at St. Louis, at once assumed supreme control of affairs, contrary to the treaty of Paris. There was indeed no person who could have conferred upon him this authority, but there was none to dispute it. Nearly all of the settlers of St. Louis and other posts in the valley of the Mississippi were of French nationality, or accustomed to the rule of France. In Lower Louisiana the promulgation of the terms of the treaty was received with intense dissatisfaction, which was also the case at St. Louis when the intelligence was subsequently announced there. The authority of Spain could not at this time be practically enforced, and the inhabitants of St. Louis not only submitted to the authority of St. Ange, but appeared to have welcomed his arrival with satisfaction. He proved a mild and politic Governor, fostering the growth and development of the new settlement and ingratiating himself with the people, He maintained friendly relations with the Indians, and was instrumental in inducing Pontiac, the famous chief of the Ottawas, to abandon his fierce crusade against the English. Between Laclede and St. Ange the most friendly relations existed. An important act of the latter was the formal issuing of land grants to citizens of St. Louis, the recording of which in the "Livre Terrien" confirmed titles to land granted them by the former, and formed the basis of a simple land system.

St. Louis in Early Days.

The extent of the town in its early days, if it did not form some faint prophecy of future development, still clearly proves that more than a mere trading post was intended by the founders. The principal street (La Rue Principale) ran along the line of Main street of to-day, extending from about Almond to Morgan street. The next west was about the same length, and corresponded to the present Second street, and, after the erection of a church in the vicinity of the present Catholic Cathedral, received the name of Church street (La Rue de l'Eglise.) The next street, now Third, was originally known as Barn street, from the number of buildings on it of the character indicated. In mentioning these streets, however, we speak of a time many years subsequent to the arrival of Laclede. Before the topographical features of the present site of our city were altered by the course of improvements, they were materially different from the present. Most of our citizens will find it hard to realize that originally a rocky bluff extended, on the river front, from about Walnut to Vine street, with a precipitous descent in many places. As building progressed this bluff was cut away, and the

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appearance of a sharp, but tolerably even, incline to the river from Main street was gained. At the corner of Commercial alley and Chestnut street, and at several other places, there are at present palpable evidences of this rocky ridge, portions of it yet remaining. At first, it is probable, the Laclede settlement bore the appearance of a rude and scattered hamlet in the wilderness, and it required the growth of several years before the semblance of streets was formed by even imperfect lines of buildings of the most primitive character. Immediately west of the bluff mentioned was a nearly level strip of land protected by gentle elevations westward, and here was the site of the Laclede settlement. The river front was covered with a growth of timber, in the rear of which was a large and gently rolling prairie, with scattered groves of heavy forest trees, which received the title of "La Grande Prairie," and it is not difficult to believe that if the selection of the spot was not made because of its adaptability as the site of a great city, it was because of its natural pleasantness and beauty.

The Years of Spanish Control.

In 1766, an effort was made by Spain to assume control of the territory ceded to her by the treaty of Paris, and General Don Antonio D'Ulloa arrived at New Orleans, with Spanish troops, but, owing to the hostile feeling of the inhabitants, he finally departed without attempting to exercise the powers of Governor. The rule of France was maintained in Lower Louisiana until the arrival of Count O'Reilly in 1769, who took possession of the Territory and New Orleans, obliterating forcibly French supremacy, and strengthening his authority by severe measures towards the more active adherents of France.

The scattered settlements of Upper Louisiana, although equally opposed to Spanish authority, had no adequate means of resistance; and when Rios, a Spanish officer, arrived at St. Louis, with a small body of troops, on the 11th of August, 1768, he only encountered a passive hostility. He took possession of the country in the name of his Catholic Majesty, but does not appear to have exercised any civil authority, as the archives show that St. Ange acted as Governor until the beginning of 1770. On the 17th of July, 1769, Rios and his troops departed and returned to New Orleans to co-operate with Count O'Reilly in enforcing Spanish authority in the lower Province.

During the same year Pontiac, the Ottawa chief, arrived at St. Louis for the purpose of visiting his former friend, St. Ange de Bellerive, by

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whom he was cordially received. The visit was fatal to the Indian warrior, for, while on an excursion to the English territory on the other side of the river, he was killed by a Kaskaskia Indian.

In the latter part of 1770, Count O'Reilly, having acquired full control of Lower Louisiana, determined to bring the upper province into equal subjection. He appointed Don Pedro Piernas as Lieutenant-Governor and Military Commandant of the province, and dispatched him with troops to St. Louis, where he arrived on November 29th of the same year. He did not enter on the exercise of executive functions until the beginning of the following year, but the delay was not occasioned by any active hostility on the part of the people. From this event we may date the commencement of Spanish domination in Upper Louisiana.

The new Governor, fortunately, proved an excellent administrative officer; and as his measures were mild and judicious, he soon conciliated the people. He made no abrupt changes in the laws, and he improved the tenure of property by ordering accurate surveys, and in determining the lines of the land grants previously made. Under the liberal policy of the Spanish Governor, St. Louis prospered rapidly, while immigration constantly added to the population. In 1774, St. Ange de Bellerive, who had accepted military service under Piernas, died, and was buried in the Catholic cemetery with every mark of public esteem and respect. In his will he commended his soul "to God, the blessed Virgin, and the Saints of the Celestial Court," and appointed Laclede his executor.

Emigration from the Canadas and the lower Province increased rapidly under the benignant policy of Spain, and settlements sprang up at different points along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, some of which, however, date from a few years earlier. In 1767, Carondelet was founded by Delor de Tregette, and appears at first to have been known as Louisburgh, and at a different period as Vide Poche, but finally received its present name in honor of the Baron de Carondelet. In 1769 Les Petites Cotes, subsequently St. Andrews, and now St. Charles, was founded by Blanchette Chasseur. The first settlement at Florissant, afterwards called St. Ferdinand, was made by Beaurosier Dunegant in 1776; and so the career of growth and prosperity was inaugurated in this portion of the Mississippi Valley.

The successor of Piernas was Don Francisco Cruzat, who assumed office in 1775, and was succeeded by Don Fernando de Leyba in 1778. It was during the administration of the latter that the death of Laclede

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took place, while on his way to New Orleans, at the age of fifty-four. He was buried near the mouth of the Arkansas river, June 20, 1778, amid the wild solitude of a region in which he had acted as the pioneer of civilization.

The war which was now raging between Great Britain and her American colonies could hardly be unfelt on the far western shores of the Mississippi. Many of the inhabitants of St. Louis, and other places on the same side of the river, were persons who had changed their residence from the opposite shore when it passed under English rule. They were influenced by a hereditary hostility to that power; and although enjoying a mild government under Spanish rulers, their independent spirit, apart even from their feeling towards England, enlisted their sympathies in behalf of their colonial brethren in the East, struggling for freedom. Their great distance did not secure their prosperity from the disastrous influences of war. It was known that Spain sympathized with the colonies, and this speedily endangered their security; for the ferocity of many of the Indian tribes was directed against them by the English.

In the early part of 1779, Col. Rogers Clark, under the authority of Virginia, visited the settlements of Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and other places, for the purpose of endeavoring to enlist men for an expedition against St. Vincents, now Vincennes, then held by the English under Governor Hamilton.

The Attack on St. Louis by Indians.

About this time, an alarming rumor became prevalent that an attack on St. Louis was being organized under British influence. Actuated by a spirit of generous chivalry, Clark offered the assistance of himself and men to Lieut. Gov. Leyba for the protection of the town, but his offer was declined on the ground that the danger was not imminent. (There seems to be some uncertainty as to this incident, but it is supported by the excellent authority of Judge Wilson Primm, and is corroborated by Stoddard in his historical sketch of Louisiana.) Whatever was the ground for the fancied security, the sequel proves either that he was an execrable traitor, or was shamefully incompetent to meet the exigencies of the time. Apprehensions, however, began to disturb the people, and the defenseless condition of the town induced them to undertake some means of fortification. Although they numbered little more than one hundred men, they proceeded to build a wall of logs and earth, about

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five or six feet high, inclosing the dwellings of the settlement. It formed a semi-circular line, with its ends terminating at the river, and supplied with three gates, at each of which a heavy piece of ordnance was placed and kept in constant readiness. For some months after this work was completed, nothing occurred to indicate an Indian attack. Winter passed away, and the inhabitants finally began to consider their apprehensions groundless, which conclusion was assisted by the assurances of the Governor that there was no cause for anxiety. In reality, however, the long-pending attack was now being secretly organized. Numerous bands of Indians, composed of Ojibways, Winnebagos, Sioux, and other tribes, with some Canadians, numbering in all nearly 1,500, had gathered on the eastern shore of the river, a little above St. Louis, and arrangements were consummated for a general attack on the settlement on the 26th of May.

The 25th of May, 1780, was the festival of Corpus Christi, which was celebrated by the Catholic inhabitants with religious ceremonies and rejoicing. There was no feeling of apprehension abroad just at this time, notwithstanding that an event calculated to arouse alarm had occurred but a few days before. An old citizen named Quenelle had crossed the river to Cahokia creek, on a fishing excursion. While watching his lines he was startled to see on the opposite shore of the creek, a man named Ducharme, who had formerly lived in St. Louis, and who had fled to escape punishment for some crime committed. He endeavored to induce Quenelle to come over to him, but the latter thought he detected the presence of Indians in the bushes opposite, and refused, returning hastily in his canoe to the town, where he reported what had occurred. The Commandant ridiculed his story, and it did not create any general fear among the inhabitants. Corpus Christi was celebrated with unusual animation, and a large number of the citizens left the inclosure of the town and were scattered about the prairie — men, women and children — gathering strawberries. A portion of the Indians crossed the river on the same day, but fortunately did not make the attack, owing, probably, to their not knowing how many of the men had remained in the town. Had they done so, the result would surely have been fatal to the young settlement. On the following day, the whole body of the attacking force crossed, directing their course to the fields over which they had seen the inhabitants scattered the day before. It fortunately hapened that only a few of them were outside the town, and these, seeing the approach of the Indians, hastily retreated towards the upper gate, which course led them nearly through a portion of the hostile

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force. Rapid volleys were fired at the fleeing citizens, and the reports speedily spread the alarm in the town. Arms were hastily seized, and the men rushed bravely towards the wall, opening the gate to their defenseless comrades. There was a body of militia in the town from Ste. Genevieve, which had been sent up, under the command of Silvia Francisco Cartabona, some time before, when apprehensions of an attack prevailed. This company, however, behaved shamefully, and did not participate in the defense, many of them concealing themselves in the houses while the fight was in progress. The Indians approached the line of defense rapidly, and when at a short distance, opened an irregular fire, to which the inhabitants responded with light arms and discharges of grape-shot from their pieces of artillery. The resistance made was energetic and resolute, and the savage assailants, seeing the strength of the fortifications and dismayed by the artillery, to which they were unaccustomed, finally retired, and the fight came to a close.

Commander Leyba appeared upon the scene at this juncture, having been startled from a carouse to some idea of the situation by the sound of the artillery. His conduct was extraordinary; he immediately ordered several pieces of ordnance, which had been placed near the Government house, to be spiked, and was then, as it is chronicled, rolled to the immediate scene of action "in a wheelbarrow." He ordered the inhabitants to cease firing and return to their houses. Those stationed near the lower gate, not hearing the command, paid no attention to it, and he directed a cannon to be fired at them. This barbarous order was carried out, and the citizens only escaped the volley of grape by throwing themselves on the ground, and the shot struck down a portion of the wall. The unparalleled treachery of the commandant was fortunately exhibited too late to be of assistance to the Indians, who had been beaten back by the determined valor of the settlers, and the attack was not renewed. When they had left the vicinity, search was made for the bodies of the citizens who had been killed on the prairie, and between twenty and thirty lives were ascertained to have been lost. Several old men, women and children were among the victims, and all the bodies had been horribly mutilated by their murderers.

The traitorous conduct of the commandant, which so nearly imperiled the existence of the town, had been obvious to the people generally; and, justly indignant at his cruel rascality, means were at once taken to transmit a full report of his proceedings to Galvez, the Governor of Lower Louisiana. This resulted in the prompt removal of Leyba, and the settlement was again placed under the authority of Cruzat. Leyba died the

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same year, from the effects, it is said, of poison administered by his own hand — universal obloquy and reproach having rendered his life unendurable. He was buried in the village church, "in front of the right-hand balustrade, having received all the sacraments of our mother the Holy Church," as is set forth in the burial certificate of Father Bernard, a "Catholic Priest, Apostolic Missionary Curate of St. Louis, country of Illinois, Province of Louisiana, Bishopric of Cuba." The year 1780, rendered so memorable by this Indian attack, was afterwards known as "L'annee du grand coup," or "year of the great blow."

There is no doubt but that this assault on St. Louis had for its object the destruction of the settlement, and was only frustrated by the gallantry of the people; that it was partially instigated by English influence is almost unquestionable. The Indians accepted their defeat, and departed without attempting any other demonstration. It is said their retreat was occasioned by the appearance of Col. George Rogers Clark with four or five hundred Americans from Kaskaskia, but this is not substantiated. Pending the arrival of Cruzat, Cartabona, before mentioned, exercised the functions of Lieutenant-Governor, but, however, for only a short period. One of the first works undertaken by Cruzat was the strengthening of the fortifications. He established half a dozen or more stone forts, nearly circular in shape, about fifty feet in diameter and twenty feet high, connected by a stout stockade of posts. The fortifications, as extended and improved by Cruzat, were quite pretentious for so small a settlement. On the river bank, near the spot formerly occupied by the Floating Docks, was a stone tower called the "Half Moon," from its shape, and westwardly of it, near the present intersection of Broadway and Cherry street, was erected a square building called "The Bastion;" south of this, on the line of Olive street, a circular stone fort was situated. A similar building was built on Walnut street, intended for service both as a fort and prison. There was also a fort near Mill Creek; and, east of this, another circular fort near the river. The strong stockade of cedar posts connecting these forts was pierced with loop-holes for small arms. The well-devised line of defenses was not subjected to the test of another Indian attack, for although during the continuance of the Revolutionary war other settlements on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers had to contend against the savages, St. Louis was not again molested.

From this period the progress of St. Louis was slow, but satisfactory, under the liberal and judicious policy of the Spanish governors, and it will be sufficient to note only the more important events.

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Early Navigation of the Mississippi.

It is difficult to realize, in these days, the perils and delays incident to the early navigation of the Mississippi. It is to us now the unobstructed and natural highway of commerce and travel, connecting the West and far North with the warm and fruitful South, and bearing to the ocean the various products of rich and populous regions. A hundred years ago it was no less majestic in its strength and beauty, but its ministrations to the needs of civilized humanity had hardly begun; it rolled its splendid flood through a wild and solitary wilderness, and the sounds of the winds in the forest mingled with the monotone of flowing waters in a murmurous rythm, that sunk or swelled only with the fluctuations of nature. There were no towns along its banks, no rushing steamboats on its surface; only Indian canoes formed a rare and transitory feature in its landscapes, and few human sounds besides the shouts of savage voices were heard. With the birth of white settlements in the great Valley, the solitude of the Father of Waters was gradually invaded. In their rude craft the early voyageurs had to struggle hard against the swift current, and a voyage from New Orleans to St. Louis was then a thing of months, not of days, and required nearly as much preparation as one across the Atlantic. During Cruzat's second administration, navigation was much impeded and disturbed by piratical bands which harbored at certain points on the wooded shores, and instituted a system of depredations on settlers or others passing up and down the river. These hands were principally controlled by two men, named Culbert and Magilbray, who had a permanent rendezvous at a place called Cottonwood Creek. The usual programme of the pirates was to attack the vessels of voyageurs at some place where a surprise could be readily effected, and, having compelled the affrighted crews to seek safety on shore or by surrender, they would plunder the boats and the persons of prisoners of all valuables. The vicinity of Grand Tower, a lofty rock situated about half way between St. Louis and the mouth of the Ohio, became a dreaded spot, also, through the deeds of these river marauders, and many tales exist in the memories of old citizens of acts of violence perpetrated near these places.

Early in the year 1787, an event occurred which inaugurated severe measures by the Government against the pirates, resulting in their dispersion. M. Beausoleil, a New Orleans merchant, started from New

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Orleans for St. Louis with a barge richly freighted with merchandise. A strong breeze prevailed as this vessel was approaching Cotton Wood Creek. The pirates were in waiting to make an attack, but were frustrated by the swift progress of the vessel, and they despatched a body of men up the river for the purpose of heading off the expected prize. The point chosen for the attack was an island, since called Beausoleil's Island, and was reached in about two days. The barge had put ashore and was easily captured and the crew disarmed, when the captors turned her course down the river. On the way down an unexpected delivererance was effected through the daring of a negro named Casotte, who, by pretending joy at the capture of the vessel, was left free and employed as a cook. He maintained a secret understanding with Beausoliel and some of his men, and at a given signal the party effected a sudden rising. They defeated the pirates after a brief struggle, who were all either killed or captured. Beausoleil deemed it prudent, after this alarming experience, to return to New Orleans, and, in passing Cotton Wood Creek, kept as near the opposite shore as possible. On reaching New Orleans, a full report of the doings of the pirates and the capture and deliverance of the barge was made public, and convinced the authorities and the people that strong measures were absolutely necessary to terminate these perils to life and property on the river. The Governor issued an order that all boats bound for St. Louis the following spring should make the voyage together, thus insuring mutual protection. This was carried out, and a little fleet of ten boats started up the river. On approaching Cotton Wood Creek some of the men in the foremost boat perceived some persons on shore near the mouth of the creek. A consultation was held with the crews and passengers of the other boats, and it was determined that while a sufficient number of men should remain to protect the boats, the remainder would form a party to attack the robbers in their haunt. On reaching the place the courageous voyageurs found that their enemies had disappeared, but four boats were discovered in a bend of the creek, laden with a miscellaneous assortment of valuable plunder, and in a low hut situated among the trees at a little distance from the bank, a large quantity of provisions and ammunition was found, with cases of guns and various other weapons, indicating the numerous captures which had been made by these outlaws. All of this property was removed, together with the boats and contents, and carried to St. Louis, where large numbers of the articles were identified by the owners.

The arrival of the fleet of barges created quite a commotion in the

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settlement, and was considered so memorable, that the year 1788 received the name of "L'annee des Dix Bateaux," or "the year of the ten boats." A most fortunate result of this descent was that, although no blood was shed, it practically led to the dispersion of the bands, and but few subsequent depredations are reported to have occurred.

Prior to the event just narrated, and in the year 1785, the people of St. Louis experienced a serious alarm, and loss of property, owing to a sudden and extraordinary rise in the Mississippi river. The American Bottom was covered with water, and Cahokia and Kaskaskia were threatened with being swept out of existence. Most of the buildings in St. Louis were situated on Main street, and the rise of the waters above the steep banks spread general dismay. The flood subsided, however, nearly as rapidly as it had risen, averting the necessity of abandoning the houses, which had been commenced. The year received the name of "L'annee des Grandes Eaux," or "the year of the great waters." No rise in the river equal to this has occurred since, excepting in 1844 and 1851, floods which are remembered by many of our citizens.

Concluding Events Under the Spanish Domination.

In the year 1788, the administration of Don Francisco Cruzat terminated, and Manual Perez became Commandant-General of the West Illinois country at the post of St. Louis. At this time the population of this and the neighboring settlements numbered nearly 1,200 persons, while that of Ste. Genevieve was about 800. The administration of Perez was prosperous, and, like his predecessor, he was generally esteemed by the inhabitants. He brought about a settlement of friendly Indians in the vicinity of Cape Girardeau, where he gave them a large grant of land. They consisted of Shawnees and Delawares, two of the most powerful tribes east of the Mississippi river, and the object was to oppose through them the Osage Indians, a strong Missouri tribe, who were constantly making incursions on the young settlements. This scheme is said to have operated satisfactorily.

In 1793, Perez was succeeded by Zenon Trudeau, who also became popular, and instituted various measures for the encouragement of immigration. In the year 1792, the honey-bee is chronicled to have first appeared, following as it were civilization from the East, and its coming was hailed with delight. The grave difficulties which had sprung up between the American colonies and Spain, respecting territorial boundaries and the navigation of the Mississippi, were adjusted by treaty in

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October, 1795, but more serious trouble subsequently arose from the same cause.

During the administration of Trudeau, St. Louis and the other settlements in that portion of the country expanded rapidly. Under the influence of the exceedingly favorable terms offered to settlers, and the fact that the fear of Indian attacks was greatly diminished, quite a number of citizens of the United States left the country east of the Mississippi, over which English control was now practically broken up, and took up their residence in the Spanish dominions. St. Louis improved in appearance, and new and neat buildings began to supplant, in many places, the rude log huts of earlier years. Trade received a new impetus, but the clearing of the country in its vicinity and the development of agriculture still made but slow progress. The dealing in peltries was the principal business, and, in their effort to expand their exchanges with Indian tribes, traders became more energetic and daring in their excursions, traveled longer distances into the interior westward, and forced their rude boats up the swift Missouri to many points never before visited.

Trudeau closed his official career in 1798, and was succeeded by Charles Dehault Delassus de Delusiere, a Frenchman by birth, but who had been many years in the service of Spain. The winter of the succeeding year was one of extraordinary severity and received the title of "L'annee du Grand Hiver" or "year of the hard winter." The same year that Delassus commenced his administration was signalized by the arrival of some galleys with Spanish troops under Don Carlos Howard, and was called "L'annee des galeres," or "year of the galleys." This Governor caused a census to be taken of Upper Louisiana settlements, from which we extract the following, showing the population of the places named in the year 1799: St. Louis, 925; Carondelet, 184; St. Charles, 875; St. Ferdinand, 276; Marius des Liard, 376; Meramec, 115; St. Andrew, 393; Ste. Genevieve, 949; New Bourbon, 560; Cape Girardeau, 521; New Madrid, 782; Little Meadows, 72. Total, 6,028. Total number of whites, 4,948; free colored, 197; slaves, 883.

It will be seen from these figures that St. Charles then nearly equaled St. Louis in population, while Ste. Genevieve exceeded it; and if any then living ever dreamed of one of these settlements becoming the centre and seat of Western empire, the prophecy would probably have been in favor of the brisk town at the mouth of the Missouri.

On the 15th of May, 1801, the small-pox broke out in St. Louis, and vicinity, with fearful severity. It was a new malady among the healthy

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settlers, and, as was usual, when particularly impressed by an event, they commemorated the year by a peculiar title, calling it "L'annee de la Picotte," the "year of the small-pox." About this time the increase in immigration created a furore for speculation in land, and some immense grants were obtained.

The Retrocession of Louisiana to France and Its Purchase by the United States.

On the 1st of October, 1800, the treaty of Ildefonso was consummated, by which Spain, under certain conditions, retroceded to France the territory of Louisiana; and in July, 1802, the Spanish authorities were directed to deliver possession to the French commissioners. This event, however, did not take place until the month of December, 1803, when M. Laussat, on behalf of France, was placed in control. The supremacy of England on the high seas, at this period, practically prevented France from instituting any possessory acts by transferring troops to the newly acquired territory, and she wisely resolved to accept the offer of the United States, and sell the vast territory to that Government. This famous purchase, accomplished during the administration of President Jefferson, was formally concluded on the 30th of April, 1803; and in December following, M. Laussat, who had just received control of the province from the Spanish authorities, transferred it to the United States, represented at New Orleans for that purpose by Governor Claiborne and General Wilkinson, the commissioners appointed. The sum of money paid by the United States for the territory acquired was about $15,000,000. The agent of France for receiving possession of Upper Louisiana from the Spanish authorities was Amos Stoddard, a captain of artillery in the service of the United states. He arrived in St. Louis in March, 1804, and on the 9th of that month Charles Dehault Delassus, the Spanish Commandant, placed him in possession of the territory, and on the following day he transferred it to the United States. This memorable event created a wide-spread sensation in St. Louis and the other young towns in the vicinity. Most of the people were deeply attached to the old Government, and although they were in sympathy with the vigorous Republic which had sprung into existence in the East, and dimly appreciated the promise of its future, yet it was with feelings of regret and apprehension that they saw the banner of the new Government unfurled in place of the well known flag of Spain. There were, however, many among St. Louis citizens who rejoiced at the transfer,

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and their anticipations of its prosperous influence on their town were speedily realized, for business generally became more animated, while the population rapidly increased by an energetic and ingenious class of settlers from the East and other points, mostly representatives of the Anglo-Saxon race, always the most successful in urging forward the prosperity and development of a country.

The date of this transfer marks an interesting epoch in the growth of St. Louis and the Western country. If, as we believe, before the year 1900 St. Louis will be the leading city of the North American continent, her history will form a marvelous chapter in the chronicles of the life and development of modern nations. Nearly within the bounds of a century a rude settlement in a far inland wilderness will have expanded into a mighty metropolis, the rich capital and throbbing heart of the greatest nation in the world, the centre of modern civilization, knowledge and arts; a city of vast manufacturing and commercial interests, in which every branch of human industry is represented; a second Babylon, on the banks of a river beside which the Euphrates was a streamlet: with iron roadways for the cars of steam branching out in all directions, and whose empire extends from the wild billows of the Atlantic to the calmer waters of the Pacific, from the cold lakes of the North to the warm waters of the Mexican Gulf. Here indeed is a historical picture which words can scarcely depict, which illustrates the power of human activities far more wondrously than the colossal, but isolated, structures of the people of the olden time.

St. Louis Under the Rule of the United States.

A temporary government for St. Louis and the Upper Louisiana was promptly provided by Congress, Captain Stoddard being appointed to exercise the functions and prerogatives formerly vested in the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor. In the excellent historical sketch of Louisiana written by that officer, some interesting particulars are given of St. Louis at the time of the transfer to the United States. The town consisted of about 180 houses, and the population in the district numbered about 2,280 whites and about 500 blacks. The total population of Upper Louisiana is stated at 9,020 whites and 1,320 blacks. Three-fifths of the population of Upper Louisiana were Anglo-Americans. According to the same authority, St. Louis then consisted of two long streets running parallel to the river, with a number of others intersecting them at right angles. There were some houses, however, on the

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line of the present Third street, which was known as "La rue des Granges," or the street of barns, as before mentioned. The church building, from which Second street then derived its name, was a structure of hewn logs, somewhat rude and primitive in appearance. West of Fourth street there was little else but woods and commons, and the Planters' House now stands upon a portion of the space then used for pasturage purposes. There was no post office, nor indeed any need for one, as there were no official mails. Government boats ran occasionally between New Orleans and St. Louis, but there was no regular communication. The principal building was the government house on Main street near Walnut. The means of education were of course limited in character, and, as peltries and lead continued to be the chief articles of export, the cultivation of the land in the vicinity of the town progressed but slowly. There is a tradition that St. Louis received the sobriquet of Pain Court (short bread), owing to the scarcity of the staff of life in the town. Indeed there appears reason to believe that, in a commercial point of view, Ste. Genevieve at this time was a much more important place than St. Louis.

Captain Stoddard, on assuming control, published a circular address to the inhabitants, in which he formally announced that Louisiana had been transferred to the possession of the United States, and that the plan of a permanent territorial government was under the consideration of Congress. He briefly alluded to preceding events as follows: "It will not be necessary to advert to the various preliminary arrangements which have conspired to place you in your present political situation. With these it is presumed you are already acquainted. Suffice it to observe that Spain, in 1800 and 1801, retroceded the colony and province of Louisiana to France, and that France, in 1803, conveyed the same territory to the United States, who are now in the legal and peaceful possession of it. These transfers were made with honorable views and under such forms and sanctions as are usually practiced among civilized nations." The remainder of the address is devoted to an eloquent exposition of the new political condition of the people and of the privileges and benefits of a liberal republican government.

The fur trade, which had led to the founding of St. Louis, continued for many years to be the principal business of the people. Here, as elsewhere, the Indian tribes forged the weapons for their own destruction. They eagerly sought the opportunity to exchange with the white men the fruits of the chase for the articles and commodities of a higher civilization. They were the principal agents in developing the fur

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trade of the North and West, and by so doing hastened the incoming of the indomitable race destined to build, over their slaughter and decay, the glorious structure of American liberty. These primitive races wasted and faded with the birth of a nation, whose mission was to bless and metamorphose the New World; and even had there been no Revolutionary war to usher in the American Union, there is enough in the fate of the aborigines of the country to authenticate the remark of Theodore Parker that "all the great charters of humanity have been written in blood."

During the fifteen years ending in 1804, the average annual value of the furs collected at St. Louis is stated to have been $203,750. The number of buffalo skins was only 850; deer, 158,000; beaver, 36,900 pounds; otter, 8,000; bear, 5,100. A very different state of things existed twenty or thirty years later, when beaver was nearly exhausted and buffalo skins formed the most important article of trade. The commerce consisted principally of that portion of furs that did not find its way directly to Montreal and Quebec through the lakes.

The supplies of the town, especially of groceries, were brought from New Orleans, and the time necessary for a trip was from four to six months. The departure of a boat was an important event, and generally, many of the inhabitants collected together on the shore to see it off and bid good-bye to the friends who might be among the passengers. Wm. C. Carr, who arrived about the 1st of April, 1804, states that it took him twenty-five days to make the trip from Louisville, Ky., by river. On the same authority it is stated that there were only two American families in the place — those of Calvin Adams and William Sullivan. Mr. Carr remained in St. Louis about a month, and then, attracted by the great lead trade of Ste. Genevieve, went to that place to reside, but returned in about a year, convinced that St. Louis was a better location. In the same year, Colonel Rufus Easton, John Scott and Edward Hempstead came to reside in the country. Mr. Scott settled at Ste. Genevieve; Mr. Hempstead went to St. Charles, then called Petite Cote, where he remained for several years, and then came to St. Louis; Mr. Easton remained in St. Louis.

In 1802, James Pursley, an American, with two companions, started on a hunting expedition from St. Louis to the source of the Osage, but extended his course westward. After various dangers and adventures, he reached the vicinity of Santa Fe, and is said to have been the first American who traversed the great plains between the United States and New Mexico.

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In 1804 the United States dispatched Lewis and Clark and Major Pike to explore the sources of the Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Kansas, and the Platte rivers. Hunters from St. Louis and vicinity formed their companions, or preceded them, and were to be found on nearly all the rivers east of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Auguste Chouteau, about the same time, had outfitted Loisel, who established a considerable fort and trading post at Cedar Island, a little above the Big Bend of the Mississippi; so that about the time that St. Louis became a town of the United States, the great regions west and north of her were being gradually opened to settlement. Forty years had elapsed since Laclede had founded the settlement, and yet, compared with the development of subsequent times, its growth had not been very rapid. It was but a straggling river village with few buildings of any consequence, and was cut off from the world of trade and civilization by its great distance from the seaboard and the vast unpeopled country surrounding it. The inhabitants were mostly French, and the social intercourse was simple and friendly, with but faint traces of class distinctions. There was only one resident physician, Dr. Saugrain, who lived on Second street, and one baker, Le Clere, who baked for the garrison and lived on Main street near Elm. The only American tavern was kept by a man named Adams, and this, with two others kept by Frenchmen named Yostic and Laudreville, both on Main street near Locust, were, we believe, the only establishments of the kind in the town. The names of the more prominent merchants and citizens at this time, are familiar, at present, to nearly all of our citizens, owing to many of the families still being represented, and the fact that their names, most appropriately, have been wrought in the nomenclature of our streets. Among them we may mention Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, Labadie, Sarpy, Gratiot, Pratte, Tayon, Lecompt, Papin, Cabanne, Labaume, Soulard, Hortez, Alvarez, Clamorgan, Debreuil and Manuel Lisa. The Chouteaus lived on Main street, and Pierre, whose place was near the present intersection of that street with Washington avenue, had nearly a whole square encircled by a stone wall, and in which he had a fine orchard. Manuel Lisa lived on Second street; the establishment of Labadie & Sarpy was on Main near Chestnut, and the Debreuils had a line place on Second, between Pine and Chestnut streets.

On the 26th of March, 1804, by an act of Congress, the Province of Louisiana was divided into two parts, the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana, the latter including all north of the 33d parallel of latitude. The executive power of the Government in the Territory of

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Indiana was extended over that of Louisiana, the Governors and Judges of the former being authorized to enact laws for the new District. General William Henry Harrison, then Governor of Indiana, instituted the American authorities here under the provisions of this act, his associates being, we believe, Judges Griffin, Vanderberg, and Davis. The first courts of justice were held during the ensuing winter in the old fort near Fifth and Walnut streets, and were called Courts of Common Pleas. On the 3d of March, 1805, by another act of Congress, the District was changed to the Territory of Louisiana, and James Wilkinson was appointed Governor, and with Judges R. J. Meigs and John B. C. Lucas, of the Superior Court, formed the Legislature of the Territory. The executive offices were in the old Government building on Main street, near Walnut, just south of the Public Square, called La Place d' Armes. Here General Wilkinson was visited by Aaron Burr when the latter was planning his daring and ambitious conspiracy. When Wilkinson was appointed, there was in each of the Districts of St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, and Cape Girardeau a civil and military Commandant, as follows: Colonel Meigs for the first, Colonel Hammond for St. Louis, Major Seth Hunt for Ste. Genevieve, and Colonel T. B. Scott for the last-named place. These officers were superseded by the organization of the courts, and the names of the districts subsequently became those of counties. This system of legislation was maintained for several years, with occasional changes in officers.

In 1806 Gen. Wilkinson established the fort of Belle Fontaine, on the south side of the Missouri, a few miles above its mouth; but it was practically abandoned early the following year, when he was ordered South to assist in arresting the Burr conspiracy. During part of 1806, Joseph Browne was Secretary of the Territory and Acting Governor, and J. B. C. Lucas and Otho Shrader were Judges. The following year Frederic Bates was Governor, with the same Judges in office. Next year Merriweather Lewis, with the same Judges, formed the Legislature, and continued to do so until 1811.

On the 9th of November, 1809, the town of St. Louis was first incorporated, upon the petition of two-thirds of the taxable inhabitants and under the authority of an act of the Territory of Louisiana, passed the previous year.

On the 4th of June, 1812, the country received the name of the Territory of Missouri, and the government was modified and made to consist of a Governor and Legislative Assembly, the upper branch of which,

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numbering nine councilors, was selected out of twice that number, nominated to the Governor by the lower branch. At this time the Territory had first conceded to it the right of representation in Congress by one delegate. Anterior to this change in the government there are some events which deserve particular notice. Shortly after the country became part of the United States a postoffice was permanently created in the town, the first postmaster being Rufus Easton. The first newspaper was established July, 1808, by Joseph Charless, and received the name of the Missouri Gazette. It was first printed on a sheet of writing-paper not much larger than a royal-octavo page. This journal was the germ of the present Missouri Republican, one of the largest in circulation and most influential journals of the country. The necessity of some means of transportation to and fro across the river had led to the establishment of a small ferry, which was first kept by Calvin Adams, and proved a paying enterprise. His ferry consisted of two pirogues tied together with planks laid across the top, and his charge for bringing over man and horse was $2. In August of this year two Iowa Indians were tried for murder before the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Judges Lucas and Shrader presiding. It created a good deal of excitement, but owing to some want of jurisdiction in the case the prisoners escaped the sentence of death which was passed upon them. On the 16th of September the first execution for murder in the Territory took place, the criminal being a young man who had shot his step-father. In the autumn of the next year Governor Lewis, while on a journey to Louisville, committed suicide by shooting himself while under the influence of aberration of mind.

The Municipal Government, at this time, consisted of a board of Trustees, elected under the provisions of the charter mentioned above. The Missouri Fur Company was formed in 1808, consisting principally of Pierre Chouteau, Manuel Lisa, William Clark, Sylvester Labadie, Pierre Menard, and Auguste Pierre Chouteau, the capital being $40,000. An expedition was dispatched under the auspices of this company, in charge of Major A. Henry, and succeeded in establishing trading posts upon the Upper Missouri — one on Lewis River, beyond the Rocky Mountains, and one on the southern branch of the Columbia, the latter being the first post established on the great river of Oregon Territory. In 1812 this company was dissolved, most of the members establishing independent houses in the trade, and for furnishing outfits to private adventurers. Among these may be mentioned the houses of Berthold & Chouteau, B. Pratte, J. P. Cabanne, and M. Lisa. The hunters and

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trappers at this time formed a considerable part of the population of St. Louis, and were principally half-breed Indians, and white men so long accustomed to such pursuits that they were nearly similar in habits to the natives. Notwithstanding the preponderance of this reckless element, it does not appear that the town was disorderly, and crime and scenes of violence were of rare occurrence.

The first members of the Territorial Legislature, elected in 1812, sat during the ensuing winter in the old house of Joseph Robidoux, on the northeast corner of Myrtle and Main streets. It was in this year that the terrible earthquake occurred at New Madrid and vicinity, and created wide-spread dismay. The waters of the Mississippi were greatly agitated by the subterranean convulsion, and several boats with their crews were engulfed. New Madrid, which stood upon a bluff fifteen or twenty feet above the summer floods, sank so low that the next rise covered the ground to the depth of four or five feet. The channel of the river was affected materially, and the bottoms of some small lakes in the vicinity were so elevated that they became dry land.

The first English school was opened in St. Louis, in 1808, by a man named Ratchford, who was succeeded by Geo. Tompkins, a young Virginian, who, when he started in the enterprise, was nearly without funds, and with but few acquaintances. He rented a room on the north side of Market street, between Second and Third, for his school, and during his leisure hours pursued the study of law. The first debating society known west of the Mississippi was connected with this school, and the debates were generally open to the public and afforded interesting and instructive entertainment. This energetic young school teacher studied law to some purpose, for he ultimately became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri. Among the members of the society he organized were Dr. Farrar, Dr. Lowry, Major O'Fallon, Edward Bates, and Joshua Barton — names afterward rendered eminent by ability and public service. The population of the town in 1810 was about 1,400. In May, 1812, the chiefs of the Osage, the Shawnees, Delawares, and other tribes, came here to accompany General Wm. Clark to Washington, the purpose being to consummate some negotiations then pending, and to impress the savages with some true idea of the greatness and power of the Government. This General Clark was the brother of General George Rogers Clark, so distinguished in the West during the Revolutionary war, and was the companion of Lewis in the famous expedition to Upper Missouri, and had remarkable experience and judgment in dealing with the Indians. The war of 1812 between the United

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States and England produced but little effect upon our city, so far removed inland, but the people took a lively interest in the progress of the conflict, and participated in the general rejoicing over its honorable close.

In August, 1816, the Bank of St. Louis was incorporated, being the first institution of the kind in the town. The following gentlemen composed the commissioners: Auguste Chouteau, J. B. C. Lucas, Clement B. Penrose, Moses Austin, Bernard Pratte, Manuel Lisa, Thomas Brady, Bartholomew Berthold, Samuel Hammond, Rufus Easton, Robert Simpson, Christian Wilt and Risdon H. Price. At an election, held on the 20th of the following month, Samuel Hammond was elected President, and John B. N. Smith, Cashier. The career of this bank was not successful, and continued for something over two years, when it came to a disastrous close. On the 1st of February, 1817, the Missouri Bank was incorporated, the commissioners appointed by the stockholders to receive subscriptions being Charles Gratiot, William Smith, John McKnight, J. P. Cabanne, and Mathew Kerr. The first President was Auguste Chouteau, and the Cashier Lilburn W. Boggs.

A census published in the Missouri Gazette, December 9, 1815, and taken by John W. Thompson, states that the number of souls in the town was 2,000, and the total population of county and town 7,395.

On the 2d of August an event occurred which marked the commencement of a new epoch in the history of St. Louis. Heretofore its growth had been dependent upon human energies alone, but now a new agency was to enter into its commercial life which was to enable her to reap the full benefit accruing from the noble river that rolled past her to the sea. The first steamboat arrived on the day named. It was called the "Pike," and was commanded by Captain Jacob Reed. The inhabitants were, as might be expected, greatly interested and delighted as the novel craft touched the foot of Market street, many of them having never seen a vessel of the kind before. Some Indians who were in town were so alarmed at the unusual spectacle that they receded from the shore as the boat neared, and could not be persuaded to come in the vicinity of the monster, for such it seemed to them, although in reality but a tiny little vessel. She was propelled by a low-pressure engine, and had been built at Louisville. The second boat which arrived here was the "Constitution," commanded by Captain R. P. Guyard, and the 2d of October, 1817, was the date of her arrival. In May, 1819, the first steamboat stemmed the tide of the Missouri; it was the "Independence," Captain Nelson commanding, and went up as far as "Old Franklin,"

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after a passage of seven running days. The first steamboat from New Orleans, the "Harriet," commanded by Captain Aarmitage, reached here on the 2d of June, 1819, making the voyage in twenty-seven days.

In 1817 the first board of school trustees was formed, which may be regarded as the commencement of the present unsurpassed school system. They were William Clark, William C. Carr, Thomas H. Benton, Bernard Pratte, Auguste Chouteau, Alexander McNair and John P. Cabanne. During the following year, the application of Missouri for admission into the Union gave rise to a most exciting political agitation, in which the whole nation participated. The Southern members of Congress insisted that the new State should be admitted without restriction as to slavery, while the members from the North as bitterly opposed any extension of the slave system. It is not our province to more than mention the interesting and important aspect of the discussion that ensued, as it is a subject fully treated in the political history of the country. The result was the celebrated "Missouri Compromise," which in effect allowed the formation of the Missouri Constitution without restriction, but declared that slavery should not extend in any new-formed State north of 36 degrees 40 minutes north latitude. The convention which framed the first Constitution of the State of Missouri assembled in 1820 in this city. The place of meeting was Mansion House, then a building of considerable importance, on the corner of Third and Vine streets, now known as the City Hotel.

Mr. John Jacob Astor established a branch of his house in this city in 1819, under the charge of Mr. Samuel Abbott, and it was called the Western Department of the American Fur Company. This company entered upon a most successful career, embracing in its trade the northern and western parts of the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains. About this time the old Missouri Fur Company was revived, with new partners, among whom were Major John Pilcher, M. Lisa, Thomas Hempstead and Captain Perkins. We may incidentally mention that in 1823 a hunting and trapping party of this company, under Messrs. Jones and Immel, while on the Yellowstone, were attacked by Black Feet Indians. The leaders and several of the party were killed, and those who escaped were robbed of whatever property they had with them. This company only continued a few years, and was not successful. The important expedition of General Wm. H. Ashley took place also in this year, and resulted in the discovery of the southern pass of the Rocky Mountains, and the opening of commercial intercourse with the countries west of the same. The General encountered fierce

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opposition from the Indians, and lost fourteen men, and had ten wounded in a fight at the outset of the expedition.

A city directory was published in 1821, which furnishes some interesting information respecting the condition of the town at the time, and from which we make the following extracts:

"It is but about forty years since the now flourishing but yet more promising State of Missouri was but a vast wilderness, many of the inhabitants of this country yet remembering the time when they met together to kill the buffalo at the same place where Mr. Philipson's ox saw and flour mill is now erected, and on Mill creek, near to where Mr. Chouteau's mill now stands. What a prodigious change has been operated! St. Louis is now ornamented with a great number of brick buildings, and both the scholar and the courtier could move in a circle suiting their choice and taste.

"By the exertions of the Right Rev. Bishop Louis Wm. Du Bourg, the inhabitants have seen a fine cathedral rise at the same spot where stood an old log church. * * * This elegant building was commenced in 1818, under the superintendence of Mr. Gabriel Paul, the architect, and is only in part completed. As it now stands it is forty feet by one hundred and thirty-five in depth and forty in height. When completed it will have a wing on each side running its whole length twenty-two and a half feet wide and twenty-five in height, giving it a front of eighty-five feet. It will have a steeple the same height as the depth of the building, which will be provided with several large bells expected from France. The lot on which the church, college and other buildings are erected embraces a complete square, a part of which is used as a burial ground.

* * * * * * * * *

"It is a truly delightful sight, to an American of taste, to find in one of the remotest towns in the Union a church decorated with original paintings of Rubens, Raphael, Guido, Paul Veronese and a number of others by the first modern masters of the Italian, French and Flemish schools. The ancient and precious gold embroideries which the St. Louis Cathedral possesses would certainly decorate any museum in the world. All this is due to the liberality of the Catholics of Europe, who presented these rich articles to Bishop Du Bourg, on his last tour through France, Italy, Sicily and the Netherlands. Among the liberal benefactors could be named many princes and princesses, but we will only insert the names of Louis XVIII. the present King of France, and that of the Baroness Le Candele de Ghyseghern, a Flemish lady, to whose

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munificence the Cathedral is particularly indebted, and who, even lately, has sent a fine, large and elegant organ, fit to correspond with the rest of the decorations. The Bishop possesses beside, a very elegant and valuable library, containing about eight thousand volumes, and which is, without doubt, the most complete scientific and literary repertory of the Western country, if not of the Western world. Though it is not public, there is no doubt but the man of science, the antiquary, and the linguist will obtain a ready access to it, and find the Bishop a man at once endowed with the elegance and politeness of the courtier, the piety and zeal of the apostle, and the learning of a father of the church. Connected with this establishment is the St. Louis College, under the direction of Bishop Du Bourg. It is a two-story brick building and has about sixty-five students, who are taught the Greek, Latin, French, English, Spanish and Italian languages, mathematics, elementary and transcendent, drawing, &c. There are several teachers. Connected with the college is an ecclesiastical seminary, at the Barrens, in Ste. Genevieve county, where divinity, the oriental languages and philosophy are taught.

"St. Louis likewise contains ten common schools; a brick Baptist church, forty feet by sixty, built in 1819, and an Episcopal church of wood. The Methodist congregation hold their meetings in the old Court House, and the Presbyterians in the Circuit Court room." We gather the following additional facts from the same work: There were three newspapers then in the city, the St. Louis Enquirer, Missouri Gazette, and St. Louis Register.

* * * * * * * * *

"Eight streets run parallel with the river, and are intersected by twenty-three others at right angles; three of the preceding are in the lower part of the town, and the five others are in the upper part. The streets in the lower part of the town are narrow, being from thirty-two to thirty-eight and a half feet in width; those on ‘the Hill’ or upper part are much Wider. ‘The Hill’ is much the most pleasant and salubrious, and will no doubt become the most improved. The lower end of Market street is well paved, and the trustees of the town have passed an ordinance for paving the sidewalks of Main street, being the second from and parallel to the river, and principal one for business. This is a very wholesome regulation of the trustees, and is the more necessary, as this and many other streets are sometimes so extremely muddy as to be rendered almost impassable. It is hoped that the trustees will next pave the middle of Main street, and that they will proceed gradually to improve the other streets, which will contribute to make the town more healthy, add to the

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value of property, and make it a desirable place of residence. On the Hill, in the centre of the town, is a public square, two hundred and forty by three hundred feet, on which it is intended to build an elegant court house. The various courts are held at present in buildings adjacent to the public square. A new stone jail of two stories, seventy feet front by thirty deep, stands west of the site of the court house. Market street is in the middle of the town, and is the line dividing the north part from the south. Those streets running north from Market street have the addition of North to their names, and those running in the opposite direction, South. For example: North Main street, South Main street, North A, &c., street, South A street. The houses were first numbered by the publisher of this Directory in May, 1821. The fortifications erected in early times for the defense of the place, stand principally on the Hill. They consist of several circular stone towers, about fifteen feet in height and twenty in diameter, a wooden block-house and a large stone bastion, the interior of which is used as a garden by Captain A. Wetmore of the United States army.

"Just above the town are several Indian mounds and remains of antiquity, which afford an extensive and most charming view of the town and beautiful surrounding country situated in the two States of Missouri and Illinois, which are separated by the majestic Missouri, and which is likewise observed in the scene, as he glides along in all his greatness. Adjacent to the large mound, nearest the town, is the Mound Garden, belonging to Colonel Elias Rector, and kept by Mr. James Gray as a place of entertainment and recreation. The proprietor has displayed considerable taste in laying it out in beds and walks, and in ornamenting it with flowers and shrubbery. In short, it affords a delightful and pleasant retreat from the noise, heat and dust of a busy town.

"There is a Masonic hall, in which the Grand Lodge of the State of Missouri, the Royal Arch, and the Master Mason's Lodges are held. Connected with this excellent institution is a burying ground, where poor Masons are interred at the expense of the fraternity. The council chamber of Governor William Clark, where he gives audience to the chiefs of the various tribes of Indians who visit St. Louis, contains, probably, the most complete museum of Indian curiosities to be met with anywhere in the United States, and the Governor is so polite as to permit its being visited by any person of respectability at any time.

* * * * * * * * *

"Population in 1810, 1000; in 1818, 3,500, and at this time (1821) about 5,500. The town and county contain 9,732. The population is

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much mixed, consisting principally of Americans from every part of the Union, the original and other French, of whom there are one hundred and fifty-five families, and foreigners of various nations; consequently, the society is much diversified, and has no fixed character. This, the reader will perceive, arises from the situation of the country, in itself new, flourishing and changing; still, that class who compose the respectable part of the community are hospitable, polite and well-informed. And here I must take occasion, in justice to the town and country, to protest against the many calumnies circulated abroad, to the prejudice of St. Louis, respecting the manners and dispositions of the inhabitants. Persons meet here with dissimilar habits produced by a different education, and possessing various peculiarities. It is not, therefore, surprising that, in a place composed of such discordant materials, there should be occasional differences and difficulties. But the reader may be assured that old-established inhabitants have little participation in transactions which have so much injured the town.

"St. Louis has grown very rapidly. There is not, however, so much improvement going on at this time, owing to the check caused by general and universal pressure that pervades the country. This state of things can only be temporary here, for it possesses such permanent advantages from its local and geographical situation that it must, ere some distant day, become a place of great importance, being more central with regard to the whole territory belonging to the United States than any other considerable town, and uniting the advantages of the three great rivers, Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois, of the trade of which it is the emporium.

"The Missouri Fur Company was formed by several gentlemen of St. Louis in 1819, for the purpose of trading on the Missouri river and its waters. The principal establishment of the company is at Council Bluffs, yet they have several other of minor consequence several hundred miles above, and it is expected that the establishment will be extended shortly up as high as the Mandan villages. The actual capital invested in the trade is supposed to amount at this time to about $70,000. They have in their employ, exclusive of their partners on the river, twenty-five clerks and interpreters, and seventy laboring men.

"It is estimated that the annual value of the Indian trade of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers is $600,000. The annual amount of imports to this town is stated at upwards of $2,000,000. The commerce by water is carried on by a great number of steamboats, barges and keelboats. These center here, after performing the greatest inland voyages known in the world. The principal articles of trade are fur, peltry and

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lead. The agricultural productions are Indian corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, tobacco and other articles common to the Western country. Excellent mill-stones are found and made in this county. Stone coal is abundant, and saltpetre and common salt have been made within a few miles. Within three or four miles are several springs of good water, and seven miles southwest is a sulphur spring. In the vicinity are two natural caverns, in limestone rocks. Two miles above town, at North St. Louis, is a steam saw-mill, and several common mills are on the neighboring streams. The roads leading from St. Louis are very good, and it is expected that the great national turnpike will strike this place, as the commissioners for the United States have reported in favor of it.

"There were two fire engines with organized companies, one of which was stationed in the northern, the other in the southern part of the town. Two steam ferry-boats, the property of Mr. Samuel Wiggins, were in regular operation between the city and the opposite shore, and the river at the ferry was one mile and one-eighth in width. Opposite the upper part of the town, and above the ferry, is an island about one mile and one-half in length, and containing upwards of 1,000 acres, the property also of Mr. Wiggins. A considerable sand-bar has been formed in the river adjoining the lower part of the town, which extends far out, and has thrown the main channel over on the Illinois side; when the water is low it is entirely dry and covered with an immense quantity of drift-wood, nearly sufficient to supply the town with fuel, costing only the trouble of cutting and hauling. This is of great consequence to the inhabitants, particularly as the growth of wood is small in the immediate neighborhood on this side of the river. Wood is likewise brought down the river in large quantities for disposal."

Only about four years had elapsed from the arrival of the first steamboat at St. Louis to the time this directory was published, yet it is evident that municipal growth had been exceedingly rapid; business of all kinds, particularly in furs, peltries, lead and agricultural productions, had expanded greatly, while numbers of steamboats, barges and other craft were constantly engaged in the river commerce. In fact, even at this early period, the inhabitants appear to have had some idea of the great future before their city. The career of St. Louis as an incorporated city may be dated from December 9, 1822, when an act was passed by the State Legislature, entitled, "An act to incorporate the inhabitants of the town of St. Louis;" and in April following, an election took place for a Mayor and nine Aldermen, in accordance with the provisions of the act.

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William Carr Lane was elected Mayor, with the following Aldermen: Thomas McKnight, James Kennerley, Philip Rocheblane, Archibald Gamble, Wm. A. Savage, Robert Nash, James Loper, Henry VonPhul and James Lackman. The new city government proved a most effective one, and immediately set about the improvement of the city. An ordinance was passed for the grading of Main street, and compelling citizens to improve the streets in front of their lots. The salary of the Mayor was only $300 per annum, but he applied himself with as much earnestness and assiduity to the public service as if he were receiving the present salary of $4,000. Before proceeding to sketch the progress of St. Louis as an incorporated city, the following items may be mentioned as illustrating the progress of building up to that time: Chouteau's row, in block No. 7, was begun in 1818 and finished in 1819. During the same year three other buildings of an important character were erected; the first by General Clark, the second by Bernard Pratte, at the corner of Market and Water streets, and the third, a large warehouse, by A. Chouteau, in block No. 6. The Catholic church, a large brick building on Second street, long since demolished, was constructed in 1818, and on Christmas day, 1819, divine service was performed there for the first time. The first paving which was laid in St. Louis was executed by William Deckers, with stone on edge, on Market street, between Main and Water. In 1821 the first brick pavement was laid on Second street, and finally it may be mentioned that the first brick dwelling was built in 1813 by William C. Carr. There was, at the time we now speak of, but little indications of settlement on the eastern bank of the river opposite St. Louis, but the long strip of land near the Illinois shore had already earned the right to the title of Bloody Island, as more than one fatal duel had taken place there. The first was that between Thomas H. Benton, subsequently so distinguished a citizen, and Charles Lucas. The difficulty between the parties originated during a trial in which both were engaged as counsel. Colonel Benton, believing himself insulted, challenged Mr. Lucas, who declined on the ground that statements made to a jury could not properly be considered a cause for such a meeting. The ill feeling thus created was aggravated by a subsequent political controversy, and Mr. Lucas challenged Mr. Benton, who accepted. The meeting took place on Bloody Island on the morning of August 12, 1817, pistols being the weapons used. Mr. Lucas was severely wounded in the neck, and owing to the effusion of

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blood, was withdrawn from the field. A temporary reconciliation followed this duel, but the feud between the parties broke out afresh shortly afterwards, and another duel took place on Bloody Island, resulting in the killing of young Lucas at the age of twenty-five years. This deplorable re-encounter occurred on the 27th of September, 1817. During the following year another duel occurred on Bloody Island, which also resulted fatally, the combatants being Captains Martin and Ramsey, of the United States army, who were stationed at the Fort Belle Fontaine, on the Missouri river. Ramsey was wounded, and died a few days afterwards, and was buried with Masonic and military honors. On the 30th of June, 1818, a hostile meeting took place at the same locality between Joshua Barton, District Attorney of the United States, resident in St. Louis, and Thomas C. Rector. The parties met in the evening, and Mr. Barton fell mortally wounded. An article which appeared in the Missouri Republican, charging General William Rector, then United States Surveyor, with corruption in office, was the cause of the duel. The General was in Washington at the time, and his brother, Thomas C. Rector, warmly espoused his cause, and learning that Mr. Barton was the author of the charge, sent him the challenge which resulted so fatally. Various other rencounters between the adherents to the "code of honor" took place at later dates on Bloody Island, so that the reader will see that its sanguinary appellation had a reasonable and appropriate origin. The more prominent of the other duels which occurred there will be mentioned when we reach their appropriate dates.

Notwithstanding the disastrous conflicts between the Indians and the followers of the Rocky Mountains and Missouri Fur Companies, which occurred in 1823, the progress of trade and exploration, under the daring leadership of General William H. Ashley and others, was not seriously retarded. Benjamin O'Fallon, United States agent for Indian affairs, writes to General William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, giving an account of the misfortunes of General Ashley's command, and adds: "Many circumstances have transpired to induce the belief that the British traders (Hudson's Bay Company) are exciting the Indians against us, either to drive us from that quarter, or reap with the Indians the fruits of our labors." It is evident from all the records of that time, that trade and exploration in the Upper Missouri and Rocky Mountain region were environed with extraordinary hardships and perils, and nothing but the greatest courage, energy and endurance could have accomplished their advancement. In 1824, General Ashley made

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another expedition, penetrating as far as the Great Utah Lake, near which he discovered another and a smaller, to which he gave his own name. In this vicinity he established a fort, and two years afterward a six-pound cannon was drawn from Missouri to this fort, 1,200 miles, and in 1828 many loaded wagons performed the same journey. Between the years 1824 and 1827 General Ashley's men sent furs to this city to the value of over $200,000. The General, having achieved a handsome competence during his perilous career, sold out all his interests and establishments to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, in which Messrs. J. S. Smith, David E. Jackson and William L. Sublette were principals, Mr. Robert Campbell then holding the position of clerk. The followers of this company penetrated the far West in every direction, and had many conflicts with the Indians, and "traversed every part of the country about the southern branches of the Columbia, and ransacked nearly the whole of California." It is stated on good authority that during the five years from 1825 to 1830, of the number of our men engaged in the fur trade, two-fifths were killed by the Indians, or died victims to the dangers of exploring a wilderness.

In 1824 Frederic Bates was elected Governor, defeating General William Ashley after an exciting political contest; but he did not long enjoy the honors of the position, for he was attacked by pleurisy and died in August of the following year.

We now reach the date of an interesting event in the history of St. Louis, namely, the visit of Lafayette, who reached Carondelet on the 28th of April, 1825, and the next morning came up to the city. He was tendered a most enthusiastic reception, as many of the citizens were not only of the same nationality, but all were familiar with his name and fame. He landed opposite the old Market House, where half the town were assembled awaiting his arrival, and received him with cheers, took his seat in a carriage, accompanied by Wm. Carr Lane, Mayor, Stephen Hempstead, an officer of the Revolution, and Colonel Auguste Chouteau, one of the companions of Laclede. Apart from private hospitalities, a splendid banquet and ball were given the distinguished visitor at the Mansion House, then the prominent hotel, and situated on the northeast corner of Third and Market streets. Lafayette was at this time sixty-eight years of age, but still active and strong; he was accompanied by his son, George Washington Lafayette, and some distinguished gentlemen from the South. The next morning he left for Kaskaskia, being escorted to the boat by crowds of citizens,

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who in every way manifested their esteem and respect, and his visit has always been regarded as a memorable local incident.

During this year measures were taken to locate a permanent route across the plains. Major Sibley, one of the commissioners appointed by Government, set out from St. Louis in June, accompanied by Joseph C. Brown and Captain Gamble, with seven wagons containing various goods for trading with the Indians on the road. The party selected a route to Santa Fe, which afterwards was adopted as the general highway for intercourse and trade.

The first Episcopal church of any architectural importance was erected in this year, at the corner of Third and Chestnut streets. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Baptists, and finally disappeared as business houses multiplied in the vicinity. The first Presbyterian church was erected in 1825, near the corner of Fourth and St. Charles streets, and was consecrated by the Rev. Samuel Giddings, but also disappeared as business limits expanded. The first steps towards building a Court House were taken in 1826, and the building, a large one of brick, was erected in the following year, and was destined to be succeeded by the present superb structure of stone. Antonie Chenie built the first three-story house on Main street in 1825, and it was occupied by Tracy & Wahrendoff and James Clemens, Jr.; Jefferson Barracks was commenced in July, 1826, and Centre Market in 1827. The U. S. Arsenal was authorized by Congress in 1826, and was commenced during the next year on the block where it is now situated, but it was many years before it was completed. An ordinance was passed in 1826 changing the names of the streets, with the exception of Market street. From 1809 those running west from the river, excepting Market, had been designated by letters, and they now received, in most instances, the names by which they are at present known. From the last date to 1830 no events of prominent interest mark the history of St. Louis. Different ordinances were passed for the grading, paving and general improvement of streets; and the growth of the city, if not rapid, was steady and satisfactory. Daniel D. Page was elected Mayor in 1829, and proved an energetic and valuable executive. Dr. Robert Simpson was elected Sheriff by a large majority over Frederic Hyat, his opponent. The branch Bank of the United States was established here during this year. Colonel John O'Fallon was appointed president and Henry S. Coxe cashier, and during the years it continued in existence, possessed the public confidence and closed its career without disaster.

In 1830 the number of brick buildings in the city increased considerably,

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as the multiplication of brick yards brought that material more into general use; a bridge was erected across Mill creek, on lower Fourth street; and, architecturally and commercially, there were evidences of solid advancement. The large yards and gardens, which surrounded so many of the dwellings and stores of earlier times, gradually disappeared with the growth of improvements. Some excitement was caused this year by the decisions rendered by Judge James H. Peck, of the United States District Court, in regard to land claims, which were of a stringent character. Judge Lawless, who was interested as counsel in some cases in which Auguste Chouteau and others, and the heirs of Mackey Wherry, were plaintiffs vs. the United States, having avowed the authorship of a rather severe criticism which appeared in one of the newspapers on some decisions of Judge Peck, was committed to prison for contempt of court. He was released after a few hours on a writ of habeas corpus, and subsequently preferred charges against Judge Peck before the House of Representatives, which, however, were dismissed after some examination. On the first day of August, in this year, the corner-stone of the Cathedral on Walnut street, between Second and Third, was laid with religious ceremonies, and this building is now the oldest place of worship in the city, as all those erected previously have given place to other edifices.

The population of the city in 1831 was 5,963. Various measures were adopted this year for public improvement, and an ordinance was passed for building the Broadway Market. The Missouri Insurance Company was incorporated with a capital of $100,000, and George Collier was elected president. In August a most schocking and fatal duel occurred on Bloody Island. Spencer Pettis, a young lawyer of promise, was a candidate for Congress, his opponent being David Barton. Major Biddle made some severe criticisms on Mr. Pettis through the newspapers, and a challenge passed and was accepted. They fought at five paces distant, and at the first fire both fell mortally wounded. Mr. Pettis died in about twenty-four hours, while Major Biddle survived only a few days. The former had just gained his election, and General William H. Ashley was elected to fill the vacancy caused by his death.

In 1832 the famous expedition of Captain Bonneville took place, and important steps were made in the opening of the great country to the West. Fort William was established on the Arkansas by the Messrs. Bent, of this city. Messrs. Sublette and Campbell went to the mountains. Mr. Wyeth established Fort Hall, on the Lewis river, and the

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American Fur Company sent the first steamboat to the Yellow Stone. The Asiatic cholera visited the city this summer, having first invaded Eastern and Southern cities. It first broke out at Jefferson Barracks, and, notwithstanding the most energetic sanitary measures, soon spread through the town with alarming severity. The population was then 6,918, and the deaths averaged, for some time, more than thirty a day. The disease prevailed for little over a month, then abated and disappeared. In this fall Daniel Dunklin, the Jackson candidate, was elected Governor, and L. A. Boggs Lieutenant-Governor. During the next year an effort was made to impeach William C. Carr, one of the Circuit Judges, and one of the oldest citizens, the charge being that he was wholly unqualified for judicial station. On examination of the case before both Houses of the Legislature he was acquitted. Dr. Samuel Merry was elected Mayor, but was declared ineligible on the ground of being a receiver of public moneys, which office he held under the appointment of the President, and the next autumn Colonel John W. Johnson was elected in his place. The taxable property was valued, in 1833, at only $2,000,000, and the whole tax of the year on real and personal property amounted only to $2,745.84. The tonnage of boats belonging to the port was hardly 2,000, and the fees for wharfage not more than $600.

In 1834 Mr. Astor retired from business and sold his Western department to Messrs. B. Pratte, P. Chouteau. Jr., and Mr. Cabanne, who conducted the business until 1839. A few years after this latter date, nearly the entire fur trade of the West was controlled by the house of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Co., and the firm of Bent & St. Vrain.

The business of the city was now developing rapidly, although the lack of proper banking facilities made itself felt somewhat injuriously; and while the unfortunate careers of the Bank of St. Louis and the Bank of Missouri had tended to make the people distrustful of such institutions, the want of them was generally recognized. During 1835 — 6 applications were made to the Legislature to supply this deficiency, but without success, and finally the banks of the other States were invited to establish branches in this city. Immigration at this period was unusually large, and a vigorous activity pervaded every department of business. As an illustration of this we quote from one of the newspapers: "The prosperity of our city is laid deep and broad. * * * * * Whether we turn to the right or to the left, we see workmen busy in laying the foundation of, or finishing, some costly edifice. The dilapidated and antique structure of the original settler is fast giving way to the spacious

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and lofty block of brick and stone. But comparatively a few years ago, even within the remembrance of our young men, our town was confined to one or two streets running parallel with the river. The ‘half-moon’ fortifications, the ‘bastion,’ the tower, the rampart, were then known as the utmost limits. What was then termed ‘The Hill,’ now forming the most beautiful part of the town, covered with elegant mansions, but a few years ago was covered with shrubbery. A tract of land was purchased by a gentleman now living, as we have understood, for two barrels of whisky, which is now worth half a million of dollars. * * * * * Intimately connected with the prosperity of the city is the fate of the petition pending in Congress for the removal of the sandbar now forming in front of our steamboat landing."

The number of boats in 1835, exclusive of barges, was 121; aggregate tonnage 15,470 tons, and total wharfage collected $4,573. In March of this year the sale of the town commons was ordered by the City Council, and in accordance with the act of the Legislature, nine-tenths of the proceeds were appropriated to the improvement of streets and one-tenth to the support of public schools. The sum realized for the latter was small, but it assisted materially in laying the foundation of the present system, so extensive and beneficent in its operation. John F. Darby was elected Mayor in 1835, and during that year a meeting of citizens was called for the purpose of memorializing Congress to direct the great national road, then building, to cross the Mississippi at St. Louis, in its extension to Jefferson City. Mr. Darby presided at the meeting, and George K. McGunnegle acted as secretary. The popular interest in railroad enterprises, which at this time prevailed in the East, soon reached as far as St. Louis, and the 20th of April, 1835, an Internal Improvement Convention was held in this city. Delegations from the counties in the State interested in the movement were invited to attend. Dr. Samuel Merry acted as chairman, and Mr. McGunnegle as secretary. The two railroad lines particularly advocated were from St. Louis to Fayette, and from the same point to the iron and lead mines in the southern portion of the State. A banquet at the National Hotel followed the Convention, and the event had doubtless an important influence in fostering railroad interests, always so important in the life of a community.

A most exciting local incident occurred shortly after the sitting of the convention. A negro named Francis L. Mclntosh had been arrested for assisting a steamboat hand to escape who was in custody for some offense. He was taken to a justice's office, where the case was

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examined, and the prisoner, unable to furnish the requisite bail, was delivered to Mr. William Mull, deputy constable, to be taken to jail. While on the way there, Mr. George Hammond, the Sheriff's deputy, met Mr. Mull and volunteered to assist him in conducting his charge to the jail. The three men walked on together, and when near the northeast corner of the Court House block, the negro asked Mr. Hammond what would be done to him for the offense committed. He replied, in jest, "perhaps you will be hanged." The prisoner in a moment jerked himself free from the grasp of Mull, and struck at him with a boatman's knife: the first stroke missed, but another followed inflicting a severe wound in the left side of the constable. Mr. Hammond then seized the negro by the collar and pulled him back, when the latter struck him in the neck with the knife, severing the important arteries. The wounded man ran some steps toward his home, when he fell from loss of blood and expired in a few moments. The negro fled after his bloody work, pursued by Mull, who raised the alarm by shouting until he fainted from loss of blood. A number of citizens joined in the pursuit, and the murderer was finally captured and lodged in jail. An intense public excitement was created, and an angry multitude of people gathered round the jail. The prisoner was given up to them when demanded, by the affrighted jailor, and was dragged to a point near the corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets, where the cries of the mob — "burn him! burn him!" — were literally carried into effect. The wretched culprit was bound to a small locust tree, some brush and other dry wood piled around him and set on fire. Mr. Joseph Charless, son of the founder of the Republican, made an ineffectual effort to dissuade the crowd from their awful purpose, but he was not listened to, and in sullen and unpitying silence they stood round the fire and watched the agonies of their victim. In 1836, the corner stone of the St. Louis Theatre was laid at the corner of Third and Olive streets, on the site now occupied by the Custom House and Post Office, the parties principally interested in the enterprise being N. M. Ludlow, E. H. Bebee, H. S. Coxe, J. C. Laveille, L. M. Clark and C. Keemle. The building erected was quite a handsome one, and the theatre was carried on for a number of years until the property was purchased by the United States and the present Government buildings erected. The Central Fire Company of the city of St. Louis was also incorporated this year. The first steam flour mill, erected in St. Louis by Captain Martin Thomas, was burned down on the night of the 10th

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of July of this year. On the 20th of September the daily issue of the Missouri Republican commenced.

On the 1st of February, 1837, the Bank of the State of Missouri was incorporated by the Legislature with a capital of $5,000,000. The first officers elected were John Smith, president of the parent bank, with the following directors: Hugh O'Neal, Samuel S. Rayburn, Edward Walsh, Edward Dobyns, Wm. L. Sublette and John O'Fallon, all of St. Louis. A branch was also established at Lafayette, and J. J. Lowry was appointed president. Not long after the passage of the act incorporating the State Bank, another was passed excluding all other banking agencies from the State. The new bank with its great privileges and brilliant prospects, opened business in a house owned by Pierre Chouteau on Main street, near Vine. The total tonnage of the port in 1836 was 19,447 tons, and the amount of wharfage collected between $7,000 and $8,000. In 1837 the Planters' House was commenced, but owing to the financial embarrassments of the year, the progress of the building was slow. Early this summer Danniel Webster visited the city and was received with the utmost cordiality and enthusiasm. It was expected that Henry Clay would accompany him, but he was prevented by business engagements. The distinguished guest and his family stopped at the National Hotel, and remained for several days. A public festival or barbecue was given them in a grove on the land of Judge Lucas, west of Ninth street, and the occasion became peculiarly memorable from the fact that Mr. Webster delivered an eloquent speech.

The general financial disasters of 1837 were felt to a serious extent in St. Louis, and the Bank of the State of Missouri suspended temporarily. On September 26th, David Barton, a colleague of Colonel Thos. H. Benton in the United States Senate, and one of the most distinguished citizens of the State, died in Cooper county, at the residence of Mr. Gibson. In the summer of the next year Thos. M. Doherty, one of the Judges of St. Louis county, was mysteriously murdered on the road between this city and Carondelet, and the murderers were never discovered. In the fall General Wm. Clark died. He was the oldest American resident in St. Louis, was the first Governor of the Territory of Missouri, and as superintendent of Indian affairs rendered important public services. During this year Kemper College, which was built principally through the exertions of Bishop Kemper, was opened. The medical department was formed shortly after, and owed its origin to Drs. Joseph N. McDowell and J. W. Hall. On the 20th of November the Legislature met at Jefferson City, and during its session, which lasted

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until February, 1839, some important acts were passed in connection with St. Louis. The Criminal Court was established, over which the Hon. James B. Bowlin presided as Judge for several years. A bill was passed to incorporate the St. Louis Hotel Company, under the auspices of which the Planters' House was completed. A Mayor's Court was also established for the purpose of disposing of trials for breach of city ordinances. A charter was granted to the St. Louis Gaslight Company, but the streets were not lighted with gas by this corporation for many years afterwards. The present gas company holds its exclusive privileges under this charter; and although the original intention of the Legislature was that the city should have the authority to purchase the works at a certain specified period, this has not been done and probably never will be. The charter expires by limitation in 1889. Christ Church was erected during this year, on the southwest corner of Chestnut and Fifth streets, but after a few years yielded up its site to business edifices. Considerable agitation was current about this time, owing to the action of the officers of the Bank of the State of Missouri in refusing to receive the notes of any suspended banks on deposit or in payment at their counter. This resolution was caused by the financial disturbance that pervaded the country and the fact that a number of banks in different States of the Union had again suspended specie payments. A strong effort was made by the merchants of the city to procure a rescinding of the resolution, and ten gentlemen, among the most prominent and wealthy in the city, offered to legally bind themselves to indemnify the bank against any loss that might be sustained by the depression of the notes of any of the suspended banks. The directors, however, after a consultation, refused the proposition and adhered to their cautious policy, notwithstanding that some of their best patrons withdrew their deposits in irritation at this course. The result, however, showed that the bank acted wisely, and the public confidence in it was rather increased than impaired. The County Court ordered the commencement of an important addition to the Court House, commenced in 1825-6, and the corner-stone was laid with the usual ceremonies in the presence of a large concourse of citizens.

The total arrivals of steamboats at this port during the year 1839 was 2,095; departures, 1,645. In the spring of 1840 the corner-stone of the Catholic church attached to the St. Louis University was laid, and a number of other buildings erected. During this year the unfortunate affray between Mr. Andrew J. Davis, proprietor of the Argus, and Mr. Wm. P. Darnes, occurred, arising from some severe remarks published

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in the journal, reflecting on the latter. The parties chanced to meet on Third street, near the National Hotel, and Mr. Davis received several blows on the head from an iron cane in the hands of Mr. Darnes, and subsequently died from the effects. The trial of Darnes took place in November, and he was found guilty of manslaughter in the fourth degree, and fined $500. The steamer Meteor made the trip from New Orleans to this city in five days and five hours during the early part of this season, being the quickest trip ever made up to that time. The Hon. John F. Darby, the Whig candidate, was elected Mayor in April, and at the election for county officers in August, the same party was successful. There were ten insurance companies in existence in St. Louis in the year 1841, many of which carried on a semi-banking business.

In April, two young men, Jacob Weaver and Jesse Baker, met a shocking and violent death. They slept in a room, in a large stone building on the corner of Pine and Water streets, occupied in front by Messrs. Simmonds & Morrison, and in the rear by Mr. Wm. G. Pettus, banker and broker. An alarm of fire came from this building early on Sunday morning, April 18th, and one of the firemen, in forcing open the rear door, discovered the body of Jacob Weaver lying in a pool of blood, and evidently the victim of a cruel murder. The remains of Jesse Baker were discovered the next day in the ruins of the building, which was nearly destroyed, and hardly a doubt remained that he had also been murdered. It may be mentioned that A. S. Kemball, first engineer of the Union Fire Company, was killed during the progress of the fire, by a portion of the wall falling on him. Subsequent investigations into the crimes, led to the arrest of four negroes, named Madison, Brown, Seward and Warrick, who, it was shown, had been influenced to enter the building by the hope of robbery. They were all convicted of murder in the first degree, and were executed upon the island opposite the lower part of the city, and the four-fold execution became so memorable an event, that the time was often alluded to as that "when the negroes were hung."

The Legislature extended the city limits considerably this year, and the Mayor and Aldermen were authorized to divide the city into five wards. At the municipal election in April, John D. Daggett was elected Mayor, and in the same month the Planters' House was opened by Messrs. Stickney & Knight as proprietors.

There were now in the city two colleges, the St. Louis University and Kemper College, with a medical school attached to each. The churches were as follows: Two Catholic, two Presbyterian, two Episcopal, two

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Methodist, one Baptist, one Associate Reform Presbyterian, one Unitarian, one German Lutheran, and two for colored congregations. There were two orphan asylums, one under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, and one under the control of Protestant ladies. The Sisters' Hospital was in operation, and there were several hotels, the principal of which was the Planters' House; six grist mills, six breweries, two foundries, and a number of other manufactories of different characters. Steamboat building had also been established as a permanent business, the originators being, it is stated, Messrs. Case & Nelson, and on all sides there were indications that the city was fairly launched on a prosperous career.

Among the prominent events of 1842 were the election of Hon. Geo. Maguire, as Mayor, in April, and the laying of the corner-stone of the Centenary Church, at the corner of Fifth and Pine streets, on the 10th of May. This edifice long remained a prominent place of worship, but finally, in 1870, was changed into a business establishment. In the autumn of the year, the Hon. John B. C. Lucas died, one of the earliest citizens of St. Louis, and who had received from President Jefferson the appointment of Judge of the highest court in Missouri when it was the District of Louisiana. He was a man generally esteemed and respected, and his name is prominently and forever identified with the earlier years of our city. In the spring of the year, the "St. Louis Oak" was turned out from the boat-yard of Captain Irwine, ready to enter into the Galena trade, for which she had been built, and is stated to have been the first steamboat entirely built here, including machinery, engines, etc. In the May term of the St. Louis Criminal Court, the Hon. Bryan Mullanphy, Judge of the Circuit Court, was arraigned for alleged oppression in the discharge of his judicial duties. The matter originated from the Judge having imposed three fines, of $50 each, on Ferdinand W. Risque, a lawyer. Mr. R., feeling some indignation while in the court room at a certain ruling which was contrary to that he had expected, made some contemptuous gesture or expression of countenance, and the Judge ordered him to be seated, and for each refusal imposed a fine, and finally ordered him to be removed from the court room by the Sheriff. Judge Mullanphy was acquitted.

There were now two public schools in St. Louis, one on Fourth, the other on Sixth street, and they were numerously attended, indicating that the people fully appreciated a general system of public instruction. On the third of July, the steamer Edna, a Missouri river boat, which had left St. Louis the night before with a large number of emigrants on

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board, exploded her boiler with terrible results. Fifty-five persons lost their lives by this catastrophe, and there was a large list of injured. General Henry Atkinson died this year at Jefferson Barracks, where his remains were interred. The only other incident we will mention was the murder of Major Floyd, at his residence near the Fair Grounds, on the night of the 10th of August. The crime was perpetrated by a party of five men, who robbed the house and escaped. A young man named Henry Johnson was convicted and executed for the crime, although he solemnly protested his innocence to the last moment.

In March, 1843, Audubon, the French naturalist, visited the city on his way to the Yellowstone, in the interest of his favorite science. The business of the city improved generally this year, and there was no small activity in commerce and in building. The State Tobacco Warehouse was in course of erection, as well as some sixty stores on Front, Main and Second streets, and some three or four hundred other buildings.

