Francois Chouteau
Encyclopedia
François Gesseau Chouteau (b. 7 February 1797 in St. Louis, Missouri
– d. 18 April 1838 in Westport, Kansas City
, Missouri
) was an American pioneer fur trader, businessman and community leader known as the "Founder" or "Father" of Kansas City, Missouri
.
, a fur trader and prominent citizen, and his second wife Brigite Saucier in 1797 in St. Louis, at that time, under the authority of New Spain
. His uncle René Auguste Chouteau
had founded the city of St. Louis 33 years earlier. In his youth, François learned his father’s trade. He married Bérénice Thérèse Ménard originally of Cahokia (Kaskaskia, Illinois
) on 12 July 1819 in St. Louis before heading west into the frontier.
Chouteau and his cousin Gabriel S. Seres setup a temporary trading post for John Jacob Astor
's American Fur Company
on the Randolph Bluffs along the river in Clay County, Missouri in 1819. Seeking an ideal place for a permanent post, they continued to investigate several other locations as far north as Council Bluffs, Iowa
. Chouteau, together with his wife and his brother Cyprien, finally chose a site on the banks of the Missouri River
not far from the earlier post a few miles from the mouth of the "River Canses," known today as the Kaw or Kansas River
. The place, called Chouteau's Landing, was located near the north end of present-day Grand Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri
, and became the area's first permanent White settlement in 1821.
Several trappers joined them in 1825, including Gabriel Prud'homme and his family who were returning from an expedition in the Snake River
region. Chouteau, with Prud’homme and his brother Cyprien as partners, created his own fur business. The company's warehouse became the headquarters the company's western trading routes and engaged other members of the family clan. Following a flood in 1826, Chouteau moved his trading post to higher ground near present-day Troost Avenue's intersection with the river. Chouteau traveled widely throughout the Kansas Territory
, exchanging manufactured trade goods for animal pelt
s from the Shawnee
, Kickapoo, and other tribes with whom he had established long-standing good relations.
Chouteau, Bérénice and their family continued to grow in the years ahead. They established a home on the bluffs above the Missouri River and were active in affairs of the early French community. In 1835, Pierre La Liberté built a log cabin church dedicated to St. Francis Regis, and French missionary
Father Bénédict Roux became its first parish priest. So many members of Chouteau's extended family were congregants that it became known as "Chouteau's Church," and Bérénice became its most important patron. Kansas City’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and its golden dome stand on the same site today.
François Chouteau died at age 41, probably of a heart attack, in Kansas City, Missouri on 18 April 1838. His funeral was held at the Old Cathedral of St. Louis
in St. Louis one week later, on 25 April. He is now interred at Calvary Cemetery
in St. Louis in a plot marked by a tall obelisk that includes his grave and those of his mother, Brigite (Saucier) Chouteau, and three children who died at a young age, Louis-Amédée, Louis-Sylvestre, and Benedict. François Chouteau is called the "Founder of Kansas City," however during his lifetime, he knew the city as "West Port."
After his death, his widow Bérénice supported her family in the merchandising end of the Chouteau family trade business, later running a retail store. She was active in community, and was called the "Mother of Kansas City." Due to the violent armed conflicts in Westport
and the surrounding area during the Civil War
, she moved east, first to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
, then to Kaskaskia
. Two years after the end of the war, in 1867, she returned to Kansas City with her son Pierre Chouteau and his wife. Bérénice outlived all of her children, passing away in 1888 at age 87.
Osage offspring:
Sources:
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
– d. 18 April 1838 in Westport, Kansas City
Westport, Kansas City
Westport is a historic neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Originally its own town, it was annexed by Kansas City in 1897. Today, it is one of Kansas City's main entertainment districts.-Background:...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
) was an American pioneer fur trader, businessman and community leader known as the "Founder" or "Father" of Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
.
Biography
François Gesseau Chouteau was born to Jean Pierre ChouteauJean Pierre Chouteau
Jean Pierre Chouteau was a French-Canadian fur trader, merchant, politician and slaveholder. An early settler of St. Louis, Missouri, he became one its most prominent citizens. He and his brother Auguste Chouteau, known as the "river barons", negotiated the many political changes as the city...
, a fur trader and prominent citizen, and his second wife Brigite Saucier in 1797 in St. Louis, at that time, under the authority of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
. His uncle René Auguste Chouteau
René Auguste Chouteau
Rene Auguste Chouteau , also known as Auguste Chouteau, was founder of St. Louis, Missouri, a successful fur trader and a politician. He and his partner had a monopoly for many years of fur trade with the large Osage tribe on the Missouri River...
had founded the city of St. Louis 33 years earlier. In his youth, François learned his father’s trade. He married Bérénice Thérèse Ménard originally of Cahokia (Kaskaskia, Illinois
Kaskaskia, Illinois
Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. In the 2010 census the population was 14, making it the second-smallest incorporated community in the State of Illinois in terms of population. A major French colonial town of the Illinois Country, its peak population was about...
) on 12 July 1819 in St. Louis before heading west into the frontier.
Chouteau and his cousin Gabriel S. Seres setup a temporary trading post for John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...
's American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
on the Randolph Bluffs along the river in Clay County, Missouri in 1819. Seeking an ideal place for a permanent post, they continued to investigate several other locations as far north as Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, known until 1852 as Kanesville, Iowathe historic starting point of the Mormon Trail and eventual northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trailsis a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States and is on the east bank of the Missouri River across...
