Missouri State First Things, Genealogy Trails

Missouri State First's

First Settler's in Missouri

The Source: Switzer's History of Missouri, St. Louis, 1879
Transcribed by Donna Walton

While all historians agree, we believe, as to the place of the first permanent settlements in the territory now known as the State of Missouri—to-wit: that they were made at Ste. Genevieve and New Bourbon,--there is an embarrassing conflict of authority as to the date of them. Mr. Lewis C. Beck fixes them in his Gazetteer, published in 1823, page 214, in the autumn of 1763, while others believe them to have occurred at an earlier period.

For example:
A letter from Hon. Gustavus St. Gem, dated Ste. Genevieve, Mo., September 18^th, 1873, and addressed to the writer of this “Sketch,” says:

“I find, in looking over the old papers of my grandfather, in possession of my sister, Mrs. Menard, and carefully preserved by her as precious family relics, that my great-grandfather purchased of Mr. Gabouri a house with lot of two arpents of land, in the ‘Post of Ste. Genevieve of the Illinois, on the 20^th day of December, 1751, thus showing that the town had evidently been settled several, nay, many years before the date of his purchase. There is in my opinion no correct data written or of record, fixing the exact time when the place was settled; but we have it here by tradition that the first white inhabitants came over here from Kasakia about the year 1735. Kasakia was then the metropolis of the West, with a population estimated at 6,000 souls. It was from Kaskakia that Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, Kahokia, St Charles, Portage des Sioux and over early settlements, for many years obtained their goods and merchandise, and it was the opulent and proud inhabitants of Kaskakia, who gave derisive names of Misere to Ste. Genevieve, Pain Court (short of bread) to St. Louis, Vide Poche (empty pockets), to Carondelet, Pouilleux (lousy) to the people of Kahokia, etc. the town or “post” of Ste. Genevieve was located by its first settlers in the river bottom three miles south or south-east of its present site. It was completely Inundated in 1785, l’annee dea grandez ea*r, when the inhabitants were driven for safety to the elevations, and founded the present town. So the town now dates from the year 1735. New bourbon was settled only after the French revolution of 1789, by Royalists, who fled from France and exiled themselves at this place two miles south of Ste. Genevieve and called their settlement New Bourbon, after that detestable dynasty which kept France under an iron rule and crushing tyranny for so many long centuries. But the place never thrived, and like the Bourbons, there is nothing left of it except a few landmarks. The settlers of New Bourbon were Camille Delassus and Mr. Demunn, of the ancienne noblease.”

Whether the first settlement at Ste. Genevieve be fixed at the traditional period of 1735 or at a later date, it is unquestionably true that it was made in the interest of gold and silver mining, and long before the purchase of Louisiana. As early as 1720, Renault, a son of a celebrated iron founder of France, established himself at Fort Chartres, about ten or fifteen miles above Ste. Genevieve, on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. He left France in 1719, with two hundred artificers and miners provided with tools and whatever else was necessary to accomplish his object. In his passage he touched at the Island of St. Domingo and purchased five hundred slaves for working in the mines; and, entering the Mississippi, pursued his voyage up that river t New Orleans, which he reached some time in 1720, and soon afterward proceeded on his way to Fort Chartres. From this point he dispatched parties of miners to ‘prospect’ for the precious metals and they crossed the river to the west bank and explored what is now Ste. Genevieve County. These expeditions were prosecuted with great diligence, as is proven by the fact that many of Renaults’s old mines, overgrown with trees and covered with moss, have been since discovered. Failing to find either gold or silver, as all previous explorers had failed, but discovering lead ore in abundance, he established rude furnaces for smelting it, and conveyed it on pack horses to Fort Chartres, thence to France via New Orleans in boats.

In 1785, about twenty years after the founding of St. Louis, the great flood destroyed the old town or “post” of Ste. Genevieve, and the site of the present town was established. After this was done, the new town experienced a large influx of population from the east side of the Mississippi, and it became a very important village.

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