ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY

By Dorris Keeven-Franke

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Award winning author, and International speaker. President of the Archer Alexander Memorial Foundation. Member of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. President of the Boone’s Lick Road Association. Executive Director of the Missouri Germans Consortium. She has been writing for over 35 years and published several books on local history, German immigration, and other topics. Currently working on To Tell a True Story – Archer Alexander.
  • Pond Fort

    Pond Fort

    [Pond Fort DAR MARKER 8780 Highway N, Lake St Louis, MO 63367, USA – not the original location]

    The original trail used by the Boone family in 1804 to reach their salt lick in Howard County, had already been used by the buffalo and the Native Americans for years before that. The expansion of Americans into the area had disrupted the original residents, and forced Native Americans tribes in the east to crowd into the Missississippi and Missouri River area in the early 1800s. This had caused the settlers to fear and be caught up in the depradations and raids on the settlements by 1812. Many of the early residents along “the Osage Trace” soon would be forced to Fort Up, or fortify their homes, in order to give them and thier neighbors safety. These early forts were not “Forts” in the traditional sense, as the military would erect for hundereds of soldiers, but homes where the windows were boarded up, and provisions stored in case of an attack.

    Pond Fort was started by Robert Baldridge, a native of Ireland, who moved to Kentucky and then Missouri. The fort was said to be built in the form of a hollow square on land from a Spanish land grant. A single family there originally and the fort was given the name for a large pond two hundred yards away. This fort, as well as several others, were constructed on the lower Missouri in 1800. It was also a stopover for William Clark on his expedition along the Missouri River.The marker is located on the south side of Highway N, about two miles west of Highway 40-61.

    On April 12, 1809, the Missouri Gazette, a newspaper published in St., Louis, Missouri stated “Lewis ordered all volunteer companies of cavalry, riflemen, and infantry in Upper Louisiana to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment’s warning, and appointed a committee—Colonel Timothy Kibby, Major Daniel Morgan Boone, and James Morrison – to superintend the building of blockhouses from the Mississippi to the Missouri.”

    Robert Baldridge (1737-1822) was one of the thousands of Scotch Irish Presbyterians who would emigrate from Ireland, and settle in Kentucky, which had been formed out of Virginia in 1792. One of the first settlers of what was to become St. Charles County, he’d married Hannah Beverly Fruit in Kentucky, and together they had James, Elizabeth, John, Daniel, Catherine, Malachi, Alexander, Grace, Nancy and Robert Junior. Their children would intermarry with several other of the earliest families; the Hoffmann, Zumwalt, Howell, Price, Scott, and Ryebolt families, among others.

    Robert’s son Malachi and two of his companions, Price and Lewis, were killed while hunting on Loutre Prairie (today’s Montgomery County). Shortly after this event, Robert’s son Daniel, who wanted to avenge his brother’s death, tracked the party of Native Americans to their camp at night and attempted to shoot their Chief as he sat by the campfire. Daniel then concealed himself in the tall grass and watched while they searched for him; however, they failed to find him. Robert’s sons Robert Junior and John both served as rangers in Callaway’s company, during the War of 1812. The Baldridge family had established what was called Pond Fort, one in a series of private forts that formed a line of defense against the Native Americans by the settlers. The fort was built in the form of a hollow square and named for a pond, two hundred yards away.

    In 1868 Historian Lyman Draper was talking with Major John Gibson who described the Ranger activities as follows:

     In 1811 Nathan Boone raised a Company of Rangers for 12 months we went into Building forts in Different places over the country to keep the Indians from murdering our helpless women and children. We built Fort Howard, 17 miles from St. Charles; then we Built Capogri; then we built Buffalo, then Fort Mason; then we built fort Madison 24 miles above the mouth of Desmoines [sic] river; then we built prarai Deshain [sic] and Built forts over the country. We built Stouts Fort; we built one at Troy, then crossed over on the Missouri River to Bellefountain Below St. Charles; then fortified at St. Charles; then came to Pinkney; then we built a fort at Charette Village; then came to Louter Island and built Fort Clemson: then up to Cote San Dessein, built a fort there; then thence to Boon’s Lick, and Built Coopers fort; then to the Council Bluffs; then we Returned back to St. Charles commenced building forts out in the country from the Missouri River we built Pond fort; then we built Kennedy’s fort on Peruke [sic] Creek; we finished all those garrisons in the year 1812 and had our women and children out of danger of the wild Savages.

