Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri: History
Ste. Genevieve County is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of St. Louis. Ste. Genevieve is the principal town and the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County with a population of around 5,000 people.
Ste. Genevieve was the first permanent civilized settlement in Missouri. The actual date of establishment is, like many other dates, connected to genealogy. Sources do not agree on the year of founding. According to Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri, and most of the descendants of the early settlers, 1735 is the most generally accepted date. Dr. Carl J. Ekberg, in his book, Colonial Ste. Genevieve, suggests that Ste. Genevieve was founded closer to 1750, based on interpretations of early letters, maps, and Catholic Church documents. Ste. Genevieve is about 250 years old.
The village of Ste. Genevieve was originally included in what was known as the Illinois Country. This was generally accepted to be all the land claimed by the French from the mouth of the Ohio River, north to the Great Lakes, and including the valleys of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers. The French established their seat of government for this territory in New Orleans. What is now Missouri became part of Upper Louisiana Territory. Early French explorers and settlers were known to have been in the Ste. Genevieve area in the very early 18th century.
Salt was a very important commodity at the time, used in the preservation of foods and curing of animal hides. The early French settlers were quick to exploit the salt springs on Saline Creek just south of Ste. Genevieve. Mineral explorations attracted Renault and La Motte to the area. Some of the earliest lead mines were named for La Motte in nearby Madison County.
Probably the biggest factor in the establishment of Ste. Genevieve was agriculture. Across the Mississippi River in Fort de Chartres and Kaskaskia, there was a growing need for agricultural land for the colonists. Across the Mississippi from Fort Kaskaskia was a large fertile section of river bottom, called the "Grand Champ" or Big Field. The "Old Town" of Ste. Genevieve was originally located here. It was approximately three miles south of the present site of Ste. Genevieve.
The village of Ste. Genevieve was originally an offshoot of the older French communities on the east bank of the Mississippi River—Cahokia, Kaskaskia, village of Chartres, Prairie du Rocher, and St. Philippe. The rich agricultural lands of the river bottoms were main attractions that lured most all of the early French pioneers to Ste. Genevieve. All the civil and legal business of Ste. Genevieve was transacted at Kaskaskia until about 1766 when the first commandant, Philippe de Rocheblave, was installed at Ste. Genevieve. By that time, more French migrants moved to the village from east of the river to escape British rule after France's defeat in the Seven Years' War.
Townspeople relocated Ste. Genevieve to its present higher location from the river bottoms after the devastating floods of 1785. According to a sworn statement by Julien Labriere, in October 1825, "there were about fifty or sixty cabins in the old village. The old village was overflowed so as to be on the tops of houses. The water in many places was twelve or fifteen feet deep." The Mississippi River was the main travel route in the early decades, when it served as a means of transportation for travelers both across, and up and down the river. …