Leonard, J. W. The Industries of Saint Louis. Her Relations as a Center of Trade. Manufacturing Establishments and Business Houses . St. Louis: J. M. Elstner and Co., 1887. [format: book], [genre: narrative]. Permission: St. Louis Mercantile Library
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=leonard.html

There is no lack of evidence of the fact that the spot upon which St. Louis now stands, and the country contiguous to it, formed the habitation, centuries ago, of races now extinct or represented only by a debased progeny, long since transplanted to other climes. The inquiry into the traits and characteristics of the Mound Builders and the measure of their advancement from barbarism, while interesting to the ethnologist or antiquarian, has no material bearing upon the history of St. Louis, which began, so far as the present has any important connection with it, one hundred and twenty-three years ago.

The record of the city since then has been one of steady and sturdy growth. Originally established as a fur trading post, and aspiring to nothing greater for nearly half a century, the town began to develop, after the American occupation, a position as an important distributive point, and to assume, as population and productiveness increased in the vicinity, the place for which she was so eminently fitted by her incomparable location and the physical advantages which had been so bountifully bestowed upon her by Nature. Later, by deliberate but sure and substantial advancement, the manufacturing interests of the city grew from small beginnings to gigantic proportions, and the city of to-day, one of the greatest, wealthiest and most prosperous on the continent, and the undisputed metropolis of the Mississippi Valley, is the result of the patient but sanguine industry, the sagacious improvement of opportunities, the energy and enterprise of her progressive citizens.

As an appropriate introduction to the presentation of the facts and statistics of the present, it will be proper to briefly sketch a few of the salient features of the city's early history, showing the progressive stages of the wonderful development of a primitive hamlet into a city of the first class.

DeSoto crossed the Mississippi in 1541; Marquette sailed down it to the mouth of the Arkansas River in 1673, and La Salle explored its entire length in 1682. All these events, with the inspiring narratives of those who participated in them, offered the stimulus and prepared the way for the settlement of the Mississippi Valley and, as a consequence, of St. Louis, its center and metropolis.

St. Louis had its origin in the adventurous and enterprising spirit of a business man, bound on a business errand. The firm of Maxent, Laclede & Co., of New Orleans, obtained in 1762, from the Governor General of Louisiana, a grant of exclusive control of the fur trade with the Missouri and other tribes of Indians inhabiting this region. The youngest member of the firm, Pierre Laclede Liguest, commonly

called, after the French fashion, by his middle name of "Laclede," was sent to choose a site for a trading post in what was then known as Northern Louisiana. He selected and named St. Louis, returning to Fort de Chartres for the winter. In February, 1764, Laclede sent his young companion and clerk, Augusts Chouteau, ahead of him, and the latter arrived with his men on the 14th of February, and the following day the trees were felled for the first log huts which were the germs of a great city.

Although the portion of Louisiana west of the Mississippi had been ceded to Spain by Louis XV two years before, the new colony had not heard of it, and it was not until 1770 that Spanish authority was asserted by the arrival, with a small body of Spanish troops, of Don Pedro Piernas, who took charge as governor. He was succeeded by Cruzat, who was followed in 1778 by Fernando de Leyba. During the latter's administration, on the day of the feast of Corpus Christi, May 25, 1780, the town was attacked by Indians. The war of the Revolution was then in progress, and the attack was charged to English influence. Governor Leyba was suspected, perhaps unjustly, of complicity in the affair, and was shortly afterward removed, his place being taken by Cruzat, who had been his predecessor. After Cruzat's second term, the governorship was successively held by Manuel Perez, Zenon Trudeau and Charles Dehault Delassus. In the latter part of 1803 the Territory of Louisiana was ceded back by Spain to France, but the same year Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana took place. Formal possession was taken by the United States Government, represented by Captain Amos Stoddard, March 10, 1804.

From the time of the change of government the growth of the village was more rapid, and its industries became more numerous. In 1808 Joseph Charless issued the first newspaper, the Missouri Gazette, the name of which was afterward changed to the Missouri Republican. In the same year the first incorporation of the town occurred, the municipal government being vested in five trustees.

Up to 1811 the peltry and fur trade was almost the sole industry of the people. There are feeble records of small beginnings in other directions, but they were entirely confined to supplying the local needs. Laclede had established a small grist mill, a small brew house began to make porter and ale in 1810, and a few tradesmen supplied the simple wants of the town in other directions, but the fur trade was still the principal object of the existence of the place.

