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Before Lewis and Clark : the story of the Chouteaus, the French dynasty that ruled America's frontier / Shirley Christian.
"The year was 1804. In the little French Creole village of St. Louis on the Mississippi River, where the brothers Auguste Pierre and Pierre (Cadet) Chouteau were the leading figures, there was great uncertainty about the future. Nevertheless, the Chouteaus and all of St. Louis welcomed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as the two men prepared for their spring voyage up the Missouri River to explore the new lands and search for a route to the Pacific Ocean." "Before Lewis and Clark is the saga of the Chouteaus, the dynasty that guarded the gates to the West for three generations. From St. Louis, founded by the family four decades before the arrival of Lewis and Clark, the Chouteaus built fortunes as land speculators, financiers, Indian agents, and, above all, fur traders. The Chouteaus conquered the more-than-two-thousand-mile length of the Missouri River, put down the first European roots at the future site of Kansas City and in present-day Oklahoma, and left their names and imprints on lands stretching to the Canadian border."--Jacket.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780374110055
- Physical Description: 509 pages, 8 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Among a people of strange speech -- The first generation: Pierre Laclède Liguest -- Haughty children of the middle waters -- The business of St. Louis -- Auguste and Pierre, greatly loved and greatly feared -- New rulers, new ways -- Intrigues and possibilities -- Enveloped in a cloud of miseries -- Dreaming big--and stumbling -- The third generation -- Auguste and Pierre: men of property -- Pierre Jr.: gentle Creole, driven tycoon -- A.P. Chouteau: star-crossed hero -- François and Bérénice: together to a new place -- Pierre Jr.: position, advantage, and perhaps vanity. |