Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC May 1967 Daily Egyptian 1967 5-20-1967 The aiD ly Egyptian, May 20, 1967 The aiD ly Egyptian Staff Follow this and additional works at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/de_May1967 Volume 48, Issue 149 Recommended Citation , . "The aiD ly Egyptian, May 20, 1967." (May 1967). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Daily Egyptian 1967 at OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in May 1967 by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SOUTHERH ILL,'HOIS UNIVERSITY ~I •• IIII_. Soot ........ May 20. 1967 Volume .. St. Louis .. The Unlikely Years ... -~ . , ',~ '. .. -- FORT SA ... CARLOS os it oppeored on May 26, 1780, when Indians under British command attacked St. Loui5. Th. fori 5tooc1 above the river between Rue de 10 Tour and Rue de 10 Place, at what;5 now Fourth and Walnut, 51ightly to the southwest of the Jefferson Notional Expansion Memorial Arch . This sketch is Pierre Choteau's 19th Century conception of the fort. (Story on page 2) Pa,_ 2 DAILY EGypnAH May20, 1967 ~ ~Jl(rt788 _,~tJrigi-z __4k by AUGUS7'E CHOUTiZAU, ..~ altdnowt1ft_. Ii/,. in t.Ju.... I14.RI!!X1rdeIff «____ fIr DIIi~ c_f'a&U!a GAZETTeeR OF III.. OURI. M.idway becween cwo commemor­ and Frenchman, loyal as both were ative celebrations, St. Louis to tbe same cburch. A glimmer of presently is in danger of developing economics crept into the naming of a false perspective- one of abject the third street west of the river, neglect-regarding a significant tbe Rue des Granges, Meanwhile section of its early history. Three one of the intersecting east-west years ago the bicentennial of the streets, the Rue de la Tour, was founding of the city i n 1764 drew so named because it pivoted on the merited attention. Four years from east on tbe fonifled tower which now the s esquicentennial of Mis­ served as the military guarantee of souri's admission to statehood in .:he settlement that so proudly ex­ 1821 will again rive t c ivicattenrion. tolled king and church and economic St. Louis, however. did not leap endeavor in its very street names. St. Louis: from 1764, when a plan for a village was first implemented, to 1821, l .ncidentally, more than one of when a territory graduated to state­ tbose street names-all of which hood. In the not inconsiderable in­ have disappeared from use, com­ terval of fift} -seven years between mends itself to our attention today. those events are several moments Rue Royale has tone and color not The which, likely to be ignored, deserve to be detected in Main Street to be remembered and honored. (especially when it Is evident that Main is not main in any sense). Careful planning had preceded the And, considering the fact that the work which began February IS, old C atheciral is there, is not Rue 1764 when thineen - year - old d'Eglise better than Second Street? Unlikely Years Auguste Chouteau began to super­ In late p.ighteenth-century years vise (he construction of the first imperial changes decreed by treaty­ buildings In St. Louis. In more ways makers in Europe often arrived than one that French founding of tardily in America. So it was With St. Louis represented an intrusion. the shift of the trans-Mississippi The el<c1usive right to trade with west from France to Spain. Only By C. HA~VEY GARDINER the Indians on the Missouri River late in November, 1769 did the for eight years which brought Pierre citizens of St. Louis take their oath Research Professor 01 History Laclede's band north from New of allegiance to Spain. Successive Orleans had come from French lieutenant governors went there authorities JUSt as the region was from New Orleans but life in the being transferred from Frencb to small settlement was unruffled until Spanish sovereignty. So it bappened the outbreak of the American that French fur traders gave a Revolution, at which time Lieutenant French monarch's name to a fron­ governor Fernando de Leyba repre­ tier settlement on Spanish terrain. sented Spanlsh authority in St. Louis. A few years later an equally color­ ful intrusion, In 1780, belped to put I n mid-July, 1778 George Rogers another non-Spanish stamp upon the Clark visited de Leyba on tbe bani:: region. of the Mississippi. We have no de­ tails of their conversations but Meanwhile, in the 1760's and early shortly thereafter Clark's expedi­ 1770's, a slow-but-sure growth tion captured Kaskaskia, C abolcia attended the settlement on the low and Vincennes to the east. There bluff a few miles below the Mis­ his OPPOSition was Anglo-Indian, souri River. The first s treet, paral­ bis aid, in tbe form of food supplies leling the river, was called Rue for one thing, was