In 1811 the first brick house, a two-story structure at the corner of Main and Spruce streets, was built for the mercantile firm of Berthold & Chouteau. Soon after a small trade began to develop in lead and hemp. In 1812 the first shop for the manufacture of saddles, bridles and harness was opened; nails were manufactured in 1814, and in 1816 pottery was made. The same year saw the incorporation of the Bank of St. Louis. In 1817 there were twenty-one business houses in St. Louis and manufactures of copper and tin and of tobacco were begun. In 1819 the first foundry and first saw mill were started.

The first steamboat to reach St. Louis was the "Zebulon M. Pike," from Louisville, which landed at the foot of Market street August 2, 1817. In a year or two, however, the steamboat ceased to be an object of curiosity, and the principal commerce of the city found its outlet and inlet by the Mississippi and its tributaries. The first boat for New Orleans, the "Franklin," left in June, 1818, and the same year the first steamboat went up the Missouri River.

The population of the town grew from 1,100 in 1810 to 2,000 in 1815 and to 4,000

in 1820. The latter year saw the end of the struggle which had agitated the country in regard to the admission of Missouri to the sisterhood of States, the Missouri Compromise Bill being approved March 6, 1820, and the State Constitution being adopted July 19, following.

In 1822 St. Louis became a city, a charter being granted by the Legislature and Dr. William Carr Lane being chosen as Mayor. From that time the pursuits of the citizens became more diversified. All kinds of tradesmen began to establish their shops, coal and lead sought a market in the city, and it had become the most important point in what was then "The Far West." A branch of the Bank of the United States was opened in 1829; meat packing for local consumption was inaugurated in 1832, and in 1833 a marine railway for repairing steamboats was put in operation. In 1835 the Missouri Republican was first issued as a daily, and in 1837 gas was in use, the steamboat "North St. Louis" was successfully launched, and fire-brick manufacture was commenced.

The panic of 1837 here, as elsewhere, prostrated business for a time. Some of the banks suspended payment, and the Bank of the State of Missouri passed a resolution "that the bank will in future receive from and pay only to individuals her own notes and specie on the notes of specie-paying banks." This resolution caused great financial stringency and severe loss to many. St. Louis, however, showed great recuperative power and was not so badly injured by the panic as were the majority of the cities of the country.

The growth of the city from its incorporation was steady and continuous. In 1839 a new charter was granted to the city, and at the next election Dr. Lane, who had been the first mayor of the city under its original charter from the State in 1822, was elected to a second term. In 1840, the population of the city was 16,469.

A contemporary writer summarizes the manufacturing industries of the city in 1841 as follows: Two foundries; twelve stove, grate, tin and copper manufactories; twenty-seven blacksmiths and housesmiths; two white lead, red lead and litharge manufactories; one castor oil factory; twenty cabinet and chair factories; two establishments for making linseed oil; three factories for the manufacture of lead pipe; fifteen tobacco and cigar manufactories; eleven coopers; nine hatters; twelve saddle, harness and trunk manufactories; fifty-eight boot and shoe shops that manufactured; six grist mills; six breweries; a glass-cutting establishment; a brittania manufactory; a type foundry; an oil cloth factory; a sugar refinery; a chemical and fancy soap manufactory; a pottery and stoneware manufactory; an establishment for cutting and beautifying marble; two tanneries, and several establishments for the manufacture of plows and other agricultural implements.

In the next ten years the advance of the city in industrial matters was very great. A cotton factory was started in 1844, and in 1846 glass, woolen, soap, candle and starch manufacturers had been introduced. About eighteen foundries were then in operation, and a number of flouring mills, machine shops, etc. The next year saw the completion of the first telegraph line connecting St. Louis with the Atlantic coast, and the first establishments for the manufacture of wood and willow ware and furniture; and in 1849 the first saw factory was started.

On the night of May 17, 1849, the greatest calamity that had yet befallen St. Louis occurred. A fire, believed to be incendiary, broke out on board the steamboat

"White Cloud," lying between Wash and Cherry streets. The flames were quickly communicated to other boats, many of them the largest and finest engaged in the St. Louis trade, and some just arrived and others ready to depart with full loads. Freight was piled up on the levee, and this was soon in a blaze. A row of frame shanties between Vine and Locust streets were ignited, and the fire spread until fifteen blocks were destroyed in whole or in part. Twenty-three steamers were destroyed, and the aggregate loss of property was estimated as follows by the City Assessor: Stock and merchandise in store and on wharf. $5,000,000; steamboats and merchandise on board, $600,000; buildings burned, $502,290, a total of $6,102,290. Thousands were thrown out of employment by the fire and the indirect damage could not be calculated.

