St. Michael

The beginning of a settlement where Fredericktown is now situated was made in 1800, but that settlement was then known as St. Michael.  Here a grant of four hundred arpens was made to thirteen individuals, the grant lying between Saline Creek and the Little St. Francois.

 

It was purely a French-Canadian settlement in the beginning.  The first residents of the village of St. Michael were:

 

Peter Chevalier -  from the Aux Vasse

Paul, Andrew and Baptiste De Guire - from Ste. Genevieve

Antoine, Joseph, Nicolas and Michael Caillot dit Lachance - from near New Bourbon

Gabriel Nicolle - from Grande River

Pieere Variat - Grande River

Three unnamed individuals

John Callaway, an American, had settled on the Saline creek here in 1799.

 

These settlers were all engaged more or less in the lead mining at Mine La Motte, situated only a few miles from St. Michael. It is well worth remembering that at Mine La Motte , April, 1774, seven people engaged in mining were killed by the Osage Indians.  This was undoubtedly the bloodiest massacre in the upper Louisiana during the Spanish regime.  Joseph Valle a son of Don Francesco Valle, twenty years of age,

was among those killed.  The others were Jacques Parent, also twenty, Auguste Chatal, age thirty five, and Mebard, age 30; all Canadians.  Dupont, a Frenchman, age 30, an Englishman named Phillips, age 30 and a negro named Calise.  From the church records of Ste. Genevieve, it appears that these victims of Indian warfare were re-buried at the Catholic cemetery there in 1778.

 

On a road leading from Mine La Motte, Louis Lacroix settled in 1798.  He was a lead miner by profession, interested in mines at the Old Mine, Mine A Brenton, as well as the Mine La Motte Mine.  He also claimed an interest in a concession at Belle Pointe on the Saline in 1798 with Antoine and Gabriel Caillot dit Lachance.

 

Belle Pointe is a locality not identified, but likely was a place on the road to Mine La Motte.  

 

At an early period a number of settlers must have resided at what was even at that time known as Old Mine on Old Mine Creek, in what is known now as Washington County.  From church records of the perish of St. Ann, Fort de Chartres, on the date of September 28, 1748, it appears that Pierre Wivarenne, of Picardy, France, and his wife, Marie Ann Rondeau were "habitans du village des Mines", referring to this earliest

settlement in Missouri.  This Wivarenne we are certain come from Picardy with Renault.  A number of citizens of Ste. Genevieve were interested in mining here.  Among others were:  Joseph Pratte, Amable Partenais dit Mason and Baptiste Placet.

 

About thirty-five inhabitants resided at Old Mine when the country was transferred to the United States, and made claim to four hundred arpens of land there.

 

Not far from here was the Fontaine de la Prairie, three-quarters of a mile from the New Diggins' Mine.

 

In 1803, Gideon Treat established a tan-yard in this prairie.

 

 

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