    Sapp’s Mapping the Boone’s Lick Road cites historian Kate Gregg with:

    It is at Pond Fort that the Stephen Long expedition joins the road on their way west. Having crossed the Missouri River from St. Louis on May 4, 1820, Capt. Bell reported that they “rode on 8 miles to Pond fort, situated on a prairie, this work of defence was erected during the late war by the scattered inhabitants of the country . . . it is constructed of logs and a square, whose sides are about 200 feet, having block houses at each of the angles, in the interior, and joining to the sides are erected cabins for the accomodation of families . . . . It stands on a quarter section of land belonging to Mr. Baily, he resides here and keeps excellent entertainment for travellers . . . .

    Further up the Boone’s Lick Road (Today’s Hwy N in St. Charles County) sits the site of Rodman Kenner’s Tavern

    [2480 West Hwy N, Foristell, MO 63348, USA is where Pauldingville now stands. The marker was dedicated on 21 October 1913.]

    As we reach the edge of today’s St. Charles County, we have to remember that it was organized as one of the five original counties organized in 1812. By 1818, its territory was what comprises Montgomery, Warren and St. Charles, half of the six counties it crosses today. When Warren County was organized in 1833, St. Charles took today’s shape. However, when early settlers like Rodham (also known as Rodman) Frederick Kenner arrived this didn’t really matter. He’d been born in Virginia December 3, 1791, to Rodham and Jennie (Burke) Kenner who had served in the Revolutionary War. Rodham served in the War of 1812 in Virginia and earned a Land Bounty in Missouri. He married Elizabeth Johnson, in Virginia, prior to 1812, and they would come to Missouri in 1834, bringing four sons, George, William, Rodham and a twin brother Winder. They also brought an enslaved family with them, who had a son named Rodman Kenner as well. Elizabeth’s brother Charles M. Johnson came to Missouri in 1835 and would purchase the old Boone home and 680 acres from Nathan Boone on 24 January 1837. Boone then left St. Charles County and resettled in Ash Grove in Greene County.   

    Kenner was a first-class landlord, and his hotel became a noted resort and stage stop. He also played the fiddle so well he could almost make the “trees dance.” When he heard the stagecoach approaching or the dogs with their bark of welcome, would take his seat outside the door, his fiddle in hand and play Money Musk, Arkansas Traveler or some other lively tune.  Kenner said the blessing at mealtime, ending with, “And for all these blessings we thank Thee, O Lord. Amen. Kick that blamed dog out from under the table.” Col. Thomas Hart Benton, one of Missouri’s first Senators, after stopping in the area visiting friends, commented on the good food and good beds. Many travelers would ride extra hard to make Kenner’s Tavern for the night. Kenner’s Tavern was also the location for sale auctions for the area’s enslaved individuals prior to the Civil War. Kenner made a fortune and died in 1876 at eighty-six years of age in what was by then called Pauldingville. He is buried in the small cemetery nearby which may be attributed to the early Pauldingville Baptist Church at that location.  So ends our journey across St. Charles County along the Boone’s Lick Road.

    For more about the entire Boone’s Lick Road visit https://booneslickroad.org/

    Suggested Reading for further study…

    [1] Lynn Morrow, Boone’s Lick Heritage Collector’s Edition Boonslick Historical Society Periodical

    Vol. 13 Nos. 3 & 4 — Fall–Winter 2014

    [1] Lynn Morrow, Boone’s Lick Heritage Collector’s Edition Boonslick Historical Society Periodical

    Vol. 13 Nos. 3 & 4 — Fall–Winter 2014

    [1] Dorris Keeven-Franke, Historic Main Street Tour ArcGis Map URL: https://arcg.is/1qqHzn0

    [1] Dorris Keeven-Franke, Historic Main Street Tour ArcGis Map URL: https://arcg.is/1qqHzn0

    [1] Dorris Keeven-Franke, Historic Main Street Tour ArcGis Map URL: https://arcg.is/1qqHzn0

    [1] Dorris Keeven-Franke, Historic Main Street Tour ArcGis Map URL: https://arcg.is/1qqHzn0

    [1] Dan A. Rothwell, Along the Boone’s Lick Road, 1999, Reprint 2022, Page 22

    [1] Dorris Keeven-Franke, Historic Main Street Tour ArcGis Map URL: https://arcg.is/1qqHzn0

    [1] Sheryl Guffy, Cottleville Legacy  https://cottleville.org/

    [1] U.S. Circuit Court, Territory of Missouri, County of St. Charles, Book A, Box 15, File 38, April 1816

    [1] Dorris Keeven-Franke, Cottleville Legacy  https://cottleville.org/

    [1] Dorris Keeven-Franke, The True Story of Archer Alexander, https://archeralexander.blog/

    [1] Melish, John. The Traveller’s Directory Through the United States: . . . John Melish: Philadelphia, 1822. 3 Peters, “Path of Land-Rush Traffic Across Boone and Callaway Counties,” Genealogical Society of Central Missouri Reporter Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 2 (Summer, 1994): 39. 4

