Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/312

 '101 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Mountain. This road was 42 miles in length ; it was considered a very great enterprise and a number of good engineers were emploj^ed in its building, among them being James P. Kirkwood, chief engineer of the Missouri Pa- cific Railroad, William R. Singleton, one Sul- livan and Joseph A. Miller. The road was for many years the scene of a great traffic, as most of the ore from the lead country was car- ried over it to Ste. Genevieve. 150th Anniversary Celebrated. In 1885, on the 21st of July, there was held in the city of Ste. Genevieve the 150th anni- versary of the founding of the old to-Mi and the 100th anniversary of the settlement of the new town of Ste. Genevieve. It was made a very great occasion. Maxwell Hill was se- lected as the site for the exercises of the day, which consisted of drills by soldiers that were jiresent and a sermon, a long procession con- sisting of bauds, city officers and most of the inhabitants of the town, and addresses. There were more than 5,000 persons present at the celebration, which was a most delightful event, except for the coming up of a great storm near the close of the day which scattered the people to their homes. The addresses were delivered by Fii-min A. Rozier, Hon. Alex- ander J. P. Garesche, Col. F. T. Laderberger, ilajor William Cozzens and Lyndon A. Smith. Tills town more than any other in South- east ^Missouri retains something of its original aspect ; this is due to several facts, one of which is that it is the oldest town in the state and the buildings which were erected here in the early da.vs were of a somewhat better class of architecture than the usual ones. They have been preserved, many of them, up to this time ; the oldest of these is the house of Louis Bolduc which was erected in 1785 and is still standing in a good state of preservation ; there are other houses which were built about the beginning of the nineteenth century. The town is strictly French in appearance, the streets are clean and well kept, and there are beautiful lawns about the houses. The old houses give an air of distinction to the town, as many of them are in a good state of pres- ervation. Many descendants of the old famil- ies still reside here. There is much to remind a visitor of the past. Y. S. Senators From Ste. Genevieve It is the peculiar good fortune of Ste. Genevieve to have reared four men who after- wards became members of the United States senate. Besides these men one other citizen of the southeast became a senator. This was George W. Jones, the son of John Rice Jones, for many years famous as a lawyer in this part of the state. John Rice Jones came to Missouri in 1810, and immediately became prominent in political circles. He was a member of the territorial legislature and also the constitutional convention, and later a member of the supreme court of the state. His son, George W. Jones, was born in Indi- ana, but came to Ste. Genevieve in 1809. He married a daughter of one of the early French families, received a good education, graduat- ing in law at Transylvania University in Kentucky. On returning to Missouri he be- gan the practice of his profession at Ste. Genevieve, and while living there was ap- pointed clerk of the United States district court. From Ste. Genevieve he removed to Iowa, and here he once more entered political life, becoming first postmaster, then delegate to Congress, and was then appointed surveyor- eeneral of Wisconsin and Iowa. In 1841 he