Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-03-03
OLD ST. LOUIS.

IL is CURIOUS 10 remember lndl al
though the early constitution of ST.
Louis. so long as it was a foreign
settlement, was essentially French,
it was but for an extremely slight
space of time under any legal French
government. at made a part of the
French province of Louisiana, and
was established in 1853 by fur trad
er, Pierre Laclede Ligueste, under
authority of the encouragement at
New Orleans, and was named after
that gracious rococo sovereign, Louis
XIV. But it was precisely in 1863
that Louis XIV, terminating by the
treaty of Paris his disastrous conflict
known in Europe as the seven years
war, and here as the Old French war,
was obliged to yield to Spain all of
the French possessions on the west
bank of the Mississippi, together with
New Orleans, and to Great Britain
those on the east bank.
The new domination, however, by
no means began at once, not by rea-
son of resistance to it, but for rea-
sons connected with the sparsity of
population, the vast distance to be
traversed and lack of physical ability
in the new ownership to manifest its
power. -Four years afterward, or in
1868, some Spanish soldiers under
Rios arrived at ST. Louis and COM
pleted the transfer, and it was not
till 1870 that the first Spanish gov
ernor, Pedro Piernas, was installed.
Meanwhile, many French settlers
who had established themselves in a
line Of posts on the other side of the
river, along a trail kept open from
Canada, preferring, after the treaty
of Paris, Latin domination at least
to that of Great Britain, had crossed
over and joined their compatriots.
Principal among these was Capt. st.
Ange de Bellerive, who had command
ed at Fort Chartres, near where
Kaskaskia now stands. He brought
with him 40 soldiers of his garrison.
He was invested at st. Louis with
the chief command, both military and
civil. and continued to retain it, or
something like it, by his personal in
fuence, long after he was nominally
superseded. He had great power,
among other ways, over the Indian
tribes, and made the famous Pontiac
his intimate personal friend.
The Spanish regime continued
peacefully under some five or six
governors down to 1904, when the
whole territory, having first been re-
| transferred to France after the victo-
ries of Napoleon, was sold by Napo-
leon to the United States, in Jeffer-
sons presidency, for S15, 100000.
The Indian tribes in those days
wele an important auxiliary even in
the wars of the Europeans. Just as
French and Indians organized for the
massacre of Braddock near Fort Du
Quesne, or Pittsburg, the British
brought down Indians upon the
French settlements of the west. In
1889, 400 savages from the vicinity
of Mackinaw, said to have been led
by 140 British regulars, suddenly ap
peared before St. Louis, and made a
fierce onslaught upon it. They were
fortunately beaten off, and the ap-
proach of body of Americans-for
we aided our French allies where we
could, as they aided us at Yorktown
completed their discontinue. This
was known as the year of the Grand
Coup. just as the arrival of 10 boats
together at another time for protec-
ton against robbers, an eXtraordlna-
ry prevalence of honey-bees and the
like, in the annals of the settlement,
caused distinctive appellations to be
conferred on the years in which they
took place.
When the American flag was first
hoisted,, in 1904, it floated over a lit
tie village of $50 houses and three
streets. in one of which was log
church, under the jurisdiction, like
all other ecclesiastical matters in the
province, of the bishopric of Cuba.
Around the village was line of
stockade and stone fortresses, erect
ed by the Spanish Gov. Cruzar after
the Indian invasion before mentioned.
Up to few years ago there was still
standing on the rlVer-bank an old
round tower, somewhat like the dis
puted mill at Newport, which had
once made part of these primitive
Notifications.
The pretty village Of Cahokia on
the other side of the river, strange
to state, was then the only post-office
for St. Louis. A mail carried on
horseback arrived there once month.
Now Cahokiah has not even a post
office of its own, but has to 90 five
miles up to East st. Louis for its
letters.
AN ILLUMINATING LETTER
FROM LINCOLN.
A side light is thrown on Lincoln's