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  • Dardenne Prairie

    Dardenne Prairie

    By 1821, Missouri had become a State, and St. Charles County had established “Dardenne” as a Township. As settlers established themselves along the Boone’s Lick Road, there were no “official” towns, but your Post Office was your address. Mail was sent there, and you visited the Postmaster to pay for and retrieve your mail. If not picked up, then your name was listed in the local newspaper letting you know that you need to make a trip to “town” which was usually the mill or General Store as well. Many towns were first established by what the name of the Post Office – quite often his name – or the Railroad Station. Railroads did not begin until 1850s, and the Station Master was automatically the designated Postmaster as well. The word Dardenne is said to be French in origin and given to both the prairie and the creek, but there is no translation for its meaning. Some say a man by that name first lived there, but that too is lost in history. When Census takers would visit, up until 1980 they simply listed the Township as there was not an actual town incorporated by that name until 1983 or a City until 2001. Today it is one of the fastest growing areas in our county, having a population of 13,803 in 2023.

    Further west along the Boone’s Lick Road, past Alexander’s or Captain Campbell’s house, we would have found the mill of John Gill, who came from Kentucky to Missouri in 1811. He originally worked as a carpenter, in St. Louis, before returning to Kentucky and marrying there. He returned to Missouri and established a home, tavern and a large Grist Mill on the Boone’s Lick Road by 1822. Soon had established two large farms, which he managed with his sons and enslaved. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he gave each of his sons an enslaved man. As the only mill in the area, he was quite prosperous, and popular. *[1]

    Gill House and the Mill’s Millstones were located on the south side of Highway N, 0.6 miles west of Highway K. The mill stones were first purchased from the Dickherber family for marking the Boone’s Lick Road in 1913. At some point the stones were removed and stored at the Howell school. Then Mr. and Mrs. N.H. Loeffler purchased them, and on Septemer 24, 1959, and they were placed on the property and dedicated. Then in about 2012, during the Highway 364 road construction they were once again removed. They were the only mill stones used by the DAR along the entire route. The DAR marker for the Gill Mill is no longer found on the Boone’s Lick Road.

    Naylor Store. [7767 Highway N, O’Fallon, MO 63368, USA no longer standing]

    Just past Gill’s mill was the house of John Naylor, where the Dardenne Presbyterian Church first met in 1819. It soon became a Stagecoach and Postal stop, in his Mercantile.  Today it is the location of the City of Dardenne Prairie. The road originally curved off to the north to the store, before returning to Hwy N, up until the 1860s. The Dardenne Presbyterian Church’s first church building was first located on the south side of Dardenne Creek (in what is today’s Weldon Spring Government Reserve) but was burned during the Civil War. The beautiful new stone Church that was built after the Civil War can still be seen today as Hwy N, mixes with and crosses Interstate 364.  

    Naylor’s Store, on the Dardenne Prairie, was a stage stop in the 1820’s. John Naylor was an influential citizen in the area who helped to found the town of Dardenne. He and his wife helped start the Dardenne Presbyterian Church in 1818. The marker is located on the north side of Highway N, 3.2 miles west of Highways K and N intersection.

    In David P. Sapp’s Mapping the Boone’s Lick Road he explains the route of the road was documented in early gazetteers, explaining how two contemporary gazetteers and a journal are of major importance in identifying this route.

    “John Melish published the route and distances from St. Charles to Franklin in his The Traveller’s Directory Through the United States[i]: . . . in 1822. In this publication, Melish listed hundreds of routes between various cities and towns in the United States, including the road from St. Charles to Franklin. While this work was published in 1822, analysis shows that the effective date was probably 1820. Melish describes the route from St. Charles to Franklin thus: Beginning at St. Charles; 12 miles to Dardenne; 8 miles to Pond Fort; … His total mileage from St. Charles to Franklin is 151. Another great contemporary description of the alpha route comes from Lewis Beck’s 1823 Gazetteer which listed the stage route from St. Louis to Fort Osage. Peters concludes that the effective date of this route is 1821 or 1822, just a year or two later than the Melish data.  With Beck, we begin at St. Charles; then 9 miles to Coonts; 12 miles to Pond Fort;”

    Postal records shows that the route included Naylor’s Store from 1827-1840 and 1841-1868. This is the same location of Campbell’s 1873 Atlas of New Missouri for Dalhoff Post Office, on land purchased by John Naylor in Section 2, of Township 46, Range Two East.

