Commercial Organizations in Antebellum St. Louis
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ORDER IN THE MARKETPLACE: COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS IN ANTEBELLUM ST. LOUIS _______________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________________________ by WILLIAM M. SNODGRASS Dr. LeeAnn Whites, Dissertation Supervisor JULY 2013 © Copyright by William M. Snodgrass 2013 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled ORDER IN THE MARKETPLACE: COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS IN ANTEBELLUM ST. LOUIS presented by William M. Snodgrass, a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. _____________________________________ Professor LeeAnn Whites _____________________________________ Professor John L. Larson _____________________________________ Professor Theodore L. Koditschek _____________________________________ Professor Kenneth H. Winn _____________________________________ Professor Clarence Lo ______________________________________ Professor John L. Bullion ACKNOWLEGEMENTS Completing a dissertation is akin to running a marathon in which the course is all uphill. As runners near the end, the grade increases until the course is almost vertical. Along the long and arduous path to a PhD in history, I have met some fine people who encouraged me to complete the race. T.J. Tomlin gave me encouragement to continue, and Ryan Stockwell lent a voice of Midwestern sensibility while we worked on a project outside the academic world. Both of these friends contributed much needed good humor. Several of my colleagues from Read Hall deserve thanks for reading early drafts of my chapters and providing critical comments in a dissertation group which met regularly at our advisor’s home near the MU campus. They are in no particular order, Megan Boccardi, Leroy Rowe, Joe Beilein, Bill Lewis and Sarah McCune. I would like to thank all of the members of my committee for reading and offering comments on this work for publication. They are John Bullion, Ted Kodtischek, Clarence Lo, Ken Winn, and John Larson. Ken Winn, former Director of the Missouri State Archives and Librarian for the Missouri State Supreme Court, read early drafts of several chapters and this work benefitted greatly from his knowledge of Missouri history. I am particularly indebted to John Larson for participating on the committee, not least because he was kind enough to read the work before we had even met the first time. Most importantly, I would like thank my dissertation advisor LeeAnn Whites for her advice and guidance in bringing this work to completion. She listened to my ideas, read many drafts and was always willing to comments and give feedback. Without her considerable help I never would have finished this dissertation. ii Finally, I would like to thank my family for their love and support during several years of graduate school and writing. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...1 CHAPTER 1) “Shall the sheriff take ploughs…in payment of taxes?”:The Panic of 1819 in Missouri………………………………………………………………………..25 2) “The genius of prosperity…repairs the wreck of commercial storms.”: Missouri’s Bank War, 1828-1837 ........................................................................................63 3) “A market comes near to every man:” St. Louis Merchants and the Panic of 1837..………………………………………………………………………... 100 4) “To produce more harmonious actions in our business”: Commercial Organizations in Antebellum St. Louis………………………………………134 5) “These artificial means of communication are introducing a revolution in the Commerce of the West”: St. Louis Merchants and the Railroad Boom of the 1850s…………………………………………………………………………170 Conclusion...…..……………………………………………………………………208 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………216 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………236 iv ORDER IN THE MARKETPLACE: COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS IN ANTEBELLUM ST. LOUIS William M. Snodgrass Dr. LeeAnn Whites, Dissertation Supervisor ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of how merchants in St. Louis worked to bring order to their commercial lives in the years between the Panic of 1819, the nation’s first major economic depression, and the Panic of 1857, another similar event that struck on the eve of the Civil War. Through the first half of the nineteenth century western merchants had to contend with popular resentment against banks and paper money which lingered from the first panic as well as with a lack of consensus on how best to improve the nation’s rudimentary financial system. At the same time, an improving transportation system made financial innovation a necessary corollary to conducting business as the west was integrated into the fabric of the national economy. Merchants were pressed hard on all sides in the expanding market economy. This study uses private letters, newspapers, legislative journals and business records to show how St. Louis merchants adapted to the problems of conducting business and establishing a more orderly marketplace. Always seeking to improve their position in the marketplace, merchants had to contend with the state legislature, which was often hostile to their interests, and with competitors in other western cities who challenged their trade networks. Merchants formed organizations to facilitate business and which gradually took over some government functions, in effect creating their own quasi-government over the marketplace. v Introduction “The perennial gale of creative destruction”: The Rise of the Market Economy in Missouri. In September of 1874 the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce met to honor one of their founding members, Henry Von Phul, recently deceased. The assembled merchants unveiled a painting of the honoree and their remarks celebrated Von Phul’s role in building the organization and the city. Henry Von Phul’s life and business career paralleled the history of St. Louis and its merchant community from frontier outpost to the most important commercial entrepot of the West, situated at the confluence of the nation’s major rivers. Von Phul arrived in St. Louis in 1810 and established himself as a merchant supplying fur trapping expeditions, and also supplying U.S. Army posts and trading posts in the Great Lakes region by way of the Mississippi River. As Missouri’s population grew, Von Phul and his partners extended their activities to supplying smaller merchants in the towns recently established along the rivers, always working to extend their commercial network. 1 As a merchant Von Phul pursued his own interests in the marketplace, but he and his contemporaries also worked to the benefit of St. Louis as they engaged in competition with rival cities in the West. As a founding member of the Chamber of Commerce and 1 William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, (1899), Vol. IV, p. 2381- 2384; Henry Von Phul account with Thomas Forsyth, Mar. 5, 1810, Mar. 20, 1815, Tesson Collection; Receipts and bills, Feb. 6, 1815-July 10, 1822, Personal Account Book, 1822-Nov. 1827, Auguste Chouteau Collection; Bill of Lading, Sept. 30, 1822, Parsons Collection; Accounts between 1827 and 1833 in the Pierre Chouteau Maffitt Collection show that Von Phul and McGill were active in supplying the American Fur Company’s expeditions and trading posts in the Upper Missouri, Rocky Mountain and Great Lakes regions; James Kennerly Diary entry, Mar. 19, 1839; Bill of Lading on Steamboat Alton, Aug. 30, 1839, Lucas Collection, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. 1 Merchants Exchange, his work helped to build a more orderly marketplace, yet he also suffered from the vicissitudes of the market economy. Von Phul went bankrupt in the depressed market conditions that followed the Panic of 1837 but recovered and continued in business. As a Democrat he was a member of a political party that made opposition to banking a test of party loyalty, yet Von Phul served as a Director of a branch Bank of the United States, and later served as a Director of the Bank of the State of Missouri. Like his contemporaries, Von Phul was a multi-purpose businessman who invested in steamboats, insurance companies and later, railroads. In his lifetime St. Louis rose to become the dominant commercial city of the West but lost that position when Chicago with its own natural advantages, rose in the 1850s to displace the river city by the new and “artificial means” of commerce.2 By 1860, Von Phul enjoyed his success in retirement, but old age was taking its toll and he was beginning to fade. One acquaintance described him as having a “faraway, wistful look.” He turned his business dealings over to his sons who established a branch in New Orleans. The Civil War interrupted river traffic, and railroads and finance favored Chicago, all of which eroded St. Louis’ commercial position. By 1865 the city was no longer the dominant commercial entrepot of the West. Steamboats still traveled the Mississippi River between St. Louis and New Orleans, but rivers no longer carried as much of the nation’s commerce and St. Louis merchants made due with less. Von Phul endorsed his sons’ financial obligations, and when they failed