Formerly, St. Louis des Illinois (of Upper Louisiana)
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Jean Francois St. Cosme: Missionary and Martyr, (biography by James M. Gallen)
Important Dates of Upper Lousiana (includes Missouri and Illinois)
The Founding of St. Louis (with biography of Pierre Laclede)
Three Flags Day (March 9/10 1804)
The St. Louis area was first visited by French explorers during the expedition of Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet (a French Canadian fur trader). Traveling down the Mississippi in birch-bark canoes, these adventurers passed Missouri in June-July of 1673. They were warmly received by Indians of the Illini Confederacy (Peorias). In fact, one native craftsman fashioned a flint crucifix for Father Marquette. The crucifix can be seen today at the Museum of Western Jesuit Missions in the Florissant area (a photo is available on their website).
Along the bluffs on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, the explorers spotted finely illustrated representations of a flying horned monster in vivid colors of black, green, and red. This was located on the cliff faces north of present day Alton, Illinois and is known popularly today as the "Piasa Bird". As the adventurers passed the mouth of the Missouri river, Marquette noted that the large number of floating trees and branches being carried into the Mississppi from its reaches, made navigating exceptionally dangerous. The Peorias called the river, "Pekitanoui" (river of muddy waters).
Perhaps the word was too hard to pronounce, as Marquette eventally settled with the word, "Missouri", for the river. This was a French corruption of an Illini word identifying a rival tribe, not the river. The term meant the "town of large canoes", referring to the Chiwere Sioux speaking tribe that called themselves the "Niutachi" (People who dwell by the mouth of the river). The Niutachi's principle village was located on the south bank of the Missouri river near the mouth of the Grand River (in present day Saline County, Mo.).
Incidentally, the area known as St. Louis County was disputed tribal territory. While the Illini resided in the nearest proximity, they preferred the east bank of the Mississippi, to reduce chances of being attacked by the more warlike Osage that claimed the west bank as part of their hunting grounds. Of the Illini Confederacy, the Peorias, Tamaroas, and Kaskaskias all frequented what we know as present day St. Louis. Some were even semi-permanent residents. For example. One band of the Kaskaskia did have a village at the mouth of the River Des Peres in what is now St. Louis (1700-1703). This location was selected with the encouragement of Father Gabriel Marest, a French Jesuit Priest, that mastered the Algonquin dialect of the Illini. According to historian William E. Foley, author of "The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood" (1989; University of Missouri Press), in addition to Indian "cabins", the French constructed a chapel, and a "primitive fort". French traders and a band of Tamaroas joined the settlement. Foley describes this as "Missouri's first European-sponsored settlement", even predating Ste. Genevieve by as much as thirty-five to fifty years (depending on which Ste.Genevieve founding date one goes by, which vary from 1735-1750). Unfortunately for Father Marest, the Des Peres settlement was abandoned, due to angry threats of the Osage. Thus, Ste. Genevieve remains as Missouri first permanent European settlement.
St. Louis County and the rest of the State of Missouri was part of the French colonial Territory of Illinois, which included "lands on both sides of the Mississippi between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes" (Foley, 1989). After the territory was turned over to Spanish authority in 1768, the west side of the Mississippi became, "Spanish Illinois". Another name that eventually became even more popular was "Louisiana". This name originated with the Royal French explorer, René-Robert-Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687), who followed up in Marquette and Joliet's accomplishments by planting the fleurs-de-lis for France on the banks of the Mississippi in 1682. LaSalle claimed all lands drained by the Mississippi as the Territory La Louisiane. This name was in honor of Louis XIV, King of France. The area north of the present day State of Louisiana, was generally specified as "Upper Louisiana", while the area South was known as the "District of Orleans". When the Americans took over "Upper Louisiana", became "Territory of Louisiana" and the area south of Arkansas, the "Territory of Orleans". When the Territory of Orleans became a State in 1812, it essentially robbed the "Territory of Louisiana" of its identity. It was this event that compelled the renaming to "Territory of Missouri". Before that no one considered themselves as being from "Mizzurah" but instead from "Louisiana".
The Colonial Governors of St. Louis:
(Lt. Governors of the District of Louisiana assigned to St. Louis, the Capitol of Upper Louisiana. Note: St. Ange, formerly the French military commandant of Ft. de Chartres, was elected by "popular authority" as Lt. Governor in St. Louis until the arrival of the official Spanish government. Governors Trudeau and DeLassus were also French, even though they were loyal officials choosen by the Spanish crown.)