Franco-Spanish. Royale, a name which easily When Spain declared war against weathered the transfer (f the trans­ England in 1779, the latter's desire Mississippi region from royalist to embarrass France, Spain and the France to royalist Spain. When a infant United States in the heartland second street was planned, paral­ of tbe continent logically involved leling Rue Royale on the west, It plans relative to the Mississippi became Rue d'Eglise. This, like­ Valley, plans that again Included Wise, was an equally appropriate Indians, and acceptable name to Spaniard When recurring rumor of the lm- May 20, ,967 DAILY EGYPTIAN CHOTEAU: City buildor at 13 . pending British-Indian intrusion out 10, 1804, when Captain Amos Stod­ of the north- reached St. Louis, dard raised the flag of the United Captain de Leyba readied the defense States at Fort San Carlos over the of that place. Early in 1780 he northern poTtion of the recently hurriedly erected Fort San Carlos, acquired Louisiana Purchase. a name which honored Charles Ill, [n the calendar of significant the Spanish king whose surrepti­ memories St. Louis s hould enshrine tious aid, along with that of Louis May 26, in memory of the victory XVI of France, :,ad been critically in [780, and March 10, in memory important to [he rebel American of the entry, in 1804, of United cause. A modest installation, befit­ States authority. ting a modest settlement, Fort San Carlos was a combination of fortI­ Today. given the continuing devel­ fied tower and related entrench­ opment of the Jefferson National ments. On the afternoon of May Expansion Memorial site. is a 26, 1780,. when the British-[ndian logical moment for remembering. fo!"ce launched its attack, the Spanish possibly for reerecting. renaming garrison was at banle stations. and reenacting. Is it not appropriate Statistically it was a small and to give serious consideration to confused engagement, no two these ideas, among others! 1) the sources agreeing on either the erecti• .n of a replica of Fort San numbers engaged or the casualty Carlos (it would give variety and figures. But one thing was cerrain, historical depth to the stone-steel­ CLARK : A conv.r5atian with ... L.,ba. the decisive nature of de Leyba's aluminum modernity that besets tbe v ictory. riverfront development); 2) the re­ naming of several downtown streets Surpassing the peuy numbers in­ (what flavor the announcers could vulved and the brevity of the engage­ inject Into the location of Busch ment is the Significance of the Memorial Stadium as they fix It baule. Inasmuch as no further on the Rue de la Tour. St. Louis); British penetration was attempted. and 3) the annual reenactment of de Leyba's victory at St. Louis Captain Stoddard's flag-raising on May 26, 1780 sealed the doom ceremony as a continuing token of of the British in the Mississippi the union of the uans-Mississippi VaJley as completely as had Bur­ west with the rest of the United goyne's defeat at Saratoga in re13tion Stales? to the Hudson Valley. Furthermore, Best of all. perhaps. as a new the St. Louis action consolidated bridge in St. Louis needs a name, the successes previously won by would be the asslgnmenr of the name Clark. And, as C lark's victories Fort San Carlos to that structure encouraged American negotiators at which is anchored on the Jefferson PariS to demand In 1782-83 trans­ National Expansion Memorial, The ..... what flavor the announcers could Applachlan lands for the infant baule at Fort San Carlos helped to United States, the victory at St. tie east and west together many LouiS made logical the American years ago- so let it do so now. inject into the location of Busch insistence that the Mississippi River As the name St. Louis honors tbe be the western boundary of the French factor in the city's heri­ United States. History. we know, tage, why not let the Spanish contri­ Memorial Stadium as they fix does not divulge alternatives but bution shine through! nonetheless disciplined speculation leads one to insist that the absence The American midwest is often it on the Rue de la Tour ...... of the British, a strong power. thoug ~1t to be monotonously the same. from the Mississippi Valley sped up Without significant historical ties to (he westward movement of the early U.s. history. That is not American nation. true in St. Louis and the city should make tht! most of its historical A nother choice mome nt deserving uniqueness. If It will but cherish of attention but likewise destined and honor that period between 1764 to be swamped in the hurried shift and 1821, those unlikely years may from bicentennial to sesquicenten­ yet win the attention their drama nial celebration is that day, March and significance deserve.