    NOTES

    [i] Melish, John. The Traveller’s Directory Through the United States: . . . John Melish: Philadelphia, 1822. 3 Peters, “Path of Land-Rush Traffic Across Boone and Callaway Counties,” Genealogical Society of Central Missouri Reporter Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 2 (Summer, 1994): 39. 4

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    For more about the Boone’s Lick Road – see https://booneslickroad.org/

  • Captain Campbell’s Ice House

    Captain Campbell’s Ice House

    In October of 1829, four families from Rockbridge County Virginia, would come to settle on Dardenne Prairie with over two dozen enslaved people. They had left in August, and would be led by a young attorney named William Campbell (1805-1849) whose journal stated

    My own object in going to that remote section of the Union was to seek a place where I might obtain an honest livelihood by the practice of law.

    In his journal, he tells the story

    The first family is that of Dr. McCluer, his wife (my sister) and five children from six months to thirteen years old and fourteen negro servants. Two young men, McNutt and Cummings, and myself form a part of the traveling family of Dr. McCluer. Dr. McCluer leaves a lucrative practice and proposes settling himself in St. Charles County Missouri on a fine farm which he has purchased about 36 miles from St. Louis. The second family is that of James H. Alexander, who married a sister of Dr. McCluer, with five children and seven negro slaves. Intends farming in Missouri. Third family, James Wilson, a young man who is to be married this night to a pretty young girl and start off in four days to live one thousand miles from her parents. He has four or five negroes. Fourth family, Jacob Icenhoward, an honest, poor, industrious Dutchman with several children and a very aged father in law whom he is taking at great trouble to Missouri, to keep him from becoming a county charge. He has labored his life time here and made nothing more than a subsistence and has determined to go to a country where the substantial comforts of life are more abundant.

    Archer Alexander’s descendants through Wesley Alexander – Photo by Dorris Keeven-Franke

    William Campbell’s cousin, James H. Alexander (1789-1835), purchases land in St. Charles County, near today’s intersection of Hwy K and Hwy N – which is the Boone’s Lick Road. He chose this location on purpose because of the road, and it being a major thouroughfare. His enslaved are put to work following the instructions of professional stone masons that have come from Ireland. When the house is complete, James Alexander applies to be postmaster and establishes his house as a stagecoach stop on the Boone’s Lick Road! Here is a list of the distances between stops on the road, so you could plan your trip. A good day’s journey was about 25-30 miles if you were travelling by coach. If you had several livestock, family, and enslaved walking with you it would slow you down considerably.

    Missouri Intelligencer and Boone’s Lick Advertiser, July 18, 1835

    However, as fate would have it, Cholera is sweeping the countryside, and on the 4th of September, 1835 James Alexander dies leaving four children, ages 13, 11, 9 and seven years old behind. They are sent back to Virginia to live with relatives who will be their Guardians. Alexander’s will states that his plantation and his enslaved are not to be sold, and to be leased out and all the profits used for the benefits of his children. His enslaved include Archer Alexander (1806-1880) Louisa his wife (1810-1865) , her sister, her mother, and their children. In the Probate files Louisa’s seven children and their values are listed as 1) Eliza $325, 2) Mary Ann $300, 3) Archer $225, 4) James $200, 5) Alexander $175, 6) Lucinda $150, and 7) John $125. The estate would continue to be administered by William Campbell until his death, and the children reached maturity. At that point, the enslaved were sold, with Archer Alexander going to David Hickman Pitman, and Louisa and what was left of her children becoming the property of James Naylor, further west on the Boone’s Lick Road.

    At that time, William Campbell’s uncle from Kentucky Captain James Campbell has also arrived in the area and built this house on several hundred acres across the road from James Alexander (dec’d). An enslaver, they would be the ones to do the actual manual labor of building these great stone mansions, located on huge tobacco plantations. This house has now been documented to have been completed in 1838.

    In 1863, Archer Alexander was visiting his wife Louisa at Naylor’s Store where he heard a regularly held meeting of the area Confederates plotting to take down the North Missouri Railroad Bridge over Peruque Creek. They had stored guns and ammunition in the ice house on the old Alexander place, which was now owned by Captain Campbell. Knowing what this meant, Archer would make his way to the Peruque Creek Fort manned by the Union Army’s Home Guards, to warn them. When suspicion fell on Archer as the informant, he had to flee via the Underground Railroad, to St. Louis. He and 16 other men from the Dardenne Prairie, including some who were owned by the McCluer and Bates family, fled south and crossed the Missouri River at Howell’s Ferry. Today the site is listed as the Howell’s Ferry Freedom Crossing on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

    Union Fort at Peruque Creek with Home Guards between Lake St. Louis and O’Fallon Missouri.

    For more about Archer Alexander see the archeralexander.blog

    Sources: The Campbell Journal from the Rockbridge Historical Society, and the Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

    St. Charles County Probate, St. Charles County Recorder’s Office

    Library of Congress

    Photo Collection of Dorris Keeven-Franke

    HABS Photo from the LOC
    Photo by Dorris Keeven-Franke
    Photo by Dorris Keeven-Franke

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