. Chouteau, together with his wife and his brother Cyprien, finally chose a site on the banks of the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
not far from the earlier post a few miles from the mouth of the "River Canses," known today as the Kaw or Kansas River
Kansas River
The Kansas River is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwestern-most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwestern-most portion of the extensive Mississippi River drainage. Its name come from the Kanza people who once inhabited the area...
. The place, called Chouteau's Landing, was located near the north end of present-day Grand Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, and became the area's first permanent White settlement in 1821.
Several trappers joined them in 1825, including Gabriel Prud'homme and his family who were returning from an expedition in the Snake River
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...
region. Chouteau, with Prud’homme and his brother Cyprien as partners, created his own fur business. The company's warehouse became the headquarters the company's western trading routes and engaged other members of the family clan. Following a flood in 1826, Chouteau moved his trading post to higher ground near present-day Troost Avenue's intersection with the river. Chouteau traveled widely throughout the Kansas Territory
Kansas Territory
The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Kansas....
, exchanging manufactured trade goods for animal pelt
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
s from the Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
, Kickapoo, and other tribes with whom he had established long-standing good relations.
Chouteau, Bérénice and their family continued to grow in the years ahead. They established a home on the bluffs above the Missouri River and were active in affairs of the early French community. In 1835, Pierre La Liberté built a log cabin church dedicated to St. Francis Regis, and French missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
Father Bénédict Roux became its first parish priest. So many members of Chouteau's extended family were congregants that it became known as "Chouteau's Church," and Bérénice became its most important patron. Kansas City’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and its golden dome stand on the same site today.
François Chouteau died at age 41, probably of a heart attack, in Kansas City, Missouri on 18 April 1838. His funeral was held at the Old Cathedral of St. Louis
Basilica of St. Louis, King of France
The Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, formerly the Cathedral of Saint Louis, and colloquially the Old Cathedral, was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River and until 1845 the only parish church in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of two Catholic basilicas in St...
in St. Louis one week later, on 25 April. He is now interred at Calvary Cemetery
Bellefontaine and Calvary Cemeteries
Bellefontaine Cemetery and the Roman Catholic Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri are adjacent burial grounds, which have numerous historic and extravagant tombstones and mausoleums. They are the necropolis for a number of prominent local and state politicians, as well as soldiers of the...
in St. Louis in a plot marked by a tall obelisk that includes his grave and those of his mother, Brigite (Saucier) Chouteau, and three children who died at a young age, Louis-Amédée, Louis-Sylvestre, and Benedict. François Chouteau is called the "Founder of Kansas City," however during his lifetime, he knew the city as "West Port."
After his death, his widow Bérénice supported her family in the merchandising end of the Chouteau family trade business, later running a retail store. She was active in community, and was called the "Mother of Kansas City." Due to the violent armed conflicts in Westport
Battle of Westport
The Battle of Westport, sometimes referred to as the "Gettysburg of the West," was fought on October 23, 1864, in modern Kansas City, Missouri, during the American Civil War. Union forces under Major General Samuel R. Curtis decisively defeated an outnumbered Confederate force under Major General...
and the surrounding area during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, she moved east, first to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Ste. Genevieve is a city in and the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States. The population was 11,654 at the 2000 census...
, then to Kaskaskia
Kaskaskia
The Kaskaskia were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation or Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in the Great Lakes region...
. Two years after the end of the war, in 1867, she returned to Kansas City with her son Pierre Chouteau and his wife. Bérénice outlived all of her children, passing away in 1888 at age 87.
Children
Married in 1819 to Bérénice Thérèse Ménard (b. 1801-d. 1888):- Edmond François Chouteau, b. 1821 in St. Louis–d. 1853 in Jackson County, Missouri
- Pierre Menard Chouteau, b. 1822 in St. Louis–d. 1885 in Jackson County, Missouri; married Marie Anne Polk
- Louis Amédée Chouteau, b. 1825 in St. Louis–d. 1827 in St. Louis
- Louis Sylvestre Chouteau, b. 1827 in St. Louis–d. 1829 in St. Louis
- Benjamin Chouteau, b. 1828 in St. Louis–d. 1871 in St. Louis; married Anne E. Toler
- Frederick D. Chouteau, b. 1831 in Independence, Missouri–d. after 1870; married Adèle Gregoire
- Benedict Pharamond Chouteau, b. 1833 in Jackson County, Missouri–d. 1834 in St. Louis
- Mary Brigite Chouteau, b. 1835 in Jackson County, Missouri–d. 1864 in St. Louis; married Ashley C. Hopkins
- Thérèse Odile Chouteau, b. 1837 in Jackson County, Missouri–d. 1837 in Jackson County
Osage offspring:
- James G. Chouteau, b. before 1825; Note: He was identified by name to receive 640 acres (one section) of land reserved for "half-breedHalf-breedHalf-breed is an historic term used to describe anyone who is mixed Native American and white European parentage...
s" according to a provision in Article 5 of the 1825 Osage TreatyOsage Treaty (1825)The Osage Treaty was signed in what became Council Grove, Kansas, on June 2, 1825 between William Clark on behalf of the United States and members of the Osage Nation. The accord contained fourteen articles. Based on the most important terms of the accord, the Osage ceded multiple territories to...
.
Sources: