his age resides on Salt River, up the Missouri. He is surrounded by about forty families, who respect him as a father, and who live under a kind of patriarchal government, ruled by his advice and example. They are not necessitous persons, who have fled for their crimes or misfortunes, like those gathered about David in the cave of Adullam; they all live well and possess the necessities and comforts of life, as they could wish. They retired through choice. Perhaps they acted wisely in placing themselves at a distance from the deceit and turbulence of the world. They enjoy an uninterrupted quiet and a real comfort in their little society, beyond the sphere of that larger society where government is necessary; where without walls of adamant and bands of iron, the anarch fiend of the monster despotism would trample their security, their happiness and their dearest possessions under foot. Here they are truly free; exempt from the vexing duties and impositions, even of the best governments; they are neither assailed by the madness of ambition, nor tortured by the poison of party spirit. Is not this one of the most powerful incentives which impels the wandering Anglo-American to bury himself in the midst of the wilderness?" In the early days when the newcomers were flocking to St. Louis, the keepers of hotels and boarding houses had a way of classifying them as northerners or southerners. If one of these strangers called for sour milk to drink, he was at once identified as from a southern State. If he asked for sweet milk that meant he was from north of the Ohio River, from New England or a middle State. Sweet milk sold in St. Louis then at twenty-five cents a gallon and sour milk at eighteen and three-quarters cents a gallon. Religion, Morality and Knowledge. In a room on Market street, near Second, George Tompkins opened the first English school. He was a young Virginian, coming to St. Louis in 1808. His journey exhausted his resources. The school was planned to make the living while Mr. Tompkins studied law. In time Mr. Tompkins became Chief Justice Tompkins of the supreme court of Missouri. While he was teaching school he organized a debating society which held open meetings and afforded a great deal of entertainment to visitors. The members and active participants included Bates, Barton, Lowry, Farrar, O'Fallon and most of the young Americans who were establishing themselves in the professions. "The most trifling settlement will contrive to have a schoolmaster who can teach reading, writing and some arithmetic," a traveler in the Louisiana Purchase wrote from St. Louis in 1811. The next year the Missouri territory came into political existence with this declaration adopted by the territorial body which met in St. Louis: "Religion and morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be encouraged and provided from the public lands of the United States in the said territory in such manner as Congress may deem expedient." Thomas Fiveash Riddick was an enthusiast. When Third street was the limit of settlement he told people St. Louis would some day have a million of population. Thereat, the habitants smiled. Riddick's enthusiasm prompted him to works. Coming from Virginia, a young man just past his majority, he was made clerk of the land claims commission in 1806. His duties revealed to him lots and strips and blocks of ground, in various shapes, which nobody owned. Instead of capitalizing his information, forming a syndicate and acquiring these pieces of real estate, Riddick was true to his inheritance. That was a high sense of public duty. The Riddicks of Nansemond County for generations, through the colonial period, through the Revolutionary years, through Virginia's early statehood, had been patriots who made laws or fought in war as the conditions demanded. Pro bono publico might have been the family motto. Thomas Fiveash Riddick was true to the strain. He started the agitation to have all of this unclaimed land in the suburbs of St. Louis "reserved for the support of schools." The situation called for more than mere suggestion. Speculators already had their plans to buy these scattered lands at public sale. That generation was too busy taking care of itself to give serious consideration to the next. Quietly Riddick got together the data, mounted his horse and, in winter, rode away to Washington. Before Edward Hempstead, the Delegate for Missouri in Congress, Riddick laid the proposition. Hempstead was Connecticut born and educated. He took up Riddick's idea and coupled it with a general bill to confirm titles to portions of the common fields and commons in accordance with rights established by residence or cultivation before 1803. And he added a section that the lands "not rightfully owned by any private individual, or held as commons" shall be "reserved for the support of schools." Riddick remained in Washington until assured that this legislation would pass. Then he mounted his horse and rode back to St. Louis. All of this he did of his own motion and at his own expense. A Story of Official Integrity. Perhaps the earliest realization of what financial panic meant came to Missouri in 1819. It brought out a good illustration of the official integrity which was standard in those days. Pierre Didier was treasurer of the territory of Missouri. He had a large sum of public money. The funds would not be needed for six months. Pierre Chouteau and Bernard Pratte were Didier's bondsmen. They went to the treasurer, told him they were hard up for cash and wanted to borrow $1,000 apiece for ninety days. Didier seemed very sympathetic, but said he didn't have the money. Pratte and Chouteau suggested that the amounts might be taken from the territorial money. "My friends," said Didier, "it is not my money. You cannot get him. Here is my house and lot, my horse, my cow, and my bed. Take them and sell them at auction and relieve yourselves." It seems that Pratte and Chouteau had gone to Didier to try him rather than to get the loans. According to the story which was preserved by William Grymes Pettus and deposited with the Historical Society, the bondsmen wanted to assure themselves that the territory funds, for which they had given security were all right. They went away, Mr. Pettus said, "perfectly satisfied that Didier was an honest man." The Earliest American Immigration. Captain Stoddard asked Governor Delassus for a list of the officials under him. He discovered that the syndics of Missouri districts were, in several places, neither French nor Spanish, but Americans. As he proceeded with his inquiries, |