In June, 1844, Macready visited the place, and being then at the highest point of his fame and abilities, he created quite a general local sensation. He was succeeded by Forest, who divided with him popular admiration. Judge P. Hill Engle died in the early part of the year. A Catholic church of some importance was commenced in Soulard's addition. A most memorable and disastrous rise in the Mississippi took place this year. About the 8th or 10th of June, the river commenced to rise rapidly, while the intelligence was received of the rising of the Illinois and Missouri rivers. The levee was soon covered, and by the 16th the curb-stones of Front street were under water, and the danger to property and business became quite alarming. At first it was regarded as merely the usual "June rise," but the continued expansion of the flood soon convinced the inhabitants of its unprecedented and alarming character. Illinoistown and Brooklyn were nearly submerged, the occupants of the houses being driven to the upper stories. The American Bottom was a turbid sea. The town of Naples was inundated, boats plying in the streets; and from all places on the rivers came intelligence of heavy losses to stock and property, and the surface of the Mississippi was nearly covered with immense masses of drift trees and other substances torn from the shores. As the reports reached St. Louis that the inhabitants of the towns and villages on the Illinois shore, and other places on the river, were in danger, active measures were taken for their relief. Captain Saltmarsh, of the steamer Monona, particularly distinguished himself by offering the use of his boat gratis. Between four and five

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hundred persons in St. Louis and vicinity were driven from their homes, and great distress prevailed. To procure means to alleviate this, a meeting of citizens was held in front of the Court House, and a list of committees appointed to obtain subscriptions. Quite a large amount was collected. The river reached its greatest height here on the 24th of June, when it was seven feet seven inches above the city directrix. A few days before this, the glad intelligence was received that the Upper Missouri and Illinois were falling, but the effect was not immediately evident here, and the water did not reach the city directrix, in its abatement, until the 14th of July. The rise of 1844 obtained a greater elevation than any previous similar event. The great flood of 1785, known as L'annee des Grandes Eaux, was surpassed, as were also the floods of 1811 and 1826. The number of buildings erected in 1844 and 1845 was 1,146, and notwithstanding the misfortune of the great flood, the year was one of general prosperity.

St. George's Episcopal Church was organized in 1845, the Rev. E. C. Hutchinson being pastor. During the summer of this year Colonel William Sublette died in Pittsburgh, on his way East for the benefit of his health. He belonged to one of the old families of St. Louis, and his name has been alluded to more than once before in this sketch. In August, an election was held for members of the Convention to revise the Constitution, and was attended with much public interest. The City Hospital was commenced, but was not finished in its present form for several years afterward. The erection of Lucas Market was also commenced.

The Mercantile Library Association was formed in 1846, and ultimately led to the erection of the fine building now occupied by them on Fifth street. The originators of the library were John C. Tevis and Robert K. Woods, and the first meeting of citizens in connection with the project was held at the counting room of Mr. Tevis, on the evening of December 30, 1846. There were eight gentlemen present, namely: Col. A. B. Chambers, Peter Powell, Robert K. Woods, John F. Franklin, R. P. Perry, Wm. P. Scott, John Halsall and John C. Tevis, all merchants, except Colonel Chambers. On the 13th of January following, a meeting was held in accordance with a public call, at Concert Hall, and the Association was organized by the adoption of a constitution. On the 16th of February, rooms were rented at the corner of Pine and Main streets, and in April it was opened to the members. At the end of the first year the cash receipts amounted to $2,689, the members numbering 283, with 1,680 volumes in the library. The

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Association prospered rapidly, and finally a joint stock company, designated the Mercantile Library Hall Association, was formed, the main object being the erection of a suitable building for the library. The first president was Alfred Vinton. On the 10th of June, 1851, it was determined to purchase a lot on the corner of Fifth and Locust streets, at a cost of $25,500. A design for the building by Robert S. Mitchell was adopted, and the present edifice erected. The estimated cost was $70,000, which, with the price of the lot, made the total expenditure $95,500. To illustrate the growth of this noble institution, we may add that the present building is now insufficient for its accommodation, and the question of erecting another, fire-proof in character, at a cost of $350,000, is being seriously considered.

On the 10th of January, of this year, Mrs. Ann Biddle died. She was the daughter of John Mullanphy, who was the possessor of great wealth, and had established the male department of the Mullanphy Orphan Asylum, besides being identified with other enterprises of a noble and charitable character. Mrs. Biddle was the widow of Major Biddle, who was killed in the duel with Mr. Pettis on Bloody Island, and shortly after her husband's death established a Female Orphan Asylum, and even surrendered her fine residence on Broadway for religious and charitable purposes. In her will she left an appropriation for a Widow's and Infants' Asylum, whilst her private charities, of which there is no earthly record, are believed to have been very large. The inclosed monument near Tenth and Biddle streets, with the inscription, "Pray for the souls of Thomas and Ann Biddle," is familiar to many of our readers. The spot for the monument was designated by Mrs. Biddle, who bequeathed a sum of money for the purpose of its erection. It is appropriately placed in close contiguity with the noble institutions with which the names of the deceased are identified. The harbor of St. Louis again attracted public attention this year, owing to a sand-bar forming in the river nearly in front of the landing, extending from Duncan's Island nearly to Cherry street, and interruption of commerce became so evident, that the municipal and general Governments were compelled to take some active measures, which resulted in the removal of the obstructions. An idea of the proportions now assumed by the commerce of the city may be gathered from the fact that in 1845 there were nearly 2,100 steamboats connected with the port, the aggregate tonnage being 358,045, and the number of keel and flat boats was 346.

The war declared between the United States and Mexico created, this year, an unusual excitement in St. Louis. Numerous volunteers

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came forward, and the St. Louis Legion, a military organization, prepared for the field. A meeting of citizens was held with the view of raising supplies for the volunteers, and Colonel J. B. Brant started a subscription with $1,000, and Lucas, Mullanphy, Robert Campbell, Alfred Vinton, Benjamin Stickney and others subscribed liberally, and a few days afterwards the Legion departed for the South, under command of Colonel Easton, with a grand public farewell demonstration in their honor. The corner-stone of the Odd Fellows' Hall had been laid April 26th, 1845, and on the 26th of October of this year the building was dedicated.

In the early part of 1847 the Boatmen's Savings Institution was incorporated, and it commenced a career which has proven not only successful, but most beneficial to the public. The most prominent event of this year was the public anniversary celebration, on the 15th of February, of the founding of St. Louis. The grand features of the day were an imposing public pageant and a banquet. At an early hour the various societies and other bodies participating, marched to the place of rendezvous, and at ten o'clock the procession moved in the following order: Chief Marshal, Colonel Thornton Grimsley and his aids, followed by the military companies, and the Apprentices' Library Association bearing banners. Then came the Committee of Arrangements, and next the invited guests, the latter being the most interesting portion of the procession. In an open carriage was seated Mr. Pierre Chouteau, president of the day, and the only survivor of those who accompanied Laclede when he founded the city on the 15th of February, 1764. The other occupants of the carriage were Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and P. Ligueste Chouteau, his sons, and Gabriel S. Chouteau. In the next carriage were the Hon. William C. Carr, Colonel John O'Fallon and General William Milburn, and in other carriages were many others of the old inhabitants of the city. Without further specifying the features of this procession, some of which were highly interesting and unique, illustrating all the industries and trades, we will state that after carrying out the line of march the pageant ceased, and the Hon. Wilson Primm, orator of the day, addressed the multitude from the stand on the east side of Fourth street, fronting the Court-House, eloquently reviewing the history of St. Louis from its founding to the date of the celebration. The address was carefully prepared and contained a quantity of valuable historical data not previously, we believe, presented in literary form. The banquet took place in the State Tobacco Warehouse, and proved an exceedingly brilliant affair. Among the speakers we may

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mention Colonel L. V. Bogy, Colonel Campbell, Hon. William C. Carr, Mr. Thomas Allen, Mr. Crocket, Colonel Kennett, Dr. Linton, Mr. Darby, Mr. Treat, George R. Taylor and others. A ball at the Planters' House closed the proceedings of the memorable day. On December 20th of this year, the telegraph lines connecting with the East reached East St. Louis, and our city was placed in telegraphic communication with the leading cities of the country. On the 28th of the same month an important meeting of citizens took place, to consider the advisability of the city subscribing $500,000 towards the construction of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, the route of which from Cincinnati through Vincennes had been established. A committee of seven, comprising Messrs. Hudson, Gamble, Kennett, Darby, Kayser, Yeatman and Collier, were appointed for the purpose of petitioning the Legislature to authorize the subscription. The measure being supported by a general vote of the people, the subscription was finally made. The two most important agents in the developement of commerce — the telegraph and the railroad — were now identified with the growth of St. Louis, and her advancement became accelerated greatly through their influence.

No public events of a very important character mark the year of 1848, but the career of the city, commercially and in reference to general improvements, was satisfactory. On the 22d day of June, Edward Charless died in his fiftieth year. His death excited no small amount of public attention and regret, as he was very generally known, having come to this country, at a very early period, with his father, Joseph Charless. Several public meetings were held in connection with the intelligence of the victorious operations of our armies in Mexico, and the exciting reports of the revolutions in France and Germany. Towards the close of the year rumors prevailed of the approach of the cholera, which for more than a year previous had appeared in Europe and subsequently at different points in the United States. A few cases occurred here, and the authorities were stirred up to active sanitary precautions, but the dreaded disease did not develop itself until the ensuing spring. In April, 1849, the Bellefontaine Cemetery was established, the ground being previously known as the "Hempstead Farm," and was purchased from Luther M. Kennett. The names of the trustees mentioned in the act of incorporation are: John F. Darby, Henry Kayser, Wayman Crow, James E. Yeatman, James Harrison, Charles S. Rannells, Gerard B. Allen, Philander Salisbury, Wm. Bennett, Augustus Brewster and Wm. M. McPherson. The cemetery is now one of the most beautiful in the country. This year was one of the most disastrous in the history

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of St. Louis, owing to the outbreak of the cholera and the occurrence of a terrible conflagration. About ten o'clock on Thursday night, May 19, a fire broke out on the steamer White Cloud, lying at the wharf between Vine and Cherry streets, and the steamboat and fire bells soon spread the alarm throughout the city. The flames rapidly enveloped the steamer, and, notwithstanding vigorous efforts to check their course, communicated to three or four other boats in the vicinity. The White Cloud became loosened from the wharf and drifted down the river with the current; the blazing wreck came in collision with a number of other steamers, and in a short time twenty-three or four boats were in flames. The dreadful disaster did not, however, stop here. A stiff breeze prevailed from the northeast, and an avalanche of fiery embers was whirled over the buildings on the levee, and soon a number of them were in flames, The first which caught fire was near the corner of Locust street, and the conflagration, rapidly extending south and westward, assumed the most stupendous proportions, and the utmost excitement and dismay prevailed over the city. Without sketching the devastation of the terrible calamity, we may say that it was by far the most serious of the kind that has ever visited St. Louis. All the buildings, with only a few exceptions, from Locust to Market, and between Second and the river, were destroyed or badly injured, and the progress of the fire was only arrested by blowing up buildings with gunpowder. In one of these explosions, Mr. T. B. Targee, the well-known auctioneer, was killed, and several others injured. Twenty-three steamboats, three barges and one canal boat were destroyed, the total value being estimated at about $440,000. The whole value of property destroyed reached over $3,000,000. The occurrence of the fire was a serious blow to our city, but the energy of its citizens was displayed in the manner with which they labored to repair its ravages, and the evidences of desolation and ruin soon disappeared, and new buildings were erected of a more substantial character than the old, and Main street was considerably widened.

We turn from the fire to the second great calamity of the year. As before stated, the coming of the cholera was heralded during the fall of '48, and early in the ensuing spring it reappeared, the number of deaths increasing daily as the summer approached, and in June it assumed a virulent epidemic form, and spread dismay throughout the community. At the time of the outbreak of the disease the sanitary condition of the city was exceedingly bad, the present sewer system having hardly been commenced, and most of the alleys were unpaved and in a shockingly

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dirty condition. When the cholera declared itself the authorities adopted energetic sanitary measures, but without avail, and the mortality increased steadily. As is generally the case, there was a conflict of opinion respecting the disease among the physicians, and at first the medical board pronounced the use of vegetables injurious, and the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting their sale within the city limits; but this was shortly afterwards revoked. The Council finally, on recommendation of the Committee of Public Health, adopted quarantine regulations, and a site for quarantine was adopted on Arsenal Island. Notwithstanding all the efforts made, the number of deaths increased to over one hundred and sixty per diem, which, in a city with a population of less than 64,000, indicates the truly alarming extent of the epidemic. The second day of July was observed as a day of humiliation and prayer, but it was not until late in the month that there was any sensible abatement in the epidemic, and about the middle of August it had nearly disappeared. Between June 25th and July 16th, the greatest mortality occurred, and from April 30th to August 6th the total number of deaths from all causes was 5,989, of which 4,060 were from cholera; and among the host of victims were many well-known citizens, and several prominent physicians. The disasters of this year seriously interrupted the progress of our city, but their effects were soon repaired, a bountiful harvest was gathered, and with the general improvement of the locality devastated by the fire, business revived and commercial facilities were extended. During the year the immense emigration to California, owing to the discovery of the gold fields and the general impression of the vast wealth and resources of the Far West, brought the project of a great railroad route across the continent prominently before the minds of our people. It was determined to call together a Mass Convention in St. Louis for the purpose of considering the enterprise, and invitations were sent to the prominent citizens of nearly every State in the Union. The convention assembled on the 15th of October, in the Court House, and was called to order by Judge A. T. Ellis, of Indiana. The result of the deliberations was a general conviction of the necessity of the road, and an influential committee was appointed to prepare an address to the people of the Union, soliciting their co-operation in inducing Congress to take the requisite action towards the end desired. It is thus evident that St. Louis citizens were the first to move in the great enterprise of a trans-continental railroad, and there are many living to-day who participated in these preliminary measures, who now witness the practical fulfillment of the stupendous achievement which they inaugurated. The

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fine building on the corner of Seventh and Myrtle streets, then connected with the medical department of the St. Louis University, was built during this year, and owes its origin to the munificence of Colonel John O'Fallon. Louis A. Labeaume was this year elected Assistant Treasurer of the United States, and his bondsmen were all St. Louis citizens, representing an aggregate wealth of over $6,000,000.

An exciting and bloody affair occurred at the City Hotel on the night of the 29th of October. A day or so before, two unknown gentlemen arrived at the hotel, on the corner of Third and Vine streets, then kept by Theron Barnum, and some trouble in reference to accommodations arose between them and Mr. Kirby Barnum, nephew of the proprietor, but it was settled without anything serious having occurred. On the night mentioned, Mr. Kirby Barnum retired to his room, and shortly after a shot was fired through the window, which fatally wounded him, and in attempting to leave the room he fell in the hall. Wm. Albert Jones, who occupied a room on the same floor, on opening his door to ascertain the cause of the firing, was shot dead, and H. M. Henderson and Captain W. D. Hubbell, who were rooming with him, were both wounded. The affair produced intense excitement, and the two strangers, who were Frenchmen, named Gonsalve and Raymond Montesquiou, were accused of the crime. On the first trial the jury did not agree, and at the second, Gonsalve, who had confessed his guilt, and alleged that "God made him do it," was acquitted on the ground of insanity, and Raymond was shown to be innocent. The only other incident, worthy of special mention, in the year was the extraordinary robbery of the Bank of the State of Missouri. The sum of $120,000 was taken from the vaults, but the perpetrators of the robbery escaped with their booty.

St. Louis from 1850.

The ten years embraced between 1850 and 1860 were those of remarkable development for St. Louis, as they were also for the entire West. They were years of vigor and expansion of commercial energies throughout the entire nation. Before that period the growth of St. Louis had been comparatively slow, and, although within less than a century from the rude foundation laid by Laclede an astonishing superstructure had arisen, the real wonders of our city's history were yet to be achieved. In 1850 the population of the city was about 74,000; with the close of that decade it had risen to more than double, or 160,000. During this time she shook herself clear from pretentious

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rivals, and was an acknowledged leader. Our railroad system was barely commenced. Our public institutions were yet to be built; our iron manufactories to be established; our hotels and splendid business houses to be reared; and our system of parks, sewerage, water supply, and the other features and elements which go to make up a great city, were yet to be perfected.

From 1850 forward, the limits of a single book do not admit of perfect chronological order in selecting and presenting the events and initial enterprises which have a bearing upon the present. The delineation, however, of the earlier events, gives a portraiture of a history replete with instructive thought. The last fourth of a century is fresh in the minds of many living men, and its record is comparatively safe from mutilation or perversion. The dim tradition and scattered memorials of the frontier village have been exchanged for the glowing and ever-available archives of the metropolis. It is a curious fact, that from the accumulated disasters of the year 1849 may be dated the more rapid and remarkable development of the city. Forth from the ruins of conflagration, and the gloom of the shadow of death, she emerged upon a bright and broad career, with abounding vigor and exuberant life.

The review of the mighty steps in civic progress in each succeeding year brings us upon constant matter for astonishment.

The railroad convention held in 1849 was quickly followed by substantial fruits, and on the 4th of July, 1851, ground was broken in the practical commencement of the Pacific Railroad, the company having been organized some time previously through the exertions of such citizens as Thomas Allen, James H. Lucas, Daniel D. Page, John O'Fallon and other public-spirited gentlemen. The following year witnessed the commencement of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, also the Terre Haute and Alton; and in 1852 the Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, then called the Alton and Sangamon line, was opened to Carlinville by a public excursion. On the 30th of June, 1853, the Ohio and Mississippi was opened to Vincennes, and on the 4th of July of that year an excursion of citizens took place to the last named place. Thus our now splendid railroad system was inaugurated, and the rapidity of its development is significantly illustrated when we glance at the map and see trunk lines with their feeders radiating in every direction. Over these lines, trains are daily dispatched for the Atlantic and for the Pacific, for the great lakes of the North, and for the semi-tropical lands that hem in the waters of the Mexican Gulf. Yet the system is constantly expanding, and with each new track binds us, in newer ties, to distant people, to

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whom St. Louis becomes the centre for exchange. The herds and products of the prairies, and the treasures from the mines, increase with each new mile of this iron bond of commerce — a bond that, instead of resting on the neck, is placed beneath the feet — the mute servitor of a progressive people. In every other department of business enterprise the same activity prevailed. Noble and spacious business structures sprang up along our principal thoroughfares, and the territory allotted to business purposes grew apace. At the same time residences increased rapidly, and became more costly and imposing. The first Lindell Hotel, occupying the site on which the present house of that name stands, was commenced in 1857, and on its completion presented to the people of the country, the astonishing spectacle of a hotel beyond the Mississippi surpassing in magnitude any other in the United States. This noble edifice, one of the adornments of the city, was destroyed by fire in 1867. It was after a time rebuilt, and opened for business in 1874. The garden at Tower Grove, commenced in 1850, assisted in a material manner the growth of the western part of the city, which in that direction entered upon a new era of embellishment. The sewerage system was elaborated. The water supply, evidently inadequate for the requirements of the near future, was reorganized with new machinery, settling reservoirs, and a storage reservoir at Compton Hill; the whole expenditure in this department reaching four million dollars. During this period, too, the public school system took form and character, growing from a moderate beginning to a magnitude and perfection which was a proper source of pride to our citizens.

In December, 1855, a charter was obtained for the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association, and officers were appointed May 5th, 1856, as follows: J. Richard Barret, President; T. Grimsley, A. Harper and H. C. Hart, Vice-Presidents; H. S. Turner, Treasurer; G. O. Kalb, Agent and Recording Secretary, and Oscar W. Collett, Corresponding Secretary. The present site of the Fair Grounds was purchased from Colonel John O'Fallon, suitable buildings were erected, and in the fall of 1856 the first fair was held. It proved a most satisfactory success, and the career of the Association was fully inaugurated, which has resulted in substantial and important benefits to St. Louis. The fairs were interrupted during the exciting and troublous years of the war, but recommenced in 1866, each year since increasing in interest and attendance, and now transcending any effort of the kind in the country. In fact they have ceased to be representatives merely of the arts and industries, stock and agricultural products of one State; they are national

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exhibitions, with a premium list of great liberality; and if their future growth corresponds with their past, their fame will extend beyond the boundaries of our country, and they will become international in character.

The street railway system introduced a new and important element in our city's growth. It was not till 1859 that the old omnibus lines began to give way to this new and superior method of locomotion. Its effect was soon to cause a surprising extension of the residence portion of the city. Distance came to be regarded with little or no disfavor, and the delightful elevated grounds on our western limits were adorned with the homes of our opulent citizens, who exhibited their wealth and taste in improved architecture and landscape.

The Custom House and Post Office, at the corner of Third and Olive streets, was erected and occupied in 1859, the first Postmaster being John Hogan. It was designed after the prevailing style of architecture adopted for United States public buildings at that time, and though massive and ornate, seems wonderfully lacking in every essential of utility and convenience. The exterior is that of a Grecian temple, with fluted columns and massive entablatures. Modern requirements added a roof where the Greek had none, and then added windows which he had no use for. The net result was one of those architectural compounds that disfigure too many of our American cities, retaining the disadvantages without the beauty of their prototypes. The noblest use for these incongruous structures is to furnish an argument that the civilization of the present can neither gracefully nor comfortably translate itself into the shell of the past, and that our age is worthy of a distinctive architecture, in which beauty and utility shall not be encumbered with mere ornament. For the business purpose for which it was built it was long since inadequate, and a noble and more sightly pile is to supersede it, on the block bounded by Olive and Locust and Eighth and Ninth streets. The cost of the new building, now rising from its granite foundations, is estimated at four million dollars. It covers the entire block, and in the eastern front its basement is continuous with the tunnel leading from the bridge. This will facilitate the receipt and dispatch of the mails to an enormous extent, as the cars of every line of railroad leading to the city will pass upon those tracks.

In 1857 the site was purchased for the Southern Hotel, and the work of excavating was commenced in the following spring. The laying of masonry progressed steadily until December 4th, 1858, when

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it ceased temporarily, and, having been covered to protect it from frost and rain, it remained in this condition until April 14th, 1860, when work was resumed and continued until August 15th, 1861, when it was again suspended until June 17th, 1862. The splendid hotel was finally opened to the public September 6th, 1865, the lessees being Messrs. Laveille, Warner & Co., and the establishment representing a value of nearly one million and a half of dollars. The scale of the house is indicated by the following items: 17,000 yards of carpeting were required to carpet it, and 1,400 gas-burners to give it light; it has about 350 rooms with over 3,000 feet of corridor; the main one on each story is 257 feet long, with three others crossing it at right angles in length from about 80 to 200 feet.

The Laclede Hotel was enlarged by the erection of a new building upon the site of the old jail, one of the ancient landmarks. The new edifice, of cut sandstone, was made continuous with that already in existence, the whole now extending from Fifth to Sixth streets, and fronting on Chestnut street.

The project for rebuilding the Lindell Hotel upon its old site led to the contribution of a bonus of $100,000 by neighboring property owners and business men, who would be benefited by the erection of a fine hotel on that block, and the work was commenced. It is of brick, with an iron front, and though not so extensive as the old building over whose ashes it rose, it has advantages and conveniences which the former in its magnitude never possessed. It was opened for business in the autumn of 1874, by Felt, Griswold . Co., and has from the first enjoyed a first-class reputation. Almost simultaneously with its erection, new and costly business structures rose along the whole lower part of Washington avenue and the streets in that vicinity intersecting the avenue.

In addition to the northwardly movement of the business centre, the circumstance that the roadway of the bridge was continuous and in line with Washington avenue at Third street, exerted a strong influence upon permanent improvement in that locality. Third street, and Washington avenue at its junction with Third, were also widened to give capacity to the bridge approaches; and the mean and inconvenient buildings in the neighborhood, necessarily torn down, were replaced by some of the most ornamental buildings for business purposes in the city.

The Merchants' Exchange building finished in 1859 was found to be inadequate for its purpose. Neither its location nor its conveniences met the wants of the thirteen hundred members who transacted

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business there, and in 1874 the corner-stone was laid for the "New Exchange Hall," covering the eastern half of the block bounded by Chestnut and Pine and Third and Fourth streets. The year 1875 will witness its completion, and the formal inauguration of one of the noblest "temples of trade" in America, one that will reflect credit upon our people, and be an enduring monument of the comprehensive and liberal spirit of our merchants.

The Polytechnic, finished in 1867, occupying the corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets, is one of the adornments of that portion of the city. It is the headquarters of the public school department, and contains the public school library. As it is the centre from which extend the radiating arms of our educational system, that may be stated in the same connection. From a small and uncertain beginning, it has grown to proportions exceeding any other in the West. The number of pupils enrolled, as shown by the quarterly report for June, 1875, was 36,157. The whole number of school-houses was fifty-seven. This number includes six colored schools, one high school and five branch high schools. The school-houses are handsome and substantial brick structures, well lighted and ventilated, and illustrate the prevailing force of a utility that is at the same time not devoid of grace. The public school library in the Polytechnic building is in a flourishing condition. By a legislative act approved March 27, 1874, the School Board was given legal power to provide for all the wants of the library. In consequence of this law, the library is free to the public. Any one is at liberty to consult its collection of books, papers and periodicals in the hall of the reading room. Notwithstanding the library is free, the membership system has been retained. Membership confers upon the holder the additional right of taking out books for home use, and of voting at annual elections for seven out of the sixteen members of the board of managers. The fee for membership is only one dollar per quarter, and twelve dollars paid in this manner within any four consecutive years, entitles the payer to a life-membership. The report for the year 1874 shows the regular library to contain 25,878 volumes, and the total number to amount to 33,556. The room now assigned as a reading hall is the large hall of the Polytechnic building, which is one hundred feet in length by fifty feet in width, and forty-two feet in height. There are to be found on file between sixty and seventy newspapers, in English, French and German, and all the principal American and foreign periodicals. An index of the periodicals to be found in the hall is placed at the entrance. The experiment of opening the hall on Sundays was tried in 1874, and its

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influence declared to be salutary by the officers in charge. The attendance on Sundays was found to be more than double that of secular days. The following societies have joined the library with their books and collections: The Art Society, the Medical Society, the Academy of Science, the Institute of Architects, the Engineers' Club, the Historical Society, the Microscopical Society and the Local Steam Engineers' Association. The collection of technical literature, both standard and periodical, has received extraordinary accessions from the societies which have thus joined their efforts with the library. At the same time, the general collection is one that displays sound judgment in the administration of this growing educator of youth and manhood.

The County Insane Asylum was commenced in 1865, and finished in April, 1869. It is situated about two miles west of Tower Grove Park and the costly and charming garden of Mr. Henry Shaw, which he makes free of access to the public. The Asylum cost about $900,000, including the cost of the furniture and the boring of the artesian well. It has a capacity for about three hundred patients.

The new jail, fronting on Clark avenue, and running east from Twelfth street on its southern side, is a sightly and commodious building of cream-colored sandstone, in the Renaissance style of architecture. In outline it is almost a copy of the celebrated Louvre palace. The Police Court, and the inferior and superior Criminal Courts, occupy the main body of the building, from which it has come to be designated as "The Four Courts." It was completed early in 1871, at a total cost of about three-quarters of a million dollars.

The Court House, completed in 1862, after years of labor and difficulty, has its history specially presented in these pages.

The various newspapers have each sought better locations and more room, all of them in more commodious structures, some of which are of more than usual architectural beauty.

Ranges of magnificent stores have been built along our principal streets, new church edifices, hospitals, asylums, and other eleemosynary institutions, have arisen in various directions. Few cities on the continent can boast a greater number of elegant private residences. These, in St. Louis, are not confined to any particular locality, but are scattered throughout the city.

There is yet one great structure around which centres the pride of every citizen of St. Louis. The bridge is a type of her greatness, her power, her enterprise. Across the Father of Waters stretches in three graceful arches, a web of steel that forms, the roadway for the

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commerce of a continent. Nothing equal to it has yet been built; it stands alone as a monument of determined purpose, engineering skill and unchecked expenditure. It consists of three arches, supported by abutments on either shore, and two massive stone piers, sunk below the bed of the river to a rock foundation. The sinking of the east pier was justly regarded as one of the great engineering feats of the age. When the rock was reached it was one hundred and ten feet six inches below the water line. The piers are each five hundred feet from the abutments, and five hundred and twenty feet from each other. The latter distance is therefore the measure of the central arch; the other two being each five hundred feet. The grand stretch of five hundred and twenty feet of the middle arch exceeds largely the span of any other arch in the world, and also exceeds the span of any other bridge in the world other than suspension. The material of the arch — that part of it which sustains the load — is cast steel of the highest perfection known to the present state of manufacture. The steel is in the form of hollow tubes, a form which gives the greatest strength for the weight of material employed. The superstructure contains 2,200 tons of steel and 3,400 tons of iron. The entire length of the bridge proper is 2,225 feet, and the entire expense of its construction $10,000,000. Following upon the agitation of some years, the first legislative enactment relating to the work was an act of the Missouri Legislature, incorporating the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company, with a capital stock of $1,000,000. This act was approved February 5, 1864. This was followed by an amended act approved February 20, 1865.

The Legislature of Illinois passed an act which was approved February 16, 1865, authorizing the incorporators under the Missouri act to build a bridge under certain stipulations which it provided. An act of Congress approved July 25, 1866, authorized the construction of certain bridges of which this was one. These acts were not long upon the statute books before Captain James B. Eads, who became engineer-in-chief, took hold of the work and had his plans completed early in the spring of 1867. An acrimonious strife between two rival bridge companies then followed for about a year when a settlement was effected. The first work was put under contract in August of 1867 and a coffer dam was constructed for the west abutment pier, and rock was being taken from the quarries for the masonry. The work went on slowly however, and it was January 25, 1865, that witnessed the laying of the first stone. In the spring of 1868 Captain Ead's health failed, and he passed the succeeding summer in Europe. On his return the work was

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vigorously pushed, and caissons built for the work of sinking the central piers. In 1871, the superstructure was put under contract to the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburg. Each span consists of four truss-ribbed arches, each rib made of two steel tubes placed twelve feet apart in the span. The coupling pins and fastenings are of the best quality of steel, the brace bars of the best quality of charcoal iron. Each part before being placed in position was subjected to the most exacting tests. When the material arrived, the arches were built up without the aid of "false works" by an ingeniously devised plan of Colonel Henry Flad, chief assistant to Captain Eads. Throughout the whole progress of the work, the operations were watched with intense interest by the engineers of the world, who saw new theories tested upon a scale of the greatest magnificence.

On the 4th of July, 1874, the completion of the great bridge was formally announced, and the event was celebrated with a unanimity of enthusiasm and a civic display such as our country has rarely, if ever, witnessed. There were no circumstances to detract from the general satisfaction and pride. A great and noble work had been completed that brought us nearer to a glorious destiny. It was at once a prophecy and a fulfillment, and symbolized a future for which, like itself, the world had no equal. The carriage way was carried along over the crown of the arches, and was continuous with the grade of Washington avenue. The railway track was upon the line of the chord of the upper arch and twelve feet below the grade of the street.

The tunnel, constructed by another company, commences at the west end of the bridge, follows the line of Washington avenue to Seventh, when it bends to the south to strike the line of Eighth street, which it follows to Clark avenue. From there an open cut for a short distance brings it upon the plane of the Pacific Railroad, and to the Union Depot at Twelfth street. Its total length is 4,886 feet. Its construction was carried on by an open cut, from which was excavated 210,000 cubic yards of dirt. Then, upon massive stone walls on either side and through the centre, were built two parallel brick arches, the track being double, one on either side of the central wall. The roadway was then reconstructed upon the same grade as before, and now railway trains constantly traverse the heart of the city, too far beneath the surface to indicate their presence to those walking directly over them.

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History of the Court House.

The Court House building, which towers above the city, giving it at a little distance an aspect like London with its Saint Paul's, is one of the most massive and imposing structures of the kind in the country. Ornamenting as it does one of the central blocks of the city, it deserves a recitation of the particulars of its history.

On the 14th of December, 1812, an act was approved entitled, "An act concerning a Court House and Jail in the county of Saint Louis," and in accordance with its provisions, Thomas Sappington, of Gravois, Ludwell Bacon, of Bonhomme, Robert Quarles, of St. Ferdinand, and Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and Wm. Carr Lane, of the town of Saint Louis, were appointed commissioners to select a proper site within the town of St. Louis whereon to erect a Court House for said county. The commissioners were also authorized to receive proposals from all persons wishing to make donations of land for the purpose named, and to accept any donation that might seem to them most beneficial to the county; and to cause a deed of conveyance to be executed whereby the land so donated should be conveyed to the Justices of the County Court and their successors in office. Under the authority conveyed in this act, the Commissioners named selected the site now occupied by the Court House, which was donated for the purpose by the proprietors, John B. C. Lucas and Auguste Chouteau; the date of the report of the Commissioners being August 25, 1823. It is stated that under the old regime, the whipping-post was placed at a point on the site now occupied by the Court House. The first step towards the erection of the building was taken by the County Court on the 9th of November, 1825, the Justices then being Joseph V. Garnier, Peter Ferguson, and Francis Nash; when the sum of $7,000 was appropriated for the purpose, and Alexander Stuart was appointed Commissioner to superintend the work. On the 7th of February, 1826, an additional appropriation in the sum of $5,000 was made, and on the 9th of the same month Mr. Stuart submitted plans for the building, which were approved, the estimate of the cost being $12,000. Some difficulty appears to have occurred relative to the plans adopted, for on May 1, 1826, a plan prepared by Messrs. Morton & Laveille was approved, and $2,000 additional was appropriated. Stuart's plan was apparently thrown overboard, and the contract for the erection was awarded to Joseph C. Laveille and George Morton,

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for $14,000, and bears date May 26, 1826. At a meeting of the Court, held on July 26 of the same year, Henry S. Geyer was appointed Commissioner to superintend the building of the Court House, vice Alexander Stuart, resigned. This building was completed on the 10th of August, 1833, the entire cost being $14,416.16.

In June, 1838, the public business had so increased, and the necessity for greater accommodations was so evident, that the court asked for proposals for clerks' offices on the southwest corner of the square (Fifth and Market streets), to be 132 feet long by 36 feet in width. In September, 1838, another public notice was given, and an offer of $100 for the best plan for a building on the Public Square, either adjoining the Court House or adjacent thereto. A plan submitted by Henry Singleton on July 8th, 1839, was adopted, and the designer was appointed architect and superintendent. This was really the commencement of the present imposing structure, and the first contract for work was made by Mr. Singleton with Joseph Foster, for the carpenter work, on August 12, 1839, and in April, 1842, a contract for the cut-stone work of the rotunda was awarded to J. H. Hall. The work progressed slowly until 1831, when Robert S. Mitchell was appointed architect and superintendent, and he immediately proceeded to tear down the old building, which stood where the east wing was to be erected, and in October, 1852, contracted with Mr. Bernard Crickard for the cut-stone work for the wing. It was subsequently decided by the Court to have the north and south wings, and on the 28th of May, 1853, Mr. Mitchell contracted with Mr. Crickard for the cut-stone work of the south wing, and in July, 1853, for the six stone columns in the portico of the east wing. In May, 1857, the court superseded Mr. Mitchell and appointed Thomas D. P. Lanham to the office, at a remuneration of four per cent, on the amount of work done under his supervision. The County Court was abolished by the Legislature, and on the first Monday in August, 1859, the Board of County Commissioners were elected, and on the 21st of September following the Board declared the office of architect and superintendent vacant, and the day after appointed William Rumbold to the office, at a salary of $125 per month. The work from this period progressed with steadiness. The design for the dome prepared by Mr. Lanham was rejected, and the wrought-iron dome devised by Mr. Rumbold was adopted, having been carefully tested, and the contract for the erection awarded to Mr. James McPheeters.

Without pursuing the different steps of the work as it neared completion, it is sufficient to state that this splendid building, after the lapse of

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a quarter of a century from the time of its commencement, was pronounced completed at the beginning of July, 1862. The cost of the work was as follows:
Cut-stone work — $383,647 05
Other stone work — 48,455 91
Iron work — 151,342 22
Brick and material — 71,115 23
Plastering — 21,054 65
Carpentry — 146,607 19
Painting and glazing — 21,650 13
Roofing — 23,825 49
Sundries, labor, material, etc — 288,329 71
Architect and superintendent — 43,844 33
Total cost — $1,199,871 91

St. Louis and Its Charters.

The town of St. Louis was first incorporated on the 9th day of November, 1809, by the Court of Common Pleas for the District of St. Louis, upon the petition of two-thirds of the taxable inhabitants, under authority of an act of the Legislature of the Territory of Louisiana, passed June 18th, 1808, entitled "An act concerning towns in this Territory." The Judges constituting the Court were Silas Bent, President, and Bernard Pratte and Louis Labeaume, Associates. The charter granted by the Court was the only one under which the town existed until 1822, when it was incorporated as a city. It is to be found in the records of the Court in Book A, page 334, in the following words:

"On petition of sundry inhabitants of the town of St. Louis, praying so much of said town as is included in the following limits to be incorporated, to-wit: Beginning at Antoine Roy's mill on the bank of the Mississippi river, thence running sixty arpents west, thence south on said line of sixty arpents in the rear until the same comes to the Barriere Denoyer, thence due south until it comes to the Sugar Loaf, thence due east to the Mississippi, from thence by the Mississippi to the place first mentioned. The Court having examined the said petition, and finding that the same is signed by two-thirds of the taxable inhabitants residing in said town, order the same to be incorporated, and the metes and bounds to be surveyed and marked and a plat thereof filed of record in the Clerk's office." David Delawnay and Wm. C. Carr were appointed Commissioners to superintend the first election of five trustees in accordance with the law.

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The next act in reference to incorporation is entitled "An act to incorporate the inhabitants of the town of St. Louis, approved December 9th, 1822." The limits stated in this act are as follows: Beginning at a point in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river, due east of the southern end of a bridge across Mill creek, at the lower end of the town of St. Louis: thence due west to a point at which the line of Seventh street extending southwardly will intersect the same; thence northwardly along the western side of Seventh street, and continuing in that course to a point due west of the northern side of Roy's tower; thence due east to the middle of the main channel of the river Mississippi; thence with the middle of the main channel of the said river to the beginning. By this act the town, bounded as above given, was "erected into a city" by the name of the city of St. Louis, and the inhabitants constituted a body politic and corporate under the name and style of the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of St. Louis.

An act supplementary to that last mentioned was passed January 15, 1831, but without any alteration of the boundaries. On the 16th of January, 1833, an additional act was passed dividing the city into four wards. On the 26th of February a new charter was passed by the Legislature, which reiterated the boundaries of the act of 1822, but contained new and more specific provisions for municipal government. On February 8, 1839, a new charter was again promulgated by the Legislature, which was much more elaborate than any of the preceding, being divided into articles, a formality not previously observed. This established the boundaries as follows: Beginning at a point in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river due east of the mouth of Mill creek (so called); thence due west to the mouth of said creek; thence up the centre of the main channel of said creek to a point where the southern side of Rutgers street, produced, shall intersect the same; thence westwardly along the southern side of said street to the intersection of the same with the western line of Seventh street, produced; thence northwardly along the western side of Seventh street to the northern line of Biddle street; thence eastwardly with the northern line of Biddle street to the western line of Broadway, to a point where the southern boundary of survey number six hundred and seventy-one, produced, shall intersect the same; thence eastwardly along the southern boundary of said survey to the Mississippi river; thence due east to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence down with the middle of the main channel of said river to the place of beginning.

On the 15th of February, 1841, an act amendatory to the foregoing

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again changed the boundaries, as follows: Beginning at a point in the middle of the main channel of the river due east of the southeast corner of St. George, in St. Louis county: thence due west to the west line of Second Carondelet avenue; thence north with the west line of said avenue to the north line of Chouteau avenue; thence northwardly in a direct line to the mouth of Stony creek, above the then existing north line of the city; thence due east to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river, and thence south to the place of beginning.

On February 8, 1843, an act was approved entitled "An act to reduce the law incorporating the city of St. Louis and the several acts amendatory thereof into one act, and to amend the same." This act did not change the city limits. Another act similar in title to that just mentioned was approved March 3, 1851, but it left the limits as last quoted.

Various supplementary and amendatory acts besides those mentioned were passed in reference to the city, but the next extension of the limits was made by an act specifically for that purpose, which was approved December 5, 1855. This act made the line of Keokuk street the southern boundary of the city to a point six hundred and sixty feet west of Grand avenue; thence northwardly and parallel to the line of Grand or Lindell avenue, at a distance of six hundred and sixty feet therefrom, until the line intersects the Bellefontaine road; thence northeast to the line dividing townships 45 and 46 north, range 7 east; thence eastwardly with said line and in the same direction to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence southwardly with the meanderings of said channel to place of beginning.

In 1866, the Legislature granted another charter for the city of St. Louis, which divided the city into ten wards, but left the boundaries unchanged.

In 1867, another charter was obtained which added the suburb of Carondelet to the city by extending the southern limits, but this extension did not go into effect until the first Tuesday in April, 1870. The city proper remained unchanged as to boundaries, and the extension authorized received the designation of the "new limits." This charter divided the city into twelve wards. It remained unchanged until 1870, when an act was passed by the Legislature, entitled "An act to revise the charter of the city of St. Louis and to extend the limits thereof." Notwithstanding its title there was no actual extension of the limits by this act, but the provisions of the previous charter in reference to the incorporation of Carondelet were re-enacted with a provision that for the first five years the rate of taxation in the "new limits" should not exceed one-half the rate levied on the old limits.

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In 1873, a new law extending the city limits, was enacted, but it was declared unconstitutional and consequently inoperative.

The charter approved March 4th, 1870, is therefore the instrument under which the municipal government is conducted. Amendments of minor importance have been made to that charter since, but the limits remain unchanged as also its more important provisions.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF ST. LOUIS SINCE 1810.
1810 Auguste Chouteau — Chairman. 1844 Bernard Pratte — Mayor.
1811 Charles Gratiot — " 1845 Bernard Pratte — "
1812 Charles Gratiot — " 1846 Peter G. Camden — "
1813 Charles Gratiot — " 1847 Bryan Mullanphy — "
1814 Clement B. Penrose — " 1848 John M. Krum — "
1815 Elijah Beebe — " 1849 James B. Barry — "
1816 Elijah Beebe — " 1850 Luther M. Kennett — "
1817 Elijah Beebe — " 1851 Luther M. Kennett — "
1818 Thomas F. Riddick — " 1853 Luther M. Kennett — "
1819 Peter Ferguson — " 1853 John How — "
1820 Pierre Chouteau, Sr — " 1854 John How — "
1821 Pierre Chouteau, Sr — " 1855 Washington King — "
1822 Thomas McKnight — " 1856 John How — "
1823 William Carr Lane — Mayor. 1857 John M. Wimer — "
1824 William Carr Lane — " 1858 Oliver D. Filley — "
1825 William Carr Lane — " 1859 Oliver D. Filler — "
1826 William Carr Lane — " 1860 Oliver D. Filley — "
1827 William Carr Lane — " 1861 Daniel G. Taylor — "
1828 William Carr Lane — " 1862 Daniel G. Taylor — "
1829 Daniel D. Page — " 1863 Chauncey I. Filley — "
1830 Daniel D. Page — " 1864 James S. Thomas — "
1831 Daniel D. Page — " 1865 James S. Thomas — "
1832 Daniel D. Page — " 1866 James S. Thomas — "
1833 Samuel Merry — " 1867 James S. Thomas — "
1834 John W. Johnson — " 1868 James S. Thomas — "
1835 John F. Darby — " 1869 Nathan Cole — "
1836 John F. Darby — " 1870 Nathan Cole — "
1837 John F. Darby — " 1871 Joseph Brown — "
1838 William Carr Lane — " 1872 Joseph Brown — "
1839 William Carr Lane — " 1873 Joseph Brown — "
1840 John F. Darby — " 1874 Joseph Brown — "
1841 John D. Daggett — " 1875 Arthur B. Barrett — "
1842 George Maguire — " 1875 James H. Britton — "
1843 John M. Wimer — "      

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An Argument to Prove that Saint Louis Will be the Great City of the World.

THE ARGUMENT.

Great cities grow up in nations as the product of civilization and advanced thought. They represent the power of combined activity and the purposes of thousands and millions of the world's people, through succeeding generations. They are the centers from which radiate material and intellectual improvement, and in their advanced development they become vital organs in the world's government and progress, and perform the highest functions of industrial and social life. Where natural advantages and human faculties are most effective they exhibit their greatest growth and influence. In the grand march of the human race, they exercise a function peculiar to themselves, by marking the progress of mankind in arts, commerce and civilization, embellishing history with its richest pages, and impressing on the mind of the scholar and the statesman the profoundest lessons in the rise and fall of nations. In all ages they have formed the great centres of industrial, artistic and intellectual life, from which mighty outgrowths of civilization have expanded, beating down barbaric obstacles with a resistless effort. In short, they are the mightiest works of man. And whether we view them wrapped in the flames of the conqueror, and surrounded with millions of earnest hearts, yielding in despair to the wreck of fortune and life at the fading away of expiring glory, or the sinking of a nation into oblivion; or whether we contemplate them in the full vigor of prosperity, with steeples piercing the very heavens, with royal palaces, gilded halls, and rich displays of wealth and learning, they are the same ever wonderful objects of man's creation, ever impressing with profoundest conviction lessons of human greatness and human glory. Even in their decay they have been able to wrestle with all human time and resist oblivion. We have only to go with Volney through the Ruins of Empires, to trace the climbing path of man, from his first appearance on the fields of history to the present day, by the evidences we find along his pathway in the ruins of the great cities, the creation of his own hands. The lessons of magnitude and durability which great

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cities teach may be more clearly realized in the following eloquent passage from a lecture of Louis Kossuth, delivered in New York city.

"How wonderful! What a present and what a future yet! Future? Then let me stop at this mysterious word, the veil of unrevealed eternity.

"The shadow of that dark word passed across my mind, and amid the bustle of this gigantic bee-hive, there I stood with meditation alone.

"And the spirit of the immovable past rose before my eyes, unfolding the picture-rolls of vanished greatness, and of the fragility of human things.

"And among their dissolving views there I saw the scorched soil of Africa, and upon that soil, Thebes, with its hundred gates, more splendid than the most splendid of all the existing cities of the world — Thebes, the pride of old Egypt, the first metropolis of arts and sciences, and the mysterious cradle of so many doctrines, which still rule mankind in different shapes, though it has long forgotten their source.

"There I saw Syria, with its hundred cities; every city a nation, and every nation with an empire's might. Baalbec, with its gigantic temples, the very ruins of which baffle the imagination of man, as they stand like mountains of carved rocks in the desert, where, for hundreds of miles, not a stone is to be found, and no river flows, offering its tolerant back to carry a mountain's weight upon. And yet there they stood, those gigantic ruins; and as we glance at them with astonishment, though we have mastered the mysterious elements of nature, and know the combination of levers, and how to catch the lightning, and how to command the power of steam and compressed air, and how to write with the burning fluid out of which the thunderbolt is forged, and how to dive to the bottom of the ocean, and how to rise up to the sky, cities like New York dwindle to the modest proportion of a child's toy, so that we are tempted to take the nice little thing up on the nail of our thumb, as Micromegas did with the man of wax.

"Though we know all this, and many things else, still, looking at the times of Baalbec, we cannot forbear to ask what people of giants was that which could do what neither the puny efforts of our skill, nor the ravaging hand of unrelenting time, can undo through thousands of years.

"And then I saw the dissolving picture of Nineveh, with its ramparts now covered with mountains of sand, where Layard is digging up colossal winged bulls, large as a mountain, and yet carved with the nicety of a cameo; and then Babylon, with its beautiful walls; and Jerusalem, with its unequaled temples; Tyrus, with its countless fleets;

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Arad, with its wharves; and Sidon, with its labyrinth of work-shops and factories; and Ascalon, and Gaza, and Beyrout, and, further off, Persepolis, with its world of palaces."

The first great cities of the world were built by a race of men inferior to those who now represent the most advanced civilization, yet there are many ruins, superior, both in greatness and mechanical skill, to those which belong to the cities of our own day, as found in the marble solitudes of Palmyra and the sand-buried cities of Egypt. But ancient grandeur grew out of a system of serf labor controlled by selfish despots or a blind priesthood, which compelled a useless display of greatness in most public improvements, especially in those growing out of religious enthusiasm. In our age, labor is directed more by practical wisdom than of old, and is used to create the useful more than the ornamental; hence we have the Crystal Palace instead of the Pyramids.

But no matter what age nor what form of religion or civilization has produced the great cities, their character and greatness teach their lessons all along the highway of time — lessons of the profoundest interest. It is not to the past, however, that the present discussion belongs, but the inquiry reaches into the future.

Where will grow up the future great city of the world? is the question now under consideration. Let us examine and, if possible, ascertain among what people, in what nation, on what continent the future great city of the world is yet to be.

At the very outset of this inquiry, it is necessary to a clear comprehension of a few underlying facts essential to the production of the cities of the past and those now in existence, to note the influence of the more important arts and sciences upon the present intellectual and industrial interests of civilized men, and, if possible, determine the tendency of the world's progress toward the unfolding future.

It must be true in the case of great cities, as in that of any other department of the works of man, that their location and growth are directed and controlled by certain fundamental facts and principles, which are local and general in their character; and that, with a knowledge and application of those local and fundamental facts and general principles, the investigation can be easily carried into the future, and great cities and their locations be pointed out, as well as the place where THE FUTURE GREAT CITY of the world will grow up. Assuming this to be true, we have only to consider the following fundamental, local facts and general principles, and, by their application

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to nature and civilization, determine where the future great city of the world is destined to grow up.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

The following six general principles, two of which have ever been all-controlling in the production of great cities, are presented as an impregnable basis on which to found an incontestable argument by which to demonstrate the location of the great city of the future. The third is substantially new and local to America, and must exercise a controlling influence on this continent:

I. It is assumed to be a general principle, founded in nature, that the highest civilization, the greatest concentration of wealth and the growth of the greatest cities, have been attained within an isothermal belt or zone of equal temperature, which encircles the earth in the north temperate zone.

II. That all the great cities of the world have grown up near to the line of obstructed navigation in mid-winter.

III. That human power is organized to its fullest capacity where the productive power of a continent is greatest.

IV. That nearly all the great cities of the world have been built upon rivers.

V. That the arts and sciences do more to increase population and promote the growth of cities in the interior of a country, than upon the seaboard or coast lands.

VI. That to modern civilization, domestic transportation, by water and by rail, is more valuable to nations of great territorial extent, than ocean navigation.

THE ARGUMENTS DEDUCED FROM OUR SIX GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

Having laid down these general propositions, most of which are essential to the production of a great city anywhere on this globe, let us proceed to elucidate the truth and importance of each of them, and ascertain, if possible, if they will not, in time, produce upon this continent a greater city than has yet grown up in the world. May we not go beyond, and by a more exhaustive elucidation of the subject and closer application of the truths and facts, fix the location and determine the growth of the great city of the future.

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THE FIRST GENERAL PRINCIPLE ELUCIDATED.

I. — GENERAL PRINCIPLE: That the highest civilization, the greatest concentration of wealth, and the growth of the greatest cities have been attained within an isothermal belt or zone of equal temperature, which encircles the earth in the north temperate zone.

The existence of an isothermal zone, or belt of equal temperature, surrounding the northern hemisphere was first discovered by Humboldt. He first called scientific attention to isothermal lines, or lines of equal temperature, which encircle the earth in the north temperate zone. And minute investigations have established the fact that the human race had, since creation's dawn, been moving westward within this belt of empire, as if directed or impelled by a kind of instinct, over which they had no control. This zodiac or zone is a few degrees wide, having for its axis a line of equal temperature. "During antiquity this zodiac was narrow; it never expanded beyond the North African shore, nor beyond the Pontic Sea, the Danube, and the Rhine. Along this narrow belt civilization planted its system, from Oriental Asia to the western extremity of Europe, with more or less perfect development. Modern times have recently seen it widened to embrace the region of the Baltic Sea. In America it starts with its broad front from Cuba to Hudson's Bay. As in all previous times, it advances along a line central to these extremes, in the densest form, and with the greatest celerity. It reveals to the world this shining fact, that along it civilization has traveled, as by an inevitable instinct of nature, since creation's dawn. From this line has radiated intelligence of mind to the north and to the south." It is the zodiac of empire.

It is a noteworthy observation of Dr. Draper, in his work on the Civil War in America, that within a zone a few degrees wide, having for its axis the January isothermal line of forty-one degrees, all great men in Europe and Asia have appeared. He might have added, with equal truth, that within the same zone have existed all those great cities which have exerted a powerful influence upon the world's history, as centres of civilization and intellectual progress. The same inexorable, but subtle, law of climate which makes greatness in the individual unattainable in a temperature hotter or colder than a certain golden mean, affects in like manner, with even more certainty, the development of those concentrations of the intellect of man which we find in great

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cities. If the temperature is too cold, the sluggish torpor of the intellectual and physical nature precludes the highest development; if the temperature is too hot, the fiery fickleness of nature which warm climates produce in the individual, is typical of the swift and tropical growth and sudden and severe decay and decline of cities exposed to the same all-powerful influence. Beyond that zone of moderate temperature, human life resembles more closely that of the animal, as it is forced to combat with extremes of cold or to submit to extremes of heat; but within that zone the highest intellectual activity and culture are displayed. Nations and cities have arrayed themselves along its pathway, from Pekin, in China, to St. Louis, in America.

— "Through the ages one unceasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the sun." —

Herein, then, lies the primal law that essentially controls and directs the movements of man upon this globe.

Within this belt has already been embraced more than three-fourths of the world's civilization, and now about 850,000,000 people. It is along this belt that the processions of nations, in time, have moved forward, with reason and order, "in a pre-determined, a solemn march, in which all have joined; ever moving and ever resistlessly advancing, encountering and enduring an inevitable succession of events."

But granting that the human race, with all its freight of commerce, its barbarism and civilization, its arms, and arts, has been moving westward since the beginning of time along this zodiac of empire, through pestilence and prosperity, across seas and over continents, like a mighty caravan gone forth to make the circuit of the globe, will not the same inevitable cause that wrested human power from the cities and nations of the ancients and vested it for a time in the city of the Caesars, and thence moved it to the city of London, — will not that wave of human power cross the Atlantic Ocean, and, with accumulated strength and intelligence, organize itself upon the North American continent, with a greater development than has yet been known to mankind?

Must we not assume, that somewhere in time, this movement of the human race, in this zodiac of empire, will be arrested in its westward career, and man cease his long march around the earth, and seek the goal of his ambition on the American continent? Is it not impossible for the movement to cross the Pacific Ocean to the inferior races of Asia? And is it not in the very nature of things that North America is to be the battle-ground where the great problems of the world are to be solved, and man attain his full development on the planet? Is

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not this the full and free expression of every enlightened American? There is no other conclusion to which civilization is tending. The civil conquest of this continent completes the circuit of the globe. It unites at the east and the west the isothermal axis that girdles the earth, and decides the victory of civilized men over the empire of nature.

Granting that human power will still move forward until it crosses the Atlantic ocean, and that it will be arrested upon the American continent, there still arises in the discussion another important question: as to whether it will reach and make a lodgment upon the Pacific coast, or will it be organized in the central plain of the continent?

It requires but a simple observation, a simple glance at the productive character of the continent, to settle this question. On the eastern declivity of the continent, is embraced a little more than one-seventh of our territorial possessions. On the western declivity, is embraced almost one-third of our domain. The interior plain, or Mississippi basin, contains 2,455,000 square miles, infinitely transcending, in productive energies, either of the continental slopes or of any other portion of the globe.

In territorial extent this grand valley surpasses in area all other formations of the kind on the continents, and is much greater than the combined area of the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. No other continent has so great an area of agricultural lands as it, and none so rich in natural wealth. Its soil, in richness and extent, is beyond all comparison. Its coal-fields and iron deposits are by far the greatest and the richest in the world. "Its river navigation," said Benton, "is the most wonderful on the globe, and, since the application of steam power to the propulsion of vessels, possesses the essential qualities of open navigation. Speed, distance, cheapness, magnitude of cargoes, are all there, and without the perils of the sea from storms and enemies. The steamboat is the ship of the river, and finds in the Mississippi and its tributaries the amplest theatre for the diffusion and display of its power. Wonderful river! connected with seas by the head and by the mouth, stretching its arms toward the Atlantic and the Pacific, lying in a valley which is a valley from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay."

In addition to the river system, the adaptability of the Mississippi Valley for building railroads is supreme over all other lands. Its climate is in the highest degree fitted for an unlimited exercise of the functions of man, and the commerce afforded by its fields and factories and foundries will go in the most ample supply to the markets of every country. Even when looking but dimly upon that grand domain, De

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Tocqueville said that "the Mississippi Valley is, upon the whole, the most magnificent dwelling-place prepared by God for man's abode;" and Charles Sumner said "The Mississippi Valley speaks for itself as man cannot speak." "About the noblest work," said Thomas Hughes, "that man can do, is the development of this magnificent continent."

Since these things are so; since the wisest of men have testified; since God has made the great valley, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf, far the grandest theatre for man's abode upon the planet, and fitted it upon each side with great galleries — the Atlantic and Pacific slopes — must we not conclude that the centre of human power, in its westward movement, will be arrested in the central plain of the continent, where is to be found the greatest supply of the productive energies of the earth? In short, it must be in the grand valley, where the two waves of civilization — one rolling in from the Celestial Empire, and the other from the land of Alfred and Charlemagne — will meet and commingle together in one great swelling tide of humanity, in the land of Hiawatha.

Having briefly considered the first general principle laid down for the discussion, and indicated its all-important truth — how the great cities of the world have, in time, succeeded each other along the highway of nations, and how the power, wealth and wisdom that once ruled in Troy, Athens, Carthage, Rome, Genoa and Venice, is now in the still onward, and westward, movement of the great Family of man, represented by the city of London, the precursor of the final great city of the world, and will in time cross the Atlantic Ocean, and be arrested in the central plain of North America, where, in less than one hundred years, the great city of the future will grow up, — let us pass to a consideration of the general proposition:

II. That all the great cities of the world have grown up near to the line of obstructed navigation in mid-winter.

By the line of obstructed navigation in mid-winter, is meant that line which bounds the limits of the freezing of the navigable rivers so as to obstruct transportation with ice. Such a line drawn around the earth, would pass by or near Cairo, at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. And to the north of it would be most of the internal navigation of the great basin. It is upon such a line, and near to it north and south, that all the great cities have grown up on the globe and will, continue to do so.

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The truth of this must be evident, to every person who will consider the subject for a moment.

Climate, everywhere upon the earth, controls vegetation. Everywhere, in the toilsome pursuit of gain, man is compelled to combat extremes of heat and cold, and the severer the conflict, the greater the impediment to his success and progress; hence it is along and adjacent to that line midway the extremes of heat and cold, that his successes must be greatest, that his achievements must be the most complete. Especially must this be true, south of the obstructed line of navigation. For it cannot be denied that any impediments to the free exchange of commerce, interposed by cold, on land or water, is more expensive to the people belonging to the regions where the climate interferes, than to those regions of country which are comparatively free from embarrassments interposed by cold weather, and where exist no impediments to the ready exchange of commerce. Therefore, the people south of such a line must possess advantages for the promotion of prosperity and wealth, over those regions where snow and ice and the rigors of the climate interpose unavoidable obstacles. Still further, the climatic boundary line to human advancement has ever been to the north and not to the south. The Infinite Father has set bounds to the north such as He has not given to the south, and every race and every nation has submissively conformed to the dictation, and made the great battleground for arms and arts south of the axis of the zodiac of empire, instead of north of it; thus proving the greater advantages for men and cities, south of the obstructed line of navigation, than to the north of it.

But let us pass to our next general principle:
III. That nearly all the great cities of the world have been built upon rivers, whether in the interior or near the ocean — such as Babylon, on the Euphrates; Thebes, on the Nile; Nineveh, on the Tigris; Constantinople, on the Bosphorus; Rome, on the Tiber; Paris, on the Seine; London, on the Thames; New York, on the Hudson; Cincinnati, on the Ohio; and St. Louis, on the Mississippi; while Carthage, St. Petersburg, and Chicago belong to interior waters, and Palmyra and the City of Mexico to the interior country.

That there is an important reason why cities are built upon rivers, must he evident to every reflecting man. All commercial transactions are based upon transportation — the facilities for the easy and cheap exchange and conveyance of products, merchandise and people, to and

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from commercial centres and countries. Rivers for navigation, and for the abundant supply of water for domestic purposes, have afforded natural advantages for interior and foreign commerce, that cannot be supplied without them.

Not even the new agency — the railway — transcends in its importance for usefulness, the natural advantages afforded to the cities, by the navigable rivers.

Railways contribute to give importance to the rivers, by gathering up and concentrating the products of the land at given points. Hence the advantages afforded to great cities by great rivers will ever remain paramount to localities on the shores of the oceans and lakes; while upon them must ever grow the great cities of the world.

Passing to our next general principle, it is assumed:
IV. That the greatest human power will grow up where the productive power of a continent is greatest.

The truth of this principle is found in the fact that all man's material interests, upon the land, depend upon the material wealth, or productive power of the land; viz: the rich soils, the timber, the metals, the domestic navigation, etc., etc., essential to the uses and wants of man. This truth is so plain and so great, that it requires no argument for its demonstration.

It is true that this general principle, in its application to the production of great cities, has more force in North America than in any other portion of the world.

Neither the cities of Asia, Africa nor Europe, have depended so much, for their immediate prosperity and growth, upon the productive energies of those continents, as do and will, the cities of North America.

Here the whole tendency of industrial civilization is to utilize the labors and natural resources of the country, in an aggregated form, more than in any other land. And though the results are not yet so overshadowing in their appearance, the principle has been vigorously applied. With the superior advantages which this land affords, for the use of the railway, every succeeding year added to our national life must bring still stronger evidence, to prove that in North America, the great city is destined to be in the centre of the productive power of the country, where the center of human power must grow up.

Against the truth and application of this general principle there can be no adverse argument; hence it affords the basis for the strongest

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possible argument in favor of the future great city of the world growing up in North America. We therefore pass to our next general principle.

V. That the arts and sciences contribute more to increase population and promote the growth of cities upon the interior of a continent, than upon the sea-board or coast lands.

Steam engines, labor-saving machines, books, the value and use of metals, government, the enforcement of laws, and other means of self-protection — all have tended more to make the people of the interior more numerous, powerful and wealthy, than to concentrate wealth and population upon the extended shores of the great waters.

The truth of this is found in the fact, that man's relations and interest are with the land and its natural resources. With these the arts and sciences have to deal, and where the greatest opportunities combine with the greatest resources, the arts and sciences contribute most to the welfare of man and to the building up of great cities.

Our sixth and last fundamental principle is:
VI. That to modern civilization, domestic transportation by water and by rail, is more valuable to nations of great territorial extent, than ocean transportation.

While this fundamental principle is correct in its general application, it is intimately blended and belongs to, and depends upon, the use and application of the last two preceding general principles, the arts and sciences contributing only to man's happiness and welfare where their application can be made in the most practical way.

Having thus defined the general principles, in nature and in civilization, which produce the great cities of the world, and having laid down these principles as a basis upon which to found the argument and determine the position of the future great city, let us proceed at once to the discussion.

Assuming that the six fundamental principles just laid down are true, and that by a proper understanding of them, it is possible to determine when and where the future great city of the world is destined to grow up on the earth, I shall at the very outset of the discussion make the bold declaration that the great city of the future is to grow up in North America, and that St. Louis is to be that city. The elaboration of our first fundamental principle demonstrates, beyond question, that the centre

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of human power, moving westward in the zodiac of empire, must cross the Atlantic ocean and make a lodgment in North America, and that where the centre of human power is fixed, the great city must grow up.

It must grow up near the axis of that great belt of empire, near the obstructed line of water navigation in mid-winter; on the great river where climates cannot rudely interpose obstacles to commerce and navigation. This being true, it is a fact of no little importance, that the very axis of the zone of empire — the centre of equilibrium between excess of heat and cold — the January isothermal line of forty-one degrees — passes nearer to the city of St. Louis than to any other considerable city on this continent! Close to that same isothermal line lie London, Paris, Rome, Constantinople and Pekin; north of it lie New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and south of it lies San Francisco. Thus favored in climate, and situated in the very centre of that belt of intellectual activity, beyond which neither great man nor great city has yet appeared, St. Louis may with reason be expected to attain the highest rank, if other conditions favor.

That St. Louis is not only situated near to the axis of the belt of empire, but also near to the line of unobstructed winter navigation, being, in addition, supremely favored as will be shown by the other fundamental principles laid down at the basis of this discussion, is a fact beyond all doubt; and now it only remains to support those principles by local and general facts, to establish the position and certainty of the future great city. Rising, from principles to essential necessities for the maintenance of human life, we find that the growth of a city is analogous to the growth of a human being; and that there are certain prime necessities for the maintenance of human life, the abundance of which stimulates health and the rapid increase of population, and consequently stimulates the growth of great cities in proportion to the cheapness and abundance of the supply. These prime necessities are, food, clothing, and shelter.

There can be no civilized life without all of these; and as they are the products of labor and skill, where they can be produced in the greatest abundance, and used to the greatest advantage, and the most extensively, will almost certainly be the place where the centre of population will be fixed on this continent, and where the great city will grow up — where our problem will be solved. Added to these prime necessities for man's healthful and civilized growth, should be ample facilities for the intercommunion of the people, one with another, and for the ready exchange of commodities forming foreign and domestic

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commerce. These may be enumerated as good roads, railways, and navigable waters, with attendant cheap freights.

That St. Louis occupies a geographical position, central to the productive energies of the continent, there can be no question of doubt. In fact no city on the globe is so well favored with the resources necessary to produce food and the materials out of which clothing and houses are made.

To establish the truth of this statement, we have only to examine, in a cursory manner, the facts — their continental importance, as Providence has bounteously provided them on every hand, throughout the length and breadth of the great valley of the Mississippi. Let us consider them briefly.

Leaving the Atlantic seaboard, and coming west of the Appalachian chain of mountains, we at once enter the domain of the Mississippi Valley, which comprises an area of 2,445,000 square miles, and extends through thirty degrees of longitude and twenty-three degrees of latitude.

The Mississippi Valley embraces, within its vast extent, a variety of climates, an area of rich soil, an extent of river navigation, a supply of mineral wealth, and a configuration of surface, equaled nowhere else on this globe.

Neither Asia, Africa, Europe, nor South America, can boast of a valley so vast in extent, and so bountifully supplied with natural wealth and natural advantages, essential to the industrial and commercial progress of man.

To satisfy the reader of the truth of these statements, a few general facts are submitted:

RIVERS OF ASIA.

YANGTSE — Length, 3,200 miles; navigable, 900 to 1,500 miles; area drained, 740,000 square miles.

OBI — Length, 2,530 miles; navigable, 900 miles; area drained, 1,357,000 square miles.

RIVERS OF AFRICA.

NILE — Length, 3,600 miles; navigation, unknown; area drained, 520,000 square miles.

NIGER — Length, 2,500 miles; navigable, 700 miles; area drained, unknown.

RIVERS OF EUROPE.

VOLGA — Length, 2,150 miles; navigable, 1,800 miles; area drained, 400,000 square miles.

DANUBE — Length, 1,700 miles; navigable, 1,500 miles; area drained, 250,000 square miles.

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RIVERS OF SOUTH AMERICA.

AMAZON — Length, 4,000 miles; navigable, 3,662 miles; area drained, 2,000,000 square miles.

LAPLATA — Length, 2,550 miles; navigable, 1,250 miles; area drained, 1,250,000 square miles.

RIVERS OF NORTH AMERICA.

MISSISSIPPI — Length, 2,616 miles; navigable, 2,200 miles; area drained, 2,455,350 square miles, including area of the Missouri.

MISSOURI — Length, 2,908 miles; navigable, 2,000 miles; area drained, 518,000 square miles.

The above statement of the length, navigable depth and area drained by the ten longest rivers in the world, settles the question of superiority in favor of the great river of North America — the Mississippi — and decides the question of greatest area between the great basins.

Although geographical science long since established the fact that the Amazon was the king of rivers, modern and minute investigation has proven the basin of the Mississippi, as the above figures show, to surpass in extent any other formation of the kind on the globe. It is true Humboldt estimated the area drained by the Amazon to be 2,800,000 square miles, but more recent authorities place the number below that of the Mississippi basin. Not only do the facts demonstrate the Mississippi basin to be larger than that of the Amazon, but the configuration of the two parts of the Western Hemisphere is quite different; that of North America presenting three vast interior plains, comprising more than one-half of its populable area; that of South America presenting a configuration far more mountainous, and devoid of great plains similar to those forming the great basin of the Mississippi.

In the Mississippi Valley, which is still new in its development, there are already many large and flourishing cities, each expecting, in the future, to be greater than any one of the others. First among these stand Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis and New Orleans — four cities destined at no distant day, to surpass in wealth and population the four cities of the Atlantic seaboard — Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Assuming, then, that the future great city is to be in the Mississippi Valley, we are to ascertain which of the four cities it is to be, or whether some new and more prosperous rival will present itself for that great achievement. As the great city is to be in the future, we must view it as the growth of the well-developed resources of our

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country; and, all things being considered, it is but just to say that, inasmuch as it will be an organism of human power, it will grow up in or near the centre of the productive power of the continent. That Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans have each many natural advantages, there can be no question. There is, however, this difference: the area of surrounding country, capable of ministering to the wants of the people and supplying the trade of a city, is broken, in the case of New Orleans, by the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Pontchartrain and by regions of swamps. In the case of Chicago, it is diminished one-third by Lake Michigan; while Cincinnati and St. Louis both have around them unbroken and uninterrupted areas of rich and productive lands, each capable of sustaining a large population. But if it be asked to which of these cities belong the greatest advantages, must we not answer, it is the one nearest the centre of the productive power of the continent, and especially to the natural wealth of the Valley of the Mississippi? Most certainly, for there will grow up the human power. And is not this centre St. Louis? We have only to appeal to facts to establish the superior natural advantages of St. Louis over any other city on the continent.

FOOD.

But, before we enter upon a discussion of the productive powers of the continent, let us look for one moment at the elements of human want upon which civilization is founded: and this brings us back to a consideration of our auxiliary and essential requisites to our six fundamental facts. Under all circumstances and in every condition of life, in any country or clime, the first and greatest necessity of man is food, and a civilization and an industry universally founded upon the principle "for value received." It is incontrovertibly true that, in that part of the country where the most food can be produced and supplied at the cheapest rates to the consumers, there will be afforded an essential requisite to encourage and sustain a dense population. Then, without entering into a detailed investigation of the advantages afforded to Chicago, Cincinnati, and New Orleans for obtaining an all-sufficient supply of cheap food, we shall at once assume that St. Louis is central to a better and greater food-producing area or country than either one of the other three cities, and that no man can disprove the assumption.

St. Louis is, substantially, the geographical center of this great valley, which, as we have already seen, contains an area of 2,445,000 square

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miles, and will, in the mature development of the capacity of its soil, control at least the products of 1,000,000 square miles. That we may infer, approximately, the capacity of the more central portions of this valley for food-producing purposes, we call attention to an estimate, made by the Agricultural Bureau at Washington, of the cereal products of the Northwest for the next three decades:
Year. Bushels.
1880 — 1,219,520,000
1890 — 1,951,232,000
1900 — 3,121,970,000

We consume in this country an average of about five bushels of wheat to the inhabitant, but, if necessary, can get along with something less, as we have many substitutes, such as corn, rye and buckwheat. A low estimate will show that our population will be in —

Year. Population.
1880 — 56,000,000
1890 — 77,000,000
1900 — 100,000,000

Accordingly, we can use for home consumption alone of wheat in:

Year. Bushels.
1880 — 280,000,000
1890 — 385,000,000
1900 — 500,000,000

This calculation is made for Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota; and by taking into account Nebraska, Kansas, the Indian Territory and Arkansas, four additional States which naturally contribute to this argument, we at once swell the amount of food for the next three decades to a sufficiency to supply hundreds of millions of human beings, at as cheap rates as good soil and human skill and labor can produce it.

Nor do these States comprise half of the food-producing area of the Valley of the Mississippi. Other large and fertile States, more eastern, and southern, and western — Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas and Nebraska — do now, and will continue to, contribute largely to the sum total of the food produced in the Valley States. And when we consider that less than one-fifth of the entire products of the whole country in 1860 was exported to foreign countries, thus leaving four-fifths for exchange in domestic commerce between the States, and that such is the industrial

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and commercial tendency of our people to a constant proportional increase of our domestic over our foreign exchange, we see an inevitable tendency in our people to concentrate industrially and numerically in the interior of the continent. And when we take into the account that not more than eighteen per cent. of the soil of the best States of this valley is under cultivation, we are still more amazed at the thought of what the future will produce, when the whole shall have been brought under a high state of improved culture. Then the food-producing capacity of this valley will be ample to supply more people than now occupy the entire globe; and with the superior advantages of domestic navigation that St. Louis has over any of the valley cities, and the still additional advantages which she will have in railway communications, and her proximity to rich soils, where is there a people who can be supplied with more and cheaper food than here? Not only are the superior advantages afforded for the production of an abundance of cheap corn and wheat food, but also for the growth of rye, oats, barley, sugar, and all kinds of vegetables and fruits essentially necessary for the wants of those who inhabit the land. In addition to the food taken direct from the soil, St. Louis is better situated than the other three cities for being amply supplied, at the lowest possible rates, with the best quality of animal food. Not only is there every advantage on all sides to be supplied with animal food from the constantly-increasing products of agricultural districts adjacent to the city, but in twenty hours' ride by railway we reach the great pastoral region of our country, where, in a few years, cattle and sheep will swarm over the prairies in infinite numbers, where they will be kept in reserve to supply the markets of the constantly-increasing people. Already the domestic animals — quadrupeds — are more numerous in civilized life than were the wild quadrupeds among the aboriginal savages of this country. In the year 1870, taken together, horses, asses and mules, oxen, sheep and swine, amounted to 85,703,913, — or more than twice the human population of the Union.

The census returns show the number to be as follows:

Horses — 7,145,370
Mules and Asses — 1,125,415
Milch Cows — 8,935,332
Working Oxen — 1,319,271
Other cattle — 13,566,005
Sheep — 28,477,951
Swine — 25,134,569
Total — 85,703,913

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Considering the great pastoral region which will, before many years, be brought into greater use, the increase of quadrupeds will, no doubt, be greater than that of man; at least for the next fifty years the increase on the pastoral region will exercise a valuable influence in aiding to establish good and sufficient markets in the large cities of the Valley States, thus concentrating and strengthening the power of the interior people, who will find ample food at all times. In every view of the subject of food, there seems to be no question as to the advantage St. Louis will possess, for an abundance and for cheapness, over the other three cities: holding, as she does, the nearest relation to the producer, and with better facilities for obtaining supplies.

Besides the general advantages possessed by St. Louis over other cities for obtaining food, there is, just across the Mississippi river, and stretching up and down its water line in front of St. Louis, the American Bottom, estimated to contain 400 square miles, or 256,000 acres. In fertility of soil, and strength of productive energies, no equal area of land can be found to surpass it in richness. A large portion of this tract has been cultivated for more than one hundred years, without any indications of a loss of fertility or productive strength. This tract alone is sufficient to supply an abundance of vegetable food, of the best quality, to a population of more than 5,000,000. An advantage of this kind, so easy of access and so reliable to produce, must be regarded as one of incalculable value to aid in building up and maintaining the food supplies of a great city.

CLOTHING.

Next to food, as a prime necessity, is clothing. The principal materials out of which to make clothing are wool, cotton, flax and hides. Each of these can be produced cheapest and best in and adjacent to the food-producing regions, or, at any rate, the wool and the leather. In fact, in the final advancement and multiplication of the human species upon the planet, for the want of room, cotton will have to be abandoned, and only those animals and vegetables cultivated that can serve the double purpose of supplying food and clothing, and material for the mechanic arts. This will compel cattle and sheep, and wheat and corn, to be the principal food. The flesh of the sheep and the cow will supply food, and the hides, leather, and the wool, clothing. The grain of the corn and the wheat will also form food, while the stalk will enter into many uses in art. The hog will finally be compelled to give up the

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conflict of life; his mission will be fulfilled, and man will require a more refined food for his more refined organization. Fish will not be in the way of man in his higher and more multitudinous walk upon the earth, and, consequently, will continue to supply a valuable portion of his food. Cotton will, ere long, be driven to an extreme southern coast, and, finally, gain a strong foothold in Central America and other more extreme southern countries, and, at last, yield to superior demands. But, to return: St. Louis, on account of the large area of rich, and, in most part, cheap lands surrounding her in every direction, has equal, if not better advantages for being supplied with ample materials for good and cheap clothing, than any other city on the continent; and, with superior advantages, as we shall show after awhile, for the manufacture of the materials into clothing, she will stand first in facilities to supply food and clothing to her ever-increasing people.

But more especially must we look to wool as the most valuable material out of which the greater portion of the clothing worn by the American people, is to be made. And it is not only a gratifying, but a great fact, to know that in less than three hundred miles distant from St. Louis, the finest wool in the world has been raised, for more than twenty-five years. The late Mr. Mark Cockrill, of Nashville, Tennessee, so celebrated for his immense flock of fine sheep, had the honor of raising the finest wool known in the world, and took the first premium for fine wool at the World's Fair at London, in 1851.

SHELTER.

Next to food and clothing, as a prime necessity for civilized men, is shelter: comfortable and commodious houses in which to live. Without these there can be no advancement made in society and civilization, as seen contrasting the condition of the ancient Greeks and Britons, with that of the civilized people of to-day.

The materials out of which most of the houses are made, in America, are brick, stone and wood. In the cities, brick and stone are the principal materials used. All these materials are to be found, in inexhaustible quantities, in every possible direction from St. Louis, for more than three hundred miles distant. It is true Chicago possesses an advantage over St. Louis for an abundant supply of cheap pine lumber. But when we consider that the best materials out of which to make good houses are stone and brick, and that all the better class and more substantial buildings in the great cities are made of these materials, and that no city

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on the continent is so well favored with them as St. Louis, then the mere question of pine lumber, or at any rate of the slight difference in price, affords no advantage for building material to Chicago over St. Louis. Even the new and best buildings of Chicago are made of stone and brick, brought from distant places, while St. Louis stands on an immense foundation of good limestone, from which thousands of perch are quarried annually, and worked into first-class buildings. Besides, within fifty and one hundred miles from the city, in the south-eastern part of the State, are inexhaustible beds of choice qualities of as fine building stone as the continent affords, such as the red and grey granite, choice marbles of various colors, besides a great variety of other valuable qualities of soft and hard stones. Also extensive forests of the most valuable timber, suited for the mechanic arts and for building material, are to be found in the south-eastern portion of the State, one and two hundred miles from St. Louis. Brick, first-class quality, are made in various parts of the city, and supply the demand for building purposes. Nor can any of these supplies be exhausted for ages to come. Stone and wood are found in abundance in all parts of the Valley States wherewith to supply the farmer with cheap building materials.

Thus we have seen that the three essential requisites — food, clothing and shelter — necessary to man's wants and the purposes of civilization, can be supplied in abundance and cheapness to St. Louis with greater advantages than to any other city belonging to the Valley States, and these must render her the greatest market and the best depot for such materials that the continent affords.

Passing, then, from these essential requisites, let us take up another line of discussion that bears more directly upon the future development of American commerce and American civilization. I refer to the productive power of the continent, which is the basis of our physical and material life. In what does the productive power of the continent consist? I answer, it consists in the rich soils suited to agricultural purposes, the coal-fields, the mineral deposits, the valuable forests, the water-powers, the domestic navigation, o'erspread with a temperate and healthful climate.

