From Missouri History Museum

First steamboat arrives here in 1817

St. Louis has a long history of river travel and commerce. And, for many years, the steamboat was the transportation of choice on the river.

On August 2, 1817, the first steamboat arrived in St. Louis. It was smaller than many of the keelboats that were on the Mississippi River.

Named the Zebulon M. Pike, the steamboat certainly wasn't overpowered. At times, crew members used poles to help the engine move the boat. (A note: Pike's Peak in Colorado is named after the same man.)

There were a lot of steamboat firsts in those early 1800s. In 1819, the steamboat Independence was the first to navigate the Missouri River. In 1823, a steamboat named the Virginia was the first to navigate the Mississippi from St. Louis all the way to Fort Snelling, which is now Minneapolis, Minn.

By the 1830s, steamboats had larger engines and made better times. For instance, to travel by steamboat from New Orleans to St. Louis could be accomplished in 12-14 days. A keelboat took 90-100 days (that's about three months).

According to St. Louis historian William B. Faherty, by 1841, St. Louis had 186 steamboats land a total of 1928 times. Those boats discharged 263,681 tons of goods, Faherty said.

St. Louis was the second busiest port on the Missisippi, behind only New Orleans.

During the Civil War, a steamboat on its way from New Orleans to St. Louis became "America's worst maritime disaster." That's when the steamboat Sultana exploded with 2,400 passengers aboard shortly after leaving Memphis.

The total death toll was over 1,800. That's more lives than were lost in the famed ocean liner Titanic's collision with an iceberg in the north Atlantic Ocean.

For this and more Mississippi steamboat history can be seen on the following website: www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/steamboat.htm.

 

Key Missouri Civil War battle
was in August, 1861.

The Civil War battle that left Missouri with two state governments was fought August 10, 1861. It was named the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

An illustration of that battle is in the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.

In that battle, pro-slavery Missourians bitterly fought anti-slavery Missourians. Then Governor Jackson headed the Missouri government that sided with the south. He was forced to flee and set up a government-in-exile when the Union Army triumphed.

By 1865, the pro-Union Governor Thomas C. Fletcher was in office when Missouri became the first slave state to outlaw slavery.

Many of Missouri's Civil War battles were small. But, at war's end, Missouri was the scene of the second most armed conflicts of any state. The Union's victorious general, Ulysses S. Grant, started his Civil War career in St. Louis.

You can find lots more about the state's Civil War history by logging on:
www.missouricivilwarmuseum.org/history.htm.

 

August birthdays for both Lewis and Clark

Young Saint Louis.com will be featuring lots of news about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in the coming months. The bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery Expedition to explore the western United States is coming soon.

One bit of trivia that centers in August is that both men had August birthdays.

Lewis was born on August 18, 1774. That made him just 29 years old when the Corps of Discovery trip began in 1804.

Clark was four years older. He was born on August 1, 1770. He was 33 when the famed trip up the Missouri River started.

This is just one piece of information to be found on www.lewisandclarktrail.com.

 

Lots of firsts in St. Louis history in August

The St. Louis police department was the first one in the U.S. to use fingerprinting. The first interstate highway section was built in St. Charles County.

Also, a Missouri Botanical Garden researcher identified the first plant virus.

Then, there was the duel that fatally wounded a local congressman and an Army major.

These were among August news events that occurred in St. Louis's past.

(These are just some of the interesting historical notes in local historian Joe Sonderman's book, "St. Louis, 365." The book is available in local book stories or can be obtained at www.booksonline.com.)

Here are just a few of the 157 historical events included in the book's August chapter:

Aug. 1, 1904: The St. Louis Police Department became the first in the nation to use the fingerprint method of identification. It had been demonstrated at the World's Fair by Scotland Yard detectives, who said it was foolproof.

August 3, 1938: The Art Museum announced the purchase of a $14,000 Egyptian bronze sculpture of a cat. The cat purchase ignited a controversy that captured national attention, at a time when the city was still suffering the effects of the Great Depression. The papers were bombarded with letters to the editor, and the city threatened to cut the museum tax rate in half. (Later in the month, the city did cut the museum tax rate by 50 per cent.)

August 6, 1970: The St. Louis County Council allowed the city of Black Jack to incorporate. A 10-year battle over incorporation began when the city voted to allow only single-family housing units, in an effort to head-off a proposed federally assisted apartment complex (which was thought to encourage African-Americans to come to the city.) The fight went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The name "Black Jack" comes from two massive black "Jack Oak" trees that stood at Parker and Old Halls Ferry in the 1800s. (In the 1990s, Black Jack was identified as the metro area city with the highest per-family income for African-Americans.)

August 12, 1974: Negro League great James "Cool Papa" Bell was inducted into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. Bell played for the St. Louis Stars, among other teams. He was the fastest man ever to play the game, once clocked rounding the bases in just 12 seconds. Bell once stole 175 bases in under 200 games.

August 13, 1956: Construction began on a short stretch of I-70 in St. Charles, near the present-day Fifth Street exit. Those few miles of I-70 were the very first of over 40,000 miles of interstate built in the United States. At the time, the population of all of St. Charles County was about 40,000. The construction of the interstate launched a population boom that continues to this day.

August 19, 1926: Doctor Benjamin Duggar of the Missouri Botanical Garden startled the scientific community with the announcement that he had discovered a lower form of life than any known at the time. He blamed the "virus" for several diseases in the plant world and said further research might link them to diseases in the animal kingdom.

August 25, 1900: The 12th U.S. census showed that St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the nation. The population of the city had increased more than 123,000 since 1890, placing it behind only New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

August 26, 1831: Major Thomas Biddle and Congressman Spencer Pettis mortally wounded each other in a duel on Bloody Island (now part of the East St. Louis riverfront). While campaigning, Pettis criticized Biddle's brother, who ran the Bank of the United States here. Biddle barged into the Congressman's room and horsewhipped him.

August 29, 1977: Lou Brock broke Ty Cobb's career stolen base mark, swiping his 893rd in a game at San Diego. The Redbirds lost the game, 4-3. Rickey Henderson now holds the major league record. But, Lou still holds the National League mark.