St. Louis Settlement History

Words: 1949
Pages: 8

Have you ever wondered how St. Louis got its origin from? Who and how it was founded? Where St. Louis got its name from? How important the founders and famous people that helped the settlement grow from what it was to what it is now. Without the important dates, important people, important places, and early history, we wouldn’t have the city we do today. During the 600s through the 1400s, people of the Mississippian culture constructed mounds around the area. However, being as old as they are, the larger ones are preserved by the Illinois’ Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (Beidler para. 2). Laclede named his new post St. Louis in honor of St. Louis IX, and the famed 13th century medieval king of France Louis XV (“Colonial” para. 3). The …show more content…
3). In November 1763, Laclede and his followers from New Orleans were at what is now known as Walnut Street (“Physical” para. 6). Then there was St. Louis, St. Charles, Carondelet which was established in 1767. Florissant was known as St. Ferdinand and then was finally changed to Portage des Sioux (“Physical” para. 3). Settlements west of the Mississippi were St. Genevieve and New Madrid which was later known as Ainse de la Graise or “Greasy Bend” (“Physical” para. 3). The very first settlement around St. Louis was made by LaSalle on the Illinois River. This is near what is now known as Peoria (“Physical” para. 2). Soon after Cahokia being founded, Kaskaskia was the next settlement, and then Prairie du Pont, Fort Chartres, and Fort Vincennes followed after Kaskaskia (“Physical” para. 3). St. Louis University was open in 1829 and was one of the first colleges west of the Mississippi to have higher learning (“Physical” para. 44). St. Louis increased in its size and was the largest city west of Pittsburgh because of the river traffic. This, however, was when Chicago was only a town with only a few hundred residents (“Physical” para. 60). The St. Louis Zoo was founded in 1913. Following that was the Municipal Opera in 1919 (“Physical” para. 95). The well known Olympic Theater was shut down in 1916 and was replaced by newer theaters. The names were Orpheum at Ninth and St. Charles Streets in 1916; Loew’s State was in 1923. Then lastly the Ambassador came about in 1926 (“Physical” para.