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These comprise the productive powers of the continent, and these are the materials and the elements that form the basis and support of mighty cities and empires. And with us of the Mississippi Valley they are more abundant than on any other portion of the globe, and unless disturbed by some unforeseen calamity of unparalleled character, this people will bring them all into requisition, until they have builded mightier than any people of ancient or modern times. No land is so great in its productive powers, and no people possess as great possibilities. Still the whole is not known. Although the largest coal and iron deposits of the continent are already known, the geology of the entire extent of our domain is so imperfectly known that there still remain undisturbed in many of the Territories, and even in some of the States, valuable deposits of these two substances, which, ere long, will be unearthed and made subservient to the wants of our people.

But let us tell of what we know. Beginning with the soils of the country, it is well understood by those acquainted with its surface, that the largest and richest body of soil, best suited for corn, wheat, oats, rye and hay-growing is spread over the Valley States. In fact, no country in the world has so large an area of rich land as belongs to the States of the Mississippi Valley. In capacity for producing the various products in the department of agriculture, it has already been referred to in the discussion of the subject of food, and will require no further consideration.

Next to the corn-fields above come the coal-fields below, and the iron deposits. These are the materials upon which modern and more advanced civilization is founded, more than upon any other substances the arts have brought into use. Says Professor Tyler: "The two important mineral substances, coal and iron, have, when made available, afforded a permanent basis of commercial and manufacturing prosperity. Looking at the position of some of the great depositories of coal and iron, one perceives that upon them the most flourishing population is concentrated — the most powerful and magnificent nations of the earth are established. If these two apparently coarse and unattractive substances have not directly caused that high eminence to which some of these countries have attained, they at least have had a large share in contributing to it."

M. Aug. Vischers also says, that "coal is now the indispensable aliment of industry; it is a primary material, engendering force, giving a power superior to that which natural agents, such as water, air, etc., procure. It is to industry what oxygen is to the lungs, water to the plants, nourishment to the animal. It is to coal we owe steam and gas."

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Whoever will look into the development of commerce and civilization during the greater part of this century, will find that coal and iron have given them their cast and development in Europe and America. Nor have either of these attained their highest use. On examination, we find that St. Louis is far better supplied than Chicago, Cincinnati, or New Orleans, with coal and iron; in fact, she stands in a central position to the greatest coal-fields known on the globe. Surrounded on the one side by the inexhaustible coal-beds of Illinois, and on the other by the larger ones of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas, who can doubt her advantages in the use of the most important substance for the next two thousand years? On the one side we have Illinois, with her 30,000 square miles of coal, which is estimated by Prof. Rodgers to amount to 1,227,500,000,000 tons, which is much greater than the deposits in Pennsylvania — they amounting, according to the same authority, to 316,400,000,000 tons. On the other side, we have Missouri, with more than 26,887 square miles, amounting to more than 130,000,000,000 tons. Iowa has her 24,000 square miles of coal; Kansas, 12,000 square miles; Arkansas, 12,000 square miles, and the Indian Territory, 10,000 square miles. Nearly all the other States are likewise bountifully supplied, but these figures are sufficient to show the position of St. Louis to the greatest coal deposits in the world. We can only approximate to the value of these resources by contrast. It is the available use of these two substances that has made England — a little island of the sea, not so extensive as the State of Iowa — the great heart of the world's civilization and commerce. She, with her 144,000,000,000 tons, or 12,000 square miles, of coal, with its greater development and use, reckons her wealth, in substantial value, at $100,000,000,000, while our nation, with our 3,740,000,000,000 tons, or 500,000 square miles, of less developed and not so well used coal, and more than twenty-five times as large, is only reckoned to be worth $25,245,400,000, with an annual increase of $921,700,000. It is true our nation is only in its infancy; but these facts and the contrast teach us how mighty we can be, if we do but use these apparently coarse and unattractive substances, coal and iron, as the best wisdom and skill will enable. We possess thirty-four times the quantity of coal and iron possessed by England, and perhaps double as much as that possessed by all other portions of the earth besides. These resources are availably located; they are in proximity to the widest plains and the richest soils known to man. They are developed by ocean-like lakes and magnificent rivers, and are, or will be, traversed by railroads from ocean to ocean. Their

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value is incalculable, their extent boundless, and their riches unequaled. They are mines of wealth, more valuable than gold, and sufficiently distributed over this great valley to supply well-regulated labor to 400,000,000 producers and consumers. Adjacent to our coal-fields are our mountains of iron, of a superior quality, and in quantity inexhaustible. Thus is St. Louis favored with coal and iron in such endless supplies as to always render their cost dependent simply upon the labor of mining them from exhaustless deposits.

The rich deposits of precious metals which belong to the great mountain system of our continent, being on the west side of the Valley, do already, and will necessarily yet more, contribute to building up the interior of the country rather than either coast region; and though this interest never can be so valuable as that of coal and iron, it is of immense value and importance in its bearing upon the subject under discussion. Already the account has been made large, as the following table shows, but not the half has been taken from those rich and extended mines:

GROWTH OF COINAGE OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1793 TO 1867.
YEARS. GOLD. SILVER. COPPER. TOTAL.
1793 to 1800, 8 years — $1,014,290 00 $1,440,454 75 $79,390 82 $2,534,135 57
1801 to 1810, 10 " — 3,250,742 50 3,569,165 25 151,246 39 6,971,154 14
1811 to 1820, 10 " — 3,166,510 00 5,970,810 95 191,158 57 9,328,479 52
1821 to 1830, 10 " — 1,903,092 50 16,781,046 95 151,412 20 18,835,551 65
1831 to 1840, 10 " — 18,791,862 00 27,199,779 00 342,322 21 46,333,963 21
1841 to 1850, 10 " — 89,543,328 00 22,226,755 00 380,670 83 112,050,753 83
1851 to 1860, 10 " — 470,838,180 98 48,087,763 13 1,249,612 53 520,175,556 64
1861 to 1867, 7 " — 296,967,464 63 12,638,732 11 4,869,350 00 314,475,546 74
Total, 74 years — $885,375,470 61 $137,914,587 14 $7,415,163 55 $1,030,705,141 30

Valuable forests of the best timbers used in mechanical industry are to be found in the southeastern part of the State, and will in due time furnish material for agricultural implements, furniture, and the various uses to which timber is applied. Water powers, not surpassed in any part of New England, are to be found in many parts of the southern half of the State, and when properly improved will contribute largely to the commercial interests of St. Louis.

Not only is St. Louis situated centrally to the productive powers of the Mississippi Valley, and in such a manner as to command them to her markets, with greater facilities and advantages than any other city

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on the continent, but she is also centrally situated in this great system of domestic navigation, and cannot fail to be, in all the future, the most important city and depot identified with its interests. In the nature of river navigation, a smaller class of boats is required for the upper waters than those which can be economically used in deeper streams, and hence arises a necessity for transfer, at some point, from up-river boats to those of greater tonnage. At that point of transfer, business must arise sufficient of itself to sustain a considerable city. The fact that St. Louis is this natural point of transfer between the upper waters of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois, and the great channel thence to the Gulf, is not to be overlooked in estimating its natural advantages. To the domestic navigation we add the railway system of the Valley States, which will in a few years more comprise more than 100,000 miles; and, by reference to the map illustrating this new inland agency for the easy exchange of products and people, we behold at a glance a most wonderful system traversing all parts of these States. In the rapid construction of these lines of communication, St. Louis is fast becoming the greatest railway centre on the continent, as well as in the world, and, with her advantages for domestic navigation, she is soon to be provided with the best commercial facilities of any city on the globe. To her 20,000 miles of river navigation will be added, in less than fifteen years, a continental system of railway communication; and with all these constantly bearing an ever-increasing commerce to her markets, who cannot foresee her destiny among the cities of the world? These thousands of miles of railway can be built the cheapest of any extended system in the world, as they are unobstructed by mountain ranges; they will also be the straightest, shortest, and best routes from point to point, for the same reason. Granting that she will become the centre of the greatest railway communication and of river navigation in the country, we must take into the account the question of freights, as an item of interest which will bear directly upon the subject of the growth of all American cities. Cheap freights will have a direct and important bearing upon the matter of distributing food and raiment to the people of the Valley States, and also of giving to their products the advantages of the best market. To settle this question in favor of St. Louis, involves but two points necessary to be considered: the first, the universal competition constantly existing between the various rival railroads of the Valley States, which will, of necessity, make the freights to St. Louis as cheap as to any other city; the second point is, that St. Louis stands in the midst of the greatest producing and consuming region of

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the country, and in this she cannot fail to have the advantage over any rival city that may aspire to empire in the republic or in the world. Situated, then, as she is, in the very heart of the productive powers of the country, and destined, at a very early date, to be connected by railway and by water, in the most advantageous way, with every city and harbor on our sea coast, and with every inland city and productive region where industry and wealth can find opportunity, we are led to consider her future as a commercial and manufacturing city, and her advantages to become a distributing point for the future millions of the industrious and intelligent of our race who are yet to inhabit this continent, under one flag and one language.

POPULATION.

Having considered the material resources of the great Valley, and the relation they bear to St. Louis, let us now consider the question of population — its westward movement and its future growth upon the continent.

The subject of the growth and distribution of the population of a country is one of the most important and interesting subjects which is brought under the discussions of statistical science. It not only involves a consideration of the old facts of ethnological science, but the new facts which the influence of isothermal lines, or lines of equal temperature, demonstrate to be controlling in governing and directing mankind on the continents.

With us in America, with our extended domain, varied climate and favorable topography, the subject will ever be a source of fruitful investigation. Heretofore, the movement of population in North America has been from east to west, in conformity with the general law of human migration. There is still another movement to which people conform as they grow populous. This is a movement at right angles north and south from the axis, or line of equal temperature, of the zodiac of empire. Having reached the Pacific coast and completed the circuit of the globe, our people will henceforth be governed more by the second movement than by the first. They will struggle to condense and fortify the centre, in obedience to the active and passive principles of supply and demand, as they constantly yield to this second movement north and south to exchange their products between zones. The first movement of man on the earth is the movement of population from the east

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to the west. It is the movement of exploration, conquest and dominion. Under the influence of this movement, man bridges the rivers, scales the mountains, and disputes with the red man and the buffalo the empire over nature.

The movement north and south at right angles to the axis of the zodiac of empire, is the movement that produces power, civilization, wealth and refinement. Up to the year 1840, in the progress whereby twenty-six States and four Territories were established and peopled, a solid strip of twenty-five miles in depth, and reaching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, was added annually along the frontier of the Union. Since 1840, the centre of population has moved westward in the following order as indicated by the figures below:

YEAR. LAT. LONG. APPROXIMATE DESCRIPTION.
1840 — 39 deg. 02 m. 80 deg. 18 m. 22 miles south of Clarksburg, W. Va.
1850 — 38 " 59 " 81 " 90 " 25 miles S. E. of Parkersburg, W. Va.
1860 — 39 " 03 " 82 " 50 " 20 miles south of Chillicothe, Ohio.
1870 — 39 " 15 " 83 " 39 " 5 miles west of Hillsboro, Ohio, or 48 miles east by north of Cincinnati.

The above calculation is deduced from those of Professor Hilgard, of the Coast Survey Department, and may be accepted as correct. It shows that the centre of population moved westward at the rate of fifty-five, eighty-two and forty-six miles, respectively, during the three past decades. At this rate of advancement, Professor Hilgard assumes that in the year 2000, the centre of population, in its westward movement, "will still be lingering in Illinois." This might possibly be true if there was no Pacific Ocean, and a continent existed instead, with favorable advantages for human abode and the growth of civilization. This not being the case, the Professor's assumption cannot be supported by any existing or inferential evidence.

To assume his statement to be correct, we must assume that the pioneer army of the American people will move on, west of San Francisco, in regular order, as heretofore, until the year 2000, thus enabling the centre of population, in the meantime, to follow on with slow-paced march. This being utterly out of the question, we can assure Professor Hilgard that the centre of population on this continent, in its western movement, will reach the Mississippi River much sooner than the time he has fixed for it — yes, in less than half the time. But we must not lose sight of the fact, while considering this subject, that the movement

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of the centre of population will be arrested — that it will make a lodgment somewhere in the grand Valley of the Mississippi. It must do so; and it is safe to assume that the centre of population will never go west of the Mississippi River; in no event will it pass beyond the State of Misssouri. In evidence of this we have only to look at a map of our country to ascertain where the dense population will grow up on our soil. Whoever examines the map must conclude that the most populous part of North America will be that portion lying between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, including the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is reasonable to assume, from the character of their resources, that those States, in time, will contain about one-eighth of the population of the entire country. Missouri can and will sustain a greater number of human beings than either one of those States, but the adjacent States west of the Mississippi River will not attain near so dense a population. The pastoral and mountainous regions of our domain will never support a very dense population, and when we consider that the more important productive energies of the country are along and adjacent to our internal river system, we must conclude that there is the place for the centre of human power on the continent, and that it can never be removed from those sources and advantages, so favorable to man's uses and interests. Not only so, but even now the growth of population is more rapid in those States of the West, where the natural resources are the greatest, as the following table will show:
ANALYSIS OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
According to the Following Geographical Classification of the States and Territories.
NORTH ATLANTIC STATES.
STATES. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
Maine. 298,269 399,455 501,793 583,169 628,279 626,915
New Hampshire. 244,022 269,328 284,574 317,976 326,073 318,300
Vermont. 235,749 280,652 291,848 314,120 315,098 330,551
Massachusetts. 523,159 610,408 737,699 994,514 1,231,066 1,457,351
Rhode Island. 83,015 97,199 108,830 147,545 174,620 217,353
Connecticut. 275,102 297,675 309,978 370,792 460,147 537,454
  1,659,316 1,954,717 2,234,722 2,728,116 3,135,283 3,487,924
Per cent. of increase for each decade: 1820-30, 14.80; 1830-40, 14.32; 1840-50, 22.08; 1850-60, 14.96; 1860-70, 11.56.

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ANALYSIS OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
(Continued.)
CENTRAL ATLANTIC STATES.
STATES. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
New York. 1,372,111 1,918,608 2,428,921 3,097,394 3,880,735 4,382,757
New Jersey. 277,426 320,823 373,306 489,555 672,035 906,096
Pennsylvania. 1,049,507 1,348,233 1,724,033 2,311,786 2,906,215 3,521,791
Delaware. 72,749 76,748 78,085 91,532 112,216 125,015
Maryland. 407,350 447,040 470,019 583,834 687,049 780,894
Distr't Columbia 33,039 39,834 43,712 1,421,661 1,596,318 1,667,177
Virginia & W. Va. 1,005,129 1,211,405 1,239,797 51,687 75,088 131,700
  4,217,311 5,362,691 6,357,873 8,046,649 9,932,568 11,515,430
Per cent. of increase for each decade: 1820-'30, 27.13; 1830-'40, 18.67; 1840-'50, 26.56; 1850-'60, 23.42; 1860-'70, 15.94.
SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES.
STATES. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
North Carolina. 638,829 737,987 753,419 869,039 992,622 1,071,606
South Carolina. 502,741 581,185 594,398 668,507 703,708 705,606
Georgia. 340,983 516,823 691,392 906,185 1,057,283 1,184,109
Florida. 34,730 54,477 87,445 140,424 187,748
  1,482,552 1,870,725 2,093,686 2,531,176 2,894,040 3,148,824
Per cent. of increase for each decade: 1820-'30, 26.18; 1830-'40, 11.92; 1840-'50, 20.90; 1850-'60, 18.21; 1860-'70, 8.80.
  1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
Totals. 7,359,180 9,188,133 10,686,281 13,305,941 15,961,891 18,152,180
Total per cent. of increase for each decade: 1820-'30, 24.85; 1830-'40, 16.30; 1840-'50, 20.00; 1860-'70, 13.32.
LOCATION OF POPULATION.
Year. Whole Population. Population of Atlantic Slope. Per cent. of Whole. Population of Miss. Valley and Pacific States. Per cent. of Whole. Population of the Upper Miss. Valley States. Per cent. of Whole.
1820 9,639,190 7,359,180 76.66 2/3 2,249,418 23.33 1/3 1,860,107 19.30
1830 12,866,020 9,188,133 71.16 2/3 3,712,457 28.83 1/3 3,010,736 23.70
1840 17,069,453 10,686,281 62.58 6,392,684 37.50 5,058,154 29.62 1/2
1850 23,191,876 13,305,941 57.12 1/2 9,937,622 42.87 1/2 7,598,614 32.75
1860 31,443,321 15,961,891 50.50 15,595,430 49.50 11,792,814 37.50
1870 38,549,987 18,152,824 47.10 20,397,807 52.90 16,028,291 41.60

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ANALYSIS OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
(Continued.)
PROBABLE FUTURE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
Year. Whole Population. Population Atlantic Slope. Per cent. of Whole. Population of Miss. Valley and Pacific States. Per cent. of Whole. Population of the Upper Miss. Valley States. Per cent of Whole.
1880 50,885,983 20,990,470 41.25 29,895,513 58.75 23,407,552 46
1890 67,169,497 23,602,248 35.25 43,567,249 64.75 33,920,596 50.50
1900 88,663,736 26,044,873 29.37 1/2 62,618,863 70.62 1/3 48,765,055 55
1910 107,036,130 26,153,490 23.50 81,153,490 76.50 63,579,461 59.40

Of this entire population, there is not an average of fourteen to the square mile of our vast domain, exclusive of Alaska.

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATES.
STATES. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
Ohio. 581,295 937,903 1,519,467 1,980,329 2,339,511 2,665,151
Michigan. 8,765 31,693 212,267 397,654 749,113 1,184,050
Kentucky. 564,135 687,917 779,828 982,405 1,155,684 1,321,011
Indiana. 147,178 343,031 685,866 988,416 1,350,428 1,680,637
Illinois. 55,161 157,445 476,183 851,470 1,711,951 2,539,891
Iowa. 43,112 192,214 674,913 1,191,792
Wisconsin. 30,945 305,391 775,881 1,054,670
Tennessee. 422,761 681,904 829,210 1,002,717 1,109 801 1,258 520
Missouri. 66,557 140,455 383,702 682,044 1,182,012 1,721,295
Arkansas. 14,255 30,388 97,574 209,897 435,450 484,167
Minnesota. 6,077 172,023 439,706
Kansas. 107,209 364,398
Nebraska. 28,841 122,993
  1,860,107 3,010,736 5,058,154 7,598,614 11,792,841 16,028,291
Per cent. of increase for each decade: 1820-30, 61.86; 1830-40, 68.00; 1840-50, 50.20; 1850-60, 55.20; 1860-70, 37.61.
GULF STATES.
STATES. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
Alabama. 127,901 209,527 590,756 771,623 964,201 996,992
Mississippi. 75,448 136,621 375,651 606,526 791,305 827,822
Louisiana. 152,923 215,739 324,411 517,662 708,002 726,915
Texas. 212,592 604,215 812,996
  365,272 661,887 1,290,818 2,108,503 3,067,725 3,364,825
Total per cent. of increase for each decade: 1820-30, 85.63; 1830-40, 95.43; 1840-50, 63.35; 1850-60, 45.50; 1860-70, 9.68.

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ANALYSIS OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
(Continued.)
  1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
Totals. 2,249,418 3,712,457 6,392,684 9,937,622 15,595,403 20,397,807
Total per cent. of increase for each decade: 1820-30, 65.04; 1830-40, 72.19; 1840-50, 55.44; 1850-60, 56.93; 1860-70, 30.79.
PACIFIC STATES AND TERRITORIES.
STATES. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870.
California. 92,597 379,994 560,247
Nevada. 6,857 42,491
Oregon. 13,294 52,465 90,923
Territories. 33,039 39,834 43,712 124,614 295,577 311,030
  33,039 39,834 43,712 230,505 734,893 1,004,691
Per cent. of increase for each decade: 1850-60, 218.82; 1860-70, 36.71.

It will be seen that in 1820 the population of the Atlantic slope was 76 66/100 per cent. of the whole, leaving 23 33/100 to the Mississippi Valley. By the census returns of 1870, which comprise a growth of fifty years, the Atlantic slope has 47 10/100 per cent., and the Mississippi and the country west of it 52 90/100 per cent. of the whole population of the country. Assuming that the past furnishes a correct basis for estimating the future growth of our population, it will require but forty years more — or from 1870 to 1910 — to reverse the relative proportion of the whole population of the country, thus giving to the Valley States 76 50/100 per cent., and the Atlantic slope 23 50/100 per cent of the whole population.

But let us pursue the inquiry a little further, and, if possible, ascertain what the future growth of our population is likely to be.

We have the same temperate climate, in the central and most fertile portion of the Mississippi Valley, as that of China; and, with superior resources, it is not unreasonable to assume that a population as numerous as that of China can easily find subsistence in this Valley. That great Empire proper has an area of 1,297,999 square miles; the Mississippi Valley has an area 2,455,000, which almost doubles the area of the Celestial Empire. The most populous portion of China has an average of 850 inhabitants to the square mile; its entire population averages 268 to the square mile. An average of 268 to the square mile

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would give the Mississippi Valley a population of about 650,000,000. Dividing the whole country into five equal parts, there will be found in the Valley of the Mississippi three parts, and the two slopes will contain one part each. This will give to each slope about 220,000,000, and to the present area of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, about 1,190,000,000 inhabitants — almost equal to the entire population of the earth at the present time. But long before we shall reach this number, our Constitution will over-arch the entire continent, by which our numbers will be increased at least one-third more than our present area would contain. "We double our numbers once in every twenty-five years, and must continue to do so until the action of the prolific principle in man shall be checked by the same cause which checks it in every race of animals — the stint of food. This cannot happen with us until every acre of our generous soil shall be put into requisition" — until the product of more than 3,000,000,000 of acres shall he insufficient to fill the mouths which feed upon them. If we double our numbers every twenty-five years, we shall have a population in a century and a quarter of 1,248,000,000, or more than the present population of the globe. A century is but a point in the age of a nation, the life of an individual often spans it; and the child is now born that will see this nation with a population of more than 600,000,000. 400,000,000 will reside in the Great Valley, 70,000,000 on the Atlantic slope, and 130,000,000 on the high table lands of the West and the Pacific slope.

Then it must be evident that somewhere in this great valley, central to its 600,000,000 inhabitants and central to the productive energies of the continent, must grow up the future great city of the world.

But let us go a little deeper into the inquiry. Having pointed out the advantages which nature, by an inscrutable wisdom, has organized, with sufficient strength to insure, under a well-directed civilization, the production on our continent of the future great city of the world, it is a part of the argument to point out some of the essential wants and conditions which must control the use of products in civilized life, in order to make them subserve the highest use in supplying the wants of man.

The first essential wants of any productive people are markets whereat to dispose of their surplus products, mechanical or agricultural, at profitable prices. Markets are a want of population in all lands. Mr. Seaman says, in the first series of his valuable work on the progress of nations, that "population alone adds value to lands and property of every kind, and is therefore one of the principal sources and causes of

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wealth." And why is it so? Simply because population creates a market by causing a demand for property and products; by enhancing the price and exchangeable value of the products of the toiler. Population thus creates markets, and markets operate to enhance prices and to increase wealth, industry and production. Markets are, therefore, among the principal causes and sources of value, and of wealth and stimulants of industry. The farmer, mechanic, miner and manufacturer are all beneficial to each other, for the reason that each wants the products of every other in exchange for his own, and thus each creates a market for the products of all the others, and thereby enhances prices and stimulates their industry. Hence the advantage to the farmer of increasing mechanical, manufacturing and mining industry, as far as practicable, in his own country, in order to create a market for his products and to encourage domestic commerce.

Agricultural products alone cannot furnish the materials of an active commerce, and two nations almost exclusively agricultural have seldom much intercourse with each other. Tyre, Carthage and Athens, in ancient, and Venice, Florence, Genoa and Amsterdam, in modern times, were the greatest of commercial cities at their respective eras, as Great Britain is now, because they were also in advance of all other nations in the mechanic arts and manufactures, and their commerce was based on their mechanical and manufacturing industry, which furnished the principal subject-matter for making exchanges and carrying on commerce with foreign nations. Here it is that the people of this great Valley must look for the proper and highest uses of the resources and materials which nature has so bountifully bestowed. Capital and skill must be made to supply the ever-increasing demand of this growing people, and thus it will become the mightiest in art, the most bountiful in the field, and the richest in commerce; "in peace more puissant than army or navy for the conquest of the world." Stimulated to loftier endeavors, each citizen, yielding to irresistible attraction, will seek a new life in the great national family.

But it is argued by some that a city cannot be successful in the pursuit of both commercial and manufacturing interests. This cannot be maintained as a correct position. There never has been any war between commerce and the mechanic arts. There can be none. They are the twin offspring of industry and intelligence, and alike dependent on each other for prosperity. The false conceptions of the relations they hold to each other, and the condition of prosperity they impose upon a city, come from a failure to perceive their true interests. The

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principles of economy regulate them both, and it is seldom that a city combines facilities for distribution with advantages for the collection of raw material for manufacturing, in the same degree as St. Louis.

It is because cities have rarely combined these advantages, that many have thought that economic considerations forbid the union of commerce and manufactures in the same city. This is a grave mistake; for, in the true growth to which our century points, commerce and manufactures go hand-in-hand. Transportation, that important element in the cost of everything that man consumes, and the ease with which people change their residence or communicate with each other, are bringing about the most wonderful results, and reconstructing our theories of profitable manufacturing. From this change the benefits are all accruing to St. Louis. Situated as she is, in the centre of the richest food-producing section in the world, with unlimited coal for power, and unequaled facilities for distribution, she is continually attracting to her limits, one after another of the leading manufacturing industries; and these are each being constantly augmented. The incubus of slavery being gone forever, and labor elevated to its true dignity, Missouri as a State, and St. Louis as a city, move onward with a reinvigorated stride. For the supremacy which some point in the great Valley must inevitably attain, there are rival claimants — as there should be. The Atlantic seaboard, with its facilities, which ruled undisputed in an earlier day, stoutly contests this westward movement of power, even while admitting the cogency of the facts which bear upon the question.

New York is to-day the leading city, yet many of her institutions live now in the atmosphere of the past. The hard, sharp requirements of the day, which demand inexorably that the cost of every necessity and of every luxury of life shall be reduced to the lowest possible point, are rapidly working out their own solution, as inevitably as rivers find an outlet, whatever barriers are interposed. The centre of manufacturing industry will soon he found at St. Louis, in the heart of the continent, St. Louis itself that heart, whose pulsations receive and drive out the rich currents of exchanging commerce.

New York last year built fewer houses than St. Louis, and her aggregate of trade showed a falling off, while here the increase is decided and continuous. Of the cities of the Valley, it is not well to seek to disparage the claims of any one. Each, in her appropriate sphere, has advantages which no other possesses in an equal degree; yet, in the face of acknowledged facts, they are coming to concede the

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palm to St. Louis. It is but a few years since Cincinnati won prominence as a pork-packing city. Even to-day, ten years after the loss of the foremost place in that industry, her name seems indissolubly connected with that trade. Placed in the centre of a rich outlying country, she will always control a lucrative and steady trade; yet she has never been, and can never be, a city with a continental trade.

Chicago, the pampered child of a rich and indulgent East, may boast her railways and enviable position for freighting on our inland seas; and yet the fact remains that she draws trade and distributes supplies to a section which lies almost entirely on her west and north, and is included in an angle which is but little more than the one-fourth of a great circle.

The rivals of St. Louis seem each to have specialties in which they excel, and for which they are noted. She alone represents impartially each branch of industry and of commerce, and each seems to flourish as a native and not as an exotic. Though commonly rated as an inland city, the time is not distant when, with unobstructed navigation at the mouth of the Mississippi, ocean steamers will receive and discharge their cargoes at her levee. In that day, which is nearer than many imagine, the ocean steamer will not only be the vehicle of trade between St. Louis and Europe, but will light the path across the Gulf of Mexico to the no less tempting markets of Central and South America.

There is another principle that enters into the account, which may be termed an involuntary or fortuitous cause. It is the highest form of incidental action in commerce. Often commerce, as if by the control of an unknown law, will change from one city to another: impoverish the one and give vitality and strength to the other. These changes, at first thought, seem as inexplicable as the eddy movements of the water in the stream. They are changes that usually have their origin in the action of a single man in the timely use of money; sometimes by a distant cause; sometimes by legislation, but never does commerce forsake an available point for the development of mechanical industry. Looking at St. Louis, with her location for internal commerce and mechanical industry without a parallel on the earth, we can safely say that she is destined to unite in one great interest, a system of commerce and manufacturing that will surpass in wealth and skill that of old England. It is true, her iron furnaces and glass factories will be built some distance outside of her corporate limits, but the wealth and the labor will be hers, and beneath her sway will be united side by side, in the most profitable relations and on the largest scale, the producer and

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consumer. They, actuated by a universal amity, will seek the most liberal compensation, attain the highest skill, aspire to a better manhood, and learn to do good. The manufacturing of wood into its various uses will also form a very important part of the industry of this city, as will also the manufacturing of fabrics of various kinds. Thus, with a great system of manufacturing industry, compelling the coal, the iron, the wood and the sand to serve the purposes and wants of the commercial interests, as well as to enter into all channels through which capital flows and which industry serves, both wealth and population will be developed and concentrated in the highest degree. The time fixed for the future great city of the world to grow up, the most consummate fruit of man's civilization, is within one hundred years from our date.

Let us look still deeper into this matter, and consider the new agencies and influences that tend in modern times, with such irresistible force, to concentrate mankind in the great interior cities of the continents. The greatest of these agencies compels a more rapid development of the internal commerce of modern nations than in past times, and the consequent organization and concentration of human power in the interior cities.

There is not a living man whose experience, if he has noted the facts written in the records of his own land, does not teach him of the continental growth and the consequent interior development of the country, in support of the argument under consideration. So numerous and convincing are the facts, that the constant development of the internal trade of our continent is rapidly reversing the proportion of our domestic to our foreign commerce. That the immense growth of our domestic and internal commerce will guide and control our industry, and establish and organize human power and civilization in our own land in conformity to the most economic principles of production — supply and demand — there is no manner of doubt. This done, our foreign commerce will only be auxiliary to the enjoyments of our people, and contribute to the development of cosmopolitan ideas among the world's inhabitants, more than to the creation of wealth among the nations.

It may he asked, to what cause must this change in the relative value of foreign and domestic commerce, and the influence of each upon civilized man, be referred? The answer is, that steam is the cause. It is the most wonderful artificial agency to advance public and private wants that man has yet made subservient to his will. It almost serves his entire mechanical wants.

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We then again repeat that it is this agency that is rapidly transforming the ancient order of the world's industry and commerce to a new application and a new power. It will compel the cities of the interior, in the future, to outgrow, for all time, the coast cities. It is this agency, more than all other mechanical agencies, that has lifted mankind from the vassal empires of Cyrus, the Caesars and Charlemagne, to the great empires of our own time. It is this agency that will forever develop domestic commerce to a vastly greater value than that of foreign commerce, and, consequently, is the most powerful agency to produce the great city of the future that the genius of man has made subservient to his wants.

But let us not be understood as desirous of undervaluing foreign trade. We hope and believe that its greatest blessings and triumphs are yet to come. Many of the articles which it brings to us add much to our substantial comfort, such as woolen and cotton goods, sugar and molasses; and others, such as iron and steel, with most of their manufactures, give much aid to our advancing arts. But if these articles were the products of domestic industry — if they were produced in the factories of Lowell and Dayton, on the plantations of Louisiana, and in the furnaces, forges and workshops of Pennsylvania and Missouri — why would not the dealing in them have the same tendency to enrich as now that they are brought from distant countries?

A disposition to attribute the rapid increase of wealth in commercial nations mainly to foreign commerce, is not peculiar to our nation or our time, for we find it combated as a popular error by distinguished writers on political economy. Mr. Hume, in his essay on commerce, maintains that the only way in which foreign commerce tends to enrich a country, is by its presenting tempting articles of luxury, and thereby stimulating the industry of those in whom a desire to purchase is thus excited — the augmented industry of the nation being the only gain.

Dr. Chalmers says: "Foreign trade is not the creator of any economic interest; it is but the officiating minister of our enjoyments. Should we consent to forego those enjoyments, then, at the bidding of our will, the whole strength at present embarked in the service of procuring them would be transferred to other services — to the extension of home trade; to the enlargement of our national establishments; to the service of defense, or conquest, or scientific research, or Christian philanthropy." Speaking of the foolish purpose of Bonaparte to cripple Britain by destroying her foreign trade, and its utter failure, he says: "The truth is, that the extinction of foreign trade in one quarter was almost

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immediately followed up either by the extension of it in another quarter, or by the extension of the home trade. Even had every outlet abroad been obstructed, then, instead of a transference from one foreign market to another, there would just be a universal reflux toward a home market that would be extended in precise proportion with every successive abridgment which took place in our external commerce." If these principles are true — and we believe they are in accordance with those of every eminent writer on political economy, and if they are important in their application to the British Isles — small in territory, with extensive districts of barren land, surrounded by navigable waters, rich in good harbors, and presenting numerous natural obstacles to constructions for the promotion of internal commerce; and, moreover, placed at the door of the richest nations of the world — with how much greater force do they apply to our country, having a territory twenty times as large, unrivaled in natural means of inter-communication, with few obstacles to their indefinite multiplication by the hand of man; a fertility of soil not equaled by the whole world; growing within its boundaries nearly all the productions of all the climes of the earth, and situated three thousand miles from her nearest commercial neighbor.

Will it be said that, admitting the chief agency in building up great cities to belong to internal industry and trade, it remains to be proved that New York and the other great Atlantic cities will feel less of the beneficial effects of this agency than St. Louis and her Western sisters? It does not appear to us difficult to sustain, by facts and reason, the superior claims in this respect of our western towns. It should be home in mind that the North American Valley embraces the climate, soils, and minerals usually found distributed among many nations. From the northern shores of the upper lakes, and the highest navigable points of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, to the Gulf of Mexico, nearly all the agricultural articles which contribute to the enjoyment of civilized man are now, or may be, produced to supply any demand. The North will send to the South grain, flour, provisions, including the delicate fish of the lakes, and the fruits of a temperate clime, in exchange for the sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, and the fruits of the warm South. These are but a few of the articles, the produce of the soil, which will be the subjects of commerce in this Valley. Of mineral productions, which, at no distant day, will tend to swell the tide of internal commerce, it will suffice to mention coal, iron, salt, lead, lime, and marble. Will Boston, or New York, or Baltimore, or New Orleans, be the point selected for the interchange of these products?

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Or shall we choose more convenient central points on rivers and lakes for the theatres of these exchanges?

It is imagined by some that the destiny of this Valley has fixed it down to the almost exclusive pursuit of agriculture; ignorant that, as a general rule in all ages of the world, and in all countries, the mouths go to the food, and not the food to the mouths. Dr. Chalmers says: "The bulkiness of food forms one of those forces in the economic machine which tends to equalize the population of every land with the products of its own agriculture. It does not restrain disproportion and excess in all cases; but in every large State it will be found that wherever an excess obtains, it forms but a very small fraction of the whole population. Each trade must have an agricultural basis to rest upon; for, in every process of industry, the first and greatest necessity is that the workmen shall be fed." Again: "Generally speaking, the excrescent (the population over and above that which the country can feed) bears a very minute proportion to the natural population of the country; and almost nowhere does the commerce of a nation overleap, but by a very little way, the basis of its own agriculture." The Atlantic States, and particularly those of New England, cannot claim that they are to become the seats of the manufactures with which the West is to be supplied; that mechanics and artisans and manufacturers are not to select for their place of business the region in which the means of living are most abundant, and their manufactured articles in greatest demand, but the section which is most deficient in those means, and to which their food and fuel must, during their lives, be transported hundreds of miles, and the products of their labor be sent back the same long road for a market.

Such a claim is neither sanctioned by reason, authority nor experience. The mere statement exhibits it as unreasonable. Dr. Chalmers maintains that the "excrescent" population could not, in Britain even, with a free trade in breadstuff's, exceed one-tenth of all the inhabitants; and Britain, be it remembered, is nearer the granaries of the Baltic than is New England to the food-exporting portions of our Valley, and she has also greatly the advantage in the diminished expenses of transportation. But the Eastern manufacturing States have already nearly, if not quite, attained to the maximum ratio of excrescent population, and cannot, therefore, greatly augment their manufactures without a corresponding increase in agricultural production.

Most countries distinguished for manufactures have laid the foundation in a highly improved agriculture. England, the north of France

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and Belgium have a more productive husbandry than any other region of the same extent. In these same countries are also to be found the most efficient and extensive manufacturing establishments of the whole world; and it is not to be doubted that the abundance of food was one of the chief causes of setting them in motion. How is it that a like cause operating here will not produce a like effect? Have we not, in addition to our prolific agriculture, as many and as great natural aids for manufacturing as any other country? The water-power of Missouri alone is greater than that of New England; besides, there are immense facilities in the States of Kentucky, Minnesota and Ohio, as well as valuable advantages possessed in all the Valley States. But to these water-powers can be added the immeasurable power of steam in developing manufacturing industry in our own as well as other States of this Valley.

If our readers are satisfied that domestic or internal trade must have the chief agency in building up our great American cities, and that the internal trade of the great Western Valley will be mainly concentrated in the cities situated within its bosom, it becomes an interesting subject of inquiry how our leading interior city will at some distant period, say one hundred years, become the great city of the world, and gather to itself the preponderance of the industry and trade of the continent.

But our interior cities will not depend for their development altogether on internal trade. They will partake, in some degree, with their Atlantic and Pacific sisters, of foreign commerce also; and if, as some seem to suppose, the profits of commerce increase with the distance at which it is carried on, and the difficulties which nature has thrown in its way, the western towns will have the same advantage over their eastern rivals in foreign commerce, which some claim for the latter over the former in our domestic trade. St. Louis and her lake rivals may use the out-ports of New Orleans and New York, as Paris and Vienna use those of Havre and Trieste; and it will surely one day come to pass that steamers from Europe will enter our great lakes and be seen booming up the Mississippi.

To add strength and conclusiveness to the above facts and deductions, do our readers ask for examples? They are at hand. The first city of which we have any record is Nineveh, situated on the Tigris, not less than seven hundred miles from its mouth. Babylon, built not long after, was also situated far in the interior, on the river Euphrates. Most of the great cities of antiquity, some of which were of immense extent, were situated in the interior, and chiefly in the valleys of large

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rivers meandering through rich alluvial territories. Such were Thebes, Memphis, Ptolemais and Rome.

But when we consider that our position in vindication of the superior growth of interior cities over outports is sustained by the civilization of the ancient nations, as found in the examples of their great interior cities, and that, too, when water facilities ruled the commerce of the world, must not all opposing argument in favor of seaboard cities be of naught when we bring to the discussion the power and use of steam, the railway system, and the labor-saving and labor-increasing inventions which the arts afford? Comprehending this mighty reversal in the order and means of industrial civilization, must we not say with Horace Greeley, that "salt water is about played out"?

Of cities now known as leading centres of commerce, a large majority have been built almost exclusively by domestic trade. What country possesses so many great cities as China — a country, until lately, nearly destitute of foreign commerce?

There are now in the world more than three hundred cities containing a population of fifty thousand and upwards; of these more than two-thirds are interior cities, containing a population vastly greater than belongs to the outport cities. It should, however, be kept in mind that many of the great seaports have been built, and are now sustained, mainly by the trade of the nations respectively in which they are situated. Even London, the greatest mart in the world, is believed to derive much the greater part of the support of its vast population from its trade with the United Kingdom. At the present time not one-fifteenth of the business of New York City is based upon foreign commerce, but is sustained by the trade growing out of our home industry.

Though the argument is not exhaustive, it is conclusive. It is founded in the all-directing under life-currents of human existence upon this planet, and from those principles there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning away. Man's home is upon the land; he builds his master-works upon its sure foundations. It is upon the land that he invents, contrives, plans and achieves his mightiest deeds. He spreads his sails upon the seas, and battles with the tempest and the storm; and amid the sublimities of the ocean he travels unknown paths in search of fame. The ephemeral waves obliterate the traces of his victories with the passing moments; upon the land, time alone can efface his works.

The organization of society as one whole is yet too imperfect to call for the use of one all-directing head and one central moving heart, and

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it will only be the ultimate, the final great city, that will fully unite in itself the functions analogous to those of the human head and heart, in relation to the whole family of man.

The final triumph of the great city will also carry with it a final organization of the world's civilization — a perfect unity of the entire interests of the advanced nations of the earth. The higher functions of intellectual life will be so exerted as to subordinate the passions and sentiments of men to principles of harmonious organization and unity, thus establishing a perfect system of society and government by means of harmony between the active and passive relations — between the individuals and the community.

Assuming these things to be true, the prophecy of the great city is also a prophecy of the final great centre of industrial and commercial life, and the centre of this great commercial power will also carry with it the centre of the moral and intellectual power. One hundred years, at our previous rate of increase, will give more than four duplications, and more than six hundred million of people, to the present area of our country. But, allowing twenty-five years for a duplication, and four duplications, we should have six hundred million, at the close of one hundred years. Of these, not less than four hundred million will inhabit the interior plain and the region west of it; and not over two hundred million will inhabit the margin east of the Appalachian chain of mountains. The productions of these four hundred millions, intended for exchange with each other, will meet at the most convenient point central to the place of the growth or manufacture of their products. Where, then, let us inquire again, is most likely to be the centre of the most ample and best facilities for the exchange, in the future, of the commodities of that great people? Where will that point be? Which of the four cities we have under consideration is best suited for this great purpose? Must it not be St. Louis, commanding, as she will, the greatest railway and river communication? It cannot be a lake city, for neither of them can command, with so great advantage, the great surplus products of the country. It cannot be Cincinnati, for she is not so well situated in the centre of the productive power of the continent. It cannot be New Orleans; higher freights upon the products of the country will be against her. It cannot be New York nor San Francisco, for all our six fundamental facts stand against them, and unerringly point to the central plain of the continent, where the six hundred million of people will prefer to transact business.

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The late Dr. Scott of Toledo, by far the most able writer on the cities of this country, under date of February 16, 1873, and singularly in his last letter to the author, uses the following significant language, which he desired to be permanently recorded, for future reference:

"I shall not live to see the final triumph of the great city of the future, in our great interior plain, but you may. Please save the opinion I now express, that it will be on a lake border — probably at or near the west end of Lake Erie. I expect the census of 1880 will show the growth of the three cities — Cleveland, Detroit and Toledo — in advance of that of Chicago. Up to this time, Chicago has shot ahead, and is now more populous than the three cities. After 1880, I expect the rivalry will be between the three Lake Erie cities. It is likely that St. Louis will grow faster than you have ventured to foretell — perhaps faster than you have anticipated. But, in my opinion, its location is too far south and west to become the best point for the convergence, interior and exterior, of our country."

Because of a deep respect for Dr. Scott, his superior abilities, great power of mental forecast, and high moral character, his opinion is cheerfully recorded, with the following reply:

Dr. Scott's views upon the future of the cities of this country seems, without a question of doubt, to have been given shape by the contest between slavery and freedom on this continent, and not even changed after the abolition of slavery.

Previous to the civil war, no man seemed to consider the material progress of this country from any other stand-point than that of the eastward and westward movement of commerce and population. A new lesson is presented for the study of our entire population. The abolition of slavery, and the plain and simple demands of commerce, are now compelling a new — a north and south movement of commerce and population on this continent, which is rapidly superseding and destined to supplant the eastward and westward movement. Dr. Scott did not take into the account of the discussion on the future great city this new movement, and therefore failed to comprehend the new influences destined to be exerted upon the growth of our cities. Assuming it to be true, and no reasonable man can disprove it, that the north and south movement of commerce and population on this continent will supplant, or at least become greater than the movement east and west, it must be conceded that the opinion of Dr. Scott is wrong in every particular; that St. Louis has the vantage ground by her location, and must grow to be the great city of this continent, and "become the best point for the convergence, interior and exterior, of our country."

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We have seen that the human race, with all its freight of commerce, its barbarism and civilization, its arms and arts, through pestilence and prosperity, across seas and over continents, like one mighty caravan, has been moving forward since creation's dawn, from the east to the west, with sword and cross, helmet and distaff, to the conquest of the world; and, like a mighty army, leaving weakness behind and organizing power in the advance. Hence, we can easily realize that the same inevitable cause that wrested human power from the cities of the ancients and vested it for a time in the city of the Caesars, that moved it thence to the city of London, will, in time, cross the Atlantic Ocean and be organized and represented in the future great city of the world, which is destined to grow up on the American continent; and that this power, wealth and wisdom that once ruled in Troy, Athens, Carthage and Rome, and are now represented by the city of London — the precursor of the final great city — will, in less than one hundred years, find a resting-place in North America, and culminate in the future great city which is destined to grow up in the central plain of the continent, and upon the great Mississippi River, where the city of St. Louis now stands.

I know there are those who assume that New York is to be the successor of London, and even surpass in population and commercial supremacy that great city of the trans-Atlantic shore, before the position of the final great city is fixed. That is not possible. We have only to comprehend the new character of our national industry, and the diversity of interests which it and our rapidly increasing system of railways are establishing, to know that it is impossible. The city of New York will not, in the future, control the same proportionate share of foreign and domestic commerce of the country that she heretofore has. New Orleans and San Francisco will take some of the present valued trade, and together with other points which will soon partake of the outport commerce, the trade to and from our country will be so divided as to prevent New York from becoming the rival, much less the superior, of London, as Mr. Scott has so earnestly contended. Then, in the westward movement of human power to the centre of the world's commerce, from the city of London to the New World, it is not possible for it to find a complete and final resting place in any city of the Atlantic seaboard, but it will be compelled to move forward until, in its complete development, it will be organized and represented in the most favored city in the central plain of the continent. Besides the diffusion of our external commerce through so many channels upon

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our seaboard, so as to prevent its concentration at any one of the seaboard cities, there are elements at work in the interior of the country, which will more surely prevent the city that is to succeed London from growing up on the Atlantic shore of our continent. Every tendency of our national progress is more and more to our continental development — living at home, rather than go abroad to distant markets. There is an inherent principle lurking among all people of great continental nationality and resources, which impresses them stronger with home interests than with external and distant fields of action; and this principle is rapidly infusing itself among the people of these great Valley States; therefore, it is needless to look into the future to see our great cities on either seaboard of our continent, for they are not destined to be there. But most certainly will they grow up in the interior, upon the lakes, the rivers and the Gulf, and among these cities of the interior we are to look for the future great city of the world — that which London now heralds, and which the westward tendency of the world's civilization will, in less than one hundred years, build up as the greatest industrial organism of the human race.

Human power is not only moving westward from the old world, but it is also moving from the Atlantic seaboard westward. But a few facts are necessary to demonstrate the truth of this statement: First, in evidence that human power is moving westward from the old world, we have but to refer to the reports of the State Department at Washington upon our foreign commerce, to learn that our imports are greater than our exports, and our internal commerce far greater than our foreign commerce; and by reference to the various reports on emigration, we learn that thousands are coming from Western Europe yearly, to our shores, while but few of our own people are seeking homes on the other side of the Atlantic. Second, in evidence of the westward movement of human power from the Atlantic States, statistical tables show, in the most conclusive manner, that human power is moving westward; many thousands of new miles of railway are yearly added to the great system of the Mississippi Valley, and at least three-fifths of the number of miles of railways of the entire country are now in this great Valley.

Nor can these facts, in their magnitude and character, be considered of casual concern to the American citizen, for they are the most important in our national progress. They are the irrefutable evidences of the historic and sublime march of the American people, in the course of the star of empire in its majestic career across the continent.

But granting that human power is moving westward on this continent,

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a question arises as to whether, in time, it will be arrested, and make a lodgment somewhere in North America, or whether it will cross the Pacific Ocean to the inferior races of Asia.

To answer this question, we have only to reconsider the vast material resources of North America, and realize that they are far more inviting to capital and skill than any inducements that Asia can offer. This fact is so palpable that it requires no argument, and therefore must settle the question of the arrest of human power in its westward movement on this continent. Nor will it reach, and make a lodgment on, the Pacific slope.

The vast arid and mountainous regions of the western half of the continent, and the unequaled extent of fertile lands on the eastern half, and adjacent to and on either side of the great river, fixes its location inevitably in the central plain of the continent and in the centre of its productive power. And with the development and complete organization of human power in the centre of the productive power of the continent, will most certainly grow up the great city of the future — the great material, social, civil and moral heart of the human race. The raw materials necessary to the artisan and the manufacturer, in the production of whatever ministers to comfort and elegance, are here. The bulkiness of food and raw minerals make it to the interest of the artisan and the manufacturer to locate themselves near the place where those materials grow. It is this interest, constantly operating, which peoples, our Western towns and cities with emigrants from the Eastern States and Europe. When food and raw materials for manufacture are no longer cheaper in the great Valley than in the States of the Atlantic and the nations of Western Europe, then, and not till then, will it cease to be to the interest of artisans and manufacturers to prefer a location in Western towns and cities. This time will probably be about the period when the Mississippi shall flow toward the Arctic regions.

The chief points for the exchange of the varied productions of the Mississippi Valley, will necessarily give employment to the great population. Indeed, the locations of our future great cities have been made with reference to their commercial capabilities. Commerce has laid the foundation on which manufactures have been, to a great extent, instrumental in rearing the superstructure. Together, these departments of labor are destined to build up in this fertile Valley the greatest cities of the world.

It is something to us Americans that the great city — the great all-directing heart of the race — is to grow up in our land. Even to us of

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this generation, a conviction of the final growth of the great marvel of future ages is a thought which we can indulge and enjoy with pride in the present and coming conflicts of this progressive life. As we have already seen, St. Louis is substantially central to the Mississippi Valley, and no city on the continent can lay any just claim to become the future great city, or occupy a central position to so many valuable resources, as she does. She is not only substantially in the centre of the Mississippi Valley, but, allowing her to be nine hundred miles from New York City, she occupies the centre of an area of 2,544,688 square miles, and within a circumference the outer line of which touches Chicago. She occupies the centre of an area of country which, in fertility of soil, coal, iron, timber, stone, water, domestic navigation and railways, cannot be equaled on the globe.

Not only so, but when we consider by what general rules the cities have grown and are now growing on this continent, we must conclude that St. Louis still occupies the most favorable position for greatness and power.

Let us look at this for one moment. Leaving the Atlantic seaboard, we observe that the cities of the continent have been erected within belts or zones; the most central and important of which are

THE CITIES OF THE RIVER ZONE.

This zone embraces the belt of country between the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and the lower end of Long Island Sound, and extending westward to the headwaters of the Republican, Smoky Hill and Arkansas. Within this belt of country is embraced most of the internal and river navigation of the United States, and upon the rivers included within it, now exist the cities of the river zone. They occupy the most favored localities of any cities in the United States.

THE CITIES OF THE LAKE ZONE.

On the north have been founded the cities of the lake zone. They have been built along the line of the lakes, from east to west, to the Upper Mississippi, and form a very important chain of commercial cities, but never can equal in wealth and power the cities of the river zone.

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THE CITIES OF THE GULF ZONE.

On the south have been founded the cities of the Gulf zone. They have been built along and adjacent to the Gulf from east to west, to the Rio Grande. The cities of this zone, though they will never grow so powerful as those in the River and Lake zone, will grow wealthy, and be noted for refinement and social character.

These three zones represent the manner in which the cities of the country grew up under the first movement of civilization across the continent from east to west; but as the Pacific shore has been reached by the pioneer, and the great army of civilization, and neither can go beyond, a new and second movement is now being inaugurated, and new city zones will soon define themselves. They will be:
The Atlantic zone, embracing the cities of the Atlantic coast, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Cape Florida.

The next zone of cities under the new movement of civilization on the continent, will be the zone at the Mississippi Valley, extending from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Within this zone, in time, will exist more great cities than any nation of the earth will have.

Beyond this is the zone of the Pacific. This zone will embrace all the cities of the Pacific Slope.

Intermediately, between the zone of the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific zone, is the mountain and plateau region, the land of religion and conflicting ideas. To this region will belong many cities of splendor and wealth.

Now to the application. Take the city zones under the first or second order of civilization on the continent, and in either case St. Louis possesses supreme advantages over any other city in North America. And especially will her advantages be greater under the new, or second, order of civilization, which will as surely compel all the cities of the Valley to go out at the mouth of the Mississippi to the Gulf, and to the world. Chicago, no doubt, is not ready to accept such a destiny, but no matter, she will. She, too, with Cincinnati and St. Louis, must follow the flow of the waters to the Gulf. This will establish St. Louis as the great continental distributing point, the depot and the entrepot for the great bulk of the commerce of the country.

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The immense accommodation of railroads will, by rapid, cheap and easy communication, draw to great centres from great distances around, and thus the great cities of the world will continue to grow until they reach a magnitude hitherto unknown, and yet, above them all, will St. Louis reap the rich rewards of modern discoveries and inventions, especially as regards steam and all its vast and varied influence.

But let us pass on. Cities, like individuals, have a law of growth that may be said to be constitutional and inherent, and yet the law governing the growth of cities does not seem to be sufficiently understood to furnish a basis for calculating their growth to any considerable time in the future. In the development of a nation and country, new agencies are continually coming into the account of growth and work, either favorable or unfavorable. The growth of cities is somewhat analogous to the pursuits of business men; some move rapidly forward in the accumulation of wealth to the end of life, others only for a time are able to keep even with the world. So, too, in the growth of cities; and thus it is difficult to calculate with exactness their future growth. Cities grow with greater rapidity than nations and States, and much sooner double their population; and, with the constantly increasing tendency of the people to live in cities, we can look with greater certainty to the early triumph of our inland cities over those of the seaboard, for, so surely as the population of the Valley States doubles that of the seaboard States, so surely will their cities be greater. The city of London, now the greatest in the world, having more than three million people, has only doubled its population every thirty years, while New York has doubled every fifteen years. According to Mr. J. W. Scott, London grows at an average annual rate, on a long time, of two per cent., New York at five; Chicago at twelve and one-half; Toledo, twelve; Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo and St. Louis, at the rate of eight per cent. Mr. Scott gives these calculations as approximately true for long periods of time. They may be essentially true in the past, but cannot be relied on for the future; for, as I have already said, the growth of a city is as uncertain as a man's chance in business: he may pass directly on to fortune, or may be kept back by the fluctuations of the markets, or greater hindrances interposed by wars.

Touching the subject of climate, I do not deem it of sufficient bearing upon my theme to enter into a nice discussion of the influence of heat and cold upon man in civilized life, in the north temperate zone of the North American continent. All experience teaches that there is not sufficient variation of the climate throughout the middle belt of our

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country to adversely affect the highest and greatest purposes of American industry and American civilization. The same rewards and the same destiny await all. The densest population of which we have any record, is now, and has been for centuries, on the thirtieth degree of north latitude; and if such can be in China, why may it not be in America?

Again, returning to our first fundamental fact, that human power is moving westward from the city of London, we must calculate that that great city will be succeeded by a rival, one which will grow up in the new world, and that this new city will result in the final organization of human society in one complete whole, and the perfect development and organization of the commerce of the world; — will grow to such magnificent proportions, and be so perfectly organized and controlled in its municipal governmental character, as to constitute the most perfect and greatest city of the world — the all-directing head and heart of the great family of man. The new world is to be its home, and nature and civilization will fix its residence in the central plain of the continent, and in the centre of the productive power of this great Valley, and upon the Mississippi River, and where the city of St. Louis now stands. All arguments point to this one great fact of the future, and with its perfect realization will be attained the highest possibility in the material triumph of mankind.

Let us comprehend the inevitable causes which God and civilization have set to work to produce, in time, this final great city of the world; let us realize that in our own fair land it will grow up; and, with prophetic conception, realize its final coming; let us hail it as the master-work of all art and the home of consummated wisdom, the inheritance of organic liberty, and a city to be controlled by an all-pervading social order that will insure a competency to every member, of the in-gathered families.

Henceforth, St. Louis must be viewed in the light of her future, her mightiness in the empire of the world, her sway in the rule of States and nations. Her destiny is fixed. Like a new-born empire, she is moving forward to conscious greatness, and will soon be the world's magnet of attraction. In her bosom all the extremes of the country are represented, and to her growth all parts of the country contribute. Mighty as are the possibilities of her people, still mightier are the hopes inspired. The city that she now is, is only the germ of the city that she will be, with her ten million souls occupying the vast area of her domain. Her strength will be that of a nation, and, as she grows

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toward maturity, her institutions of learning and philosophy will correspondingly advance. If we but look forward, in imagination, to her consummated destiny, how grand is the conception! We can realize that here will be reared great halls and edifices for art and learning; here will congregate the great men and women of future ages; here will be represented, in the future, some Solon and Hamilton, giving laws for the higher and better government of the people; here will be represented some future great teachers of religion, teaching the ideal and spiritual development of the race, and the higher allegiance of man to the angel-world; here will live some future Plutarch, who will weigh the great men of his age; here some future "Mozart will thrill the strings of a more perfect lyre, and improvise grandest melodies" for the congregated people; here some future "Rembrandt, through his own ideal imagination, will picture for himself more perfect panoramic scenes of nature's lovely landscapes." May we not justly rejoice in the anticipation of the future greatness of the civil, social, industrial, intellectual and moral elements which are destined to form a part of the future great city? And may we not realize that the millions who are yet to be its inhabitants will be a wiser and better people than those of this generation, and who, in more perfect life, will walk these streets, in the city of the future, with a softer tread, and sing music with sweeter tones; be urged on by aspirations of higher aims, rejoice with fuller hearts, and adorn in beauty, with more tender hands, the final great city of the world?

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Biographical Sketches of Eminent Men and Women of St. Louis and Missouri.

General W. T. Sherman.

IT is as a soldier that WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN stands before the world. It is as a soldier that coming history will scan and estimate his services. Those services belong to the whole country, and the time is not distant when he of the cotton fields will make his acknowledgments as warmly as he of the wheat fields, to the man whose restless vigor and rare combinations shortened the agony of the nation when passing through the most stupendous conflict of modern times. It is impracticable in this sketch to give either a review or a narrative of the military record of General Sherman, yet it is quite possible within the space at command to present the man himself, with something more of clearness than purely military biographers aim at. Bred to arms, his ambitions lay in the line of that profession. Devotedly attached to his family, he was not averse in their behalf to entering upon the greater perplexities and uncertainties of civil life. It will at some time be an interesting question, how far that commerce with the world, which in civil life gives so clear an insight into the springs of human action, influenced and shaped the military activities of General Sherman. Certain it is, that his civil pursuits never detracted from his military precision, and there is good ground for the belief that they gave him a far more correct and comprehensive view of the resources and designs of the enemy, and of his own opportunities for overthrowing them. In our great civil war there were elements entering into the calculations of every leader, other than the arithmetical computation of the opposing hosts. There were hatreds and distrusts such as can only exist among people of the same race and the same tongue. There were jealousies of opinion in the council and in the camp, and he was an able leader who could strike rapidly and surely. No other man of our day combines, as does General Sherman, the reflection of the philosopher with the dash and vehemence of the enthusiast. For the performance of a great part during the war, few had had a better preparatory training and none had observed with greater care or accuracy.

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In 1861, he took up the sword that he had laid aside in 1853. Then followed a series of military exploits, for the recording of which a volume would be too meagre. The American people have not, as yet, attempted to estimate these services, though as a partial and appropriate reward, he has been invested with the command of the armies of the United States.

He was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on the 8th of February 1820. His father, Hon. Charles R. Sherman, for some years a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, died when he was nine years of age. At his father's death he became a member of the family of Hon. Thos. Ewing, and at the age of sixteen entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1840 with the sixth rank of his class, and was immediately appointed to a Second-Lieutenancy in the Third Artillery, and served the next year in Florida. In November 1841, he was made a First-Lieutenant, and shortly after was ordered to Fort Moultrie in Charleston harbor; Captain Robert Anderson commanded the company.

In 1843, while on a leave of absence and after a stay at his home in Ohio, he made a trip to St. Louis, arriving here by steamboat. St. Louis was then a city of about forty thousand inhabitants, and his stay covered a period of about two weeks. During this visit he made many warm personal friends, went all over the thriving city, and made up his mind that when free to choose he would locate here.

In 1846, when the Mexican war broke out he was on recruiting detail in Ohio. At his urgent request for orders for active duty, he was sent out to California with Company F of the Third Artillery, instead of being ordered to active duty in Mexico — the position which he most coveted. Leaving New York on the 14th of July 1846, the vessel on which he sailed dropped her anchor in the harbor of Monterey, then the capital of Upper California, on the 26th of January 1847, after a passage around Cape Horn, touching at Rio Janeiro. In the light of the present commerce of the Pacific coast, it is interesting to remember that extraordinary caution was used in approaching the coast, as there was a material difference in the English and Spanish charts and a discrepancy of fifteen miles in longitude. The changes that a few years were to bring would then have seemed one of the wildest and most impossible dreams. The productions were light, the people not homogeneous, and society was disturbed by continuous warlike broils. The settlement that afterward became known as San Francisco had a population of about four hundred.

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The first gold discovered in California by Sutter, passed under Sherman's inspection at the time of the application of Sutter to Governor Mason for a pre-emption of the tract of land on which stood his memorable and never-finished saw-mill. With the circumspection characteristic of army officers as a class, the extent of the deposits were proved by an extended tour of observation to be considerable, before the official report was made to their superiors at Washington. Following the promulgation of the official report, there commenced a wild struggle for fortune, such as the civilized world had never seen — a struggle more beneficent in its results and wider in its influence than any other race for gold that history records. Virtually estopped by his official position from any share in the golden shower about him, he yet used his efforts to promote the interests of the Government, and was in no danger of rusting away at his distant post. His published memoirs, detailing his recollection of this important period, are concise and clear, reproducing before us, without ornament, the California of that date.

In 1850, he returned from California with dispatches for the War Department. After reporting in Washington, he applied for and received a six months' leave of absence. He first visited his mother, then living at Mansfield, Ohio, and then, returning to Washington, was married to Miss Ellen Boyle Ewing, daughter of Hon. Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Interior, on the first day of May 1850. On the death of General Taylor and the inauguration of Mr. Fillmore, Hon. Thomas Ewing was succeeded in the secretaryship by A. H. H. Stewart, and Lieutenant Sherman took charge of the family on the journey to their old home in Lancaster, Ohio.

At this time, his name was on the muster-roll of Company C of the Third Artillery, stationed at Jefferson Barracks, yet, owing to the cholera being here, he was permitted to delay joining his company. Soon after his arrival at Jefferson Barracks, where he reported for duty to Captain and Brevet-Colonel Braxton Bragg, commanding Company C, he received his commission as Captain and Commissary of Subsistence, and was ordered to take post at St. Louis. Here he had an opportunity of renewing the acquaintances of former years, and was soon joined by his family.

In September 1852, he was transferred to New Orleans. About Christmas of that year, Major Turner of St. Louis, laid before him the particulars of a plan for the establishment of a bank in San Francisco, under the title of Lucas, Turner & Co., in which he embraced the

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name of his personal friend, Captain Sherman. James H. Lucas, then banking in St. Louis, soon after laid before him in person the particulars of the California branch bank, and desired him to accept the position of resident and managing partner in San Francisco. The offer was a tempting one, and he applied for and obtained a six months' leave of absence to go to San Francisco and look over the prospect carefully before venturing upon a step so important to himself and family. Having satisfied himself of the advantage of the change, he sent in his resignation, which was accepted to take effect September 6, 1853. On the 20th of the same month, he left New York in a steamer with his family to make his home on the Pacific Slope, and had a safe and rather uneventful trip by way of the Isthmus. On his previous voyage he had suffered shipwreck on the steamship "Lewis," when near the harbor of San Francisco, though fortunately the weather was fair and no lives were lost.

The position of a banker in the years from 1853 to 1857 was no "bed of roses." Nothing short of "eternal vigilance" could secure safety even. That General Sherman so conducted the affairs of the bank of which he had charge as to save it from any of those stunning losses so common where values are rapidly shifting, must be accounted as a fact very much to the credit of his industry and discernment. In a season of wild distrust in 1855, when every other bank in San Francisco was compelled to close its doors, his establishment stood the ordeal of a "run," and demonstrated its ability to pay all its depositors who wanted their money. During the reign of the "Vigilantes" he came near playing a leading part; but a lack of promised co-operation on the part of General Wool, killed his plan, and disgusted him with California politics.

Early in 1857 he notified his St. Louis partners that he thought the discontinuance of the California branch advisable, and they concurring in his opinion, he closed the business, and, with his family, made his way to Lancaster, Ohio. Upon conference with Mr. Lucas and Major Turner, it was decided to open a branch house in New York, and that was done on the 21st day of July 1857, upon the very verge of one of the most memorable financial panics our country has witnessed. In the fall of that year, the business of the parent house in St. Louis and its branch was closed up without loss to patrons, and without material sacrifice on the part of the partners.

In January of 1858, Sherman made another trip to California to expedite the closing up of unsettled affairs there. He returned soon

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after, and reached his old home in Lancaster, Ohio, on the 28th of July 1858.

He was now a civilian, out of business, with no brilliant prospect before him, and the necessity of doing something was urgent. Several opportunities were presented, but none of them seemed free from objection. In his dilemma he accepted a partnership with Thomas Ewing, Jr., in a law, collection and agency business in Leavenworth, Kansas. Later, Daniel McCook was admitted to partnership, and the firm became Sherman, Ewing & McCook. While in Kansas, and unsatisfied with the outlook for the future, he made application for the place of superintendent in the proposed Louisiana Military Academy, and in July 1859, was notified by Governor R. C. Wickliff of his election. In the autumn of the same year be reported to Governor Wickliff at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and from there proceeded to Alexandria, in the parish of Rapides, near which town the building for the school was located. Upon arrival at his post he proceeded to put the building in order, collect apparatus, and otherwise provide for the reception of students.

This is the field in which he was occupied until the signs of preparation for war on the part of the South became unmistakable. It is but natural that here, as elsewhere, he should have made warm friends. An entertaining conversationalist, direct, positive, logical, with opinions matured by culture and a wide experience, it is by no means strange that he was sought and admired among people who never esteemed extreme complaisance as a high social quality. His devotion to the Union was well known among all who troubled themselves to learn his political views, and it does not appear that any hopes were built upon his defection from the flag under which he had been reared. The position was one that suited him, that accorded with his temper, his tastes, and his scholarly inclinations.

After the seizure of the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge, and while the ordinance for the formal secession of the State of Louisiana was pending, he, on the 18th of January 1861, addressed the following letter to the Governor of the State, defining his position, and rendering back the trust confided to him, a trust of which he could no longer, consistently with his own honor, be the custodian:

LOUISIANA STATE SEMINARY OF LEARNING AND MILITARY ACADEMY,
January 18, 1861.

Governor Thomas O'Moore, Baton Rouge, Louisiana:

SIR — As I occupy a quasi-military authority under the laws of the State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position when Louisiana was a State in the

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Union, and when the motto of this seminary was inserted in marble over the main door: "By the liberality of the General Government of the United States. The Union — esto perpetua."

Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance to the Constitution so long as a fragment of it survives, and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word.

In that event, I beg that you will send or appoint some authorized agent to take charge of the arms and munitions of war belonging to the State, or advise me what disposition to make of them.

And furthermore, as president of the board of supervisors, I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me as superintendent the moment the State determines to secede, for on no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought hostile to or in defiance of the old Government of the United States.

With great respect, your obedient servant,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Superintendent.

The farther correspondence which passed in that stormy time, when read in the light of the untroubled present, is full of instruction. The one given here is the first and the key-note to all, yet, in view of the pecuniary renunciation he was making, and the necessities of himself and family, there is something almost pathetic in the position in which his resignation placed him.

His settlements and transfers of property in his charge occupied him about a month, and then, with mutual expressions of confidence and kindness, he parted from his associates, and turned to the path of his paramount duty.

In his anxiety for the future of himself and his family, he accepted employment secured through the influence of and proffered by his old friend, Major Turner, and became president of the Fifth Street Railroad in St. Louis. He had, however, gone on to Washington in the meantime, and on the trip was much struck with the contrast between the preparations going on at the South and the apparent apathy of the North. Almost immediately after assuming his new obligations in St. Louis, he was asked to accept the chief-clerkship of the War Department, with the prospect of being made Assistant Secretary of War soon after. This proffer he felt constrained to decline on account of his new business engagements that he did not feel at liberty to cast loose from, except the emergency was a great one.

The bombardment of Fort Sumter dissipated all doubt, and indicated plainly to him that we were upon the eve of a great struggle that would call out the full military strength of both sections. He then, on the 8th of May, formally offered his services to the Secretary of War, and

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on the 14th of the same month, was appointed to the Colonelcy of the Thirteenth regular infantry. He was a citizen spectator of the capture of Camp Jackson by Lyon on the 10th of May, and of the lamentable occurrences succeeding the capture. The description of the events of the day found in his Memoirs is concise and evidently unprejudiced. With his new commission he had drawn the sword; his St. Louis home was abandoned, and his family returned to Lancaster, Ohio. Better than those who shared his councils was he aware that the country was upon the eve of a gigantic war, while before him lay a portentous future which no human faculties could forecast.

His record during the next four years of civil war forms of itself a great history, a history so interwoven with, and so largely a part of, the most momentous events of modern times, that no adequate presentation of it can yet be made.

In his stubborn fight at Bull Run he seems to have become conscious that both officers and men had much to learn, and that an experience wider than that of the garrison was necessary before decisive battles would be won. Although dubious of his own deserts, he found himself announced in general orders as a Brigadier General. With an expressed desire to serve in a subordinate capacity rather than to hold a separate command, his inclination was gratified by an assignment to the Department of the Cumberland, with Brigadier General Robert Anderson in command. The harassment of the position soon drove General Anderson to relinquish his command, and General Sherman, as the senior officer, was left as the commander of the Department, though against his desire. While his preparations were going forward in Kentucky, Mr. Cameron, then Secretary of War, met him in Louisville for consultation, and seemed overwhelmed at General Sherman's declaration that he needed sixty thousand men for defense, and would need for offense two hundred thousand before he was through.

In compliance with the request of General Sherman, he was relieved from the Department of the Cumberland, and transferred to the Department of the Missouri, reporting for duty to Major General H. W. Halleck. He assisted in the work of organizing in Missouri until the capture of Fort Donelson, when he was placed in command of the Fifth Division under General Grant. His command consisted of raw troops, to whom he had yet to give the discipline and steadiness necessary for effective operations. The rapidity with which this work was done is attested by their part in the battle of Shiloh, in which his command bore the brunt of the fight. General Grant, in his official

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report, credits General Sherman individually with the successful issue of the day. Then came the campaign along the Mississippi that culminated in the surrender of Vicksburg. After the fall of Vicksburg he was advanced to the command of the Army of Tennessee, and conducted the masterly movements in that theater of war up to the spring of 1864, when he succeeded to the command of the Grand Military Division of the Mississippi, vacated by General Grant, who had been elevated to the command of the armies of the United States. This division comprised the Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and, for a time, Arkansas, and included about one hundred and fifty thousand men, under Thomas, McPherson, Schofield, Hooker, Howard, Stoneman, Kilpatrick, and others of almost equal fame.

The movements that brought him to Atlanta, on a line defended by that masterly chieftain of the Confederacy, General Joseph E. Johnston; his crushing blows on the brave, yet rash and injudicious Hood, who succeeded Johnston; and then that wonder of civilized war, "the march to the sea," which was the virtual, though not definitive, close of the war, must be given with that detail and elaboration that are only possible in volumes, to exhibit the clearness of the great conception, in which each act was consistent with the design. Christmas of, 1864 saw him with Savannah in his hands. It was plain that the opening of the campaign of 1865 would crush the Confederacy. General Grant received the surrender of General Lee and his army of Northern Virginia, on the 9th of April 1865. Four days later, on the 18th, an informal agreement was entered into between General Sherman and General Joseph E. Johnston, for the capitulation of the Confederate Armies of the South and West under his command. The final terms were not concluded until the 26th. The basis first agreed upon was disapproved at Washington, and the fact has led to some acrimonious discussion. The truth is, that General Sherman, cut off from communication with Washington, acted under his latest instructions, and really reflected them in his act. But, in the meantime, the most startling and atrocious events had transpired at Washington; Mr. Lincoln was assassinated; Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, was nearly murdered in his bed; and Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, was aroused to a degree of fury and alarm that seems to have clouded and perverted his judgment.

The war was over, and the soldiers of both armies felt that they could soon return to their homes. Following one grand closing pageant in the city of Washington, General Sherman addressed to the Military Division of the Mississippi his farewell address. The scene in

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Washington preceding the farewell, was one dear to the heart of a military man. His own words fix the picture in the mind:

Sixty-five thousand men, in splendid physique, who had just completed a march of nearly two thousand miles in a hostile country, in good drill, and who realized that they were being closely scrutinized by their fellow-countrymen and by foreigners. Division after division passed, each commander of an army corps or division coming on the stand during the passage of his command, to be presented to the President, cabinet and spectators. The steadiness and firmness of the tread, the careful dress on the guides, the uniform intervals between the companies, all eyes directly to the front, and the tattered and bullet-riven flags festooned with flowers, all attracted universal notice. Many good people, up to that time, had looked upon our Western army as a sort of a mob; but the world then saw, and recognized the fact, that it was an army in the proper sense — well organized, well commanded and disciplined — and there was no wonder that it had swept through the South like a tornado. For six hours and a half that strong tread resounded along Pennsylvania avenue, not a soul of that vast crowd of spectators left his place, and when the rear of the column had passed by, thousands of spectators still lingered to express their sense of confidence in the strength of a Government that could claim such an army."

Up to August 11, 1866, General Sherman held the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, including Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas, with headquarters at St. Louis. On the 25th of July, 1866, by vote of Congress he was created Lieutenant-General of the United States Army. In November and December of that year he was sent on a special mission to Mexico. On the accession of Grant to the Presidency he became Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States, and resided in Washington, until the reduction of the army to twenty-five thousand men so diminished the responsibility, as to enable him to consult his preferences and fix army headquarters and his residence in St. Louis. This change occurred in 1874. From November 1871 to October 1872, he was occupied in an extended trip through portions of the old world having a military and general interest. During this time he visited Madeira and Gibraltar, made the tour of Spain, Italy and Egypt; visited Constantinople, Sebastopol and the Caucasus, Moscow and St. Petersburg; meandered through Poland, Austria, Prussia and Switzerland, and passed through Scotland and Ireland on the way home. His stay in Egypt extended over about a month.

The most recent important event of his life is the publication of his Memoirs, in two volumes. In this he has departed from the usual rule of military men, and in doing so has performed an inestimable service. The sale of this work has been very large. It is clear, concise and direct, forcible in language, elegant in manner. The general orders and other communications which he issued from his headquarters

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during his operations in the field, are in themselves a valuable addition to the history of the times, throwing light on many subjects not otherwise clear.

Tall and slender in person, prompt and nervous in manner, he is decided without being forbidding. Entirely unassuming, he is as accessible at his headquarters as any business man in the city, and red-tape is evidently not to his liking. In conversation he is rapid and logical, illustrating his views with anecdote and comparison, well-chosen and convincing. The great captain of a great people, he has yet never got beyond being one of the people.

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Hon. B. Gratz Brown.

MISSOURI is indebted to two classes of men for whatever of greatness and power she has attained as a State. The first were those hardy pioneers who came into wild and uncultivated regions, laid out farms, founded towns, fought Indians, started new industries, conquered the forces of nature, overcame innumerable difficulties, and, finally, set civilization on its feet. The second were the leaders of political thought and action, the educators of public opinion, pioneers of great principles, reformers of public abuses, and men of courage and sagacity in times of political danger. To the latter class, and among its best and most distinguished men, EX-GOVERNOR B. GRATZ BROWN belongs. He possesses many of the qualities which characterized those of the first class, viz: a strong will, unflinching courage, independent opinions, and a desire to investigate and experiment with new plans and policies, for society and State, as they had in explore new territory, and adopt new methods to conquer it. For a certain period of our history he was the leader of advanced thought, the recognized apostle of a better civilization, and the fearless and unrelenting foe of a system which he considered ruinous to the State and unjust to those through whom it was kept up. At that time the eyes of the country were upon him, and his name was upon every tongue. Since that time many pages of history have been made, in which he forms a prominent part; and though the great questions which first brought him into notice have been settled, and he has formed new political alliances and adopted new views, he is still a leader of men and an originator of political measures. A brief review of his life will be found interesting.

EX-GOVERNOR BROWN is of Virginian ancestry. His grandfather, Hon. John Brown, was prominent in the early history of the country, and represented a western district of Virginia in the Congress of the United States. After his removal to Kentucky, he represented that State in the United State Senate. While in this latter position, he officiated as President pro tem., and wielded considerable influence.

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He was a warm supporter and personal friend of President Jefferson through life. His death occurred at Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1837. Judge Mason Brown, the son of John Brown, and father of the subject of this sketch, was an eminent jurist, long held in great esteem by the people of Kentucky. On the maternal side we find ancestry no less distinguished. His mother's father, the Hon. Jesse Bledsoe, was an eminent advocate and jurist, and represented Kentucky in the Senate of the United States from 1813 to 1815.

B. Gratz Brown was born in Lexington, Kentucky, May 28th, 1826. His early training was in the schools of his native State, and his classical course was begun at Transylvania University, Lexington, which he left in 1845, to enter Yale College. At this celebrated institution of learning he graduated in 1847. On returning to Kentucky he studied law, and was licensed to practice; but, having a desire to commence life with new surroundings, he came to St. Louis in the autumn of 1849, and, after due consideration, determined to make that city his home. He was admitted to practice, but after a year's experience, he turned his attention to other pursuits. The Free-soil movement had gained some strength in St. Louis, and, aided by the friends of Colonel Benton, was fast coming into power. Mr. Brown espoused the cause of free labor, and by his bold and earnest speeches greatly encouraged the friends of the new party. They honored him with a nomination for a seat in the Legislature in 1852, and he was elected by a fair majority. He had not then reached his twenty-sixth year, but was already regarded as a leader, possessing well-defined opinions and fixed principles. During his first term in the Legislature he advanced sentiments and enunciated truths which the party in power had not been accustomed to hear, and which greatly disturbed their political equanimity.

In the early part of 1854, an opportunity was presented to Mr. Brown to strengthen the positions he had taken, and to give a wider circulation to his views, by becoming editor of the Missouri Democrat. That paper had been published by William McKee and William Hill, as a Benton organ. They purchased the Union, an anti-Benton paper, and, uniting the two, gave the editorial management to Mr. Brown. The wisdom of this course was soon apparent. The young editor found ample scope for his talents in discussing the exciting questions that came before the public at that time. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the admission of Kansas and Nebraska, the encroachments of slavery into free territory, and the propriety of emancipating

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the slaves in Missouri, were all brought under review, and treated in a masterly manner through the columns of his paper. The Missouri Democrat soon became a power in the land. It was cursed by Pro-slavery men, commended by Free-soilers, and read by all.

Mr. Brown was re-elected to the Legislature, and took a bolder and more prominent position than ever. In 1857, he delivered a speech which aroused the indignation of the people against the exactions of the slave-power, and gave rise to the fiercest political contests in every part of the State. In the Legislature, and in his journal, he continued to preach the gospel of freedom with intrepid courage and masterly eloquence. He and his Free-soil associates were in the minority, but were undismayed. Failing to subdue the fearless editor by argument, he was often menaced with personal violence. On one occasion he was involved in a duel with Hon. Thomas C. Reynolds, a Pro-slavery Democrat, and came out of the contest with a shot in one knee, from the effects of which he suffered for several years.

