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.
  • Pitman’s

    Pitman’s

    On Cottleville’s Chestnut Street sits a large two-and-one-half story frame building that once served its’ Methodist Episcopal South congregation. By 1810, John Pitman, a veteran of the Revolutionary War had come to Missouri from Kentucky, settling just to the south of the Cottle family. Portions of his huge estate would provide two additions to the town of Cottleville. John Pitman was owner of a large amount of enslaved property. He had been born in what was Bedford County Virginia in 1757. In 1776, Kentucky would become a County of Virginia, and eventually a state in 1792. By 1800, we find Pitman paying taxes on that property in Kentucky. However, many early Missouri settlers were like Pitman, and had received payment for their service in the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War in the form of a Land Warrant, in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. In February of 1805, John married Magdelene Irvine, and their son David Kyle Pitman was born that December.

    John Pitman (1753-1839) was the son of Thomas Pitman, who had come to the Missouri Territory by 1816, with several of his relatives. Some would settle as far west as what became Montgomery County (later Warren County) and some south of him along the Missouri River, near Howell’s Island. He purchased the earlier land grant of Hoffman, and began building what would become the largest plantations in St. Charles County and on the Boone’s Lick Road.

    The hostilities with the Native Americans had ended with the Peace and Friendship Treaties at nearby Portage des Sioux in September of 1815. And by 1816, John Pitman and his neighbors would ask the Missouri Territorial Government to establish a road to the Boone’s Lick settlement where the Bryan and Morrison saltworks was, near Franklin in Howard County. 

    Territory of Missouri  )

    County of St. Charles )

    Circuit Court  )

                            ) 1816

    April Term)

    John Pitman – filed a petition signed by twelve householders & upwards  – of the County of St. Charles, praying that a road maybe laid from from (sic) the Town of St. Charles, In the direction to Boones lick Settlement, until it strikes the line of Howard County.

                Where upon the Court appont John Gibson, Hugh McDermid, James Kennedy, Samuel Lewis & Joseph Yeardley, House holders of said County as commissioners to view & mark out said Road – The nearest & most practicable route – and to the Greatest ease & convenience to the inhabitants and as little as may be to the prejudice of individuals and make return there of  – to the Court at the next Term. According to the State in Such case made and provided.

    County of St. Charles vis Circuit Court July Term 1816. John Gibson, Hugh McDermid, James Kennedy, Samuel Lewis & Joseph Yeardly, being appointed commissioners, at the last Term of this court to view and mark out a road from the Town of Saint Charles with direction to Boones lick Settlements until it strike the line of Howard Countyand that return should be made to thy Term of the Court, It appearing to the Court that notice has been served on said commissioners – They ordered that the said Commisioners view and mark out a road is aforesaid and make return there of – to the next Term of they Court, And that Notice be given then respectively, by the Sheriff of thy Order.

                                                                                        A True Copy, attest.

                                                                                        Wm. Christy Clk.Ct., Cit of St. Charles[i]

    Pitmans Addition to Cottleville

    The Methodist religion had come to Missouri with the preachings of John Clark in 1816. According to the Methodist Archives at Central Methodist University in Fayette “In 1844 when the Methodist Episcopal Church separated into the MEC and the MEC, South, Missouri officially went South. Both churches operated in Missouri, many times side-by-side in the same town“. By 1854, John Pitman’s son David, and his son Richard would join with others to build a frame church building at the cost of $1,600. Other founding members were William C. Ellis, S. R. Watts, and James T. Sanford.They would start out with 20 members.[ii]

    Southern Methodist Church with Public School in back

    When John Pitman passed away, his youngest son David Kyle Pitman (1805-1891) and his grandson Richard Hickman Pitman (1830-1893) would inherit his home and much of his enslaved property. The Pitman home was built by the enslaved on the west side of Cottleville along the Boone’s Lick Road, with the family cemetery on the opposite side of the home. On July 3rd, 1856, David Kyle Pitman would record his plat of an addition to the town of Cottleville.

    David Kyle Pitman
    Pitman Home on Hwy N (no longer standing) from HABS – Library of Congress
    Photo of the the grave of John Pitman in the Pitman Cemetery on Hwy N – the Boone’s Lick Road

    David Kyle Pitman’s property stretched from Cottleville, up to James Alexander’s further west on the Boone’s Lick Road. David Pitman was one of St. Charles County’s largest enslavers in 1860 with over 35 people living in homes behind his home on the Boone’s Lick Road. By that time, David’s son Richard had married and also lived on the Pitman farm, and had ten more enslaved people of his own. John Pitman’s son David Pitman had gifted Archer Alexander (1806-1880) to his son Richard Hickman Pitman in 1859During the Civil War in 1863, his son Richard Pitman was a Confederate sympathizer and involved in treasonous activity, and because of this his enslaved man named Archer Alexander would be given his freedom.[iii]

    IT WAS 12 MILES FROM ST. CHARLES TO PITTMANS (COTTLEVILLE) BY STAGECOACH IN THE LATE 1830s AND A FULL DAY’S JOURNEY. Today you can leave Berthold Park on Main Street and go south to the Boone’s Lick Road where you make a right turn and proceed west for one mile. At First Capitol (Hwy 94) you proceed west (left) on Hwy 94 to the Mid Rivers Exit, go west to Hwy N, where you make a left turn. You stay on Hwy N – which is the Boone’s Lick Road, as you pass Cottleville, to Pitman’s. This takes less than one hour in 2025.

