ST. LOUIS: A WESTERN LADY
As to the folks that resided in St. Louis at this time, permanently or just now and then, there was quite a variety. Why, just while taking a stroll down town a body could brush elbows on one side with a buckskin-clad trapper or hunter while on the other hand he could tip his hat to a fancy-dressed wife of one of the fur kings.
And speaking of women! There was a fair amount of those, too. There were all sizes and shapes and shades a fellow could feast his eyes upon. There was everything from a slave Negress totin’ laundry on her head to a fresh-faced lass in from the country, seeing the sights while her family did their yearly trading and swapping. There was plenty of ‘that other kind of woman’ in St. Louis about that time, too.
Just exactly what the division was between rich folks, trappers and hunters, gaily dressed Indians, French voyageurs and all the others isn’t certain. But the census of 1820, as reported in the Missouri Gazette and the Illinois Advertiser put the total population a 4,598. This was a considerable increase over the 1810 body count that stood at a measly 1,400.
So you can see that St. Louis was a comin’ on lady about then. Especially when you consider that she could brag of having fifteen doctors and twenty-three lawyers. I guess there were somewhat more cases of misdemeanor than there was of milady. A good deal of foodstuffs must have been passing over the counters and being consumed since there were forty-nine grocers. But then that number also included tavern keepers. In the light of where the most coin passed hands in frontier towns it might be a good speculation to figure that on a score board the tavern keepers had it hands-down over the green grocers.
Two printing establishments called St. Louis home, along with one bank and at least one decent hotel. Rounding out the business side of the place, either within the town’s borders or right near there were two sawmills and a gristmill. All of these businesses were the necessary and normal establishments for a growing city, west or east. But the business that was going on down at the levee was the real life-blood of the western lady called St. Louis. And that business was the fur trade.
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