The views of the Free-soilers were indorsed by the people of St. Louis on more than one occasion; but the party met with defeat in the State. There is no doubt, however, but that the efforts made by Gratz Brown and his friends at this early day created a sentiment which, a few years later, strengthened the Union cause and prevented secession.

In 1861, when the civil war burst forth, Mr. Brown was ready for the emergency. He entered with zeal into the work of organizing regiments for the war, and was one of the first to tender a regiment of volunteers for the three months' service. The attack and capture of Camp Jackson in May 1861, carried out, in full consultation with him and Colonel Blair, by General Lyon, electrified the Union, and fixed the attitude of the State. Shortly after the capture of Camp Jackson, Colonel Brown took the field at the head of his regiment, and, throughout Southwest Missouri, shared with his men the dangers, privations and fatigues of the campaign. After his term of service had expired, he volunteered his services to General Curtis, and also assisted in the organization of the State militia.

When a division in the ranks of the Union men occurred in 1862, Colonel Brown favored the side of the immediate Emancipationists and Radicals. He recognized the Germans, who were friendly to Fremont, as better friends of the Union than many who denounced them, and therefore he stood by them. In return, Germans, as well as other Republicans, acknowledged him as their leader in the emancipation movement.

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When the Legislature met in the winter of 1862-3, the Radical Emancipationists, in caucus, nominated Gratz Brown for United States Senator, and resolved to remain true to him until they had secured his election. They were in a minority at first, and rather than compromise for the election of one of less radical views, the election was postponed until the meeting of the adjourned session in the winter of 1863-4. The progress of the war had educated the feelings of several of the Union members, and when the Legislature met in joint session an agreement was entered into between the friends of Hon. John B. Henderson and Colonel Brown, by which both were elected to the vacancies which existed in the Senate of the United States. This contest was a most exciting and bitter one. All the acts of Colonel Brown's life were canvassed and criticised by his enemies, and his utterances were used both for and against him. No man, perhaps, ever received so thorough an investigation, unless one arraigned for some crime. The fact that his friends held together so long shows how strongly attached to him they were, and the fact, also, that he came out triumphantly and unscathed, shows what kind of metal he was made of.

During his term in the United States Senate, Governor Brown served on the Committees on Military Affairs, Pacific Railroad, Indian Affairs, Public Buildings and Grounds, Printing, and as chairman of the Committee on Contingent Expenses after the death of Senator Foote. He advocated several measures for the benefit of his own State and the people of the West, and zealously supported the war measures of the administration. In the hour of victory, however, he favored a generous treatment of the vanquished. His speeches, while in the Senate, were regarded as finished productions. They displayed force of thought, research, and broad views of statesmanship, and were listened to with marked attention. Before the term for which he was elected had expired, Governor Brown's health failed, and he deemed it his duty to tender his resignation. Retiring from the Senate, he engaged in private and professional pursuits, carrying into daily life the love of harmony, tolerance and equal rights, he had so long advocated in public. He was not, however, allowed to remain in retirement. Obeying the call of thousands of his fellow-citizens, he accepted the nomination for Governor of Missouri, and, sustained by a coalition of Liberal Republicans and Democrats, was triumphantly elected. The issue at this election was the removal of all disabilities from those who had participated in rebellion. A large number of Republicans, while professing to be in favor of removing these restrictions, refused to

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pledge themselves to do it by resolution at the party convention in 1870. Others who were willing to make this a plank in their platform, saw no hope of coming to an agreement on the subject, and withdrew from the main body of the convention. They organized a separate convention, and put a ticket in the field with B. Grate Brown at the head. Governor McClurg was nominated by the straight Republicans in opposition. The vote was as follows: For Brown, 104,286; for McClurg, 62,369; majority, 41,917.

Many of those who supported Governor Brown at this election had no thought of leaving the Republican party, and, when the contest was over, united with their old friends who had supported McClurg, in keeping up the regular organization. But Governor Brown did not join them. During his administration he appointed Democrats to office and generally affiliated with the Democratic party.

At the end of his term as Governor of the State, in 1872, he again retired to private life, devoting his attention to business affairs. On May 3, 1872, Governor Brown became the Liberal Republican candidate for Vice-President of the United States, on the ticket with Horace Greeley for President — these nominations having been made at the National Convention of Liberal Republicans of the United States which met at Cincinnati in May. The first plank in the platform of that Convention read as follows: "We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political." Governor Brown accepted the nomination and made a vigorous canvass, but with the result so well known.

Since his retirement from the executive office, Governor Brown has devoted himself actively to business interests. For some years he had been a large owner of street railroad stock, and it is to him that the city of St. Louis is indebted for the construction and good management of some of the best lines in operation. His investments in real estate and other property were judicious, and at the present time he is in the enjoyment of a handsome income.

Throughout his career Governor Brown has exhibited marked ability as a party leader. A man of strong convictions himself, he fully appreciates the power of moving men with the highest attainable force, by arousing in them a like conviction of the correctness of a position or the verity of a principle. He combines individuals into masses by appealing to their higher emotions and intelligence instead of selfish

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motives. He enunciates a principle, challenges opposition, assumes the leadership, calls for supporters and followers, and leaves the details of party organization to others. He rarely interferes in the contests of individuals for minor positions, and in a contest loses no adherents by arousing individual animosity among his followers. His capacity as an executive officer was shown in his administration of two years, carrying into practical operation the principles upon which he made his successful campaign. Missouri soon began to reap the benefits. By a cautious, moderate and firm course, he brought the people of the State to a recognition of the fact that true republicanism can alone make a State prosperous, and that this can exist only where political equality is acknowledged and the rights of every one respected. He inaugurated an era of good-fellowship, and to his administration is due the rapid disappearance in Missouri of the ills consequent upon civil war.

Governor Brown is a smooth and vigorous writer. He uses the purest and simplest English, now and then indulging in classical derivatives as way marks, but generally employing such words and modes of expression as will convey the most meaning. His messages while Governor, and his letters on questions of public policy, are models of conciseness, perspicacity and sound reasoning. He speaks in the same way, and can say more in half an hour than most orators can in an hour.

The financial problems of the day have recently called him out in a letter, so full of sound and convincing argument, that but little can be said by his opponents in reply.

He is yet in the vigor of his physical and intellectual manhood, and without doubt will let the country hear from him whenever important questions arise.

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Hon. Carl Schurz.

NO citizen of Missouri, born in a foreign country, has ever attained such a degree of political influence, or occupied so prominent a position before the country, as Hon. CARL SCHURZ. Indeed, but few possessing the advantages of American birth and education have gained a stronger hold upon the admiration and respect of the better class of citizens than he. He has not, however, made use of the means employed by demagogues to gain influence and position; he has won both position and reputation by his own talent and merits.

CARL SCHURZ was born at Liblar, near Cologne, Germany, March 2, 1829. His parents, though not wealthy, were in good circumstances, and highly respectable. They placed their son in the gymnasium of Cologne, where he passed through the full course of studies preparatory to entering the university. At the age of seventeen he entered the University of Bonn, where he remained two years, taking a course of history, philosophy and ancient languages. On the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, Schurz, with other students, took an active interest in the prevailing agitation, and having become acquainted with Gottfried Kinkel, then professor of rhetoric at the University, he joined him in the publication of a liberal newspaper, which was conducted wholly by Schurz while Kinkel was absent as a member of the Prussian Legislature. In the spring of 1849, having made an unsuccessful attempt to produce an insurrection at Bonn, both Kinkel and Schurz were obliged to flee, and betook themselves to the States called the Palatinate, where a body of revolutionary troops was already organized. He entered the military service again in a few months as Adjutant to Gustav Nikolaus Tiedemann (son of the great Professor of Medicine), and participated in the defense of Rastadt. That fortress was obliged to capitulate, and Schurz became a prisoner. His commander, Tiedemann, was condemned to death and shot August 11, 1849, but Schurz succeeded in escaping from the casemates of the fortress to Switzerland, by the following device: He concealed himself for three days and nights, without food, in a sewer, through which he passed to the river Rhine,

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which he crossed and arrived in Switzerland at the beginning of August, where he remained in seclusion at Zurich until the following May. His friend Kinkel, in the meantime, had been captured, condemned to twenty years imprisonment, and shut up in the fortress of Spandau. After long correspondence with the wife of Kinkel, Schurz determined to undertake his rescue, and for this purpose made his way secretly back to Germany in May 1850, spending much time in preparation in Cologne and Berlin, and remaining in the latter city three months endeavoring to establish relations with the guards who watched the prisoner. The rescue was accomplished in the night of November 6, 1850, Kinkel's cell being broken open and he brought out upon the roof of the prison, whence he was successfully lowered to the ground. The scheme was a bold one, and it was hinted, without good reason however, that the Government must have winked at it. The fugitives escaped the same night across the frontier into Mecklenburg, and thence made their way to Rostock, and after remaining concealed there for some time, took passage in a small schooner for Leith, where they arrived December first. Schurz then went to Paris, where he remained as a correspondent of German journals until June 1851, when he went to London, and taught music and languages till July 1852. About this time he married the daughter of a rich merchant of Hamburg, Miss Margarette Meyer, and shortly afterward came to America, landing in Philadelphia. He remained in that city two or three years, familiarizing himself with the English language, the laws of the country, its history, etc., and then removed to Watertown, Wisconsin, where he had bought a farm.

In the presidential canvass of 1856, Mr. Schurz became known as an orator in the German language. In 1857, he was nominated by the Republican State Convention as a candidate for the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Wisconsin, but failed of election.

In 1858, on the occasion of the contest between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln for the United States Senatorship of Illinois, he delivered his first English speech, which was widely republished by the journals in various parts of the country.

In the spring of 1859, he was invited to the celebration of Jefferson's anniversary in Boston, and delivered a speech on Americanism in Faneuil Hall. He was at this time living at Milwaukee, engaged in the practice of law, but during the winter of 1859-'60, frequently lectured before lyceums and literary societies in various parts of the country. Mr. Schurz was a delegate from Wisconsin to the Republican National Convention which met in Chicago in June 1860, and exercised

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considerable influence, especially in securing the adoption of that portion of the platform which related to citizens of foreign birth. During the canvass which followed, he was constantly employed in speaking throughout the Northern States, both in the English and German languages, his principal speeches being one on "The Irrepressible Conflict," delivered in St. Louis, and one entitled "The Bill of Indictment Against Douglas," delivered in New York. After the inauguration of President Lincoln, Mr. Schurz was offered the mission to Spain, accepted it, and left the country for Madrid during the summer of 1861.

In December 1861, as he read the news from the United States, the war fever seized him, and he wrote to the President asking to be relieved from diplomatic duties, that he might join the army of the Union. The desire was granted, and a commission of Brigadier-General of volunteers was tendered him. He entered the army in Sigel's corps in time to distinguish himself at the second battle of Bull Run, and fought bravely also at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, where he won the rank of Major-General. It should also be mentioned that after his return from Spain, he delivered in New York City, March 6, 1862, a speech on the necessity of abolishing slavery in order to restore the national unity, which was regarded by many as the ablest of his public discourses.

During the summer of 1863, General Schurz was ordered to join General Sherman at Chattanooga, and on his arrival there, was placed in command of a division, which position he held to the close of the war.

In the latter part of 1864, he obtained a short leave of absence, to make speeches in favor of Mr. Lincoln's re-election. His voice had the same power and attraction as in the campaign of 1860, and it is, perhaps, owing in some measure to his influence, that many of the Germans were induced to leave the independent movement, made at Cleveland against Mr. Lincoln, and support the regular nomination.

After the assassination of Lincoln, President Johnson sent General Schurz through the Southern States on a tour of inspection, to gain information as to the social and political condition of the people. Schurz traveled in all parts of the South, conversed with people of all classes, and made a complete report of what he saw and heard, and suggesting such remedies for existing evils as in his judgment seemed proper. Johnson was not pleased with the report, as it conflicted with the "policy" he had marked out, and he tried to suppress it. The newspapers, however, gave it to the people, and General Schurz was sustained.

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In 1866 he removed to Detroit, to take charge of the Daily Post newspaper, but remained only a few months. In the spring of 1867 he took up his residence in St. Louis, bought an interest in the Westliche Post, and became a principal editor. General Schurz was cordially welcomed to Missouri by the Republican party, and from the beginning of his residence here, took an active part in politics.

At the National Republican Convention of 1868, he was a delegate, was chosen as temporary chairman, and had much to do with constructing the platform. He took the stump for the Republican ticket during the summer of '68, and spoke with his accustomed vigor and eloquence in many of the principal cities of the Union.

In January 1869, the Legislature of Missouri met in joint session to elect a United States Senator. General Schurz was presented to the party caucus as a candidate for the nomination, and although strongly opposed by Charles D. Drake, then holding a seat as Senator, and who came from Washington especially to defeat him, was nominated and afterwards elected by the joint session. His German friends throughout the country hailed his election to the Senate with signs of delight, and congratulations from all classes poured in upon him. He did not have the pleasure of Mr. Drake's society, however, as a colleague in the Senate, for that gentleman soon after was appointed presiding judge of the Court of Claims of the District of Columbia, and resigned his seat.

General Schurz' career in the United States Senate was a brilliant and successful one. He pursued a moderate course, and disagreed with the party in power on many questions; but his opposition was manly, and his reasons for action were clearly and eloquently set forth to the country. He became an intimate friend of Sumner, and on most of the leading questions agreed with him. While many Republicans regretted that General Schurz opposed the President, they conceded the fact that he was governed by high and disinterested motives, and displayed courage on all occasions. His speeches were prepared with much care, and gave evidence of scholarship and research. Generally, when it was announced that he was to speak, the galleries were crowded, and his fellow-senators paid the most respectful attention to what he had to say. Though claiming still to be a Republican in all essential principles, he did not hesitate to defeat measures introduced into Congress whenever they appeared to him injurious to the public interests.

These motives controlled him in his course in Missouri in 1870, when

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he favored the removing of disfranchisement from those who had participated in the rebellion. He must have known that placing political power again in such hands would hurl him from office, which indeed was the result; and yet he did not hesitate to join in the liberal movement to secure enfranchisement for that class. He was bitterly denounced for his course on this occasion, and still later, in 1872, for the support he gave to the National Liberal movement. He was chosen president of the Cincinnati Convention, and afterward made speeches for the ticket there nominated.

During the summer of 1874, General Schurz aided in organizing the People's Reform party in Missouri, for the purpose of defeating the Democracy then in power. He was the author of a large portion of the platform which the Convention adopted, and took the stump for William Gentry, candidate for Governor, traveling over a large portion of the State and making eloquent and fearless speeches. The ticket received a large vote, but the Republicans in some sections of the State were indifferent, and the movement was unsuccessful. General Schurz, at the close of the campaign, resumed his editorial duties. The Legislature elected General Cockrell, an ex-rebel, to fill his place in the United States Senate, and he gracefully retired. After a short lecturing tour in the Northern States, he made a visit with his family to Europe. But the coming winter will undoubtedly find him busy again filling engagements with lecture committees, and performing editorial work, for which he has a decided liking.

He is in the enjoyment of mental and physical vigor, and is destined still to fill an important place in the country's history. Certain it is, that no great political movement will be made in the country without his influence either for or against it.

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George P. Plant.

AMONG prominent names to be found upon the list of the city's honored dead, is that of GEORGE POIGNAND PLANT, a man who, during his long and active career in St. Louis, enjoyed in a marked degree the respect and confidence of his fellow-men, and dying left behind him a name for business integrity, uprightness and moral purity, to be emulated by all who would aspire to a place of honor in the community, or to the proud distinction of being "a man amongst men."

He was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, March 23, 1814. He was of English and French parentage, was the third of twelve children, and was the oldest son. His father came from England in the cotton interest; he was a man of many scientific attainments, settled in Lancaster, where he erected cotton mills, and was the inventor of many important improvements in this branch of industry, which has since grown to such gigantic proportions all over the Union, but more especially in the New England States. It was in this quiet New England village, and with the peculiar surroundings of the day, that George received his early education, and where his mind was first turned toward those pursuits which governed his after-life.

His father was the possessor of quite an extensive library, for the most part composed of scientific and mathematical works, where young George found an ample field to satisfy his early literary cravings, and where he soon formed those tastes for scientific studies which were the main-spring of his future success. His father's factory also presented an opportunity of practically applying the knowledge he gained by study, and rendered him familiar with machinery and its workings.

In such families it was customary for the sons to choose for themselves some profession, and, in accordance with his early aspirations and inclinations, George chose civil engineering, and immediately entered into a practical school of railroad building, serving under Major Whistler on a road then being built between Worcester and Springfield. The far West was then being opened up, and held out

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extra inducements to young men in search of fortune. Different branches of railroads were being pushed forward in the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and the shriek of the iron horse, for the first time, was awakening the echoes of the broad prairies and dense forests of those, to-day, densely populated and thriving States. With that spirit of enterprise which can be found in the early experience of most of the remarkable men of the West, young Plant turned his face toward the setting sun, and, in 1835, went to Kentucky, where an uncle, Daniel R. Poignand, had married and settled down, intending to make this State the scene of his labors in the practice of his profession. He soon, however, removed to Jacksonville, Illinois, and accepted the position of chief engineer on the Northern Cross Railroad, which he surveyed and built — the first railroad in that portion of the West.

The following extract, taken from the columns of the Missouri Republican, will serve to show, and in a most forcible manner, what relation Mr. Plant held toward the first railroad ever built in Illinois:

"THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE IN ILLINOIS. — Illinois now has 5,725 miles of railroad. The first rail was laid at Meredosia May 9, 1838, on the first division of what was called the Northern Cross Railroad. The first locomotive arrived at Meredosia September 6, 1838, in the steamboat Chariton. This pioneer locomotive was built by Grosvenor, Ketchum & Co., at Patterson, New Jersey. It was put on the track, of which eight miles were laid, on the 8th day of November, 1838. The civil engineer, under whose supervision the road was built, and who then and there brought the ‘iron horse’ into harness — the first in the Mississisippi Valley — was George P. Plant, late President of the Merchants' Exchange, and one of the first citizens of St. Louis.

"On that engine, which ran eight miles and returned, were Governor Duncan, of Illinois, Murray McConnell, State Commissioner, James Dunlap and Thomas T. January, contractors, Charles Collins and Miron Leslie, of St. Louis, and the Chief Engineer of the road, George P. Plant.

"There were then less than 2,000 miles of railroad in all the United States. There are now over 60,000. Yet the first locomotive of the Mississippi Valley only put itself in motion thirty-three years ago last November."

In Jacksonville Mr. Plant married his first wife, Matilda W. January, sister of D. A. January and T. T. January, who came to St. Louis some time afterward, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. Mr. Plant followed, and in 1840 he established the Plant Mills, the name of the firm being George P. Plant & Co. Under his own personal supervision the business began to assume gigantic proportions. His brother, Samuel Plant, who had been a partner in the business, died in 1866. Mr. Plant then took in his son G. J., and made him a partner; and subsequently George H., son of Samuel Plant, was admitted to the business. Mr. Plant always aimed at a superiority in this branch of industry, and by

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hard study and the closest application to the business in all its ramifications, brought milling in St. Louis to its present state of perfection. As a manufacturer of flour, he stood in the front ranks of the millers of America, and his different brands, manufactured in St. Louis, were quoted in all the principal American and European markets.

He was the inventor and patentee of many improvements in the machinery for milling purposes, some of which are now in general use throughout the country, and are of much benefit to the business. He was a man of many scientific attainments, and an ardent student up to the period of his death. Nor did he confine himself entirely to milling. A far-seeing and progressive man, he took a prominent part in getting up the present system of water works, and was of great assistance as chairman of the Meteorological Committee of the Exchange, in suggesting reports of the rise and fall of Western rivers, and other subjects connected with the Signal Service. He was the originator and earnest advocate of many plans for the improvement and beautifying of the city. He labored, not selfishly, but for the common good of all. It was his great desire to introduce the best species of wheat among the farmers, and to raise the standards of the St. Louis flours.

In 1870 Mr. Plant went to Europe, principally for his health and pleasure, but returned with an increased stock of knowledge, the result of close observation. During this trip he studied the European system of milling, the qualities of wheat, and the flour produced. He secured the government plans and reports on the boulevards and public parks of Paris, which he presented to the Mercantile Library, for public reference. In all his works he never lost sight of his own city and her welfare and advancement.

Mr. Plant had been twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, George Janvier Plant and Louis Poignand Plant. His second wife was Miss Martha S. Douthitt, daughter of the late Robert H. Douthitt, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, whom he married in 1863. His first wife died in 1859.

During his life Mr. Plant held many offices of trust and responsibility — offices to which he was raised by the voice of his associates in the mercantile world. He never sought political preferment, seeking rather the more substantial honors of trade and commerce. He was president of the Merchants' Exchange, of the American Central Insurance Company, of the Millers' National Convention and of St. Luke's Hospital; he was also a director in the Merchants' Exchange, in the Bank of Commerce, in the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in the

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Plant Seed Company. He was also chairman of the Meteorological Committee of the Merchants' Exchange. His death took place February 24, 1875.

Mr. Plant was delicately constituted, of a modest and retiring disposition, but at the same time a man of sterling integrity, indomitable will, untiring energy, and broad charity. Pleasant and affable in all the commercial and social relations of life, always feeling a keen interest in the city of his adoption, and ever willing to extend a helping hand to assist her advancement, he was one of St. Louis' most valuable citizens, and died regretted by the entire community.

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Robert E. Carr.

IT would appear that many of the leading spirits of trade and enterprise, to whom St. Louis is greatly indebted for the high position she now holds in the commercial world, came originally from that portion of the Union which some historians have seen fit to call "the dark and bloody ground," — Kentucky — and such is the case with the subject of the present sketch.

ROBERT E. CARR was born in Lexington, Kentucky, August 8, 1827. His father was a farmer, and young Robert enjoyed the benefits of a common school education. In 1847, when twenty years of age, Mr. Carr came to St. Louis in search of employment and fortune. He engaged as clerk in an iron foundry, at a salary of $400 per annum. In this position, the eminent business qualifications which have characterized his mature manhood began to manifest themselves, and at the end of two years, so firmly had he established himself in the esteem of his employers, that he was offered and accepted a partner's interest in the business, and the firm became Dowdell, Carr & Co. The business was conducted with great success by Mr. Carr until 1856, when, on account of failing health, he was obliged to retire from active business pursuits for a year, in order to recuperate an overtaxed constitution.

But a responsible position soon claimed his well-known business abilities, and after being restored to health, he became cashier of the Exchange Bank, in which position of trust he remained two years, when he was elected president of the same institution, conducting its financial transactions and business affairs in a manner to bring success to the bank and credit to himself.

In 1868, Mr. Carr, with his family, made a tour of Europe, spending a year in the principal commercial centres of the Old World, visiting all the points of interest, and enjoying a much needed relaxation from years of close application to business. On his return to America, Mr. Carr took the contract of building the Denver Pacific Railroad, which he completed in June 1870. In 1871, he was elected president of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and the two roads have been run under

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one management. Mr. Carr was also president of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, and it may be said that he has been president of more lines of railroads than any man west of the Mississippi.

Mr. Carr is a man of high administrative abilities, and fine social and business qualities, which latter have made him thousands of friends and well-wishers, to whom his success in life has been a source of unalloyed pleasure. In every office of trust and responsibility he has been called on to fill, Mr. Carr has invariably given the utmost satisfaction to his friends and fellow-men, and his fellow-citizens never had occasion to regret the confidence placed in him. In all the relations of life, his strict integrity and purity of life have been a shining example for the young, and have commanded the respect and unqualified esteem of the old. Mr. Carr is still in the vigor of his manhood, surrounded by ample means to make life an easy battle, with a wide field of usefulness at his command, with ample opportunities of gaining fresh laurels ere he is called upon to lay down the cross and take up the crown.

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Captain John J. Roe.

CAPTAIN JOHN J. ROE, for many years one of the most prominent merchants of the West, was born April 18, 1809, near Buffalo, New York. In 1815, his father moved westward, remaining for a short period at Cincinnati, Ohio, also in Kentucky, and lastly to Rising Sun, Indiana, where he purchased a farm and owned a ferry, and where he died in 1834.

Here young Roe enjoyed the benefits of the local country school, in the meantime assisting his father in the management of the farm and conducting the ferry, which was a source of income to the family. Scanty as were the scholastic facilities of the period, young Roe, however, obtained the foundation of a good common-school English education, and his contact with the world afterward, coupled with his natural and successful genius for business, made him a greater power in the land than if he had been the recipient of classical instruction.

Two years previous to his father's death, feeling the farm and ferry to be too contracted a field for his ambitions, Mr. Roe went to Cincinnati and engaged in steamboating, beginning at the lowest position, and rapidly working his way up until he filled the most trustworthy, as captain; and on one occasion making a large profit for his employers by acting as supercargo to Jacksonville, Tennessee.

Captain Roe, by his ability, zeal and sound, judgment, soon won the confidence and respect of the business community, and became a successful trader and commander, running some of the most magnificent packets on the river, and at one time doing a lucrative business on Green River, Kentucky. He built several fine boats, and having amassed a considerable fortune retired from the river business in 1844, and removed to St. Louis. Here he became engaged in the commission and pork packing business, and the names of Hewett, Roe & Co., Hewett, Roe & Kercheval, and finally John J. Roe & Co., became well known to all the business world of the West, South and East.

His career in St. Louis was one of continued success and advancement. A strong Union man during the war, and being one of the

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largest pork packers in the United States, he gained the confidence of both the civil and military authorities, and though he greatly increased his capital during the war, the breath of suspicion never arose that he had ever been dishonorable in the slightest particular in any of his numerous government contracts. A remark made by General W. T. Sherman but a few months ago, to a friend of Captain Roe, illustrates the esteem in which he was held by all who knew him. Said the General: "John J. Roe was one of the purest men it was ever my lot to meet with."

Business was his life, nay, even his pleasure. During his business career in St. Louis, he had been connected in various capacities with almost every existing public enterprise and corporation. His fellow-citizens had honored him in a marked and signal manner. He had been president of the Merchants' Union Exchange, president of the Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company, a director in the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company, and on the day of his death was president of the State Savings Association and president of the United States Fire and Marine Insurance Company. He was also first president and one of the organizers of the Life Association of America, vice-president of the Memphis and St. Louis Packet Company, a director in the National Bank of the State of Missouri, the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company, the St. Charles Bridge Company, the Illinois and St. Louis Railroad and Coal Company, and the North Missouri Railroad Company.

For many years he carried on an extensive business, in connection with Captain Nick Wall, in Montana, and the Diamond R. Transportation Line, is one of the important interests in the Territory to this day.

In all his ideas, Captain John J. Roe was intensely public-spirited and progressive; he took a deep interest in the growth and prosperity of St. Louis. The great steel bridge across the Mississippi claimed his attention, and he gave his money liberally and threw the whole of his great influence into the project.

An idea of the estimation in which his services were held as director of the National Bank of the State of Missouri, of the North Missouri Railroad Company, and of the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company, can perhaps be more adequately conveyed by quoting from the admirable remarks of Captain Jas. B. Eads at the Merchants' Exchange on the occasion of his death, than anything we might attempt to say in this connection. Captain Eads said:

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For more than three years past I have sat almost daily by his side in the directory of your largest bank, and whilst receiving instruction through his counsel and experience, I learned to admire, I might say to wonder at, the rare judgment, brilliant business qualifications, and liberal ideas with which he was endowed. Within a few brief hours, I left that board surrounded with his accustomed associates still bowed down in sadness for his death, and my poor words can but feebly tell you how highly they honored him living, and how deeply they mourn him dead. Alas! not by them alone will his able counsels be missed, for when we turn to the many other important public and private enterprises that were confided either partially or wholly to his guidance, we feel how irreparable is our loss. His sagacity, nerve, and public spirit prompted him to extend a helping hand to almost every worthy movement of the day, and when that hand was given, it seemed as though its magic touch insured success.

The iron bands which stretch out to the fertile plains of Kansas and Iowa, and bring to your doors the rich products of the West and North, owe their extension and completion, in great part, to the material aid and judicious action of him who now lies cold in death.

When the few enterprising men who were striving to span your majestic river with a bridge, felt that the darkest hours of the undertaking were upon them, when they thought disaster and defeat were close at hand, they sought the aid of him whose cheerful voice will be heard among them no more forever. Their appeal was not in vain. His aid came, not in meagre pittance, but in the form of a pledge to pay toward its construction one hundred thousand dollars in cash; whilst the very fact that the enterprise was approved by his judgment, was worth to it half a million more. In the management and control of these three great public institutions, * * * in each of which he was so largely interested, his clear head and generous heart can never be replaced.

The last work of Mr. Roe's hand was the Life Association of America. When, in 1868, the projector of that already mammoth institution, developed the scheme to the capitalists of St. Louis, one of the first prominent men who grasped the idea and comprehended its power, was John J. Roe. His name and influence were all-powerful in giving the undertaking life, and, as all our readers know, as soon as the corporation was formed, he became its president, a position he held until his death. Mr. Roe saw in the Life Association a project commensurable with his own broad intellect; a fairness to match his own innate integrity; a combination of independence and philanthropy in harmony with his own views of ameliorating the condition of his fellow-man, without crushing his manhood or doing violence to his sensibilities; and when he put his shoulder to it, all his great commercial and financial influence was wielded in its behalf with an energy and force which knows no barriers and inevitably achieves success. It mattered not to him that the combined powers of all the other life insurance companies were pitted against him; it mattered not that the most venal portions of the press, and the most worthless members of the agency fraternity were hired to misrepresent and villify his company; he believed that he was right, and his efforts to make others believe so

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too, knew no limit; and notwithstanding that his life was cut off so suddenly, and within less than two years after the association was started, he lived to see its standard planted in half of the States of the Union; its enemies defeated or turned into friends, and the leading actuaries and insurance men in the country acknowledging its superiority and seeking identification with it. It was thus that the success which followed him through his whole life, clung to him to his grave, making his last achievement his greatest as well as his best.

Mr. Roe was a man of a sunny disposition, always cheerful and happy. Easily approached, he always found time to listen to the plea of the humblest, and was careful to do justice to the poor as well as the rich. Particularly was he the friend of the young man. Let him but see that a young man had ability and was deserving, and he never let an opportunity pass to do that man a favor. His charities were numerous and unostentatious.

Mr. Roe was well adapted to the age in which he lived, and the characteristics of this people. He made it his own, and ACTION, unceasing and untiring, became the ruling principle of his life. It was this that gave an impetus toward certain success to every enterprise with which he became identified. He also appreciated the consideration which the possession of wealth secures; he accumulated a princely fortune; but it can hardly be said that its acquisition was the chief aim of his life. He did not indulge in any of the absurd follies too often perpetrated by the rich; to him, riches were not the object of life, but merely the means of doing good, and pushing forward with all his mighty energy the speedier development, furtherance and completion of the great enterprises that his enlarged intellect deemed calculated to redound to the benefit, and promote the present and future greatness, of the city of his adoption.

In 1837, Captain Roe was married to Miss Wright, daughter of Thomas Wright, Esq. He was a genial, social man, and when each evening he quitted the busy city for his beautiful suburban home, he cast business entirely aside, and became the pleasant, social family gentleman whom a stranger would have little dreamed had carried such a volume of business in his head during the day.

In politics, Captain Roe, though a Union man, was always conservative. At one time owning slaves himself, he believed the principle wrong, and liberated them; and while his sympathies were with the South, he still did not believe in the separation of the States. After the war, he believed in forgetting the past, and building up the South in the future.

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Captain Roe's death was a shock to the entire community. On the 14th of February 1870, in the midst of apparent robust health, he was stricken with apoplexy. On the day of his sudden death, he was on 'Change as usual, said he did not feel well, but nothing was thought of it. During the afternoon he attended an election for directors of the State Savings Institution, and afterwards a meeting of the Memphis Packet Company. The board had finished business, and were sitting chatting pleasantly, when Captain Roe's head was seen to fall on one side, he gasped for breath, and expired. He died in the midst of that business he loved so well, in the full discharge of his duty, leaving the world the better for his having been in it.

Such was John J. Roe. The man whose record is so clear; whose success in life was achieved solely by his own efforts and perseverance; who grappled with the complex problems of commerce and financial enterprise only to conquer; whose death, though only a portion of his life was spent amongst us, was so universally and deeply felt, and elicited such an unwonted array of testimonials of sorrow, keen at once and sincere; whose obsequies were the occasion of a general suspension of business; whose private life was no less pure than his public career; the man whom many honor as their benefactor, whom the poor bless and the rich admire; for whom a whole community mourn, and whose absence from his wonted places of business has more or less affected every interest with which he was connected during life; — such a man has, indeed, taken from us the power to argue the question whether he shall be called great. In every intelligent citizen, the death of such a man must awaken, as it does, profound regret that one who understood his work so thoroughly, who performed his duties so promptly, who dispensed his charities so generously and so noiselessly; whose reputation was as untarnished as his life unblemished, and who had the energy requisite to embody his plans and actualize his conceptions, should have been so suddenly withdrawn from fields of labor in which he had few equals, and hardly a superior.

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Gen. Francis P. Blair.

THE Blair family in America has a distinguished history. It has numerous branches spreading over different sections of the country, yet the members of each have found important places in politics, law, science and literature. In the early history of Virginia, we find that James Blair, a native of Scotland, was a missionary of great learning and piety, who took such a deep interest in the colonies that he made a special visit to England, after the accession of William and Mary, to raise funds and obtain a patent for the erection of a college. He succeeded beyond his expectations, and on his return superintended the building of an institution which he named after the reigning sovereigns, and of which he was president nearly fifty years.

Another member of the family, named John Blair, was one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States appointed by Washington.

Another, James Blair, was a lawyer of considerable ability, who was born in Virginia, and practiced his profession for some time at Abingdon in that State. He afterward moved to Kentucky, and was made Attorney-General of that State. He was the father of Francis Preston Blair, known for so many years as the editor of the Washington Globe, and friend and adviser of Andrew Jackson. This eminent man, still living at Silver Springs, Maryland, at the advanced age of eighty-four, has probably seen more of American politics than any man living, and in nearly all the important movements of the past fifty years has had more or less to do.

His son, FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR, JR., was no less conspicuous in public affairs; and, for the part he bore in the Free-labor movement, and in defense of his country during the late civil war, will ever be held in grateful remembrance by all in Missouri who cherish the Union and love freedom. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, February 19, 1821. When he was nine years of age his father moved to Washington, District of Columbia, to take charge of the Globe. Here his boyhood was passed in attending primary and preparatory schools, in which he

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made good progress in learning. His collegiate course was commenced at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but, for good reasons, he afterward entered Princeton College, New Jersey, where he graduated with high honors at the age of twenty. Returning to Kentucky, he began the study of law under Lewis Marshall, but failing in health, he came to St. Louis on a visit to his brother, Judge Montgomery Blair. On his return to Kentucky, he completed his legal education at the Law School of Transylvania University. In 1843 he again came to St. Louis, to begin the practice of his profession; but his health was so delicate that he was forced to abandon all literary work, and take a trip to the Rocky Mountains to recuperate. This he did with trappers and traders, and in 1845 he accompanied Bent and St. Vrain to their fort in New Mexico, now Colorado, and remained in that wild and hostile country until the expedition under the command of General Kearney reached that region, when he joined the enterprise, and served to the end of it in a military capacity. In 1847 he returned to St. Louis, his health being completely re-established, and resumed the legal profession. The same year he was married to Miss Appoline Alexander, of Woodford county, Kentucky.

In 1848 his father gave him a liberal amount of money, which he invested judiciously, and from it derived a competent and abundant fortune. This enabled him to devote a portion of his time to politics, for which he evinced a decided fondness. He became an active politician and a prominent leader of the Free-soil party. In those days, making speeches against slavery on slave soil was somewhat dangerous; but Mr. Blair understood the temper and mettle of his opponents, and knew how much to say and when to say it. It was not long before his political enemies discovered that he was courageous, and would not be put down by threats. He was elected to the Legislature in 1852, and again in the following year. During his legislative term he made several speeches in favor of the Free-labor system, and aroused a strong sentiment against the exactions and encroachments of slavery. His bold words inflamed the Pro-slavery party, and created, of course, a strong feeling of hostility against him and his supporters; but he was not alarmed, nor deterred from the work he had undertaken. While the Free-labor movement made but little headway in the State, it gained a strong foothold in St. Louis, where the large German element existed, and in the spring of 1856 the Free-soil party was so well organized and drilled, under Blair's leadership, that it nominated a municipal ticket, and triumphantly elected it. The same year Mr. Blair was elected to

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Congress from the First District, and boldly advocated the doctrines of his party — but taking the position, which Henry Clay had taken years before, that the slaves, when emancipated, should be transported to Africa.

In 1858 Mr. Blair was nominated for re-election to Congress, but was beaten by J. Richard Barret, the candidate of the Democratic party. Mr. Blair contested the right of Mr. Barret to the seat, and after a lengthy examination of the case, the House of Representatives referred the matter back to the people. A new election was ordered for the remainder of the term, and for convenience, the election for the next term was held at the same time. It resulted in the election of Mr. Barret to the short term, and Mr. Blair to the long term.

He was subsequently elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress, in which he served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, and as a member of other important committees. His influence at this time, both in Congress and at home, was unbounded. A Southern man himself, a former slaveholder, and possessing many of the Southern traits of character, the cry of Abolitionist could not be raised against him, and he stood the most consistent promoter of anti-slavery doctrines in the United States. Says a recent writer: "His calm, argumentative manner in the debate even of an inflammable political question, amazed his adversaries, while his personal courage was so great that any attempt to overawe or intimidate him was labor lost."

In June 1860, at Mr. Blair's suggestion, a meeting of the Republicans of the State was called, to send delegates to the Chicago Presidential Convention. He was chosen as one of the delegates, and took an active part in the proceedings of that body. When a difficulty arose between the friends of Hon. Joshua R. Giddings and others, as to the propriety of adopting a certain resolution as part of the national platform, and the chairman of the Convention, Mr. Ashmun, had decided the question against the Giddings party, so that a division was imminent, Mr. Blair raised a point of order which brought the resolution fairly before the Convention again. This time it was so amended as to satisfy a majority of the delegates and still retain its force; and its adoption saved a split in the Republican party.

On returning to St. Louis after Mr. Lincoln's nomination, Mr. Blair addressed a ratification meeting, held at Lucas Market, but was so much interrupted by the "roughs" of the Democratic party, that he began to consider how similar scenes of violence might be prevented in

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future. His fertile brain conceived the idea of the "Wide Awakes," who were uniformed, provided with torches, and maintained order at Republican gatherings. The other party also formed clubs, known as "Minute Men," and collisions between these two parties were of frequent occurrence. The "Wide Awakes" often accompanied Blair on his country electioneering tours, and prevented many a stoning which he and his companions would otherwise have received.

With the election of Mr. Lincoln, the war seemed inevitable, and General Blair was the first to perceive the necessity of enlisting troops. No man was so active in the movement as he. He was the Captain of the first company of Union soldiers enlisted in Missouri, and materially assisted in defraying the expense of providing the men with suitable arms and accoutrements. When companies multiplied and grew to regiments, he was as active as before, and was by unanimous consent elected Colonel of the First regiment of Missouri Volunteers. While these troops were being enlisted and armed, the rebels were collecting a force at Camp Jackson to attack and take the Arsenal and make use of the large amount of stores placed there. General Blair's quick discernment unearthed the plot, and acting on his advice, General Lyon moved several regiments of volunteers and companies of regular United States soldiers from the Arsenal and Jefferson Barracks, and captured the camp with all therein. The unfortunate killing of citizens at the close of the day was deeply regretted by General Blair, but the insults of the mob were so wanton and their firing upon the troops so unprovoked, that the latter could not be restrained and in fact were not considered blamable. General Blair was censured by some conservative Union men at the time for the part he took in the capture of Camp Jackson. They claimed that the State troops were legally organized and called into service by the Governor, and had no intention of joining in rebellion against the United States Government. But General Blair knew, and subsequent events developed the fact, that the encampment was a well-laid plot to get control of the State and to seize United States property. General Blair nipped the conspiracy in the bud, and saved Missouri to the Union.

During the greater portion of 1861, General Blair's time was occupied in looking after the interests of Missouri. At his instance General Harney was removed from the command of the Missouri Department, because he thought the safety of the State and good of the public service required it; but when General Fremont, the successor of Harney,

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managed military affairs in a way that seemed to General Blair detrimental to the interests of the country, he demanded his removal also and secured it, notwithstanding a majority of the Germans, as well as a large number of prominent American Republicans, were in favor of Fremont's retention as Department commander. This act of securing Fremont's removal was the cause of a division in the ranks of the Emancipationists. Those who favored the immediate emancipation of slaves in the State, and were the strongest supporters of Mr. Lincoln's administration, became hostile to General Blair, and, notwithstanding past relations, both personal and political, denounced his action in unmeasured terms. He gained friends, however, from Conservatives, gradual Emancipationists and Democrats, and with the administration at Washington seemed stronger than ever. General Blair, in the meantime, continued to aid the cause of his country, both in the field and in the halls of Congress. Believing that he could be of more service to the Union cause in the army, he remained with his troops during the spring and summer of 1862, but later in the year he returned to St. Louis, and decided to test his political strength by offering himself again as a candidate for Congress. He made a strong canvass, and did not hesitate to deal hard blows against his old-time associates, who were now arrayed against him. Mr. Samuel Knox was the candidate of the Radical Emancipationists, opposed to him, and the official vote of the election gave Blair 4,743; Knox, 4,590; Bogy, Democrat, 2,536. The Radicals elected their legislative and county ticket. Mr. Knox subsequently contested Blair's right to the seat, and it was awarded to him. General Blair resumed his place in the army, having been promoted to the rank of Major-General of volunteers November 29, 1862, and determined to let political affairs at home take care of themselves. The breach that had been made in the Republican party of Missouri, however, was never healed so far as General Blair was concerned. He asked no quarter and would give none. His sentiments, so far as he expressed them, were against immediate emancipation, and his influence went to aid the opposition party.

At the close of the month of December 1872, an organized plan was put in operation for the capture of Vicksburg. Troops were accordingly sent up the Yazoo River in large numbers, under four experienced division commanders, and the whole expedition was under General Sherman's immediate control. General Blair commanded the First Brigade of the Fourth (Steele's) Division, and in the order of attack was given the right centre. When the command was given to advance

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he did so promptly, and made the assault on the enemy's line. The Record says:

The first movement was over a sloping plateau, raked by a direct and enfilading fire from heavy artillery, and swept by a storm of bullets from the rifle-pits. Undauntedly the brigade passed on, and in a few moments drove the enemy from their first range of rifle-pits, and took full possession of them. Halting for a moment, the brigade pushed forward and took possession of the second line of rifle-pits, about two hundred yards distant. The batteries were above this line, and their firing still continued. A prompt and powerful support was necessary to make the attempt to capture them. Simultaneously with the advance of General Blair, an order was given to General Thayer, of General Steele's division, to go forward with his brigade. He crossed the bayou by the same bridge as General Blair, and entered the abatis at the same point, and, deflecting to the right, came out upon the sloping plateau about two hundred yards to the right of General Blair, and at the same time. As he reached the rifle-pits, with a heavy loss, he perceived that only one regiment, the Fourth Iowa, Colonel Williamson, had followed him. After his movement commenced, the second regiment of his brigade had been sent to the right of General Morgan as a support. The other regiments had followed this one. Notice of this change of the march of the second regiment, although sent, had failed to reach General Thayer. With little hope of success he bravely pushed forward into the second line of rifle-pits of the enemy on the right of General Blair. Here, leaving the regiment to hold the position, he hurried back for reinforcements. Meanwhile, General Blair, vainly waiting for support, descended in person to persuade the advance of more troops. He and General Thayer both failed in their efforts, and were obliged to order their commands to retire. While General Blair was urging the advance of more troops, his brigade fought with desperation to win the way to the top of the crest. Meantime, a Confederate infantry force was concentrated to attack them, and after a sharp struggle, they were forced back to the second line of rifle-pits, when General Blair's order to retire was received.

The failure of the forces under General Grant to act in concert with those under General Sherman in this attack on Vicksburg, caused the latter to withdraw, and on January 2, 1863, the troops were embarked, and moved down to the mouth of the Yazoo River. Throughout this short campaign General Blair acted with great gallantry, coolness and prudence.

From this time until the final siege and capture of Vicksburg, General Blair was doing efficient service as a division commander. Whenever a difficult movement was to be made, he was selected to lead it, and when hard fighting was necessary his men were sure to be near. During the siege of the city, by order of General Grant, the division under Blair laid waste the country for fifty miles around, drove off the white inhabitants, burned the grist mills, cotton gins and granaries, and destroyed the crops. This course was distasteful to General Blair, but it was necessary in order to cut off the enemies' supplies and force capitulation, and he obeyed orders to the letter, his command acting as a "besom of destruction."

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On the death of General McPherson, General Blair was advanced to the command of the Seventeenth Army Corps. He had, during the fall and winter of 1863, participated in the active and successful campaigns of Sherman in Tennessee, and with the opening of spring these successes were followed up by a further advance into the enemy's country. At the battle of Kenesaw Mountains, on the 27th and 28th of May, General Blair held the extreme left of General McPherson's line, and rendered important service against the enemy. The army under Sherman, though temporarily defeated here, soon recuperated, and following up the enemy prepared for a siege against Atlanta. The history of that siege is familiar to all. In the operations before that city, General Blair bore a most conspicuous part as commander of the Seventeenth corps. His discipline was perfect, his judgment never at fault, and his courage inspired all his comrades. In the celebrated "March to the Sea" under Sherman, Blair's men were always in advance, and always skirmishing with the enemy. They never went hungry if there was anything in the way to forage on, and for this reason were frequently accused of doing bold and wanton acts, but as their record for fighting was so good, their little eccentricities were overlooked by all good Unionists.

With the capture of Savannah, on the 22d of December, the winter campaign of Sherman's army closed, and with the opening spring of 1865 the war virtually terminated. At the close of the great campaign to the sea, General Blair returned to his old home in St. Louis, where he was received with the warmest demonstrations of friendship and affection by all classes of citizens.

In reviewing the career of this eminent man, we cannot do better than to quote a portion of the speech made by Colonel Thomas T. Gantt, before the State Convention at Jefferson City on the 10th of July 1875, when the fact of his death was announced:

"Since 1848 General Blair has been always in public life. If a fault can be imputed to him it is that in his zeal for the service of the State he has almost culpably neglected the care of his own household. In 1848, by means of the investments which the liberality of his father enabled him to make in the rapidly-increasing city of St. Louis, he was possessed of a competent, nay an abundant fortune. He entered with ardor into public life. With a cool head, a warm heart and intrepid courage, he cherished as the dearest object of honorable ambition the wish to distinguish himself in the service of the State. He aspired to this service, looking to the consciousness of duty performed as a

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sufficient reward for the nights and days of toil which he devoted to its performance. Of course he was not indifferent to the fame that follows such performance; but for this fame, not for the vulgar and sordid remuneration which consists of the emoluments of office, he was more than willing to "scorn delights and live laborious days." Devoting himself thus to the public service, he did not, in servile fashion, seek to accommodate himself to the prevailing prejudice of the community. Never was a man less of the time-server than Frank Blair. He entered upon the political arena when what was called the "Wilmot proviso" agitated the country. He thought he saw in the efforts of some statesmen a menace to the perpetuity of the Union. He scented this danger afar off, and while others considered his apprehensions imaginary, he denounced boldly and loudly the measures from which he augured the coming peril. Those who lived then and partook of the events of that day know well how little of the idle alarmist was Frank Blair. It required the highest courage to contemplate and to consider the threatened danger. It is the part of a timid man to shut his eyes and his ears to danger when it is distant and when forethought may provide against it, but to be bewildered and dismayed when it closes upon him. Frank Blair belonged to that heroic band whose fears and deliberations, whose doubts and misgivings, are confined to the council chamber, but are banished from the field of action. He looked forward to and took measure of the threatened calamity; he made provision against it, giving all credit for capacity to hurt, while it was yet too distant to strike; but when he was confronted by it all doubt had vanished, all deliberation had ceased. The time for council had passed, the hour of action had arrived, and to the demands of that hour he never had an inadequate reply. By reason of having considered exhaustively the proportions of an evil while it was yet distant, he was unappalled by its near approach, and thus events of the most startling nature never found him unprepared. What many attributed to the endowment of an almost miraculous presence of mind was really due to patient and laborious provision and preparation. Like another heroic man whose name stands for the admiration of preceding ages, he was ‘Saevis in tranquillus undis’ ‘tranquil amidst tumult because he had dared to fear in tranquillity.’

"I have remarked upon the intrepidity of his character. There never was a man who took less counsel of his fears. If he was accessible to a feeling which Turenne declared to be a part of human nature, he never allowed it perceptibly to sway his conduct, and over and over again he distinguished himself by assuming and performing tasks from

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which, on one pretext or another, all others shrank. In his earlier political life, he led in an enterprise which was beset with obloquy and peril. For a long time he had very few followers. Those who sympathized with his views and avowed their sympathy, gave a conspicuous proof of their own courage; but all such will acknowledge that his leadership was never challenged. I will not dwell on the events of the years between 1852 and 1861; but, coming to the latter period, I think I may say that to him more than to any man living or dead, it is due that Missouri, and by consequence Kentucky, stood where they did in the eventful years that followed. I think also that he takes a shortsighted and imperfect view of our history who does not perceive that had these two States stood with Virginia in the terrible struggle that followed, the result of that struggle would have been widely different; and all who believe that it was a benefit to the whole country that it should exist undivided, must recognize a debt of immeasurable magnitude to Frank Blair.

"In the bloody war which marked the attempt to accomplish this division, Frank Blair played the part of a gallant soldier, but of a soldier whose sword was drawn only against the enemy who stood with arms in his hands. He never pillaged, nor permitted his command to pillage. He fought to secure the supremacy of the Constitution and the perpetuity of the Union. When that was accomplished, he sheathed his sword. So far as he was concerned, the contest was over, the triumph was ended as soon as his opponent lowered his weapon. The moment this was done, he was once more the friend and brother of those against whom he was lately arrayed in deadly strife. In his eyes nothing but necessity justified a resort to arms. And when the necessity was over, all further justification ceased. Those who did not know these convictions of the heroic man whose death we commemorate, can hardly understand his conduct in 1865 and 1866.

"While insurrection was in armed resistance to Federal authority, he treated insurrectionists as enemies with whom it was idle to argue, and whom it was necessary to strike down with the deadliest weapons at the command of the national resources. But when resistance ceased, he was transformed from the inexorable enemy of disunionists into the most gracious and indulgent friend of his misguided countrymen, who had ceased to attempt what he regarded in the light of hideous crime. Accordingly, when he returned to St. Louis in 1865, after the close of the war, to find that many thousands of those who had been, and then were his fiercest political enemies, were disfranchised, his first act was

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to protest energetically against the outrage; to commence in the courts of this State a litigation, the object of which was to demonstrate the illegal character of this disfranchisement, and to enter upon efforts, which did not cease until they were successful, to remove the yoke which rested on the necks of his enemies. All know what he did in 1865, 1866, 1868 and 1870, but few understand the nobleness of his purposes and aims. By many he is supposed to have simply pursued a personal end by means which he considered calculated to attain it. It is considered by a large proportion of mankind that he was, like other political adventurers, aiming at popular favor, by assuming the advocacy of a numerous class. Surely nothing can be more unjust than this. It is contradicted by his whole history. While it was dangerous to avow Republicanism in Missouri, he did not shrink from the avowal. When Republicanism was in the ascendant, and Radicalism under the command of Fremont, commenced its reign of terror and martial law in Missouri, he forsook the dominant party, and exposed himself to obloquy and persecution, nay, to the extremity of personal danger, by withstanding the tyranny of this department commander. When Mr. Chase discriminated against St. Louis and in favor of Chicago and Cincinnati in his treasury regulations, he at once throttled him, and earned for himself all the consequences of that opposition. Returning from the army at the close of a war in which he had commanded a corps, at the head of which he bore back the fiery onset of Hood on the 22d of July 1864, there was no political preferment in Missouri in the gift of the dominant party to which he might not reasonably have aspired. Did he seek to utilize this position? Did he appeal to the dominant party for such preferment? The world knows that he did nothing of the kind. He saw that this party rested upon injustice, against which his soul revolted. He refused to hold any communion with those who were guilty of this injustice. He refused to profit by this iniquity, and ranged himself, not with the powerful oppression, but with the feeble victim of the wrong. He did not confine himself to empty protest. He threw himself into the thick of angry and dangerous contests; and it may be doubted whether, in all the bloody campaign of 1864, he fronted more peril from the casualties of war than he encountered in 1866 from the animosities of those who then held Missouri with the armed hand, and enforced the subjection of her people by military violence — all who remember those days know that he electrified all hearts by his eminently dauntless spirit. The springing valor with which he met and put down the ruffianism by which he was

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encountered on this memorable occasion, was in its effect on those whose cause he espoused, like that which, in a darker age, would have been ascribed to supernatural influences. It was, indeed, something divine. It was the work of the most precious gift which God makes to humanity — the gift of an heroic spirit which rises to meet a deadly emergency, which grapples with an evil which will otherwise undo a people, and which, by the aid of that power which always helps those who manfully help themselves, achieves the deliverance of mankind.

"The gratitude of the State selected Frank Blair to represent Missouri in the Senate of the United States, after he had freed her citizens, in 1870, from the odious discriminations imposed on them by the Radicals of 1865. How well he served the State in that exalted sphere need not he stated here. His acts belong to the history of the country. I have not attempted to chronicle them either in his civil or military career. Time does not permit it, but this much I may say: Frank Blair went into public life a rich man. He left it impoverished and destitute. He was never suspected by the bitterest enemy of unlawfully appropriating to his own use a single penny, either from the treasury of the public, or as a gratuity from those who beset the halls of legislation, and, in one shape or another, give to men in public stations bribes for the betrayal of public duty. He leaves to his children an unspotted name in lieu of a worldly wealth. It is a precious and it is an imperishable inheritance.

"Among all the men I have ever known I rank the departed as supreme in generosity and magnanimity. Rancor and malice were foreign to his nature. The moment he had overcome his enemy his own weapons fell from his hands. Any one who had seen him only when a stern duty was to be performed, when mistaken lenity would have been the greatest cruelty, might imagine that he was all compact of flint and iron. The moment that firmness had done its work and there was no longer occasion for rigor, he was the surest refuge for all who had ceased to resist. To those who had been guilty of wrong and treachery towards himself he was forgiving to a degree which bordered on weakness. It is an honorable distinction that this is the worst censure that can be passed upon his heroic nature."

The events of the last years of General Blair's life have been mentioned by Colonel Gantt in appropriate terms. He did not long hold the position of Collector of Customs, to which he was appointed by President Johnson, but magnanimously yielded it to an old friend. Subsequently, he was Government Railroad Commissioner for the Pacific Railroad.

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His short term in the United States Senate was distinguished for the same boldness and honesty of purpose that characterized his earlier congressional career. If he had been more moderate and less honest on some occasions in his utterances, his prospects for the Vice-Presidency would have been more flattering.

With the close of General Blair's senatorial term, his health completely failed. He suffered from a slight attack of paralysis in 1871, but recovered sufficiently to perform his usual duties. A second attack, a year or two later, prostrated him to such an extent that he never recovered. His family indulged the hope that a residence at Clifton Springs, New York, would be beneficial to him. He was taken there, and, for a time, derived some benefit from the waters and pure air of that place. On his return to St. Louis, he showed signs of recovery, and walked the streets again to the great delight of his old friends. Over-exertion, however, both mental and physical, caused a relapse, and he was confined to his house again. His condition grew gradually worse, and, after many remedies had been tried without affording much relief or giving much encouragement to his friends, the process of transfusing blood from a healthy person to his veins was commenced, with beneficial results. It was repeated from time to time, and — Dr. Franklin the attending physician, thinks — would have proved entirely successful had it not been for an accident he met with on the 8th of July. The physician relates the circumstances:

"About six o'clock yesterday evening I was called to see him, and found him suffering from the effects of a fall he had received about a quarter past four o'clock in the afternoon. He had been in the habit of walking about his room, and even down stairs. He had been improving rapidly, and the family placed him at the window, supposing he would remain there, while they were down stairs, I suppose, attending to their domestic duties. He was alone in the room but a little while, when he attempted to walk across the floor. In doing so he fell, and, striking his head, received quite a severe blow. He experienced much pain from the concussion, and his paralyzed side was rigid with spasms. He was breathing turgidly and suffering from the effects of coma — unconscious, unable to swallow anything, and the slightest pressure of his hand produced a violent spasm; it was impossible even to touch him. I told the family to watch, knowing he could not live long. At nine o'clock I found his pulse was sinking, and becoming constantly more and more weak — all these symptoms foretelling a fatal termination. General Blair had no apoplexy, but paralysis and softening of the brain. The fall produced a tremendous shock to his system, and probably ruptured vessels in the interior of the brain. That is my diagnosis; there was pressure on the brain, and he died from the effects of compression."

The death of General Blair produced profound regret and sorrow in St. Louis and throughout the country. Meetings were held by the St. Louis Bar, the ex-soldiers of the Missouri Volunteers, the City

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Council, and other bodies, at which speeches eulogistic of the deceased soldier and statesman were made, and resolutions passed in honor of his memory.

The State Convention, in session at Jefferson City, unanimously adopted the following resolutions:

1. That in his death the State of Missouri has lost one of her most useful and eminent citizens, distinguished alike for his private virtues and his brilliant record as a soldier and a patriot.

2. That the deceased was strongly marked by the possession of those high qualities which adorn the man, the character of truth, honesty, sincerity, courage and magnanimity, and which justly gave him a firm hold upon the affections and confidence of his fellow-countrymen.

3. That the dark shadow which the unwelcome messenger, death, has thrown around the domestic circle has awakened our deepest sympathy, and we tender to his venerable parents, his bereaved widow and children, and his numerous friends, our sincere condolence for the irreparable loss which they have sustained.

4. That the President of this Convention cause a copy of these resolutions to be presented to the family of the deceased, and with an expression of our sympathies as here set forth.

5. That these resolutions be spread upon the journal of this Convention, signed by the President and Secretary, and the public press of the State be requested to publish the same.

6. That, in respect to the memory of our departed friend, this Convention do now adjourn to to-morrow at 8 o'clock.

At a meeting of ex-Confederates in St. Louis, the following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That we, the ex-Confederates here assembled, do as deeply mourn his loss, and as heartily acknowledge his high character and great abilities, as can those who never differed from him in the past great struggle; as soldiers who fought against the cause he espoused, we honor and respect the fidelity, high courage and energy he brought to his aid; as citizens of Missouri, we recognize the signal service done his State as one of her Senators in the National council; as Americans, we are proud of his manhood; and as men we deplore the loss from among us of one in whom was embodied so much of honor, generosity and gentleness, and we remember with gratitude that so soon as the late civil strife was ended, he was among the first to prove the honesty of his course by welcoming us back as citizen's of the Union he had fought to maintain, and that he never thereafter ceased to battle for the restoration and maintenance of our rights under the Constitution.

General Blair's funeral, on Sunday, the 11th of July, was attended by a very large concourse of people. All classes were represented, and the public buildings and many private residences displayed emblems of mourning. The services were held at the First

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Congregational church, Tenth and Locust streets, Dr. Post preaching an eloquent and appropriate discourse. Dr. J. H. Brooks also delivered a short address on the occasion.

General Blair had, a year or two previous to his death, publicly professed the Christian faith, and united with the Presbyterian Church. He left a family consisting of the sorely-bereaved widow, five sons and three daughters, namely: Andrew A., aged twenty-six; Christine, aged twenty-three; James L., aged twenty-one; Frank P., Jr., aged nineteen; George M., aged seventeen; Cora M., aged seven; Evelyn, aged five; and William Alexander, aged two.

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Mrs. Elizabeth Crittenden.

THE distinguished women of America have seldom been honored with an appropriate place in the biographical history of our country. Though possessing attributes and characteristics frequently illustrated by noble deeds, which really entitle them to be ranked among the "illustrious few" whose names live forever, they have been only cherished by their families and intimate associates, and in a few decades their names alone remain to connect the living generations with the past. The record of the dignity, benevolence and intellectual and social accomplishments of our most distinguished women have, at best, found a place in "sketches" by other women; or those, in honor and admiration of whom too much cannot be said, are mentioned but casually in the written lives of celebrated men, whom their influence has made "great."

In this volume, which contains the history of the distinguished citizens of St. Louis, it is eminently proper that mention should be made of MRS. ELIZABETH CRITTENDEN.

The ancestors of Mrs. Crittenden, having come from England, resided in Albermarle and Goochland counties, Virginia. Her greatgrandfather, Colonel John Woodson, inherited from his father a large landed estate, called "Dover," on James River, in Goochland. He married Dorothea Randolph, of "Dupgeness," one of whose sisters was the mother of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, and another the mother of Governor Pleasants, of Virginia. A son of Colonel and Mrs. Woodson married his cousin, Elizabeth Woodson, and their daughter Mary, in 1801, was married to Dr. James W. Moss, of Albermarle county, Virginia. These latter were the parents of Elizabeth Moss, the subject of this brief notice.

A few years after his marriage, Dr. Moss removed to Mason county, Kentucky, where Elizabeth was born, and where she was educated, and lived until the removal of her father to Missouri, just before she had attained the age of womanhood.

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Dr. Moss first located in St. Louis, but, after a short residence in the city, he was attracted to the fertile and beautiful lands of the county of Boone, where he devoted himself to farming on a large scale, and to the gratuitous practice of his profession, in which he had attained great skill and reputation. A man of intelligence, education and culture, with a fine personal presence and great refinement and suavity of manner, he was prominent, and his home was one of the chief centres of social attraction among the many prosperous families from Virginia and Kentucky, that had settled in Boone and in the adjoining county of Howard, which two counties were, at that time, much in advance of any other portion of interior Missouri.

Of all the varied attractions of his lovely home, there was none greater, none perhaps so great, as the presence of his fascinating daughter, the subject of this sketch, who was then noted for the rare accomplishments for which she was afterward so much distinguished, heightened by the charm of youthful beauty. She was sought in marriage, and soon became the wife of Dr. Daniel P. Wilcox, a young but promising and highly educated physician. Her early married years were happily passed among the quiet scenes of a village life, where her character was formed among friends by whom she was universally admired and sincerely loved, and whom she never forgot, or ceased to cherish, in her subsequent, brilliant, social career. At that early age she was a remarkable woman, as in after-life, and at no time, perhaps, were the fascinating beauties of her character so conspicuous.

Dr. Wilcox was a man of great personal popularity, and was soon called to represent his county in the Legislature of Missouri; but he did not live long to serve his State, or to enjoy the happiness of union with his lovely wife. He died a member of the Senate of Missouri, leaving his young widow with two daughters. One of these married our well-known fellow-citizen, Andrew McKinley, Esq., son of the late Justice McKinley, of the Supreme Court of the United States, and now the popular and efficient president of Forest Park. The other became the wife of Hon. E. C. Cabell, for many years the representative in Congress from the State of Florida, but now a resident of St. Louis. Mrs. Cabell died in the fall of 1873.

After the death of Dr. Wilcox, his widow remained in the seclusion of her country home until she became, at the age of thirty, the wife of General William H. Ashley, a wealthy and distinguished citizen of St. Louis, and, at the time, a member of the lower house of the United States Congress, from Missouri.

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Immediately after this marriage, Mrs. Ashley was ushered into the society of Washington, then adorned by many women of intellect, education and refinement. Her remarkable beauty and grace at once attracted great attention, and very soon her tact and mental accomplishments, the simplicity of her manner, her dignity of deportment, and her kind consideration for others, made her welcome everywhere; and she soon became, and for thirty years continued to be, the favorite in the most refined and elegant circles of metropolitan life.

General Ashley died, in 1838. He was a remarkable man — one of the best types of the early Western pioneers. Generous, brave, and daring, he was "the soul of honor," and commanded universal respect. He was, at an early date, connected with the North American Fur Company, and commanded several expeditions to the Rocky Mountains at a time when most of the country west of St. Louis was a wilderness, inhabited by Indians and buffaloes. His fortune was made in the fur trade. He won the confidence, affection and admiration of the inhabitants of Missouri before and after the admission of the State into the Union. Tall and graceful as Andrew Jackson, his presence was commanding, his bearing dignified, and his manners elegant. His great integrity and native intelligence, added to his strong will and force of character, and experience and knowledge of men, made him truly "a man of mark," and gave him a popularity and influence which made it possible to resist and overcome what was at that time considered, the omnipotent power of Thomas H. Benton over the politics of the State. He was elected and reelected member of Congress in spite of the opposition and protest of Benton. He was conspicuous for his enterprise and public spirit, and was one of its early settlers to whom St. Louis owes so much. He was a man who deserved to be mated with the distinguished woman of whose life we are making this brief sketch.

The home which General Ashley had provided for his beautiful bride, is well known to the older citizens of St. Louis as "The Mound." It is now in the heart of the city, and would not be recognized. It was then a magnificent suburban residence. The house, for those days, might be called elegant. In front an extensive level lawn, and in rear — sloping, with terraces, to the banks of the Mississippi, all covered with fine forest trees and varied shrubbery; and the view of river and country was extensive and beautiful. This was the charming home of the most elegant and accomplished woman in St. Louis, provided by one of the noblest of men. Here General Ashley dispensed the most generous

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hospitality, graced by the attractions and dignified bearing, and the elegance and accomplishments of his wife.

To this home, now rendered sad by the death of her excellent husband, Mrs. Ashley returned from Washington. Here, for several years, she devoted herself chiefly to the education of her daughters; but her magnetic attractions drew around her a circle of attached, admiring friends, and her house became the seat of unostentatious hospitality, which it was a privilege to enjoy, and to which the kind-hearted hostess cordially invited all who were worthy of it. There are few citizens of St. Louis then and now living, who cannot recall, with pleasant satisfaction, some happy hours for which they are indebted to this estimable lady during this period of her life.

In February 1853, she was married to Hon. John J. Crittenden, the distinguished Kentucky Senator, who was, at that time, the Attorney-General of the United States under Mr. Fillmore's administration. From that time until his death, in 1863, Mr. Crittenden continued in Congress, and his wife passed all those winters in Washington with her husband. She had passed several preceding winters there with her daughter, Mrs. Cabell, and during the interval which elapsed after the death of General Ashley, she had spent several seasons at the capital.

No woman in America was so widely known. She was on terms of familiar acquaintance with all the public men of our own and the representatives of foreign countries, during the eventful period of our history, from the exciting times of South Carolina nullification to the culminating collapse of the war between the States. All were her friends. She was universally admired, and her society eagerly courted, not only at Washington, but in all our large cities from Boston to New Orleans, and at all fashionable watering places; yet of her no word of censure was ever heard. All men and all women, all children and all servants, too, spoke of her only words of praise, admiration, love and reverence.

How and why was it that this simple country girl, reared and educated away from cities, with none of the advantages (?) of fashionable education and training, born and living to womanhood in the "wild woods of the West," should have won so entirely the respect and admiration of the generation in which she lived? Without adventitious aid, without having had the fortune to do any one thing specially to distinguish her, she made herself not only the peer, but prima inter pares of the most gifted and brilliant women of her country. The cause may be summed up in that one word, TACT: the result of great native intellect and supreme goodness of heart.

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She was a great reader, and her familiar knowledge of the British classics and acquaintance with the literature of her own country, with her excellent judgment and great discretion, made her conversation always polished, charming and impressive. As every true woman should, she carefully studied the "art of dress," which no one better understood, and her toilette was always marked by great elegance, but greater taste. But her social success was achieved by exquisite tact and elevation of heart and mind, rather than by the more dazzling and frivolous refinements of fashionable life. It was her delight to dispense happiness; and many were the opportunities of which she availed herself to bring out merit from obscurity. She was ever performing kind offices, in a way that secured the best results without wounding the feeling of those obliged. She not only knew the public men of the country, but was well acquainted with the leading families of every section of the Union, and those introduced to her in the most casual way were generally astonished to find that she knew them, their families and friends. She rarely forgot anything she had ever heard or knew, except such things as were unpleasant or disagreeable, and these things she carefully put behind her, and speedily forgot. She was never known to forget a face, and rarely the name of one to whom she had been introduced, however remote may have been the time of meeting. She always entered, with sympathy, into the affairs of her young friends, whom she had frequent opportunities to serve, and always in the most delicate way. In every part of the American Union one may hear persons of the highest social position speak of her with ardent gratitude and affection, and of the many kind acts and attentions by which she contributed to their benefit or enjoyment. She was perfectly familiar with all the political issues of the day, and on them she spoke fluently and intelligently, but not as a partisan. Whatever the subject of conversation might be, whether political, literary, or social, she never assumed the air of superiority, or seemed conscious that her opinion or judgment was better than that of others. She also had "a gracious way of listening." Many ladies who converse well do not listen with attention, especially to persons less gifted than themselves. Not so with her. She possessed, in an eminent degree, this happy faculty always so charming in women, and so gratifying to man's amour-propre.

These are some of the qualities which made her career so wonderfully successful. As another element which went to make up this grand success, it may be mentioned that while all were her friends, she had

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no intimates. Genial, social and kind, she took no liberties with her friends, and never permitted them to "take liberties" with her. Even her most familiar lady friends she invariably received in the parlor, never in her chamber, as is too frequently the slip-shod way with the women, especially the young women, of America.

As an illustration of the estimate in which she was held in Washington, where so much of her life had been spent, we may mention an incident which occurred about, the beginning of our late war. It is rare that a lady receives such a tribute as was offered to Mrs. Crittenden. As a token of great regard and high appreciation, a "reception" was given to her in the parlors of the National Hotel, Washington, on which occasion the following address was presented by Hon. Mr. Lovejoy, member of Congress from Illinois:

MRS. CRITTENDEN: While the whole Union is paying its tribute of willing and abundant honors to the venerable Senator whose name you adorn, and whose home you bless, we, the guests of the National, and some of your other numerous friends in Washington, come to pay our respects to your many excellencies.

We bring no gifts of gold or silver taken from the cold earth; but we offer you the more precious treasures of our hearts — our affection, respect, esteem and admiration.

For many years you have held a conspicuous place in the best circle of Washington. Your exalted place in society has been adorned by grace, dignity, courtesy and kindness universally manifested. These constantly flowing streams could have no other fountain than a heart full of goodness.

It is the testimony of those who have been longest your friends, that they have never heard from you a word that could wound, nor seen a look that could give pain. Detraction you have always scorned; kindness and genial feelings you have cherished. You have thus been a nation's benefactor.

The names of Cornelia, Portia, Madame Roland and Lady Holland have become classic in history for their patriotism, high social qualities, and domestic virtues. Uniting the patriotism of the Roman matron to the conjugal devotion of Madame Roland and the polished refinement of Lady Holland, your presence has diffused a charm wherever known. You have shown us that if political life is an ocean with its dark waves and angry storms, social life may be a calm, serene lake, reflecting bright images of purity and love.

The names of Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Madison and Mrs. Crittenden will always shine in the annals of social life in Washington.

We pay you the homage of our sincere respect and esteem. We take your daguerreotype upon our hearts, and will keep it fresh while memory lasts. The hand of time has dealt so kindly with you thus far, that while you have the health and vigor of middle age, you still retain the freshness and vivacity of youth. May that hand still lead you gently on, till we all meet you in that better land, where youth is perpetual and beauty unfading!

Senator Crittenden was a man of great simplicity of character and of unbounded hospitality. His house was ever full of devoted friends, of whom few men could boast so great a number. His wife adorned his simple home in Frankfort, Kentucky, with all the graces and attractions

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which had made her so conspicuous in Washington. Her remarkable versatility adapted her equally to all ranks and conditions, and the hospitable fire-side of Mrs. Crittenden was rendered more charming by her wonderful domestic knowledge and home accomplishments. In all the varied departments of housekeeping, Mrs. Crittenden was as proficient as in those qualities which gave her high position in fashionable society.

In every relation of life she was distinguished for excellence. As daughter, mother, maid, wife and widow she ever performed her full duty. Remarkable as she was for intelligence, good sense, and brilliancy in society — grandly as she bore herself in the gilded halls of wealth and fashion and state — nowhere did she appear to better advantage, nowhere did her virtues and true womanliness shine so brightly, as in her first quiet little home of love in Boone, and again, in mature life, as head of the simple household of the illustrious Kentucky Senator.

After the death of Senator Crittenden, Mrs. Crittenden removed to the city of New York, where she resided eight years. There she found many who had known and loved her in her earlier career. Every Saturday was her "reception day" throughout the year, and strangers and citizens alike came to pay homage to one whose life had been distinguished by every quality which adorns the character of woman.

She returned to St. Louis in the early fall of 1872, to be with her children, who had come back to our city about the same time. But she lived only a short time to enjoy their companionship and her reunion with the friends of earlier days.

On the 8th of February 1873, this remarkable woman died suddenly of apoplexy, and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery. The large concourse of citizens, which sadly followed her remains to their last resting place, attested the respect and affection with which she was regarded in this city.

Elizabeth Crittenden is one of those characters whom God has not permitted to live in vain and for nought. From her life may be deduced a moral of great value, and from it may be formed a model by which mothers may well strive to form the characters of their daughters.

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James H. Lucas.

JAMES H. LUCAS was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1800, and was consequently aged seventy-three at his decease. His father, John B. C. Lucas, was a native of Normandy, received a liberal education at the University of Caen, and visiting Paris after the close of the American revolution, adopted the recommendation of Dr. Franklin, and with other chivalric, ambitious young Frenchmen, emigrated to America. James le Ray du Chaumont, at whose father's house, near Passy, Franklin and Adams were domiciled, also came to the United States about the same time, and bought immense tracts of land in Otsego and Jefferson counties, New York. Mr. Lucas went to Pennsylvania, and settled in Pittsburg, where he subsequently was appointed judge of the District Court, was efficient in enforcing the law during the whiskey rebellion, and represented the State in the National Congress. Before the year 1800, he was sent on a special mission, by Mr. Jefferson, to the then Territory of Louisiana, to sound the people in regard to the acquisition of the country by the United States, and thereby give unobstructed navigation to the mouth of the Mississippi for our commerce. On this mission he became impressed with the site of the "future great city," but Ste. Genevieve being then the most important point, he went there, and had a conference with Francis Valle, the Spanish commandant. The object of his diplomatic visit was concealed, and it is said that he went under the assumed name of Du Panthro. After the acquisition of Louisiana, he was appointed by President Jefferson one of the judges of the Territory, and, in conjunction with Governor Wilkinson and Return Jonathan Meigs, commissioner to adjust land titles. He removed to St. Louis with his family in 1805, the tedious journey being made on keel-boats down the Ohio and up the Mississippi.

St. Louis was then, with some exceptions, merely the residence of the indolent trapper or most desperate adventurer. Then there were no indications of public spirit, or any desire other than that of accumulation with the least possible exertion. The houses, mostly of wood

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daubed with clay, or built of stone in massive style, gave an idea of antique fortresses. Chouteau hill is described in the chronicles of the time as a barren waste over which the winds whistled and wild animals roamed. The streets were in a horrid condition. In this pristine period of the city young Lucas passed his boyhood days. In after years he related having seen wolves prowling about near the present site of Nicholson's establishment, on Sixth and Chestnut. They came out of the woods during the cold winter of 1808. The boys trapped prairie chickens where the Laclede Hotel stands, also in the fields near Twelth and Olive, where the Missouri Park is located. In 1814 young Lucas went with his father to Washington City. They traveled the entire distance on horseback, avoiding Vincennes on account of the Indians. It required from thirty to forty days to travel to Philadelphia. The traveler who then made a journey to the Atlantic States did not resolve upon it without mature deliberation. Months of preparation were required. Kind wishes and prayers were offered for the safe return of the voyagers by those who remained behind. There would have been some interest in announcing the departures.

At the proper age young Lucas was sent to school. He first attended St. Charles College, in charge of the Dominican Order, at Harrisburg, Kentucky. Among his schoolmates at this institution were Jefferson Davis, Louis A. Benoist, Bernard Pratte, Gustave Soulard and Bion Gratiot. Mr. Lucas next attended school about 1816, with his brother William, at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and it was while there that he received news of the death of his brother Charles, killed in a duel with Colonel Benton. The subject of the sketch taught school and studied law at Hudson, New York. He also visited various parts of New England, and pursued his law studies with Judge Reeves, of Litchfield, Connecticut, and among the students attending at the same time were Governor Ashley, Ichabod Bartlett, of New Hampshire, and N. P. Talmadge, afterward United States Senator from New York. During one of his vacations he spent some time in Franklin, New Haven, where he was known as the "Young Frenchman," a designation given him from his habit of wearing in the morning a robe-de-chambre, which was a novelty in the way of dress in those parts.

Becoming satisfied that the East was not the place suited for him, he returned to St. Louis, and casting about for a place to settle he started on a keel-boat in 1813 for South America, having for companions Governor Ashley and another young man. They landed at Montgomery Point, on the White River, and changing their destination, went up the

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White River in a pirogue, passed through the "Cut-off" to Arkansas Post, where Mr. Lucas located for a time, and also at Little Rock. He turned his hand during this period to various avocations. He taught school and practiced law, passing his evenings in study. He worked for a time on the Arkansas Gazette, and set type to help out Mr. Woodruff, who was then editor of that sheet. He became the owner of a plantation, and had a ferry, when he would convey foot-passengers over the river opposite his farm at a cost of twenty-five cents. He worked his way slowly up, and was appointed by Governor Miller Probate Judge. He has since related that as judge, he did a fair business in marrying people. He officiated at the wedding of Albert Pike, the poet-lawyer and statesman. On one occasion, he married a couple, using instead of a Bible to satisfy the scruples of the party, a Webster's spelling book. In May 1832, he married Miss Mary E. Dessuseaux, the daughter of an early settler of Arkansas and a native of Cahokia, Illinois, who survives him. Among other positions filled by him at this period was that of Major in the Territorial militia of Arkansas, an appointment also tendered him by Governor James Miller in 1825.

He continued to prosper, when, on the death of his brother William at St. Louis, in 1837, he received a letter from his father, Judge Lucas, requesting him to come and settle in St. Louis, as he was the only son who was living, and he was desirous that he should be near him. He obeyed the wishes of his father, and forsaking his prospects in Arkansas, removed to St. Louis, since which time he has been identified with its growth and prosperity. He arrived in 1838, having been here on a visit the year before. His father gave him what he called his farm, of thirty acres of land, then valued by the old gentleman at $30,000, and also placed him in charge of his estate. Mr. Lucas cultivated the farm, and had his residence near the fountain in Lucas, now called Missouri Park.

Judge J. B. C. Lucas died in 1843, and James H. Lucas and his sister, Mrs. Anna M. Hunt, succeeded to the estate.