St. Ange de Bellerive (served as unofficial Lt. Governor until Pedro
Piernos arrived)
Pedro Piernos
Francisco Cruzat
Fernando de Leyba
Francisco Cruzat (2nd term)
Manuel Perez(portrait)
ZenonTrudeau
Carlos DeHault
DeLassus (portrait)
During the American Revolution, when Spain was allied with the Americans, St. Louis came under a combined attack by British-Indian forces (May 26, 1780), numbering up to 1,200. Spanish Lt. Governor Fernando De Leyba, successfully defended the town after it came under seige. De Leyba had earlier received reinforcements (militia and regulars) from nearby Ste. Genevieve as well as requesting fur trappers as far away as Cuivre River to come to the defense of St. Louis. The town was protected with cannons, a tower, and entrenchments. The most heavily fortified portion was the stone tower known as "Fort San Carlos" The approximately three to four hundred St. Louis defenders, that included whites and slaves, successfully repulsed the attack with light losses: twenty killed, seven wounded, and anywhere from twenty-six to seventy were captured.
In the records in St. Louis' Old Cathedral reads, "On the 26th of May 1780, I Capuchin Priest and missionary, have buried in the cemetery of this parish the bodies of Charles Bizet, Amable Guion, Calve and son and a negro Chancelier massacred by the Indians...F. Bernard, Missionary."
The
Government House in St. Louis, where ceremonies
and flag raising took
place in March of 1804.
The ceremony on March 9, 1804 began when Maj. Amos Stoddard
(appointed U.S. military governor) with Capt. Meriwether Lewis arrived at the
St. Louis landing by boat. The Spanish garrison, all decked in uniform
accompanied by the music of a fife and drum corp welcomed the new
administration. After receiving the keys of the city from the Spanish Lt.
Governor (Don Carlos De Hault De Lassus), a cannonade began, followed by the
following address by Governor De Lassus:  |
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by Claude-Joseph Rouget
de L'Isle, 1760-1836
MIDI file courtesy Benjamin Tubb
La Marseillaise"
(April 24, 1792, Chaunt de guerre pour l'armiee du
Rhin)
1.
Allons, enfants de Patrie,
Le jour de
gloire est arrive;
Contrenous de la tyranne,
L'etendard sanglant est
leve,
L'etendard sanglant est leve,
Entendezvous, dans les campagnes,
Mugir ces feroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras,
Egorger nos fils, nos compagnes.
Aux armes, citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang
impur abreuve nos sillons!
2.
Amour Sacre de la Patrie,
Conduis, soutiens, nos bras vengeurs.
Liberte, liberte cherie
Combats avec tes defenseurs!
Combats avec
tes defenseurs!
Sous nos drapeaux, que la victoire
Accours a tes males
accents!
Que tes ennemis expirants
Volent ton triomphe et notre gloire.
Aux armes, citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!
3.
Nous entrerons dans la carriere
Quand nos aines n'y seront plus.
Nous y trouverons leur poussiere
Et la trace de leurs vertus,
Et la
trace de leurs vertus,
Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre
Que de
partager leur orguiel
De les venger ou de les suivre.
Aux armes,
citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!
1.
Arise you children of our Motherland,
Oh now is here our glorious
day!
Over us the bloodstained banner
Of tyranny holds sway!
Of
tyranny holds sway!
Oh, do you hear there in our fields
The roar of
those fierce fighting men?
Who came right here into our midst
To
slaughter sons, wives and kin.
To arms, of citizens!
Form
up in serried ranks!
March on, march on!
And drench our
fields
With their tainted blood!
2.
Supreme devotion to our Motherland,
Guides and sutains avenging
hands,
Liberty, oh dearest Liberty,
Come fight with your shielding
bands.
Come fight with your shielding bands!
Beneath our banner come, oh
Victory,
Run at your soul-stirring cry.
Oh come, come see your foes die,
Witness your pride and our glory.
To arms, of citizens!
Form up in serried ranks!
March on, march on!
And drench our fields
With their tainted blood!
3.
Into the fight we too shall enter,
When our fathers are dead and
gone,
We shall find their bones laid down to rest,
With the fame of
their glories won,
With the fame of their glories won!
Oh, to survive
them care we not,
Glad are we to share their grave,
Great honor is to be
our lot
To follow or to venge our brave.
To arms, of citizens!
Form up in serried ranks!
March on, march on!
And drench our fields
With their tainted blood!
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