Petition of the inhabitants of St. Charles, Mo. Territory, to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, with documents urging the confirmation of their Commons. Recites history of St. Charles. The inhabitants have always claimed and believe themselves entitled to a tract of common lands containing by survey 14,000 arpents in French superficial measure. Recites various recognitions/actions of Spanish, French, and United States authorities recognizing the commons. However, the land is about to be surveyed by certain United States officials as public land and land speculators are beginning to make claims to some of the land. Requests that the land be surveyed according to the plat of survey of Don Antonio Soulard, formerly surveyor of Upper Louisiana, and that the land be vested and remain in the inhabitants or trustees of the Town for the sole use and benefit of the inhabitants, forever; that the trustees or commissioners may be empowered on petition of citizens to the Missouri legislature to lay out streets and squares and dispose of the land for the benefit of the inhabitants, subject to creation of a fund for the support of a seminary or academy. (10 pages), 1818 Dec 21

Item — Box: 1

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

This collection consists of materials related to the history of St. Charles, Missouri, and spans the lives of three generations of the Benjamin Emmons family. Persons involved in the early transactions include Edward Bates, Frederick Bates, Charles Dehault Delassus, John C. Edwards, Archibald Gamble, Hamilton Gamble, J. Mackay, William G. Pettus, Amos Stoddard, and Zenon Trudeau. Manuscripts include St. Charles land documents from the French and Spanish periods, including Zenon Trudeau's decree to the inhabitants of St. Charles (1796), materials relating to the Louisiana Purchase, and documents relating to the St. Charles Commons. Also includes a diary of a trip from Virginia to Missouri, and from Dardenne Prairie to Jefferson City by William M. Campbell (1830); correspondence and legal documents of Benjamin L. Emmons, attorney; tax assessments in St. Charles County for 1843; lists of lands and town lots and taxes thereon for 1842 (filed May 3, 1844); list of citizenship papers (1859); a muster roll of the St. Charles Home Guards (filed 1862); emancipation certificates for slaves released by Radical Emancipationist owners in St. Charles (filed September 29, 1863); an annual report of the St. Charles Library Catholic Association (January 7, 1868); and a scrapbook. Some typescript translations.