The original tract owned by the estate was bounded north by St. Charles street, on the east by Fourth, south by Market, and west by Pratte avenue. That embraced the Lucas property up to 1837. The last acquisition made by the old Judge was Cote Brilliante, consisting of 240 acres, which was bought for $150 in gold, and comprised the undivided land owned by Mr. Lucas and Mrs. Hunt. Mr. Lucas had also another farm, the New Madrid location, his country seat, called

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"Normandy," on the St. Charles Rock road, nine miles from the city. This portion, now belonging to the Lucas estate, comprises 800 acres. Also, at the mouth of the Missouri river, there are 643 acres belonging to the estate. This is an old Spanish fort, where the battle of Bellefontaine was fought, in which fight Charles Lucas participated as Colonel. There is also the Courtois tract, consisting of 400 arpents, near Eureka station on the Meramec, still undivided; also, 20 acres on the Clayton road, the old Barrett place. In the management of the city portion of his vast estate in building and improvements, Mr. Lucas devoted the remaining years of his protracted life, and but rarely engaged in the turbulent excitement of political affairs.

He, however, consented to run for State Senator in 1844, and, being elected, served four years with credit to himself. He secured the passage of an act reducing the statute of limitations in ejectment cases from twenty to ten years.

In 1847, Mr. Lucas was brought forward as the candidate of the Whig party for Mayor, his opponents being W. M. Campbell, Native American, and Judge Bryan Mullanphy, Democrat. Mr. Lucas was drawn into the canvass unwillingly, being drafted as it were, but having become a candidate, entered into the contest with spirit. The result was that Judge Mullanphy was elected, the vote being — Mullanphy, 2,453; Campbell, 1,829; Lucas, 962. The Whig party was then in its decadence, and the putting forward of Mr. Lucas as its candidate was in the nature of a forlorn hope in its struggle for existence.

Immersed in the concerns of the large business connected with his immense property, he found time for, and was identified with, many public enterprises. He was an early champion of railroads in Missouri. He was among the original subscribers to the stock of the Missouri Pacific Railroad to the amount of $33,000, and was the second president of that company. In 1868 he was again elected president. He was instrumental in purchasing the State's lien at $7,500,000, and with James Harrison negotiated a loan on the bonds. He was the first president and organizer of the St. Louis Gas Company. He was a director in the Boatmen's Savings Institution; an extensive stockholder and director in many of the various moneyed institutions of the city, and was intrusted with many responsible positions.

In 1857 the banking firm of Lucas, Symonds & Co., of St. Louis, and the branch in San Francisco, under the firm of Lucas, Turner & Co., went under with the financial panic of that year. In these financial troubles Mr. Lucas assumed the entire liabilities, and paid off

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every creditor, with ten per cent. interest, the loss to him amounting in the aggregate to about half a million of dollars. The debtors of the banking houses he never sued, but accepted whatever was offered.

In 1856 Mr. Lucas sought a temporary relaxation from his labors in an extensive tour through Europe, his traveling companions being his son William and his daughter, Mrs. Hicks, now the wife of Judge Hager of California. He visited the home of his ancestors in Normandy, and bought the old homestead near Pont-Audemer. Returning home he attended with assiduous industry to the management of his business. Under the transforming hand of time and the rise in the value of real estate, his riches increased with the rapid progress of St. Louis.

At every corner and in every nook, houses, great and small, have risen, like exhalations from the ground. Structures were reared and finished before one was aware that they had been commenced, and from the little fur trading post, with four thousand inhabitants, the city has grown up to a size of metropolitan grandeur, with hotels, churches and palatial residences rising on every side. Mr. Lucas has seen all this, bore a part of it, and his name will long be associated with these monuments of our history and prosperity. He owned two hundred and twenty-five dwellings and stores previous to the division of his property in 1872. His taxes last year on his portion of the estate were $126,000. He had in all three hundred and odd tenants. Before the division two years ago of two millions to his wife and eight children, the income was $40,000 per month, amounting to nearly half a million annually. After giving away the two millions, the portion of the estate left is estimated by good judges at five millions. He was also largely interested in the Pilot Knob Iron Company, owning one-fifth of the stock, which he gave away to his children, being $25,000 to each, and not included in the two millions given them as before stated. At an early day his father, Judge Lucas, lived in a stone house on Seventh street, between Market and Chestnut, and he also had a farm residence in the woods, on the site of the First Presbyterian church, and one of the apple trees of the old orchard is yet standing.

The residence of Mr. Lucas was for many years on the south-east corner of Ninth and Pine, known now as the "Porcher mansion," but of late years he resided in an elegant dwelling on Lucas Place, bought of John How in 1867.

Mr. Lucas, though the possessor of vast means, was many times a borrower of money. He was at some periods what is called "land

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poor." About twenty years ago, while attending a meeting at the Planters', he told a well-known citizen that he was worth two millions in real estate, but that he frequently had not money enough to do his marketing.

Many instances might be given of Mr. Lucas' liberality, but a few will suffice:
He projected and built Lucas Market, an enterprise, it is true, that tended to advance his own property adjoining. He gave a quit claim deed to the old jail lot. He donated to the Historical Society a lot valued at $10,000, situated on Locust, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets.

He donated $11,000 toward building the Southern Hotel. Recently he encouraged the New Exchange enterprise by selling a portion of the ground to the association at a low price, and by taking $20,000 stock, with assurances that the Fourth street front, when built, would be equal in elegance and architectural design to the building of the Chamber of Commerce Association. He gave to the city Missouri Park. Two or three times he and Mrs. Hunt gave lots for a Cathedral, besides giving lots and donations of money to numerous charitable institutions.

The following instance of his liberality may also be mentioned in this connection: At the close of the war, in 1865, a man came up here from Little Rock, with $8,000 in "starvation bonds," which he endeavored to sell, in order to meet his pressing wants. The only offer he received was twenty cents on the dollar for the bonds. Mr. Lucas took them at their face, making only one request, that the party selling them would, on his return to Arkansas, give "Old Larky," who was in indigent circumstances from the war, and whom he knew, some meat and flour. The bonds he subsequently gave away to old Dr. Price to pay his taxes with, as they were good in Arkansas for that purpose.

Mr. Lucas was a man of marked capacity and decided character, and of the most undoubted integrity. He was modest and unassuming in his deportment, and retiring in his habits, with no disposition to put himself forward, but in whatever position he was placed he was emphatic and decided.

With all these elements of a strong character, he was fitted to assume the responsibilities devolved upon him by his father to manage a great estate, which, by his prudence, foresight and industry, has been largely increased in value and kept intact for the benefit of his family.

Mr. Lucas died November 9, 1873, and his remains were buried on the 13th, from St. John's Roman Catholic Church, thence to Calvary Cemetery.

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James Harrison.

ANOTHER one of the men whose lives were not in vain, and whose names go to make up the list of the honored dead of St. Louis, is JAMES HARRISON, who, while living, gave his best energies to the advancement of the city of his adoption, and dying left a void in the commercial world which none could fill.

Mr. Harrison was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, October 10, 1803. His early years, like those of some of our most honored citizens, were passed upon a farm, assisting his father in agricultural pursuits, and to this fact may be attributed that bodily vigor which in after-life enabled him to endure the fatigues into which his adventurous disposition led him. His educational advantages were somewhat limited, but he made the most of such as were at his command, and obtained a good common school education. From his youth up he was eminently practical, and preferred an active business life, in daily contact with men, to that of a student among books and retirement.

During the year 1822, while he was yet a mere youth, he left his home in Kentucky, and, prompted by a desire of adventure and enterprise to be up and doing, he went to Fayette, Howard county, Missouri, where he engaged, in company with James Glasgow, in mercantile pursuits, which he followed with great success for several years.

In 1830, he married Maria Louisa Prewitt, daughter of Joel Prewitt, Esq., of Howard county, Missouri, and sister of Mrs. Wm. N. Switzer and of Dr. Prewitt, of St. Louis, who died in 1847, leaving four children — a son and three daughters, all of whom survive their parents.

During the years 1831 and 1832, he led a busy but adventurous life in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, where, on one occasion, he was one of two only out of a party of thirteen who escaped death at the hands of a body of Indians in a running fight; the remaining eleven were murdered and scalped.

From 1836 to 1840, his partnership with Mr. Glasgow still continuing under the style of Glasgow & Harrison, his field of operations lay in Arkansas, where his enterprises met with the most flattering success.

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In 1840, Mr. Harrison came to St. Louis, with the intention of making this city his future home. He saw in the small city the nucleus of a vast metropolis. He foresaw the importance of the central city, and the wealth that must in time be poured into the lap of the future capital of the West. The immense mineral wealth of Missouri was known to him earlier than to most others, and he determined to devote his time and talent to its development. He formed connections with men who were eminent for their business capacity and wealth; and with their aid conducted their large mercantile, speculative and manufacturing operations to most satisfactory results. In 1840 he was one of the firm of Glasgow, Harrison & Co. In 1845 he was a prime mover in the formation of the "Iron Mountain Company," consisting of James Harrison, P. Chouteau and F. Valle, of St. Louis; C. C. Ziegler and John Scott, of Ste. Genevieve; F. Pratt, of Fredericktown; Aug. Belmont, S. Ward and Chas. Mersch, of New York. This Company gives promise, through its known resources and progress, to become ere long one of the largest producers of iron in the world. Meantime, he became a partner in the firm of Chouteau, Harrison & Valle. The high social position, business talent and wealth of this house have done much to build up and establish, not only the iron interests of St. Louis, but also the general reputation of its entire manufacturing and mercantile community.

A volume might be written describing in detail all the gigantic and beneficent projects that Mr. Harrison planned, and by his own indomitable will and energy brought to a successful termination. In all his undertakings, he readily secured the co-operation of the most eminent men of the city, and, in turn, he was always ready to assist, with his money and advice, others who had useful and productive projects of their own.

A marked characteristic of Mr. Harrison was to engage in important enterprises alone. He had marvelously keen foresight, and this enabled him to see openings for extensive transactions, while his courage fitted him for carrying them into execution, even when attended with peril to health and life; and his prudence and integrity secured the ready co-operation of capitalists, as well as the recognition of his many sterling business qualities. With such advantages as these, he embarked in various enterprises in the Southern States and Mexico, projected on a grand scale, and involving personal danger, while they required for their execution all the resources of a well-balanced mind and courageous heart. In these undertakings he was successful, for no personal

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danger or privation ever deterred him from completing a cherished scheme.

He was always a staunch defender of home interests. Everything, in short, which promised to be of public utility, received his attention and encouragement. And every man, no matter how poor or humble, whose talents were likely to be valuable to the community, was always treated by him with the utmost respect and kindness. He was a friend and patron of railroads, and contributed much toward the building of the "Iron Mountain," the "Pacific," and others now leading out of St. Louis in every direction.

The branch of industry to which he devoted the last years of his active life, was the production of iron, from native ore. He early perceived the inestimable wealth which lay hidden in the bowels of the Iron Mountain and vicinity, and, as before stated, he, in 1845, set about securing a large interest in them. Long-continued discouragements of various kinds, and enormous expense attended the establishment of this branch of industry, but the unwearying energy of Mr. Harrison and associates triumphed over every obstacle, and laid the foundation of a business which has since grown and increased to immense proportions.

Mr. Harrison lived long enough to see many of his prophecies, in reference to St. Louis and the productions of the State, fulfilled. He had the satisfaction of seeing magnificent railroad trains starting daily from St. Louis to the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He saw furnaces springing up rapidly for the production of iron, and shops for its manufacture, and assisted in their erection. He lived to see his favorite city nearly double its population in the last ten years, being the fourth in the list on the continent, and withal, wonderfully rich in wealth-producing elements, and doubly rich in civilizing institutions, culture and benevolence. He must have been conscious, too, that a large share of this wonderful progress and material prosperity was due to his exertions.

He possessed in a rare degree the talent of understanding character and of winning confidence. His knowledge of men enabled him to select and attach to himself, as partners, friends, associates and employes, men of talent and honesty, each worthy of confidence and eminently fitted for the work he was to perform. Many of these still survive the leading spirit; and all are distinguished as men of enlarged views, fertility of resources, persevering energy, and all the other qualities which make men leaders and exemplars for their fellow-men, and benefactors of their country. He had a high appreciation of

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culture, and especially of the scientific education he had not an opportunity of acquiring in early life.

It cannot be said that James Harrison toiled for wealth alone, but rather to expend his energies and abilities on worthy objects, and to effect some great good. It is true, also, that not a taint of suspicion of dishonor attaches to any of his numerous and large transactions. While living, he was, indeed, a shining light and a noble example to all whose aims were elevated and good; and we are only uttering a truth when we say that, though dead, the memory of this good man still speaks to the living, inciting his fellow-citizens to pursue the paths of usefulness and honor.

In person Mr. Harrison was tall and erect. His face always indicated gravity and true dignity. His manner repressed undue familiarity, while his courteous bearing attracted all whom he deemed deserving and worthy. In his habits he was remarkably temperate; hence his industry was unflagging, his energy unceasing; while a well-known trait in his character was a marvelous serenity under misfortune, and an absence of elation in periods of special prosperity.

On the 3d day of August 1870, Mr. Harrison passed away in the midst of his usefulness, leaving the record of an honest man. His death was an incalculable loss to the community in which he had so long been a leading spirit. The imperishable evidences of his labors and enterprise are stamped in unmistakable characters upon works more enduring than bronze or marble; and the ability with which he grappled the great commercial and manufacturing problems of his adopted State, adds a lustre to a name that Missourians will always be proud to honor.

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Joseph Charless.

OF the many illustrious citizens of St. Louis who have gone to their last resting place, no one is remembered with more universal feelings of affection for his many sterling qualities of head and heart, or more profound regret at his death, than the late JOSEPH CHARLESS. Although many years have passed away since he was laid in his grave, yet his memory still lingers in the hearts of his fellow-citizens, even as the fragrance of the rose hovers near long after the leaves are withered and crumbled to ashes.

Joseph Charless was born January 17, 1804, in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a descendant of a very reputable Irish family, forced to flee their native land on account of the father's active participation in the rebellion which brought the patriotic Emmett to the scaffold. His father, Joseph Charless, participated in that eventful struggle, his whole soul going with the party whose object was to break the shackles that enslaved his country; and when the plans of this noble and daring enterprise were discovered, he, like a great many others, sought an asylum in France to avoid the halter or transportation to the penal colonies, and soon afterward emigrated to the United States.

The elder Charless was a printer by trade, and he established himself in the city of Philadelphia, and worked for Mathew Carey, who at that time did the largest publishing business in that city; and it was a frequent boast of his that he assisted in printing the first quarto edition of the Bible ever printed in the United States. In 1798 he married Sarah Gouch, and in 1807 came to St. Louis. In July 1808 he started the first paper ever printed west of the Mississippi, the Missouri Gazette, now the most influential journal of the Southwest, and known as the Missouri Republican.

Mrs. Sarah Charless, the mother of the subject of the present sketch, was a most exemplary Christian lady, and was the first to agitate the organization for building the first Presbyterian church in St. Louis. She was noted for her abundant charity, and it was a well-known fact that no stranger or unfortunate mendicant was ever turned from her hospitable doors unrelieved. She died loved and regretted.

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The first years of young Joseph Charless were spent under the tuition of the village school-master, receiving such instruction as the early schools afforded. When he attained such an age as to be useful, he was put to work in his father's printing office, where he picked much useful information. His father intended him for the legal profession, and with that object in view, young Charless entered the office of Josiah Spaulding, where he read law for some time, and afterward went to complete his legal studies at Transylvania University, Kentucky. In the meantime, his father had sold out the Missouri Gazette and entered the drug business. In 1828, Mr. Charless went into partnership with his father in this business, and afterward became the head of the large firm of Charless, Blow & Co.

In November 1831, he married Miss Charlotte T. Blow, daughter of Captain Peter Blows of Virginia, a lady much admired for her beauty and accomplishments.

From the date of his entering into business with his father until his death, which occurred June 3, 1859, Mr. Charless could not be said to be a public man by virtue of his holding office or being prominent in political affairs; yet was he a most valuable citizen. In all public enterprises in which the city of St. Louis was concerned, Mr. Charles never failed to supply pecuniary aid. No citizen had a quicker perception to foresee advantages which would be likely to arise from public improvements, and none advocated them more warmly. Every public institution, every benevolent movement, every church, was made the richer on account of his munificent donations, and his charities were of that unostentatious nature that the public knew but little of them; and those who knew him most intimately speak in the highest terms of his liberality to the poor and unfortunate.

In all works of municipal importance, there was Mr. Charless to be found. He had been a member of the Board of Aldermen, and a director of the public schools. He was president of the State Bank of Missouri; also of the Mechanics' Bank of St. Louis. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and was one of the most active in building the City University and Fulton College, which latter is under control of the Presbyterian Church. He was also one of the directors of the Pacific Railroad.

It is impossible to over-estimate a character so pure and elevated as that of Mr. Charless. His greatness was not found in the paths usually trod by the soldier, or the orator; he was not to be found in the arena of political strife, or in the hot pursuit of professional renown. His

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sphere in life was the business circle, and his name in St. Louis always carried respect and influence. He had seen many changes in the city, and had helped as much as any man of his day to transform its poverty to wealth, its log houses to palatial residences, and to extend the far-reaching arms of its commerce to all parts of the continent.

The tributes of unsolicited praise and of unaffected grief, presented by sorrowing thousands at the time of his death, speak in louder tones than any faint tribute our pen might write to his memory. He fills an honored tomb, whereon every organization with which he had any connection laid its wreath, as a token of regard and affection to one of the purest and best of men. His funeral took place June 6, 1859, from the Second Presbyterian Church, corner of Walnut and Fifth streets, the site of the present Temple. Thousands sought entrance to the church, but in vain, so large was the multitude which had gathered to pay the last tokens of respect to his honored remains. The funeral sermon was delivered by Rev. Dr. McPheeters, pastor of the church; when all that remained mortal of one of St. Louis' most honored citizens was laid beneath the murmuring myrtles of that beautiful city of the dead — Bellefontaine Cemetery.

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James L. D. Morrison.

HON. JAMES L. D. MORRISON, a descendant of one of the oldest American families in the Mississippi Valley, was born in the ancient town of Kaskaskia, Illinois, April 12, 1816. His father, Robert Morrison, came from Philadelphia about the year 1792, and settled in Kaskaskia; and his mother was Eliza A. Lowry, daughter of Colonel Lowry, of Baltimore, and sister of James L. Donaldson, one of the Spanish land commissioners, with whom she came to the country in 1805. His descent is entirely Irish on both sides.

His early education was as extensive as the youth of that early period in the country's history received, but in this respect he was particularly fortunate in the instructions of his mother, who was for many years looked upon as the most brilliant and intellectual woman in the Mississippi Valley.

At the age of fourteen, young Morrison started out on some adventures which made lasting impressions on him, and doubtless, to a great extent, had much to do with the foundation of his character. His father was the largest mail contractor in Illinois, with routes extending from Kaskaskia to Shawneetown, Cairo, Vandalia, Palmyra, Cape Girardeau and other points, and was paid by drafts upon the different post-offices. While still a young man he was sent to collect the drafts all over the country, and take the money to Kaskaskia. In the winter of 1831-'32, while returning from Palmyra, Clarksville and other points, he found the Missouri river frozen over at St. Charles. His uncle, who resided at this place insisted on his remaining a few days, which he did. In crossing the river his horse broke through the ice, but before he disappeared, young Morrison secured his bridle, saddle and saddle-bags, the latter well filled with silver, and with these strapped to his back, he proceeded to the residence of Mr. George Collier, near the present corner of Pine street and Leffingwell avenue. This adventure, and the pluck displayed by the young man, so pleased Mr. Collier, that he remained a staunch friend of Morrison's through life. Should a mail

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boy be taken sick or become disabled, young Morrison was ever ready to take his place.

The spring of 1832 found young Morrison carrying the mail two days in the week, and attending school three days, in addition to attending store at Belleville, Illinois. This spring he received the appointment of midshipman in the United States navy. His first cruise was in the Pacific ocean, on board the sloop-of-war Fairfleld, which lasted about twenty-seven months.

Returning from this voyage, after being the hero of some stirring adventures in the harbor of Callao, in Peru, in giving aid to the shipping which was being fired upon, he was transferred to the West India squadron, Commodore Dallas' flag-ship. An attack of rheumatism, which he had contracted from exposure, sent him to the Naval Hospital at Pensacola, Florida, where he remained eight months. During these long months, in order to beguile the weary hours of the hospital pallet, he read the first volume of Blackstone's Commentaries, and through it became interested in legal studies, and, sending to Mobile for Blackstone and Kent's Commentaries, for about seven months gave them his attention.

In 1836, he returned home, and entered the office of Judge Pope as a student. His close application, in addition to his previous studies, qualified him for the bar in about a year, when he was admitted to practice. His pay at this time, as a midshipman, was but nineteen dollars per month, and it took two months' pay to purchase the eight volumes he bought at Mobile.

The first one hundred dollars young Morrison made in practicing law, was in Jackson county, Illinois, where he quashed an indictment for murder. With this he entered one hundred acres of land, which he still possesses. Upon the resignation of Hon. Hugh L. White, United States Senator from Tennessee, happening to be in Washington, he attended a public dinner offered to that distinguished gentleman, made a speech, resigned his place in the navy, joined the political fortunes of the Old Whig party, entered fearlessly into the Harrison campaign, rode in a canoe from Belleville to Springfield, Illinois, spoke at every cross-roads in favor of his party, became its candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, and remained one of its strongest adherents until its dissolution, when he became a Democrat.

For a number of years Mr. Morrison was a leader of the Democracy of Southern Illinois, and was far in the advance upon all public questions. He has represented the counties of St. Clair and Monroe in the

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State Senate, and St. Clair in the House. For years he was the leader of the Anti-State-policy party, and he it was who pricked the bubble and enabled St. Louis to gain the roads concentrating at Alton under the State-policy system, and which brought to a close the war against St. Louis.

Mr. Morrison was always a very active railroad man, and ever advocated this policy in Illinois. He secured the charter of the Ohio and Mississippi when no one asked for it; he also introduced the Illinois Central bill in the Legislature, advocating the measure in a speech of much force. The Belleville road, and the original Bruff charter of the Vandalia line, owe their existence to his energy against the State policy. The Ohio and Mississippi charter was passed under very peculiar circumstances. Governor Wood, of Quincy, had given Mr. Morrison to understand that he would vote for the original Bruff charter. The two parties in the Senate stood thirteen State policy, twelve Anti-State. Wood's vote, on the final passage, was necessary to carry it, and his was the last on the calender. Some misgivings existed on both sides as to the way he was going to vote, and when he voted No! amidst the most furious excitement, Mr. Morrison rushed across the Senate Chamber to Wood's seat to get him to change his vote. Gillespie, seeing the movement, also rushed over to Wood's seat; a personal collision occurred between the two enthusiastic members, and the Senate adjourned in a perfect bedlam of uproar and commotion. Senator Wood immediately promised to vote for a railroad to Vincennes, and two days after, the Ohio and Mississippi was chartered as a peace-offering.

Mr. Morrison was a most unrelenting enemy of Know-Nothingism. On the floor of the Senate Chamber he denounced in unmeasured and forcible terms the doings and workings of that secret organization, and such was the effect of his speech that resolutions condemnatory of the order were immediately passed.

Upon the breaking out of the Mexican war, Mr. Morrison raised the first company of volunteers in Illinois, and coming to St. Louis, tendered its services to the St. Louis Legion. This, however, was rejected, and the company was made the nucleus of the Second Illinois regiment, of which he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. This regiment, at Buena Vista, lost thirteen commissioned officers and ninety men killed. Upon the close of the war, the Legislature of Illinois presented Colonel Morrison with a sword, suitably inscribed, in recognition of his services in the field.

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Retiring from the army, he again turned his attention to the practice of the law, and finally to land speculations, in which he amassed quite a large fortune, the most of which he has spent in indulging an inordinate desire for foreign travel, having made some four or five different trips across the Atlantic, and passed several years in Europe, visiting the principal points of interest in the Old World.

Colonel Morrison is a man of no mean or ordinary legal attainments, and possesses an order of talent which would have secured him prominence at the Bar had he given his maturer years to his profession. He has not practiced law in Missouri, except in such cases as he himself is personally interested in. He is now engaged in prosecuting several very important cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, upon what is known as the Gregoire league square, near St. Louis, 4,500 arpents of which he contends belong to his wife and himself.

He has ever taken an active part in politics. Immediately upon his joining the Democratic party, he was elected to Congress. The Republicans looked upon him as a renegade, and a partisan speech of Hon. Joshua Giddings called forth from Colonel Morrison one of the happiest efforts of his life. It was arranged among the Illinoisians that he should be tortured by all kinds of questions, in order to weaken his argument. Morrison had twenty-four hours' notice of this intention; and one of the most interesting running contests that ever occurred in the House ensued. Quick at repartee, he baffled his interrogators, and proved himself a match in debate for the entire Republican delegation from Illinois. He has ever since declined political honors, but never neglects an opportunity to assist his political friends.

In 1842, Colonel Morrison was married to Miss Mary Cartin, daughter of Governor Cartin of Illinois. Three children living are the fruits of this marriage.

In 1861, he formed his second matrimonial connection with Miss Adele Sarpy, daughter of the late John B. Sarpy, an old and eminent merchant of St. Louis. Of this marriage, two daughters are living. The present Mrs. Morrison is one of the most accomplished ladies of St. Louis, speaking the English, French and German languages fluently, and exhibiting a high order of talent in many of the fine arts, especially painting, of which many exhibitions of her skill now adorn the walls of their city residence.

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Mrs. Anne L. Hunt.

IN this year of our Lord, 1875, when centennial celebrations are taking place or are in preparation all over our land, there is living in St. Louis, with faculties almost as bright as in girlhood, a lady, whose recollections extend into that almost traditionary period when this city was a hamlet, and a few determined men maintained the supremacy of civilization inside the fortification that gave them security.

MRS. ANNE L. HUNT, the only daughter of Hon. J. B. C. Lucas, and sister of the late Hon. James H. Lucas, is a relic of the grace and culture of the earlier times. With unclouded recollection and choice descriptive phrase, she can now trace the little incidents and circumstances that fill in the picture of the early French settlement, the kindly spirit, the transplanted cultivation, the proper pride, that made up the charm of a community never lacking in the graces of social life.

John B. C. Lucas, a Frenchman, by birth, the father of Mrs. Hunt, was educated in the law at Caen, Normandy. His father before him was a King's Counsellor at Pont-Audemer. When Benjamin Franklin was received at the French Court and accorded so high distinction in one of the proudest and most polite capitals of the world, Mr. Lucas came to the determination of pushing his own fortunes in that new world where merit was the measure of success. Himself a younger son, and bounded in by restrictions of which he was impatient, he came to America. When the United States acquired possession of the vast territory of Louisiana, he was living near Pittsburg, and was a Representative in the United States Congress. He had previously visited St. Louis, and his wife was highly desirous of making their home in a French colony, and averse to a residence in Washington, where his public duties called him. He resigned his seat in Congress, and was appointed United States Commissioner for the adjudication of land titles in this district, then known by the name of Upper Louisiana. He was first appointed judge and commissioner for the adjustment of land titles in 1805, and was from time to time re-appointed, until the admission of Missouri as a State in 1820, when he retired from public life. His

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duties during that period were arduous and delicate, involving, as they did, the adjudication of land claims growing out of loosely defined grants under different occupations. Early in the month of June 1805, he embarked with his family in a flat-boat for his new home beyond the Mississippi. Arriving at the mouth of the Ohio, the rest of the voyage was made in a keel-boat, and the whole journey occupied about three months, as he landed in this city early in September. Anne Lucas was born on the 23d of September 1796, and was at the time of this voyage an observing child of eight years of age. The dangers of the trip were by no means contemptible. The Indians, though not hostile, were not to be depended on, and Mrs. Hunt remembers that when passing Shawneetown in the night, her mother was much terrified at the yells with which they were celebrating some extraordinary occasion.

The St. Louis of 1805 that Mrs. Hunt remembers, would be to the eyes of the present, a very queer, old-fashioned town. The landing was about Market street, and above that point extended a bluff upon the river front. A high wall protected the rear from the treacherous savages. On the inside of the wall were steps that the soldiers climbed to look over the top for observation. At the corners of the wall were towers. But three or four houses in the place enjoyed the luxurious distinction of having plank floors, most of them being floored with puncheons. There was no saw-mill in St. Louis or its vicinity, and plank had to be brought from a distance. So, too, there was no painting done, and but two of the trading houses or stores had painted signs. These were "Faulkner & Coinages," and "Hunt & Hankinson's New Cash Store." These, the imported specimens of a foreign art, were spelled over and over again by the children, and seemed to them the emblems of metropolitan dignity. The stores kept all classes of goods. Everything they had to sell arrived by the most costly transportation — over the mountains from the East, and then down the Ohio by flat-boat, and up the Mississippi by keel-boat. The passage across the mountains was dangerous. Even up to 1814, and later, gentlemen crossing the Alleghanies would unite in parties, and hire guides and escorts for their protection. The first English school was taught by a man named Rotchford, who joined the expedition of Aaron Burr, which came to such an untimely end in the pursuit of a dazzling dream of empire. Rotchford was succeeded by Tompkins, and the latter has been frequently spoken of as the first teacher of an English school.

Hon. J. B. C. Lucas' family consisted of his wife, who came with him from France, his sons, Robert, Charles, William and James, and

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an only daughter, Anne, who subsequently became Mrs. Hunt. The younger boys attended the village school, but the mother charged herself with the instruction of the girl up to the time of her death, when a teacher was employed in the family. When Mr. Lucas first came to St. Louis, he built a house on Second street. Later, about 1812, he built anew on what is now the corner of Seventh and Market streets, and was thought by some to be imprudent in living out so far, and exposing a grown daughter to the danger of being stolen away by the Indians. It was he who laid out the town from Market to St. Charles street, and from Fourth to Seventh streets, about 1827 or 1828.

Miss Anne Lucas and Captain Theodore Hunt were married in June 1815. Mrs. Hunt had, by this marriage, eight children, only three of whom lived beyond the age of childhood, and these, a son and two daughters, are now living. Captain Hunt had been a naval officer, but resigned and came to St. Louis. Here he held the office of recorder for many years, until the election of General Jackson led to another appointment. Subsequently he was engaged in trade with Manuel Lisa. St. Louis was the depot for the goods with which they purchased furs. The furs were shipped to New York by the way of New Orleans. Captain Hunt died in 1832, and four years later Mrs. Hunt married Wilson P. Hunt, a cousin of her first husband. Wilson P. Hunt was one of the early merchants of St. Louis. In 1809, he had crossed the Rocky Mountains, and in the pursuit of trade, had gone to the mouth of the Columbia River. He died in 1842, leaving no children.

The clearness of Mrs. Hunt's early recollections received a striking confirmation in 1844, when, with her husband, she visited her birthplace for the first time since she had left it forty years before. The picture of it which she carried in her mind was as distinct and sharply cut as the outline of a cameo that might be held in the hand. From her description they were able, by no other clue, to find the old place — changed indeed, yet, in all its permanent features, the very original of which her recollection carried the copy.

It is not impossible that to the resolute character of Mrs. Hunt's mother, to which may have been added something of prophetic light, may be traced the foundation of some of the noblest fortunes of our city. Mr. Lucas never exhibited a desire to own real estate, but she, on the contrary, was anxious to own lots. Once, when they lived near Pittsburgh, he had taken a lot for a debt when he found he could get nothing else, and had afterward traded it for a horse. In time the same piece of ground came to bear a value of thirty thousand dollars,

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and Mrs. Lucas held the opinion that much the same character of rise would take place in St. Louis. She certainly had all the argument on her side, in view of the one piece of experience she could quote, and Hon. J. B. C. Lucas, instead of lending out his salary as he had been accustomed to do, bought a lot two arpens in width, commencing at Fourth street, and running back to what is now Jefferson avenue, twenty-four streets from the river. In time he bought seven of these lots, extending from Market street to near what is now St. Charles street. This territory, covering over one hundred of the most valuable blocks in the city of St. Louis, cost him then about a dollar and a half an acre. Had he been gifted with an actual prescience he could have made no more productive investment for his children.

Mrs. Hunt, after six years of wedded life with her second husband, was again a widow in 1842. Her cares and duties have been found within the domain that bounds true womanly ambition — in the family and social life. Blessed with a fortune unusually large, and happy in an interesting family that now numbers among its members almost a score of grandchildren, and nearly as many great-grandchildren, her life has been one of practical beneficence and unostentatious liberality. Possessing in a marked degree the strong vitality and quick apprehension which distinguish the family to which she belongs, she has taken a deep interest in the improvement of the city that holds the objects of her hope and love, and which has achieved every stage of glory during the period of her lively recollection. Her charities have doubtless been more extended and munificent than those of any other individual now living in St. Louis. Were it permitted to name a probable aggregate, or to specify single instances of munificence, few could fail to be astonished, and none could withhold admiration. Yet all this has been unostentatiously done, as becomes one who had in view but the gratification of a pure and noble impulse.

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Hon. Erastus Wells.

IT may be said, with a good deal of truth, that the lives of our self-made men furnish a more satisfactory and practical illustration of "history teaching by example" than any other to which the attention of our young men can be directed, especially that large class of young men who, unfriended and alone, are compelled to strike out in the bleak world to find, or make, their future sphere and home. While rich and poor live in like abundance — the former in wealth and the latter in hope — it is also true that the great end of a good education is to form a reasonable man. The young man who, with superior advantages, comprehends this fact, has already made a good beginning in life.

The self-made men of the West are those who have improved wisely the golden opportunities of the most impressible period of their lives, and who have never abused any portion of the remainder. While the country has many notable examples of self-made men, the West furnishes a class of men who have fought the battle of life under greater hardships and severer struggles than, perhaps, any other section of the country, and their victory has been proportionately more brilliant than that of the same class elsewhere. In the West, to hew out an empire from the wilderness, has taxed the hands and brains of all to the utmost. The self-made men of the West belong to that large class of the human family whose energies are developed by opposition. They commenced life aggressively, and the harder events pushed them the more aggressive they became. They never slackened under any circumstances, and refused to halt before any obstacles that stood in their way. Forge and anvil, axe or adze, spade or shovel — no matter what implement they worked with — they drove ahead from morning until night. If the mortgage clung to the cottage, hard work must lift it. They pulled bravely against every tide — held up with buoyant hearts and unflinching courage under skies that, perhaps, were often ashen and sober, and walked with a firm step over "leaves that were often withered and sere." Theirs has been no royal road to success, nor was there any reserve corps to step up at the last moment, fresh and

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vigorous, to bear off the laurels. All alike have borne the brunt of the battle. The fame of fortune perhaps nerved their younger days with its bright visions, and the stimulus of hope urged them on. When the day was won, the rank and file received their just reward.

ERASTUS WELLS, of St. Louis, is one of those self-made men who is now reaping the reward of that indomitable energy and industry evinced in his early life. Mr. Wells was born in Jefferson County, New York, December 2, 1823. By the death of his father he was left an orphan, and penniless, at an early age, and he experienced all the hardships incident to such a start in life.

From his twelfth to his sixteenth year he worked on a farm, and during the winter months attended a district school. The school-house was built of logs, and it required a tramp of two miles through the deep snows of those Northern winters to reach it. At the age of sixteen, seized with a spirit of enterprise, he left the farm to seek his fortune in the world.

Shortly after his father's death, young Wells proceeded to Watertown, New York, where he soon obtained a situation in a grocery store, at a salary of eight dollars per month. He remained here but a short time, for in the year 1839 we find him in Lockport, New York, engaged as a clerk, for a firm in which ex-Governor Washington Hunt was a partner. Here his salary only ranged from eight to twelve dollars per month. During these early years he found an abundance of hard work, and had to exercise the most rigid economy. But even out of his paltry salary he managed to save something. At the end of three or four years he had laid by the sum of $140, an amount in those days of considerable magnitude to a young man who had earned it by hard work and close economy. With this sum in his pocket, young Wells turned his face towards the West, of which he had heard glowing accounts, and decided to reach St. Louis, then one of the most enterprising points on the Western frontier.

Mr. Wells arrived in St. Louis in September 1843, and at once engaged in business. He formed a partnership with Calvin Case, and on November 2d, of the same year, started the first omnibus line ever seen west of the Mississippi river. The rolling-stock of this line consisted, at the commencement, of a single 'bus. It was a very rude affair compared with the splendid establishments seen in St. Louis today, having no glass windows, but curtains instead, and elliptic springs in place of the present low flat ones. It was built in this city at a cost of two hundred dollars. The route was from Third and Market, along

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Third and Broadway to North Market street, and the receipts for the first six months did not exceed $1.50 per day. We have ascertained that the sum named, as the daily receipts during the period given, is approximately correct, — for while Mr. Wells was not only proprietor of the line, he was also driver, fare taker, and, during many of his trips, the sole occupant of his vehicle.

The citizens of St. Louis praised the enterprise, and admired the pluck and energy of the man who had started it, but they were accustomed to walk — it was cheaper, and they continued to walk. The omnibus business did not pay until Mr. Wells was nearly discouraged. At this period the growth of the city was rapid; its limits were extending; residences were removed farther out toward the suburbs, and the business of the city was spreading out over a broader area. It was not long before the fact was demonstrated to many of the more prosperous, well-to-do citizens, that riding was more profitable than walking, when time was considered.

In 1844, business had so increased that the enterprising proprietor put on another 'bus. Mr. Wells now began to make money. Within a period of five years, business on the line had so increased that they had from twelve to fifteen 'busses running on said line. For nearly two years Mr. Wells continued to drive one of the 'busses himself. He was not afraid of work; he had from early boyhood systematically learned to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, and he was not the man to lean on others for subsistence. He was a deserving man, always pushing things: with a brain by nature and habit nicely adjusted to the reception, retention and consideration of one thing at a time. But he was a man of expansive ideas, restive under restraint, and in the wide domain of Industry he looked about to see what more could be accomplished. The omnibus line already started was now permanently established, and, finding a favorable opportunity, Mr. Wells sold out his interest, and remained out of business for about one year. He then purchased a small lead factory; but contact with the poisonous lead soon prostrated him on a sick bed, and caused him to abandon the business. He then erected a saw mill, located in the upper part of the city, but subsequently leased it to others.

In the latter part of 1850, Erastus Wells, Calvin Case and one or two others, forming the firm of Case & Co., purchased all the lines in the city, and established a line of busses between St. Louis and Belleville, Illinois, and subsequently one on Olive street, between Fourth and Seventeenth streets. The Belleville line was very remunerative; the

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fare each way was fifty cents, the busses being always crowded. In January 1856, the copartnership was dissolved, by the death of the senior member, who was killed in the memorable accident on the Pacific Railroad, at the Gasconade bridge. The different lines were owned and operated by the surviving partners, but separately, until 1859, when the street railway mania reached St. Louis, and the omnibuses were speedily superseded.

The St. Louis, Missouri, Citizens' and People's Railway Companies were formed in the spring of 1859, and the first company that started their cars, was the Missouri, on their Olive street line, on July 4, 1859. The first president was Erastus Wells, who has filled that position up to the present time. They have now nine miles of track. Thirty-two years ago there was one omnibus running, carrying not more than fifty passengers per diem; now we have ten distinct lines of street railway, each doing a prosperous business and representing a large amount of invested capital.

So far, we find that Mr. Wells' life had been an active and progressive one. Unbefriended and penniless at the start, he had had much to contend against, and many things to overcome that would have discouraged many young men of less determination than he possessed. He found those at whose hands he sought employment far from being generous or magnanimous; but he was not long in learning that he would have to depend upon his own physical and mental resources to become a self-made man. He found life as earnest, active and aggressive in his early days as he finds it, perhaps, to-day; the road to fame and wealth a long one; but where there is an earnestness of purpose and a persistent, untiring devotion to business, there will always be an ultimate reward. Mr. Wells has always cultivated a catholic spirit. He was always ready to receive suggestions that might be profitable to him. His usefulness to his fellow-men has been increased by the broad and liberal views he entertains on all subjects of public policy, and by his refusal to be bound by the sectarian notions, dogmas and fanaticisms which are found hanging to the skirts of so many professions in life. He has been one of the foremost in everything that pertained to the city's welfare.

For a period of fifteen years he was a member of the City Council. He was first elected to that body in 1848, was re-elected in 1854, and remained in the Council until March 1, 1869, when he resigned to take his seat in Congress, March 4th of the same month. During the long period he served the city, his influence by voice and vote was

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always in favor of such judicious and timely measures as were best calculated to advance the glory of the city, and to add to the prosperity of its citizens. He was in favor of the adoption of strict sanitary measures. Formerly this city used to be considered unhealthy. Its miasmatic fevers and occasional epidemics were notorious, but to-day it is the healthiest large city on the American continent. Much might be said here concerning the sanitary condition of the city, and in kindly remembrance and acknowledgment to the man who was foremost in inaugurating measures for the preservation of the health of its citizens, but the limits of this sketch forbid.

It was while Mr. Wells was serving in the Council, as chairman of the Committee on Waterworks, that his serious attention was turned to this subject, and seeing the great deficiency in the supply of water for a city making such rapid strides, he agitated the question of building new works — works that should be on a scale commensurate with the wants of the city for years to come. In that year he was appointed on a special committee to visit the principal Eastern cities and examine the system of waterworks in each, and report upon the same. Mr. Wells was the only member of the committee who took upon himself the performance of this delicate and arduous duty. He visited New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, Louisville and Cleveland, being kindly received at all these cities, and was given every opportunity to make a thorough inspection of the water supply in use at each point. Upon his return he made an elaborate and valuable report of what he had seen and learned, and the question received a fresh importance through the information thus imparted. Mainly through his efforts an "act" passed the Legislature, at the subsequent session, authorizing the city to issue bonds to the extent of $3,000,000, to commence the construction of the present magnificent waterworks — among the finest to be found in the country — and which supply the city as if from an inexhaustible fountain. Mr. Wells was tendered by Governor Fletcher a commission as one of the Board of Water Commissioners, but he respectfully declined it. This tender, coming from a political opponent, was a flattering compliment to Mr. Wells, as the position was a responsible and honorable one, and it was made without any solicitation on his part or even on the part of his friends.

But this was not all that was to be accomplished to promote the public interests and the public good. Mr. Wells' work did not end here. He knew that, as a representative of the people's interests, he

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owed society something more than merely doing what could be done to make the physical air of the city healthy, and providing an ample supply of water to contribute to personal cleanliness, and prevent the disasters arising from great conflagrations. There is a moral atmosphere in every large city, being imbibed daily by every grade of society, against which the upright man and good citizen will have to stand with uplifted hands. You may make, by your sanitary regulations, every particle of air we breathe, and every drop of water we drink, as pure as crystallized carbon; you may discover remedies that will antagonize the specific poison of disease; yet they all go for naught so long as there is in the body politic a class of men who have no moral instincts or sensibilities. It is not too much to say that no one knew better than Mr. Wells the inadequacy of the police system of St. Louis, under the old regime, at the time he was in the Council; and when he went East to investigate the question of water supply, he took special pains to look into the different police systems of the several cities which he visited. He learned from the mayors of New York, Boston and Philadelphia, that, in their opinion, Baltimore had the best metropolitan police system of any city in the Union. At that time complaints came up from almost every city of any size, especially the Eastern cities, of the great defects of their police regulations. Baltimore especially had passed into the hands of a desperate class of men, known as "plug uglies," against whom the police authorities were powerless, and this unruly and turbulent element was not placed under control until the Legislature of Maryland had passed what is known as the "Metropolitan Police Bill."

Mr. Wells had brought a copy of this bill home with him, and after changing it to meet the laws of Missouri, and to comply with the city charter, he secured the consent of Francis Whittaker, Henry Keyser, George K. Budd and Bernard Pratt, to put their names in the act, they to serve as the first board of police commissioners of this city; and after a severe struggle in the Council, a resolution was passed recommending its passage by the Legislature. Mr. Wells visited Jefferson City, and laid the resolution with the bill before the Legislature during the session of 1860-'61. Claib. Jackson was Governor of the State at that time, and there was a good deal of political excitement. The party in power insisted on striking out the parties named in the bill for commissioners, and leaving it with the Governor to make the appointments. The friends of the bill were successful in securing its passage in the form in which it was presented by Mr. Wells, and the Governor signed it. Its provisions were at once carried into effect, and a new era in the police

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system of St. Louis commenced — one that, after a trial of nearly fifteen years, has proved acceptable to all parties, and has produced results beneficial to the public interests.

In 1850 Mr. Wells was united in marriage to a daughter of the Hon. John F. Henry now of this city, and by this lady he has three children. In 1865, seeking rest and recreation, and to gratify a long-cherished desire, Mr. Wells made a trip to Europe, taking with him his oldest son. After visiting many of the principal cities in Great Britian and France, he took a French steamer and went to Lisbon. After some time spent here, he visited the Cape de Verde Islands, and extended his journey to Brazil, and at Rio embarked for home, returning to St. Louis in 1866.

The congressional career of Mr. Wells, as we have stated, commenced in 1868, since which time he has been continuously a member of the House of Representatives of the United States. At the last election (November 3, 1874,) he was re-elected for a fourth term by a majority of nearly three to one. In politics Mr. Wells is a Democrat, but he is popular with all parties, and he received many votes from those politically opposed to him. In Congress he has been a close observer, and a diligent worker in behalf of the State and city of his adoption. He is a live man, possessed of sound views on all questions of public policy, and has accomplished more work for his city and the West than many of his predecessors have done. Without being brilliant, his speeches show careful thought and study, and his constituents are satisfied with his capacity, his energy, with his respectable culture and enlarged views — in a word, with his unquestioned honesty and practical common sense. Through his efforts Congress has appropriated the sum of $4,000,000 for building the new post-office and custom house, now in course of erection on the block between Eighth and Ninth on Olive street. Until his advent in Congress not a dollar had ever been appropriated for the improvement of the Mississippi River between the mouth of the Missouri and the Meramec. Between these points he was successful in having a government survey made, and for that purpose an appropriation of $200,000 was set apart; also a further appropriation of $300,000 for the improvement of the channel of the river between the mouth of the Meramec and Cairo.

In 1873, he was the prime mover in causing to be held here the Congressional Convention which assembled that year, the deliberations of which were so important to Western interests. He projected the Congressional trip of that year to the Indian Territory, which proceeded

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south to Galveston, and thence to New Orleans, to inspect the mouths of the Mississippi, that Eastern members might have personal knowledge of the serious obstructions existing there, and which so seriously affected the whole commerce of the Mississippi Valley. The fruition of all this was the passage of the bill known as the "Eads Jetty Bill," during the last session of the Forty-third Congress. The bill relating to the Indian Territory, known as the Oklahoma Bill, is also a measure which Mr. Wells is persistently working for at the present time.

Mr. Wells has been connected with many important enterprises, and has filled several responsible positions in connection with them. He was a director of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad Company for several years; he was president of the Accommodation Bank for six years; he is still largely interested in street railroads; is also president of the narrow-guage railroad between this city and Florissant; is a director in the Commercial Bank; and in 1864 was a member of the convention called to prepare a new city charter, which was subsequently adopted by the Legislature.

In private life Mr. Wells is greatly beloved by all who know him. He is a man wholly free from ostentation or display. His manners are those of the thorough Western man — frank, genial and kindly. Success in life has in no way changed him, and this is a principal reason for his popularity. Political opponents credit him with industry and fidelity to the interests of those he represents.

Erastus Wells has fought his way up to his present position earnestly and manfully. Having become a leader, he still remains one of the people, and thus he is one of the best examples of the self-made men of our times.

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Hon. George H. Rea.

AMONG the many sterling business men of St. Louis who have fought their way successfully through life, and by dint of close application and shrewd management have built up large fortunes, no one is more deserving of mention, or stands higher in the estimation of his fellow-men, than CAPTAIN GEORGE H. REA. He has not been so long a resident of this city as many others, but has accomplished much more in a few years than some others have in a life-time.

Captain Rea is of Massachusetts origin, having been born in the city of Boston on the 26th day of April 1816.

His father, Joshua B. Rea, came from a French-Canadian family, and his mother, whose maiden name was Boynton, descended from one of the earliest Puritan families. His father dying when he was an infant, his early education and training devolved upon the mother. He was kept at school until fifteen years of age, and then, as was the custom more in the early day than now, was apprenticed to learn the tanner's trade, at the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts. He learned his trade thoroughly, and by the time his apprenticeship was over had picked up much valuable information about other kinds of business. For a few years he worked as a journeyman in various New England towns, saving his earnings until an opportunity offered for investment in business. Believing, however, that the broad country outside of New England afforded a better field for business operations, he started out to explore it.

In 1849, we find him located at Waynesboro, Tennessee, where he built up, in a few years, a large and profitable business in hides and leather. Here he probably would have remained permanently had not the political differences between the Northern and Southern States assumed an aspect so threatening. Mr. Rea was fortunate enough to dispose of his interest in Tennessee a year or two before the war began, and having formed valuable business acquaintances in St. Louis, was induced to come here and establish himself in business. He opened a hide and leather store at No. 76 North Levee, and in a year

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or two was doing the largest business in that line of any merchant in the city. During this time he had become extensively known among business men throughout the city and neighboring towns, and was regarded favorably on 'Change and in financial circles.

At the close of the war, when the national banking system was inaugurated, Mr. Rea had on hand a surplus of capital, a considerable proportion of which was invested in Government securities. He concluded to join with others in starting a national bank, and accordingly took the necessary steps to obtain a charter. The Second National Bank was established with Mr. Rea as president. His hide and leather business was disposed of to good advantage, and his attention for a time was directed chiefly to banking. The Second National Bank became a favorite place of deposit for merchants, millers and others, and did a very profitable business.

Mr. Rea had many opportunities presented for investing money in business enterprises, but he exercised great caution before engaging in any of them. He became the owner of steamboat and railroad stocks, however, to such an extent that he was obliged to devote a portion of his time to looking after these new interests. The Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, under his management, became a flourishing corporation, doing an immense business with barges in transporting grain and other produce down the river to New Orleans and intermediate points.

In 1866, Mr. Rea was elected by the Republican party to represent the Thirty-fourth Senatorial District in the State Senate. He was appointed chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and occupied positions in various other committees. Though not much given to speech-making, he wielded a strong influence during his four years' term in the State Senate, and aided in securing important legislation for the city of St. Louis. His extensive business experience and knowledge of financial matters eminently qualified him for the position of chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and it is doubtful if the duties were ever discharged more satisfactorily.

For three years Mr. Rea was one of the directors of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. It was at a time when that company had many difficulties to encounter. Some of the stockholders were at war with the controling directors, and endeavoring to displace them. The latter held out heroically for a long time, but were at length forced to yield to the stronger moneyed influences brought to bear against them by the late Hudson E. Bridge. Mr. Rea displayed good combative powers in the

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contest, and though retiring from the directory, did so with honor to himself, and in no wise the worse financially.

Having many interests to look after, he resigned the presidency of the Second National Bank in 1873, though he still remained a director. He continued to manage the affairs of the Barge Company, and invested largely in Western railroads. At the present time, he owns a very large amount of railroad stock in Kansas and the Territories, and is projecting new and important railroad lines.

Mr. Rea built the branch road from Pleasant Hill, on the Missouri Pacific, to Lawrence, Kansas, a distance of sixty-one miles. He has energy and boldness enough to undertake any enterprise in railroad building, and would undoubtedly succeed, however extensive it might be. His business plans have been most successfully carried out all through life, and, as a result, he has accumulated a handsome fortune. He lives in comfortable style in the western suburbs of the city, and can well afford to retire from active pursuits; but his busy brain is ever planning, and his industrious habits are so firmly fixed, that he would not be happy if forced to give up work. He has done much to aid public enterprises; gives with a liberal hand to deserving charities, and scrupulously performs his obligations to his fellow-men.

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Louis Vital Bogy.

LOUIS VITAL BOGY, our worthy representative in the United States Senate, is the descendant of one of the old French families which, long prior to the foundation of St. Louis by Pierre Laclede Liguest, in 1764, came from Canada and settled the ancient towns of Cahokia, Kaskaskia, St. Phillip, Prairie Du Rocher and Fort Chartres, on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, then a part of the vast territory owned by France in the New World.

His grandfather, Joseph Bogy, came from Canada, and first settled in the town of Kaskaskia, where, a few years after his arrival, he was married to Miss Placy. About the year 1786 or 1787, he left Kaskaskia, with his family, to go to the country now known as Arkansas, and settled at the Old Post, then the home of a few French Canadians, pioneers, who, like himself, had been drawn there by the Indian trade, and being then truly the home of the wild Indians. At this place, he engaged in the Indian fur trade, and for many years he carried on this business with the different tribes who were roaming over this extended region, hunting the game of the forest. For a long time, he had his trading establishment at a place called Bogy Depot, a point at present of some note in the Choctaw country.

In a country so new, and where there were so few white people, the facilities for educating the rising generation were of course very limited; indeed, it may be said there were none at all. Joseph Bogy, the father of Louis, was consequently sent to New Orleans to be educated. By the peace of 1763, all the country west of the Mississippi River passed to Spain; at the same time Canada and all the land east of same river were transferred to England. Owing to the fact that all the inhabitants in the newly acquired territory were of French blood, Spain felt it to be to her interest to treat the people with great kindness, so as to attach them to the new Government; and hence, soon after taking possession of the country, Spain established in the city of New Orleans a large school, maintained at Government expense. To this school Joseph Bogy, as well as several other young men from the same section

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of country, were taken, and there he was educated. All boys educated at this Government school had the right to enter the army of Spain, or secure employment in a civil capacity under the Government. In accordance with this regulation, Joseph Bogy entered the civil service, and was, for a time, one of the private secretaries of Governor Morales, then the Governor-General of Louisiana.

Joseph Bogy was born at Kaskaskia, and was, perhaps, six years old when his father moved from there to his new home at the Post of Arkansas. In the year 1805 he came to this State, then a Territory, and settled in the town of Ste. Genevieve, which was at the time a very important place, as it was the commercial point for the lead mining region. Mr. Joseph Bogy filled many public stations during his long residence in this town, and was a member of both branches of the Legislature under the Territory and State. He was truly a man of intelligence, and of high character and standing, and died in February 1842, leaving seven children — four sons and three daughters. In the year 1805, soon after he came to this portion of country, he married Marie Beauvais, the daughter of Vital Beauvais, and mother of Louis, the subject of this sketch. This venerable lady is yet living, at the age of eighty-eight, and with her intellect clear and sound.

The Beauvais family came to this country from Canada at a very early period, perhaps about the year 1740, or even before. They were, therefore, also pioneers, attracted here, like all the other settlers from Canada, by the Indian fur trade. Louis, the subject of this sketch, is consequently a descendant, on both his father's and mother's side, of pioneers, a bold and brave race of men, who, upwards of a century ago, penetrated the vast solitude of the West, and daily encountered the no less wild savage, who then roamed across the wilderness of the new world as its owner and master, and yielding sullenly to these white intruders. It was, consequently, a life of constant exposure and peril, in which many of the new settlers lost their lives.

LOUIS VITAL BOGY was born on the 9th of April, 1813, in the town of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. The facilities for education, at that early day, were very limited. The French was the language of the people, there being yet but few Anglo-Americans in the country, and the few who came there found it necessary to learn the French, but not the French the English. It was under these disadvantages that the subject of our sketch grew up from boyhood to manhood. Fortunately for the young people of the town, about the year 1822 or 1823, a teacher by the name of Joseph D. Grafton came there from the State of

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Connecticut. He opened a school for boys and girls. He was a good English scholar, and kept a very good school. This school continued for years, and at it all the boys and girls of the town were educated. Young Louis was sent to this school, where he continued for perhaps one year. About the year 1826 his father sent him and a younger brother, named Charles, to a school in the country, kept by a Swiss by the name of Joseph Hertich. He continued at this school about one year, when he was attacked with a white swelling in his right thigh bone, which kept him closely confined to bed between two and three years.

In 1830, although yet very lame and walking on crutches, he was sent for six months to a Catholic College in the adjoining county of Perry. This was the last school he attended. It will be seen that his advantages for an education were indeed very limited, and how he has overcome such appalling obstacles is a subject of wonder, and worthy of imitation by the young men of the day who may, like him, not be blessed with advantages. During his long sickness he read much, and laid up a store of desultory and miscellaneous information which has proved of the greatest utility to him in his after-life. After leaving the school in Perry county, he engaged himself as clerk in the store of a merchant, in the town of Ste. Genevieve, of the name of Bossier, at a salary of two hundred dollars a year; one-half of which was payable in store goods. His habits of economy, however, enabled him to purchase some books from his scanty income, and thus could he indulge his passion for reading and study, to which he devoted all his evenings, and, now and then, a large part of the night.

On the expiration of this clerkship he decided to read law; and so as to do this without the distraction which would necessarily surround him if he remained with the associates of his youth, he concluded to leave his native town, and pursue his studies elsewhere. He consequently made an arrangement with Judge Nathaniel Pope, of Kaskaskia, in Illinois, to enter his office. On the 16th of January 1832 he left the paternal roof for Kaskaskia, crossing the Mississippi River on the ice. As evidence of the singular tenacity of purpose of this young man, we give place here to a most singular document, the original being in his handwriting, and exhibited to us:

STE. GENEVIEVE, January 16, 1832.

On this day I left home, under charge of Mr. William Shannon, an old friend of my father, to go to Kaskaskia, to read law in the office of Judge Pope. My education is very limited, but with hard study I may overcome it. I am determined to try; and my

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intention is to return to my native State to practice law, if I can qualify myself; and, while doing so, to work to become United States Senator for my native State, and to work for this until I am sixty years old. I will pray God to give me the resolution to persevere in this intention. I have communicated this to my mother, and given her this paper to keep. So help me God.

LEWIS V. BOGY.

The original of this paper, we saw in the unformed hand-writing of a boy. It is certainly a singular and remarkable document, showing as decided a purpose as we ever saw or heard of. And it is strange that a purpose apparently so wild, and we may say, unreasonable, should have been so singularly realized by the youth who made it. The limit for the termination of the period within which he had given his pledge to strive for the position of United States Senator was to be the age of sixty years; and it is again very singular that he should realize this lifelong ambition in his sixtieth year, and within a few months of the expiration of the period he had fixed. He was elected in January 1873, and in April following he was sixty years old. We dwell on this remarkable occurrence in the history of this man, so as to commend it to the young men of the present time, for it teaches this great lesson — that perseverance and labor will overcome any obstacle, however great. For the long period of forty-one years he labored to attain the object of his early ambition, and, as he informed us, thinking of it — it may be said every day, and having it all the time in contemplation.

Judge Pope was the District Judge of the United States for the District of Illinois, and had a well-selected library. Besides pursuing his law studies, Judge Pope urged him to acquire a knowledge of Latin, as being necessary to a professional man. In his youth he had been an altar-boy in his native town, and had acquired a knowledge of the responses at the Mass. He sought the acquaintance of the Catholic priest at Kaskaskia, the Reverend Father Condamine, who was, as is generally the fact with the clergy of that Church, a good Latin scholar, and with him he made an agreement to serve as the altar assistant at all the masses and funerals, on condition that he on his side gave him a lesson every day in Latin. Both faithfully carried out their agreement. For this good priest he entertains to this day a sentiment of the greatest veneration, for the care and kindness which he bestowed on him at that early period of his life.

In the month of May 1832, the Indian troubles in the northern part of the State of Illinois and Territory of Wisconsin, known as the Black Hawk war, occurred. Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, issued his proclamation for volunteers to suppress these savages. Although yet

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lame from the white swelling with which he had years before been afflicted, he immediately volunteered as a private soldier — he joined the company of Captain Jacob Feaman, which soon marched to the field. This company formed a part of the regiment commanded by Colonel Gabriel Jones, which on the complete organization of the volunteer forces, at the rendezvous at Fort Wilburn, was one of the regiments in the brigade commanded by General Henry. Both Jones and Henry were good officers; the same can be said of Captain Feaman. No part of the army did more service than this brigade, and at the battles of Wisconsin Heights and Bad Axe, it did most efficient service. The celebrated Indian chief, Black Hawk, was captured in the last engagement, which terminated the war. Abraham Lincoln, afterward President of the United States, was a volunteer in this war, and a private in the brigade of General Henry.

On the termination of the war, the subject of this sketch returned to Kaskaskia, and resumed his studies with Judge Pope, as well as with Father Condamine. Here he remained, studying with great assiduity, until December 1833. At this time, by the advice of Judge Pope, he left this place to proceed to Lexington, Kentucky, to attend the law school of Transylvania University, of which Judge Daniel Mays was professor. Professor Mays was not only a man of great ability, but was considered the best special pleader in the State. He remained here till the spring of 1834. An unusually large number of the young men who attended the law lectures at this institution, during this session, became in after-life quite distinguished. Among those remembered now may be mentioned Bell, Thompson, Manifee, Tompkins, Powell, Allen and Wickliffe, of Kentucky; Shackleford and Tupper, of Mississippi; John G. Miller, James S. Rollins, William M. McPherson, of this State. Bell and Manifee became members of Congress, and were considered leading men in that body. Indeed, Manifee was looked upon as the rising great man of his State, who in time was to be the worthy successor of Henry Clay. Tompkins died young, but already considered one of the ablest lawyers in his section of the State.

Powell was elected Governor, and was United States Senator from Kentucky for six years, and ranking as a man of decided talents. Thompson became Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and United States Senator for six years, ranking in that body with the leading minds in it. Allen was distinguished for his literary attainments, and Wickliffe was Minister from the country at the Court of Sardinia, and was considered one of the ablest writers in his State. Shackleford was a judge of reputation in Mississippi, and Tupper was ranked with the best lawyers

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of that State. Of him we shall have something more to say hereafter. Rollins and Miller, after acquiring distinction in the Legislature of this State, became distinguished members of Congress. McPherson, who died in the city of St. Louis about two years ago, acquired distinction as a great business character. He was certainly a man of large views and of creative mind, backed by a cool head and a firm purpose. It is indeed sad to think that all but two of this large list of distinguished men, who, in their youth, were so ambitious for distinction, are now dead, and their names nearly forgotten, and it is with the view of rescuing their names from complete oblivion that they are so particularly mentioned here. Rollins and Bogy are the only two yet surviving, and both have passed the meridian of life. It is a pleasure to say, that while during this long period, these two men have most of the time belonged to different political parties, being together in the Legislature of their State, and necessarily meeting each other in those political conflicts and discussions which occur in such bodies, they have nevertheless, during all this time, maintained the relations of close personal friendship which were formed in early life at the law school.

On the termination of the winter session of this school, he formed the project to become a school teacher, and to get a school in some of the interior counties of Kentucky, so as to get the means to attend another session at this University. He and Tupper, whose name has already been mentioned, formed a partnership for this purpose. Hearing that there was an opening for a school in the town of Monticello, in the county of Wayne, they left Lexington early in the spring for this place. On arriving here they had no trouble in getting a good school of boys and girls. Tupper was a graduate of the University of Vermont, and was a very good classical scholar. Here they remained till fall, when they both returned to Lexington to enter the law school, and remained there till the end of the session, when both graduated in the law department: Tupper then going to the State of Mississippi to seek fortune and fame, and the subject of this sketch returning to his native State.

It will not be out of place in this sketch to say a few words in relation to Tupper, as a very close friendship existed between the two, up to his death. His name was Tullius Cicero Tupper, a native of Vermont, and a graduate of the University of that State. He went to the State of Mississippi to acquire wealth and fame, and succeeded in obtaining a fair share of both. But his career in that State was truly a sad one. It was his misfortune to have two personal encounters, in both of which

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he slayed his antagonist. Yet, he was a man of the most amiable disposition, and incapable of doing wrong to anybody, or of being the aggressor. But his purpose was fixed and settled, when he decided to become a citizen of a Southern community, and particularly of the State of Mississippi at that day; he had made up his mind to be governed by the social law then in force in that community, which was never to submit to a personal insult, or fail to exhibit individual courage, even although it might be at the expense of human life. Therefore, when assailed, he slayed his antagonist. Being a man of refined feelings and cultivated tastes, it cannot be doubted that these misfortunes clouded his life, which, but for them, would no doubt have been a very brilliant one.

Mr. Bogy returned to his native town, reaching there in the month of March 1835. His father urged upon him to go to New Orleans to practice his profession, giving as his reason for this that the French population was quite large in the State of Louisiana, and the French language yet in use in the courts of the State. This, however, was not the plan of life he had laid down for himself, which was to remain in his native State. He therefore declined going to New Orleans, and concluded to move to St. Louis. He departed at once, arriving in the city on the first day of April 1835. He immediately applied to Judge Wash, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, for a license, which he obtained. He purchased a few law books, took an office, and very soon got into a good practice, and continued to devote himself to his profession until 1849. He became a candidate for the Legislature in 1840, and was elected; and took his seat as a member of that body in November following. This was during the Harrison presidential campaign, which passed over the country like a tornado. The excitement of the campaign was of course felt in the Legislature; the consequence was, that the session was a very excited one. He was then only twenty-seven years of age, and, perhaps, the youngest member of that body. He took a leading part as a working and business man, and a ready speaker. Several young men, who became distinguished in the State afterward, were members of this body also:

John S. Phelps, from Greene county, then quite young, was there. He was kept in Congress by his constituents for eighteen consecutive years, and acquired during this long period the reputation of an able legislator; he was at one time chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, a position never given to any one not considered able and industrious; and in addition to all this, he was considered an honest man,

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beyond the reach of those sordid influences which, unfortunately for the fame of our public men, so many have yielded to.

John G. Miller, of Cooper, was also there. He, too, was elected to Congress from his district, and was kept there till death overtook him, while yet in the prime of life. He also acquired, while in Congress, the reputation of an honest and an able man.

James S. Rollins, of Boone, was also there, and he, too, went to Congress from his section, and, like the others, took a high stand among the able men and orators in that body. As an orator, he has not his superior, if his equal, in the State.

Thomas L. Anderson, of Pike, was there also, and he, too, was elected to Congress, and exhibited talents, while he was there, not inferior to his colleagues.

Sterling Price, from Chariton, was also a member, and was the speaker, for which position he was particularly adapted: — a man of fine and commanding person, and handsome and intelligent face. He, like the others, became a member of Congress, but served but a short time in that body, as, the war with Mexico occurring during the first session of the term for which he was elected, he was appointed by the United States a Brigadier-General in the army, went to Mexico, and served with great distinction. Some years afterward he was elected Governor of this State; and, on the breaking out of the war between the North and the South, cast his fortunes with the latter. He soon became a Major-General in the Confederate army, where he acquired great distinction for personal courage and military talents of a very high order.

Alexander Doniphan, of Clay, was a member that session, also. His services during the Mexican war, as the bold leader of that small band of heroes who traversed the republic of Mexico from the northern limits to the Gulf, fighting overwhelming odds all the way, have made his name immortal.

There were many other members of this body, who, although not as famous as those enumerated, were yet men of good talents and solid abilities. No legislative body ever met in this State, and indeed it may be said, none ever sat in the United States, in which a larger number of distinguished men were brought together.

In the year 1837, Mr. Bogy formed a partnership for the practice of the law with Mr. Logan Hunton, of Kentucky, Mr. Hunton came to this State with the reputation not only of a very sound lawyer, but a man of ability, having served with distinction in the Kentucky Legislature.

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This partnership continued for several years, and was, while it existed, one of the leading firms of St. Louis. Mr. Hunton afterward went to New Orleans, where he acquired a still greater reputation in his profession, and also realized a handsome fortune.

In 1839, Mr. Bogy made a trip to the Indian country, traveling the whole distance there and back on horse-back, sleeping out-doors for some seven months, with his saddle-blanket for his bed. During this trip he passed through the countries of the Osages, Quapaws, Senecas, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles, and as far west as the Comanches, near the line of Mexico.

In the year 1849, he decided to engage in politics: having acquired a handsome fortune by his profession, he no longer felt the necessity of devoting himself to its practice. And believing that a better field was presented in his native county than in St. Louis, he moved to that county that year, and bought a handsome farm near the town for his future home. The St. Louis Congressional district at that time extended south to the Arkansas line, therefore, in moving to the county of Ste. Genevieve, he did not get out of the district.

The Democratic party was then already divided between the slavery and anti-slavery elements. The Wilmot proviso was the question on which this division had taken place. Colonel Benton was then one of the Senators from this State, David R. Atchison being the other. Benton had voted for this proviso, as it was called. A portion of the democracy of Missouri was decidedly opposed to his vote on this question, and did not hesitate to manifest its opposition. The Legislature which sat following this vote, passed the famous resolutions known as the Jackson resolutions, disapproving of his vote. Benton therefore appealed from the Legislature to the people, and soon after traversed the State to address them, vindicating his vote, and in the most violent manner arraigning the course of his opponents. The Benton and Anti-Benton parties grew out of this controversy, and the Democratic party was in consequence split in two hostile fragments. Mr. Bogy sided with the Anti-Benton party. He became a candidate for the Legislature in Ste. Genevieve County, and went through a most exciting canvass. The opposition he encountered was most virulent, and personally very bitter. There were many reasons why this was so. The combined forces of the Whig and Benton parties were too strong for him, and the consequence was that he was defeated by an old friend of his youth, of the name of Sifroid E. Roussin, who was a Whig. The election of a United States Senator was to take place at this session of

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the Legislature, and he was very anxious to be a member of this body, to take part in that important contest. His defeat, therefore, was looked upon by him as one of the most serious events of his political life. Colonel Benton was of course a candidate for re-election. Some of the leading Democrats continued to support him, but the younger members of the party were generally opposed to him. He was not re-elected. Thus, after thirty years of continuous service as the Senator from this State, dating back to the time when the Missouri controversy was at its height, he was compelled to return to private life. He and David Barton were elected in 1820, as the first Senators from this State, both being Southern men by birth, and both pro-slavery. It may therefore be said that this truly remarkable man was both made and unmade, politically, by the slavery question.

At the next election for members of the lower house of Congress, Colonel Benton announced himself a candidate. The Democratic party met in convention in the city of Cape Girardeau, and was presided over by one of the leading Democrats of Southeast Missouri of the name of Johnson C. Clardy. It, no doubt, honestly represented the true sentiment of the party. It nominated Lewis V. Bogy, of Ste. Genevieve, as its candidate in opposition to Colonel Benton. The Whig party put in nomination Samuel Caruthers, of Madison county. The contest was very animated; every county in the district was visited. In the lower counties Bogy carried the majority, but in the upper counties and St. Louis, Benton carried the day. The consequence was that Benton was elected, although by a small majority. The fact that Bogy was selected by his party as the opponent of Benton, shows in what esteem he was held by them. The ability he displayed during this contest justified the wisdom of their choice, and, no doubt, the reputation he then acquired largely contributed to his election as United States Senator, twenty years after, as his most steadfast and truest supporters were the members from Southeast Missouri, the old district where he met Benton and discussed with him the great questions agitating the public mind.

Two years after this, he was again a candidate for the Legislature in the county of Ste. Genevieve. He was opposed, as before, by the combined parties of Whigs and anti-Benton men. After a most animated and bitter contest, he was elected, and took his seat as a member of the Legislature, which met the following fall. The elements composing this Legislature were singularly mixed. The Democratic party was divided between Benton and anti-Benton, and the Whig party

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between the Old Line Whig and those having Know-Nothing proclivities and affinities, and a fifth party of Free-soilers. After many efforts to elect a Senator, the contest being between Benton and Atchison of the Democratic party, and Doniphan of the Whig, the subject was laid over, and the consequence was, there was no election that session, and for a time Missouri was unrepresented in the federal council.

There was a large number of distinguished men who were members at this session of the Legislature — some of them were already famous, others became so afterward. The following are the names of those who are remembered at this day: F. P. Blair and B. Gratz Brown, Freesoilers, from St. Louis, formerly Democrats; Henry T. Blow. Charles S. Rannells, Samuel M. Breckenridge, also from St. Louis, and members of the House — all Whigs, the former, however, exhibiting very marked Free-soil tendencies; C. C. Zeigler, in the Senate from the Ste. Genevieve district, an Old Line Whig; Solomon G. Kitchen, a Whig, from Stoddard county, in the Senate; from Clay county, the distinguished Alexander Doniphan, Old Line Whig; James S. Rollins, from Boone, a Whig; Charles H. Hardin, from Callaway, also a Whig, at this time the Governor of the State; John W. Reid, from Jackson, one of the most gallant captains in the Doniphan campaign through Mexico, a Democrat; James H. Britton, a Democrat from Lincoln, and now the mayor of St. Louis; William Newland, from Rails, a Whig. He was elected Speaker of the House, and made a most excellent presiding officer, prompt, fair in his rulings, and maintaining good order, and all with personal dignity. Sterling Price was the Governor of the State. Most of the Whigs who were members of the General Assembly were either members of the new organization then spreading with great rapidity throughout the country, and designated as Know-Nothings, or had very decided tendencies toward it. There certainly was a very cordial understanding between them. Without egotism, it may be said that no State could boast of a larger number of distinguished men serving at one time in its councils. It can well be imagined, with such characters in the body, the session was both very interesting and, now and then, necessarily exciting. Although a large amount of business was done, an adjourned session was nevertheless found to be necessary. At this adjourned session, the subject of State aid to facilitate and encourage the building of railroads in the State, was the absorbing question. It was much discussed and perfected, and also enlarged.

In 1848 Mr. Bogy, with others, purchased the famous Iron Mountain, known as the Pilot Knob, in the southeastern section of the State. To

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this enterprise he devoted for ten years a large portion of his time, and invested in it a very large part of his private fortune. Owing to many obstacles which presented themselves, this enterprise was not a success, but it would be of no interest to the public to detail them here. It was, as it turned out, a most unfortunate undertaking, for after ten years of great labor, and the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars, he was compelled to relinquish the enterprise, and retire with the loss of his entire private fortune, and a large debt to be paid; and that required years of labor afterward to liquidate. He has the gratification, however, to have been able to pay this debt, and also to have again amassed a reasonable independence for himself and family.

On his retirement from the Pilot Knob enterprise, he again resumed the practice of law, with the intention of continuing to make it his exclusive pursuit. He continued to practice law until the war, and for a short time after its beginning. Being, however, unable to subscribe to the oath which was required by the Radical element, then in power in this State, he was compelled to relinquish the practice.

He then remained in private life till 1863, when the Democracy of the city of St. Louis called on him to be a candidate for Congress. The opposing candidates were F. P. Blair and Samuel Knox — both Republicans, but the latter a little more radical than the former. It was well known that no Democrat could possibly be elected; indeed, it was at the peril of life for a Democrat to speak to the people — the feeling prevailing at that day did not permit any one to speak in opposition to the administration. The test of loyalty was, adhesion to it right or wrong. Mr. Bogy, however, made the canvass, encountering throughout the most bitter and violent abuse from the two opposing candidates and their friends. It is well to say that the object of running a Democratic candidate at this time was with the view of explaining the position of the party, and so as to prevent, if possible, hereafter, the various persecutions with which it had been so terribly visited. This object was accomplished; and from that time a more tolerant feeling was exhibited toward the members of the party. He was of course defeated.

From that time he continued in private life until he was called to the head of the Indian Bureau by President Johnson in 1867, as Commissioner of Indian affairs. In this office he displayed very great administrative abilities. At the time he took charge of this most important branch of the public service, the Indians were in a state of quasi-war throughout their whole country; this being caused by the frauds and rascalities of the Indian agents. These Mr. Bogy in many

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cases removed, and at the time he left the office peace reigned over all the extended country occupied by the Indians. In the short time he remained in this service he acquired a national reputation.

Mr. Bogy then returned again to private life, until he announced himself a candidate for the United States Senate, a short time prior to the meeting of the Legislature, in January 1873, upon which devolved the election of United States Senator in place of Hon. F. P. Blair, whose term of office would expire in March following. This Legislature was largely Democratic in both houses, which had the effect of bringing forward as candidates for the position, all the prominent men of the party in the State. It is with pride that we refer to so long a list of distinguished characters, candidates for the office, any one of whom would have represented Missouri in the National Assembly with honor to the State and to himself. General Blair was a candidate for re-election, and, with the following gentlemen, made up the list of candidates: Judge Napton, Colonel Vest, Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds, Governor Woodson, Judge Norton, Governor Phelps, Colonel Thos. L. Anderson, Colonel Broadhead and Mr. Bogy. The contest in the caucus was animated, but was confined principally to Blair, Phelps and Bogy, and finally on the last ballot was between Bogy and Blair, the former receiving sixty-four votes to the latter's fifty-seven. On the next day, January 15, the two houses voted separately, as required by the law of the United States, with the following result: In the Senate — Bogy, 15; J. B. Henderson (Radical), 10; majority for Bogy, 5. In the House — Bogy, 86; J. B. Henderson, 32; majority for Bogy, 54. Thus was Mr. Bogy elected by the large majority of 59 votes.

He conducted his canvass at Jefferson City for two weeks prior to the election, with remarkable skill and ability. Mr. Bogy had been a very active and prominent party man for many years before, and as closely identified with his party as any man in the State, but during the entire war he was quiet, taking no part in politics, although his sentiments during that eventful period are well known.

He took his seat as Senator from Missouri on the 3d of March 1873, at a called session of the Senate. The Forty-third Congress, which met on the first Monday of December 1873, was one of the most important ever held in this country. Many very important questions were presented. The subjects of finance, national banks, tariff, internal revenue, the opening up of water routes from the interior of the continent to the ocean, the levees of the Mississippi River, and the

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opening of its mouth, all came up, and were duly considered. On all these broad subjects, Mr. Bogy showed a knowledge which even surprised his most intimate friends, speaking always with great clearness and marked ability.

He and his colleague, General Schurz, disagreed upon the financial question, the General being in favor of obtaining the resumption of specie payment by way of contracting the amount of outstanding paper money; while Mr. Bogy was equally anxious to obtain the same end, although not by contraction, but by appreciating the paper circulation so as to make it equal to gold.

Mr. Bogy is justly entitled to the credit of being the first Senator who advocated the taking of legal tender notes in payment of duties on imports, and we are informed that it is his intention, during the approaching session of Congress, to bring this matter still more prominently before the Senate. He believes this would settle our financial troubles, as it would create a demand for the legal tenders, and in the same proportion do away with a demand for gold, thus bringing them to a level; and this being effected, the gold now in the country, amounting to from $160,000,000 to $170,000,000, would at once go into circulation. This would bring about a large increase in the medium of circulation, now so much needed by the whole country.

Mr. Bogy's speech made during the second session of the Forty-third Congress, on this subject, is truly an able argument. On the financial question, Mr. Bogy has proven himself to be more in accord with the sentiments of the people of the State than his colleague, and, it must be admitted, exhibits great familiarity with this most difficult subject.

It may be said that Mr. Bogy has more than fulfilled the anticipations of his friends. He has shown greater familiarity with all public questions than was expected of him, thus proving that during the long years of his quiet life during the war, he was devoting his time to reading and study. He is looked upon among his colleagues as the representative of Western interests.

