Beyond the Laclède-Chouteau Legend

This book explores the importance of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive and Charles-Joseph Labuxière within the larger context of Illinois Country history and society. More specifically, it examines how St. Ange and Labuxière rose to prominence in a French colony that had existed for more than a half century before St. Louis came into being. It argues that these two men were more important than either fur traders Auguste Chouteau or his stepfather Pierre Laclède Liguest—Chouteau claimed that Laclède had foreseen St. Louis's immense prospects from the very beginning—during St. Louis's earliest years. This book also brings to life scores of other persons who played important roles in early St. Louis even though many of them have never before appeared in any history book—from woodcutters and carpenters to cabinetmakers, stonemasons, women and children, and African and Indian slaves.