The same year St. Louis suffered from the cholera epidemic to an alarming degree. It had escaped from the visitation of the same disease in 1832 with comparatively light mortality; but, in the period beginning in December, 1848, and continuing through 1849 and 1850, a total of 5,157 deaths from the disease occurred. The disease was at its height in the summer of 1849, the deaths in June of that year amounting to 1,259, and in July, to 1,804.

In spite of these calamities the population of the city increased steadily, and in 1850, the government census placed the population of the city at 56,803, and two years later a sheriff's census made it 94,819. Much of this increase was the result of the heavy German immigration which followed the revolution of 1848. In three years 34,218 Germans arrived in St. Louis, about two-thirds of whom remained here. This acquisition has been an important factor in the development of the industries of the city, and has proved a valuable element of its citizenship, contributing largely to its progress and stability.

The first ground for railway construction was broken July 4, 1851, and a train was run from St. Louis to Franklin, over the First Division of the Missouri Pacific, July 19, 1853. Prosperous years followed, and in 1860, with a population of 160,773, St. Louis was the largest, as well as the most prosperous of all the cities of the West.

The outbreak of hostilities in 1861 was regarded as a severe blow to St. Louis. The South was her best customer, and the cutting off of communication with the lower Mississippi deprived her of a large and lucrative trade. Later on, however, the strategic advantages of the city's location served to open to its commerce other channels of activity. It became the supply point for the Union army operating in Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.

The times of the war were particularly exciting and full of dramatic incident in St. Louis. Her proximity to the scenes of conflict, and the fact that the city became the base of the operations of the armies of the Southwest made it the theatre of important events. Many of the citizens of St. Louis took part in the struggle, and acquitted themselves with distinction upon the field.

In 1863, the territory occupied by the Union army had widened, and the steamboats were given employment and many new ones built to supply the increased demand for their services. The wholesale merchants sought their supplies in New York, instead of in New Orleans, and manufacturers in most lines found an increased demand for their products. The suspension of trade relations with the South led to the extension of the business territory of St. Louis to the West, and when peace was restored, the population of the city had greatly increased, the

market for her goods and products had been considerably enlarged, her steamboat interest had expanded, her manufacturing establishments had increased in number and become more diversified, and all the fields of industry and commerce had been widened.

It is in the years of peace that have elapsed since the close of the war that St Louis has made the most rapid strides. The city had at the time of the cessation of hostilities about 200,000 inhabitants. Its population has steadily increased until it is now about 500,000. The great and unprecedented development of the Mississippi Valley, with its wealth of agricultural, mineral and industrial resources, has given an impetus to the trade of the city, which has advanced, step by step, to its present proud and commanding position as a busy center of distribution and production.

The great Mississippi Bridge, begun in 1865, was completed in 1874, and is a monument to the skill and ingenuity of one of St. Louis' most distinguished citizens, the late Capt. J. B. Eads, whose work at the mouth of the Mississippi, in deepening the channel, has also proved of immense benefit to St. Louis by facilitating the means of direct export by that route. The great bridge gave the city a direct connection with the entire railway system of the East.

The means of communication with the entire country have been greatly improved in the past twenty years. The Pacific Coast has been brought into connection with the city by several rail routes. Railroads to Texas and Mexico have made them tributary, in a commercial sense, to St. Louis, and they now are an important part of her trade territory.

The greatest advancement has been in the direction of manufactures, which have become more varied. Old establishments have grown, and new ones have been successfully introduced, making the city a great productive as well as a distributive center.

A marked improvement is apparent in the character and value of the buildings and in the general appearance of the city. The new Chamber of Commerce, the Custom House, the Exposition Building and nearly all the fine business blocks and handsome residence structures which are the leading architectural features of the city have been erected within the last twenty years. Improvements in paving, in water supply, in sanitation and in all the elements which go to constitute a metropolitan city of this advanced age, have been introduced, and in all the conveniences and refinements of business and social intercourse the history of the recent past has been one of constant progress.

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