Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/116

 56 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI works on the Saline river with ten negroes and a lot of cattle by John LaGrange to one Blowin. In the year 1767 an appeal was prosecuted from the decision of the Comman- dant to the Cabildo at New Orleans. One of the peculiar customs of old Ste. Genevieve was that of bringing all persons charged with crime to church on Sunday and exhibiting them before the congregation after the service in order that they might be known and recognized by the whole com- munity. The first baptism in the old village of Ste. Genevieve was performed by a Jesuit Mis- sionary named P. M. Watrin, February 24, 1760; the first religious marriage was cele- brated on October 30, 1764, by Father J. L. Meurin the parties were Mark Canada and Susan Henn, both of these persons had lived among the Indians, the woman for five years as a prisoner. This marriage was witnessed by Jean Ganion and T. Tebriege. The great common field south of Ste. Gene- vieve was the most valuable possession of tlir inhabitants, this land was fenced at the ex- pense of the entire town and at the beginning of each year a portion of the field was as- signed to each resident who was expected to cultivate this and keep the fence in repair near his part of the field. If any one aban- doned his land it was sold at a public sale at the church door. Plowing was done with a wooden plow and horses were seldom used but generally oxen were attached to the plow. Horses were used for pulling the eharrette or cart ; this cart had no iron fastenings or iron tires, the wheels were usually made of sea- soned white oak with the hub of gum. From one to three horses were driven to the cart; when more than one horse was used they were driven tandem, the traces being of twisted rawhide. This cart was used for all kinds of work as well as for family use ; when women traveled in them they were seated in chairs that were tied to the rail of the cart.* Ste. Genevieve had a population of 945 in the year 1799 and 1,300 in 1804, one-third of the population were slaves. The trade was fairly large in early times, principal things bought and sold were lead and furs. The commercial men of Ste. Genevieve during the period from 1804 to 1820 were remarkably ac- tive and successful in their business pursuits. Ferdinand Rozier was one of the early mer- chants and was very successful in business; Louis Bolduc was another merchant who be- came very wealthy. It is said that at one time an American named ]Iadden, who was also rich, offered to wager that he had more money than Bolduc ; the latter, however, re- torted by asking IMadden to bring a half bushel measure in order to measure the sil- ver money in Bolduc 's cellar. Another wealthy trading firm was Menard & Valle. This firm was established in 1817, the year that the first steamboat made its way up the Mississippi river. Pierre Menard, one of the partners of this firm, was the Indian agent and controlled a great amount of trade throughout the west. Pittman, who visited Ste. Genevieve in 1769 says that the town was settled 28 years previousl.y by persons from Kaskaskia at- tracted by the goodness of the soil and the plentiful harvest and describes the situation of the village as very convenient, being within one league of the salt spring, which was for the general use of the French subjects. There were a number of works at the spring and lai'ge ciuantities of salt were made for the Indian hunters and other settlers. He says also that a lead mine which supplied the
 * Eozier, ' ' History of Mississippi Valley, ' ' p. 123.