He has been the unflinching advocate of all matters looking to the improvement of the Western waters, such as the opening up of the continent from the interior to the ocean by water routes, and the improvement of the mouth of the Mississippi by the jetty system. It was Mr. Bogy who got the bill through, compelling the Union Pacific Railroad to prorate with the Kansas Pacific, thus giving to St. Louis and Missouri a direct line of communication, by the way of Denver and Cheyenne, with California and the Pacific Slope.

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Mr. Bogy is a child of Missouri; was born and reared in the midst of her institutions. He has, through a long course of successful life, shown himself eminently worthy, and the State that has the honor of his birth may still look for great results from his talents, patriotism and integrity. His step is just as elastic as it was twenty years ago; and so remarkably hale and healthy is his appearance that no one would suppose him verging on three-score years. In all his relations in life, Mr. Bogy is peculiarly happy. In early life he married a daughter of General Bernard Pratte, who has been his faithful companion ever since. He is one of the men of St. Louis whose life has not been lived in vain, and a citizen of whom Missouri is justly proud. He has but three children, one son and two daughters — all married.

Mr. Bogy being emphatically the most distinguished descendant of the early French settlers, it would not be inappropriate, in a sketch of his life, to say a few words concerning these people, who first came to this interior portion of the new world. Much has been written and said in relation to the early settlers of the New England States, and also of Maryland and Virginia, and the brave men who, led by Daniel Boone, first met the savages on the dark and bloody ground of Kentucky; yet, long prior to the day when Boone crossed the Blue Ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, long before Washington's early visit to the then distant shores of the Ohio, the Canadian French were living in happy communities in the towns of Cahokia, St. Phillip, Prairie Du Rocher, Fort Chartres and Kaskaskia. These French Canadians were more truly pioneers in the wilderness than any other people; and with them followed civilization, religion, and the polite manners and social habits of the French nation. Their system of emigration was peculiar and most excellent. They moved together in families, taking with them their priest. They settled in towns; and one of the first buildings erected, after their own log houses were ready, was the church of the parish, and close by it the parochial residence for the priest. This priest was the guardian of the orphans and protector of widows, and was, in the main, the educator of the people in the duties of religion. He it was who taught the boys and girls the catechism, baptized all the infants, and performed the sacrament of matrimony. He was, in truth, the father of the whole community, and with them personally from the cradle to the grave. Besides this, he participated with them in all their innocent enjoyments. One instrument of music, and only one, was known, and that was the fiddle. They knew not how to read music, but played by the ear, and sweeter music was never heard in the wilderness of the new world.

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This system of emigration was attended with marked good results. Although this people had no, or but little, education, they all had fine, and indeed, graceful manners, and the ladies had a grace peculiar to themselves. Happier communities existed nowhere in the world. It was a renewal of the Arcadian age. From these different communities the trappers and hunters and Indian traders annually proceeded. And the bold coureur des bois, now famous in history, was the veteran of these early settlements. These people were remarkable for honesty, piety and sobriety. Vice was unknown among the women. These early Canadian French are truly and justly entitled to the honor of being the first settlers, the true pioneers, of the Valley of the Mississippi. And as the subject of this sketch is one of the descendants, we have thought due to him, as well as to his ancestors, to place on the pages of history in connection with his name, the facts we here note. While he has just reason to be proud of such frontiersmen for his ancestors, they, on their part, would be no less so in witnessing one of their descendants occupying, with honor to himself and usefulness to his country, one of the most elevated and distinguished positions in this Government — that of Senator of the United States.

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Edwin O. Stanard.

THE subject of this sketch is in many respects one of the most remarkable men of the West, and a man whose life affords many useful lessons to the merchant just starting out in life.

EDWIN O. STANARD was born in Newport, New Hampshire, in the year 1832. In 1836, his parents came West and settled upon a farm in Iowa, which was then for the most part a wild and uncultivated region, where the facilities for educating a growing family were not the best that could he desired. Here, in the settler's Western home, young Stanard remained until maturity, toiling with his axe and farming implements, and assisting in gaining a livelihood for the family. Under such circumstances, then, — circumstances which have produced some of the best specimens of American manhood, young Stanard arrived at maturity.

Some years, however, after the arrival of the family in Iowa, public schools were established and the means of obtaining an education were at hand. The parents were both wise and discreet persons, and the current literature of the day and periodicals, found their way into their household. Consequently young Stanard grew up to manhood with a fair knowledge of men and the world in general.

Upon arriving at his majority, he started out to cut his own road to fortune. He spent several years — teaching during the winter in Illinois, and passing the summers in St. Louis studying and perfecting his education. He always had a predilection for merchandising, and with this idea uppermost in his mind, he made many efforts to obtain employment in some of the wholesale houses on Main street. But his efforts proved of no avail. None of the merchants seemed to want his services, or they all failed to discern in him the solid material for the business man of which he was made, and which he afterward proved himself to be.

At last, and after many efforts, in the winter of 1856 Mr. Stanard obtained employment in a shipping and commission house in Alton, Illinois, where his thorough business habits and uniform gentlemanly hearing, made for him many firm friends, who felt an interest in the

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future of the young man. His employer dying before the close of the year, he was again out of employment. He had not forgotten his early ambition to become a St. Louis merchant, and thitherward he turned his footsteps.

About this time he made the acquaintance of Mr. C. J. Gilbert. Between them a strong friendship sprang up, and with very small capital, but with any amount of energy and determination to succeed, they opened a commission house in this city, and subsequently established the widely known firm of Stanard, Gilbert & Co. Considering the small amount of capital they had at their disposal, and not being blessed with any large number of friendly advisors, or indorsers, the new firm met with remarkable success, and was soon looked upon as one of the institutions of the city. Soon after, this firm opened a similar house in Chicago, Mr. Gilbert going there for that purpose, which also proved a successful enterprise. He also established the house of Stanard & Slayback, in New Orleans, and in other instances took occasion to extend his commercial relations.

In 1866 Mr. Stanard purchased the Eagle Steam Mills in St. Louis, and directed himself to the manufacture of flour. In this field of enterprise he has also succeeded, and besides being the possessor of a handsome competency, he enjoys in a marked degree the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens.

His fellow-merchants have tried him in many ways, and in nothing has he been found wanting, and at no time did he ever cause them to regret the confidence they placed in him. He has been president of the Chamber of Commerce, and is director in the Missouri Pacific Railway. He is president of the Citizens' Insurance Company, director in the Life Association of America, a large owner and director in the St. Louis Elevator Company, and also in the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company.

In 1868 he was the nominee of the Republican party for Lieutenant-Governor, and although he had taken no active part in politics before that period, and was wholly inexperienced in public affairs, such was the strength of his personal popularity and character for sterling integrity, that he was elected by a handsome majority.

As the presiding officer of the Senate, and in all matters pertaining to the duties of Lieutenant-Governor, he acted well his part, even his most bitter political enemies never denying his strict impartiality. His gentlemanly deportment, dignified bearing, thorough reliability and generous consideration for all classes of citizens, made him hosts of

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warm and personal friends. He vacated the office of Lieutenant-Governor with a reputation unstained by a single act of partiality, and with the best wishes of men of both political parties.

During the late war he gave largely of his means to sustain Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and to all other enterprises inaugurated to ameliorate the condition of suffering humanity, and was a firm and consistent supporter of the Government.

In 1870 Mr. Stanard acquiesced in the Liberal movement in Missouri, and took an active part in the canvass of that year. This movement he considered, however, a purely local or State movement, and, with the election of B. Gratz Brown to the gubernatorial chair, his connection with the party ended, and in all matters relating to National politics he has been a staunch Republican.

At the urgent solicitation of his friends he permitted his name to be used for the office of Mayor of St. Louis, and after one of the hottest and most closely contested elections ever held in the city, he was defeated.

In 1872 he was elected to Congress, on the Republican ticket, from the First District, and was regarded as one of the most efficient and useful representatives ever sent from St. Louis. He devoted his energies mostly to business interests of the West, but was very independent in his votes on political topics, as was shown by his votes and speeches against some measures of his party. In 1874 he was renominated by his party, but, owing to factional differences, was defeated.

In every position he has ever held, he has acquitted himself with honor, and never yet vacated a position but with the regrets of the best class of his fellow-citizens.

Mr. Stanard is an earnest man, of wonderful energy, of more than average abilities, and a man who is thoroughly conversant with the business wants of St. Louis and the State of Missouri. He has been intimately connected with almost every public enterprise which has originated in St. Louis for the last fifteen years, sustaining them by his counsels, energies, and contributions. He may justly be considered one of the progressive spirits of the West, with a mind capable of grasping the wants and necessities of Western trade and commerce. He is honored and appreciated in every circle in St. Louis — religious, business, political and social — and is one of the many merchants of whom this vast metropolis is justly proud.

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Abram Nave.

AS success is by no means common to commercial life, it must, when attained, argue superior sagacity and capability in those who achieve it. Especially is this true of the merchants of the West. Here, commercial relations have often been constructed and reconstructed within the lifetime of single individuals. The merchants of old communities grow up surrounded by plans and principles which have been tested and approved, and which they have only to follow. In our own section, however, there has existed a necessity for almost continuous change, in order that systems should be adapted to ever-changing requirements. The merchants of the West put forth their barks upon an almost unknown sea, and he must be regarded as an able navigator who manages to always meet with favoring winds.

Areas of production and consumption have been changed; transportation has been revolutionized, and the old customs of trade have been entirely replaced. Through all this a few men of comprehensive grasp of mind helped to direct the course of the resistless current, and won honor and fortune by their thorough identification with the progress that was going on around them.

ABRAM NAVE is one of those who has helped, in an eminent degree, to build up and strengthen that noble system of commerce to which we are so much indebted. Sanguine in temperament, without being reckless, he has pushed his successes with audacity, and has never shrank from great enterprises because they involved an unusual amount of labor. One most admirable and valuable quality has made it possible for him to conduct widely extended operations with unvarying good fortune; — that is his correct estimate of men and rare discernment in the selection of associates. This quality has enabled him to duplicate his powers, and to bring the spirit of his policy to bear in various points having reciprocal interests.

He was born in Cocke county, East Tennessee, from whence his father emigrated to Saline county, Missouri, while he was yet young.

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His father, Henry Nave, was of German descent; his mother, Elizabeth Brooks, of Scottish blood. Settling upon a farm with his family, Henry Nave, as his sons grew up, had their assistance in the farm work, and there Abram Nave acquired a robust constitution and confidence in his own powers.

A keen observer and an apt scholar, he received sufficient education at the country schools for business life, and when nineteen years of age took a drove of mules to Louisiana on his own account. Upon his return from this trip, which consumed some months, he opened a country store at Savannah, Andrew county, Missouri, with a capital of about a thousand dollars. This was the commencement of a profitable business enterprise, and five years later, in 1846, he established a branch house in Oregon, Holt county, Missouri, under the management of James McCord, and another at Hawleyville, Iowa.

He was married in 1842 to Miss Lucie McCord, by whom he had five children, four sons and one daughter, all now living.

In 1852, during the great emigration to California, he and James McCord commenced buying herds of cattle to send across the plains to that new Eldorado, and continued their stock business near Sacramento City, California, till 1857. During this period, however, he still continued his mercantile houses at Savanah and Oregon, Missouri, and Hawleyville, Iowa. In 1857 he and James McCord established a wholesale grocery house at St. Joseph, Missouri, under the style of Nave, M'Cord & Co. This step was considered an experiment at that time, but the house has gradually grown, and is now perhaps the largest and best known grocery firm in the West. This well known house has established several branch houses, three of which still exist. The first was opened at Omaha, Nebraska, in 1861, and the second at Council Bluffs, Iowa, the following year. In 1862 the firm of C. D. Smith & Co., (in which he is a partner) was formed at St. Joseph, Missouri, and has become well and favorably known as one of the best and most substantial in the West. In 1868, after the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, it was decided to cease the Omaha and Council Bluffs houses, although both had done a large and profitable business. But the same year another house was started at Kansas City, Missouri, under the firm name of McCord, Nave & Co. This establishment is managed by James M. Nave, son of Abram Nave, and its annual sales are, with the exception of Nave, McCord & Co.'s, the largest in the State outside of St. Louis. In 1872 he, with James McCord, J. W. Goddard, and L. G. Peck, opened the St. Louis house, of which he is

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now the head. The time was auspicious, and opening as they did, with ample means, the highest commercial credit and extensive connections, it is not strange that its success has been marked, even in the face of an extraordinary season of depression in general trade. Mr. Nave's interests extend to the house in Kansas City and the two in St. Joseph, with which he is still closely identified, and which receive his personal supervision. In the light of his experience and judgment, which have carried him and his associates safely through so many trying times, they have little to fear from the easy and beaten path that lies before them. It is to his industry and energy that they are indebted for the safety and success that now attend their operations.

He is a master spirit, directing the movements of a chain of grocery houses that, in their combined aggregate, probably exceed any competitor in the United States. Large and active physically and mentally, comprehensive in his ideas, too self-reliant to be annoyed by responsibilities, too confident in his views to feel any timidity, he carries along a weight of business under which many men would sink. A jovial, generous disposition that finds much in humanity to commend, assists him also in obtaining a clear insight into the main-springs of human action, and to organize and carry forward schemes which require combinations of talent and capital, and which, in less able hands, might wither to decay. In the development of that system of commerce which has been so potent for good in the Mississippi Valley, he has been a keen observer and an active worker, and may be said to be one of the builders of a structure that is none the less real because it is not measured by line or compass. In the exchanges of trade, his name has been honorably spoken among men from ocean to ocean, and St. Louis honors him as a representative Western merchant.

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Daniel Read, LL.D.

THE history of DR. READ, of his long and prominent career as a university officer, now extending as such over a period of more than fifty years in Western State Universities, renders his life as an educator singularly noticeable. He was born June 22, 1805, at Marietta, Ohio. Upon the removal of his father to Cincinnati, before the tenth year of his age, he was placed in the old Cincinnati Academy, and was there the schoolmate of the Lytles, the St. Clairs, the Vances and others who became distinguished men. Subsequently he studied at the Xenia Academy, then considered one of the best classical schools in the Northwest, and early in 1819 entered the academy of the Ohio University at Athens, preparatory to entering the freshman class the next year. Here it was his good fortune to enjoy the instructions of Joseph Dana, the author of the "Liber Primus," the "Latin Tutor," and other elementary books of a Latin course, then in universal use. The Ohio University, which was, in its preparatory department, opened in 1809, became distinguished for its product of eminent men, among whom was the late Thomas Ewing, the well known lawyer and statesman, who was its first graduate (in 1815), and indeed the first to receive the degree of A. B. northwest of the Ohio River. The inspiring influence of this remarkable man, wonderful for his industry and talents as a student, produced its effects upon many generations of students. In college he was the associate of Geo. W. Summers, of Virginia, of Samuel Biggers, afterward Governor of Indiana, David Lindley, the celebrated African Missionary, J. N. Reynolds, who was famous for getting up the South Pole expeditions, and other celebrities. No one as a student could have been more ambitious, and in English and Latin composition he bore off many prizes. He graduated in 1824, and, though the youngest of his class, was awarded the first honors.

He at once entered upon the study of the law under James Cooley, Esq., who being soon afterward appointed Charge d'Affaires to Peru, (which was then the title of that grade of ministers) invited his young pupil to act as his secretary. This offer he declined, thus probably

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saving his life, as both Mr. Cooley and his secretary died of yellow fever soon after reaching Lima. His plans were, however, broken in upon, which induced him to accept the place of preceptor of the academy of the Ohio University (which through the influence of Prof. Dana was offered him); and under this title he became a member of the faculty. The academy was strictly a school of preparation for the regular college course, and embraced classes in Virgil, Cicero, Ovid, etc., and in the Greek, Delectus and Minora. His first step, although he had many pupils older than himself (at least one-half of them) was to require them to study under his own inspection. The main object of this was to make the drill work more thorough, and though at first there was some dissatisfaction, the students soon became convinced that by the presence and aid of their preceptor their progress was made not only more rapid, but their knowledge more accurate. His requirement of attendance was seven hours — one hour before breakfast, and three in the forenoon and three in the afternoon. By holding up before his pupils examples of high effort, and by his own constant personal presence and assistance, he inspired them with the utmost enthusiasm in their studies. The motto of the school-room which he had conspicuously posted was "Labor ipse Voluptas." It need not be said that this vigor of administration at once gave him a very high reputation.

Not yet having given up the idea of the law as his profession, amidst all these labors, by allowing himself the least possible time for sleep, he completed his law studies, and was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court, after the rigorous examination then required in Ohio. Dr. Read has often been heard to say that the most valuable intellectual discipline which he ever gave himself was the mastery of Blackstone, in a manner so thorough that he was able to repeat the analysis of the whole work, of each of the volumes separately, of every chapter, and every title, and to give the definition also of every legal term, and every maxim and its application.

Becoming more and more interested as a college professor, he relinquished the idea of entering upon the practice of the law. He devoted himself with increased energy and enthusiasm to the building up of the University, not only as a teacher, but as a disciplinarian and organizer. No other officer was so much looked to in the affairs of the University. Indeed, upon some vacancies occurring, and others being declared in the faculty, the whole charge of the institution was, for a time, given over to him, with one other officer, who, on account of his age, was able to take little share of the burden.

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Upon a reorganization of the faculty, the presidency was offered him, but he earnestly and cordially urged the election of Wm. H. McGuffey, which was made, himself being chosen vice-president.

With the organization then made, perhaps no institution, East or West, had a more able or energetic faculty. The institution under such men greatly prospered. Professor Read had become the Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional and Public Law, and, in the discussions which divided the parties of the day (1836-'42) sided with the Democratic party in their views of tariff and banking, but held himself entirely aloof from party organization. He used his pen, however, freely and vigorously in the expression of his views.

The funds of the University proved entirely insufficient to carry on the institution under its then existing organization. Professor Read believed that the lands of the University, held under a perpetual lease, were, according to law, subject to re-valuation, and proposed that measure as affording relief, and as a positive duty on the part of the trustees of the University. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the right of re-valuation. The end of the matter was that the Legislature intervened, the re-valuation failed, Dr. McGuffey resigned, and soon after Professor Read and other professors also resigned. The sacrifice on the part of Professor Read was a very great one, as he had become the owner of one of the most comfortable homes in the State, but he valued his professional position above any other consideration.

In 1840, he served as a visitor to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and, as secretary of the Board, drafted the report of that year, which was favorably reviewed in the North American.

Preceding his resignation in the Ohio University, he was elected Professor of Ancient Languages in the Indiana State University (in 1843). Here, as he had been in Ohio, he was not only the able and earnest university professor, but was prominent in all educational movements; not only this: his influence in matters of State improvement was that of a leading citizen.

In 1850, he was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention. This was a body composed of the very ablest men of the State, and the prominent part which was assigned him sufficiently showed the estimate in which he was held.

In the year 1856, he was elected to the chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, which, on account of the great beauty of the place, and the inducements held out by a rapidly growing city, he accepted. Here, in this new field, as a

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college officer, as a citizen, as active in all matters pertaining to educational advancement, as a writer on subjects of general interest, he soon became known throughout the State. In all the concerns of the University, and in every way promoting its advancement, and especially in the measures relating to the concentrating of funds to make a single strong State institution, he was a leader.

In 1866, after the death of Mr. Lathrop, Dr. Read was unanimously elected president of the University of Missouri, which was, from debt, from want of endowment, from dilapidation of buildings, from party prejudice, and general neglect, in a deplorable condition. He at once proposed a plan to the board of curators for the re-creation of the institution with the proper departments of a university, taking the requirements of the Constitution of the State as the basis of the organization: not, however, definitely accepting the presidency until April 1867, after the Legislature had acknowledged the University as the State University under the Constitution, and largely increased its endowment, which he had made a condition of acceptance. The progress of the institution since that time is well known. It has in its endowment, in its departments of instruction, in the number of its professors and students, in its libraries and equipments, become one of the leading institutions of the West. In this great work, so speedily accomplished, no person, unless blinded by utter ignorance and prejudice, denies that Dr. Read has been the main spring of action. He has, as forcibly expressed by the Hon. James S. Rollins, the very founder of the University, "been the arsenal from which all the material of action has been furnished, and so ample has been the supply we had need to go nowhere else."

In such a work, opposition was to be expected. It did not come at first, for there was nothing to oppose, but as the institution grew in means and power, it became an object desirable to be controlled on many accounts. His opponents have been the reactionary, the ignorant and the prejudiced; those who know nothing of the educational movement of the day, and whose faces and steps are turned backwards. Those who have labored most and done most for the University ascribe most to Dr. Read.

In the review of such a life, it strikes us as almost a phenomenon that a man of acknowedged ability, great force of character, indefatigable industry and enterprising spirit, should for so long a time here in the West have adhered to one line of life — and that one likely to generate habits of inaction, if not indolence; and this with numerous temptations to other pursuits. In it he has manifested all the zeal, enthusiasm,

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untiring labor and intensity of purpose, which leads to success in law, in politics, or business enterprise. He has never spared either labor or money in his work; he has employed almost every vacation of his professional life in visiting colleges and universities, libraries and polytechnic institutions; and in mingling and consulting with the leading American educators, in educational associations, especially the National, in which he has been largely a participant. His punctuality in the routine of college duty has been well nigh perfect, and his preparations for the class-room never omitted or remitted.

His pupils are now scattered abroad in every State, and almost every country. A distinguished gentleman wishing, for a reason, to know the estimate in which Dr. Read was held by them, wrote to a considerable number of the most distinguished of them in public life. The response was, without exception, of the same general tenor. They acknowledge him as the teacher, of all others, who had taught them how to study and how to learn, how to classify their knowledge and how to use it, and as having inspired them with high and ennobling ambitions.

Dr. Read is now the oldest American college officer in continuous, commission in the United States, having received his first appointment April 8, 1825, and has been in commission as such to this time without any intermission, and except when absent on public duty connected with the interests of education, has been engaged in the daily routine of lecture, recitation or class examination. Dr. Read has not yet abated one jot or tittle of his former vigor and intensity of purpose; his health remains well nigh perfect; in study, in writing, in teaching and lecturing, he is as intent and earnest as ever, and spends more hours of labor than most men of any age.

Dr. Read was married, when barely twenty-one years of age, to Alice Brice, daughter of Thomas Brice, a merchant of great enterprise in that part of Ohio, and found in her truly a "help-meet." To her prudence, good management, taste, and encouraging influence, he attributes largely whatever of professional success he has been able to achieve. Her death occurred in May 1874. He had a large family, four of whom survive (daughters). His oldest son, General Theodore Read, fell in the last contest before the Appomattox bridge, mention of whose heroic conduct and death is made by General Grant in his final report.

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Hon. Charles P. Johnson.

AMONG the many distinguished men in the State, who have been brought prominently before the public since 1860, none stands higher, or is more deserving of the reputation he enjoys, than HON. CHARLES P. JOHNSON, late Lieutenant-Governor. His career, so successful and honorable, affords another illustration of what can be accomplished by aspiring American youth, even without influential friends and great opportunities. It shows that the path to honorable distinction and usefulness is open to all, and that he who pursues it steadily and perseveringly, is sure to be successful sooner or later. In his case, he has accomplished, at a comparatively early age, what most men of maturer years would be proud to have done.

CHARLES PHILIP JOHNSON was born in Lebanon, St. Clair county, Illinois, on January 13, 1836. His ancestors were among the early pioneers of that State, and bore an honorable part in its history; and at a later date his maternal uncle, Hon. Philip B. Fouke, represented the Belleville district in the Thirty-sixth Congress, and was re-elected, but resigned to serve his country as a Colonel of Volunteers. His youth was spent chiefly at Belleville, where he attended the public schools; but his education was directed and his character moulded largely by an excellent mother, whose influence in moulding the characters of her children was unbounded, and whose presence now, is to him and her other children a constant benediction.

At this time young Johnson evinced a desire to do something useful, and accordingly spent much of his leisure in his uncle's printing office, where he learned to set type and do other things pertaining to "the art preservative." He acquired a fair knowledge of the business, and in 1853, though still a boy, started a printing office on his own account and commenced the publication of a weekly paper in the town of Sparta, doing most of the mechanical and editorial work himself. At the end of eighteen months his ambition took a new turn. He still had a liking for the newspaper business, but he saw the necessity of qualifying himself further for the responsibilities of life. His printing office was converted into cash, and he started for McKendree College,

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at Lebanon, where, on his arrival, he enrolled himself as a student. At this institution his progress was commendable, and though he did not take the entire course, such studies as he chose were thoroughly mastered and became of practical value to him in after life. After leaving McKendree, Mr. Johnson came to St. Louis and commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. Robert F. Wingate, late Attorney General of Missouri. In 1857 he was admitted to the Bar, and was not long in securing a fair practice. He made friends easily and retained them after they were won, and it was not long before he was regarded as a leader in political and literary clubs. The Free-labor or Emancipation party began to be popular in St. Louis in 1859, and as its principles and leaders pleased him, Mr. Johnson gave it his support. His friends insisted that he would bring strength to the ticket in the spring of that year, and he was therefore placed before the people as a candidate for City Attorney. His election by a handsome majority gave evidence of his popularity, and his faithful performance of the duties of the office afterward, showed his fitness for the position.

At the beginning of the civil war in 1861, Mr. Johnson was one of the firmest adherents of the Union cause, and did much to arouse the young men of the city to active efforts in defense of the country. When the Third regiment, Missouri Volunteers, was organized for the three months' service, he enlisted as a private, but was elected Lieutenant of one of the companies before the regiment was mustered for service. He acquitted himself creditably during the short campaign.

On his return, he materially assisted in the recruiting and organization of the Eighth infantry (Zouaves), and was sent to Washington to tender this regiment to the Government. The position of Major was offered him, but he declined it on account of his limited experience in military affairs.

During the summer of 1862, a division occurred in the ranks of the Union men. General Frank P. Blair, who from the first had been the recognized leader of the Emancipationists and War men, saw fit to take issue with General Fremont as to the proper way of managing affairs in the Western Department. The Germans and a large number of American Republicans stood by Fremont and condemned the course of Blair. The Conservatives and gradual Emancipationists thought a point could be made by encouraging General Blair in his warfare on Fremont, and accordingly gave him all the aid in their power. In return, General Blair aided them in their efforts to crush the Radicals. He had the ear and confidence of the President, and succeeded in effecting Fremont's

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removal; but when the issue of emancipation or anti-emancipation came before the people in November, the most radical sentiment prevailed. In this contest, in St. Louis, Mr. Johnson was the acknowledged leader of the advanced emancipation sentiment. He was bold, earnest and aggressive, taking the position that none but the most vigorous war measures could put down the rebellion, and that a permanent peace with the South could not be secured as long as slavery existed. On this platform he was nominated for Congress by the Emancipationists of the First district against his old friend and leader, General Blair; but being only twenty-six years of age, he thought it would be better to decline in favor of Hon. Samuel Knox, and take the nomination for a seat in the lower house of the State Legislature. He did so, and was elected by a large majority over the combined forces of Conservatives and Democrats.

When the Legislature met in the winter of 1862-'3, the advanced Union men were somewhat confused. Men whom they had trusted as leaders advised a moderate course, especially on the subject of emancipation. Mr. Johnson met them in caucus, and, with all his earnestness, urged a positive declaration of principles on all questions pertaining to the war, the calling of a State Convention to secure emancipation at the earliest practicable moment, and the election to the United States Senate of men of well-known anti-slavery and Union sentiments. His views met a ready response from a respectable number of members of each house, and a strong party organization was effected.

In the formation of the committees of the House, Mr. Johnson was by courtesy made chairman of the Committee on Emancipation, and had much to do with drafting the bill under which a convention was called, which framed the present Constitution.

In the senatorial contest, lasting two sessions, and which resulted in the election of Hon. B. Gratz Brown and Hon. John B. Henderson, Mr. Johnson bore a conspicuous part, and throughout remained the steadfast friend of Mr. Brown, against whom the fight by the Conservative forces was made.

In 1864 he was nominated for Congress in the First district, against Hon. John Hogan, a Democrat, and, after a gallant contest, was defeated; not, however, from fault of his own, but because some disaffected Republicans, unwilling to abide the decision of the nominating convention, put Mr. Samuel Knox in the field as a candidate against him.

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Mr. Johnson was again elected to the Legislature in 1865-'6, to fill a vacancy, and performed distinguished services to his constituents in committees, and on the floor of the House as an advocate of important local measures. He did not at this time, however, act in harmony with a majority of his Republican associates, having taken issue with them on the question of the adoption of the new State Constitution (known as the Drake Constitution). Receiving from Governor Fletcher the appointment of circuit attorney of St. Louis county, he resigned his seat in the House of Representatives, and entered upon the duties of his new office. His thorough knowledge of criminal law, and his previous experience as city attorney, admirably fitted him for this position, and so well did he fill it, that at the expiration of the appointed term he was elected for four years, by a large majority.

In 1870, when the Republican party assembled at Jefferson City in a delegate convention, to nominate candidates for Governor and other State officers, Mr. Johnson deemed it his duty to unite with the Liberal element of his party, and became an earnest supporter of B. Gratz Brown. Although he had been an uncompromising opponent of slavery, and an earnest advocate of war against rebellion, he entertained no personal animosity or hatred against slaveholders or rebels. When the nation's war ceased, and the cause had been removed, his fight against both was at an end. It was, therefore, in keeping with his generous nature to freely forgive those who had returned from the South, and as a proof of his forgiveness, to be willing to extend to them full citizenship. With this view, and with these motives, he aided the Liberal movement, not only in St. Louis, but throughout the State, by his convincing and persuasive eloquence. His friends of the Democratic party, however, did not treat him with the same liberal spirit, for in the same year they defeated him again in his congressional aspirations, and elected instead Hon. Erastus Wells. His defeat, this time, was, in some measure, due to the straight Republicans, who either voted against him or refused to vote at all. But Mr. Johnson's personal defeat did not affect his views regarding public policy. He believed the time had come for a general change in the tone of national politics, and was willing to unite with Democrats or Republicans to bring it about. As a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention, and in other positions where he was called to act, he labored for this end.

In the Liberal State Convention of 1872 Mr. Johnson was a delegate, but had no intention of being a candidate for a State office; when, however, Colonel Gilmore, of Springfield, who had been nominated for

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Lieutenant-Governor, declined, he was substituted on the ticket by the Democratic and Liberal Republican State Committees. His election was easily accomplished, as many of his old Republican friends voted for him, and few, if any, Democrats voted against him. And no one ever filled the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri with better satisfaction than he. He made himself a master of parliamentary law, and, as presiding officer of the Senate, was prepared to meet every question or motion that was presented. His manners were courteous, dignified and pleasing, and no Senator ever made complaint against his rulings or manner of guiding senatorial proceedings. It is somewhat remarkable that no appeal was ever taken from his decisions. On one or two occasions, during his term of office, Lieutenant-Governor Johnson left the president's chair in the Senate to take part in public debate, and frequently during the absence of Governor Woodson, he was called upon to exercise executive functions.

Since his term of office expired, Governor Johnson has devoted himself assiduously to the duties of his profession. He is, without doubt, the most successful criminal lawyer in St. Louis, and perhaps in the West. His knowledge of criminal law is extensive and varied, and his manner before a jury is impressive and convincing. In nearly all the important criminal cases that have been tried in St. Louis county for the past ten years, he has been engaged as counsel either for the plaintiff or defendant, and frequently has been employed in important cases in other counties of this State and in Illinois.

He is still in the prime of life, with a clear and vigorous intellect, and a sound and healthy organism — the result of temperate living and abstinence from the vices which ruin so many successful young men. He is a close student and an ardent admirer of the good and beautiful in art and nature. Such a man, with pleasant domestic surroundings beside, can pass life happily, even without the honors of office or the applause of men. But Governor Johnson will not spend his days in retirement — such men are needed in our country, and will be sought for sooner or later.

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Dr. John Sidney Moore.

DR. JOHN SIDNEY MOORE is one of the pillars of the medical profession in our city. From a period which extends back into a time that is a recollection with very few now living, he has been identified with St. Louis as a practitioner and a teacher of the profession which he adorns. His name has come to be synonymous with careful and exact knowledge in that department of science which is one of the earliest to which the human mind addresses itself, and one in which it is continually greedy for further instruction and improvement.

He was born in Orange county, North Carolina, October 5, 1807. His father and mother were respectively of Irish and English blood. While he was yet an infant, his father, who was a farmer of competency, removed to Tennessee. John Sidney, the oldest of the children, received a liberal education, and, in 1828, graduated at Cumberland College, then located at Princeton, Kentucky, since removed to Lebanon, Tennessee. After his graduation, having determined upon adopting the profession of medicine, he attended the Cincinnati Medical College, taking his first course in 1830. In 1829, he was married to Miss Susan A. Morrison, daughter of the professor of mathematics in Cumberland College. Between his first course of lectures and his final graduation in 1836, he practiced medicine in Carlyle and Mount Vernon, Illinois. After graduating he located in Pulaski, Tennessee, and practiced there for a period of nearly five years.

In 1840, Dr. McDowell, so justly revered for his labors in behalf of the profession of medicine, called him to take the chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the Kemper, now Missouri Medical College. One year later, he was transferred to the professorship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, and for thirty-four years has held the same chair. During this long period, he has conducted a laborious and extensive practice, and has, in his own person, enjoyed the unbroken physical health that a good constitution, determined will

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and regular habits so strongly promote. With the exception of transactions in real estate, which have proven very successful, he has not suffered his attention to be distracted from the grave responsibilities with which his position invests him.

Could we sweep away the mist of uncertainty that hangs over all human endeavor, and trace with absolute accuracy the measure of his usefulness, we should see thousands of skillful practitioners scattered over the entire country, pointing to him as the founder of their success. We should find a beneficent influence ramifying through every avenue of social life, and acknowledging him as its author.

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Thomas Allen, LL.D.

IT has been said that we live in a world of fractional truths, of judgments resting on fractional premises. Perhaps this is not more manifest in anything than in our estimates of men's lives. We are prone to judge their conduct by a fixed standard, without much reference to the conditions under which they act; to exact of all like results in like positions, with little consideration for the peculiar character of each, which essentially enters into and qualifies their work. We make more allowance for the relative intelligence of men; forgetting that character is a greater power in life than mere intellect. Philosophically considered, ability includes character as well as intellect or knowledge.

Thomas Allen, the subject of the following brief sketch, is a man of strong and marked character. Without a full comprehension of it, it is not possible to form a fair appreciation of his life and work. He is a man of firm, resolute, persistent nature, patient and steadfast, self-reliant, reserved, but sympathetic. His temper is calm and impassive; his disposition is undemonstrative. His feelings and passions are deep, and rarely manifest on the surface. He is inflexible in all his convictions, and steadfast in all his conduct. Indeed, from whatever point of view we look upon Mr. Allen's career in Missouri, it must be conceded that, for the public importance of his administration, for the vast aggregate of his labors to advance his own and the public interests, few men in St. Louis or elsewhere have higher claims to eminence. For it is with his life in Missouri, and chiefly with his railroad life, that the public are best acquainted, and it is of his services to the people of this State that we propose to add some words of appreciation.

Mr. Allen belongs to a family long known in the history of Massachusetts. His grandfather, after whom he was named, was the first minister in the town of Pittsfield, in that State, having been ordained in the year 1764, and remained pastor until his death, in 1811. He was a zealous patriot in the war of the Revolution; served as chaplain in several campaigns, and with his musket in hand, continued with his

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people at the battle of Bennington, which took place in the year 1777. He married Elizabeth Lee, through whom his descendents claim, among their ancestors, William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth colony, and one of the most distinguished of the Pilgrim Fathers.

Of Rev. Thomas Allen's twelve children — nine sons and three daughters — all were of marked character. Of these the Rev. William Allen succeeded his father in the Pittsfield pastorate, and afterwards became President of Bowdoin College and an author of considerable note.

Jonathan Allen, the father of the subject of this shetch, was several times Representative and Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature; was quarter-master in the war of 1812; was one of the founders of the Berkshire Agricultural Society; became one of the earliest importers of fine wool sheep in Massachusetts, and was postmaster at Pittsfield at the time of his death. In a word, he was through life, a man quite faultless in all the social relations — a devoted husband and father, a kind neighbor, a true and fast friend, a man of thought, enterprise and public spirit. By his first wife Mr. Jonathan Allen had two children; by his second (Eunice Williams Larned, daughter of Darius Larned, of Pittsfield), eight, of which the third — Thomas — was born August 29, 1813.

During the earliest boyhood of Thomas, his father occupied the homestead erected on the glebe of one hundred acres, which with other lands had been assigned to the first minister of the town. Close by stood the village Academy, shaded by the famous old Forest Elm, of Pittsfield, and it was here that Thomas received his first schooling. At a subsequent period, and while employed on his father's farm, which graced the banks of the Housatonic, Professor Chester Dewey, then well known, and since still more distinguished, as a scholar and a naturalist, resigned his chair in Williams College, and established in Pittsfield a seminary of a peculiar character, which, under the name of the Berkshire Gymnasium, immediately took a high rank among similar institutions. At this school, his father having determined to give him a liberal education, Thomas completed his preparatory studies; having the good fortune to be a room-mate for a while with Mark Hopkins, then one of the teachers, and late the venerable and eminent President of Williams College.

Thomas entered Union College in 1829, attaining the requisite age of sixteen between the day of examination and the beginning of his first term.

His college life was distinguished by no remarkable incident, but he maintained with ease a good standing as a scholar, and remembers with

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special gratitude the senior year's instructions of President Nott, as having been of great advantage to him through life.

He graduated in 1832, but having left college a few months previous, in order to commence the study of the law, he received no award of honors from the faculty. He, however, in accordance with the election of the Philomathean Society, delivered a farewell address to the class.

His legal studies, which had been commenced at Albany, were interrupted by the approach of the cholera to that city, in its first fearful visitation to America; and, before they could be resumed, family misfortunes, involving much loss of money, had rendered it impossible for him to resume them as before.

The course of the young law student under these circumstances is a happy proof of what good New England blood, education and character, under the impulse of a firm will, can do in the world with twenty-five dollars, which his father had given him, for sole capital. He started for the city of New York, and, arriving there on the evening of October 18th, 1832, took lodging at the corner of Wall street and Broadway. Knowing that he had to work his passage into the profession, he kept a vigilant eye out for employment. Through an advertisement in the Evening Post of "A Clerk Wanted," Thomas obtained permission to remain in the office of Hatch & Cambreleng, in Wall street, where he could read the books, paying for the privilege in clerical labor. Here necessity, if nothing else, drove him to industry, and he soon won much of the business of the office; became firmly installed in a clerkship, with a salary of three hundred dollars per annum. Here he remained for three years, learning the practice of law from the labors thrown upon him, and employing his leisure moments in studying books. Hopefully persevering, he increased his small income somewhat by copying for other members of the bar.

In 1833 President Jackson visited New York, followed a day or two after by the celebrated Indian, Black Hawk. Thomas wrote an account of the visit of those chiefs, describing their personal appearance and the scenes following them in the city. He also wrote, now and then, a comment or a criticism upon passing events, which he sometimes published in the newspapers.

In September 1834, he became the editor of the Family Magazine — a monthly illustrated journal of useful general intelligence — J. S. Redfield, publisher. He edited this magazine, in such moments as he could get from his law pursuits, for about a year and a half. The magazine contributed materially to his support. About this time he was engaged

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by the principal law book-selling house of New York to assist in compiling a digest of the decisions of the New York courts, from the earliest times down to that period. Upon this work he labored over a year. For his share of labor in that work, he received a small but select law library.

The Family Magazine flourished under his management, and some of his contributions to it have since been published in Sear's illustrated volumes, among others. The Digest, published and republished, was long a standard work.

In 1835, at the age of twenty-one, he was admitted to the bar by the New York Supreme Court, received the degree of Master of Arts from his Alma Mater, and was elected an honorary member of the Phi-Beta-Kappa of New York, an honor not often lightly bestowed.

In 1836, he supported, by addresses in his native town and elsewhere, the election of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency. In the same season, his uncle by marriage, General E. W. Ripley, one of the well known heroes of Lundy's Lane, and then a Representative in Congress from Louisiana, invited him to remove to that State, offering to resign to him his law office and practice. The offer was accepted; and although not carried out, proved indirectly of great influence upon Mr. Allen's future.

In the spring of 1837, General Ripley's health of body and mind failing completely, Mr. Allen postponed forever, as it proved, his removal to Louisiana, and made a visit to Illinois to inspect scattered tracts of land, which his uncle owned in the military reservation of that State. While at Peoria he first learned of the general suspension of specie payments and the crushing financial misfortunes which befell the country. While here he received letters from eminent statesmen, urging him to return to Washington and establish a new journal. He at once returned to New York, where, at the continued solicitation of the friends of the enterprise, he consented to undertake it. The prospectus of the Madisonian was issued, and Mr. Allen was soon at his post, in Washington, with presses, printing materials and printers. The first number of the Madisonian was issued August 16, 1837, and met a favorable reception all over the country. Congress met on the 1st of September, in extra session, and the message of President Van Buren was unexpectedly found to recommend the sub-treasury scheme, which was understood to foreshadow a war upon the currency, and was certain to endow the Executive with excessive patronage and power. The Madisonian had assumed its position and maintained it, without regard to the unlooked-for opposition of Mr. Van Buren. An immediate

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opportunity to test its strength occurred, and at the election for public printer, and after a hard contest for three days, Mr. Allen was chosen on the twelfth ballot, his opponents being Messrs. Gales and Seaton, of the Intelligencer, and Messrs. Blair and Rives, of the Globe.

In the preparation of the political campaign of 1840, Mr. Allen preferred as a candidate for the presidency, Hon. William C. Rives, of Virginia, a conservative Democrat; but upon the nomination of Messrs. Harrison and Tyler, finding their real views to differ little from his own, and feeling the folly of maintaining a separate organization in opposition to Mr. Van Buren, he gave them a zealous, laborious and persevering support, as the representatives of true democratic republican principles.

In the midst of the campaign, on the 11th of April, 1840, his printing office, with all that he possessed except his library, was burned, as was supposed, by an incendiary. But on the 2d of May, the Madisonian re-appeared, announcing itself:

"Self-born, begotten by the parent flame
In which it burned — another, yet the same."

Its vigor, as may be imagined, was not diminished by the ordeal of fire, and it reached, during the presidential campaign, the circulation — then very large — of twenty thousand.

Nor was Mr. Allen's voice silent during that contest. He addressed the National Convention of young men, at Baltimore, as one of its vice-presidents; spoke at a public dinner given him by the citizens of his native town; and made political speeches in several States.

The result of the election in the overwhelming choice of Messrs. Harrison and Tyler is a matter of history. General Harrison, on his arrival at Washington, cordially acknowledged the great services of Mr. Allen, said that he had correctly represented his views, and consulted him on the formation of his cabinet. Of the sad group who stood by his bedside when the venerable President died, Mr. Allen was one.

Passing over much that is interesting in Mr. Allen's history, we come down to the spring of 1842, when he moved to St. Louis, where on the 12th of the following July, he married Miss Ann C. Russell, the daughter of William Russell, Esq., of this city. He opened a law office here, but soon closed it, and began to devote his attention to public interests, and was mainly instrumental in the establishment of the St. Louis Horticultural Society, of which he became president. In 1848, he began those labors in behalf of internal improvements in Missouri and neighboring States, which have continued ever since, and have

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accomplished results which could hardly have been hoped for at that time.

His first effort in behalf of railroads, or at least the first of a public character of which we find mention, was an address to the voters of St. Louis, in behalf of a subscription to the St. Louis and Cincinnati railroad, written at the request of a public meeting in 1848.

In February 1849, at a large meeting of the citizens of St. Louis, called to take action for a line of railroad to the Pacific coast, Mr. Allen reported resolutions strongly in favor of such a national central highway, which were unanimously passed, and were approved by the State Legislature.

In the October following, under a call of the citizens of St. Louis, written by Mr. Allen, a national convention assembled in this city, delegates from fourteen States being present. Senator Benton, Mr. Allen, and others made speeches in favor of the enterprise, and to Mr. Allen was entrusted the preparation of an address to the people of the United States and a memorial to Congress.

In January 1850, Mr. Allen called public attention to the charter of the Pacific Railroad, which had been procured, and at a called meeting he read an address whose comprehensiveness of view, accuracy and fullness of detail, and earnestness of manner, were irresistibly convincing, and $154,000 of the stock was taken on the spot. Ground was broken on the road July 4, 1851, and the contractors were fairly at work in September.

In 1850 Mr. Allen was chosen for four years to the Senate of Missouri, where he was immediately made chairman of the Committee on Internal Improvements, and by persevering efforts, succeeded in obtaining a loan of the State credit in aid of the road to the amount of $2,000,000.

In 1852, Mr. Allen proposed a plan which, although the Legislature was not then prepared to accept it as a whole, was subsequently carried out, and a loan of State credit to each, with the exception of one line, was made.

The system comprised the following lines: The original Pacific with a State loan of $3,000,000, and an assignment of 1,250,000 acres of the national land grant; the Southwestern branch — loan $1,000,000; Iron Mountain — loan $750,000; Hannibal and St. Joseph — loan $1,500,000, land grant, 600,000 acres; North Missouri — loan $2,000,000.

Thus in three or four years of hard work, a very great part of which fell to Mr. Allen, and under his well directed influence, the apathy which

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had hung over the State in regard to internal improvements was broken up, and a policy established which may well be called liberal.

In 1834, thirty-eight miles of the road being in operation, and over one hundred more under construction, Mr. Allen resigned his position as president and director of the Pacific road. In the same year Mr. Allen also retired from the Senate, and declined a re-nomination, which was tendered him.

In 1857, Mr. Allen was chosen president of the Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis Railroad, but finding it deeply in debt, withdrew and recommended a re-organization.

In 1858, he founded the well known banking house of Allen, Copp & Nisbet, of St. Louis, he furnishing the capital.

Entrusted by the State of Missouri with $900,000 of her guaranteed bonds, in aid of the southern branch of the Pacific Railroad, he disposed of them to great advantage, and without charge.

When the civil war broke out in 1861, Mr. Allen was found on the Union side, and aided, with all the means at his command, the Union cause.

In 1862 he was candidate for Congress of the "Unconditional Union men" of the Second Missouri District, and was defeated by means familiar enough in those distracted days, but which we will not here discuss.

In 1865, Mr. Allen, with his eldest son and daughter, visited Great Britain and the continent of Europe.

In 1866, he presented a plan for the liquidation of the national debt by a grand patriotic subscription, in commutation of taxes, and also based, in part, on re-payment in public lands.

By purchase, Mr. Allen became the owner of the Iron Mountain Railroad in the year 1867, it having been surrendered to the State with only eighty-six miles completed. In spite of great natural and political obstructions, he finished the road to Belmont in 1869, 120 miles further. He then extended a branch from Pilot Knob to Arkansas in 1871-72, and having, with his associates, purchased the Cairo and Fulton Railroad, of Arkansas, he completed that road in 1872-'73 from Cairo to Texarkana, some 375 miles. He thus constructed about 100 miles of railroad every year for six years. While doing so he was president of four different railroad corporations, all of which were consolidated in May, 1874, under the title of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, the whole of which, in the aggregate, were 686 miles long. Connected with this extensive property, in which, first and last, some

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$24,000,000 have been invested, is a landed estate, in Missouri and Arkansas, of about 1,500,000 acres.

Mr. Allen was a member of and took a prominent part in the organization of the National Board of Trade at Philadelphia and Cincinnati in 1868. In 1871 he endowed a professorship in Washington University, of St. Louis, with the annual interest of $40,000, at 7 per cent., which is well known as the "Allen Professorship of Mining and Metallurgy." In 1872 he was elected president of the University Club, of St. Louis, its members consisting of the graduates of all colleges, and embracing other men of culture, and numbering now near three hundred. The same year he was elected president of the Railway Association of America, which is devoted to railway economy. He has also established a free library in his native town of Pittsfield, Mass., and erected for it a beautiful stone edifice, at a cost of about $50,000. Here he habitually spends his summers, and amidst his native hills and vales he indulges himself in what he considers the luxury of a farm, and takes not a little pleasure and pride in his Jersey cattle, Southdown sheep and other fruits of agriculture. He is president of an Alumni Association of his Alma Mater, and, while engaged in an important land litigation in court in Mississippi county in 1853, received from Union College, New York, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He is an honorary member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and a member of several other prominent societies, such as the New York and Wisconsin Horticultural Societies; a fellow of the American Academy of Design, and of the American Geographical Society. He spent the summer of 1874 in London and Paris, his youngest son accompanying him.

While he is the presiding officer of the several corporations mentioned, and of several others not named, he is also the head of a family, reared in Missouri, consisting of his wife, four sons and three daughters, and may be pronounced one of the busiest executive men in the nation. Several thousand persons have, at times, been in his employment, developing the wealth and advancing the civilization of the country, their joint labors with his tending directly to promote the growth of his adopted city. His mind and character have strengthened with his labors. Innumerable questions in law and physics, in political economy, natural and moral philosophy, trade, commerce and finance, are pressed upon him, in the emergencies of his varied business, for practical solution. Some men become doctors of law nominally by favor. Upon him the doctorate is thrust by force of circumstances. To perform his duties successfully requires robust health, clear brain,

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cool judgment, imperturbable temper, varied knowledge, industry and great experience. He is one who makes history, and his works are his best monument. When they are finished, truly may he say "Exegi monumentum aere perennius."

Of Mr. Allen it would be faint praise to say that his private relations are above reproach. His personal morality is of the highest type. He is unostentatious, just and honorable. He is exceptionally consistent in all his personal connections. The ties of kindred are intensely strong and close with him, and he fosters the welfare of those to whom they bind him with excessive care. As head of a family, he is a model for men to applaud and copy. It may truly be said of him, that he walks all the common ways of life with the upright carriage of a considerate, kindly, worthy, Christian gentleman.

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General William S. Harney.

GENERAL WILLIAM SELBY HARNEY stands among us a monument and an illustration of the second period in the military history of our country. The first period, which covers the Revolution and the subsequent struggle which the initial force of its policy led up to, was controlled by men collected from all nations, and from every avocation. A great idea had but one field upon which it could find a satisfactory solution, and the genius of the world was collected upon our shores to give embodiment to the darling hope of centuries. All were earnest, most were heroic: yet, they became congruous only through the unity of a thought to which recorded history has furnished no parallel. They were all patriots, and some of them were soldiers. They organized such forces as they could command, and our Republic was the fruit of their devotion. On occasions when their skill might have been questioned, the purity of their motives silenced all criticism. Their services have crystallized into history, which it is our dearest duty to preserve and honor.

In the second period, our military operations were directed by professional soldiers. The early heroes, profiting by their own experience and the teachings of history, were the founders of a system under which the flower of the youth of the Republic were bred to the profession of arms. The system was one which all human experience approved, and one for which no adequate substitute can ever be devised. It gave to the nation a body of officers skilled in the science and art of war, whose habits of thought, accuracy of judgment, and promptness of action, made them in a very considerable measure the counselors of statesmen, as they were also the custodians of the national honor. Entirely divorced from the operations of trade and the machinery of politics by their education, their life and their ambitions, their judgment was not warped by any of the considerations which are so potent in civil life. Beneath each uniform was the heart of a paladin in action,

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of an unselfish intelligence in council. To the system rather than the individuals that composed it, are to be attributed the peculiarities presented by its members.

These are the men who in our army and navy carried the flag of the nation with honor; who in general applied, when they did not direct, the policy of our intercourse with the nations of the old world, and our neighbors in this. They were frequently called upon to decide nice questions of diplomacy and international law, in situations where blunders would have magnified into crimes: yet the uniformly high character of those decisions is a proper subject for national pride. Our intercourse with the Indians, whether friendly or hostile, was almost entirely in their hands; and when exceptionally not so, it was a matter of regret. They faced the brave Aborigines of North America for half a century — a people of keen discernment and the highest genius for war that has been developed by any native race in the world. Using force with prudence, yet preferring conciliation when it did not conflict with justice, they commanded the respect and admiration of their enemies, as well as of their own people. Their picket line on the frontier was the protection of civilization against the vengeance of the Indians and the rapacity of the Mexicans.

This, the second period of our military history, may be said to have ended with the opening of the civil war. With that great struggle, the incidents of which are too fresh in the minds of men to be accurately viewed, came the opening of the third period. In some respects it was not unlike the first. New men, with questionable claims to preferment, were placed in command of men, simply because armies were too numerous to be officered by professional soldiers. Politics and intrigue united also with military reasons in shaping a military policy. Armies were formed in which men and officers were equally ignorant of the business of war, and it took time to acquire that discipline which alone can make valor formidable to civilized man.

It is with the second of these periods that General Harney is identified. For nearly half a century he wore his country's uniform, and through all bore himself with dignity, and distinguished honor and ability. His record has already passed into history with the period to which it belongs, and is now, so far as it goes, secure from the danger of being misunderstood. Of his services at the opening of the civil war, and the policy which he had marked out, there is much to be said.

He was born in Davidson county, Tennessee, August 22, 1800; and is the youngest of eight children. He was early marked for military

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life, and on the 13th of February, 1818, was appointed by President Monroe to the army.

His father was one of the early settlers of Tennessee, and one of the best known and most highly considered men in the State. Unsuccessful as a merchant, he became a surveyor, and, in that profession, became known and esteemed throughout Tennessee.

General Harney, when a boy, had contemplated entering the navy, and to that end studied navigation, and fitted himself, so far as circumstances permitted, for that profession.

Nature had gifted him with the finest physical organization, and left no weak points. In person he is six feet and three inches in height, well rounded, without any superfluous flesh, and as lithe and firm as steel. The dark red hair of his youth has in three-quarters of a century become entirely white, yet he retains the grace and manly vigor of his prime. The same decisive and elastic step, the same mental activity and determination that distinguished his early manhood, distinguish also his venerable age.

While on a visit to a brother who was a surgeon in the army at Baton Rouge, he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the First regiment of infantry, and a few days later his company was sent to southern Louisiana, to break up the contraband trade carried on by Lafitte and the notorious pirates he had gathered around him. A few months later he was sent to Boston on recruiting service, where he remained about a year. In July, 1820, he returned to New Orleans with about 130 recruits, and at once joined his command at Baton Rouge, and soon after was ordered to Devil's Swamp, and from there was sent home on account of ill-health among the men.

The succeeding year, 1821, the famous treaty with Spain was effected, which gave the United States possession of the territory of Florida by purchase. General Jackson, however, on taking possession in behalf of the Government, exercised all the authority of the old Spanish Governor. One of his aides-de-camp being absent, he requested Lieutenant Harney to act in his stead. This kept him in Florida until the final consummation of the treaty, which formally took place with the exchange of flags. With the close of these formalities, General Jackson was mustered out at his own request, and Lieutenant Harney was ordered to Baton Rouge. Upon arrival at Baton Rouge he was transferred to the First artillery and sent to Eastport, Maine, and Lieutenant Brent was sent to Baton Rouge in his stead. The change was disastrous to the temporary health of the two men, and the next year they were

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retransferred, and Lieutenant Harney reached his old post. The next year, 1823, an Indian war was anticipated, and four companies from Baton Rouge, his own among the number, were moved North. Stopping for a short time at St. Louis, they started for Council Bluffs, but had gone only about twenty miles when an express met them with the information that peace had been declared, and the command spent the winter at Bellefontaine, fifteen miles above St. Louis.

The next spring they moved up to Council Bluffs with a Peace Commission, composed of General Atkinson and Major Ben. O'Fallon, with Mr. Langham as secretary, and made treaties with all the tribes on the Upper Missouri as high as what Lewis and Clark called the Two Thousand Mile creek. One tribe could not be found — the Assinaboins — a warlike and powerful band of the Sioux.

The Mandans were the last of the tribes with whom treaties were completed.

Council Bluffs was the rendezvous. The present city of Council Bluffs, opposite Omaha, is situated upon the site of the trading house of Mr. Cabiness and his son Charles. Old Council Bluffs (Fort Atkinson) was about fifteen miles below, on the same side of the river. The fact is one not generally known, and has even been disputed by those whose recollections have been so confused as to mislead them.

On the conclusion of the treaties, the first and sixth regiments of infantry returned to Council Bluffs, where Lieutenant Harney received promotion to a captaincy. In 1825 he proceeded to New Orleans to take command of his company. In the fall or 1827 he was ordered to Jefferson Barracks. In the summer of 1828, under the command of General Atkinson, he participated in an expedition against the Winnebago Indians, in Wisconsin, but they submitted, and made treaties before active hostilities began. When Captain Harney first came to Jefferson Barracks, they were in process of construction; after his return from this latter expedition, they were completed. A portion of the First infantry, including Captain Harney's company, was soon after ordered to Prairie du Chien, and from there, his company and that of Captain Cobb, were ordered to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to relieve the Fifth infantry. The succeeding autumn the two companies were ordered back, under Major Twiggs, to the portage between the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, to establish a post which was afterward called Winnebago. Their arrival there about the middle of October, 1828, was signalized the next day by a fall of snow about four inches in depth, and very severe weather. The next two years were years of monotony and peace

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in Fort Winnebago. The whites and reds were getting along in comparative quiet, when the Black Hawk war broke out.

Captain Harney had come to St. Louis where he saw preparations for war going forward. When he left Rock Island there were all indications of a continued peace. Hastening back to his post, he took part in the preparations going on there.

Regulars and volunteers assembled at Rock Island, and started out in pursuit of the enemy. Provisions soon became scarce, and General Atkinson ordered the volunteers to pursue a certain route, and if they met no Indians they would be discharged. If they found them in formidable force, he would come on with the regulars, subsisting them on horse meat, and assist in the fight. Captain Harney, with a Captain Gordon, then unattached, and a party of four men, started out on a reconnoissance. They soon found the Indian village, and reported the fact at their own camp. Once the volunteers camped on a spot where the Indians had been before them, and where they had trimmed their scalps. This should have been enough to have aroused the spirit of vengeance in the most sluggish breast, but the volunteers avoided a fight by moving out of the path laid down for them by the General, and were mustered out at Ottumwa.

Another levy of volunteers was made, and a force collected under General Whitsides that made another expedition, and a righting one. Many of those mustered out joined again for the second term, and did gallant service.

When the second expedition arrived at the mouth of the White Water, the Indian trail was lost. General Atkinson, from information which had been conveyed to him, sent for Captain Harney for consultation. Captain Harney told him that the Indians had but one hiding place in the whole country, and that was not difficult to find. He asked for fifty men to make a reconnoissance. The General thought so small a party in danger of being entirely cut off, and told him to take along also 300 of the Potowotamies, a friendly tribe attached to our force. Upon consulting with the Indian chief, he said he thought his men would not go with such a small force, and after a talk of some of the the leaders, they did indeed refuse. Captain Harney, therefore, started with his fifty men and thirty friendly Menonomes. Soon he came upon one sign after another, showing him to be near the Indian camp, when the friendly Indians counseled a return. Captain Harney, however, persisted, and all the Indians left him except one, who told him he would stay by and die with him, if it came to that. This Indian was

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one with whom Captain Harney had once had a desperate hand to hand fight, in which the savage had been overpowered and disarmed. After that he was a steadfast friend of his white ally. Proceeding in his quest, he came at last to where a fire was burning brightly, and knew that he was close upon the Indian position. He then returned to camp and made his report. On his return he found much alarm for his safety, on account of the reports which had preceded him, given out by the Indians who had gone back. Captain Harney had located the position of the Indians, but about four hours later an express arrived from General Dodge, with the information that he was upon the Indian trail, and in close pursuit. From that time, it was a forced march to the Mississippi river. The Indian enemy was disheartened and getting away as rapidly as possible. Those who were unable to cross the river at last made a desperate fight, but it was the fight of despair, in which they had nothing to gain and no hope save in a treaty.

General Scott, who had hastened on from Chicago with artillery, arrived at Rock Island after the war was over and the troops had assembled there, and made a treaty. With the artillery he also brought cholera of a malignant type, which killed off one-sixth of the whole force.

The humbled and conquered Indians were anxious for peace, and disposed to keep quiet. This was the termination of the Black Hawk war. After the treaty, Captain Harney obtained leave of absence for some months, which time he spent in St. Louis. During his stay in St. Louis he became engaged to be married.

About the time of expiration of his leave in 1832, he proceeded to Washington, and was appointed a Paymaster. The appointment was given him by General Jackson, and without any solicitation on his part. His duties then called him from post to post, and were fulfilled by him for two years. In 1835 the Second Dragoons was raised, as the bill said, "for the better defense of the Western frontier." The bill itself was the work of General Ashley, member of Congress from St. Louis. Major D. E. Twiggs was appointed Colonel, and Wharton Rector, of Arkansas, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. Rector, who seems to have been unambitious of distinction in the line, would rather be a Paymaster, with the rank of Major, than Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, while Harney, who became a Major on his appointment as Paymaster, was eager for the appointment.

As the first step toward the consummation of their wish, Rector declined, and Harney resigned his commission. Major Harney, accompanied by Rector, then went to see General Jackson, at the

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Hermitage, who gratified both, by appointing Rector to the paymastership, and Harney to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Dragoons.

A few months after this change, our Western frontier yet remained quiet; but trouble had originated in Florida, and Lieutenant-Colonel Harney volunteered to take command of some 350 men, who had been recruited in New York and other Eastern cities for his regiment, and to proceed to Florida for service.

His offer was immediately accepted, and he was ordered to Florida. On taking command at Black Creek, he was ordered to Lake Monroe, on St. John's river, when he was met by a detachment of two companies of artillery, under Colonel Fanning, to whom he relinquished the command. Colonel Harney's long experience as an Indian fighter was of signal advantage to the command at the outset. On the second day he discovered that Indians were about, and on the third day he communicated to the commanding officer his conviction that their camp had been reconnoitered the night before, and that they would be attacked at once. Rather to give confidence to the recruits, than from any substantial principle of defense, he counseled the erection of temporary breastworks. The men who were unused to fighting, even if impressed with a sense of safety by such works that were mainly illusory, would be preserved from the greater danger of a panic. Not one of them had as yet heard an Indian yell, and it required careful management at the outset to make them staunch soldiers. The event proved the correctness of the prediction, as an attack was made before day the next morning, though very little damage was done on either side. From this time on, the camp on the lake, called Fort Mellen in honor of a captain who was killed there, was occupied by the troops until fall. The serious business of these months was the drilling of the troops, but sickness prevailing later on in the season, the command was ordered to the seaboard, at the mouth of the St. John's river.

The campaign being closed for the season, Colonel Harney spent the summer at his home in St. Louis, on a leave of absence.

The next year opened with General Jessup in command, and Fort Mellen as the base of operations. Several little skirmishes occurred when the Indians met them in force at a creek called Elusahatchie, near Jupiter inlet. The Indians were occupying a very strong position General Eustis formed his command of six hundred men, with Colonel Harney and his dismounted dragoons on the right. Colonel Harney soon discovered that in the position which he occupied he would not be

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in the fight at all, and that the Indians would not be driven from their position without a change in the plan of assignment.

On our left, when the attack commenced, the Indians fought furiously, and were getting the best of the battle. They were in a position from which they could not be dislodged from the front, and were inflicting much damage. Colonel Harney made a rapid reconnoissance and then, under the circumstances, determined upon a change in the plan of assignment. Dexterously crossing the stream in front with his whole force, he attacked furiously in the Indian rear, and the result was a total rout in a few minutes.

On our left the volunteers had fallen back under a murderous fire, when they met the reproaches of General Jessup. They replied that they had no commander; Jessup gallantly put himself at their head, and led them back. He became at once a mark for the enemy. One bullet striking him in the temple would have killed him had it not been deflected by the frame of his spectacles. Stopping under the fire of the sharpshooters he coolly recovered his glasses and retired, the volunteers having left him alone while he was searching for his spectacles. Colonel Harney asked permission to pursue, which was granted, but had barely made his arrangements and proceeded a few hundred yards, when a most remarkable rain storm put a stop to the movement. The rain fell in such torrents that progress was impossible. Next morning some Delawares, who were in the United States service, and who had been reconnoitering, reported that they had found the Indians in force. General Eustis, who was the local commander, ordered Colonel Twiggs to send Colonel Harney with four companies after them. Colonel Harney was eating dinner when the order came, and was astounded at the inadequacy of the force; yet he proceeded at once to its execution. On reaching the place where the Indians were reported to be, he ordered his dragoons to dismount and tie their horses, fully convinced that they would have no further use for them after the fight that was about to be brought on.

Reaching their camp, he was surprised to find that they had all fled into the everglades. Next day the entire force moved down to Jupiter inlet, and sent to Indian river for supplies. Reaching there, Colonel Harney, who was familiar with the Indian character, advised sending for the Indians for the purpose of trying to effect a treaty. He was confident that they had been sufficiently punished and terrified to secure a desirable and permanent peace. At his instance, the treaty was made, and resulted in emigrating more Indians to the West than had been moved since the commencement of the war by every other commander.

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After this treaty, there was yet a warlike band, under Sam Jones, that continued hostile; and Harney, with his dragoons dismounted, pursued them into the hunting grounds. After a pursuit for about a hundred miles, much of the marching done at night, Harney surprised them, and attacked, when they fled into the Mango swamps, where troops could not follow. From this expedition he returned to Tampa Bay. In one of his skirmishes, one of his men had accidentally shot an Indian woman, and, it was thought, mortally wounded her. He was much distressed at the thought of killing a woman. It was told to Colonel Harney that this was Sam Jones' wife, and that as the chief would probably come after her that night, he could set a trap for him and kill or capture him. This, Colonel Harney refused to do, saying that an enemy, when seeking to succor his wife, should be free from harm by him. The woman was placed outside of the camp, and made as comfortable as possible, and that night she was secretly removed by Sam Jones. To the great joy of the man who shot her, and of his comrades, she was afterward discovered alive and well.

Some months after the close of this last expedition, General McCombs was sent down by the Secretary of War with a carte blanche, to use his own discretion in putting an end to the war, and to make a treaty upon any terms he thought proper.

The treaty was finally consummated at Fort King. The chief was too old to come, but he sent Chitto Tustenuggee, as a special deputy with power to treat. Under the invitations sent around for the Indians to meet General McComb, at Fort King, they came in. Colonel Harney, who had been consulted by General McComb, laid down a proposition which he thought would be acceptable to both parties. As a basis, he said, the Indians must have undisputed possession of a certain section of land, and this could be given them where it would be almost valueless to white men. General McComb, with his pencil, first marked off a very large section, all of which he was willing to concede. The boundary would have given the Indians nearly the whole of the peninsula. Colonel Harney thought it would be proper to cut down the limits materially, as that would satisfy the Indians, and also have less tendency to excite the encroaching spirit of the whites. These amended limits for the Indian reserve were finally formally adopted at the treaty. The Indians were very suspicious, but had great confidence in Colonel Harney; and he assured them, if any change was proposed by the Government, he would give them all of his ammunition, and

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three days to prepare, before he would make any hostile movement if the treaty was not suffered to stand.

The pledge of Colonel Harney was perfectly satisfactory and harmony was restored. A trading post was established on the Caloosahatchie, the Indians were told to make their complaints to Harney, if they had any, and to look to him for everything they wanted. He had the reputation among them of being perfectly upright, as well as thoroughly brave, and they were happy and satisfied and confiding.

In the meantime, Colonel Harney, in the line of his duty, went over to Tampa bay to visit General Taylor. His object was to secure two companies for the protection of the trading house and the country. He was anxious to carry out the expressed views of the administration. He knew that the Indians had been enemies too long to be suddenly trusted, and he saw the necessity of a force adequate to hold them in check. In spite of his entreaties, General Taylor stubbornly refused to let him have any men, or even a single officer. It is perhaps fortunate for Colonel Harney that he took the precaution of at once writing out this conversation and enclosing it to General McComb, as an explanation of his course. While he was gone, events transpired of which he was unfortunately in ignorance.

The Floridians were opposed to the Indians staying in the country at all, and were loth to believe that the treaty had really been consummated. One of their number, a gentleman from Tallahassee, wrote to the Secretary of War to inquire if the treaty was made in good faith and was to be adhered to by the United States. The Secretary, Mr. Poinsett, replied that it was a mere temporary arrangement, that it was an expedient to get the Indians together, so that they might be emigrated more readily. The news, almost as soon as it arrived, was known to the Indians, and they had time to meditate over an act which we may excuse savages for believing was a cold-blooded double treachery.

On Colonel Harney's return from Tampa Bay, he knew nothing of this correspondence, but the Spanish residents had read it, and the Indians were fully informed of it through them. They judged, in their suspicion, that Harney was a party to this heartless perfidy, and were planning vengeance, while he was unconscious of the whole affair. Billy Bowlegs came down to the boat and told him that the chiefs wanted to see him. Harney replied that he would wait and see them. It was afterward known that this was a ruse to shut off any possible chance of his escaping the massacre they were planning. A sergeant and the traders at the post came on board, and Harney conferred with them

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as to the behavior of the Indians. Their tone of confidence in the good intentions and peaceful disposition of the Indians did not please him, and he cautioned them against any relaxation of vigilance. Intending to review the disposition made of the troops, he lay down in his tent to rest, but long exposure in the hot sun had made him unusually tired, and he slept soundly until awakened in the morning by firing and the yelling of Indians. Rushing to the front of his tent, he saw his men being slaughtered and without arms, some of them struggling in the water, and being killed with their own guns. His first act was to get on his boots, but he thought that useless; his next resolve was to die with his men. But there were no men there; those who were not killed were scattered fugitives, without arms, and the instinct of self-preservation made itself felt, with no duty to come in conflict with it. That the Indians had risen was apparent when he first heard the noise, but he was entirely ignorant of the cause. With the desire to save himself, he yet saw no way, until, as an inspiration, the thought came.

Running down the edge of the bay, distant about two hundred yards, he walked into the water and then walked backward out again to the shore, thus conveying the impression that two men had walked in. As he disappeared in the underbrush of the shore, he heard the baffled yell of the Indians as they entered his tent. They had stopped to plunder in the quarters of the men and delayed sufficiently for him to get a start. On reaching the point where he entered the water, they concluded that he and a companion had drowned themselves rather than be killed by them. A negro who was with them and who was friendly, but who was yet more attached to Harney than to them, also did what he could to mislead them and so give him valuable time. With all the Indian confidence in his power and respect for his soldierly qualities, there was mingled too, a superstitious fear that made them wary and increased his chances for escape. One of his men, who had noticed his stratagem while hidden in the palmetto thicket on the shore, soon joined him in his painful and perilous march. His objective point was a lumber pile, fifteen miles away from camp, much of the distance over mango roots that made the walk distressing. In the operations of the four preceding days the lumber pile had borne some part. To reach this point that might already be in the hands of the Indians, required, on his part, all the address and endurance that were possessed by his savage foe. He had to make experimental trips to the water, to learn his location; and, if he met any Indians, his safety depended on seeing

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them first. On one of these reconnoitering trips, Britton, the man who was with him, reported that he had discovered the Indians.

"Britton," said his Colonel, "do you feel that you can fight?"

"Yes, sir," "I will die with the Colonel;" stoutly replied the man whose business it was to fight, though they had both but lately passed through scenes that chill the marrow of brave men. They had seen their comrades killed without any chance to make a defense.

The Colonel then said: "Let us cut some of these pointed limbs to make them cautious in approaching us. They will make good weapons, too, when we come close."

The next step was to cut some of the luxuriant grass and bind it about their heads as a protection against the blistering sun, and then to reconnoiter the enemy, so as to get the first sight and keep themselves hidden. To raise his head above the bank was the labor of minutes, and the first thing that he saw was his canoe. In the canoe, if not disturbed, he knew there should be a harpoon, which he used in his fishing expeditions, and the present occasion would make it a very effective weapon. On reaching the canoe the harpoon was there, and Colonel Harney's gratification expressed itself in a yell that made the sluggish forests of Florida resound for miles. Some afterward said they heard it five miles distant. He was again a Christian warrior with a canoe beneath his foot, and a trusty though somewhat peculiar weapon in his hand, and he could yet exercise the prerogatives of a commander: the succor of fugitives, and attention to his dead. Instructing Britton in paddling the canoe, the two paddled on until they overtook a boat load of their own men, and then Colonel Harney announced his intention of going back to see what had become of his force that very night, even if he had to go alone. The men, though badly demoralized, volunteered to go with him though he would not order them to do so. The night was a bright moonlight one: the worst possible for his purpose. His whole force consisted of seven men with insufficient arms, yet he made the reconnoissance with five men and two guns, and collected and counted the dead for the purpose of gaining tidings of the living. He looked in the faces of the men and found them all but five. Goaded by the ghastly sight around him and a soldierly desire to avenge his comrades at once, he was anxious to make an attack upon the Indians that night in their camp. Colonel Harney relied upon a surprise, and the fact that two barrels of whisky, that they had found in the sutlers' stores, had probably placed most of them in a condition that would keep them out of a fight. There were but five men in the party, as two of the seven had

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been left in the rear with the other boat, and these five were too much unnerved to be willing to take the hazard. It is possible that the measure of the courage of these men was in truth the measure of safety. Colonel Harney's solicitude for his men who were yet living led him to shout and invite them to him. Two of them, he afterward learned, heard him but were fearful that it was an Indian ruse to draw them from their hiding places. The sad party then left; one party was sent back to Tampa Bay with the painful intelligence, and the Colonel went to Cape Florida, his headquarters.

Three Englishmen who belonged to the United States forces, were in a manner responsible for the trouble, in that they fomented the suspicions of the Indians and precipitated the outbreak. They afterward paid the penalty which an act of treachery always brings down upon its perpetrators. The Indians were always distrustful of them and at last killed them as an act of self-defense.

Colonel Harney was yet painfully ignorant of the cause of the outbreak, where all had seemed so happy and satisfactory, when the mail packet arrived at Cape Florida with letters and papers, and the famous letter of Poinsett, Secretary of War, for whose lack of moral courage and double-dealing, brave men in the front had been sacrificed.

Colonel Harney went to Washington determined to sift the matter to the bottom. He saw General McComb, who asserted that he acted under a carte blanche from Poinsett. Of that, Colonel Harney was already perfectly aware, as the authority had been produced when he arrived in Florida, and yet he was unwilling to prefer charges that would lead to a thorough investigation.

It soon became evident, however, that an investigation was not to be had, and he left Washington without getting any satisfaction. Colonel Harney was now assigned to the command of the district of the eastern coast of the Atlantic, and proceeded vigorously against a band of Spanish Indians, of which Chekikee was the chief. The band were pirates, deserving extermination, and were a part of the band that had murdered his men at Caloosahatchie. Retribution, swift and terrible, was now to come upon them.

On taking leave of General Twiggs, Colonel Harney promised that he would send him Chekikee's scalp — a promise that he shortly fulfilled.

On the trip down to Cape Florida, an incident occurred which shows the deliberation with which Colonel Harney acted, and the reticence that marked his official life. The steamer broke a shaft, near the mouth of New Smyrna river, and another vessel had to be procured.

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While waiting, a fishing smack anchored in the river opposite the camp, and the Colonel went on board. The Captain of the craft gave the Colonel a coil of rope to sit on, and in the course of conversation spoke of the rope, and was eloquent in its praise as the strongest and safest rope made. Colonel Harney bethought him that he needed some good rope, and made a bargain with the skipper for the coil. The coil of rope was loaded with the other stores and sent to Cape Florida, and it was only when the band was caught, that it was learned that the use of the rope was to cure piratical tendencies among adventurous Indians. It was a somewhat severe remedy, but was entirely effectual.

Immediately on reaching Cape Florida, an expedition was fitted out for the Everglades, which was the stronghold of the piratical Indians. It was found impracticable to provide canoes for more than eighty-eight men, or less than a company of infantry. Of these, fifty were dragoons and thirty-eight artillery, light ordnance. The officers were, Colonel Harney in command, Captain Davidson, Lieutenant Ord, and Lieutenant Rankin, of artillery, Dr. Russell and Mr. Carter.

Judge Carter, now residing at Fort Bridger, was suttler at Cape Florida at the time, but he was always a volunteer in every expedition that had a fight in it, and he was one of this party.

On a dark, rainy night, the expedition set out. It was hazardous in the extreme, as its only hope lay in surprising the Indians. The surprise proved to be a complete one. Chekikee was killed, the band were nearly all captured, and the Florida war closed.

With the close of the war in Florida, Colonel Harney was ordered to Baton Rouge, where he remained some time. He was then ordered up the Washita River, and established Fort Washita in the Chickasaw nation. The force under his command consisted of two companies of the Second dragoons, dismounted rifles.

From this time on until the opening of the Mexican war, the United States may be said to have been entirely at peace. The military genius, combined with the diplomatic skill of our regular army officers, had dispersed or conciliated the Indians, and the hardy frontiersmen went on gathering in the sheaves of civilization unmolested by the savage warriors.

When Mexico declared war, it was seen that the contest was to be a severe one, and that the prize was rich in proportion to the toil and danger. Then the neglected sons of war felt that they were to be again appreciated, and could exclaim with Bertram,

"Discord gave the call,
And made my trade the trade of all."

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At first Colonel Twiggs was appointed Brigadier General, and Lieutenant-Colonel Harney was promoted to the Colonelcy of the Second Dragoons. His first orders from General Taylor sent him to the command of the forces protecting the Texas frontier, and he was thus kept out of the first of the brilliant and memorable engagements which were a part of the march of our army to the City of Mexico. The service in which he was engaged was one in which it seemed there was no military fame to be earned. The Mexicans got out of the way so nimbly that he had no chance to fight, and his position was almost unendurable to him; knowing, as he did, that his regiment was marching on with the triumphant main army, and winning victories in which he had no share. Receiving information that the Mexicans were about to cross the Rio Grande, he moved down there with his force, but they got away without an engagement. He called a council of his officers, and proposed to go to Monterey, but none of the men supported him in his wish. In the meantime, General Wool ordered him to leave the Rio Grande and return to his former position at San Antonio. On his way back he was met by an order of arrest, General Wool having been falsely informed that Colonel Harney would not return.

When promoted he had demanded orders to join his regiment, then at Monterey, and received orders accordingly. He then reported to General Wool at Buena Vista, and was immediately ordered to proceed to the mouth of the Rio Grande and report to General Scott. Soon after, he was ordered back to report to General Taylor and away from the headquarters of his regiment. This order, transmitted through General Worth, he refused to obey.

Although remonstrated with, he adhered to this resolution, and was court-martialed for disobedience, and sentenced to suspension for six months and a reprimand. The sentence was, however, never executed as General Scott ordered him to duty. It was not supposed by any one that there would be any more fighting on General Taylor's line, and Colonel Harney consequently did not want to move in that direction, nor was he content to be taken away from the command of his own men.

At Vera Cruz he was in command of his darling dragoons, and rode at their head with all the confidence and pride that belonged to the original conquerors of Mexico as they made their way to the palaces of her ancient kings.

On the road from Vera Cruz to the beautiful town of Madeline, about nine miles distant, was a bridge distant from Vera Cruz about four miles. The bridge was defended by a strong fortification, which cut off all

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communication between the American army and some French gardeners on the other side, who were anxious to furnish the Americans with vegetables, of which they were sadly in need. General Scott ordered Colonel Harney to feel the strength of the enemy in the fortification and then to retire, but on no account to engage them.