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

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

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

    1905 Atlas of Cottleville
    Southern Methodist Church with Public School in back

    FOR MORE ABOUT THE BOONE’S LICK ROAD SEE https://booneslickroad.org/

    SUBSCRIBE TO STCHARLESCOUNTYHISTORY.ORG (FREE) AND RECEIVE DAILY EMAILS BY DORRIS KEEVEN-FRANKE

  • Germans helped create the road

    Germans helped create the road

    Heading westward from St. Charles on the Boone’s Lick Road, one left the village heading west and would pass Old Man Schaffer’s Tavern [on Parkside, today it is a private home and still standing, but there is no marker] who served the needs for those driving their stock to market. Friedrich Schaeffer was a German immigrant who hadmost likely read the Report on a Journey to the Western States of America, published in Germany by Gottfried Duden in 1829 which extolled the virtues of the young state of Missouri. Like thousands who came during the 1830s, the German immigrants would not only change the state’s demographics but its’ history as well. Schaeffer’s Inn was a favorite for those needing a watering hole for their cattle, outside of the town’s limits on what was formerly the Commons. City ordinances did not allow cattle and hogs to roam the streets.

    [Proceeding further on Boone’s Lick, turn left/south on Missouri’s State Highway 94/First Capitol and proceed to Mid-Rivers Exit. Turn right/west on Mid-Rivers and proceed until the intersection with County Highway N. Turn left on Highway N ]

    COONTZ’ FORT

    BOONE’S LICK ROAD MARKER – BY THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE STATE OF MISSOURI IN 1913 KOUNTZ’ FORT at 4965 Highway N on your right hand side.

    Two Coontz brothers had been born in Germany and had perhaps served in the Hessian Militia for the British Army during the Revolutionary War, but defected and joined the colonists. One brother had been captured by the Native Americans and had been presumed dead. The other would come further west and settle in St. Charles purchasing Blanchette’s property from his estate. The first brother had learned of the others whereabouts and joined him in what was then Louisiana Territory. Nicholas Coontz would acquire Survey #58 on 29 Aug 1799. His log home was large enough and well-built and would be fortified to serve as a Fort, for the protection of many of the area families during the War of 1812. He kept a tavern, and in the Memoirs of John Mason Peck, D.D., 1789-1857 he was described as “a rough, wicked and yet hospitable old German”.

    Site of the 6 mile house where travelers could stop for water was earlier site of Koonz Fort

    PROCEED SOUTH ON HWY N TO COTTLEVILLE, IT IS IMPORTANT TO STAY ON HWY N AS IT MAKES SEVERAL TURNS THROUGH COTTLEVILLE.

    COTTLEVILLE

    Cottleville’s history as a settlement begins with the occupation of Warren Cottle, Sr. on a plot near Dardenne River (Creek), obtained through Spanish land grants in 1798. Together, with his sons, Warren and Ira, Cottle began a grist mill on the Dardenne River (Creek) in 1799.  Cottle’s Mill used waterpower to sift and grind wheat, oats, and other products.  The water method proved to be superior to the other horse powered mills found within the area and many people began to bring their harvested crops to Cottle’s Mill.  Over the next decade, the large number of customers encouraged the establishment of small shops and lodges to accommodate those waiting, sometimes overnight, for their turn at the mill. The mill was one story high.  The power for the mill came from an overshot wheel on the left side of the drop and it had wooden gears.  The driving gear had all wooden cog wheels and the frame mill was one story high.[i] In 1837, Cottle would file a plat of his town with the St. Charles County Recorder of Deeds, making it official.

    An unidentified Cottleville house
    Southern Methodist Church by Public School
    Ora Cottle home (no longer standing)
    Original Plat of Cottleville (St. Charles County Recorder of Deeds
    Southern Methodist Church as a home
    Southern Methodist Church with Public School in back
    1905 Atlas of Cottleville
    Hoffmann house at Hwy 94 and Mid-Rivers Dr.
    HABS photo of Cottleville Public School

    SOURCES

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

    FOR MORE ABOUT THE BOONE’S LICK ROAD SEE https://booneslickroad.org/

    SUBSCRIBE TO STCHARLESCOUNTYHISTORY.ORG (FREE) AND RECEIVE DAILY EMAILS BY DORRIS KEEVEN-FRANKE

  • Where the Road began

    Where the Road began

    An early undated map in the St. Charles County Historical Society shows that In Lynn Morrow’s Boone’s Lick in Western Expansion: James Mackay, the Boones, and the Morrisons[i] today’s St. Charles County is part of the St. Charles District or county, “the only American political subdivision on the north side of the Missouri River until 1816”.

