La Charrette ~ Marthasville - Marthasville, MO - Missouri Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

County of marker: Warren County
Location of marker: One St., Wessel Park entrance, Marthasville
Marker erected by: Boone-Duden Historical Society

Marker Text (Side A):

LA CHARRETTE 1800 - 02 - A small French settlement, located in the western part of the Boone settlement along the
    Missouri River, south of the present town of Marthasvile. It consisted of seven houses, and was to be a
    convenient place for hunting and trading with Indians.

1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition came to this small settlement on May 25.
    This was the Expedition's last white settlement as they journeyed on to the Pacific Ocean.
    People in the settlement gave them milk and eggs to eat.

1806 - 07 - In September 1806, Lewis and Clark stopped again at this small settlement
    on their way back west.
    A schoolhouse was built on the edge of La Charrette. Anthony C. Palmer was the teacher. He was paid $9
    per student per year in trade for meat, cattle or country linen, and given a sufficient schoolhouse with
    firewood.

1813 - Rebecca Boone, age 74, wife of Daniel, died at the home of their daughter, Jemima Callaway, and was
    buried in the Bryan Cemetery near Marthasville.

Marker Text (Side B):

MARTHASVILLE The oldest village in Warren County, it succeeded the French village, La Charrette. Dr. John Young named this village after his first wife, Martha.

1817 - This village was part of Dr. John Young's farm and part of the William Ramsey Spanish Land Grant #1688.

1818 - A post office was established at Marthasville with Warren Swain as postmaster.

1820 - Daniel Boone, age 86, died at the home of his son, Nathan, and was buried in the Bryan Cemetery
    near Marthasville.

1826 - Dr. Young sold most of his property to Harvey Griswold.

1830's - German settlers began arriving on farms nearby.

1840 - Marthasville was the main landing place on the Missouri River for Warren County.

1855 - Griswald [sic] died. Augustus F. Grabs became Justice of the Peace and Postmaster.

1865 - Grabs died. In later years, Helen Rusche, great-granddaughter of Grabs, donated his house to the
    city of Marthasville.

1893 - the M. K. T. Railroad came to Marthasville. The depot is the oldest on the railroad.

Ed. NOTE: This log cabin replica WAS then on the banks of the Missouri River - which was more than a mile wide at this location. Today, with all the Corps of Engineers levees and channel dredgings, the river now flows more than 1½ miles south of this location

History of Mark: On 25 May 1804, seven travel days and about forty river-miles above St. Charles,the expedition camped near a small village at the mouth of a creek called Charrette. Its seven French families had arrived only a few years before, drawn by good hunting, opportunities for Indian trade, and the security of the small fort established there by the Spanish around 1796. The family of Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman from Kentucky, moved there sometime after 1804. "The people at this Village is pore, houses Small," Clark observed, but they were hospitable toward the captains at least, for "they Sent us milk & eggs to eat." Their little community was the last settlement of whites on the Missouri River. Here they also met the young French-Canadian, Régis Loisel, who had been a partner with Hugh Heney in trading with the Sioux, and was returning from his fort on Cedar Island, 1200 miles farther up the Missouri, where he had spent the previous winter with another partner, Pierre-Antoine Tabeau. Passing this way again on 20 September 1806, the Corps knew they were finally back in home territory when they saw some cows on the bank, "which was a joyfull Sight to the party," said Clark. Soon they saw the village, and "the men raised a Shout and Sprung upon their ores." To celebrate, "they discharged 3 rounds with a harty Cheer, which was returned from five tradeing boats" that were moored there. Two young Scotsmen gave the men some beef, pork, and flour, and treated the captains to "a very agreeable supper." The people there "Seem to express great pleasure at our return, and acknowledged them selves much astonished in Seeing us. . . . they informed us that we were Supposed to have been lost long Since." The Missouri River washed away all remains of the original village of La Charette many years ago. When Lewis and Clark were there, the mouth of Charrette Creek was across the river and perhaps seven miles upstream from where it now enters the Missouri opposite the present town of Washington. The town, named after George Washington, was platted in 1827 on the site of a Spanish fort, San Juan del Misuri (St. John's of the Missouri), which existed there from 1796 until 1803. Web link: Not listed Additional point: Not Listed

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