Central High School - Red and Black Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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sem..Tll-Im mmm :spawn Chouteau, Bernard Pratte, Edward Hempstead, Pierre Chouteau, and Alexander McNair. Later a mayor was substituted for the trustees. The city limits were set and laws were made. The laws may seem very peculiar to us, but we must remember that St. Louis was a very young city at that time. One of the laws required all dogs kept in the city to be registered on the books of the city register and to wear brass collars bearing the owner's name. Another required every house owner to buy two leather buckets to hang in the house in case of fire. St. Louis was not without its amusements. lt had a town orchestra that played at the many dances and picnics. The pioneer paid amusement was announced in 1812. This was a series of slight-of-hand performances by John Eugene Leistendorfer. He gave his performance twice a week for several months and made quite a fortune. The first post office was opened in St. Louis in 1805 by Mr. Rufus Easton. He kept his post office in his residence at Elm and Third streets for over six years, and when he grew tired of the work he turned it over to his brother-in- law who kept the office in his drug store. Mail was iirst carried on foot, later on horseback. The postage was very high, costing fifty cents to send a letter over 450 miles. It took several months for letters from the Atlantic coast to reach the city. Finally on September 20, 1836, it was announced that mail would be delivered daily. ln July, 1808, the first newspaper west of the Mississippi was printed in St. Louis, Mr. Joseph Charless, the printer, called his newspaper the Missouri Gazette. lt started out with 174 subscribers. lt was several years before the news arriving from the coast was plentiful enough to have a weekly newspaper. By l82l there were three weekly newspapers. For the first time the people of St. Louis were brought into close contact with the outside world. It was not until l8l2 that the first bricks were used. However, the first brick sidewalk was not laid until l82l. The narrow, unpaved streets proved a hindrance to trade. As a result, several ordinances were passed to pave the streets. The first street paving was laid at the foot of Market Street. Later Main Street was paved, and as time went on, all the streets in the business district were improved. Until 1826 the streets were given French names. When the names were changed, Market Street became the dividing line between northern and southern part of the city. The streets running east and west were named after trees, as Pine, Olive, Elm, and Locust, while those running north and south were given numbers as First, Second, and Third. Market Street was so named because of a Market which stood at the foot of the street. Some fifteen years later a large market house and town hall was erected on the site of the old Place d'Armes between Market and Walnut. The crowning glory of this period was the Roman Catholic Cathedral. lt was a very elegant building, erected by the good Bishop DuBourg. With the Twenty-three

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, QE E AN EE.: JM SE' 4 under the leadership of Captain Stoddard were led up to the Government House. An impressive ceremony followed. Then Com- mandant Delassus passed the key to the Gov- ernment House to Captain Stoddard. The Spanish flag was hauled down and the French flag raised. Upon the request of Delassus the French flag was allowed to fly all night. The next day the French flag was lowered, ln its place, the stars and stripes of the United States waved. In but three days St. Louis had beheld three flags: the Spanish, the French, and the stars and stripes of our country. When Louisiana was purchased by the United States, St. Louis was known as the , capitol of Upper Louisiana. No one had thought of the land far to the west, but in 1804 President Jeflerson, after much prepara- tion and planning, sent an expedition under Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the Western territory. Pierre Chouleau. Jr. fl l'mm'vl of XI. laluu At last everything was ready, the St. Louis people gathered along the river bank to watch the boats move up. The blunderbus was discharged in salute: the cannon of the fort answered. Captain Clark, bidding good-by from the deck of the keel-boat, was in full dress uniform of red-trimmed coat and trousers, and gold epaulets, his sword at his belt, and his three-cornered chapeau on his red head. The sails swelled in the breeze, the men at the oars sang in French and shouted in English. All, save Captain Clark, were dressed for business- Corporal Warflngton's squad from St. Louis in United States uniform: nine Kentuckians in buckskin: the fourteen soldiers and civilians enlisted at the post, in flannel shirts and trousers of buckskin or coarse army cloth: the French boatmen in brightly fringed woolens, with scarlet 'kerchiefs about their heads. Rain was falling, but who cared! More than eight thousand miles were traveled during the two years, four months and nine days that the expedition was gone. When on September 23, 1806, they returned to St. Louis. They were welcomed as heroes. We can truly say that Lewis and Clark opened the great West. ln July, 1808, St. Louis asked to be incorporated as a town and the request was granted. The people of St. Louis lost no time in moving to incorporate. The first election was held on the twenty-third of July, 1808. The people elected five trustees to set up the new government. They were Auguste TLL'l'l7l tl- I Luo

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- : ff: ...L -.ae , Lw. .l'I'IE E it W S83 arrival of newcomers, other churches were started. A Baptist Church of brick and an Episcopal Church of wood were erected. The Methodists held their church in the courthouse and the Presbyterians in the Circuit Court room. Education was not entirely neglected. ln 1808, at the foot of Market Street, the first English school was opened. Before that, in 1774, and again in l796. schools were started: but the French language was the only one taught. All these were private schools. More than thirty years passed before the first public school was established. St. Louis became a city in 1823! The charter was not adopted without a struggle. Of the one hundred and ninety-seven votes cast, ninety were against the charter. A property qualification restricted sufferage. Only white citizens of twenty-one years, who had paid a local tax, were allowed to vote. The limits of the new city were Seventh Street on the west, the Mill Creek on the south, and a line from Roy's tower on the north. The municipality of St. Louis got off to a good start. At the first election for Mayor, St. Louis polled 220 votes, William Carr Lane receiving 122 votes, Auguste Chouteau, 70 and M. P. Leduc, 28. The first mayor was a Pennsyl- vanian by birth and education. Mr. Lane's appeal for public improvement was not in vain. An engineer prepared a plan to grade and pave Main Street. One block was graded and paved the first year. It was the block from Market to Walnut, where Laclede, just sixty years before, had marked the trees for the center of trade and seat of government of the settlement he was about to found. A memorable event in the history of old St. Louis was the visit of Marquis de Lafayette, in 1825. Mr. Lane was then Mayor: he was a man of fine A Q nz , L 5 EUQL, l:ll:lQElEl:l,l,Tllgll2lii:lElj:l:lfD:i:l: all T WEPHUIIUCEQQD Usl31?Ui!SlfU.U.CKU5E1ilELUil3El35 . I 5 5 .'QQ?'ZlUi'El l:ll:El:l5l:I'Ul:lI:lil:f15U.El5EI5l:I i 3 I , H , , F su.f. . ,1.f f f , 3 ,, 3 3.1 I F fQQmSSD.uun.U.m:gu.usmiueu.f1,fH1 De'5.ZE1 ' XXX ' Q 'z E 2 2 iQ :': for-2.56 i'T'QgigggiguiSiSE'EbJZ:ig30G'5-1153? 'Q ,.TFwluC1l112'2S.s2iS.2GE2?l gi! , H C Tcfcniigfftouns una.: nn :Iwi loot Twenly-four