Ste. Genevieve – Europeans West of the Mississippi River
Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, stands as a remarkable testament to early European settlement in the heart of North America. Designated as one of Missouri’s oldest surviving French settlements, Ste. Genevieve holds the unique distinction of being the only location in the upper Mississippi Valley where numerous pre-American buildings have withstood the test of time. Its historical significance was officially recognized with its establishment as a National Park, making it one of the newest additions to the National Park System.
The story of European presence west of the Mississippi is one of gradual expansion and adaptation. Earlier settlements like Cahokia (established in 1699) and Kaskaskia (founded in 1703) faced devastating natural challenges. Cahokia was repeatedly ravaged by floods, while Kaskaskia was ultimately consumed by the ever-shifting course of the Mississippi River. Even St. Louis, a more prominent colonial settlement, suffered significant losses due to a major fire in 1849 and subsequent urban development along the riverfront. Ste. Genevieve, however, managed to endure, preserving a tangible link to the past.
While pinpointing the precise date of the initial French presence near Ste. Genevieve remains elusive, historical records indicate the discovery of lead deposits approximately 30 miles southwest of the townsite in 1715. In the early 18th century, there was no immediate impetus to extend French settlement across the Mississippi into what is now Missouri. The French largely considered the trans-Mississippi West as the territory of various Native American tribes. However, as the century progressed, farming practices on the eastern side of the river led to soil depletion, prompting some inhabitants to cultivate crops on the opposite bank, about three miles downstream from present-day Ste. Genevieve.
During its formative years, from 1735 to 1740, Ste. Genevieve functioned as a satellite community of Kaskaskia, located across the river in Illinois. The earliest land grants were recorded in 1752, with 27 inhabitants claiming ownership of approximately three miles of Mississippi River frontage. The town was named in honor of Saint Genevieve (who lived in the 5th century AD), the patron saint of Paris, reflecting the strong French influence that shaped its early development.
The first settlers of Ste. Genevieve migrated from other established communities in Illinois, including Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Post Vincennes, Prairie du Rocher, and Nouvelle Chartres. The presence of salt springs along Saline Creek and the region’s lead resources likely played a crucial role in the settlement’s expansion. From Ste. Genevieve, shipments of goods were transported upstream to St. Louis or downstream to New Orleans. The settlers also cultivated agricultural products for export. Notably, Ste. Genevieve holds the distinction of being the last community established during the French Regime in the Illinois Country, marking a significant point in the history of European expansion in the region.
The French heritage of the inhabitants profoundly influenced the initial settlement patterns. The heart of Ste. Genevieve’s economy revolved around a vast expanse of arable land known as le Grand Champ, or the Big Field. This communal agricultural area encompassed approximately 7,000 acres, all enclosed within a common fence. The land was divided into narrow, elongated lots, often demarcated by pecan trees, extending westward from the Mississippi River. Each lot ranged in size from 68 to 136 acres. Orchards and extensive gardens, filled with a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, occupied the remaining portions of land within the fence, showcasing the importance of agriculture in the community’s sustenance and economic activity.
Ste. Genevieve’s commercial connections were primarily maintained through New Orleans, Louisiana, and were heavily influenced by the mercantile policies of France and Spain. The community exported raw materials and imported finished goods. For example, looms and weavers were notably absent in the town, as the colonial community was required to purchase manufactured cloth from the mother country. This economic dependence on European powers shaped the town’s development and limited the growth of local manufacturing.
Around 1750, the "official" village of Ste. Genevieve was laid out in an imperfect grid pattern of square blocks, featuring a public square near the center. By 1752, the recorded population of Ste. Genevieve included 22 white adults and children and two black slaves. Following the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763), Ste. Genevieve’s population experienced a significant increase. This growth is attributed, in part, to the influx of French Catholics from the east bank of the Mississippi River who feared religious and political persecution under British rule after France ceded that territory to England. While the city’s economy remained primarily dependent on agriculture, industries began to develop, and the central business district grew. The 1773 census indicated a population of 676, of which 276 were African Americans.
Repeated floods, most notably one in 1785, caused considerable damage, leading to the gradual relocation of the town to its present site on higher ground. By 1796, only a few traders’ huts remained at the old site. Ste. Genevieve, which served as the principal seat of government in the region for many years after western Louisiana transitioned from French to Spanish control in 1762, prospered under Spanish administration.
During the 1780s and 1790s, approximately forty percent of all households in Ste. Genevieve owned at least one black or mulatto slave. These enslaved individuals were employed in a variety of tasks, including fieldwork, clearing land, cutting wood, mining lead, rowing batteaux, salt making, domestic help, and some skilled labor. Because Ste. Genevieve’s economy revolved around agriculture, black slaves were primarily agricultural laborers. The censuses of 1787 and 1791 indicated that the town’s six agricultural producers owned about one-half of its black and mulatto slaves, highlighting the significant role of slave labor in the agricultural economy of the time.
Existing documentary and physical evidence suggests that the oldest known architectural resources, French vertical log houses, date back to the 1790s. During the same decade, the plat of the core of the present city was laid out between the forks of Gabouri Creek. Surviving buildings from this era reflect the original French heritage of the community, the arrival of Anglo-American settlers, the settlement patterns in the African American community, and the beginning of an influx of German immigrants, creating a diverse cultural landscape reflected in the architecture of the time.
In 1789, Nicolas Janis received a land grant in Ste. Genevieve and constructed the Janis-Ziegler house, also known as the Green Tree Tavern, around 1790-91. After Nicolas’s death, his son, François, inherited the house and, in the early 1800s, converted part of it into the Green Tree Tavern. The building remained in the Janis family until 1833, when it was sold to Mathias and Barbara Ziegler. Today, it stands as the oldest standing structure in the city, a testament to the enduring legacy of early French settlement.
