Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/184

 124 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI people and had little desire for greater things than they found about them. That progress among them was slow is evidenced by the statement of Breekenridge. He was a native of Pennsylvania ; and was sent at an early age by his father to live for three years in Ste. Genevieve, in order to study French. His record, in the form of a diary, of those years, is very valuable on account of the light it casts on the conditions there. He says that for many years there was no public bakery in all the French settlements ; there was no loom or even a spinning wheel ; there was not even a churn for butter making. Butter, when it was made at all. was made by shak- ing cream within a bottle, or a bag. There was very little mone.v. These conditions re- sulted in all material for clothing being im- ported. The French of Loiusiana bought the material for their clothing and blankets, their flax, their calimanco, in Philadelphia or in 'Baltimore. Among them was to be seen no home-spun cloth, .such as distinguished the American settlement. Their principal trade, in the absence of money, was carried on by means of liarter and exchange. As a substi- tute for money lead was sometimes used and more often peltry, or deer skins, supplied the place. Among these people wealth was almost en- tirely in the form of personal property. Land was not regarded very highly as a form of wealth. This arose from the fact that land was aliundant. that it might be had on very easy terms and was, consequently, very cheap. The principal form of this wealth was household furniture, clothing, and slaves. Some effort has been made to estimate the trade of these settlements. It is difficult to determine how extensive that trade was. It has been said that from 1789 to 1804 the fur trade of Upper Louisiana amounted to $200,- 000. This amount, however, does not repre- sent all of the trade, but only that part of it which passed through the hands of the Span- ish officials. That large part of the Indian trade which went to the English is not in- cluded in this sum. Besides the fur trade, the settlers exported lead and provisions dow^n the river, principally to New Orleans; they sent lead to Canada, and lead and salt to Philadelphia and Baltimore. It was in return for these exports that the settlers re- ceived their supplies of clothing and materials from the cities. Communities situated as these French set- tlements were, develojjed a life of their own. They were cut off, as we have seen, from the centers of French influence by hundreds and even thousands of miles. Thej' were divided by the river from the American settlements, and divided even more distinctly by differ- ences in race and language. It is impossible to tell how far a civilization distinct in itself with social and political institutions might have developed in Upper Louisiana, had time been given for its development. We cannot now say that the French might not have cul- tivated institutions similar to those of the American colonies. Doubt, however, is cast on the probability of this, by the fact that they were careless with regard to matters of education. There were some private schools but they were limited in term and seemed to have produced no great results. Instruction in these schools was confined to reading, writing and a little arithmetic. Matthew Kennedy, an American, was in Ste. Genevieve in 1771 : John and Israel Dodge were in New Bourbon shortly after the founding of this settlement about 1794, and in 1774 John Hildebrand was on the Maramec river. In that same neighborhood.