    Unfolding events brought Morgan and Nathan Boone into a commercial salt industry with Philadelphia’s Bryan and Morrison trading company, the most influential American firm in Missouri’s trans-Mississippi West. Of the six Morrison brothers who came West, William, the eldest, administered the family business from Kaskaskia, assigning James, Jesse, nephews, and others to implement their strategic economic reach. Boone’s Lick salt became crucial in the Osage Indian trade, Missouri River commerce, and for support of federal and Missouri militia troops in the War of 1812.[ii] It would be James Morrison who would open the Trading Post on Main Street in 1804 that would sell the product of his salt lick in what is later called “the Boonslick” in Howard County. In 1806 he would supply and outfit Gen. Zebulon Pike (Pike’s Peak) expedition from this storefront.

    An early undated map of St. Charles I discovered in 2011in the St.Charles County Historical Society archives gives us a view of the village’s Rue de Grande or Main Street in what is believed to be 1817. When the map was restored and processed by Lisa Fox at the State Archives in 2013, this was confirmed in their examination of the paper and ink used, and by Lynn Morrow, with the Missouri State Archives who had examined the map before retiring that year. It places the Bryan and Morrison trading company between Clay and Madison; Main and Second, with other records indicating that the property had been purchased by Morrison by 1804.

    Operators of frontier salines usually owned enslaved and/or leased enslaved to shoulder a lot of the hard, physical work, especially wood chopping, but there are few documents about slaves at Boone’s Lick. In 1814, a Draper informant told about Moses, who in the face of an Indian alarm, rode one of the Morrison horses back to St. Charles. Flanders Callaway’s slave Moses had worked for years up and down the Missouri River, serving the Callaway family in agriculture and market hunting. Moses cut a lot of wood at Boone’s Lick, too.

    Across from the Bryan and Morrison Trading Company at 200 South Main Street is Missouri’s First State Capitol.

    Circa 1819 – Built by Charles and Ruloff Peck in 1819, this building housed Missouri’s first State Capitol from 1821 until 1826. Missouri’s first legislators – some of them frontiersmen and others of the gentry – met in this building to undertake the task of reorganizing Missouri’s early territorial government into a progressive state system. Before Missouri was granted statehood on Aug. 10, 1821, the territorial government met at various locations in St. Louis. As statehood became a certainty, the search began for a site to become the permanent seat of government. An undeveloped tract of land located in the center of the state overlooking the Missouri River was chosen to be the site of “The City of Jefferson,” Missouri’s permanent capital. However, until the new Capitol could be constructed, the state’s first legislators needed a place to meet. Nine cities competed for the honor of hosting the state’s temporary seat of government. One of these cities was St. Charles, a growing center of trade located on the Missouri River with easy access to the most rapidly growing areas in the state via the river or the Boonslick Road. The citizens of St. Charles pledged that if their city was chosen as the temporary capital, they would furnish free meeting space for the legislators. On Nov. 25, 1820, Gov. Alexander McNair signed a bill making St. Charles the first capital of Missouri. The state’s first legislators met in St. Charles for the first time on June 4, 1821. Heated debates over state’s rights and slavery filled the rooms of the new temporary Capitol. The meeting place provided by the citizens of St. Charles was on the second floor of two newly constructed adjoining Federal-style brick buildings. The Peck brothers, Charles and Ruluff, owned one of the buildings and they operated a general store on the first floor. Chauncy Shepard owned the adjoining building with a carpenter shop on the first floor. The second floor of the building was divided and used as Senate and House chambers, an office for the governor, and a small committee room. Four Missouri governors ran the state’s affairs from the Capitol in St. Charles until the new Capitol in Jefferson City was ready in 1826.[iii]

    As one continues south on the City of St. Charles Main Street they will pass:

    515 S Main St, Saint Charles, Missouri, 63301

     Circa 1821 – Historians confer that this is the site of William Eckert’s St. Charles Hotel in 1821. He and his partners had offered his establishment to the State when they were seeking a site for the Capitol , as a larger and more commodious building. At that time, in 1821, a large stone building was known to have sat to the rear of this building, so perhaps that was the one being offered for the State’s use. Some historians suggest that this building was damaged in the 1876 tornado to such an extent that it was altered to be the building you see today. Eckert’s Tavern was also reported to be where Benjamin Reeves, George C. Sibley and Thomas Mathers, who were appointed as Commissioners in 1825 by President John Quincy Adams, laid out the Sante Fe Trail. This work to establish a route for trade with the southwest and New Mexico, went over budget and took seven years for the three commissioners to receive their pay for this feat. [iv]