In 1793, the old Ste. Genevieve Catholic Church was dismantled from the original townsite and moved to present-day Ste. Genevieve. In 1831, a stone church replaced the vertical log church on the same site. In 1876, construction of the present church began around the stone church, and the stones from the former church were removed. The 1876 church continues to stand, its clock tower and steeple rising 193 feet above street level, housing four massive bells that chime throughout the day. It remains an active place of worship, serving a congregation to this day.
In 1800, the population was estimated at 1,163, of which 350 were African American and mulatto. Ste. Genevieve’s importance declined after the Louisiana Territory was acquired by the United States in 1803, as St. Louis emerged as the region’s principal port and commercial center.
One of the most significant events in the early 19th century was the establishment of the Louisiana Academy. This institution may have been the first public school west of the Mississippi River. The Academy was organized in a meeting of subscribers in September 1807. Father James Maxwell was chosen as chairman of the Academy’s Board of Trustees. From the outset, Maxwell envisioned an academy where instruction was provided in both French and English. The Academy began instruction in 1810 and welcomed area settlers, as well as Native American and black students. Today, the building still stands as a private residence.
In 1812, Missouri became an official territory with a governor and general assembly. The County of Ste. Genevieve was established as one of the five original territorial districts. In the town’s early years, before the formation of an island on the western side of the Mississippi River, boats could moor at the foot of the town streets. In 1817, the steamboat Pike docked at Ste. Genevieve.
During these years, Ste. Genevieve experienced moderate growth as Anglo-Americans and Germans moved to the community. By the second quarter of the 19th century, the French-speaking population and the French language were losing their dominance in the city. New buildings were constructed in American and German styles. A substantial influx of Germans into Missouri began in the 1840s, with German settlements concentrated in an arc along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, including New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, and Ste. Genevieve. During this period, the most recently built French vernacular dwelling, the Jean Baptiste Birke House, was constructed in 1846.
The first significant effort to diversify the community’s economy beyond farming occurred in the mid-19th century. Enterprising local investors saw the town’s future as linked to the mines located further west. If efficient means could be developed to transport products from the mines to the Mississippi River in Ste. Genevieve, the town could develop as a major river port. In 1851, construction began on the Ste. Genevieve, Iron Mountain, and Pilot Knob Road. Completed in 1853, the 42-mile-long thoroughfare was the longest plank road in the United States. It had five toll gates and was primarily used to haul iron ore; however, other materials transported included marble and granite from quarries and agricultural products. For a brief period, Ste. Genevieve became a major Mississippi River port, serving as the shipment point of the products of the mines to the west. Just four years after the road was completed, it was rendered obsolete by the completion of the Iron Mountain Railroad, which, unfortunately for Ste. Genevieve, diverted much of the produce and traffic to St. Louis.
By 1860, the majority of heads of households in Ste. Genevieve were of German birth or ancestry. A significant minority (34.8%) were Missouri-born French, with the remainder of the population consisting of Anglo-Southern whites, a smaller number of northern whites, and enslaved and free African Americans. The large proportion of French and German residents distinguished Ste. Genevieve from the surrounding countryside and nearby communities, where the majority of the population was Anglo-Southern.
With Emancipation, any enslaved African Americans who remained in Ste. Genevieve were freed. Several African American communities developed in and around the town. The only such community still represented by standing buildings is that on St. Mary’s Road in the vicinity of the South Fork of the Gabouri Creek. Two residences remain from the community at 309 St. Mary’s Road and the Brooks House at 311 St. Mary’s Road. Both are two-story, wood-framed vernacular house types placed on raised foundations, and both were erected during the second half of the nineteenth century. A third property historically associated with the African American community is the Lincoln School on Washington Street. This school, built in about 1860, served as the community’s only African American public school between about 1894 and 1929.
For much of the second half of the 19th century, Ste. Genevieve’s economy continued to be dominated by agriculture. In 1876, the town boasted a grocery store, a watchmaker and jeweler, a banker, two boot and shoe manufacturers, a tailor, an attorney, a tin shop, a stove and tinware store, a dressmaker, a general merchandise store, and a hotel.
In 1876, work began on constructing the present Gothic Revival Catholic church. Services continued in the earlier rock church as the new brick building was built around and over it. The rock church was eventually dismantled, but its foundation is still visible in the present church basement. The new church, which still dominates the city’s skyline, was dedicated in 1880 and cost $24,000.
By the 1880s, Ste. Genevieve supported several industrial businesses, including the Ste. Genevieve Brewery, Cone Mills, and a barrel maker. In 1894, local businesses included three meat markets, three saloons, two bakeries, two cobblers, a blacksmith, a wagon shop, two grocery stores, a jeweler, a drug store, two restaurants, a notions shop, four general stores, a livery, harness shop, furniture and cabinet shop, an agricultural implements warehouse, a hardware and tin shop, a lumberyard, a barber, an undertaker and more. The city also boasted two hotels – The Southern Hotel and Meyers Hotel. Civic buildings included a post office, the county courthouse and jail, a public school, and an unfinished Catholic school building.
In 1900, the city had a population of 1,707. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the population grew to 1,967.40, primarily driven by the expansion of the lime industry, including the establishment of the first large-scale lime production company in the community. By 1930, the number of residents had increased to 2,662.
Today, a visit to Ste. Genevieve is a journey back in time, where visitors can explore French-colonial homes, a museum, and a downtown historic district filled with unique specialty shops, cafes and restaurants, antique stores, and art galleries. The city is home to approximately 4,500 people. Approved by Congress in March of 2020, Ste. Genevieve officially became the 422nd National Park in late October 2020, solidifying its place as a vital piece of American history.