This year, the City of St. Louis will celebrate 250 years since its founding in 1764 by a young French explorer, Pierre Laclede Liguest, and his even younger companion, Auguste Chouteau. While this blog is intended to reflect the history of St. Louis County, we cannot ignore the city and its influence west.
1764 was a rather busy year. Six-year-old music prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, would perform with his father and sister before King Louis XV of France. British Parliament would impose the Sugar Act on the American colonies, setting the stage for revolt on excessive taxation in the very near future. While the French and Indian War ended the year before, Pontiac's Rebellion was in full swing. In Pennsylvania, some enterprising wagon makers developed the Conestoga wagon which would be the precursor to the prairie schooners of American western lore*.
Benjamin Franklin was a 58-year-old foreign diplomat in Britain, George Washington was a 32-year-old Virginia planter, and the famous explorers, William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, weren't even born yet. A young Massachusetts lawyer and future President, John Adams, would marry Abigail Smith, and thus begin the first true American love story. What would become the United States in a few years was still a British colony and the newborn trading post of St. Louis was under French and later Spanish rule.
St. Louis County was merely wilderness known only to wandering Osage and Fox tribes and a few French fur traders. Where we call home today was far away from the growing drama that would lead to the American Revolution and independence.
So, happy birthday St. Louis! The last 250 years have been quite a ride. Looking for more to come!
*Source used: A Chronology of Life & Events in America. What Happened When: An Essential Collection of Facts & Dates from 986 to Today. Written by Gorton Carruth, Published by Harper & Row 1989.