    Further south on St. Charles’ Main Street, one encounters other vestiges of Bryan and Morrison’s route to their salt lick. Farmer’s Home is an example of the many inns and mercantiles that line the street…

    700 S Main St, Saint Charles, Missouri, 63301

    Circa 1805 – In 1817 when Alexander McNair owned this property, he would add on to the earliest portion of the building, keeping the French influence. McNair’s wife was Margarite Regal, the daughter of a French Marquis. In 1820, he defeated William Clark, to become our State’s first Governor. Although he lived in St. Louis with his wife and children, he would stay here when he needed to conduct State business. The building was a tavern, where J.J Dozier the Innkeeper would invite the Legislature and other visitors to the town to stay at the establishment when St. Charles was Missouri’s first State Capitol 1821-1826. At that time the cost of lodging was “2 bits a night (or 25 cents) and you could get Chicken Fixings for 3 bits or 37 and one-half cents”. McNair died on March 18, 1824 while still in office. The building would continue to serve as an Inn, and was always a hub of activity, since visitors would arrive on the nearby ferry and have to pass the Inn on their way to the State Capitol, ensuring its success. At one time the inn was known as the “Bear Sign” and owned by a German named Valentine Schmidt. In 1853 the name according to the St. Charles newspaper named the Reville, was changed to Farmer’s Home and managed by the German innkeeper named Frances Bierbaum. On the 26th of February 1876, the Inn was struck by the great tornado. Stories tell of a man in his bed on the second floor who was picked up and thrown into the street without even being hurt. [v]

    When you proceed further south, one will reach the location of Blanchette’s first settlement…

    906 S Main St, Saint Charles, Missouri, 63301 (private home)

    Circa 1793 – The site of the home of the City of Saint Charles’ founder Louis Blanchette who settled here with his wife and children in 1769. Soon after he was appointed Commandant by the Spanish he built three buildings along the small stream nearby. After his death in 1793, the property was owned by Peter Coontz [Koonz/Kountz], a German, who either added onto Blanchette’s building or built this one with a small primitive mill along Blanchette’s creek. When Louis Tayon had been appointed Commandant for the District and he felt that all of Blanchette’s’ property should by rights be owned by the City and by rights become his under the Spanish Crown. This would later be argued all of the way to Missouri’s Supreme Court, with the Court still finding in favor of the Coontz family. Excavations done by the Archeology Department for Lindenwood University do confirm that there was a building situated here at this location during the time period of Blanchette’s arrival.[vi] 

    Author Dan Rothwell’s book shares how the original pathway of the Boone’s Lick Road merged with Main Street at this point, which was probably because of early connection with Blanchette as Commandant. Early deeds refer to the southern stretch of Main Street as Upper San Carlos as it was where the seat of Government was prior to the Louisiana Purchase.[vii] But by 1851, one had to continue further south on Main Street before it turned west. There one sees further evidence of what the Boone’s Lick Road meant to travelers at The Western House…

    preservationjournal.org

    1001 S Main St, Saint Charles, Missouri, 63301

    Circa 1820 – Gregorie Kiercereau, born Bebi, was the owner of this property in 1817, and the property across the street to the north indicating that he most likely owned this property prior to that date. Kiercereau was the nephew of the second Commandant Carlos Tayon by marriage. The original structure of the building faces Main Street was built in 1820 with several additions made over the years, with some as late as 1856. During the 1850s, the route of the Boone’s Lick Road, which had begun by the 1820s and had originally left Main Street going west up McDonough, was moved alongside this building. This accounts for the direction of the additions at the rear. The road had been part of the Plank Road system, which was a short-lived paving system which used cut logs forming what was also called a ‘courderoy’. Travelers would often use the logs as firewood though. The city macadamized the road in the 1850s, which is an early gravel and oil method. By that time, Fanny Smith Eckert maintained an inn named Western House here, which was very popular with travelers. An inn was always maintained on the lower floor with sleeping rooms on the upper levels.  During the days of the covered wagon treks, a large stable and wagon yard was located in the rear and to the south of the existing building. Later the establishment was conducted by a Mr. Bliss and was considered too rowdy for women and children. The inn provided excellent care to oxen, horses and cattle when Mr. Bliss eventually added a blacksmith shop to provide for care and repair of equipment.

    [viii]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    [viii] Dorris Keeven-Franke, Historic Main Street Tour ArcGis Map URL: https://arcg.is/1qqHzn0orses and cattle when Mr. Bliss eventually added a blacksmith shop to provide for care and repair of equipment. 

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