It was only after much solicitation that General Scott permitted this reconnoissance in force. Colonel Harney represented the sufferings of the army for the lack of vegetables; that scurvy had already appeared, and that a delegation of French citizens had assured them that they could supply the army if communication was opened. At last, General Scott gave a reluctant order for him to feel the enemy, but not to fight. The latter part of the order he repeated several times to make it more impressive.

Colonel Harney proceeded promptly to reconnoitre, and had learned the strength of the enemy and his position, and had drawn off his troops to the rear, when his valor got the better of his discretion, and he faced about and captured the works and pursued the enemy to the town. The advantage secured was the established communication between the American army and the French market gardeners, who were friendly to each other, and carried on a desirable trade afterward, our troops being able to buy articles of food that their health demanded. It also cut off the supplies of the city both from the gardens and the Spanish ships. The second day after this action the city capitulated. The next morning, Colonel Harney sought General Scott and made a clean breast of the whole affair. He described the initiatory movement, and then his chagrin as he rode back; "and then," said he, "I turned back and did what you yourself would have done, if you had been in my place."

"Well, well," said General Scott, "we will let it pass."

And so frankness saved him from the consequences of his soldierly impulsiveness. He had violated a plain order while in an enemy's country, and had made himself amenable to the extreme rigor of military law. A court martial could not have done otherwise than order him to be shot, and he himself could not have demurred to the sentence, yet here a breath between two old soldiers, each of whom appreciated the feelings of the other, swept away the fault as readily as the tear of the recording angel blotted out the record of a venial sin.

While the army lay at Vera Cruz, General Scott received information that a strong force of the enemy was stationed at Antigua, and ordered Colonel Harney to proceed with a sufficient force and attack them. This he did, but the Mexicans managed to retire without an engagement.

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The leading incidents of the Mexican war, the movements of the troops, the disposition of the forces, are a part of our national archives, and have been woven into the consecutive descriptions which, more or less properly, present them under the name of histories. From Vera Cruz, the main army moved after its capitulation to Cerro Gordo, and closed its series of victories at the capital in the City of Mexico. The dragoons, from the greater celerity of movement of mounted men, were in front and hovering on the flank of the main army, resisting the attacks of detachments of the enemy and guarding against surprise.

THE STORMING OF CERRO GORDO

Was one of the most brilliant and desperate of that long line of feats of arms which belong to the history of the Mexican war. Of General Harney's part in it, the following brief extract is from Brooks' "History of the Mexican War:"

Throughout the night there were 8,000 Mexicans lying upon and around the various heights, protected by breast-works and fortifications, and further secured from direct assault by deep ravines and almost precipitous rocks, up whose steep sides they imagined a man would scarcely dare to climb. In addition to the force thus formidably posted, there was a reserve of 6,000 men, encamped upon the plain in the rear of Cerro Gordo, and close to the Jalapa road.

Meanwhile Harney was organizing his storming party. This consisted of the Fourth infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Plympton, the rifles under Major Loring, four companies of the First artillery under Colonel Child, and six companies of the Third infantry under Captain Alexander. All of these, composing the forlorn hope, were regulars, picked men, daring and resolute. Many of them were veterans who had passed not unscathed through the desperate battles of Palo Alto and the Palm Ravine, and the still more deadly storm of Monterey. Now they were about to wrestle with a danger perhaps more imminent than any they had hitherto encountered.

Onward they rushed, impelled by the double consciousness that the eyes of the General-in-Chief were upon them, and of the terrible consequences that would follow a disastrous issue. Harney led the way, conspicuous above all others by his full military uniform and his commanding stature. Waving his sword and calling on his men to follow, he rapidly ascended in full view of the enemy, while his cheering voice infused into the breasts of his command the same energy and dauntless enthusiasm which animated his own. It was a race for glorious renown wherein each strove to be foremost. The front ranks fell, but the survivors still pressed on, and still above the thunder of the war rose high, distinct and clear the voice of their intrepid leader.

The key to the whole position was ours, captured under the eye of the General-in-Chief, by an assault that stands out as one of the most fiery and desperate onsets of modern war.

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On the arrival of the army before the city of Mexico, General Scott sent for Colonel Harney to advise as to the feasibility of making his attack by the causeways which formed the approaches to the city. Colonel Harney gave it as his opinion that though it was possible to attack in that manner, many men would fall by the way, and that as the most formidable resistance would remain to be overcome after the causeways were passed, some better means of attack should be devised if possible. From that time the subject was not absent from his mind; plan after plan was formed, only to be in turn rejected, until one day in conversation with one of his guides, who had been a former resident of the city, he asked him if he knew any better way of approach than by the causeways. The man's name was Jonathan Fitzwalter. He said that the city was supplied with water through an acqueduct, and that, through the protection the pillars afforded, a very desirable approach could be gained. Colonel Harney followed his description closely, and then was unable to suppress the ejaculation, "There is the place to attack the city!"

The suggestion was so apt and so practical that he hurried to General Scott with his discovery and his plan. It is enough for the vindication of the truth of history to say that it was adopted, and the original idea of Jonathan Fitzwalter, seized upon by Colonel Harney and conveyed to General Scott, was the suggestion out of which grew the final plan upon which the city of Mexico was captured.

The fight offered no field for the services of cavalry, and General Scott asked him to take charge of the camp containing the prisoners and the supplies of the army, at a place called Musquak. During the attack he was chafing under his restraint, but had the satisfaction of hearing the whistle of the bullets in the last volleys, as he went in to make a report to General Scott.

The capture of the city of Mexico was in effect, as it soon became in fact, the close of the war. General Scott sent for Colonel Harney and told him that he wanted an experienced officer to take a train to Vera Cruz, and that he had decided upon sending him. This service once performed he would be at liberty to spend some time at home. This train was composed almost entirely of Mexican wagons, carrying a large treasure. The guard numbered less than one to the wagon, and it was so long that when the last wagon left camp the first was going into the new camp. The train was about fifteen miles in length, that being the distance of an ordinary day's march. The train having reached Vera Cruz in safety, Colonel Harney embarked for home, and after spending

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a time here, proceeded to Washington with dispatches, with which General Scott had intrusted him.

After the declaration of peace, numbers of the American soldiers whose terms of enlistment had not expired, and who had married in Mexico, remained behind. Among this number was General Harney's orderly, a gallant young soldier, in whom he took a warm interest. Technically these men were deserters, yet General Harney took the ground that those who had fought bravely through the war deserved leniency, and he prevailed upon the President, Mr. Polk, to issue a general pardon to all who served faithfully up to the declaration of peace.

In 1848, he was ordered to Austin, Texas, with the dragoons, and staid there about four years, or until 1852. While there he organized several expeditions to take the field against hostile Indians, but from one cause and another, they were knocked in the head by his being superseded by superior officers.

General Persifer Smith, to whom he was warmly attached, came down in command, and General Harney, who had asked few indulgences during his long and arduous services, applied for leave of absence, to spend some time with his family in France. His family was already there, called abroad by solicitude for the health of one of his children, and he expected, not unreasonably, that he might spend two years with them. His leave was granted, and he had joined his family, but after a luxurious ease of two months, was ordered back to take command of an expedition against the Indians.

At that time a general Indian war was imminent, and General Harney was regarded as the man of men to bring it to a successful conclusion. On his arrival, the President, Mr. Pierce, sent for him and said, frankly: "General Harney, you have done so much that I will not order you to the frontier, but I do wish you would assume the command and whip the Indians for us." This to a professional soldier was more than a command. General Harney went at once to Leavenworth, which was the general depot, and made his movement against the Sioux. Moving from Leavenworth up towards the Platte, he came upon the Indian camp. The chief had previously sent him word that he would meet him to shake hands or fight. To fight was General Harney's mission, and he was convinced that any treaty, without first punishing them severely, would be of no effect. Knowing that he was close upon their position, he reconnoitered their camp, ascending to a hill-top from which he could count the lodges. With a full knowledge of the position, he made the disposition of his forces for the following day.

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About one o'clock at night the cavalry moved and took up a position, such that if the Indians fell back they would be in their rear. The next morning he met the chief, Little Thunder, and told him that as he (Harney) had the choice of shaking hands or fighting, he was determined to fight. He then recited to the chief the outrages of which his people had been guilty, and told him he would give him one hour in which to harangue his warriors and make his dispositions for the battle. The Indians had fallen back where they were almost at the mercy of the cavalry, and the defeat had become a rout, when intelligence reached General Harney of an event that changed entirely the current of his thought. A Captain Howe, on his way to join him, was fired at from the mouth of a cave, and at once attacked there, killing the inmates indiscriminately. Of those who had taken refuge in the cave, most were women and children, and of these but two little girls escaped. It was not known at the time that any creature had been spared, but the girls were afterwards found. The effect of the report upon the old soldier, who was urging on the desperate encounter in the front, was sickening. He at once withdrew his soldiers from the head of the ravine, and allowed the Indians to escape. Some seventy-eight braves were killed, and the camp, with its equipage, and numbers of women and children, fell into his hands. The Indians had drawn their line to resist the attack on the open prairie, and, as General Harney asserts, had made the most civilized fight of any Indian engagement in which he ever participated.

From this engagement he moved on to Fort Laramie. Although winter had set in, he thought it a proper season to prosecute an Indian campaign.

On the march after leaving Laramie and following the foot of the Black Hills, the snow was one morning four inches deep, and the scouts were busily searching for an Indian trail, without, however, finding any. Operations for the season were therefore abandoned, and he went into winter quarters for the winter of 1855-6 at Fort Pierre, where he had ordered supplies to be sent. While at Fort Pierre, the Saute Sioux, a tribe of Indians on the Upper Mississippi that he had never encountered, sent him insolent and taunting messages, inviting him to come and fight them. They said they had heard so much of his fighting qualities that they were anxious to meet him, and test them. He wrote repeatedly to Washington for permission to proceed against them, but received no reply. The work of chastising them had to be done some years later.

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Had not the instructions received from Washington been positive in forbidding him to cross the Mississippi river, he would have taken the responsibility of proceeding against these hostile bands, and so saved the country a subsequent bloody war, and preserved the lives of many innocent people who were about to fall before the murderous spirit that had been evoked, and which was then growing in boldness.

In the spring succeeding this fight, which has received the name of the battle of Ash Hollow, General Harney made a treaty with the Sioux, some ten bands, or tribes, being represented. He had no special authority to make a treaty, yet he felt confident that his action would meet with approval. He explained his position to the chiefs and told them that he wished to treat with them subject to the approval of the Government at Washington. This they finally consented to, and terms were made. They agreed to be fast allies of the whites, and General Harney gave the bands a military organization, appointing sub-chiefs from among the braves. Portions only of each band were selected for military service in proportion to the strength of each. Those whom he made soldiers were to enter the United States service for warfare whenever called upon. In return they were to receive uniforms once a year, and when called into service were to receive pay, the chiefs as commissioned officers, the sub-chiefs (some of whom were appoined by General Harney himself), the pay of non-commissioned officers, and the Indians the same pay as private soldiers.

This treaty met with unqualified approval in all quarters. It was confirmed by the United States Senate, and received the compliment of being referred to by the Secretary of War as a "model treaty." Unfortunately for its permanence the Government was lax in fulfilling the obligations which it had imposed upon itself.

It is an important point, one that should not be overlooked, that General Harney fought Ash Hollow with an inadequate force. He had been promised two thousand men for the expedition against the Sioux. A new regiment under Sumner was slow in coming up, but he felt that the battle should be fought at once. His effective force consisted of 800 men, including two companies of the dragoons under Cook. The battle of Ash Hollow was fought with only 600 men. The new regiment, slow in coming up, at last went back without authority, and left him in the heart of the hostile Indian country with his little force.

In the mean time there was trouble again in Florida, and the Floridians wanted him there. President Pierce also desired him to go there, and had already ordered him to do so, when there came in a third party

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to claim his services. The administration was desirous that Robert J. Walker should accept the governorship of Kansas. Mr. Walker was willing to go, but coupled his acceptance with the proviso that General Harney should command the troops there.

General Harney had already reached Florida, when he was recalled to Washington. Upon a comparison of his views with those of the President, Mr. Pierce, it was found that they entirely agreed. Their view was, that though there were two hostile factions in Kansas, each desirous of a collision, firmness and steadiness could prevent it, and serve the best interests of both. The event proved the correctness of this view, as in a short time General Harney was able to inform the President that Kansas was quiet, and would remain so. Whatever there had been of danger was passed. Upon this he was ordered to Utah. This order was not distasteful, although he felt that his long service entitled him to an extended leave. He, however, got ready, and told Mr. Walker, who was furious at the thought of his leaving, and exerted his influence to have him retained, which was done. General Harney remained in Kansas until Walker left there, and Albert Sidney Johnson was sent in command of the Utah expedition. The next season General Harney was in Washington, and it was thought desirable to send him to Salt Lake, as the second in command under General Persifer Smith, who was such an invalid that he had to be carried on a litter. General Smith died at Fort Leavenworth. General Harney moved on toward Salt Lake, but heard on the route that the peace commission that had preceded him had made peace; and he secured an order from Washington relieving him from a trip that could have no substantial fruits.

From this trip he returned to St. Louis, hoping that now at last he would be permitted to go to France and spend some time with his family.

It was during the administration of Mr. Buchanan that troubles arose with the Indians on the Pacific coast, and General Harney was ordered there to the command. No one fact better illustrates his Indian policy — the exact justice which he measured out to them, and the leniency with which he treated them when friendly — than the coadjutor he chose for that expedition. When the tribes committed outrages, he fought them with unexampled fury; yet he fought to gain honorable peace and security for his countrymen, and not to carry on a wanton warfare. On this occasion he requested that Father De Smet might accompany him, in order to bring to bear the pacificatory influence of a divine, who, more than any other, had endeared himself to the Indians of North

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America. The Secretary of War, upon General Harney's request, issued the order which made Father De Smet one of the expedition. The party left New York by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and arrived in San Francisco in due time. A few hours after arrival at the hotel in San Francisco, where they were resting, news came that Colonel Wright, after some skirmishing, had concluded peace. In the preliminary negotiations Colonel Clark had demanded the surrender of a number of Indians who had been killing whites, but the tribes were not disposed to give them up. Upon this, Major Keys, of the artillery, asked permission to speak to the chiefs, which was granted. The Major then went on to say to them: "A great war chief is coming, and will soon be here. You had better take the terms now offered, as when he comes he will demand more." "His name," he continued, "is General Harney." They had heard of him, and the terror of his name, which had passed beyond the Rocky Mountains, was sufficient to lead them to conclude terms at once.

Terms being concluded, General Harney went to Fort Vancouver, while Father De Smet went out and brought the Indians in to a friendly talk. This was had, and, they all seeming to be peaceably disposed, the General established headquarters at Fort Vancouver, and opened up the country to settlement. The presence of the troops offered security to settlers, and the finding of gold in considerable quantities brought on an excitement which settled up the country very rapidly.

From Fort Vancouver he went up to the Strait of Juan De Fuca, leading into Puget Sound. He was aware that serious differences existed between the United States and Great Britain, as to the proper boundary line, and that the settlement of the question rested upon the finding of the true channel. In order to satisfy himself, General Harney, in a steamer, explored the strait, and, deciding that the claim of the United States was right, determined to maintain it. It afterward transpired that the British claim had its origin in the cupidity of the British Governor and his son-in-law, who coveted the island of San Juan for a sheep range. After leaving Victoria, and while the steamer was passing the island, General Harney was informed that that was the territory, the eager desire to possess which had given rise to the trouble. He immediately ordered the Captain of the vessel to run into harbor there, when Mr. Hubbs, the United States Magistrate, came aboard and introduced himself. The magistrate complained that the British refused to recognize his authority, and otherwise treated him with disrespect. General Harney informed

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him that his main object in coming there was to redress the grievances of citizens, and to cause the authority of the United States to he respected and obeyed. He also told him, that in a short time a very different state of affairs would exist. The next day General Harney sent a picked force of one hundred men, under Captain George E. Pickett — the same whose division of the Confederate army afterward gained immortality by its bloody charge upon the heights at Gettysburg — and took possession in the name of the United States. It is not doubted that the British commander was then preparing to do the same thing, but his tardiness was General Harney's opportunity. He did not hesitate to seize and garrison the disputed island. The British commander next day sent out a large force in small boats, from the fleet then lying in the harbor, apparently to take possession of the island. But Pickett and his picked men showed no signs of fear, and the boats, after performing some evolutions near shore, but without attempting to land, pulled back to the fleet. Had an attempt to land been made, there is no question that it would have been resisted with force; and thus a long and bloody war between the two most powerful nations of the earth might have been inaugurated.

General Harney returned to Fort Vancouver, and forwarded to the War Department a full statement of what had been done. It was made the subject of diplomatic correspondence between the two Governments, and there were many who thought they saw war as the inevitable result. It is humiliating to relate that the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, who was then President, seriously contemplated the propriety of disavowing the step taken, and of giving up the possession of the island as a means of averting war. So great was the interest excited, and in some quarters the alarm, that General Scott was sent out to the Pacific coast with power to supersede General Harney, and disavow his act if deemed advisable. General Harney met him at the boat, and at once discovered that General Scott's plan of averting threatened war was to agree to a joint occupancy of the island by British and American forces. General Harney maintained that there was not the shadow of a reason for agreeing to a joint occupancy. General Scott persisted, however, in urging it until Harney, no longer able to control his feelings, broke out with the exclamation:

"General Scott, I have maintained the honor of our country up to this time, but if you agree to a joint occupancy I shall consider our country disgraced!"

"Yet," excitedly replied General Scott, "we both have our superiors, and must yield to instructions."

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Of course General Harney, after this declaration, could remonstrate no further. He soon returned to Washington, where he did not fail to express himself warmly. The Southern States had now begun to secede, and in graver domestic dangers foreign complications had no hold upon the popular ear. It is gratifying to add, that after the war between the States was ended, the claim to the Island of San Juan was submitted to the arbitration of the Emperor of Germany, who awarded it to the United States. Thus was triumphantly vindicated, after many years, the unerring judgment and unswerving patriotism of one of the bravest officers of the army.

During the remainder of Mr. Buchanan's administration, a period full of stormy events, General Harney was stationed in Washington, with orders to report to the President twice a day for consultation on the situation. He did not fail to give the President his views, who, after seeming to give them his assent, would next day reconsider his determination. This vacillation greatly exasperated General Harney, who had become convinced that the President was listening to other counselors. Unable to stand it longer, he said to the President one day: "Some one has your ear who is neither a friend of the Union nor a friend of yours." It was ascertained afterward that this sinister influence was exerted by the then Secretary of War.

In the events which preceded our civil war, and which marked its inception. General Harney was stationed in Missouri. If there was a local pride in the breast of the man who had felt equally at home when stationed in Maine, or when lighting in the everglades of Florida; who had borne his country's flag with distinction along every stretch of her frontier, from the head waters of our noble river to where the Rio Grande flings its waters to the Gulf; who had stood unflinchingly at the head of his dragoons when menaced by the combined cavalry of the Mexican army; and who had participated in the final triumphant entry into the city of the Montezumas — if there was a spot which, more than another, claimed his affections, it was that geographical division that hounded the home of his wife and his children. He had been engaged for nearly half a century in protecting the feeble outposts of civilization, as they moved westward over an empire that had been reclaimed from barbarism. Every instinct of his nature, of his professional teaching, and of his long experience, had taught him to look for enemies from without and not from within. He had seen Kansas pacified, in perilous times, by the exercise of firmness and moderation. He was ever ready to tight any and all enemies of the Government

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whose uniform he so nobly wore, but he was by no means disposed to first make enemies for the satisfaction of fighting them afterward.

He was convinced from the first that the wrangling of factions in Missouri, was caused by a political ferment that would never develop into disloyalty unless met with irresolution and a teasing, tyrannous policy. There was on each side of him a party not numerous but active, anxious to stir up dissensions and to precipitate a conflict, for real or fancied benefit to themselves. And now between the bluff old soldier and the schemers grew up differences that they were far from being disposed to reconcile. He believed their aggressive policy would be fatal; they believed, or affected to believe, that his policy was unwise.

General Harney took the ground that there was no necessity for firing a single gun in Missouri, and he was determined that none should be fired until the necessity did exist.

On the 10th of May, 1861, it was announced in the city papers that General Harney had been appointed to the command of the Department of the West, and on the succeeding day, the 11th, he arrived in St. Louis, from Washington.

The unfortunate scenes which attended the arrest of the State forces drilling at Camp Jackson, on the memorable 10th, had filled the city with horror and dismay. Citizens who were terror-stricken were leaving the city by every available route, or sending their families away from a danger they could neither measure nor comprehend. The appearance of General Harney reassured them as nothing else could. His splendid reputation as a soldier, his known firmness, and his stainless honor, were sufficient pledges that peace and order would be preserved. The next day he issued his proclamation announcing his resumption of the command, and his intention to maintain the peace.

Unfortunately there were plenty of turbulent spirits to whom peace was by no means pleasing. Either their occupation was discord or they hoped to gain an occupation by fomenting strife. Then again, of the two political parties, each furiously exasperated, each was anxious to be protected and yet wished that protection coupled with freedom to harrass and oppress the other.

General Harney was the very man for the emergency. He gave protection, indiscriminately, to all, and at the same time curbed the spirit of license that was in danger of becoming prevalent. He had no reputation as a fighter to make; that reputation was too well established on uncounted fields to lead him to look for laurels where they might rather be left ungathered.

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The intelligent and the prudent gave him their support, when a cabal, whose plans he interrupted, sought to move him from their path through the exercise of influence at Washington. Messrs. James E. Yeatman and Hamilton R. Gamble, as a delegation representing those of our citizens most entitled to respect, went on to Washington to represent to the President, and those by whom he was advised, that General Harney was proceeding to the true solution of one of the most difficult problems of the day.

On the 14th of May, General Harney's celebrated proclamation was promulgated, breathing the spirit of peace, yet full of a determination to conquer a peace, if other means proved unavailing:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE WEST.
May 14, 1861.

On my return to this Department I find, greatly to my astonishment and mortification, a most extraordinary state of things existing in this State, deeply affecting the stability of the Government of the United States, as well as the Government and other interests of Missouri itself. As a citizen of Missouri, owing allegiance to the United States, and in common with you, I feel it my duty, as well as privilege, to extend a warning voice to my fellow-citizens against the common dangers around us, and appeal to your patriotism and sense of justice to exert all your moral power to avert them.

It is with regret I feel it my duty to call your attention to the recent act of the General Assembly of Missouri, known as the Military Bill, which is the result no doubt of the temporary excitement that pervades the public mind. This bill cannot be regarded in any other light than as an indirect secession ordinance, ignoring even the forms resorted to by the other States. To this extent it is a nullity and cannot or ought not to be upheld or regarded by the citizens of Missouri. There are obligations and duties resting upon the people of Missouri, under the constitution and laws of the United States, which are paramount, and which I trust you will carefully consider and weigh well before you allow yourselves to be carried out of the Union, under form of yielding obedience to this military bill, which is clearly in violation of your duties as citizens of the United States. It must be apparent to every one who has taken a proper unbiased view of the subject, that whatever may be the determination of the unfortunate condition of things, in respect to the so-called Cotton States, Missouri must share the destiny of the Union. Her geographical position, her soil productions, and in short, all her material interests point to this result. We cannot shut our eyes to this controlling fact. It is seen, and its force is felt, throughout the nation. So important is this regarded as to the great interests of the country, that I venture to express the opinion that the whole power of the Government of the United States, if necessary, will be exerted to maintain Missouri in her present position in the Union. I express to you in all sincerity, my own deliberate convictions, without assuming to speak for the Government of the United States, whose authority, here and elsewhere, I shall at all times, and under all circumstances, endeavor faithfully to uphold. I desire, above all things, most earnestly to invite my fellow-citizens dispassionately to consider their true interests, as well as their true relation to the Government under which we live, and to which we owe so much.

In this connection I desire to direct your attention to one subject, which no doubt will be made the pretext for more or less popular excitement. I allude to the recent transaction at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. It is not proper for me to comment upon the

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official conduct of my predecessor in command of this Department, but it is right and proper for the people of Missouri to know that the main avenue of Camp Jackson recently under command of General Frost, had the name of Davis, and a principal street of the same camp, that of Beauregard, and that a body of men had been received into that camp, by its commander, which had been notoriously organized in the interests of the secessionists, the men openly wearing the dress and badge distinguishing the army of the so-called Southern Confederacy. It is also a notorious fact that a quantity of arms had been received into the camp which were unlawfully taken from the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge, and surreptitiously passed up the river in boxes marked marble Upon facts like these, and having in view what occurred at Liberty, the people can draw their own inferences, and it cannot be difficult for any one to arrive at a correct conclusion as to the ultimate purpose of that encampment. No Government in the world would be entitled to respect, that would tolerate for a moment such openly treasonable preparations.

It is simple justice, however, that I should state the fact that there were many good and loyal men in the camp, who were in no manner responsible for its treasonable character.

Disclaiming, as I do, all desire or intention to interfere, in any way, with the prerogatives of the State of Missouri, or with the functions of its Executive, or their authorities, yet I regard it as my plain path of duty to express to the people in respectful, but at the same time decided, language, that within the field and scope of my command and authority, the supreme law of the land must and shall be maintained, and no subterfuges, whether in the form of legislative acts, or otherwise, can be permitted to harrass or oppress the good and law-abiding people of Missouri. I shall exert all my authority to protect their persons and property from violence of every kind, and I shall deem it my duty to suppress all unlawful combinations of men, whether formed under the pretext of military organization or otherwise.

WM. S. HARNEY,
Brigadier-Gen'l U. S. Army, Commanding.

Meanwhile, General Harney addressed himself to the task of pacification, and one week later an agreement, which was no compromise on his part and no abatement of what the Government had a right to expect, was entered into between him and General Sterling Price, and formally published on the 21st of May:

ST. LOUIS, May 21, 1861.

The undersigned, officers of the United States Government and of the Government of the State of Missouri, for the purpose of removing misapprehension and of allaying public excitement, deem it proper to declare publicly that they have this day had a personal interview in this city, in which it has been mutually understood, without the semblance of dissent on either part, that each of them has no other than a common object, equally interesting and important to every citizen of Missouri — that of restoring peace and good order to the people of the State in subordination to the laws of the General and State Governments.

It being thus understood, there seems no reason why every citizen should not confide in the proper officers of the General and State Governments to restore quiet, and, as among the best means of offering no counter-influences, we mutually recommend to all persons to respect each others' rights throughout the State, making no attempt to exercise unauthorized powers, as it is the determination of the proper authorities to suppress all

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unlawful proceedings which can only disturb the public peace. General Price having, by commission, full authority over the militia of the State of Missouri, undertakes with the sanction of the Governor of the State, already declared, to direct the whole power of the State officers to maintaining order within the State among the people thereof. General Harney publicly declares that this object being assured, he can have no occasion, as he has no wish, to make military movements that might otherwise create excitement and jealousy, which he most earnestly desires to avoid.

We, the undersigned, do therefore mutually enjoin upon the people of the State to attend to their civil business, of whatsoever sort it may be, and it is hoped that the unquiet elements which have threatened so seriously to disturb the public peace, may soon subside and be remembered only to be deplored.

W. S. HARNEY,
Brigadier-General Commanding.

STERLING PRICE,
Major-General Missouri State Guard.

THE ADJUTANT'S ORDER.

HEADQUARTERS DEP'T OF THE WEST,
ST. LOUIS, May 18, 1861.

SIR: — In reply to your letter of the 17th inst., to Brigadier-General Harney, Commanding Department of the West. I am instructed to say that prisoners of war on parole are not restricted to any particular locality, unless a condition to that effect is especially set forth in the obligation they assume in giving the parole. No such condition was imposed upon the officers of General Frost's command, who gave their paroles at St. Louis Arsenal, May 11th, 1861.

I am sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant General.

To COLONEL JOHN S. BOWMAN, M. V. M., St. Louis. Mo.

Those who were anxious for war in Missouri saw their opportunity slipping away from them. Harmony was being restored, and the parties to the covenant might well hope for the happiest effects. Yet the opposition side, held the winning card, and were only waiting for the time to make the play effective.

In presenting the history of these troubled times, many letters are produced from different parts of the State which speak of the persecution of Union men. General Harney was convinced that many of these letters were written in St. Louis, or inspired by the cabal headed by Blair, and that their object was to treat Missouri as a rebel State, when she was, in fact, a loyal State. An incident which occurred at this time deepened the conviction in General Harney's mind. He received a letter from St. Joseph, stating that ex-Governor Stewart and a number of the most respectable men in St. Joseph had been driven from their homes, and that unless soldiers were soon sent, they (the Union men) would all have to leave. General Harney called upon Colonel Blair

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with the open letter, and asked him if he knew the writer. Blair merely glanced at it without reading, and replied:
"Oh, yes, he is perfectly reliable. You can believe anything he says."

"Then," replied Harney, "I will write immediately to General Price, and ask him to attend to it."

"Are you going to wait to hear from Price?" asked Blair quickly, with a gesture of astonishment.

"Certainly," replied Harney.

Two or three days later, Harney received a copy of the St. Joseph News, containing a letter written by ex-Governor Stewart, and a marked paragraph stated in substance: "Neither I nor any other Union man has been driven out of St. Joe."

The cry of "persecution" was still kept up, and one day Harney significantly asked Blair how one man could successfully persecute two? It was well known that the Union men throughout the State were in a strong majority — at the very least, two to one.

On the 31st of May, General Harney received Special Order No. 135, relieving him from duty in the Department of the West, and granting him leave of absence until further orders. The order was dated on the 16th, fifteen days before. It is now a matter of open history that Hon. Montgomery Blair wrote out the memorandum for the order on the day on which it was issued, and handed it to President Lincoln, and that it arrived here on the 20th, among dispatches for Colonel Francis P. Blair.

When General Scott heard of the removal of Harney, he at once expressed the conviction that it would cost the Government millions of treasure and thousands of lives. When it is remembered that the official relations of Generals Scott and Harney had for years been marked by asperities, it becomes evident that General Scott's conviction was a deep and earnest one, and the events which followed show his estimate to have been a moderate one.

General Harney's military career was closed. He felt that his great services had been treated with unbecoming levity, and from that time military affairs became with him but reminiscences of a glorious past. The patriot and the soldier, who had vindicated his manhood and the faith that was in him on unnumbered fields, who had been the trusted counselor of presidents and of cabinets, who had stood aloof from intrigue while combining the functions of the statesman with those of the soldier, the fearless denouncer of perfidy in high places, felt that younger men must now bear the responsibilities of action, since his judgment had been questioned upon a point on which he was most

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competent to decide. In the military annals of the country he had a name which detraction could not reach. He had achieved a reputation which no amount of envy or malice could possibly tarnish. He might well be content. His record was secure, his motives could not be questioned. He is still among us, the relic of a generation that was mindful of its honor as of its glory.

A kindly, impetuous and intrepid spirit, Missouri has sheltered no nobler or more unselfish heart, no character more worthy of her lasting honor.

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Charles Gibson.

THE name of CHARLES GIBSON seldom appears in the public journals; his photographs are never seen in the shop windows; yet few men in this city, during the past twenty-five years, have exercised greater influence over the material, legal and political history of the State. He was born in Central Virginia, west of Richmond, in the year 1825. His ancestors were among the early settlers of the high, mountainous regions in that portion of the State. His paternal grandfather was a native of Virginia, and his maternal grandfather came from the Carolinas. The latter, George Rutlege, died of a wound received in the Revolutionary war, under very peculiar circumstances. He was shot through and through the body, just above the stomach, but got apparently well of the wound. Many years subsequently it broke out afresh; he spat up some blood and spicular bones, and a small piece of the shirt he wore at the time he was shot, and finally died of the wound. His other grandfather was wounded in the head at the battle of Brandywine; he also lived many years after, but never recovered. His father moved to Western Missouri in 1836, bringing with him a family of negroes, and was possessed of small property, sufficient for a country gentleman. Mr. Gibson was well advanced in learning for a boy of eleven. The next five years, the most critical in life, he passed on the frontier, amid wild scenes, where there were no churches or schools. What books he came across he read and studied by himself; and he has always considered that the loss of the benefits of early tuition was, to a great extent, compensated by the independence of thought and originality engendered by self-instruction. He was, for a brief period, a student at the State University of Missouri. He had studied the rudiments of our language, without a teacher, but on examination at the University, he was declared perfect in all that he had gone over. His father was strongly opposed to his studying law, and he struck out early in life for himself.

In 1843, he came to St. Louis, with but a few dollars in his pocket, and no friend — not even an acquaintance. He met Edward Bates, by

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accident, at the dinner table of a hotel. The next day he called on Mr. Bates and offered his general letter of introduction, which that gentleman refused to read, saying that he had observed him at the table the day before. Mr. Gibson also remarked that he had observed Mr. Bates at the table without knowing who he was. Mr. Bates expressed a desire to take up with him on his own hook, and thus a friendship was begun which lasted for twenty-five years — until the death of Mr. Bates.

Mr. Gibson was, for a short time, the first librarian of the law library; and, although seldom attending the meetings, he has always taken a deep interest in its prosperity. He studied law with Joseph Spaulding for three years (although spending much of his time in the office of Mr. Bates), and, until the death of Mr. Spaulding, was on terms of the warmest firiendship with him, and afterward, with his family. He has always expressed the profoundest regard for the learning and uprightness of his old tutor. During the time he was studying law, he applied himself to the acquisition of the French and German languages, and became sufficiently proficient in both of them to transact legal business in either tongue. He received only one quarter's instruction in French, and had no instructor in German. Mr. Gibson has always taken a deep interest in national politics. He has never taken part in a city election, and never in a State election, unless it had some bearing on national affairs. He made some speeches for Henry Clay, in 1844, before he was of age or entitled to vote; and although he has never been a candidate for office, he has taken a prominent part in every presidential election since that time.

In 1848, he supported General Taylor. In 1852, he supported, and was an elector for, General Scott, of whom he was a great admirer. In 1856, and afterwards, he was an old line Whig, and in that year exerted himself stenuously to obtain for Edward Bates the nomination of that party for President. The inroads upon it, however, by the "Know Nothing" party were so great that the attempt failed. The leaders of the party earnestly desired that Mr. Bates and Mr. Gibson should join them, but they both declined to do so.

In 1860 he originated, and was the prime mover in, the proposition to nominate Edward Bates as the Republican candidate for the Presidency in the National Convention which assembled at Chicago in May of that year. His object was not only to honor his old friend, but he believed, and expressed the opinion, that the nomination of a Southern man who was opposed to slavery, but who was conservative in all things and

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did not belong to the Republican party, would tide over the political crisis which, he thought, otherwise was inevitable. In this opinion and movement, he was heartily seconded by Horace Greeley, and by all the Blairs, as well as by many other eminent Republicans. But for the split in the Democratic party, and private arrangements among some of the delegates from Pennsylvania and Indiana, after they had come to Chicago as "Bates" men, it is believed he would have received the nomination. Although his project failed, Mr. Bates, nevertheless, received a highly complimentary vote in the Convention, and afterward Mr. Gibson supported Mr. Bell for the Presidency.

Early in the winter of 1860, after the Claib. Jackson Legislature had called a convention for the purpose of taking the State out of the Union, (the political parties being disorganized, and this community being about equally divided upon the great issues of the day — the Union people being without cohesion, or leadership,) Mr. Gibson proclaimed himself an unconditional Union man. He was willing and anxious to give to the Southern people every right and every honor, and even to make them the leaders of the nation, so long as they remained in the Union. He was content to maintain intact the institution of slavery; yet he declared that all his sectional feelings and affections for his own people were subordinate, in his mind and heart, to the unity of the American people. At this time he wrote an address, embodying these views, which he carried around to prominent citizens of all parties, who coincided with him. A mass meeting to nominate candidates for the State Convention was held, and Mr. Gibson was its acknowledged leader. His policy was sustained; men of Union proclivities were nominated and elected, and the Convention, when assembled at Jefferson City, declared against Governor Jackson and secession, and kept Missouri in the Union. It was during this time that Hamilton R. Gamble, then residing in Pennsylvania, was induced, at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Gibson, to return to St. Louis for the purpose of taking part in public affairs. He was nominated for the Convention, elected, and afterward appointed Governor. Mr. Gibson was then called to Washington, at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Bates, who was then Attorney General, and who appointed him Assistant-Attorney General, and offered him any other office he might desire within his gift. Among several offices tendered him, he accepted that of Solicitor of the Court of Claims, which office is now that of Solicitor Gneeral.

During the next four years he was recognized, at Washington, as the

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representative of Governor Gamble and his administration. He was unremitting in his endeavors to prevent the exercise of the severe measures which many Federal Generals seemed inclined to enforce, and in more than one instance — notably in that of General Curtis — caused their removal on account of the harsh manner in which they administered the affairs of this military department. The movement, which was long and vigorously urged by many men powerful with the administration at Washington, to remove Mr. Gamble, and appoint a military Governor for Missouri, was only thwarted by the active and untiring exertions of Mr. Gibson.

After the death of Governor Gamble, he supported the administration of Governor Hall, but after the proclamation of President Lincoln, and when his administration assumed position in favor of what was known as the Radical party in this State, Mr. Gibson resigned the office of Solicitor General, and avowed himself a Democrat, but a Democrat strongly tinctured with Old Whig principles. As he openly quit the administration of Mr. Lincoln in the very zenith of its power, and while he enjoyed the personal esteem of Mr. Lincoln and that of most of his advisers (especially of Mr. Stanton), and became a Democrat when they were commonly known as "copperheads and traitors," his sincerity, at least, cannot be called in question.

In 1864 he supported General McClellan for the Presidency, although he was satisfied that in the selection of a candidate for Vice-President, and in the failure to make a thoroughly union platform, the Democratic Convention had fatally blundered. After the death of President Lincoln, he was amongst the first to welcome the conservative position taken by Andrew Johnson. For a long time the Democrats refused to accept Mr. Johnson as the exponent of their views, but Mr. Gibson considered it the duty of that party to accept the President as soon as he came over to their side.

In 1868, he advocated the election of Seymour and Blair, and he attributed the defeat of those gentlemen to the bad manner in which the campaign was conducted. In 1870 he was among the first, if not the very first, to advise the coalition of the Liberal Republicans (consisting mainly of German voters,) and Democrats, which resulted in the election of B. Gratz Brown to the gubernatorial chair by a very large majority. In 1872 he was a member of the Democratic State Convention, and by it was appointed a delegate at large to the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore. Although he was warmly in favor of the election of Mr. Greeley, he, in conjunction with other delegates

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from this State, considered his nomination by that Convention as unwise and impolitic in the extreme.

In 1861, Mr. Gibson retired from the regular practice of law and went to Washington, D. C.; but he has always been, more or less, engaged in some important cases. From the time when he was first admitted to the bar until his retirement from regular practice, he received a full share of the litigation then going on, especially in matters pertaining to land titles. He drew up, and obtained the passage of the act creating the Land Court, and became at once one of the principal practitioners before that tribunal. He always contended that the administration of law should be divided out into special tribunals, in order to promote proficiency and convenience. Except in his younger days, he did not aim at any oratorical efforts, but the whole bar of the State will, no doubt, unite in saying that when he became interested to an extent to call forth his full power, his oratory was as brilliant as his abilities were great. Many years ago, while in full practice, he was sole counsel in a case wherein the King of Prussia, now the Emperor of Germany, was plaintiff. It took a turn that caused some feeling on the part of the Prussian Government, and Mr. Gibson's management of it was so satisfactory that the Emperor presented him with two magnificent vases, made under a special order in council, each adorned with exquisite enamel paintings, and bearing an inscription very flattering to the recipient. The order also conveyed to him the royal thanks for the satisfactory manner in which he conducted the case.

As a business man, he has been very successful, and has amassed a handsome fortune, which has not come to him by mere luck. Some of the finest enterprises in this city have been organized and perfected by him. The north half of the square where the Southern Hotel now stands, twenty years ago was a lumber yard. The title to the land was involved in the most intricate and difficult litigation, and had been so for a great many years. Mr. Gibson took hold of the matter, relieved the title of the clouds that rested upon it, drew a charter for a hotel, giving it its present name, organized a company to build the hotel under the charter, sold it the land on the most liberal terms, and for less than he was offered for it at the time by another party, and subscribed for $10,000 worth of stock in the concern. Only $75,000 could be raised at that time, and the question was presented as to the way to build a hotel, to cost $600,000, with only $75,000. Mr. Gibson concluded that if the latter sum was invested in the ground it would build the hotel; and so it did. After that sum had been expended, all the

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old stockholders surrendered their stock, although it was then worth par, and another bonus of nearly $100,000 was raised, and the whole given to Colonel George Knapp and others, on condition that they would complete the building, which they did, after many severe trials and a very considerable loss to themselves.

Although avowedly aristocratic in his sentiments, Mr. Gibson has always taken a deep interest in those matters tending to promote the welfare and happiness of the people; to elevate their tastes and improve their habits; and thus he has always been especially zealous in the advocacy of the purchase and improvement of extensive parks and other public grounds for the people. He built his residence opposite Lafayette Park twenty-five years ago, and has resided there ever since. He had no sooner moved there than he called his neighbors together, and brought about an agreement between them and the city for the improvement of that park, which was then a naked prairie, with scarcely a tree or shrub upon it. The title to part of the land was in dispute, and half of the north front was fenced in, and in possession of Patrick M. Dillon. The title to this part of the park he settled amicably, through Mr. Barton Bates, then representing the Dillon estate. At that time he endeavored to extend the park eastward to the Hospital, and subsequently westward to California avenue, but his efforts did not succeed. In 1853, he drew up and caused an act to be passed, which was submitted to a vote of the people, to open Jefferson avenue two hundred feet wide from St. Louis Place to the "Wild Hunter," and Grand avenue three hundred feet wide, from the river on the north to the river on the south. It is greatly to be regretted that these magnificent projects, which then wolud have cost but a trifle, were defeated by making the question a partisan contest between the Whigs and Democrats. In 1868, he also projected a park of one thousand acres just east of the present Forest Park. This was also defeated by a small majority, on the ground that Tower Grove and the little inside parks were enough for the people of this great city. Subsequently Mr. Leffingwell proposed a park of three thousand acres, but the plan was considered too large, and therefore failed. Mr. Gibson then reduced the size of Mr. Leffingwell's park, confining it on the north to Olive street, and south nearly to Chouteau avenue, thus making it about half the size of the original project. In 1872, he drew the act establishing Forest Park, which act was assailed by some of the property owners as unconstitutional. As the billl in that form was the only one that could then be passed, there was nothing left but to fight it out in the courts, and after a short litigation the act was

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declared unconstitutional, and the park project was considered dead. Mr. Gibson, however, revived the project, and, calling around him its friends, another act was passed at the succeeding Legislature, which, after running the gauntlet of all courts, was held to be valid. In all this litigation, his professional services were rendered gratuitously. Admitting that the establishment of the great park is due to the combined efforts of many public-spirited citizens, whose services should ever be gratefully remembered, yet it is doing them no wrong to say that but for the legal ability, cool, business sense, and untiring persistence of Mr. Gibson, its acquisition would not now be an established fact.

For many years Mr. Gibson was a commissioner for, and always took an active interest in, Lafayette Park. He is warmly devoted to the fine arts. He superintended the erection of the Benton statue, and secured also a copy of Houdon's statue of Washington, both of which are erected in Lafayette Park. He was mainly instrumental also in procuring the colossal bronze statue of Edward Bates, now in the city, but not at this present writing, erected. He is the president of the Bates Monument Association.

Some years ago he organized a new gas company, and, obtaining the co-operation of Henry Y. Attrill, a capitalist of Baltimore, and a man of great ability, experience and enterprise, erected the present Laclede Gas Works, in the northern part of the city, at a cost of $1,500,000. The old company claimed a monopoly of the whole city, and, if its claim were valid, it had the legal right to enjoin and make worthless the property of the new company. The expenditure of this immense sum was made under the advice of Mr. Gibson, as to the legal right of the old company, and gave evidence, on the part of those capitalists, of uncommon reliance upon his legal acumen and judgment, a reliance which the result fully justified.

Mr. Gibson married, in 1851, Miss Virginia, daughter of Archibald Gamble, one of the oldest and most respected of our citizens. He has a large family, and has had the singular good fortune to lose none. His habits are peculiarly domestic, and his marital relations are singularly felicitous.

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Henry Sheffie Geyer.

AMONG the distinguished men who adorned the early history of Missouri, and to whom it is mainly due that its institutions are what they are, no one deserves a higher place than HENRY SHEFFIE GEYER. This very able man was born in Frederick County, Maryland, on the 9th of December, 1790. His parents were of German extraction; in fact his father was born a Prussian subject. Of his childhood and youth we only know that his education was superintended by Daniel Sheffie, of Virginia, his maternal uncle. Mr. Sheffie was a man of marked ability, and was noted both as a lawyer and as a member of Congress in those early days. In his office his nephew studied his profession. He had hardly commenced to practice, when the war of 1812, with Great Britain, diverted his attention to other pursuits. He entered the army and served with credit until the close of hostilities; when he returned to civil life, and almost immediately came to Missouri, reaching St. Louis on the 10th of August, in the year 1815.

At that time Missouri was a Territory, and St. Louis a village of three streets and a few hundred inhabitants. It was the seat of government of the Territory and the depot of the Indian traders, and thus was the scene of important business. Mr. Geyer devoted himself to the practice of his profession, and speedily established himself in the front rank. His education as a lawyer was thorough; his abilities were of the highest order; his learning and demeanor such as to command respect and conciliate regard. In every department of the law he was a recognized leader, and the place he then won he retained to the end of his life.

The laws of the Territory were, of course, in a very rudimentary condition. Missouri had been a Spanish province, and the title to real estate depended largely on the Spanish regulations and the civil law. The imperfect, or inchoate, titles granted by the Spanish crown had been examined and adjusted by the authority of the United States. A Board of Commissioners had been appointed in 1805-7 for the

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confirmation of claims to land. An act of Congress of a very comprehensive nature had been passed in 1812; the Recorder of Land Titles had been clothed with many of the powers of the old Board. The acts of 1814 and 1816 followed, and some of the most subtle and intricate questions of the law of real property were involved in the settlement of the land titles of the Territory. Seeing these things, Mr. Geyer rendered an important service to the State and his own profession by carefully compiling a digest of the laws which governed the acquisition and tenure of property, and protected life in Missouri. To these he added the treaty of cession by which the Territory was acquired, and the regulations of the Spanish officials respecting grants of land. This useful work was known as "Geyer's Digest." The copyright was secured in December, 1817. The work was printed at the "Missouri Gazette office," by Joseph Charless, in 1818.

In 1820, a convention was called for the purpose of framing a constitution for the State of Missouri. Of this body Mr. Geyer does not seem to have been a member; but he was the speaker of the first House of Representatives that was elected under it, in 1820-'21. What is known as the "Missouri Question," at that day agitated the country, and delayed for a time the formal admission of the State into the Union. It was not until August, 1821, that this was accomplished, though the Constitution was adopted in July of the previous year. In 1822-3, and again in 1824-5, Mr. Geyer was a member from St. Louis county, and speaker of the House of Representatives.

It had been provided in the Constitution that in 1825, and at the end of every ten years thereafter, the laws of Missouri should be revised and codified. The session of the General Assembly meeting at those periods, has always been known in our history as the "revising session." The work of codification was first performed in 1825, and what was then done was the ground-work of the body of law which has since prevailed in Missouri.

The code of 1825 is understood to have been, in a large measure, the work of Mr. Geyer. Indeed, it is not claiming too much to call him, in every sense, its author. He possessed unusual qualifications for the task. No man excelled him in the framing of a law. He embraced and classified every incident of the subject; gave to each part its proper place and due subordination; omitted no detail; avoided all obscurity and prolixity, and embodied the legislative will in expressions so unambiguous as scarcely to need judicial interpretation for the ascertainment of their meaning. The code of 1825 was an inestimable possession for

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Missouri. It furnished her people with a code of just laws, accessible to every inquirer, and admirably calculated to promote the public welfare. For, among other things for which the people of this State have cause to be thankful, is the fact that the dishonesty of stay laws, valuation or appraisement laws, and other discreditable contrivances by which so many of her sister States, then and now, have discriminated in favor of the "debtor class," never obtained a footing in Missouri. This, of course, was not the work of one man. The praise of it must be shared among many. But none of them is entitled to a larger share of gratitude and credit for this important service than Mr. Geyer; and the proud commercial position which St. Louis has always held, even when her numbers were not one-hundredth of her present population, and the high character of Missouri merchants all over the State, from the earliest period of our history, may be fairly said to be due in great part to the honest code of laws of which Mr. Geyer was the author.

In the political struggle of 1824, Mr. Geyer adhered to the views of Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. He distrusted General Jackson as a military chieftain, and still more did he dislike him for what he considered his disregard of law. In the eyes of Mr. Geyer, anything, on the part of an official, approaching to a usurpation of power or a transcending of the path fixed for him by the law, was an offense so grave that he had for it no pardon, no indulgence. In his view, the very least penalty which such conduct deserved was exclusion from all future public service. In this he was perfectly consistent. When his personal friend, Mr. Clay, became, as he latterly did, a latitudinarian in politics, Mr. Geyer, retired as he was from public life, did not feel under the necessity of pronouncing against him, but he did not follow him, and it may truly be said that for many years he was not in full harmony with any of the political parties. This was not due to sullenness or soreheadedness. He felt, no doubt, that he had a capacity for public service, and would have rejoiced to distinguish himself in that honorable field; but he saw that in Missouri there was no probability that his services would be called for; that the politics of the State were overwhelmingly Jacksonian, and he accepted the situation cheerfully. He devoted himself entirely to his profession, and of that profession he was the acknowledged head. No injustice is done, it is believed, to any of the Bar of Missouri by this claim of pre-eminence for Mr. Geyer, for he possessed a variety and extent of accomplishments as a lawyer which vindicated his leadership. There was no department of the profession in which he did not shine. He was a most learned real estate lawyer. Scarcely

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a single important question respecting land titles in Missouri was settled without his aid. In commercial law he was perfectly at home. In chancery causes, involving the greatest complexity of detail, he possessed the facility, as if by intuition, of unraveling the maze, and showing that upon the determination of a few distinct propositions the issue depended. In the management of a jury trial, his rare tact and knowledge of mankind gave him great advantages. He was celebrated for the skill with which he examined a witness, and in dealing with circumstantial testimony he was a master. He was a safe and accurate counselor, and a most skillful tactician. In the trial of a cause he marshalled his own evidence with skill; vigilantly excluded all which was erroneously offered by his adversary; and in dealing with the entire mass of it he never had (in the opinion of Edward Bates, a most competent judge,) an equal at the Bar of Missouri. It sometimes happened that his opponent objected to testimony introduced by him as irrelevant. When this occurred, his retaliation was apt to be severe. Often the evidence proposed was admissible for two purposes: one, comparatively unimportant, but obvious; the other, not obvious, but very important. In such cases, Mr. Geyer would indicate, in answer to the objection of irrelevancy, the comparatively unimportant object, but when the evidence was in, he startled his adversary by the revelation of the ulterior design. He showed that what had been supposed to be cobwebs, were hooks of steel, and he wove a chain of argument by their aid which it was impossible to break. In this manner he often extracted from hostile witnesses the means of overthrowing the cause they favored. Mr. Geyer enjoyed a victory of this kind exceedingly. It may be, perhaps, said that all other lawyers who win such triumphs, appreciate them highly, and that there was nothing peculiar in his enjoyment of them. This is certainly true, but the pleasure he derived from such a result was not due to gratified vanity alone. He had the keenest sense of humor, and he seldom tailed to enliven, with some unexpected pleasantry, a trial which in other hands would have been merely dry and methodical, and which, however, was no merely irrelevant display. From the time the jury was sworn, to the giving of the verdict, Mr. Geyer devoted all his efforts to the winning of the cause; and whatever did not contribute to this end was rejected as unreasonable. He was often brilliant; but, to borrow the admirable illustration so often quoted, it was not by "the empty fireworks got up for show, so much as the sparks emitted from the working engine," that his forensic efforts were illustrated.

It is felt that any attempt to give instances of Mr. Geyer's peculiar

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mode of dealing with the incidents of a trial at nisi prius will be unsatisfactory. His vigilance, his dexterity, and his perfect presence of mind, are indescribable. If an example be given, the narrative may fail of its effect, by reason of the imperfection of the narrator, and the impression may even be then created that Mr. Geyer was, after all, only a triton among minnows. For this reason, only two anecdotes, one of what occurred during the trial of an important land suit, and the other of a conversation on political topics, will be produced here. Those who remember Mr. Geyer will be apt to consider the instances very badly selected. The contrary is not asserted; they are given as specimens of his manner. It happens that they were nearly concurrent in point of time, and perhaps dwell, for that reason, in the memory of the writer of this imperfect memoir.

During a notable canvass of some activity and bitterness, Mr. Geyer, with several lawyers of both parties, was returning by steamboat from the Supreme Court, then held at Jefferson City. The conversation turned on the approaching election, and Mr. Geyer, who was very fond of conversing with young men, rallied a member of the Democratic party, respecting what he called the sad necessity of his voting for its nominee. It happened that the Whigs, in that canvass, instead of nominating one of their own party, supported an anti-Benton Democrat, and Mr. Geyer's interlocutor at once instituted a comparison between the candidates, attempting to show that the anti-Benton Democrat was something short of perfection. To this Mr. Geyer dryly replied that he thought so too, adding that he did not propose to vote for Mr. — , as his interlocutor had supposed. He would, he said, vote for neither of the candidates. He did not think either fit to be Governor of Missouri. It was replied, rather flippantly, that as both were Democrats, it was not to be expected that Mr. Geyer, a Whig, could see any good in them. "On the contrary," said Mr. Geyer, "I see some good in each; and oddly enough, such good qualities as one has, the other is very deficient in." Some one remarked that, by combining the two, something very choice might be obtained. "Why, yes;" said Mr. Geyer, "if I could give to an ideal man all the good qualities of Mr. A, without any of his failings, and all the good qualities of Mr. B, without any of his drawbacks, then, I think the resulting character would make a very respectable steamboat clerk!"

The other anecdote relates to an occurrence in court. A very important litigation was pending. Hundreds of suits had been brought, and one of them was selected for trial. The plaintiffs were represented

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by six able counsel of the St. Louis Bar, and with them was associated a gentleman who had been upon the bench and professor in a law school in a neighboring State. This gentleman had only been in St. Louis a short time, and he had permitted himself to speak rather unbecomingly of his estimate of the abilities of the leaders of the St. Louis Bar. He had made no secret of his opinion that Geyer, Gamble and Spalding were overrated men, likely to be estimated at their true value as soon as they encountered genuine ability and learning. Of course these expressions became known, and there can be no doubt that Mr. Geyer, at least, determined to take the first good opportunity of correcting the opinion on which they were founded. All three of these strong men — Geyer, Gamble and Spalding — were retained for the defense of the causes alluded to. The plaintiffs desired to avoid meeting a defense which they knew the defendants had in reserve, and with this view, instead of putting all their title deeds in evidence, they only gave a selection from them, and rested the case. Thereupon Mr. Geyer, for the defendants, moved the court to declare that the plaintiffs had shown no title to the premises in controversy. This gave rise to an argument, and it soon appeared that the court was with the defendants. Seeing this, the plaintiffs asked leave to put in further evidence. With great gravity, Mr. Geyer objected to this. He said that such indulgence was often and properly given to youth and inexperience, but would be entirely out of place when accorded to a veteran, accomplished in all the niceties of practice, and able not only to encounter, but to instruct other men. He proceeded to lavish on his antagonist every expression of praise, and to make his accomplishments a reason why his prayer should be denied. His antagonist became very uneasy. Mr. Geyer's sarcasm was so delicate that it was scarcely perceived by its object, and his gravity was so unbroken that every one in the court room (the trial was of great interest and a large number of juniors was present), though enjoying to the utmost the revenge which their leader was taking, remained outwardly composed. Mr. Geyer closed his remarks with the statement that it was impossible to attribute to mistake the predicament in which the plaintiffs had placed themselves, it must be the result of calculation and design; if they had confidence in their position, let them justify that confidence by an appeal to the Supreme Court; but if they had indeed no such confidence, it followed that they had been trying an experiment with the court in a reckless and disrespectful manner that entitled them to no favor. The distressed counsel for plaintiffs rose in evident disturbance,

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all of the confidence, almost amounting to insolence, of his bearing was gone. He made a begging address to the court. He urged that the case on trial had been prepared at great expense, that many witnesses were in attendance, etc., and he hoped that the court "would not turn them out of court upon a technicality." "Good Heavens," said Mr. Geyer in a stage whisper to his colleagues, "our objection is that he has no title, and he calls that a technicality!" There was a burst of laughter throughout the court room, in which every one but the distinguished counsel for plaintiffs heartily joined, and he dropped into his seat, unable to say another word. The court granted the motion to reopen the case, and the plaintiffs were beaten on the merits. This was what Mr. Geyer wished. He desired to grapple with the full strength of the opposing claims, but he could not resist the temptation to administer to this rather arrogant professor a rebuke for his under-estimate of the St. Louis Bar.

In manner, Mr. Geyer was dignified and courteous. It was seldom that any one ventured to attack him — those who did so had little reason to applaud their discretion. He was prompt to resent any approach to an insult; and on one occasion at least, in his early life, he complied with the customs of the day, and adjusted on the field a personal controversy. At the first fire, he discharged his pistol in the air, but his antagonist insisted upon a second shot, on which Mr. Geyer gave him a wound which, for the time, disabled him, though it was fortunately transient in its effects. The circumstance would not have been alluded to, except for the purpose of adding, that a perfect reconciliation was the consequence; and the writer has heard Mr. Geyer, without any allusions to their former relations, speak of the gentleman who then confronted him as not only a man of high honor, but as one for whom he cherished a warm regard.

It would not be misspent time, if space permitted, to attempt a characterization of Mr. Geyer as a lawyer; to speak of the rapidity, certainty, and sure-footedness of the practitioner; the learning, depth and resources of the jurist; the tact and eloquence of the advocate, and the calm, discriminating, judicial nature of the counsel he gave. He shone in every department of his profession. To do justice to him, would require greater space than can be awarded to him on this occasion, and the result would be interesting rather to the lawyer than to the general reader. It must suffice to say, that he was the peer of the ablest man he encountered here, or at Washington City. There is no theatre on which he would not have been a conspicuous character. The

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circumstance of his having devoted himself so entirely to his profession, and of his being in a great measure excluded by his political views from public life, will prevent him from being known so widely as many far inferior men.

It will perhaps be remembered that upon the death of General Taylor, Mr. Fillmore re-organized the Cabinet and nominated Edward Bates, of Missouri, as Secretary of War. The Senate promptly confirmed the nomination, but Mr. Bates positively declined the honor. As this was the first appointment to the Cabinet ever made of any one resident west of the Mississippi, the declination surprised not only Mr. Fillmore, but the general public, as well. Mr. Bates was then offered the Interior Department, but this he declined also. The latter position was then tendered to Mr. Geyer, and Mr. Fillmore, not wishing to have the highest offices in his gift seem to go a begging, took the precaution, before announcing it, of sending a special messenger to Mr. Geyer, at St. Louis, to ascertain if he would accept. He peremptorily declined the appointment, and none but a few of his most intimate friends ever knew that it had been offered him. He gave as his reason for refusal, that his habits and tastes were incompatible with the station, remarking that if accepted by him, "he would be the most unpopular man in Washington in less than three weeks." It is painful to add the comment, that no such considerations operate upon the statesmen of to-day.

In 1849, certain resolutions, known in our history as "the Jackson resolutions," were passed by the General Assembly of Missouri. They were so called because introduced by Claiborne F. Jackson, a prominent Democrat. Mr. Benton considered these resolutions to have originated in hostility to him. They contained instructions which he determined not to obey; and appealed from them to the people of Missouri. It was thought by many that he might have appealed successfully, if he had first resigned, or if he had conducted the contest with a little more suavity. However this may be, a very embittered feeling arose against him. Disaffected Democrats, styling themselves Anti-Benton men, united, in the general election in 1850, with Whigs, and the result was a General Assembly in which the Whigs and Anti-Benton men had a majority over the Benton Democrats. By a combination between the two first, Mr. Geyer was elected to succeed Mr. Benton in the Senate. His term commenced March 4, 1851. It cannot be said that Mr. Geyer added to his reputation by this term of office. He could never be otherwise than respectable in any body of which he was a member, but he

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was not a warm, unqualified advocate of any set of opinions, then represented by as many as twenty men in either house of Congress. Apparently he did not consider it obligatory to express views which had become then, as they are in a still more striking degree now, very old-fashioned. There can be no doubt that, if Mr. Geyer had gone to the Senate in his fortieth, instead of his sixtieth, year, the mark he made there would have been very different. As it was, his friends could only regret that much of the fire of early manhood was dimmed, and that he was content now to play a comparatively undistinguished part. He argued many cases of great importance in the Supreme Court, during the six years which followed his election, and here he showed all his peculiar power; but it is believed that he delivered no argument, and made no appeal, to the Senate of the United States upon any of the questions which in that period engaged the attention of Congress.

When his term as Senator had expired, he returned to St. Louis, and without any diminution of power or success, again took part in the trial of important causes in the courts held at St. Louis. He was fully occupied professionally, for his services were recognized as being so valuable that the party which secured them was esteemed to have gained a rare advantage. His health seemed vigorous, his carriage was upright, his eye was keen, and his whole bearing prevented any of his friends from supposing that he felt the weight of years; and no anxiety was felt when, early in March 1859, an important cause was called for trial, and absence was accounted for by the suggestion of a slight indisposition. He expected to be able to try it, however, in a few days. The Court postponed the cause for that purpose; but presently the whole city was startled and shocked by the intelligence that he had ceased to live. His symptoms had grown suddenly alarming, but before the alarm could be communicated to the public, the blow had fallen.

He was one of those who elevated and adorned the profession of the law. He was irreproachable in private life. He never stooped to unworthy artifices to gain popularity, but he had none of the moroseness, or coldness, which is insensible to popular applause. So far as this tribute could be gained by the performance of his duty, he welcomed and enjoyed it, but he prized it only on these terms.

His services to his profession, and to the people of his State, were of the most solid character: but he did not seek to make the Bar, or the community, acknowledge its obligation to him; and it may very well be, that many enjoy the benefit of his labors and example, without recognizing the source to which they are indebted. Those who can remember

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him, either as leading their own cause or heading the opposition to it, will retain, as long as memory endures, the clear impression of his strength, dexterity, and inexhaustible resources. Not many survive who had this advantage, and they will feel as sensibly as does the writer of this imperfect notice, how entirely inadequate it is to convey an idea of what manner of man Henry Sheffie Geyer really was.

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James B. Eads, C. E., LL.D.

IT has been well said that the victories gained by force of intellect for the promotion of human happiness in the arts of peace, are greater than the victories gained by the armed phalanx in the field of blood. Energy and mind employed in such a direction are more worthy of our admiration than the skill and genius of conquerors. Time was when statues were erected in honor of tyrants, and triumphal processions accorded to human butchers. We honor not now the oppressors and destroyers of mankind; but those who are the friends and benefactors of the race. Few men who devote themselves to the promotion of vast public enterprises, which, in the nature of things, are but little understood by those who have not considered them from the stand-point of the projector, or from the scientific calculations of the engineer, are appreciated or rewarded by the generation with which they are contemporary. To this almost general rule the subject of this sketch is an exception, and St. Louis has done well to honor one who has shown himself to be the friend and benefactor of the people.

JAMES B. EADS was born in Lawrenceburg, a small town in Southern Indiana, on the Ohio river, May 23, 1820. His parents were in comfortable circumstances, and, appreciating the advantages of education, gave him in the schools of Cincinnati and Louisville the foundation for that education upon which the efforts and application of his youth and manhood have built such a noble superstruction.

The sphere of his future usefulness was early indicated by his fondness for machinery, and in the enthusiasm and delight which he brought to the investigation of mechanical contrivances. This was the sport of his youth, as it has been the serious business of his maturity.

It is related of him, that, having embarked on an Ohio river steamboat when only nine years old, the interest which he exhibited in the engine attracted the attention of the engineer, who was pleased to explain the machine, and the operation of its parts, to a student so keenly attentive and at the same time so intelligent. This lesson was one which the boy never forgot, as we find that four years later he

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was enabled to construct a working steam engine in miniature, without assistance.

The advent of the boy in the city of St. Louis, in September 1833, seemed to give little promise of the future that he should be enabled to win, and at the same time illustrates the vicissitudes from which few lives are entirely free. The steamboat on which his father had embarked with his family to find a home in the West, was burned, and they were landed here destitute.

Unable at the moment to secure such employment as his ability would warrant or his taste select, and the necessity for doing something being imperative, he sold apples from a basket on the street, and by this means supported himself and assisted his mother. The boy of thirteen here put in practice, unconsciously perhaps, the characteristic principle of his life — action, immediate and unhesitating. No repinings over losses have ever been allowed to cloud his judgment, but the recuperative effort has followed at once upon the path which has, in most cases, found the substantial reward that flows from success.

Having obtained, soon after, a situation in a mercantile house, with which he remained several years, and having free access, during that time, to the excellent library of the senior partner, Mr. Barrett Williams, he used the opportunity to study mechanics, machinery, and civil engineering. He next passed two years as an officer on one of our Mississippi steamboats, and there began that knowledge of the great river which prepared him for the important services which he was afterward to render.

In 1842 he formed a copartnership with Case & Nelson, boat-builders, for the purpose of recovering steamboats and their cargoes which had been sunk or wrecked in the river.

In 1845, Mr. Eads married Miss Martha N., daughter of Patrick M. Dillon, of St. Louis; and desiring to leave the river, sold his interest in the diving bells and started a factory for making glassware. To him belongs the credit of making the first glassware west of the Mississippi. The manufacture of glass did not, however, prove profitable in St. Louis, and Mr. Eads, after two years spent in it, returned to his old business of recovering boats and property wrecked in the river. In ten years this business had been so successful that the property of this firm was valued at nearly half a million dollars.

This success is largely attributable to the fertility of the expedients which Mr. Eads brought to the labor, which in each case was the subject of varying conditions. The facilities with which the company

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started out would now be regarded as ridiculously inadequate, but the careful application of such means as could be commanded, in the end wrought out results that appear strikingly disproportionate.

In the winter of 1855-6, Mr. Eads made a formal proposition to Congress to keep open, for a term of years, the Western rivers, by removing all obstructions, and keeping the channels free. A bill, embodying his proposal, was passed in the House by a large majority, but by the influence and management of Jeff. Davis, then Secretary of War, and Judah P. Benjamin, it was defeated in the Senate.

On account of ill-health, he retired from business in 1857, having prepared himself, however, by a life of activity, energy and success, for the more important part he was destined to take in the affairs of the country in the construction of the Western iron-clads.

When, during the first year of the war, the Federal Government decided upon equipping a fleet of novel construction, for service upon the Mississippi and its tributaries, Mr. Eads received the contract for building the first seven of these boats. The contract was signed on the 7th of August, 1861, and specified that the vessels were to be ready for their crews and armaments in sixty-five days. Habituated, as we now are, to the contemplation of the achievements of the war, and the singular examples of energy which it often developed, the building of seven iron-clad steamers in sixty-five days, when the wood of which they were to be constructed was yet standing in the forest, and the rollers were not yet fashioned for shaping the iron for their armor — is an undertaking, the possibility of which many able men might gravely question. Yet it was done. On the 12th of October 1861, the first United States iron-clad, with her boilers and engines on board, was launched at Carondelet (now within the limits of the city of St. Louis,) in forty-five days from the laying of the keel. She was named the "St. Louis," by Admiral Foote, in honor of the city. When the fleet was transferred from the war department to the navy, the name was changed to "Baron De Kalb," there being at that time a vessel commissioned in the navy called the St. Louis. This vessel had the honor to be in more engagements than any other on the waters of the Western rivers. In ten days after the "De Kalb," the "Carondelet" was launched, and the "Cincinnati," "Louisville," "Mound City," "Cairo" and "Pittsburgh" followed in rapid succession.

An eighth vessel, larger, more powerful, and superior in every respect, was also undertaken before the hulls of the first seven had fairly assumed shape.

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It is to be regretted, however, that the promptness and energy of the man who thus created an iron navy on the Mississippi, was not met on the part of the Government by an equal degree of faithfulness in performing its part of the contract. On one pretext after another, the stipulated payments were delayed by the War Department, until the default assumed such magnitude that nothing but the assistance rendered by patriotic and confiding friends enabled the contractor, after exhausting his own liberal means, to complete the fleet.

It was mainly by the aid of these vessels, at the time his own property, that the brilliant capture of Forts Henry and Donelson was accomplished; and the ever-memorable midnight passage of Island No. 10, which compelled the surrender of the redoubtable stronghold, was achieved, several months later, by the Pittsburgh and Carondelet, two of the vessels furnished under the same contract, and at that time unpaid for.

Without following in detail the labors of Mr. Eads in the construction of vessels during the war, it is enough to say that he created a navy, especially adapted for service on our Western waters, and differing entirely from anything that had before existed. Whatever its merits, it is sufficient to say that it accomplished its purpose, and that its builder was the man who made possible its brilliant achievements.

In May 1868, the Mound City Life Insurance Company (now the St. Louis Life) was organized, and Mr. Eads was elected president. He continued to hold the position until his departure for Europe, for the third time, on business for the Bridge Company, but owing to the demand upon his time as chief engineer of the bridge, he resigned in 1872.

Later, however, when the St. Louis Mutual Life Insurance Company was in difficulty, and about to be forced into the hands of a receiver, by which great loss would have fallen upon a vast number of widows and orphans, Mr. Eads again assumed the presidency of the Mound City, and to his keen foresight and accurate judgment is largely due the success of the movement which eventuated in affording protection and security to the thousands interested in the St. Louis Mutual. The capital of the Mound City was largely increased to cover any possible deficiency in the other company, and the two were ultimately consolidated under the name of the St. Louis Life. Life insurance ranks among the exact sciences, being founded on mathematical principles as well established as any of the data of civil engineering, and to his management of the St. Louis Life Mr. Eads brings a mathematical

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mind, trained to subject all questions to the crucial test of the logic of figures. His well-balanced mind, kindly nature and untiring energy admirably fit him for controlling the destinies of that great corporation whose assets foot up over seven million dollars.

As a recognition of eminence in his profession, the Missouri State University two years ago conferred upon Mr. Eads the degree of LL. D. He was twice elected president of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, and has held positions of honor and trust in several of the most important corporations in the State, among which we may name the National Bank of the State of Missouri, the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway, the St. Charles Bridge Company, the Third National Bank, etc.

The magnificent bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis, is a notable landmark in the engineering progress of the age in which we live. It not only exemplifies that mechanical and engineering skill which belongs to this quarter of a century, but it is an imperishable proof of the audacity of the man whose splendid genius conceived, and whose enterprising liberality consummated it. Its history has been told again and again, but will be heard with undiminished interest until narratives of great achievements cease to attract the attention of man.

James B. Eads was the chief engineer of the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge. He was its head and front — its originator and creator. Whatever its value, and it is already known to be greater than was estimated, its construction is mainly due to the unflagging zeal, tireless energy and marvelous perception of this modest and unassuming man. Linked with his, it is true, are the names of others, who performed their part of the work nobly. But his was the genius which conceived the plan upon a principle untried in the science of engineering. And he was the organizer who drew around him associates, and inspired them with something of his own enthusiasm to erect a structure which shall serve the uses of millions of people to the end of time.

But the successful solution of new problems in engineering is not the only triumph in connection with the bridge, of which Mr. Eads has a right to be proud. His financial abilities are acknowledged to be of the highest order. To him belongs the chief credit of raising the half score of millions required to build the bridge and tunnel.

The bridge was formally thrown open to travel on the 4th of July 1874. The event was duly celebrated. There was an immense procession extending fifteen miles in length, and in it every trade and calling of the city was represented. The stores were closed, and all

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business was suspended. Several distinguished statesmen, including the Governors of Illinois and Missouri, spoke to a vast audience, and every incident of the day demonstrated that as long as the arches of tempered steel which stretch their graceful web over the noblest river that serves the purposes of man, shall endure, so long shall the name of James B. Eads be remembered and honored.

Even before the completion of this great work, Mr. Eads had maturely considered and proposed a plan for obtaining, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, sufficient depth of water and width of channel to permit the unobstructed passage of the largest ocean vessels. Operations upon and beneath the surface of that river — lifting wrecks from its bottom, building war vessels to open, and keep open, its communications, and, finally, building that bridge, which renders it no longer an obstacle to the transverse trade of the country — have filled the active period of his life, and peculiarly fitted him for the execution of the plan he has conceived. That plan is the construction, at one of the passes, of jetties, which, in Mr. Eads' language, "are simply dikes or levees under water, and are intended to act as banks to the river, to prevent its expanding and diffusing itself as it enters the sea. It is a notable fact that where the banks of a river extend boldly out into the sea, no bar is formed at the entrance. It is where the banks, or fauces terrae (jaws of earth) are absent, as is the case in delta-forming rivers, that the bar is an invariable feature. The bar results from the diffusion of the stream as it spreads out fan-like in entering the sea. The diffusion of the river being the cause, the remedy manifestly lies in contracting it, or in preventing the diffusion."

It is not essential to a correct understanding of the jetty plan that a detailed description of the phenomena of the Mississippi River, or the geography of its mouth, should be given here. It will be presumed that every intelligent reader knows that the river finds its way into the Gulf of Mexico by three outlets, or passes, and that at the mouth of each of them is a bar, formed of the comminated sand, clay and earth which the stream has brought down in suspension, and deposited where the current loses its momentum. Inasmuch as these bars have greatly hindered navigation, and practically restricted it to vessels of the lightest draft, the problem of how to remove them, and keeping them from forming again, has puzzled the minds of scientific men and Congressmen ever since the commerce of the South and West has been of sufficient importance to command national consideration.

Congress took up the subject of improving these outlets in 1837, and

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in 1838 elaborate surveys were made under Colonel Talcott, but led to discussion rather than to any efficient action. In 1861 the able and comprehensive exposition of the "Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi," by Humphreys and Abbott, was published by the Government, with beautiful letter-press, and profuse illustrations. It was the first work of the kind which ever appeared in regard to any river in the Western Hemisphere, and contained a vast number of interesting facts, the treatment of which in the text was, in general, highly creditable to the dual authorship. But the compilers, although officers in the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, of which the first named, General Humphreys, is now the chief, contented themselves with discussing theories, without compressing them into absolute recommendations, and did not positively indicate any particular mode of improvement at the mouth of the river as, in their opinion, so likely to be successful as to merit preference above all others. They gave the results of consultations of a board of engineers, composed of Major Chase and Captains Barnard and Beauregard, of the army, and Captain Latimer of the navy, but did not specially indorse any one of them. This board, known as the Board of 1852, had recommended:

1. That the process of stirring up the bottom by suitable machinery should be tried.

2. If this failed, dredging by buckets should be tried.

3. If both these failed, that jetties should be constructed at the Southwest Pass, to be extended annually into the Gulf as experience should show to be necessary.

4. Should it then be needed, the lateral outlets should be closed.

5. Finally, should all these fail, a ship canal might be resorted to.

Dredging, both by stirring and by buckets, was tried at an early day; and in 1856 "one insecure jetty of a single row of pile planks about a mile long" — as Humphreys and Abbott tell us — was built by Craig & Rightor at Southwest Pass, but was not completed, although it had, even in its incomplete state, an appreciable effect on the depth of water near its lower end. But dredging was the main reliance, and for many years past has been carried on at a heavy annual cost, but without results of value. In the meantime, ocean vessels have been greatly increased in size and draft, so that the navigation at the delta is relatively worse than when the improvement of the river's outlet was first undertaken. Ships of a size to carry cheapest cannot get in or out, and our enlarged commerce, in its way to and from the sea, finds that its difficulties increase with its growth. This fact has co-operated with

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railroad development to relatively diminish the river commerce, which is less now, in proportion to the population and business of the region drained by the river, than it was twenty years ago. The attainment of an enlarged outlet to the gulf has, therefore, an importance not equaled by that of any other measure relating to cheap transportation; and the people of the great valley have been unanimous in demanding efficient and permanent works, because they know that the river is the natural and only adequate competitor with the east and west railroads, and that its proper improvement is the best statute to regulate them.

But the question, as to which of the various proposed plans for the improvement of the river was the proper one, was difficult of satisfactory solution. Each method had its advocates, until, in the course of time, the ship canal had outstripped all others, and had gained the support of a majority of the Government Board of Engineers. The press and the people of the Lower Mississippi Valley, especially of the city of New Orleans, indorsed it with almost entire unanimity, and the Senators and Representatives from that section pertinaciously pressed it upon the favor of Congress. The appropriate committees of the two bodies had heard arguments in behalf of its adoption, and the House Committee actually had reported a bill unanimously for the construction of the Fort St. Philip canal, when Mr. Eads came forward, single-handed and alone, to fight for his plan of the jetties, and wage war upon the mistaken recommendation of the United States Engineers. He insisted that a ship canal was not the proper remedy; and in February 1874 made a formal proposal to Congress to create, by the use of jetties, a deep and permanent channel, receiving pay only as the work should prove successful. Congress having refused to pass the canal bill, and being not then prepared to adopt the jetty system, he suggested the appointment of a select mixed commission of civil and military engineers, to consider and decide all questions relating to the mouth of the river. The act of June 23, 1874, provided for the Commission, and upon the adjournment it was appointed by the President. It soon after went to Europe to personally inspect the jetty system as applied to many of the great rivers there.

Mr. Eads also went for the same purpose, but not with the Commission. He was accompanied only by Mr. James Andrews, who, having been his contractor on most of his engineering works, had unbounded faith in his scheme. They and the Commission returned to the United States in the month of November. The Commission reported to Congress, when it assembled in December, unanimously except one member,

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in favor of the jetties. Their report, however, unfortunately recommended their application to the South instead of the Southwest Pass, as Mr. Eads desired. But it decided the vexed question between the canal and the jetties, and on March 3, 1875, Congress passed the bill, fully intrusting the improvement to the entire judgment of Mr. Eads, and thus ended the dispute forever in his favor.

By its terms, a depth of twenty feet of water is to be given to the South Pass within two years. He is then to press forward and increase the depth, within a specified time, to thirty feet. Upon the completion of the work, he and his company will receive from the Government the sum of five million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The first installment of half a million is to be paid when he has obtained a channel two hundred feet wide and twenty feet deep, and the last when the channel has been made seven hundred feet wide and thirty feet deep. After obtaining a depth of thirty feet, he is to receive one hundred thousand dollars per annum for twenty years for maintaining this depth.

As an illustration of the energy and ability of Mr. Eads, it is stated that in less than two months after the passage of the act, the building of the jetties was let to Messrs. James Andrews & Co., and preparations for the work were in active progress. While thus engaged, he was tendered, and accepted, the honor of a complimentary banquet by the leading citizens of St. Louis. It was given at the Southern Hotel, on the 23d of March, and was presided over by the Mayor of the city. From his eloquent response to the principal toast of the evening, the following extract is selected as a fitting close to this sketch:

If the profession of an engineer were not based upon exact science. I might tremble for the result in view of the immensity of the interests which are dependent upon my success. But every atom that moves onward in the river, from the moment it leaves its home amid crystal springs or mountain snows, throughout the 1,500 leagues of its devious pathway, until it is finally lost in the vast waters of the Gulf, is controlled by laws as fixed and certain as those which direct the majestic march of the heavenly spheres. Every phenomenon and apparent eccentricity of the river, its scouring and depositing action, its curving banks, the formation of the bars at its mouth, the effect of the waves and tides of the sea upon its currents and deposits, are controlled by laws as immutable as the Creator, and the engineer needs only to be assured that he does not ignore the existence of any of these laws, to feel positively certain of the result he aims at.

I therefore undertake the work with a faith based upon the ever-constant ordinances of God Himself; and so certain as He will spare my life and faculties for two years more. I will give to the Mississippi river, through His grace and by the application of His laws, a deep, open, safe and permanent outlet to the sea.

In private life, Mr. Eads is one of the most estimable of men. He is easily approached, and is kind, courteous and affable to all who come

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in contact with him. His physical constitution, intellectual activities, temperaments, habits — all would seem to mark him out as a man destined to close his career, as he has long conducted it, in the very midst of labors on works of incalculable value to the country, apparently destined to materially influence, if not to totally revolutionize the commercial relations of three continents — the two Americas and Europe.

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Trusten Polk.

THE name of TRUSTEN POLK has, for a period of many years been honorably and prominently associated with the city of St. Louis and with the history of the State. He was born in Sussex County, Delaware, May 29, 1811. His father, William M. Polk, was a well-to-do farmer, a man of fine attainments, and of great popularity and influence. His mother was a sister of Peter F. Cansey, one of an honored and influential family in the same State. His ancestors may be traced far back in the past, and some of them took an active part in the war of the Revolution. One branch of the ancestral family, on the maternal side, moved at an early period to the Carolinas, and some members of the family on the paternal side moved to, and settled in, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The position his parents occupied in life induced them to give their son all the advantages of a good education, and they designed from the first that he should follow a professional life. His boyhood days were passed on the farm, and in attending the common schools of the day in his neighborhood; when, having acquired the rudiments of a good English education, he was qualified to enter an academy at Cambridge, on the eastern shore of Maryland; and here, with still greater advantages, he fitted himself by a good start to enter college. From here he was sent to Yale College, at New Haven, where he entered the freshman class, and, after a diligent course of study, he graduated at that renowned institution in the year 1831, when only twenty years of age. He distinguished himself in college by his studious habits, his quickness to learn, and the talents he displayed as a graceful writer, debater, and speaker of more than ordinary powers for one so young. He graduated high in his class, and the society to which he belonged conferred many honors upon him during his collegiate course. After he was graduated he returned to his native State, and commenced the study of law in the office of James Rogers, who was at that time Attorney-General of the State, and after a thorough course of study here he continued his legal studies in the law school of Yale College, where he remained two years.

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Having concluded his legal studies, Mr. Polk returned to his home, and was for a short time engaged in learning the practical duties of his profession before he was admitted to practice. He soon found that the legal business of his little State was pretty much monopolized by a few older and more experienced lawyers of long practice and extensive acquaintance, and that a young lawyer, no matter what might be his abilities, would have to spend the early years of his professional life in comparative idleness before he could hope for anything like a proper remuneration for his services. To a young man of ambitious hopes and an aspiring disposition, these prospects were by no means as favorable as he could desire. With a spirit of independence and self-reliance he determined to remove West, where there was a broader field in which to work, and where a young man of his strongly-marked individuality and many accomplishments could hardly fail to attract attention and become prominent. He came to Missouri and settled in St. Louis in 1835, a year cheerful with bright prospects for the growth and prosperity of the city. At that time the Bar of St. Louis ranked among its members some of the first legal minds in the country — men of warm and generous impulses, and who recognized the essential brotherhood that ought to exist among members of the profession. Among these gentlemen Mr. Polk soon made many warm personal friends. His thorough education and mental training in the classics, previous to commencing the study of law, gave him many and superior advantages over those who had been deprived of a suitable preparatory education. His polished eloquence and the suavity of his manner soon made him eminent at the bar, and he was destined to become one of its most brilliant lights.

December 26, 1837, two years after his arrival in St. Louis, Mr. Polk was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth W. Skinner, the second daughter of Curtis and Anne Skinner, who, for many years, had been residents of this State, having removed here from New Windsor, Connecticut. For a number of years afterward he pursued an extensive and lucrative practice, until his labors began to tell upon his constitution and threaten a premature decline. On this account he retired for a time from the arduous duties of his profession, in order that his health might be restored. During this interval of relaxation, which was in a part of the years 1844 and 1845, he spent one winter in Louisiana and the island of Cuba, and during the ensuing summer, he traveled in the New England States and Canada. During his absence, and entirely unknown to him, he was elected by the citizens of St. Louis County a

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member of the State Convention, which met at Jefferson City to revise the Constitution. At this election, which was held in August 1845, Mr. Polk and Miron Leslie were the only Democrats elected from this county — the remaining four being Native Americans. In this honorable capacity Mr. Polk did efficient service.

It was not to be supposed, however, that a man of Mr. Polk's ability and popularity should not receive from the public some demonstration of its confidence by an appointment to some high official position. In 1848 he was a member of the Democratic Convention which nominated Judge Austin A. King for Congress; and in 1856 the Democratic party nominated Mr. Polk as their candidate for Governor. It was a time of great political excitement, for the Know-Nothing party and the Free-Soil party had their strongest champions in the field, and each was exerting itself to its utmost to obtain supremacy. In this warm contest Mr. Polk was elected to the chief magistracy of the State, and in due time was invested with all the honors of his new appointment. He had exercised his new prerogatives but a few weeks before he received still further evidence of the estimation in which he was held by the public, by receiving from the Legislature of the State the appointment of United States Senator, having for his colleague the lamented James S. Green. In possession, at one time, of the two highest official positions which it was in the power of his State to bestow, it became necessary that he should resign one of them, and he gave up the gubernatorial chair.

He remained in the Senate until the year 1861. Upon the breaking out of the war he resigned his seat, and shortly after his return to St. Louis removed to the vicinity of New Madrid, in this State, where he remained for some time. His fortunes were cast with the Southern Confederacy, and during the war, in 1864, he was taken prisoner, and confined on Johnson's Island. He remained a prisoner until some time in the latter part of that year, when he was exchanged, and still adhered to the fortunes of the Confederacy. During the war he held the position of presiding Military Judge of the Department of Mississippi. The war was a serious blow to his private fortune. His property here was seized, and his books and many valuables either destroyed or greatly damaged. Subsequently his property was restored. Upon the close of the war he returned to St. Louis, and resumed the practice of his profession, which he has since followed successfully. In 1848 he was one of the electors of Cass and Butler. Mr. Polk has often declined nominations for public office. He has been several times urged to

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become a candidate for Mayor of St. Louis, and for member of the lower house of Congress, but, desiring to devote himself to his profession exclusively, he has invariably declined.

In his profession Mr. Polk deservedly holds a place in the first rank. He is characterized by his honorable and dignified bearing, his urbanity of manner, and perfect freedom from vituperation in debate. His eloquence is of the Chesterfield style — at once impressive, conciliatory, but always free from the gusty excitement of passion. He is, and always has been, a Democrat from principle, and is warmly attached to that party, although now he does not mingle actively in politics. He was a warm and earnest advocate of the common school system when in its incipiency, and has been for many years a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has an interesting family of four daughters, having lost an only son.

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James H. Britton.

VIRGINIA has been the mother, not only of Presidents, but of a host of active, earnest, intelligent business and professional men, many of whom are now scattered throughout the States and Territories of the West and South. JAMES H. BRITTON, the subject of this brief sketch, is one of this class, and was born in Shenandoah, now Page county, July 11, 1817. His father was of Irish descent, and his mother's parents were of Welsh stock. Their ancestors came over to this country at an early day and settled in Virginia, where they engaged in farming pursuits.

Owing to the imperfect school system of the Old Dominion, his early years were passed without many educational advantages, but, like every youth of an earnest, aspiring disposition, he used every opportunity to gather practical, as well as theoretical, knowledge. Having entered upon his course of life with a determination to conquer success, his naturally apt mind, aided by such books as he was able to obtain, and by the counsel of friends, enabled him to achieve that practical culture which, after all, is worth far more to the earnest business man than the stuffing and tread-mill system too common in the educational machinery of the present day.

At the age of thirten he entered a store in Sperryville, a small country town at the entrance of one of the gaps of the Blue Ridge, and after four years' work at the modest salary of seventy-five dollars per annum, he was intrusted with the management of a store at Thompsonville, Virginia. Two years later Mr. George Ficklen, the proprietor of the store, and whom he still regards as the best friend and counsellor of his early years, admitted him to a partnership in the establishment. This continued two years, during which Mr. Britton was married, and soon after made arrangements to remove West.

He came to Troy, Missouri, in 1840, and, with a capital of fifteen hundred dollars, opened a store for the sale of general merchandise in that town. Economy, energy and fair dealing brought their proper reward in a comparatively lucrative business, which he followed until 1857. In that year he came to St. Louis and took the responsible office of cashier in the Southern Bank, and, in 1864, became president

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of that institution. His talents as a financier, and as an active, honorable, business man, soon called him to preside over the oldest, richest and most powerful moneyed institution in the city — the present National Bank of the State of Missouri. Here he still remains, and is regarded in all business circles as one of the ablest and safest financiers in the State.

He has never been an office-seeker, but has been elected to quite a number of responsible, if not lucrative, positions. In 1848, he was Secretary of the Missouri State Senate; in 1852, and again in 1854, he was elected to the Legislature from Lincoln county; he afterward served as Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives, during the session of 1856-57. For several years he was treasurer of Lincoln county, and post-master at Troy, the county seat. After the death of John J. Roe, he was two years president of the Life Association of America.

His active and honorable career has been the natural result of good principles, instilled in early life, and so rigidly adhered to afterward, that he enjoys the respect and esteem of all classes of society. He was treasurer of the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge, and one of the pioneers in that enterprise. He not only proved a safe custodian of the millions of money expended upon that structure, but also a most active and efficient member of the board of directors. As a banker, he is an exponent of the true principles that should control the power of the purse, to bring about the highest commercial good.

On May 10, 1875, he was made the choice of the Democratic party of the city, in their Convention held at that date, to succeed the lamented Arthur B. Barret, whose death occurred only one short month after he was elected Mayor. He was nominated not only as the candidate of the entire party, but as the especial representative of the best, worthiest, and most intelligent elements of the party. He was triumphantly elected Mayor of the city, at a special election held May 15, 1875, by the votes and influence of the better classes of both parties, and of the substantial business men and merchants of the city. That his administration of the city affairs will be judicious and wise, none who know Mr. Britton entertain a doubt. Through all the varied responsibilities of life, he has acquitted himself with dignity, fidelity and honor, and won the approbation and esteem of opponents as well as friends. His large experience and great energy have been signally displayed in all enterprises that he has undertaken, and he is eminently a thoroughly practical and true type of a self-made man.

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Henry C. Brockmeyer.

HENRY C. BROCKMEYER was born August 12, 1828, near Minden, Prussia, in Germany. His father, Frederick William Brockmeyer, was born in the same vicinity, and was a general business man, in well-to-do circumstances. His mother was a descendant of one of the most distinguished families in the kingdom. Under the compulsory educational laws young Brockmeyer attended the common schools in the vicinity of his home for nearly seven years, receiving religious instruction and studying elementary works. Becoming dissatisfied with his surroundings, at the age of sixteen he left his home alone, and took passage in an emigrant ship for New York. The means at his command were only sufficient to pay his passage and light incidental expenses across the waters. He landed in New York with only twenty-five cents in his pocket, and with a knowledge of only three words in the English language. He had not a single friend, or an acquaintance even, in the city. Out of means, his first solicitude was to find employment. He had no relative or friend to find a place for him. Willing to do anything useful by which he could earn a livelihood, or at least a subsistence, for the time being, he followed the occupation of a bootblack along the Bowery. At this rather menial pursuit he only worked for a short time, when he obtained a situation to learn the currier's trade, at a salary of three dollars per month and his board. Working diligently at this for six months, he had learned his trade, and then demanded and obtained a situation as a journeyman, in which position he was able to earn one dollar per day.

During this time he determined to master the English language, and all his thoughts and spare moments were turned in that direction. In this effort he was kindly assisted by his employer, who gave him access to his library. His early efforts in this line were in the study of common picture books, the pictures in which the reading would explain. In this way, and by noting down words he heard in conversation during the day, and studying out their meaning at night, he learned to read within a comparatively short time, and having acquired this faculty, he read such books as he could obtain which were the most useful to him.

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While thus employed, he came across a newspaper which contained a rather comprehensive review of the progress of trade and the mechanical arts in the West and South, from which he learned that business occupations and the machinery used in manufacturing establishments in the West and South were somewhat different from those in the East. He had a thorough knowledge of nearly all kinds of machinery, and a wonderful faculty in this respect. This article turned his attention to new fields of usefulness and labor, but he remained at his work, learning, in addition to that of the currier's trade, the business of tanning and shoemaking. In order to save money enough to enable him to go West he economized in every possible way, worked all the more diligently, and slept in the shop at night. In every branch of his trade he acquired proficiency, and when he had saved a small sum of money, barely sufficient, however, for his purpose, he left New York and started West. He went first to Buffalo, thence by lake to Toledo, and from this point to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here he obtained work in a tannery at his trade of tanner and currier, and, at a compensation of one dollar and fifty cents per day, remained until he had laid by the sum of two hundred dollars, which was only to be touched in the event of some unlooked-for misfortune. To this day he had adhered to this idea, that it is always best to have a small reserve fund laid aside for a "rainy day."

From Fort Wayne he went to Dayton, Ohio, and from that point to Cincinnati, making the journey on foot a greater part of the distance, but at neither place obtaining employment. At Cincinnati he took passage by river on a steamboat for St. Louis, and landed here for the first time in August 1848. To replenish his purse, he sought for and obtained employment in the tannery of Mr. Howe, with whom he remained two months. He then, in company with an old classmate, whom he accidentally met, went to Memphis, Tennessee, and from there to the central portion of Mississippi, finally bringing up at Columbus, in that State, where he obtained work, still following his trade. His thorough knowledge of his business, and his apt turn of mind, enabled him to introduce a number of improvements in the establishment where he worked, for which he was liberally compensated. From this point, having accumulated some means he went to Oktibbeha county, where he was kindly received and encouraged. There was great need there of just such an establishment as Mr. Brockmeyer proposed to start. With the business of tanner and currier he combined the making of boots and shoes. His business once fairly started became very lucrative. By utilizing decrepit laborers, broken down negro

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farm hands, whom he obtained at a mere nominal rate of wages, he was able to make a pair of shoes at a cost of six and a quarter cents. Eastern-made work could not compete with goods made at such low figures, and the result was that he had a monopoly of his business in that section. But the unfavorable climate, combined with over-work began to tell upon his naturally strong and vigorous constitution, and after two years of almost unremitting labor and attention to business, he sold out and shortly afterward became interested in religious questions. With a desire to learn what he could, and prepare himself for some one of the professions, he went to Georgetown College, Kentucky, and entered the preparatory department of that institution in the fall of 1850. He remained here a little over two years, and applied his mind closely to his books. Owing to theological disputes which arose between the president of the institution and himself, and on account of the wide difference in their respective views, Mr. Brockmeyer was threatened with dismissal by the president; and so withdrew from the institution and went to Brown University, where he took an eclectic course. Among his classmates here was the Hon. Thomas L. Ewing, of Ohio. Under Dr. Wayland's tutorship he remained nearly two years, and was often a full match in class arguments upon religious questions for that distinguished divine.

On account of some family relations he made up his mind to return to Germany, and for this purpose went to New York, satchel in hand, in order to take passage in the steamship Hermann for Bremen. Standing upon the wharf and watching, in deep thought, the slow revolution of her padddle-wheels, he came to the conclusion that to return to the old land, under the circumstances, would change his whole course of life. His experience and learning obtained here without any assistance outside of his own exertions, had taught him many useful lessons, and so, after a short meditation, he turned away and concluded to return again to the West.

In 1854, he came to St. Louis for the second time. Taking his books and gun, he went into the woods in Warren county, only stopping in the city a few days. Here, having provided himself with a few necessary articles of household furniture, he moved into an abandoned cabin, where he remained nearly three years, with a faithful dog as his only companion. In the meantime he made his own clothes and shoes, supplied himself with an abundance of game, and cooked his own meals. His time was spent in study and attending to such cares as were incident to peculiar surroundings. His studies while here,

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were directed more for his own culture than for any useful avocation in life, for even at this time he had not decided what professional calling he would adopt. Having satisfied himself with this singular mode of life, and desiring to do something which would insure him a comfortable independence, he again returned to the city, and finding that the highest wages paid were to iron moulders, he sought and obtained employment in the foundry of Giles F. Filley, where he remained only six weeks. Subsequently meeting an acquaintance, he obtained a situation in the foundry of Bridge, Beach & Co., where he worked at piece work, earning at this the sum of fifteen dollars per week, and finding himself. None of his leisure hours were wasted in idleness; his work for the day being done, he devoted his evenings to study. When he had nearly completed his trade in the foundry, he was accidentally discovered by William T. Harris, now Superintendent of Public Schools, who originated a class consisting of himself, Franklin Childs, Dr. Walters, and a few others, for the purpose of obtaining instruction in German philosophy. Mr. Brockmeyer was solicited to become their instructor. He refused to quit his work in the foundry, but offered to give them all the assistance in his power in the evenings, and on Sundays. This they accepted, and these studies were pursued to the mutual advantage and benefit of all the parties for some months. Having in the meantime earned a sufficient sum of money to purchase some land, he bade his friends good-bye, and returned to Warren county, where he invested his money in a tract of eighty acres. Mr. Harris and the other gentlemen whom he had instructed in German philosophy, as a token of their high regard and esteem presented him with some useful books, upon his departure, which have proved to be of almost incalculable value to him.

Having acquired full possession of his land, his first work was to build himself a small cabin, which completed, he got all his books and papers together, and once more commenced the life of a recluse student. In the fall of 1858, he was stricken down with a severe attack of bilious fever, and, with no one near but his faithful dog, lay dangerously ill and utterly unable to help himself. In this condition he was discovered by a neighbor, who communicated the news of his condition to his friend Mr. Harris. This gentleman at once proceeded to Mr. Brockmeyer's cabin-home and had him brought to the city, where, under kind treatment and care, he recovered his health in due time. Afterward, his class resumed their German philosophical studies. In the meantime, he undertook a literal translation of the large Logic of Hegel, in three

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volumes, which task he completed in one year. This manuscript is still in his possession, and but for the failure of the publishing house in London it would have formed a part of Bohn's Classical Library.

In 1861, when the war broke out, Mr. Brockmeyer was still engaged in literary pursuits. During the summer of that year he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Robertson, an estimable lady of this city, and at once made arrangements to return to his farm in Warren county, beyond the reach of the turmoils of war. His marriage involved new duties — the care and support of his family — and so he sought the independence of farm life. Shortly afterward, the State demanded of all its citizens military duty. This service Mr. Brockmeyer did not feel it to be his privilege to deny, and so enrolled himself in the militia. He was elected captain of the first company organized; was afterward commissioned as captain, and subsequently as provisional lieutenant-colonel, with authority to organize a regiment. This was performed in the course of three weeks, and the muster-roll of the regiment was presented to the Governor, along with the unanimous petition of the entire regiment, including officers and privates, that he should be appointed colonel. The petition was rejected by the Governor; the muster-roll declined; and two days after he was arrested, charged with disloyalty, and thrown into Gratiot street prison. He subsequently found out that his arrest and imprisonment was at the instigation of Colonel Louis Merril, of Louisiana fame, but through the representations of friends as to the facts in the case he was soon after released from prison. He was dismissed from the service as Lieutenant-Colonel, thus leaving him plain Captain. In six weeks afterward Mr. Brockmeyer was elected, by an overwhelming majority, a member of the lower house of the Legislature from Warren county, where he boasted of the fact that his was the only county that gave a larger vote on that occasion than it had ever polled before. During his term of office he sustained the policy advocated by the "War Democrats;" voted for Samuel T. Glover some sixty-three times for the United States Senate; and in general took that position in political life which he has maintained ever since.

At the close of his term of office in the Legislature in 1863-4, he removed to St. Louis, having previously been admitted to the Bar in Warren county. He had studied law without a teacher. In the fall of 1864 he sustained a domestic affliction in the loss of his wife, who left two children, the youngest only four months old. Arriving here without means he applied himself to the practice of his profession, which he has prosecuted with success. He has participated actively

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in nearly all political movements, and particularly prior to 1865, in those movements which had for their object the prevention of the disfranchising of our citizens who had participated in, or had coincided with, the Southern views of the war. Subsequently he labored earnestly to restore the rights of citizenship to those citizens who had been deprived of them.

In 1866 he was a member of the Board of Aldermen, where he served the city well and faithfully.

In January 1867, he married for his second wife Miss Julia Keinlen, a resident of this city, and whose parents came to St. Louis at a very early day.

He was legislated out of the Board of Aldermen in the spring of 1867, and devoted all his time again to the pursuit of his profession.

In 1870 he was elected to the State Senate. Here he served the State ably, and on every important question took a prominent part. He wielded great influence in securing the passage of important bills, and in defeating such measures as he conceived to be detrimental to the best interests and prejudicial to the general welfare of the people of the State. When his term of office as Senator expired he declined a re-election.

In November 1874, he was, at the earnest solicitation of a large number of our best citizens, a candidate for member of the Constitutional Convention of 1875, and was elected by a handsome majority.

In the session of the Senate of 1873-4 he was a strong opponent of what was known as Heard's revenue bill, and for strenuous and successful efforts to defeat that measure, which had the opposition of so large a portion of our mercantile community, he was tendered a public banquet upon his return to the city. This he declined, assuring his friends that he had only performed his duty. To his efforts is mainly due the passage, by the Senate, of an act limiting the power of taxation by cities, counties and the State. He also drew up an act, which passed the Senate but failed in the House, to the effect that every citizen, whether plaintiff or defendant, involved in litigation against moneyed corporations, should receive from such corporations a sufficient sum to defray the legal expenses thereof, where the party was too poor to defray the expenses of such litigation. He devised a measure, when chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, for the better protection of the credit of the State. When in the Senate, he was chairman for two years of the Judiciary Committee, and also served the same length of time as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means.

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Britton A. Hill.

BRITTON ARMSTRONG HILL, for the past thirty-four years a practicing lawyer in St. Louis and Washington City, is a native of New Jersey, and about fifty-six years of age. He is universally acknowledged by his brethren of the Bar to stand at the head of his profession in the Valley of the Mississippi.

We are unable to give a minute account of his early life, because he declined to furnish it to the editors of this work for publication. We have ascertained, however, from other sources, that he was educated in Ogdensburg, New York; was admitted to the Bar at Albany, and to the Court of Chancery at Saratoga in 1839. After practicing the law for two years in Ogdensburg, Mr. Hill emigrated to the West, arriving at St. Louis in August 1841, where he was admitted to the Bar by the Hon. Bryan Mullanphy, the Circuit Judge of the district embracing St. Louis.

Here, in this new home, without a friend in a land of strangers, he began life in earnest, and literally fought his way to the top, against very serious obstacles of every sort that fortune or fate placed in his path. We are told that when the Asiatic cholera of 1849 visited St. Louis, bringing with it a death-rate of one hundred to two hundred and fifty per day, in a population of 40,000, when two thousand persons were sick at a time and the physicians were unable to visit more than half of them, Mr. Hill, who had studied medicine, having ascertained from the ablest doctors then in the city the best mode of treatment in private practice and in the hospitals, went daily for several weeks into the poor districts, where the scourge was most fatal, visiting the sick, laying out the dead, and relieving the distresses of the poor and unfortunate by all the means in his power at his own personal expense, without any other reward than the consciousness of a noble work of pure charity, done at great risk to his own life. The epidemic continued during May, June, July and August, carrying off about 8,475 souls, or more than one-fifth of the whole population of St. Louis.

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It was by such grand acts of self-sacrificing charity that Mr. Hill laid the foundations of his great personal popularity among the poorer classes of the citizens, which, combined with a high order of intellectual power and great oratorical force, made him irresistible before the juries in the multitudinous cases of all descriptions committed to his charge. His law practice had already become the largest and most lucrative of any in the State. His indomitable energy, unfailing memory, critical accuracy of analysis, and almost inexhaustible powers of endurance, enabled him to rise, with the increase of his business, to the very highest points of legal attainment, until at length he is acknowledged to be one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in the United States.

On Mr. Hill's arrival in St. Louis, he formed a copartnership with John M. Eager, Esq., of Newburg, New York, which continued until 1848, when, Mr. Eager proposing to return to his native State, the connection was terminated, and Mr. Hill continued the business as the surviving member of the firm in St. Louis. In 1850 he took his brother, David W. Hill, into his office, and gave him an interest in the business. In 1854, Wm. N. Grover, Esq., of Illinois, was added to the firm, under the style of Hill, Grover & Hill, which continued until 1858, when Mr. Hill dissolved the copartnership, and devoted himself exclusively to the land practice and important insurance and railroad cases. Finding the labors of his profession too onerous, he formed a copartnership with the Hon. D. T. Jewett in 1861, which continued for about ten years, when it was dissolved by mutual consent. In the spring of 1873, Mr. Hill formed a copartnership with Frank J. Bowman, Esq., of Vermont, under the style of Hill & Bowman, which is now subsisting.

During the war of the rebellion, in 1863, the Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, and the Hon. Orville H. Browning, of Illinois, formed a copartnership with Mr. Hill, in the city of Washington, under the style of Ewing, Hill & Browning, for the transaction of important legal business in the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Court of Claims, and before the Departments of the Federal Government. Mr. Hill still continued his business in St. Louis, but devoted most of his time to the more important cases arising in Washington. This firm was one of the strongest combinations of legal learning and power that has ever been formed in the United States, and it continued until the spring of 1865, when, at the close of the war, Mr. Hill retired and returned to St. Louis.

It is in these thirty-four years of law practice, in all its branches,

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that Mr. Hill has established a reputation that has become national, and although we have been driven to the necessity of gathering this history from the records and reports of the courts, and the information derived from his contemporaries, we feel it to be our duty, as a part of the history of St. Louis, to present his life to our readers, as it appears in his great and valuable works and labors, "for it is by their fruits ye shall know them."

It is from the example presented by such a life that the young men of the country may be stimulated to greater efforts to promote the happiness of their fellow men — for it is in the great love for humanity, the desire to promote the prosperity and elevate the motives for human action — that the subject of this sketch is distinguished from most of the other great men of the age in which we live.

But Mr. Hill is not only "a jurist of eminent ability," as he has been declared in opinions of the Supreme Court of Missouri: in the midst of his herculean labors at the Bar, he has found time to produce, as an author, the most profound and original works of this or any other age, on the principles of representative co-operative government and the system of finance necessary for the perfection of the national economy of such a government. In August 1873, he published his first work, entitled "Liberty and Law under the Federative Government; presenting a system for the perfection of the government of the United States so as to make it a co-operative representative republican government, with a perfected governmental machinery adapted to advance the civilization of the age far beyond its present limits and secure its blessings for a long series of ages."

With a prophetic foresight, he has pointed out the imminent dangers threatening our republican institutions, from executive, legislative, judicial, corporative, hierarchical and other despotisms, that are silently but surely undermining the common liberties of the people. He proposes the only conceivable remedies to avoid this national calamity in the remarkable work on "Liberty and Law." It has been fitly styled the new gospel of human freedom, by one of the greatest humanitarians of our age; and really, when we read the sublime utterances of this master of republican philosophy, a feeling of confidence in the race and in the feasibility of its progressive elevation takes possession of the mind. It is the most hopeful book of the century, and fills the friends of freedom and humanity with a thousand noble aspirations.

Thirty-five years' practice in the law, in the courts of New York, Missouri and the Supreme Court of the United States, had given

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Mr. Hill, as he remarks in his preface, many opportunities to observe the operations of our federative form of government, and of our different State Constitutions, and laws upon the civilization, welfare, happiness, rights and liberties of the citizens, for whose benefit the Constitution of the United States declares the government had been established. A careful analysis and study of our present system, and its practical working, convinced him that the weakness and instability of our federative republican institutions, was directly owing to an originally defective machinery of State and Federal organization; and to a misconception on the part of our governments, State and Federal, of their full duties under the law. To the former defect he attributes the outbreak of the late civil war, which, under a properly constructed machinery of State and federative governments, never would have occurred; to the latter he attributes the growth of the powerful monopolies that, in conjunction with ignorance and impurity — alternately supporting and deriving support from them — threaten every form of liberty that has grown dear to us.

This work attracted wide-spread attention, and St. Louis was congratulated on all sides on the possession of a thinker so original and profound. The press, at home and abroad, acknowledged it to be the work of an unquestionably cultivated mind, setting it down as one of the most valuable contributions to political science ever presented to the world. That it produced a lasting impression on the people may be found in the fact that the Constitutional Convention, now in session at Jefferson City, does not hesitate to adopt its enunciated principles of restrictions and limitations of legislative power in the formation of a constitutional code for the State. It should have adopted many others of his proposed reforms, but the time has not yet come, apparently. This, doubtless, is the highest compliment that could be paid to the author. It is acknowledged to be a work of great power, the result of deep, thorough and diligent research. The eleven Democratic States that carried the elections in the fall of 1874, adapted their platforms to the fundamental principles announced in "Liberty and Law." In it Mr. Hill foretold the financial crisis of September 1873, and gave his reasons why it was inevitable, and proposed the measures necessary to avoid its disastrous effects. At the urgent request of many persons, but especially of some of the most prominent National Bank managers and capitalists of the country, Mr. Hill has just published a new work, elaborating the treatise on money in "Liberty and Law," developing a new financial system for the United States, for the relief of trade and

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manufactures, and to establish a national money system. It is entitled, "Absolute Money: A New System of National Finance, under a Co-operative Government."

In this work, the author proposes to substitute for the irrational medley of bond money, legal tender money, national bank money and gold and silver money — an absolute national money, irredeemable in metallic coins or interest-bearing bonds, but convertible into all the commodities of the nation, by making it the legal-tender money of this country, for all debts and duties and taxes, to the exclusion of all other money. After the adoption of this system, gold and silver would no longer be a legal tender, the absolute money only being clothed with that sovereign prerogative. The National Banks would be divorced from the Treasury and from Congress; their circulation surrendered for cancellation; their bonds in the Treasury, to secure their circulation, sold to the Government at the current rate of premium, and absolute money delivered to the banks for the total amount of principal, premium and interest due when the bonds would be cancelled, and the banks, as joint stock companies organizing under State laws, would continue their business as banks of discount and deposit, using the absolute money as the basis of their banking operations and exchanges. This would increase their circulation about $220,000,000, and furnish a money that would be based on the annual products, amounting to $8,000,000,000, and the total wealth of the Republic, now estimated at $250,000,000,000. Excellent financial critics declare this new system of national finance to be scientific and complete.

This new system of finance commends itself to the people, as the only scientific plan for a complete national money system for the Republic. It proposes a full payment of the national bonds in absolute money — an annual saving of $107,000,000 for coin interest on the bonds — the abolition of the internal revenue taxation and expenses of $200,000,000 more, and the tariff system — the separation of the National banks from the Treasury and Congress — and the restoration of trade, commerce and manufactures to their former prosperity and power. The adoption of Mr. Hill's system of finance would remove from the people a vast amount of burdens and tax-gathering oppressions, under the weight of which they now suffer and groan.

For his record as a lawyer, we have only to apply to the reports of the courts of Missouri, and in Washington, where his herculean labors stand forth as imperishable monuments of his legal learning, genius, and inexhaustible resources for work, analysis and thorough

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investigation. And in this connection, it is the wonder of all who knew him, how, amid his multifarious professional duties, he has found time to give his concentrated attention to works embodying the most abstruse problems in hygiene, education, government, and the adjustment of the various codes with all their checks and balances, so as to organize a complete system, harmoniously adjusted to protect all the citizens in the proper use of their faculties, without any of the obstructions of fraud, ignorance or despotism, to the end that each individual in the State may attain the greatest good, happiness, wisdom and beauty, of which his faculties are capable; first, for himself; second, for his family, and third, for the society or State in which he lives.

How Mr. Hill could have found time to give to such subjects, the amount of labor and deep study he has evidently done, is a source of much wonder and amazement.

One among the many important suits Mr. Hill has gained in his practice before the Supreme Court of the United States — that of the State of Missouri against the Railroads — may be given as an example of his wonderful powers. For two years he kept battling with the railway monopolies in this case, and at last obtained a decree authorizing States, counties and cities to tax railroad property, and declaring that their charters did not exempt them from taxes. This was one or the most important cases ever argued before the Federal Supreme Court, involving, as it did, power to tax $50,000,000 of railroad property and the future increase thereof. This is looked upon as one of the causes celebres of the United States. In the legal reports of the Supreme Court of the country we find many such cases, in which Mr. Hill has taken a prominent part.

Thus we see that as a lawyer, a thinker, as a political economist and author, Mr. Hill holds a national reputation, and the most that we can hope for in this necessarily brief sketch of such a man, is a mere outline of his active career. To do anything like justice to the person who conceived such works as "Liberty and Law," "Absolute Money," etc., would require far more space than we can allow. Suffice it to say that he is one of the few men of St. Louis whose works are known, not alone to the readers and thinkers of his native country, but to the greatest statesmen and the most cultivated scholars of Europe. Wherever the English language is read or spoken; wherever the intellectual rules the physical, there will the works of Mr. Hill be known, and there will his name be respected.

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Mr. Hill is a man of large stature, of dignified presence, full of intellectual and physical vitality, strong and robust, in the full command of his physical and mental powers, and a man who, notwithstanding the grand labors he has performed during thirty-six years of practice at the Bar, may reasonably look for many years of useful and appreciative reward yet to come.

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Hon. Henry T. Blow.

AMONG all the prominent men of St. Louis, no one has done more to advance her material interests, or to develop and promote social culture, than the subject of this sketch. In fact, we may say, without depreciating the influence or high standing of others, but few, if any, have achieved success in so many important pursuits as HENRY TAYLOR BLOW. As a business man, he has stamped his name indelibly upon the community, leading in enterprises which many had not the courage to undertake, and persistently holding on when others would have abandoned them as hopeless. In public affairs he has honestly gained distinction, and without seeming to desire or to seek place and power. His character is presented to us in a three-fold aspect, viz: As an intelligent citizen, impressing his views upon society; as a business man, and as a statesman.

Mr. Blow by birth is a Virginian, having been born in Southampton county, July 15, 1817. His ancestors came from England in the early part of the eighteenth century, and can trace their lineage to the time of Charles I. His father, Captain Peter Blow, was a respectable planter of Virginia, who removed about 1825 to Alabama, but a few years later came to St. Louis, and engaged in hotel-keeping. His death occurred in 1831.

The elder Blow was married to Miss Elizabeth Taylor of Virginia, by whom he had twelve children, and of whom Henry and William are the only surviving sons.

Henry T. Blow received excellent early instruction, and at a suitable age was placed in the St. Louis University, then, as now, one of the best educational establishments in the West, from which he graduated. While a student in this institution he was diligent in his studies, and, though not brilliant, was always punctual and reliable. He always knew his lessons, and could give a reason for everything. It is related that, on one occasion, when his class gave an exhibition in oratory, Hon. Thomas H. Benton was present. The prize medal was awarded to another student, contrary to young Blow's expectations, and of

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course he was aggrieved thereat. Benton saw it, and when the exercises were over he said to him, laying his hand kindly on his shoulder, "Never mind, young man; you earned the medal, if you did not get it. You will win honors enough some day." These kind words from such a source did him more good than a dozen prizes.

It was the intention of his father to fit him for the profession of law, but after a temporary clerkship in the drug establishment of Joseph Charless & Son, he developed so fair a talent for business that it was decided that he must lead a business life. He very soon became one of the most active and reliable clerks in this well-known house, and ultimately was considered indispensable to his employers.

In 1836, Mr. Charless, Sr., retired from active business life, and Mr. Blow was taken in as a partner by the son, the firm name being changed to Charless & Blow. The house did an extensive and profitable business throughout the West and South, and the names of the partners were everywhere synonyms for honor and fair dealing. In 1839 Mr. Charless retired, selling his entire interest in the drug store to Mr. Blow, who conducted it until 1840, when Mr. Charless again became a partner, the firm becoming Joseph Charless & Co. About this time the White Lead Works were brought into existence. At first the manufacture of white lead was a part of the business of the drug firm; it subsequently became enlarged, and Mr. Blow gave to this interest most of his personal attention. In 1844, the drug firm was dissolved, Mr. Charless remaining as proprietor, and Mr. Blow assuming the entire control of the White Lead Works. The business became very prosperous under his intelligent and active management, and yielded the proprietor annually a handsome income. In four or five years from the time he took charge of the White Lead Works, Mr. Blow had amassed a large fortune, and began to think of retiring from the active management of the business. His clear judgment and practical knowledge, however, which served so good a purpose in conducting the business thus far, were deemed quite as necessary in its continuance, but as the lead works had become an immense concern, more than one man was needed to direct its various departments. A charter was obtained from the Legislature, and a company was organized, called "The Collier White Lead and Oil Company." Mr. Blow was made president of the new organization. Associated with him were some of the best business men of the city, and skilled workmen to carry on the manufacture of white lead.

Each year since its establishment the business has increased rapidly,

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until, at the present time, the annual value of the products of the company cannot be far from two millions of dollars. Works of such magnitude must necessarily consume a vast amount of lead ore. Looking into the future with almost prophetic vision, Mr. Blow saw the necessity of making the supply of ore equal to the demand, and accordingly leased and purchased extensive lead tracts in the southwest part of the State. The Granby Mining and Smelting Company, of which he is president, was formed as auxiliary to the White Lead Company. It has grown to be a powerful and wealthy organization, and not only supplies lead for the use of the White Lead Works, but sends a large amount into the market to be used for the various purposes of manufacture. The company owns mines and smelting furnaces at the town of Granby, in Newton county, and here are the headquarters; but it also has large and important interests at Joplin and Oronogo, in Jasper county. Thus it will be seen that by the foresight of Mr. Blow in purchasing lead lands and establishing the Granby Mining and Smelting Company, the Collier White Lead and Oil Works have a source of supply which can never be cut off. Mines in other sections of the State may fail; the amount of lead on the market may be exhausted; or the prices of ore rule high, but as long as the Granby Mining Company and the Collier White Lead Company are united in interest, white lead can be manufactured and the public demand supplied.

Though never possessing a strong passion for politics, Mr. Blow has always shown a commendable interest in public affairs. He never sought political honors or office, but has been sought after frequently, and had honors thrust upon him. Thus it was in the earlier years of his business career: he had shown so much enterprise and intelligence in directing his own affairs, that he was selected to transact business for the State in the capacity of Senator, and this at a time when his political sentiments were not in accord with a majority of those who voted for him.

Mr. Blow, at an early day, identified himself with the Free Soil movement, and in the Legislature, as well as on various public occasions, did not hesitate to declare himself as opposed to the encroachments of slavery and in favor of free labor. Many of his warmest friends, and even relatives, differed from him politically, but he never for a moment wavered in his purposes and principles.

In June 1860, the National Republican Convention met in the city of Chicago to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. Mr. Blow was chosen by the Republicans of Missouri as one of the

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delegates, and was honored by the Convention by being made one of its vice-presidents. He returned home to take an active part in the political campaign which resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln.

In 1861, Mr. Lincoln honored him with the appointment of Minister to Venezuela. He accepted the position and entered upon the discharge of his duties with his accustomed energy; but near the close of a year's service he became convinced that higher duties awaited him at home. His cool judgment and business capacity were needed in a successful prosecution of the war, and he came home ready to serve where most needed. In 1862 he was nominated to Congress by the Republicans of the (then) Second Congressional District, and served with ability on the Committee on Ways and Means. In 1864 Mr. Blow was a delegate to the Baltimore Republican Convention, which re-nominated Abraham Lincoln. He was re-elected to the Thirty-Ninth Congress, and served on the Committee on Appropriations, Bankrupt Law, and Reconstruction. During his congressional career he made but few lengthy speeches, but devoted himself most assiduously to the wants of his constituents and the general interests of the country. His committee work was most effective, and his influence during the last session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress was felt throughout the country. His extensive business in St. Louis requiring his attention, Mr. Blow declined further service in Congress. It was his intention to devote himself exclusively for the future to the care of his large private interests and to the welfare of his family, but early in the beginning of President Grant's administration the mission to Brazil was tendered him. At first he positively declined the honor, but as many of the business men of St. Louis urged his acceptance, on the ground that his influence would ultimately result in opening a trade between that country and the Mississippi Valley, he at length reconsidered his resolution, and was duly appointed Minister to the Government of Brazil, with full powers. He left St. Louis for his post of duty July 16, 1869, accompanied by his family. So far as diplomatic relations between the United States and Brazil were concerned, Mr. Blow's mission was a successful one. He accomplished, in less than two years, more than was expected, and made the way easy in the future for commercial intercourse. Conscientiously believing that all had been accomplished that diplomacy could do, Mr. Blow wrote to the Department of State to that effect, and tendered his resignation, which was reluctantly accepted. He returned to the United States February 1, 1871, and actively resumed business. He had resigned the presidency of the Collier White Lead and Oil Works

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on leaving St. Louis for the Brazil mission, and was succeeded by Colonel Thomas Richeson, who had been connected with the Company for many years. Mr. Blow was still a director and land-owner, and was also at the head of the Granby Mining Company. To the special interests of this Company he turned his immediate attention, and made arrangements for carrying on lead mining and smelting on a more extensive scale than ever. Without much interruption, he has continued thus engaged up to the present time.

In June 1874, President Grant appointed him as one of the Commissioners of the Government of the District of Columbia. As is well known, the affairs of the District were in a bad condition, and occasioned much comment all over the country. To bring order out of confusion, and make the wheels of the local government at Washington run smoothly, was no easy matter; yet the new Commissioners succeeded in doing it in a few months, and to Mr. Blow is due a large share of the credit. He received favorable mention from the press of both parties, and special thanks of the President, for the fearless and faithful manner in which he had discharged the duties of this office. He resigned the position of Commissioner December 31, 1874.

Mr. Blow was married to Miss Minerva Grimsley, daughter of Colonel Thornton Grimsley, July 14, 1840. She was a lady of great excellence of character, fondly devoted to her husband and children, and distinguished for the many deeds of charity and Christian benevolence performed during her married life. The union, which was a most happy one, was dissolved by the death of this estimable lady, on the 28th of June, 1875. Six children survive the mother, one of whom is the wife of Mr. Smirnoff, of the Russian Legation at Berlin.

Mr. Blow, through his active life, alternating between business and politics, has found time to cultivate his aesthetic tastes, and to answer some of the demands of society. His beautiful home at Carondelet gives evidence of his love for all that is true and good in nature and art. Here he is surrounded by books, paintings and statuary; his grounds are ample, and laid out with skill and artistic effect. Though bereft of the companion of his youth, he has still the love of children, and in this charming retreat he can find sweet solace from his many public duties and business cares. Let us hope he may live long to enjoy it.

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Rt. Rev. P. J. Ryan.

AMONG the pulpit orators of the day, no one occupies a more enviable reputation, or a higher position, than the Right Reverend P. J. RYAN, the Roman Catholic Bishop of St. Louis.

PATRICK JOHN RYAN was born at Thurles, in the County of Tipperary, Ireland, in the year 1831. At a very early age he evinced a predilection for the priesthood, his whole soul being seemingly bound up in that sacred calling. To this end drifted the whole current of his thoughts. After attending a school in Dublin, he, in 1847, entered Carlaw College, near that city, where he received a thorough ecclesiastical education. The character of this institution of learning may be judged when it is stated that Bishop English of Charleston, South Carolina, and Cardinal Cullen of Dublin, are among the students who once enjoyed its benefits.

The subject of the present sketch, while attending this college filled the position of prefect of the lay house, and was ordained a sub-deacon while still a young man. Soon after leaving college, his attention was called to the United States as the most promising field for his future labors. To the ecclesiastic, as well as the artisan and professional man, America opened her hospitable arms, and all alike found a home upon her shores. Hither the young student of divinity came. He arrived in St. Louis in 1851. For some three months after his arrival he was stationed at St. Patrick's Church with Father Wheeler, and by special permission he also preached regularly in the Cathedral, although from his extreme youth he had not as yet been ordained a priest.

Although somewhat an anomaly in the church, this was a noticeable event in the career of the young deacon, and evinced the appreciation his superiors entertained for his remarkable zeal and commanding talents that could not fail of recognition by those in authority. About this time he was appointed professor of English Literature in the Carondelet Theological Seminary, a position which he filled with great credit and success. This institution was subsequently transferred to Cape Girardeau, where it still exists, for the education of young men intended for the priesthood.

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After attaining his majority in 1853, he was ordained a priest, and at the same time was appointed assistant pastor at the Cathedral. He performed the duties of rector of the Cathedral until 1860, when he built the church and parochial school of the Annunciation, on Sixth and Labadie streets. While connected with this church he acted as chaplain to Gratiot street military prison, to which post he was appointed by the Archbishop, where he did all in his power to assuage the mental and physical sufferings of the prisoners, and impart to them spiritual comfort. Hundreds of those unfortunate men, who, by the vicissitudes of war had become inmates of this place, now scattered broadcast over the whole South, remember with feelings of gratitude his humane ministrations and kindly words of cheer, uttered to them when the strong iron bolts and bars shut them out from the world and friends, and invoke blessings on his head for many little acts of kindness which went far to lighten the heavy burden of imprisonment. During his connection with the prison and hospital, his labors were marked by a large number of conversions, and it is said as many as 600 persons were baptized in the church. It may be proper here to state, that upon the recommendation of General Blair, Father Ryan received from Washington a commission as Chaplain in the United States army, which, however, he saw fit to decline, but continued his connection with the prison.

In 1861, Father Bannon, who had charge of St. John's Church, departed South as Chaplain to a regiment in the service of the Confederates, after which time Rev. P. T. Ring had charge of the congregation. Father Ryan was appointed Father Ring's successor, and immediately entered upon the duties of pastor of this church. He then concluded upon a European trip, as a relaxation from the severe discipline to which he had been subject for some years back. He spent a year in Ireland, revisiting the scenes of his boyhood, and in France, Germany and Italy. It was his good fortune to be in Rome during the celebration of the Centenary. During the following Lent he was invited by the Papal authorities to deliver the English sermon in Rome. This is considered one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed upon a priest of the Church of Rome; and is a distinction of no ordinary character, when it is taken into consideration that the choice is made from a large number of divines from the entire Christian world, who are usually visiting the Eternal City during this holy season. The sermons had previously been preached by such men as Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop Hughes of New York, the famous Father Thomas Burke, and a galaxy of other bright luminaries of the Church, whose

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names will go down to posterity as among the greatest divines of their day, and whose efforts on such occasions are preserved in the archives of the Vatican for the special admiration of generations to come.

On his return to America in 1868, he was appointed Vicar-General of St. Louis, and during the absence of Archbishop Kendrick in Rome, while attending the Ecumenical Council, was administrator of the diocese, a trust he performed to the entire satisfaction of both clergy and laity.

The weight of years began to tell upon Archbishop Kendrick; with the march of civilization and progress westward the Roman Catholic diocese of St. Louis extended, until it was counted one of the largest and most important in America. The great city of St. Louis stretched forth its highways and byways until it became of metropolitan dimensions; the Catholics of St. Louis, a city noted for its catholicity, had increased tenfold, and each succeeding year added thousands to their number; the cross-crowned and glistening spires of Roman Catholic churches pierced the sky from all portions of the vast metropolis; schoolhouses, convents, institutions of learning, and hospitals, connected with or immediately under the supervision of the Church, had in a few years increased in vast numbers, and it soon became apparent to the Archbishop that he must have an assistant or coadjutor in the administration of the diocese. Under these circumstances, the Archbishop applied to Rome for such an assistant, and, acting under the suggestion of the Bishops of the ecclesiastical diocese of St. Louis, the Sovereign Pontiff appointed Father Ryan Coadjutor-Bishop of St. Louis, with the title of Bishop of Tricomia, in Palestine, in partibus infidelium.

In 1866, Father Ryan attended the second Plenary Council at Baltimore, when he preached a sermon before the assembled prelates on "The Sanctity of the Church." This is looked upon as one of the greatest efforts of this learned and eloquent divine, and was published, among others, as one of the master-pieces of eloquence and erudition of the day. Father Ryan has also received the degree of LL. B. from the University of New York.

His labors for years have been incessant, and of a nature calculated to wear away the most robust constitution. In addition to his parochial duties, he has been continually lecturing throughout the State, and ever on the alert to forward the holy cause of religion, in several instances, at the special request of the General Assembly of Missouri, he has addressed the assembled wisdom of the State, and on those occasions the Hall of Representatives, at Jefferson City, has been crowded

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to suffocation by an eager multitude of all religious denominations, anxious to listen to the gifted orator. Let it be announced in St. Louis that he is to lecture, and the Temple or Mercantile Library Hall, fail to afford accommodations for the multitudes that clamor for admission. It has been truthfully stated that no orator of the West can draw an audience of so much intelligence, and representing so much wealth, as can Bishop Ryan. On these occasions, lawyers, doctors, ministers of the gospel, representatives of the army, merchant princes — all of the wealth, refinement and intelligence of the Southwestern metropolis — are to be found in attendance. His fervid eloquence, forcible manner, earnest delivery and display of dramatic power, never fail to hold the attention of his audience.

On the 14th day of April 1872, Father Ryan was consecrated Bishop at St. John's Church. Every available spot in the vast edifice was occupied on this occasion, and it was with difficulty the crowds on the outside were restrained, so great was the anxiety of the people to see their favorite pulpit orator made a prince of the church. Thousands who were unable to gain admission, were obliged to content themselves with the graphic descriptions of the interesting ceremonies, which appeared in the daily papers next day.

Bishop Ryan is now in his forty-fifth year, the prime of manhood, with a long life, it is to be hoped, of usefulness before him. He is a little above the medium height, with a purely classical head, set firmly upon a pair of broad shoulders. His voice is peculiarly pleasing, and when he warms up to his subject, his eloquence is like an avalanche of the Alps, irresistible, and sweeping every obstacle before it.

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Elihu H. Shepard.

TO the many who may peruse the biographies of this work, the name that heads this sketch is as familiar as "household words." Many of the men who now occupy prominent positions in the different walks of life in St. Louis are pupils of his; and to him, above all other men, are they, in a measure, indebted for their success in life. Many who are long since gathered to their fathers, secured the first rudiments of an education under his instruction, and ever stood ready to bear witness to his merits and scholarly attainments. His name is associated with the early recollections of more prominent men than that of any other citizen of St. Louis.

ELIHU HOTCHKISS SHEPARD was born on the 15th of October 1875, at Halifax, Windham County, State of Vermont, during the presidency of George Washington. He is the son of Abel Shepard and Sarah Dalrymple, the former a native of Connecticut, and the latter of Massachusetts. During the early years of his boyhood, Elihu received such instruction as could then be obtained at the common schools of New England. In his twelfth year his father, who appears to have been a man of considerable attainments, undertook the education of his own family — an undertaking in which he seems to have succeeded admirably. In 1811 the first public school in that section of the country was opened, and a gentleman of much refinement and education, named Gordon Hawkins, employed as teacher.

Upon reviewing the past studies of young Shepard, the new teacher immediately formed a high opinion of his attainments, and advised him to begin the study of a profession without delay.

But the great battle of Trafalgar had been fought, and the English remained masters of the sea; and his father, who had been a trader with the East Indies, saw that the country was on the eve of another great stuggle, and was not determined in his own mind what profession was most suitable to his son. He, himself, had studied law in his younger days, but had never practiced.

However, he bought a law library from a retired lawyer, and young

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Elihu immediately began to study, under the direction of Judge Silas Stowe, of Louisville, Lewis county, New York, and continued it, at intervals, for eight years, until he left that State for Missouri, in 1819.

Besides studying industriously during twelve years, he served in the army of his country during the war of 1812, and had taught in public schools and academies three years. He had also taken all the degrees in the order of Ancient and Accepted Free Masonry, and had made quite a reputation as a lecturer among the brotherhood in the States and in Canada. His reminiscences of this war, contained in his autobiography, are looked upon as containing some of the most interesting and reliable annals of that memorable struggle.

During the years 1820-'21, Mr. Shepard taught school very successfully in Illinois. It was during this eventful period that he first became acquainted with his wife, Miss Mary Thomas, who was a pupil of his, and to whom he was married in St. Louis after he had removed permanently there.

In February 1823, Mr. Shepard was offered and accepted the position of professor of languages in St. Louis College, a position he held until 1826. It was during this interval that he directed the studies of some of the best business men, jurists and scholars that ever adorned society in St. Louis. Many of them are now dead, but have left their footprints on the sands of time. Others still live, ornaments to the different professions or shining lights in the great commercial centre of the Southwest. Among those who were made recipients of his instruction are General Wm. Clark, Governor McNair, Colonel Easton, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Farrar, Colonels R. and G. Paul, Judge Primm, Judge Bates, Judge Bent, Mr. F. Dent, Dr. Simpson, Theodore Labeaume, Judge Ferguson, Governor DeLassus, General Pratt, Colonel Laveille, the Papin family, the Chouteau family, and many others whose names stand synonymous for all that is honorable and upright. But few men can look back into the years that have flown, and say they have had the forming of the minds of such galaxy of stars as can Mr. Shepard. This alone has been a great reward for his many labors and anxieties.

Having great confidence in the growth of St. Louis, Mr. Shepard lost no opportunity of investing his surplus earnings in real estate. By this foresight, his estate, at the present day, is reckoned among the most valuable in the city, and his old age and declining years have been blessed with the surroundings of plenty.

His fame as a teacher soon became established, so that not only the first families of the city, but many prominent men from the neighboring

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States, sent their sons to receive the benefits of his erudition and knowledge. He was happy in a frugal wife, who fostered their resources, and who herself became well known as a preceptress, and for twelve years assisted her husband in their private schools. In 1837 he was elected justice of the peace for St. Louis Township, which office he filled for four years.

In 1846, although well advanced in life — being then in his fifty-first year — he volunteered in the St. Louis Greys, to take part in the Mexican war. But this was merely for a six months' campaign, and upon the mustering out of the Greys, he raised a company of his own for the war. The company was mustered into the service, and did good work during the balance of the war in Mexico.

Some time after this, Mr. Shepard purchased an estate at Kaolin, in Iron County, Missouri. This he has since made a magnificent summer residence; and here, in the midst of plenty, he has passed many years in peace and quiet before the breaking out of the civil war in 1861. General Lyon, who had command at St. Louis, offered Mr. Shepard a position of trust and responsibility, but his extreme age — being then in his sixty-sixth year — prevented him from accepting anything of the kind. On the 10th of May 1861, Mr. Shepard had been taken prisoner at Camp Jackson and confined in the St. Louis Arsenal, but subsequently signed his parole. In July, Governor Claiborne Jackson sent him a commission as paymaster, which, however, he declined. He was also offered a Colonel's commission, which he also declined, stating his reasons for so doing.

After Mr. Shepard was paroled in St. Louis, he returned to his summer residence at Kaolin, a retired place, deep in the recesses of the forests, hoping that he might there repose in quietude, and that his old age might be a protection against the evil-disposed of both parties. But in this he was mistaken. Robberies were perpetrated upon his premises, and outrages committed by both parties, under the plea of "military necessity," so that four years afterwards at the close of the war, he had not a hog, a horse or a sheep remaining on his farm of 5,000 acres. The dwelling houses and other large buildings had been destroyed, the fences swept away, and that which had been one of the most enchanting spots in the State of Missouri, laid waste and made a scene of desolation. Out of nineteen families who resided near him, but four remained at the close of the war. He was obliged to absent himself half the time during this reign of terror, to avoid being murdered by

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robbers and guerrillas, who infested that neighborhood from the commencement to the end of the war.

In June 1864, Mrs. Shepard, his faithful companion during these long years, and through these many vicissitudes of fortune, ended her long and useful life. She was never a member of any established Church, but took the Holy Scriptures for her guide.

In December 1866, being then in his seventy-second year, Mr. Shepard led to the altar his second wife, a lady in every way qualified to fill such a position. In 1867, in company with his wife and two eldest daughters, Mr. Shepard sailed for Europe, and spent eleven months in visiting the principal cities and points of interest in the old world. His observations upon European society and manners, contained in his memoirs, are very interesting and valuable as notes of foreign travel.

In 1866, he was the prime mover in establishing the Missouri Historical Society, a society which will last for ages; and he has contributed some most valuable documents to its archives.

No citizen has taken greater interest in the advancement of education than has Mr. Shepard. It has been the pride of his life. Some of the most pleasurable moments of his existence have been spent with his pupils, either while under his instruction or after they had entered upon the active duties of life. Few men have spent thirty years surrounded by such a large number of his former pupils as he has, and none ever had greater cause to rejoice at their virtuous and successful courses.

Mr. Shepard still enjoys robust health, and is occasionally seen upon the streets of St. Louis, the object of universal respect wherever he goes. Mr. Shepard has compiled and published a history of St. Louis, from its earliest foundation: a work containing a fund of information and reliable data in the growth and progress of this great city.

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Joseph L. Stephens.

IN a State so comparatively young as Missouri, it is found that most of her prominent and successful men are immigrants from older commonwealths, where, however meagre may have been their earlier advantages, they yet exceeded those of the struggling territory. To this rule, JOSEPH L. STEPHENS exhibits a bright and most striking exception. A native Missourian, his family connections extend to Daniel Boone, David Crockett and Stephen Cole, those hardy pioneers who made themselves homes in the virgin forest, and handled those twin implements of civilization — the rifle and the axe — with equal determination and skill.

He was born in 1826, in Cooper county, Missouri, where he still resides. His father, Lawrence C. Stephens, a native of Virginia, and his mother, Margaret P. Moore, a native of North Carolina, were married in Cooper county, and were among the first settlers and most respected citizens of that part of the State. His father was a farmer, a man of far more than average ability, possessed of strong practical views and an aptitude for public affairs. The records of the State capitol show his course as a legislator while representing his district, and prove him to have been a man of substantial ability and good qualifications, and to have possessed the confidence of his fellow-citizens. He filled various public offices in the gift of the people, in all of which he appears to have given general satisfaction. He died in 1873, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, leaving a widow and seven children, of whom Joseph was the second.

In his youth he assisted his father upon the farm, and attended the common school of the country. Even while engaged in farm duties, he industriously employed his leisure hours in study. Without entering upon the classics, he was yet fully sensible of the immediate and practical value of a thorough English and literary course, and therefore made every endeavor to make his acquirements thorough and exact. His education was completed at the High School at Boonville, when he was found to be well versed in grammar, logic, ancient and modern history,

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philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and other English branches. He had, with an appreciation unusual in boys, stored his mind with much general information, such as he conceived would be most useful and pleasurable in his intercourse with those with whom his path of life would bring him in contact.

In 1844, at the age of eighteen, he commenced the study of law in the office of John G. Miller — a man of superior attainments, and an able jurist, who had represented his district upon the floor of the United States Congress for two terms. To the study of his chosen profession, the young student applied himself with assiduity, occasionally interrupting his devotion to Blackstone and Kent, to engage in teaching in the public schools in the vicinity of his birth-place, sessions of which at that time rarely exceeded three months in the year. While yet a student, our country became involved in the Mexican war. In response to General Gaines' call for volunteers, he enlisted in a company which was raised in his county. The youngest in a company of one hundred and ten men, his popularity made him the unanimous choice for its captain. This company was a portion of the force designed for the relief of General Taylor. It was mustered into United States service by Colonel Robert Campbell, and ordered to quarters at Jefferson Barracks. While there dispatches conveyed the intelligence that Taylor had already been relieved, and his company was sent to Boonville, subject to orders.

In 1847 he had completed his legal studies, and entered upon the practice of his profession with flattering success. Among the distinguished members of the Boonville bar of that period, who are now living, are Washington Adams, Benjamin Tompkins, J. W. Draffen, Emmett R. Hayden, William Douglas and John B. Clark, Sr. Its necrology includes the names of Peyton Hayden, Abiel Leonard, John G. Miller, John C. Richardson, and W. D. Muir.

An earnest and forcible speaker, a close logician, and a profound thinker, as well as a hard student, Mr. Stephens soon commanded a widely extended and lucrative practice. In 1857, he became associated in practice with Hon. Geo. G. Vest, now of Sedalia, Mo., which partnership continued until broken up by the war in 1861. Mr. Stephens afterwards became a member of the bar at the Court of Claims in Washington City, and at the Supreme Court of the United States, continuing practice until 1864, when a painful and, it was feared, dangerous affection of the throat, forced him, in compliance with medical advice, to abandon the vocation of his choice, in which he had spent over

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seventeen years, to which he was devotedly attached, and in which he had made an enviable reputation.

Previous to the late war he had been a member of the banking house of William H. Trigg & Co., of Boonville, Mo., a house doing an extensive business in Central Missouri, which closed and divided its capital stock on account of the war. Mr. Stephens had taken no personal part in the management further than that of adviser and attorney. In the year 1864, he opened a private banking house in Boonville, and the year following organized the Central National Bank, one of the most successfully and honorably conducted banking institutions in the State.

A stern opponent of the Drake Constitution, Mr. Stephens in 1866, for the first and only time in his life, became a candidate before the people for an elective office. He made the canvass of Cooper, Morgan and Moniteau counties for the State Senate, and at the election ran ahead of his ticket. Owing to the proscriptive system of registration which then prevailed, he was defeated by Geo. W. Boardman, at that time Register of the United States Land Office.

In 1872, Mr. Stephens was one of the most prominent of the candidates for Governor of the State before the Democratic Convention which eventually nominated Mr. Woodson. His real strength was conceded to be unsurpassed by that of any other individual, but by one of those unaccountable stampedes that sometimes afflict conventions, the choice fell upon the latter, and resulted in his election.

Since that time he has confined his attention entirely to his bank, which, under his superior management, is one of the leading financial institutions in the State. During the late disastrous panic, the accuracy of its management and its stability were fully tested.

Mr. Stephens was married in 1853, to Miss Martha Gibson, of Boonville, a lady of education and refinement. They have been blessed with a family of seven children — four sons and three daughters.

He is a Democrat of the old school, though not a bitter partisan; a cultivated gentleman of a high order of intellect, superior business attainments, and an able lawyer. In financial affairs his experience has been extensive, inuring to the benefit of himself and of his section. His genial and winning manners, and his rare generosity, have drawn to him friends from all portions of Missouri, and he is one of the few men who, without a rival in popularity, and practical and social influence in his own immediate section, can truthfully boast that he has not a single

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enemy in the State. He is still in the pride of manly vigor and health, and his usefulness and influence is unceasingly expanding.

Born, raised and educated in Missouri, the years of his active life have been devoted to her interests and the development of her resources. His application, sound judgment and generous attributes have conspired to give him high rank as a lawyer, a financier, and a citizen. Though never holding a distinguished public position, his virtues and abilities have marked him as one of the best and truest characters in the State, and one who must occupy a conspicuous place in her history.

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John K. Cummings.

IT may be truly said that one of the great industries of St. Louis owes its foundation and subsequent development to the subject of this sketch. Although Mr. CUMMINGS had been preceded in the manufacture of glass by numerous venturesome pioneers, yet he was the first to make the business permanent and stable. The field was one in which only an unbroken line of disastrous failures preceded him, yet by the application of correct business principles, combined with admirable skill and engaging personal qualities, he was enabled to roll back the tide and establish, beyond question, the superiority of Missouri in a branch of manufacture which, perhaps more than any other, demands skillful and liberal management. That his success brought him fortune is one of those examples of practical justice which are unfortunately too rare. That with the increase of his opportunities he should have exhibited a spirit of the widest liberality, conferred benefits upon all associated with him, and upon the city with which he is so thoroughly identified in feeling and interest, is a fact that cannot be too strongly stated when illustrating the progress of St. Louis, and seeking for the causes of its vitality.

He was born in Coleraine, county of Londonderry, Ireland, but was raised in Belfast. His father, who had been steward on a vessel plying between the ports of Liverpool and Belfast, and a clerk in a banking house in the latter place, left him an orphan at the age of fourteen. His mother had died the preceding year. The lad, who had acquired a rudimentary education in the schools of the country, then pursued for some time a constantly shifting fortune. He was first apprenticed to a tailor, but left that business in a few months. He worked in Edinburg. Scotland, in a soda-water factory; clerked in a grocery store; worked at making wall paper, and in the making of the celebrated Belfast ginger ale, and all with that success, or rather lack of it, that usually attends friendless boys.

In 1854, he came to America by sailing vessel, landed in New Orleans, and soon made his way to St. Louis. The steamer on which

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he came up the river, was the old boat named in honor of the city — the "Saint Louis." His first employment here was in the pork-house of Mr. Ames, where he remained for about a year. From there he went to the glass factory which he now owns. Commencing in the packing room he worked through all the gradations of the business, as laborer, glass-cutter, mold-maker, engineer, boss packer and salesman.

When the first call for troops was made in Missouri he enlisted as a private soldier, but was soon appointed Adjutant of the Fifth Regiment U. S. Reserve Corps. The appointment was made by Colonel Steifel because he found Mr. Cummings a competent drill-master. This knowledge he had acquired while serving in the Sarsfield Guards, a volunteer company that marched to Kansas before the war. The troops of which the Fifth Reserve Corps formed a part, participated in the earlier military operations along the Missouri river, reaching General Lyon immediately after the battle of Booneville. They assisted in the construction of the fortifications around Lexington, Missouri, and remained in service months after their term of enlistment had expired. Subsequently he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Twentieth E. M. M., by Governor Gamble.

The permanence and success of the glass interest in St. Louis may be said to date from 1861, when he, with Mr. Joseph Bagot, formed a copartnership for the purpose of carrying on the manufacture of glass at the old place. Previous to this Mr. Bagot had been manager of the St. Louis Glass Works (which is the distinctive name the establishment still bears) for Dr. Scollay, and for different owners who preceded him. Mr. Bagot was a sound, practical and skillful man who took charge of the manufacturing department, and Mr. Cummings managed the books and financial part of the business. From this time forward it became apparent that the unexampled resources of Missouri for the manufacture of an article so essential to the daily life of our people, were to be brought into action and made a source of profit. The difficulties were indeed numerous, but not, as the event proved, insurmountable. Mr. Bagot was a practical and careful glassmaker, and, besides attending to his other duties in the management of the internal affairs, made the pots with his own hands. The making of the pots is a department upon which too much care cannot be bestowed. If defective, they entail a serious loss; if inferior, they must be renewed too often, and at too great an expense for profit. The very best clay for the purpose is found in Missouri, and it only became necessary to apply the needed skill in their manufacture. At this period Mr. Cummings, in

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connection with that part of the business of which he had charge, attended to the buying and selling, and might often be seen in distant parts of the city looking up customers until the stores closed. At this time, however, they closed too early to suit him, as he found that the blinds would go up before he could get through.

In 1868 Mr. Bagot died, and Mr. Cummings became sole proprietor. When the partnership was formed, the joint capital of the partners was less than two thousand dollars; when Mr. Bagot died, Mr. Cummings, as surviving partner, paid to his wife and children over seventeen thousand dollars for his half of the interest. The success which had been thus inaugurated continued to increase under Mr. Cummings' efforts, and afforded a striking confirmation of the correctness of the views he had stated of the value of the resources of Missouri, and the facilities afforded by St. Louis in this particular industry.

No adequate presentation of the history of glass manufacture in St. Louis can be written without according to John K. Cummings the credit of being the first successful pioneer. He has demonstrated that the raw material found here is second to none in the world, and that its manufacture pays a liberal profit. He has made no secret of his success, but at public meetings for the consideration of manufacturing here, has set forth the advantages to be derived, and has inforced his arguments with facts from his own experience. He has offered assistance to parties contemplating the starting of new works, and is a prominent stockholder in the St. Louis Window Glass Company.

In presenting the advantages of St. Louis, and encouraging others, he has been especially prominent. Toward public enterprises that promised beneficial results to the city, his course has been one of marked liberality. In such affairs he has subordinated individual interests to public good. So actuated, he took stock in the Illinois and St. Louis Railroad and Coal Company, Cahokia Ferry Company, Merchants' Exchange, Grain Association, and other useful public enterprises in which the profit on the investment is a secondary consideration. When questions of public improvement are agitated, he is ever found practical and original in council, and a liberal subscriber. He is now a director in the Butchers and Drovers' Bank, and in a number of organizations laboring for the public weal.

He was married in 1862, to Miss Annie M. Mullin, a native of the same town as himself. In 1871, they revisited their birth-place, and spent some time traveling in Great Britain and on the continent.

The lesson of his business career is a bright one. To thorough

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capacity, he unites personal qualities that secure him the respect of all with whom he comes in contact — especially of his employees. These have always shown a devotion to his interests rarely accorded to the employer. He has also raised up and educated a class of resident laborers, whose skill plays a very important part in the manufacturing industry he founded.

Beyond the honor of having been the founder of a great industry, in itself a prolific source of wealth, it must be said of John K. Cummings that he is a self-respecting and respected citizen, of able and liberal views, correct in judgment, and unselfish in policy, and that he has already contributed, in an important degree, to the prosperity of our Western metropolis.

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Isaac Cook.

ISAAC COOK, president of the American Wine Company, now thoroughly identified in thought and interest with St. Louis, exhibits in his career a rare combination of self-possession and energy.

He was born in New Jersey, July 4, 1813. His father was a farmer of small means, and the boy's opportunities for education were confined to the facilities to be found in a country school. When eleven years of age, he went to New York and engaged as a clerk in a grocery store at a very moderate salary. Here he remained for four years, and by watchful attentiveness familiarized himself with the details of business, and acquired the habit of rapidly forming opinions and acting promptly upon the dictates of his judgment. At the early age of fifteen, he commenced business on his own account, keeping a hotel in the city of New York, and continuing for two years.

The opportunities which the West then held out for youth, enterprise and energy, tempted him to seek a newer and less crowded field for his activity. Having accumulated a capital of a thousand dollars, he started west by the way of Pittsburg and St. Louis, and spent some time in traveling through the West and South, until he finally settled in Chicago in 1834. Soon after his arrival in Chicago he put up a building, and opened a hotel and restaurant, continuing in that business a few years, and in the meantime making an extended and favorable acquaintance, which, together with his agreeable manners and predilection for an active life, led him into the field of politics. The West at that time offered unusual opportunities for the success of young and aspiring politicians, who were at the same time gifted with perseverance and ability. Mr. Cook was a Democrat, and throughout his whole political career was consistent and uncompromising.

In 1838, when Stephen A. Douglas was a candidate for election from the Springfield district, Mr. Cook was among his warmest and ablest supporters. Mr. Douglas was, however, beaten in that canvass by John F. Stewart, by a small majority, though he was destined to see his star shine the brighter for its partial eclipse. The State of Illinois soon

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became converted from Whiggery to Democracy, and in 1844 Mr. Cook was appointed by Governor Ford State agent for the canal lands, and continued in that office for four years. He was then elected sheriff and treasurer of Cook county, and filled that responsible position for two terms of two years each.

In 1852, he was appointed postmaster of Chicago by President Pierce, and held that office during Pierce's administration. At the accession of Buchanan, a change was made in the office by the appointment of Mr. Price. This change, however, failed to give satisfaction, and Mr. Cook was re-appointed by President Buchanan, and held the office during the last three years of that presidential term.

On the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency, the threatened political revolution was complete. It was apparent to Mr. Cook that new men, inspired by a policy in conflict with his own, were for a time to assume the responsibilities and trials in which he had himself taken so important a part, and he retired definitely from political life. Throughout the struggle in which he had been so stubborn an opponent, he had ever been unflinching and self-possessed in his advocacy of the policy upon which he had fixed, and rode to success through unflinching pertinacity. Though he retired from politics, his influence was still felt in schemes for the production of valuable public improvements. He secured the appropriation for the new post-office at Chicago, and did a great deal toward improving her parks and public institutions.

During the turmoil of his official life, in 1859 he was elected president of the American Wine Company. In 1862 he removed permanently to St. Louis, and determined to realize the possibilities which the culture of the grape and manufacture of wine in Missouri seemed to promise. It was a field that offered rich harvests, yet required perseverance, energy, skill and capital to make productive. Missouri, as a wine-producing State, had yet a reputation to make, and this could only be done by putting her productions upon the market in sufficient quantity and of a uniformly high standard. This was the labor which Mr. Cook marked out for the American Wine Company, and one which, by the use of ample capital and the exercise of liberality and business enterprise, he soon succeeded in accomplishing. At the World's Fairs held in Paris and Vienna, the experts of Continental Europe have united in testimonials to the superior excellence of the wine of the American Wine Company. To these proofs of merit, however, have been added the marks of substantial favor and patronage which are evinced by the demand for the wine in the principal markets

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of Europe. The Company is the largest of its kind in the United States, controlling vast properties, managing each detail of manufacture with the utmost care and with exquisite skill, and sending its products to every part of the world. The brand of sparkling wine known as "Imperial," enjoys a world-wide fame at once creditable to Missouri and honorable to the company originating it. Connoisseurs of every nationality have expressed for it their unqualified approbation, and princely criticism has declared it justly entitled to its "imperial" name and fame.

The achievement of such a work is well worthy of the labor bestowed upon it, and it reflects the highest credit upon the sagacity and energy with which Mr. Cook has managed the affairs so unqualifiedly intrusted to him.

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T. B. Edgar.

THE record of the life of TIMOTHY B. EDGAR is full of instruction to the youth of our land. It carries with it the lesson, that the faithful and unflinching discharge of duty in every relation of life, produces in the end the flower of perfect manhood, as surely as the dew and sunshine of the summer bring forth the ripened fruit. The history is of the simple and unambitious effort of one who, keenly sensitive of the rights and feelings of others, performed the duties of each day with conscientious care, and trusted to the endless tide of events for justification and success. The result is an honorable position, such as vanity and ambition may strive after in vain. Honors and successes follow unsought in the path of such a life, but through all runs the self-consciousness of usefulness and rectitude — worth more than all the rest.

He was born in New Jersey, January 20, 1815. His father was a carpenter, of Scotch extraction. After acquiring such education as the common schools of the day afforded, he went to learn the carriage-making business in the city of Newark, in his native State. Before he was of age, another party offered him a partnership, but his old employer suggested a more desirable change, and at his solicitation he went to New Orleans to take charge of a carriage repository in that city. On his way to the South, he passed through St. Louis, and was much pleased with the city. On arrival in New Orleans, he found that he was by no means favorably impressed with that city; and he made up his mind to return to St. Louis and make it his home as soon as he was of age. Leaving New Orleans in a sailing vessel, he arrived in New York in December of 1835 — the memorable year of the great fire. In the following spring he came to St. Louis to make this his permanent home. Here he opened a carriage shop and repository, at the corner of Fourth and Morgan streets, and continued there till he sold out in 1855. The first stage coaches ever built in Missouri were built by him for Colonel Thomas L. Price, and run on lines extending from St. Louis westward. They were of the style known as "Troy coaches," and served the purpose of the ante-railroad period.

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About the time that he sold out his carriage interests, the old Dollar Savings Institution was converted into the Exchange Bank, and Mr. Edgar, as one of the leading spirits, gave that his undivided attention. From this period dates his history as a banker, with which important branch of commerce he has ever since been identified, and in which he has won the unqualified respect and esteem of our entire community. Under the National Banking Act, he was instrumental in starting the Second National Bank, and was for years the president of that institution. During the war, he applied himself by every means to relieve the burdens of our people, and was one of the committee appointed by the Merchants' Exchange to proceed to Washington, to try and secure payment of the Government vouchers which had accumulated here. About fifteen million dollars of these vouchers were held in this city, and they were at a discount of from ten to twenty per cent., while the community was suffering from the lack of currency. It was a difficult and delicate mission, yet it was carried to a successful issue, and a satisfactory adjustment was brought about through the presentation of the case to Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; though there were many prejudices to be overcome in his mind. After the allowance of the claims, certificates of indebtedness, payable in bonds, under an agreement to hold them for a certain period, were issued. This stipulation in the settlement was, however, soon withdrawn, and the transaction was complete. Mr. Edgar was also chairman of the War Relief Committee, and managed the large disbursements that the position involved, with universal satisfaction, and a degree of accuracy that seemed impossible. When General Fremont made a request for one hundred thousand dollars in gold to pay for ordnance, Mr. Edgar took the ground that it was the duty, not only of private citizens, but of banking institutions too, to strengthen the power of the Government, and through his influence the money was furnished. The informality of the voucher which he received from General Fremont, necessitated another trip to Washington, but an equitable settlement was at last made.

At the return of peace, Mr. Edgar found that he disagreed with other officers of the bank as to the line of policy to be pursued, when he resigned and made a trip to Europe, spending most of his time upon the continent.

In 1867 he started the Continental Bank, under the name of the National Loan Bank, and became its president. The construction given the national banking law demanded the elimination of the word

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"National," and the present name of "Continental" was adopted. He was for some years one of the leaders in the Provident Association, and has given some attention to insurance and some to manufacturing. As a promoter of manufacturing projects, his efforts, though not uniformly successful pecuniarily, have been highly advantageous to the interests of our State. When zinc works were first started in Carondelet, he became a stockholder and promoter, and contributed in a considerable measure to give that industry its present prominence. He was one of a company to build a cotton mill at Springfield, Missouri, now in charge of his son, and gave it a substantial basis for success. Other manufacturing enterprises have received his encouragement and support, and his investments in such objects would, if aggregated, reach into hundreds of thousands of dollars. On his return from Europe he became a director in the Pacific Railroad, and in 1873-4 was president of that great corporation.

During an exceptionally long period of active business life, Mr. Edgar has had what might be called an unbroken success. He has been the custodian of the money of individuals and of corporations to a very large amount, every dollar of which has been satisfactorily accounted for. All through his life he has received the merited commendation and sincere respect of all who know him, or his deeds. Unambitious of mere popular regard, he yet won the admiration of a people who cannot but speak his name kindly, and with warm encomium upon virtues that were unostentatious, yet none the less apparent.

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Elisha Hall Gregory, M. D.

NO man in the medical profession in St. Louis is better known or more respected as a citizen and accomplished surgeon than Dr. E. H. GREGORY, and none has more honestly earned the reputation which he enjoys than he, for he has not gotten it by fortuitous circumstances, but by constant study, and laborious mental and physical work. For more than thirty years his constant aim has been to increase his knowledge of the science of medicine and surgery, and for the past fifteen years he has been reaping the benefits of his labor through a large and lucrative practice.

He was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky,